Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 16, 1860.

You have all heard the remarks and sentiments of brother Wells. His exhortations are very good; they will make you and every soul who obeys them free, because truth is life, and life is light.

I do not believe there is a man here today but what knows that the doctrine taught today is truth. It is the word of God—the revelations of Jesus Christ to every one that hears, and salvation to all who yield obedience to it and carry it out practically. Your faith without works is vain. The religion which you and I believe in requires us to live by its precepts—to be Saints in very deed. It is life, joy, and peace to those who practice it, and condemnation to those who despise it.

Brother Wells has made some excellent remarks on the practice of drinking liquors. The results of this evil are seen everywhere; but to say that it leads to all manner of evils would be as far out of the way as the saying that the love of money is the root of all evil; for there are hundreds of men in the world that do not drink a drop, and they are as full of wickedness as any men upon the face of the earth.

Drinking liquor is a habit you may easily become habituated to: drinking one dram creates an appetite for a second. It is just so with a man who commences telling lies: he commences with a little childish lie, believing that it will do no harm, and so he continues on until he becomes an habituated liar. These things become habits, and men bend their minds to them by degrees. The same may be said of stealing: persons addicted to stealing first began by stealing some trifling thing—perhaps a halfpenny or a penny; from that they get to a picayune, sixpence, and a dollar, and they then become habitual thieves. I could mention many things that we as a people permit ourselves to do.

Some will tattle about their neighbors, and they will be very busy at what we call backbiting, or, more properly speaking, telling lies. These are evils that will eventually lead a man down to death.

People may say there is no sin in stealing from an unbeliever; but I tell you that the man who will do it will, if I let him have the chance, steal from me; and such a course will lead them down to death and destruction. And I now prophesy that the day will come when the man who will do this will become poor, and be a vagabond upon the earth; and probably it may affect his children, if they partake of the same influence.

These are my sentiments, in the presence of God, angels, and men. Brethren, these very men who lie and steal will try to hide their own sins by saying that the Presidency both do this and sanction it. God will curse all who say such things, and all Israel will say Amen. If I knew that I must draw my last breath in ten minutes from now, I should still know that I am telling the truth. There are many of these characters of whom I am speaking, who do not drink any liquor at all; and then, again, we know that there are many who do indulge. Every murder that has been committed in this Territory has been done under the influence of liquor; and I will here remark that the most of them have been men who deserved to die; and, furthermore, I think it would be quite as well if there were a great many more on the same road.

Brother Wells has truly remarked that the world and all hell combined cannot stop this great and mighty work. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, established by revelation from heaven; and of this I feel proud to bear testimony.

So far as the world are concerned, I care no more about them than I do about the snow that is upon the ground, except they repent and obey the Gospel. They cannot effect anything one way or the other.

Brother Wells states that all the trouble and annoyances he fears are those that may arise among ourselves. I wish to see these things cultivated in the hearts of the people, or rather stored up for cultivation. The question was asked, Whence is all this sorrow and pain? These things arise from men and women who profess to be Latter-day Saints. This I consider one of the most irritating and tormenting things upon this earth.

Saints, rise up to the dignity of men and women in Christ Jesus, do right, learn to be men, learn to lay aside every bad practice, cease your drinking, and put away everything else that is evil. Let us be one; let us try and live so that all will be as one man, or one drop of water, and thus partake of each other’s principles and attributes, and of the attributes of God, that angels may be our associates by night and by day.

If this people will take this course, and live their religion in all things, I can prophesy in the name of Israel’s God that you will never have to fire a gun, for the Lord will send his angels to do the work of destruction among the wicked. The Almighty will lead the wicked as a man leads a horse, at pleasure. Brethren, why don’t you live your religion, magnify your callings, and honor God in all things you do and say? Be humble and prayerful; be faithful to your duties at all times.

I am speaking plainly to you: you may perhaps call it scolding, but I am speaking of unrighteous practices—such as will bring trouble upon you, and a final dissolution. Tell me of a man that understands what has been said here this afternoon, who does not know this as well as I do? Why do I say this? Because here is light, knowledge, and revelation handed to you every Sabbath by President Young and others. This is plain and easy to be understood by all the Saints who have been here and partaken of the words of life that have been dispensed to the people for the last few years.

