Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Feb. 1, 1885.

I have been very much interested in the remarks made by Brother Erastus Snow, who has addressed us.

These are precious principles which only the Saints know how to comprehend and appreciate. We are told “that the natural man perceiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned,” and therefore those outside of that influence and spirit which is communicated to the Saints of the Most High, through obedience to the Gospel of the Son of God, find it very difficult to understand them. But we comprehend them, because God has given unto us His Spirit, which takes of the things of God, and shows them unto us.

I and a few others have been away from here for some time, visiting among our southern brethren; Brother Snow, who has just spoken to you, was one of the party. It appears rather an inclement season of the year to go on a journey of that kind; but circumstances seemed to make it necessary that we should go and look after the interests of the people, socially and politically; for notwithstanding our religious ideas, we still have certain rights, privileges and immunities, which belong to us as individuals and as citizens of the United States, in common with others. And seeing that things were quite loose in those far-off settlements, and that men and their families were being subjected to various kinds of outrage, usurpation and imposition, in many instances under the form of law, it seemed necessary that somebody should attend to these matters, and I thought it best for me to go, in company with others of our brethren, to ascertain what was the true position of affairs, and to give such counsel as the circumstances might demand. We found that a great many outrages had been perpetrated upon many of our brethren; that they had been dealt with contrary to law, and in violation, as has been referred to, of the rules of jurisprudence governing such matters; that a vindictive and persecuting spirit had been manifested, and that several of the brethren had been sent off to a distant land from their own. I did not know but that they were without a prison in Arizona, when I heard of these things, and that therefore they had sent a number of honorable men who differed from them in their religious sentiments off to Detroit. I had these things inquired into and found they had a good Penitentiary in Arizona, and that there was no necessity for any such outrage as this to be perpetrated upon decent men. I was sorry to find that things had been conducted in this unusual and vindictive manner, and without any ostensible reason for such extra-judicial acts. Not only because injustice had been heaped upon honorable men, but also because of the position in which it places the nation which was once the pride and glory of all lovers of freedom and equal rights, and boasted of as being “the land of the free, the home of the brave, and an asylum for the oppressed.” These foolish men are now seeking to carry out the enormities that existed among what was called the civilization and intelligence of ancient barbarism, then, as now, under the name of Christianity, and other euphonious appellations which are common to us, and that we are well acquainted with. I was in hopes that things were not so bad as they were represented to be, but I found that I was mistaken in that matter, and I was sorry to find myself so mistaken.

In relation to this anomalous form of proceeding they are now copying the example of Russia, which is generally considered an arbitrary government, and where despotism has been supposed to reign supreme; they have in that nation a place called Siberia, to which they banish men, under a despotic rule, without much formality of trial. I was hardly prepared today to suppose that we needed an American Siberia under the form and in the name of liberty and the rights of men. But this is the fact. We have herein America today an American Siberia in Detroit, to which place, upwards of two thousand miles from their homes, men are banished for a term of years; and what for? Because they have the temerity to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and cannot fall down and worship before the Moloch of an effete Christianity.

These extraordinary proceedings that have been going on in this Territory, in Arizona and in other places, simply exhibit the very principle that Brother Snow has been speaking of. I need not tell you about affairs that have transpired here. You are quite as well acquainted with them as I am, and ought to be better: for I have been away from here for about four weeks visiting the Saints in our southern settlements, and we have had a most pleasant visit. Outside of these extraordinary proceedings, we found the people prospering very well, with pleasant homes and bright prospects before them. We had with us several of our best brethren, and we visited many of our settlements in that district of country, the residents of which were very much gratified at our appearance in their midst, and for the counsels they received. But I found that such had been the outrages committed that it was impossible almost for any man standing in an honorable position to maintain his position unless he broke the law by resisting the officers, and they thought it not prudent to do so, and so did I. It may suit others to violate the law, to trample upon human rights, and desecrate the sacred term of liberty, and this is frequently done by the arbiters and minions of the law in the name of justice; but we profess to be governed by higher, by nobler and more exalted principles, and to move on a higher plane; and if Jesus could afford to endure the attacks of sinners against Himself, we, if we have the Gospel that we profess to have, ought to be able to endure a little of the same thing. There is nothing new in these affairs, nothing strange in this at all. Many of you have had much to do with these matters. Some of these grey-headed men that I see before me know a little more about those matters than some of the younger portion do. Many of you have been driven from your homes, robbed of your property, dispossessed of your possessions and had to flee from your homes to these mountain valleys, and seek an asylum among the red savages which was denied you by your so-called Christian brethren. Before you came here you were banished from the State of Missouri into the State of Illinois. What for? Because you had the audacity to worship God according to the dictates of your own consciences. I have had to flee from bloodthirsty bandits time and time again. Brother Snow had to do it, and many of you grey-headed men and women have had to do it. What for? Because of polygamy? No, there was no such thing then alleged. What for? Because you had the hardihood, in this land of freedom, to worship God according to the dictates of your own consciences. For this crime you had to leave your homes, and you were despoiled and robbed and plundered, and had to flee as exiles into another land. I had to do it, you have had to do it. You fled from Missouri to Illinois, and then from Illinois to this land, and why? Why did you leave Illinois and come here? Did you injure anybody? No. They killed your Prophets, and I saw them martyred, and was shot most unmercifully myself, under the pledge of protection from the Governor, and they thought they had killed me; but I am alive yet by the grace of God (sensation). Why had you to leave? Because they murdered your Prophets, and wanted to possess themselves of your property; murder and spoliation generally go together. And because they killed them, they accused you of doing some wrong, said you must leave your homes, and there was nobody found in all that wide land to check the outrages of those red-handed assassins, to administer justice and to preserve you in your rights. I do not know any other reason; I never did know any other, and never expect to be informed of any other.

The history of these things is quite familiar to you as Latter-day Saints, and you do not think it anything strange. Some of our young people think that the present proceedings are very remarkable. But many of us, grey-headed folks, have seen plenty of such proceedings, and have had many experiences of this kind; they are nothing new to us at all. And did we ever expect them to get better? We have not so understood it. We are told in the Scriptures, and we have kept teaching it all the while, that “the wicked would grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” That is doctrine which I have believed in for the last 50 years and I have had a good deal of testimony and practical confirmation on that point. We expect that these things will tran– spire. We have been told about secret organizations that should exist, and they are beginning to permeate these United States, and are laying the foundation for disruption, disintegration and destruction. It is not necessary that Congress and the Judiciary should set examples of tyranny and violation of Constitutional law, and attack the fundamental principles of free government and the rights of man; for there is plenty of that kind of spirit abroad; yet men who profess to be the conservators of the peace and the maintainers of law join in these nefarious, unholy, tyrannical and oppressive measures. There are any number who are ready to follow in their footsteps, and the whole nation today is standing on a volcano; but they do not seem to comprehend it. Well, are we surprised? I am not. It is strictly in accordance with my faith: it is strictly in accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures; and it is strictly in accordance with the Book of Mormon; it is strictly in accordance with the revelations given to us by Joseph Smith, and all these events that have been predicted will most assuredly transpire. But I suppose it is necessary that “judgment should first begin at the house of God,” and if it does, “where will the wicked and the ungodly appear,” when it comes upon them? We are told that the wicked shall slay the wicked. We need not trouble ourselves about the affairs of the nations, the Lord will manipulate them in His own way. I feel full of sympathy for the nation in which we live, and for other nations, in consequence of the troubles with which they are beset and which are now threatening them; yet they do not seem to comprehend the position. I know a little of some of the things that will transpire among them, and I feel sorry. Do you feel sorry for yourself? Not at all, not at all. Do you feel sorry for your people? Not at all, not at all. The Lord God has revealed unto us great and eternal principles which reach beyond this earth into the eternal heavens, and which have put us in possession of light and truth and intelligence, and promises and blessings that the world are ignorant of and do not and cannot comprehend. I feel every day to bless the name of the God of Israel, and feel like shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna!! Hosanna!!! to the God of Israel, Amen and Amen,” who will rule among the nations of the earth, and manipulate things according to the counsel of His own will. These are my feelings in regard to these matters. But then I feel interested in the welfare of my brethren and sisters, and when I see their rights interfered with and trampled ruthlessly under foot, I feel that there is something at work that ought not to be, and yet that is quite necessary to teach us some of the principles of human nature, that we may be able to discern between the good, the virtuous, the upright and the holy; and the impure, the foolish, the vindictive, the corrupt, the lascivious, and those who are trampling under foot the laws and principles of eternal truth. God has revealed unto us certain principles pertaining to the future which men may take objection to. He has revealed unto us certain principles pertaining to the perpetuity of man and of woman; pertaining to the sacred rights and obligations which existed from the beginning; and He has told us to obey these laws. The nation tells us, “If you do we will persecute you and proscribe you.” Which shall we obey? I would like to obey and place myself in subjection to every law of man. What then? Am I to disobey the law of God? Has any man a right to control my conscience, or your conscience, or to tell me I shall believe this or believe the other, or reject this or reject the other? No man has a right to do it. These principles are sacred, and the forefathers of this nation felt so and so proclaimed it in the Constitution of the United States, and said “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Now, I believe they have violated that, and have violated their oaths, those that have engaged in these things and passed that law, and those that are seeking to carry it out. Congress and the President of the United States and the Judiciary, and all administrators of the law are as much bound by that instrument as I am and as you are, and have sworn to maintain it inviolate. It is for them to settle these matters between themselves and their God. That is my faith in relation to this matter. Yet by their action they are interfering with my rights, my liberty and my religion, and with those sacred principles that bind me to my God, to my family, to my wives and my children; and shall I be recreant to all these noble principles that ought to guide and govern men? No, Never! No, NEVER! NO, NEVER! I can endure more than I have done, and all that God will enable me to endure, I can die for the truth; but I cannot as an honorable man disobey my God at their behest, forsake my wives and my children, and trample these holy and eternal obligations under foot, that God has given me to keep, and which reach into the eternities that are to come. I won’t do it, so help me, God. [Here the speaker vigorously struck the book on the desk, and the large audience responded with a loud “Amen.”] The Constitution expressly says that no law shall be passed impairing the obligation of contracts. But we have entered into covenants and contracts in our most sacred places, and that, too, in many instances, before there was any law prohibiting the same, and yet the attempt is now being made to give the Edmunds law an ex post facto application and to punish us for these contracts which were not criminal, even from the standpoint of our enemies, at the time they were formed. I myself married my wives long before there was any law upon the subject, and many of you did the same, yet by an ex post facto application of laws since enacted the attempt is now made to punish us as criminals. I have never broken any law of these United States, and I presume that some of you, whom our enemies now seek to criminate and drag into court as violators of law, can say the same. Under the present system of things in this Territory, harlotry and adultery are vindicated, sustained and unblushingly protected, and honorable and virtuous wedlock is trampled upon, condemned and punished. Well, what will you do? I will obey every Constitutional law so far as God gives me ability. What else will you do? I will meet these men as far as I can without violating principle, and I have done it. When this infamous Edmunds law was passed, I saw that there were features in that which were contrary to law, violative of the Constitution, contrary to justice and the rights and the freedom of men. But I said to myself I will let that law take its course; I will place myself in accordance with it, so far as I can. Did I do it? I did. I remember talking to Mr. Pierrepont, who was Attorney-General under President Grant’s administration. He with his son called upon me. They dined with me, and perhaps I can explain my views on this subject by repeating our conversation as well as any other way. I have a sister keeping my house for me—the Gardo House. When Mr. Pierrepont came in, I said:

“Mr. Pierrepont, permit me to introduce you to my sister, who is my housekeeper. It is not lawful for us to have wives now. And when the Edmunds law was passed I looked carefully over the document, and saw that if I was to continue to live in the same house with my wives that I should render myself liable to that law. I did not wish—although I considered the law infamous—to be an obstructionist, or act the part of a Fenian, or of a Nihilist, or of a Kuklux, or communist, or Molly Maguire, or any of those secret societies that are set on foot to produce the disintegration of society and disturb the relations that ought to exist between man and man, between man and woman, or man and his God. I desired to place myself in obedience or in as close conformity as practicable to the law, and thought I would wait and see what the result would be; and that if the nation can stand these things I can or we can. These are my feelings. Men and nations and legislators often act foolishly, and do things that are unwise, and it is not proper that a nation should be condemned for the unwise actions of some few men. Therefore I have sought to place myself in accord with that law. I said to my wives: “We are living in this building together. We were quite comfortably situated, and we might so have continued, but I said to them that under the circumstances it will be better for me or for you to leave this place; you can take your choice. They had their homes down here which they now inhabit; which were quite comfortable. So I said to them, you can go there and I will stay here, or you can stay at the Gardo House and I will go there or somewhere else; for I wish to conform to this Edmunds law as much as I can.”

I am always desirous to let everything have its perfect working. We talk sometimes about patience having its perfect work. If we have laws passed against us I like to see them have a fair opportunity to develop and see what the result will be. These were my feelings then, and they are my feelings today.

Well, do you think, then, that the people have been outraged? I most certainly do. The usage has been in all legal trials among all civilized nations to presume that all men are innocent until proven guilty; but we now have test oaths introduced, which is another violation of the Constitution and by which an attempt is being made to hold all men guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Again: there is a usage which has existed among the civilized nations, and in this nation also, that a man must be tried by a jury of his peers, selected from the vicinage, but the juries selected for our courts are composed today of our bitter persecutors and our most relentless enemies, and in many instances selected from the lowest and most debased men who can be found or picked up from the gutters. We also have another class of courts improvised for the occasion in the shape of “U. S. Commissioners’ courts,” which are operated and run after the order of the ancient notorious “Star Chamber.” Such institutions provoke the contempt of all honorable men, and the parties assuming such offices place themselves in a position to be despised of their fellows. I might enumerate many other outrages, but time will not permit on this occasion. No man’s liberties are safe under such administration. What will be the result? The result will be that those that sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. When men begin to tear down the barriers and tamper with the fundamental principles and institutions of our country, they are playing a very dangerous game, and are severing the bonds which hold society together, and the beginning of these irregularities is like the letting out of water. The next step that followed the Edmunds Act, was the introduction of a test oath. The legislation already provided was not good enough for some of our officials here and another portion of the Constitution must be broken to introduce a test oath without any authority. I think this was introduced by our Governor. Then comes another class of men called Commissioners, rather a new idea in American Government. Yet it was thought necessary that extraordinary operations should be entered into in relation to the Mormons. Why? Because it is necessary that they should be dealt with differently from anybody else.

Now, I have seen some of my brethren shot to pieces in cold blood and under the protection of the State Government, and the promise of the Governor made to myself and Dr. John M. Bernhisel, who is sometime ago dead. In Missouri a great deal of that thing was done. In Georgia lately, and in Tennessee acts of the same kind have been perpetrated. Now, I want to know if anybody can tell me—here is a large congregation, and many thousands of you acquainted with our history—I want to know if anyone of you can tell me of any individual that was ever punished according to law for killing a Mormon. Speak it out, if you know it. I do not know of any such thing. Brother Snow says there is not an instance on record. Well, I would rather be on the side of the Mormons in that case than on the side of those who are their persecutors and murderers, for they have got something to atone for yet, which we have not under those circumstances. We have got through with our part of it. The other is not through with yet. There are eternal principles of justice and equity that exist in the bosom of God, and He, in His own time, will manipulate these things according to the counsel of His own will; and with what measure men mete, as sure as God lives, it will be measured to them again, pressed down and running over.

Very well, what would you advise us to do? Are we suffering any wrongs? Yes. Well, what would you do? I would do as I said some time ago. If you were out in a storm, pull up the collar of your coat and button yourself up, and keep the cold out until the storm blows past. This storm will blow past as others have done; and you will see that many of the miserable sneaks who are active in those measures, and who are crawling about your doors, and trying to spy into your houses, etc., will be glad to crawl into their holes by-and-by. Well, what will you do? Get angry? No, not at all. Let these men have their day and pursue their own course; we will protect ourselves from them as well as we can. Why, some of our folks in the South were actually try– ing to seek an asylum in another land away from the persecutions of free America, and I do not know but that we shall have a lot of pilgrim Fathers again here in this country, fleeing, not from England by way of Holland, nor from France, nor from any of those countries where they used to persecute people and proscribe them for their religion, but from America, “The land of the free, the home of the brave, and the asylum for the oppressed”—fleeing from there because of their religious sentiments. What an idea! Who could have thought of it? People say that history repeats itself. It is so doing in our day. Well, what would you do? Observe the laws as much as you can. Bear with these indignities as much as you can. But it would not be well for these men to perform their antics anywhere else than among the Saints, or they would dangle to the poles, lots of them, by the neck, if they attempted any such acts. No people would endure these things as the Latter-day Saints do. Will you endure them? Yes, a little longer. Wait a little longer. And after you have borne with a good deal, then endure “as seeing Him that is invisible,” and cultivate those principles that Brother Snow has so beautifully set before us, and feel, “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you.” Well, what would you do? Would you resent these outrages and break the heads of the men engaged in them, and spill their blood? No. Avoid them as much as you possibly can—just as you would wolves, or hyenas, or crocodiles, or snakes, or any of these beasts or reptiles; avoid them as much as you can, and take care they do not bite you. [Laughter.] And get out of the way as much as you can. What? Won’t you submit to the dignity of the law? Well, I would if the law would only be a little dignified. But when we see the ermine bedraggled in the mud and mire, and every principle of justice violated, it behooves men to take care of themselves as best they may. That is what I have told people while I have been in the south—to take care of their liberties, to put their trust in the living God, to obey every constitutional law, and to adhere to all correct principles. But when men tamper with your rights and with your liberties, when the cities are full of spies and the lowest and meanest of men are set to watch and dog your footsteps; when little children are set in array against their fathers and mothers, and women and children are badgered before courts, and made to submit, unprotected, to the gibes of libertines and corrupt men; when wives and husbands are pitted against each other and threatened with pains, penalties and imprisonment, if they will not disclose that which among all decent people is considered sacred, and which no man of delicacy, whose sensibilities had not been blunted by low associations, would ever ask; when such a condition of affairs exists, it is no longer a land of liberty, and it is certainly no longer a land of equal rights, and we must take care of ourselves as best we may, and avoid being caught in any of their snares. I cannot think that this crusade is aimed entirely at us; from many circumstances that have transpired, I have been led to believe that whilst we are made the victims, these proceedings are introduced as a political ruse, for the purpose of embarrassing the incoming administration. What would you do? Would you fight them? No. I would take care of myself as best I can, and I would advise my brethren to do the same. Would you resist law? No. As I said before, I can stand it if they can. It is for us to do what is right, to fear God, to observe His laws, and keep His commandments, and the Lord will manage all the rest. But no breaking of heads, no bloodshed, no rendering evil for evil. Let us try and cultivate the spirit of the Gospel, and adhere to the principles of truth. Let us honor our God, and be true to those eternal principles which God has given us to hold sacred. Keep them as sacredly as you would the apple of your eye. And while other men are seeking to trample the Constitution under foot, we will try to maintain it. We have prophecies something like this somewhere; that the time would come when this nation would do as they are now doing—that is, they would trample under foot the Constitution and institutions of the nation, and the Elders of this Church would rally around the standard and maintain those principles which were introduced for the freedom and protection of men. We expect to do that, and to maintain all correct principle. I will tell you what you will see by and by. You will see trouble, trouble, trouble enough in these United States. And as I have said before I say today, I tell you in the name of God, Woe! to them that fight against Zion, for God will fight against them. But let us be on the side of human liberty and human rights, and the protection of all correct principles and laws and government, and maintain every principle that is upright and virtuous and honorable, and let the world take the balance if they want, we don’t want it. We will cleave to the truth, God being our helper, and try to introduce principles whereby the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we will obey every institution of man for the Lord’s sake so far as we can without violating our consciences and doing things that are wrong and improper.

God bless you and lead you in the paths of life, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden, Sunday Morning, January 18th, 1885.

I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day Saints this morning in Ogden, and of listening to the reports which have been made by the brethren respecting the Sunday Schools, and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations. These institutions furnish an index to the growth and development of the people, and the future character of those who are now and who will be members of the Church in years to come. I think a very fair estimate can be formed of what our people will be by closely observing the condition of the Sunday Schools and the Mutual Improvement Associations; because those children and those young men and young women who are now members of these schools and associations will in a very few years take their place as active members in the community, and the character of the community be largely dependent upon their characters and upon the development which they have made in the directions that these institutions seek to form them. I look upon it myself as exceedingly important that our schools should be properly conducted, and that our associations should receive that attention from those who have influence and knowledge that will make a proper impression upon the minds of those who are members. In whatever capacity I might be acting in the Priesthood, with the proper feeling of anxiety about the growth and development of the people, I could not fail to take interest in all these associations, and to see that they were properly conducted as far as my influence would extend. I do feel this interest. I have for many years felt it. It has been one of the great delights, I may say, of my life for many years, to see the growth and development of our Sunday School interest.

For many years, while laboring in the ministry abroad I saw how small was the amount of fruit resulting from the labors of myself and other Elders in the world; that we labored sometimes for years and were only able to bring into the Church a comparative few, and then, out of those that were converted and brought into the Church, there was a large percentage who did not remain, but who lost the faith and fell away. I became convinced in my mind that more satisfactory results and a larger amount of fruit could be obtained by devoting attention to the cultivation of our children, and for years before I had the opportunity, I had resolved in my own mind that if I were ever permitted to remain at home long enough I would devote attention to the cultivation of the young. I think that which has been done in this direction has amply rewarded every man and woman who have taken interest in this cause. You can better tell, probably, than I can—or at least some of you can—what the effect upon our community is—the effect of the Sunday School, and of the teachings of the Sunday Schools. You are familiar with the children. You can contrast their present condition with the condition of children a few years ago, and by making this contrast you can estimate, at pretty near its true value, that which is and has been done. So far as my observation is concerned I am satisfied that a great amount of good has been accomplished. I have been on missions when Elders have come from the valley—young men—and I have been very much ashamed to see their ignorance in regard to the doctrines of the Church, and of the history of the Church, and their ignorance of the Scriptures. I have felt that it was almost a shame that young men brought up in Zion should go as missionaries and be so ignorant concerning the most vital points connected with our religion. I am happy to believe that that has passed away to a very great extent, and that those who now go out in the capacity of missionaries do so with a more thorough understanding respecting the history of the Church, the doctrines of the Church, and a wider intelligence concerning everything connected with the Church than was formerly manifested. In our Sunday Schools I have listened to children being catechized, and their answers upon points of history of the Church, and other matters, have been given with a correctness that could not be excelled, if equaled by many of the Elders of mature years if they were interrogated upon the same points. Everyone who has visited Sunday Schools must be convinced of this. Therefore, when we hear, as we do today, that in some of your settlements nearly all the children are enrolled in the Sunday Schools, it speaks well for the future of the children. If these schools are properly conducted the effect must be immense in lifting them up from ignorance and giving them correct knowledge concerning the doctrines and history of the Church, and indoctrinating them in the principles which we view as so important for men and women to understand. It is therefore very gratifying to hear such reports, and that which we have heard today respecting the schools in Weber Stake is a very fair sample of the reports which are made in other Stakes.

We have today, so far as statistics inform us, nearly 50,000 children in Sunday Schools. These 50,000 children will in a very few years be men and women, taking their place in society, probably married, and their influence will be felt upon the future families of the people, and if they are properly taught in the principles of the Gospel and are fortified against sin, and are taught the evil effects that will result from the practice of everything that is wrong, we can imagine what an effect this will have on the entire body of the people! It is therefore very encouraging to all those who take an interest in the growth of Zion, in the development of the work of God, to know that our children, in Primary Associations, in Sunday Schools, and in Young Men and Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Associations, are receiving the instruction that is best adapted for their future good and happiness.

There are a few points that I have always deemed as of the utmost importance that our children should be taught; the more so because such teaching guards them against some of the growing evils of the age in which we live. It has seemed to me sometimes that if the Lord had not established this Church at the time He did, the future of our race would be in some respects very dark and hopeless to contemplate. The growth of intemperance, the spirit of infidelity concerning God and concerning everything pertaining to God and to righteousness, the wonderful spread of corruption, the low value placed upon virtue, and the increase of the evils that result from the absence of virtue, are of such a nature that, if you look outside this Church, the picture is a most discouraging one. God has established this Church and He has told us from the very beginning that the chief corner stone, it may be said, of this great edifice that He has reared and is rearing, is virtue. Early in the history of the Church the Prophet Joseph received revelations to this effect: that he who looked upon a woman to lust after her should deny the faith, and unless he repented, he should be cast out. What an amount of purity is embodied in this statement of the Lord to us in this revelation! A man must not only refrain from doing that which is wrong with the opposite sex; he must not only refrain from carrying his lust into the actual commission of crime, but he must be so pure in heart that he shall not look upon the other sex with a lustful eye and a lustful desire. If he does so, we are told by the Almighty that he shall deny the faith. Now, I cannot imagine how the Lord can make more plain to us than He has done in these revelations—for it is repeated more than once in the revelations that we have received—the importance of virtue, the importance of purity, purity in thought as well as purity in action. The frequent apostasies from this Church, the many who have left the Church, denied the faith, lost the Spirit of God, the most of them, no doubt, are traceable to the commission of this sin. It is, as I have said, the crying sin of the age. Outside of this Church virtue is not fostered as it should be. Of course there are exceptions. I do not mean to say that all people are corrupt; I would not be so sweeping; but in society generally there is not that value placed upon virtue that should be, and in many circles the virtue of man is derided. A man who claims to be virtuous, or who desires or seeks to be virtuous, finds himself alone, as it were, among his fellows. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we, in training our children, should lay deep and solid in their minds the importance of virtue. They should be taught that their whole lives as Latter-day Saints depend upon the cultivation and preservation of this principle; and that if they are guilty of wrong in this direction, unless there is sincere and heartfelt repentance before the Lord, He will undoubtedly withdraw His Holy Spirit from them and leave them to themselves to become a prey to those wicked influences that are seeking constantly to take possession of the hearts of the Saints of God.

