A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 23, 1853

I wish to bear my testimony, before this congregation, to the religion which is called “Mormonism,” and preached by the Elders of the same profession in all the world; and that, we believe, is the Gospel of salvation, and calculated to save all the honest in heart who wish to be saved.

This is my testimony concerning it—It is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe and obey it. The words “obey it,” I have added to the text as it is given to us by King James’ translators. To say it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe, and that be the end of it, then the people could not be saved by it. It is quite possible some may argue the point as it is held out in the New Testament reading, and in their own estimation justly. But to me one argument is sufficient to lay the matter at rest in my mind—a person who disobeys the Gospel, and operates against it, may not only believe it, but know it to be true. Therefore I read the Scripture thus—“This Gospel that we preach is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe and obey it.”

My testimony is based upon experience, upon my own experience, in connection with that obtained by observing others. To me it has become positively true—no doubt remains upon my mind, whatever, as to the power of the revealed will of Heaven to man upon the minds of the people, when the principles of salvation are set before them by the authorized ministers of heaven. The heavenly truth commends itself to every person’s judgment, and to their faith; and more especially to the senses of those who wish to be honest with themselves, with their God, and with their neighbor. Yet I must admit that all men are not operated upon alike; the evidence of truth comes more forcibly to the understandings of some than others. This is owing to numerous influences. The Gospel may be preached to an individual, and the truth commend itself to the conscience of that person, creating but a little faith in its truth, to which there may be an addition made. If persons can receive a little, it proves they may receive more. If they can receive the first and second principles with an upright feeling, they may receive still more, and the words of the Prophet be fulfilled. He, seeing and understanding the mind of man, and the operations of the different spirits that have gone abroad into the world, and knowing the ways of the Lord, and the vision of his mind being opened to those things we call mysteries, said—“Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” That is, He gives a little to His humble followers today, and if they improve upon it, tomorrow He will give them a little more, and the next day a little more. He does not add to that which they do not improve upon, but they are required to continually improve upon the knowledge they already possess, and thus obtain a store of wisdom. It is plain, then, that we may receive the truth, and know, through every portion of the soul, that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, that it is the way to life eternal; still there may be added to this, more power, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. The Apostle does not say, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth, as Jesus did; no, but it reads, “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” which implies a growing in strength, wisdom, and understanding, as he did.

It is the privilege of all Saints to grow and increase in understanding, and to spread abroad. If they receive a little, it is their privilege to improve upon that little, and so receive more, until they become perfect in the Lord—knowing and understanding perfectly His ways. Then the manifestations of His providence among the children of men cease to be a mystery to them. Kingdoms and thrones, princes and potentates, with all their earthly splendor, may be hurled to the dust, and revolution upon revolution may spread scenes of affliction and blood among the inhabitants of the earth, yet their eyes are open to see the handiwork of the Lord in all this. They realize that He is capable of endowing His ministers and servants on the earth with the same power as He possesses in Himself, that He scrutinizes every particle of His work, and that not a hair of their heads can fall to the ground without His notice.

I bear my testimony that the Gospel you have embraced is the way of life and salvation to every one that believes it, and then obeys it with an honest intent. The inquiry may arise in the minds of some, as to how far they shall obey it. Every son and daughter of God is expected to obey with a willing heart every word which the Lord has spoken, and which He will in the future speak to us. It is expected that we hearken to the revelations of His will, and adhere to them, cleave to them with all our might; for this is salvation, and anything short of this clips the salvation and the glory of the Saints. Consequently, we are here today, engaged in the administration of the ordinance of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. How does it appear to you, and what are your sensations, when the servants of the Lord present to you the emblems of His body? Do you believe you receive life? Do you realize that you receive any benefit? Do you feel that you will receive fresh strength, or additional knowledge, through this holy ordinance? Or, do you do it because others do it? Do you partake of these tokens of the love of the Redeemer because it is a mere custom? Suffice it to say, varied are the feelings among the human family upon this subject.

If you ask a certain class of the priests of Christendom what they think of the bread and wine administered for the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, they will declare that the bread is the actual flesh, and the wine the real blood, of him who was slain for the sins of the world.

If you ask another class of men what benefit they derive from partaking of the Sacrament, from eating and drinking the emblems of the body and blood of Christ, they reply, “It is merely a token of our fellowship with each other.” Is there any life, any power, any real and substantial benefit to be obtained by adhering to, and obeying faithfully, this ordinance? What do the Latter-day Saints think about it? Do they understand the true nature of this ordinance? Perhaps they do, and again perhaps they do not.

It is an easy matter for me to understand the information the Lord has imparted to me, and then communicate the same to you. Will the bread administered in this ordinance add life to you? Will the wine add life to you? Yes; if you are hungry and faint, it will sustain the natural strength of the body. But suppose you have just eaten and drunk till you are full, so as not to require another particle of food to sustain the natural body; you have eaten all your nature requires; do you then receive any benefit from the bread and wine as mere articles of food? As far as the emblems are concerned, you receive strength naturally, when the body requires it, precisely as you would by eating bread, and drinking wine, at any other time, or on any other occasion.

In what consists the benefit we derive from this ordinance? It is in obeying the commands of the Lord. When we obey the commandments of our heavenly Father, if we have a correct understanding of the ordinances of the house of God, we receive all the promises attached to the obedience rendered to His commandments. Jesus said—Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Again, “He that eateth me,” “shall live by me.” Again, “Whose eateth my flesh, and drinketh, my blood, hath eternal life.” “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”

Can you understand these sayings of the Savior? These sayings are but isolated portions of the vast amount of instructions given by him to his followers in his day. Had a thousandth part of his teachings to them been handed down to us, and all his doings been faithfully recorded and transmitted to us, we should not have known what to do with such a vast amount of information. The Apostle says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”

Allow me to explain this text. The Apostle could not possibly mean what the language of the quotation implies—that the whole earth would have been covered with books to a certain depth; no, but he meant, by that saying, there would have been more written than the world of mankind would receive, or credit. The people then were as they are in this day—they are continually reaching after something that is not revealed, when there is more written already than they can comprehend. Instead of saying the world could not contain the books, we will say there would have been more written than the people would carry out in their lives.

I will now tell you what the Savior meant by those wonderful expressions touching his body and blood. It is simply this—“If you do not keep the commandments of God, you will have no life of the Son of God in you.” Jesus, as they were eating, took the bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” What were they required to drink it for? What are we partaking of these emblems for? In token of our fellowship with him, and in token that we desire to be one with each other, that we may all be one with the Father. His administering these symbols to his ancient disciples, and which he commanded should be done until he came, was for the express purpose that they should witness unto the Father that they did believe in him. But on the other hand, if they did not obey this commandment, they should not be blessed with his spirit.

It is the same in this, as it is in the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins. Has water, in itself, any virtue to wash away sin? Certainly not; but the Lord says, “If the sinner will repent of his sins, and go down into the waters of baptism, and there be buried in the likeness of being put into the earth and buried, and again be delivered from the water, in the likeness of being born—if in the sincerity of his heart he will do this, his sins shall be washed away.” Will the water of itself wash them away? No; but keeping the commandments of God will cleanse away the stain of sin.

When we eat of this bread, and drink of this water, do we eat the literal flesh of the Son of God? Were I a priest of the Roman Catholic church, and had been trained from my youth in that faith, I might believe fully, with my whole heart, that my prayers would transform the bread of the eucharist into the literal flesh, and the wine into the literal blood, of the Son of God. But notwithstanding my faith on that matter, the bread and wine would be just the same in their component parts, and would administer to the mortal systems of men, or of beasts, the same amount and kind of nutriment that the same quantity of unblessed bread and wine would. If bread and wine are blessed, dedicated, and sanctified, through the sincerity and faith of the people of God, then the Spirit of the Lord, through the promise, rests upon the individuals who thus keep His commandments, and are diligent in obeying the ordinances of the house of God. So I understand all the ordinances of the house of the Lord. You know we used to get down upon our knees and pray for the remission of sins; and we would pray until we got peace of mind, and then we thought our sins were forgiven. I have no fault to find with this, it is all right. Many in this way have been made to rejoice in the hope of eternal life, to rejoice in the gift of the Spirit of the Lord, and in the light of His countenance. Many received heavenly visions, revelations, the ministering of holy angels, and the manifestations of the power of God, until they were satisfied; and all this before the ordinances of the house of God were preached to the people. They obtained those blessings through their faith, and the sincerity of their hearts. It was this that called down heavenly blessings upon them. It was their fervency of spirit, and not their obedience to the celestial law, through which they received such blessings; and it was all right. What is required of us when the law comes? We must obey it, as old Paul did. He was a servant of God in all good conscience, when he took care of the clothes of those who stoned Stephen to death; but when the law came, sin revived in him, and he said, “I died.” That is, his former notions of serving God, his former incorrect traditions, all appeared to him in their true light, and that upon which he had trusted for salvation as baseless as a dream, when the law of the Lord came by Jesus Christ; and in it he found the promises and the gifts and the blessings of the holy Gospel, through obedience to the ordinances. That is the only legal way to obtain salvation, and an exaltation in the presence of God.

In this light do I view all the ordinances of the house of God. I do not know of one commandment that may be preferred before another; or of one ordinance of the house of God, from the beginning to the end of all the Lord has revealed to the children of men, that is not of equal validity, power, and authority with the rest. So we partake of bread and wine, obeying the commandments of the Lord; and by so doing we receive the blessing.

But how do the people feel? Perhaps you will refer the answer of this question to myself. Were I to answer it, I should say, they feel every way. Permit me to refer particularly to the brethren and sisters who have lately come to this place—they have all the variety of feelings that is common to the human heart. They know how they feel; they are my witnesses. The most frivolous and trifling circumstance that can transpire, will produce in them the most keen and cutting trial. What can we say about it? For one I will say, let them come, the small trials and the large ones; let them be many or few, it is the same; let them come as the Lord pleases. Brother Heber C. Kimball was speaking this morning about this people being driven from pillar to post, and he told the cause of their many trials. I will ask a question concerning this matter. If you had not been driven from York State, and the persecution become so hot as to send you up to Kirtland, Ohio, would you have known as much as you now know? Persecution did not commence in Kirtland, nor in Jackson County, but it commenced at the time Joseph the Prophet sought the plates in the hill Cumorah. It did not commence after I came into the Church, but I found it at work when I entered the Church.

Suppose Joseph had not been obliged to flee from Pennsylvania back to York State, would he have known as much as he afterwards knew? Suppose he could have stayed in old Ontario County in peace, without being persecuted, could he have learned as much as he did by being persecuted? He fled from there to Kirtland, accompanied by many others, to save their lives. There are men now in this Church whom I see before me and in full fellowship, who haunted my house for days, weeks, and months to kill me, and I knew it all the time; and Joseph had to flee to Missouri.

