Remarks by President George Q. Cannon, Apostle M. Thatcher, Elder George F. Gibbs, and President John Taylor, delivered at the Funeral Services over the remains of Elder John H. Gibbs, held in the Bowery attached to the Meetinghouse, Paradise, Sunday Afternoon, August 24, 1884.

President Geo. Q. Cannon was the first speaker. He said:

I will read from the 6th chapter of the Revelation of St. John, commencing at the 9th verse:

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the testimony which they held:

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

“And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

In the next chapter we find the following:

“And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

“Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

“And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

If I were to consult my feelings on the present occasion, I would much rather sit still and listen, than to attempt to speak or to give utterance to the feelings which I have had since coming into this shade. But we have assembled together today, to pay our last tribute of respect and honor to the martyred dead, and it is meet and proper that we should control our feelings and endeavor to say something that shall be consolatory to the living, and that shall have the effect to make this lesson an impressive one to all of us, and especially to the young men and young women, the rising generation of this people.

It is not a new thing in the history of the work of the last days for the blood of innocence to be shed; but the frequency of these occurrences does not take away from the anguish and the sorrow, and those poignant feelings that are created by such atrocious acts. We cannot become reconciled to these things sufficiently, fortify ourselves as we may, to escape feeling upon occasions of this character that we are all liable at any time to be called to lay down our lives for the truth’s sake. Whenever our brethren are thus called as sacrifices for the truth, it requires the comforting influence and strength which God alone can give to reconcile us, so that we can bear these blows with equanimity and with the resignation which should characterize people of our profession.

When the Gospel was revealed from heaven in these latter times, it was told to those who received it—not only to Joseph the Seer, but to others who received it from him—that the espousal and advocacy of these principles might cost them their lives, and there is a plain intimation in one of the early revelations to Joseph, that his life might be required. During his lifetime he lived under perpetual attacks from his enemies; not that he lived in dread, but there was constant reason to fear, however, all the days of his life, through the revelation of the truth to him, and the bestowal of the holy Priesthood upon him, that at any moment he might fall a victim to the rage of those who hated the truth. He never at any time led those who received the Gospel to anticipate that their fate would be any better than his, for every man and woman was taught that if the principles were what we believed them to be, that which he testified they were, it was worthy of their lives, and of every other sacrifice they might be called to make. Men, therefore, in espousing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these last days, espouse it, as a general rule, with a full knowledge of the consequences involved therein. They have not been told that their pathway would be strewn with flowers, that they would be surrounded with ease and comfort, and that they would have friends on every hand and be popular; but where faithful Elders have gone out preaching the Gospel, they have gone declaring unto the inhabitants of the earth that the same sacrifice which had been called for in ancient days, when Jesus communicated His Gospel unto men—that the same sacrifices might still, in all probability, be demanded of them, and they have been told not to hold their lives dear unto them, but for the sake of the great riches which God had bestowed, and the great and glorious reward that He had promised, they should be willing, if it were necessary, and God should require such sacrifice at their hands, to lay down their lives for the truth. And it was well that these teachings were given to the people; for the early history of our Church, and every step of its progress, has been marked with suffering, and in many instances with blood; the sacrifice of earthly ties, the sacrifice of homes, of friends, of old associations, of kindred, of native land—these sacrifices have been made by all who have connected themselves and remained connected with the Zion of our God. And besides these, not infrequently has it been the case that bodily torture has been inflicted through the attacks and the malicious spirit of those who have hated the truth, and not infrequently life itself has been given for the cause of God, or as a testimony to the truth of that cause which He has established. Since our arrival, however, in these valleys, it has been hoped that we would escape the fierce intolerance of the wicked. Years elapsed after our reaching here during which we dwelt in peace and free from annoyance and from the attacks of the wicked. Our Elders have traveled through various nations of Europe, and though persecuted and treated with contumely at times, still blood has not been shed. No men have been destroyed among the nations of Europe who have gone forth bearing the message of life and salvation.

The Lord in His mercy of late years has moved upon His servants to send the messengers of life and salvation to our own nation, and they have gone according to God’s command, to warn the people of the impending judgments and calamities that are about to be poured out upon this nation in common with other nations. The Elders have labored with great zeal, and in many instances with great success, and have been the means of carrying the glad tidings of salvation to very many souls, and this success has seemed to arouse the powers of darkness. Embittered by the falsehoods that have been circulated concerning us, men have sought to stop the onward progress of the work by seeking to destroy those who were its messengers and ministers. We have heard frequently of mobs, especially in the Southern States, where the Elders have labored for some years past. Occasionally they have resorted to violence, and in several instances have made attempts at taking life, and before this recent massacre, succeeded, at least, in killing one Elder—Joseph Standing, in the State of Georgia. It seems as though the adversary has been determined that if he could not stop the progress of this work in any other way he would drown it in blood. It is due to the providence of God, and to His wonderful and preserving care that we who live in these valleys have been preserved in peace. The credit of our preservation from blood—that is, from war and consequent bloodshed—is due to our Great Creator; for if the adversary, who is the great antagonist of our God and of His work, could have had his way, our peaceful valleys would have been drenched in the blood of innocence. He who opposes this work does not hesitate at any means to stop its progress. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has sought by every means in his power, by the circulation of wicked, abominable falsehoods against the Latter-day Saints, to stir up men to bloodshed and to cause them to look upon us as a people whose death would be well merited and against whom acts of violence of the most terrible character could be committed and be entirely justifiable. It is not due to Satan, it is not due to his mercy nor his forbearance, that we have thus escaped, but it is due to the mercy and the overruling providence and the fatherly care of our Great Creator, that we who are here today with the rest of our brethren and sisters who are assembled in the various places of worship at this present time—that we have been and still are preserved. A feeling has gone abroad, in consequence of the lies that the father of lies has propagated, which causes thousands of people to think that if the Latter-Saints, or Mormons, could be blotted out, it would be a most praiseworthy and justifiable act, and it is that spirit, engendered by that being, emanating from that source, which has caused the death of these our beloved brethren for whom we mourn today. That spirit of murderous hate, unmerciful, cruel, brutal, when it takes possession of the heart of man, leaves no room for a gleam of compassion to enter. It was that spirit which caused the crucifixion of the most glorious Being, the holiest, the purest, and the best that ever trod the earth, that gentle Being, the Son of God—it was that spirit which crucified Him in the most ignominious manner; that spirit brought Him to that cruel death, as it had done the prophets that had preceded Him. Pitiless as the grave is that spirit, the spirit of the evil one, when it takes possession of man, transforming those who naturally might be compassionate, who naturally might have hearts open to the appeals of mercy—transforming them into demons of hate, filled with an unquenchable desire for the blood of their fellow men. It is that spirit which has caused murders in every age from the day that the blood of Abel stained the soil of the virgin earth until this brutal massacre through which the soil of the State of Tennessee has been drenched and stained with innocent blood. We need not wonder at these occurrences when we read the history of the past and that which was done to the Son of God Himself; and to the Prophets and Apostles, and in our own day, to the martyred Joseph, the Prophet of God, and his brother Hyrum. We do not depend upon tradition for our ideas respecting Joseph and Hyrum. They were known to us. Their actions are familiar, their efforts and all their labors we know and understand, and we know how innocent they were. We know that every pulsation of their hearts beat with love for humanity, and for the salvation of their race, as did the heart of this our beloved brother, John H. Gibbs, when it was living. Every pulsation was filled with love for God, and a desire for the salvation of God’s children upon the earth. But towards such as these, the spirit of the evil one has no mercy. Nothing less than blood will satisfy, and it has been so from the very beginning.

Whom shall we pity today? This murdered victim and the other murdered victim whose body has gone to his home? For whom shall we shed tears and our hearts swell with pity? Shall it be for these our murdered brethren, these beloved ones, these sainted martyrs, who died in the discharge of duty, serving their God, and seeking earnestly for the salvation of their fellow men? Shall our hearts swell with pity for them and their fate? No. There is no room for pity in my heart for them. I feel thankful to God, not that they were slain, but that they were courageous enough to die for the truth which the Savior died for, for which the blood of Joseph and for which the blood of all the martyrs from the days of righteous Abel until today has been shed. For whom, then, does my pity go out? For the murderers of these holy men. For them my pity is deep, is pro– found, is inexpressible. Is not this strange that I should have feelings of this kind for the murderers?

When I think of their future; of the penalty they have brought upon themselves; when I think how blindly they have been led by the adversary of their souls, who was a murderer from the beginning, who rebelled against our Father in Heaven, and is the great enemy of the human race, and who seeks to destroy the children of our God—when I think of them I am filled with pity for their fate. As for these victims—this our beloved brother Gibbs, and our beloved Brother Berry—we know what is in store for them. They have received, or rather will receive crowns of glory, immortal glory. They will be the companions of the Gods. They will sit down with Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. By their deaths they will secure an entrance into the society of the Prophets and the Apostles, and the martyrs, the noblest, the holiest, the best, the most exalted of our race. There is no glory that God can give to man, there is no exaltation which God can bestow upon man that these our martyred brethren will not receive. Untrammeled now, having passed the gates of death, their tabernacles having been destroyed, their spirits have gone to the paradise of God. There awaits them continual progress. They have entered upon a career of never ending glory, a career which will never terminate throughout the endless ages of eternity; for they have done all that mortal men could do, they have been willing to lay down their lives for the truth, and greater love no man can exhibit than this. Therefore, so far as they are concerned, aside from the atrocity of the deed which brought them to so untimely a death, aside from the poignant sorrow that must fill the hearts of the widows, the orphan children, the parents and brothers and sisters and friends—aside from these there is no cause for grief today, not for these brethren at least; but as I have said, Woe to the men! woe to the men! who have committed this ghastly crime. I cannot contemplate their future without my blood being chilled, and being appalled at the damnation that awaiteth all such individuals.

My brethren and sisters, I pray God to make this an example for all of us. I say to the young men of Israel—Here before you is an example worthy of your imitation. What is death? Shall it be feared? Death comes to all, the coward as well as the brave man. The coward has to meet his fate, and why should we shrink from it? A few days or a few weeks or months or years, at the most will only elapse until death will overtake all. Let us seek as a people to be prepared to meet death, to flinch not from the path of duty, from the path of honor, from the path that God has marked out for us to walk in; let us tread it unfalteringly, and trust to God to preserve and deliver us, or if it be His wisdom to permit our blood to be mingled with the blood of other martyrs in testimony of the truth, may we be prepared therefor.

God bless you all, my brethren and sisters, and fill you with the Holy Spirit. God bless and comfort the hearts of these mourners, and fill them with the consolation of the everlasting Gospel, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Apostle Moses Thatcher was the next speaker. He said: I hope, my brethren and sisters, to have your faith and prayers to assist me in the few remarks I may make. There are occasions, and this seems to be one of them, when silence would seem even more impressive than words; there are times when it is difficult to express the thoughts we have in our hearts. Yet I know by the words which have been expressed by President Cannon, that when the Spirit of God dictates, much can be said to comfort the living. As for the dead all is well with them—that is, with the brethren who have sealed their testimony with their blood. You have heard what will be their glory, and to that testimony I will add mine. When we clearly understand, by the light of the Spirit of God, what martyrs for the truth will receive, death fails to create fear in our minds. It is at other times, when surrounded with the trials and temptations of life, when yielding to weaknesses and sin, that we become disqualified for that high glory about which President Cannon has been speaking. To my mind there is nothing here to be sorry about, save to mourn with the relatives and friends of the martyred ones. Their calling and election has been made sure, and it will be said unto them—“enter thou into my rest: having been faithful in a few things thou shalt be made ruler over many.” Our brethren were faithful unto the end, faithful unto death, to such, therefore, will be given a crown of life. Having been slain for the testimony of Jesus, they will be able to pass by the angels and the Gods to their inheritance of heights and depths, powers and principalities and endless lives. They have been valiant and true unto the end of their days. Stricken down by the hand of the assassin, yet courageously meeting their fate. What can be a more glorious death? When we come to look at the works of God, and witness the manifestation of His power, we see that every– thing that is excellent, everything that is desirable, comes forth from the midst of much tribulation. Even the jewels of the earth, and the riches thereof—the minerals, the gold and silver for which men thirst, and for which they have been willing to sacrifice life—are brought forth out of what seems to us the agonies of nature. And so in regard to violent deaths such as our brethren have suffered. In passing through such a trial bravely, faithfully, and truly, they have become jewels in the hands of God, and will continue to progress throughout the endless ages of eternity. It was not that they had violated the laws of the land; it was not that they had broken any law of the State in which they were when their lives were taken by the enemies of righteousness, by ungodly, wicked and murderous men: but as President Cannon has truly observed, it was because they were pure, it was because they were righteous, it was because they were the servants of God, that they were despised and killed. There is no hatred so intense as that which springs from and is begotten of envy and malice. The human heart readily forgives and extenuates the crimes of the wicked. Men have compassion for the ungodly; but there was no pity in the hearts of those who took away the life of Jesus, of Joseph the Prophet, and of Hyrum his brother, who planted their feet on the rock of eternal truth, and stood firm while the waves of prejudice, hatred and malice, inspired by the adversary, who was a murderer from the beginning, continued to advance until their blood saturated the soil. The same spirit is in the midst of the earth today. It has caused the taking away of the lives of these brethren. I remember distinctly the impressions that were made upon the minds of some of our people when they first learned of the organization of certain secret societies in the east, organized with the intention, no doubt, of taking life; and it is my strong belief and my firm opinion that the body which lies before us today, lifeless, is the result of the operations of the secret societies which, we have been forewarned, would be organized in the latter times. It may be that others will be called to wear the crowns of martyrs. Certainly that passage of Scripture which was read in our hearing today, would lead us so to think. But what matters it to us? We have received the testimony of Jesus. We have received the light of the everlasting Gospel. We have received that which will give us influence and power and dominion and glory and endless happiness. Why, then, should we care for the lengthening or shortening of our days here in this mortal condition. If we are faithful and true to God, and can die with the harness on as Brother John H. Gibbs did, it will be well with us. If we can meet death as he met it, while in the line of his duty, and in the full love of God, our salvation will be sure. Had he not been successful as a preacher of righteousness, there would have been no disposition to take his life; but the fact that he had brought forty-one souls to baptism, through which they were made citizens of the Kingdom of God, created the malice that could only be satisfied or checked by the shedding of precious blood. It is not for us to mourn over things ordained as a witness that God is with us. The cords of Zion are being lengthened, her stakes are being strengthened, and the Kingdom of God is gaining day by day, and year by year in the midst of the world. Satan will contest the ground inch by inch. We may expect to meet him in every form, at home as well as abroad. We should, therefore, be diligent and faithful, prudent, humble and wise. We should in all things be faithful to God, our heavenly Father. We should consecrate ourselves, our time, and all we have unto Him, holding ourselves ready to fulfill missions in every part of the habitable globe. If the world imagine that the killing of our brethren will have a tendency to stop the progress of the everlasting Gospel, they are much mistaken. They have tried that before. When Cain lifted up his hand and slew his brother, he thought, no doubt, that it would stop the progress of righteousness. And so with those who slew Joseph the Prophet; so with those who crucified the Savior. It has always been the tactics of the adversary of righteousness, he has always sought to destroy life; but instead of this having a tendency to retard the progress of righteousness and truth, as the wicked expect, according to the testimony of those who labor at home and abroad, it has a contrary effect. And I am well satisfied that the blood of these brethren will have in its effect the same result as that produced by the blood of Brother Standing, who was slain in the State of Georgia. Many people will be led to inquire about a religion the advocacy of which costs life, and thus through their death many may be brought to a knowledge of the truth, and obey the Gospel, that otherwise might not. And I feel without lengthening my remarks to say, God bless the wife and children, relatives and friends of the departed. It is well with him. We have here but the casket. The jewel, the spirit, is in the paradise of God, associating with those who, like him, have died martyrs to the cause of truth. May the peace of God rest down upon all the people throughout Zion. I pray that we may be more faithful, more devoted to the cause of truth in the future than we have been in the past. I can say that I am satisfied that in no sense will the taking away of these brethren retard the progress of the work in the world. Our young Elders will not be less willing to go and preach the Gospel in the future than they have been in the past. They will be willing to go to the State of Tennessee if they are called to go there, or to any state in the Union; for they fear not those who can kill the body, but him only who can destroy both body and soul in hell. This is the feeling of every true Latter-day Saint. We have no disposition to rail against those who did this bloody deed, for they are in the hands of God. Where He dwells they never can come, worlds without end. They will be numbered among the murderers, liars, etc., outside the gates of the holy city. Let peace rest upon the people. May the blessing of the Almighty abide with the wives and children of the departed. Let our hearts mourn with them as far as it is consistent with the lives of Latter-day Saints. Let us in the future bestow upon them, in memory of the departed, that attention which is due to them by reason of the departure of their husbands and fathers, and thus show by our works that we are the friends of the widow and orphan.

Elder George F. Gibbs next addressed the congregation. He said: I have desired, my brethren and sisters, to offer a very few remarks to endeavor to express some feelings that have crowded themselves upon my mind since the arrival of the body of my brother. I will here re– mark that from the first news we received that he was among those who were slain, nothing but a peaceful feeling has animated the breasts of his family and immediate friends. So in this respect I am thankful to say, I am in perfect accord with the remarks which President Cannon has offered. There is one thing, however, which has touched me very keenly, and that is the honor which has been shown to my brother in connection with those who fell with him. And here I would say that we are not unmindful of the fact that it is not because it was the body of John H. Gibbs, or “Johnny” Gibbs as he was familiarly called, but because he was among others who represented the cause of God in the earth. All along the line until our arrival here great honor and respect have been done him. Flowers have been put upon the casket by hands unknown to us. Today, a decoration in the shape of a crown, was placed on the casket. I was impressed with a peculiar feeling when that particular decoration was presented, a feeling that led to the inquiry, Is my brother really worthy to receive this token of honor conferred on the Holy Priesthood? To do justice to the feeling that prompts this inquiry, I would say that from intimate conversations I have had with him I am gratified to say that I do firmly believe that in his simple and humble way he does merit the honor thus conferred upon him. And I would also say I am satisfied with my brother’s life, and am honored in his death. We are not unmindful of the fact that it has cost money to bring the remains of my brother here. We are not unmindful of the fact either that it required courage on the part of our brethren, Brother Roberts and others who assisted him, and we gratefully acknowledge the services done us in this respect. We thank President Taylor, as the representative of the Church, for using his influence, and the means of the Church, to have this done. In conclusion, I thank God my Heavenly Father, that my brother is only one among hundreds and thousands of others, who are ready to go forth and represent the truths of heaven amidst danger and at the sacrifice of life. It was soon after the Anti-Mormon league in Cleveland was formed, that my brother wrote and told me that the influence of that league had reached the Southern States. He stated that he had met that influence in conversation with and in the presence of mobocratic men, and I have no doubt whatever as to the correctness of Brother Thatcher’s remarks in this respect. I pray God to bless the faithful; I pray God our Heavenly Father to bless and sustain His Holy Priesthood and direct them, and that we, my brethren and sisters, may know enough to follow and do as we are bid. This is my humble prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.

President John Taylor was the next speaker. He said: It makes me feel sorrowful to see a gathering similar to that which we now witness, and to know that good men’s lives are not safe from the attacks of religious bigots and men who are governed by wrong influence. I and a number of my brethren have been traveling quite extensively through some of our Northern Stakes. We arrived last night in Logan a good deal fatigued with our labors, for we have visited, I think, if not every settlement, nearly every settlement in the northern Stakes since we left home, and we had planned to have the various settlements in this end of the Stake of Cache visited today. I had proposed myself to take a little rest; but on hearing of this event I felt a strong desire to unite my sympathies with those of the bereaved, for there were several emotions that agitated my mind; first, to express my feelings of grief for the perpetration of such terrible acts, then to condole with the family in their poignant grief; mingled with this was a feeling of joy and satisfaction pertaining to the destiny and to the present position of the deceased. All things are not as they appear to us. God has certain inscrutable designs and purposes to bring to pass in the earth. He has set His hand to accomplish these things, and many of you that are here and now hear my voice, have become the honored instruments in the hands of the Lord, of proclaiming those principles which God has revealed in the interests of our common humanity in the world in which we live. Those principles though fraught with the truths of eternal intelligence, eternal life, and all the blessings associated therewith, are not comprehended by the human family. But that makes no difference to us. We have our labors to perform, and we propose to accomplish that which God has designed in relation thereto, in the interests of our fellow men, who are the children, all of them, of our Heavenly Father, for He is the God and the Father of the spirits of all flesh. Furthermore, He has given to every man of every color, of every nation, and of every creed, and to people of no creed—He has given to them all a portion of His Spirit to profit withal. But many of them give way to other influences and yield obedience to the powers of darkness, as you have heard stated, and when men give themselves up to these influences, and quench that better feeling which God has planted in the bosom of all men, they by and by become prepared for any and every spirit that may present itself to their minds; especially do they follow a spirit of antagonism to God our Heavenly Father, and to those who espouse His cause, and who are really the best and most philanthropic people that dwell upon the face of the earth—a people who go forward with less selfishness, and with a more single eye to the glory of God, and to the benefit of mankind, than any other people who tread the footstool of our Heavenly Father today. It is, as Brother Gibbs has remarked, an honor to be engaged in a work of this kind; and despite the powers of darkness, despite the enmity of man, despite the schemes of oppression that are set on foot by men who ought to know better, despite the various evils that exist in the world, we still possess the same sentiment that was enunciated by Jesus, and would like to proclaim it to all nations, “Peace on earth and good will to men.” But men can only obtain permanent peace by following after righteousness, by being governed by the principles of truth, by associating themselves with God our Heavenly Father, by acknowledging His hand, and by submitting to His law, to His rule, to His dominion, and to His authority. Hence Jesus taught His disciples to pray—“Thy kingdom come.” Why? “That Thy will may be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” And these are the principles which we as a people are trying to promulgate among the nations of the earth under the command of the Great Eloheim, who has told us, as He told His disciples in former years, to proclaim this Gospel unto every creature, and it was in obedience to that command that this our beloved brother met his fate. That is all right—all right so far as he is concerned. As has been said, it is of very little account to many of us whether our lives be long or short on this earth, but it is a very grave consideration whether these lives are spent in the service of God or not. Those who have done like Brother Gibbs and Brother Berry, his fellow martyr, brought many to a knowledge of the truth, shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Therefore, being the friends of God, God is their friend. Paul, in reflecting upon these principles said: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” And who else? “Not to me only, but unto all them also that love” the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Brothers Gibbs and Berry have gone to those souls that Brother Cannon read about in your hearing—souls that are beneath the altar. They cried out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” That was uttered years and years ago, when John the Revelator was banished as a slave to the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, the same testimony that has been delivered by these our brethren, and for which they have suffered. It was said of John, that he was dipped into a caldron of boiling oil, but they did not take his life, for God was with him, and God sustained him, as He did the three Hebrew children when they were cast into the fiery furnace, and the lambent flames that played around them ceased to have power to burn. So John was preserved. But he, under the inspiration of the Almighty, and filled with the light and intelligence of heaven, could gaze upon the position of things in the eternal worlds, and saw the souls of those who had been slain for the testimony of Jesus, and the word of God, etc. They were told that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. God is manipulating things in His own way. His purposes are rolling forth. He is moving in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. His servants who have been called to lay down their lives, will come forth with crowns upon their heads and reign upon the earth. Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” When the wickedness and corruptions of men shall have provoked the anger of the Almighty in these latter days as they did in the days before the flood, the Lord will come out of His hiding place to vex the nations of the earth, and then there will be a time of trouble, a time of sorrow such as has not been from the beginning of the world, and we are told, never shall be again. Men may think they can trample upon human rights and upon correct principles, and do things which are contrary to the law and order of God, and to the principles of truth, integrity, equity, justice, and righteousness; but they cannot do this with impunity, for the Lord has said that He will smite the wicked, and with the breath of His nostrils He will slay them. The earth shall be emptied of the wicked, and a place prepared, in the due time of the Lord, for those who fear Him, as He has designed from before the foundation of the world.