I have pride in the improvement that I see among the people, and I have great satisfaction in seeing my family do right, living an humble life, and setting an example that is worthy of imitation. I am also proud of the industry that I behold around me, in seeing the people making their own clothing. In this my family greatly improve, and I delight in it, for it is setting a good example before my children. I delight in seeing my children temperate, and it would please me more if they would not touch liquor at all. Then my sons would be honorable and filled with the power of God, and that would be the height of my ambition, to see my sons and daughters walking in the way of life and salvation, my sons becoming kings and priests of the Most High, and my daughters becoming mothers in Israel, like unto Abraham, Moses, Sarah, and Rebecca of old.

You might suppose that I am proud of this coat or any other clothing that I wear, like many people in this Church who make dress their god. It is true, when I am kept warm by wearing good clothes, that I feel comfortable and thankful; but I do not set my heart upon clothes; and I would like to see you Elders of Israel act upon the same principle—to be honorable and upright in all things. I would like to see every soul of you doing right and carrying with you a holy influence. I feel as honorable, and yet as humble, as if I were in the presence of God and his holy angels.

There are some of our people who do not believe that angels have anything to do with us; but I can tell you that angels are here today. Who are they? They are men who hold the same Priesthood as President Young and his brethren. They are engaged in this work individually and collectively. They are the characters who watch over you Seventies and Elders: they want to save you and bear you off victoriously. I know this, for they have been with me and administered to me.

If we are faithful, the victory will be ours; and all the combined powers of the wicked nations of the earth, aided by all the devils from the infernal regions, cannot remove this people out of their present location, neither can they stay the progress of the work in which we are engaged; but it is the wickedness that will rise up in the Church that will cause us trouble. It is now as it was in the days of Jesus and the Prophets. We read in the Book of Mormon that the Gadianton robbers came down from the mountains—they robbed, plundered, and in many instances slew the Saints. I can tell you, brethren and sisters, that we have similar characters in these mountains, who are making pretty rapid progress in preparing to destroy this people. This I know to my sorrow.

When we take hold of men in this kingdom, we want to make something of them: in many instances they are dishonest, and we cannot do much with them. But in regard to the people of the world, I do not trouble much about them: they do not live the religion of Jesus Christ—they do not profess to live it, but they think that we are all fools for following Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. We know our religion is true—we profess to live its principles; but if we turn against it, we have more knowledge, and hence more power to operate against it.

You have frequently heard of brother Hyde, brother Russell, and myself being afflicted with devils in England. There were legions of them came upon us and sought to destroy us: but we were not alone; our guardian angels were there to assist us, and they delivered us out of the danger, and out of the power of our enemies.

Brethren, be of good cheer, lift up your heads and your hearts in purity before God, and rejoice in the strength of the Holy One of Israel, for the wicked shall not overcome, but we will ride off victoriously and sing songs of praise and triumph.

The day will come when the Lord our God will empty the earth of all her wicked inhabitants, for he is going to cleanse this earth from wickedness and prepare it for the abode of the righteous; and you may rest assured that it will take a tremendous shaking and an unprecedented great fire to purify this earth ready for the Saints of light.

May the Lord bless you all, brethren and sisters, and all the faithful and righteous Saints that live upon the earth, that they may be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus, is my prayer. Amen.

Remarks by President Heber C. Kimball, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, November 25, 1860.

I have been hearing a few words advanced by Bishop Woolley, and I rejoice to say that I have a testimony within me that his sayings are true and faithful, and according to my experience. I have come to the conclusion myself that I do not know much, excepting that which I have experienced, and I have had quite a lengthy experience in this Church. I have seen what are commonly called the ups and downs of “Mormonism;” I have passed through the mobbings and drivings of the last twenty-eight years, and have endured many things that but few of this congregation or this people know anything about. There are but few now in these Mountains who have passed through the trials and difficulties that have been endured by the leaders of this people, and therefore they have not the same experience, they do not know how to appreciate those things that we have passed through, as we do.

For instance, we were driven from Jackson County, in the State of Missouri: some were obliged to leave Kirtland, in Ohio, through persecution; others were driven from Far West, Caldwell County, and from Clay County, Missouri; and then the great body of the Church were finally driven from Nauvoo. I might go on to tell you how numerous Branches of the Church were driven from many other places, and how many there were in the Church at those different periods; but I will only remark that there are not a great many of those men with us now, in comparison with the great number that are in these mountains.