Would he have known as much if this persecution had not come upon him, as he afterwards did by its coming upon him? When the people left Kirtland they went to Jackson County, Missouri, and Joseph commenced to lay out a city to be called Zion; and not now, but after a time, when the Lord has accomplished His preparatory work, it will be built, even the New Jerusalem. The brethren were persecuted also in Jackson County, and driven out; they had trial upon trial, persecution on the right hand and on the left. Suppose, when they went to Jackson County, all the people of Missouri had hailed them as brethren, fellow citizens, and as neighbors, and had treated them accordingly, and they had been protected in their religious liberty, would the people that were driven from Jackson County have known as much as they now know? Could they have gained the knowledge and wisdom they have obtained by means of their persecutions? You can answer these questions to suit your own minds. When they had to flee from Ohio to Missouri, it certainly gave the people an experience they could not have obtained in any other way. When they were driven from Jackson County, and went to Clay, Ray, Caldwell, and Davies counties, persecution still followed them, and every man and woman who acknowledged Joseph Smith to be a Prophet, had to leave the State forthwith.

I feel inclined now to give some of you a gentle touch on the left side. Brethren, how glad I am to see you; how pleased I am to see you; where have you been these few years back? Where have you been living? Where did you go after you left Missouri? “Why I stayed there.” I say, there was not a man who would say that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, could stay there; they had all to leave the State; and you will now show yourselves at this late day, and try to have us believe you are first-rate Latter-day Saints. My thoughts are, “YOU POOR DEVILS!”

I hope I do not hurt any of your feelings. If you will do right from this time henceforth, and help with your mights to build up the Kingdom of God, I will hold you in fellowship after you have thus proved yourselves. But you may regard it as an established fact, that I have no fellowship for you yet; and I have as much as the Lord has. Still, if I have anything to fear, it is that I fellowship people too much, when they are not worthy; that is, I reflect—“Can I be more merciful than the Lord?” But I have not got light enough nor wisdom enough to fellowship men who lived in peace with those who sought to kill us.

Ask yourselves whether you think this people would have received as much as they have received, if they never had been persecuted. Could they have advanced in the school of intelligence as far without being persecuted, as they have by being persecuted? Look for instance at Adam. Listen, ye Latter-day Saints! Supposing that Adam was formed actually out of clay, out of the same kind of material from which bricks are formed; that with this matter God made the pattern of a man, and breathed into it the breath of life, and left it there, in that state of supposed perfection, he would have been an adobie to this day. He would not have known anything.

Some of you may doubt the truth of what I now say, and argue that the Lord could teach him. This is a mistake. The Lord could not have taught him in any other way than in the way in which He did teach him. You believe Adam was made of the dust of this earth. This I do not believe, though it is supposed that it is so written in the Bible; but it is not, to my understanding. You can write that information to the States, if you please—that I have publicly declared that I do not believe that portion of the Bible as the Christian world do. I never did, and I never want to. What is the reason I do not? Because I have come to understanding, and banished from my mind all the baby stories my mother taught me when I was a child.

But suppose Adam was made and fashioned the same as we make adobies; if he had never drunk of the bitter cup, the Lord might have talked to him to this day, and he would have continued as he was to all eternity, never advancing one particle in the school of intelligence. This idea opens up a field of light to the intelligent mind. How can you know truth but by its opposite, or light but by its opposite? The absence of light is darkness. How can sweetness be known but by its opposite, bitter? It is by this means that we obtain all intelligence. This is “Mormonism,” and it is founded upon all truth, upon every principle of true philosophy; in fact, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true philosophy in existence. There is not one particle of it that is not strictly philosophical, though you and I may not understand all the fulness of it, but we will if we continue faithful.

Let the brethren who have been persecuted and driven from city to city, inquire of themselves if they like it. Some of you may give a negative to this inquiry. You recollect brother Taylor telling about a woman in Far West who had her house burnt down some four or five times; she finally said, “she would be damned if she would stand it any longer.” If her eyes had been opened to see, she would have thanked the Lord for that, more than for anything else; that persecution was more precious to her than riches, because it was designed to teach her to understand the knowledge of God. Do I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in persecution? Yes, I do. It is one of the greatest blessings that could be conferred upon the people of God. I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in leveling His people to the dust of the earth, and reducing them to a state of abject poverty.

Time and time again have I left handsome property to be inherited by our enemies.

Suppose we were called to leave what we have now, should we call it a sacrifice? Shame on the man who would so call it; for it is the very means of adding to him knowledge, understanding, power, and glory, and prepares him to receive crowns, kingdoms, thrones, and principalities, and to be crowned in glory with the Gods of eternity. Short of this, we can never receive that which we are looking for.

For example, I will refer to your crossing the plains. How could you in any other way have known the hardships incident to such a journey? And do you not feel ashamed for getting angry at your cattle, or for letting passion arise in your bosoms? Suppose you were rolling in wealth, and perfectly at your ease, with an abundance around you; you might have remained in that condition until Doomsday, and never could have advanced in the school of intelligence, any more than Adam could have known about the works of God, in the great design of the creation, without first being made acquainted with the opposite? “Is there evil in the city and I have not done it, saith the Lord.” There is no evil that is not known to the Lord. He has been perfectly acquainted with all the persecutions the Saints have passed through. His hand was there, as much so as it is in building up and tearing down kingdoms and thrones on earth; and even the moth we trample upon is not overlooked by Him. Everything is under His watchful eye; he understands all the works of His hands, and knows how to use them to His own glory. He has given the children of men the privilege of becoming equal with His Son Jesus Christ, and has placed all things that pertain to this world in their hands, to see what use they will make of them.

Joseph could not have been perfected, though he had lived a thousand years, if he had received no persecution. If he had lived a thousand years, and led this people, and preached the Gospel without persecution, he would not have been perfected as well as he was at the age of thirty-nine years. You may calculate when this people are called to go through scenes of affliction and suffering, are driven from their homes, and cast down, and scattered, and smitten, and peeled, the Almighty is rolling on His work with greater rapidity. But let you and me live and die in peace, and in our lives we send the Gospel to the nations, from kingdom to kingdom, and from people to people, will it advance with the same speed if it receive no persecution? If we had received no persecution in Nauvoo, would the Gospel have spread as it now has? Would the Elders have been scattered so widely as they now are, preaching the Gospel? No, they would have been wedded to their farms, and the precious seed of the word would have been choked. “Brother Joseph, or brother Brigham, do not call upon me to go on a mission, for I have so much to do I cannot go,” would have been the general cry. “I want to build a row of stores across this or that block, and place myself in a situation to make $100,000 a year, and then I can devote so much for the building up of the kingdom of God.” The Elders would have been so devoted to riches, they would not have gone to preach when the Lord wanted them. But when they have not a frock to put upon the backs of their children, or a shoe for their feet, then they can go out and preach the Gospel to the world.

Well, do you think that persecution has done us good? Yes. I sit and laugh, and rejoice exceedingly when I see persecution. I care no more about it than I do about the whistling of the north wind, the croaking of the crane that flies over my head, or the crackling of the thorns under the pot. The Lord has all things in His hand; therefore, let it come, for it will give me experience. Do you suppose I should have known what I now know, had I not been persecuted? I can now see the hearts of the children of men with the same clearness as I can your persons in the light of day. I know we have been sunk in the depths of poverty and wretchedness, by the hands of our enemies, but in this we have seen the works of the Lord, and the works of darkness intermingled; this has taught us to discriminate between the two, that we may learn to choose the good, and refuse the evil; or in other words, to separate the chaff from the wheat.

I am a witness that “Mormonism” is true upon philosophical principles. Every particle of sense I have proves it to be sound, natural reason. The gospel is true, there is a God, there are angels, there are a heaven and a hell, and we are all in eternity, and out of it we can never get; it is boundless, without beginning or end, and we have never been out of it. Time is a certain portion of eternity allotted to the existence of these mortal bodies, which are to be dissolved, to be decomposed, or disorganized, preparatory to entering into a more exalted state of being. It is a portion of eternity allotted to this world, and can only be known by the changes we see in the composition and decomposition of the elements of which it is composed. The Lord has put His children here, and given them bodies that are also subject to decay, to see if they will prove themselves worthy of the particles of which their tabernacles are composed, and of a glorious resurrection when their mortal bodies will become immortalized. Now if you possess the light of the Holy Spirit, you can see clearly that trials in the flesh are actually necessary.

I will refer again to the brethren and sisters who have lately come over the plains. My counsel to them today is, as it has been on former occasions to all who have come into these valleys, Go and be baptized for the remission of sins, repenting of all your wanderings from the path of righteousness, believing firmly, in the name of Jesus Christ, that all your sins will be washed away. If any of you inquire what is the necessity of your being baptized, as you have not com– mitted any sins, I answer, it is necessary to fulfil all righteousness.

I have heard of some of you cursing and swearing, even some of the Elders of Israel. I would be baptized seven times, were I in your place; I would not stop teasing some good Elder to baptize me again and again, until I could think my sins forgiven. I would not live over another night until I was baptized enough to satisfy me that my sins were forgiven. Then go and be confirmed, as you were when you first embraced the religion of Jesus. That is my counsel.

Furthermore I counsel you to stop and think what you are doing, before you commit any more sins, before you give way to your temper. The temper, or the evil propensities of men, when given way to are the cause of sinning so much. The Lord is suffering the devil to work upon and try His people. The selfish will, operated upon by the power of Satan, is the strongest cord that vibrates through the human system. This has been verified a thousand times. Men have sacrificed their money, their health, their good names, their friends, and have broken through every tender tie to gratify their wills. Curb that, bridle the tongue, and then hold the mastery over your feelings, that they submit not to the will of the flesh, but to the will of the Holy Ghost; and decide in your own minds that your will and judgment shall be none other than the will and judgment of the Spirit of God, and you will then go and sin no more.

Many of the brethren who have led companies through this season are scattered through the congregation. I will tell a story you will scarcely believe. In the first place, I will remark, it has been very common for the companies crossing the plains to send into the city for provisions to be sent out to them. Again, many of you newcomers have suffered for want of food on the plains. Would you have suffered as you did if you had been in possession of the experience you now have? “No,” you reply. “No,” says this father, and that mother, and this man that brought through a company, “had we the experience we now have, when we left the Missouri River, we could have come through, and none have suffered for food, and less of our stock would have been destroyed.” This experience is good for you. It helps you to learn the lessons of human life, for the Lord designs His people to understand the whole of it—to understand the light and the darkness, the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of every principle that is within the compass of the human mind.

Now for the hard saying. Brother David Wilkin’s company, Joseph Young’s company, John Brown’s company, and other companies, had more provisions for their journey, when they left Missouri River, by a great amount, than the first emigrants had who started to come to this valley, not knowing whither they went, carrying with them their farming implements into a country where they could obtain nothing to sustain themselves in life until they raised it from the ground. When you started for this place, you had more provisions, according to your numbers, than the first Pioneer companies had who came here six years ago. Can you believe this statement? I can prove it to you. Here are hundreds who can testify to the truth of this statement. And you complain of suffering! If you suffer, it is for want of experience. This is positive proof to you, that were it not that the Lord turns us into these difficulties, and leads us into these trials, we could not know how to be glorified and crowned in His presence. If these companies were again to cross the plains, they would have plenty, and some to spare to feed the poor, and take up the lame, and the halt, and the blind, by the way, and bring them to Zion, and then have a surplus. Are you to blame? No. If you are to blame for anything, it is for complaining against the providence of God, instead of feeling thankful for the knowledge and intelligence the Lord has given you in this experience. When you are in the like situation again, you can save yourselves, and those associated with you. Your experience is worth more to you than gold.

