Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Assembly Hall, Sunday Afternoon, Jan. 2nd, 1881.

I am pleased to have another opportunity of meeting with you on this the first Sabbath of the New Year; and I will add to all the faithful, ten thousand more of them. For we, as Latter-day Saints, do not consider that our existence ends with time, as we generally term it, but that it reaches into eternity. And that while we are here in a state of probation to fulfil the various duties devolving upon us, as Saints of the living God; while we come into the world and exist in it for a time and then leave it, we have hopes and aspirations beyond the grave, and anticipate that, as ages and cycles shall pass along and generation succeeds generation, if we are true to our trust and live our religion, keeping the commandments of God and fulfilling the various covenants devolving upon us to attend to, that we shall associate with the just in the eternities to come! Therefore we are living, and hoping, and expecting, and planning, and contriving and operating, for the accomplishment of this object. We do not look upon the affairs of this life as those alone in which humanity is interested. We have been taught differently by those who have had communication with the Lord, and to whom he has revealed his will. We have been taught differently by the holy priesthood that we have in our midst; we have been taught differently by the Holy Spirit which we have received in God’s appointed way, according to his law; which spirit has enlightened our minds and given unto us an evidence and a testimony similar to that which we heard Brother Smith speak of that he knew this work to be of God. How did he know it? Through obedience to the law of God, by the reception of the Holy Ghost and through the union and communion that exists between God and his children upon the earth. This is a principle of certainty and testimony, and an evidence that we all have the privilege of enjoying for ourselves, and of knowing that God lives; of knowing that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God; and of knowing also that God lives and that he is our Father, and that we are his children; and of further knowing that, “when this earthly house of our tabernacle is dissolved,” we can feel like one of old, that “we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” waiting for us, and not for us only but for all who love the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Were it not for this hope, were it not for this spirit, were it not for this intelligence that has been communicated unto us by the light of revelation and by the manifestation of the Spirit of God, through the revelations of God to man in these the last days, by the opening of the heavens, by the administration of holy angels, and by the revelations of the will of God to man; were it not for this we should not have been here today, this congregation would not have been assembled here as they are; the Latter-day Saints would not have been in this territory; nor would they have been anywhere else; for it is because God has seen fit in the fullness of times, according to the testimony given by the holy prophets, who have prophesied since the world was, according to the designs and eternal purposes of God pertaining to the inhabitants of the earth—those who now live, those who have lived and those who will live; were it not for the purposes of God pertaining to these things, and the communications of his will to us, we could not be, as I before stated, in the position we now occupy. But God having designed to accomplish his work in the interests of the people of the world, in this day and age, in the interest of the myriads who have passed out of the world, in the interest of the living and the dead, he has commenced his work for the salvation, for the redemption and for the exaltation of the human family, and hence things are as we see them among us today.

When we talk about the theories of men, they are matters of very little importance; when we reflect upon their ideas or views, they are really unimportant, but when we talk about the law of God, the plates of Jehovah and his designs pertaining to the world in which we live and its inhabitants, and to the inhabitants that have lived, and to all humanity, then we touch upon a subject that is grand, noble and sublime; one that enters into the recesses of the heart and that touches every fiber, and that causes our hopes and aspirations to reach within the veil, where Christ our forerunner has gone, and we feel convinced that there is an eternal fitness in all the laws, in all the truths, in all the ordinances, and in everything that God has revealed for the salvation and exaltation of the human family. We are here, and how did we come here? What was it that brought us here? Some hardly know; and then there are a great many who do understand this thing very well. We are here because we listened to the eternal truths of the gospel, and that gospel could not have been known unless it had been revealed. For no men nor any set of men, today, understand those principles which are calculated to exalt men in the celestial kingdom of God, nor could they comprehend them unless God had revealed them. And when we hear of the folly, the raving and ranting of ignorant men who know not God nor his laws, who would presume to dictate to Jehovah, who would teach something that they know nothing about; but being without revelation, are fitly represented in the Scriptures as “Knowing nothing but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed.” For instance, we have our cattle, our sheep and other animals which we raise and provide food for and feed and fatten them. What for? For the knife. How could we do it if they knew what we were doing it for? I do not think they would get very fat. Still, one of the old prophets, in speaking of these men who are without revelation says, “They know nothing but what they know naturally as brute beasts.” We certainly do not wish such men for our instructors.

Many men at the present day will tell us that they will believe nothing but what they can see with their eyes, handle with their hands and comprehend with their judgments. And what are they prepared for? I might here ask, What does man in reality know of God and of his laws, or of the proper fitness of things what does he know about that vitality that he himself is in possession of, or that which any other animal is in possession of? He knows nothing pertaining to it, nor can he impart it. When we talk about the wisdom of man, how far does it go? We learn a few of the laws of nature. Who gave these laws? Who originated or organized them? Who placed these eternal laws in nature? Who made the solar system, for instance, to move with that accuracy and punctuality according to exact rules and laws who made any portion of that system, gave it its original force or sustains it in its motion? Who planted in matter its exact and various laws? Can any of the learned and the wise of this day and age make anything of that kind or anything approaching to it? Who gives life and vitality to man? Does man give it? We are told that “there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding,” but without that what are we, although our organization may be complete in all its parts, yet without the spirit the body is lifeless, motionless and inanimate. What are we? At best but little specks in motion moving about in the world? Puffed up, in many instances, with things we profess to know, when really we know nothing only as God communicates it, and can understand nothing only as he makes it manifest. Can all the philosophers of today make a grain of wheat and give vitality to it, much less a world? Or can they make a simple blade of grass? It is not a big thing to ask a wise man to do, especially those who desire to ignore God in his works, but can the wisest of our philosophers do it? No, nor can they discover the secrets of life, nor the impulses which act upon all nature in all the varied operations. Who governs the planetary system? The great God, the same who causes our earth as well as other systems to revolve upon their axes, and provides for them, and has measured and given them their times and seasons, and their laws. Who is it that causes the blood to flow through our veins? He that has given and does give intelligence to man. Can anybody point out any of those vital principles and show that they originated independently of God? No, they cannot. And so it is through all creation, no matter what you touch pertaining to nature. When man discovers a law of nature either in the mineral, the animal, the vegetable or any other kingdom, he will find that it is governed by strict eternal and unchangeable and undeviating laws. And when men discover that, what do they find out? Something which God has placed there, something that has always existed. We talk sometimes about the great discoveries we have made. We will refer to gas, for instance; some of us can remember very well when there was no such thing known among us as gas for lighting purposes. Who originated the ele– ments of which it is composed? The great God; and that principle always existed. We speak about electricity and the uses to which it can be applied. Who originated that principle? “O, it was found out a few years ago and we found it very useful in communicating one with another; through its use we can send a message today from one part of the world to another, and can be in communication really with the world.” Well, we think we have done something very remarkable, in discovering something of that kind, and it really is a great discovery; but then that principle always existed, ever since the world was framed; the only thing that we can boast of is that we have discovered a certain principle which we did not know of before; and there are ten thousand other principles beyond, which we have not yet discovered; but when we do discover them we shall find them to be the same eternal laws of God. I am reminded sometimes of a little infant. You look at the body; it comes into the world; it has its common faculties. By and by it makes a discovery, it finds out that it has a hand, and it looks at it as much as to say, It is a very curious thing, and it is a remarkable discovery that I have made. Why, it always had a hand, but the baby did not always know it.

It has been remarked here by Bro. Penrose that all things are governed by law. This is so whether in the material world, or whether—I was going to say—in the immaterial world, but we do not know of such a thing; I will say therefore, the spiritual world, if you please. We are very singularly constituted, forming a combination of body and spirit. We learn a little about the bodies of men, but do we know about the spirits? We know from history of some things which have taken place in the past, but what do we know about things pertaining to the future? Who can comprehend God or his ways? One of old in speaking upon this subject says, “It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou understand?” There are some prominent features which God has revealed to us; and there are ten thousands of principles which he has not revealed. Those principles that he has revealed to us, like everything else pertaining to the works and the designs of God, bring a degree of certainty, assurance, intelligence and satisfaction that nothing earthly can impart. The Saints themselves, do not, in many instances, understand the “whys” and the “wherefores” pertaining to these matters. We are taught to obey certain laws; we are taught to repent of our sins, and to have hands laid upon our heads for the reception of the Holy Ghost. Here is a law that God has appointed, just the same as he has regulated these other systems of which I speak, and with which we are more or less familiar. We have electricity floating around us in every direction. In order to make it subserve our desires we have to use it according to certain laws. At present we have to string up wire properly connecting it and use a battery and a machine made for the purpose, in order to convey our thoughts to others at a distance; and without first paying due regard to these or other appliances that perhaps might be substituted, we could not communicate. When you comply with the law governing this matter, that is, when you erect the poles, string the wire, make your battery and have the machine and the circuit complete, you may then convey your thoughts correctly over the wire by the means of electricity to others at a distance. You know they have been correctly sent because you can receive your answer back; and if necessary, have the message you sent repeated. Now the same principle is true in regard to the other things. And do the persons who operate the telegraph machine always understand all about the philosophy of it? No, but very few of them comparatively. Yet they learn to operate while somebody else does the thinking and prepares the machine and appliances for them for the purpose of introducing this mode of communicating. Now then, look at the principle that looks to many very simple associated with that way which God has ordained and appointed for man to become acquainted with him, and to be introduced to him and to his laws. How is it? Why the elder goes forth to preach, and what is he told to preach? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. Now these look to many as being very simple things, very simple; yet they are things which God has ordained, they are his laws, they were in former times, they are in this time. We cannot violate these and receive the blessings, and no other people can; I do not care who they are, they cannot do it. Let us go back to our experience. There are hundreds of you present who have received the spirit of the living God; how did you receive it? You say, an elder came along, and we heard him preach; he told me to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to repent of my sins, and that he was authorized to baptize me for the remission of my sins, and he told me that if I did this that hands should then be laid upon my head and I should receive the Holy Ghost. This is the doctrine you heard. Then you had faith in God; you repented of your sins, your follies and wickedness, and you covenanted to fear God and keep his commandments, and to observe his laws. The elder then went forth and led you into the water, and he said, “Being commissioned of Jesus Christ I baptize you for the remission of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.” He then buried you in the water and raised and brought you out of it. After he did this, he laid his hands upon your head, and by the same authority he confirmed you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

Now that is a very peculiar operation when you come to think upon it. Why is it thus? A man goes forth who has authority given him of Jesus Christ, he baptized you for the remission of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. There is something very peculiar about it. It looks very simple; but if that man had no such authority, then he was an impostor; and if the man or men who ordained that elder conferring on him this priesthood, had not the authority to do so, then he or they were impostors; and if God had not given revelation instructing Joseph Smith in relation to these things, how they were to be done, then Joseph Smith himself was an impostor, as well as the apostles and all men professing authority. These are self-evident facts. We as a people do not profess to have received any authority from any other source, from any man or set of men, or any church or any organization existing; and if God has not revealed it, then the whole thing is a falsehood and fiction, and there is nothing to it. Here is a picture [pointing to the ceiling] of the angel Moroni appearing unto Joseph Smith, revealing to him among other things the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. We have another here [pointing to John the Baptist conferring upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic priesthood], and still another, representing Peter, James and John conferring upon Joseph Smith the Melchizedek priesthood. Very well. Are these things true? There are thousands of Latter-day Saints who will tell you they know it. We will come to these things by and by. But if these things were not so, then our faith is in vain, then we are dark and benighted as others are, then the things we believe in are a phantom and can avail us nothing, either pertaining to this world or the world to come; then the building of these temples amounts to nothing, if these things are a fiction, and everything we have done and are engaged in amounts to nothing. But if they are true, then there is nothing of so great importance to the world of mankind and to us, as the revelation of these truths to man in these last days, and pertaining also to our association therewith.

Now, when an elder lays his hands upon a man and confirms upon him the Holy Ghost, he tells him to receive it by virtue of the authority conferred upon him. What authority? Why God restored the authority of the holy priesthood by those who held the keys of that priesthood and who administer in time and in eternity, who hold that priesthood upon the earth, and who now hold it in the heavens. They came here to impart it to men, and did restore it to men. Very well, that being the case, man was again placed in communion with his God; not left any longer to guess and suppose and surmise and to think, but to know. For instance, I have myself been thousands of miles and hundreds of thousands to preach this Gospel; would I have gone if I had not known it to be true? No, I would not. There is nothing very pleasing in going forth to an unbelieving world to meet the errors and the prejudices of ages, and to oppose the false theories of men, to introduce the principles that are opposed and repudiated by the carnal mind, and by the corrupt everywhere; there is nothing very pleasant or inviting to be traduced and to have your name cast out as evil, no matter how honorable you may be, this has been the lot of the elders of this Church and is their lot today, by men who know not of what they speak, by men who are bigoted, superstitious and ignorant; men who comprehend not God nor his laws; but we know it, and I know the truths of which I speak, and bear testimony to it before you. If others do not know it, I cannot help it; I have obeyed the method appointed to receive these things, as you have had to do, to be initiated into the Church and kingdom, according to the laws which God has ordained. What I have done, then, all others in this Church have done; and the elders of Israel have been actuated by the same impulses, have obeyed the same doctrines and ordinances, and have administered the same ordinances to others. They are influenced by the same spirit, and they realized and knew for themselves of the things which they promulgated and taught. Is this con– fined to elders alone? No. To the apostles and presidents? No. To the seventies or high priests or elders, bishops, priests, teachers or deacons? No. This is a thing which pertains to all; all who are Latter-day Saints, all who have complied with the requirements and who have thus placed themselves in the condition to receive this knowledge; and you men who are before and around me today are witnesses of the truth of that which I say, because you yourselves did receive the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God which imparted to you a knowledge of the principles of the Gospel and placed you in communion with God your heavenly Father. And this Spirit has borne witness to our spirits as it has been said by one of old, “that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” We sometimes treat these things rather lightly, scarcely comprehending what we are doing; and I often think that our elders themselves hardly realize the significance of the situation they occupy when they say to him that believes, repents and is baptized, “Receive thou the Holy Ghost.” Is there a thing of more importance that we can think of anywhere than this which so many of us treat so lightly. The idea of a man, human and fallible, pronouncing the reception of the Holy Ghost upon his fellow man, and his fellow receiving that heavenly treasure, is one of the greatest manifestations of the faithfulness of God, in sanctioning the acts of his elders that it is possible for us to conceive of. He has said that through these ordinances he would confer the Holy Ghost; he has also fulfilled it, as the thousands who hear me today can bear record. Here is the thing that operated upon you and which was the means of bringing you here to this place, from many of the nations of the earth.

Some people find fault with us about these things. I have said frequently to men that I cannot help my faith and I am sure you cannot help it; no man living can control my faith, for I have received a portion of the Spirit of the Lord and I know it; and if you have received a portion of that same Spirit you know it, and you cannot unknow it—it is impossible, you cannot unknow it, unless you sin against God and, as the apostle said, grieve the Spirit, by which you were sealed; then it withdraws from you, then you will not know much about it, no more than some do who take this course against us. The apostle said, “Grieve not the Spirit of God, by which you are sealed to the day of redemption;” do not grieve it, do not sin against God, do not violate his laws, do not corrupt yourselves; do not corrupt your bodies, for are they not, as one has said, “the temples of the living God?” Do not allow your spirits to be contaminated and led astray from correct principles, but cleave unto God in all humility, fidelity, faithfulness; observing his laws and keeping his commandments. Why, then, let me ask, are you here? You are here because the elders of Israel visited the place where you lived in this nation, or in nations afar off, preaching the principles of the everlasting Gospel which had been restored; and you believed their testimony, and obeyed the Gospel, and received a knowledge of its divinity, and because of this you came here; and hence the elders, the apostles, the presidents, and all the various peoples and members being touched by the spark of that fire that dwells in the bosom of God, being enlight– ened by that Holy Spirit which is promised to those who obey his law, you left your homes, your friends, your associations, and came here to mingle with the Saints of the Most High, to unite with them and to assist in carrying out those purposes that God designs pertaining to the human family. Now in all this Joseph Smith and those associated with him—Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon and others—understood these principles; they commenced this work not of their own free will, and, yes, of their own free will, too; but they did not originate them. God originated them and they were instrumental in his hands in introducing them. These men having been ordained themselves, ordained others who went forth to proclaim that word of truth which they had received. And why did you come here? Because you received that testimony and believed it and obeyed it and received the Holy Ghost, and associated with those who believed the same principles. There was something that propelled you forward, you hardly knew why or how, but you were desirous to come to Zion. Why? Because you are living in the dispensation of the fulness of times, when God will gather together all things in one, and the keys of the gathering dispensation had been introduced; and because you had received of that spirit, and you never felt easy until you got here. Well, how was that? What operated upon you? The Spirit of God. Was it a something that was craving after wealth and position and power and aggrandizement, to have a great and honorable name? No, it was as you first were taught and as you afterwards comprehended, it was how to learn to save yourselves, to save your progenitors, to save your posterity; it was that you might obtain a knowledge of the laws of life, fulfil the measure of your creation, and that while you felt as a man among men upon the earth, you might, by and by, through obedience to pure principles, stand among the Gods as a God, in the eternal worlds, and be exalted through the power of the Gospel. This is why you came here, and are coming here, and being here, we brought our bodies with us. We have to eat and drink, we need clothing. The curse has not been removed from the earth yet, therefore we have “to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow.” We have to do in regard to these matters as others do; and being here, what then? Why a number of people make what may be termed a community. We are living on land, and that land, in a territorial capacity is part and parcel of the United States, and as a territory of the United States, we necessarily form an integral part of the United States; being men, and having bodies as other men, independent of our general feelings, thoughts, actions and sentiments, we have to live and move, to eat, to drink, to occupy farms, houses, cities, and lands; and to perform all the varied duties of citizens, associated with the body politic. What next? We have our religious duties to perform, and that is to fear God and to observe his laws.

What else? We build temples. What for? To administer the ordinances of God. What ordinances? Those that God has revealed, and those that the world know nothing about; and if they had the temples already built for them today they would not know any more what to do with them than that pitcher does; nor would we unless God had revealed it. Now we are going on quietly to attend to our duties, building our temples and administering in them. Here is Brother John L. Smith—how long Brother Smith have you been administering in the Temple at St. George? [Brother Smith: Four years, sir.] And for whom? For himself? Yes, a little, not much however, principally for others. For the welfare of whom? The living. Who else? Of the dead; that we may fulfil certain duties that God has called us to perform, to help in the accomplishment of his designs and purposes. And that as God has been pleased to restore to the earth the keys which Elijah held, who conferred his power upon others to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, that the fathers who existed upon the earth in generations gone past, and we who are now in existence and our children that are following after us, might be cemented and united together by eternal bonds which God has pointed out. That there might be an alliance and cooperation between those in the heavens and those on the earth; that there might be a welding, uniting, cementing principle; in which the priesthood in the heavens and on the earth are united, to carry out the great designs of our heavenly Father in the salvation and redemption of the living and the dead, and that we might operate for them on the earth while they are operating for us in the heavens. For it is written, that “They without us cannot be made perfect,” neither can we become perfect without them. We, then, are operating in our part and they in theirs; we on the earth, they in the heavens; and with God they are operating, and with Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of the new covenant, and with the ancient prophets and apostles of God, who lived before, who administered in time and in eternity, holding the everlasting priesthood, and who are all interested in the welfare of the world and the exaltation of man.

Well, now, what shall we do? Shall we go on with it? We will try to, the Lord being our helper. Some people say we are very wicked. Well, I do not think we are as good as we ought to be by a long way, but I do think we are very much better than they are. This is my opinion, with all our follies and all our weaknesses, and all our infirmities. And—well, I would not like to say what I know about them. God knows it. We will let that go. The Lord will judge men by their acts, and he will judge us and all others by our acts.

Now, we have a territorial form of government. I will come to that again. What shall we do? Observe the laws of men? I think that is a very easy thing to do. There is nothing very hard about that; if they will not interfere with us in religious matters, there is nothing very hard about keeping the laws of the land. Will we pay taxes? Yes. Will be loyal to the government? Yes. Will we sustain all good, honorable men that are rulers? Yes, and pray God to inspire them with wisdom, that they may be led in the right path. Will we fight with them and quarrel with them, and say hard words about them and misrepresent them as they do us? No, we will not. It would try me very much sometimes to have to tell the plain and unpalatable truth about them, of things which, without falsehood, I can say, I know for myself. Still, will they try to interfere with us? Yes. Who? All kinds of foolish people, ignorant; narrow-minded, degraded, wallowing in iniquity and besmeared with corruption of every kind; and yet they talk to us about our impurities. They have reason to talk a little, but not much. We are not what we should be by a long way; we ought to be a great deal better than we are. I pray that God may enable us to be so.

Well, we do not interfere with them. Whose religion do we interfere with? Nobody’s. I hope you do not, I know I do not; if they are satisfied with it, I am satisfied that they should have it. I believe in every man using the free exercise of his judgment and conscience, leaving the balance with God. I will tell people the truth; if they obey it, all right, if not, certainly I will not prosecute them or persecute them because of their views. But on the contrary, if anybody were to interfere in any way with the religious faith of anyone, I care not how foolish it might be, I would be among the first to stand forth in the defense of him whose rights were assailed; not because I believed in his religion at all; but because my sense of justice and equal rights would impel me to this action; for if I claim those rights myself I ought to respect them in others, holding as I do that it is the right of all men to believe in and worship as they please. And while there are thousands of highminded honorable men in this great nation who believe in and sustain the principles of freedom and equal rights, there are very many foolish, inconsiderate men who would recklessly tear down the temple of freedom erected by the fathers of this nation, and ruthlessly proscribe, prosecute and persecute all who cannot subscribe to their narrow erratic, unsupported ideas. But will you not conform to their ideas? No, I will not, the Lord being my helper, and then the people will not God being their helper. The Lord has revealed unto us the truth, and we know it, and we will stand by it and maintain it from this time forth, God being our helper; and all who believe in that say aye [the congregation said aye]. That is the feeling of the Latter-day Saints I know. But will we interfere with anybody? No! No! We will not. With their politics? Not much. For while we are interested in the welfare of the nation, we care very little about the present political issues. We think that a great and magnanimous nation, however, could well afford to let us alone, and would feel like endorsing General Grant’s axiom, “Let us have peace.” But then if people will interfere with us while we are pursuing the even tenor of our way, we will defend and protect ourselves from their assaults as best we may, and then we will commit them to God. We have not started this work, God commenced it, not us, and we are simply endeavoring to carry out his will and law. Will we do it? With the Lord’s help we will. Will we fight against authority? No. Will we oppose the principles of this government? No. We will sustain them. But if people will act foolishly we cannot help it. If this nation can stand the results of the violation of constitutional principles, we can. If they tear down the bulwarks of freedom and with impunity trample under foot the rights of men we cannot help it. If it is our turn, today, to suffer wrong, it will be somebody else’s tomorrow, national retrogressions are not often arrested. It behooves statesmen to pause in their career. The floodgates once opened who shall stay the torrent? We of all men would save the ship of state and would say to these national patricides avaunt! But if they will act foolishly and continue to do so until they subvert the principles of liberty, and thus destroy one of the best governments ever instituted on earth, then if forsaken by all else, the elders of this Church will rally round the Constitution, lift up the standard of freedom, which is being trodden under foot and bedrabbled by demagogues, and proclaim liberty to the world; equal rights, liberty and equality; freedom of conscience and of worship to all men everywhere. That is not a prophecy of mine; it is a prophecy of Joseph Smith’s, and I believe it very strongly. Will we oppose them? No. Let them go on in their own way and we will pray to God to turn the designs of wicked men, and if they will not repent and turn from their evil deeds, pray to him that they may be taken in their own trap, be caught in their own snare, and fall into the pit which they dig for us. Can you pray with a good conscience that this may befall them? Certainly. If men dig a pit for others they should not find fault if they fall into it themselves. And as sure as God lives they will do it, if they persevere in their iniquity, and as sure as we stand faithful to the principles of truth, God will stand by us, and the wrath of man will be made to praise him, and the remainder he will restrain; and they cannot help themselves. For both they and we are in the hands of God, and they can go no further than he permits them, neither can we. And we will try, as the friends of this nation and of humanity, to do right, and to sustain all correct principles, in the maintenance of justice and equal rights to all; cultivating peace, respecting law, sustaining our institutions, and praying that right, justice and equity may prevail throughout the land; and that the hands of all honorable men may be strengthened to preserve inviolable the God-given institutions of this great nation. Let us also try to fulfil all of our duties as fathers, and our duties as mothers, our duties as children and our duties as citizens of the United States, our duties as Presidents, our duties as Apostles, our duties as High Priests, our duties as Seventies, our duties as Elders and our duties as Priests, Teachers and Deacons, and our duties as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, live in the light of the Spirit of God, that the Holy Spirit which we have received may be in us “as a light that shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day.” And if we are faithful, God will stand by Israel; he will preserve his elect; he will listen to our prayers: and we will go to work by his help to build up Zion and establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth; and we and our posterity will never cease doing it until the “kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ; and he shall rule forever and forever;” and then throughout the endless ages of eternity among the Gods in the eternal worlds we will join in singing, “Blessing, and glory, and honor, and power, and might, and majesty, and dominion, be ascribed to him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.” Even so. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Chas. W. Penrose, delivered in the Salt Lake Assembly Hall, Sunday Afternoon, January 2nd, 1881.

I can endorse heartily the remarks that have been made to us by Brother John L. Smith, an old acquaintance whom I am pleased to see. I feel gratified to know that he is still laboring for Israel, that his heart is in the right place, and that his desires are, as they always have been so far as I have been acquainted with him, to serve God, to keep his commandments, and teach men so.

When Jesus was on the earth he said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” I believe it is the object and desire of all our brethren who are called to occupy responsible positions in the midst of the people to carry out this saying of Jesus—that is, to keep his commandments themselves and to teach others to do the same. This desire, at any rate, should animate every one who is called to be a servant of God. It is not enough to believe in the Gospel; it is not enough to have faith in the work that God Almighty has commenced on the earth; it is not enough to have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that angels have come from heaven, restored the Gospel and brought back the ancient priesthood, that God has commenced the great latter-day work spoken of by all the ancient prophets and that we are called to assist in that work—a mere testimony that this is the case is not enough. We are called to be workers of righteousness. And we are not only called to do what is right, but also to aid in establishing righteousness on the earth by teaching others to follow our example.

The religion which we have received is a practical religion. It offers something for us to do all the time. There is no need for us at any time to stand still, we are called to be active workers in the cause of God. Every man and every woman who has received the Gospel and been baptized into the Church is expected to take an active part in this work; not to leave it to those who are called upon to preside in the various wards and stakes and over the Church of God, but each one of us has an individual interest in this Church (or ought to have) and should manifest it by a desire to do something that the work of our God may roll forward in the earth.