I discover one thing, however, that may have escaped the notice of many—namely, that quite a number of those who are now in the Church originated or sprung from those who first obeyed the Gospel. There are a great many of their children who are now numbered with us; yes, there are hundreds of young people with us that have been born in the Church. I frequently see some of them—persons that I have known from their childhood, and whose parents I knew before they were born. This is very gratifying to me.

Many of those who received the Gospel at an early day have turned away from the truth; others have died and gone to the spirit world; but their children are here; they have come and taken the position of their parents, and will eventually be the means of redeeming them; they will act as saviors raised up by the Almighty, and they will become very useful in the latter days in restoring their parents into the presence of God.

I speak of these things because they were first presented to my mind when I arose to address you, and I will now take the liberty of saying that I pray continually that this people and all the Elders of Israel may honor their calling—that they may be blest with us, and with their children for evermore. I pray that we may live long upon the earth, and that we may accomplish a great and mighty work in this last dispensation, and that we may be so guided as to enable us to accomplish the work which we have the privilege of assisting to perform. This Gospel will accomplish that for which it was sent, and there is no power upon this earth that can stay its progress. There is no combined power upon the face of this earth that can stay this Gospel in its course—no, not for one single moment. This is according to the design of our Heavenly Father, for he has said you cannot do anything against the truth, but for it.

These things are truly so, and I have never known a man, whether in the Church or out of it, but what has promoted this cause and increased the influence of this people; and it will be so from this time henceforth and forever. Then why do you fathers in Israel want to lie down and go to sleep, and neglect the duties that devolve upon you? If you continue to do this, some of your children will have to rise up and become your benefactors. Why don’t you step forward, set an example before your children, become their benefactors, and lay a foundation for them and your children’s children to the latest generation. It is your privilege, and the power is in your possession, for you have the Priesthood, and you have a portion of that Apostleship which will help you to attain to all the blessings promised to the faithful sons of God. But many, I am aware, will let the candle of the Almighty that is within them go out; and when that once goes out, it is very hard to light it up again, and to have it as brilliant as it was in the beginning.

In regard to the world at large, and my views in reference to the Lord’s performing his work, I have only to say that I look back and trace the revelations that God gave to Joseph with great pleasure. He told the Prophet at one time to go forth with his brethren and importune for redress at the feet of the Governors and the Judges, and finally to the President of the United States, to give them the privilege of redressing their wrongs. The Lord then said, if they will not redress your wrongs, I will come out of my hiding place, and in my hot displeasure I will vex those unjust judges that are placed at the head of the nation, and I will cut them off from the face of the earth, and I will appoint their portion to be with the hypocrites and with the unbelievers. Brethren, do you not think that day is right here? Are we not receiving news every few days, by the Pony Express, that the Lord is fulfilling his word? I think the last two or three days has brought us news that ought to satisfy all upon that point.

It is now for you and me to rise up in the strength of our Heavenly Father, and let the light of heaven shine upon us, that everything that is not right may be purged from our midst, and let us say to every unholy thing, Begone! Let us honor our tabernacles; let us honor the earth, and let us honor the heavens, that we may enjoy the blessings that flow therefrom; for the man who dishonors his tabernacle and the earth upon which we dwell will not inhabit them again for some time to come. It will be with them as President Young was talking this morning about a certain class of individuals: there will be a dissolution, not only of the tabernacles, but of the spirits; for the body is not accountable to the spirit, but it is rendered accountable for the acts of the person that dwells in it—that is, to some extent. But, in reality, it is the person who dwells in the house that will have to pay the debt. I am now speaking about the spirits that dwell in our bodies. I know that these things will be as I say.

I have seen the time when I did not know the meaning of the phrase, “second death,” but I now comprehend it to my satisfaction. There will probably be thousands who will be brought forth, in the resurrection, in their sins, and their conduct in life will have rendered them worthy of the second death. I have no desire to see any of the human family become subjects of the second death, and I especially desire that I may not see any of my brethren and sisters transgress the law of God to that extent that will render them subjects of the second death. My anxiety on this point is sometimes very great, for I desire the welfare of the Saints, and my interest in your behalf is daily increasing. I desire that we may so live in this life that we may ever dwell together, that we may rise together in the resurrection of the just, and then dwell together as men, women, and children in the Lord.