Brother Kimball referred to Zion’s camp going to Missouri. When I returned from that mission to Kirtland, a brother said to me, “Brother Brigham, what have you gained by this journey?” I replied, “Just what we went for; but I would not exchange the knowledge I have received this season for the whole of Geauga County; for property and mines of wealth are not to be compared to the worth of knowledge.” Ask those brethren and sisters who have passed through scenes of affliction and suffering for years in this Church, what they would take in exchange for their experience, and be placed back where they were, were it possible. I presume they would tell you, that all the wealth, honors, and riches of the world could not buy the knowledge they had obtained, could they barter it away.

Let the brethren be contented, and if you have trials, and must see hard times, learn to acknowledge the hand of the Lord in it all. He directs the affairs of this world, and will until He reigns King of Saints. The veil which is over this people is becoming thinner; let them be faithful until they can rend it asunder, and see the hand of the Lord, and His goings forth among the people, with a vision unobstructed by the veil of ignorance, and bless the name of the Lord.

Brethren and sisters, inasmuch as I have the right and privilege, through the Priesthood, I bless you in the name of the Lord, and say, Be you blessed. These are my feelings to the Latter-day Saints, and would be to all the human family, if they would receive my blessings, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Discourse by President Orson Hyde, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, September 24, 1853.

Being called upon this morning to occupy a portion of the time, I gladly arise to do so.

I am not in the habit of making many apologies, for I intend to give you the best I have on hand, and also such as may be given me, during the remarks I may make.

While I attempt to edify you upon some of the principles of salvation and eternal life, I desire an interest in your prayers, that I may speak, not according to the wisdom that man deviseth, but according to that which cometh down from above.

As a foundation for some remarks that I will make, I will read a portion of the Epistle of Jude, 3rd verse—“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Were I capable this morning of addressing you upon subjects that are not understood by you, that you do not comprehend, there would remain a doubt in your minds with regard to the truthfulness of what I say; but if I address you upon subjects with which you are familiar, impressing them upon your minds perhaps more forcibly than they have been for some time past—if I refresh your minds with familiar things, you will then know and understand.

The old book, the Bible, which I have read so many times, does not lose its interest by once or twice pe– rusing, but I take it up and read it over and over again, and my mind is refreshed; which is a matter of satisfaction and comfort to me. So it is with the principles of our religion; though we have often heard them, yet we desire to hear them still, and they are of that peculiar nature that they do not lose their interest to those who are seeking for eternal life.

Jude speaks of a common salvation; that it was not only necessary to write unto them of the common salvation, but while he was doing so, that he should exhort them to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints. Now I know it is too often the case, when we speak of salvation we speak of a state of glory to be attained in the eternal world; that the matters and affairs of this world are of but little consequence, of little importance, but we are looking yonder in the heavens for our reward, for our everlasting inheritance.

I look at it in this light. The husbandman may plant seed in the earth, but if he all the time looks to the golden harvest, and pays no attention to the cultivation of the young plants on their progress to perfection, he will not reap the reward he anticipated. Then it becomes necessary for him, and it is to his interest to attend to the cultivation of the plant in its progressive stages, and encourage its growth.

Just so it is with us. It is for us to attend to the things that are present; the things that are past we are to forget, particularly those things that are of an unpleasant character; and the things that are in future are not in our hands, and subject to our control, but they are in the hands of the Almighty, and with Him they are secured. It is the present, then, with which we have to do—with the things that are immediately before us; that is, I believe, the common salvation. I do not pretend to say what the Apostle had his eye particularly fixed upon, but I shall pursue this subject as it appears unto me.

Another thing I will suggest in the outset. It is often the case that we hear men and women talk about temporal things, and about spiritual things. What are temporal things, and what are spiritual things? Can you tell me what spiritual things are? Says one, “It is a joyful feeling, that buoys us above the cares and anxieties of this world. Spiritual things are our hope of a glorious inheritance in the Kingdom of God in the future. Temporal things are the things we eat, drink, wear, and use in divers ways, to shelter and sustain this mortal body while it remains a tabernacle for our spirits.”

I look at temporal and spiritual things in the same point of light; they are to me all spiritual; I know no difference. The hand that has prepared a place in the celestial kingdom for them that are worthy of it, has also formed the earth and caused it to produce food for every living thing. We behold, in the starry firmament, the worlds that are revolving continually around us, which are made by the same Omnipotent hand, and they are all His, and they are all spiritual, because they are as eternal as God Himself, for there can be no annihilation of matter; consequently they are eternal; and nothing we may conceive or imagine of more refined substances can do more than continue forever.

Everything God has created and made, even the hairs of our heads that fall to the ground, do not escape His notice. The Almighty has not organized matter as a mere plaything, of a temporary existence, and then plunge it into the regions of utter annihilation; but everything He has done is like Himself, Eternal, and everything eternally witnesses the goodness of the Supreme Ruler, for all His works shall praise Him. If His works are to perish, where is the monument of His labor? There will be none. What He does is eternal, and remains an eternal witness of what He has done, and so His works eternally praise Him.

But we want to come to this common salvation. It is said somewhere, whether in the Bible or some other place, I do not pretend to say; but if it is not in the Bible it is nonetheless true, that “self preservation is the first law of nature.” I have reflected this morning a short time upon our condition. I contemplate the circumstances under which the Pioneers came to this valley—the circumstances that attended the early settlements and exertions made here to procure the necessaries of life.

I was not one among the honored company that first led the way to this distant region, that first plowed up the sterile soil of this valley, but I was engaged in some other country. Indeed while Pioneers were on their way to this land—while they were engaged in that arduous enterprise, I was perhaps upon the banks of the Danube, or might possibly be in England, or in Asia, I do not now recollect where I was; but I was in those eastern regions, bearing my testimony perhaps among the Austrians, Russians, or Turks, among their consuls and agents, bearing my testimony to them of the things to come. Perhaps some in those nations may now remember that an humble servant of God at a certain time bore his testimony among the people in that country, which is the most beautiful of God’s creation, spreading out in valley or plain, and which perhaps is now laid desolate, and drenched in human blood.

I was elsewhere when this valley was settled. How was it? Behold, when they arrived here, all they had to subsist upon, until they raised it from the soil, was in their wagons. There were no crops to come to; there was nothing provided to cheer them at the end of their long and toilsome journey; and the skeletons of cattle might be seen walking to and fro, without anything provided to feed them upon through a long winter. And then, when they had plowed up the soil, and sowed seed in the earth, and the fields began to show an evidence of a future supply, the crickets came in millions from the mountains, and nearly devoured all that grew; everything that germinated in the shape of food for man was eaten by the insects.

But before they had completed the work of destruction, the hand of Providence prepared agents, and sent them to destroy the destroyer; a circumstance that was rare, one that was never known to exist before, and never since to any extent—behold, the gulls came in swarms, and as clouds and eat up the crickets, and checked them in their destructive career; and there was just enough saved to feed the hungry with a scanty morsel.

There are many before me this morning who can no doubt remember well when their meal bags were perfectly empty, with only a distant prospect of their being replenished; and when a cow was slaughtered, rare as it was, they eat everything; even the hide was boiled, dressed, and eaten, and everything else, external and internal, that possibly could be eaten was eaten; there was nothing lost.

One man said to me, “I labored hard under the pangs of hunger to put up a little adobie cabin and pre– pare to live, and at the same time my wife and children, pale with want, were ranging the hills and benches to find thistles and roots to eat, which we boiled in the milk of the remaining cows the wolves had not eaten.”

Those who have come here since the Valleys have become a little fattened, think it hard if they cannot get what they want, and immediately enjoy a fulness with those who have borne the burden and heat of the day. They think it hard if they have to pass through a close place, and have to struggle a little to obtain the comforts of life. But look back to the early settlements of this place, when nothing but destruction stared its inhabitants in the face, what surety had they from the savage that was in their doors and in their tents? Here was the hostile and bloodthirsty savage, prowling around, and the early settlers knew not what hour he might pounce upon them; they were out of doors; they had not a house to live in, or to form a defense, much less a fort to protect them, until they were able to throw up something of a temporary character to shield them from the attacks of the wild man of the mountains.

This is a little of the early history of this settlement. We have prospered; we have had accessions to our numbers; to be sure we have had trouble and difficulty with the savages in various ways, but in the midst of it all we have arisen from the germ, and the tree has grown up, and begins to shoot forth its branches.

It is not the inhabitants of the little settlement in Salt Lake Valley alone that are now embraced within the walls of this Tabernacle; but three hundred miles to the south, and two hundred miles to the north, large settlements have sprung up. In the midst of these circumstances, the hand of God has been with us as a people, and prospered our labors abundantly; and I feel proud to meet you this morning in such comfortable circumstances; you all appear comfortably clad, and the bloom of health and the smile of contentment sit triumphantly upon your countenances. The hand of the Almighty is with you, to cheer and gladden you in the midst of all difficulties, and the praise is due unto Him, for He has blessed our labors, and enabled us to acquire these comforts we enjoy; and let me say, they are the staff and bulwark of our common salvation, for it is our lives we wish to prolong on the earth.

Why do we wish to do so in this toilsome and troublesome world? Why not close our mortal career, and our spirits go home to God who gave them? Because we have not done our work. It is said the wicked shall not live half their days; if they did they would only multiply their race until the principles of wickedness would become universally diffused. The Lord will give to the righteous the long end of the cord, for they shall live out their days. Then I say to the Saints, be just and true to each other, and to your God, and you will live out your days, and complete the work assigned you.

I will represent it in another point of light. Suppose a man is sent to England, or to the Continent, to Asia, Egypt, to any part of Africa, to the western islands, or to the islands of the Pacific to fulfil a mission, and he returns before he has completed it; who is ready to greet him? Who stands ready to welcome him, that understands his true position? He has not done his duty; he has not fulfilled his mission, and accomplished the work he was sent to do; and he returns, how? Filled with the Spirit of God? No, but with the spirit of darkness; and his testimony is powerless; he feels he has not done his duty like a faithful servant.

Then how important it is that every missionary that bears a portion of the Holy Priesthood, and this Gospel to the islands of the sea, should magnify it in the eyes of the people, and before his God, and return clean in spirit and in heart; and with a Spirit to bear witness with our spirits that God is with him, and has been all the day long. He is then hailed with a joyful welcome by the servants of God in Zion.

We are all on a mission to this world. We came from yonder bright sphere, and each of us have our lots assigned us; and now if we can accomplish our mission, when we return to the bosom of our Father and God, would you not suppose we shall be hailed with one universal welcome? Yes. “Ah!” says one, “I was an hungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger and ye took me in: Naked and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” This is the welcome.

Then it is for us to act well our part, and perform our mission faithfully, with fidelity to God and to one another, while we are permitted to dwell upon the earth. If we should not act well our part, and go home to the world of spirits, who will be ready to receive us, to extend to us the welcome hand? Every mouth is silent; no songs of praise greet the ear, or shouts of gladness to bless the heart, that a valiant soldier who has retained his laurels would receive. The unfaithful one has lost his glory, and is shorn of his laurels. What will be said to him? “Inasmuch as you knew your master’s will, and did not do it, you shall be beaten with many stripes.” He has gone to another society; he is not permitted to mingle with the righteous, but he must seek an asylum in another quarter.