And in regard to these matters, I feel sorry for this sister, the wife of the deceased. I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for her little family and for the family of his fellow sufferer. What shall we do? We will help take care of them, will we not? I think we will. And we will talk more about some of these matters at another time. We sometimes pray for the Lord to bless the widow and the fatherless. Now there is an idea which I have always entertained, and that is, I never would ask God to do a thing that I would not do myself; and we shall have to contrive in some way for the accomplishment of this object. About Brother Gibbs who lies there—that is all right: I might have lain in the same position a good many years ago, if it had been the will of God, but it seems it was not. I was shot at, and hit oftener than Brother Gibbs; but my life was preserved; God protected me. I was with Joseph and Hyrum when they were murdered in Carthage jail, and I never was sorry that I was there. I would not have been absent from a scene of that kind. I would not want to forsake my Brother or Brethren in difficulty; never. Well, what of it? Suppose I had been killed as Joseph and Hyrum were, why, I was in very good company. Joseph and Hyrum were servants of the living God, and I was trying to serve Him in my humble way. And if we had all been killed it would not have made much difference: would it? I suppose it was necessary for me to stay a little while longer; all right; and I am willing to stay as long as the Lord wants me, and to go whenever He wants me. But I, in common with Joseph and Hyrum and Brother Gibbs and others, have within me the principles of eternal life. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter days on the earth, and these eyes shall behold Him. I know that God rules and reigns in this nation and among the nations of the earth, and that He will direct all things, according to the counsels of His will. I know that the work which God has commenced in these last days will continue to go forth despite the powers of darkness and all the fiends of hell. Though they are arrayed against it, God and the hosts of Heaven are on the side of Israel, and Israel will prevail. This work will continue to spread and increase until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our God and His Christ, and He will reign forever. It is for us as Latter-day Saints, to live our religion, to observe the laws of God, to be humble, faithful and diligent; to be men of honor, truth and integrity; to seek to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are His, and to perform any labor that He may require at our hands, that when we shall get through with the scenes of time and sense, we may inherit a crown which is incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens for us. So we will not mourn like those who have no hope, but we will put our trust in the living God. And I say unto the widow of the deceased, God bless you, and God bless your children, and God bless all the honest in heart who are trying to fear God and work righteousness; and instead of feeling enmity in our hearts towards our persecutors and those who seek our lives, we will try to entertain the feeling that burned in the bosom of Jesus, who, when expiring upon the cross, cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” But God will not forgive all these men who permit and perpetrate these wicked and atrocious acts. They will have to pay the debt which they have contracted. It is for us to go on, and perform the various labors and duties that devolve upon us. God has blessed us with many blessings. He has blessed us with the rich blessings of eternal life. He has brought us into covenant with Himself. He has taught us how to save ourselves, our wives, our children, our posterity and our progenitors, and He will teach us many more great and precious principles associated with the Gospel of the Son of God.

After what has been so well said by others, time will not permit me to protract my remarks.

I am happy that it has fallen to my lot to join with you in these funeral services, and I am much pleased to see so large a gathering to pay respect to the memory of the honored dead. I am also very much pleased at the action which has been taken by Brother Joseph F. Smith and his brethren who have recommended that memorial services be held today in all the different Stakes of Zion; so that while we are meeting here, the tens of thousands of Israel are meeting all through the land, and thus we are showing, as Brother Gibbs has remarked, respect for the memory of the dead.

I also most heartily sympathize with the Condor family who have suffered such a heavy bereavement in Tennessee. And I should have been pleased to have made some further remarks upon this subject, had time permitted; suffice it now to say that they have mingled their blood with those honorable men who have died for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God.

Brother Gibbs has referred to the means furnished to bring the bodies home. That is all right. I was out of reach at the time—that is out of the road of the telegraphic lines—but I was very much pleased when I learned of the arrangement that had been made; with which I heartily coincide. That is a matter of duty always to look after the living and after the dead, to look after the widow and fatherless, and to fulfill all the duties and responsibilities devolving upon us. God bless you and lead you in the paths of life; and I pray God the Eternal Father that when we shall all of us have passed away from this earth, and when the resurrection trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, that we may so have lived, that like our Brother, we will come forth, in the first resurrection, and participate in the reward of the just in the Celestial Kingdom of our God, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

President George Q. Cannon again arose and said: Before closing our memorial services, I think it but proper, and indeed I intended, if my mind had not been led off in another direction—that is if I spoke at all—to have alluded to the young men Martin Condor and J. Reilly Hudson, who were killed at the same time that our brethren were killed, and also to Sister Condor, who was wounded. These young men, so far as I can learn, have behaved heroically, throughout all the persecutions to which the Elders have been exposed in that region. I am told they have accompanied the Elders upon a number of occasions ready to defend them to the best of their ability, and have been willing, apparently, to risk their lives in defense of the Elders, who have brought them the truth. They have also fallen victims of the hellish hate of the adversaries of truth, both of them being shot and killed, and I feel that their names should be had in honorable remembrance in Zion, as well as the name of their mother and of their family, for their kindness and their bravery, in the cause of truth, and their names should not perish nor be forgotten; and in days to come, when opportunity offers, services should be rendered for them, that they cannot render for themselves; those ordinances which God has provided for the salvation of His children, they should be attended to in their behalf. I trust their memories will live, and their names be handed down in honorable remembrance with the names of our brethren who left here as missionaries. Though they were new converts, comparatively speaking, yet they have shown all the zeal, all the devotion, and all the courage for the truth that could be expected of those who had lived for years in the Church. One of them, I think, is said to have been only 19 years of age—Martin Condor—and I pray God to bless that family, bless those who survive, and have them in remembrance today; that as we remember our brethren who went forth from our midst, as bearers of life and salvation, so may we remember the others in common with them. Also Mr. Garrett, who lived on the same creek, and in the same neighborhood, where Brother Jones, I believe, was stopping at the time of this dreadful occurrence. He also should have our blessings and be had in kindly remembrance in our midst.

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in Smithfield, Cache County, Saturday morning, August 23, 1884.

We are in a very peculiar position as a people. Our position is unlike that of any other people upon the face of the earth that we have any knowledge of. God has communicated His mind and will unto the children of men, and it has been made known unto us. Others have heard it as well as we; but we are distinguished from them by our reception of this word, our willingness to obey it, and hence we are gathered together as we are in this place and in other settlements which the Saints have formed, not for the purpose, in the first place, of making money and bettering our condition, but for the purpose of keeping the commandments of God and walking in accordance with the revelations that He has given unto us. We have been gathered together by extraordinary displays of power. The world has not seen and cannot see these manifestations, for the reason that their eyes are closed by unbelief, and their hearts hardened from the same cause. God’s providences are not perceived by them. They do not distinguish the hand and the power of God in the events that are taking place. Nevertheless, we have been gathered together. Everyone who is here that has been brought from the nations has been brought by the manifestations, it may be said, of miraculous power. He has accomplished in our case or cases, that which has been foreseen by the holy prophets from the beginning. It is a most wonderful work, the gathering of this people together, as they are here this day in these mountains. The manner in which the spirit of God has been poured out upon the people who have received the Gospel, and the manner in which they have been moved upon to forsake their old homes and their old associations, and part with their friends and relatives, and move among a people with whom they were not acquainted, and to a land of which they had but a little knowledge—this is the wonder that is being wrought in the midst of the nations of the earth. Many people ask for miracles, and they plead with the Elders when they go out to show them a sign to prove to them that they are indeed the authorized servants of God. That which we behold in these mountains today is one of the greatest signs, is one of the greatest miracles which has ever been seen or exhibited among the children of men. You may read all the records that we have, either sacred or profane, and there is nothing that approaches this work in which we are engaged, and that which has been accomplished by the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the people among the various nations. Where in the history of our race has there been such a thing taken place as that which we witness? Where from the beginning has a people been gathered out from all the nations of the earth—moved upon by one common impulse, a simultaneous impulse, an impulse of the same character, impelling them in every land where they have received the everlasting Gospel, to gather to a strange land as the Latter-day Saints are being gathered to this land? No magnet ever drew or attracted to itself that to which it has affinity, with greater power than has the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ drawn to it from the midst of the various nations those who have an affinity for the truth. It has been irresistible in its effects. No sooner has the sound saluted the ears of the elect of God throughout all these United States, throughout Canada, throughout the various islands of the sea, upon the continent of Europe, and in far-off Asia, Africa and Australia—no sooner have the glad tidings of salvation been proclaimed by the servants of God, under the auspices of the Almighty, than there has sprung up in the hearts of those who have thus heard the truth an irrepressible and irresistible desire to leave their native lands, and to identify themselves with the people of God in these remote regions, in these Rocky Mountains. To me, when I look at it, this seems the most wonderful work that has been accomplished among the children of men from the beginning. There is nothing that we can read of in God’s dealings with the children of men that compares in magnitude and in its wondrous effects with this work with which we are identified. And yet men ask for an evidence respecting the truth of this work! They ask for signs and miracles, as though there is any miracle which could be wrought in our sight that would compare in the very least degree with this great and miraculous work that is being wrought under our very eyes, and which we ourselves are helping to bring to pass. It is not as though the people of one nation were gath– ered out, or the people of one locality were moved upon; but in every land, in every language among every race and in every nationality throughout the entire earth, from pole to pole, from east to west, from north to south, wherever the Elders of the Church have carried this Gospel in the last days, and the sound thereof has saluted the ears of the children of men, they have been moved upon in this most extraordinary manner, and have traversed sea and land, without hesitation, without faltering, without doubt, and have come and associated themselves together in the place that God has designated as the place of gathering. Most wonderfully has God fulfilled the promises which He made in ancient days to His servants concerning this latter-day dispensation, and most wonderfully has He poured out His spirit and His power upon the inhabitants of the earth to cause them to contribute by their actions to the fulfillment of these remarkable predictions that were uttered thousands of years ago. There is not a Latter-day Saint within the sound of my voice this morning who has been thus moved upon but is a witness for God in this matter, and is a living evidence of what God has done and is doing, because each one knows the character of the influence that has operated upon his or her mind to bring to pass this action which has resulted in the gathering of themselves and the rest of the people together.

Now, my brethren and sisters, there has been a purpose in this. God has not come Himself from heaven and revealed Himself with His Son Jesus Christ for naught. God has not sent angels from heaven for naught. God has not poured out this Spirit to which I have referred upon all the inhabitants of the earth who have been willing to receive the truth for naught. There is a purpose that is as old as man himself, and as the earth itself, in thus bringing us together in this capacity in these valleys, and that purpose has not been that we should break the laws of God, or that we should become identified again with the world from whence we have been gathered. That certainly has not been the object that God has had in view in accomplishing these great works; but it has been that we should become a distinct people, a peculiar people, a people whom He could use according to His mind and will, and through whom He could accomplish His mighty, His marvelous, and His wondrous purposes. That is the object He has had in view in bringing us together—to separate us from Babylon. It is for that purpose that the spirit has rested upon the people, under the influence of which they have gathered out to these valleys, so admirably adapted as a home for the Latter-day Saints, so secluded from the rest of the world that they have been reserved until this late day for us as a people to inhabit. If God had designed otherwise He would have let us remain scattered among the nations of the earth; He would never have gathered us out; we would never have had that spirit resting so powerfully, and, as I have said, so irresistibly upon us; we would have remained in the lands where the Gospel found us and our fathers; we would still be connected with the people from which we have been gathered. But this was not the design. Plainly written, as plainly written as the sunlight which we behold, has been the design of our God in connection with the gathering of this people, a people separate from every other people on the face of the earth—a God-chosen people, bearing His name, having within us the Holy Ghost that He has poured out to make us His people—distinct from every other people and nation—composed of people of every nationality, yet blended together by the power of the Holy Ghost, and made one people with a oneness that is not known among peoples or nations of one common origin.

Ought we not, in view of these facts which are so well known to us, with which we are so familiar—ought we not to place ourselves in the position and continue to operate in the position in which God designs? Shall we resist these wonders that are wrought in our behalf? Shall we, having been thus elevated and gathered together, be intractable and resist the purposes of God which are so definitely and so wonderfully made manifest in our own experience? If we do, then condemnation of the most dreadful character will rest down upon us; because we cannot say that we have been ignorant of what God has done. As I have said, each Latter-day Saint who has been thus gathered, has a testimony within himself and herself, that this work is from God; that man did not create this desire within us to gather together and to become identified with the people of God. It is not a spirit that came from man; it is not a spirit that diffuses itself throughout the earth at the command of man; but it has come from God Himself; it has descended from Him and rested through His power upon all who have received it, and each one who has been thus gathered is a witness of this. We should, then, place ourselves continually in the position that God designs we shall act in, and be submissive to His will.

We have a foe opposed to us that is the most wily, that is the most cunning, that is the most determined, that is the most unscrupulous, that can be imagined, and that foe is one who was once a great angel holding authority in the presence of God. He was our brother, sitting side by side with our Redeemer, having equal opportunities with Him. But he rebelled. He turned against the Father, because he could not have his own way. He determined that he would overthrow the throne of his Father, and engaged in a rebellion to destroy his plans, and because he was not successful he has sought from that day until this day to destroy the work of the Father, and not only to destroy the work of the Father, but to destroy every-one who would listen to the counsel of the Father. Over this earth he has wielded for generations great sway: his dominion has been almost unquestioned, and he has imagined that he would gain supremacy in the earth, and be successful in preventing the Father from fulfilling his designs concerning the earth. Therefore, he has sought by every means within his power to destroy the work of the Father. He has shed the most precious blood which has coursed in the veins of mortal man to accomplish his purposes. He has filled the earth with lies. He has circulated every abominable thing. He has stirred up the children of God one against the other, and has inspired them with the most deadly and hostile sentiments against everything that is holy and pure and godlike. It is only a few days since, inspired by his wicked spirit, innocent brethren of ours were cruelly slain, and if he had the power he would sweep this entire people from the face of the earth. If he could, he would destroy us all, as those Elders were destroyed two weeks ago in Tennessee. It is because he has not the power that he does not do it; it is because our Father and God checkmates him, and restrains him, and overrules his acts that he does not do this. The disposition is there, the willingness is there, the murderous spirit is there, everything is there that is necessary to accomplish this except the power to do it, which God in His providence withholds or controls, so as to prevent its exercise. We know this. The experience of 54 years has taught this to us. We have this kind of a foe to contend against. In view of this, what should be our course? Perfect, implicit, unquestioned obedience to our Father and God. What should be the course of every Latter-day Saint? We should not by thought, by word, by action, by any example, by any influence, lend any assistance to this being that is opposed to our God, and who is our deadly enemy, and the deadly enemy of every son and daughter of God. It is for this purpose that we are gathered together. It is that we may be withdrawn from the influence of Satan. It is that our influence may be on the side of our God in establishing righteousness that we are gathered together. We could not operate in this direction with any degree of success if we were scattered among the nations of the earth. Our influence would be unfelt, it would be lost, it would have no effect. It is only by concentration, it is only by gathering together, that we can accomplish the designs of our Father and God. Look at us today. We do not number 250,000 people in these mountains, and yet where is the people whose influence compares with ours? Where is the people whose acts and whose movements attract the attention that do ours? But scatter us among the nations and what would our influence amount to? It would be unfelt and lost. But God has gathered us together, and He aims to make us a great people. He will preserve His Priesthood in the earth, and we shall be victorious over our enemies, and our children after us will inherit the land and the earth. We are laying the foundation of that kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and the Lord will at last reign undisturbed and unquestioned for 1,000 years. That is the promise of our God to us, and we are engaged in that work today.

[The above was delivered in Smithfield, Cache County, Saturday morning, August 23rd, 1884.]

Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in Hyde Park, Saturday afternoon, August 23, 1884.

Every means that it has been possible to use to prevent the Latter-day Saints having peace, and to prevent them enjoying in peace and gladness their religion and the blessings thereof, have been used by our enemies with the utmost care and the utmost determination from the beginning it may be said, but especially during the last 25 years. If our enemies could have their way, those who bear the Priesthood would have no voice in the instruction or direction of the people. Already, as you know, a determined effort has been made to strip us who bear the Priesthood, and who have been forward in keeping the commandments of God, of influence, the influence which has been justly earned during long and faithful service for the benefit of the people, and that attends the exercise of civil and political power. Our enemies thought that this would be a most excellent way of putting us under ban, and judging by the effect that it would have by the operations of such plans among themselves, they fondly hoped that success would attend their efforts, and that the influence of the men, whose fault in their eyes is that they bear the Priesthood, would immediately begin to wane and eventually be broken. This is the disposition of our enemies, who have placed all who have been most forward, as I have said, in keeping the commandments of God in a position where they could not vote, and where they could not hold office, and in this manner making them a proscribed class. They supposed that the young men of the community would rise up and take possession of the offices, throw aside the influence of the older and more experienced people, and inaugurate a new policy in the midst of the Saints. In this manner they hoped that they would redeem, to use their own phraseology—Utah, and that a new order of things would be instituted in the land. This was a very cunningly devised plan, and among other people might have been successful, but among the Saints of God, so far, it has proved utterly futile, and in fact has disappointed and it may be said disgusted the authors of the plan themselves. They have felt disgusted with their own efforts. There have not been wanting, however, some few persons who would have liked to join hands with our enemies in this plan. Such persons would not have been averse to having the men who founded this commonwealth, and who principally helped to make it that which it is today—the admiration of all unprejudiced people—relegated to the background, and a younger class, who would affiliate with our declared enemies, take possession of the reins of government in this Territory, and manage affairs, so that they would be more in accord with the general sentiments, as it is said, of the nation. This feeling has been confined to very few, and has not exhibited itself to any extent.

Notwithstanding every effort which has been made, I am happy to say that we today are still the free people we were. The leading men of the community have not lost their influence among the Latter-day Saints. The Saints as a body have stood firm in their determination to be guided by the counsel which God has had to give, and it is very delightful to see the feeling which there is among the Latter-day Saints in all the settlements that we visit, to see the union and the love that prevail, and the disposition to hearken unto the will of God as it is manifested by His Holy Spirit from time to time, through those whom He has chosen to lead and guide His people. There will be wanting no end of effort, however, to accomplish the ends which our enemies seek for. There is a great hatred among the children of men—and they do not themselves know why they have this hatred, but there is a great and undying hatred among the children of men against the Priesthood of the Son of God, a jealousy of the power that Priesthood wields, and in our Territory they are constantly seeking by every means within their reach to weaken the influence of the Priesthood, especially among the rising generation. It has been expressed—and frequently expressed—that they would rather see our young men drink, chew and smoke tobacco, gamble and commit whoredoms, and do everything of this kind, in preference to seeing them obedient to the counsels of God, through those whom He has chosen to lead the people. They would rather see this, because, as I have said, they do not know the spirit which animates them. They are not conscious that they are more or less the instruments of a secret and invisible power which operates upon them; that there are influences at work in their minds and around about them which they cannot see, but of which they are the mere tools, so to speak. This power—the power of darkness—is invisible to them. They do not understand this, but, they blindly fight against the power of God, and seek in every way to undermine the influence of the Priesthood of the Son of God. If they could get you to rebel against the Priesthood they would be suited. It would please them immensely if the Latter-day Saints would rise in rebellion against the God of Israel and against the authority that He has placed in His Church.

The struggle that is now going on, so far as this class is concerned, is to destroy the influence of the Priesthood. Our effort is to have the Latter-day Saints throughout all these valleys listen to the counsels of the Priesthood, to be obedient to the Priesthood. The issue is a plain one between us and them. They say they wish you to throw off what they call the yoke of the Priesthood. We say on the contrary it is not a yoke, it is not burdensome, it is a beneficent rule, it is a rule that is pregnant with blessings to the people, and that will bring great rewards to them if they will be obedient to it. This is our statement, and we appeal to the Latter-day Saints as witnesses in our behalf to sustain it. We know, and you know, every Latter-day Saint knows, that God in restoring the everlasting Gospel and the everlasting Priesthood to the earth has brought with them every blessing which man can in reason desire. We have been pleased from the beginning to listen to the Priesthood. Who that is old enough, that can recollect his baptism or her baptism, or their first association with the Church, and their first enjoyment of the truth, whose hearts do not burn today at the recollection of the feeling they had of the sweet and heavenly influence that came to them when they first became acquainted with the everlasting Gospel as preached by the Elders. There was, as it were, a new life opened before them, even the gates of heaven seemed to be opened to them, and they saw the Kingdom of God as they never had seen it, and never had understood it. Truths that they had read carelessly and indifferently, without comprehending them, came to their minds with an assurance, and with a strength and force and power that they never had comprehended previously. And has it not been a source of blessing from that day to the present to the faithful Latter-day Saint? Has not the Gospel come laden with benefits, laden with blessings, fraught with everything that would make men and women happy? Has it not brought peace to us, and joy to our souls? Has it not opened up the future in a light that we never beheld until the Gospel revealed it?

Mankind, at the reestablishment of the Church of Christ, knew nothing about the future. All was dark and gloomy. Death was indeed a leap in the dark to the great majority of mankind. But when the Gospel came it revealed the future. It revealed to us why we were here, and the design God had in view concerning us. Men and women look forward to it, or contemplate it, when brought face to face with it, with resignation and with a degree of joy, because they know they are going to a reward that is assured to them. And so with everything connected with the future. The prospects of the future are made bright and glorious through the revelations of the Gospel, and it has brought, as I have said, peace to our hearts, peace to our habitations, it has made life enjoyable to us. It is most delightful to contemplate existence in the light of the Gospel, and the associations that we have here now through the Gospel, and through the exercise of the power and authority of the Priesthood.