We have had made plain to our understanding some few of the first principles of salvation, and these have been made clear to our minds not merely as objects of faith, but as something for us to lay hold of, as a guide to our feet, as a light to our path, and as an incentive to action. We are called to be Saints not only in the Assembly Hall, or in the Tabernacle, or in the place of prayer, but in every condition of life, and to bring into practice those things that God has made known to us to influence us in all that we do, that we might be a different people from the great mass of mankind, striving after the condition of sainthood—that is, to become holy in the Lord, to be sanctified in all our being to the service of the Almighty and the establishment of his kingdom and government on the earth. That is what we are here for, in these valleys of the mountains.

There is an idea in the world concerning religious affairs that they are mere matters of sentiment, something to think about, something to pray about, something to sing about, something to exalt the feelings. This is all very good so far as it goes, but it is only a small part of religion. Religion is not a mere matter of emotion or of sentiment, or of feeling. True religion is something to guide us, to make us better, to teach us in every respect. True religion will teach us how to use properly every power with which our great Creator has endowed us. True religion not only affects the spiritual part of our being, the internal part of man or woman, but affects the whole nature, spiritual, mental and physical. It comes here on the earth and is fitted to our condition where we live and while we live. It is adapted to us today. It not only unfolds to us something of the future and elevates that standard of beauty and perfection before us, that we expect some time to arrive at, but it unfolds to us our duty today and tells us how to act in every movement of our lives and in every condition in which we may be situated; in fact, there is no place that we may be called upon to occupy, or in which we may find ourselves, where our religion ought not to influence us in what we should do. Not only does our religion come to us to influence us in our acts, in our bodies as well as our spirits, but it also comes to us to direct us in our thoughts, that we may be able to turn our minds in the proper channel, so that we may think good thoughts and not evil, that we may have good desires and not evil, and that we may become so sanctified in our natures that the spirit and influence which comes direct, from God our Heavenly Father, who dwells in the bosom of eternity, may descend into our souls and have free and uninterrupted access thereto, and that we may become Saints, individually and collectively, a royal generation, a peculiar people, zealous of good works. This is the kind of religion we have received.

When we heard the Gospel and believed in Christ and in God the Father, and went forth repenting of our sins and were baptized for the remission of sins, and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, this was the beginning of our religion, these were the preliminary steps in the path that leads to the presence of God. When we came into the Church, having put off the old man with his deeds, we were supposed to have put on Christ, to pattern after him in all our acts, to seek for his spirit, to be guided by his example, so that by and by we might become as he is and fit to stand where he stands—in the presence of God, and abide there. Some people who are in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as some people outside the church, have an idea that salvation consists in belonging to a certain sect or party or in having a certain condition of mind. They do not grasp the idea that exaltation is only brought about through a natural process—the putting away of that which is evil and laying hold of that which is good; the putting away of that which is wrong and taking hold of that which is right: departing from the ways of the world and walking in the ways of God. We need to understand this fully and clearly, my brethren and sisters. You and I will not be saved in the presence of God with an exaltation like that which is held out to us simply because we are called Latter-day Saints, or because we have complied with a certain form of religion, or even because we have gone into sacred places and received holy ordinances whereby we might be washed and cleansed and made anew and anointed unto righteousness. We shall not be brought up into the presence of our Father to abide there and participate in his glory simply because of these things. If we ever get there to stay, it will be because we are fitted to be there, because we are prepared to abide his glory, to stand in his presence and rejoice with him and aid him in his glorious works in the midst of the universe. We will stay there because we are like him and fit to be where he is. If it is found that we are not like him, that we are not of his spirit, not actuated by the same motives that animate his bosom, not governed by the same laws, we shall not be able to abide his presence and cannot stay there. If we do stay there, it will be because we are fit to be there in the nature of things because natures correspond with his, our spirits harmonizing with his, our acts being controlled by the same motives and governed by the same laws as those by which he governs himself, and not merely because we have adopted a certain creed, not merely because we have bowed to a certain form, not merely because we have submitted to certain ordinances and ceremonies.

All these ordinances and ceremonies instituted by the Almighty and comprehended in that which is called the Gospel are necessary. There is no such thing as nonessential ordinances; every one of them is essential. Exaltation cannot be arrived at without them. But exaltation does not consist of the mere compliance to certain forms and ceremonies that the Almighty has instituted and placed in his Church. There is something more required, something superior to all this. What is it? It is the spirit that comes from our Father to dictate us in every act, to make us righteous and holy unto the Lord, and to sanctify us and bring us into complete subjection to and harmony with the laws that govern the celestial kingdom. There is no real happiness either in this world or the world to come except through obedience to proper law. That is the only way that happiness can be obtained. We ought to understand this and teach it to our children. There is a spirit growing in the world which leads mankind to throw off restraint, to cast aside laws and regulations, which leads people to become “a law unto themselves.” This is the teaching “spiritualism,” that peeping and muttering system. The expounders of that faith—if it may be called a faith—teach the doctrine of mankind becoming a law unto themselves—no forms, no ceremonies, no regulations—each one independent for himself and herself. Now, while we sing sometimes:

“Know this that every soul is free, To choose his life and what he’ll be;” and while we acknowledge,

“For this eternal truth is given, That God will force no man to heaven.” Yet on the other hand, we recognize the fact that there is a law given to all things in the economy of God in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. “All kingdoms have a law given.” So we are told here in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. We learn from that Book that, “there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or lesser kingdom. And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions.” Every kingdom that is governed by law is preserved by law and sanctified by the same, no matter in what part of the universe it may be and those who abide the laws of that kingdom and that condition in which they find themselves, gain happiness and are preserved and sanctified and become exalted thereby. Now, although these laws are given of God, they do not interfere with the volition of man. Every man has his free agency. Light and truth are placed before us, truth and error are here, and we can choose the one and refuse the other, or refuse the one and choose the other, just as it was with our first parents in the garden of Eden. The history of the fall is placed before us that we might understand this great principle of agency; the tree of life and the tree of death, the tree of light and the tree of darkness. The Lord has said to us in substance, “I have placed before you truth and error, choose which you will receive. You can receive the light or the darkness, you can receive the truth or the error as you please; but by and by you must give an account of your acts.” We find ourselves here on this planet that God has created for us, a branch of his great family, and he has given us certain principles to govern ourselves by. He does not force them upon us. God will force no man to heaven or to hell; but if we choose we can lay hold of these principles and be governed thereby, and by doing that we will be improved in our nature in proportion to our reception of light and truth, and exaltation will come to us on this principle and no other.

This spirit of so-called independence, or “liberty,” as some persons misuse the term, is spreading throughout the world. It has its influence among us. There is to a certain extent in our midst a desire and disposition to throw off the restraint that comes from the heads of families, the influence that parents exercise over children, to rebel against the laws of the community in which we live, to resist the restriction that comes from the laws of the land, and from the laws of the Church—the laws of God. This spirit exists to a great extent in the world, and is bound to have more or less effect upon us here in the mountains, because, although we are in some degree separated from the world, yet we are also connected with the world, and must expect, as a part of the human family, that some among us will be more or less affected by this spirit. Now, we ought to get this idea clearly upon our minds and upon the minds of our children. We ought to understand the necessity of yielding obedience to proper laws. We ought to learn to understand the laws that pertain to our bodies so that they may be kept healthy. And we should become fully acquainted with the laws that govern our Church. Every principle that God has revealed should be clear to our minds, and in order to understand them we should read the books given to us, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. These ought to direct us in our every day lives. Then when we come to meeting and hear our brethren speak the word of the Lord, we should try to treasure up in our hearts the words of life, put them into practice, and also teach the same to our children; for it is on this principle that we will become prepared to go into the presence of God by and by, and not merely because we are called Saints, not merely because we have been ordained to some office in the priesthood, not merely because we may have been put into some position to preside or direct our fellows. This will not exalt us, but the practice of what is right and true will exalt us. In fact every person in doing what is good and right is naturally bettered thereby, and every individual in doing what is evil is degraded thereby. All our acts are known by the powers on high whom we cannot see. They understand us, although we may think no one sees what we do. Yet though no one should see us, if no one but ourselves knows our acts, if we do what is evil and debasing we are that much the worse for it; if we do that which is right and good we are that much the better for it. And if we practice righteousness and teach men, so we will become great in the kingdom of heaven on natural principles.

We should all live according to the laws of God, to the best of our ability—although we are beset with many weaknesses and infirmities and faults, many of which have been transmitted to us from our forefathers away back for ages and are concentrated in us who live in the latter days. But so far as we have power and ability, we are required to battle with and overcome our inherent failings, and if we take hold of the principles of righteousness, in the very act of doing that we are bettered, and if we continue in this path we will go on from grace to grace, from light to light, from purity to purity, from holiness to holiness, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” We must be clothed with his light, and be filled with his fullness, and be fit to stand in his presence and dwell with the Father. And this is the promise: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” There is no need for us at any time to be in the dark concerning our duties. We need not be in the dark concerning any act we desire to perform, if we will go to the Father and say, “Father, make thy will known to me. Enable me to walk in thy light to do that which is pleasing to thee; enable me to overcome all that is contrary to thy law.” If we live in this kind of spirit, there will always be a voice whispering in our souls telling us that which is right and wrong, and our progress will be onward and upward in the straight and narrow path that leadeth unto the eternal continuation of the lives.

Now, by and by, when we come into the presence of God to be judged we will be valued for what we are, not for what men have called us, not for what we have appeared to be to one another, but we will stand just as we are, with all of our spots and blemishes. If we are clean and white and pure when we appear in the presence of our Heavenly Father, and in the presence of the hosts around him, we shall be seen as such; if we are foul and evil, no matter how fair we have appeared to men, we will be comprehended as we are, we will “see as we are seen and known as we are known.” We shall not be able to hide our imperfections from one another. We shall be weighed in the balance, and if we are found wanting we cannot receive a fullness of glory. But, says someone, I have had certain blessings pronounced upon my head, I have been promised an exaltation in the presence of God; I have been promised thrones, principalities, powers and dominions, and are not the promises of God to be fulfilled? Yes; but every promise is made on certain conditions, and unless we comply with these conditions God cannot, in consonance with eternal justice, bestow those blessings upon us, no matter what may have been promised upon our heads. We are told that those who will not sanctify themselves by the law of the celestial kingdom cannot receive a celestial glory. Now, what glory will you and I have? Just exactly that glory we are fitted to have and no other. This is only just, and God must be just or he would cease to be God. Yet God will force no man or woman to keep the law of light and truth; but unless we live the laws of righteousness and obey the law of the celestial kingdom we cannot in the nature of things receive and abide a celestial glory. Then our chief business is to find out the law of God, and do that which is right and true and good. We should watch well the path of our feet and avoid everything that is evil; for that which is evil naturally contaminates and debases, and that which is good naturally purifies and exalts. We should all the time strive for the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we may be in harmony with those who are placed over us, and that we may train our desires and our acts so as to be in consonance with the mind and will of God.

Now, the Lord has made known to us a few things. We should make it our business to carry these things out, and we shall find the value of them by and by if we do not sense them today; for as I said just now when we are in the act of performing that which is right we become purified in our character, and more fit to abide the glory of our Father, while the less we do what is right the further we will be away from that purity which is necessary for dwelling in his presence. We expect to gain a celestial glory. That is what you and I started out to win. We are not satisfied, as our sectarian friends are, to sing:

“I want to be an angel, And with the angels stand.” That is not what you and I are aiming at. We are after a glory superior to that. We read that the Saints shall judge the angels. Who are the angels? They are ministering spirits to those that are worthy of “a far more, and exceeding, and eternal weight of glory.” That is what you and I have started out to gain, to obtain a celestial glory, to obtain a celestial crown, and we shall be satisfied with nothing else than that. How shall we obtain it? We shall obtain it in no other way than by abiding the laws that pertain to the celestial kingdom. Let us, then, find out the laws of the celestial kingdom as fast as we can and practice them, and if we make this the business of our lives we will find the Lord very near to us, we will find it easy to approach him and learn of his ways. We can have the still, small voice to make glad our souls and open out our understandings. We should live in this spirit, my brethren and sisters, so that we may enjoy happiness and peace today as well as the prospect of having eternal happiness and peace in the world to come.

I pray God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to stamp these truths upon our hearts, so that we may be able to order our lives by the laws of truth and righteousness, individually and as a people; that we may live for the Lord and for the truth, and for one another—not for selfish objects, but for the glory of God and the salvation of our race.

I feel thankful this afternoon to be in the congregation of the Saints, to be numbered among the people of the Most High God, and to take part in the religion that God Almighty has revealed in this day and age of the world. I know this is the work of God. I know this by the witness of the eternal spirit in my soul. I know the peace it brings when I act in consonance with its laws. My desire is to live as becomes a Saint of God; to live as a servant of the Most High; to incorporate in my being the principles that will make men and women holy and pure, for I know that they make men and women great. I desire to live these principles, and as far as I have ability to teach them to others, for I know that in them is joy and happiness, power and might—power to the spirit and might to the body. The power of God belongs to and is with this Church. It enters into our whole being, spiritual and physical. This work is good for the body and for the soul, and if we live according to the dictations of the Holy Spirit, we will be happier, stronger and mightier in all our being, and when we come up in the presence of the Father, having been purified and our robes made white through the blood of the Lamb and our faithfulness to the cause of truth, we will be able to abide the presence of the Great Eternal without shame.

May the blessing of God rest upon us, and may we be saved in the celestial kingdom of our Father, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered at the General Conference, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Oct. 10th, 1880.

There are many times when I feel a great desire to speak to the people because I have things in my heart that I would like to say. I cannot say at the present time however, that I have any great desire to speak, still I will bear my testimony and express a few thoughts in my reflections that are upon me today.

I am happy and greatly pleased in what I have witnessed, and I feel that the heavens are pleased with our proceedings this day. I feel that they are right. The kingdom of God is onward; it is not backward. It is wisdom that we perform what we have done today.

The act of organizing the council of the first presidency of the church and kingdom of God, I have regarded as a most solemn scene, to See this mighty host of priesthood who are assembled in this house vote in such unanimity, and to see this vast congregation rise in a body with uplifted hands to heaven, it is like the rushing of many waters—there is power in it; there is power with this people; there is power with the priesthood and in the ordinances of the house of God. And what we have done today will have its effect, it will have its effect in the heavens and on the earth. The responsibility that we bear as elders of Israel, before the heavens and before the earth and before each other, is very great. We are called of God; we have been chosen, we have been ordained as men who have been called to bear the priesthood and to attend to the ordinances of the house of God, to preach the Gospel, to warn this generation, to build up Zion, to redeem the earth, to erect temples unto the name of the Most High God, to redeem the living and the dead, and to carry out those great purposes which have been foreordained before the world was. It is a great calling, it is a great responsibility: and I feel that we, as servants of God and as elders of Israel, that we should try in our minds to comprehend these things.

I reflect a good deal with regard to our position, as was described to us today by Brother Pratt. It has been my faith and belief from the time that I was made acquainted with the Gospel that no greater prophet than Joseph Smith ever lived on the face of the earth save Jesus Christ. He was raised up to stand at the head of this great dispensation—the greatest of all dispensations God has ever given to man. He remarked on several occasions when conversing with his brethren: “brethren you do not know me, you do not know who I am.” As I remarked at our priesthood meeting on Friday evening, I have heard him in my early days while conversing with the brethren, say, (at the same time smiting himself upon the breast) “I would to God that I could unbosom my feelings in the house of my friends.” Joseph Smith was ordained before he came here, the same as Jeremiah was. Said the Lord unto him, “Before you were begotten I knew you” etc.

So do I believe with regard to this people, so do I believe with regard to the apostles, the high priests, seventies and the elders of Israel bearing the holy priesthood, I believe they were ordained before they came here; and I believe the God of Israel has raised them up, and has watched over them from their youth, and has carried them through all the scenes of life both seen and unseen, and has prepared them as instruments in his hands to take this kingdom and bear it off. If this be so, what manner of men ought we to be? If anything under the heavens should humble men before the Lord and before one another, it should be the fact that we have been called of God.

I believe the eyes of the heavenly hosts are over this people; I believe they are watching the elders of Israel, the prophets and apostles and men who are called to bear off this kingdom. I believe they watch over us all with great interest.

I will here make a remark concerning my own feelings. After the death of Joseph Smith I saw and conversed with him many times in my dreams in the night season. On one occasion he and his brother Hyrum met me when on the sea going on a mission to England. I had Dan Jones with me. He received his mission from Joseph Smith before his death; and the prophet talked freely to me about the mission I was then going to perform. And he also talked to me with regard to the mission of the Twelve Apostles in the flesh, and he laid before me the work they had to perform; and he also spoke of the reward they would receive after death. And there were many other things he laid before me in his interview on that occasion. And when I awoke many of the things he had told me were taken from me, I could not comprehend them. I have had many interviews with Brother Joseph until the last 15 or 20 years of my life; I have not seen him for that length of time. But during my travels in the southern country last winter I had many interviews with President Young, and with Heber C. Kimball, and Geo. A. Smith, and Jedediah M. Grant, and many others who are dead. They attended our conference, they attended our meetings. And on one occasion, I saw Brother Brigham and Brother Heber ride in carriage ahead of the carriage in which I rode when I was on my way to attend conference; and they were dressed in the most priestly robes. When we arrived at our destination I asked President Young if he would preach to us. He said, “No, I have finished my testimony in the flesh I shall not talk to this people any more. But (said he) I have come to see you; I have come to watch over you, and to see what the people are doing. Then (said he) I want you to teach the people—and I want you to follow this counsel yourself—that they must labor and so live as to obtain the Holy Spirit, for without this you cannot build up the kingdom; without the spirit of God you are in danger of walking in the dark, and in danger of failing to accomplish your calling as apostles and as elders in the church and kingdom of God. And, said he, Brother Joseph taught me this principle. “And I will here say, I have heard him refer to that while he was living. But what I was going to say is this: the thought came to me that Brother Joseph had left the work of watching over this church and kingdom to others, and that he had gone ahead, and that he had left this work to men who have lived and labored with us since he left us. This idea manifested itself to me, that such men advance in the spirit world. And I believe myself that these men who have died and gone into the spirit world had this mission left with them, that is, a certain portion of them, to watch over the Latter-day Saints.

I feel myself as though we are blessed of the Lord, and that we ought to be satisfied. I feel that we should humble ourselves before God, that we should labor to magnify our callings, and honor this priesthood which we received before we came here while we live out the few days appointed to man in the flesh. And I do hope and pray God that we may magnify our priesthood and calling while we tarry here, so that when we get through our earthly mission and go into the spirit world, we may meet with Brothers Joseph and Brigham and Heber and the rest of the faithful men whom we knew and labored with while in the flesh, as well as Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets and apostles who have had their day and their time and their generation, and who have finished their work here below and gone home to glory. Do you not think they are interested about us? I tell you they are. And I desire when I die, and my spirit goes into the spirit world, to meet these men and to go where they are; and I wish to live in that way and manner so as to be worthy of this blessing. And when I say this of myself I wish it to apply to all Israel. It will not pay us to apostatize; neither will it pay us to sin, it costs ten thousand times more than it is worth from beginning to end. Therefore, let us be true and faithful to God. And inasmuch as we have voted today to sustain the presidency of this church and kingdom, let our prayers ascend night and morning into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, in behalf of the men who now stand at our head, and also in behalf of the apostles and in behalf of all the priesthood of God in their place and station. And inasmuch as we do this we will grow, we will advance, the Spirit of God will be poured out upon us which will reveal unto us the mind and the will of God concerning us. And Zion will continue to increase in power on the earth, and eventually accomplish all for which it is designed, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt and Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Sept. 19th, 1880.

It is with peculiar feelings that I arise to address this congregation who are assembled this afternoon. An event in regard to myself has this day happened that generally only happens once in the course of a man’s life. Fifty years ago today I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hence, it might be said that it is in reality a year of jubilee, so far as I am concerned—I mean that the past year, which is the fiftieth year of my membership in the Church, closing with today, has been, indeed and in truth, a year of jubilee.

There is another thing, connected with these fifty years in the Church, that is also pleasing to your humble servant. Sixty-nine years ago today I was born into this world, making this day a double birthday to myself. How very thankful I ought to be for this great privilege which has been bestowed upon me. The hearing of the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, yielding obedience to the same, and entering into the Church and kingdom of God, in my early youth, certainly is a blessing that is worthy of all thanks and praise to my Father who is in heaven, who granted this privilege to me in my youth. There were many scores of millions—yes, hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of our globe that did not enjoy this privilege.

It seems that the Lord our God, some fifty years ago and a little upwards, saw proper to organize his kingdom, to establish it on the earth by the ministration of holy angels, and by the revelations of his Spirit, and by sending down authority from the heavens to minister here on the earth, and by bringing forth that great and precious record, the Book of Mormon, and causing the same to be printed for the benefit of all mankind. How great a privilege conferred on me, to come to the understanding of the contents of that book when I was but nineteen years of age! How great a privilege to live in a day and age of the world when God has again revealed himself to the children of men! There have been many periods of time since the creation in which the heavens, in an especial manner, have been favorable to the children of men, by sending communications and revelations from on high. But a long time had intervened, during which no such privilege had been granted to mortal man. So far as the nations of the Eastern Hemisphere were concerned, upwards of seventeen centuries had passed away, during which they were left in darkness, having no legally authorized minister, no one that could legally baptize, or administer the Lord’s Supper, or build the Church of God, or administer in any of the ordinances of his Gospel; that was a long time for the nations to be left in darkness. So far as our Western Hemisphere is concerned, they were not left quite so long a period without information from the heavens. Some fourteen hundred years and upwards had passed away, on this Western continent, during which the people were left in darkness; hence, the whole earth for fourteen centuries, at least, had no Gospel preached by divine authority, no Church of the living God in any quarter thereof—so far as we are acquainted. It is true, that during these fourteen centuries the nations had a book that contained the history of the Gospel as it was preached in ancient times—a book called the Bible. But a book containing the history of the Gospel is one thing, and the power and authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel is another thing; they are entirely distinct. A book, itself, authorizes no man, under the whole heavens, to build up the Church of Christ; it authorizes no man to preach the Gospel. No man ever receives divine authority by means of an ancient book that was given to prophets and inspired men centuries before he was born. We never knew of the Lord’s calling men by ancient books. If the Lord calls anyone in this day, it is by a new revelation, not a revelation given 1,800 years ago. How inconsistent it would be to suppose that a man is now called to sit in the presidential chair of the United States, because we have the history that Washington once sat in that chair. Would that authorize any person, among the scores of millions of the population of these States, to go and take possession of that chair, and undertake to administer in the office of a president over this great people? The thing would be so ridiculously absurd, that the people would rise up universally and condemn any such imposition. So in regard to the things of God. God is a God of order. And if mankind have an order in relation to authority to administer in governmental affairs, how much more the Lord? Has he not as much wisdom as his creatures? Is the Lord so much beneath his own creation that he would prefer illegality to legality? That he would let anyone assume the authority and power without calling him to an account in the great judgment day? “But,” inquires one, “how do you know, Mr. Pratt, but what the Lord has called some one during the many centuries that you say the people have lived in darkness? How do you know but what he has authorized servants and ministers, to proclaim his Gospel among the children of men?” Now this is a very important point. I do not blame those who have not considered this subject, in putting such a question. It is perfectly reasonable that they should inquire how a person may know what grounds we have for supposing that there has been no one commissioned with divine autho– rity, during the fourteen centuries that have rolled over the heads of the people, until the Lord sent his angel, upwards of fifty years ago, and restored the authority. There are various reasons that can be advanced to prove that the earth has been destitute of any such authority. One reason is, that among the three or four hundred millions of Christendom, or those who profess to be the followers of Christ, we find one universal belief among them, and they have acted upon that belief, namely: that God gives no new revelation to the inhabitants of the earth during their day. That is enough for me; it is all the evidence that I would want, although there is an abundance of other evidence; but that is sufficient for me to know that God never sent them. “But,” inquires one, “may not a person be sent of the Lord, be divinely commissioned, and yet no revelation be given in his day?” I answer, impossible, impossible! “But,” you may still further inquire, “may not others who received divine revelation in ancient times, have communicated that authority to their contemporaries who outlived them? And may not those contemporaries, thus receiving divine authority, have conferred it upon others still younger, and they upon others? And thus, may not the authority have been handed down by a regular succession of ordination, from the days of the apostles to our own period of time?” I will say that would be possible, just the same as the Church of God, in the first century of the Christian era, delivered the authority to preach and administer ordinances from one to another, among the various nations of the earth; it was continued along during the whole of that century—just as easily it could have continued, the second century, and the third, and each succeeding century down to our own time.