Now, brethren and sisters, do we know what is right for us to do? Yes, every one of us. I can safely say there is not a man or woman here but knows what is right in the sphere in which they move. For instance, there is not one but knows better than to tell a lie, or steal, or bear false witness, or go and get drunk, or to bemean our fellow creatures. We all know that with that measure we mete, we shall have it measured back to us again. Then it is necessary for you and me, if we have been wrongfully and unkindly treated, to wait until we see a change; and, if we are patient, we shall see that to that man who measured to us will be measured back again, and we have no need to say anything about it. The law has gone forth—“With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” We may all rest assured, brethren, that this law will be carried out, and that as we measure to each other, so will it be measured back to us again, in order that justice may have its demands.

You will all admit that this is true doctrine, for these are the words of our Savior: they are the words of the Prophets and Apostles. Yes, they have all borne testimony to the same doctrine, and so has every pure-minded man that has lived upon the earth.

Now let me ask of you Latter-day Saints if you think we do not know enough to lay aside our selfishness. Can we lay aside our precious selves and our proneness to do evil? Yes, we can.

When I returned from the South I had quite a bundle of stories laid before me, and they were calculated to prejudice me in my feelings; but I declared, after due reflection, that it would not do for me to acknowledge such stories as truth, or permit them to have any bearing or weight upon my mind, because, if I had, prejudice, to which we are all more or less susceptible, would have taken hold of me. When I investigated and fathomed the thing to the bottom, there was not a word of truth in the reports. If men who are accustomed to fire off big guns could take such yarns for wadding, and thus blow them away, it would be a good thing for this community.

We are the greatest people for believing everything that is reported that ever lived on the earth. It was just so in brother Joseph’s day. When I went to Kirtland, they told me stories about brother Joseph, but I would not believe them. In those days, I would not believe that a Prophet could do a wrong thing. But there are some now who will try to make it appear that Prophets will tell lies; but I tell you they will not do it. I might reason in the language of Paul and say that, if I could bring more into the kingdom of God by telling a lie than by telling the truth, I would do it; but I know that the truth will bear its own weight, and accomplish that for which it was sent; and there is no need of any lies being told, or of any misrepresentations being made about it.

There used to be a great many big stories told in Nauvoo, and the only way that I got along was by trying to put them down. I speak of these things to show you what has been; and if you can draw any good conclusions from them, I shall be satisfied. My principal object in speaking thus is, I want you to know that we are a people who are very much inclined to believe lies, and to encourage that which is not right.

If you know a man who is guilty of a crime, is it best for you to reveal it? I will tell you what I would do. If I knew of men in this Church, who were guilty of crimes that were not unto death, I would never reveal that knowledge; for I consider it would not be good policy to throw my brethren into hands that would be a great deal worse than they were themselves; but I would see that the law of God was executed.

The Bible says we should have charity and increase therein; and we are further instructed to increase and multiply in all good works, that the capacity of our minds may be enlarged, that we may grow, thrive, and increase in the knowledge of our Father and God.

Brethren, my heart is kind towards you all; I feel towards you as a father feels towards his own children, and it is the pride of my heart to see you rise up and honor and magnify the callings that are placed upon you. You cannot honor God upon any other principle than by honoring that which he has conferred upon you. Give honor to all to whom honor is due. Do right in all things, and by so doing your minds will expand, and you will be enabled to comprehend the things of God.

It is not wisdom for you who hold the Priesthood to take the sickle that is given you to reap with and hang it up on a tree, but you are to carry it with you, and be faithful in using it; for if you leave it, an enemy will come and rub all the edge off. Let us take a course that our spirits will be keen and bright to understand the things of God, and that the revelations of Jesus Christ may be with us all the time, that we may be natural men and women, and that God may be with us, and open our hearts to see the things of this kingdom.

In regard to the outside pressure that is so often spoken of, if those who make it do not get pressed or squeezed, if there is any juice in them, then I am mistaken. I mean those that killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith, David Patten, and many others who have been slain for the Gospel’s sake.

The Lord is going to finish his work, for he has promised to cut it short in righteousness.

I will now turn from the spiritual to the temporal, and advise you to finish your work. Put the covering on your houses—bind on the cornices; for, if you don’t, the Devil will raise a wind that will blow the tops off. I have concluded that I will hold myself still and not say much, for fear my roof should blow off, the same as many have been thrown off up north.

Brethren, be diligent in gathering up the honey; be humble, kind, and merciful, and then we shall obtain mercy. God will mete unto us according to our deserts; he will bless the righteous and the meek. The Lord will reckon with the wicked and those that have committed abominations in the earth. He will shortly reckon, too, with those who hold the Priesthood—who have been acting as ministers of justice and mercy; he will reward them according to their works.