Then remember we are missionaries sent to this lower world to accomplish a work. What is the work we are sent to accomplish? In the beginning it was said to our first parents, Go forth, and multiply and replenish the earth. I have been looking about, and have seen how anxious many of our farmers are to improve their stock of cattle; to make them of better blood, and thus all the time be improving; but I very seldom have heard of man seeking to improve his own species. I wish you to think of that for a moment. I have seldom heard that subject agitated, when indeed it is the most important one that was ever investigated.

Let us go a little into the philosophy of this, and see if it can be done, as much so as we can improve any other portion of the animal creation. It is said we bear the image of God, and now shall we dwindle down to the physical and mental degeneracy of the monkey? Shall we suffer our race to dry up like a parched reed? Let us look at this matter. The question is before you to investigate and understand.

Look around upon all the ranks of mankind, and we see different races, some of a high order of intellect, and some low and groveling, among all the different grades and classes of the human family. Do you suppose it is so in the spirit world? These earthly tabernacles are merely temporary houses for them to dwell in—moving tabernacles; and there are thousands and tens of thousands in the spirit world that have yet to come and take bodies here; and there are different grades of men. Some are of a high order of intellect, and others are low; some are more noble and generous, and some are less so; they all wish to take tabernacles in this world.

I will illustrate how it is possible to improve our own race. Suppose there comes into the community a noted thief and villain; where will he find a home? He will seek for a man possessing a kindred spirit; with that man he takes up his abode, for he does not find the son of peace there, but the son of villainy.

On the other hand suppose a righteous man comes into the community, would it not be natural for him to make his abode with a righteous man? for no other society would be at all congenial to him. The words of the Savior chime in with this idea. Said he to his Apostles, “And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.”

Will that thief and villain go and call upon a righteous man? The atmosphere that surrounds that devoted family is too scorching for him; he is glad to escape from it.

Now then, how shall we improve our own race? Evil communications corrupt good manners. This is as true a saying as it is common. Let every family, every parent, man and woman, set up the standard of purity and righteousness in their own families, and suffer no corrupt principle to lodge in the mind, and never practice it, but by strict integrity and righteousness maintain an atmosphere that is congenial to the good and great.

So, when those spirits come to take bodies, where will the noble and high order of them go? Will they take bodies that have come through a low and degraded parentage? No, no more than the righteous man will take up his abode with the vile and wicked. Where will he go? “Why,” says that noble spirit, that is swelling with light and intelligence, “I will take a body through an honorable parentage; I will have a body that will correspond with my mind; I will go to the place where purity and righteousness dwell.”

Where do the spirits of a lower grade go? Among the lowest, and uncultivated, where the cultivation of the principles of virtue and integrity is in part or entirely neglected. In this way the sins of the fathers are answered upon their children to the third and fourth generation.

Do good spirits want to partake of the sins of the low and degraded? No; but they will stay in heaven until a way is opened for purity and righteousness to form a channel in which they can come, and take honorable bodies in this world, and magnify their calling. Let us take that course, and if we do not draw the brightest spirits to honor our generations, it is because I do not understand, and declare unto you, the principles of true philosophy in correctness on this subject.

Try this, and your offspring will be the fairest specimens of the work of God’s hand. If the servants of God will maintain the principles of holiness and integrity, they can then have more than one wife, and by that means you can draw in your train more of those spirits that will glorify the God of Israel.

Let me bring it right home to you. Suppose your children were about to go from you to some distance—would you not feel anxious they should fall into good company, into generous hands? Yes. So, when our Father in heaven, who is the Father of the spirits of all flesh (no mother up there, is there? I do not know that a man can produce his own kind without the agency of woman; I know of no such law in nature), sends spirits to earth, when they leave Him, is He not anxious they should fall into good hands? Yes. He is anxious they should have an honorable birth, and glorify His name in the flesh, reflecting honor on His character and dignity in heaven. And if there is not much said about the mother, if they honor the Father, the mother will borrow her glory from the father, it will come to her through that channel, and it is a legitimate one.

The parent has a desire that the recreant child may do well, at the same time his good desires and hopes for his welfare are weakened by despair; you commit him to the care and keeping of kind Providence; it gives you sorrow, it pains you that he will not be good, but you cannot help it, for he will not listen to the counsels of a kind parent. So it is with our heavenly Father. He wishes the spirits born to him in the eternal world to do well when they come here to take bodies. If some are not so loyal, so true and faithful as others, yet He wishes them to do well, but at the same time they must pursue their own course, prove themselves, and then receive the reward due to their works done in the body.

Now then, let us commence to improve our race. You know, to one there is given five talents, to another two, and to another one, &c. Let us improve upon the talents we have received—upon every power, ability and trust that has been committed to us. If we do not, the talents we receive may be taken from us. After all these things I have told you about improving our own race, self-preservation is the first law of nature. I have told you about the people in the Valley, about the productions thereof, how it was in the beginning of its settlement.

I wish to come to our present condition, and I want to speak justly and correctly, and if I do not, I know there is a power here that will correct me, and will not fail to do it. If I say anything that is far out of the way, it should be corrected, and I hope I may ever stand in that relation whenever I commit an error, that it may be corrected before it be too late.

This season the Lord has blessed us with abundance. I told you that all things are spiritual to me, and when I talk about potatoes, hay, wheat, &c., I am talking about things that are given to us of God. Suppose the Lord should give to me the gift of tongues, it would be the gift of God. On the other hand, suppose He should give me a loaf of bread when I am hungry, which shall I prize the most? It is all the gift of God. Then with regard to self-preservation being the first law of nature. When our brethren have a good crop given to them by the hand of Providence, coupled with their own industry, they are anxious to sell it. They want to buy many things, and press it into market, and sell it for comparatively half its value, so crazy are they to sell it.

They are like some men, when they get a few dimes in their pockets it burns them as it were, and they must spend their money, because they cannot rest until it is spent; taking comfort from the idea, “O well, we will get along the best way we can;” and when they have spent the last dime they are hard up sure enough. This is the case with many of our friends whose labors the Lord has blessed, and richly repaid them for their toil by a bounteous harvest, and now they are anxious to get rid of it.

When we descend to the matter of dollars and cents, it is also spiritual; God made the metal of which they are made; He put it in the earth. We came down so, to accommodate ourselves to the understandings of all, for I told you I should talk about things you know, and not about things that you cannot comprehend. I will venture to say, when I talk about dollars and cents, you will all understand me. For instance, you sell your hay at ten dollars per ton, your wheat at a dollar and a half per bushel, and all your other products in the same ratio to the stranger, or anybody else that will buy it from you, you are so anxious to get rid of it. But by and by, when your poor brethren come in, and have not means to buy that which they must subsist upon, but are under the necessity by days’ work first to earn capital before they can buy the farmer’s produce—by the time they get means, the price is raised from fifty to one hundred percent.

Your own brethren, who stand by you in summer and in winter, in adversity and in prosperity; your own brethren, who roam the world over to bring recruits to strengthen your forces, and make your defenses still more invulnerable; when they come fainting from the field of their labors, you make them pay an hundred percent more for your produce than the stranger that passes through your country. Is that right? Will God bless an order of things of that kind? Try it, and if you don’t dwindle into monkeys, you will dwindle into something more hideous still.

What is to be done? Shall not the stranger be fed? Most certainly. Where rests the difficulty then? If you will only sell to your poor brethren next spring at the same price you will now sell to the stranger, there is no difficulty—I have nothing more to say, but I will be perfectly quiet upon this matter. If you will not do this, raise the price to the stranger, to the same standard you will exact from your poor brethren next spring. If you will do this, you will do right.

This is the common salvation that I wanted to speak to you upon. The scales of justice should be hung upon an even balance. Who are the best able to pay? Your poor brethren, who have hardly a pittance left when they arrive here—who have nothing to bless and comfort their souls and bodies with, or those who come backed up with resources inexhaustible?

Says one, “Do you calculate to go upon the principle that he who has the most shall pay the most?” No; but he shall pay just as much in the fore part of the year, as those do in the latter part of it. I do not see any injustice in this. You now sell your hay at from eight to ten dollars per ton. Next spring, when your poor brethren who have come from Denmark, England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the islands of the sea, with their cattle poor, and in the winter and spring shivering and perishing around your stack yards, what will you charge these poor fellows for hay? Twenty-five dollars per ton, when in the early part of the season you sold it for ten to the stranger. When it has become scarce because of the draft made upon it in the fore part of the fall at that low price, you then exact more than double from your brethren.

How can you answer for this to the Gods who gave you a being? I will leave you to tell your own story. I say, make your prices so that they continue the same the year round, both in times of scarcity and in times of plenty. What is food for one is food for another.

By taking this course you may perhaps compel a little more money to be left in the Valley. What will be done with it? Why, money, like every other stream, will seek its own level. The water courses here find their own level. Suppose there is more money left in the Valley than we actually need—where will it go to? It will find its own level. By and by the land we occupy will come into market, and then where goes the money? Into the treasury of the United States. Has the Government lost anything? No. Has the consumer? No; he has had the value of his money. The producer has gained, but he has gained no more than his just due for encountering the danger he is exposed to, and the labor he must perform in raising produce in the shape of grain, and stock in an Indian country. When his boys go out to herd the cattle they have to be guarded against the attacks of the savage. When the producer goes into the field to labor, he is liable to be shot down by the Indian. In the midst of dangers they produce the necessaries of life, and yet they will sell their products for a mere song.

“Why,” says one, “do you wish to oppress anybody by increasing the price of the staple articles of life to the injury of the purchaser?” That is not the design. But I will tell you what it is; men who pass through here may be thankful to get them on any terms. If they had come eight years ago they would have found a waste howling wilderness. What would they have given then for a bushel of wheat? Almost any price. Who has contended with the obstacles to making things as accessible as they are now? The producers, and they are entitled to the benefit arising from their labors.

We do not wish to oppress any person, but we wish to bring everybody to one standard price. We want to see the brethren who come here cold and hungry, have as good a chance as those who come in with their abundance. I am glad we have sufficient to spare to feed the stranger, the soldier, who is the right arm of the nation’s defense; I am glad to see them share the bounties of Providence; but I say, let the scale of justice hang upon an even balance.

Do I want any person oppressed, and taken advantage of? No. But I want free trade and sailors’ rights. I want evenhanded justice all round; then I will be satisfied; for this is the common salvation. But if one party is favored more than another, it is a particular salvation. Good wheat, fine flour, beef, butter, cheese, and vegetables are good ingredients to form a common salvation upon; they prolong our lives, lengthen out our days, that we may perform our mission, and do well our work while we are upon the earth, and not die before we have lived out our days, and fully performed what is designed we should.

Now I did not preach exactly so at Dry Creek and Mountainville, but I preached nearly in this way, and when I had done I told them not to be in a hurry to sell their grain, but keep it and try to maintain an equilibrium in the market all the year through. When I had got through, I believed they would do as I told them; for they saw the wisdom of it, and everybody will act according to it only him who says, “I want to live, and I care not if all the rest go to the devil.”