So it is with everything connected with our lives. Let us glance at our temporal prosperity. Our enemies talk about what others would do for us, if they had the opportunity. But what have they done? Look at our cities, towns and villages; examine the manner in which the local government of this Territory has been conducted, the light taxation and every– thing in fact connected with our material progress, and to whom is the credit due for the blessings we enjoy? Is this credit due to those who are seeking to destroy the influence and power of the Priesthood? Certainly not. This settlement of Hyde Park, the settlement of Smithfield, every settlement in fact in this valley has been founded under the auspices or direction of men of experience, whom our enemies denounce, because they hold the Holy Priesthood of the Son of God. If we are lightly taxed, if we are out of debt, if our country is prosperous, it is due directly to the counsels of these men, whose chief offense in the eyes of our enemies is that they are God’s servants, whom He has chosen, and to whom He has given wisdom, to direct and manage affairs.

The prosperity which has attended our people is remarkable, more especially when we consider the yearly influx of poor people. I remember when I was in Europe, the four years I was there, upwards of 13,000 Saints were emigrated, the most of them coming directly to Utah. At present we have an emigration of 2,000 to 2,500 per annum, coming into this Territory from abroad—poor people. Why, there is not another population in the country of our numbers that could absorb so many people as our community does, without there being pauperism all over the land. But there is no pauperism. God has blessed the people in their fields, in their flocks, and in all their labors. They have been greatly prospered, and they will continue to prosper if they continue to listen to the voice of inspiration and hearken to the counsels of the Priesthood of the Son of God.

[The above was delivered in Hyde Park, Saturday afternoon, August 23, 1884.]

Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Bowery at Rexburg, Bannock Stake, Idaho, Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 17th, 1884.

I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with you in this place, of visiting your homes in these new settlements, and of striking hands and conversing with many of our old friends with whom we have been associated quite a distance from here, and some a very long distance indeed.

As Latter-day Saints we have gathered to these valleys of the mountains. We are assembled together for certain purposes associated with our own individual interests; in other respects for purposes connected with the welfare of our families, of our wives, our children, our husbands, etc. And then, further, we have gathered together as we have done in these mountains to comply with certain requisitions made by the Almighty upon His people in these latter days. We have come here in accordance with a message that he has communicated from the heavens to the inhabitants of the earth. These ideas and feelings are at the foundation of all our movements, of all our acts. We occupy a very peculiar position in the midst of these United States, and also in the world. We differ from others in a great many respects, in our ideas of God, in our religious sentiments, in our social views, and in our relationship with each other, and in many respects in all the leading characteristics of human life and existence pertaining either to this world or to the world that is to come. We assemble here as Latter-day Saints—for it is to these that I am speaking—and I understand the term Latter-day Saint is used in contradistinction to former-day Saints. The Church of Christ existed some 1,800 years ago, when Christ himself was its teacher. He came down from the heavens to teach and instruct the people in the ways of life. Those who believed in Him were baptized in His name for the remission of sins, and they had hands laid upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost. They were born of the water and of the Spirit, and were made new creatures in Christ Jesus. They were instructed in the principles of the Gospel, and they had placed among them Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists. We are told that these men were authorized by Jesus to preach the Gospel to all the nations of the earth. We are told that they were to tarry at Jerusalem, until they had received power from on high, notwithstanding all the teachings they had had from the Savior. What was that power? It was the gift of the Holy Ghost. Had they not received it? Not in the sense here implied. What, not those that had been with Jesus? No, I repeat, not in the sense here implied. Jesus emphatically told them that it was necessary He should go away; for if He went not away the Comforter would not come. He instructed His Apostles to teach certain principles that should exist and that ought to prevail among all the human family. But the people have departed from these things. The Gospel put them in possession of the Holy Ghost, which brought things past to their remembrance, led them into all truth, and showed them of things to come. The Savior explained the office of the Holy Ghost. It would enable those who received it to comprehend the past, the present and the future. It would draw aside the curtain of the invisible world, and they would be enabled to gaze through the dark vista of future ages and comprehend the purposes of God, as they rolled forth in all their majesty, glory and power. And then in the church, as I have said, there were placed Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, etc., for the perfecting of the Saints, and for the work of the ministry; that men properly qualified and endowed of God, by His Holy Spirit, and ordained and set apart by Him, might go forth as messengers of life and salvation to the nations of the earth. Hence they had their Twelve, their Seventies, their Bishops, and the various officers of the Church. This organization to which I now refer, existed 1,800 years ago, on the continent of Asia, and according to accounts given in the Book of Mormon, a similar organization existed on this continent. Here they had their Twelve, and these Twelve were commissioned to preach the Gospel as the others were on the continent of Asia. Jesus visited them here as He visited the others in Asia, and they were placed under His guidance and direction.

Now, what condition was the world in before the Gospel we now preach was introduced? Many of you older men here—there are not so many old men here as we find in some places—lived when the Gospel was not upon the earth. I did and many others did. Where could we find anything resembling that which was taught by Jesus? Nowhere on the face of the wide earth. Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers, etc., were nowhere to be found. Do I know this? I do know it, for I lived in the world at that time. I knew what was going on. I was mixed up with their teachers, and was well acquainted with the different societies and organizations. Did they have the Gospel as laid down in the Scriptures? No. I remember reading with very great interest the remarks of one of the Wesleys—I do not remember now whether it was Charles or John—in some poetry of his: “From chosen Abraham’s seed the new Apostles choose O’er isles and continents to spread the soul reviving news.”

He knew very well that they did not have Apostles, nor those officers that used to exist in the Church, and he felt it keenly, as did many others. I, myself, mixed up with a society of gentlemen before I heard the fullness of the Gospel, who were searching the Scriptures to find out the true way; for we did not find any men who professed to be inspired. We were told that all inspiration had ceased, and yet there were men professing to be called of God to preach the Gospel. Now, that is a very singular thing. How can a man be called of God, if God has ceased to speak? If a man is called of God, he must be called either by the voice or Spirit of God, or by somebody who is authorized of God, and knows something about His ways. If he does not receive his calling in this way, how is he going to get it? There is one other way—that is, if God has had a regular Priesthood upon the earth, unbroken, uncorrupted and uncontaminated, then it might come down from one to another through the different ages. The Church of Rome professes to trace its authority down from the days of the Apostles until the present. But unfortunately there is a Scripture that rather interferes with them and with others, namely: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” I will tell you what Joseph Smith told me personally. Said he: “You are going out to preach the Gospel, and if you can find a people anywhere as you wander through the world”—which I have done a great deal, traveled thousands, and I do not know but hundreds of thousands of miles, and mingled with all classes and creeds and con– ditions of men, religious and irreligious, professors and non-professors, Christians and Jews, Gentiles and all classes of people—“if you can find,” said he, “a people anywhere having the doctrines of Christ, you need not baptize them.” But I never found anywhere, wherever I went, any persons holding the doctrines of Christ as taught by Him, with Apostles and Prophets and inspired men under the influence of the Holy Ghost, and with an organization similar to that which was introduced by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I had to call upon all men everywhere to repent, for I could not find the kind of people Joseph said I need not baptize. Wesley and Whitfield, and going back still further, Luther, Melancthon, Knox, Zwingli, and many other reformers, started what are termed reformations. But what did they do in those reformations? Did they bring back the pure Gospel of Christ? No, they did not, and they did not profess to do it. It is left for some of their admirers to do that for them which they in their day never professed to do. What did they do? They tried to reform abuses that were in the church. Well, what was done by these people? What influence were they under? They were under the influence, more or less, of the Spirit of the living God. But they didn’t have the Gospel, you say? No; but they were not deprived of a portion of the Spirit of the living God on that account. It is a very great error for us to suppose that men throughout the whole world have not been under an influence of that kind more or less. We are told in the Scriptures that God has given unto all men a portion of His Spirit to profit withal, and many men who have followed that Spirit according to the light they have had, have done a great deal of good among men, among whom were Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, Wesley, Fletcher, and others in the various churches. Fletcher, I think, was a Church of England minister; so was John Wesley, and many others; then there were others among the Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, etc. They were good men. They sought to do good, and did do good; for he that doeth righteousness is righteous. They followed the leadings of that portion of the Spirit of God which is given to all men to profit withal. They operated in the interests of humanity; introduced many charitable institutions; made provision for the poor and outcast, the lame, and the blind; acted in a very liberal, kind and generous manner. I have known, in my travels, many ladies and gentlemen possessing large fortunes, who spent their time and their means in trying to promote the welfare of humanity. But was that the fullness of the Gospel of the Son of God? No, it was not. Was it right for them to do these things? Yes; for it is always right for all men to do good to their fellow men; to be moral, virtuous, honorable and upright; and notwithstanding the wickedness and crime that exist in these United States, yet there are thousands and millions of good honorable men who desire to do right; but they do not know the truth, and are led astray by men who know not what they say nor what they affirm. If these men had the Gospel with which is associated the gift of the Holy Ghost, it would lead them into all truth as it did in former days. And what is said of circumstances and events that shall transpire in the last days? We are told that it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall bring again Zion, that her watchmen shall see eye to eye. This will be the case when all the people of Zion live their religion, and comply with the requirements of the Lord.

Speaking of good men, I had several gentlemen call upon me just before I left the city. They were Jews. They came from London, or somewhere in that neighborhood. One of them professed to be a lineal descendant of the tribe of Levi, and of the house of Aaron, and I was told by part of the company that he held the legitimate right to the Aaronic Priesthood, and his name agreed with the records we have pertaining to these things. Well, these men were engaged in a very charitable enterprise. They had heard that we had some sympathies with the Jews, and desired to see me and have a talk with me on the subject. They told me about the terrible scenes that had transpired in Russia lately, and the heavy persecutions that their people had endured in that country. They and their friends had subscribed some 80,000 pounds (about $400,000) to assist their persecuted brethren in Russia, and had formed a number of colonies in the United States, and thus delivered a great many from their oppressors. They have purchased large tracts of land, and established their brethren upon them. I told them they had rather missed the place—that they should have taken up Palestine. That, they said, would be all right in its time; they could easily go from this country to Palestine when the time came. I talked with them about a good many principles. I talked about our temples, and said that they would have to build one at Jerusalem, and I told them that I had spoken to Baron Rothschild on this same subject some few years ago, and that he would assist in gathering the people. They said that he had given them some help in connection with the enterprise they now had in hand, and they supposed he would assist in the future.

I speak of these things to show the good feelings that exist among men in many instances. That was certainly a very charitable act for these men to be engaged in. They were Jews and not Christians, neither were they Latter-day Saints. Why, it would be a good work for an infidel to be engaged in—to do good to his fellow men and relieve the oppressed. That is what we believe in—to do good to all men, especially to the household of faith.

It is well for us to remember that we are not the only people God has on the earth. We are told that He is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. He is therefore interested in the whole of the human family. The Savior commanded His Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature. Why? Because the whole of the human family are the sons and daughters of God, and it was proper that they should have the principles of life and salvation presented to them. He has told us to do the same thing—to carry the Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people—and our Elders go forth, as they did in former times, without purse or scrip, trusting in God. And some of them get killed. We have heard of two being slain quite recently in these United States, where we boast so much of freedom, human rights, liberty of conscience, etc. Right in the State of Tennessee, this atrocious deed has taken place, and it is not long since one of our brethren was murdered in Georgia. We feel sorry for these things; but, then, we cannot help it. We cannot relinquish our labors in relation to these matters. It is enjoined upon us to preach the Gos– pel to every creature, and we propose to carry out these things as the Apostles did in former times. Lives may be sacrificed for the truth’s sake; but it makes no difference where we are if we are only engaged in the work of God. Jesus said: “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” I fear God, and know no other fear, and do not want to; and when men talk sometimes about what they will do and what they are going to do with the Mormons—“Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea”—it does not make our knees shake nor our heart palsy. We feel that we are here to do the will of God, and in the name of Israel’s God we will do it; we will, God being our helper. These are my feelings, these are the feelings of my brethren around me, and these are the feelings of all good Latter-day Saints who comprehend themselves and intelligently know the principles by which they are governed.

We have embraced the Gospel of the Son of God, and God has taught us how to organize His Church. Had He not taught us we should not have known anything about its organization. Joseph Smith knew nothing about it; Brigham Young knew nothing about it; I could not have known anything about it, nor any of the Twelve, nor any man living on the earth, until God introduced it and taught us in all these things. In addition to establishing His Church, He has told us to build up a Zion to His name, and we are gathering the materials together for that purpose. We have got our Stakes organized, and we have come here to help organize your Stake. Yesterday the High Council was organized. This is a body of men that exists in the Church and Kingdom of God. All Stakes must have such a Council that they may have a perfect organization among themselves. Then you have Bishops, Teachers, etc., whose duties you are familiar with, the same being laid down in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Brother Ricks here is your President, and with one or two exceptions, Bishops have been appointed in all the Wards, that everybody in the various settlements may be placed under proper government, and under the guidance and direction of the Almighty, according to the laws that He has introduced in His Church. For this purpose you have been taught to gather together in your towns and villages, and certain instructions have been given in regard to these matters. Before these instructions were given, Brother Preston and Brother Ricks were directed to come out and examine this land, and they found it was suitable for the settlements of the Saints. They were then requested by me to furnish a plan of the country, and also select places for cities and have them surveyed, to provide lots for meetinghouses, schoolhouses, Relief Societies and Mutual Improvement Associations. All of which they promptly attended to.

The Stake of Bannock was afterwards organized, as also a Presidency for the Stake. Town sites were selected and surveyed, and then the instructions which you have heard read were given by the First Presidency. We find you have a very good country, and are pleased to see you as comfortably situated as you are. It is hard struggling always to start new settlements. I am pleased, however, to find so many of our young men embarking in this enterprise; and by and by you will have a number of most beautiful cities in this portion of country. The land is quite productive, as was evidenced by the samples of oats, wheat, corn, turnips, etc., exhibited here yesterday. These things show you have got into a tolerably good country; and you have almost more water than you know what to do with; but when the time comes when all the land is taken up between these mountains, these streams will not be quite so big as they are now; you will be able to manage them a little better, for the earth will drink up a good deal of water. It seems to me your lines have fallen in pleasant places. Don’t be discouraged about anything. Everything is moving along all right. The great thing is to conform yourselves to the circumstances in which you are placed. There is one thing I have been very much pleased to learn. I requested Brother Preston, in talking about these things, to see that in the neighborhood of every town there should be a piece of ground set apart for the benefit of missionaries’ families; because we shall be calling upon the Elders here to go forth and preach the Gospel, the same as we are doing in other parts of the land of Zion. I asked Brother Preston to set a pattern here in this respect to the balance of the land of Zion, and then report to me, and I would call upon all other peoples in the land of Zion to do the same, that the families of the missionaries may have bread and other supplies, and thus be sustained and looked after, and not feel in any kind of bondage. Most of the missionaries, perhaps, would not be in needy circumstances, but if they should there will be something for their families and they will have no excuse to back out under these circumstances. And then we call upon the older men among the Seventies and High Priests and upon lots of the young men to attend to these matters, and thus promote the welfare of all.

And now we want to see you as Latter-day Saints, as quickly as circumstances will permit, get on to your city lots, and don’t be scattered abroad like so many stray calves. We want you to locate on your city lots, and in the mean time be preparing to build on them; for we must have beautiful cities and splendid habitations in the land of Zion. Many people begin to admire Salt Lake City; but we have done nothing there to what we intend doing. I have talked with Brother Ricks on the subject of building nice homes, and have suggested that you get some architect to furnish the plans of some pleasant cottages, and some more pretentious, according to the means and circumstances of the people. You may be able to purchase architectural books that will answer the purpose; but let us build beautiful homes. It is nearly as cheap to put up a good looking house, and one properly constructed, as it is one of those ill-favored affairs. Build your temporary homes well back in the lot, so that when you build again these will answer for kitchens, or it may be some of your boys or girls, till they can do better. But we want to see beautiful cities, beautiful houses and pleasant homes, and everything around you calculated to promote your happiness and well being.

And then we want to see you operate as one in all things. You fathers of families and you mothers, see to it that you dedicate yourselves and your habitation and everything you have to God, and that you live pure, virtuous, and holy and upright lives. See to it that you are men and women of God—children of the Most High God, and your offspring with you. And I tell you that the time is rolling on when Zion will become the praise and the glory of the whole earth. The time is coming and hastening on when, as one of the prophets predicts, people will say such and such a man was born in Zion—that is, the people of Zion will be so honorable, so upright, so virtuous, and so blessed of God, under the auspices of the Almighty, and the government which He will introduce, that they will think it an honor to have been born in Zion. We will fear God, and work righteousness on earth, and when we get through here be transplanted to the heavens until this earth shall be redeemed; for we shall again possess the earth when it shall be celestialized. God bless you all, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Remarks on Various Subjects by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho, Sunday Afternoon, August 10, 1884.

I will read a portion of the 84th Section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, commencing at the 14th paragraph:

“Which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah; “And from Noah till Enoch, through the lineage of their fathers;

“And from Enoch to Abel, who was slain by the conspiracy of his brother, who received the priesthood by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father Adam, who was the first man—

“Which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years.

“And the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.

“And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.

“Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.

“And without the ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh;

“For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.

“Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;

“But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory.

“Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also;

“And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel;

“Which gospel is the gospel of repentance and of baptism, and the remission of sins, and the law of carnal commandments, which the Lord in his wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until John, whom God raised up, being filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb.

“For he was baptized while he was yet in his childhood, and was ordained by the angel of God at the time he was eight days old unto this power, to overthrow the kingdom of the Jews, and to make straight the way of the Lord before the face of his people, to prepare them for the coming of the Lord, in whose hand is given all power.

“And again, the offices of elder and bishop are necessary appendages belonging unto the high priesthood.

“And again, the offices of teacher and deacon are necessary appendages belonging to the lesser priesthood, which priesthood was confirmed upon Aaron and his sons.

“Therefore, as I said concerning the sons of Moses—for the sons of Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the house of the Lord, which house shall be built unto the Lord in this generation, upon the consecrated spot as I have appointed—

“And the sons of Moses and of Aaron shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, upon Mount Zion in the Lord’s house, whose sons are ye; and also many whom I have called and sent forth to build up my church.

“For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magni– fying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.

“They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God.

“And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord;

“For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

“And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

“And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

“And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.

“Therefore, all those who receive the priesthood, receive this oath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved.

“But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come.”

These words that I have read in your hearing are found, as I have said, in the 84th section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They contain truths which are of great importance to us as a people, and truths which should be impressed upon our minds, and should not be forgotten by us. For in these words which the Lord has given unto us He has plainly foreshadowed the design that He has in view respecting this Church which He has raised up in the last days and this people unto whom He has given the everlasting Priesthood. In these words we are told the future of those who receive these two Priesthoods and magnify the same, and the glory which God designs to bestow upon them. He also gives unto us in plainness, the penalty which will rest down upon those who, after receiving this covenant, break the covenant and turn away altogether therefrom. Therefore to the Latter-day Saints this Gospel and this Priesthood come on the one hand, accompanied by great blessings and promises, and great power and exaltation, and, on the other hand, they come accompanied by dreadful penalties, by degradation and condemnation, greater than it would be possible for any being to reach unless he had had the opportunities which the Gospel and the Priesthood bring and afford. On the one hand we are promised in the plainest of all language that those who receive this Priesthood receive the Lord. For it is said:

“They who receive this priesthood receiveth me, saith the Lord;

“For he that receiveth my servants receiveth me;

“And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father;

“And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.

“And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood.”

Here is plainly pointed out to us as a people the future glory that God has in store for all those who receive and magnify the Priesthood. They are to receive the Father’s Kingdom, and if they receive the Father’s Kingdom, they are to receive all that the Father hath, for all that He hath will be given unto them. Can you conceive of this? Can any human being conceive of the immeasurable extent of the glory here promised—the immeasurable extent of exaltation here offered unto all those who receive the Priesthood of the Son of God, and who magnify it? It is impossible for mortal man to have the least conception even when his mind is enlightened by the Spirit of God—that is, the least conception compared with the immeasurable extent of the glory that is here promised. We can have some conception of it, we can have some foretaste of it, when we receive the Spirit of God, when it rests down upon us in power; but to conceive of the fullness of this glory is impossible for any being in this mortal condition of existence. When we understand these words and comprehend their full import we can understand how it was that Jesus when He was upon the earth sought to teach the people the greatest privileges which they had in connection with the Gospel which he bore unto them. The complaint of the Jews about the Son of God, was, that He being man made Himself equal with God. They had the same ideas, doubtless, in those days concerning God and man, that the sectarians of the world now have. God was a remote being, a being beyond their reach, far beyond their ken, and far beyond communication with them; therefore, they were ready to kill the Son of God because He enunciated the great truth that it was possible for man to attain unto God, and become like Him. Referring to the words of the Psalmist, where he said: “Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High,” he said, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” But they could not understand the doctrine which God has revealed—the eternal truth that He has communicated to us in the Gospel. But God designed when He led Israel out of Egypt to make of that people a royal Priesthood—a kingdom of Kings and Priests. He designed to lead them forward under the guidance of the everlasting Priesthood, the Priesthood after the holy order of the Son of God—to lead them forward until they should behold the face of their God and see Him for themselves. But they would not. They hardened their hearts. They could not endure His presence. Moses, despite all the power which God gave him, and the revelations which He poured out upon him—Moses could not succeed in leading that people forward. They were a stiffnecked race; they were a rebellious race; they were an idolatrous race; they were hard in their hearts; and they would not have God to be their King. They wanted a lower order of affairs; they wanted lower laws, laws that were more in accordance with their fallen and carnal natures. Therefore according to those revelations which God has given unto us, He took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also, and the lesser Priesthood continued, the Priesthood of Aaron, a Priesthood that held the keys of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel, the gospel of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins. He left that with them, and the law of carnal commandments which the Lord in His wrath caused to continue with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel until John. They were under this law during this long period. God raised up John as a forerunner to prepare the way for the fullness of the ever– lasting Gospel and the restoration of the Priesthood in its fullness, that Melchizedek Priesthood which Moses held, and through which he exercised such mighty power among the children of Israel. And it was God’s design—if the people would have submitted to it, if they would have received the message that He sent unto them through John and afterwards through His beloved Son—to have restored the Kingdom even to Israel, and to have built up the Kingdom in great power and glory upon the earth. But instead of receiving the Gospel and the Melchizedek Priesthood, they actually destroyed the Son of God. But before they destroyed Him, they destroyed the heir of the Priesthood of Aaron, John the Baptist, who was a direct descendant of Aaron, and by virtue of this descent held the keys of that Priesthood, and exercised the authority and power thereof among the Jews. Not content with rejecting the Son of God, they rejected even John, and the Aaronic Priesthood as well as the Melchizedek Priesthood was taken from the midst of the Jews, and they have remained without Priesthood from that day until the present time, even the Aaronic Priesthood having been withdrawn from their midst—the authority to officiate in the ordinances pertaining thereunto.