Here, then, arises another question—may not the authority have thus been transferred? I answer—where has there been an unbroken succession of that same authority that was administered in the first century? I will tell you where the succession was broken. In the very period that new revelation ceased to be given to the human family, no further succession could be continued. It would be impossible for any person to be ordained with divine authority, for instance, to the apostleship, unless there was some person that had authority, and had really obtained divine intelligence, by new revelation, from the heavens, that such authority should he conferred upon some other person. When did divine revelation cease? Where shall we go for testimony upon this subject? So far as the inhabitants of the eastern portions of our globe were concerned, divine authority ceased about the close of the first century of the Christian era. Why did it cease? Because we have no account of any new revelation having been given after the close of that century; and when new revelation ceased: divine callings ceased; divine authority ceased; persons ceased to confer that authority in succession; because, for this obvious reason, they, without new revelation, did not know whom to call; they did not know who should be authorized to receive the apostleship, or any other calling. Every person, during the first century of the Christian era, who was ordained with authority and power to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel, was ordained by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Timothy was a young man, compared with many of the apostles. He only received the calling, be– stowed upon him through the laying on of the hands of the servants of God, or of those who were authorized, by new revelation, to administer and to confer authority upon him. Thus it is written in this good book (the Bible) that Paul, who was authorized as an apostle, called Timothy by virtue of the spirit of revelation and prophecy. “Neglect not,” said Paul, “the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying of the hands of the presbytery.” And when we speak of missions, in those early periods of Christianity no person assumed to go on a mission among the inhabitants of the earth, unless he was sent, unless he was set apart. Even as great a man as the Apostle Paul had no authority to go forth as a missionary, only by the laying on of the hands of the persons who administered to him. Hence, it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Ghost said unto certain prophets that were in the Church at Antioch, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Here is a new revelation. Saul could not be separated and set apart to any work of the ministry, only as the Lord called him; and that calling was made known to the prophets that were in the Church at Antioch. If peradventure, a man had been called by the spirit of revelation and prophecy, and set apart by the laying of the hands of a prophet or apostle, to be an especial minister to the nations of the earth, there would arise still another great question to be solved, in regard to whether that man, thus set apart, could fulfil the object of his mission without new revelation? I say that it would be utterly impossible. No man can fill a mission acceptably before the heavens, unless God should give to him revela– tion, from time to time, to direct him in all his missionary labors. We have abundant testimony in the New Testament concerning this matter. Even when some of the very greatest revelators that we have any record of undertook to do things of their own accord, they were led directly different from their own judgments, in regard to their missionary labors. Paul had, at a certain time, a great desire to visit a certain place; such desire arose from his own natural judgment; but the Holy Ghost forbade him. Here it required a new revelation to know whether his own inclinations should be followed or not. Again, we find that the revelations of the Most High were very necessary in the case of the travels of these missionaries, among the inhabitants of the earth, Philip had done a great work in the city of Samaria. He had succeeded in convincing large numbers, concerning Jesus, and had baptized them, and organized a great church in the city of Samaria. One would have thought that after having performed labors of such magnitude, he would be required to stay among that people, and administer to them; but no; the Lord gave a new revelation to the man Philip. He said, “Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” In other words, “leave your present field of labor; you can do more good somewhere else.” Now, a man left to his own judgment, without new revelation, would not want to go somewhere else; his own inclinations would be to stay where so many had received his testimony. But no; the Spirit of God thought differently. “Arise Philip, go unto the south country.” He was not told what he should do in the South country, but he started off according to the new revelation. And after journeying a short distance, he saw a chariot before him, probably driving along at a slow pace, and it required another revelation. The old one that he got awhile before, requiring him to go to the south, he had already begun to fulfil. But while he yet journeyed, he did not know his further duty; and if God had not given him new revelations, he would have gone forth blindly in his missionary labor. But another revelation came, “Go near, and join thyself to his chariot.” He therefore obeyed, and when he arrived at the chariot, he found a man reading not the new Testament, but the law and the prophets. Philip, being wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, said unto this man, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” “How can I,” said the man in the chariot, “except some man should guide me?” And Philip began to explain unto him the things that he happened to be reading from the prophecies of Isaiah, concerning Jesus, and Philip was invited into the chariot. They rode along until they came to where there was water of sufficient depth to attend to baptism, for it seems that Philip had converted, or, in other words, had proved by his arguments that Jesus was the very Christ, and the man desired baptism and the chariot stood still, and Philip went down into the water and baptized him. Now Philip had no authority to confirm by the laying on of hands, as is evident, in the case of those who were baptized in the great city of Samaria. There was great rejoicing there because Philip had baptized them, but none had received the Holy Ghost, till another authority, higher than that of Philip, came and laid hands upon them for the reception of the Holy Ghost; having baptized these peo– ple, he could go no further; he could not administer the blessing of the Holy Ghost; and hence, having fulfilled the object of the two revelations on this subject, the Lord had another place for him. He did not go there of his own accord, but it required a very powerful manifestation to get him away from that water; the scriptures testify that “the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.” Have you ever heard anything of the kind in these days, where men, in fulfilling their missions, have been caught away to some other place? “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with the wings of eagles;” says the Prophet Isaiah. Philip must have been borne, as it were upon eagle’s wings. Now if a person—a man light enough, I mean—could get on an eagle’s wings and be carried through the air, it would be a very good representation of some of those that wait upon the Lord.

I mention these various circumstances—and might mention scores of others—to show, that without the Spirit of the living God, to impart revelations, no man could administer to his fellow man, no man would have the authority to administer. This brings me back to the statement I have already made. You recollect the question is, can it be proved, or is there any evidence that there has been any man called to the ministry among all the nations during the long period to which I have referred? We take their own testimony. They say that there has been no revelation since the first century of the Christian era. Who says so? The whole Catholic church to begin with, and the Greek Church, another branch of the Christian church so called, and then the Protestants that protested against those two branches, and came out from among them, have continued the same false traditions, that no new revelation is needed—that the last revelation which was intended for the human family was given towards the close of the first century of the Christian era; They do not seem to know how such an expression, if admitted, cuts them off from all authority and power which are divine; they do not seem to know that they cannot possibly be ordained by proper authority, unless God speaks again; they do not seem to know that the writings of men who are dead and gone, centuries ago, do not authorize them to preach the Gospel, nor give them any divine authority to administer its ordinances. Hence you see the impossibility of there being a regular succession from generation to generation, because of the want of new revelation. A great many other testimonies might be brought to prove this fact, but this one is sufficient. “Well then,” says one, if your arguments be true, if your belief be correct, there has been no Christian church on the earth for many generations.” We can come to no other conclusion; there is no half-way business about it. We come to testify that there has been no church on the earth that God has recognized as his church for the last fourteen centuries, at least; and among the European nations and the nations of Asia and Africa there has been none since the close of the second century of the Christian era. What a woeful condition it is for the inhabitants of the earth to be in. We would be in the same condition that they are, if God had not condescended again to give new revelation; and this brings me to the subject of the Book of Mormon.

Fifty-three years will have passed away, next Wednesday morning, the 22nd day of September, since the gold plates of the Book of Mormon were delivered into the hands of a boy, by the name of Joseph Smith, a farmer’s boy, an illiterate boy, uneducated in the higher branches of learning, uneducated in regard to what is contained in the Old and New Testament, uneducated in the dogmas and creeds of men, uneducated in all branches of science, except it be some of the first principles, the rudiments of education, as taught in the common schools of the State of New York. I say, fifty three years have almost expired since this great, this marvelous, this wonderful event happened; since an angel of God delivered sacred records into the hands of an illiterate, common youth, not yet twenty-two years of age. Such was the beginning, as it were, of a great revelation. I will not say the precise time of the beginning; for God prior to this time had given revelation to this youth on many occasions. The first one that he gave to him was in the spring of 1820, before Joseph Smith was of the age of fifteen. Then a wonderful revelation was given to him, the first one he ever received. In a great and glorious open vision, in answer to his prayers, there was the manifestation of two of the great personages in the heavens—not angels, not messengers, but two persons that hold the keys of authority over all the creations of the universe. Who were they? God the Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ, through whom God the Father made the worlds! These glorious personages descended from heaven; two personages whose countenances outshone the sun at noonday; two personages clothed with a pillar of light round about them, descended, stood before this lad, and revealed themselves to him. He saw their countenances; he saw the glory of their personages; he heard the glorious words that proceeded from the Father, as he pointed to his Son and said, to Joseph, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” This was a new revelation; something different from what had been made manifest for a great many centuries, according to the declarations of the articles and creeds of men. How often I have read the declaration of King James’ translator of the Bible, wherein King James is represented as the head of the church, and wherein the Bible, as translated by those that were chosen and appointed for that purpose, was intended for the light and benefit of the children of men; and for fear that mankind would cavil on the subject these uninspired men, the translators, in connection with those who were in their council, concluded to tell the people that this was the whole canon of scripture; in other words, we have translated sixty-six books, and they are compiled, or about to be compiled and printed for the benefit of mankind; and these sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament are the only books that Christians should receive, the only revelation that they should have to guide them in all their future lives. The people were just simple enough to believe what they said—just simple enough to take it for granted, because learned men, that were not inspired of God, had made this unqualified, unproved declaration. Now, “we, the Church of England, must get up, besides these 66 books, some ‘Articles of Faith’—some thirty-nine Articles we will invent. We have got no pro– phets among us to write these Articles—no inspired revelator sent from God; and therefore, we will originate out of our own hearts something that will prevent the people from receiving any new revelation. We will cunningly tell them that these 66 books, called the Bible, contain all the revelation that God ever gave to man.” What further have you to say in your thirty-nine articles? “We say that every person that does not limit and confine his faith to the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, or if he undertakes to receive any other revelation, he is to be expelled from our church. That is what is said—not directly, but indirectly. In other words, every person who pretends to be a prophet, he is not to be a person considered worthy of belonging to our church.” Has any other church but the Church of England adopted these false, soul-destroying delusions? Yes, a great many others. They have invented articles—not exactly thirty-nine, but articles of faith, creeds they are called in some instances, and disciplines in others, and so on. What are the objects of these? They are not revelation; God had nothing to do with giving them, men wrote them out of their own uninspired hearts, but they were all very careful to take up the ideas inculcated in the days of King James, namely, that the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament were to be their rule of faith, and be their guide and nothing else was to be received as inspired. Oh, how blind! If they did but know it these very declarations in these articles and creeds would cut them off from all authority. But they were just simple enough to receive such a false doctrine; just simple enough to accept their want of authority before God; and thus by their own acknowledgement, by their own printed works they prove to the whole world that God did not establish their churches, that God did not establish among them the ancient order of things; for the ancient Church of the living God was never destitute of the spirit of revelation.

If the Lord had left us in this condition, we would have been wandering in darkness to this day. The people who are here assembled this afternoon, would be no better off than the Protestant denominations, no better off than the Greek and Roman Catholic Churches that have existed from generation to generation, during many long centuries of apostasy. But God having looked upon the darkness that covered the earth, and the minds of the people, having looked upon the people that were honest in heart, and seeing the dilemma in which they were placed—without inspiration, without any knowledge that comes from heaven in their day, without anyone who has the right and the authority from heaven to baptize—concluded to fulfil that which was predicted by the ancient apostles, namely, to send an angel again to the inhabitants of the earth. It was a long time for the earth to be left without angels. Perhaps some of you may inquire, “Why did the Lord leave the people so long? Why did so many generations pass away, and no Church of Christ on the earth, no prophets, no revelators, etc.?” It was because of the apostasy of the people; and then after the apostasy commenced, near the close of the first century, they killed off the apostles, prophets and revelators—killed off the Saints who embraced the true Gospel, and the world became so exceedingly wicked and corrupt that the Lord did not see proper to send them any other message. But perhaps you may inquire, must all those people who have lived so many generations ago, go down to an endless perdition in the eternal worlds, because no one had authority on the earth to administer Gospel ordinances to them? No; the Lord is more just than this. Every man and every woman that has not had the privilege of hearing the Gospel in this life, preached by one holding divine authority, will have the opportunity of hearing it in the world to come; so that there is no partiality, so far as the preaching of the Gospel is concerned. But, says one, there is a little partiality, it seems to me; for some have the privilege of hearing the Gospel in this life, instead of waiting till the next. But the Lord in looking upon the various generations upon the earth, judges after this wise: that when a people become so darkened, through their own apostasy, through their own wickedness, through their shedding the blood of righteous men, the Lord sees proper, because of this, to make them wait. If the true authority had been revealed, during the time of the administration of these corrupt men, the Gospel would have been banished again from the earth. For instance, if God had sent the angel in the second century of the Christian era, to renew his church on the earth, what would have been the consequence? There would have been no place upon all the face of the globe, where the people would have suffered such a church to exist. If he had sent the angel in the third century, or in the fourth, or in any of the centuries intervening, before religious liberty was established, the consequence would have been the shedding of the blood of apostles, prophets and saints again, and in order that they might not bring upon themselves this great condemnation the Lord saw that it was far better to postpone the sending of the angel, until he should prepare, among the political governments of the earth, a nation where the church could exist, and have a little degree of safety. And even our nation, the best nation on the earth, having the wisest laws, laws that are calculated, if put into execution, to protect all religious denominations, laws founded upon justice and principles of equity—even in our nation, it has been just as much as the Lord could do, without destroying the agency of man to get his Church once more established on the earth. See what persecution has attended it! See what hatred! See the Saints fleeing before infuriated mobs; men, women and children, murdered; prophets, patriarchs, apostles and revelators martyred. The Saints could scarcely find a resting place for the soles of their feet, after all the preparation that was made by the establishment of a great and free government. No wonder, then, that the Lord did not begin it two or three centuries ago; no wonder that he did not begin it in the days when Catholicism and the Greek church had universal sway over the eastern continent. The Church of the living God, if it had been established then, would have been immediately rooted out from the earth; and great would have been the condemnation resting upon the nations if such had been the case. But now it lives. Circumstances have changed, and though the saints have been driven from their homes, and from their farms, though they have been persecuted, and the lives of many of the Saints destroyed, and their prophets put to death, yet, notwithstanding all this the Lord has preserved his Church, until the present time; Fifty years have rolled away, and upwards since the Lord commenced this great work.

Now, then, a few words on the future. Years are to come, as Brother Angus Cannon said to me while sitting upon the seat this morning. He came to me, and I mentioned to him that this last year was my fiftieth in the Church—in other words—that I had been in the Church fifty years. A peculiar kind of answer was made by Brother Cannon. Said he, “Brother Pratt, I hope you may have millions of days or anniversaries of your birthday.” I thanked him very much. Well, now, let me begin to speak upon this subject. God has promised eternal life to his children. “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Now, I can see a consistency in the good wishes of Brother Cannon, upon this subject. I hope for eternal life, I have had this hope for the last fifty years. If I obey the commandments of heaven, if I receive his sayings, and abide in his word, I hope never to die, as it is promised in the New Testament. But, says one, did not Jesus die? And he kept all of his Father’s sayings. Did not the apostles die? And they kept the Father’s words. And were not all the ancient Saints subject to death? And they kept the sayings of the Lord. Yes, they suffered what is termed the death of the body. There is, however, quite a difference between the death of the outward tabernacle, and the death of the spirit. In other words, the spirit that God has placed within the tabernacle will live forever, and those who have the opportunity of dwelling in the next world, in light, in glory and in a fullness of happiness, get what is termed eternal life; there is no end to it. Consequently it cannot be expressed fully in the language of brother Cannon that millions of such anniversaries might be enjoyed. But there is something still greater in the expression of eternal life, than that of a few millions of years. It is something that has no end. It may have a beginning. A person may begin to exist in this fleshly tabernacle as I commenced my existence here on this earth sixty-nine years ago today. That was the beginning of my existence here in this world; but there is such a thing as a person having a beginning to his existence in the flesh, and yet have no end. Those persons that were translated in the twinkling of an eye in ancient days did not have a separation of body and spirit. They were changed; they were, by the power of Almighty God, wrought upon instantaneously; they were changed from mortality to immortality; but still retain their flesh and bones. Now, I would ask, is there any end to their immortal tabernacles when thus changed? There is a beginning but no end. Their spirits are combined with their bodies forever. I have this hope. You Latter-day Saints have the same hope, so far as eternal life is concerned. You expect it, you pray for it, you desire to have a life that is endless; figures are unable to express the endless duration of ages that are to come. Eternal life is said to be the greatest gift of God unto the human family. There are many gifts of God, but this is the greatest of all. In the first place, God has given his Son to die for the human family. What a great gift! If it had not been for this gift of our Heavenly Father to the inhabitants of our fallen world, the consequence would have been that we should have had eternal death. What are we to understand by the term eternal death, supposing that there had been no atonement made? What is the meaning of the term? Could you multiply figures enough if you were to take the figures that are now in use and extend them in a line—extend them in a series so that the figures themselves would be as numerous as the particles of the globe—would that express eternal life? Or would it express the duration of eternal death, provided there had been no atonement? No; it cannot be expressed. Hence the atonement of our Savior, which is the gift of God to the fallen inhabitants of this creation, lies at the foundation of all the other gifts given unto the children of men. It is because of this gift that we are permitted to repent of our sins. How could there have been an individual upon all the face of the globe who could have repented, provided there had been no atonement? Hence you see that repentance is the gift of God, purchased by the atonement. Again, could baptism have been a holy ordinance if it had no saving power in it? Could it have been for the remission of sins, had it not been for the blood of the atonement? No. Baptism, then, is a gift to the children of men as well as repentance. Would the laying on of hands have had any effect upon any person of the human family, in bestowing the gift of the Holy Ghost had there been no atonement? No. Then that is also a gift—the gift of God to man, that his servants should lay their hands upon baptized believers, and that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Could we have been permitted to partake of the Lord’s Supper with any effect whatever? No. Then it is also a gift of God unto man. And thus we may go through all the ordinances, that God ordained from before the foundation of the world unto the present time, and all of them can be called the gifts of God unto man on conditions, and some of them without conditions. The atonement came without any condition on the part of man. It was without repentance, without faith on the part of man. The atonement was something given through the pure love of God to fallen man, without any acts of good works on the part of man. There are some of the blessings, then, that God has ordained for the fallen inhabitants of our globe which come independent of our works, and this is one of which I have been speaking. Would there have been any light or intelligence, or goodness or happiness, to be partaken of by fallen man, if it had not been for the atonement? None at all; there could have been no righteousness. But then, all the other gifts that we receive are through works, and by faith and works combined, and it is because of the distinction between these two separate gifts that many of the inhabitants of the earth have erred. Some of them profess to believe that they can obtain all the gifts of God without works, because of some of the sayings of the ancient apostles; while others consider that work must be combined with faith. Now both of these ideas are true when taken in their true light. Eternal life is among all those gifts that are promised of God; such as the gift of repentance, baptism, laying on of hands, etc. All these are not to be compared with the greatness of the gift called eternal life. I hope that all the Latter-day Saints under the sound of my voice may attain to this, the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Now, I wish, before taking my seat to bear my testimony before the people here assembled. I do know by the power of God, by the shedding forth of the Holy Ghost upon my heart, by the revelations of the spirit, by the many manifestations of the goodness of God to me, I do know that God has sent his angel from heaven. I do know that he has raised up the great latter-day kingdom predicted by Daniel. I do know that he has called apostles and prophets; that he has sent forth his servants divinely commissioned, with power from on high, to declare to the nations of the earth the great and last message of mercy unto the inhabitants thereof, to prepare all those that are willing to be prepared, for the great day when the heavens shall be opened, and all the heavenly hosts shall descend with power and with great glory, to reign here on the earth. I do know that God by his power has gathered together his people from the various nations of the earth, and established them here in these mountains for a little season, for an especial purpose. And what is that purpose? To prepare you while dwelling here in these mountains, territories and regions, that you may receive the blessings ordained for you in a future time, which time is not far distant. I do know that this people will return and will possess the land that God has promised to them, even in Missouri, and in Kansas, and in the regions round about. I do know that God will build up in Jackson County, Missouri, a great, and wonderful, and beautiful city, that shall be called “the Perfection of Beauty,” the New Jerusalem. I do know that God will light up the habitations of that city by his power, by his glory, by a cloud in the day time, and by a pillar of fire in the night. I do know that when the people shall gather together in their religious assemblies, as you are here gathered this afternoon, that God will light up your assemblies, by his divine power even in the night time, making your habitations, where you meet, glorious in the extreme. I do know that God will fulfil all that which he has spoken, by the mouths of his holy prophets, since the world began, pertaining to this last dispensation of the fulness of times, which will come to pass in their times, and in their seasons, and that this dispensation will be far more glorious, than all the other dispensations combined together, before everything shall be completed, for the bursting heavens to reveal the Son of God, and all those that are with him. These things, and scores of other things that I might name, I know will be fulfilled in their times and in their seasons, and that all who are faithful will be made partakers of these blessings. Amen.

Remarks By Elder Wilford Woodruff.

It is not my purpose at all to detain this congregation, but before dismissing I feel that I would like to say a few words. We are not in the habit of flattering any man, but I want to say a few words concerning Brother Pratt. If there is any man dead or alive who has dwelt longer in this church and kingdom than he has I do not know him. If there is any man that has traveled more miles in preaching the Gospel of Christ, in bearing testimony of the kingdom of God on the earth, I do not know who he is. When Brother Pratt embraced this Gospel he was a boy—in one sense of the word illiterate and unlearned, the same as Joseph Smith and the most of us. Whatever knowledge Brother Pratt has obtained, either of the learning of the world or of the kingdom of God, he has obtained it by diligence and labor since he embraced this Gospel. I have been associated with Brother Pratt myself for 47 years. I have traveled with him by sea and by land, in foreign countries and at home, and I never saw a man in my life that I know of that has spent as few moments idly as he has. I have never seen a storm at sea so heavy—even when shipping seas over the bow, side and stern but what he would read his book. Whenever the breakers became too heavy he would simply shut up the book until they were over. If there is a man on this continent who is more at home in the starry heavens, in the astronomical world than Brother Pratt I do not know who he is. If there is a man more deeply versed in mathematics than Brother Pratt, I do not know who he is. There may be many men equal to him in these things, but if there are, I do not know them. How has he obtained his knowledge? He has obtained it since he embraced this work. He has improved his time. Brother Pratt is the only living man today that was in the first quorum of the Twelve in its first organization, and I am pleased to listen to his testimony of the Gospel of Christ; for I want to say to Brother Pratt and to all other men we all have to acknowledge this; Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the Apostles, and, all men in this Church and kingdom, if there is anything to us, if there is anything about us, if we have any knowledge, or any power, or any influence, we have to give God the honor of it. It is not of ourselves. Joseph Smith always acknowledged this, as have all men in this Church and Kingdom. We have been called from the plow, from the plane, from the hammer—ignorant, illiterate boys, and thrust into the vineyard; and all the power we have, or ever had, in building up the Kingdom, we have to acknowledge it as coming from the hand of God. Brother Pratt was one of the earliest men who shouldered his knapsack and traveled through the American continent to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this nation. Frequently he would suffer from ague all day and go along and preach his sermon at night. These are experiences that he and others have passed through in the early rise of this Church, and I feel to thank God that we can still hear his voice and the voice of others who have been long in this Church and Kingdom. I hope the Lord will preserve his life until he is satisfied with it. He has lifted up his voice long and loud, according to the commandment of God to him, in bearing record of this Gospel and kingdom to the nations of the earth. I was struck, in contemplating our own experience, with some of the remarks he has made today with regard to the Apostle Philip—how our own experience has agreed with that of the ancient apostle. How many times have we been called by revelation to go to the right and left, here, there and the other place, contrary to our expectation?

I will here relate what took place in my own experience. I was in Staffordshire in the year 1840. I was in the town of Stanley and held a meeting in the City Hall. I had a week’s appointments out in that town. Before I rose to speak to the people, the Spirit of the Lord said to me, “this is the last meeting you will hold with this people for many days.” I told the congregation when I arose what the Spirit of the Lord had manifested to me. They were as much surprised as I was. I did not know what the Lord wanted, but I saw the purpose of God afterwards. The Spirit of the Lord said to me, “Go south.” I traveled eighty miles; went into the south of England. As soon as I arrived, I met John Benbow. It was clearly made manifest to me why I had been called thither. I had left a good field, where I was baptizing every night in the week. When I got to this place, I found a people—some 600 of them—who had broken off from the Wesleyan Methodists and formed themselves into a sect called the United Brethren. I found that they were praying for light and truth and that they had gone about as far as they could go. I saw that the Lord had sent me to them. I went to work amongst them and ultimately baptized their superintendent, forty preachers and some 600 members; I baptized every member of that denomination, but one. Altogether some 1,800 were baptized in that field of labor. I suppose some of those then baptized may be in this congregation today. I name these things to show how we have to be governed and controlled by the revelations of God day by day. Without this we can do nothing. Many of our brethren who were with us at that time and who came to this valley, have passed behind the veil. Eight of the quorum of the Twelve who were in the flesh and most of them with the pioneers, today are in the spirit world. We are passing away.

I know as Brother Pratt has said, that this is the kingdom of God. Israel is being gathered together. The revelations of God are being fulfilled, and nothing will be left unfulfilled. Therefore, as Saints of the living God, let us be faithful to our testimony. We have the kingdom of God. We are called of God by inspiration and commandment to warn this generation, to preach the Gospel, to gather the people, to build up Zion, to build temples, to redeem the living and the dead, and to carry on the great work which is laid upon our shoulders; and may God enable us to accomplish these things for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Discourse by Elder H. W. Naisbitt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 29, 1880.

I stand here today, as you are all aware, to speak of those things which pertain to the faith that we have received, of that order which we call the Gospel of the Son of God, that order which the world entitles “Mormonism,” a system which contains within itself many elements which are strange to mankind, but which are very powerful in their character and calculated in their progress and growth to arrest the attention of the human family. With all the faults, weaknesses and traditions which encumber the people who dwell in these mountains, I believe the universal testimony is, that they are entitled to credit for earnestness, for industry, for honesty, and for many results which have grown out of these characteristics. One source of territorial, or state, or national greatness consists in a proper understanding of the purposes for which men dwell upon the earth, upon their ideas in regard to family organization, social ethics, or those principles which bind man to man and family to family, and make of a nation a grand united whole.

The Latter-day Saints, it is well known, are strong advocates of marriage. They believe that every man and every woman should enter into that relationship. They believe in the divinity of that first command, that the human race were destined to multiply and replenish the earth. Consequently, wherever any large assembly of the Latter-day Saints are brought together, there you will find a very large proportion of those who are young in years. The theories which are held by some philosophers, by some men and women who enter the marriage state, find no place among the Latter-day Saints. The universal faith among them is that children are “an heritage from the Lord;” that “happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them,” in contradistinction to an increasing tendency elsewhere, to believe that there should be a limit to the number of children which a man should possess, and that wheresoever they may be considered undesirable, from the claims of society, from the disposition to follow the fashions of the age, from a feeling that self-gratification is the highest destiny of the human family, that there the family increase should be curtailed. Among the Latter-day Saints those ideas have not obtained a foothold. Although they have come from the outside world, gathered from the nations of the earth and measurably partaken of the influences which prevail there, yet they have not so far done violence to the instincts which God has planted within them as to practice the theories of the parties to whom I have alluded. And in all our assemblies, as I have said before, in this tabernacle as an illustration, in our ward meetings and in all our settlements and colonies, there is substantial testimony to be found of the fact that in this obedience to the law of primitive times, to the law of the constitution of human nature, and to the law as revealed to us in this “dispensation of the fullness of times,” the Latter-day Saints have paid marked and decided attention.

This increase of population brings with it many thoughts; it is the father or parent of much reflection to those who grasp the situation. I recollect many a time in my travels east, when gentlemen in the great cities of this country made reflections in regard to our emigration from the different portions of the earth, I have said: “Yes, we have quite an emigration; the gathering is a fixed fact, fundamental in the economy of this Gospel.” But outside of this gathering there is another one, which fails to arrest the attention of the world because it comes in a less ostentatious manner, and that is the wonderful home increase of that people dwelling in the mountains. And whenever tourists visit here, if they travel outside the limits of this city, if they visit our settlements in the length and breadth thereof, they cannot fail to be struck with the rapid multiplication of those who have thus gathered from the nations of the earth. When we inform the world that in a population of 150,000 souls there can be found in the neighborhood of 50,000 in attendance upon our schools; when we realize the immense number under the age of maturity, it would require a mathematician to tell what will speedily be the increase if the present policy is pursued. In a few generations to come, if this characteristic continues to manifest itself proportionately, there will be a continual necessity for spreading forth, Utah will become too small for her spreading population, and in all the adjacent Territories and States, those who have been drawn together under her institutions, who have accepted her faith and believe in her destiny—those will be found measurably carrying out the ideas which today permeate our society in a local capacity.