What an unenviable situation a man must be in to live himself, and see everybody else destroyed! What a glory it would be to him! He could then exclaim, like Alexander Selkirk,

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute.

It is a glory I never want to have.

The religious world scandalize the Deity by saying He is quite alone. I once learned a piece to repeat on the Fourth of July. It began like this—

When time was not, e’er suns and planets shone; When God their mighty Maker lived alone; When men, the high born offspring of the sky, Lived but in visions to the Eternal’s eye; T’was then that freedom held her bright abode In cloudless glory in the mind of God.

I do not believe God was ever alone; for He has said Himself, it is not good for man to be alone; and if it is not good, I am sure He will not be alone.

We are created in His image and likeness, and I think He has been moving on the same track we are in, and we shall acquire the same experience if we listen to His revelations. “What!” Do you suppose He has lived in the flesh?” Paul says, we have not a God that cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Why? Because he has felt about the same as we do. The other day when brother Hyde was mixing mortar, a person came along and said, “Brother Hyde, is it possible that I see you mixing mortar?” “Yes,” I replied, “and when I stand up yonder, and see you poor fellows mixing mortar, I can sympathize with you.” I should hate to enlist under a General, and follow him to the field of battle if he had never been there; I should want him to have a little experience, and then I could follow him with some degree of confidence.

I have spoken to you freely on the common salvation. And while the Spirit is upon me, I would charge you to practice it; to set your standard prices now, and maintain them to your brethren in the spring. If you have not already set them high enough to meet your ambitious views, raise them until they will, and there let them stand. That is my advice, and who is going to be injured by it? No person. Who is going to be benefited by it? The producer, who has to go into the field with his life in one hand, and the implement of husbandry in the other. If this is done, the hand of God will strengthen the hands of the producer, and he will live in time and throughout eternity; and we shall have abundance, and rejoice in the kingdom of our God.

Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints. But if I were to branch out upon that, I should detain you too long. I will therefore leave it for another occasion, or for someone who is better able to handle it than myself.

May God bless us, and save us in His kingdom. Amen.

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered at the Special Conference in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 13, 1853.

The preaching we have had by brother Joseph Young, is the kind I love. It is very unlike the mixed up preaching of the world; but it is music to my ears; there are no jars nor discord when we hear the sounds of the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. It matters not to me what kind of an instrument it is played on, it is music to me and to you; but if you will tear in pieces the best and most perfect thing on the earth, it will not look well in that condition.

The Gospel and plan of salvation that I have embraced, is music to me; it is sweet to my body, and congenial to my spirit; and it is more lovely than anything else I have ever seen since I have been in the world. I love it, and that is why I love this people better than any other people on God’s earth, because there was never a better people, that is, I am speaking of the majority of them; but if you take them as a whole, I do not know that you can find any worse—that is, there are some that will compare with the worst in the world for sin and wickedness.

As brother Joseph said, so say I—Do not fear anything this side of hell, or that is in the east, west, north or south. I do not fear it any more than I do that the sun will fall from its position in the heavens, if this people will do just precisely as they are told. You know I preach upon this a great deal. The world considers it to be quite ridiculous for us to be of one heart, and of one mind. It is this union among those who are faithful “Mormons” that makes the world afraid of us; they fear us because we differ from the world. In the United States and in the old countries, they are divided into six or seven hundred different religious denominations, all disagreeing with each other; besides political and a thousand other kinds of divisions and differences, such as whiggery, democratism, socialism, which, in short, may all be summed up under the term, Devilism. This is not the policy of the Latter-day Saints. Jesus says, if you are not one, you are not mine. Let the Christian world who profess to believe in Jesus Christ, and in his Father, and in this book, the Bible, note that passage, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.”

There is more oneness in this people, than in any people that ever lived upon the earth. There was not that oneness in the days of Jesus, that there is now, and I suppose there never has been since the days of Enoch. Because there was such a oneness among the people of Enoch, and they could not continue to be one, and live with the people in the same world, God took them and their city with a part of the earth to Himself, and they sailed away like one ship at sea separating from another.

Jesus says, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.” And yet the Christian world take a course to justify themselves in division, in strife, in animosity, in quarreling, in envy, in jealousy, in war and bloodshed. And yet they say they are one: I say THEY LIE. A man that says it, lies to me, and he lies to God. I say this to all the world, and to those who are passing through the city as emigrants; if you profess to be disciples of Christ, and have hatred to us in your hearts, I say you lie; in the name of the Lord God Almighty I say it. Do you not think He will sustain me in it? Yes, and all His faithful followers will too; and those who desire to be the disciples of Christ and to be one, will gather together.

I referred to the days of Jesus; was there that union then, that might have been? Jesus said to the disciples, when the people turned away from him, “Will ye also go?” This he said to the Twelve. Many of the disciples forsook him. Even Peter, the chief Apostle, turned away from him when he was in the greatest trouble, and denied him with cursing and swearing.

In this day and age of the world, we profess to be one. Jesus said then, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. He will do so now if you will let him; he will gather us together from the four quarters of the earth—I mean the Saints, the honest in heart, the elect of God; that they may become one, and lay aside their selfishness, their bickering, their murmuring and complaining, and everything of this nature.

If a man wants my ox, let him come and tell me so, and he shall have it; he need not quarrel with me about it; and if he robs me of it, I want him to enjoy the stolen property, if he can; for I will not quarrel about the foolish things of this world, for they will soon decay, and return to their mother earth, as you and I will.

Now, brethren and sisters, I will say to the emigrants who are passing through this city, and to the world at large, that it is our intention to become perfectly one in heart and mind. Have those who have separated themselves from this people prospered? They may have prospered for a season; but by and by they become like a limb that is severed from the tree; they wither and vanish away; and all such will continue to do so from this time henceforth and forever. It is just as much impossible for a people to exist that withdraw from this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is for a limb of a tree to live when it is severed from the body of the tree. Of this I am positive, because I know it. So I will say concerning the world and all the sects and denominations and kingdoms of the world, that oppose this work and people of God, they will wither in due time likewise, and they cannot help themselves.

When brother Joseph Smith lived, he was our Prophet, our Seer, and Revelator; he was our dictator in the things of God, and it was for us to listen to him, and do just as he told us. Now that appears very absurd in the eyes of the world; but they all say, if they had lived in the days of Peter, Moses, or Jesus, they would not have done as the people in those days did to them; but at the same time they would take their lives if they could, and do just like them.

We are the servants of God; we have been called of God through the ministry of that holy Prophet Joseph Smith, who received his authority through the ministry of holy angels. Now he was just as true a Prophet as Moses was, or as any Prophet that has ever been upon the earth; and we are just as much the authorized servants of God, as the Apostles and disciples in the days of Jesus Christ were, and I know it. And I bear testimony of it to the United States, and to the nations of the world. They say they do not believe it. What do I care whether they do or not? I know it, and God requires me to bear testimony of it, to be valiant in testimony to the truth of this work, and to preach the Gospel, and to lay before my brethren their duty.

Brother Joseph is gone, and now brother Brigham Young, the Governor of the Territory of Utah, is our Prophet, our leader, our Revelator; and it is for me and you to listen to him with all diligence, the same as we would listen to Joseph were he alive. Brother Brigham is his successor; his word is sacred; and if you do not observe it, it will not be well, and there is where I fear for you, brethren. I do not fear so much for myself as I do for you, because it will go hard with you, if you disobey his advice. There will many of you turn from the faith; you will turn your backs to us, and some will be guilty of shedding innocent blood, if you are not aware. This will be the result of apostasy. When that spirit attacks you, you will be led to do as other apostates have, who have turned from the Church of Christ.

Judas, when he lost the faith, received the power of the devil, and betrayed the Son of God into the hands of murderers. Joseph Smith in like manner was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, who took his life. He was betrayed by apostates, by men whom he once loved when they were in our midst, and had the Spirit of the Lord. We also would have been slain, if they could have got hold of us; but they were afraid to touch us; they knew it would be certain death to the man who lifted his heel against us. Just so now. I have got my old Gospel preparation laid up drying, preparing himself for action. Do I fear? No. I do not fear anything that lives on the earth, or that is in hell; Indians or anything else never will disturb us, the Saints, from this time to all eternity, if we will do precisely as we are told.

I do not speak of these things to establish myself as a Prophet, but I know what I say; I know you will prosper, and live in peace in the mountains of the Great Salt Lake, and be perfectly independent. You will have food and raiment, houses and lands, flocks and herds, and everything your hearts can desire, that there is in heaven and on earth, if you but do as you are told. If you will do this, you will think my words are very profitable to you, whether I am a Prophet or not. I am not saying anything but what my President has said time and time again. You will live in peace, and God will be your defense; and you will increase in knowledge, in power, in grace, and in every good thing that you can think of, or mention. I have said often, you may go and write blessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, that is in heaven or on the earth, and it will all come to pass on your heads, if you do right.

What do I care for what the world says? I care no more about it than I do for the squawking of a goose. It is none of their business if I have a mind to be a Saint, and keep the commandments of God; and as you have heard it said, so say I—the time will come in which you will dwell in peace and safety; and when the time comes that you will go back to Jackson County, you will be independent, and live without any opposition at all. Can the Lord do it? Yes. All the people are in His hands, and He can turn the nations as I can an obedient horse. They are governed and controlled by the Almighty as much as we are. What can they do against us? Why nothing whatever, but if we do not do right they will be a scourge in the hands of God to scourge us, just as the Indians are at this time. There never would have been a disturbance if this people had done as they were told.

I am not speaking of the people in this city any more than of the people of other settlements. To my certain knowledge there is not a settlement in these mountains but were instructed by brother Brigham to build good forts and live in them; and on these conditions alone were volunteers permitted to go out and make new settlements.

Have any of them built forts? Tell of one settlement, if you please, excepting they commenced one in Iron County which remains unfinished yet. The Indians are now upon us, and our brethren are scattered off, three, four, and five families in a place, away off in this and in that direction, exposed to the Lamanites. They have been called into the city that they might be safe, and they are now teasing us, and wanting to go back again, and live in those exposed locations without a fort.

The Lord has made the Lamanites—the Indians, a scourge; but if this people will turn to and do just as they have been told, their wrath will be turned away in a short time, but not until the Lord God sees that this people are determined to do right. Upon the same principle that my wrath would be turned away from a child that repented under the rod of correction, so will the Lord’s wrath be turned away from His children when they repent, and go and do what they are told. A spirit of compassion seizes me the moment I see a repenting child; so it is with our heavenly Father. But the most of parents, when they tell their children to do a thing, and happen to give them a little slap on the ear for disobedience, the next moment they are saying, “O my dear child, I am sorry, let me give you a piece of bread and butter.” Our Father in heaven does not do so, until he sees contrition of heart in His children, for their wrongs.

We live in the days of Prophets, Apostles, High Priests, and servants of God who have the Priesthood upon them, and I know it. Gentlemen, I have been a member of this Church near 23 years, and passed through the whole of the difficulties in Kirtland, Ohio, and Missouri. When brother Brigham and myself and others, with our families, left Kirtland to go to Missouri with Joseph Smith, we had to lie with our firelocks by our side. When we arrived in Missouri, the devil contrived to raise the armies of the wicked against us there; and all the Elders and male members that could be counted from the western boundaries of Missouri to Nova Scotia, were not more than 205 men. We went up to Missouri to reinstate our brethren who had been driven out of Jackson County. We went up near 1,000 miles with our firelocks in our hands. Was there any fear in us? No. It never entered into our hearts, from the day we started to the time we returned again. I never saw the time but I could whip out twenty of the best men on earth.