Now, we can best do this in childhood; we can teach our children in childhood and in youth, and as they grow to manhood and to womanhood we can fortify them against those evils. It has been necessary, apparently—for the Spirit has seemed to indicate the necessity of this—that there should be greater strictness enforced among our people. There has been a growth of wrongdoing in many quarters that has been most painful to all those who have the welfare of the Saints of God at heart, and who desire the prosperity of Zion. Many cases have come to the knowledge of the First Presidency and of the Twelve and of other leading men wherein people have been compelled, in order to conceal their wrongdoing, to marry, and even then have failed to cover it up. Now, such a condition of things, if permitted to continue in our midst, unchecked, would be productive of the most terrible consequences. The Spirit of God would undoubt– edly be so grieved that it would forsake not only those who are guilty of these acts, but it would withdraw itself from those who would suffer them to be done in our midst unchecked and unrebuked; and from the President of the Church down, throughout the entire ranks of the Priesthood, there would be a loss of the Spirit of God, a withdrawal of His gifts and blessing and His power, because of their not taking the proper measures to check and to expose their iniquity.

My brethren and sisters: I suppose you must be impressed, as I am, with this truth, that our only source of strength is, that we shall live so that the spirit and power and gifts of our religion and the favor of our God shall be extended unto us and be in our possession. There never was a more critical period in many respects in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ than that which we now witness. I never, in my recollection, or in reading the history of the Church have seen a time nor heard of a time when the adversary of God’s Kingdom was more determined, apparently, to destroy the work of God than he is at the present time. On every hand there are the most persistent efforts made to check the growth of the Kingdom of God, and not only that, but to destroy this religion, the religion of Jesus Christ, and to throw obstacles in the pathway of its progress; and to actually deprive members of this Church of every right that men and women value—every political right, every civil right—to place us in bondage, and to make it odious in the eyes of mankind to be Latter-day Saints, or to have any faith in the religion that God has revealed to us, and of which we are so proud, and for which we are, as a rule, so thankful.

Now, we do not have wealth with which to combat the designs of our enemies; we do not have numbers; we do not have influence; there is no strength that we have that men value and that men seek for in a contest such as that in which we are engaged. We possess no advantage, none whatever, that men place value upon. But we possess advantages that we understand, and which we as Latter-day Saints highly value, and they are the best advantages, however much they may be disliked by the world. However little importance they may attach to the advantages that we possess, we know that in a contest such as this in which we are now engaged they are of the utmost importance.

To begin with we must, as I have said, be a virtuous people. We must love virtue better than we love our lives. We must be so pure, not only in our actions, but in our thoughts, that God’s favor will be with us, and His Spirit rest down upon us, and we must live the lives of Latter-day Saints, carrying out in our lives the principles that God has revealed. This is our only strength. Let us be deprived of this and we are weak, because, as I have said, we possess no other advantage. If we prevail, as undoubtedly we shall, it must be because of God’s help; it must be because He is at our right and at our left, and His power is round about us and near unto us. Looking at our position from a human standpoint everything looks dark. Men today are calculating on the destruction of this people. They think that we shall at least be compelled to abandon some features our religion. In some places and with some people it is Church and State they complain of. In other places it is that we practice plural marriage. In other places there are other reasons assigned for their dislike to us—we are too united; we do not divide into parties, wherever we go we cling together, and do not assimilate with the rest of our fellowcitizens, but are a party of ourselves, and are dangerous because of this. And various accusations are made as justification for the treatment that is extended to us. Men whose lives are so vile that they would not bear the least examination, much less exposure, make the charge against us that we practice plural marriage, and therefore that we should be dealt with in the harshest and most severe manner. On the other hand, men who are constantly seeking for political influence, who do not scruple to use that influence in the most reprehensible manner, and to the utmost extent possible, and frequently preachers, too, charge that we unite Church and State. They would gladly use the influence that we have if they had it, and use it in a manner so obnoxious to individual liberty, that it would bear no comparison to the manner influence is used among the Latter-day Saints. That would be all right if they used it, but it is all wrong if we use it. And so it is with everything else. If they could unite a people together as we are united that would be perfectly justifiable; but because Latter-day Saints unite together, that is exceedingly wrong, especially when they do so as a religious community.

For myself I want to do that which God directs. That is the wish of my heart. I want to honor my God if I know how to do it. I believe this entire people have the same feeling. They desire to do the will of God, if they can find out what that will is, and if He will communicate it to us, as I know He does, I am satisfied that the great majority of the Latter-day Saints will do that will regardless of consequences. It is the attempt to do that, that has brought us into disrepute.

God, in building up His Kingdom, does not take pattern from men. He does not ask counsel from men as to how that Kingdom shall be built up, and the methods that shall be employed to establish it. He is going to build His Kingdom up in His own way, and if it does not suit men or the nations of the earth, why, I suppose they will have to be, as they have been and as they are sometimes at present, angry with those who strive to do that which He requires. I know this that many things that men admire are an abomination in the sight of God; many things that they think most admirable God holds as an abomination. Therefore, in building up His Church and His Kingdom He is going to take His own plan of doing it, and for one, so far as I can I feel willing to allow Him to dictate how it shall be done, and then leave the consequences to Him. I know that He will bring off those who put their trust in Him victorious, and He will ask no odds of the nations of the earth. He delights in a people who are courageous and valiant, who are not afraid. He delights in people of this kind. The greatest blessing almost that we read of that was ever given to a man in the flesh was given to a man possessed of this courage. You will remember him, doubtless, when I mention His name. His name was Nephi. He was the son of Helaman, and had a brother named Lehi. He was the grandfather of Nephi, who was the President of the Twelve whom Jesus chose on this continent. Read the life of that man, and observe the blessings that God bestowed upon him. God gave him great power because of his valor and fearlessness in His cause, and it is so with every Prophet and with every man of God of whom we have any record, and it is so with every people and generation who put their trust in the Lord, and are valiant for His cause. He will give them great blessings and power, and He will bring them off victorious. He has done so in the past. He is doing so now, and He will do so in the future; and whenever you find a man or a people weakened and limber-backed, nervous, their hands shaking and their hearts trembling, you will find a people that have not very much of the strength and power of God with them; but when they are full of courage, zeal and determination, God is with them, He strengthens them, and gives them victory. He will do it every time, with every individual. You read the history of Elijah, and see how valiant he was, and how God blessed him, and I might go on and enumerate a great many more men who have been distinguished in the world’s history because of their valor. God stood by them always, and will stand by us if we are valiant. Look at the men who have been most valiant in this Church in defending, advocating and practicing the principles which God has revealed, and doing this, too, in the face of mankind who have been determined that we shall not do these things, and see how God has blessed and sustained them in so doing. Therefore, having had this experience in these matters, it is for us to be valiant in the cause of God, to show our faith by our works, and not be Latter-day Saints with our lips alone, but be Latter-day Saints in all the acts of our lives, in all our words, and in everything there is connected with us. Let us not imagine that God has established His work to take pattern in its methods of procedure and management after the corrupt nations of the earth. He has not done so.

We live under a Government, the best that ever was formed by man upon this earth—a Government in which every human being can live without interfering with the rights of others in the practice of the principles which God reveals. God has purposely arranged this. He raised up wise men to lay the foundation of this Government, and He defended them against the mother country, and enabled them to achieve victory over the greatest power there was upon the face of the earth—the power of Great Britain. He gave them power to form a Constitution under which every man and woman can dwell in perfect freedom—that is, if they wanted to do right. This land has been dedicated to liberty, dedicated by the Lord our God, and by men who have lived upon this land, to liberty, and as long as this land shall be a land of liberty it will be a blessed land to the inhabitants thereof; but when it ceases to be a land of liberty, then as sure as God has spoken, this Government will go down—that is, any Government will, that will war against the principles of liberty—and the men who are now engaged in their assaults upon us because of our religion, are traitors to this Government, and they are the most deadly enemies to the Government of the United States that can be found anywhere upon the face of the earth. They are laying the axe at the root of the tree, and are taking measures to destroy this Government, because it can only, as I have said, be preserved by maintaining the principles of liberty that are contained in the Constitution which God gave to the land, or which He inspired men to frame for the land. But in our contention for liberty—for we today are the defenders of the Constitution, and we shall have Constitutional principles to maintain and defend in the courts of the nation, we are being forced into this duty and position—God will bless us and preserve us, and carry us off triumphantly, and the words of Joseph, which were inspired by the Almighty, will be fulfilled to the very letter, namely, that the Elders of this Church will be the men who will uphold and maintain the Constitution of the United States, when others are seeking to trample it in the dust, and to destroy it. We are a free people—let others seek to bring us into bondage as they may—we are a free people, with the perfect right to worship our God and to carry into effect the principles that He has revealed. And if the whole world array themselves against us, and the combined power of the nation pits itself against this work, they must go down in the struggle, because they are occupying a false position. If fifty hundred millions of people were to say the contrary, no matter, the principle still remains true, that under the Constitution in this land, a man has a perfect right to do that which God requires at his hands as long as he does not intrude upon the rights of his neighbor.

If one man stood alone in this position, and millions of men were to say it is not so, that lone man would still be right. We have that right. God has given it to us under the Constitution of the land in which we dwell, and if men enact laws and pile one law upon another until they reach to the sky, it would not change this. It is an eternal principle, and it will stand—this principle of liberty, the liberty that God has given unto every human being—the right to do that which seemeth good in his own sight, to follow the dictates of his own conscience, as long as, in so doing, he does not trespass upon the rights of his fellow man. We stand by that fearlessly, and stand by it for ourselves, and for our children after us. I would not abate one iota, not a hair’s breadth, myself, in this feeling. I would feel that I was a traitor to myself and to my posterity if I were to yield in the least upon this. We must maintain our rights, not aggressively, not in any quarrelsome spirit, but in a spirit of quiet firmness, quiet determination to maintain our rights, to contend for them, and to never yield one hair’s breadth in maintaining them. This is our duty as individuals and as a people, and in thus determining, we band ourselves together more closely. Complaints are made of us that we are so exclusive. Why, in the very nature of things we should be fools to be otherwise than exclusive. We cannot help it. We are driven into exclusiveness by the acts of our enemies, and by the pressure that is brought to bear upon us. A flock of sheep when attacked by dogs or wolves, huddle together, and seek to protect themselves by getting into a cluster. So it is with us. It is the law of preservation, that we should get close together when we are assaulted as we have been. We cannot put trust in others who are not of us to any extent. There are, however, many honorable men, hundreds and thousands of them. If there were not, we would not send missionaries out as we do. We believe they are just as honest as we are, just as sincere as we are, and desire as much to do right as we do. I believe there are millions of them in the earth, men and women, whose desires are as good as the best Latter-day Saints. They desire to do the will of God, and to keep His commandments as much as any of us do, and are as sincere in it; but many people are ignorant and do things through ignorance which are wrong. But, as I say, self-preservation demands that we should cling together; that we should be united; that we should sink all personal differences; that we should have no preference that we would not be willing to forego for the sake of the Kingdom of God. It is an important time with us. We have enemies all around us. A determination is made manifest to destroy every one of our liberties, if possible, and to bring us into bondage. That is the design, if it can be accomplished. But it will not be accomplished. You will see it will fail, it will signally fail, and God will preserve us in our liberties, and especially will He do this if we keep His commandments, and do that which He requires at our hands.

A great many people seem to think, and some who are among us act upon the thought, that because a man holds the Priesthood, and is a religious man, and practices religion, that he should not have any voice in matters that belong to civil government. In Washington the charge has been frequently made that all the leading offices of the Territory of Utah were held by Mormon Elders, Mormon Bishops and others. I have frequently said, in answer to this, before committees of the Senate and House, that if we did not take Mormon Elders we would have no officers, for the reasons that, as a rule, every reputable man in Utah Territory, when he attains the age of majority, holds the office of an Elder, or some other office in the Priesthood. This explanation gave a very different view to men who did not understand our organization, and whose ignorance was taken advantage of. In the world there are a few men in religious societies, who hold leading positions, hold what we would call, if in our Church, the Priesthood, and the rest are debarred, and are mere laymen. But it is not so with us. The bulk of the Mormon people hold the Priesthood, and every man of repute of any age is an officer in the Church. It is said that the members of our Legislature are men who are prominent in the Priesthood. How could it be otherwise? If a man is energetic and has any talent he of course holds some position in the Priesthood, and he is very apt to hold some prominent place. But does this prevent him from acting in a civil office, and from dealing justly and wisely for the good of the people? No, we have proved to our entire satisfaction, that this is not the case.

When we look at Utah Territory today, and compare it with other Territories it will be conceded by everybody who is impartial that the position of affairs here is equal to, if not much better than the position of affairs in any other Territory and in many of the States. Has that been because there has been a union of Church and State. No, it is not due to that; for that has never existed here. Has it been because there has been one man dictating everything—has it been due to that entirely? No; for no one man has done this. But it has been because the men who have acted in these capacities have been men of wisdom, and the people have had confidence in them. Wherever we go as a people, we carry with us our religion. You cannot dissever our religion from our lives. It is a part of our lives, and, of course, because of this, we are exposed to those charges that are made against us. Yet at the same time, I do not believe there is a people to be found within the confines of the Republic who draw the line more strictly between religious and civil affairs, and between Church and State, than do the Latter-day Saints.

We are living in peculiar times. I think the youth of this community—those who are growing up now—should closely observe that which is being done. It is an important epoch. Events are taking place now that are worthy of our remembrance, and we are being put in a position to be tested thoroughly. The contest seems to be narrowed down to this point—whether we shall be able to live as a people and enjoy our rights as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or not. Formerly, the question was soon solved. A mob would form itself against us, and by force of superior numbers, and backed by a public opinion that was too strong for us to contend with, we had to vacate our homes and flee. The alternative was presented to us of flight, or the abandonment of our religion. This is not quite the alternative now presented before us. The question is, will you abandon your religion? Will you renounce those principles that God has revealed to you, and which He has declared are essential to salvation and exaltation in His Kingdom—will you renounce them? Will you renounce obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God? If you will I expect you can enjoy some sort of peace—a peace that would be the peace of death. Who will accept it? Will any true Latter-day Saint? No; no true Latter-day Saint will accept that. What next? You cannot have your rights as citizens. You must be put under bonds. You must have penalties affixed to your practice or to your faith. If you continue to be Latter-day Saints you must be discriminated against. That is another alternative presented to us. Will we accept that? Yes. I believe that I speak your feelings. I believe I give voice to them when I say that you are willing, all of you, to take this choice and these consequences. What next? Will a mob come and drive us from our homes? Not yet. You will see fun whenever that occurs. That is not in the program as I view it at present. No mobs. What then, shall we do? We shall have to contend in the courts; we shall have to make this a legal fight. It is mobocracy in legal form and in legal guise that now attacks us. It comes to us in a shape that we can meet better than we could the old forms, when a mob banded together and came in such overwhelming numbers that we could not resist it. It may be just as wicked. The present mode of attack may be just as cruel; the ultimate object may be just as bad in every sense and in every respect; but it can be met in a different form and in a different way. We have to contend now for our rights in the courts of the land; we must see whether there is a willingness on the part of those who hold authority as judges, to give us our rights, and in this way we shall test the nation, our Government, and prove whether there is a willingness on the part of those who administer the government to give us those rights that belong to us as American citizens. If they do not, who will be the sufferers! We shall suffer to some extent; but our sufferings will be light compared with those that will fall upon the men who shall prove untrue and recreant to the principles of liberty and truth.

Now, I look forward myself with great pleasure to the future. Every step of this kind that we take is an assurance of that which is to come. We cannot press forward as a people; we cannot become the people that God designs we shall be, and that He has predicted we shall be, without having just such contests as these. They are the natural consequences of the position that we occupy, and of the growth and development of this people. But the same God that protected this Church when it was but a small handful, a few individuals, still reigns, and His promises are as much to be relied upon as they were when the mob drove the Latter-day Saints out of Missouri; as much to be relied upon as when, in that dark hour, the mob killed our Prophet and our Patriarch, and afterwards compelled the Saints to flee from their homes; as much to be relied upon as when we came to these valleys; they are just as reliable today as they were then. It is for us to so live that when we call upon Him that we do so with an assurance that we have done our duty, that there is nothing lacking on our part so far as human and mortal beings can do. We have our sins, our frailties, our many weaknesses; but God looks down in mercy upon them when we repent of them, and show a disposition to put them away from us. When we are in this condition we can call upon Him and leave ourselves to His mercy, with the full assurance that He has always stood by His faithful people, His faithful servants and handmaidens, and that He will not forsake them in any hour of extremity or of peril. He will stand by them; He will hear their prayers; and at the very time when it will seem the darkest, when it will be as though there is no power to save, God’s arm will be stretched out for our deliverance, and we shall be rescued and be triumphant. He will so control circumstances and arrange affairs, that, at the very moment when the adversary will be glorying in triumph, and gloating over the prospect before him, He will then be ready to extend His arm of deliverance in our behalf, and rescue us from the power of those who desire our destruction.

As I said in the beginning, if this work depended on us alone we would soon go down. It depends upon God. He is at the head of it. He is behind it. He is all around it. He established it. He has controlled circumstances thus far in a most wonderful manner; and when I look at that which has been done in this country, with all the efforts that have been made by the wicked, one act after another, one act of wrong piled on top of another, and see the meager results to show for their base course, I feel to praise God with all my heart for His goodness and mercy to us.

A Governor of this Territory perjured himself to do us a great wrong. He gave the certificate of election to a man who was not elected, thinking, in so doing, he was dealing Mormonism—or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a deadly blow. What has been the result? Who is injured? Is anybody injured? I do not, myself, know of anybody that is injured, except the man who did this perfidious act, who perjured himself by violating his oath of office. I do not know of anyone else. Certainly the people of Utah are not. Go back, and look at Judge McKean’s rulings and acts. We had a reign of judicial terror in the Third Judicial District for about eight months, and no man knew when he was to be pounced upon. Prominent men were indicted and put under bonds, some for one thing and some for another. Who has been injured by this? Has anyone been injured? We have not. We have ate, and slept, and enjoyed ourselves, and been as happy as men could be. I am sure President Young, when he was living, was a happy man. It did not interfere with his happiness and enjoyment, and others who were indicted in like manner, they enjoyed themselves, and the people have not been injured. We have had a great deal of this kind of experience.

Now we are passing through a similar condition of affairs to some extent. We shall come out of this just as we have come out of other perils and trials and ordeals. We shall gain experience, and it will increase our faith to see the power of God manifested, and to see how wonderfully He controls the acts of men for His glory and for the accomplishment of His purposes. Look at the hubbub that has been raised in Congress. There has been a tremendous amount of pressure brought to bear upon that body in regard to the Mormons. Delegation after delegation has gone from Utah to Washington and appeared before Committees, for the purpose of getting bills made into laws. It will be most interesting reading in years to come, the various bills that have been presented to Congress against Utah. Every sort of scheme has been resorted to. You cannot think of anything, scarcely, that has not been embodied as a feature in some of these bills. And with what result? Have we slept any less? Have we been any more unhappy? Have we had any less prosperity? Has the sun shone less upon us? Has Heaven withdrawn its smile from us? Have our fields been less fruitful? Have our children been less numerous? Has any blessing that we value been withheld or withdrawn from us because of these things! If they have I am not aware of it. I cannot think of any evil that has come upon us as a people. I look over the past; I review the acts of the wicked; I review their combinations; I review the many conspiracies that have been formed, the many determinations that have been reached to destroy us, to cripple us, to deprive us of our rights, and I must confess to you this day, my brethren and sisters, in the presence of our Father, that I cannot think of a single thing that has been done that we could call injurious to us as a people; not a single thing. With all the force that has been arrayed against us, with all the threats that have been made about us, we have lived, we have prospered, we have increased, we have been blessed of the Lord. You know how blessed you have been in your families, in your homes. You know how much peace has reigned there; how much you have had in your hearts, and in your meetings, and in your associations. You know how free you have been from fear and from trepidation. You have not suffered in your feelings, for God has given unto you a peace that the world cannot bestow, that the world cannot take away. The world has not given unto us those blessings; the world cannot take them away from us; they are ours, given unto us by God our Eternal Father. They will still be given unto us. God’s promises will be verified to the very letter.

But you watch the men who have fought against this work. Watch the men who have apostatized from this work. Ask yourselves what their fate has been. Where are the men who have sought to oppress the people of Utah? Where are they today? Who is there among them that has prospered in this work of oppression? Go through the list of Governors, Judges, and other officers. Go through the list of those who have held any office, and who have sought the oppression of the people and the destruction of their liberties, through their spirit of antagonism to the work of God, and their desire to destroy it—go through the list of them, and ask, who among them has had prosperity and has been blessed, and to whom we can look and say, “Oh, how successful that man has been; how he has prospered in fighting the Mormons!” Is there any such man among them? You are familiar with the names of apostates who have left this work through fear or some other cause, corrupt in their lives or for some other reason? Can you recall among the long list of men who have come out and pitted themselves against this work of our God, any who have prospered and had happy lives? Is there any of them with whom you, the humblest of you today, the humblest, the poorest of you Latter-day Saints—is there one of them with whom you would exchange places today? Not one. I am sure that I can reply for the whole of you—that is, there is not one in that long list of names of men who were once members of this church, who have come out against it, with whom you would exchange places; not one.

Why then, should we fear? Why should we tremble? Why should we be afraid of that which is threatened? I tell you in the name of the Lord He will stand by us, He will stand by all His people. There is this peculiarity about our God. He is not like the devil. When the devil gets a man in a tight place he leaves him there; he encircles him in his net, he lets him get entangled in its meshes, and then leaves him to himself. That is the devil’s way. He deserts those who follow him when they most need his help. But with God, in the time of the greatest extremity, in the time when help is most needed, then He is close to His faithful servants and His faithful children; then is the time that He stands by them. In the deepest waters He is with them; in the midst of the heaviest and sorest afflictions He is at their right hand and at their left; He is around about to sustain and carry them off victorious.

God help us to be true and faithful to the cause that He has established, that in the end we may be permitted to sit down with him and His Son in His Kingdom, is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden, Sunday Afternoon, January 18th, 1885.

It is always a pleasure to meet with the Saints, and I always find substantial pleasure in bearing that portion of the labor of the ministry which devolves upon me. Of course there are times when human nature is physically incapacitated from labors. Nevertheless I rejoice exceedingly in the contemplation of the work that we are engaged in. Certainly the review of our immense subject, our great calling, our vast labor, and the wonderful results that follow them—when they are reviewed as they were this morning, and called up before our minds, must awaken deeply interesting and I should hope broadly expanded views and reflections in the minds of the Saints.

We are, as a people, and also our labors as well as the results of them, a great outstanding witness to the world of the divine character of the work we are performing—the high order of our calling to perform that work, as well as pointing significantly to the grand and glorious results which must inevitably follow the labor and toil that are now upon the Latter-day Saints. Any person whose bosom is warmed and whose intellect is lit up by the Holy Spirit must rejoice greatly in the contemplation of the great last dispensation which is now fairly before the world, fairly upon the Saints, like the harness that is upon those that are appointed to labor, to pull, to lift, and to toil.

Where is there any people upon the face of the earth, except the Latter-day Saints, who have from their religious convictions—or from any system of ethics or morals that they possess, gone forth upon the face of the earth, and, from honest, conscientious convictions, and, from their most heartfelt appeals, taken hold of the honest in heart, or of the vicious in heart; anywhere upon the face of the earth, and gathered together a people comprising twenty to thirty different languages and nations, and brought them together to any place, located them, and established a system of government that has been for their improvement, for their benefit, for the increase of their influence, their peace, or their happiness in any sense, either spiritual or temporal?

You can look abroad upon the earth in vain to find any other example that has any kind of relationship, or bears any kind of analogy or appearance like unto the work that is being performed by the Latter-day Saints in the days in which we live.

Who is it that is doing this work? What is the character of this people? Are they those that have been through the schools and been educated to appear in the most plausible and convincing manner in all classes of society? Are they those that have been brought up in affluence and comfort; that can present everything that is pleasing and engaging to the eyes, the ears and the minds of those they address? Not at all. Not many learned or noble. It is often the inexperienced boys that are picked up from the plow, from the workshop, to the humblest of laboring men, toiling, struggling, and many a time when they have not been able, from persecution and oppressive circumstances in which they have been placed, to make a comfortable livelihood, yet they have left the bosoms of their families and gone forth in faith carrying the principles of eternal truth and administering them, with an honest heart and clean hands and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood from heaven to the children of men. And what have they done? What has this simple, humble plan accomplished? Without money in their pockets, without letters of recommendation even to the people, without means oft times to make them comfortable, abnegating themselves, deficient in the comforts and necessities of life, they have gone forth with their hearts full of love and blessing to the human family to find other bosoms kindred to their own, though strangers in appearance, ready to receive the glad testimony of these servants of God. It is not the learned and the noble, nor the wealthy of the earth that have brought their hundreds, their thousands and their tens of thousands to this country.