In considering this element growing up in our midst, we may form some idea in regard to the future of the people who dwell here. I believe there is an ancient proverb which says that “the stream cannot rise higher than its fountain,” that “as men sow so shall they also reap;” and whatever we may have anticipated when illuminated with the spirit of prophecy, whatever our private ideas may be in regard to the glory and the greatness that shall rest upon the people, one thing is sure, that it depends upon the growth, development and characteristics which are imprinted and made manifest in the posterity of the Latter-day Saints.

Education is one of the “catch words” of this generation. It is considered to be one of the mightiest levers for the future prosperity of the United States; but opinions in regard to what constitutes education are as various almost as the individuals who are questioned. With a very large number, education is supposed to consist in the ability to read and write, and in the understanding of the geographical character of the country in which the student lives. It is considered to be comprehended in the rules of arithmetic and in the various branches of an advanced or classical education, as it is called, where the youth of the country graduate, and are then called scholars. But I apprehend this style of education may be given with a generous and extended hand to every son and daughter of this republic, and yet when you come to analyze the whole you will find that the mass of the people thus trained are, as a rule, absolutely deficient in the great and grand element which constitutes the higher form of education and of human culture.

There is in the scholastic institutions of the United States something of a disposition to eradicate from them everything which savors of religious training. It has been sought in many places to exclude the Bible as a text book, or a book to be used in any form whatever, much more the idea of including any form of religious faith or practice. Rather has there been an idea in the mind of most Americans that it was fundamental in the constitution and genius of the country that there should be an eternal separation between what is considered and called religious and secular things. Yet, when we reflect upon the wonderful organization we have and that we see around us, when we reflect upon the faculties and endowments which men possess, can we not see that this very idea of “church and state,” or religious and secular faculty, is interwoven and is the very fabric of humanity, placed there by God himself, and that there is a disposition under the religious sentiment to draw sustenance and support, comfort and solace from the conceptions which pertain to divinity; and growing out from this fundamental religious idea or sentiment and established thereupon can come alone all the highest attributes that we look for in the future, a time when man shall find all his powers and functions harmoniously developed. And it is just as impossible to separate this great constitutional principle which exists in the human organization as it is to divide or break asunder anything which is formed, created, or intended to be formed, created, or intended to be adopted by the great ruler of the universe. Man possesses his religious faculties, no matter how dormant they may be, no matter how wrapt up by superstition, or blinded by the ignorance and misconceptions of the teachers who have molded him. God has planted in the human organization those attributes which seek communion with the divine. And it is upon righteous conceptions of man’s origin that his future will depend. If the young men of any community have no correct ideas in regard to this; if they believe that they are but the product of chance: if they are impregnated with the thought that they are simply in a transitory condition and that they may “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” if these are the thoughts which entertain, all their actions will correspond with these thoughts, they will not reach out, nor after the higher attributes which belong to humanity, they will be filled with selfishness, with a disposition to gratify their own passions, even if they have to accomplish this at the sacrifice of the feelings and interests of these with whom they come in contact. But if the youth of our country realize that they are the sons and daughters of the living God; if they realize and comprehend the fact that before they dwelt upon the earth they enjoyed a pre-existence, that their spirits dwelt in the eternities, and had a home there, had associations there, and that they comprehended something of the purposes for which they should come and tabernacle in the flesh, then we may be sure that such thoughts and feelings will have their influence upon the entire course of their after life. If the youth of a community are thus trained, if they comprehend the relationship which they sustain, to the great ruler of the universe if they have faith in God and have received of the fact that God lives, that he holds in his hand the destinies of the human family, that he hath provided rewards for virtue and penalties for vice—if they comprehend these things, their actions in life will be shaped by these ennobling thoughts. But if the education which the youth of a country receives is devoid of training for the religious sentiment, if the grand revelations of the ancient times which God has given through “his servants the prophets,” are set on one side, and if instead thereof education is supposed to consist of arithmetic and the kindred branches of that science, of political knowledge and all that goes to make up what is called a scholar, leaving out the cultivation of other attributes which God has implanted in man—if that is the kind of education imparted, then of necessity it will, at some period of time in the history of that country, bring about religious death, and as a consequence the bonds of society would become loosened, men would live for themselves instead of living for each other, and they would become simply as “the beasts that perish,” ignoring the past and caring nothing at all for the future. Hence I believe that this education and training is an important matter as pertaining to the youth of a country, that it should not be a Sabbath exercise only, but that at home, at the family circle, and in the common day school there should be as much attention given to the religious faculties as there should be given to intellectual and mental culture about which we talk so much, and for which we erect so many schools. And it is also to be remarked that according to the conceptions of the people on religious matters, so also will be their conceptions in regard to morality. Morality is the outgrowth of religion. It is the fruitage of the tree of life in regard to men’s ideas of God, of the past, and of the future. Without the cultivation and spirit of true religion, the moral faculties are very likely to be perverted, warped and misdirected. If the idea of brotherhood finds no place in the education of our youth, they will be disposed to take advantage of their brethren, take advantage in trade, speculation, etc., and society would thus become so individualized, that men would become a race of Ishmaelites, “every man’s hand against his brother.”

I believe that among the people who inhabit these mountains that this idea of brotherhood—the brotherhood of the human family—forms a very prominent feature in their education. I think our youth are taught that they should not live for themselves alone, but rather that in living for others they can and do best subserve their own interests. And we have examples of this in many directions, most notable among which is the missionary system which obtains among the Latter-day Saints. Have we not seen in our experience in this Territory, some 300 to 400 men called at once to go forth and preach the Gospel, to leave their homes and families, their friends and business, and travel to the nations of the earth to propagate the religious ideas which they had received. We have known those men sent throughout the United States, to every section of Europe, to Australia, to the Islands of the sea, to China and to India, and such has been the devotion of those who were thus called, that in the course of three or four weeks, every man had left the scenes and associations that were dear to him, and through the midst of difficulties and trials have finally found themselves in these widely divergent points of the compass, to which they had been called by the voice of the people and by the authority presiding over them. And when they have gone to these different nations they have gone in the spirit of brotherhood, they have looked upon the human family as their brethren and their sisters. They have gone in the capacity of saviors, and they have carried with them those principles which are the foundation of that civilization which the Almighty intends to establish on the face of the earth. They have not gone to preach that which would narrow the views of mankind; they have not gone to teach that which would introduce a spirit of selfishness or of anything degrading, but have gone carrying with them the principle of universal brotherhood which, when put into practice, will cement and bind society together in such a manner, that should any power touch the interests of one they would inevitably touch the interests of the whole. And it has been by the faith which they have exhibited; by the earnestness with which they have labored, by the blessings of God and the power of his spirit which accompanied them, that they have been able to gather from among the nations the best elements of their society, and transplant them into these valleys of the mountains, then weld them into a comparatively united people—a people measurably animated by one thought, one impulse, one faith, believing in one God, and putting into practice one order—a people who are looking for one result, and that is the regeneration and redemption of all those who place themselves beneath the influence of those ideas and ordi– nances which have been advanced. This is the tree which has been planted, and the seed which has been sown, and the result can be best calculated by those who have given most attention to that which has been taught.

This idea creeps out in almost every direction. I have given this illustration, of the missionary effort which has sent its thousands and tens of thousands from this community—even when it was much smaller in numbers than it is at present—around the habitable globe. There is also another phase of this same spirit which the Latter-day Saints have exhibited, they have not only sent and are sending these men on missions, and sustaining them by their means, by their faith and prayers, but in obedience to the spirit of gathering they have given great assistance to those who were unable to gather of themselves. Indeed, in the history of the past have we not seen the time when the authorities of the Church have called for from 200 to 600 teams to journey to the Missouri River to transport the poor and the meek of the earth across those dreary plains—where the railroad now makes its welcome music—and they have landed thousands in this way in the midst of these mountains and introduced them to the new order of civilization which has been inspired by the spirit of the living God. In addition to all this they have taken from these valleys, and laid up at convenient points on the route, provisions enough to sustain those thousands while thus traveling for three or four months across the plains, they have also provided at such times a strong mounted body guard of the youth of the territory to protect the emigrants from the assaults of the Indians, so that they might perform their journey in safety. And they have gone still further: they have not only brought those thousands from the boundaries of civilization, and from the training and education of the systems and governments of the old world, but they have colonized all these valleys, and it is these thousands who constitute today the cities, towns, and villages of Utah. Not only have they been placed in these settlements but they have been taught the rudiments and the advanced principles of self-sustenance and of positive independence. The thousands and tens of thousands of Utah are beyond the depths of poverty that you find exhibited in the old world. The poverty which is known to exist there, the strikes which occur in the ranks of labor in the old world, the difficulties which belong to even in so blessed country as the United States, find no place among the people who dwell in these valleys. The majority of those who have thus come in strangers, who have been thus surrounded by new conditions, and subjected to new influences, have produced good results. Travel wherever you will throughout this territory and you will find the majority of people live in their own homes; they pay no rent to anybody; they are not, when poor and unemployed, subject to be turned out into the public streets; they are not, when old age creeps upon them, likely to be thrust into the union, or poor house as it is called, where the husband is separated from the wife and the wife from the husband, thereby giving practical force to the new reading of the marriage ceremony as suggested by some of the radicals of the old world, that that service should read, not as it does at present, but “till death or poverty do us part”—they are not subject to these conditions, but a man and woman have the privilege of living together, the man with the wife of his youth; they see their posterity grow up in thrift and peace, and when “the weary wheels of life stand still” they lay themselves down in hope of a glorious resurrection unto eternal life!

There is also another feature which is worthy of remark in this territory. Can it not be safely said that the mortality of the people thus gathered together bears a marked contrast to that which exists elsewhere? Can it not be said that the influence of industry, of peace, and of good order, has had a good effect upon the masses in many directions. The mental pressure which excites elsewhere sends tens of thousands to suicide or drives them into houses built for those suffering from insanity, does not exist in the midst of the Latter-day Saints. Mentally, the people of this territory are pretty evenly balanced; one of the results of their faith in God, is that it enables them to contend manfully and patiently with difficulties instead of yielding to the circumstances thrust upon them, and thus they become valiant in the battle of life; they are not afraid of obstacles, or danger, or duties which may surround them; they believe that it is best to work, to fight and overcome, instead of cowardly taking into their hands the opportunity of depriving themselves of living upon the earth and filling a suicide’s grave. The faith of the Gospel teaches them that life is a school, that it is an honor and works out future glory to submit to its discipline, to overcome its difficulties, to solve its problems and to fill its purposes, so that all the attributes of their manhood may be cultured and developed. This springs from the fundamental idea which the people of this territory have received and which they have accepted in their faith, and whatever social, commercial, political, or other class of difficulties may arise, and even though surrounded by the fire of persecution, they will still exercise this faith in God, and believe that from all apparent evil he will bring forth good. Does not the mental balance which this people exhibit, this absence of that tendency toward suicide and lunacy—which exists in all the nations of the earth by virtue of the pressure which society brings to bear upon the characteristics of men—does not the fact that this pressure is unknown among the people of Utah, (or at least if not unknown, nearly so) stand as an evidence of the better character of the institutions under which they live? On the other hand they are giving to their posterity all that the world calls education. Not that they consider it the primary object and end of life, but they do consider it useful to their children in enabling them to fulfil some of the responsibilities of manhood, to attend to the business duties and affairs of life, and for this they are building schoolhouses, for this they employ teachers and erect academies, and in this way they have spent in poverty as much, comparatively speaking, as will bear a pleasant contrast with any part of this country, of which they are a part. And while they have endeavored to carry out this joint style of education—that is, the cultivation of the highest attributes, which consist of faith in God, faith that we can commune with him, faith in the Scriptures handed down to us by the ancient servants of God, faith that by the introduction of the Gospel and the practice of its principles will be laid the foundation of a higher civilization, calculated in its nature to supersede all other forms with which man may have been acquainted in the ages that are past—yet for all this, politically they do not feel obliged to be either democrats or republicans, whigs or nationalists, but rather feel to cultivate all the qualities of patriotism and citizenship, developing these to the highest possible perfection. But even in connection with a system which aims at these results, a system which has set before its believers so elevated a platform, there will occasionally in individuals be comparative failure. But wherever men are possessed of this faith, it is simply a question of time as to its ultimate success, and the day is not far distant when those who hold this faith will not be confined to Utah and the adjacent territory, they will not be held in bondage and vassalage, and have appointed over them men in whose election they have no voice, but they will stand qualified with all that of excellence they desire, and have the privilege of being free and full American citizens.

I said awhile ago that there had been a good deal of talking and a good deal of writing in regard to a bugbear called the union of Church and State. But it is folly to talk or write against a thing which God has incorporated into the very fabric of man’s being; and it would be a good deal better now for the nation in which we live if the ranks of political parties were less divided, were more imbued with a sense of honor, virtue, purity, and the spirit of brotherhood. This would remove from them a great many of the evils with which they are afflicted: it would help to strengthen their efforts for the good of the nation—in every way—if they, in the spirit of the Christian faith, went forth to receive the suffrages of their fellow men, and then take with them into the halls of Congress the same spirit, there to labor with just conceptions of justice and brotherhood, realizing that “God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth.” If our political parties were animated by this spirit, would not the name of America stand higher than has ever yet been dreamed of by those who entered her counsels or sat to administer her affairs. I am an advocate for the system which has been established in Utah Territory, because I have studied it, I have seen its influences, I have marked its power over the lives of those who have been obedient and subservient to it, and I know myself that it is calculated to develop the best features of our humanity, to unite the human family together, to bring heaven to earth, to bring men into communion with the angels, and to hasten the day when not only the angels, but Jesus shall come to the earth and reign, and when the thousands of those who have been prepared under the influence and institutions of Zion shall have the privilege of associating with “the Church of the Firstborn; and the spirits of just men made perfect.” This I know to be the power and spirit, the end and aim, the final triumph of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I feel proud that thousands in Utah have consecrated all that they possess to the establishment of this divine system which you can read of in the history of the past, and which has again been revealed in our day through the ministration of angels to the Prophet Joseph, on the eastern shores of the continent of North America I know also that in the progress of this work it will not only take hold of the poor and meek of the earth, but the day is not far distant when it will take hold of many of the more thoughtful and cultivated among men; and while we may look back through the history of the past and think there never were statesmen like Washington and others who have left their names on the records of fame, yet, my brethren and sisters, the Gospel tells us that these were only the precursors of many in the future who in intellect and culture shall stand unfolded in all that harmony and glory which belongs to the eternities.

I know the Latter-day Saints understand these things, and in the spirit thereof they are seeking to cultivate their faith in God, seeking to consecrate their time, talent and ability to the building up of Zion upon the earth; and to those who are strangers in their midst who are not acquainted with their program, not acquainted with the ambition which prompts and inspires the Latter-day Saints—to such we say these are the ideas by which we are actuated. They know they are workers for God, they are laborers in the great field of human progress, and they are using that which they have received from the heavens, believing that divine purposes are best served by divine edu– cation and divine culture, and when these are operating, all the facilities about which men boast, sink into comparative insignificance in contrast with that higher education which belongs to and grows out of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I ask our friends who turn in with us occasionally, to give us credit for this earnestness of purpose, and although they may not see as we see, although they may consider the Latter-day Saints mad, yet they must admit that “there is method in their madness.” The results which are now seen are but the drops before the shower, the little progress now made is but the shadow of that which shall be seen when they shall return to the land of the rising sun, for then in every State of the Union will be found wonderful colonies of the Latter-day Saints, wielding power and influence under the administration and institutions of Zion, working as they work now for the elevation and progress and redemption of the human family.

May God give us wisdom “to work while it is day,” to labor diligently in the duties to which we have been called, and when we have done this, may we be saved in the celestial kingdom of our God, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Discourse by President John Taylor and Elder Erastus Snow, delivered at Paris, Bear Lake, Sunday Morning, August 8th, 1880.

[It will be perceived that it is a long time since this discourse was delivered, and at a time when the Twelve Apostles were acting as First Presidency of the Church.]

I arise this morning to make a few remarks to you as I may be led and dictated by the Spirit of God. I am sorry that we have not more time to spend with you, but having a conference to attend at Manti, Sanpete, on next Saturday and Sunday, which is quite a long way from here, and in the meantime having business to attend to at home, we shall be obliged, in order to make connections with the train at Logan, to leave this place at the close of this meeting. I should, and so would my brethren with me, have been very much pleased to have visited you at your several settlements, but owing to these circumstances it will be impracticable to do so.

There are a few items to which I wish to call your attention. Yesterday we heard a very interesting discourse from Brother Snow in which he compared the climate, etc., of your valley with that of Southern Utah; and the remarks made will doubtless have the effect to dispel a good deal of the restlessness which I understand many have manifested because of the severity of your winters. And I would further remark in relation to these matters, that this is the Zion of our God; that we are gathered here not for the purpose of seeking to do our own wills or to carry out our own designs, our own ideas or theories; but to be subject to the law of God, to the order of God and to the priesthood of God; and that our greatest safety and happiness, under all circumstances, is in rendering strict obedience to His law, and to the counsels that may be given from time to time through the Holy priesthood. We are today a kingdom of priests holding to a very great extent the holy priesthood; and it is essential that we submit ourselves to the laws of that priesthood and be governed by them in all of our actions. The Seventies, for instance—that is, those who understand themselves—expect to be on hand at any time to go to all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. That would be no more than their duty, which is in keeping with the command of God to them. And as to whether they live in hot or cold countries is really a matter of very little importance to them, their calling being to preach the Gospel to every creature the world over. Then the High Priests have certain duties to perform, and if they are in an organized condition, as the people of this Stake are, for instance, their duties are to prepare themselves for certain events that may transpire and to be learning to preside. For the duties of the Melchizedek or High Priesthood have been in all ages of the world to preside. So says the Doctrine and Covenants, extracts from which I may read to you. But it is not because a man is a High Priest that he should necessarily preside until he is called to fulfil some of the duties and responsibilities devolving upon that Priesthood. And it is the duty of a President of the High Priests to get the members of his quorum under him together and to instruct them as to the duties of the presidency, so that in the event of any being called, say, to occupy the office of one of the Twelve Apostles who are High Priests, they would be prepared to enter upon such duty; or that in case they should be called to preside over a Stake, they would be prepared to enter upon the duties of that office; or if they should be called to be Counselors to the President of the Stake, they could act wisely and efficiently in that position; or if they should be called upon to be High Councilors, they would know how to act righteously and equitably in all cases, that they might be called upon to adjudicate. And then if they should be called to be Bishops or Bishop’s Counselors, as the case may be, they should be prepared to occupy these or any other offices that they might be called to officiate in. High Priests have those duties devolving upon them just as much as it devolves upon the Seventies to go to the nations to preach, and there is no such thing in the program as sitting and “singing ourselves away to everlasting bliss.” Or, if we are called to fill an office we should not feel at liberty to neglect its responsibilities and sit down and do nothing. The idea is that we are to magnify our office and calling, no matter what its duties may be.

Then, there are certain duties devolving upon the Bishops, and also upon the Presidents of Stakes. And, then, the Twelve, wherever they may be located, have also their particular duties, and especially is this the case in the present organization of the Church; the Twelve occupying the position of the First Presidency. I wish, for your information, to offer some few ideas on some of these leading points that you may understand something of the nature of the duties and responsibilities that devolve upon us to attend to.

It is not correct, to suppose that the whole duty of carrying this kingdom devolves upon the Twelve or the First Presidency, as the case may be, or upon the Presidents of the Stakes, or upon the High Priests, or upon the Seventies, or upon the Bishops, or upon any other officer in the Church and Kingdom of God; that to the contrary, all of us have our several duties to perform. And I may go farther in regard to the duties of men, and also in regard to those of women, all have their duties to perform before God. The organization of this Church and Kingdom is for the express purpose of putting every man in his place, and it is then expected that every man in that place will magnify his office and calling. For through the ordinances of the Gospel and the operations of the priesthood the blessings of God are manifested, and without the ordinances we cannot enjoy the fulness of these blessings among us, Latter-day Saints, nor could the Saints in any age of the world among any people that ever existed.

We are of the household of faith, the children of God. We are gathered together for the express purpose of being taught in the laws of life, so that we may comprehend the position that we occupy, and the duties and responsibilities which devolve upon us. And as I have before stated, we are not here simply to carry out our own designs or to suit our own feelings or wishes, or to aggrandize ourselves. Beyond this earth as it now is, beyond time, in the eternities that are to come we have a work to perform and we have to prepare in part for it while we are upon this earth; and God has called us together for this purpose. The whole world is wallowing in iniquity, corruption, wickedness and evil; and it is for us, in the first place, to rid ourselves of everything of that kind, and to feel that we are the children of God, that He is our Father, and that we are under His law, and that we have to be subject to His commands; and that He has ordained and organized and set apart a Priesthood for this purpose. And what is that Priesthood? It is the rule and government of God; whether on the earth or in the heavens; and is the means by which God has operated in all the ages of the world. There is an order in this, every man in his place, the First Presidency, or Twelve, as the case may be, in their place, the Presidents of Stakes in their places, the High Council in their places, the High Priesthood in their place, the Seventies in their place, the Elders in their place, the Presiding Bishop, with his Counselors, in his place, and the other Bishops in their place, and the Priests, Teachers and Deacons in their place, and every one feeling that they are the servants of the living God, and that they are clothed upon with the Holy Priesthood, and that they have a duty to perform in His kingdom—that they stand ready, at all times, to carry out anything that God may dictate through His regularly constituted authority in regard to themselves, their families, their neighborhoods wherein they live, or in the Church or the world, that their duty is to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, to gather the people, to build temples, and to accomplish anything and everything that God requires, and that when we have built temples it is our duty to administer in them, that we may be the children of God, saviors upon Mount Zion, and be the blessed of the Lord of Hosts and our offspring with us. This is the position we occupy here upon the earth.

Now, I will read to you from the Doctrine and Covenants. In speaking of Priesthood we are told that, “There remain hereafter, in the due time of the Lord, other bishops to be set apart unto the church, to minister even according to the first; Wherefore they shall be high priests who are worthy, and they shall be appointed by the First Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood, except they be literal descendants of Aaron. And if they be the literal descendants of Aaron they have a legal right to the bishopric, if they are the firstborn among the sons of Aaron; For the firstborn holds the right of the presidency over this priesthood, and the keys and the authority of the same.

“No man has a legal right to this office, to hold the keys of this priesthood, except he be a literal descendant and the firstborn of Aaron.

“But, as a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices he may officiate in the office of bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, provided he is called and set apart and ordained unto this power, under the hands of the First Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

“And a literal descendant of Aaron, also, must be designated by this Presidency, and found worthy, and anointed, and ordained under the hands of this Presidency, otherwise they are not legally authorized to officiate in their priesthood.”

“But, by virtue of the decree concerning their right to the priesthood descending from father to son, they may claim their anointing if at any time they can prove their lineage, or do ascertain it by revelation from the Lord under the hands of the above named Presidency.”

This is speaking more particularly in regard to the Bishops. I have not time, today, to enter into many details pertaining to this; but will simply draw your attention to one point, which is this: If we had among us a literal descendant of Aaron, who was the firstborn, he would have a right to the keys, or presiding authority of the Bishopric. But then he would have to be set apart and directed by the First Presidency, no matter what his or their claims might be, or how clear their proofs. The same would have to be acknowledged by the First Presidency. These claims of descent from Aaron would have to be acknowledged by the First Presidency, and, further, the claimant would have to be set apart to his Bishopric by them, the same as in the case of a High Priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood called to fill the same office. Thus, in either case, as a literal descendant of Aaron, or as a High Priest, the right to officiate is held first by authority of the Priesthood, and by appointment and ordination as above stated.

And, then, here is another thing I desire briefly to mention. A Bishop of this kind, holding the keys of this Priesthood, must be set apart by the First Presidency, and, should occasion arise, must also be tried by the First Presidency. This, however, does not apply to all Bishops, for there are a variety of Bishops, as for instance Bishop Partridge, who presided over the Land of Zion, and whose duty was to purchase land and divide it among the people, as their inheritances, and to take charge of the temporal affairs of the Church, not only in Zion but throughout all the western country, and also to sit as a common judge in Israel, and to preside in the capacity of Bishop, not to act as President over a district of country that was then called Zion, but as a general Bishop. George Miller was afterward appointed to the same Bishopric. Newel K. Whitney was appointed also as a general Bishop, and presided over Kirtland and all the churches in the eastern country. The calling of these men, you will perceive, was very different from that of a Bishop over one of the Wards of a Stake, for he can only preside over his own Ward; outside of that he has no jurisdiction. While the calling of the former was general, that of the latter is local. And there were Bishops’ agents appointed formerly. There was Sidney Gilbert; he was a Bishop’s agent appointed to assist Bishop Partridge in his duties; and Bishop Whitney also had his assistants or agents to assist him in his administrations, the one presiding as Bishop over the affairs of the Church in the west, the other presiding over the affairs of the Church in the east. But neither of them was presiding Bishop of the Church at that time. But you will find that afterwards George Miller was appointed to the same Bishopric that Edward Partridge held; and that Vinson Knight was appointed to the Presidency over the Bishopric, with Samuel H. Smith and Shadrach Roundy as his counselors.

I speak of these things to throw out some general ideas; and you will have to examine the Doctrine and Covenants for yourselves, and this will give to you the key how to arrive at the truth in relation to these principles.

Now, these general Bishops had to be appointed by the First Presidency; they had to be tried by the First Presidency as well as the Presiding Bishop, because they were general Bishops, and were appointed by the First Presidency. But Stake Bishops stand in another capacity. They have a presidency over them, and although it is proper for them (the Stake Presidency) to consult with the First Presidency of the Church, yet they preside over them, as well as over the affairs of their Stake. There is one thing associated with this matter that I will mention here, which is this. While you have a High Council in your Stake, and a presidency of your Stake, you also have Brother Charles C. Rich residing here, who is one of the First Council of the Church. And if I were a President of this Stake I should always confer with him about any matters of importance pertaining to the interests of the Church in the Stake over which I presided. Because the Twelve now hold the right of Presidency; and as he is one of the Twelve, it would be proper, and, indeed, I should consider it quite a privilege, if I was a president here, to apply to him for council in all matters pertaining to the interests of the Stake.