I had a spirit on me as much superior to this earth, as the earth is superior to the degraded spirits of the wicked that dwell on its face. It was the Spirit of the Lord that stood by me, and diffused strength into my body, and into my limbs, until the very hair of my head felt all alive. Did they fear us in that upper country? Yes, they ran as though they were never going to stop in the world. We felt perfectly able to clear out that country to Nova Scotia, and we could have done it with 205 men, if the Lord God had commanded us, as the Gideonites did in days of old. Yes; 205 men, with the Spirit and power of God upon them, and their faces shining like the sun, it cannot be told what they could accomplish; neither can we form any conception of it.

Let us be as one person from this time henceforth, and do not let us suffer ourselves to become cold and stupid, but be Saints all the day long; and we shall build up the kingdom of God, and be prospered in all things we set our hands to do.

These are a few things I wanted to say; still there are many more things of great importance to us if we will only listen to them. One is, take care of your grain; for it is of more worth to you than gold and silver. I know you will see harder times before another harvest, than you have seen this season. Do you believe it? Did they believe it last year, when there were 15,000 bushels of wheat in the Tithing Office? No. When brother Brigham said the same thing last spring, to stir up the people to be careful of their grain, they said, “O no, brother Brigham, we cannot surely come to such scarcity as you foretell; look at the storehouse, it is full.” How much was there in the storehouse this harvest? There is not one bushel of grain of any kind, and I do not know that there will be.

There has been a great quantity thrashed out this harvest, but little of it has come into the public store, and the hands on the public works are obliged to live. If you go into the joiner’s shop, it is almost left desolate. If you go into the machine shops, and into the mason’s shop, they are the same; and yet there are thousands of bushels being thrashed out and ground into flour, and sold for from seven to ten dollars per hundred weight to the world—the emigrants who are passing through here yet—and at the same time the business on the public works stopped for want of it.

Brethren and sisters, please to look at this; you know I am telling you the truth, which is every day exhibited before your eyes.

The public ground here has to be enclosed before we can put forth a hand to build a Temple to the name of our God; and you are ready to feed everybody else under the heavens but the workmen. Have you turned from the Lord your God, and forgot His purposes? Think of it, you farmers!

I do not know but I am wearying the brethren, but these things were on my mind, and I have got a back load of them yet; I see them, and reflect upon them in my heart. O Lord God, what will become of us? Have the people forgotten thee and thy purposes, with the Holy Priesthood upon them—with the sacred ordinances of God’s house upon them? Now think of it, brethren and sisters. There is enough, and we need never want bread; but if we do not take the right course, we are sure to see sorrow, and the greatest you have ever seen. Some of you never saw any in your lives. Those who were never without bread, and clothing, and good houses to dwell in, murmur the worst; and those who never had any troubles and trials since they have been in this Church, or since they have been on the earth, are the most ready to complain. This may appear strange doctrine to you, but you know it is true.

As to getting rich, why bless your souls, is not the earth the Lord’s and the fulness thereof? Are not the gold and precious metals in the mountains, in the dells, and in the cliffs of the earth, all the Lord’s? He created all; and the human family, with all the treasures of earth, are in His hand. They all belong to the Lord our God, and we are His people if we do His will. Are we not heirs to all these riches? Certainly we are; every son and daughter of Adam, who loves the great Father of our spirits and His Son Jesus Christ, and obeys the Gospel, and listens to him whom God has delegated as an Apostle and Prophet to counsel His people, I tell you that all this treasure is theirs, and the devils cannot help themselves. I am just as sure of it as I am that the sun will rise and set tomorrow. Do you believe it, brethren and sisters? Do you know it? Yes, you know it. Now if you ever expect to enjoy it, you have got to live for it, as individuals, independent of any other man or woman. You have got to live as independent Saints, and obey the will of God independently as it is taught, and laid before you from time to time. All that wish to be delivered from the scourge, and from afflictions, will have to rise up and do right to their God, and to each other, not as a Conference merely, but as a people, as the Saints of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am not going to command you to do it; but my advice is for you to do it. Rise up now, and do just as you are told, and you will see happy times.

I know there is a greater desire in this people for things that perish, for theatrical performances and dancings, than there is for the public interests of the Kingdom of God. Well, let us be Saints indeed, and show to the world that we are for God and for none else.

Among some people in the world it is popular to be a Christian; and among another class it is not popular; but it is popular with me to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and then it is popular for me to do the will of the Holy Spirit.

A single man can accomplish more with the power of the Spirit of God, than this whole people can, if they will not do right. Do I fear anything? No; but if I have to bow down to the chastening rod, as I have already done many times in this Church, I will do it like a man of God. I have been driven five or six times, and yonder are my habitations, and they may rot there. And so have some of you been driven in like manner; and some of you never had one thing to trouble you in your lives. I am now well off; but if I have got to come to it again as I have in former times, I will round up my back to the burden, and make it as tough as a piece of sole leather, to bear what shall be laid upon me manfully, or else I will die. I have no fears upon that ground at all; but my prayers are, by night or by day, for the Lord to take me from the earth, rather than I should sin against Him, or against my brethren, or against our President Brigham Young. I have known him 30 years, and he and brother Joseph Smith have been comrades together; and better men never lived on the earth than they are; and you may tell the kings and rulers of the earth this, and the nations over which they preside, if you please. The reason why we would rather have him to be our Governor than any other man, is because he is the best man we are acquainted with.

I have lived in the State of New York, town of Bloomfield, Monroe County, right in the heart of the country where the ancient Lamanites, and other veterans, destroyed each other, root and branch; where the Book of Mormon was discovered in the hill of Cumorah. From among those rich hills the people are flocking to these mountains. Why? Because this is the richest place in the world.

The country adjacent to the Sweet Waters has actually become a rich gold mine. Talk about gold! The Lord can change any of the elements into gold as easy as He could change the water into wine.

I suppose I had better bring my disjointed remarks to a close. I feel first-rate; I feel like a soldier of Christ, like a man of God. I feel sometimes that I could take one of those mountains, and handle it as I could a football. Bless your souls! If you will only do as the Lord tells you through His delegated agent, who gives you the voice of God and the wisdom of God, I am not troubled at all. The question is asked many times, “Has brother Brigham got the Urim and Thummim?” Yes, he has got everything; everything that is necessary for him to receive the will and mind of God to this people. Do I know it? Yes, I know all about it; and what more do you want? That is true, gentlemen; I am one of his witnesses in the last days, and to bear testimony of the truth of “Mormonism.”

I say to the Saints, do not look upon us as perfect beings; notwithstanding, if you are perfect yourselves, then look for it in us, and not until then. If any of you are perfect, we want you to come here that we may see such beings, and know how to model ourselves after you; just as I take a piece of clay and shape it after another model more beautiful still.

Some of you think you have passed through awful tribulations in leaving your mothers and friends. I was glad when I got away from mine, because they persecuted me, and lied about me, and persecuted my brethren; so I was glad to get away from them. But they will see the day when they will be glad to come to brother Heber, and say, “Let me black your boots, clean your horse, or drive your carriage,” &c.

You talk about carriages; good heavens! I am just as sure of enjoying these blessings as I am of enjoying anything on this earth. If you do not believe it, read that book (the Bible), which speaks about the armies of heaven, and about horsemen and chariots, and men armed with swords, and all kinds of instruments of music; it is all spoken of in this book, and we will enjoy it, while those who seek our destruction, and all sinners, will go to hell.

All this enjoyment of the good things of heaven and earth will come by a separation of the righteous and the wicked. There was a time when an eruption took place in heaven, and Michael and his armies arose, and cast out the rebellious portion of the angels from heaven. Don’t you think they got tired of contention, and broils, and tumults? Yes, so they universally agreed to cast it out. We will get tired of it too, in these last days, and we will make a separation between Saint and Sinner. The Sectarian priests have written and preached about forty years ago, and have proved to their readers, and to their hearers, that there would be a separation, and the sheep would be placed on the right hand and the goats on the left; I suppose the goats mean those that are not good for much, they bear no wool.

I guess I had better stop speaking. May the Lord God bless you forever; and may union, peace, righteousness, and salvation be with you forever and ever. Amen.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, April 17, 1853.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May God bless you. Amen.

An Oration by Elder John Young, Delivered on the Northwest Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the Presidency of the High Priests’ Quorum, and the Presidency and the High Council of the Stake had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

Brethren and Sisters—I have not a written oration to read before you, but shall content myself with simply expressing the feelings that pervade my breast on this interesting occasion. What I say, will come at once from the fountain of my heart.

I have one thing to say particularly—that this is the best day I ever saw in all my life. I realize that I am greatly blessed, in connection with my brethren and sisters of this Church, that I am permitted to live to see the present day, and to stand upon this rock, which is the Northwest Corner Stone of a Temple that is to be built upon this ground, which Stone we have laid in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I firmly believe that, as we stand upon this rock, so is the Church of Latter-day Saints founded upon the rock of eternal ages. My continual prayer and desire are, that we may live to see a Temple built to the name of the Most High God. I feel myself honored of God and my brethren, in having the opportunity of standing here today, in speaking, and realizing what I have, since I came on the Temple ground.

I hope we shall see the Capstone brought on with shouts of joy. I believe we shall, if we remain faithful in the cause of truth.

I very well know that, at the commencement of the Temples that have heretofore been built to the name of the Lord, by this people, the devil has always moved his artillery with greater power and activity at that time. This is the foundation of the fourth Temple that the Latter-day Saints have laid; and I pray that we shall all feel nerved up with power to accomplish the great and glorious work which we are called to perform.

For my own part, I am sensible that I have not long to stay upon the earth, but I have a great desire to live in connection with my brethren, to see this Temple completed. I believe we shall.

My chief interest in living on the earth is to see the work of the Lord prosper, and to assist all in my power to roll it forth; and why I say this is the best day I ever saw upon the earth, is because the prospects for the advancement of the kingdom of God are greater now than ever I saw them before in my days. I have always, in all my life, been desirous to see the cause of the Lord prosper on the earth, but more especially so since I found a true Church founded by the Prophet of God.

We have Prophets among us—a Seer and Revelator, and also Apostles of Jesus Christ. Do I not know that I am standing this day in the presence of the greatest men that are to be found upon the footstool of God? My voice is now sounding in the ears of the greatest men that are this side of eternity, and I know it. If I should stand before all the kings, potentates, and princes of the earth, in one general assembly, the comparison would not begin to bear with the present occasion. They are men chosen by the people alone, and destitute of the power of an eternal Priesthood. These are the mighty chieftains of Israel, called and appointed by the Lord of Hosts, clothed with salvation and eternal lives, and sent for a blessing to the faithful.