It has been the potency of those principles that have been taught by the simple and many times silent testimony of the Holy Ghost, by the still small voice, that has carried conviction to the honest, the humble, laboring poor, and has brought them home here to Zion—they that want to know more of God, they that come from the crowded cities and other portions of the earth—find here a piece of a new world; they take hold and make to themselves homes, all in the name of Israel’s God, and by the calling of the voice of the Good Shepherd. Oh, how beneficent and how munificent has the Lord our God been unto us! Behold! as I look abroad this afternoon in this house, I contemplate the great mass of this congregation that are partakers of the Holy Priesthood. It is not a few that are partakers of the holy calling, the authority to administer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the echo of that saying that is written in the Scriptures where the Lord has said that He would take of Israel and make of them a nation of kings and priests unto Himself. Behold ye, my brethren and sisters, here they are.

Here is Israel gathering together, being taught of the Lord, to learn of His ways and walk in His paths, that they may receive the blessing and be clothed upon with power, as the Prophet said: “Awake, awake; put, on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.” What are these beautiful garments? These beautiful garments are the clothing upon with the authority and power of the Holy Priesthood. It is that which makes people beautiful; it is that which makes people useful; it is that which causes the Saints to sing: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.” It is that excellence of the knowledge of God that makes men and women beautiful, and makes their acts delightful when they are performed in righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I rejoice when I look around and contemplate this precious privilege—that there is scarcely an individual that has come to years of judgment and understanding but is a partaker of some measure of the Priesthood, if no more than the office of a Deacon that can administer blessing by attending to the door, wait upon the tables, and also by attending to other temporal duties from time to time as they may occur.

Here let me say, that every officer in the Church, from the Deacon up to the Apostle, should realize that it is his duty to endeavor to administer blessings by the virtue of the calling of God which is upon him; he ought to feel thus, and every sister that is the wife of such an husband should feel, if she has received with him her blessings in the house of the Lord, that it is her privilege and duty to administer blessings, comfort and happiness to her husband, to her children, to her family and household. Every one in all the Church should be filled with a spirit of blessing. The authority of the Priesthood should cause a gushing forth from the fountain of the heart, a bubbling forth of streams of blessing, of consolation, of comfort and of rejoicing, each should try to help and benefit the other in every possible way.

Contemplate the immense army, I may say of Seventies and Elders we have among us; and what a work are they doing in the nations, and what a work are they doing and ought they to do at home in preaching the Gospel to each other, in encouraging and strengthening those whose hands sometimes hang down, and whose knees tremble; speaking comforting words to the Saints, saying, “Dear brother, thy God reigneth, trust in him.” Notwithstanding all that we see on the right hand and on the left, and all that we hear, the Lord God has not forgotten His people, nor has He forgotten to educate and instruct them, in all that He knows is for their greatest good, so that by and by He may come and find a nation of kings and priests who shall reign with Him on the earth a thousand years. We ought never to forget that we are in a school of experience. Every brother and every sister should feel that they exert an influence that will tend for good or for evil.

We ought to feel concerned for our little ones. How precious they are! Sometimes I hear the brethren testify how much good is being done by the Relief Society and the Associations. I want to hear them talk about the Primaries, and tell us how the little children are getting along. It seems hard to get it into the heads of some of the parents as well as some of the Bishops to realize the importance of teaching and instructing these youngsters, some seem to consider it the sole duty of the Primary Associations, while others think it the duty of the parents only to see after them. Now, I think we miss it in trying to thus shirk the responsibility. I think we should all try to understand more perfectly the worth of souls. Oh, if the sisters and brethren that have the charge of these little Primary Associations could only realize that every little child is a gem that they are called upon to polish, to cut, to refine, to shapen, to burnish, to fit and prepare to stand in the diadem of its father’s crown. This is the way in which we ought to look at these small but precious jewels. We should assist the little ones to grow up to be mighty men of Zion, that shall come up to teach Senators wisdom, rebuke strong nations, though they may be far off and become a wholesome terror to the ungodly.

As Apostles, as Bishops, as High Priests, as Elders, as well as fathers and mothers, we need to get more of the spirit of this great work in all its different branches, and keep it with us; always have a blessing to dispense; everywhere a word of comfort and consolation to bestow. We should seek for the Spirit of God and get that measure of it that will bear us up, that they will make us feel the cares of life are trivial; that will sustain us under every circumstance. We can bear wonderful trials; we can live though and outgrow them and look back on them and wonder how we passed through them, realizing that we never could have done so but for the help of God that sustained us in it. Then give Him the glory.

Every officer, then, in the Church should be full of blessing to his fellow man. Only think how many patriarchs there are. They should feel to bless all around. No doubt they do, sealing upon those to whom they administer the blessing of eternal life in perpetuity.

The school that we are being educated in is a strange one. You cannot pick up the Bible and find anything that is like it. In ancient days, when there was a warfare, it was a warfare of carnal weapons, many times. Not so, in our days; and as if the Lord were determined to put carnal weapons far away from us, He even permitted the Gubernatorial order preventing us carrying firearms with which to celebrate the 4th of July, and then, on the top of that, He has given us the abundant testimony of peace all around, even with the hostile natives. Is not this an overwhelming testimony that the Lord wants us to work with the other class of weapons—the sword of His Holy Spirit, the power of eternal truth—the ammunition that wants to be kept alive, active and burning in our hearts.

When we come to contemplate this matter, our warfare is entirely in another direction, it has to be carried on and accomplished by the power of faith. We have to contend for our liberties and the rights of the people before the courts, wherein we strive to maintain the Constitutional rights to which we are entitled, both civilly and politically. We have not gone to the authorities that are over us in the nation and supplicated them saying: “Will you please give us some extraordinary liberties or privileges—we contend for the rights of every American citizen, which are our rights.” We have not cut ourselves off from the rights of citizenship. Our fathers fought to help obtain and bled to help establish the blessings and privileges, the liberties and powers of this glorious government to all its loyal citizens; and when this Church was established, it went on for more than thirty-two years—no law of the Church conflicted with the laws of the land, until it became necessary in the opinion of some politicians that the Saints should be made offenders in the eyes of the nation and of the world. Then it was that Congress passed a law—the law of 1862—prohibiting plurality of wives, polygamy, or bigamy, as they choose to call it. Now, then, we have not risen up against the laws of the land; it is the laws of the land and the men of the land that have risen up against the people of God, and have brought their offensive warfare in this matter, and we are thereby placed on the defensive. The nation have been pleased to say that we shall not worship God according to the dictates of our consciences, as required by some of the laws and ordinances of His Church; and have made laws to prevent us from so doing, if possible. Hence it is that, while we go before the courts we do not go as suppliants for something extraordinary, or for something that other people have not got. We ask to be preserved our rights, the rights that belong to every American citizen. It is for this that we go through the courts, appealing from the District Court to the Supreme Court of the Territory, and then to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Now, is not this a great and an important lesson of experience and instruction, and yet there is occasion, for all this is required in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord has said through the Prophet Joseph to us, that we must importune at the feet of the judges—do you remember it?—and at the feet of Governors—do you recollect that—and at the feet of the President, and then, says He, if your importuning does not prevail, and you do not obtain all things which you have a right to, He will come out of His hiding place and take the matter into His own hands. So you see we have some importuning to do before, or at the feet of Judges, Governors, and Presidents, in order to maintain the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution of our country.

Right here I want to say a word or two especially in regard to the way we have to do our importuning. I refer to a discourse by President Young, in which he said he wished he had five hundred young lawyers full of the spirit of the Gospel who would rise up and help to maintain and defend our rights before the courts of our country. The discourse was published in the Deseret News and republished in the Journal of Discourses. It is public matter for anybody to read that wishes to. But a few days ago, however, a Bishop remarked that it looked very singular for one of the Apostles to raise up a lawyer, and thought there must be a screw loose somewhere. It happens, however, once in a while that some Bishop wants my son or someone else’s son to help defend them before the courts. (Laughter.) I wonder if there is any screw loose there. Excuse me, brethren, for this reference; but I wish we could have a goodly number of substantial young men growing up in our midst who would become skilled and mighty in the law, and who could go into any of the courts and set forth the true principles of justice and equity in all cases. We need more of such men. We do not want men to become lawyers, turn infidels, and live for nothing but the little money they can make. We want to raise up a corps of young men armed with the Spirit of the Gospel, clothed with the Holy Priesthood, who can tell the judges in high places what the law is, and what equity is, and can plead for the cause of Zion, and help maintain the rights of God’s people. Hence you see we have got to carry on these matters. Our rights are infringed, and we have got to defend ourselves as best we can. We are told that we must plead with the dignitaries of the earth; plead with them until their position on our question is known; they have got to declare themselves.

There are different branches of the government, which are considered coordinate. For instance—there is the legislative branch, namely, Congress. Then there is the President, who represents the executive branch. Then there is the army and navy, which is the arm of power to carry out and maintain physical defenses. And then there is the Supreme Court, the legal tribunal that stands at the very head, if you please, and pronounces upon the constitutionality of the acts which Congress passes. Hence we see our case has not only to be brought before and had cognizance of in the Congress of the United States to ascertain if they will make laws to oppress us, but these laws can be taken to higher courts, to see whether they will maintain the rights of God’s people in the land. And does it seem a terrible thing that one or two should get cast into prison? As President Cannon contemplated this morning, half a dozen would cover all such cases within the last twenty-two years, and the persons connected with the most notable cases have come in and furnished the evidence for their own crimination, under the promise that punishment would not be inflicted. But like the Governor of Illinois, who pledged his honor and the honor of the state to protect our Prophet and Patriarch, all such promises were broken. Nevertheless, in this manner we have got to test the purity or impurity, the integrity or otherwise, of the different branches of the government under which we live.

God is going to make His people a great people. He has designed them to be the means not only of revealing among themselves, what they are, and what they are here for, but of making them a standing testimony of the truth before the whole world. The great knowledge of which we have become possessed cannot be hid under a bushel, cannot be hid up in a dark place. Here we are in the heights of the continent, calling Israel home, ready to impart the light that is within us, to all of Adam’s children who will receive it. Let us seek to be wise. The Lord has told us of certain classes of defense which are better even than the employment of weapons of war. And what is it? It is the gift of wisdom. “Wisdom is better than strength or weapons of war,” said the ancient man, who tested the matter and found it out. Now, let us understand that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and a good understanding have all they who keep His commandments.

My brethren and sisters: let us not be discouraged in the least. Remember that no great revolution was ever achieved without some fighting. Some battles have had to be fought, some victories had to be achieved. It is while the war is going on that some get wounded, and other contingencies arise, and some things necessarily happen that are unpleasant. But after the war is over, and the new government is instituted, the grand improvement is then felt, as it has been felt in this nation ever since the thirteen colonies fought and maintained their independence from the mother country. It is true we have been oppressed a little. But our enemies do not make very much at it. We live and thrive notwithstanding, do we not? How singularly the Lord works with men. The people of the Southern States through the war and since, have been limited or deprived of some of their rights. And some few men—Senator Brown for one—are not afraid to rise up from their seat and defend the right whether in behalf of Mormon or non-Mormon, and expose the doings of self-righteous men in New England, exposing the fruits of their monogamous marriage relations as compared with our marriage institution. The Lord has raised up men sometimes to maintain the rights of His people. He will allow us to be pinched from time to time as it may be necessary to unite us together, to make a wife love her husband a little better, to make a husband love his wives and children a little better, and to strengthen the bond of union in every heart. For my part I rejoice in this work, and seek continually to gather knowledge. I rejoice that I have lived to see the work of God established on the earth. Let me tell you, my brethren and sisters, the greatest affliction some of us have: it is some great fearful apprehension that something is going to happen. We naturally borrow trouble. We should not do that. Just consider that the work is the Lord’s. Be certain you do your duty every day. And when you lay down at night do so with a clear conscience, and enjoy slumber and be refreshed, and rise up in the morning, in the likeness of the resurrection, prepared to renew the contest of life. Thus we should go on step by step, adding faith to faith, keeping the commandments of God, and purifying ourselves all we can. The Lord will bless us in proportion to the degree that we endeavor to purify ourselves, and keep His commandments. That is the great secret of our full acceptance with God. We must purify ourselves as He is pure.

I do not consider it proper for me to occupy more of your time this afternoon. I feel to say I rejoice in this work. And I say unto every brother and sister that keeps the commandments of God, be joyful and rejoice in Him. He has called us to the work in which we are engaged, and He is educating us, as I said before, in order that by and by He may have a nation of kings and priests, judges and rulers to help Him bear government and rule over this earth in righteousness, when the curse shall be taken from it, and when truth shall prevail from one end of the earth to the other. May it be our happy lot to be there and rejoice with father Abraham and all his family, is my humble prayer, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle George Teasdale, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, January 11th, 1885.

Since the last time I had the privilege of worshiping in this house I have had the opportunity, in company with Brother F. M. Lyman, of making a tour through the Southern wards and Stakes of this Territory, and I must say, though it was my first visit to several places, that I have enjoyed my labors exceedingly. I appreciated my association with the Saints, who are striving in their weakness to establish the righteousness of God upon the earth. I was treated with the greatest kindness. It is impossible for us to be associated as we are in a great work—a work that from the beginning has been opposed by the world—without feeling the greatest admiration for men and women who are filled with the spirit of integrity, who manifest a love for God and for the principles of righteousness, that is surprising in the day and age in which we live, when righteousness is so unpopular. I had always been given to understand that I was living in an enlightened age in the blaze of the Gospel; that we had passed from the dark ages and living in an enlightened age, among educated people; that the Gospel of the Son of God was being promulgated in all nations, and that we had the Bible for a guide, so that we need not be mistaken. This being the case, it is something very curious—I often think so in my reflections—that men and women are today in the penitentiary, doomed to associate with the worst class of villains, because they believe in God. The same principle that exalted Abraham and made him the “friend of God,” because he believed God and obeyed Him today is considered a crime: for men and women who manifest that they have the faith of Abraham by doing the works of Abraham are considered fit subjects to be placed among murderers and the worst class of characters. I presume if 50 years ago, any man had said that the time would come when the doctrine of Christ should be so unpopular that those who believed God, and who practiced the principles that lead to endless lives, would be incarcerated in dungeons, he would have been considered slightly insane. It has been the boast of the nation to which we are attached, that wherever the glorious flag waved it was a source of consolation to the people of all nations to know that there was a spot on earth that was the land of the free and the home of the brave. With a Constitution that is the admiration of all nations and peoples, nobody would have ever thought for a moment that the circumstances that we see today, and the facts that we are in possession of, would ever be recorded upon the pages of American history, and they never would have been had the spirit of patriotism that dwelt in the bosoms of those who consecrated their lives, their sacred honor, and their all, for the establishment of a spot on earth that should be indeed the land of the free, and the home of the brave, been manifested today. No brave man would ever interfere with another man’s religion. It is all that I have. My hope, my joy. Take my religion away, and I am a beggar of the poorest kind. If I am wrong show me my wrong: I am open to conviction. I embraced the doctrine taught by the Latter-day Saints, because I believed that it was true, and that it promised to me something more than I was in possession of. The humble man that brought the glad tidings of the restoration of the Gospel, told me that if I would appeal to God who dwells in the heavens, and would appeal honestly, He would give me light and intelligence, and that if I would obey the Gospel I should be put in possession of knowledge that it was true; that I would learn that Joseph Smith was no false prophet, but a true prophet sent of God; that holy angels, holding keys of power and authority, had visited the earth for the express purpose of restoring the Priesthood of God, that the Gospel might be taught in power and authority in all nations, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man, which is nigh at our doors. Wishing to be kind to myself; wishing to understand if there was any truth in all these things, I went where we should all go—to the throne of grace, and asked God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ, that if the testimonies I had heard were true, that I might have a knowledge of the same; that I was willing to embrace the Gospel provided that it was true, and it would guarantee the excellency of knowledge that was promised me if I would seek wisdom at His hands and obey. I asked that if it was the truth I might know it; because if any man desired eternal life I did; if any man desired to serve God I did; if any man desired the remission of his sins I did; and consequently I went to that source that I would presume all intelligent men and women would appeal to when a message of the kind that came unto us through the Prophet Joseph Smith was sounded in our ears. I obtained that knowledge, and I have endeavored faithfully to bear my testimony wherever I have been, and under whatever circumstances I have been placed. And I have never taken any step but what I have appealed to the same source, believing as I do in the Gospel of Christ, believing as I do in the Bible, and believing that James meant what he said when he stated: “If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” I went forth in the simplicity of my heart believing God would answer my prayer. He did so, and from that day to this I have had, in my associations with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a living testimony of the truth of this work, and the closer I live to the requirements and to the principles that have been enunciated, and are continually enunciated, by inspired men, the greater the happi– ness and peace I enjoy. Do I wish to interfere with the rights and privileges of anybody? God forbid. Do I wish to do anything that would be a reproach to this nation? God forbid. The course that the Latter-day Saints are taking is an honor to the nation. It is an honor to this country. That God our Eternal Father selected men who had been born, and raised on this soil to usher in the dispensation of the fullness of times. It certainly ought to be a source of joy to all men who are honest in heart, and who desire to obtain eternal life, to know that the keys are turned by which they can obtain the same. But as it was in the days of Christ, so it is today. The world by wisdom know not God: and the course that they are taking today in fighting against the principles of righteousness is a shocking record to make upon the pages of history. Can a false religion benefit me? Can manmade systems benefit me? Can I obtain the remission of my sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, through uninspired men? I think not. I have no guarantee for that inside or outside of the lids of the Bible.

In my travels among the Latter-day Saints, circumstances have arisen that have caused me some reflection, more especially with regard to prayer. It might not be believed that among the people who profess to be Latter-day Saints, there are those who neglect prayer. We have had to ask young men, sometimes, that were Elders and who had been recommended to be Seventies, if they prayed, and in telling us the truth, they have stated that they did sometimes. I never should have doubted for a moment that there was anybody professing to be a Latter-day Saint who did not pray. I cannot understand it. I was inducted into the Kingdom of God by prayer, and I have been sustained by the Almighty Father, by prayer, ever since that day. I do not pray for form sake: I pray because I earnestly desire to have the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. I cannot understand how anybody can pray for form’s sake, although I have almost been led to believe that we do so on a great many times and occasions, and I will give you my reasons for so thinking. What is the idea, after singing, of one of the brethren standing up here to open this meeting by prayer? Is he not our spokesman, the mouthpiece, and should we not, while he utters the sentences, have those sentences pass through our minds in a prayer as a congregation, and when he has finished it, endorse the same by saying “amen.” What is the meaning of “amen?” So be it. Well, I noticed today that there were few “amens.” Why is this? Did we not endorse the prayer? Did we not sanction it? I should think if we did we would naturally say “amen”—so let it be. But I will tell you what I am afraid of—I am afraid of the Latter-day Saints getting into a form of religion and being no better off than their neighbors, or getting into the habit of going to meeting and hearing the singing and praying and the discourse without their having any influence whatever upon our minds any more than perchance to criticize. I cannot understand how that kind of a worship can be acceptable to God. If I understand it, He requires our hearts, and He desires when we pray that we mean what we say. What is the meaning of prayer? Why, it is to earnestly ask something that we require with all our hearts. All who are in fellowship of the Holy Ghost, will ask God for His Spirit to be in their hearts in all their business relations, even, that they might not soil their hands, but keep them clean and their hearts pure, that they might merit His approbation. The Lord Jesus Christ encouraged His disciples to pray—to pray without ceasing. Upon one occasion He spoke a parable on this very subject, that men ought always to pray and not faint. And I think if any people on the face of the earth ought to pray it certainly should be the Latter-day Saints; for we have no friends on the earth. All the friendship that we can depend upon is in God our Eternal Father, who controls the actions of all men, and who allows men to go to a certain extent, that they may prove before the heavens their corrupt hearts and what they would do if they were permitted; that every man through the agency that God has given him, may manifest himself before God, before the heavens, and before all mankind, as to the spirit he is of in the record that he makes. The Savior said there was a certain judge, “which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” This was the parable that the Lord Jesus gave the people when persuading them “to pray, and not to faint.” “And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith: “And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth.“ We as a people should certainly be a prayerful people, and I would venture to say that if we were not, if we depended upon our own strength, the time will come when we will fail. I cannot understand how in a well ordered house family prayer can be dispensed with. I cannot understand how it is that men understanding the responsibility that rests upon them, understanding their own weakness and insufficiency, understanding the blessing that God our Eternal Father has promised unto us through our faithfulness, should consider that they can do without God. Why, it seems to me that in every well regulated family the head thereof should gather his wives and children around him and bow at the altar, even the family altar, and offer unto God thanksgiving and praise for His protecting care and to entreat Him for His Spirit that we might be led by its counsels that He might not suffer us to be led into temptation, but that He would deliver us from evil. And I do not consider that this duty is all the time upon the head of the house. I consider that his family should take a part in family prayer. I do not consider it necessary for the man to be the mouthpiece all the time. I think it is just as acceptable to God our Eternal Father, for the wife to take her part in prayer, and for the boys and girls to take their part in the same exercise. It seems to me there is something very shocking that young men should be allowed to grow up until they are about twenty years of age and have it to say that their father never asked them to pray in the family circle. We expect our wives to be associated with the Relief Societies, and certainly they should know how to pray. We expect our young men to be associated with Young Men’s Associations, and they certainly should know how to pray. We expect our daughters to be associated with the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations, and they certainly should know how to pray. We expect our children to be associated with the Primary Associations, and they certainly should know how to pray. We do them an injustice when we do not divide up the honors in prayer in this way. It is requisite that all should take their turn in prayer, and I do not think it should be done for form’s sake. It should be the expression of glad hearts, understanding the great blessings that have been conferred upon us through the light and intelligence of the Gospel, and feeling glad that we are not under the condemnation of priestcraft, but that we have the privilege of priesthood; that we are not led by false teachers who have no authority, and who know not the way of life and salvation, but that God has given unto us true teachers, inspired by Him, that His people may learn of His ways and walk in His paths. And I believe in the counsel of the Savior when He advised His disciples to pray for their enemies. If there are people on the face of the earth who ought to be prayed for, it is our enemies. I would pray the Eternal Father that He would have mercy upon them, that He would enlighten their minds, that they might understand they were fighting against the truth. I would plead before Him that they might be prevented from making the dreadful record that they are making against themselves; I would plead that the Lord would be merciful unto them, that they might be converted as we are converted. Who converted us? The Spirit of God. What do we know only as we are taught of God, and what can they know of the true faith only as they are taught of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His dying agonies, and the martyr Stephen filled with the Spirit of His master, said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Lord, lay not this sin to their charge! Behold the unbounded love and charity that were in the breast of the Savior and His servant Stephen. We should have this same Spirit. It is a most awful thing to die in one’s sins. It is most awful to be classed with those who misrepresent, who are called in the Bible liars, who are to have their portion in the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death. When I think that men of professed intelligence will stoop to such dishonorable means to bring trouble upon innocent people, I think they ought to be prayed for that God would have mercy upon them, that He would convert them from the error of their ways, that they might not be blotted out from the book of remembrance and become subject to the second death. I think common humanity should inspire us to pray for them. They are the children of God, and they are in the image of God, they are our brethren and sisters, children of the same parent: and it is a duty we owe to God and to mankind to pray that the Lord may have mercy upon sinners. I also believe that we should pray for the Chief Magistrate of this nation. We should pray that He might be inspired of God, and be a blessing to the nation in his integrity to the Constitution. I believe we should pray that God might overturn, and displace the wicked, and put in righteous men who would repeal the unrighteous acts and laws that have been passed, and thus demonstrate that they were willing that all mankind should enjoy what they themselves wish to enjoy—the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. All the happiness that I have is in keeping the commandments of God. All the happiness that I have has been given unto me through the new and everlasting covenant, which God has restored to the earth. And then I believe in secret prayer. I can go and tell my Father things that I would not want anybody else to know. I can go and ask His direction when I require it. So can the sisters, who are entrusted with these bright spirits that have been reserved in the heavens and foreordained to come down on the earth in the dispensation of the fullness of times to assist in the establishment of the Kingdom of God. How are you going to exercise righteous dominion over your children and teach them correct principles, unless you enjoy the revelations of God. I cannot understand how a woman can love her children and not plead before the Almighty, that they may be protected from all accident, that they may enjoy their senses, that they may be preserved in the use of their limbs, that they may not meet with any accident that would disfigure or disable them in the battle of life. I think all these things arise on common sense principles. When we know that God lives; when we know that He hears and answers our prayers; when we know that we are dependent upon Him and upon Him alone; when we know that we have no friends outside, and that the world is at enmity with God, is at enmity with us, and with the principles of righteousness, we should humble ourselves to the dust, and ask God to be merciful to us and to all mankind.