Now, I speak of this for your information, and by so doing you will avoid a great deal of trouble that you might otherwise fall into. Because Brother Rich is not only an Apostle, but you, in connection with the other Stakes, have voted for him as one of the First Presidency, and therefore he would be the proper person to counsel in any matters of that kind. And, then, if there should be anything not exactly clear to him, it would be his privilege to apply to his quorum to obtain their mind in regard to it; and when this course is adopted everything moves on harmoniously. Now, for instance, here is Brother Erastus Snow, he and Brother Brigham Young, under the counsel and direction of the First Presidency, will shortly take a mission into the southern portions of the Church, in Colorado and Arizona, and, perhaps, in New Mexico, to look after the interests of the community there. Over the settlements throughout those regions of country there are Presidents, and these Presidents preside over Stakes where Stakes are organized. Brother Snorer informs me there are two Stakes. He and Brother Brigham go clothed upon with the authority of the First Presidency to regulate, to set in order, and counsel in all matters pertaining to the interests of that people. Wherever they may go, no matter who presides, we should expect them to regard their counsel, and to be governed by them in all of their acts. Because the Twelve cannot go everywhere as a body, and the interests of the Church are being extended, and we are growing larger all the time; and Zion will continue to grow until the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and that as a matter of course means that if this is the kingdom of God and the Priesthood is the representation of that kingdom, the proper authorities of the holy Priesthood, wherever they go to represent the Priesthood, must be respected in their position; and as these brethren represent the First Presidency where they are going, they must be respected and their counsels adhered to as such.

Now if that would be proper for Brother Snow and Brother Brigham, it would also be proper for Brother Rich, for they all hold the same authority; and we expect them to represent to us things as they are, that we may be enabled to counsel and direct—and they always do counsel with us, and are glad to get our counsel. On the other hand, for instance, I am President of the Twelve Apostles, and by that means President of the Church at present. Well, say that Brother Rich or any member of the Quorum of the Twelve comes along, having something to offer or lay before the Council, I would say, such a man is an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I have a right to listen to his counsel or to whatever he has got to say, and at the same time pay due deference to it. For I am glad to have the counsel of my brethren, and they are always pleased to receive mine. That is the kind of feeling existing among us, and this same feeling should exist everywhere throughout the whole Church. It is not for a member of the High Council to say, “I am one of the prominent men, and I am going to show you how things are done here; and furthermore, I have my own ideas about things, and am going to try to carry them out.” It will not do for a president to say that; but it would be more in accordance with our calling for us to say, “O God, thou art our Father, and we are thy children. We are engaged in thy service; wilt thou, O Lord, show unto us thy will, that we may do it?” Not our own will; we do not want to do our will nor carry out our purposes, nor do anything for our personal aggrandizement, nor for that of our friends or anybody else; but to do that which is right and just and equitable before God and the holy angels and all honorable men. And then when we have done that, we do not ask any odds of the turbulent or dissatisfied, who are crying, good Lord and good devil, not knowing whose hands they may fall into. We do not care about their ideas; but we do care about having the smiles and approbation of our Heavenly Father and of all good men, so that when we get through and are called upon for an account of our stewardship, we may say, O God, we have done, so far as thou hast given us ability, the work thou hast placed in our hands. And then every member of the priesthood ought to feel just the same; not like some of our unruly horses when they get the bits in their mouths and run off, because they make a good deal of trouble for themselves and other people too. We should ever seek to operate together and be one according to the laws of the Holy Priesthood.

I now want to show something about this Priesthood, and will again read: “As a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices he may officiate in the office of bishop where no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, provided he is called and set apart and ordained unto this power, under the hands of the First Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood.” There is where it comes in, and this applies primarily to the presiding Bishop; but I would say that it applies in a more extended view to High Priests who are ordained and set apart as Bishops, in the several Stakes of Zion, and who thus come under the supervision of those presidents of Stakes, and stand in the same relationship to them that the First Bishops did to the First Presidency of the Church. The First Presidency at that time presided over the Stake in Kirtland, over the High Council, over the Bishops and over all the organizations of the Stake, and were really the presidents of that Stake. But it will be seen that while they were presidents of the Stake and occupied the same position that presidents now do over the Stakes, they were at the same time presidents of the Church in all the world, whilst the authority of our present presidents of Stakes is confined to the limits of their several Stakes. And thus there is perfect order in all these things in relation to these matters.

I again quote: “There are, in the church, two priesthoods, namely, the Melchizedek and Aaronic, including the Levitical Priesthood.” Now I will make a statement or two about this. What is the Levitical Priesthood? There were in the days of Moses a tribe of the children of Israel set apart to officiate in some of the lesser duties of the Aaronic Priesthood, and their office was called the Levitical Priesthood. You High Priests, you Seventies and Bishops can examine these things from your Bible, and what the Bible does not tell you the Book of Covenants will, and you ought to be ac– quainted with this matter, it is your duty to investigate these things, to search in the records, to examine the revelations of God and make yourselves acquainted with principle, and laws, and governments, and all things calculated to promote the welfare of humanity.

“The office of an elder comes under the priesthood of Melchizedek. The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency, and has power and authority over all the offices in the church in all ages of the world, to administer in spiritual things.”

“Well,” say you, “I thought that; that has been my idea, the Bishops should have all the temporal things to attend to.” We will read a little further. It is by taking up little old texts that mistakes are often made and incorrect ideas conveyed. We must take the whole thing to ascertain what is intended, and rightly divine the word of truth.

“The Presidency of the High Priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek, have a right to officiate in all the offices in the Church.”

Now, will you show me an office, or calling, or duty, or responsibility, temporal or spiritual, that does not come under this statement? From this I think this Presidency have something to do with the Bishops and temporal things as well as with the Melchizedek Priesthood and spiritual things, and with all things pertaining to the interests and welfare of Zion. That is the way I understand these matters. I could enter very elaborately into these questions, but I do not purpose to do so, there not being time. But this is the position they occupy.

“High priests after the order of the Melchizedek Priesthood have a right to officiate in their own stand– ing, under the direction of the presidency, in administering spiritual things, and also in the office of an elder, priest (of the Levitical order), teacher, deacon and member,” etc.

This shows really, in as few words as the matter could be conveyed to your understanding, the way that God has appointed for the governing of those affairs in His Church and Kingdom, without entering elaborately into detail.

When we have a Stake organization, as you have here, the Presidency of the Stake presides over all Bishops, High Councils, and all authorities of the Stake. The several Bishops preside over their respective wards and manage their affairs, under the direction of the Stake Presidency, who in their office and calling are responsible to the First Presidency of the Church. The Bishops are also under the direction of presiding Bishop Hunter in all affairs connected with the temporal interests of the Church. And Bishop Hunter is under the direction of the First Presidency, the Aaronic Priesthood being an appendage to the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is however, the special duty of the Aaronic Priesthood to attend to temporal matters; but then the First Presidency presides over all Bishops, all Presidents, all authorities, and lastly God presides over all.

Now we are sometimes fond, that is, some of us are, of talking about our authority. It is a thing I care very little about. I tell you what I want to do if I can. I want to know the will of God so that I may do it; and I do not want to dictate or domineer or exercise arbitrary control. Then again, all men ought to be under proper control to the Presidency and Priesthood presiding over them. If I were a Bishop I should want to know what the President of my Stake desired, and I should confer with him; and if there was anything in which Bishop Hunter was interested, I should want to know his mind.

I will read a little further with regard to this subject of priesthood:

“How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen? Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men.”

Now, I wish you to take particular notice of this, you Elders, you High Priests, you Seventies, and you Priests, Teachers and Deacons, and all men holding the Priesthood; “That they do not learn this one lesson—That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness;” and not upon any other principle. And when anybody steps aside from that and acts upon a principle of unrighteousness, the result will be as is stated in the context, namely: “That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.” That is the result of wrongdoing; that is the result of perverting the authority that God has conferred upon us to our personal ends and to gratify our own ambition. “Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.” Can they thwart the purposes of God? No. They are as harmless as babies. He that sits in the heavens laughs at them, and all men holding the Priesthood of the Son of God, care nothing about their fulminations and the efforts they make to hinder the progress of truth in the earth, for all they can do, we know, will be overruled for our good. They are going the downward road that leads to death, and by and by they will have their reward. We would like to see it otherwise, but we cannot, that is one of the things they have to see to themselves; it belongs to us to be true to God and to our Priesthood, and all will be well with us.

Again, we quote, “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. Hence many are called, but few are chosen. No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth after– wards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death. Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the piesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”

What a beautiful state of things God presents to us! Shall we try to live it? or shall we take our own way and pursue our own course? These things are beautiful when we reflect upon them. We all know they are true, and they are principles which recommend themselves to our hearts. Let us try then and live them.

There are other orders of the Priesthood; we have Elders, and they have their duties to perform, which I do not propose to talk about now. And we have our Priests, Teachers and Deacons, all of whom hold important positions, and all should seek to magnify their calling. And what should they do? I will tell you a circumstance that took place with me upwards of forty years ago. I was living in Canada at the time, and was a traveling Elder. I presided over a number of the churches in that district of country. A difficulty existed in a branch of the church, and steps were taken to have the matter brought before me for settlement. I thought very seriously about it, and thought it a very insignificant affair. Because we ought to soar above such things, and walk on a higher plane, for we are the children of God and should be willing to suffer wrong rather than do wrong; to yield a good deal to our brethren for the sake of peace and quietness, and to secure and promote good feelings among the Saints. At that time I did not have the experience I now have, and yet I do not know that I could do anything better than I did then. Before going to the trial I bowed before the Lord, and sought wisdom from him to conduct the affair aright, for I had the welfare of the people at heart. When we had assembled, I opened the meeting with prayer, and then called upon a number of those present to pray; they did so, and the Spirit of God rested upon us. I could perceive that a good feeling existed in the hearts of those who had come to present their grievances, and I told them to bring forward their case. But they said they had not anything to bring forward. The feelings and spirit they had been in possession of had left them, the Spirit of God had obliterated these feelings out of their hearts, and they knew it was right for them to forgive one another.

You Priests, Teachers and Deacons, seek unto the Lord, and he will bless you. And you, my brethren, when the Teachers visit you, do not think that you are High Priests and that they are only Teachers hardly worthy of your attention. They are your Teachers, and you should reverence them. And if you expect to be honored in your calling, you must honor them in theirs. When the Teachers come to visit me I am pleased to see them; and I call together the members of my family that may be in the house at the time, to hear what they have to say to us. And I tell them to talk freely and plainly to us, to myself, my wives and children; in other words, to do their duty as Teachers, and then I will help them to carry out their instructions. This is how I feel towards our Teachers. The eye cannot say to the ear, we have no need of thee; neither the head to the feet, I have no need of thee, for if one of the members suffer all the other members suffer with it; and if one member rejoice, all the other members partake of the same feeling. Consequently I feel in duty bound to attend to these things.

We have here our Relief Societies, and they have done a good work. And people are desirous to know something of these organizations. I was in Nauvoo at the time the Relief Society was organized by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I was present on the occasion. At a late meeting of the Society held in Salt Lake City I was present, and I read from a record called the Book of the Law of the Lord, the minutes of that meeting. At that meeting the Prophet called Sister Emma to be an elect lady. That means that she was called to a certain work; and that was in fulfillment of a certain revelation concerning her. She was elected to preside over the Relief Society, and she was ordained to expound the Scriptures. In compliance with Brother Joseph’s request I set her apart, and also ordained Sister Whitney, wife of Bishop Newel K. Whitney, and Sister Cleveland, wife of Judge Cleveland, to be her counselors. Some of the sisters have thought that these sisters mentioned were, in this ordination, ordained to the priesthood. And for the information of all interested in this subject I will say, it is not the calling of these sisters to hold the Priesthood, only in connection with their husbands, they being one with their husbands. Sister Emma was elected to expound the Scriptures, and to preside over the Relief Society; then Sisters Whitney and Cleveland were ordained to the same office, and I think Sister Eliza R. Snow to be secretary. A short time ago I attended a meeting in Salt Lake City, where Sister Snow and Sister Whitney were set apart. I happened to be the only member of the Twelve in town at the time, the other members of the Quorum being unavoidably absent. I went to this meeting and set apart Sister Whitney and Sister Snow who were two of those I set apart some forty years ago, in Nauvoo. And after I had done so, they reminded me of the coincidence. At this meeting, however, Sister Snow was set apart to preside over the Relief Societies in the land of Zion, and Sister Whitney her counselor, with Sister Zina D. Young, her other counselor. I speak of this for the information of the Sisters, although I presume they may have read of it in their paper, the Exponent.

With regard to those Societies, I will say, they have done a good work and are a great assistance to our Bishops, as well as being peculiarly adapted to console, bless, and encourage those of their sisters who need their care, and also to visit the sick, as well as to counsel and instruct the younger women in the things pertaining to their calling as children and Saints of the Most High. I am happy to say that we have a great many honorable and noble women engaged in these labors of love, and the Lord blesses them in their labors, and I bless them in the name of the Lord. And I say to our sisters, continue to be diligent and faithful in seeking the well-being and happiness of your sex, instruct and train your own daughters in the fear of God, and teach your sisters to do likewise, that we may be the blessed of the Lord and our offspring with us.

Our young people’s Improvement Associations are very creditable institutions, and the fruits of the labors of those engaged in this work are already manifesting themselves. I feel in my heart to say, God bless the young men and young women of Israel; let it be the desire of your hearts to imitate the virtues of your parents and of all good men and women, keeping your bodies and spirits pure before God and man.

Then, we have our Sunday Schools; and many of our brethren and sisters in this direction are doing a good work. I would advise the superintendents of Sunday Schools to endeavor to collect the best talent they can to teach and instruct our children. What greater or more honorable work can we be engaged in than in teaching the children the principles of salvation? You that are diligent and that give your hearts to these things God will bless, and the day will come when the youth of Israel will rise up and call you blessed.

Then with regard to our common schools, let us try to instruct our youth as best we can, and get the best of teachers, men and women of intelligence and education who are not only moral, but good Latter-day Saints; men and women who are not only capable of imparting to our children the rudiments of education, but who are also capable of teaching them the laws of God as he has revealed them for our guidance. And when you get good teachers you should appreciate them, and you should cooperate with them in their endeavors to teach our youth; and then see that they are properly remunerated for their services.

Some people talk about the great ignorance of the “Mormons.” In regard to education we are the peers of the United States. We, it is true, do not possess such notable academies and universities as may be found in the great centers of our nation, but official figures show our educational status to be above that of the average of the United States. And I may add, that our grade of literacy is higher than that of the nation. When we take into consideration the fact that we have not received one penny from any outside source, while the leading institutions of learning have realized millions, yes scores of millions of dollars to enable them to educate their youth. This is something that we have a right to be proud of. Then let us continue to encourage education; and let our trustees be alive to supply the schoolhouses with all the necessary charts and books; let them not feel niggardly in regard to these things. And above all, let everything we do conspire to advance the interests of the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth.

I feel like saying, God bless you, my brethren and sisters. And God bless Brother Budge, who is doing a good work in England, and who, by the way, will be back among you very shortly. And God bless Brother Hart and Brother Osmond, and the High Council, and the Bishops and their counselors, and may God bless the Elders and the Seventies, and the High Priests, together with the Relief Societies and Mutual Improvement Associations; and may God bless all men who love Israel and who are desirous to keep the commandments of God; and the Lord help us to be true to our religion, and true to our God, and true to our integrity, that we may be saved ultimately in the Celestial Kingdom of God. I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Elder Erastus Snow Then made the following Remarks: I feel that we have had a feast of fat things this morning; that the remarks made by President Taylor have been replete with genuine truths, and full of instruction and counsel, and that blessing will abide with all those who permit these instructions to find place in their hearts and understandings.

While President Taylor was treating upon the order of the Priesthood, the history of which has been given in the Bible through Moses, and also in certain revelations given unto this Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, he awakened a train of reflection that carried the mind back from the time of Moses to that of Abraham, Noah, Enoch and Adam. Adam was the first man appointed of God as the ruler of the earth; to him it was said, thou shalt have dominion over the earth and over the things therein. And as he began to multiply and replenish the earth, and as his children and their families increased in the land, there was a right of dominion given; it was called the birthright, and it belongs to the firstborn of the sons. And this seems to have been an order existing in the heavens even before Adam. For it is written of Jesus, the Lamb of God; that he was the firstborn of many brethren. Moreover, his rights of dominion as the firstborn continued with him because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore was he anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. But notwithstanding his birthright, had he not loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and exercised his rights and his dominion in connection with the powers of heaven and the principles of righteousness, he would not have been chosen nor have received this anointing with the oil of gladness above his fellows. But because he did exercise it rightly and pleased his Father, he was chosen, as was his right to have been, or, I will say, his privilege rather, because he honored his birthright, and, therefore, he was anointed above his fellows, and became the Chief Apostle, the High Priest of our profession, the Son, the mediator between us and the Father.

The same principle fell upon Adam’s children; and hence Cain, being the firstborn of his father’s family, according to the Bible account, might have been the head of this Priesthood, under his father, holding the right by birth; but instead of exercising his birthright on the principles of righteousness, and in accord with the powers of heaven, he was befogged and understood not his true position; and his offering was not accepted. But Abel, his younger brother, who was meek and lowly of heart, and who sought the inspiration of the Spirit, was led to bring as his offering the firstlings of his flock, which were a true representation of the Lamb of God; and besides, the offering was made in the true spirit of his ministry and priesthood, therefore it pleased the Father, and he accepted it. Then when Cain found that his offering was not accepted, and his brother, Abel’s was accepted, Satan tempted him, and entered into him and led him into the way of all apostates—he became possessed with the spirit of murder. I mention it as the first apostasy of which we have record after the fall of man, through it Cain lost his privilege as firstborn, and the blessing fell on one more worthy, and the rights of the priesthood passed to the next son of Adam, which according to Bible record was Seth, who magnified the Priesthood, honored his birthright, and held the blessing of the Priesthood, which was sealed upon him by his father; and from him it descended upon the righteous of his posterity.

There are many instances, from that time forward, of which the scriptures speak of this birthright continuing among the descendants of Seth, until it came to Noah and his sons, of which sons Shem received the blessings pertaining to the priesthood. Abraham came through Shem, and the Savior came through this lineage; and through this blessing of Noah upon Shem, the Priesthood continued through his seed; while the offspring of Ham inherited a curse, and it was because, as a revelation teaches, some of the blood of Cain became mingled with that of Ham’s family, and hence they inherited that curse.

Now we will pass by the places in the Bible which speak of this birthright until we come to Isaac, the son of Abraham, and to Jacob, the son of Isaac, who bought the birthright of his brother Esau. From the story that is told of Rebekah helping her son Jacob to get the first blessing from his father Isaac, on purpose to secure the birthright from his brother Esau, really would be inclined to think that deceit, dishonesty and unrighteous means were employed to secure it, and they perhaps wonder why it should be so. This was really not the case; it is only made to appear so in the eyes of those who do not understand the dealings of God with man, and the workings of the Holy Spirit to bring about His purposes. There was neither unrighteousness in Rebekah nor in Jacob in this matter; but on the contrary, there was the wisdom of the Almighty, showing forth his providences in guiding them in such a manner as to bring about his purposes, in influencing Esau to transfer his birthright to Jacob, that He might ratify and confirm it upon the head of Jacob; knowing as He did that Jacob and his seed were, and would be, more deserving of the birthright, and would magnify it in its true spirit. While Esau did not sense nor appreciate his condition and birthright; he did not respect it as he should have done, neither did be hearken to the counsels of his father and mother. On the contrary, he went his own way with a stubborn will, and followed his own passions and inclinations and took to wife one of the daughters of the Canaanites whom the Lord had not blessed; and he therefore rendered himself unacceptable to God and to his father and mother. He gave himself to wild pursuits—to hunting, and to following the ways of the Canaanites, and displeased the Lord and his parents, and was not worthy of this right of seniority. The Lord therefore saw fit to take it from him, and the mother was moved upon to help the younger son to bring about the purpose of the Lord, in securing to himself the blessing through the legitimate channel of the Priesthood. And as you know, his father was induced to bless him and confirm this blessing upon him.

Now, whilst all these instances in Scripture recognize the right called the birthright, that has descended from the beginning, the same principle is exhibited in all those instances set forth in the revelation read by President Taylor—that none can hold these rights of the Priest– hood except in connection with the powers of heaven, and cannot be exercised only on the principles of righteousness; and all who fail to exercise these rights on the principles of righteousness and in connection with the powers of heaven subject to its counsels and directions and laws, forfeit their birthright, and the right passes to another.

We have another instance of this kind in Reuben, the eldest of the twelve sons of Jacob. We find that the birthright passed from him. He committed a transgression which offended the Lord and offended his father, and it was of such a character that it could not be passed over with impunity; and the birthright was taken from him and given to the sons of Joseph. We find it explained in Chronicles, that because Reuben defiled his father’s bed, the birthright was taken from him and given to the sons of Joseph; and the Priesthood was reckoned after that lineage, though Judah prevailed above his brethren to this extent, that through him came the Chief Ruler of Israel, while unto Ephraim, the son of Joseph, was given the keys of the Priesthood—or those rights that apply to the birthright. Of the two sons of Joseph—Ephraim and Manassah, the Lord said, Manassah shall be great, but Ephraim shall be greater than he; and he shall become a multitude in the earth. And when the patriarch was blessing Joseph’s two sons, though he was blind, he was careful to cross his hands in blessing the boys. Joseph observing what his father was doing, informed him that he was putting his right hand on the head of the younger boy, but the old man replied, I know it, my son. The Spirit of the Lord prompted him to do as he did—to confer the greater blessing upon Ephraim, the younger brother. It was for this reason that God spake through the mouth of Jeremiah concerning the gathering of Israel: “I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” That is according to his purposes. He acknowledged and re-confirmed this birthright upon Ephraim the younger of the two sons of Joseph, when he referred to the dispensation of the fullness of times and the ushering in of its great work—when the Lord should set his hand to gather His people, and be a father to Israel, even to Ephraim His firstborn.

Now, the Levitical Priesthood referred to was not a new Priesthood. We do not understand it to be an order of the Priesthood instituted at the time Israel was in the wilderness of Sinai, but that it had been from the beginning a part of the Holy Priesthood, an appendage, or a subdivision, or branch of the same Priesthood. The rights of this descended from father to son, among the firstborn, unless the firstborn failed to appreciate it and exercise it in righteousness. In that event it passed to one of the others.

We see the same principle set forth when the Lord commanded Moses to take the tribe of Levi and set them apart to be Priests. He told them the reason. Now, said He, I have claimed the firstborn of all the families of Israel as my own. When I sent forth my angel to smite the firstborn of the sons of Egypt, I caused mine angel to pass by the families of Israel, that he smite not their firstborn. In remembrance of this He instituted the ordinance called the Passover, to preserve in the minds of the Israelites, the occasion when the Lord passed over their firstborn, while the firstborn of the sons of Egypt He caused to be slain. For this rea– son, He said, I have consecrated the firstborn as mine own; and now, said He to Moses, I will take from the tribes of Israel the house of Levi, and you shall consecrate them to officiate, etc. This principle has continued from the beginning. We see it exemplified in the calling of the Lamb of God, who was the firstborn among many brethren, and was in all things obedient to his Father; who loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and was therefore chosen and anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. So in after years, those who in like manner exercised their birthright in connection with the powers of heaven, and on the principles of virtue, integrity and righteousness had these rights confirmed upon him. But in no case, when acting unrighteously, were they chosen to receive the confirmation of the ordinances of the Priesthood. In the days of Eli, who permitted his sons, who were heirs of the Priesthood, to set bad examples and work iniquities in Israel, God held the father responsible for their course, and He destroyed both Eli and his sons, and raised up another in his place.

The article read in your hearing from the Doctrine and Covenants, shows most clearly that the rights and blessings and keys of this Priesthood can only be held and exercised in connection with the powers of heaven and on the principles of righteousness. It is most beautiful to contemplate. It is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

And that God may enable us to preserve these things in our hearts, and that we may attain to all that He has prepared for us, is my earnest prayer, in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Discourse by Elder C. W. Penrose, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 8th, 1880.

Having been called upon this afternoon to address this congregation, I rise before you trusting that the Holy Spirit, which makes plain to the human mind the things of God, may rest upon me and upon you; that I may be inspired by that Spirit to say something which will be of profit to those who hear, and that those who listen to what I may say may be able to understand in the same light and under the same influence as that by which the words are spoken.

The elders of this Church, in ministering as public speakers, stand before the people in the name of the Lord. They do not address congregations for the purpose of ventilating the opinions and ideas which they may entertain, but they occupy the position of ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, to speak that which is given to them by the influence of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the servants of God are instructed to “treasure up in their hearts continually the words of life,” with the promise that if they do this and are diligent in seeking for the mind and will of God, in the very hour that they are needed, words shall be placed in their mouths, or ideas be brought up in their minds, which shall be for the benefit of all who hear. It is in this Spirit that I endeavor to address the congregation this afternoon, and I hope I shall have not only your attention, but the benefit of your faith and prayers, that the Spirit of God may rest upon me and the congregation also.

We are living upon the earth at a time when there are a great many creeds—a great many different doctrines, each professing to be the true faith—the Christian religion. There is a spirit of doubt and division in the world. Men are ever learning but not able to come to a knowledge of the truth. They indulge in a great many speculations. Some good people study the Scriptures and endeavor to find out what is divine truth, but their ideas are various; they do not come to the unity of the faith; and the great reason why this is so is because they do not seek to the fountain of light and truth with the expectation of receiving any reply. In olden times God used to speak to the people. He had ser– vants upon the earth who spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; angels ministered to the sons of men, and truth was revealed in great plainness from the Father. But in these times, people have to put up with the ideas and notions that men hold in relation to these truths which were anciently revealed. There is now no voice from heaven, no prophet among the people; there are no inspired apostles; angels have ceased to minister, and to use the words of one of the great divines of the day, “The awful voice of prophecy is silenced forever.”

Of course in making use of these remarks I am speaking in relation to what is called the Christian world. The Latter-day Saints believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and that if he is sought after today in the same way that he was sought after yesterday, he will answer in the same manner. We believe that it is just as possible for angels to come to earth in these times as in any former age of the world; we believe that the power of the Holy Ghost is the same today as it was thousands of years ago; that divine truth can be made manifest direct from God to the people now as it was in the days of Jesus, or in the days of the prophets who preceded him on the earth.

The religion we Latter-day Saints have received—which we hold to, which we live for, and which a great many of us are willing to die for, if necessary—has come to us by revelation from God in the day and age in which we live. In taking up the writings of the old prophets, in reading the letters written by the ancient apostles, we find that the religion which God has revealed to us is the same religion which God revealed to them. What is contained in the Bible corroborates that which we have received, and the spirit which accompanies the preaching of the word to us, is similar in its effects to that spirit which accompanied the preaching of the ancient prophets and apostles of the Lord. We find this out by reading that portion of their records which has been left. So that the religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a mere theory of men. The doctrines which we have received have come to us direct from the Lord in our own time. We are not left to speculation, we are not left to our own theories, but we have defined principles given to us of God for our guidance, for our comfort and for our edification.