May the Lord our God bless the meek and contrite in spirit; may he bless those that lead you, and inspire their hearts that they may be like one drop of water, or like a unit; and may he grant that you may be one with them; and may he grant that we may all walk before him in righteousness all the days of our lives.

May the God of our fathers bless you all, is my prayer. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 21, 1860.

We wish the Saints to distinctly understand that the remarks just made by brother Hyde do not pertain to doctrine, are not commandments, and have nothing to do with the ordinances of the house of God. He has given us some of his views and reflections. Suppose them to be true, and what of them? Suppose they are not true, and what of it? They have nothing to do with the doctrines and faith of this people. Whether they are true or not is about as immaterial as to know whether it is going to rain tomorrow or next week. If it rains, all we can do is to say, Let it rain; if it does not rain, all we have to do is to prepare to do the best we can with the dust: that is all there is of it. It is no matter whether those views and reflections are true or false.

According to the Scriptures, as they have come to us, we most assuredly believe that the measure we receive at the hands of our enemies will be measured to them again. But whether the wicked seek to corrupt the Church of God or not, the Saints will inherit every good thing. This is not saying that we are Saints. I have not yet come to that, though I firmly believe that we are trying to be Saints. Those that overcome and sit down with Jesus in his Father’s kingdom will possess all things: no good thing will be withheld from them.

Man is the lord of this earth, not woman. It is frequently told you that all the creatures of God, except man, will abide and honor the law under which they are placed. The vegetable, mineral, and animal kingdoms, except man, will abide the law by which they were made, and will be prepared to dwell on the new earth, in the midst of the new heavens that will be reorganized—the earth that we now inhabit. Man is the transgressor. Eve was the first to partake of the forbidden fruit, and the man was disposed to follow her, and did follow her; consequently, sin is in the world, and when redemption comes it must come by man. When we speak of law and the transgression of law, we refer to the law of God to man.

I doubt whether it can be found, from the revelations that are given and the facts as they exist, that there is a female in all the regions of hell. We are complained of for having more wives than one. I don’t begin to have as many as I shall have by and by, nor you either, if you are faithful. I am not the one that will dispose of them, but the Almighty to whom they belong; and it is His right to dispose of us and of all his creatures and creations.

I assuredly believe that all brother Hyde has said in regard to the restoration of the Saints to their inheritances, &c., will come to pass. And I believe, furthermore, if the men who have driven us—the counties, States, and the General Government of the United States, proffer to take me back to the land of my inheritance, I shall refuse to go by their hands. I think I shall say, You can go to hell: I came here without any of your assistance, and I shall return again on the bounty of God, asking no assistance from you. That is my belief. I also believe that the gold and the silver belong to the faithful, and not to those who oppose the work of God. The horses and the chariots belong to the faithful, and not to the wicked. I believe they will be hungry, naked, and barefooted, while we are well fed, well clad, and ride in our carriages. I do not intend to be brought under obligations to or any alliances with the wicked, nor to have any affinity with them in heaven or on earth, nor to go to hell to have any with them there. I expect to individually own enough horses, wagons, carriages, oxen, cows, sheep, and everything this people will need in going back to Jackson County, Missouri, and ask no assistance of those who have driven and persecuted us. They may think that I have a poor opinion of them; but I cannot be as contemptible in their opinion as they are in mine, for the reason that they do not know enough. They, like us, were formed in the image of Him who has created us sons and daughters of the Almighty; but they have disgraced their being and violated every blessing that pertains to their organization. They remain for the wrath of God to rest upon them, and it will rest upon them. I have no particular allusions to those who have been here, though you may stir them up together (those who have been here and those who have not), and with few exceptions, they will all appear of the same color. With few exceptions, they are all alike, for those who are not for us are against us.

Every intelligent person under the heavens that does not, when informed, acknowledge that Joseph Smith, Jun., is a Prophet of God, is in darkness, and is opposed to us and to Jesus and his kingdom on the earth. What do you suppose I think of them? They cannot conceive their own degradation. If they could, they would turn away from their wickedness. I know them, but they do not know me. We live in an atmosphere they do not approach; they have not ability to see the path we walk in. Would I treat them as badly as they would treat us? No. They would murder us in a moment, if they had the power, unless we would renounce our religion. But they are trifling with their own existence, when they measure arms with the Almighty. All the day long we have extended to our enemies the hand of mercy and charity. We would offer to them life and salvation. What would they offer to us? Death and damnation, if they had the power; but they have not the power, and never will have.