Then, again, hew can we have faith in the Gospel, unless we have the Spirit of God. In a revelation that has been given, and that is frequently quoted, we are told that when we do as the Lord sayeth He is bound to fulfill; but when we do not we have no promise. And on another occasion He said that He could not look upon sin with the slightest degree of allowance. Do we believe this? Do we believe that all we have, or that we ever expect to have, comes or will come from God? Do we understand this principle? Do we understand that if we do not obey the Gospel, that if we do not offer unto the Father the offering of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we will not be accepted of Him? Do we understand that unless we live the principles that He has revealed from the heavens, that we have no promise of the future, and then to think it a light thing not to pray. The Lord has said with regard to the work of the ministry, and the establishment of His Kingdom on the earth that, “No one can assist in this work, except he shall be humble and full of love, having faith, hope and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.” How is it possible for us to be put in possession of these inestimable virtues unless we desire them with all our hearts! And how can we obtain them but by earnest prayer to Him from whence all these priceless blessings flow? From what other source can we obtain them? Why, if we thoroughly understand our position, and our entire dependence upon God our Eternal Father, our prayers would ascend up to heaven night and day, and they would be mingled with praise and thanksgiving to God, for the mercies and blessings He has vouchsafed unto us. If we do not see the necessity of this it is because we are too ignorant to understand the loving kindness of God, and it is time we should wake up to righteousness and good works, that we may have wise and understanding hearts. The Lord has indeed been merciful to us as a people. How marvelously He has protected us! How marvelously He has blessed us as a people, and how cheerfully He has poured out His Spirit upon us when we have sought it. It behooves us to walk in His paths. It is our duty to walk in the light, even as the beloved Apostle said: “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” The same beloved Apostle said: “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”

My brethren and sisters: Let us pray to God our Eternal Father; let us make ourselves familiar with His Spirit and the impress thereof; let us, if we have not done so, put our houses in order, remembering that we are living in perilous times, that we are living in the hour of God’s judgment, that we are on the eve of famine, of pestilence, of earthquakes; and it behooves every man and woman professing to be Latter-day Saints to be alive to their duties, to put away all folly, to live humbly and frugally before God, and to prepare for the calamities that are coming upon the earth. We have been warned and forewarned, and I say unto the Latter-day Saints prepare ye, O prepare ye, for the calamities that are at our doors. Let us cease all extravagance; let us remember the children entrusted to our care that they, too, may have something for a day when nothing shall be raised; let us sanctify ourselves before the Lord, striving to do His will and keep His commandments, calling upon Him in mighty prayer (remembering “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much,“) to have mercy upon His heritage; and that these valleys of the mountains may indeed and of a truth be the land of the free and the home of the brave; which blessings I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered at the General Conference, at Logan, held in October, 1885.

Providence seems to smile upon our gathering together for a conference at this time. Indeed, as a people, if we take into consideration all of the blessings of our common salvation, we are today highly favored of the Lord, in every general respect. I think our hearts ought to be moved by a sense of gratitude for all of His many blessings to us, both temporal and spiritual. Our brethren here have gone to and improved the condition of their tabernacle, so that we are very comfortably situated. The singers, I think, feel that they have got into the right place; a good table is also provided for the reporters. I take this opportunity to invite reporters of any and all newspapers that may be present, who wish to do so, to come forward, take a seat at this table and report the proceedings of our conference. The only favors we ask at their hands is that they will please report us correctly.

We have been striving half a century to inform the world of the principles of our faith, and we have not tired at it yet; we are still sending missionaries to the four quarters of the earth. We have sent them without stint of numbers to the people of this great nation, the United States; have endeavored to inform them ever since the year 1830, and especially since the endowment at Kirtland in 1836, when the Apostles, High Priests and Elders went forth into all parts of this nation, as far as permitted, and as fast as they had opportunity, to inform the people of the principles of our faith. But it seems almost impossible to get to their ears, and much less likely to reach their hearts. It appears to have been easier for us in an early day to receive that measure which the Lord had revealed for our benefit than it is now when He is giving us so much that the new wine cannot be received into the old vessels, and if it could we do not know what the results would be. In these our times, some of the feeble and fainthearted, will no doubt think that because of the efforts at persecution against us we have reason to be very sad, to pull long faces and be cast down because we are oppressed. Brethren, not so. Do not think of it a minute. So long as we are dealt with in a milder manner than our Master was, we have reason to be thankful and ought to go on our way rejoicing. So long as we are not dealt with more harshly than our brethren have been in former periods of time and in this dispensation in which we live, we have reason to be thankful.

We lament the absence of our brethren of the First Presidency, and several of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. We would be glad and thankful if we could have them all with us, but we are pleased that so many of us can be with you as are here. We hope that the conference will result in the strengthening the good resolutions of every Latter-day Saint—in invigorating the energies of all who are in anywise afflicted, or oppressed with temptations and trials of any kind. The Lord told the brethren in his day—those whom He appointed, laid His hands upon and ordained to the Apostleship—that this would be their heritage; that they would be vilified and hailed to prison, and that men would think they were doing God service in taking their lives from the earth. And, said He, is the servant greater than His master? No. He told them that when they experienced these things, they were to lift up their heads and rejoice; for great was their reward in heaven. Therefore, we have the assurance that if we are true and faithful, we shall suffer trials and temptations as they did in former days, and as Joseph and Hyrum, and the brethren of the Apostles, with a host of Elders, have done in these latter days for the principles of the Gospel.

These things, however, should not move us, or they should only, if they move us at all, strengthen us to stand true to the holy faith of the Gospel, to the principles, ordinances and institutions which the Lord has revealed unto us. We may expect to meet opposition on every hand, but our opposition may come in a different form from what our brethren have formerly had to endure; we should, however, be armed with the spirit of divine truth, so that we may comprehend our duty under every circumstance and every condition in life. I know some of the brethren feel that it is a very serious thing to be cast into prison. Why, there is many a thing worse than that. It is a thousand times better to go to prison than to deny the principles of the Gospel, and to be forsaken of the Holy Spirit. What did Brother Brigham say before he left us? When Congress passed the law of 1862, I heard him make this remark—rather startling at the time—that a man who would not be willing to pay his fine and take a term of imprisonment for a real good, virtuous woman was not worthy of a wife at all. Well, let us learn to look at these things in a proper manner, and be thankful that our conditions are no worse. Let us look to God continually; He will guide and control all things for the good of His people.

There is a portion of the writings of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, that seems so appropriate to our condition, that I propose to read in the hearing of the congregation a part of the 6th chapter, commencing at the 10th verse:

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousnes;

“And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace;

“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

I have read these words because of their remarkable adaptation to our present condition and circumstances.

I feel, in attempting to address the Saints, a very great degree of helplessness, and of dependence upon the enlightenment and aid of the Holy Spirit in order that I may speak to you a short time unto edification; for without the spirit of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit of divine truth which is sent forth to testify of God and of the truth to the hearts of the honest in the earth, our labors will be of very trifling account. But if we have the aid and help of that Spirit, then we may be edified and rejoice together as the children of God—both he that speaketh and he that heareth.

It would seem that after the very elaborate and comprehensive epistle that has been communicated to us by our brethren of the First Presidency, in which they seem to cover many of the circumstances which now attend upon God’s people, and in which they also give to us such words of exhortation and instruction as, if followed by us, must not only make us understand better our condition, but know better how to occupy our positions with credit to ourselves and to the acceptance of God our heavenly Father—I say it would seem, after reading that epistle, and having it impressed upon our minds, as I am sure it must be upon all who listened in spirit and in truth, as if it were scarcely necessary that anything more should be said to put us right in regard to our duties and give us understanding concerning them, or strength in the performance of them. But we each of us have a testimony of the truth of the Gospel and of the work of God to bear to our brethren and sisters, and I feel a desire myself, in common with my brethren, to communicate such things as may be given to me, so that we may be encouraged in the work in which we are engaged; that we may feel our good resolutions strengthened within us, that we may be led to realize in whose name we trust, in whose strength we stand, and that we may be able also to realize, as the Apostle Paul did, when he wrote, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Our condition is a very peculiar one in regard to this nation, and yet it is no more strange or peculiar than has been the condition of God’s people in other ages which are re– corded in history for our comfort, encouragement and consolation. Therefore, I feel this morning like speaking a little about the nature of that which is called crime, which is charged upon us.

We are told by men in high places that it is the highest duty of good citizens to render obedience to the laws of the land in which we live. Now I can scarcely believe that any professor of religion—any honest religious professor of any Christian denomination in these United States—can honestly and solidly endorse that sentiment, much less anyone who is clothed with the ermine and is honored with a seat upon the judicial bench; yet it is from judges that we hear this. A great apostle of the law, the greatest, the ablest and most popular delineator of the law from the days of Justinian of ancient Rome down until his day, was the renowned Mr. Blackstone himself. When portions of various nations had settled together in the island of Great Britain—some from the northern states of Scandinavia, others from Brittany, and the different parts of the German or Saxon nations and had collected the laws of those countries for the purpose of having them assimilated, so that those people who came from their various countries should have one established usage of law for the regulation of all their civil and criminal procedures in the adjudication of their difficulties with each other, the learned Chancellor Blackstone undertook this great task, and from the alembic of his intelligent and powerful mind brought forth and enunciated his views of the law. These views have been held to be the basis of all legal administration; the fundamental principles of jurisprudence among all Christian nations ever since he published them.

This celebrated gentleman who is considered to this present day as one of the greatest, if not the very greatest legal light of the age, laid it down plainly and emphatically, that man had no right to make any laws contrary to or in conflict with the law of God. I wish every lawyer throughout the nation would read it and understand it; for when they depart from that rule they become apostate from the faith of true legal jurisprudence as laid down by this distinguished apostle of the law; and furthermore, he held that the laws which should regulate or constitute the jurisprudence of every nation were derived from and based upon the laws revealed by God, through the Prophet Moses. This gentleman stated and laid down as a fact that the Ten Commandments, the ancient law of God, were held by him to be the basis, and fundamental principle of all law, justice and administration that should be had among the human family. He claims that as the basis of his work. Then no man who is a true lawyer, after the order of the celebrated Blackstone, can say in truth that it is the highest duty of a good citizen that he should observe in all things the laws of the land, unless it be first established that those laws are consistent with the laws of God.

Now, then, wherein are we transgressors? I wish to call your attention to this a few minutes, because I desire my brethren and sisters to understand whenever they are called in question before the tribunals of this nation—I want our boys and girls that are growing up around us to understand what is the nature of that which is called crime, which is alleged against their fathers, and in which their mothers are participants. It was never alleged against us as men of Israel, as “Mormons,” if you please, that we were violators or had been, violators of the law of the land until July, 1862. It was never proven and cannot now be shown that we, as a people were violators of any law of the land whatever. In 1862, a law was enacted against bigamy, or polygamy. The term bigamy had always been used before, but now it was coupled with polygamy in order that it might be made to reach, and be understood by everybody as intended for, the Latter-day Saints.

Now, then, to come at the matter in question, what is the crime, if any there is, in this doctrine of heavenly marriage as we hold it, the doctrine of the eternal covenant of marriage, incident to which is plurality of wives? When we married our wives at the first—we were New Englanders, Britons, Scandinavians, &c.—we were married until death should us part. That was the period for which we made contract, whether we went into the church and had the ordinance solemnized by an ecclesiastic, or whether it was done before a justice of the peace, judge, or any civil magistrate. When the law of God came, before the doctrine of the eternity and plurality of marriage was taught to us, the Lord gave us a revelation, in a very early day, in regard to members of other churches being rebaptized. Some of them doubted the need of being rebaptized. They said we were baptized into the Baptist church; we were sprinkled in the Methodist church, in the Presbyterian, in the Congregational: why be baptized again? The Lord in answer to this question told His people that all old covenants He had caused to be done away; but “behold!” He said, “I give unto you a new and everlasting cove– nant.” Therefore, all had to go forth, who had been baptized by men having no authority to administer, and be baptized by one who had authority, in the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins, and for admission into the Church of Christ. By and by, when we had walked before the Lord for a number of years, He revealed to us the laws of marriage. Well-regulated parents do not teach their children when they are dandling them on their laps the nature of the covenant, or the ordinance, or the duties of marriage. They wait until they grow up. It is proper that they should wait until their children have attained to years of judgment, understanding, and perhaps to the age of puberty. So the Lord, in dealing with his children did not reveal this eternal covenant of marriage until his people had lived a while in keeping the first laws and ordinances of the Church, and learned to walk in the light of the Holy Spirit, and to purify themselves from the various besetments with which they were attended when they went into the waters of baptism, and become better prepared for more exalted principles and truths. One of the last great principles that the Prophet Joseph was commanded of God to teach us, was the law regulating the eternity of marriage; that whereas, we had taken our wives only until death should us part, we should now understand that we were, while in the flesh, laying the foundation for eternal dominions, crowns and exaltations; that our wives and our children were given to us of God for the purpose of laying the foundation of a kingdom; that we shall have, if we are faithful and obedient, the covenant of eternal life ourselves and the power to seal the same upon our generations, that they may become, as Abraham’s, like the sands of the seashore for number.

The Latter-day Saints claim to be the children of Abraham, and if they are the children of Abraham, they will do the works of Abraham. It was difficult for men and women from all parts of the world, who had lived in the monogamic order all their lives to accept this doctrine of the eternity and plurality of marriage. It was “a new and everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned, saith the Lord.” This was the obligation that was laid upon the Prophet Joseph, and through him, upon the true believers of the Church, even all who were worthy to accept of these obligations. It was herein that the Elders and their wives extended their faith, enlarged their obedience, and accepted the terms of the new and everlasting covenant extending not through time only, but eternity also.

Now, I ask, who is injured by a man taking a second wife, when the wife he now has is agreeable and it is mutually understood between her and him and the newly affianced; it being entered into with a mutual understanding and a mutual agreement according to the law of God—I ask, who is injured?

Wherein consists the crime of bigamy? It is this. When a man takes one wife he covenants to adhere to her until death do them part. He violates that covenant when he takes another woman, unknown to his wife; he thus practices fraud upon her. This is where the crime comes in. Fraud is perpetrated upon his own family. I want the old and the young to understand it; I want to come down to the root of the matter, and find out and show up what the crime is, if any, that is charged upon us. This crime of taking another wife when a man has one is called bigamy; and there are laws and penalties against it. With the Latter-day Saints there is no fraud practiced, the second wife being accepted with the mutual consent of the first, and in accordance with the revelations of God. There is in that no crime at all, unless some law of God is violated, or somebody is injured in the matter. If this transaction that I have just named violates the law of God, or if it injures or infringes upon the rights of a brother or a sister, then there may be some ground for pronouncing it a crime, but belief in, and practice of, the eternity and plurality of the marriage covenant do not violate the law of God, because He has commanded His people to accept and obey it. Neither is it an infringement upon the rights of others, neither men nor women, but gives all women an opportunity to become honorable wives and mothers, and thus to shut out what is politely called the social evil, with all its horrid concomitants of seduction, feticide, infanticide and all the train of sexual monogamic evils which haunt and infest Christendom.

If, then, we violate no law of God nor right of our fellows, wherein, I ask again, consists the crime of our religious faith? It is in this: that Congress forbids it; just as Darius forbade Daniel praying to God, and because he persisted, cast him into the den of lions; the same as Herod caused all the male children to be slain, hoping to kill Christ our Savior in his infancy; the same also as Nebuchadnezzar cast the Hebrew children into the flames because they worshiped the living God rather than his idol. Wherein consists the crime of Daniel praying to the God of Israel? Simply be– cause King Darius forbade him doing it.

What constituted the crime of the Hebrew children in worshiping the God of Heaven? Solely because Nebuchadnezzar commanded them to worship the golden image, which they would not do. What is the intrinsic nature of our crime in believing and practicing the eternal covenant of plural marriage as revealed by the Almighty, and as we are commanded to do? Simply and solely this: Congress passed a law making it a penal offense to do so. This is all the criminality there is about it; and the question remains for each one to answer, Shall we obey God or man?

What is liberty—the liberty that you and I and all men are entitled to enjoy? It is that we do not violate the law of God, or that we do not infringe upon the rights and liberties of our fellow creatures. That is true liberty. Upon that hang also the law and the prophets.

In the establishment of this principle of the Gospel, the marriage covenant, it is intended only for God’s people, and not for the people of the world. They do not want it. They would like to have that liberty which is not liberty but license—by which they can continue and perpetuate seduction and adultery among them—keep up their houses of prostitution and their places of assignation. It is a part of the business of both high and low to keep going this degradation and destruction of the female portion of the race, and it is because the people of God have taken a course that every righteous woman may have an honorable husband, become an honorable wife and have a position in the family and household, that our brethren are hailed to prison; be– cause they are faithful to their families; because they have taken wives in order that they may rear up children, have a generation to bear their names and their priesthood, and to become a people devoted to the living God.

I want to say in this connection, as I wish all to understand it, that when we adopted this principle by the revelations of God, there was no law in the land against it. Understand it, brethren and sisters. But it is now as in ancient times, when the captives of Judea were carried into Babylon. Their captors found excellent qualities in them, as some say now they like our industry, our enterprise and our virtue “outside the marriage relation,” but we want you to put away this commandment of the Lord and “become like us,” “be as we are,” then we will like you, and we will be hail fellows well met.

The representatives of the country at Washington have discovered something or other in these mountains that is displeasing to them; that we are increasing; that we delight in our children, and do not take measures to prevent their coming forth, as is very frequently done in the world; that we are willing to take wives and support them rather than to indulge in whoredom and the like; and they said, “This won’t do.” Hence they went to work and passed a law against us, that would prevent us carrying out the principles of our religion. I want these young boys and girls, as well as the older ones, to know that God has never given us a law that was in conflict with any law of the land; but that Congress has enacted laws to make us criminals. There is no crime in that which we practice, inasmuch as no man is injured, no woman injured, and no person’s rights are invaded; on the contrary, our people are called upon to exercise a great amount of self-denial and self-abnegation, that all may be blessed, and that the charity of the Gospel may be extended to all the human family, as God has designed and ordained. Thus, we are not violators of the law of the land, but the lawmakers of the nation make us transgressors. God commands us to keep His law. The people through their representatives say we shall not. That is all there is in it. They undertake to say that we shall not observe the law of plural marriage, and in consequence of this they are hailing us to prison. Our outgoings and incomings are watched by marshals, so as to find something upon which to bring us before a commissioner or before a grand jury; not for any crime we have done, but because we have obeyed God, which Congress has said we must not do—making a law against us—whereas we are violating no law.

I do not love to talk against my fellow men; I simply present these things to you to show up the real state of the case. It is unpleasant for me to say that the men of the Congress of 1862, and that of 1882, were not men of the most immaculate virtue. It is understood throughout the land that nowhere on this continent is the practice of whoredom and of the seduction of women carried on to a greater extent than in the city of Washington, and by those men who go there to make laws against this people. What attitude does it place the people of this nation in, and the Congress of the country, in relation to us and this law we are undertaking to keep? Why, as soon as the Lord has established His Gospel and covenant, the spirits of the other world are seeking to come and dwell among us; they desire a parentage among the Saints of the living God, where they can be welcomed with filial love and not repulsed by feticide, where they can be brought up in the fear of God, with a hope of returning pure to the Father’s presence, without being lost by blood guiltiness or other crimes while in mortality.

How do you think the spirits contemplate the necessity of a birth in the nations of the earth where so much harlotry and whoredom exist? I tell you this very presumption of the country in which we live, that we shall not have these children to dwell in our midst and bear the name of Christ in the earth, is a presumption against the very heavens, and against those spirits of the just who are waiting to be made perfect through their sufferings in the flesh.

Ah! says one, you folks in the mountains, numbering only one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand, need not talk in that kind of way; for here is a great nation of fifty-five millions of people who say you shall not do this thing, or, if you do, you cannot have a home with us. Well, we will admit that about two hundred people of the United States say to everyone of the Latter-day Saints that we must put away this doctrine, or we cannot dwell in this land. Well, that is a terrible majority against us: but let us look at this a little. I do not think that we need be very badly scared. You recollect at one time a young man was with Elisha the Prophet, when a large host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots, and a battle was imminent. It was turbulent times with Israel then, worse than it is with us now. The defending army was a very small one, and the heart of the young man began to falter. He could not see how the few of Israel were going to prevail against their numerous enemies. Whereupon Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he,” the young man, “may see.” And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Fear not, said the Prophet, “for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”

Now, it is so with us exactly. All the fathers who have gone before, the Prophet Joseph, and Hyrum, the Apostles and Patriarchs, the Elders, High Priests, and hosts of others, say nothing of the fathers of our generation hundreds of years back, are all around us, waiting and watching and anxious to see us go forward and triumph; so that we have many more for us than against us, the fifty-five millions to the contrary notwithstanding. Therefore, we have no occasion to let our hands hang down from fear, or our knees to tremble; not a bit of it. On the contrary, I tell you, my brethren and sisters, that one of the greatest evils existing in our midst today is that there are too many of us. You may think that is a hard saying; but there are decidedly too many of us. There are people among us who are committing all manner of sin and transgression—people who drink with the drunken and spend their substance with harlots and in riotous living. All such should be severed from the Church, unless they repent speedily. The numbers should be reduced, like unto the army of Gideon. The Lord told Gideon that he had too big an army, and it was reduced, (in the manner related in the seventh chapter of the Book of Judges) from two and thirty thous– and to three hundred, which was all the Lord wanted. The others were told to go home, and Gideon, by following the instructions of the Lord, put all the hosts of the Midianites and Amalekites, who were said to be “like grasshoppers for multitude,” to flight.

That is just what is the matter with us. There are too many with us who are not living as Latter-day Saints ought to live. Again, there are many who walk in other men’s light. If they whose duty it is will only put away from us those who will not serve God, we shall find ourselves strengthened in the work in which we are engaged. If we will but do what is right, we need not fear what our enemies can do. The Lord only wants the honest, the obedient, the faithful, and He will “turn the world upside down, waste the inhabitants thereof,” and glorify Himself by His people.

I have referred to the instance of Gideon on purpose to remind you that the work of the Lord is not upheld by strength of numbers, but it is by the Spirit of God—the spirit of obedience, which is better than sacrifice or the fat of rams, and that the wisdom of God is better than strength or weapons of war.

Men of intelligence—politicians from European countries as well as our own—have visited this country, and I have heard them tell President Young that we had a very strong government in this Territory. We all know that: but it is good to have wise men visit Utah from abroad and see the excellence and strength of its government.

I would say to the people of the land—inasmuch as they are making this bugaboo about polygamy—not to be deceived. The Governor has told men upon the streets that he did not care anything about poly– gamy; (we knew very well that he did not by his conduct;) but it was the power of the Church that must be broken. Must it? This is the work of the Lord, and there need not anybody mistake it. The order of God’s church and kingdom is the strongest government ever known on this earth, and if the people of this great nation entertain any fears of the consequence or effects of such a government, why, I ask, don’t you of the nation, you of Congress, you of the Cabinet, if you please, embrace this order of government and establish it over the nation! You can do it. You can repent of your sins, every one of you, and be baptized for a remission of them. You can adopt and extend this strong government which God has established in these mountains, and if you will do it, God will establish you and the government and this nation never to depart from before His face; and you shall be made the means of helping to bring everlasting righteousness—the millennium—upon this land, and of causing the Spirit of God to rest down upon all flesh. Is it not worth your while to engage in a thing of this kind?

But, ah! The terrible fact exists that the blood of the prophets is upon this nation, although the nation has not shed their blood, yet a sovereign state permitted it, and the nation have not washed their hands from it. This accounts for the terrible hardness of heart that is to be found in this country.

Were it not for a lying press and a corrupt people in our midst, who incite ignorant people to send petitions against the “Mormons” to Congress by the bushel, the nation could not be wrought up to such frenzy, nor to make such laws as the Edmunds law against us. But they do these things because their hearts are hard, and because the blood of innocence rests upon them this nation have yet to rise up and rid themselves of this blood, and place the responsibility where it belongs, or they will have to suffer as accomplices after the fact for these terrible things done in their midst—this people driven from city to city, despoiled of their goods; driven into the wilderness to this country, to find a home in which they could dwell in peace. Blessed be God for enabling us to find it out! We have had a home of peace and rejoicing, and we have been blessed in all things. Have we need today to be terrified? Do our hearts need to palpitate for fear? We have had a United States army camp in our midst already, and we have no occasion to fear now; God will work out the deliverance of His people.

The Lord never more thoroughly frustrated the design of an army than in the instance of that which came out here, and never was there a time when He caused the gain of the Gentiles to be scattered among His people more effectually than He did with the goods the army brought to this country.

Shall we fear today? Let us look back to Israel and see their deliverance—as related in the Bible and Book of Mormon—see what He did in former times. The secret of success is obedience to the commandments of God, and to the covenants we have made with Him.

It does not become me to say what I will do when I am brought to the judgment seat to be tried and sentenced. A man don’t know what he will do. Let us recollect the instance of Peter, who walked with Jesus by day and by night. In the light of these things it does not do to boast what we will do; but I hope by the blessing of God to remain firm and immovable when these things look me in the face. I ask God to give me grace sufficient that I may keep His commandments, honor every law He has given, or shall give, and stand firm to the truth under every circumstance in life.

I pray that the blessing of God may be upon you. Be true and faithful to God. Let the brethren attend to those things which the First Presidency have pointed out in their epistle in regard to transgressors, and they that fear not God neither regard His precepts and laws. Keep the commandments of God, and let us teach our families to do so also, that we may grow strong in His righteousness; then we shall find it is no matter how many there are against us, we shall know that there are more for us than against us. He will bring us all right up to the test, and will find out what is in every man and what every man is able to endure. Our sisters think that they had all the hurt of this matter, that the men had it nice and fine; but I tell you the men will get their full share, and you sisters will get even with them, if you will only abide true and faithful.