Now, this Priesthood which God has restored in these last days through Peter, James and John, is the Priesthood that continueth in the Church of God in all generations. The Church of God cannot be without it; for without it the power of Godliness is not made manifest to men in the flesh. A people can progress to a certain extent with the Aaronic Priesthood, but there is a limit to their progress. There are bounds beyond which they cannot pass. They cannot attain to the fullness of the glory of God the Eternal Father, without the presence of the Melchizedek Priesthood; for as I have read in your hearing, “This greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God; Therefore in the ordinances thereof,” [that is, in the ordinances of the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood] “the power of godliness is manifest.” This cannot be manifest without that higher Priesthood, without the power which accompanies it. “And without the ordinances thereof,” the revelation continues, “and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest unto men in the flesh; For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.”

Without this Priesthood, without its ordinances, without its powers, without its gifts, “no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.” Therefore it is essential that, if a people should be exalted unto the presence of God, they should have this Melchizedek or greater Priesthood, and the ordinances thereof, by the means of which they are to be prepared, or they shall be prepared to enter into the presence of God the Father, and endure His presence.

Now, Moses taught this plainly to the children of Israel in the wilderness. He endeavored to impress upon them the importance of so living as to retain this Melchizedek Priesthood in their midst—to so live as to conform to the law, or laws, and requirements of this Melchizedek Priesthood. Says the revelations, He “sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might see the face of God.” He wanted them to behold the face of God. You remember the expression he gave utterance to, when the Spirit of God rested upon the seventy Elders, and they prophesied. There were two of them that were not with the rest. They were in the camp and not in the tabernacle, yet they prophesied also. And Joshua, jealous for the honor of Moses, jealous because Moses was a Prophet of God, and doubtless afraid that these men were transcending their authority, asked Moses to forbid them. And Moses gave utterance to that memorable, that glorious expression: “Enviest thou for my sake? Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.” There was no jealousy in the mind of this man of God concerning his brethren having the spirit of prophecy, it excited no feeling in his heart to reprove them, or to check them, or to say to them that they were usurping some authority which belonged to him; no, there was no such feeling in his heart; for had he not sought to lead the people forward to enjoy that privilege? Had he not sought diligently to sanctify the people that they might behold the face of God? “Therefore,” said he, “would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” Would to God that not only the seventy Elders had the spirit of prophecy resting down upon them, but that every man in the whole hosts of Israel had that spirit in its fullness and in its power resting down upon him. “How easy it would be for me,” Moses could have said, “to lead this people if all were prophets! How easy it would be for me to guide these hosts, and to lead them into the presence of God, if the spirit of prophecy rested down upon them throughout all the camp of Israel.”

But they hardened their hearts and could not endure the presence of the Lord. “Go thou, Moses, and speak to God,” said the children of Israel, “and then tell us what God has to say: be thou mouthpiece, be thou God to us; we will be content with this, the face of God is too terrible for us. We desire not to enter into His presence. We shall be content to have thee give to us the word of God.” These were, in effect, their words, and their actions corresponded to these words. As Paul says, “Which voice (the voice of God) they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded.” Moses stood between them and God. They could not endure the presence of God. They hardened their hearts against it. Therefore the Lord in His wrath—for his anger was kindled against them, because of their hardness of heart, because of their rebellion—swore that they should not enter into His rest, that they should not attain unto the fullness of the glory that He had in store for them—that is, He swore that they should not enter into this rest while in the wilderness; which rest is the fullness of His glory. So He took Moses from their midst, and took with him the Melchizedek Priesthood; and thus terminated, so far as Israel was concerned, the reign of the Melchizedek Priesthood among them. Occasionally Prophets were raised up who did hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, ordained by God for special purposes; but the people were under the dominion of the rule of the Aaronic Priesthood from that time forward until the days of John.

Now, my brethren and sisters, it is of the utmost importance that we who live in this generation should comprehend that which God is doing for and designs for us. He has precisely the same future in store for us that He intended for our fathers in the wilderness. God designs to have us led in that path which will bring us into His presence. He designs that this whole people called Latter-day Saints shall have the laws of his celestial kingdom revealed unto them line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, until they are brought into His presence, until every man and woman and child who belongs to this Church shall be able to endure the presence of God and live, until by means of this Priesthood, this higher Priesthood, every man will be prepared to receive the fullness of the celestial glory, and this by obedience to law, not by hardness of heart, not by rebellion, not by rejecting the counsel of God through His servants, not by taking our own way; for notwithstanding all that is said by those who oppose us, and by the entire Gentile world in regard to the Priesthood of the Son of God in their opposition to it, these Latter-day Saints must obey the Priesthood of the Son of God, and be led by it in all things, or they never will enter into the presence of God our Eternal Father, never, worlds without end. God has placed this Priesthood in the Church for the express purpose of leading His people forward, just as Moses endeavored to lead the children of Israel forward by giving unto them His law, by revealing unto them His will, by instructing them in the things of righteousness, and leading them forward until they should attain unto the fullness of His glory.

Let us take these things to heart. Let us ponder upon them as a people. Let us purify ourselves with all our might, mind and strength. Let every man in his place and station seek to magnify that Priesthood that he may through magnifying it, attain unto those glorious blessings and privileges which God has promised.

God designs that this people called Latter-day Saints shall be a kingdom of priests and kings. He intends that the Melchizedek Priesthood shall be held by this people. He intends to preserve it on the earth, and those who attain unto this Priesthood, and magnify it to the renewing of their bodies, and to the receiving of the promises of God, will receive the blessings which God has promised—that is, they will receive all that God has to bestow, they will be joint heirs with Jesus and inherit with Jesus the glory of the Father, and there is nothing that the Father has that He will not give unto us, for all will be ours, everything we can conceive of—glory, immortality and endless lives—if we are faithful to the maintaining of our integrity and the keeping of our covenants, and the doing of the will of God in the flesh.

How important it is, then, brethren and sisters, that we should all be faithful during this probation; that we should walk humbly before our God; that we should obey every law and submit to every ordinance and apply everything that is taught to us to ourselves, and embody every principle in our lives as fast as it is taught to us, beginning with faith in the name of the Lord Jesus, and progressing from that principle forward by repentance, by baptism, by the laying on of hands, and by obeying the other laws and ordinances as fast as they are revealed, until we shall be prepared through obedience to law, and through the redemption which obedience always brings, to go back into the presence of God and the Lamb. We have entered upon an upward career. Let us press forward in that direction, adding faith to faith, adding knowledge to knowledge, adding gift to gift, adding power to power, until we shall behold the face of our Father and our God; and that will be granted unto us. It will be granted unto us to behold the face of Jesus; it will be granted unto us to have angels minister to us, and there is no blessing we shall not attain unto if we continue faithful to the Gospel, and to the covenants of the Holy Priesthood which we have received.

That God may help us to be faithful and lead us forward until we are brought back into His presence, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

The foregoing was delivered in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho, Sunday afternoon, August 10, 1884.

Remarks by Elder Charles W. Penrose, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, July 26, 1884.

I have been pleased in listening to the remarks of Brother Caine, who has just returned from Washington; glad to hear that his heart with ours is turned toward the truth, and that his desire, in common with ours, is to build up the Kingdom of God in the earth, and to contend for the rights which belong to us as American citizens. Some people seem to imagine because we have embraced a doctrine which is not popular in the world, because we have embraced a faith which is contrary to the generally received notions in regard to religion, that we ought to have no rights whatever as citizens of our common country. We do not look upon the matter in that light. We consider that we have the right under the Constitution of the United States to believe anything which seems right to us, and not only to believe it, but to carry it out in our practice, so far as we can do so without interfering with the rights of other people. The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States says: “Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” We understand that amendment as it is written. We do not wish to interpret it, or to give to it any meaning other than the plain language conveys. The language is, “That Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of religion.” With the establishment of religion, then, Congress has nothing to do. Congress cannot set up a religion, nor can it pass any law respecting an establishment of religion—that is, to prevent its free exercise. There are some people in these latter times who interpret that amendment to mean that people may believe what they please, but it carries with it no freedom of practice. People may believe what seems right to them, but they must not carry it out if it happens to be contrary to the views of the great majority. Now, it appears to me that that is a very narrow interpretation of the meaning of that Amendment to the Constitution. It appears to us, as it must to the great bulk of the people of the country—the sovereign people—that without any constitutional amendment, or the passage of any law, people everywhere are of themselves free to believe. We do not think a law can interfere with belief, even if one were passed for the purpose of interfering with it. A man’s belief cannot be controlled by any Act of Congress or of Parliament. No edict of a government or any other lawmaking body can interfere with my freedom of belief. When a proposition is placed before my mind, and I reflect upon it, and it appears to be correct, my mind receives it and I believe it. Sometimes persons believe in spite of themselves. Sometimes a man will believe a thing in spite of his own desires not to believe. Then this faith cannot be controlled by any person outside of the man himself, and sometimes he cannot control it himself. No edict or law, or any power of man on the earth can alter a man’s belief, or prevent him from believing. A law can be enacted to prevent the carrying of that belief into practice; but it cannot interfere with belief, and it needs no amendment to the Constitution, no enactment of Congress or of any lawmaking body on earth, to protect a man in mere belief. Then it is clear to us that the intention was, that a man should have not only the right to believe, but that he should be protected in the free exercise of that belief. As the language states, Congress is not to pass any law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise thereof. What is the exercise of belief in religion? Why, it is certain acts men perform prompted by their belief, prompted by their religion. Suppose a man believes it is right to be baptized in water—buried in water for the remission of sins—how can he evidence his belief in that principle? He can only do it in the way specified by the Apostle James. He says: “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” That is the only way in which faith can be truly shown—by works. If I believe that baptism is right I evidence my belief by being baptized, and if I am not baptized it either shows that my faith is very weak or that it does not exist: that I have not the courage of my faith, or else that I do not believe at all.

Now, we consider that we have a perfect right under the Constitution of our country to believe what seems right to us, and then to carry it out. “Well,” someone may say, “do you think there should be no restriction to this? Are people to be protected in any kind of religion they may have? Suppose a man were to come here from India who believed it a religious duty, under some circumstances, to strangle a man, would he have the right under the Constitution of the United States, to strangle? Again, there are people who believe it is right, in India, to burn a widow on the funeral pile, that her spirit may be sent to keep company with her husband in the other world. Would that person, or those persons have the right, under the Constitution of the United States, to carry out their belief in this country?” We say no. We say that the Thug has no right here to practice his faith. We say the Suttee could not be established in this country. “Why not? You believe it is right under some circumstances for a man to have more wives than one, and that those who thus believe are protected by the Constitution in the practice of their religion. Why should not those who believe it right to strangle, or to burn widows, have the right to practice their religion under the Constitution of the United States?” The dividing line is very simple, as truth generally is. It is very easy to be drawn. It is to be drawn in consonance with the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and with the principles that underlie our government. In the Declaration of Independence it is laid down that there are certain rights that cannot be alienated, that are natural, that are inherent, that are not imparted by governments: they do not belong to politics, but they are inherent in the individual—the right to life, the right to liberty, the right to property, and the right to the pursuit of happiness. These rights are inalienable. They belong to every individual. They are not conferred by law. They belong to us. They are born in us. They belong to every person who breathes the breath of life. Then, an act of any individual or any government which infringes upon these natural rights is wrong in and of itself. If any individual interferes with the rights of his fellow men he may be restrained by the secular law. The right to life, and to liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness, and to property belong to all individuals alike. One body of people professing one faith must not interfere with the rights of any other body of people professing another faith. The Latter-day Saints, as well as the Latter-day sinners, the Methodist as well as the Catholic, the Jew as well as the Gentile—all people alike in this great country must be protected equally in these natural rights which belong to them.

Here, then, is where the line must be drawn. Anything that persons profess to do under the name of religion, which interferes with the rights of others is wrong, and the secular law may step in and protect the citizens and restrain or punish those people who attempt to do this under the plea of religion. If I do anything which interferes with the life, the liberty, the happiness, or the property of my neighbor, the law has a right to step in and protect my neighbor and restrain me. But if my religion—that which I believe to be true, and which I try to carry out as a part of my faith—does not interfere with human rights, does not infringe in any degree upon the rights of my fellow man, neither Congress, nor any other lawmaking power on the face of the earth, has the right to interfere with me under the Constitution of the country. I have a right to the exercise of my religion so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of other people. There is where we draw the line, and we think it is the right place. And we are standing up, not only for our own rights in this respect, but for the rights of all people upon the face of this land. As has been said by Brother Caine, this afternoon, in passing certain enactments which infringe upon our religious liberties, the Congress of the United States is doing something that will come back upon the very individuals who have been trying to establish this principle or to enact these laws. Because, we may be the society or body aimed at today, and tomorrow another sect or party or body may be aimed at by the same enactments which are passed against us, and perhaps will hold good in both directions. It is a poor rule that only works one way. It may be found convenient today to single out the “Mormons,” because they are unpopular, for special legislation; but in a little time some other religious body in this country may have the same inimical legislation applied to them, to bear down upon them with greater weight than it does upon us. You cannot violate a principle of truth without receiving very bad consequences. Those who attempt to do that will be sure to reap the fruit of their labors at some time or other. And when the Congress of the United States commences to move away the foundation stones of the system that the fathers of this nation built up, they are working on very dangerous ground, and the consequences thereof will not be confined to the few people against whom these measures are made. It is the duty of every patriot, of every man who loves his country, and of every woman who loves her country, to do their part in preventing the passage of such enactments as these, and in vindicating the principles and doctrines which enter into the Constitution of our beloved country. So we are standing up not only for our own rights, but for the rights of others, and this is one of the duties enjoined upon us by our Heavenly Father.

We have been brought from the various parts of the earth into these mountain valleys that we may establish a system of religion which has been revealed from heaven, which our Heavenly Father has committed to us. We have not taken this religion from any of the sacred books that are in existence; we have not concocted this system from the Bible, or from any other religious work; but it has been revealed to us in our own day and time. God has broken the silence of ages. That same God that spoke to the prophets of old, whose record we have in the Old Testament, and who sent His Son Jesus Christ in the meridian of time to die for the sins of the world—that same God that inspired the Apostles of Jesus Christ in their great works has Himself spoken from heaven in our own day, and angels have come down from the courts of glory with a message of life and salvation for the inhabitants of the earth. This Church, this system, this organization to which we belong has not been set up by the wisdom of man, but has been set up by the power of God, by the command of the Almighty, and has been sustained by him up to the present time. All the efforts which are made to break it down will only tend to build it up. Every law the United States may pass with the intent to disintegrate this work, to divide the people, to crush the power that exists in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, will only tend to consolidate the people, to bind them closer together, to make their faith more intense, their convictions more certain, and to make their determination more persistent. That will be the effect. God is working with this people, and has worked with them from the beginning. And this, as we have heard this afternoon, is not a mere matter of faith. We have seen so many proofs of an overruling power, and manifestations of special providence, as a people and as individuals, in answer to our prayers, that we know that God lives, that God answers prayer, that God Almighty is with the Latter-day Saints while they keep His commandments and do His will, and that He will overrule for good all the evil which is intended against us.

This work is established for the purpose of bringing about His designs in regard to this earth upon which we live. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. The cattle on a thousand hills are His. The silver and the gold belong to Him, and the life of all mankind is in His hands. He is Lord over all, blessed forever, and it is His right to rule and regulate and control all things on the face of this globe. Jesus Christ His beloved Son has been here. He dwelt on the earth for a time and performed the work allotted to Him, by which he obtained all power and sits at the right hand of the Father; and the time is coming when He will stand on the earth, establish His government and dominion, extending it from pole to pole and from shore to shore, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and His Christ; not in some figurative, mystical, spiritual sense, but really and truly as a matter of fact. The Savior, as foretold by the prophets, came upon the earth literally and truly. He was hung upon the cross, and His spirit left His body. He was laid in the tomb, but He was raised again from the dead, not in a spiritual sense, or some mythical sense, but really and truly His body was raised from the dead. In that body He appeared to His disciples, and went up from their gaze, saying that in like manner he would descend again. And His promises are that when he shall come the second time, it shall not be as the babe of Bethlehem, despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; nor to be persecuted by His own, but that He shall come in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory to sit upon the throne of His Father David and reign and rule from the rivers to the end of the earth, so that all nations, kindreds, tongues and people shall serve and obey Him. Now, we look for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we expect it just as much as when the sun goes down we expect it to rise above the hilltops in the morning. And when He comes we expect it will be Himself—Jesus of Nazareth, our Elder Brother, the firstborn of God in the spirit world, the Only Begotten of God in the flesh. We expect that He will come and reign over the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we expect that all kingdoms, all governments, and all institutions that men have set up will be broken down, and as Nebuchadnezzar saw them in the vision which Daniel interpreted, they will become as the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, and be swept away, and no place found for them upon the face of the whole earth; because the Kingdom of God and of His Christ will prevail everywhere, and it will cover the earth. For it is the kingdom that was spoken of by the Prophets, and we are told that “the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens”—that is over all the earth, is it not?—shall be His kingdom and shall “be given into the hands of the people of the saints of the most High, and their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom.” Now, we expect the fulfillment of all these things, and when they come to pass they will occur just as they are written, like other prophecies have been accomplished. When Isaiah prophesied that “a virgin should conceive and bear a son” and that they should “call his name Immanuel,” the prophet meant what he said, and it came to pass; and all the predictions in regard to the second coming, as it is called, the second advent of the Messiah, and the establishment of God’s Kingdom and government on the earth, will be fulfilled exactly as the prophets have predicted. There is no need to mystify, nor to spiritualize, nor to explain them, they will come to pass word for word; for “heaven and earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the word of God shall pass away; it shall all be fulfilled.”

Now, this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to which we belong is established by the Almighty for the express purpose of opening up the way for the accomplishment of this great work. In this Church is the germ of that kingdom that Daniel saw. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, set up by the power of God, by the authority of the Most High, is exactly the same Church that Jesus Christ built up—that is, the same in all its essential principles; the same organization, the same kind of officers, the same doctrines, the same in its spirit, the same in its ordinances, the same in the power that attends those ordinances, doctrines, principles and commandments as were revealed to the ancient Church. It is governed just exactly in the same way that the church which Jesus Christ established when he was upon the earth was governed. Every principle which was taught by the ancient Apostles in their time is taught by the latter-day Apostles in their time. And the Apostles in our day have the same authority or Priesthood, as it is called, that the Apostles had in their time whom Jesus ordained; because those that held the keys of that apostleship in the earth in former times have come down to the earth, literally and truly, and ordained men to the same authority and apostleship which they held while living in the flesh. That is how the apostleship has been restored. That authority exists in this Church, and it will never be taken away again. That which is called by the Latter-day Saints the Priesthood, is the authority given of God to men to act in His name, so that what they do by His authority and in the way that He has appointed on the earth shall be acknowledged in heaven—that which they seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven and that which they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. It must be done as God directs, according to the revelations of His will. But this authority, this right, this power from God exists in this Church, as it existed in the ancient Church, because it has been actually restored by the very men who held the keys of it. And really, after all, it is that that the world is fighting. All these plans and schemes, all that legislation and these influences that are brought to bear on this Church, upon this system called by the world “Mormonism,” is brought to bear in consequence of the restoration of that power and that authority. It is the authority of the kingdom. It is here to stay. It is here to prevail. First it will preach the Gospel of the kingdom as a witness to all nations; it will then gather together the elect of God from the four quarters of the earth; it will build temples to the name of the Most High God in which men can administer in ordinances that pertain to the salvation of the living and the redemption of the dead. It will accomplish all that has been predicted by the prophets concerning the Latter-day Kingdom.

Now, this is the kind of work in which we are engaged. It has been introduced by the Almighty to bring about all those grand events that we read about in the writings of the old prophets that have not yet been fulfilled; there are a great many things contained in the Old Testament that people pay little attention to nowadays. They have an idea of things coming to pass in some spiritual fashion, or some mythical, mystical kind of way; they don’t know exactly how; and it is the business of certain men who are hired to preach the Gospel, to make mysterious explanations of passages of Scripture, which they manage to cover up, and succeed in confusing the people more than before the expounding was attempted. Nevertheless, all those predictions that refer to events that are to take place in the earth in the latter days will all come to pass as they are written, and this work, this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this thing called “Mormonism” has been introduced by the Almighty for the express purpose of bringing these things about; that is why it is universally opposed. All these different sects of modern Christendom are like the sects of heathendom, without communication from the eternal world. They receive no revelation from God. Their ministers have no authority except that which they obtain from their congregations. Many of them do not pretend to have any other, when you press them closely. They preach those tenets which the people believe and which are acceptable to the people—each minister of each sect preaching that which the members desire to hear. All these different sects contain many good people who are trying to do right, trying to serve God, and a great many others that are hypocrites. But as sects, as societies, as churches, they are not authorized of God. You can trace them all to their origin, and find that that origin is human in its nature. They have not come from God, they have come from men, some of them good men, perhaps. Men have met together and formulated creeds and organized societies, and these societies have grown and spread abroad, and after a while have become orthodox in the earth. At first they were persecuted and opposed, but as they grew in wealth as well as in numbers they made a name and a noise and became a power in the earth, and are recognized and understood as orthodox sects. But there is not one of them ordained of God. They are not set up by divine command, and their ministers have not been divinely authorized to preach the Gospel, nor to administer in the things of the Kingdom. There may be and no doubt are men among them preaching that which they believe to be true. But a man’s belief is not authority. A man may believe a thing to be right, but that does not give him authority to represent God in that matter. A man may believe it is right to sprinkle a babe and call that baptism. But even supposing it is right—though it is not—the fact that he believes it is right would not give him the authority to administer, because he does it “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” and he has no right to take these names upon his lips in vain, and he does take them upon his lips in vain unless he has been authorized to use these names. No man has any more right to use the name of Deity in the administration of an ordinance, without authority, than a common citizen, without authority, has the right to use the name and pretend to be the representative of the Government of the United States, or of Great Britain, or of Germany; not a bit. But men seem to think because God does not interfere, that they have a right to do a great many things that he never commanded, and do them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Now, as I said just now, the authority to administer in the things of God’s Church has been restored in the way that I have told you. That is why we claim the right in this Church to administer these ordinances, and that is why we lay down the broad assertion that outside of this Church there is no authority in the world to administer in the name of the Lord. If there is such authority, let those who claim to have it, show their credentials and prove where they obtained their authority from. Now, in this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints not only is this authority restored, and those same doctrines, principles and ordinances which were had in the early Christian Church also restored, but accompanying these are the same spirit and gifts and manifestations and power that existed in the ancient Church. And here is one of the great proofs of the truth of that which I have advanced to you: Wherever the servants of God connected with this Church and holding this authority go into the world—and they go out without purse or scrip and administer: there are no salaried preachers in this Church—wherever they go and proclaim this Gospel they tell the people that if they will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and repent of their sins, and be baptized for the remission of sins, they shall receive the Holy Ghost, through the laying on of hands; and that this Holy Ghost that shall be given to them is the same spirit exactly in its manifesta– tions, in its power, that the Apostles conferred upon the people by the laying on of hands in the early Christian Church, and that rested down upon the old prophets by which they wrote the things called scripture: the same spirit that Jesus Christ had without measure; that spirit that He gave to His Apostles when He breathed upon them and said: “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you * * Receive ye the Holy Ghost:” that same spirit that was upon them on the day of Pentecost; that spirit which manifested itself to the Church in Corinth by the gift of tongues, interpretations, visions, dreams, healings and miracles, and all those signs which Jesus Christ promised to them that believed. These are manifest in the midst of the Latter-day Saints; this spirit, this power, is revealed to them and communicated to them. Not merely to the Presidency and the Twelve Apostles, and other leading Elders, but to each individual, to every person who believes and repents and is baptized, and upon whom the hands are laid of those having authority from God to administer in His name. Now, these men might claim this authority and be impostors; for the world has been full of impostors, and there are plenty of them nowadays—religious impostors; these men might claim to have this authority, but they could not communicate this power, the Holy Ghost. But wherever people receive this doctrine, and obey it in the spirit of it, their testimony is, in every land, in every corner of the earth, wherever the servants of God have penetrated, that they have received for themselves by revelation, by the Holy Ghost from on high, a testimony that this work is the work of God, and that these men are His servants. That is why they are here. That is why they are gathered in these valleys of the mountains. They are here because they have received the truth, and a knowledge of it, because they have received the ordinances of the Church and obtained the power that accompanies them; because God has witnessed to them individually, that He has spoken from the heavens, that He has reestablished His Church, and that the time has come for the building up of the latter-day Kingdom and the establishment of God’s dominion in all the earth, and they are called to help in the work; not only the Apostles and Priesthood, but all the members of the Church are called to take a part in the work. And here we are, in these mountain valleys, bound together as a band of brethren—not by the power of man, not by the coercion of man, not by oppression, not by arbitrary rules, but by the spirit and power of the Eternal God, sent down from on high, which has been shed abroad universally upon the members of the Church. This is our testimony to the world.