I am thankful and happy. I have not language sufficient at my command to express, in full, my feelings. If I did not make a written oration, it has fallen to my lot to make a few verbal remarks. I am proud to stand here with my brethren, and pray that the power of the Spirit of God may rest upon His people, that they may prosper exceedingly, and bud and blossom like a fruitful bough upon the mountains. I have felt, while these Stones were being laid, that the angels of God were round about us. And may a convoy of them continually attend this holy spot, until all the things we desire to do for the glory of our Heavenly Father, and the extension of His cause on earth, are accomplished, which is my prayer. Amen.

By President Orson Hyde, Delivered on the Northeast Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the Twelve Apostles, the First Presidency of the Seventies, and the Presidency of the Elders’ Quorum had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

Almighty Father—Thou who dwellest in the heavens, and who sittest upon the throne of thy glory and power, we beseech thee to behold us, in great mercy, from thy celestial courts, and listen to our prayers which we this day offer to thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, thy Son. Although thou art exalted in temples not made with hands, in the midst of the redeemed and sanctified ones, yet deign thou to meet with us in our humble sphere, and, as we have laid, help thou us to dedicate unto thee, this Corner Stone of Zion’s earthly Temple, that in her courts thy sons and daughters may rejoice to meet their Lord.

Everlasting thanks are due to thee, O God of our salvation, for thy manifold blessings and mercies extended unto us—that since we have been compelled to flee to the valleys and caves of the mountains, and hide ourselves in thy secret chambers, from the face of the serpent or dragon of persecution, red with the blood of the Saints and martyrs of Jesus, thou hast caused the land to be fruitful—the wilderness and desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Known unto thee is the history of our career. Our merits and demerits have been open to thy view, and our wisdom and folly have not been hid from thine eyes. Thou hast comprehended our strength and our weakness, our joys and our sorrows, and also our sufferings and persecutions for thy name’s sake; and the martyrdom of thy servants!

Remember us, Oh Lord, and let the radiance of thy favor, like the rainbow of peace, encompass thy people while we sojourn here, and remain tenants at will in these frail bodies, the abodes of our spirits. And remember, likewise, our enemies who, through cruel jealousy, and malicious intent, have compelled us to find homes in these distant regions, and in the more lonely grave, or wander as strangers and pilgrims on the earth without an abiding city or resting place. Reward them according to their works, and let them eat the fruits of their own doings, inasmuch as they repent not.

The Twelve Apostles of the LATTER-DAYS, to whom has been committed the pleasing task to lay the Northeast Corner Stone of this Temple, even the last Corner Stone of the building, are here convened to discharge their duty before thee, in the midst of the authorities of thy Church, and of the assembled thousands who are come to witness the solemn ceremonies of the occasion.

We, therefore, implore thy blessings upon our heads, on this lovely day, while the sun of heaven, on his annual visit to his northern dominions is changing the very heart of nature and lighting up her face with the smiles of welcome. The snows of the everlasting mountains are made to yield at his approach, and to flow down in crystal streams of living waters, spreading life and verdure over all the plain.

From the very hour that the ground was broken to prepare for this foundation, Satan has been more diligently engaged in stirring up the hearts of his children to hate the servants and people of our God. But, O Lord, the work is thine, and thine arm is able to execute and defend it.

We now, in the name of Jesus Christ, our great High Priest and Lawgiver, dedicate and consecrate this Corner Stone unto thee, asking that the walls to be reared upon this foundation may steadily rise, by the persevering industry of thy people, under thy providential care and blessings, and the protecting and fostering arm of the Angel of thy presence.

Whosoever, O Lord, shall bless and aid the building of this Temple, with their faith, goodwill, and means—with their silver and their gold, with their labor and toil, with their horses, their cattle, their sheep, and their grain, or with any or all of their products, necessaries, or availables—may they rise in wealth and influence, and in the confidence and favor of God and His servants; and may the blessings of this Temple be extended unto them, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, male or female. And whosoever shall attempt to hinder, oppose, or obstruct the progress of this building, or that shall hate or blaspheme the same, or that shall, in any way or manner, knowingly, willfully, or intentionally destroy, injure, mar, or deface any part or portion of the work, let such not only be powerless, and clothed with shame, disgrace, and condemnation, but receive the very same kind of treatment in their own persons, in the course of thy providences, as they may manifest or desire to manifest towards this edifice.

Hasten thou the period, O Lord, when this thine House, in the midst of the mountains, shall receive the Topstone with the shouts of gladness, and be completed, and nations flow unto it—when many people shall say, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law,” making manifest every false and delusive spirit, every true principle, and also the errors that have involved nations in broils and contentions, in strife, in darkness, and in sin; and that will remove the veil of the covering that has been cast over all people; and the Gentiles shall come to the light of Zion, and kings to the brightness of her rising. Roll on the hour, Eternal Parent, when the intelligence and knowledge obtained by thy servants, on this consecrated spot, shall prove a beacon light to the nations who are floating on the sea of time in a dark, cloudy day.

O God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, overrule, we pray thee, every act and movement of the power of the world, to further the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom, and to prepare the way for his triumphant reign on earth. Bless every honest-hearted ruler in the governments and kingdoms of men, and, though they may be ignorant of thy purposes and designs, yet make them the agents to bring about and accomplish the very intentions formed in thy bosom, and decreed in thine heart.

Holy Father, bless, we pray thee, the Presidency of this thy Church, and prolong their days, that we may long enjoy their counsels, and avail ourselves of their wisdom. Remember the Twelve Apostles also, with the Presidents of the Seventies, who now call upon thy name with our voices. May none of us ever fall by transgression, or bring dishonor upon thy cause, or a stain upon our reputation. But preserve us in thy fear, in the light of truth, in the favor of our God, in the confidence of one another, in the estimation of our superiors, and in the favor of the just.

As we have laid and dedicated this Corner Stone, with our best wishes, most lively hopes, and unshaken faith that the building may be speedily erected and finished, we ask thee that we may become pillars in thy spiritual Temple, and go no more out, but sustain and uphold in connection with all the faithful, the grand superstructure and edifice reared by infinite wisdom, power, and goodness, in which to gather, in thine own due time, every son and daughter of Adam’s fallen race. And to God and the Lamb be ascribed everlasting honors, praise, dominion, and glory, both now and forever. Amen.

An Oration by President Brigham Young, Delivered on the Southeast Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the First Presidency and the Patriarch had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Bishop Alfred Cordon, Delivered on the Southwest Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the Presidencies of the Aaronic Priesthood had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

O God, the Eternal Father, we thank thee that we are assembled here this morning, to lay the foundation of another Temple to thy name. We ask thee, in the name of Jesus Christ thy Son, to let thy blessing rest upon this, the Southwest Corner Stone, which has been laid by the Presiding Bishop of thy Church, and his Council. Also let thy power and strength rest upon thy servants who shall endeavor to build upon the same—may that spirit of unanimity and peace that pervades our bosoms this morning, rest upon those who shall labor upon this building; may it also rest upon their wives and children, and extend itself throughout the length and breadth of this territory, and the whole world, that the honest in heart may rejoice, and thy Saints be filled with thanksgiving, with praise and adorations to thy great name, for the mercies thou art continually extending unto them.

Especially let thine Elders abroad, whose hearts are panting this day with joy and satisfaction, feel the force and influence of thy Spirit, that so richly rest upon us, that they may take comfort and consolation. Let their lives be preserved, that they may return, and behold a building reared to thy name, and greatly rejoice and adore thee, O God. May their way be opened, that they may move from nation to nation, from city to city, and from habitation to habitation. Let thine angels go before them, and the secret agency of thy Holy Spirit touch the hearts of the people for their good, that thy purposes may soon be accomplished, that Israel may be gathered from the nations of the earth, that light and truth may spread itself, until all the honest in heart rejoice in the principles of freedom, and every band and yoke of the tyrant is snapped and broken asunder, and the knowledge and power of God shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the face of the great deep.

We pray thee to let the petitions of thy servant, which were offered upon the Chief Corner Stone, be answered upon the heads of this people, and may thy blessing and power rest upon him and his brethren, even the First Presidency of thy Church. May they be filled with the spirit of revelation continually, that thy Saints may flourish, thy kingdom prosper, and thy work roll forth under their guidance, that the day may soon come when Zion shall be respected among the nations, and the Holy Priesthood be the only authority acknowledged, either at home or abroad, on the land or on the sea.

Direct thy people in thy path, that they may be prepared for the accomplishing of thy purposes. Let the Temple for which we are this day laying the Corner Stones, be reared to thy name, and the Topstone be brought on with shouts of rejoicing before thee. Let every person that shall put forth his hand to prevent this thing from being accomplished, sink into oblivion, and may his power wither like the gourd of Jonah. Let all those who put forth their hands to rear this House, or in any way assist in doing the same, be blessed abundantly in the blessings of heaven, and the blessings of earth. And may all things work together for the good of thy people in all time to come.

We dedicate this Stone, and resign ourselves to thee, to use us according to thy pleasure, praying thee to direct our course, and save us eternally in thy celestial Kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

By George B. Wallace, Delivered on the Northwest Corner Stone of the Temple, at Great Salt Lake City, after the Presidency of the High Priests’ Quorum, and the Presidency and the High Council of the Stake had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

Righteous and merciful God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, we consecrate and dedicate this Stone unto thee, even the Northwest Corner Stone, which we have laid as part of the foundation of a Temple to be built unto thy great and holy name. We pray thee, O God, to accept this offering from our hands; and may thy peace and blessing be and abide here, that this spot of ground may be holy unto thee, and never be polluted by those who are unholy, or by any unclean thing.

May this foundation be firm as the foundations of the everlasting hills that cannot be moved, that the superstructure which shall be reared upon it may never be shaken, that the people may receive their blessings therein, to qualify them to pass through the veil, into celestial happiness.

We pray thee, O Lord, to let thy peace be upon those who labor upon these works; may their hearts be inspired by the Holy Ghost, to realize that they are working to build a House to thy name, that immortal beings may come and administer in the ordinances of salvation, and teach thy servants things that are beyond the veil, to prepare them to enter into that rest which is prepared and promised to thy Saints. We pray thee to cement this Corner Stone in a bond of indissoluble union with the other three, that they may stand firm as the eternal Priesthood which has been given unto men, even thy servants, that never can be moved out of its place, but will stand, from this time henceforth and forever.

Bless the people that are congregated together this day; may it be to them a day long to be remembered; let thy Spirit prevail in their midst and every heart be filled with unutterable joy. Let the visions of eternity be opened unto them, that they may behold things new and precious, and rejoice in the holy principles of the Gospel of God, that has been brought to light in this dispensation, by the administration of angels to thy servants, even in the latter days.

Let our enemies be taken in their own snare, and fall into the pit they dig for thy people. Let confusion come upon them; may they be turned backward, and have no power from this time henceforth and forever, to prevail against the Saints and the Lord’s anointed. Inspire the hearts of thy servants that are scattered abroad among the nations of the earth, and upon the islands of the sea; may their eyes be inclined towards us this day, and let their hearts be lifted up in joy and rejoicing before thee. Strengthen them, and give them great prosperity in their missions, and return them with honor to see the Capstone of this Temple brought on with shouting grace unto it.

We now dedicate ourselves, our wives, our children, our flocks and herds, unto thee, O God the Eternal Father, and pray thee to accept of us, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

An Oration by Elder Parley P. Pratt, Delivered on the Northeast Corner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the Twelve Apostles, the First Presidency of the Seventies, and the Presidency of the Elders’ Quorum had laid the Stone, April 6, 1853.