May the Lord grant His blessing upon each as we have need; I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, December 14, 1884.

It is always an impressive sight to me to see a congregation numbering so many people as this does, raise their hands before the Lord to sustain the names of men who are presented to them as holding office in the Church, and though we do this semi-annually, in our general conferences for the General Authorities, and quarterly, that is, four times a year for the local authorities, it should not be in our feelings nor in our practice the performance of an empty form, but should be done in a spirit that will be acceptable unto our Father, and in consonance with the responsibility that devolves upon the men whom we sustain. For when we thus sustain these men it means more than the mere lifting of our hands, or at least should do so. It means the sustaining of these men by our faith and by our prayers, and so far as works are required, by our works, and when we thus vote and thus act, there is a power and an influence accompanying such action as we have performed this afternoon, that are felt by those in whose favor we vote: they feel strengthened, and God our Eternal Father seals His blessing, or causes it to descend upon those who are voted for, and there is a spirit that rests down upon them from that time forward, so long as they are faithful and are thus sustained, that manifests itself unto all with whom they are brought in contact. Let this congregation lift up their hands to sever a man from the Church, and no matter how high he may be in authority, no matter what Priesthood he bears, no matter how great and mighty he may have been in the Church and in the ministry—let this congregation for just cause lift up their hands against any such man and how quickly the effect is felt, how quickly that man is stripped of his power and of his influence, and of that spirit and those gifts which have been conspicuous in his labors previous to such action, or while he was in good standing and in fellowship with God and his brethren and sisters. We have seen numerous illustrations of this in our history. Name after name might be mentioned of men who have been bright stars in the firmament, who have been stripped—by their own conduct to begin with, and afterwards by the action of the Saints of God upon their case—of that luster, of that brightness, and of that glory that seemed to attend their ministrations. And while this is the case with those who have transgressed when the Saints of God act upon their cases, so it is, on the contrary, with those who are sustained in their ministry, and in their Priesthood, and in their calling by the united, uplifted hands of the Saints of God in conference assembled, as we have done this afternoon. Men may sneer at the Latter-day Saints, and say this is but an empty form, and that it is all prearranged. Men may say what they please about this. It is prearranged according to the spirit and mind of God, so far as that can be ascertained. When men are chosen for office, the Spirit of God is sought for by those who have the right to select, and if there be doubt upon certain points men are not chosen; but when they are chosen and the mind of the Lord is sought for to know whether it will be agreeable to Him that they receive this office, or that they should act in those positions, and when they are thus selected and thus submitted, as I have said, to the Conference, then if they themselves live so as to have the Spirit of God with them, they will be clothed with it, and when they seek to magnify their office God will magnify them before the people and will show them, and the people that they are indeed His chosen servants, and that their ministrations are acceptable unto Him, that He confirms them by the outpouring of His Spirit and the bestowal of His gifts. It is a remarkable fact in this age of unbelief, in this age of doubt, in this age of darkness, in this age when men pride themselves upon there being no revelation, and no knowledge from God—I say it is a remarkable fact that in this age such as we now live in, and such as we are familiar with, God, in the history of this people is accompanying His labors, and the labors to which He assigns His servants, with the ancient power, with the ancient manifestations, and with the ancient confirmations by gifts and by mighty signs and works that He causes His servants to accomplish.

When Moses was about to depart, God required of him that he should lay his hands upon another man to take his place to act as the leader of the people of Israel. He laid his hands upon Joshua, and a portion of that spirit and power that had attended the ministrations of Moses in the midst of Israel was immediately manifested through Joshua, and God confirmed the selection and impressed upon the people by the signs and the mighty works which Joshua accomplished that he was indeed God’s chosen servant. He magnified him in the midst of the people; he was enabled to perform mighty works, and the people, if they had had any doubts whatever, had those doubts removed by those manifestations of power. You remember how the Lord showed in the sight of all Israel that Joshua was His inspired and chosen servant, for under his direction the children of Israel crossed the river Jordan dry shod. It was at the time of high water in the river Jordan; but the Jordan was stayed in its onward course, its waters stopped running, and the whole hosts of Israel, by the direction of this servant of God, passed over dry shod. In this manner God showed unto His people that He had indeed chosen this man to be His servant. And so it has been in the entire history of God’s dealings with His people. He has not left them without a testimony. He has not left them to proclaim His word unaccompanied by His power. They have not been left to argue for themselves, to plead for themselves, to protest in the ears of the people that they were the servants of God, and to constantly contend for their rights as leaders of the people of God. But in every instance when He chose a man to be His servant, He accompanied that choice by the manifestations of His power, by the outpouring of His spirit, and His gifts, so that every honest soul, every humble man and woman who sought the Lord, might know for themselves that those men were His chosen ones. A most striking illustration of this suggests itself to my mind now. It occurred at the time the children of Israel desired a king. The Lord was displeased with them for this. Samuel also felt offended, for they had rejected him and his house. They had a good reason for desiring a king, at least they thought so. The surrounding nations had kings who went out and in before them to battle and were their leaders, and they desired to have a king, especially when the two sons of Samuel, whom he had chosen as Judges over Israel, were men who had turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment. This Prophet of God, this mighty man of God, happened to have two sons who were unworthy of their father’s reputation, unworthy of the Priesthood, unworthy of their position as Judges in Israel. In consequence of this the leaders of Israel gathered together and said unto Samuel: “Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy way: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Samuel was greatly offended with the thought. But the Lord said unto him: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” In other words, the Lord had led them and chosen for them those who should lead them up to that time, and now He would give them a king. He designated to Samuel the kind of man he should be, who he should be, and told him he should visit him. The person designated was Saul, and Samuel anointed him king of Israel. After he was chosen king, it seems that he went about his ordinary business, and the next we hear of him he was following the herd, driving up the cattle, when the news came to him that Nahash, the Ammonite, would only be pacified towards the men of Jabesh-Gilead upon one condition, and that was that he might thrust their right eyes out, in token of their subjection, and as a reproach upon all Israel. And then, at that time, when danger threatened Israel, when there was a necessity for a general, for a man to lead the hosts of Israel, the Spirit and power of Almighty God, and the anointing that he had received under the hands of the Prophet of God, descended upon that young man, Saul, and his anger was kindled at the insult that had been offered to his nation, and he took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel, by the hands of messengers, saying: Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And great fear fell upon the people; they gathered out, and he organized his army, and they fell upon their enemies and cleaned them out.

Now, this is an illustration of the manner in which God operates upon His servants and upon His people. This young man was following peaceful pursuits. Though he had been chosen a king, he had not seemed to assume kingly dignity, he had gone about his business; but when the crisis arose, when there was a necessity for someone to step forward and take the leading position, then the spirit of that position to which he had been anointed, and to which he had been chosen by the voice of God, by the act of His Prophet, and by the approbation of the people, rested upon him, and he emerged from his obscurity and arose in their midst a king, a leader in very deed and in truth.

And so it was, you remember, in the case of Elisha. When Elijah was about to be taken to heaven, the spirit of prophecy seemed to rest upon all the prophets. The sons of the prophets came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, “Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” At a former time he had been plowing in the field, with twelve yoke of oxen, when Elijah came along, and Elisha dropped his work and followed the prophet of God. Afterwards, when Elijah’s departure drew near, he said unto Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee let a double portion of that spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast a hard thing; nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.” And sure enough, he beheld a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and he saw his master ascend in his sight to heaven, and undoubtedly that gift that he had asked for, and that Elijah said should be granted unto him if he beheld his departure, was given to this man of God, it rested upon him, and when he came to the Jordan, having Elisha’s mantle which he had dropped, he smote the water in the power of God, and cried, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” so that the waters divided, and he passed over dry-shod. God accompanied that man by His power wherever he went. A great and a mighty prophet was he; so great and so mighty, that it is related of him that after his death a band of Moabites came into the land. The people of Israel were burying a man. While in this act, they became frightened at seeing a band of men, and cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet. He was a mighty prophet, and he received those gifts and this power from God, which He bestows upon all those who receive the everlasting Priesthood, and who seek to magnify it in the spirit thereof.

Read, too, of the transformation that occurred when Jesus laid His hands upon His apostles. The lowly, the ignorant, and the unlettered fishermen were transformed into mighty men, men of power, men of influence, men who had communication with the heavens, unto whom God revealed His mind and will, and through whom He performed mighty works. These men previously were obscure men, men of humble lives, fishermen, probably one of the lowest occupations that men followed in those days, as it is in our day. It is a lowly occupation is that of a fisherman. It is not one that brings great wealth; it does not bring men into public notice; it gives them no opportunity for distinction; but these men were men whose lives were hid with God. These were Princes in disguise, men who had been chosen, like their Lord and Master, according to my view, before the foundations of the earth were laid, to be His companions in the flesh, and like Him they were born in lowly and obscure circumstances. But when He chose them, when their hearts were touched by the great truths He taught, and they came forward, in obedience to His authority, to cast their lot with Him, then the power of God descended upon them; they performed mighty works, and while they lived upon the earth the Holy Ghost was their companion, and their fame has come down to us embalmed, it may be said, through the ages that have transpired, through the ignorance, and the gloom, and the darkness, and the apostasy that have since taken place—their names have come down to us from our ancestors, and the most glorious edifices and structures that the world know anything of, are dedicated to their memories. God made them mighty in the midst of the children of men. And so it was with all the prophets. When God made promises unto them they received them. But they did not receive these things without exertion on their part, without their seeking industriously to magnify that Priesthood which had been bestowed upon them. The spirit and power of God will rest upon a man if he listens to it. It will impel him to action. If he cherishes it, it will be his constant companion. It will be with him in times when he will need it, and when he does need it, if he magnifies his calling, the spirit and power of the Almighty—that spirit and power and those gifts which belong to his particular office—will rest upon him, and he will be made equal to every emergency, to every trial, and will come off victorious.

How was it with the Prophet Joseph Smith? Whose origin could be more lowly in a land like ours than his, springing from the humblest ranks of life, of parents that were not distinguished, or of any family that was known particularly, bearing a name more common than any other name in our language. Yet this man, because God had chosen him, manifested extraordinary power. Those who saw him, those who listened to him, those who witnessed his acts, know how mighty he was in the midst of his fellow men, and how mightily God wrought through him. God chose and ordained him. He gave unto him His everlasting Priesthood. He gave unto him the full authority to organize His Church. He did so—organized this Church, the most glorious fabric that ever was established upon the face of the earth; because it is God’s Church: it is the Church of Jesus Christ, unparalleled by anything else. No other organization approaches to it in perfection; nothing lacking, every detail, beautiful, harmonious, symmetrical, leaving nothing to be desired. Such is the Church and such the organization that the Prophet Joseph was the means in the hands of God of restoring once more to the earth. The plan, the pattern, had been lost entirely. The officers that formerly filled the Church were withdrawn. The Priesthood that they held was taken back to God, and the men who bore it also were taken from the earth. There had, therefore, to be a complete restoration. It could only come from the God of heaven, and Joseph, inspired of God, was the means through which the restoration was made—Joseph, a youth, obscure, illiterate in some respects—that is, he was not what men would call learned, but afterwards, through industry and perseverance, became learned, and if he had lived, he would undoubtedly have become one of the most learned of men through the gifts God gave him. The progress he made when he did live was very remarkable. By his faith, and inspired of God, he laid the foundation of this work, and not only did this, but he laid his hands upon other men and they partook of the same spirit and influence that rested upon him. They were able to drink at the same fountain which God, through him, had opened up for them to drink at. They could go to that fountain, and partake of its holy influence, and their eyes were opened and their minds were illuminated by the power of God. They were able also to go forth in the power which He had restored, and thus once more among men was witnessed the mighty gifts that were characteristic of bygone ages, when God had a Priesthood on the earth, when He had prophets and apostles, and mighty men whom He clothed with a portion of His Spirit and power.

And when Joseph was taken, how was it then? Were the people left without some man or men to stand up in their midst to declare to them the counsel of their Almighty Father? No: the Lord did not leave His people without a shepherd. He had anticipated the dreadful tragedy which would rob us of His anointed one; rob us, the Church of Christ, of our Prophet and Patriarch. He had anticipated this, and previous to this horrid tragedy, He inspired His servant Joseph to call other men, upon whom He bestowed all the keys, all the authority, all the blessings, all the knowledge so far as endowments were concerned, so far as the power to go unto God and ask Him in the name of Jesus, and obtain His mind and will, was concerned. He bestowed upon these men the same gifts, and blessings, and graces, he had received; so that there was a body of men with all the authority, a body of prophets with all the gifts of seers and revelators—a body of men left instead of one man—a body of men were endowed with this power when Joseph was taken, and the earth was not robbed of that Priesthood which God had sent His angels from heaven to restore once more to the children of men, and to act on the earth in the plenitude of its power. There was no more need, therefore, for angelic visitation to restore it. It was not taken back to God by the slaying of the Prophet and Patriarch, but remained with mortal man here on the earth. And, then, when the question arose as to who should lead Israel, notwithstanding Sidney Rigdon stood up in the congregation of the Saints, and plead for the leadership of the people, the spirit and power of the Almighty descended upon the man whom God had chosen to hold the keys. In the midst of all Israel, in the face of the entire congregation of believers and unbelievers, God clothed His servant with such power and in such a manner that every man that had the least portion of the spirit of God, and every woman, knew by the manifestations of that spirit, and by the outpouring of the gift of God upon that man, that he was the chosen one, and that upon him rested the authority, and the power, and the gifts that had been borne by the Prophet Joseph during his lifetime. No more plainly was the power of God manifested in behalf of Elisha, after the taking away of Elijah, than it was manifested in behalf of President Brigham Young, when the Prophet Joseph was taken from the earth, and from that day, while he lived on the earth until he died, the Lord magnified him in the eyes of the people and blessed those who listened to his counsel.

When he departed there was no contention, there was no strife as to who should be the leader. The men of God had learned by experience concerning the Priesthood, and as to who should bear the keys. There was, therefore, no contention among the leaders nor among the people. There was no special necessity for any particular manifestation. But I appeal to you, my brethren and sisters, today, in this conference assembled—has not God accompanied the President of His Church who succeeded Brigham Young—has He not accompanied him, has He not accompanied his acts, his counsels and his leadership of the people by every sign, by every blessing, by every manifestation of power necessary to confirm in the hearts of Israel the truth that he is indeed the man whom God had designated, whom God had chosen, and whom God desired to lead His people Israel? I have no doubt of it, never had any. I knew it before anything was heard or anything was said. I knew it by the revelations of Almighty God to me, that God had chosen His servant John Taylor, to preside over this Church. I know it today. I rejoice in this knowledge, and I rejoice that God still continues to manifest His power through His anointed one, and through the channel of the Holy Priesthood, having but one man at a time on the earth unto whom He gives the keys to preside over the Church, and give revelations to the entire Church, as a church and as a people. He has chosen him from among the prophets, apostles, seers and revelators, to bear the keys of the everlasting Priesthood upon the earth in the flesh, he having the power and authority to act for the entire people, and to receive the mind and will of God for the entire people. And thus God up to the present time has confirmed His work by signs following: every man in his place, enjoying the spirit of God, and the gifts of his office—the President of the Twelve in his office and in his calling; blessing the Apostles who act as the council of the Twelve; blessing the Presidents of Stakes with the spirit and power and gifts of that calling—blessing their counsels and filling them with the power necessary to magnify the Priesthood to which they are called; blessing the Presiding Bishop and his Counselors; blessing the Bishops and their Counselors; blessing the High Councils; blessing the Seventies, High Priests, Elders and Lesser Priesthood; every man in his place and station receiving his portion of the gifts and blessings and power of God according to his faith and diligence, and his obedience to the commands of God, and also according to the office and position that he holds in the Priesthood of the Son of God.

God in His marvelous kindness and mercy has organized His Church in perfection, and has given to every man that bears a portion of the Holy Priesthood, if he will magnify the same, the gifts and graces necessary thereto; to given to every woman and to every child who is faithful in the Church of God, the spirit that belongs to the position of each, according to the faith and necessities of each. And thus it is that heaven is moved on our behalf; thus it is that the power of God is manifested from time to time; thus it is that the people are led and guided as they are and as they have been from the beginning until the present time, and thus it will be until the end, until the Church shall be as a bride prepared for the coming of the bridegroom, for the coming of the Lord Jesus, who is our head, and who will preside over us and over the Church and Kingdom that will be organized upon the earth.

Oh, my brethren and sisters, God is not working in vain in our midst. He is not working in hidden places. He is not concealing His hand and His power. He is ready to bless every man in His Church who will magnify His office and calling. He is ready to bestow the gifts and qualifications of that office upon every man according to his diligence and faithfulness before Him. But the idle man, the slothful man, the man that shirks his responsibility, the man that avoids duty, the duty of a Deacon, Teacher, Priest, or Bishop, Elder, Seventy, High Priest, or an Apostle, or one of the First Presidency—every man that does this God will take from him His gifts and His blessings; He will withdraw them and give them to the faithful one. He will clothe His faithful servants with the power that belongs to the Priesthood in proportion to the diligence and faithfulness in seeking to magnify their calling, and to live near unto their God. Mark this, and let it bear with weight upon your mind, for I tell you it is so. You may ordain a man to be an apostle, but if he does not seek to magnify that office and priesthood, the gifts of it will not be with him as they would be with a man who does seek to magnify his calling: no matter how great his ability, the power of God will not accompany him unless he seeks for it, for God will be sought after, and God will be plead with for His gifts and graces and for revelation and knowledge; He will be sought after by His children, and then when He is sought after, He will bestow.

Now, when I speak about one who has a right to give revelations to the Church, I do not mean by that to say that others shall not receive revelation; for this is a day of revelation. We know the sentiment of Moses when Joshua became jealous of two of the Seventy Elders prophesying. The Seventy were gathered around about the tabernacle to receive the words of the Lord from Moses, when the Spirit rested upon them, as also upon two of the men who had remained in the camp. Joshua was jealous for the honor of his master, and asked Moses to forbid them prophesying. But, no, Moses replied: “Would God that all the Lord’s people were Prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.” He had no jealousy about prophecy. He desired that every man in the whole camp of Israel might have the spirit of prophecy, and he gave utterance to that beautiful, glorious expression which I have just quoted. So with the Elders of Israel today. Would to God all the Lord’s people were Prophets. Would to God that every man in Israel had the spirit and power and gift of prophecy resting upon him. Would to God that every woman had the spirit of prophecy resting upon her, and every child. Would to God that all the hosts of Israel, those of the Church of God, had the Holy Ghost and its gifts resting in power upon them. There is no room for jealousy in regard to the possession of this gift in the breast of a servant of God. The only feeling that it ought to produce in the breast of a faithful man is one of thankfulness, one of thanksgiving to God that others share in this blessing, that others can partake of this power, that others have received of this glorious gift from our Father in Heaven. There is no room for jealousy, therefore, in such cases. Let every man press forward humbly and obediently in the path of exaltation, in the path that leads to God. Let every man press forward. He need not be afraid that any Latter-day Saint will impede his progress. Let every man speak and act and do as though he were a servant of God, as he is, as a son of God; let him do this and rejoice in it. At the same time let him be careful not to be lifted up in pride, not forgetting who he is, but obedient to constituted authority, that authority which God has placed in His Church, and, then, if he does not forget these things, there is nothing to prevent his onward progress. If he be an Elder, if he should have the gifts and power that an Apostle should have, who will be jealous? Certainly no servant of God. If he be a Deacon, and he has gifts from God, through faithfulness, that belong to an office higher than his own, is there anyone who will not rejoice in it, or anyone who will retard him or throw obstructions in his way? God forbid that there should be.

Now, in connection with this subject, a man a few days ago—it suggests itself to my mind and I will speak upon it—brought a communication addressed to President Tay– lor and his Counselors, and we read it. It purported to be a message from God—a message from God to us, that is to the First Presidency, and through us to the Church. We read the message, but could see nothing in it particularly; there was considerable said, but there was nothing tangible, or that gave us light upon any point that we did not understand before. The man said he had been in the Church three years, but he had not received the Priesthood. He had had some spiritual manifestation, in which he heard a voice say, “thou art a Priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

I wish to speak upon this point, that is, in connection with this subject that I have been speaking upon. God has organized His Church. He has placed in that Church its officers. As I have said, He has given to one man, and to one man only, at a time, the keys to preside over and to communicate the mind and will of God to that Church. While that man is in that position, seeking to magnify it, he will not speak to other men and give them revelations for His Church. I wish you all to understand what I have endeavored to impress upon you—that it is the privilege of every one to receive revelation. It is the privilege of every mother to receive revelation from God for guidance in the training of her children; to be in communication with the Father through the Holy Spirit. It is the privilege of children to have the same Spirit, and to have knowledge from God through that Spirit. What for? To teach the parents? No. If their parents are in the path of duty, it is not so; but it is, as I have said, the privilege of every man, woman and child in the Church to have revelation, to have knowledge, to be instructed of the Lord. But that does not give them the right to give revelations to the Church. God did not design it. God never has warranted or sustained any such action. Therefore, he that cometh in by any other way than by the door, you know what is said of him; he that climbeth over the wall, he that receiveth authority from some source outside of that which God recognizes, we as a people are not bound to receive anything that may be communicated to him. Out of that which is communicated in that way, there may be nineteen truths out of twenty statements; but there will be error, there will be falsehood, there will be something that will mislead, because there is not the authority from God to lead and to act. God has His own method of doing things. He chooses whom He will; He takes away, and removes from the path those that He wishes. It is all according to His good will and pleasure. He gives unto us authority, and, as I have said, He confirms it by signs following; and this Church from the day of its organization, up to the present time has never been one hour, yea I may say, one moment without revelation, without having a man in our midst who can tell us as a people the mind and will of God, who can point out to us that which we should do, who can teach us the doctrines of Christ, who can point out to us that which is false and incorrect, and who can, upon all matters that come within the range of our experience, and that are necessary for us to attend to give us the necessary counsel and instruction. This has been the case always. Therefore, a man may receive mighty signs—I heard the Prophet Joseph, when I was a boy, say that the time would come when false prophets would work mighty miracles in the eyes of the people of the earth, and they would seek to establish their authority by the performance of mighty miracles, and we have heard of such things in our day since his death—but this does not sustain a man in claiming to be leader of a people, and to give revelations from God. But there is a spirit that God gives; there is an influence that accompanies His word when it is proclaimed by His servants that seals itself upon the hearts of the honest, upon the hearts of the meek and lowly, and those who are living in close communion with God themselves seals upon their hearts the truth of that which He says: I have no fears of any of you, my brethren and sisters, if you will only live near to God. I said the leaders of this Church do not come bolstering up their own claims. It is not necessary. You are the witnesses. You are the witnesses whether John Taylor is President of the Church; whether his Counselors are the men they should be; whether the Twelve have the authority they claim; whether the Presidents of Stakes have the authority they claim—you have this testimony, you are our witnesses, and all the Israel of God, wherever they live, are witnesses of the truth of these things. You can testify because you have received—if you should live as you should do—a testimony independent of that which we can give to you, or any argument that we may urge—you have received it, if you have received it properly, from our Eternal Father. You received it in answer to prayer, direct to yourselves—not through any intermediate source, not through any man, but through the Eternal Spirit of our Father descending upon you and bearing witness to you—a testimony that these things are true. You, therefore, are living witnesses of the truth of these things, and know for yourselves whether they are true or not.

Now, I have heard that there are men among us who are professing to cure witchcraft and other evils of that kind. I believe they call themselves astrologers. More injurious ideas and practices than these cannot be introduced among a people to lead them to destruction, and I wish to warn you before sitting down, in regard to this. Do not seek for those who have peepstones, for soothsayers, and for those who profess to be able to counteract the influence of witchcraft. They who say so, seek to play upon your fears, they seek to take advantage of superstitious fears, and seek to use them for their own advantage and bring those who will listen to them in bondage to an influence and spirit that is as foreign to the spirit of God as hell is foreign to heaven. Any man who professes to have this authority, to have this power, and to use power outside of that which the Priesthood authorizes, is a man that should not be listened to; his claims are false, and his methods are from beneath and not from God. And I say to all of you, witchcraft you may defy if you live as you should do—defy it, not in a spirit of defiance, not in a spirit to bring evil influences upon you, but in the power and strength of our Father and God. No evil influence of that kind, if you live as you should do, can have power over you; you are entrenched in the power of God, in the spirit and gifts of God; you are entrenched round about so that none of these wicked influences can have power over you. I wonder if Job thought there was somebody bewitching him when his property was stolen and destroyed, when his servants were killed, when his son’s house fell and killed his children, when his boils came upon him. I wonder if he thought that he was bewitched. Why, I hear of some people, if anything happens to them, even if any of their chickens die, who are ready to say: “I am bewitched; there is somebody bewitching me.” Such expressions and ideas are prompted by the worst folly that ever possessed the mind of a Latter-day Saint. Do not such persons know that not a hair of their heads can fall to the ground unnoticed? Has not the Savior said so, our Lord and Master? And if so, do you not think He will care for us? Do not your angels stand continually before the face of our Father in heaven? And yet shall people unto whom God has made such glorious promises, and upon whom He has poured out such glorious blessings—shall they bow to these wicked influences, these spirits that are not of God, that are full of vileness and darkness and evil, and do that which they say, and seek to wizards and to soothsayers, and to diviners and to men and women who, by hidden works of darkness, profess to obtain knowledge—will the Latter-day Saints do this to take their vile remedies, and if their children are sick, seek unto them? The men and women who do this—I do not want to prophesy evil about them—are in great danger of losing the spirit and power of God, and having it withdrawn from them, and if they do not repent it will most assuredly be withdrawn from them. All who take these methods and encourage these practices I say that the anger of Almighty God will descend upon them unless they repent, and they will find that their hidden works of darkness will not avail them when the Lord feels after them, and when His condemnation rests upon them; they will find this out to their everlasting sorrow. Men who are guilty of these practices, and who seek to lead away the unwary, and to prey upon the ignorant and unsophisticated, and to take advantage of their fears, and instil superstition into the mind, cannot escape condemnation. These methods are not of God, and beware of them, all of you, and tell all your friends that it is sinful in the sight of God to yield to such influences. Pray, rather, to the Father, in the name of Jesus, to let His angels be around about you, to let His power encircle you, to let His Spirit be in your hearts and in your habitations, and rest down upon your little ones, and be of strong faith, and say, like Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” Yes, that righteous man, though God should slay him, yet he would not fail to trust Him to the uttermost.