We know that God lives. We know that there are “special providences” of God. We know that this work will prevail. We know that all these adverse plans and schemes of men, either from individuals or from nations, will only tend to roll on this work, and bring about the purposes of the Almighty in the midst of the children of men. That is why we have so much confidence. It is not because we think so much of ourselves. We do not profess to be a great people, except in our unity—in that we are great—except in our industry, temperance and sobriety, for we are a temperate, sober and thrifty people. Of course there are exceptions to this. There are men and women among us, like there are in all denominations, who will not hearken to good advice and do right. Notwithstanding the promise made by every man and woman that comes into this Church to be holy and righteous, true and faithful, and to avoid sin, there are some who will not be bound by their solemn obligations, nor abide their covenants with one another. And those who will break promises with each other are very likely to break promises made with God Almighty. But as a body we are a united, thrifty, temperate and sober people, and we try to do that which we consider to be right. We may make mistakes like other people: but as a body of people we are on the straight and narrow way, the one path to the celestial city, and we desire to turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. Those who walked in that path in ancient times were told by Jesus Christ that they would be opposed by the world, that the world would hate them. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” We have been called out of the world in the same way. We are called with a special calling, and we have a special mission to perform. There is not a soul in this Church but has a mission. We are called out of the world to be the people of the Lord, to be Saints of the Most High, to consecrate and dedicate ourselves body and soul, with all that we have—the fruits of the labors of our hands, the fruits of the efforts of our minds—to the work in which we are engaged, the work of the Great God in the earth, He using us as instruments. This is the kind of people we are. This is the kind of people the world are opposed to.

Now, in regard to that feature of our faith that they make so much fuss about—a right we claim under the Constitution of the United States, and against which laws have been passed in Congress, framed to prevent our carrying out the commandments of God in regard to our family relations—that feature seems to upset the equilibrium of our “Christian” friends. What is the matter? “Why, you believe in men having more wives than one.” Yes, some men, good men. We don’t believe that a bad man should have a wife at all. None but the good deserve the fair. And we believe that righteous men, virtuous men, men that would not improperly use any power or faculty of their nature, ought to be permitted to have wives and raise up a holy posterity and train their children in the ways of virtue, honesty and uprightness. We do not believe it is right for men to give way to their animal passions. We do not believe it is right to do so either in plural or single marriage or outside of it. We believe marriage to be an holy estate, ordained of God, with which Congress has not the right to interfere. It is a religious matter with us. It is a holy ordinance established by the Eternal Father. We claim that the women of the Church are the daughters of God, and God has some right as to their disposition. We do not believe it is right for a man to pick and choose where he likes, and do as he pleases independent of God Almighty. We read in the Old Testament that, “When man began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughter’s of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.“ And it is stated that the iniquity of man was great, and God brought a flood on the earth. Now, to understand that correctly we have to know what kind of position those persons were in, and why they were called the “sons of God.” Those men were in the same position as the Latter-day Saints. They were heirs to the Priesthood. They were the sons of God. They had obeyed the holy covenants. They had received the word of the Lord. They were consecrated to the Almighty. But they went outside of their covenants and their engagement with the Lord, and took wives of the daughters of men that were not in the covenant, and thus transgressed the law of God. The law of God in relation to this has been the same in all ages, and has been given to this people—that the sons of Israel shall wed the daughters of Israel, and shall not go out to wed with the stranger. These men did that, and God was displeased, as He is today with Latter-day Saints, who are called out of the world to be His servants, to be holy unto the Lord, to be clean because they bear the vessels of the Lord, when they go outside and wed with the stranger. The law is that they shall not do this, but shall wed under the everlasting covenant and have their wives given them of the Lord and sealed to them by an holy ordinance revealed from heaven, in a holy place prepared for the purpose—sealed for time and all eternity, so that death shall not be able to break the bond of union; that though death may separate them for a little season when they come up in the resurrection, there will be no need to marry or give in marriage, because they were married on the earth by authority of God Almighty for time and all eternity, just like Adam and Eve were, for God gave Eve to Adam before death came into the world. We believe that good men, who have demonstrated their fitness for the responsibilities of holy wedlock, may, under the direction of the Lord, obtain more wives than one, may have them sealed to them by the same covenant and by the same bond, to be their wives in the eternal world; and they expect when they depart hence to go where Abraham is—to that place that is called Abraham’s bosom. There they will be in congenial company. They will verify the words of Jesus, who said, “Many shall come from the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God;” while others who supposed themselves to be “the children of the Kingdom” will be “thrust out.” And I am afraid that a great many of our good Christian friends who are so terribly shocked about this feature of our faith, when they get to the door and look in and see Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Keturah, and those concubines given of the Lord to Abraham—when they see them in the eternal kingdom they will want to turn away and go to more congenial company, which they are at perfect liberty to do. If Abraham was on the earth today, these same good people would put him in the penitentiary, and yet they call Abraham “the father of the faithful, the friend of God,” and want to go to his bosom when they die! If Jacob were here with his four wives, through whom he “did build the house of Israel,” the names of whose twelve sons are to be inscribed upon the gates of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, that is to come down from God out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband—I say if Jacob were on the earth today, they would put him in jail! Well, this is the consistency of some people who profess to believe in the Bible. Men come here to try and sell the Latter-day Saints the Bible. Why, bless your souls, there are no people on the earth who believe as much in the Bible as the “Mormons.” We believe in the Old and New Testament, King James’ translation. It was through our belief in that record that most of us became Latter-day Saints; for, being familiar with the Bible, when the servants of God came with the Gospel we found it was the same as laid down in that sacred record, and that induced us to embrace the faith that is commonly called “Mormonism.”

Well, now, this feature of our faith to which I have alluded—I have not the time to comment upon it in all its bearings, and a great many people would not understand it if I did—is a divine institution. Let me bear my testimony to this congregation, as I would like to bear it to all the world, that it is a pure and holy institution; not to bring women into bondage, but to place them in that position for which they were created—to give them the opportunity to become honored wives and mothers, so that there might be “no margin left for lust to prey upon,” no field for the tricks of the seducer and the adulterer, the corrupt and the ungodly. God Almighty has established this system. It is a religious ordinance established by authority from God, by revelation from on high and administered by religious ceremonies. It belongs to this Priesthood and to none other. We are not seeking to extend it to the world nor to introduce it to other people. It is confined to the Priesthood. It is “a law unto my Holy Priesthood,” saith the Lord, and there are bounds, limitations and regulations over which we cannot pass. And it is not for the wicked.

Now, then, in this sense, looking upon this as a religious institution, as a sacrament, as an ordinance of our faith, as a part of our creed, as an establishment of our religion, we claim the right to the free exercise thereof before God and before man. If anybody can prove to us that it is wrong, that it is impure, that its effects are bad for this world or the world to come, that would be another thing altogether, and would have its effect with us, because as members of this Church we are in for truth, for salvation, for the glory of our God. We want to attain to the celestial kingdom. We want to fit ourselves for the society of the holy ones, the society of the best that ever lived upon the face of the earth, and for that we are Latter-day Saints. If men could prove to us that we are wrong, then they might have some chance of converting us. But when they trample upon our inalienable rights, upon our constitutional privileges, upon our religious liberty, why, then, we feel like resisting. But we are not going to fight. We naturally repel the assaults against us, but it is in the way of defense. Our motto, like that of the volunteers in London, is, “Defense, not Defiance.” We defend our rights and privileges against all attacks, and in doing so we are standing up for the rights of all the people of this great country. For if you tear away the underpinning from the structure the fathers established, the whole institution may come down with a crash. I tell you we have got to watch for these things, and this is part of our mission. We must preach the Gospel and build up the Kingdom of God, and contend for our constitutional rights, because they are given of the Lord. The Constitution of our country was revealed of God. God has made known to us that He inspired the framers of the Constitution, and caused that instrument to be brought forth, so that all people might be protected in their rights. We claim the same rights as other folks, and no more. We have received this principle of our faith in connection with many more, and we claim that if we do not infringe upon the rights of others we should have liberty in the exercise thereof. If a man was permitted to force some woman to be his wife, or to interfere with his neighbor’s wife, or infringe upon the rights of another man, then the secular law might step in and interfere. But while the woman is free—no woman among us is coerced, no woman is placed in bondage, every woman is at liberty to marry or not marry—while that is the case we do not think that the law has any right to interfere; and we intend to contend for our rights inch by inch, lawfully, respectfully; but in this we are as firm as these everlasting mountains that are not moved by the blasts of winter or the heat of summer. This is the work of God, and woe! be unto us if we do not preach the Gospel! Woe! be unto us if we relinquish or attempt to sell or barter or compromise one of the eternal principles that have been sent down from the heavens and which we have to carry to the ends of the earth! But if we are faithful to our mission and calling, if we stand firm and true, and regard God rather than man, God shall fight our battles. Everything that seems to be against us will be turned for our good. The clouds that overshadow us from time to time will part and roll away, and the glorious sun of prosperity will shine upon us. If we are true and faithful God Almighty will overrule all things for our good, and bring us off more than conquerors. And every nation and people and institution and society that fight against Zion shall become like the dream of a night vision—it will pass away; and those men that fight against this work will be, as the prophet said, “Even as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.” So it will be with all who fight against this work and try to overthrow it. Not because we are mightier than anybody else, not because we are so numerous, not because we are learned, not because we are wealthy, but because God Almighty has established this work, and He will cause it to prevail. I bear my testimony that I know this to be true.

May God bless the Latter-day Saints and unite their hearts that they may be one. May they be able to keep those precious things in earthen vessels that God Almighty has committed to them. If they have found the Pearl of Great Price may they value it above all earthly things, and endure every opposition and every influence brought to bear against them and come off triumphant; and may God bless those who have gathered with us this afternoon, and give them a knowledge of the truth of this work, that they may enjoy its blessings with us and be saved in the Kingdom of God, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Remarks by President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Ogden, Sunday Afternoon, July 20th, 1884.

We are occupying a very peculiar position in the world, and in many respects different from the position that is occupied by any people that at present live upon the earth. Our ideas, and views, theories and doctrines; our principles and our mode of life generally are very distinct from that of other people. We look at things from another standpoint to that which the world generally do. Our ideas are predicated upon the work that God has commenced, by the ministration of holy angels, by the opening of the heavens, by the voice of God, and by the revelation of His will to the human family; in which all mankind, whether they comprehend it or not, are very much interested. The Lord has been pleased to make known unto us certain things of which we were ignorant; and certain things of which also the world of mankind are ignorant; and of which we know nothing, and could know nothing, only through the revelation of God to man.

The Gospel, we are told, brings “life and immortality to light”—life for ourselves, life for our families, for our wives and children, life for our progenitors, and life for our posterity; and consequently it is pregnant with greater events than anything that has yet transpired upon the earth. It goes back, back, back into the eternities that were, it unfolds things that now exist, and are on the eve of fulfillment, and it develops things which are to come. Consequently, as I said before, we are in a different position from that of other people. We do not look at things from the same standpoint which they do. We have other ideas and feelings and anticipations, and are in possession of another spirit and principle of intelligence other than that which is generally diffused in the world. Men in the world talk about the Gospel, but they do not comprehend it. We as Latter-day Saints talk about the Gospel, yet we understand only very little about it. Just in proportion as we live our religion and possess the Holy Spirit, do we comprehend the position that we occupy and no more.

We read, in the Scriptures, of a dispensation of the fullness of times, when God would gather together all things in heaven and all things in the earth—that is, a certain dispensation which would include everything that has existed in other times, and in other dispensations, and would embrace in one dispensation what has been scattered throughout the world in different dispensations, from the commencement of time until the present. Hence this is a matter that affects the earth and the heavens; it is a matter in which those who are in the heavens are concerned, and also those that are upon the earth. It reaches back to the commencement of time and goes forth to the final winding-up scene of all things pertaining to this earth whereon we dwell. Hence, as I said, we occupy a very peculiar position before God, and also before the world. The world do not comprehend our position, and hence they reason very strangely and very vaguely about us, and they get some very strange notions pertaining to us. That is not surprising. It is as much as we can do ourselves to comprehend our position. It is as much as the Elders of this Church can do to magnify their callings. It is as much as the Apostles or the Presidency of the Church can do to comprehend their positions, and it needs continual watchfulness, and prayer, and self-abnegation, and devotion to God, and the continual guidance of His Spirit, that we may comprehend the relationship which we sustain to each other, to our heavenly Father, to the world in which we live, to the nation with which we are associated, to the world of mankind generally, and the duties and responsibilities that devolve upon us pertaining to all of these matters, both to the living and the dead.

We have a fight to fight. We have a faith to contend for. We have principle to learn, and to develop to others. We have our relationship to God, and to holy angels, and to the world to maintain. We have duties and responsibilities devolving upon us that mankind, and that we ourselves comprehend only very little. It has been thought generally that if men could secure in some way or other their salvation, and get to heaven, as it is called, that they were doing a great work. We have, however, got a great deal more than that to do. We have first to learn ourselves the way of life; and then to teach others that way. Hence, what mean our Seventies and our High Priests, our Elders and our Apostles and men holding the Priesthood of God? What mean those various missions they take to the nations of the earth? What mean our gathering together here, and the efforts that we make for that purpose? What mean the building of Temples and the administering therein? What mean some of those things that we begin to have a slight glimpse of regarding certain duties and responsibilities resting upon us, pertaining to the dead as well as the living? What mean those Scriptures that speak about saviors upon Mount Zion? What mean our dedications to God, and the ordinances that we administer in His house? What means the development of those great principles pertaining to eternal lives that begin to enter into our minds partially?

Man is a dual being. He possesses a body and a spirit. He is connected with eternity as well as time. He existed before he came here. He exists here. He will exist after he leaves here. Before he came here he had to do with intelligences; he has here, if he will only fulfill his part; and he will have to do with them hereafter. We are here on a mission. What does that consist of? That is the question. Some of us have to go to the ends of the earth and preach the Gospel to every creature under the heavens. That is something which God requires at our hands. Some of us have to assist in establishing the Kingdom of God upon the earth. Some of us have to aid in purifying the Church of God. We have the same kind of material now that they had in former ages for this very purpose. In former times God placed in His Church Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists for the perfecting of the Saints. These officers were requisite to the Church then, and they are requisite now. We all have our follies and weakness. We all need the assistance of the power and Spirit of God.

We talk sometimes about the world, we Latter-day Saints, and we are very flippant in referring to their follies and foibles. We have enough follies of our own; and I often very much question whether they do not live as near to their religion as we do to ours. “How is that,” says one, “we are a much more moral people than they are?” We ought to be. We make greater professions than they do. They do not talk about having revelation. They do not talk about having any special mission to the nations of the earth, and we do. They do not talk about any celestial glory, and know nothing about it. We profess to know a little about it. They do not aim at a celestial glory, for they do not know what it is; and we understand a very little about it. One thing we do know; one thing is clearly told us, and that is if we are not governed by the celestial law and cannot abide a celestial law, we cannot inherit a celestial kingdom. What is it to obey a celestial law? Where does the celestial law come from to begin with? From the heavens. Very well. What have the people here to do with it generally—that is, outsiders? Nothing. They do not say they have had any revelation. They have had no principle of that kind unfolded to them. They are living under what might be termed a terrestrial law; and many of them, I think, under the circumstances, do quite as well as we do under our circumstances. We profess to be moving on a more elevated plane than they are. We profess to have come out from the world; to have separated from the ungodly. We profess to be under the guidance of Apostles and Prophets, Pastors and Teachers, etc., and to be living under the inspiration of the Most High. They do not profess anything of the kind.

These are some of the things we profess to believe in; and some of the things that the world do not believe in. We have, however, enough to do in attending to the duties of our Priesthood and calling without troubling ourselves with the follies and foibles of those who are not of us. As I have already said they do not profess what we do. We profess to be governed by higher principles and nobler motives, and by more exalted ideas. Let us try and live up to our profession. So far as the people of the world are concerned, I look upon them very charitably, myself. I do not entertain any vindictive feelings toward them. “Well, say you, “have they not got curious ideas pertaining to religious matters?” Yes, they have; but they have as much right to their ideas as I have to mine. I have no right to interfere with them. They have a right to worship whatever kind of a God they please, or in any form that suits them. If a man has a mind to worship a red dog it is none of my business. It is for me and for my brethren to fulfill the duties that God has placed upon us. He has revealed certain principles to us from the heavens for the benefit of the whole human family, and we will do that which God has commanded us. Will they persecute us? No matter about that. God has told us to do certain things, and we will carry them out, persecuted or not persecuted. We must perform our duty. At the same time we have rights and privileges that belong to us in common with everybody that lives in the United States. We have as many rights in these United States as any other people have, and no man has the right to deprive us of them. They are trying to deprive us of them all the time. That makes no difference. The principle is still the same, and it is for us to look after our rights. God has given us a goodly land here, and we have paid for it. It is ours by right of purchase and possession. If we have got farms, or city lots, or inheritances of any kind, we have paid for them according to the laws of the United States. We have complied with all the requisitions of the United States that are constitutional, and mean to do that all the time. We simply contend for our rights. We simply contend for the principles of human liberty, not only in behalf of ourselves, but in behalf of thousands who are in these United States. There are thousands of honorable men in these United States—in the Senate and House of Representatives, and all through the land—who are quite willing men should have the rights and privileges of free men, and then there are thousands, and ten of thousands, and millions of others who want to trample the principles of freedom under their feet and deprive men of their liberties. In relation to the people of the United States, I have nothing myself but kindly feelings. I feel sorry for them. I am sorry to see people act under wrong influences, influences that will lead them to destruction. The people of the world are placed under influences that they do not comprehend. What is the matter with them? I have numbers of prominent men call upon me from the United States, and from all parts of Europe, prominent men of all classes and grades, and when we meet together they talk very kindly and very pleasantly. They admire our beautiful city and improvements, and they do not believe one-hundredth part of the stories that are circulated about us broadcast throughout the earth. They say, “We know better than that.” There are a great many honorable men among the peoples of the earth, and we do not want to get a spirit of enmity and hatred against anybody because of the infamous acts of a few unprincipled men. We are here as saviors upon Mount Zion; and the time will come, and it is not very far distant, when, in consequence of the evils, the corruptions, the adulteries and licentiousness that prevail throughout the land, that God will bring the people to judgment. Then the time will come, and it is not very far distant, when the sinners in Zion will be afraid, when fearfulness will surprise the hypocrites.

We are here to build up the Zion of God, and not to build up ourselves. We are here to establish righteousness, and to establish it first within ourselves; to feel that “as for me and my house we will fear God.” We should prepare ourselves for glory and for eternal lives, that we may associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds. We are the sons of God; but we occupy a different position in many respects to the rest of the world, because we have obeyed the new and everlasting covenant; been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and had hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and have lived up to our privileges, many of us. Consequently we are aiming, as I said before, at a higher exaltation and a greater glory than the world know anything about, and that we ourselves at present comprehend, but very little. But we shall improve from time to time and become better instructed in the laws of life and in the principles of eternal truth. We are gathered together for that purpose.

Well, brethren and sisters, God bless you and lead you in the paths of life, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Discourse by Joseph F. Smith, delivered in the Ogden Tabernacle, Saturday Afternoon, July 18, 1884, being the Quarterly Conference of the Weber Stake of Zion.

I am pleased to see so many of the Saints assembled here on this the opening day of conference, and I certainly hope that those who have taken the trouble to come to conference on the first day may be amply repaid for so doing.

We ought, I think, to be very willing to perform any duty that may be required of us as Latter-day Saints, on the Sabbath day, and at other times appointed for the gathering of the Saints. We should come together for the purpose of being spiritually strengthened and encouraged, that our faith may be increased, and that we may learn the duties devolving upon us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We are not nearly as united as we ought to be. If the people of Huntsville, whose Bishop has been reporting them, had been united as Saints should be, and as I trust they will be some day, the probability is that they would have been much better off financially than they now are.