From the day that Joseph brought forth the records of the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the power of God, until the day of his death, they said that he was seeking to bring down the wrath of the Lamanites upon the whites. They have driven us among the Lamanites, whom they were continually trying to keep us from mingling with. Why did they do this? God had decreed that they should, and they could not help it; and they will keep teasing and worrying and contending and fighting with one another, until the prophecy be fulfilled concerning the sons of Jacob, who will rise up and go through among the Gentiles like a lion through the forest. And who can stand before them? No one. Jew and Gentile, hear it; you are bringing upon your heads the very things you are trying to avoid, like the Government of the United States, which is striving with all its might, and calling to its aid the best wisdom of the nation to preserve its existence. Everything they do divides them until they will be split asunder and shivered to pieces. So they would do with this work.

They succeeded in killing Joseph, but he had finished his work. He was a servant of God, and gave us the Book of Mormon. He said the Bible was right in the main, but, through the translators and others, many precious portions were suppressed, and several other portions were wrongly translated; and now his testimony is in force, for he has sealed it with his blood. As I have frequently told them, no man in this dispensation will enter the courts of heaven, without the approbation of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jun. Who has made this so? Have I? Have this people? Have the world? No; but the Lord Jehovah has decreed it. If I ever pass into the heavenly courts, it will be by the consent of the Prophet Joseph. If you ever pass through the gates into the Holy City, you will do so upon his certificate that you are worthy to pass. Can you pass without his inspection? No; neither can any person in this dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fulness of times. In this generation, and in all the generations that are to come, everyone will have to undergo the scrutiny of this Prophet. They say that they killed Joseph, and they will yet come with their hats under their arms and bend to him; but what good will it do them, unless they repent? They can come in a certain way and find favor, but will they? No. We paid for lands in Missouri that the wicked now possess. The United States could rise up and say, “You Mormons, come back, and we will defend you in your rights.” But will they do this? No, but they will spend their millions to deprive us of our just rights. They might do a great many good things: they might forsake their meanness, if they had a mind to.

If this people will do right and keep the law of the Lord, he will bring them back to the lands of their inheritances. The question might be asked, “Have you lands to return to?” Yes, I have lands in Missouri—lands in a number of places—farms that I am the rightful owner of. I am the rightful owner of lands in Illinois. Did I occupy them? No. Why? Did I observe the laws? Yes: I lived so entirely above them, that to me they were comparatively beneath my feet. “Why could you not live in Missouri or Illinois?” I believed that Joseph Smith, Jun., was and is a Prophet, and that Jesus Christ is coming to cleanse the earth from pollution and gather the Saints from the four quarters of the world. Because I believed in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, and in the doctrine he taught, and because I practiced that doctrine; and if you say that you believe this doctrine and do not practice it, you can be a good Christian.

The administrators of the Government of the United States violated every principle of the Constitution in the very act of making a war upon their own subjects; and if the laws of Congress were carried out, they would be treated as traitors to the Government. I was in Missouri through the troubles. Did this people transgress the law of that State or of the United States? Did they do anything to justly bring the wrath of that State or of the Government upon them? No. This people observed the laws of Missouri and the law of God more strictly than any other class, and yet the State authorities could issue their orders to exterminate the “Mormons”—to drive or destroy them—every man, woman, and child of them. Suppose the Constitution of that State had been carried out to the letter, every man that had anything to do with that mobbing—at least those in authority, with the Governor at their head, would have been hung.

Every man that used his influence to send an army here, if the Constitution is carried out (and the day will come, as the Lord lives, when we shall be able to carry it out), will be at the disposal of the hemp, if we say so. The day will come, as sure as the sun now shines and the Lord Almighty leads us through, as he has spoken from the heavens, when this people will return to the land of their inheritance. Perhaps these parents will not return, but their children will return and inherit the land promised to their fathers, and all the powers of hell and earth cannot prevent it. If we live our religion, we will enjoy this blessing, either in this life or in the next. That is the consolation the Saints have. If we lay down these tabernacles to rest in the grave, by-and-by we will take them up again, purified from all inbred corruption and made whole from every power of Satan in our flesh.