Let these truths rest upon your minds and be not forgotten, and let us seek as a people to have the gifts and power and blessings of our Father and God resting upon us continually. I pray God for this blessing to be with you always, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Evening, December 14th, 1884.

We hear a great many things associated with the Church and Kingdom of God in which, as a people, we are very much interested.

We meet together, from time to time, to sing, to pray, to speak, to hear and to attend to the various duties and responsibilities that devolve upon us. We are taught of things pertaining to time and things pertaining to eternity, and perhaps we are more favored—well, there is no perhaps about it—we are more favored than any other people that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. We have been gathered together from among the nations of the earth in order that we may be instructed in the laws of God, and in the principles of truth and life, that we may be able to comprehend our relationship to our heavenly Father, to his Son Jesus Christ, to the Priesthood that exists in the heavens, and to the inhabitants of the earth by whom we are surrounded, and among whom we dwell.

There is something very peculiar about the position which we occupy among the nations of the earth. We have not received any of the intelligence which we possess from these nations, with the exception of some matters pertaining to science, to art, and the common education of the day. But as regards our religious principles we are not indebted to any men who live upon the earth for them. These principles emanated from God. They were given by revelation, and if we have a First Presidency, if we have High Priests, if we have Seventies, if we have Bishops, Elders, Priests and Teachers, if we have Stake and other organizations, we have received them all from God. If we have Temples, if we administer in them, it is because we have received instruction in relation thereto from the Lord. If we know anything pertaining to the future, it comes from him, and in fact we live in God, we move in God, and from him we derive our being. Men generally will not acknowledge this, but we as Latter– day Saints believe in these truths. Not one of us could have entered this house this evening without being sustained by the power of God. Not one of us could leave this house without guidance, strength and power from him to accomplish it. We have been taught to believe that he is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, whether they be things in the heavens or on the earth, whether they belong to this world or other worlds, and that there is an all wise, all powerful Being, who controls, manipulates and manages all the affairs of the human family, and this is true whether it relates to the world in which we live, to the heavens that are above us, or to other worlds by which we are surrounded. It relates to our bodies and to our spirits, and to all things associated therewith. Hence we are very dependent beings. In the organization of man, in the organization of this earth, and in the organization of the heavens, there were certain things designed by the Almighty to be carried out, and that will be carried out according to the purposes of the Most High, which things were known to him from the beginning. There exists all manner of curious opinions about God, and many people think it impossible for him to take cognizance of all men, but that is very easily done. If I had time to enter into this subject alone I could show you upon scientific principles that man himself is a self-registering machine, his eyes, his ears, his nose, the touch, the taste, and all the various senses of the body, are so many media whereby man lays up for himself a record which perhaps nobody else is acquainted with but himself; and when the time comes for that record to be unfolded all men that have eyes to see, and ears to hear, will be able to read all things as God himself reads them and comprehends them, and all things, we are told, are naked and open before him with whom we have to do. We are told in relation to these matters that the hairs of our heads are numbered; that even a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without our heavenly Father’s notice; and predicated upon some of these principles are some things taught by Jesus, where he tells men to ask and they shall receive. What! The millions that live upon the earth? Yes, the millions of people, no matter how many there are. Can he hear and answer all? Can he attend to all these things? Yes. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” It is difficult for men to comprehend some of these things, and, as they cannot comprehend them they begin to think they are all nonsense—that is, many do—and, hence, infidelity and skepticism prevail to a great extent. A great many strange notions are entertained in regard to God and his dealings with humanity. This is because men do not understand the things of God. I read in one of our papers a short time ago, that there was some kind of a commission going to meet—some two or three professors or scientists, men who are supposed to possess superior intelligence—to examine the manuscript of the Book of Mormon, to find out whether it was true or not, and I suppose if these people—especially if they should be pious men, possessing a little learning and science—should come out and say the Book of Mormon was not true, we all of us should have to lay it aside should we not? This to me is the veriest nonsense. It would not make one hair’s difference with us whether such a commission should decide that the Book of Mormon is right or wrong. If they decide that it is true it will not increase our faith in it; if they decide that it is not true, it will not decrease our faith in it. Yet these are ideas that men entertain.

Speaking upon this point I am reminded of an incident that took place a number of years ago. Several prominent European scientists called upon me, and they talked a little upon our religious principles. Then they asked me if I was acquainted with the advanced ideas in regard to geology. I told them I knew a little about them from what I had read. “What do you think,” said one of them to me, of these views as compared with the scriptural account of the creation of the world?” “Well,” said I, “the great difficulty is that men do not understand the Scriptures.” They could not see any difficulty on that ground, for they all had their eyes to see, and they had an understanding of words, languages, etc. “Well,” said I, “we won’t go through the whole Bible, for that is quite a large book; but I will take one or two of the first lines in the Bible. ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.’ Will you please tell me when the beginning was? “We don’t know,” “When you find that out,” said I, “then I will tell you when the world was created.” A good many other things transpired associated with this interview, that I do not wish now to repeat. Suffice it to say that before they got through, one of them said: “I have read a good deal, I have studied a good deal, I find I have a good deal more to read and study yet.” I thought so too. I thought if men could not understand the first two lines of the Bible, it would be quite a task to teach them the whole of it.

In regard to the work in which we are engaged, as I said before and as you have heard over and over again, it emanated from God, and all the principles pertaining to it, came from Him. We talk sometimes about this work, and how it is going to be accomplished. The work we are engaged in is the work of God. If it is accomplished it will be accomplished by the power of God, by the wisdom of God, by the intelligence of God, and by the Priesthood that dwells with the Gods in the eternal worlds, together with that which he has conferred upon his people here upon the earth, and not by any other power or influence in existence. We talk of a Zion that is to be built up. If a Zion is ever built up on this earth, it will have to be under the guidance and direction of the Almighty. We talk about a Church that is to be built up and purified. If it is ever built up and purified, it will be under the influence of the gift of the Holy Ghost, the power of God manifested among his people, whereby iniquity will be rooted out, righteousness sustained, the principles of truth advanced, honor, integrity, truth and virtue maintained, and hypocrisy, evil, crime and corruption of every kind be rooted out. That will have to be done by the aid and under the guidance of the Almighty. There is no man living in and of himself, can guide the ship of Zion or regulate the affairs of the Church and Kingdom of God unaided by the Spirit of God, and hence he has organized the Church as he has with all the various quorums and organizations as they exist today. Who can boast or has anything to say in relation to these things? No man living, no man that has lived. If Joseph Smith knew anything about these things, it was because God revealed it, and He has revealed many great and precious principles in which the children of men are interested pertaining to this world and to the next, pertaining to the living and the dead, pertaining to time and eternity, and pertaining to all things associated with the happiness and exaltation of man. All these things emanated from God. And if Brigham Young knew anything he received his intelligence from God and from the Prophet of God; and if any of us know anything we have received it from the same source. We are told that He is in all things, through all things, and about all things, and by Him all things exist. He is the light of the sun and the power thereof, by which it was made; the light of the moon and the power thereof, by which it was made; and the light of the stars and the power thereof, by which they were made; and it is the same light that enlighteneth the understanding of man. This may seem strange doctrine to some. We have been taught to believe that there was a difference between mental and visual light; nevertheless the above statement is philosophically true.

In regard to the earth, is it the Lord’s? Yes. We are told that he made it, that he created all things, visible and invisible, whether pertaining to the earth or to the heavens. And where did man originate? As we read it, he originated also from God. Who formed man according to the Bible record? The Lord. Whence came our spirits? We are told that God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. Then He of course is interested in the welfare of all flesh and all people of all languages, of all tongues, of every color, and of every clime. That is the way that I understand these things. Our spirits are eternal and emanate from God. So we, as a people, have always understood and do understand today. We possess our bodies also, and they also emanated from God. The Bible tells us something in relation to these matters in tracing out genealogies. Who was Seth? He was the son of Adam. Who was Adam? The son of God. In another place we are told that “all we are His offspring”—that is, according to that, we are all the offspring of God.

Now, this earth was formed for a certain purpose, and man was also formed for a certain purpose. And there are certain principles laid down—you will find them in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in the various revelations that God has made through his servants—there are certain principles laid down indicating that there are different grades of men possessing varied powers and privileges, and that these men have to pass through a certain ordeal—called by many a probation—that is, that we are here in a probationary state, in a state of trial; and that as men live and act according to the intelligence they are in possession of—the privileges which they enjoy, and the deeds that they perform, whether for good or evil, there will be a time of judgment, and that there will be a separation, of these various peoples according to the way in which they have lived and acted upon the earth. Hence Paul tells that there are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial, that there is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars, and as one star differeth from another star in glory, so shall it also be in the resurrection. Joseph Smith, in speaking on the same subject, tells us that there are bodies celestial, bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial, which agrees precisely with the remarks made by Paul, only in other language. Thus there are many curious things associated with our existence here upon the earth, which the natural man does not and cannot comprehend. No man can know the things of God, but by the Spirit of God.

Now, then, on this earth—which we call the Lord’s vineyard—He has sent forth His servants from time to time to gather people into His fold, to gather out a few here and a few there who would be prepared to act and operate with Him, and then, generally, these have been a comparatively small number. Jesus said when He was upon the earth “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” And it would seem, according to the testimonies we have both in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon, that the Lord has taken great pains in different ages of the world to send forth His servants to preach the Gospel to the people. We find this especially so in Noah’s day, and in the days of Enoch. There was a remarkable work performed then according to the revelations which have been given to us, which will be more fully developed when the Lord shall see fit to reveal other things associated therewith. But we learn that there was a Church organized about as ours may be; we learn that they went forth and preached the Gospel; we learn that they were gathered together to a place called Zion; we learn that the people of Zion were under the guidance, direction and teaching of the Almighty; in order that they might be prepared for another Zion in the grand drama associated with the dealings of God and his purposes pertaining to this earth and the heavens. We read that they walked with God for 365 years. We are told in the Bible a little short story about it, because it was one of those things that it was not necessary that everybody should know. We are told that “Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him.” But there was more about it than that. Enoch preached the Gospel to the people, and so did hundreds of Elders as they are doing today; and they gathered the people together and built up a Zion to the Lord, and when Enoch was not, but was caught up, Enoch’s city was not, but was caught up, and there were certain things associated therewith that are very peculiar. Why were they taken away from the earth? Because of the corruptions of men, because of the wickedness of men, because mankind had forsaken God, and become as broken cisterns that could hold no water, because they were not fulfilling the measure of their creation, and because it was not proper that they should live and perpetuate a race that was so corrupt and abominable. But before this was done, the righteous, the virtuous, the honorable, the pure, the upright were gathered together, and taught and instructed in the things of God. And what came next? Why, the destruction of the world. It was overflowed, we read, by the flood. What! And all the people destroyed? Yes, except a very few, according to the statements we have. “Well,” say some of our wise men, “was not that cruel to destroy so many people?” Perhaps it would be according to your ideas, but it was not according to the Lord’s ideas: because he looked upon men as immortal beings. These men were accountable to their Maker, they had a dual existence, they were associated with time and with eternity, and we might go still further and say they were associated with the past, the present and the future, and the Lord as a great cosmogonist, took in the various stages of man’s existence, and operated for the general benefit of the whole. But was it not cruel to destroy them? I think God understood precisely what He was doing. They were His offspring, and He knowing things better than they did, and they having placed themselves under the power and dominion of Satan, He thought they had better be removed and another class of men be introduced. Why? There were other persons concerned besides them. There were millions of spirits in the eternal worlds who would shrink from being contaminated by the wicked and corrupt, the debauchee, the dishonest, the fraudulent, the hypocrite, and men who trampled upon the ordinances of God. It might seem harsh for these men to be swept off from the face of the earth, and not allowed to perpetuate their species thereon; but what about the justice of forcing these pure spirits to come and inhabit tabernacles begotten by debauched corrupt reprobates, the imagination of whose heart was only evil, and that continually—what about them? Had they no rights that God was bound to respect? Certainly they had, and He respected them. He cut off the wicked. What did he do with them? He did with them as we do with some of the wicked, and that we do not do with a great many others—that is, they were put in prison. Had He a right to do that? I think He had. They were his offspring. I think He had the right to act according to the counsel of His own will. At any rate he took the liberty of doing it. And who was there to say, “Why doest thou this?” First, He called upon them to forsake their wickedness, but they would not, and a while after He destroyed them. Had He a right to do it? He had and He sent them to hell. Some people talk about roasting there. That is something of man’s getting up. He sent them to prison, and they were confined there, and when the proper time came, Jesus, when He was put to death in the flesh, was quickened by the Spirit, and went and preached to those spirits that sometime were disobedient in the days of Noah. Perhaps they had time enough during their stay, to reflect upon their acts, and to become a little steadier, and to reflect upon God and His laws. At any rate Jesus went and preached to those spirits in prison.

What, then, became of the inhabitants of the world? There were a few who went through the narrow gate that Jesus spoke of, and they were caught up and Zion with them, and the Lord is taking care of them in his own way. They will be dealt with according to His purposes and designs, and be numbered among His jewels. The others, as I have said, were cast into prison, and there they remained about 2,500 years. It was a pretty long imprisonment. Still the Lord had a right to manipulate these things as He pleased, and He so manipulated them, and although this time seems very long, yet in the eternities to come it would only be a comparatively short period; and if they needed a schooling of this kind He, as their Father and Creator, was the proper one to adjudge their punishment.

Sometime after this there were certain cities that had become very corrupt, such as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord had a reckoning with them, handled them in His own way according to His best judgment. Abraham was a man who feared God, and God said: “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do.” So He informed Abraham about it. Abraham plead with the Lord, “Why,” said he, “Lot lives down there, a nephew of mine, and a pretty good sort of a man, and there may be a great many others.” The Lord said: “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous, within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” Abraham, however, thought this was more than he could pick out. I expect there was a crowd of mean “cusses” among them as we have among us. And finally the Lord said that if ten righteous could be found in the city, He would not destroy it for ten’s sake. But ten righteous people could not be found, and therefore the city had to be destroyed. What! All the people? Yes, all the people. But before they were destroyed he sent two angels and they brought out Lot, his wife and daughters. His wife was a little tinctured with gentilism: she looked back, and the Scriptures tell us she was turned into a pillar of salt. When they got away, brimstone and fire fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed them. Thus the Lord has taken the privilege in many instances of correcting mankind. He used the children of Israel to kill the people who dwelt in the land of Canaan, and directed them to spare them not, because of their wickedness, to cut them off root and branch. He raised up one nation and put down another, and raised up one king and put down another.

There were times when the iniquity of these people was not yet full. In Abraham’s day the Lord told that Patriarch that he should go to his fathers in peace, but in the fourth generation his posterity should “come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full:” by the days of Moses they appear to have filled the cup of their iniquity, for he enjoined upon the Israelites, thou shalt utterly destroy them,” “as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.” So that the Lord takes upon Himself to manipulate the nations according to the counsels of His own will, and as they all of them have to do with eternity as well as time, He adjudges them according to the eternal laws and principles by which He is governed; and hence we are told that eternal punishment is God’s punishment, and everlasting punishment is God’s punishment, thus men and nations are adjudged by the Almighty, according to the infinite and eternal laws and principles which exist in the heavens, and with a reference to eternal duration and not according to the finite, erratic and limited ideas of men. Jonah was sent to the city of Ninevah, to tell the people to repent, and that if they did not repent they would all be destroyed. But they listened to the voice of the Prophet. They clothed themselves in sackcloth and sat in ashes and repented before the Lord, and then the Lord forgave them. Why was it that a great many people were thus judged by the Almighty? It was because of their iniquity. The same thing prevailed upon this continent. The spirit of evil and contention, war and strife, existed among the ancient Jaredites, when they forsook their God, and violated his laws. They fought one with another. They were maddened by fury, even that fury which was lit up by the fires of hell and by the spirit of fiends, until they completely destroyed one another. So it was with the Nephites who had departed from the law of God, and trampled under foot his ordinances. They and the Lamanites were stirred up one against another, until at last they gathered together thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of fighting men—they were four years in gathering their armies, and they fought and shed blood and spread destruction and death wherever they went. We can read the account of it in the Book of Mormon, and I do not propose to repeat it here this evening.

Now, how is it pertaining to the last days? As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it also be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. In what respect? In the days of Noah did they have the Gospel preached unto them? Yes. Did the people generally reject it? Yes. Did the people gather together and build up a Zion? Yes. How is it in these days? The Lord has revealed his Gospel to us as he did to them. He has sent forth the words of life, and is sending them to the nations of the earth. Hundreds of Elders are going today, and taking their lives in their hands, and some of them have to sacrifice their lives! And others, in this land of liberty, because they will be virtuous and keep the commands of God, are today weltering in prison. Woe! to those who have a hand in these things. I tell you and I tell them, as a servant of God, in the name of God, that he will be after them and they shall suffer worse than that which they inflict upon innocent, pure and virtuous men. Now, I bear testimony to this, and you will know it when it comes to pass. Woe! to them that fight against Zion, for God will fight against them—hypocrites! who are wallowing in filthiness, corruption, adultery, fornication and deception, in the name of virtue are seeking to destroy a virtuous people, and those who dare honor and obey the commandments of God.

Then, in regard to the work in which we are engaged. Will it go on? I tell you it will. Will Zion be built up? I tell you it will. Will the Zion that Enoch built up, descend? It most assuredly will, and this that we are building up will ascend, and the two will meet and the peoples thereof will fall on each other’s necks, and embrace each other. So says the word of God to us. Will we go on with our work? With the help of the Lord we will. He has told us to do a work, and we will try to carry it out—we of the First Presidency, we of the Twelve, we of the Seventies, we of the Elders, we of the High Priests, we of the Presidents of Stakes, we of the Bishops, and we of the Holy Priesthood in all its various forms. By the help of the Lord, we will try, first, to purify ourselves, to purify our households, to get rid of covetousness, deception and fraud of every kind, to act honorably before God and before all men, and to love not the world, nor the things that are in the world; for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Anything that we may have or possess comes from God; and if we are exalted, if we possess the good things of the world—which I tell you in the name of Israel’s God we shall, in spite of all men and all their influences, for the people of Zion will be the richest of all people. This is in accordance with the Scriptures. The Scripture tells us: “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring sliver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in the land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.”

The Lord has gathered us together that we may learn His law; that we may be instructed in the principles of truth, righteousness and virtue; that we may be prepared to honor and magnify our calling, and glorify our God.

Well, what would you have us do when men are so corrupt—when it is enough for a man here, because he has the kindness to take some chickens for a poor woman to sell for her—when that is enough evidence to convict him that he is an adulterer, and must be placed under bonds and subjected to trial and punishment. What do they do with their Christian whores that they have in our midst? Where do they come from? They are not our institution. But they are protected, they can vote, they can do as they please, no process can be introduced against them, for they are a part of their institution, and must be protected; but anything “in the marriage relation,” you know, is different from that.

Well, what shall we do? We will treat all decent men very well, and we will give the others a wide berth. These corrupt and villainous men who are seeking to trample under foot the rights of free men and deprive them of everything in life that is worth having, will suffer the bondage they are seeking to bring upon us. I tell you that, and we need not try to make these affairs any worse. We will treat them as well as we can. There are thousands and tens of thousands who despise their meanness and corruption—honorable Americans, thousands and tens of thousands of them who are ashamed of the meanness and corruption of these wretches; and there are thousands of men abroad who have just the same feeling. I saw and conversed with a member of the British Parliament recently, and in speaking about Rudger Clawson’s case, said he: “It is one of the most infamous things I ever heard of, and if you will permit me I will go to the President of the United States, and ask him to pardon that man.” “Why, yes,” said I, “you have my permission certainly.” That is the way a British member of Parliament talked about the acts and doings of some of our officials here right in our midst. Yet, notwithstanding the wickedness, the corruption, venom, the hypocrisy, and the deception that is practiced here, right under our noses, we will stand still and see the salvation of God, and God in His own time will remove these vindictive men out of their places. Meantime we will continue to fear God, and work righteousness; we will cleave to the truth, live our religion, be humble before God, train up our children in purity, virtue and holiness, and set ourselves against everything that is corrupt, hypocritical, fraudulent, and contrary to the principles of righteousness. We will trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. We will do right, we will treat all men right, and we will maintain every institution of our country that is according to the Constitution of the United States, and the laws thereof, and we will sustain them. By and by, you will find they will tear the Constitution to shreds, as they have begun now; they won’t have to begin; they have started long ago to rend the Constitution of our country in pieces; and in doing so they are letting loose and encouraging a principle which will react upon themselves with terrible consequences; for if lawmakers and administrators can afford to trample upon justice, equity, and the Constitution of this country, they will find thousands and tens of thousands who are willing to follow in their wake in the demolition of the rights of man, and the destruction of all principles of justice, and the safeguards of the nation; but we will stand by and maintain its principles and the rights of all men of every color, and every clime; we will cleave to the truth, live our religion and keep the commandments of God, and God will bless us in time and throughout the eternities that are to come.

God bless you and lead you in the paths of life, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Dec. 7th, 1884.

The speaker commenced by reading the 24th chapter of Matthew; after which he spoke as follows:

I have read this chapter to call your attention to the predictions of the Son of God concerning the last days, and the circumstances which would surround His people previous to His making His second appearance on the earth. Great interest has been manifested at different periods by the inhabitants of the earth who have believed in Jesus, respecting His second coming. Great desires have been manifested from time to time to understand the signs of His advent, and some have gone so far as to predict the day and even the exact time when He would make his appearance. According to the revelations that we have received upon this subject, the day and the hour are not revealed unto man, neither is it probable that they will be, but we have been told that that time is near at hand, and that it is our duty as the people of God, to prepare ourselves for that great and terrible day. The message which the Elders of this Church were commissioned to declare unto the inhabitants of the earth 54 years ago, and which they have since that time been declaring wherever they have gone is, that the time is near at hand for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to make His second appearance, and the Elders of this Church have been sent with a warning message to all the nations of the earth, to declare unto them that the hour of God’s judgment is near at hand; that the time for the fulfillment of the prediction of the holy Prophets has arrived, and that it is the duty of the inhabitants of the earth to prepare themselves for the great events that are about to take place connected with the last days. And in order that they might the better prepare themselves, the servants of God are commanded to call upon the people to gather out from the various nations where they are living to a place that God has designated as a place of gathering for His elect, where they might prepare themselves for the coming of our Lord and Savior. This was the message which the Elders were sent forth to bear 54 years ago, and from that time until the present they have been, to the extent of their ability, proclaiming it to the various nations to which they have had access, warning them in meekness and in humility, that the time was near at hand for the fulfillment of all that had been spoken by the mouths of the servants of God in ancient days concerning the last days. Yet, as I have said, we have had no authority given unto us, no message to designate the hour nor the day, nor even the year when the Lord would make His appearance. That has been kept by the Father. The angels did not know the hour nor the day when our Savior spoke the words that I have read in your hearing; and if the angels have since been informed of it, we have not been advised to that effect. We have been told that the time is near at hand, and as an evidence of the near approach of this event we have seen the fulfillment of many things that were told should take place. This Gospel of the Kingdom, Jesus said, had to be preached unto all nations as a witness—the same Gospel that was preached by Him and His disciples when they were upon the earth—that Gospel of the Kingdom had to be preached unto all nations before the end should come. And it is being preached in that manner now. The same principles, the same doctrines, the same plan of salvation, the same gifts and graces, the same organization of the Church, the same authority that was in the Church in ancient days—these having been restored are now being preached as a witness by the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unto all nations, in order that every inhabitant of the earth should be warned, that every man should hear the glad tidings of salvation in his own tongue, and have the opportunity of embracing or rejecting the same, and of being gathered out and numbered with the people of God.