Cooperation is a principle that President Young was very much concerned about, and that he endeavored, with his brethren, to impress upon the minds of the people throughout the land. Under his administration our cooperative institutions were established, and by his efforts, many of the people, especially in the southern part of Utah and in Arizona, became united together in organizations that were called “the United Order.” The object was cooperation, that the principles of union in labor as well as in faith might be developed to its fullest extent in the midst of the Saints. We all believe in being united in faith. We all profess to believe that there is one God, one faith, one baptism, and that we should be one people; but notwithstanding we profess this, our individuality stands out very prominent. Many of us cannot see just the same as our brethren see, and we cannot possibly be wholly united with them. We do not expect—I do not expect at all events—that the people will come to see eye to eye all at once. I believe this to be a work of great importance, and one that will not be accomplished without years of experience, and perhaps we will have to suffer many chastisements and reproofs before we are brought to a unity of the faith. Yet we ought to try to see eye to eye as far as possible. Our being united does not destroy our individuality at all. We can be just as strong in our in– dividuality when united in regard to the purposes and designs of the Almighty, as we can possibly be when in opposition to these purposes and designs, and to our brethren who are united in regard to the things of God. Indeed I think it evinces a stronger characteristic of individuality for men and women to bring themselves into harmony and union with the purposes of the Almighty than to be divided against them or separate from them. Of one thing I am certain, and that is, that we ought to seek to become acquainted with the principles of economy. We ought to use the best wisdom, judgment and understanding we can obtain in our temporal as well as in our spiritual affairs and concerns. You take a community like the community of Huntsville, or any community of Saints in a Ward, isolated, perhaps, in a little valley, and if there is union and cooperation in their midst, thousands and tens of thousands of dollars can be saved in their own pockets; while, on the other hand, if individuals are left to do as they please, thousands of dollars will go out of their pockets into the pockets of speculators and others. I know that to be true. As Bishop Hammond has very truly said, there is in Huntsville from half a dozen to a dozen mowing machines, when two or three would be ample to do all the work which is required to be done in that place with these machines. This being the case, as stated by the Bishop, then all the thousands of dollars which have been expended upon these superabundant machines and other implements, have gone out of the possession of the people into the pockets of outsiders and strangers; whereas if they had been contented with having just enough, they could have devoted the balance of their means in other directions, or have placed it in such a position as that it would bring them interest, instead of being operated and used by their enemies, perhaps, for their political or religious destruction. There is no reason why the principle of unity should not operate in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, except that we are too selfish. It should not be “every man for himself;” but we are many of us covetous. We desire in our hearts to have everything our neighbor has, whether we need it or not. In order to be like our neighbor; in order that we may associate with him, and that our daughters may associate with his daughters, and our sons with his sons, we must have as fine a house, as costly furniture, as many horses, as many plows, reaping and mowing machines, and headers, as many cows, as many sheep, and as many luxuries, whether we can afford it as well as our neighbor can or not. Now, all this is extremely foolish. It is wrong. We see a vehicle which costs $200, more or less, and we do not absolutely need it—only we must have it to be like our neighbor—would it not be better to put that money in the bank, or lend it to somebody in business, and thus while benefiting others with our capital, secure interest upon it for ourselves. Certainly it would. In that way the money would be a help to you; whereas if you purchase the wagon you do not require, in addition to paying an exorbitant price in the purchase which is generally the case, the wagon will very likely be left exposed to the sun and wet—as wagons too frequently are left by a great many of the people—and soon becomes useless. Some men think nothing of buying a very nice carriage, spring wagon, or other wagon of some kind, and treating it in this way until it is ruined and worthless. The same with valuable agricultural machinery; too much of it is bought and used for two or three days, or two or three weeks in a season, or for a whole month in a year—say a reaper, or a mower, and where is it the rest of the year? Outdoors, in the sun and rain, and before it can be used next season, it must be taken to a blacksmith’s shop for repairs; for through exposure it has become rusty, the wood season checked, every joint loosened. This is the way some people use their agricultural implements whereas with very little trouble they might be stored away in the shed, kept dry and secure, and ready for service when the next season came round. But the better way of all is—in a small community where every man knows his neighbor, and where all are on neighborly terms, to consult together, and to form into cooperative bodies for the purpose of transacting the business necessary to be transacted outside of their little community. By thus consulting together, and using the combined wisdom of the community as to the number of reapers, mowers, etc., they will need to do the work of the community, a great deal might be saved. One man need not own the machinery. They could all join together, each contributing a certain sum towards its purchase, which they could use to mutual advantage, and see that it is well housed and taken care of when out of use. In this way a community could save thousands of dollars year after year, and I know the principle is a correct one for the people of Zion. It is a principle of economy. Money is something which a man ought to be able to take care of, and use wisely if he has it; if he does not know how to take care of it, it will escape from his pockets, it will take the wings of the morning and flee away.

I think we ought to be united in all these things, in the purchase of machinery and of the vast amount of merchandise that we consume, that we do not manufacture or produce among ourselves. The very foundation of all real prosperity is home industry and home manufacture. This lies at the foundation of the prosperity of every permanently prosperous community. It is the source of wealth. I think, therefore, we ought to encourage home industry. We ought to cooperate together, if there is any kind of business in which there is a profit, let us operate together and have the benefit of that profit among ourselves, instead of giving it to strangers. Why should we encourage the stranger to come here and import wagons to sell to us when we have got the brains and the money to sustain that business among ourselves? Why should we not rather do such things ourselves, and supply business and employment for our own people, many of whom are idle, and be independent of the world, and if there is a profit in it, put that profit in our own pockets, and use it for the comfort and happiness of our wives and children? It is a fact—at least it was reported to me as a fact by a person who is supposed to be acquainted with the business—that one man who deals in wagons and agricultural implements in Utah Territory, put $30,000 into his pocket in one year, and he is only an agent for the company he deals with. I presume that the company put an equal amount into their pockets as the result of his labors; but the agent, as I was informed, put $30,000 in his own pocket as the result of his business. Who is it that buys the wagons, the plows, the harrows, the reapers, the mowers, etc., in Utah Territory? Is it the Gentiles? No, it is the Latter-day Saints. Those who are not Latter-day Saints are not engaged in agriculture as a rule. If there are any of them tilling the ground they are exceptions to the rule and they are very few and far between. They are not the people who use the wagons. They may it is true, use some of them at the mines in hauling, etc., etc. The vast bulk of this class of merchandise is consumed by the Latter-day Saints. The result is that the Latter-day Saints put that $30,000 into the pocket of the man I allude to. That same man sat on a Grand Jury and helped to indict a man for marrying, acknowledging and maintaining his wives. That same man stands head and shoulders above many of his fellows in opposition to the Latter-day Saints, and in using his power abroad as well as in Utah against the interests of the people from whom he gets his money.

I do not feel that the Latter-day Saints are using their best wisdom, or acting upon the principle of the highest intelligence, when they sustain and patronize such men, especially when they have got the skill, the intelligence and the means to do all such business independent of all strangers or foreigners. I know they can do it if they will only cooperate together and do business upon business principles. Our honesty with the world is proverbial. It is the universal testimony of outsiders that trade with us here, that the Latter-day Saints are the most honest and best paying people they ever did business with. I believe this is true. If a Latter-day Saint owes a Gentile and also a brother, it is said, he will pay the Gentile every time in preference to his brother. Well, I do not know that this is right. I think if he cannot pay the full amount to both, it would be proper to pay each a proportion. Would not this be just as honest—instead of paying all to the Gentile and leaving your brother without anything? I think so. I do not know that we do this sort of thing to any extent; but I have sometimes heard of people that were thought to be very good payers to the outsiders, but were not so prompt in paying their brethren. I do not think that is exactly right. I think we ought not to go in debt at all beyond what we can pay. The Lord commands this. We ought to live within our means if possible, and if it is not possible and we keep living beyond our means, it is only a question of time when we won’t even have credit, our friends won’t trust us, and we will have to live within our means or die, or steal, as someone has added. When it comes to that kind of thing I feel as Dr. Johnson did when the beggar accosted him, “Why don’t you go to work?” said the Doctor. “I cannot get any work, I cannot get anything to do, and you know, Doctor, I must live.” “Well,” said the Doctor, “I don’t see the least necessity for it.” (Laughter.) When a man won’t pay his debts, or will not live within his means, when he knows what his income is: when a man will continue to get in debt to his neighbors as long as he has got any credit, knowing all the time that he cannot pay his way—well, I do not know that there is much necessity for that man to live. Perhaps the world would be as well off if he should pass away quietly somewhere. Every Latter-day Saint ought to learn—and especially every youth in Israel ought to learn—that everyone of them should try to make the world a little better for their being in it, if they possibly can. We all ought to try to do some good. If we will do that, then there is some necessity for our living. God will bless us in our labors and efforts; and if we will cooperate together in our temporal affairs and conduct our business on correct principles, the world will be better for us, and we will be better off in the world. We will have more means to build up the kingdom of God; we will have more to use for the gathering of the poor, for the building up of Zion, for the benefit of the Saints, and for our own benefit, and we will have much more power in the world. Money is a powerful agent in this degenerated age. It is said that knowledge is power. Knowledge should stand above money or wealth. But in the present condition of the world money takes the lead.

This ought not to be the case with us. The Lord says in the scriptures, “make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.” What for? Obviously that you may have power and influence with the unrighteous.

Now, if we had wealth—and we are bound to have it by and by—those who worship wealth would either covet it and hate us and try to destroy us to get it, as some are doing, or else they would be bound to acknowledge the power we could wield through the possession of wealth. Well, now, we need not be at all afraid of the former. They cannot destroy us; for the Lord is our friend, and we are His friends. He will not suffer them to rob and plunder us; and take away from us our possessions; or if He does, he will give us more abundantly; because if we possess riches they will be the Lord’s. We will dedicate them to Him, if we do our duty, and they will belong to Him, and surely the Lord will protect His own. We should not despise these things, but should endeavor to use them for the accomplishment of the all-wise purposes of the Almighty. The Lord has said, Zion shall become the richest of all people. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of the earth is His. The cattle upon a thousand hills are His. The gold and the silver and all the mineral wealth of these vast mountains belong to the Lord. And although the wicked may get possession of them for a little while, yet they will perish by and by, and leave all their wealth behind. They cannot take it beyond the grave. By and by the Lord will overrule these matters in such a way, that the righteous, those who love God more than they love the world, and will use their means to the honor and glory of God, shall be made possessors of the earth and the fullness of it. It will be theirs to use for every purpose that is right and legitimate—to manipulate armies if necessary—to manipulate nations, or the world if necessary, to the carrying out of the purposes of Almighty God. We do not want to lavish it upon the lusts of the flesh. We should not desire it for that purpose.

If we do, God will withhold it from us, I hope; for no man should have wealth to gratify the lusts and desires of the flesh. We should use it to the honor and glory of God’s name, and to the building up of His Kingdom.

We ought; therefore, to cooperate together in our mercantile institutions. It is as much a duty to sustain these as any other duty devolving upon us, or now as at any former time. We should patronize our brethren. We ought to see eye to eye in regard to these things. We ought to be united in everything. We should cheerfully extend a helping hand to our neighbors from time to time. If our neighbor is oppressed, if he lacks knowledge or understanding or skill in the management of his affairs, you that have skill and experience and know how to husband your strength and means, ought to take pains to instruct your neighbor or brother who is not as thoroughly posted as you are. The instructions he receives in this way will benefit him and will not injure or impoverish you. We ought not to be miserly in regard to anything we possess, that is good. We can freely impart to others and not diminish our own store. We can impart our experience for the benefit of others. If our brother is about to buy something that is apparently not required, it would be a benefit to the poor man, who lacks judgment, for the Bishop or his counselors, or for his Teacher to go to him and endeavor to show him the mistake he is about to make. I think we ought to cooperate together in all these matters, be one in all respects, and not be like the world, “everyone for himself and the devil for all.” The Lord has told us in a revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that except we are one, we are not His. He has said that we must be united. We must be one. We should see eye to eye. We should help each other; help our neighbor and our brother. The Savior very beautifully describes who is our neighbor in the example of the good Samaritan. Who is your neighbor? Who is your brother? Why, the man that ministers to you in the time of need; the man that is your friend in the time of adversity; the man that extends a helping hand and saves you from error; the man that gives you the benefit of his experience and of his superior intelligence—he is your neighbor, your friend and your brother. Those who have embraced the Gospel—and especially those who are endowed with the authority of the Holy Priesthood, and are called to be saviors upon Mount Zion—ought to be the first and foremost in this good work of being saviors of their neighbors, and of their fellow creatures on the earth. It is our duty to teach correct principles, to instill them into the hearts of our children, and into the hearts of our neighbors, and to see that these principles are grounded in our own hearts; for except a man has been converted himself, and has a knowledge of the truth, it is folly for him to undertake to teach others the right way. But when the principles of the Gospel are thoroughly established in our own hearts, we can then go in the midst of our fellow creatures and say, “Come and follow me.” We can do this consistently. We are called to be teachers of these principles to the inhabitants of the earth. We are called to be God’s people, not a people of the world, for we have come out of the world. We ought to be united in all things temporal as well as spiritual. With God all things are spiritual. There is nothing temporal with Him at all, and there ought to be no distinction with us in regard to these things. Our earthly or temporal existence is merely a continuance of that which is spiritual. Every step we take in the great journey of life, the great journey of eternity, is a step in advance or in retrogression. We are here in mortality, it is true; but we are ahead of that condition we occupied before we came here and took upon us mortality. We are a step in advance of our former state. What is the body without the spirit? It is lifeless clay. What is it that affects this lifeless clay? It is the spirit, it is the immortal part, the eternal being, that existed before it came here, that exists within us, and that will continue to exist, and that by and by will redeem these tabernacles and bring them forth out of the graves. This whole mission of ours is spiritual. The work we have to do here, although we call it temporal, pertains alike to our spiritual and our temporal salvation. And the Lord has just as much right to dictate, to counsel, to direct and guide us in the manipulation and management of our temporal affairs, as we call them, as He has to say one word in relation to our spiritual affairs. So far as He is concerned there is no difference in this regard. He looks upon us as immortal beings. Our bodies are designed to become eternal and spiritual. God is spiritual Himself, although He has a body of flesh and bone as Christ has. Yet He is spiritual, and those who worship Him must do so in spirit and in truth. And when you come to separate the spiritual from the temporal, see that you do not make a mistake. Some are inclined to say, “the Lord has a right to manage my spiritual affairs, but I will not allow Him to interfere with my temporal affairs.” Why, bless your soul, temporal things pertain to spiritual things. They minister to the spiritual man though they may be clothed with a tabernacle of flesh. The Bishop has as good a right to counsel the members of his Ward in relation to the purchase of merchandise or machinery, where and when he can do so wisely, as he has to counsel them in regard to spiritual matters. He has just as good a right to do the one as the other. He is a father to the people of the Ward. He is placed over the people for the purpose of leading them in the way of truth and righteousness, and it is his business to look after the temporal—if you chose to make any distinction between the temporal and spiritual—as well as the spiritual things. And President Taylor has as much right to direct the people in temporal things as he has in spiritual things. We ought to acknowledge that right, and ought to do it freely and cheerfully, because we should see that it is right. We are under no compulsion to do so if we do not see that it is right; but at the same time it is a correct principle, and every Latter-day Saint ought to have intelligence enough to know that this is the best thing for him to do—to be united, to be one with his brethren.

Now, you are going to have an election of county officers by and by. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to split tickets? Are you going to the polls to scratch off names, and put on the name of somebody else? I should hope not. I do not care who is put in office, only so far as we must obey the commandments of the Lord in these things. We must choose righteous men, good men to fill these positions. Hence if you will only get good men to fill these offices no one should care who they are, so that you have agreed upon them, and were one. We want you to be one both in temporal, political and religious things, in fact, in everything you put your hands to in righteousness. We want you to be one, one as God and Christ are one, seeing eye to eye. Do not try to crush anybody, or build yourselves up at the expense of your neighbor. Do not do it; it is a custom of the world, and it is a wrong principle. It is said in the Scriptures that the chil– dren of the world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. What does that mean? Why as I see it, when you go into Catholic communities, you will find that Catholics send their children to Catholic schools, and not to Protestant schools. You will find them patronizing Catholic merchants. They do not patronize Protestants. If there is anybody to put up for office they will put up their friends and vote for them. If you travel as missionaries throughout the world you will find this to be true. I have seen it in San Francisco, in New York, and in Great Britain, and upon the Continent, and wherever I have been, and yet it is accounted criminal for Latter-day Saints to follow this rule. We might commit treason against the United States if we did not send our children to Gentile schools, or if we did not patronize Gentile merchants. If a Gentile wanted to run for an office, and we did not vote for him, why, we are in rebellion against the government of the United States. I am going to tell you in a few words, what I think about these matters. I think the Latter-day Saints ought to send their children to be educated by those who are their friends, and not by their enemies. I think the Latter-day Saints ought to patronize their brethren and sustain them, in preference to their enemies. I believe that the Latter-day Saints ought to cooperate together and do their own business instead of asking the Gentiles to do it for them. I believe the Latter-day Saints ought to unite together in regard to all these things, and do their business upon the most wise and economical principles, instead of every individual doing it himself, wasting his means, sustaining his enemies, and getting materials he has no use for. That is what I believe in regard to these matters.

Today is Saturday, I am glad of it; for somebody would say I was breaking the Sabbath if I were to preach to you in this way on the Sabbath. But this is Saturday. It is the Jewish Sabbath. It is only unto man that there is a Sabbath. The Lord has set apart one day in seven upon which man should rest, because it is needful for the body and the mind. We should worship the Lord upon that day. Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.

It is for us to do our duty and live our religion on one day the same as any other. Let us serve the Lord in righteousness all the day long, and He will be our Father and Friend, and our enemies shall have no power over us. This is my testimony in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourses by Elder John Q. Cannon, President Wilford Woodruff and President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 29, 1884.

Elder John Q. Cannon said: My brethren and sisters and friends, it is with feelings which I am utterly unable to express that I stand before you this afternoon—feelings on the one hand of gratitude to my Heavenly Father, that after an absence of nearly three years from this city I am again permitted to meet with my brethren and sisters in this place, and with feelings on the other hand of intense timidity in standing before so large an audience. But I rely, my brethren and sisters, upon your faith and prayers during the few moments that I may stand before you, and I rely, furthermore, upon the promise which our Lord gave, when He said, “Where two or three have gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” I am satisfied, on my own part, that we, this afternoon have assembled ourselves in the name of the Lord, and I am consequently satisfied that His Spirit will be with us inasmuch as we seek for the same, inasmuch as we rid ourselves of every feeling of worldliness and come together with pure hearts to partake of the emblems of the death and suffering of our Lord, and to become instructed in the plan which He has laid down for our salvation.

It has been four days since I returned from a mission, and in six weeks it will have been three years since I left this city, in obedience to a call made upon me by the authorities of the Church. On the 9th of August, 1881, I left this city on a mission to Great Britain, in company with eleven other missionaries, who were destined for Scandinavia. We reached Liverpool in due time, and I was assigned, shortly after my arrival there, to the London Conference, where I labored with great pleasure until the 17th of March, 1882. Early in the month the then President of the European Mission—Apostle Albert Carrington—notified me that I should proceed to the German Mission, and within a few days after receiving this notice I joined my brother in North Germany. Of course in going to Germany I had to learn the language; I was utterly ignorant of it when I started and when I landed there; but the Lord strengthened my memory, and in a short time I was able to make myself understood, and pursue the real object of my mission. I labored—it is not for me to say with how much success—until relieved a short time ago to return home.

I can say, my brethren and sisters, that I have enjoyed my mission greatly. The blessing of the Lord has been with me. The promises that were sealed upon my head by the Presidency before I went have been literally fulfilled, and, to my mind, in a most remarkable manner.

Above all things I prize my mission for the testimony it has given me of the truth of this Gospel. It may seem strange to you that I make this assertion; because one would naturally think that I had a testimony before I went. I, however, confess this was not the case. I had heard what the world calls Mormonism—from my childhood up I had heard nothing else. I believed as much as it was possible that this, the Gospel as preached by the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the true religion, and was the path of redemption as proclaimed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. This was my firm belief. But a direct and firm and steadfast testimony of the truth of the Gospel I had not received, and it was to obtain this testimony, more than for anything else, that I obeyed the call that was made of me. I had heard, as you had, that every man who returned from a mission and rose up in this stand or elsewhere to proclaim his testimony and to report his labors—I had heard every man say: “I know this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” And I felt within myself, if I can acquire a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel through going on a mission, I am willing to go. I valued my salvation and a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel just that much. Well, I went, and I labored with great weakness, I have no doubt. But the Lord heard my prayers. He granted unto me a testimony of the truth of the Gospel, and from the time that I received the first one until this moment, one testimony has followed another in rapid succession. I am therefore able to proclaim before you, as I have done with much pleasure before the world, that I do know that God has spoken in these our days, that He has revealed Himself and restored his Priesthood by means of which the human family—those of them who are willing to be saved and to obey the requirements which He has given—may be saved.

It was told me before I started away—the remark was made to me by my father: “My son, you will find in the world that the nations are about in the same condition as the Athenians were when Paul went to preach to them. They have temples and they have altars built, but these are dedicated to the ‘Unknown God.’” I found this to be the truth. I found the word, the written word of God was read in every church in every land, and that every family had it; but I was surprised to find that but few of them were willing to receive the truths which are therein contained. They were content with the dead letter of the law; and when I undertook or attempted to explain the principles of life and salvation, the principles which Jesus Christ taught His disciples, and which they taught all those who would listen to their testimony, I found there was a great coolness. People would not listen. They were content with what they had received. This was my general experience. On the other hand I found very many who acknowledged to me the truth of that which I had said. When I said unto them, “faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is insufficient to save you in His Kingdom;” when I said that something more was necessary than a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and attempted to prove my position by Scripture, I found many who said, “You are right; something more is necessary according to the Scriptures; faith alone cannot save us.” But when I went on to explain the other principles of the Gospel—repentance, baptism for the remission of sins by one who has authority to baptize, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, I discovered that they said, “That may be all true, it is true, we believe, but we don’t want it.” That has been my experience and the experience of others in a great many instances. There are thousands in the world—I have spoken with hundreds I believe—who have made a similar confession—that faith, repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, were Scriptural principles, that they could not be denied, that the same Gospel was preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles—but I have found among those hun– dreds very few who were willing to obey those principles. I am happy to say, however, that some few have obeyed them—that I have been the means, in the hands of God, of bringing some to a knowledge of the truth, and I am very thankful for this privilege.