Our bodies are now mortal. In the resurrection there will be a reunion of the spirits and bodies, and they will walk, talk, eat, drink, and enjoy. Those who have passed these ordeals are society for angels—for the Gods, and are the ones who will come into the Temple of the Lord that is to be built in the latter days, when saviors shall come up upon Mount Zion, and will say, “Here, my children, I want this and this done. Here are the names of such and such ones, of our fathers, and mothers—our ancestors; we will bring them up. Go forth, you who have not passed the ordeals of death and the resurrection—you who live in the flesh, and attend to the ordinances for those who have died without the law.” Those who are resurrected will thus dictate in the Temple. When the Saints pass through death, they cannot officiate in this sinful world, but they will dictate those who are here. “Go, now, and be baptized for the honorable—for those who would have received the law of God and the true religion, if they had lived; be baptized for the heathen—for all who were honest; officiate for them, and save them, and bring them up. Be baptized for them, anointed for them, washed and sealed for them, and fulfil all the ordinances which cannot be dispensed with.” They will all be performed for the living and the dead upon Mount Zion.

We can receive the truth, live in it, and enjoy its benefits, or we can reject it: that we have power to do. This generation have power to reject the Gospel, and they are very fervent in so doing. They are as perfectly enthusiastic in that course as any people that ever lived. Nation after nation has had the Gospel offered to them, the fulness of the Gospel has been preached to them, and they have studiously rejected it. This was the first nation blessed with the Gospel in our day, and have they not been fervent to reject it by towns, cities, counties, states, and the nation? They are as determined to reject the Gospel as they are to live and overcome the kingdom of God. Will they overcome that kingdom? No. Every time they persecute and try to overcome this people, they elevate us, weaken their own hands, and strengthen the hands and the arms of this people. And every time they undertake to lessen our number, they increase it. And when they try to destroy the faith and virtue of this people, the Lord strengthens the feeble knees, and confirms the wavering in faith and power in God, in light, and intelligence. Righteousness and power with God increase in this people in proportion as the Devil struggles to destroy it.

We cannot help being Saints; we cannot prevent the rolling forth of the work of God: in and of ourselves we have no power to control our own minds and passions; but the grace of God is sufficient to give us perfect victory. The power of the Lord our God helps us, and the Devil and his emissaries help us—the one on the one hand, the other on the other hand. We have power to receive the truth or reject it, and we have power to reject the evil or receive it.

This is the kingdom of God, and the people have not been preserved by my wisdom, but by the wisdom and power and knowledge of God. He knows how to weaken the armies of the Philistines. They may come here by tens of thousands, and multiply that number by ten and make it hundreds of thousands, and He can make them destroy themselves, until they melt away like the snow upon the mountains in summer. He can also strengthen this people or weaken them at his pleasure. And if they are faithful to the covenants they have entered into with their God, they will multiply and wax strong, until not a dog in all the mountains of Ephraim, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from Hudson’s Bay to Cape Horn, dare open his mouth or raise his voice against the anointed of the Lord. Don’t you pity our nation? I do. They have not enough knowledge to act according to their own laws. The officers they send here do not know enough to act according to the laws they were sent to magnify. The nation is becoming imbecile and weak; they are unstable as water; they do not seem to have the wisdom of a child; and every move they make they manifest their weakness before the world, and put themselves to shame before each other. I have said enough about this matter, though I have only dropped a few hints.

I began with brother Hyde’s remarks, and I will end with them. He has not been teaching you doctrine. Whether those things he has been speaking about are true or not, who cares? Who cares who takes us back to the land of our inheritance? I have told you my feelings on the subject. If they want to take us back today, I say, No; I came here without their aid, and I ask no assistance from them. All I ask of them, or ever have, is, when any of them leave this Territory, to pay their honest debts and not steal. Some few come to me, when they are about to leave, and say—“I am going to this or that place; anything I can do for you, Governor Young, I am at your service.” My reply is, I have one thing to ask of you and of all creation—namely, When you speak of this people, speak the truth, and do not lie about them. Will they do that? Some will, and some will not; some will publish a lie from east to west, from north to south. If you would give a dollar a line for publishing the truth, as a general thing you cannot get editors to publish it. Now, lie and be d——d, the whole of you; I ask no favors of you.

God bless the humble in heart, and those who promote truth and righteousness upon the earth; and let the wrath of the Almighty be upon the wicked and ungodly. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 21, 1860.