Now, there is a disposition existing in the world today to go away from the Lord. Men seem to have a desire to follow out their own imaginations, their own ideas and notions, and in consequence of this a great many wrong principles have been received for truth in the Christian world, and this disposition seems to increase. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Saints in his day, advised them to “beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Now, that same advice is good for the people in our times; good for the Latter-day Saints; good for the people who compose the various sects of modern Christendom. If we have received the doctrines of Christ, if our feet are planted firmly upon the rock which he has laid, there is no fear of our going astray; but if we depart from that and walk in the ways of men, and are led by their theories and their speculations and their vain philosophy, we are very likely to go astray.

I notice in reading some of the works of modern divines, and noting the progress of religious thought among the people, that there is a doctrine which is becoming very widespread among the people called “Christians,” that is, a heresy in regard to the doctrine of our condition in the future. It is believed by a great many people at the present time, that there is no such thing as a literal resurrection of the body; that when this body is laid away in the ground and goes back to the elements out of which it was organized, that is the end of the body, and that it will never come up again. They do not see any need of a literal resurrection of the body; they cannot perceive by what process it can be resuscitated; and not being able to comprehend how this great change can come, how the scattered elements of the body can be brought together again, they reject the doctrine altogether. This is the belief of the people who are called spiritualists or spiritists. This is one of the doctrines of that great delusion of the latter times, that “strong delusion” that the Lord has permitted to come into the world because men would not receive the truth, but turned away from it and loved a lie. It is taught by that rapping and muttering influence, that when the spirit leaves the body and passes into another state, that is the resurrection; that the body will be raised up no more; that the spirit, liberated from the body, will progress from sphere to sphere—how many spheres they do not know—but that there is no further need of the body. This idea is increasing in its hold upon the minds of the people, among the various “Christian” sects, and some of the greatest preachers and divines of the day entertain this idea, philosophize upon it and teach it to their congregations. Now we have the satisfaction of definite knowledge in regard to this matter, as well as all the articles of our creed—if we have such a thing as a formulated creed. The ideas we have in relation to this doctrine have come from God. There is no need of any doubt about it, no need for any speculation. The Lord has revealed something concerning this. It is true he has not revealed the philosophy of it in full, he has only given us some ideas concerning it. But he has made the fact very plain that there may be no misunderstanding about it. In the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—which contains many of the revelations that God has given to the Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we find this doctrine laid down in great plainness. It is stated that the spirit and the body make up the soul of man, and that the resurrection from the dead is the redemption of the soul. We are taught also that there are material elements and spiritual elements; that the spiritual part of our being was in the beginning with God, and that the spiritual and material when inseparably connected receive a fulness of joy, otherwise men cannot receive a fulness of joy. It takes the spiritual part of man and the material or physical part joined together inseparably to obtain a fulness of joy. When the spirit is separated from the body, a fulness of joy cannot be obtained. When the spirit is joined to the body temporarily under a temporal law, under the law of death, it cannot receive a fulness of joy. The spirit and the body must be so joined together that both will be immortal, and in that condition man can receive a fulness of joy.

The Book of Mormon is also very plain upon this subject. I will read one or two texts from that book, and if I have time I may refer to the Bible, to show that the things contained in the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants are the same as contained in the old scriptures. I will read a passage from the seventy-ninth page (new edition) of the Book of Mormon, namely:

“And this death of which I have spoken, which is the spiritual death, shall deliver up its dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and the grave must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the spirits of men will be restored one to the other; and it is by the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel.

“Oh how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.

“Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanliness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness.”

Now, according to the Book of Mormon, the spirits of men, the righteous and the wicked, are to be brought up from the place to which they shall go when they depart from this life. There is no need for any dubiety about this, there is no need for any mistake; it is clear that the separation of the spirit from the body is not the resurrection spoken of in this book.

The Prophet Alma, touching on this subject, explained to the people in his day what an angel of God made known to him. These words, which I am about to read to you from the Book of Alma, in the Book of Mormon, are not Alma’s ideas and speculations. He says they were revealed to him by an angel. I would advise you to read the 40th chapter, 352 page, new edition. Alma states here that he was very much troubled concerning the doctrine of the condition of people after they passed away from this life. He wanted to know something of the condition of man between death and the resurrection, and he says an angel of God made known to him that there is a space between death and the resurrection, that the spirits of the wicked are in a state of unrest, having a knowledge of all their wickedness, and a remembrance of all their transgressions; that they are in a state of fear, looking for the wrath and indignation of God, not knowing what their punishment will be; while on the other hand, the spirits of the righteous enter into a state of rest. They have a perfect knowledge of all that God has done for them, and all their acts of righteousness, and they await in peace for the time when their bodies shall be brought forth from the dust to stand in the presence of their God to receive their crown. Alma then goes on to say:

“But this much I say, that there is a space between death and the resurrection of the body, and a state of the soul in happiness or in misery until the time which is appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works.

“The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul; yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”

Now, that is clear and distinct on this point. In regard to the times and seasons of this resurrection, about which Alma speaks, he said he did not know, but those things he did know were made known to him by an angel, namely, that there is a space between death and the resurrection; that at the resurrection the body and the spirit shall be brought up and restored to each other, and not only the body and spirit, but every part and particle belonging to the body; not a hair of the head shall be lost; every joint and muscle and fiber and sinew, and every part and particle necessary to make up a perfect physical body for the spirit to dwell in, shall be restored to that spirit in the resurrection. That is the doctrine laid down by the Prophet Alma, as taught to him by an angel.

The very meaning of the word “resurrection” ought to dispel the idea that the separation of the spirit from the body at death is resurrection. The word itself means, “I stand up again.” The idea which all the prophets and apostles of old had was that at some future time the voice of God should be uttered, and the dead should stand up again, their bodies should come from the grave; just exactly the doctrine laid down in the Book of Mormon and Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Some have an idea that the people who lived upon the earth before Jesus had no correct ideas in regard to the future. I have seen such statements published by popular divines of the day; but when we come to take up the Old Testament Scriptures, we find that the writers, holy men of God, who wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, had a distinct and unwavering faith in regard to this same doctrine, that of the resurrection of the body.

The book of Job is said to be the most ancient book of the Bible. I will read a verse or two from the 7th chapter. In the 9th verse we read: “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.” Now, that is a very plain statement of Job’s; that when a man goes down to the grave he shall not return. Those who believe in the vain philosophy that I have referred to, take a great deal of comfort in quoting that passage, and also some sayings of Solomon, the wise man; that is, he was a wise man once, but he became a foolish man before he died, not because he married more wives than one, but because he transgressed by marrying strange wives. Solomon, in some of his writings, speaks in the same way as Job. But I will read a verse from the 14th chapter of Job:

“As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and dryeth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not.”

This also is a very plain statement, is it not? But Job did not stop here as he did in the 7th chapter, for he continues,

“Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until the wrath be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” Chapter xiv, 12-15.

Read again in the 19th chapter, where he is a little more explicit, commencing at the 23rd verse:

“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Now, in the first place, Job is speaking in regard to what we all seek in this world, in regard to the common lot of mortals. “Man lieth down, and riseth not.” In saying that Job had no reference to what would take place in the future. He was speaking of the common experience of mankind. But afterward, inspired by the spirit of prophecy, he looked right down to the latter days, in the midst of his afflictions, his trouble and sorrow, his pain of body and anguish of mind, when his friends were turned against him—he looked down to the latter days and wished that his words were written and printed in a book, that the words were graven in the rock with an iron pen and lead put into them, that they might stand as a witness to all future generations, as a testimony to the resurrection of the body and a rebuke to the vain philosophy of the latter times.

I will now read a verse or two from the book of the Prophet Isaiah, to show that others of the ancients, besides Job, had some idea of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. In the 19th, 20th and 21st verses of the 26th chapter of Isaiah we read;

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

“Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

“For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

Isaiah, you see, had the same spirit as Job. He spoke about the time when the indignation or wrath of God should pass over the earth, and he wished to be hidden in the grave until that time was over, and then he expected the earth to cast out her dead.

I have not time to read the 37th chapter of Ezekiel—you can read it at home—but in that Chapter we find that the Lord showed Ezekiel a valley full of dry bones. The Lord asked him whether these bones could live, and he answered, “Thou knowest.” Then the Lord told him to prophesy upon these bones, and as he prophesied, there was a noise and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then the Lord again told them to prophesy, and he prophesied as commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Now, we have no need to read the writings of the divines of the present time to find out what this means. Right in the same chapter is given the interpretation.

“These bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the Land of Israel. * * And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: then ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”

Now, by these testimonies that I have quoted from the Old Testament scriptures, we find that the people who lived on the earth before the days of Jesus had some knowledge in regard to the future, in regard to the condition of the spirit when it left the body, and also in regard to the resurrection of the body. The wise man Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes 12th chapter and 7th verse, speaking in regard to death, after giving a very poetical description of the house we live in, says: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” He had some idea in regard to life after death, although if we read some of his writings we might gain the idea that man ended when his body was laid down in the grave.

Now, these doctrines, which were understood by the people before the days of Christ are the same as believed in by the disciples of Jesus, the same as Jesus taught. We will take, for instance, Jesus’ own declaration in regard to the resurrection, in which he says: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves, shall hear his voice. And shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” Or as it reads in the Prophet Joseph Smith’s version, “they that have done good, in the resurrection of the just, and they that have done evil, in the resurrection of the unjust.” Now, according to Christ’s own statement to his disciples, all that are in their graves are to come forth, both the righteous and the wicked, just as it is taught in the Book of Mormon. This is also in accordance with what the Prophet Daniel—another of those ancients who understood this doctrine—says in the 12th chapter of his book. He speaks of Michael and the great trouble that shall come upon the earth in the latter days and says: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel understood that there was to be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust. Now take the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation, read it, and you will find the resurrection portrayed to John by vision when he was on the Isle of Patmos. He says:

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”

And after the thousand years passed away, John saw in the vision the rest of the dead brought forth. “The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”

The Apostle Paul in writing to the Philippians, 3rd chap., 20-21 v. says: “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Now, according to this testimony, the righteous, who look for a part in the first resurrection, expect to have bodies like the glorious body of the Son of God. What kind of a body was that? We read that Jesus Christ was put to death upon the cross; that when he had cried with a loud voice, he said “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” and then gave up the ghost. The body was placed in a new tomb in which no man had lain, and to guard the body, lest somebody should come and take it away, Roman soldiers were placed before the door of the tomb or sepulchre. But we read that two angels came, before whom these Roman soldiers fell as dead, and they (the angels) rolled away the stone from the tomb and the sleeping body of Jesus awakened and came forth. When the disciples arrived, the body was gone. Mary went into the garden to try and find out something concerning the body, and while she was weeping, Jesus appeared unto her. She sprang forward and was about to embrace him when he said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and to your God.” When the disciples were informed of this they could not believe it, and they met together on a certain occasion, and when the doors were shut, for fear of the Jews, and they found they were securely alone, they began to talk about the wonderful things that had transpired; about the death of Jesus, the crucifixion of one whom they thought was to take the throne and sit upon it in power forever. And we read that while they were talking Jesus appeared in their midst and said, “peace be unto you.”

“But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. * * *

“And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.” Luke xxiv 36-43.

Now, here was a resurrection of the body. Not the raising of Christ’s spirit, but his body out of the tomb. In that body he appeared before the disciples, and when they thought it was merely a spirit, he told them that a spirit had not flesh and bones as they saw him have. The disciples who had this manifestation told some of the rest. Thomas, however, would not believe it. He said, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” After making use of these foolish remarks, Jesus appeared to Thomas when he was assembled with the other disciples, and he said unto Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas could not help believing then, but Jesus said unto him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” Faith is a great blessing. Some people will not believe anything they cannot grasp with their human reason or cannot see with their natural eyes. But blessed is the man of faith, blessed is the woman of faith! For by faith they can see into things that cannot be discerned by the natural eyes. They can reach out to the regions of immortality, grasp eternal realities and lay hold upon the things of God! Now, Jesus appeared in the same body that was placed in the tomb, and yet it was not the same, there was a change in it. What change was it? We read that Jesus Christ shed his blood “for the remission of sins: not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” Jesus was raised up from the dead by the power of God, and says Paul, “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Paul also says, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Blood is corruptible, the blood-quickened body is subject to the law of death. But Christ’s body when it was raised from the dead was “quickened by the spirit.” There was a great deal of difference not only in this respect but in others. When the disciples were shut up in that room Christ was able to enter it without opening the door, which could not be done by mortals. He had power to manifest himself to his disciples, and he had power to cover himself from their gaze. He had power to overcome the laws of gravity, and on a certain occasion, after he had visited his disciples, had appeared to 500 brethren at once, had given instructions to his apostles to build up his church, as he spoke to them “a cloud received him out of their sight.” He was able to lift himself up from the earth and depart from this sphere to another; his body was no longer a mortal body, no longer governed by the same laws as those by which we are governed. We are also told that “While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go to heaven—Act. i, 9-11.” When he shall come again he shall come in the same body, and we are told in the 14th chapter of Zechariah that his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives and in the 13th chapter that when the Jews behold him, the Messiah, whom they have expected so long, they will say, “What are these wounds in thine hands?” Then he shall answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” And then every family will mourn apart; the whole house of Israel will mourn because of the wickedness of their forefathers in putting him to death. In receiving him at his second coming they will comprehend the truth of his first coming, and not before, and they will welcome him as the resurrected Christ.

Now, the Apostle Paul says that “He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” What kind of bodies will the righteous possess in the resurrection? They are to be bodies of flesh and bones quickened by spirit; not quickened by blood, no longer subject to death, pain, or any of the ills of mortality. This does not look much as if the separation of the spirit from the body is resurrection. Such a doctrine as that is not according to the scriptures, it is only “vain philosophy.”

Latter-day Saints, beware of this vain philosophy which would rob you of your faith in the resurrection that is to come. O, what a glorious hope it brings! Husbands who mourn the loss of their wives, whom they loved and whom they have placed away in the tomb, shall receive them again in the resurrection. What a glorious meeting, that is, if they have been sealed by the holy order of God. Whatever is thus sealed to them on earth is sealed in heaven. Husbands and wives, those sealed and united according to the holy order of celestial marriage, will be joined again in the resurrection. They will come forth out of the tomb and their bodies will be quickened by the power of the Holy Spirit, and made glorious like unto the body of the Son of God. They will be reunited as man and wife forever, and of their increase and of the extent of their dominion and glory, power and might and majesty, there shall be no end! Mothers who put away the bodies of their little ones in the ground in deep sorrow and lamentation shall receive their babes again to their bosoms. As they were laid down in the grave, so shall they come forth again in the same stature, the same likeness, nothing shall be lost, not even a hair of their heads, but they shall be quickened after the power of an endless life. The Apostle Paul illustrates this in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians. He says: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body; and there is a spiritual body.” When wheat is planted in the ground, the seed seems to die. It is said that in the midst of life we are in death. But in the midst of death there is life. There is a nucleus of life that is imperishable. There is a germ within that little kernel of wheat that seems to perish and die, that is also indestructible, and so with the body planted in the ground. What is raised, Paul? Is it the spirit raised out of the body? No; it is the resurrection of the body. That was the testimony the apostles bore. Their chief testimony was that Jesus was crucified upon the cross, and that he was raised up from the dead.

But, says one, I cannot see any good of it. What is the use of this old body after it goes to the ground and mingles with the dust? What is the use of taking the trouble to bring it up again? How is it possible? In regard to the possibility, there are a great many things possible with God that are impossible with man. A few years ago it was not thought possible for a man to stand in New York and talk to another in London, but it is done, it is possible, and many things are done now that were not thought of years ago. Supposing a person who knows nothing about the properties of the magnet were to visit some of the big factories in England, he would see in many of them large quantities of brass and steel filings all mixed together. I have been in such works and seen that the proprietors are very careful to allow nothing to go to waste. They sweep up all these filings and put them in barrels or other receptacles, and by and by some one comes along with a large magnet and digs it into the mass of mixed filings, and when it is withdrawn it is seen to be covered with particles of steel or iron. This is repeated over and over again until all the steel is separated from the brass. But a person who had no knowledge of the magnet would naturally think, on seeing these particles all mixed together, that it would be impossible to separate them. Now, do you not think that God has more power than man? That he has “magnets” with properties beyond our present ken? I think he has. I think if God desires to bring the particles of the human body together, he understanding their composition, can easily do so. In the beginning he spake to chaos, and by the power of his faith the worlds were formed. Faith is a force. It is as much a force as magnetism or electricity. It is the power by which the universe was framed. God can speak to the elements of our bodies and bring them forth again according to certain fixed laws known to him if not to us. Jesus spoke to the winds and they obeyed him. He walked upon the water. Out of five loaves and two fishes he made a great feast, “And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.” All this was done upon natural principles, and we would be able to comprehend this if we understood natural principles thoroughly. And I have no doubt in my own mind, that when the resurrection shall come, when God shall speak, and we shall answer, it will be just as natural to bring up our bodies in the morning of the resurrection as it was for us to lay them down. Why, we do not understand how it is that they crumble away. Can you explain the death process, when an individual is taken hold of by some mysterious power, and the life goes out of him? There is no brightness to the eye, no beauty on the cheek, no motion to the lip, all is quiet, cold and lifeless. The body is placed away in the ground and the particles begin to separate, when, but a little while before there was something that caused all the particles of that body to cling together. A change has come, and they all want to get away from each other. What is the process and who understands it? There are a great many things we do not understand. This afternoon we are whirling in space at an immense velocity. The earth is revolving upon its own axis and traveling around the sun. How is it done? “By the operation of certain forces.” But how did these forces come into operation, what did they spring from, how are they regulated? Who knows? Who understands the process of sleeping and waking up again? Here is a thing that takes place every night. We go to sleep. How do we go to sleep? I do not know. Sometimes I try to go to sleep and cannot, and again I try to keep awake and cannot. Sleep is in the likeness of death, and waking up is in the likeness of the resurrection. I do not know how it is done, only that it is done by the power of God. It will be as Job says, God will call and we will answer. The glorious frame of man, the most beautiful piece of God’s workmanship, so “fearfully and wonderfully made,” will come forth in its full perfection and endure throughout all the ages of eternity.

“Well, what is the good of it?” I think that passage in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants explains it clearly. The Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith said that the spirit and the body of man must be inseparably connected before a fullness of joy can be obtained. Man must be raised up in an immortal body which cannot be grasped by the hand of death. The unembodied or disembodied spirit cannot receive the joys that come through the grosser elements. Spirit ministereth to spirit, Spiritual things have affinity for that which is spiritual. There are pleasures which can only flow through the medium of a material body, and hence the necessity of the resurrection. A perfect being is an immortal spirit dwelling in an immortal body, and by affinity with all things, and heaven the key to the heights and depths and breadths of the universe, is able to draw from every source the joy and bliss and pleasures and glories, that are the heritage of the celestial ones who are filled with the fullness of the eternal God. I am afraid that those vain philosophers who do not want any more to do with the body after death, will find themselves in the same condition as those who are spoken of in the vision of Ezekiel to which I have referred. The Lord declared of them “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.”

There is a great deal in the revelations that God has given to the prophet Joseph that may not be plain to our minds at the first glance. Therefore, I would advise my brethren and sisters to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the things that God has placed on record for our guidance, and let us place our trust in them rather than upon the vain philosophy and foolishness of men who think they are great scientists, and imagine that they can reason out the things of God. Man, by searching, cannot find out God, but He reveals them to the faithful by his spirit which “searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God.” And if we will take for our guide the laws and precepts God has given; take the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, which all run together like three globules of water, and are like the three measures of meal in the parable, and seek to God Almighty for the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, that it may be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, then we will have manifested unto us those things that are necessary for us to understand. God has set in the Church in these days, as he did in olden times, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc., for the work of the ministry and for the perfecting of the Saints, and if we are guided by the living oracles of the Church, and the power of the Holy Ghost and the sacred books, we will not go astray, but if we are guided by the vain philosophy of uninspired men we are almost sure to get upon the wrong path.

This is the point which I desired to make plain this afternoon—the glorious doctrine of the resurrection of the body, one of the main doctrines of the Christian religion. It all hinges on that; for if Christ is not risen, then is our hope vain. Christ died and was raised again. So shall we die—perhaps not all of us will sleep in the earth, for some are to remain and be alive at his coming—but we shall all be raised, and those who dwell upon the earth when the Lord appears shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye. The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall awake, and with those who are living shall be caught up to meet the Lord. Perhaps this may be the lot of some in this congregation this afternoon. The day of the Lord is nigh at hand. Behold he cometh, as the prophets have declared! Not as the babe of Bethlehem, but as the Lord of power and glory, as the resurrection and the life! Every word which has been spoken concerning him will be fulfilled. Christ will appear and he will call the righteous to himself. They will come forth in the morning of that great “day of the Lord, that bright and beautiful morning when the Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings,” and the lambent rays of his regal glory shall warm the righteous dead to life. But woe unto them that know not God and obey not the Gospel, for they shall be banished from the presence of the Lord, and until the millennial day is over they cannot come forth in their bodies to receive their portion.

May God help us to walk in his ways and keep his commandments, that we may have a right to a part in the first resurrection, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 8th, 1880.

What we have heard from this stand, this afternoon, as well as on former occasions, we must meet again in the great judgment day. We have quite a number of scribes at the table, who are writing down anything that is said. These are not, however, the only scribes. There are others behind the veil, who take down the discourses of the servants of God; they are recorded there; and the books will be opened at some future time. All the warnings that have been given to the Latter-day Saints, and to the world, will again come up, in the own due time of the Lord, in judgment; and it will be required of us to render an account, whether we have been obedient to those warnings, or whether we have been disobedient. The Lord is a consistent Being in all his doings. He will not condemn the children of men, for not receiving something that they were ignorant of; but, if they are condemned at all, it will be for rejecting something that they have understood, or something that they might have understood, had they improved the opportunity. They will be judged according to law, according to testimony, and according to that which is written in the sacred books. The records of heaven will be opened. The records, kept by divine authority on the earth, will also be opened. The evidences and testimonies will be set forth; and every man and every woman, who is condemned, in the great judgment day, will be condemned according to law, according to testimony, according to evidence, according to the light that has been given, according to the deeds done in the body.

The Lord is a Being who has given laws unto all things; and he adapted these laws, according to the condition and circumstances of all things. All agents, free agents, who have light and knowledge to know how to act, how to discern good from evil, will be judged according to one law. They are not compelled to obey the law which they hear, but they can act according to their agency, either in obeying or disobeying, receiving the blessings of obedience or the fruits of disobedience. The Lord has giv– en a great many laws, besides those which he has given to free agents, or to intelligent beings; but they differ in their nature, according to the condition and circumstances of the materials to which these laws are given. See a revelation upon the subject of these laws, which was given on the 27th day of December, 1832 (Doc. &. Cov. pp. 305 to 310). This revelation was called, in those days, the “olive leaf.” In this revelation, the Lord informs us that “he hath given a law unto all things by which they move in their times and their seasons.” These laws which are given to the materials of nature are generally obeyed. There does not seem to be any agency on the part of these materials, so far as we naturally comprehend it; at least, if there is an agency, it seems to be very obedient instead of disobedient. Hence, when he issues forth a law to govern the materials of creation the law seems to be obeyed; at least we do not know of any disobedience. It would almost seem as though these materials act under compulsion and are really obliged to act as they do. Yet there are some sayings in this same revelation, which seem to indicate that there is a degree of intelligence even in these materials. We read that “the earth abideth a law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law.” This would seem to indicate that there is something connected with the earth itself, wherein it has an agency; and that because of the exercise of its agency, and keeping the law, it should be crowned with celestial glory. The materials out of which our earth is formed, are also governed by law. Not only the earth as an organized world, but the very materials themselves, are governed by laws. These laws were given of God; and when we search into the laws, not of nature merely, but the laws of God, and the more we comprehend the laws by which materials are governed, the more we understand the laws of God and his operations in the universe.

The earth seems to take one continued course. It has an orbit. It does not deviate from this orbit, unless acted upon by some other force, which may cause some fluctuations or deviations from its apparently destined path. Some, in reflecting upon this might say, that the earth is obliged to follow this course. I do not know about this, I am not so sure. I think if we could see a little further, we would understand that, connected with the materials of the earth is a living principle, a principle too, that acts according to certain laws, intelligently, not blindly; and that our earth, in performing its course, following the track marked out, does so according to law, as much as we do when we go forth and are buried in the waters of baptism. We go according to law, and obtain a blessing, so does the earth, when following the course marked out for it. “God hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons.” We know that all of these great movements, which we observe taking place in the universe around us, are conducted according to certain laws, which mankind have, in a few instances, been able to search out themselves through the intelligence that God has given them. For instance, we see a force in exercise, when we lift up a stone from the ground, and hold it in our hands; the moment we let go this stone, it falls to the earth. What causes it to fall? Philosophers tell you that “it falls according to a law of nature.” But who is this nature that gave this law? Why do material bodies fall? Why do they not remain stationary, suspended in the air, or in a vacuum? Why do they have a tendency to approach the center of the earth? It is because there is a force which draws them towards such center. What is this force? Scientists have called it gravitation; but the name does not explain the force. We are certain that a central force exists; and that such force is something that acts according to a certain law. Now, if you were to take a material body, as for instance, a stone, 4,000 miles above the surface of the earth and let go of it; it would only fall one-fourth part of the distance, in a second, that it will fall here, near the surface of the earth. Why will it not fall with the same velocity up yonder as here? Because the law which God has given in relation to these materials, varies in its intensity of force, according to some law of the distance from the central force. A body will fall, near the earth’s surface, about 16 feet and one inch, in one second of time. You take it up 4,000 miles, and it will fall only about four feet in one second of time. This has been demonstrated by the action of the earth upon the moon which is nearly 60 times further from the earth’s center than we are. The moon only falls toward the earth about the eighteenth part of one inch in a second, which is about 3,600 times slower than a stone or other bodies would fall at the earth’s surface. Thus, it will be perceived, that this gravitating force diminishes in its intensity according to a fixed law, depending on the distance from the center of the earth. This law was discovered by Newton. It is known beyond all controversy that if we go twice the distance which we are from our earth’s center, bodies will weigh two times two less than they weigh here. If we recede thrice our present distance, bodies will weigh three times three, or nine times less than if weighed here. At ten times the distance, the weight would be ten times ten less than here. At sixty times our distance from the earth’s center (which is the distance of our satellite) bodies would weigh toward the earth, sixty times sixty less than they weigh here; but sixty times sixty are thirty-six hundred; that is, a pound would weigh thirty-six hundred times less if carried to the moon’s orbit, than here.