I need not say to you, my brethren and sisters, who are familiar with this work, that God has accompanied the preaching of this Gospel by signs following. You know this. You are living witness yourselves of the power of God, of the manifestation of the Holy Ghost, and of the gifts that pertain thereto. This whole people, called Latter-day Saints, living in these mountains, from north to south, from east to west, are a body of living witnesses of the truth of that which I say respecting the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and its gifts upon the people; for by the power of the Holy Ghost have they been gathered; by the manifestations of the power of God have they wended their way from the various lands they formerly dwelt in, to this land—impelled by the Spirit of God to do this, in a most extraordinary manner, ready to abandon homes, ready to forsake their friends, ready to sever their connection with all that was near and dear to them previous to their reception of the Gospel. What a host of witnesses could rise up if they could be gathered together throughout these mountains! Men, women and children, who in their various languages—every language almost of Europe, and I see here some from the Pacific Islands, others from far off Africa, others from far off Australia, would testify, had they the opportunity, to the outpouring of the Spirit and power of God upon them in the lands where they dwelt when they heard the Gospel and obeyed it, as taught to them by the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this manner God has borne witness to the inhabitants of the earth, and is still bearing witness to them wherever they receive His Gospel, whenever they bow in humility and submission to His requirements, whether in the United States, in Canada, in Mexico, in Central or South America, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, or in any Islands of the sea—wherever the Elders of this Church go, carrying this message of salvation, and the people receive it, they receive with it a testimony from God, not given by man nor by man’s wisdom, nor through man’s power, but through the power of the Eternal God—that testimony resting down upon them in fullness, burning within them, impelling them to do that which they never contemplated doing before—that is, impelling them to forsake all their old associations, and sever the ties that had heretofore bound them to their kindred and their homes, and to come to the land which God has designated as the place to which they should gather. In this manner God is fulfilling, as I have said, the testimony of His ancient servants, for John the Revelator, testified that there should be a cry go forth unto the inhabitants of the earth to come out from the midst of Babylon. Jesus says in this chapter that the elect should be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, from the four winds of heaven they should be gathered together, and this preparatory to His coming. And that which I have read in your hearing is abundantly fulfilled this day in our sight and to our knowledge. Speaking of His disciples and to His disciples, He said: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” If this is not fulfilled this day in our sight and in our hearing, then when can it be fulfilled? How can it be fulfilled? Today here is a people gathered in these mountains, brought from the nations of the earth, as I have said, dwelling here in peace and in quiet– ness, free from strife, free from litigation, free from war, free from everything that disturbs and annoys, in every settlement from north to south, from east to west, wherever they have formed themselves into a community; living in the possession of unexampled peace. Take the settlements of this people in Colorado; visit those in Arizona and New Mexico; go north and travel through Utah and visit Idaho—go where you will, wherever they have settled, you will find a community dwelling in peace and in quietness, loving one another, obeying the law of God, striving to keep His commandments, seeking to overcome evil, endeavoring to live themselves in accordance with His requirements, and to teach their children to do likewise. These are the characteristics of the settlements of the Latter-day Saints throughout all these mountains. So far as we are concerned ourselves, we have scarcely any need of lawyers. They are very necessary as conveyancers, they are very necessary in drawing up papers, in making wills, in making deeds, in forming contracts, in doing business of this character; but so far as the practice of the law in litigation is concerned, there is no need for their services in any of the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. The law of God to us when obeyed is sufficient to lift us above these petty strifes and difficulties. We should live, if we do not, in a purer and higher atmosphere, in a region elevated far above that which is occupied by people of this character. If you travel through the settlements where the Latter-day Saints have control you will not find drunkenness prevalent, in fact, if they be true Latter-day Saints, there will be no drunkenness. You will not hear the name of God blasphemed where Latter-day Saints live; you will not hear quarrelling; you will not hear of adulteries and seductions; you will not witness Sabbath breaking; but you will see the people living in the observance of the laws of God, a moral, pure, peaceable, orderly people. These are the characteristics of the communities of the Latter-day Saints where they live according to the requirements of their holy religion. And though we are far from being perfect in these respects, though there are many things to complain of and to find fault with among us, nevertheless these characteristics do prevail to an extent that cannot be found in other communities of the same size and in the same circumstances. And yet these words that I have read in your hearing are this day fulfilled. “They shall deliver you up to be afflicted,” said Jesus, “and shall kill you” (this has been and is our fate) “and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” Most singularly has this prediction been and is being fulfilled in regard to us. There is not another community on the face of the earth today who are hated by all nations for the sake of Jesus as are the Latter-day Saints. Go where you will throughout our own nation; go where you will throughout Christendom; travel among all people and ask them concerning the Latter-day Saints, and they will tell you that they hate them, that they are a people to be hated, that they are a people that should be destroyed, that they should not be tolerated, and that measures should be taken for their entire extirpation from the earth. One of the most remarkable features connected with this work is this hatred that exists in the minds of men and women concerning it. I look upon it as one of the greatest and most striking evidences of the truth of the words of the Savior, and of the divinity of this work. There is no other people with whom I am acquainted who so strikingly fulfill the words of the Savior, and the promises which He made unto His disciples respecting the consequences of obeying His doctrine as do the Latter-day Saints. And it is not for their wickedness, because when their lives are compared with the lives of others, they stand out in striking contrast with them. This is admitted even by our enemies. They give us credit for not being adulterers, they give us credit for not being seducers; they give us credit for not being thieves; they give us credit for keeping our word; they give us credit for being honest in our dealings. Today, our bitterest enemies in this city, the men who hate us the most, who would destroy us if they had the power, never dare say that we are dishonest in our dealings. We keep our word. We abstain from drunkenness. We abstain from gambling. We do not support houses of ill fame. We maintain order and peace wherever we go. But we are accused of many crimes. We are accused of being guilty of many misdeeds. But when the proof is asked for it is something that has happened some time ago, something that somebody else knows.

We can be truthfully accused of nothing except this: that we marry wives, that we sustain them honorably, and that we keep our children and train them up in the fear of God, and make good citizens of them. This is the head and front of our offending. It is not truthfully said that we prostitute women; or that she is degraded here by making her a prey to lust. It is not said we destroy our offspring. No such charges are made against us. But the crime is that we honorably take wives in wedlock and rear children, and bring them up legitimately, teaching them the principles of righteousness as we understand them. We could vote today—you men who are disfranchised, and you women who are disfranchised—you could vote today if you were adulterers and adulteresses. Yes, in this land of ours, in this Territory of Utah you could go to the polls and cast your vote if you lived outside of wedlock, if you prostituted yourselves, if you made women the victims of vile lust, if you trampled upon everything that is holy and pure in the sight of God and of good men, you would not be disfranchised. You could cast your vote. You could hold office—that is, you could be a candidate for office, and if elected you could hold it. Therefore, it is not for adultery, it is not for seduction, it is not for crimes of this kind that we are hated, but it is because in righteousness and in truth, without deception and without fraud, we honorably and in the sight of day—that is we have done so in times past—married wives in accordance with what we believed to be the command of our Great Creator.

We are hated of all men and of all nations for Christ’s sake. It is because of our religion. If we discarded the forms of religion; if we did not attach importance to the solemnization of the marriage ordinance; if it were done in any other name, or in any other form, or for any other purpose, it would pass, doubtless, as it does in other society, without being challenged or receiving particular condemnation. But it is admitted—I have been told it hundreds of times—that it is because you make this religion. “That is why we hate it,” they say. “That is why we will legislate against it. If you had not made it religion we would not care anything about it.” When I have plead with members of Congress in Washington, and told them this institution was part of our religion, they have said: “Yes, Mr. Cannon, that is the difficulty. It is because you make it religion that we want to legislate against it. If you did not make it religion there would not be that objection to it that there is.” Therefore, as I have said, the words of the Savior are fulfilled. Because we make this the religion of Jesus, because we profess to be the followers of Jesus, and because of being His followers, therefore, as Jesus said, “you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake;” not for anything else, but for the sake of the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose religion we have espoused, whose followers we claim to be, and because of being his followers we do as we are doing. Most signally, then, has this prediction been fulfilled in our sight and hearing. One of the most remarkable features of the present age is the hatred that is manifested against this people. It might be that as a people of our numbers, situated as we are, so far removed from other communities in these remote regions, might escape observation, and that we might be left to pursue our own course, quietly, so long as we did not intrude upon our neighbors. We came to this land a band of religious exiles seeking a home amid these mountain wilds, content to live here if we had only bread and water, if we could get sufficient to sustain life; for the sake of that peace and quiet which was denied us in the lands whence we were driven, we were content to endure all the hardships that could possibly be encountered in this mountain region. If we could only sustain life we would have been satisfied with our home here. And we thought we might escape persecution. We thought we had got so far away that we could worship our God henceforth without let or hindrance. We did not wish to injure others. We did not wish to force our religion upon others. We had no design upon any human being, no design to injure any soul upon the face of the earth. Our hearts were filled with the desire that others might comprehend the truth as we comprehend it, that they might partake of the blessings of the Gospel as we had received them, and to do this—that is to make them familiar with these things—we were willing to spend our lives in traveling from land to land and from continent to continent, without purse and without scrip, preaching, in humility and in meekness, the Gospel of the Son of God, as we understand it as a witness unto all nations before the end should come. We went from land to land preaching this Gospel, calling upon the inhabitants of the earth to listen to our message, and this was the extent of our wrong doing. We had not, as I say, any designs against the peace of any soul upon the face of the earth, but our hearts overflowed with a strong and unquenchable desire that they might also receive the Gospel and the blessings of the Gospel as we had received them. That Gospel has brought to us happiness, peace, joy unexampled. That Gospel had filled us with a foretaste of heaven. Through that Gospel we had received the Holy Ghost and the gifts thereof, and because of that precious gift we were able to endure all the hardships and all the persecutions that the wicked might see fit to bring upon us for the sake of our religion. We were willing to do this. We rejoiced in it. We knew it was more precious than life itself, and many have been willing to lay down their lives for the sake of the Gospel. We had left everything that men held dear upon earth for the sake of this great truth that God had revealed to us, and our souls burned with an overpowering desire that others might also partake of the same blessing. Therefore we traveled from nation to nation, bearing these glad tidings and calling upon the inhabitants of the earth to receive them and partake of them as we had done.

Now, it might be thought that a people thus situated would be left alone to the enjoyment, the peaceful enjoyment of their religion. If their religion was a heresy they were the sufferers. If their religion was false they would be the ones that would receive the punishment. But not content with driving us out, not content with compelling us to flee to these mountains, the same foul and deadly spirit of persecution followed us up here into these mountain recesses. They envied us the possession of these sterile, barren valleys. That cruel spirit of persecution still followed us, envious of the quiet homes we had reared by untold and uncounted toil out of the elements that surround us. We had raised a scanty subsistence from the soil; we had struggled with difficulties and had eventually succeeded in surmounting them, that we could hope to live, live without fear of starvation at least before us. But scarcely was the experiment decided—for it was but an experiment at best—than the same spirit that had made our residence in the States intolerable and unendurable to us, followed us across these plains that stretched out between us and our old homes and the old civilization which we had left—followed us here, and it has followed us from that day until the present, it has sought to kill us, and it has sought to destroy our liberties. It has sought to do to us that which was done before—to drive us from our homes, and send us forth homeless wanderers upon the face of the earth. This has been its manifestation in our midst in this Territory, and it seems as though it would not be fully gratified or satisfied until it has made victims of every one of us; until we should be numbered with the silent dead, and our voices no more be heard in proclamation of the Gospel of the Son of God, that we have been authorized to proclaim to the inhabitants of the earth.

My brethren and sisters: I do not wish in my remarks to harrow up your feelings. I wish merely to impress you with some of the events that are occurring around about us, that you may know that they are only in fulfillment of the word of God, spoken hundreds and hundreds of years ago by the Son of God Himself, and by His inspired servants. We are only moving in the sphere that He intended we should move in; we are only enduring the trials and afflictions that in His providence He foresaw and deemed necessary for us to encounter in our passage through life, and in the establishment of His work upon the earth, and in preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. Let not your hearts fail you, therefore: be not discouraged nor consider yourselves in the least degree oppressed beyond that which is right and proper. All these things are necessary in the providence of our God. We shall have more to encounter; but we shall have the strength and the grace necessary to enable us to meet them and to bear them patiently, and to come out of them victoriously; for as you are often told, whatever may be the fate of individuals connected with this work, it is decreed in the heavens by our Eternal Father, that this work, the foundation of which He has laid, will never be taken from the earth again, it will never be overthrown. There is no power that can overthrow this work of our God. Men may be sent to prison, as Brother Rudger Clawson has, as Brother Joseph H. Evans has, as others in Arizona have, for their religion, for practicing that which they believe to be of God—men may be sent to prison by hundreds, men may be slain, as our brethren were in Tennessee lately, and as Joseph Standing was in Georgia, and as brethren were in years gone past in Missouri, as our Prophet and Patriarch were in Illinois, as our revered President was shot to pieces at the same time—men’s blood may be shed, the blood of the Saints may stain the ground, the soil may be drenched with it, but though this may be the case, yet as sure as God lives so sure will this work that He has established, roll forth and prevail. The principles of truth connected with it are unalterable and eternal. They cannot be changed, they cannot be destroyed. You might as well try to destroy the throne of the Great Eternal Himself, as to destroy this work, for it is eternal. The truths of this Gospel are imperishable. They cannot be changed; they cannot be obliterated nor overthrown. And God has said this concerning this work—that it will stand forever. It will overcome every obstacle. It will grow, it will increase. Everything done against it will only be the means of accelerating it, or pushing it forward, or insuring to it the victory that God has promised. I testify this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for I know it to be true, and I know that every power that opposes this work will perish. God has said it, and His words, thus far have been fulfilled. Recount the list of the opposers of this work, and who is there among the vast host that has ever succeeded? Is not failure, is not shame, is not ignominy written upon every man’s character and the character of every community that has fought against this work of our God from the beginning up to the present time? The enemies of this work have perished, they have gone down into oblivion, and they have not succeeded. Look at the list from the beginning, from the 6th of April, 1830, until this day of our Lord, and go through it, and where can you find, where can you put your finger upon a man or upon a community that has prospered in fighting against Zion, against this work of our God? They have gone down, while this people have gone forward, have risen, gone upward, have confirmed to increase in influence, in power in the earth and have become more and more solidified. And it will be so to the end; for this work is designed in the providence of our God to prevail, and there is no power nor influence that can prevent it.

It behooves us as Latter-day Saints to be faithful to our God. I will tell you, my brethren and sisters, there is only one thing that can injure this work, and that is the sins of the people themselves. You can injure it, that is, you can injure yourselves in connection with it. There is no man can prevent another from receiving salvation. God has not placed it in the power of man to prevent either a man, or a woman, or a child from receiving salvation. He has placed that within the power of the individual himself or herself. If a man be damned it is because he takes a course to be damned; he breaks the laws of God. So it is with us as a people. If we are chastened, if we are scourged, if our enemies have power over us, it will be because we do not live as we should do, and this is a subject that I would like very much to speak about. I would like very much to tell my feelings upon this point to the Bishops and to the Teachers and to the officers of the Church. There are practices being indulged in among us that are sins in the sight of God, and the officers of this Church will be held accountable for them, unless they take a course to eradicate them from the midst of the Saints. There should be no man allowed to remain in this Church who is a Sabbath breaker, and when you know that there are men and women or children who are Sabbath breakers you should take steps to have them warned, to have them reproved, and if they will not repent to have them severed from the Church of God. No man in this Church should be allowed to have a standing in it who is a drunkard; God does not approve of drunkenness; and if there are any drunkards remaining in the Church, hear it, O ye Bishops, and O ye officers, you will be held accountable for their sins—the condemnation will rest upon you. The same with men who blaspheme, either young or old, who take the name of God in vain, they ought not to be permitted to remain in the Church. It is a sin in the sight of God, and He will visit a people with condemnation who per– mit these things to exist in their midst. And so with fornication. No fornicator, no adulterer nor adulteress, should have a place among us. They should be warned, they should be dealt with, they should be cut off from the Church. And so with every other sin. We have been too lenient, and have permitted things to exist which are wrong in the sight of God. Now that our enemies are waging war against us, there is only one way in which we can expect to withstand assaults made upon us, and that is in being a pure people, in being a people who live according to the laws of our God. This we must be, or the favor of God will be withdrawn from us. Therefore, let the Church be cleansed. Let the Teachers visit under the influence of the Spirit of God and the gift of discernment, and where they find those that are living in opposition to, or in violation of the laws of God, let them, by the Spirit of God, which will rest upon them, teach and warn that household, and thus take steps to purify the Church. Let every Priest and every Teacher go forth in that spirit in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, and you will see good results; and then let hell boil over, let hell array itself with all its forces, let earth and hell combine against this work of our God, and they cannot succeed. I am not afraid of all hell; I am not afraid of all the earth, if the Latter-day Saints will be pure, if they will live their religion. I know that we shall triumph and come off victorious in every contest, which may God grant in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Stake Meetinghouse, Provo, Sunday Morning, November 30th, 1884.

I am pleased to have an opportunity of meeting with you in your conference, and of talking with you on some principles associated with the Gospel of the Son of God, in which we, all of us, are more or less interested. We are gathered together from among the nations of the earth. We have assembled ourselves thus together because of a work which the Lord has commenced in the interests of humanity, not only pertaining to ourselves, but pertaining to the world of mankind. In obedience to the revelations of His will, and the command that He has given unto His servants through the restoration of the everlasting Gospel, we have many of us gone forth among the nations of the earth to proclaim those principles which God has revealed for the salvation, happiness and exaltation of the human family. We have been gathered together according to the word of the Lord which He spake by His ancient Prophets who have lived in the world in generations that are past, and who, under the influence of the Spirit of God, have given a very graphic account of the gathering of the people together, in the last days; and of the instructions they should receive preparatory to other events that will necessarily transpire upon the earth, as spoken of by all the holy Prophets since the world was. We are living in what is called “the dispensation of the fullness of times,” wherein it is said God will gather together all things in one, whether they be things in the heavens or things on the earth. And we are gathered together to this land of Zion, (which has been spoken of also in the Scriptures) where we might learn more perfectly the law of God, and carry out those principles which He has made known for our information, for our instruction, for our guidance and direction, as regards the course that we should pursue, and the blessings that should attend those who have obeyed His laws and kept His commandments. We are here really to build up and purify the Church of the living God. We are here to build up and establish the kingdom of God. We are here also to build up a Zion unto our God, wherein His laws can be taught, the principles of eternal truth be communicated, the relationship and communication opened between the heavens and the earth, and men placed in a position whereby they will be enabled to act intelligently, in regard to all matters pertaining to this world as well as to the world that is to come.

We have been told, and it has been prophesied of, that great calamities will overtake the nations of the earth. One of the ancient Prophets (Isaiah, in the 24th chapter) makes use of very peculiar language in relation to this matter. He says:

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

“And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

“The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. * * * * * *

“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

“Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.”

In relation to these matters we as a people have been very much interested, and these things have been spoken of for a long, long time. I have been preaching them between forty and fifty years, and a great many others who are now living, have borne testimony of these things; and have gathered together as we have done. This places us in a very peculiar position, for we not only bring our religion with us, and the spiritual ideas connected with it—we not, only bring these things that are spiritual, but we bring our bodies along with us which are very temporal; and when we gather as we have done here in this land and form a people such as we are, we necessarily become part of the body politic of the nation with which we are associated—that is, of the United States. We are organized here in a Territorial capacity, as other Territories are organized, and are now living in what was before the unsettled portions of the United States; we are organized according to the general provisions made and provided by the nation in which we live, and we are organized under what is called an Organic Act, whereby the action of the Government of the United States has placed us in the position that we now occupy. We have, for instance, as other Territories have, a governor. We have district judges of the United States; we have a U.S. marshal, an attorney, etc., etc., and the same kind of officers that exist in other Territories that are under and associated with the government of the United States. We have granted unto us in the instrument called the Organic Act certain rights and privileges. We send a Delegate to Congress, and are authorized so to do. We have our Legislature, and have the right of voting for it. We have our County Courts and Probate Courts, as other Territories have, and are placed under general regulations pertaining to these matters as exist in the order that prevails in the United States. In this respect we act as others do—that is, we are placed pretty much under the same laws, not quite; pretty much under the same form of government, not quite; we have certain rights and privileges ceded to us, not like others have exactly; but to a very great extent similar to others. In this respect we act and operate as other citizens of the United States do, and in this respect we have rights, privileges and immunities as others have so far as they go. But they don’t go with us quite to the extent that they do with other people under the same circumstances. Nevertheless, perhaps we enjoy as many privileges and as many rights as we are capable of comprehending and of magnifying, and it may be possible in the inscrutable wisdom of the Lord, that we should be subjected to certain kinds of prohibition and enactments, that differ materially in many respects from those of other people. But so it is, and these things are quite as beneficial to us as other things. If we had nothing to cope with or to contend with, we might feel as the Methodists do sometimes when they talk about sitting and singing themselves away to everlasting bliss; but as we are not going to the same place as they are, it don’t make much difference; they can take their road, and we will take ours. We have other ideas of a religious nature from those entertained by other people. But take it as a whole we enjoy very many great blessings. We are living here in a goodly land. We have many privileges in this land: and in our endeavors to preach the Gospel and gather together the people under the blessing and guidance and direction of the Almighty, we have been very successful thus far. Although in our history there are many things which have been unpleasant for people to meet with—such as mobbings and drivings, killings and imprisonment, and a variety of other things that are not pleasant to the feelings of human nature, yet upon the whole the Lord has controlled these things for our good, just in accordance with the words of the Psalmist, where he says: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” It has not been pleasant for people to be driven, say as I have been, and as many of you have been from our homes; but, then, we had to endure it, and there is no use grunting about it. We had to do it in Missouri. We were driven from our homes there. Then we went to Illinois, and at first we were treated very kindly. But when we began to grow and increase, they did not like our religion, and they don’t like it today, and we don’t fancy their’s much either; so on the religious question there is not much love lost. We had to leave Illinois and come here. It was not very agreeable, as I have said, to have to leave our homes and our farms and come out here to live among the Redskins; for this was a desert when we first came here. It was not full of beautiful farms and houses, orchards and gardens, cities, villages and hamlets. It was a desert where the red man roamed unmolested, where the crickets had full sway, and where the white man had scarcely trodden. There had been a few pass through before we came here, and it had been discovered perhaps a hundred years or two by some travelers that had existed in those days; but to all intents and purposes it was what was called then and marked on the maps as the “Great American Desert.” Since then the solitary place has been made glad, and the desert has been made to blossom as the rose. The Lord has been very kind and merciful to us, and opened out our way, and provided for our wants, and although we may have some little things to complain of—all of which are very trifling in comparison to many things that exist among other peoples—yet are we abundantly blessed all over the land. Is there anybody here in your conference, or is there anybody in any of the conferences of the Stakes of Zion, that lacks the necessaries of life? Is there anybody that is destitute of food, or of clothing, or of habitations? Not that I know of, and if there are any such things, they ought not to exist among us.

Now, then, if we are blessed we have not to thank any man, or any set of men for it. If we are provided for, we have not obtained it from anybody else, but from the Lord God of Israel, who has watched over and protected His people just as He said He would do. He said it was His business to take care of His Saints, but, then, it is our business to be Saints. And being gathered together as we are under these circumstances, we are organized according to certain laws laid down in the order of God, and given by revelation of God, for our guidance and direction, wherein we are instructed in things pertaining to this world and to the next; pertaining to things that are past, things that are present, and things that are to come—pertaining to time and eternity. By this means man, the noblest work of God, is brought into closer rela– tionship with God than he has been for generations past. Many things have been revealed, and there will be many more yet revealed that have been hidden from before the foundation of the world according to the word of God to us, and we are trying to act wisely, prudently and intelligently, to live and act and conduct ourselves in a manner that will be honorable before God, that will be honorable before the holy angels, that will be honorable before all honorable men and all men who love righteousness and truth and virtue, and who are inspired by the principle and integrity and by those principles that emanate from God, and that always lift up and exalt and elevate those that have embraced and are governed by them. These principles are revealed to us according to the laws which God has introduced, and through the medium of the Holy Priesthood, which He has again restored unto the earth, and we are here to learn His laws that we may walk in His paths. We are here that we may build temples unto His name, and that we may administer in those temples. This is the object of our being gathered together, that we may be brought into a closer union and relationship to God our heavenly Father, that we may be instructed in the laws of life, and that we may comprehend the relationship that exists between us and Him. And while we are looking for calamity and trouble—wars, pestilence and famine, and all those things that have been spoken of by the holy Prophets—yet there is to be a voice heard before that day crying: “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues”—that is, speaking of a certain something that is called Babylon. Well, we have been doing that, and we have been gathered together that we may comprehend those principles of which I have spoken. We have come here that we may enter into covenants that are eternal, and which continue behind the veil. And we expect that while we are organizing Zion here upon the earth, and seeking to establish the kingdom of God, we have those who are cooperating with us above, those who are building and preparing for us in the heavens mansions to go to. Jesus went to prepare mansions for those of His followers in His day. Says He: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.” There is something very peculiar about those things, about the preparing of those mansions for those that go behind the veil. But it is for us to learn to comprehend all these matters. We read about beautiful cities. We read of the new Jerusalem and the old Jerusalem. We talk about cities the most magnificent that can be thought of. Do you think they grow out of nothing? No, they have to be made just as we make things here, only more intelligently. What is meant by a certain saying: “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Ah! indeed. Well, you can guess what it is. I will leave it with you.