“And when they shall say unto you: Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and mutter—should not a people seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead?”

The foregoing text was copied by Nephi, from the Book of Isaiah, about six hundred years before Christ, and is now contained in the second Book of Nephi, chap. ix.

For the last few years the world has been disturbed very much by alleged communications from the world of spirits. “Mesmerism,” “Clairvoyance,” “Spiritual Knockings,” “Writing Mediums,” &c., are said to be channels of communication between the living and the dead. How often one meets with an invitation to seek to some “medium”—to someone “familiar with spirits,” in order to hear from a deceased father, mother, husband, wife, or other relative or friend.

On the other hand, these alleged communications from the spirit world are zealously opposed, on the ground that there is no such philosophy in nature; that there can be no medium of communication between the living and those who have passed the veil of death; and that, therefore, all alleged communications from that source must necessarily be false.

It becomes the Saints to be able on this, as on all other subjects, to judge correctly and understandingly, by their knowledge of the principles of true philosophy, and of the laws of God and nature.

If on the one hand we admit the principle of communication between the spirit world and our own, and yield ourselves to the unreserved or indiscriminate guidance of every spiritual manifestation, we are liable to be led about by every wind of doctrine, and by every kind of spirit which constitute the varieties of being and of thought in the spirit world. Demons, foul or unclean spirits, adulterous or murderous spirits, those who love or make a lie, can communicate with beings in the flesh, as well as those who are more true and virtuous.

Again—The spirits who are ignorant, uncultivated, and who remain in error, can communicate through the same medium as those better informed.

To illustrate this subject, we will consider the telegraphic wire as a medium of communication between New York and Boston.

Through this medium a holy Prophet or Apostle could communicate the holy and sacred words of truth; while through the same, could be communicated words of truth in relation to news, business transactions, the sciences, &c.; and also every species of lie, error, imposition, fraud, &c. Hence, if the people of New York should submit to the guidance of beings in Boston, who communicate with them by telegraph or other mediums, they would be guided by a mixture of intelligence, truth, error, falsehood, &c., in every conceivable variety. So with communications from the spirit world, if we once credit the philosophy or fact of an existing medium of communication.

If, on the other hand, we deny the philosophy or the fact of spiritual communication between the living and those who have died, we deny the very fountain from which emanated the great truths or principles which were the foundation of both the ancient and modern Church.

Who communicated with Jesus and his disciples on the holy mount? Moses and Elias, from the invisible world. Who bestowed upon the Apostles the commission to preach the Gospel to every creature in all the world? He that had passed the veil of death, and had dwelt in the spirit world, yea, he that had ascended far on high above the realms of death, and far beyond all the principalities and powers of the spirit world, and had entered, and been crowned, in the mansions of immortal flesh.

Who communicated with the beloved disciple on the Isle of Patmos, and revealed those sublime truths contained in his prophetic book? He that liveth and was dead, through his angel, who declared to John—Behold, I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, that have the testimony of Jesus.

Who communicated with our great modern Prophet, and revealed through him as a medium, the ancient history of a hemisphere, and the records of the ancient dead? Moroni, who had lived upon the earth fourteen hundred years before. Who ordained Joseph the Prophet, and his fellowservant, to the preparatory Priesthood, to baptize for remission of sins? John the Baptist, who had been beheaded! Who ordained our first founders to the Apostleship, to hold the keys of the kingdom of God, in these the times of restoration? Peter, James, and John, from the eternal world. Who instructed him in the mysteries of the Kingdom, and in all things pertaining to Priesthood, law, philosophy, sacred architecture, ordinances, sealings, anointings, baptisms for the dead, and in the mysteries of the first, second, and third heavens, many of which are unlawful to utter? Angels and spirits from the eternal worlds.

Who revealed to him the plan of redemption, and of exaltation for the dead who had died without the Gospel? And the keys and preparations necessary for holy and perpetual converse with Jesus Christ, and with the spirits of just men made perfect, and with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn, in the holy of holies? Those from the dead!

Again—How do the Saints expect the necessary information by which to complete the ministrations for the salvation and exaltation of their friends who have died?

By one holding the keys of the oracles of God, as a medium through which the living can hear from the dead.

Shall we, then, deny the principle, the philosophy, the fact of communication between worlds? No! Verily no!

The spiritual philosophy of the present age was introduced to the modern world by Joseph Smith. The people of the United States abandoned him to martyrdom, and his followers to fire, and sword, and plunder, and imprisonment, and final banishment to these far-off mountains and deserts, simply because a medium of communication with the invisible world had been found, whereby the living could hear from the dead. No sooner had the people and nation, thus guilty of innocent blood, completed the banishment of the Saints from their midst, than they began to adopt some of the same principles of spiritual philosophy, although in a perverted sense of the word.

Editors, statesmen, philosophers, priests, and lawyers, as well as the common people, began to advocate the principle of converse with the dead, by visions, divination, clairvoyance, knocking, and writing mediums, &c., &c. This spiritual philosophy of converse with the dead, once established by the labors, toils, sufferings, and martyrdom of its modern founders, and now embraced by a large portion of the learned world, shows a triumph more rapid and complete—a victory more extensive, than has ever been achieved in the same length of time in our world.

A quarter of a century since, an obscure boy and his few associates, in the western wilds of New York, commenced to hold converse with the dead. Now, vision, new revelation, clairvoyance, mediums, oracles, &c., are talked of and advocated as far as the modern press extends its influence, or steam its powers of locomotion.

An important point is gained, a victory won, and a countless host of opposing powers vanquished, on one of the leading or fundamental truths of “Mormon” philosophy, viz.—“That the living may hear from the dead.”

But, notwithstanding these great victories of truth over error, ignorance, and superstition, in certain points of spiritual philosophy, yet much remains to be done, ere pure, uncontaminated truth will reign triumphant, and darkness and error surrender their last stronghold on the earth.

The fact of spiritual communications being established, by which the living hear from the dead—being no longer a question of controversy with the well informed, we drop that point, and call attention to the means of discriminating or judging between the lawful and the unlawful mediums or channels of communication—between the holy and impure, the truths and falsehoods, thus communicated.

The words of the holy Prophet in our text, while they admit the principle of the living hearing from the dead, openly rebuke, and sharply reprove, persons for seeking to those who have familiar spirits, and to wizards that peep and mutter, and remind us that a people should seek unto their God for the living to hear from the dead!

By what means, then, can a people seek unto their God, for such an important blessing as to hear from the dead?

And how shall we discriminate between those who seek to Him, and those who seek the same by unlawful means?

In the first place, no persons can successfully seek to God for this privilege, unless they believe in direct revelation in modern times.

Secondly, it is impossible for us to seek Him successfully, and remain in our sins. A thorough repentance and reformation of life are absolutely necessary, if we would seek to Him.

Thirdly, Jesus Christ is the only name given under heaven as a medium through which to approach to God. None, then, can be lawful mediums, who are unbelievers in Jesus Christ, or in modern revelation; or who remain in their sins; or who act in their own name, instead of the name appointed.

And moreover, the Lord has appointed a Holy Priesthood on the earth, and in the heavens, and also in the world of spirits; which Priesthood is after the order or similitude of His Son; and has committed to this Priesthood the keys of holy and divine revelation, and of correspondence, or communication between angels, spirits, and men, and between all the holy de– partments, principalities, and powers of His government in all worlds.

And again—The Lord has ordained that all the most holy things pertaining to the salvation of the dead, and all the most holy conversations and correspondence with God, angels, and spirits, shall be had only in the sanctuary of His holy Temple on the earth, when prepared for that purpose by His Saints; and shall be received and administered by those who are ordained and sealed unto this power, to hold the keys of the sacred oracles of God.

To this same principle the Prophets Isaiah and Micah bear testimony, saying, that in the last days all nations shall go up to the house (or Temple) of the Lord, in order to be taught in His ways, and to walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, &c. Now it is evident that the people of all nations in the last days would be utterly unable to learn the ways of the Lord to perfection, in any other place except in a holy Temple erected among the mountains. For if the oracles, and most holy ordinances, and the keys or the mysteries, could be had elsewhere, or in any and every place, the people would never take the pains to resort to one house amid the mountains in order to learn of His ways, and to walk in His paths.

It is, then, a matter of certainty, according to the things revealed to the ancient Prophets, and renewed unto us, that all the animal magnetic phenomena, all the trances and visions of clairvoyant states, all the phenomena of spiritual knockings, writing mediums, &c., are from impure, unlawful, and unholy sources; and that those holy and chosen vessels which hold the keys of Priesthood in this world, in the spirit world, or in the world of resurrected beings, stand as far aloof from all these improper channels, or unholy mediums, of spiritual communication, as the heavens are higher than the earth, or as the mys– teries of the third heaven, which are unlawful to utter, differ from the jargon of sectarian ignorance and folly, or the divinations of foul spirits, abandoned wizards, magic-mongers, jugglers, and fortunetellers.

Ye Latter-day Saints! Ye thousands of the hosts of Israel! Ye are assembled here today, and have laid these Corner Stones, for the express purpose that the living might hear from the dead, and that we may prepare a holy sanctuary, where “the people may seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead,” and that heaven and earth, and the world of spirits may commune together—that the kings, nobles, presidents, rulers, judges, priests, counselors, and senators, which compose the general assembly of the Church of the Firstborn in all these different spheres of temporal and spiritual existence, may sit in grand Council, and hold a Congress or court on the earth, to concert measures for the overthrow of the “mystery of iniquity,” the thrones of tyrants, the sanctuaries of priestcraft and superstition, and the reign of ignorance, sin, and death.

Saints! These victories will be achieved, and Jesus Christ and his Saints will subdue all opposing powers, and attain to universal empire in heaven and on earth, as sure as innocent blood was ever shed on Mount Calvary, or the official seal broken on the door of the tomb of the Son of God. This day’s work, in laying these Corner Stones for a Temple amid the mountains, is one advancing step in the progress of the necessary preparations for these mighty revolutions.

Let Zion complete this Temple, let it be dedicated to, and accepted by, the Almighty, let it be preserved in holiness according to the laws of the Holy Priesthood, and Zion shall not want for a man to stand before the Lord, and to receive the oracles, and administer in His holy sanctuary, and to administer the keys of His government upon the earth,

While sun, or moon, or stars shall shine, Or principalities endure.

If the Saints accomplish these things, and fail not to keep the commandments of Jesus Christ and the counsels of his servants, the kingdoms of the world shall never prevail against them from this time forth and forever.

But remember, O ye Saints of the Most High! Remember that the enemy is on the alert. That old serpent and his angels, who have ruled this lower world, with few exceptions, for so many ages, will not tamely, and without a struggle, submit to have the kingdom, and seat of government, and sanctuary of our God, again erected on our planet, no more to be thrown down or subdued, till every square yard of the vast dominion shall be re-conquered by its rightful owners. No! From the moment the ground was broken for this Temple, those inspired by him [Satan] have commenced to rage; and he will continue to stir up his servants to anger against that which is good; but, if we are faithful, the victory is ours, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.