In the language of mathematicians, “the intensity of the gravitating force varies inversely as the square of the distance between gravitating centers.” This law is undoubtedly universal in its operations, extending to all the visible universe.

This law, combined with orbital movements, is necessary to the stability of worlds revolving in space. Without it, systems on systems would soon rush to ruin. If any other law of intensity than the one which now exists were assumed, irretrievable ruin would soon follow. Out of the infinity of laws of variable intensities depending on distances, the only one has been selected which alone can impart stability to all systems in space. Who made this all-wise selection? Did blind matter select its own laws? Or did an all-wise and an all-powerful Being impart these laws—selecting out of an infinity of force intensities, the only law of variable intensity, which would render stable the grand machinery of the universe?

This curious law some will tell us is merely a law of materials, that God had nothing to do with it. But I dispute it. I say that God is the Author of this law; and were it not for this infinitely wise provision, there would not be such a thing as one particle of matter being drawn to another; and a stone, when loosened from the hand, would still remain where it is set free.

Again we see our world here—the earth on which we are permitted to live and have our being—sweeping round the great center of the solar system, once in 365 days and a fraction of a day: it has continued in this path, not only through a few centuries, but for thousands of years; or, in other words, it has followed this course according to some undeviating law. Whatever this law may be God has ordained it, for he has ordained the “law which is given to all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons.”

This earth does not revolve around the sun, once a year, in a circular orbit, but in an oblong, elliptical orbit. Now, it is just as easy to cause a body to revolve around the sun, in an ellipse, as in a circle. For instance, if our Earth, when at its mean distance from the Sun, should be projected, with its present mean velocity, in a line at right angles to the lines joining the Earth and Sun—it would describe a perfect circle around that luminary. But let the projections deviate from a right angle, a little less than one degree, and it will take the very form of orbit it now has, provided it is projected with the same mean velocity that it now has. Again let this same earth be projected, at its mean distance from the Sun, in a line making an angle of 70 degrees, 31 minutes and 44 seconds of an arc, instead of 90 degrees, as in the instance just named, and the form of the orbit would be greatly changed: the distance from the Sun, when nearest, would be only sixty-one millions of miles; and in six months after, the distance would be doubled, that is, one hundred and twenty-two millions of miles. Under these circumstances, the Sun, when nearest, would appear four times larger than at its aphelion distance.

You see, then, how easy the Lord, by deviating the angle of projection, could cause a great difference, in the eccentricity of an elliptic orbit, without altering the mean distance or without shortening or lengthening the year. The year would remain the same, without any deviation in its length, if the earth revolved in an ellipse of the kind that I have just named. Again, if you wanted the earth to go so near the Sun that it would almost graze its edge, and still retain the length of our year unchanged, it would not take our advanced university students long to determine the angle of projection the earth should have, so as to just graze the edge of the Sun, at the perihelion distance, and come back again in an ellipse, which would be almost equivalent to a straight line, provided it was projected at the mean distance that we now have, with its present mean velocity; and the year would be exactly the same as now. I mention these things to show you how the Lord, by a little deviation, can design a great variety of orbits, in which worlds may revolve, according to law; for all these things are done according to law; and if actually projected, as we would propel a cannon ball, then all the Lord has to do is to decree the form of the elliptical orbit, having one year for its description, and the projecting angle will be, at once, known.

This is a law, and the Lord is the Author of it. It is not a law of nature. It is not a law of blind materials which have no knowledge or life connected with them, or in them or round about them.

I have been speaking of bodies projected at different angles, and at the mean distance of our earth from the sun. But let us next go still further off into space. We can go away to the orbit of Jupiter, about four times our distance from the sun. Is there any law for projection or a law of velocity that would cause bodies to revolve in orbits, at four times our distance from the sun? Yes. What is the law! It must not have the same velocity that we have. It must, at four times that distance, have only one one-half of the mean orbital velocity of our earth; and, if you gave it more than one-half of such velocity, it would decrease the mean distance of the orbit below four; if you gave it less, it would increase that mean distance above four; but if you gave it exactly one-half of the velocity our earth has, then it would preserve its orbit in a circle, or in any kind of an ellipse at that mean distance. Is there any law to govern this velocity depending upon the distance from the sun? Yes. What is the law? According to mathematical expressions, “the velocity varies inversely as the square root of the distance.” Well, says one, that is no information to us. We don’t know what you mean by inversely and don’t know what you mean by the square root; for all of us have not sufficiently studied arithmetic so as to understand the roots and powers of numbers. In reply, I will say, it is something very simple to all advanced students of arithmetic. Let me say a few more words, in regard to this law; for this is also a law of God. For instance, we will say, that the earth travels a certain distance in one second, which we will call unit distance or 18 miles in a second, in its orbit—we will call this distance one. We go four times further off than our earth is from the sun, and take the square root of four. But inquires one, how do you get the square root of four? A number that will multiply into itself, say two into two, makes four; two then is the square root of four, that is, it is the direct square root, not the inverse. But now you put this figure 2 underneath a line, and place the figure 1 above it (thus 1/2) and such a fraction is the inverse square root of four. Hence, one-half the velocity that our earth has, must be given to bodies which are four times further from the sun than we are. When nine times further off from the sun than we are the orbital velocity will be only one-third of ours; because one third is the inverse square root of nine. In like manner, when sixteen times further off, the orbital velocity is one-fourth ours. When twenty-five times more distant, the orbital velocity will be one-fifth, and so on to any distance.

Here, then, is a regular law of velocity; and you may extend this to any distance, in the solar system, that you please.

Now, who ordained this velocity? Did the unconscious materials of nature come together, and undertake to consider this matter? Here are laws that are conducted with great intelligence—intelligence too, that was not understood for several thousand years preceding the period of Newton. We have no account that the most civilized nations of the earth had any idea of the law of velocity depending on the inverse square root of the distance. Yet this law existed whether understood by man or not; it made no difference whether the nations were ignorant in regard to this matter or not, the law existed, and operated for ages unperceived by mortals.

The Latter-day Saints say, that the Lord of Hosts who has given us laws, adapted to our condition as free agents, has also given laws to these material worlds, by which they act and by which they are preserved for a great, and wise and good purpose, to sustain unnumbered myriads of animated beings, who are by numerous other laws adapted to these worlds, and enjoy life therein. We now have been speaking of the infinitely wise law of the velocity of planets. But this law would not preserve our universe in its present beautiful order, if the law of gravitation was not exactly what it is. We say that the law of gravitation acts inversely as the square of the distance. Now, why doesn’t it vary as the cube of the distance? Why doesn’t it vary inversely as the fourth power of the distance, or some other law of distance? Because all these other laws would throw the system into destruction at once; it could not be sustained. There is only one law among an infinite number that might be chosen, that would preserve the system in its present beautiful order, and that is the law of the inverse square of the distance. Who gave this law to materials that they should have this attractive force? The Book of Covenants tells us that “God hath given a law unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons;” but if he had given a different law than this I have named, in regard to gravitation, the whole system, in a very short period, would be reduced to a chaotic mass, lifeless and inanimate, existing for no purpose, accomplishing no design or end. All this infinite wreck of worlds would be the necessary result of selecting an unwise law, varying from the one which now obtains among gravitating materials.

The law of velocity must be exactly adapted to the law of the inverse square of the attractive power. Who was it that made this adaptation? Did the materials endow themselves with both of these laws? Did they perceive that no other laws would render the universe stable or lasting? Or, otherwise, is there an all-wise and all-powerful Governor who brings all things under the dominion of laws, wise in their action, powerful in their nature, and preserving the grand machinery of the universe, in the most perfect harmony in the working of all its parts?

There must, then, have been some great supreme intelligence who organized these worlds and gave them laws of attractive force and adjusted velocities and thus produced the harmonious orbits which we have, and which will preserve themselves, unless interfered with by some extraneous force, for thousands of years to come.

We might go on and speak of a great many other principles connected with these laws, but let us now come to the laws given to intelligent beings. God has given laws to what might be termed intelligent nature; but let me say, that what is termed intelligent nature is sometimes called in this same revelation from which I have been reading, a spirit, or rather, a power that “is in all things, through all things, round about all things, and the law by which all things are governed.” It is, then, an intelligent power that encircles itself through, or over, or round about every particle or every atom, and these atoms act in accordance with the law that is ordained, and do not deviate from it unless commanded by the same authority that gave the law. The same Being, who gave the law to materials by which they act, can counteract the law. He did so in the instance when Elisha caused iron to swim. We read, that as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water. The man, was much concerned, because it was a borrowed axe. “And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.” Now what was it that caused the axe to rise in the water? The same Being who gave the law of gravitation, which caused the axe to sink, counteracted that law, and caused the axe to swim. The same Being who gave the law of universal gravitation, can counteract this law. He did it, in many instances, in ancient times. He divided the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to pass. The water stood up like walls, in a great heap, not for a few seconds, or minutes, but stood there sufficiently long to allow the Israelites to get to the other side of the sea. Now, what was it that counteracted this law of nature? What was it that caused this watery element, which has a tendency to spread out and sink to its own level, to stand up in a heap, almost like a solid body? The same Being who gave the law, which governs the yielding liquid properties of water, can counteract the law, so as to make the water stand in heaps. God is the great Author of all law, and is just as able to counteract a law, as he is to continue a law. Let him withdraw the command that materials shall attract all other materials; let him say to matter, “I no longer require you to act according to that law,” and you would not find the earth going in an orbit around the sun. There would be no bond of union to keep things in their proper place; everything would be left to itself. Let God withdraw his law, or let him command adversely, and he will be obeyed; because he has the power thus to direct; and the intelligence which surrounds these materials, the spirit that is in and through all these things, would understand the command and act accordingly. In the same way the Lord heals the sick. He has made the tabernacles of the children of men, and he has organized them according to a law, so that every part of the human system is adapted to every other part. The blood flows through the arteries, and through the veins, and every part performs its proper functions. When any part or portion of this wonderfully constructed being, or, in other words, this almost perfect machine, becomes deranged or out of order, the same Being who first constructed man, with all the different organs, muscles, sinews and skin, can easily mend or regulate the same, and cause every part to work in perfect harmony with every other part, so as to impart health, and life, and vigor to the whole machinery. You would certainly think that a person was not much of a mechanic if, after he had constructed a beautiful clock, and it had run for several years, and got out of order—if when you applied to him for repairs he replied that he could not, you would be apt to say, “You made it in the first place: you certainly ought to know what is the matter, and you can repair and restore it to working order.” Just so with the Lord. When our human machinery is out of order, he understands all about it; and he is the best physician that can be employed; and he also can be employed without money and without price. He imparts to this machinery his Holy Spirit which circulates through the whole body, and promotes health and strength in the individual. But how apt we are to apply to inferior physicians. As soon as something ails this mortal tabernacle, the cry is, “Oh, mother, or husband, will you send for the doctor. My son is very sick, and we need the doctor.” Now this is sometimes the way with those who call themselves Latter-day Saints, but they ought to be ashamed that they do not honor the name which they have taken upon themselves. The Lord has ordained that when you are sick, you should apply the simple ordinance of the laying on of hands, or the anointing with oil by his servants in the name of Jesus Christ. In this ordinance there is more power than in all the medical ability in the world; for there are many diseases which baffle the skill of the wisest physicians, while by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God—not in their own name, but in the name of Jesus Christ—according to the directions given in the Scriptures, we have the promise that they shall be healed; that is, if they are not appointed unto death.

Here, then, is another law of God; and we might go on and touch upon instances of the healing power—the healing of the lame man, the blind man, the deaf man, or of fevers removed from the body, and the restoration of broken bones. Now, we have many testimonies, especially among our brethren in Wales, where they have, in the coal mines in which they worked, been crushed, as it were, until many bones in their body were broken, so much so, that it was supposed they could only live a very few hours, at the longest; yet by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God, we have the testimony of many witnesses that those bones were brought together, making a noise like the crushing of a basket and were placed in their proper form; and the individuals were restored to health and soundness. Could any herbs, or mineral, or physicians have accomplished this? No. Who did accomplish this? The Lord Jesus Christ, through his servants, by the laying on of hands, according to his commandment. Did he do it according to law? Yes; for all his works are carried on, according to certain laws which he has ordained; and if we had the same wisdom that he has, we could see the workings of the Holy Spirit upon the bones that are broken; we could see the circulation of that spirit in bringing those bones together; we could see the action of that spirit in relieving the optic nerve, so as to impart sight to the eye. If we could see the workings of that spirit, and then understand by what power it works, these things would not be a miracle to us. God has no limit to these laws that are called the laws of nature. He has an infinite number of laws; and he can work according to any of them, which are suitably adapted to the circumstances, so as to bring about his righteous purposes and wise designs according to his own good will and pleasure. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, August 1st, 1880.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a few passages of Scripture, which will be found in the 20th and 21st chapters of the Revelation given to St. John. In the 20th chapter we find these words:

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

In the 21st chapter, commencing with the 1st verse, we read these words:

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

“And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

It is a great and important undertaking to rise up before a congregation of the children of men, and endeavor to declare the words of eternal life to them. No man living can do this acceptably in the sight of God, unless God is with him, by the power of his spirit and by the inspiration thereof. I often feel my own weakness and imperfection as a man, when endeavoring to do a work of this nature. I oftentimes feel to ask myself the question—what am I, and how can I perform the work which the Lord requires at my hand, unless he assists me? Sometimes I almost feel to shrink; but then I know, from past experience, that God has assisted me, and I have every reason to believe that he will continue so to do, inasmuch as I am humble and exercise faith in him, and strive to do his will.

These words written in the 20th and 21st chapters of the Revelation given to St. John on the Isle of Patmos, occurred to my mind, a few moments before I rose to my feet; for it is the practice of most of the elders of this church to take no thought before hand what they shall say, and it is very seldom that the officers of the church endeavor to plan out in their own minds any particular form of discourse, but, sometimes the spirit of the Lord may suggest certain passages of scripture, and then that same spirit may dictate and direct, in regard to the form of words that shall be used in delineating the ideas contained in those texts.

We are told in the words which I have read, that there is a period of time yet in the future, wherein this earth upon which we stand, where we have our being, and from which we derive our sustenance, will pass away; and the heavens that are over our heads will also pass away; at the time this great event shall happen, we are informed that a great white throne shall appear; that a certain personage will sit thereon, and that so great will be his glory, and so great the power attending him, that the earth itself will flee away from before his presence, and the heavens, the literal heavens that are over our heads—probably meaning the heavens that pertain to this creation—will pass away; the atmosphere and those things included in the atmosphere; and the earth itself, the solid portions thereof, and the liquid portions, will all pass away, before the face of him that sits upon this throne. This is believed not only by the Latter-day Saints, but by all Christian denominations, with very few exceptions. They believe that the heaven and the earth will, at some future period have a great change wrought upon them. They expect that they will pass away but I believe that most of them consider that the earth will become annihilated; that the very materials of which it is composed will be reduced to nothing. I think that used to be, when I was a boy, a tenet of the sectarian world; it used to be their idea, that the earth was, in the beginning, made out of nothing by the word of God, and that it would be reduced to nothing when it passed away.

But I have not time to dwell upon the idea of the Christian world, and their views, concerning this matter; I shall touch upon those things according to the ideas and the faith of the people called Latter-day Saints. We do not believe that the earth was made out of nothing, like the modern Christian idea; we have no such belief; for we do not find any such declaration contained anywhere in the scripture. We do not take it for granted, because they have incorporated these things in their modern theology, in their doctrines, in their disciplines, in their church articles, in their creeds—we do not receive it on this testimony; but we search to see what the scriptures of truth have said upon this subject; and when we have searched them, we find there is no indications whatever, that the earth was made out of nothing, or that it sprang into existence, where there was nothing on which to work.

We read in the first chapter of Genesis that God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, but there is nothing in this passage that informs us that he made the earth out of nothing. Our view is that the elements out of which this and all other worlds were made existed from all eternity; they never had any beginning. There are a few individuals on the earth that make no profession of religion—some call them materialists—who believe this same principle; and in doing so, they have got one truth incorporated among their ideas, though they do not believe in God. The materials of this creation, according to our view, and that which God has revealed to us, in this last dispensation, have existed from all eternity. These materials have been, from all eternity, subject to the command of the great Jehovah; they are under his jurisdiction; he has power to control them; he gave them laws; they act according to these laws; and they have been governed by laws, so far as we have any knowledge, and so far as our creation is concerned, for indefinite ages past; and we have every reason to believe that they have been under the dominion of law, so long as there has been a Supreme Being. And you might ask how long is that? We answer, that he is co-eternal in his existence, with the materials of creation—one existed as long as the other; and neither of them had any beginning. There may have been an endless cycle of organizations and disorganizations among the materials of nature, governed for a certain period of time, for a wise purpose, according to wise and just and holy laws, adapted to their condition, and to bring about the great purposes of the great Jehovah. We find that everything, at present, so far as we have any knowledge and understanding to discern the workings of nature, seems to be under the dominion of law. The earth rolls in its destined orbit according to laws. The force by which it is supposed to have been projected is according to a certain law. The great central force by which it is governed, or to use a modern word “attracted,” is according to a certain law. The projectile force, so called, is adapted to the central force; and it has rolled in its destined path, ever since its present organization, or for some 6,000 years, and how much longer it has rolled in that path or orbit, we do not know. It had a beginning in its present organization, as Moses clearly gives us an idea. But in organizing this world the Lord did not call it into existence from nothing, but called the eternal elements that were spread abroad in space and commanded them to come together, according to certain laws; and the earth was formed and placed in its proper position, in the midst of many other creations which roll around the great central orb—the sun. It was no small work; it required the power of an Almighty Creator to organize a world like this, to adapt it, in its organization, to the principle of life, which, more or less, pervades all of its materials, causing them to fulfil various laws, ordained in relation to their action, obeying what are called chemical laws, in forming the numerous compounds of which our earth is composed. The solid portions, the liquid portions, and the aerial positions, were all formed chemically by the power of the Almighty—I mean the compounds which constitute those portions—and when we come to reduce these compounds to their elements, we find upwards of sixty elementary principles, from which, being joined together according to chemical laws, all the numerous compounds are formed. Now, these laws in all their operations are laws given by the Divine Being. He it is that causes them to operate. Light, heat, electricity, and every substance combined with the materials of our globe, are all under the dominion of numerous laws; and the results that are brought about, or the good that is bestowed upon the inhabitants of the earth, upon the animal creation, giving them life, happiness, and peace—have all been brought about by the wise ordination of these laws, exhibited through all the elements of this creation. I say it required an Almighty power to so wisely organize these elements; and when they were organized it required great wisdom and judgment to produce the orbital motion of the earth. The ascertained velocity that the earth has in its orbit, as it flies in its destined course around the sun, is between eighteen and nineteen miles per second. It not only requires great power to organize the elements into a world, but it requires infinite wisdom to organize the elements into flesh as at present in the animal creation, including man, to give life to the beings which dwell in these tabernacles.

This world, however, is not now as it was in the beginning, that is when I speak of the beginning, I have reference to the beginning of the earth, in its present organization; I do not have reference to the beginning of duration, for it had no beginning; I do not have reference to the beginning of an endless past, but I have reference to the beginning relative to our little globe. In the beginning of our creation, the earth was very fair, quite different from what it is now. There were no children of mortality upon it, no animals that were mortal upon it, no birds, nothing wherein we observe life in this creation existed in its mortal state; but everything that had life was immortal; every bird, fish, fowl, insect, creeping thing, cattle, and man—all were immortal. The earth had no curse resting upon it; the earth itself was immortal, and would have continued in all its glory, as it issued from the hand of the Creator to the present time, without any curse, had it not been for the transgression of our first parents. That was the introduction of mortality, of pain and sorrow, misery and wretchedness, not only upon man, but upon all creation that then existed; everything was brought under the dominion of the curse. The curse came upon man—that being who could stand in the presence of God and converse with him face to face—the seeds of mortality were sown in his immortal body—a change came and his whole system was affected thereby. The seeds of death were placed within the tabernacle of man, within the tabernacle of the lion, of the ox, and every beast of the field, and every fish of the sea, and every fowl of the air. A very great change then came over this creation. First, it was spiritual in all its blessings and fullness of life and glory. Then it was reduced to a temporal condition, wherein misery and wretchedness existed.

Another great change happened nearly two thousand years after the earth was made. It was baptized by water. A great flow of water came, the great deep was broken up, the windows of heaven were opened from on high, and the waters prevailed upon the face of the earth, sweeping away all wickedness and transgression—a similitude of baptism for the remission of sins. God requires the children of men to be baptized. What for? For the remission of sins. So he required our globe to be baptized by a flow of waters, and all of its sins were washed away, not one sin remaining. You were baptized, Latter-day Saints, for the remission of your sins, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of your sin with all your heart, going down and being buried beneath the liquid grave, you came forth as new creatures. So says the New Testament; you buried the old man with all of his wicked deeds, and came forth out of the liquid element born anew. So the earth in a measure was renewed, not fully; no more than we are renewed fully by baptism; we are not made immortal, when we come out of the waters of baptism; we still retain the effects of the fall, so far as mortality is concerned. So does the earth; the earth retains the effects of sin and transgression that came upon its face. But notwithstanding it retains these effects so far as mortality is concerned, yet it was cleansed in a measure from this transgression. But alas! This earth has again become corrupted. We are required, after being baptized for the remission of our sins, to sin no more; to live holy and perfect lives, so far as we possi– bly can, and to keep the commandments of God in all things, and to walk in newness of life, and this to the end of our days. The earth has not been permitted to rest during the period of four thousand years and upwards since its baptism. Wickedness again has accumulated upon its face. The inhabitants of the earth have corrupted and defiled the earth by their transgression. By and by another great change will come. As the earth was cleansed from its transgression by baptism in water, so it must again be cleansed, before it is made immortal. It must be cleansed by an element that is stronger and more purifying than that of water, namely, the element of fire. Fire must prevail over all the face of this earth. What for? For the purpose of cleansing the earth from its transgressions, the same as the Latter-day Saints expect to be cleansed and purified more fully than by baptism in water—by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. This is the promise to all that will repent of their sins and be baptized for the remission of the same, that they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is another baptism, more effectual, more cleansing, more purifying in its nature, sanctifying the inner man and the outward man, and making him a new creature. So this earth in due time must be baptized with fire first, and then the Holy Ghost. Fire will cleanse all the proud and they that do wickedly from its face—all persons that are corrupt, all sinful persons, all disobedient persons, all who do not keep the commandments of God; it will cleanse the earth by burning them as stubble, fulfilling the words of the prophet Malachi, in the last chapter, which reads thus: “For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”