It may, perhaps, interest you to know something of the present prospects of the Swiss and German mission, where I have labored for upwards of two years. We have some seventeen Elders in the field. Some of these have been laboring in Austria, one is in Italy, all the others are in Switzerland and Germany. In certain parts of Germany the laws are very strict. Public meetings of any kind are forbidden. We are, therefore, not allowed to preach. This has been brought about by the action of the Socialists, with whom we are confounded. They have held meetings, as you who read the papers know, and passed resolutions to upset governments and kingdoms, and reduce everything to chaos, if possible. In the kingdom of Prussia, however, we are at present in the enjoyment of liberty to a great extent. We have the permission of the authorities of the city of Berlin to hold our regular meetings, and we can announce these meetings in the papers if we desire. Of course our meetings are visited by detectives and policemen occasionally, to see that nothing contrary to the laws of the land is promulgated, which action, is, of course, quite agreeable to us. This is the case, however, only as regards the kingdom of Prussia. In the kingdom of Bavaria, which is strongly Catholic, we have been unable, up to the present time, to obtain any rights whatever. We have been threatened and in some cases expelled for having attempted to preach the Gospel. We have been forbidden to hold meetings of any kind. It has even been declared to us that where seven persons assemble together, that number would be considered a meeting, and if the participants were strangers they would be expelled, while natives would be heavily fined. In the Grand Duchy of Baden the same rule holds. In the kingdom of Wurtemberg, it has never been forbidden that we hold meetings, but we have as yet no official permission to do so. Of course in Switzerland we have full permission. We can hold our meetings in any house. It is not yet allowed us, or in fact anyone, to hold open air meetings. The prospects of the mission, as I look at it, are very good, and I think the day is soon coming when these rigorous laws will be broken, when all those who desire to serve God in the way that He has commanded, although it may not be in accordance with the desires of the rulers, may have the privilege. The laws of Bavaria pretend to give full freedom of worship; but the actual fact is, every person is prohibited, through pressure which is brought to bear upon him, from attending anything but the established church, which is Catholic, or the Lutheran. People are expected to attend or at least be members of one of these churches; and they are compelled to make an official acknowledgment of their belief in their work books, which are a sort of credential, containing the name, age, business, and place of residence, of every workman in the country. In this book each man must announce his religion, and if this happens to be anything but Lutheran or Catholic, he is put to great trouble and inconvenience, would perhaps find difficulty in obtaining work at all; and in case he called himself a “Mormon,” would be punished according to the regulations which some of the States have made. I do not believe that the king of Bavaria, and the rulers of the kingdoms are as bitter as some of the subordinate officials. The strongest persecution we have met with has been in the city of Nurenburg, and that has been on the part of the circuit judge, a man who in other respects is very liberal, but whose mind became prejudiced through some false reports which came into the country, and were scattered by the press just as we made a beginning. I nevertheless hope—and I believe it is the general feeling—that the day is not far distant when freedom of worship will be allowed—when the Elders can go through the country and proclaim the Gospel without fear or molestation. We pray for that day, and have great hopes that there are many thousands in those countries who will receive the Gospel.

The Elders are laboring energetically. They have spared themselves no pains to discover those who are willing to receive their testimony. They are laboring faithfully and with good results. The emigration has been quite extensive, as you know; but the number of those baptized exceeds by a considerable amount the number that have emigrated. Our branches are therefore growing continually.

My brethren and sisters: I am thankful to be able to testify to the truth of this Gospel, which is being preached in these days. I do know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and this is a testimony which I have received for myself. It is not because my parents taught me this, or because I have heard it from others; that has given me courage to bear this testimony before others. But I have felt free in saying to all men, “Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and that will give you a testimony as it has given it to me.” That is the testimony, my brethren and sisters, that I feel to bear before you this afternoon.

I am glad to be once more in these mountains, to breathe this air, to see those with whom I have grown up, and to feel once more at home. During the three years that I have been absent, many changes have taken place, some of them very mournful to me; but I am thankful to be back once more. And now that I am home, I hope to be able to work steadfastly in the cause of God, and to do my part in helping to build up His kingdom upon the earth. This is my desire, and I pray that the Lord will help all of us to remain true to the end, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

President Wilford Woodruff then addressed the congregation. He said: We have been listening to the testimony of one of our Mormon mountain boys, who has been called in his youth to go forth to the nations of the earth to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the inhabitants thereof. This is an example of this whole Mormon work in the day and generation in which we live. Joseph Smith himself was but a boy, an unlettered youth, when God called him over half a century ago, to listen to the voice of the Lord, and be an instrument in His hands to lay the foundation of His Church and Kingdom on the earth in the last dispensation of the fullness of times; and from that day to this, men have been called—some from the plow, the plane, the hammer, and from the various occupations of life—to go forth and lift up their voices and bear record to the nations of the earth of the Gospel of the Son of God. And the Lord has manifested His power, and His mercy to all who have been called to go forth and bear record of His name; and Brother Cannon (John Q.) who has addressed us, like tens of thousands of others, can bear record before God, angels and men, before the heavens and the earth, to the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which have been revealed unto us in the day and generation in which we live. It is a marvelous work and a wonder in the earth, and it is attracting the attention of the whole human family. The inhabitants of the earth marvel and wonder, and many times desire to know what the end of these things will be. The Lord called upon Joseph Smith, as a literal descendant of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt, to lay the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church had been in the wilderness for nearly 1,800 years. The Church and Kingdom of God had fallen away. The Gentiles had followed the same example of unbelief as did the Jews when they departed from the Gospel of Christ and put to death almost every man who bore the Holy Priesthood on the earth, or who preached the Gospel of the Son of God to the world. The Jews rejected the Messiah; they put Him to death; and they labored to overthrow the Church, although it went to them in all the power and glory, and with all the keys, principles, ordinances and priesthood, that it did to the patriarchs and prophets in former generations. For this the Jews were overthrown. They had to pay the bill for shedding the blood of the Lord’s anointed; and the Lord rent the Kingdom out of their hands, and gave it into the hands of the Gentiles; and Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, warned them strongly and faithfully to take heed and be cautious lest they should fall through the same example of unbelief. “For if God spare not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” But all the Prophets and Apostles understood by vision and revelation that there was to be a falling away. There has been a falling away. I can say of a truth—whether the world believe it or not—that from the day the apostles and disciples and those holding the Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ were put to death, there has not been a man on the face of God’s footstool who has had the power to administer the ordinances of the Gospel so as to have power after death. I understand perfectly well the world does not believe this, nevertheless it is true. There never was a man breathed the breath of life in any age of the world, who had power to go forth and administer the ordinances of the Gospel of Christ, only by the power of that eternal and everlasting Priesthood which Melchizedek held, which Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Elias, and all the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets held. Jesus Christ held it. He was a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, and has entered into the presence of God to plead for His brethren. The Apostles held it. No man in any age of the world had power to administer the ordinances of the Gospel without it. God himself, who has created worlds upon worlds, has created all these worlds and all those that have been saved have been redeemed by the power of that eternal and everlasting Priesthood. But as I said before, when the Prophets and Apostles and all men who held the Priesthood were put to death, the ordinances of the Gospel became without effect, and in consequence of this, the whole world has been filled with sects and parties, with false religions, and principles, until it would almost appear that there are the six hundred, three-score and six, which John the Revelator saw in his vision. And this has been the condition of the whole Christian world from the days of Jesus Christ and His Apostles until the Lord raised up Joseph Smith, and commanded him to organize this Church and Kingdom. Did he attempt to do this until he received the Priesthood? He did not. He did not attempt to administer any one of the ordinances until he received the Holy Priesthood from under the hands of the holy men who were sent unto him from God out of heaven. The first man that ordained Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to the Priesthood was John the Baptist, who was beheaded for the word of God and testimony of Jesus. Thus they were ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. Joseph afterwards received the Apostleship under the hands of Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Apostleship. God Almighty could not establish His Kingdom, His Church, His Zion—which the Holy Bible declares from Genesis almost to Revelation should be established in the latter days—without men bearing that Priesthood. God had to raise up such a man as Joseph Smith, and establish His Church, by which to prepare a people for the coming of the Son of Man. To this end Joseph was brought forth. He received these oracles from God. He laid the foundation of this Church and Kingdom in his boyhood, and he, like the Savior, and many of God’s other servants, spent but a short time in the flesh after he commenced his ministry. The Savior lived but three and a half years after He entered upon His ministry. Joseph Smith labored in the flesh some 14 years after the organization of the Church before he sealed his testimony with his blood, as did other Prophets and Patriarchs before him. I say, from that day until this, the Lord has called men to go forth and declare the Gospel of Christ. And Brother John Q. Cannon has testified, he knows for himself. Yes, he knows. There is no doubt of that. There are tens of thousands of this people who can bear the same testimony. It is true there is a difference with men with regard to the amount of testimony they have received to satisfy them of the truth of this work. Many men believe, but many say they require a certain amount of testimony before they know. I will say for myself: the greatest testimony I have ever received in this Church (and I have spent over 50 years of my life in it), has been the testimony of the Holy Ghost, has been the inspiration of Almighty God, has been the spirit of life and salvation, that still small voice that has rested upon me and rested upon my brethren from the time we were baptized into this Church until the present day. We lay hands upon the sick and they are healed by the power of God. We lay hands upon our brethren, and set them apart for missions. The Spirit of God rests upon us and inspires us in our words and thoughts what we should seal upon their heads. These words are fulfilled, and thousands upon thousands can testify of the truth thereof.

The Bible contains a vast amount of prophecy concerning the last dispensation and the fullness of times; concerning the building up of the Kingdom of God in the last days; concerning a kingdom which shall become an everlasting kingdom, of whose dominion there shall be no end. God showed this to Daniel and to Nebuchadnezzar, as also to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Prophet Isaiah has portrayed the whole history of the Latter-day Saints who occupy these mountains of Israel. He described our travels here, and our labors since we came here. These Prophets saw our day, and they spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and the prophecies are of no private interpretation. Their words are words of truth. Their words have had their fulfillment and will have to the end. The travels of this Church have been through deep waters, and this should not be a strange thing to the inhabitants of the earth. I will say here, without fear of contradiction, that no man, no set of men, no people, no church, no portion of the Kingdom of God can live godly in Christ Jesus without suffering persecution. You show me a Patriarch or Prophet that ever lived who taught the words of life and salvation without incurring the hatred, the wrath and the indignation of the surrounding nations, and you will show me something that I have not been able to find on the earth. But without dwelling upon this point, allow me to say that this is what ails the Mormons. This is the cause of the warfare made upon us by our nation today. God Almighty has set His hand to establish His Church and Kingdom on the earth. He has set His hand to gather His people to the mountains of Israel to build up a Zion. That Zion is here. We have made a beginning. We came here, on the 24th of July, 1847, a little handful of pioneers. We found a barren desert. It did not look as if any white men could live here. We found a few poor, miserable, degraded Indians. They would eat a pint of crickets for breakfast and supper, and this, with a few roots, was all the food they had. Today, here is a tabernacle. Today, you can travel one thousand miles throughout these valleys, from north to south, and you will find them filled with towns, villages and cities, and you will see temples, tabernacles, etc. What does it mean? It means that the God of Heaven is a God of truth. He decreed certain things, and these things are now coming to pass in spite of all earth and hell. That is what it means. Had it not been for this, Utah would have been a desert today as it was when we found it.

The testimony of the Elders of Israel is true. This is the Gospel of Christ. It is the only Gospel the Lord ever revealed to man. And Paul the Apostle says: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” The children of men do not believe the Gospel. They will have everything else on the face of the earth except the Gospel. The Lord has set His hand to fulfill His words and promises, and we are here to help Him in that business. We came here to these mountains by revelation, by inspiration. We were led here by Prophets, Apostles and inspired men; and this Church and Kingdom has continued to grow from the day it was organized until the present time. It will continue to grow. The Gospel of Christ is the truth. “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth,” said Paul to the Galatians, in teaching them this principle. But the truth is unpopular. The world is full of error and falsehood. It will not accept the plan of life and salvation.

We are in the hands of God. God has called us to this labor. He has commanded us to preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth. This we have done so far as the doors have been opened to us. It seems strange to reflect upon the fact that such nations as Germany, Austria and Prussia, should put up bars as strong as iron, so to speak, against the preaching of the Gospel of Christ in their midst. Still the Lord, as we have heard from Brother John Q. Cannon, is opening up the way. There are a great many of the house of Israel in Germany; there are a great many of the honest in heart throughout the nations of the earth, and they must hear the Gospel. We have been preaching it for over fifty years. The world in a great measure has rejected it. I heard Joseph Smith say a great deal in regard to the attitude this generation would assume in regard to the Gospel. He saw the situation. Said he: “The world will fight you. The world will war against you. Towns will arise and mob you, counties will oppose you, cities will oppose you, and the United States will combine against you. The world is full of darkness. Sin and wickedness is overwhelming the world as the waters cover the great deep. The devil rules over the world in a great measure. The world will war against you; the devil will, earth will, and hell will. But you must bear testimony of me. You must preach the Gospel, do your duty, and the Lord will stand by you. Earth and hell shall not prevail against you.” “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” And I would say to our friends, that is the spirit that vibrates in the bosoms of tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints in these mountains. We stand upon this pedestal. This is our platform. What fear have we with regard to our enemies? Why should we fear? We are in the hands of God. We have come to this earth in this time upon a mission. We have been born on purpose in this generation to take part in this work. The Lord required an element to labor with. He will build up Zion. And I bear my testimony here to all men, and would to all the world if I had the power, that the work in which this people are engaged, small and insignificant as it may appear, is the work of God. It will roll forth. It will become a mountain. It will fill the whole earth. It will break in pieces all other kingdoms, and it will stand forever; for God Almighty has decreed it. Write it down. Watch the signs of the times. See if these things are not true. We are living in an important day. We are called to do a work for the Lord, and we are going to do it as far as we have time and opportunity. It has cost many men their lives; but men’s lives are of little consequence compared with eternal life. Give me eternal life. As for this life, what does it amount to. Why should we fear death? Why, bless your souls, a few years ago this nation sacrificed a million of lives in defense of the country. That may be all right. I have no fault to find. But is it any worse to die for the Kingdom of God than it is to die for the honor of the country? Not much. Then let us be faithful. Let us trust in God. Leave all things in His hands, and all will be right.

Now I would like to say a few words before I close, with regard to our present condition. Of course our affairs have become a national question. The eyes of all the world are looking towards us. But I will say this: it is a pitiful sight—it is a thing sorrowful to contemplate upon, that our wise Senators, yes, our wise Senators have to take falsehood into the halls of Congress to work upon to overthrow this Church and Kingdom: so with the pulpit, so with the press. Who tells the truth about Utah? Not one man in a thousand that attempts to represent this case. We have not a boy in Utah in our common schools, over twelve years of age, but knows, when he reads the statements of some of those Senators, that they are arguing on a false basis. They understand that perfectly. I am at the defiance of the world to prove that we use in our common schools anything but the textbooks of the world. We don’t even use the Bible in our common schools. To do so would almost be treason in the eyes of our enemies. Yet these venerable Senators represent us as doing this. Why do Senators argue upon false premises to overthrow this people? If people would tell the truth about us, we should be perfectly satisfied. We have to be satisfied anyhow.

Well, this is the state of the world today. We are called to preach the Gospel. We preach it. There is but one Gospel. What is it? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; repentance of sin; baptism for the remission of sins; and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. These are the doctrines Jesus taught, and that His Apostles taught.

I feel to bear my testimony to these things. They are true. God is with this people. And we say to our nation—maintain the Constitution and we are satisfied. Give us the rights of that Constitution and we are satisfied. It is an instrument inspired by the power of God. Our forefathers were inspired when they framed it. Yet it is marvelous to reflect upon some principles that have been laid down—perhaps I ought not to allude to these things, but I am only expressing my own reflections—even by the Supreme Court of the United States. In effect it has said that we may think as we please, but must not act. I would ask, in the name of the Lord, was that all Thomas Jefferson, and others had in their minds when they framed the clause in reference to religious liberty? What about men acting? If it was only intended that men should think and not act, why not say so in the instrument? Why should it be stated that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” if men were not to be allowed to act? Why, in the exercise of their religion, men must act: and it is straining points, it is overstepping the bounds of the Constitution to pass laws taking away the rights and privileges of any people because of their religion—because they happen to differ from their neighbors. Where will such a course land our government? I will tell you what it will do. It will rend the government in twain like unto a potter’s vessel. It will lay the nation in the dust. It will overthrow the government. When they get through with the Mormons there will be somebody else to deal with. The Constitution is good enough for anybody. It is good enough for the Latter-day Saints. We have no principles but what are in accord with the Constitution of the United States and the laws of God. We are perfectly willing to trust ourselves and our interests in the hands of God, and to leave our nation in His hands also; for God will judge our nation; He will judge us; He will judge all the children of men and He will judge righteous judgment. What men sow they will reap. What measure they mete, it shall be measured to them again.

I pray God to bless this nation. I pray God to give our legislators wisdom, that they may maintain the Constitutional principles of the government, the only government on the face of God’s earth where the Lord could have established His Church and Kingdom. That we may be prepared to inherit eternal life is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

President John Taylor next addressed the congregation. He said: It is some time since I have taken the privilege to speak to the Latter-day Saints in this place. I have been visiting our settlements in different parts of our Territory. There I frequently talk to the people. You have a great many here who are capable of teaching and instructing you, hence it is very seldom that I intrude myself upon you in this capacity. But I always feel pleasure in meeting with the Saints, in hearing my brethren unfold the principles of eternal truth, and in listening to the testimonies which they have to give concerning the Gospel of the Son of God.

God has revealed unto us the principles of the Everlasting Gospel, and that Gospel brings life and immortality to light. Life and immortality can only be made known by the revelations of God, and people who do not believe in revelation cannot have any knowledge of life and immortality. It is through that principle alone that these things are or have been developed. We ourselves could have known nothing of God, from the world in which we live, nor from the teachers thereof, be– cause they do not even profess to be placed in communion with God, nor to have revelation from Him, and how could they speak of that they did not know or comprehend, or that which had not been communicated to them? It was impossible for them to do it. There have been many, very many good men in the world in the different ages when the Gospel has not existed, that have sought to do good to their fellow men, and to promote their welfare and happiness in a social, political and religious capacity, and have sought to introduce principles that would be calculated to elevate and exalt mankind in the scale of being. That is one thing, but the inspiration of the Almighty is another thing. Let me here mention a principle associated with these ideas that will explain somewhat the remarks and position of our brother, John Q. Cannon, who has addressed us this afternoon. He said he believed in the principles of the Gospel, but he did not have a testimony thereof—did not comprehend the thing, until he had obtained some further manifestation. That might be attributed to his youth and inexperience in the things of God; when he was brought face to face with the actualities of life, and came in conflict with the world he was under the necessity of applying to His Heavenly Father, who imparted unto him, through the Holy Ghost, that knowledge of which he speaks. I will mention a principle here. Outside of the Gospel, among all classes of men, among all nations, kindreds and peoples, of every color and clime everywhere, they have had given unto them a portion of the Spirit of God to profit withal. We are told this in the Scriptures, that God has given to every man a portion of His Spirit; but that is not the gift of the Holy Ghost. Where good men have followed the influence of that Spirit, it has led them to do good acts, to be charitable, to be kind, to be benevolent, to cultivate good morals and correct principles, to be governed by the principles of honor, truth, integrity and virtue, and these principles prevail to a greater or less extent among the nations of the earth and in this nation. This is the portion of the Spirit of God, as I said before, which was given to every man to profit withal. Why, those people that we talk about so much sometimes, the infidels, they have a portion of this Spirit, and many of them do many good acts. This may sound strange, I have no doubt, to many of you, but it is a fact nevertheless. He that doeth righteousness anywhere is righteous, and he that doeth evil is wicked.

Now, what is the difference between that and the other principle? Jesus said when He was upon the earth: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” What was the Comforter to do? “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Now, the portion of the Spirit of God which is given to all men does not do this thing. It does not lead them unto all truth, for there is a great diversity of opinion among them. One may be a Methodist, another a Presbyterian, one a Quaker, another a Dunker, one a Catholic, another a Protestant, one a Christian, another a Muhammadan, one a Pagan, and another an infidel, and some one thing and some another. If men were in the possession of the gift of the Holy Ghost, it would lead them into all truth, and there would be one Lord, as the Scriptures say, and one faith and one baptism. Hence one of the old Prophets, clothed upon by the Spirit of the Living God, looked through the vista of future ages and contemplated events that should transpire in the latter days, and said: “When the Lord shall bring again Zion, her watchmen shall see eye to eye.” There will be no confusion there, no difference of sentiment there. They will place themselves under the guidance of the Great Eloheim, and under His inspiration they will be enabled to speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and the Spirit of God, as it did formerly, will take of the things of God and shew them unto them. There is the distinction between the two principles.

How can we expect that people will comprehend the things of God without the gift of the Holy Ghost? The Elders when they are sent forth to preach are instructed to preach nothing but the first principles of the Gospel—to preach nothing but repentance to this generation. Why? Because the people cannot comprehend further advanced principles. I remember talking with an eminent clergyman some few years ago. He was a very gentlemanly person, well disposed, intelligent, learned, etc. I talked the Gospel a little to him, but I found he could not comprehend it. Hence I commenced talking politics, history, geography, and some little principles of science. He understood these things perfectly, and we had no difficulty in comprehending each other; but he could not comprehend the Gospel. Was he a minister? Yes; but he had not the gift of the Holy Ghost, and it was useless for me to attempt to teach him. This is the way that I understand these things.

Speaking of education, we have singular notions of education, and some people will say—and I have often said it myself—that Joseph Smith was quite an uneducated man. He was uneducated when he was a boy. He was brought up in the Green Mountains of Vermont, and he did not have any of the advantages of what we call an education. The Lord took him into His school, and He taught him things that I have seen puzzle many of the wisest scientists, profoundest thinkers, and the most learned men that I have met with in this world. Why? Because he was taught of God. What did those principles refer to? To the earth on which we live; to the elements of which it is composed; to the heavens above us; to the Gods that exist in the eternal worlds; to the principles by which the earth was organized, sustained, upheld and governed, and its relationship to other planets and systems; and speaking of governments, laws and principles, he possessed more intelligence than ninety-nine hundredths of the people of today. And he sought to teach others, and these things were introduced into the Temple of the Lord in Kirtland.

I have heard the Prophet Joseph quote from the German Bible in support of our method of baptism by immersion, showing that the German Translation of the New Testament favored this idea, and that the word “Taufen” in that language means “to dip;” the same as our term immersion does; and that when John the Baptist was spoken of as John the Baptist, it was “Johannes der Taufer,” or John the Dipper, which is correct.

I have heard him quote from the Hebrew Bible in support of a plurality of Gods, showing that the suffix “mem” in the word Eloheim or God, ought to be rendered in the plural and to read if literally translated, “and the Gods said let us, etc.” Certain it is that in our present translation the word “us” or “let us” indicates that idea; for “us” is certainly in the plural and means more than one; and while our translation makes it say: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” we are also told that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. * * And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” and further, that “All things were made by him,” visible and invisible. We are further told that “There be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.”