People find a good deal of fault with us about our having more wives than one; but, then, that is nothing; we attribute that to their ignorance. If they were better informed they would know better. Abraham was a friend of God, and he practiced polygamy, under the direction of the Lord; David was a man after God’s own heart, and he had wives given to him of the Lord. They would have put them in the Penitentiary, if they had been here today. But then because of many things that transpire in these days, the Lord will make the earth empty. Why? Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant. We are gathered together here in order that we may observe the laws which have been restored unto us, and keep the everlasting covenant. While they make covenants for time only, we make covenants for time and for eternity. There is the difference. Ours is everlasting; theirs until death do they part. We as wives and husbands expect to be associated after death in the eternities that are to come. We believe in an everlasting covenant, and in an everlasting Gospel. An angel was to bring the everlasting Gospel, and everything associated with it is everlasting. It existed before we came here. It exists with us in time, it reaches into eternity, and people that do not have the Gospel have no everlasting covenants. They think we are very low, on the one hand, because we cannot comply with their ideas, and we think they are very ignorant because they don’t understand ours. But so it is. We are here to do the will of God, to carry out His law in all humility and faithfulness to God our heavenly Father—faithfulness as men to the nation in which we live—faithfulness to all men—to make known the things that God has communicated to us.

Now, then, in speaking of covenants, let me follow that subject a little further. Have we to do with time? Yes. Have we to do with eternity? Yes. Did we exist be– fore we came here? Yes, and we shall exist when we leave here. The principles that we are in possession of, go back into eternity and reach forward into eternity. We are here in a state of probation, and God, in the infinitude of His mercy and kindness, has seen proper to bring us together as we are, and then we are nothing to brag of when He has got us here. Still while many have rejected the truth, we have received it. God has given us His grace to enable us to comprehend the Gospel and to give us power to obey it, and some of us have kept faithful for quite a long time, and it is pretty hard work for some of us to be faithful. It is good to be a saint. When we get the Spirit of the Lord upon us, we feel to rejoice exceedingly, and sometimes when we don’t have much of that, it feels rather what we used to call hard-sledding. But there is nothing that makes things go so well among the saints of God as living their religion and keeping the commandments of God, and when they don’t do that, then things go awkward and cross and every other way but the right way; but when they live their religion and keep the commandments, “their peace flows as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea.”

Now, in regard to these matters there is a subject I have referred to at one or two of the conferences we have visited lately, and I will mention it here. The ancient Israelites had a very peculiar law among them, and yet it was a very proper law, namely, that if a man died, his brother was to take his wife and raise up seed to him. That would be a curious kind idea among the world, where they did not believe anything of that kind; singular kind of a doctrine; but it was a thing that was practiced among the Israelites, and it is a thing we ought to be practicing among us. That is, if a man has a brother dead who has left a widow, let the woman left in that kind of a position be just as well off as a woman who has a husband. Here is a principle developed which then existed, and I will speak a little on that subject and show certain reasons and certain whys and wherefores for these things. If a man should die and leave a wife and she should be childless, why not her be taken care of as well as anybody else? Would not that be just. Would not that be proper? Would not that be right? Yes. But says the man, “I do not know about that. I would rather raise up seed for myself.” Perhaps you might do both. You might if the law did not prevent you carrying out the law of God in the United States. If these worthy ancients had lived here, they would not have allowed them to carry out such a law. Still there is a principle of that kind exists. Why should it not be put into practice? We do believe, you know, more or less in this principle. But then there are a certain class of men who will say: “I would rather somebody else attended to that business; I would rather attend to my own affairs, and let everybody attend to theirs.” All right. Suppose you do it. We will carry the thing a little further. This woman’s husband has gone behind the veil, and he is operating there, and probably he will be called upon in a family capacity to look after those that were coming there, or help prepare mansions for somebody who is yet on the earth, as Jesus did for His disciples. He has left His wife behind here, but he is there operating for others. Now, what would you think of making to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness; that, when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations? What would you think of that? We talk about angels taking care of us, and all sorts of things like that. But I expect that when we get behind the veil we shall have business to do as much as we have here, and one thing will be, perhaps, to look after the arrangement of our family affairs, and things associated therewith.

Now, then, a man here says: “I would not like to embark in a thing of that sort—marry a brother’s wife, and raise up seed for him.” What did they do with such men in olden times? The woman had an opportunity of loosing his shoe and spitting in the man’s face that would not raise up seed unto his brother, and it was said: “So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house. And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that hath his shoe loosed.” (See Deut. xxv, 5 to 10. See also Ruth iii and iv.)

But we will go again to the other side, and find those there engaged in doing certain works in the heavens and preparing mansions for those that are coming. Now, when Jesus went to prepare mansions I do not suppose that He did it Himself. He had plenty of hands to set to work of that sort, same as we have here. This man that has died hears his brother say,” I would rather attend to my own affairs,” and he says, “All right, come here and attend to your affairs also. If you are selfish perhaps I will turn selfish too.” Now, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. That is the way it presents itself to me in relation to these matters. If a woman is left by her husband, let her have somebody to take care of her; if not her husband’s brother, then his next of kin. That is the order so far as I understand it, and I wanted to say so much in relation to these matters. Why should not women have equal rights with men? They have these rights and they ought to be sustained and maintained among us as Saints. We ought to look after the welfare and interest of all.

I shall now refer to what is known as Utah Lake and Jordan River dam water question. This is a subject that has troubled you a great deal and upon which there has been much awkwardness and unpleasant feeling. It was adjusted some time ago, but the agreement, it appears, was not carried out: in consequence of which considerable trouble was likely to ensue. President Angus M. Cannon showed me a letter in which it was stated that a lawsuit was commenced in regard to the affair, some of the parties, thereto being outside of the Church and some inside. In commencing this suit those inside the Church were not taking the right course, and they would have subjected themselves to be cut off the Church, because God has given us laws in relation to these matters whereby they can be properly regulated wisely and in accordance with His laws. Brother Cannon (who is President of the Salt Lake Stake) came to me and wanted to know what to do. He said he could not regulate these matters as his jurisdiction did not extend beyond Salt Lake Stake, nor could President Smoot because his jurisdiction did not go beyond Utah Stake. Here was a dilemma. What shall be done? Could I show him a way out of the difficulty? I told him I could; that a council had been provided through the Prophet Joseph Smith, for just such cases. Some people don’t know anything about that, but yet that is a fact. They did not know that it had ever been used before. It is a council of twelve High Priests over which the First Presidency of the Church should preside to adjudicate upon difficult cases that might arise in the Church, and this should be the highest council in the Church, and from which there should be no appeal. We called together this council and met here in this house, and the parties were heard—some outside of the Church and some inside. Finally we got the matter adjusted, and I am informed that the decision is satisfactory to all parties. The council was composed of the following brethren, viz.: Abraham O. Smoot, President of Utah Stake; Angus M. Cannon, President of Salt Lake Stake; Warren N. Dusenberry, Probate Judge of Utah County; Elias A. Smith, Probate Judge of Salt Lake County; Jonathan S. Page and A. D. Holdaway, Selectmen of Utah County; Ezekiel Holman and Jesse W. Fox, Jr., Selectmen of Salt Lake County; Presiding Bishop Win. B. Preston; John T. Caine, Delegate to Congress from Utah; Bishops Thos. R. Cutler and John E. Booth. After the first session of the council, in consequence of Hon. John T. Caine being required at Salt Lake City on official business, Elder L. John Nuttall was appointed a member of the council in place of Elder Caine. Myself and Brother George Q. Cannon presided in all the meetings of the Council. In selecting the council we selected men from the two counties who were conversant with county affairs, and both counties were equally represented. But some people will say—How is it the High Council could not settle the question? Because the High Council in Utah Stake has no jurisdiction over affairs in Salt Lake Stake, nor has the High Council of Salt Lake Stake any jurisdiction over affairs in Utah Stake, and the other council was formed just to meet such an emergency. I speak of this for your information; and, as I have said, when the matter is thoroughly completed, it will prove to be satisfactory to all parties.

Now, I want to read you a curious Scripture. We talk a good deal about water, and about certain laws—laws of hydraulics and hydrostatics—we have had a good deal of talk about these things lately, I have heard some very singular remarks made pertaining to the waters of the Utah Lake by Brother Madsen, who has kept a very accurate account of the condition of the waters of the lake under various circumstances for a great number of years. Among other things he said that it was very difficult to tell how and in what manner the waters of the lake were sometimes increased. That he had frequently seen large fountains or springs rising in the lake, that he should think furnished more water than any of the rivers that flowed into it—and these springs were very fluctuating, so much so, that it was found very difficult to make any accurate calculations pertaining thereto.

It is thought and so stated by some writers that there are subterraneous passages for water flowing from Lake Superior.

This may appear strange to some. But in regard to the flood, the laws governing hydraulics, as we understand them, were not strictly carried out on that occasion. Speaking of the flood we read:

“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second mouth, the seventh day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

What was done? “The windows of heaven were opened,” and the immense bodies of waters that exist in the upper firmament were let down, or as it is expressed, “the windows of heaven were opened.” What else? “The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up.” You have got a Brigham Young Academy here. I would like to give the professors and pupils of that establishment a problem to solve, and that is—How they could manage to get enough water out of the seas, and out of the oceans, and out of the rivers, and out of the clouds, to cover the tops of these mountains and fifteen cubits above, and let that spread all over the earth? I would like to know by what known law the immersion of the globe could be accomplished. It is explained here in a few words: “The windows of heaven were opened”—that is, the waters that exist throughout the space surrounding the earth from whence come these clouds from which the rain descends. That was one cause. Another cause was “the fountains of the great deep were broken up”—that is something beyond the oceans, something outside of the seas, some reservoirs of which we have no knowledge, were made to contribute to this event, and the waters were let loose by the hand and by the power of God; for God said He would bring a flood upon the earth and He brought it, but He had to let loose the fountains of the great deep, and pour out the waters from there, and when the flood commenced to subside, we are told “that the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained, and the waters returned from off the earth.” Where did they go to? From whence they came. Now, I will show you something else on the back of that. Some people talk very philosophically about tidal waves coming along. But the question is—How could you get a tidal wave out of the Pacific ocean, say, to cover the Sierra Nevadas? But the Bible does not tell us it was a tidal wave. It simply tells us that “all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered. Fifteen cubits upwards did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” That is, the earth was immersed. It was a period of baptism.

I will find you another Scripture. It will be found in the book of Job. Job had been complaining. It is said he was the most patient man on the earth. Still he had been complaining about the treatment he had received. He had lost his camels, and sheep, and his children; the lightning had struck his son’s house, and finally he was smitten with boils, etc. He was not very patient then, not any more so than any of us would be under similar circumstances. He got a little out of humor; did not fancy it very much; found himself scraping his body with a potsherd, and wallowing in ashes. After some of his friends had talked to him, the Lord spake, saying:

“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.

“Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched line upon it.

“Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

“Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?”

Who managed that matter? “Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?” Why, the Lord did it. These are singular expressions. It is said in the other place that “the fountains of the great deep were broken up.”

Now, then, I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, that God has more to do with the earth, with the waters, with the fountains of waters, with all the affairs of men, and with everything we have to do with, than men are willing to acknowledge in a great many instances. What means the saying, “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” Do any of you know of such things? I guess you do. Plenty of them. What means that Scripture where it speaks of Moses in the wilderness, when the children of Israel cried out for water in the desert land, and called on him for water? The Lord told Moses to smite the rock, and it should give forth water. Moses felt angry with the people because of their murmuring. And when the people were gathered together before the rock, Moses said: “Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?” And he smote the rock and water came out of it. But Moses did not honor the Lord in that instance as he ought to have done. The Lord felt angry with him, and would not allow him to go into the land of Canaan because he did not sanctify the God of Israel. At the same time the Lord fulfilled His word to Moses, for when he smote the rock the waters came out. By what principle? Was that according to the law of hydraulics? It was the power of God that manipulated that affair. So it was in the case of Elijah. There had been a drouth in the land of Israel, and there was great suffering in consequence of it. Elijah went and prayed to the Lord that the drouth might pass off, and that rain might come. The Lord heard his prayer, and sent the rain. At first, we are told, a little cloud arose out of the sea, like a man’s hand; but by and by the heaven was black with clouds, and there was great rain. Who was it that manipulated these matters? It was the Lord. It would appear to some to be according to the laws of nature, etc. So it would; but at the same time this was done by the prayer of faith, and the water flowed forth. And I want to say one thing here, and that is, that if we are sustained in these latter days, God must sustain us; if we are upheld, God must uphold us. Men are raging and have been raging against us; but I will say, as I have often said, Woe! to them that fight against Zion, for God will fight against them, and He will have His own way of doing it. It is for us to pursue the even tenor of our way, and if we will work righteousness and fear God, and keep His commandments, the wilderness and the solitary places shall be made glad, (as it has been already abundantly among us) and the desert shall blossom as the rose. But it will not be to me, or to Brother Cannon, or to President Young, or to anybody else, that the glory will belong. We will give God the glory for all our deliverance. He has been very kind and merciful to us all the day long.

Therefore, let us do right. Let us observe the laws of God, and keep His commandments, and the blessing of God will be with us. We will go forward and build our temples and labor therein. We will go forth and build up the Kingdom of God; we will go forth and purify the Church of God; we will go forth and establish the Zion of God. When Zion existed upon the earth it took 365 years to prepare the people thereof to be translated. But the Lord in these last days will cut His work short in righteousness. Therefore let us do right. Do right by everybody. Bear with the infirmities of men and the follies of men. Treat all men kindly, no matter who they may be—whether they are insiders or outsiders, or apostates, or anybody else—treat everybody kindly. But do not be partakers of the practices of the wicked. Do not mix up with the corrupt and evil. If they are hungry, feed them; if they are naked clothe them; if they are sick, administer to them; but do not associate with them in their abominations and their corruptions. Come out from the world and be ye separate, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, and let “Holiness to the Lord” be written in every heart; and let us all feel that we are for Zion and for God and His Kingdom, and for those principles that will elevate us in time and throughout the eternities that are to come.

God bless and lead you in the paths of life, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Nov. 23rd, 1884.

There are a few moments remaining, which it is desired I should occupy.

It is very interesting to hear the testimony of the Elders who have been on missions and who have re– turned therefrom as our brethren who have spoken this afternoon, and to me particularly so in the case of young men like Brother Leo Clawson, whose voice we have heard and whose testimony has been given to us. Sending young men upon missions is an excellent method of testing their integrity and also of giving them an opportunity of proving for themselves whether the testimony they have heard from their parents and others is true. When a young man leaves home to go to a foreign land, in the midst of a cold-hearted and prejudiced world, without purse or scrip, with no funds in his pocket to depend upon to pay his way, and has to depend upon his Maker, and upon the promises which He has made, he is in a most excellent position to learn for himself the truth of the words of the Savior and the truth of the testimonies that he has heard from his parents and friends. I rejoice exceedingly that our young men have this opportunity, because it brings home to them in a most unmistakable and convincing manner the truth of those testimonies they have heard. When a man has no food to eat, when he has no friends, and is a stranger in a strange land, traveling as a servant of God, he has a good opportunity of testing for himself whether there is a God, and whether that God hears and answers his prayers. In this way faith becomes knowledge; because if a man prays to God and asks for that which he wants and God gives it to him, he then knows for himself that God hears and answers prayer. It is in this way that the knowledge of the Gospel that we have received is perpetuated in our hearts and in the hearts of our children—transmitted from one generation to another, as it has been and is being done at the present time among these Latter-day Saints. Today there is a host of young men growing up in this country who have in this manner proved for themselves the truth of that which I am now speaking of. It was in this manner that I learned most convincingly in my youth that this was the work of God. I believed it, yes, I may say I knew it to be true, but when I was sent out as a missionary without purse and scrip and compelled to feel after God and ask Him for those things that I wanted, I learned to my entire satisfaction that when I did need God’s blessings He was at hand to confer them upon me according to the desires of my heart and the necessities of my case. In this manner men who are now of middle age have grown up with this knowledge, and the youth today are in their turn acquiring the same knowledge, obtaining it through the means which God has appointed and in the manner He has designed.

There are two objects to be accomplished by the Elders going out without purse and scrip upon the apostolic plan. In the first place, they learn for themselves that God lives and that He hears and answers prayer; in the second place, they test the world. The Savior says: “Whoso receiveth you receiveth me, and the same will feed you, and give you money. And he who feeds you, or clothes you, or gives you money, shall in no wise lose his reward; and he that doeth not these things is not my disciple; by this you may know my disciples.”

We test the world in this manner and prove whether they will receive the servants of God and supply their simple wants when they travel preaching the Gospel without salary or pay of a pecuniary character; but looking unto the Lord for the reward that He has promised to bestow. When a man has been gone as Brother Clawson has, and as Brother George Goddard has—Brother Clawson for two years and upwards—he becomes acquainted with the Lord, he learns to know God is his friend, and he through his life afterwards, if he cherishes that knowledge which he has then acquired, is a faithful servant of God. There are today hundreds of our youth scattered throughout the various fields acquiring this knowledge of God, becoming familiar with the things of God, learning for themselves that which they have been taught in theory, and having it so thoroughly instilled into them, and becoming so indoctrinated in these principles, that they never will forget them.

My brethren and sisters, we can rejoice exceedingly in the prospects before us. We may be hated as our brethren have described; we may be maligned and calumniated and called all manner of evil names; but with all these things we can rejoice, because it is the legacy that was left to us and left to every follower of Jesus Christ by himself when he was upon the earth. He that lives godly in Christ Jesus, Paul says, shall suffer persecution. He did not say that they might suffer it—He did not put it in a doubtful manner—but He said they should suffer—“they shall suffer persecution.” We have proved the truth of that saying of the Apostle’s. But notwithstanding all this, we can look around us, and see what God is doing for us. We have the most abundant causes for thanksgiving and praise. He is blessing us as no other people today upon the face of the earth are being blessed. Outside of our community there is hatred, there is animosity, there is a feeling of wrath entertained against us. We are hated by those who know us not. But inside there is peace, there is happiness, there is joy, there is health, growth and development—a people growing up in these mountains that will yet astonish the world by the exhibition of those grand virtues that God is developing in our midst through the teachings of the everlasting Gospel that we have received. A union unparalleled, unexampled at this time upon the earth exists throughout our settlements and in all our associations from north to south, from east to west—a people dwelling together in peace and in love, loving each other with an intensity of love, begotten of God, and that is unknown elsewhere—the fruits of the outpouring of the spirit and power of God upon us. Men say that this is imposture; that these are the fruits of ignorance; that the binding of this people together in the manner in which we are associated in these valleys is merely the result of the combination of shrewd men. A most extraordinary spectacle this! That wherever you go throughout our settlements, in whatsoever house you enter, if the owners are Latter-day Saints, you will find there the spirit of peace and of love; a willingness to do everything possible for each other. And then when we contemplate the growth of the people in intelligence, to me it is something marvelous what God is doing for us in this direction. There is no community upon the face of the earth today among whom you will find so many men who have traveled, who have mingled with people in foreign lands, who are so familiar with the religious and social usages and with the history of the people of other lands, as you will find in this community of Latter-day Saints. Scarcely a man among us now of middle age who has not been in foreign lands, who has not traveled throughout his own country, and acquired a knowledge of human nature such as cannot be acquired under any other circumstances. The effect of this upon the community I can perceive; we all can observe it wherever we go. It is uplifting the people—not very rapidly, it is true, but still in such a manner that it is easily perceived. You can perceive the effect upon the people of the education thus gained by the Elders in traveling and preaching the Gospel abroad. Nearly all returning missionaries express themselves as our brethren have this afternoon. Brother Clawson has said that he is determined from this time forward to do his share in helping forward the work of the redemption of the human family. When such men return, bringing with them the spirit that they have upon their missions—the Spirit of God—what a strength it is to their Bishops, what a strength it is to their Teachers, what a strength it is to the entire Priesthood in the Ward where they reside, or the Stake to which they belong. And when they come back, as they do by scores, this effect is felt throughout the entire body of the people, and excellent results follow, a higher tone is developed, a higher standard is aimed at, and there is an uplifting of the people, as it were, to that higher standard.

This is going on all the time, and the effect is marked and already felt. Those who travel through our settlements see many things that strike them, and strike them more forcibly because of the different impression created by the falsehoods told concerning us. These falsehoods have their good effect in this respect; for when a man hears so much about the “Mormons,” he naturally pictures to himself the kind of society that he will meet when he goes among them. If he has never met “Mormons,” he has an idea in his mind, from what he has read, or from what he has been told, as to the kind of people he will meet when he sees them. But he is thrown into “Mormon” society. He finds that they have no horns; that they have no cloven feet; that they do not garnish their conversation with oaths; and that if he had not been told these were “Mormons,” he would not have discovered it by any outward sign. When he comes into our cities, instead of seeing drunkenness, instead of hearing blasphemy, instead of seeing the profanation of all that is holy, he sees a people dwelling in peace, he sees quietude prevailing, and the contrast strikes him very forcibly. “Why,” says he, “this is not what I expected to see; these are not the people I expected to meet; this is not the society for which I looked when I came into the settlements of the Latter-day saints in Utah.” These very falsehoods, therefore, have the effect of impressing—where men have the opportunity of mingling with the people, more forcibly upon the mind than otherwise would be the case that which they see. It takes time, however, to remove prejudice, to disabuse people’s minds. They think that there is something hidden, something that is very bad, that they have not yet discovered, and this sometimes remains in the mind a good while.

But, as sure as God lives so sure will we live down these false charges and impressions, and the day is not far distant when lovers of good government, lovers of peace, will turn their attention to these valleys in which we dwell and to this society of which we form a part. For there is trouble in the future; there is perplexity not very far off. We can hear a faint rumbling of it, as it were, in the distance. The time will come, as sure as we live, when distress and calamity will fall upon the wicked, and our own nation has a great deal to answer for. They have to answer for deeds that cannot be easily paid. The blood of innocence has stained the soil of free America—the blood of a Prophet, of a Patriarch, and of other righteous men and women who have suffered for their religion, and for no other cause than that they chose to espouse the truth and to advocate it, living lives of purity, offending no one—that is, no one who should be offended—breaking no law, trampling upon no human right. They were cruelly murdered, and we as a people were driven out by violence, driven out from the midst of civilization, driven out from our homes and our hard-earned possessions, and our track is marked with the blood and with the graves of our own people from the borders of civilization till we reached these Rocky Mountains, and for no other cause for which we could be punished legally. We broke no law; we committed no offense against the majesty of the law. We have lived lives of purity as we do here in these mountains. But prejudice was created; men became excited; mobs were formed, and extermination was decided upon, and there was no alternative presented to us but this: either to submit to be killed off, men, women and children, from the face of the earth, or to take our flight as best we could in our poverty to some remote land where we could worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience in peace and in quietness. We chose the latter alternative. We preferred to face the wilderness with all its untold terrors. We preferred to come out among tribes of Indians of which we knew nothing, and live in their midst and trust to their mercies, savages though they were, than to remain among civilized men, men who called themselves Christians. We did this thirty-seven years ago.

Fifty-four years and a half have passed since the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in this land there has never been a man punished for killing a “Mormon,” never been a man punished for burning a “Mormon’s” house, never been a man punished for engaging in mobs and banding together for the extirpation of the “Mormons” and the destruction of their property. And this, too, in this land of boasted liberty; this in this land, the most glorious under the canopy of heaven, the most free that ever existed, the best government ever formed by human wisdom; this in this land with the constitution as free as God Himself has revealed it, so free that every human being may dwell under it without let or hindrance, without interfering with the rights of his fellow man, giving me the perfect freedom to worship God according to my own conscience, and giving no man the right to interfere with me in that worship, and giving every other man the same right, and depriving me of the right to interfere with any other man in his worship, if he worship according to the dictates of his own conscience and does not interfere with the rights of his fellow man. But in this land Latter-day Saints have been murdered, murdered for no other cause than because they believed in God and believed He was a God of revelation, and today Utah exists because of this. Because of this spirit of persecution today, Utah is a Territory, a grand Territory, and we as a people are living in these valleys of the mountains for that very cause. We are a standing monument before God and before all men of the inhumanity of man to his fellow man. This is the position that we occupy.

Will not these things be remembered? Yes, they will, and they will bring down the anger of a just God upon the nation. Not for this alone. There are other things; and the time will yet come when men will flee for safety to the land where the Saints dwell; for we design, by the help of our God, to maintain freedom, freedom for every man, freedom for every creed, freedom for every race wherever we live and can have power. All men shall have equal freedom with us, they shall be protected with us in every human right, in the exercise of every belief that they choose to indulge in as long as by its exercise they do not trample upon the rights of their fellow man. And we shall maintain organized government. Others may trample upon the laws of the land; others may seek to bring us into bondage; but we shall be free through the help of our God, and our country shall be a free country; for if others trample upon the Constitution, we will elevate it, we will bear it aloft, we will invite the men of all cities and all parts of our lands to come and dwell in peace and safety protected by that glorious instrument, and the principles it contains, that God helped the founders of this government to frame.

Therefore I say, my brethren and sisters, let us be encouraged; let us cultivate the virtues that belong to our religion; let us love each other; let us cultivate peace wherever we go, and extend its blessings as far as our influence will permit.

May God help us to endure all the trials that we may be called upon to pass through, and may He bless you my brethren and sisters, and all who are seeking to do His will, I ask in the name of Jesus, Amen.