It seems, then, that this earth has to undergo a process very similar to that of the redeemed man. It has to obey all the great sacred ordinances of the Gospel, so far as its first principles are concerned; the earth has to undergo a cleansing process, first by water, a similitude of water baptism, and then by the Holy Ghost, a similitude of baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost which you receive by the laying on of the hands of those who have authority. Does this make man immortal? No; man still retains his mortality, even after he is baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost—his body is subject still to death. It may be burned at the stake; it may pass away as the earth will pass away; not annihilated, not one particle of our earthly tabernacles shall be struck out of existence; but the elements may be separated asunder, they may mingle perhaps with other elements—all this may take place, even after we have been sanctified and purified by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. So with our earth, when it is renewed by the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he shall descend, as Paul says, in flaming fire. What effect will that have? It will have the effect that is spoken of by Malachi, all the proud, including every wicked man, every wicked woman, will be swept away like stubble before the devouring flame. It will be thus when Jesus descends in the clouds of glory. The elements will be cleansed, the same as you receive a cleansing by the Holy Ghost. You are made new creatures. So the earth will be made new, and great knowledge will be imparted to the inhabitants thereof, as predicted in the 11th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. The knowledge of God will then cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep. There will be no place of ignorance, no place of darkness, no place for those that will not serve God. Why? Because Jesus, the Great Creator, and also the Great Redeemer, will be himself on the earth, and his holy angels will be on the earth, and all the resurrected Saints that have died in former dispensations will all come forth, and they will be on the earth. What a happy earth this creation will be, when this purifying process shall come, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the great deep! What a change! Travel then, from one end of the earth to another, you can find no wicked man, no drunken man, no man to blaspheme the name of the Great Creator, no one to lay hold on his neighbor’s goods, and steal them, no one to commit whoredoms—for all who commit whoredoms will be thrust down to hell, saith the Lord God Almighty, and all persons who commit sin will be speedily visited by the judgments of the Almighty! But, inquires one, can they sin? Yes; their agency will still be left. We read in the 65th chapter of Isaiah that then, “There will be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred old shall be accursed.” Children will grow up without sin unto salvation, as a general thing, and in order to show how swift the judgments will come upon the people, after Jesus comes and stands upon the Mount of Olives, and all the Saints with him, we have only to refer to the last chapter of Zechariah, where it is stated, “that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, even unto them shall be no rain.” From this it appears that people who refuse to come up to the land of Jerusalem, to worship God and to keep the feast of tabernacles, are to be immediately visited with famine. They shall have no rain, and that will stir them up, during the Millennium, to repent of their sins; but if the Egyptians do not come up from year to year to Jerusalem, they shall be visited with a great plague. What kind of a plague? The plague will be so severe in its operations, says the prophet Zechariah, that “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” Thus you see that swift judgment will come upon those that are rebellious, after Jesus descends. This shows that mortality still continues, that people are subject to plagues, subject to pain, and subject to be afflicted with famine, for the want of rain. But by and by, when Jesus has been here in person a thousand years, and all the ancient Saints that have been resurrected, and the modern Saints also, after they have lived upon the earth for the space of a thousand years, it seems that Satan is to be loosed out of his prison, and permitted to go forth and tempt. Whom shall he tempt? Those whom Jesus has brought from heaven? No, they are beyond temptation. Whom will he tempt? Those that are yet mor– tal—the innumerable inhabitants of the earth who have multiplied and spread forth, and become almost as numerous as the sands upon the seashore. He will tempt them. He will go out into the four quarters of the earth, and gather together all that he can overcome, and bring them up against the camp of the Saints and the beloved city. He thinks that he will fight and overcome the camp of the Saints. They will be camped beside the beloved city; for all the Saints will then be gathered, just the same as you are now gathered from the four quarters of the earth, to escape the various judgments that are coming, and finally the judgment of fire. So will the Saints be gathered together to the new Jerusalem, and round about old Jerusalem, and Satan will gather up his hosts, that have apostatized from the truth, and he will marshal them round about the city, and fire will descend from God out of heaven, and devour that portion of the army of Satan that is still mortal. The elements of their bodies will be separated; they will be consumed, the same as the wicked will have been consumed over a thousand years before that, and this will be another great change. But the earth is not yet immortal, not yet in its glorified state, as it was before man fell. Then, after Satan’s army is devoured, and after Satan is cast into hell, and all over whom he has power—then all the inhabitants of the earth will be judged; this great white throne that I have been reading about, will appear; the great and final judgment will come; and when this white throne appears, the earth itself and the literal, temporal heavens that are overhead will flee away, and there will be found no place for them. What does this mean? Does it mean that the elements themselves will be annihila– ted? Or is there no place for the earth in its organized form; for the elements will pass away, be scattered in space over millions and millions of miles, just the same as our bodies after we have been sanctified and purified, may be burned as martyrs at the stake and the elements of our bodies passed into the atmosphere and into the surrounding country. So will the earth pass away in like manner. But by and by the same voice, the same power that calls forth our bodies from the sleeping tomb, that unites bone to its bone, sinews and skin and muscles, and the various compartments of the system, that breathes the breath of life into them, that makes them immortal, even so will the Lord God, in due time, speak by his power and call the scattered elements of this creation from their dispersion, bring them together again, and organize them into a new heaven and a new earth. Will there be one particle of the earth lost? No, every particle that now is combined with the heaven and the earth will still exist. Will it be modeled after the present model? No. It may have the same shape and form that it now has, the same as our bodies when they are brought forth out of the grave will have a form something after the present form. Every hair of the head will be restored, every part will be restored to its proper form, not after the form of mortality, to sicken again, to have pain and to die; but though the body is restored to the same image, so far as the outlines are concerned, yet it is immortal, no more subject to pain, or sorrow, but is restored to perfect happiness and to bodies that will endure while eternity endures. So it will be with the earth. A great many of our scientific men consider that the earth has never had a beginning as an organ– ized body, but they look back many millions and millions of years, when they suppose that such and such an event brought about such and such a cause; and they say, (the infidel portion of them) that the earth will never have an end. Well, now, they are right so far as the materials are concerned, but they are entirely out of the way so far as the great revolutions I have named are concerned, and so far as the annihilation of the earth is concerned. The earth never will have an end, so far as the materials are concerned. The earth after it is made anew, resurrected from its old materials, will continue forever, and will be the abiding place of all the righteous, throughout all the future ages of eternity. Hence, we read that John, after the earth fled away, saw a new heaven and a new earth; but the new one was much altered. There was no more sea. There must be a great alteration when the sea, the elements that compose the water, the oxygen and hydrogen, and the various elements that enter into the constitution of sea water, shall be otherwise combined. Will there be a new set of geologists in those days, who will figure as they do in our days, and say such and such events exist, and they must have existed from all eternity, or they must have been brought about by such and such changes; that is, will the geologists be as limited in their views as the present ones are? But the geologists that shall live ten thousand years hence, or even two thousand years hence, when this great change shall have come over the earth, will be able to philosophize clearly; for they will be full of knowledge, understanding and comprehension, and they will be able to understand something about the process of world-making, creating worlds, the changes that come upon worlds, and the final change when worlds are made anew and immortal, and their philosophy, their ideas, and their system of geology will be correct and can be depended upon. Why? Because they were there; they saw the changes, they were present when the changes were made, and they have not forgotten all these things, and they will know them, and understand them, after the final change comes. There will, however, be a change which some of the mortal inhabitants of this earth will forget. Isaiah says, in the 65th chapter: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Now, that has reference to the creation that will be renewed, at the beginning of the millennium. People will not remember. Our children that will be born during the millennium will not remember all the wickedness and corruption that existed in the days of their fathers. It will not come into their minds, unless God puts it there; but when they become immortal, after the thousand years have ended, then I think they will comprehend the process by which this world was made. But, inquires one, how will they know it? They will know it because they were all present when it was made. You understand it, Latter-day Saints; you and I were there when this world was made. We have forgotten it, but we will remember it when we wake up in eternity, with all the fulness of knowledge that will be given after everything is made anew. Well, inquires one, what will be the occupation of this people, after descending upon the new earth? After Jesus has been on the earth a thousand years, God himself is to be on the new earth. What is he to do? He is to “wipe away all tears; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” We will be there if we are righteous enough, if we keep the commandments of God. If we will endure to the end, we will have an inheritance in this world when it is resurrected and made anew. Moreover, it says there will be no more death. What! A world without death? A world thickly populated as this creation will be? What a joyful creation! The tree of life will be on the earth in the midst of that city that will descend on the earth, and whoever eats of the fruit of that tree will live forever, just the same as the tree of life was placed upon the earth before Adam transgressed. Anyone eating of the fruit of that tree could not die, for the decree of the Lord had gone forth, and his word must be fulfilled.

There are some few things to which I wish now especially to call your attention, in relation to this new earth of which I am speaking. I said that the saints would receive an inheritance upon it. I would ask you, my brethren, upon what principle they receive an inheritance upon the new earth? It is by securing it through a promise here in this life. If you can secure 40, or 80, or 160, or 640 acres of land by promise here in this life—I do not mean the promise of mortal men, I would not give much for their promise concerning any blessing after death comes; but if you can get a promise from him who has a right to promise (for the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof), that you shall inherit the earth for an everlasting possession, then it will be given to you. But, says one, supposing I do not get any promise? I do not know, then, that you will have a claim on a solitary foot of it. Abraham got the promise, not after he was dead, but here in this life. The Lord, because of his faith, made him a promise, and told him to go out from his own country to a land he had never seen; and after getting there, the Lord said unto him, “Now, Abraham, walk through this land in the length and breadth of it; to thee will I give it, and to thy seed.” For how long? For an everlasting possession. Abraham did not care about having a deed for time only, did not care about getting a few acres just merely for a little while, and then have it taken from him, and he have no claim upon it afterwards. Did Abraham inherit it on this earth? Did his seed, Isaac, or his grandson, Jacob, to whom the promises were confirmed and renewed—did they get any of it while they lived? No. The prophet Stephen, who was murdered for the Christian religion, has recorded in the New Testament, speaking of this promise made to Abraham, that the Lord “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.” What! Stephen, are you not mistaken? You lived several thousand years after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were in their graves—do you mean to say that the Lord did not even give them as much as a foot? What did he do for them, Stephen? He made them a promise that they should have it, and their seed after them; for an everlasting inheritance. Oh, then, they are still to have it, are they, for an everlasting inheritance, by virtue of the promise made in this mortal state who are Abraham’s seed? All that do the works of Abraham—all that are baptized into Christ. They are Abraham’s seed according to the promise. What promise? The promise that he and his seed should have the land of Palestine, east and northeast of the Mediterranean Sea, for an everlasting possession. Now all who have received the same covenants, obeyed the same Gospel, obeyed the new and everlasting covenant, have the promise in connection with Abraham’s seed.

Has the earth been parceled out to anybody else except Abraham and his seed? Yes. The Lord brought a nation to this great western hemisphere, called Jaredites, from the Tower of Babel. When He brought them here they were a righteous people, and he made promises to them; and among the promises given was the promise that this great western hemisphere should be given to them, and to those that were worthy besides them, for an everlasting possession. We Gentiles have come here; we have got upon the land of these Jaredites, and we think we are very rich if we have got 640 acres, or perhaps ten times that amount of land. Says one man, “I have got my deed from the Land office; I am the owner.” But, hold on; there is the original owner; that you know nothing of, that came here from the tower of Babel, that had all this western hemisphere promised to him and the righteous of his seed for an everlasting possession. What will become of your 640 acres then? What will become of your farms when these resurrected men shall come forth and show their deeds. Perhaps you may think they did not keep any records in those days. But let me tell you they had records of deeds; and all these things are spoken of and testified of in the great books that are kept in the eternal world, and it will be found that they are the inheritors before us, that is before the Gentiles that came over here four hundred years ago and upwards. But what about the Nephites that came here about six hundred years before Christ. When they got here, the first thing the Lord did was to confirm his promise unto them. He told them it was their inheritance for an everlasting possession. Hold on, says one, that would take away the right of the Jaredites. Oh, no. The Lord, in making this promise, did not do it according to the deed-makers of this day; he did not follow after the pattern of men. The records that he makes on the books in eternity are records made upon principles in accordance with celestial law, not in accordance with Gentile laws, nor our notions of things. The notion, or idea, that the Lord had was that this continent, North and South America, should be inhabited by the righteous who will be resurrected from the dead, and who lived here on this continent.

Latter-day Saints, do you not feel a little concerned? Has any promise been made to you, or are you left out while the Nephites and Jaredites gobble up all the land, and leave you to go around the streets begging? Hear what the Lord, our God, had to say, through the Prophet Joseph, concerning you, on the 2nd day of January, 1831. I was present when the Lord gave this revelation, in the midst of a conference, to his servant Joseph. I will repeat the words: “And I will hold forth and deign to give unto you” (speaking to the Latter-day Saints assembled in conference, and to all that should become Saints) “greater riches, even a land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh; And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance. And this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away.” The same promise you see; very different from the promise of men; you will possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away. He did not reveal to us the central portion of our land of promise on that conference day, but told us it should be revealed at a future time. Hence, in that same year he appointed his servant Joseph and some twenty or thirty of the elders to go from Kirtland, Ohio, westward through the State of Ohio, State of Indiana, State of Illinois, State of Missouri, to the western boundaries thereof. There he pointed out by revelation—which you will find recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—the central portion of our inheritance, where the great temple should be built, upon which a cloud of glory should rest, and told us that that was the land of promise, in time and in eternity, the same as the promise made to the ancient Saints of God. We are not in possession of it at the present time. It cannot, however, be said concerning us, as it was said by Stephen concerning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He said he gave those old ancient men not so much as to set their foot on. But it happens we paid for some of that land, and we got our deeds at the Land Office, and we claim this at the hands of our God, and ask him, if we do not get it right now, this year, or ten years’ hence, we will ask our Father to give us that land after the resurrection, at any rate. But will we inhabit any of it in time? Oh, yes. We will build a great city in Missouri. We will also build a great temple unto the Lord our God, in that city, and the temple block and place where it is to stand is already known. It was laid out in the year 1831, and the corner stone laid, and we will build a temple there, and build it after the pattern that the Lord gave to his servant Joseph, the Prophet, and also according to the pattern that he shall hereafter show, if the pattern is not already given in full. I will tell you another thing that will happen in our promised land, after that temple is built: there will a cloud of glory rest upon that temple by day, the same as the cloud rested upon the tabernacle of Moses, that was carried in the wilderness. Not only that, but also a flaming fire will rest upon the temple by night, covering the whole temple; and if you go inside of the temple, the glory of God will be seen there as it was anciently; for the Lord will not only be a glory and a defense on the outside of that wonderful building, but he will also be a glory and a power in the inside thereof, and it shall come to pass that every man and every woman who is pure in heart, who shall go inside of that temple, will see the Lord. Now, how great a blessing it will be to see the Lord of Hosts as we see one another in the flesh. That will take place, but not till after the temple is built. Moreover, you will not only be favored with this great privilege, but Isaiah tells us that “the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.” When you hold your meeting in the day time, you shall be sheltered by a cloud, and when you hold your meetings in the night time, instead of lighting up your lamps with common oil, or with gas, or anything of this kind, you will have no need of any artificial light, for the Lord God will be the light thereof, and his glory will be there, and you will see it and you will hear his voice. Have you not read in this book called the Bible, about the Lord suddenly coming to his temple? Read the 3rd chapter of Malachi: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. * * * And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteous– ness.” That same fire will rest upon the abodes of those that come into that temple, and they will be filled with fire and the Holy Ghost. They will be purged of all iniquity, and every ordinance that will be administered in that temple will be administered by holy hands, and you will understand and know the meaning thereof. The Lord will reveal these things in their day; he will reveal everything that is needful, so that the knowledge of God may rest upon you, and that there may be no darkness with you. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Tabernacle, at Logan, Sunday Morning, August 1st, 1880.

It is a common saying with us, that the Lord has set his hand to build up his kingdom; but, notwithstanding, it is a true and a very interesting one. Let us turn our minds which way we will, as men of God, as Elders in Israel, if we enjoy any portion of the Spirit of the Lord, we cannot help seeing the hand of the Lord in his works in these mountains and in the earth. It is a difficult matter, many times, for men of the world to understand the literal fulfillment of revelation; in fact, some of our leading men, men of wisdom, men who have enjoyed a good portion of the Spirit of the Lord—it has been difficult for them to understand the fulfillment of prophecy. In conversation with persons with regard to the affairs of our nation, I remember President Young telling them that there would be a division in our nation between the North and South. “But,” said they, “that cannot be; the stability of our government is of too durable a nature to even permit of any such thing.” This is the way that our leading men felt before the rebellion; this is the way, as a general thing, that leading men feel today. They cannot comprehend, it is not in their hearts to believe in the fulfillment of prophecy; they cannot understand how it is that any power or wisdom that God can exercise, can bring to pass the prophecies that remain to be fulfilled. We had examples of this, as I have said. But the crisis came; a four years’ war was waged, which laid in the grave a million and a half of the strength of our nation, and, as I have often said, and which I believe is true, cost them a debt which they will never live to pay. They could not comprehend this until it was over. It is so with our nation today; they cannot comprehend, notwithstanding the mighty evidence that is rolling before them like the waves of the sea, one event after another in their fulfillment; but they cannot realize how the Lord can make use of the elements known to mankind to bring about the destruction of a nation like ours. When Brother John Morgan was speaking, I was reminded of a certain spirit that arose in the hearts of men a few years ago, incited through the oppression of capital against labor. A few men rose up in Pittsburgh and other places in Pennsylvania, and in three days destroyed some twenty million dollars worth of railroad property. When this element once rises, what power has law, what power have the officers of the law or the government to control it? It cannot be controlled by human power. As Latter-day Saints, we can in a measure understand, when we come to reflect that God rules and overrules and can do anything he has a mind to with regard to the fulfillment of these events. I believe the Bible; I believe the Book of Mormon; I believe the Doctrine and Covenants, and I believe that the predictions they contain will in their fulfillment roll upon our heads, and upon the heads of this nation, and upon the heads of the people of Zion, and the judgment of God, that have been proclaimed in the hearing of the people for the last fifty years, through the mouth of Joseph Smith and of Brigham Young and the apostles and the elders of Israel, by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost—not one jot or tittle of what has been declared will fall to the ground unfulfilled, and the Latter-day Saints ought to be prepared for them. I know many of these things look dark when men look upon them with the natural vision, and as a consequence doubt and unbelief follow; but when you look upon them with your mind enlightened by the Spirit of God, the spirit of inspiration and revelation, we then are able to understand them, and how easy it is for God to bring to pass the predictions of his servants.

The Lord, in a revelation given to Orson Hyde and William McClellan in the early days of the Church, in sending them out to preach the Gospel, told them that when they preached they should speak as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and that if they did not have the Holy Spirit to direct them, they were told not to teach. “And,” said the Lord, “when you do speak as you are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, your words are the words of God, they are scripture, and they are the mind of the Lord to the people.” (Sec. 68.) Many have an idea that it is something very strange for men nowadays to have revelation, and that nobody should have revelation excepting Brother Taylor. Here, my brethren and sisters, you are upholding the quorum of the Twelve twice a year in General Conference, besides doing so at your quarterly conference, as prophets, seers and revelators, and you pray for them twice a day, and perhaps oftener, and should it be anything very strange if they should receive a revelation? How strange, indeed! There are in this Church some six thousand seventies, and four thousand high priests, and four thousand elders, who hold the Melchizedek priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God, besides many thousands of priests holding the Aaronic priesthood, and I would like to ask, if it was wrong to desire revelation? What business have we with this priesthood, if we have not power to receive revelation? What is the priesthood given for? If we do not have revelation, it is because we do not live as we should live, because we do not magnify our priesthood as we ought to; if we did we would not be without revelation, none would be barren or unfruitful. We have one man who holds the keys of the kingdom of God upon the earth, and it is his business to give the word of the Lord for the guidance of the Church. But here we have apostles and men of God, holding the holy priesthood, acting in behalf of the Church in different parts of this Territory, and also in different parts of the earth; and we have men, say, acting as Church agents in Europe, part of whose business it is to charter ships for the transit across the ocean of tens of thousands of the people of God; is it the right of such men to have revelation from the Lord to guide them in their operations? Yes, it is; and no man should undertake to act in positions affecting the interests of Zion, unless he lives so as to be guided and directed by revelations of God. And every man who presides over a temple should live day by day in the revelations of Jesus Christ. And every seventy, and every high priest, and every man bearing the holy priesthood should live in that way to get revelation to guide and direct him in his labors. This idea that no man has any right to call upon God and receive revelation is wrong, and it has been wrong wherever it has existed in any age of the world. As was said of old, when a complaint was made concerning certain of the elders prophesying in the Camp of Israel, so say I: “I would to God that all were prophets;” because the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

With regard to prophesying, I wish to say, that we have a great many times the revelations of God given unto us through his spirit, when we do not comprehend what revelation is. How many of you have had the still small voice of the spirit whisper things to you, and when you have followed the dictations of that spirit it has become in you a principle of revelation. I would not be here today if I had not listened to the whisperings of that still small voice which has guided me in my journeyings; I never could have passed through the dangerous scenes and incidents of my life had I not followed the whisperings of the spirit of the Lord to me. And with regard to our preaching I will say, that as apostles of God and as men appointed to lead and guide Israel, we have a great many things presented to our minds that at the time appear to be beyond our comprehension. Brother Heber C. Kimball, for instance, was a natural prophet; he would at times give utterance to things when preaching under the influence of the holy Spirit that would frighten himself and has many times been known to say after he had finished preaching, “What have I said?” I am reminded of a circumstance which occurred in the early settlement of Utah, at a time when we were all in very destitute circumstances, without the shadow of any reasonable hope for seeing better times. At such a time Brother Kimball in preaching one day told the congregation that many months would not pass before we would be able to buy goods in Salt Lake City as cheaply as they could be bought in New York City. When Brother Kimball had said this he actually felt frightened for he could not see how it could come to pass, but it was spoken under the influence of the Holy Ghost, and therefore it was revelation. I was thinking today of a time many years ago, when President Young and several brethren of the Twelve, were in Logan; it was a time when a railroad up to this region was not even dreamed of, the time when Brothers Ezra T. Benson and Peter Maughan presided here; when at a meeting President Young called upon me to talk to the people assembled. The night before, however, we had been met by a long line of children and young people, from three up to twenty years of age; they had come out to meet the prophet, and presented a fine sight. While talking to the people I felt led to speak to the children and young people; and I told them that I wanted them to remember the visit which the president was making them because the day would come when they were grown up, when they would talk to one another and say, that on such a day President Young and party visited us, and we were told then that we should see the day when a temple should be built in this place, from the top of which we would be able to survey the country around which would be occupied by ten thousand of our people; and you will say that this was told to us when brother Benson and brother Maughan presided here. We never thought of building a temple here at that time, it had never entered into the heart of man to do so. Brother Benson and Maughan have been for some years now in the spirit world. Today you are engaged building a temple which will be completed and dedicated; and when this shall be done these young people will have the opportunity of going to the top of the building and will then see what I promised to you in those early days.

I mention this to show you how things are presented to our minds and given utterance to in our public teachings about which, at the time, we have little or no idea.

When in the western country, many years ago, before we came to the Rocky Mountains, I had a dream. I dreamed of being in these mountains, and of seeing a large fine looking temple erected in one of these valleys which was built of cut granite stone, I saw that temple dedicated, and I attended the dedicatory services, and I saw a good many men that are living today in the midst of this people. And I saw them called of God and sent forth into the United States and to Babylon, or what is called the Christian world, to bind up the law and seal up the testimony against the nations of the earth, because they had re– jected the testimony of Jesus; and of the establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth. When the foundation of that temple was laid I thought of my dream and a great many times since. And whenever President Young held a council of the brethren of the Twelve and talked of building the temple of adobe or brick, which was done I would say to myself, “No, you will never do it;” because I had seen it in my dream built of some other material. I mention these things to show you that things are manifested to the Latter-day Saints sometimes which we do not know anything about, only as they are given by the Spirit of God.

I will say to Israel who are here today, we should take hold of this work in earnest and build this temple and redeem the dead as well as the living; and have faith in God believing that this is the work of God which will roll on to its fulfillment in the earth. God will not disappoint you in these the last days; he will not disappoint the wicked, he will not disappoint the devils in hell, nor the angels of God in the heaven will not be disappointed with regard to the fulfillment of the revelations; whatever may be the unbelief of this generation it will make no difference with regard to the fulfillment of the revelations of God and the predictions of his servants.

When in the Tabernacle at Salt Lake City on the 24th of July, in looking upon the assembled multitude and in contemplating the magnitude and grandeur of the procession, I said to myself “What can be the feelings of the world?” What can be the feelings of our enemies who are laboring to “break up Mormonism,” and who have for these many years past indulged in the fond expectation, and have even gone so far as to predict year after year that in a few years more “Mormonism” will be done away. The world do not know what to do with “Mormonism;” the heads of our own nation and the kings of the earth are alike undecided, with regard to this handful of people that are growing up in these mountains. They see our union and the work already accomplished by us; they see the elements of prosperity and power manifested in this people, and although they do not say it themselves it is a fact, the spirit of fear to a degree is taking hold of them, they are afraid that the “Mormons” tell the truth when the say the God of heaven has set his hand again for the last time to establish his rule and government in the earth, which is destined to become a great kingdom and fill the whole earth. The great men of the earth are not ignorant of the existence of this people; they are studying our history, and they are watching the result of our labors. Although we are located in the interior of this mountain country, and so recently considered without the pale of civilization, the Latter-day Saints are not hid from view, their light is not under a bushel, but they are already known and talked of throughout all Christendom; and this Zion will continue to grow and no power will hinder it. Let us prepare ourselves and keep the faith, obey the commandments of God and exercise faith in these things; and let our prayers ascend into the ears of the God of Sabaoth day and night, for the fulfillment of these revelations and prophecies.

The Lamanites will fulfill all that God has said about them, and the Jews will fulfill and realize all that has been said respecting them and all that has been promised and pre– dicted upon their heads by their father Jacob and by the prophets. It was foretold by the prophet Moses that they should be driven and despised by their enemies, and that they should be cursed of God, and that his curse should follow them until Christ came; and that they would reject him, and then they would be scattered as corn is sifted in a sieve, etc. But hear it all Israel, after your sorrow and pain and distress and after the days of your tribulation, your great Eloheim will stretch out his hand and gather you from every nation wherever you are driven, and he will bring you home to your own land, and you shall rebuild, your temple and city, and you shall be delivered by Shiloh when he comes. That will be fulfilled; and all that God has said with regard to the ten tribes of Israel, strange as it may appear, will come to pass. They will, as has been said concerning them, smite the rock and the mountains of ice will flow before them, and a great highway will be cast up, and their enemies will become a prey to them; and their records, and their choice treasures they will bring with them to Zion. These things are as true as God lives.

When I contemplate the condition of our nation, and see that wickedness and abominations are increasing, so much so that the whole heavens groan and weep over the abominations of this nation and the nations of the earth, I ask myself the question, can the American nation escape? The answer comes, No; its destruction, as well as the destruction of the world, is sure; just as sure as the Lord cut off and destroyed the two great and prosperous nations that once inhabited this continent of North and South America, because of their wickedness, so will he them destroy, and sooner or later they will reap the fruits of their own wicked acts, and be numbered among the past.

I cannot help it; I would to God they would repent, that their eyes might be opened to see their condition; but the devil has power over them; he rules the children of men, he holds Babylon in his own hand, and leads the people whithersover he will. There are changes awaiting us, they are even nigh at our very doors, and I know it by the revelations of Jesus Christ; I know it by the visions of heaven; I know it by the administrations of angels, and I know it by the inspiration of heaven, that is given to all men who seek the Lord; and the hand of God will not stay these things. We have no time to lose.

I pray God’s blessing upon the men working on the temple, and his blessing upon the Saints, that their hearts may be inclined to build them. If you knew and understood the feelings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and those of his brethren associated with him, and the feelings of the millions of the human family who are shut up in their prison houses we would not tire, we would labor with all our might until the building was finished and dedicated, and then we would labor for the redemption of our dead. Ask Bishop Hunter if he ever expects to meet with his friends and associate with those who have passed away, unless he redeems them in the flesh, and he will tell you, no. He could not mingle with them if he did not redeem them in the flesh. I know the same, too.

I pray God to bless you, and to pour out his spirit upon my brethren of the quorum of the Twelve, that we may walk in the light and be guided aright in all our ministra– tions. And I tell you again; God will not disappoint you; this kingdom will never go backward, neither will it ever be given into the hands of another people; but it will rest upon the shoulders of our sons and daughters when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven. We have no time to throw away, or spend in the foolish things of the flesh; what time is at our disposal should be used in building up the Zion of God, and in preparing ourselves and our families for the things that await us. Oh, I wish many times that the veil was lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints; I wish we could see and know the things of God as they do who are laboring for the salvation of the human family who are in the spirit world; for if this were so, this whole people, with very few, if any, exceptions, would lose all interest in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desires and labors would be directed to redeem their dead, to perform faithfully the work and mission given us on earth; so that when we ourselves should pass behind the veil and meet with Joseph and the ancient apostles, and others who are watching over us and who are deeply interested in our labors, we might feel satisfied in having done our duty.

This is how I feel, this is my faith. I read the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Book of Covenants, and I look for everything contained in them to be fulfilled. We are making history day by day, and we are fulfilling the events which they predicted would transpire in the latter days. Isaiah, when he saw in vision this people in the mountains, exclaims:

“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

“But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”

In the own due time of the Lord all things spoken by the prophets will be literally fulfilled.

I pray God to help us to do our duty and to help us to feel interested in our labors in the flesh. And as a closing remark, seeing that this is election time, I will say, do not, my brethren, allow the spirit of contention and dissension to creep in among you. I am ashamed of some of our people who, instead of using their powers and influence in endeavoring to unite the people, go to work and raise strife, and the result is that in some of our cities an opposition ticket is gotten up, and our own people in these places divide one against the other. I say, shame on the elder or man holding the priesthood, the authority delegated to him by high heaven, who will do this thing; the heavens are displeased with such a man, and unless he repents he will certainly be found numbered with those who are arrayed against God and his kingdom on the earth. We have the whole world against us, besides many evil spirits to contend with, and we certainly should not divide one against another.

May God bless Israel, is my prayer, through Jesus Christ. Amen.