If, as stated, Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, there certainly was more than one God—God the Father, and God the Son. Joseph Smith was reasoning upon this doctrine at the time that he made this quotation from the Hebrew Bible.

We had a discussion in this Tabernacle some years ago between Apostle Orson Pratt and Dr. Newman—the latter a very prominent religionist from the east—a Methodist I think he was—what they call a doctor of divinity. The subject of discussion was—“Does the Bible sanction polygamy?” Mr. Newman was a well-educated man. So was Orson Pratt. Mr. Newman received his education in the schools of the day—somewhere in the United States, perhaps in the Methodist order; but I am not sufficiently acquainted with his history to say anything about this; I know very little about Mr. Newman. But I know where Orson Pratt got his information. And during this discussion some Hebrew points were debated, and the original Hebrew had to be referred to. Orson Pratt was quite as well acquainted with Hebrew as Mr. Newman was. Where did he get his knowledge? He received it in the Temple at Kirtland, Ohio. In speaking of that principle, the principle of education, to several leading men only yesterday, I think, I mentioned to them, in alluding to languages, that I was a little astonished to find that an old gentleman, about 80 years of age, whom I met a short time ago, was thoroughly conversant with the Hebrew language. “Where did you learn it?” said I. “Why,” said he, “I learned it in the Temple at Kirtland;” and he informed me that he was now studying Arabic. I was rather amused at the idea of an old man 80 years of age commencing to study Arabic. But to return. I have seldom met with a man that was more intelligent in the science of astronomy than Orson Pratt. Where did he get his information? From the same source. He studied mathematics all his days, and has written works that it is very difficult for some men to comprehend. Yet his works are on record.

The religion of God is not a religion of ignorance. To whom are we indebted for the first principles contained in this book [the Bible]? To Moses. Who was he? A man of God. Who taught him those things? The Lord. By what principle? The principle of revelation; for he could not know them without. But had he not been taught in the schools of Egypt? Yes. And had he not obtained a knowledge of astronomy in those schools, too? Probably he had in part; but God taught him the leading, prominent points pertaining thereto. And who taught the Egyptians? Abraham taught them the science of astronomy, so we are informed, by late Egyptologists, and revealed unto them the principle concerning the motions of the heavenly bodies. Where did Abraham get his information from? In reading the history pertaining to this matter we are told that he says of himself that he was a follower of righteousness; that he sought after more righteousness; that he examined the history of his fathers and traced back his genealogy to the commencement of the world, and from before the commencement. Afterwards we are told in the same history that the Lord gave unto him a Urim and Thummim by which he was able to comprehend many things that others did not understand, and by which he obtained a knowledge of the heavenly bodies and of their motions. Moses was one of the first to illustrate this principle; but Abraham, who was before Moses, as also Joseph, understood it more clearly than Moses. And in those things wherein the world today are puzzled in regard to the Scriptures, and the six days that are there spoken of, Abraham speaks of those days as times, epochs, or ages, different and distinct from the days spoken of by Moses, and his record agrees precisely with many geological facts that have puzzled so many of this generation. Where did he obtain his knowledge? From God. Who controls the heavens and the earth? The Gods in the eternal worlds. Who has implanted certain principles in matter and in all creation? God has done it. All things are subject to these laws; and if men can place themselves under His guidance and find the way to approach the great Eloheim, they will know more in a very short time than all this world together know in all their lives and more than all the combined intelligence of the world, for God is the foundation of all wisdom, and the source of all intelligence and knowledge. We are told that Solomon was a wise man. Where did he get his wisdom? From God. He prayed to the Lord to give him wisdom, and the Lord told him that because he had sought wisdom he should have it, and He would also add unto him the rich treasures of the earth.

I speak of these things for the information of the Latter-day Saints, and to disabuse your minds in regard to some of those principles that men sometimes talk about. The world possesses a certain amount of knowledge and intelligence, and it has progressed very rapidly of late years. We have had many discoveries in the arts and sciences and in the researches pertaining to geology, chemistry, etc., but many of their ideas and deductions are perfectly foolish and ridiculous. We have had the introduction of railroads, gas, steamboats, manifestations of the power and use of electricity, etc. Nevertheless, these principles always existed; it needed a development of them only to bring them into practical use; and there are thousands of other things not yet made known, yet to be developed, similar to those that have been discovered. In regard to these things, some of them are important, some of them are not very important. The intelligence that the world boasts so much of, is not very profound when you come to test it by the principles of eternal truth.

In regard to the action of the Congress of the United States, which has been referred to, I want to say to you Saints, you need not trou– ble yourselves about it—you need not be the least concerned about any of these affairs. But they are acting unlawfully. That is the worse for them. When the Government begins to break down the safeguards of society, tear in pieces the Constitution of the United States, and trample under foot the liberties of man, they are only preparing the nation for an utter overthrow. There are plenty of elements of discord and disintegration all around. Congress should not be the first to exhibit examples of lawlessness and the violation of Constitutional rights. However, if they can stand it we can. We need not trouble our heads about any of these matters; there is an overruling Providence that controls the affairs of men and nations. So you can rest perfectly easy, you Latter-day Saints. We shall continue to do right. We will continue to sustain good principle. And what will you do? Just what Jesus said. We will do good for evil. What else? We will pray for them that despitefully use us and evilly treat us. Why? That we may be the children of our Heavenly Father, and act on the same principle that He does towards the human family. Does He act in that way? Yes. For he maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust. He has introduced certain laws into the system of His government that regulates all things pertaining to these matters. He does not make those little divisions that the United States are trying to make today. He is more philanthropic. He treats all alike, and places all on the same basis. Then, we will try and operate with Him and for Him, and in the interests of humanity, and in the protection of human rights, and we will try by every legal and constitutional method to maintain and sustain the principles of human rights in behalf of ourselves, in behalf of our children, and in behalf of thousands and tens of thousands of honorable men that live in these United States. We can very well afford to abide by the Constitution of the United States, and to sustain it, and we can afford to believe in the Bible and to obey its ordinances, and practice them, which they cannot do, and do not do. As I have said, we can afford to treat all men well, and to pray for those which despitefully use us and persecute us. Those who are trying to despoil us are objects more of sympathy in my feelings than anything else. I feel sorry when I see misrule abound anywhere, let it be in this nation or other nations. God would like to see peace, union and harmony. For that reason He has introduced the Gospel, and the principles of intelligence associated with it. Man is a dual being, he possesses a body and a spirit, and is connected with time and will exist in eternity, and it is for him to understand the nature of his organism, and his relation to the world in which he lives, and to God our Heavenly Father. What, then, will we do? Why, we will try and live for one another; we will try and be honest, honorable and virtuous, no matter what people can say about us. Concerning the lying about us, we need not trouble our heads. I do not think we are much better than Jesus was. The people in His day said He was possessed of devils, and worse than that, that He cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils, and they killed Him saying He was an impostor and a deceiver, and because He said He was the Son of God, when they knew He was not. And His theology was altogether at fault with the learned Rabbis of that day, as ours is with the learned Rabbis of this. We cannot help that. What we know, as Brother John Q. Cannon has said, we know for ourselves. We do not ask any odds of man. I don’t. I know that God lives; I know that He has revealed the truth; I know this is the everlasting Gospel. I know that you Saints, if you are faithful, will secure to yourselves an inheritance in the celestial kingdom of God; but if you are not true to God and your religion you will not. If you go after the things of the world and depart from the principles of righteousness and trample upon the principles of honor, virtue, truth, or integrity, you will not enter that kingdom. It is not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, that shall enter the kingdom of heaven. What shall we do then? We will fear and love God and work righteousness, and send the Gospel to the nations of the earth, despite the follies, the wickedness and corruption of men; and we will pro– claim the truth in these valleys and mountains, and Zion will spread, grow and increase. God will be for Israel, and we will sing, Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and He will reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Let this people fear God and work righteousness, and I ask no odds of earth or hell. God is at the helm. He will manage things according to the counsels of His will. He will say to this nation and to other nations, as He did to the proud waves of the ocean, “Hitherto shall thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?” Our safety and our defense is in the Lord of Hosts. Let us put our trust in Him and obey His laws, and He will bless and sustain us in time and throughout the eternities that are to come; and we will try and benefit this nation all that we can, and all that they will let us, and if they will not let us, we cannot help it.

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

Remarks by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, June 22, 1884.

I have listened with much interest—as no doubt all of you have—to the remarks which have been made by Brother Young. It is very interesting to hear respecting the people in distant settlements, their faith, their growth, and their development in things spiritual and temporal. It is very encouraging to hear that the Latter-day Saints in distant places, far removed from this city, are alive to their duties, and to the performance of those obligations which rest upon them. I well remember the time—and doubtless very many of you here today also remember it—when it was thought that if we increased to any extent, and the people got beyond the influence of their leaders, who are supposed to be so astute and cunning as to manage them and all their affairs, that what is called Mormonism would soon dissolve, and either fall a prey to internal dissensions or break to pieces through some other cause. The Elders of this Church from the beginning have testified unto the world that if men and women would receive the doctrines of which they were the bearers, in the spirit in which they were taught, they should have a testimony for them– selves respecting their truth, and that by means of that testimony they would be enabled to stand and bear up against all pressure and all assaults that might be made or brought to bear upon them.

Mormonism, as it is termed, has been upon its trial from the beginning. The inhabitants of the earth are testing it, and we who are connected with it are obtaining knowledge concerning its adaptability to meet all the wants and requirements of all circumstances in which we may be placed.

The great duty that devolves upon us, my brethren and sisters, is to live that religion which we profess. I confess to you today that if I am ever assailed with fears or with doubts respecting the result of the machinations of the wicked against us, and of legislation hostile to us; if I am ever troubled, I say, with any doubts or fears, they have their origin in myself, my own inability, or, perhaps, the inability of my brethren and sisters, and their carelessness in carrying out the commands of God. For no other reason, am I ever troubled with fear respecting us as a people, or the results of the plots that are devised against us. I know, as well as I know I stand here, that the Latter-day Saints will emerge triumphant from every difficulty in which they may be involved, from every trial to which they may be subjected, if they will only live the religion they profess, and carry out its principles strictly in their lives. I know this, I say, as well as I know that I am here today, and am speaking to you. If we should be unfaithful, if we should neglect to serve our God with that faithfulness and zeal which He requires of us, then we may expect to be scourged, we may expect to have difficulty and trouble, we may expect that those who oppose us will gain, as they at least think, victories over us. God will use them to whip us into line, to bring us to a sense of our duties, to stir us up to diligence and faithfulness in keeping His commandments. He will use them in this direction and for these purposes. It, therefore, is a matter of great importance to us that we should be attentive to our duties; that every man in this Church who has a family should put his family into such a condition, as far as he can, that God will approve of them; that every Teacher in this Church whose duty it is to visit the houses of the Latter-day Saints and give them instructions concerning their duties, to see that there is no difficulty existing, no dissensions, no quarrelling—that these men should attend strictly to their duties; and that every officer in the Church in his place and station should be prompt and zealous in looking after the affairs of the Latter-day Saints; that no drunkenness is permitted, that no blasphemies are permitted, that no Sabbath breaking is permitted, that no speaking evil and bearing false witness are permitted, that fornica– tions and adulteries are not permitted, and that those who are guilty of any of these offenses are strictly dealt with, that there shall be no causes of this character existing among us as a people to bring forth the displeasure of our God. I feel myself that this is the time for us to be alive to our duties. We have no other defense than this. Our numbers are insufficient: our wealth, and our strength, and our worldly influence are entirely insufficient to give us victory. We can only hope to prevail by reason of the strength which our God will give unto us, by reason of the protection which He will extend unto us, and we cannot hope to succeed upon any other principle or by any other means. It is this that has given us victory in the past; it is this that will give us the victory in the future; it is this that will make us strong and mighty in the earth.

We are working out a great revolution, it may be said. Today we are disproving most effectually that remark that has become so trite among men, that God, or Providence, is on the side of the strongest artillery, and upon the side of the greatest numbers. We are disproving this. Our case illustrates most perfectly that when God is upon the side of a people—they may be feeble, they may be poor, they may be despised and be exceedingly unpopular—they will most assuredly gain triumphs and victories over all who oppose them. And I am thankful this day, in the presence of our God, I am thankful this day in your presence, my brethren and sisters, that God has, in His infinite mercy and kindness, spoken once more from the heavens and revealed Himself to men. Persecution! Who cares for it? Who fears it? What is there connected with it to make us tremble or to weaken us in the least degree if we are possessed of the knowledge which God has restored, that He lives, that He is the same today that He was 1,800 years ago, that He was in the days of the Prophets and Patriarchs—the same kind, beneficent, merciful, all-powerful Being? This knowledge God has restored, and we rejoice in its possession. We would that all men would listen unto His voice and be entreated of Him. We would that all men would seek unto Him and obtain for themselves this knowledge He is so willing to bestow. Our persecutions would be joyous to us—if they may be called persecutions—if such results as these could be wrought out, or would be the results that would attend these persecutions. While Brother Brigham was speaking about persecution, the thought passed through my mind that that which we term persecution is only the discipline necessary for our development. There is a great destiny in store for this people, and they never can attain unto it unless they pass through just such scenes as they have passed through in the past, and such scenes as they doubtless will have to pass through of a more trying character in the future. This is the discipline that is necessary to purify us, to prepare us in every respect for the fulfilling of that high destiny that awaits us. For just as sure as God lives, so sure will the people called Latter-day Saints become a great and mighty power in the earth. A people possessed of their qualities must, in the very nature of things, accomplish mighty results. A people united, a people believing in one doctrine, a people temperate and frugal, virtuous, industrious and enterprising, possessing every quality of greatness, they must, in the very nature of things, if they are true to themselves and to their religion, achieve distinction in the earth, and God designs it for us. But we must put ourselves in a way to be taught of Him. We must put away evil far from us. We must cleanse ourselves from everything that is offensive in His sight. We must live the religion that we profess—make it practically a part of our every day lives. This is incumbent upon us individually as well as collectively. A religion of profession amounts to nothing. A religion to be used only on Sundays is valueless. We want a religion that will go with us into our fields, into our workshops, into our habitations, and into our everyday dealings one with another. This is the kind of religion we want, and this, I am happy to say, is the kind of religion we have got. If we will live it as we should do, we shall witness these results to a greater extent than we have yet witnessed them. God has tried us in many respects in the past. There are additional ordeals yet before us. We have been told from the beginning that the time would come when not only would the people of a county be opposed to us, but the people of a state would oppose us; and as we increased opposition would increase, until the Government of the United States would pronounce against us. It is a remarkable fact—not known, probably, or if known not believed by the Congress of the United States, or by the members of Congress, who pass inimical measures against us—that Joseph Smith predicted years and years ago, when it was as improbable as anything that is yet unfulfilled, that the time would come when our nation through its Congress, would do the very thing that is now being done, that we have witnessed this last week for instance, in the passage by the Senate of the Edmunds-Hoar bill. Little do they think that by such actions as these they are strengthening the faith of the Latter-day Saints, because they see in these actions that they are fulfilling the words of a man whom they believe to be a Prophet of God. And not only were we told that this would be the case, but that the time would come when the fear of the Kingdom of God would be so great that other nations would array themselves in like manner against the Latter-day Saints.

So, Latter-day Saints, if any of you think that we will immediately have a time when persecution, trial and difficulty will cease, and we will have smooth sailing, you had better be undeceived, for that is not in the program; it is not designed of God that we should have any such future before us. The time will come, but it will be when Satan is bound, when the Kingdom of God will prevail on the earth, and peace, righteousness and truth will have sway; but until that time we may expect to have troubled seas, tempests, times of trial and difficulty, to test us and train us, and to fit and prepare the earth, as we have been told this afternoon for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are only testing our strength in these things. The Edmunds law became a law upwards of two years ago. What has it amounted to? Why, we have had an opportunity of showing our strength, our union. Now, this bill that has been passed by the Senate—suppose it should become a law. What then? Will it have the effect that is expected of those who have framed it? If we do our duty, certainly not. If we live our religion, certainly not. It will fall harmless at our feet. There is no law that can be devised by human wisdom that can reach this case—that is, as those who devise such measures desire. It is an impossibility. No mobocratic scheme ever injured us. When the Governor of the State of Missouri issued his exterminating order against the Latter-day Saints, declaring that if they did not leave the State they should be exterminated, he thought, doubtless, that he was dealing this system a deadly blow. We were broken up into fragments, it might be said, in the depths of inclement weather. The people were compelled to flee for their lives. What was the result? Why, in a short time the system became a greater power than before. When we were driven out by violence, by bloodshed, from the State of Illinois, and compelled to launch forth into the wilderness, for a while it was thought that we were certainly placed in a position where we should be ruined. What has been the result? It has had the effect of causing us to spread until throughout these mountain valleys the Latter-day Saints are numbered by thousands. Every measure that has been taken against us since then, designed for our overthrow, has only taught us our strength. It has compelled us to go to the fountain of all strength, to God our Eternal Father. Feeling our own inability, our own incapacity, our own weakness, we have been compelled to go to a higher power. We have invoked the heavens. From the habitations of the Saints throughout these valleys the prayer of faith has ascended unto the God of heaven imploring Him to protect and preserve the people in their innocence—notwithstanding the malignant falsehoods that have been circulated against them—im– ploring Him to defend them, and to save them from the hands of those who would destroy them. And abundantly have these prayers been answered. We have had deliverances wrought out that have been most extraordinary. Men have looked upon this system and said, “What crafty leaders, what astute leadership; you have got a very cunning lot of men as Mormon leaders”—giving the glory to men, as though men could preserve the people in this matter, ignoring the God of heaven, denying His power, and asserting that God had done nothing, but that it is all attributable to the management of the leaders in holding the people together, as though it had all been done by the strength of their impostures.

Now, these deliverances which have been wrought out in the past will be repeated. These trials are necessary. It is just as necessary that we should have these things to contend with as that we live. I do not dread their effects nearly as much as I do something else. Hostile legislation and opposition of this character have but one tendency as a rule, that is, to drive us closer together, to make the cause a common one, to cause us to feel united. You have seen a cooper putting hoops on a barrel; driving them down has the effect of tightening the staves and making the barrel strong. So it is with these measures. The more they are driven the tighter it brings the people together, solidifies them, makes them one, and it gives them a consciousness of strength; because when they emerge from these trials victorious they feel better able to cope with greater difficulties and greater oppression when they are brought to bear upon them. And they are necessary, as I have said, for our development. But let us have ease, let us prosper in worldly things, let the world smile upon us and bid us welcome and treat us as they treat those whom they love; let the world do this, and how long should we be united? Why, the influence would be towards disintegration. Worldly influence would creep in. That is more to be dreaded than persecution. Prosperity is far more to be dreaded under circumstances such as we are placed in—what I mean by prosperity, I mean worldly prosperity, worldly sympathy, worldly favor; these are more to be dreaded than the disfavor of the world and the tyranny that may be brought to bear upon us because of our being obnoxious to them.

Therefore, I look upon these measures and other measures that are proposed as only a part of the program. Shall we have measures that will be hostile to us? Yes. We may make up our minds for this; but we may also rest assured that that God who has delivered us so frequently in the past will still continue to deliver us, and we shall not fall a prey, if we do our duty, to our enemies. He will preserve us. He will make our feet fast in these mountains. He will throw around us His arm of power, and when the worst comes to the worst He will interpose in our behalf in a miraculous manner to free us and place us upon a sure foundation. In fact, it is all miraculous. The existence of this people is a miracle. The growth of this people is a miracle. The attitude of this people is a miracle. It is all contrary to what are called natural causes, and therefore miraculous, contrary to the laws that pass current among men respecting peoples, communities and individuals, such as we are, and such as all are.

My brethren and sisters: We have every reason to rejoice so long as we are doing right. It is this that we have to console us. If we were vicious the world would not war against us. It is not against vice that the war is being made. Man may say so, but God knows it is not so. Our enemies know that it is not so. They know that it is not vice in us that provokes this warfare. Where is vice to be found in our cities? Nowhere. It finds no favor with us. We cherish virtue, the virtues of humanity, everything that is Godlike, and we frown down everything that is vicious and unholy. If we had our way there would not be an adulterer in these mountains. If we had our way there would not be a seducer in these mountains. Every woman would either be a virtuous maiden or a married woman, or a widow. We would take care of family virtue, preserve it as we would life; for it is more precious than life itself, and should be valued as such, and every man that would do anything to degrade a woman ought to be and will be damned. If we had our way there would be no drunkenness in all these mountains, no lying in these mountains; the name of God would not be taken in vain, no profane words would be heard. We would suppress these things, and in their place cherish virtue, industry, integrity, honesty and every virtue that men love and that God loves. No, it is not because we are vicious; it is not because we love vice; it is not because we are the most corrupt and depraved of mankind that we have enemies. Why, the drunkard, the gambler, the whoremonger, the villains of various dyes, who fight against us, would welcome us if we were like them. But we are not. We have come out of the world and are determined to serve God accord– ing to the dictates of our conscience, and according to the revelations that He has given us.

The warfare will go on as it has done in the past, only with this difference: that in our age and to us God has made promises, that this kingdom, that is, the Holy Priesthood that He has restored to the earth and the authority that He once had among men; the promise is to us that it shall not be taken from the earth again; but that this kingdom shall roll forth, continue to grow and increase, until it will encircle within its pale all the virtuous and honest of the nations of the earth. This is the destiny of this work; not to exclude anyone, but to include everyone; and as it gains strength, influence and power, it will continue to aggregate to itself all that is good in mankind. The day will come when our own nation will be convulsed with intestine strife. The civil war that is past is not the only war that will take place in this land. It is a matter of regret to think it should be otherwise. But God has spoken. There will be intestine strife in our own nation. Already we can see, as it were, the seeds of this germinating and sprouting in the midst of neighborhoods and of communities, and it will break out after a while, and men will flee to Zion. The prediction was made 52 years ago by Joseph Smith, that the time would come when those that would not take up their sword to fight against their neighbor in this blessed land (the most favored of any land under the heavens, so favored in government, so favored in climate, so favored in every element of wealth, and in all its surroundings), they would be compelled to come here for protection, for we will be the only people that will be at peace on the continent. That prediction was made 52 years ago. It will be fulfilled just as sure as God has spoken it.

My brethren and sisters, I am happy in this reflection: that notwithstanding the threatening aspect of affairs—I speak now in relation to legislation—there is a spirit of peace, calmness and serenity, prevailing throughout our settlements and throughout our families, so far as I have been able to discern, that has shown we are undisturbed, that we are conscious of the fact that God is with us. Continue to cherish this spirit, let it rest upon you, impart it to your children, extend it as far as you can; and may the blessing of our Father and God rest down abundantly upon you and upon all the honest everywhere throughout the wide earth, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.