I do not wish to be overzealous, to say the time is mine, or that I have the privilege, above others of my brethren, of speaking. I like to hear my brethren speak quite as well as to speak myself; but as there is time, I feel it my privilege to stand before the Saints and instruct, guide, and encourage them, and build them up in the faith of the holy Gospel.

The same principles and the same feelings that I imbibed when I embraced the Gospel of salvation are still within me, but in a greater degree. As you have frequently heard me say, there is nothing, except the Gospel of life and salvation—the power of God—that would ever induce me to become a public speaker. But the principles of eternal life are so engaging, so endearing, so lovely, so worthy of all acceptation, so sweet, so great, that I could not refuse; consequently, I have been striving for many years to perfect myself, with others, in the history, plan, knowledge, and ways of the Lord upon the earth, and in the holy Priesthood that is calculated to save the children of men. I delight in hearing my brethren speak. I do not know that I was ever more gratified in hearing a servant of God bring forth out of his storehouse the riches of eternity than I was, a week ago this morning, in hearing brother Hyde set forth the beautiful things pertaining to the kingdom of our God. I have been equally edified today, if I do not exactly agree with him in regard to the means for the further promotion of the kingdom of God, and bearing off his people. In the remarks I have heard from brother J. D. Ross, this afternoon, I am delighted. I drink, and I drink again, and am I still dry? I am at least still prepared for more; and the more I receive in my understanding, and the more my mind expands for the things of God, the better, seemingly, I am prepared to receive more and more.

I do not always entirely agree with some in their sayings; but my brethren, like myself, sometimes do not use the language best adapted to convey their ideas. For instance, I am not ready to confess as do some that I know nothing, and that I am a fool. I know a great many things, and I know them right. Brother Ross says that people are more willing to believe the testimony of men who have been dead many centuries than the testimony of living men. This, however, does not apply to me; for I delighted more in the voice of Joseph Smith than in all the voices of the dead Prophets I never heard. He was the living oracle of God with me; he was the medium through which the Lord spoke to me. Do you not think that his voice was delightful to me? Yes. When I read his letters, his sermons, his revelations, unless I am in the spirit by which they were dictated, they are lean to me to what they used to be when he was with us. They were rich, they were full of interest, full of good things, when I could see his face shine like an angel’s: they were then sweet as a honeycomb.

Before I had made a profession of religion, I was thought to be an infidel by the Christians, because I could not believe their nonsense. The secret feeling of my heart was that I would be willing to crawl around the earth on my hands and knees, to see such a man as was Peter, Jeremiah, Moses, or any man that could tell me anything about God and heaven. But to talk with the priests was more unsatisfactory to me then than it now is to talk with lawyers. If possible, the priests were then even more ignorant upon certain points than men are now. Did they know the first thing pertaining to salvation? No: they could not even tell that it was necessary to be baptized for the remission of sins. No man could tell me that, until I saw Joseph Smith. No man could say that the ordinances of God should be obeyed, that the same doctrine taught by Jesus and his Apostles is the only doctrine to save the people. They were divided and subdivided—split into small fragments, and every man was for himself.

I am delighted when I feel and enjoy the presence and power of that instruction given by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost: our hearts are made glad. You believed the Gospel in your native countries and took up your line of march to this desolate wilderness. If I might so speak, you have sacrificed all you have on earth that is near and dear to you for the sake of the Gospel. What made you do this? The spirit of revelation, the Spirit of God, the power of God. Is it not lovely? I am proud of, I am delighted in my religion—in my God. And when I speak of those who have persecuted this people and sought diligently to destroy us, using every endeavor and means they were master of to obliterate this people and kingdom from the earth, what do you suppose I think of them? I cannot speak it: language is too full of poverty, too obscure, too unmeaning for me to talk about it. Suppose you see two men in conversation, and one of them rises up to his Father and God with all deference, and, veiling his face, comes before him in all humility, while the other rises up and says, “Damn him, I am not afraid of him!” Which of the two would you love? And which of them would you hate? Both of them are his offspring; both of them live on his mercy, and are nourished and cherished by his bounty; and one says, “I am not afraid of him, but I will abuse his name and character, and deride his goodness!” And the other comes with his face veiled, saying, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for thy mercy is over me continually, to preserve me; and through thy goodness I am permitted to come into thy presence!“ Which would you love the most? Language cannot express it.

When you contrast the religion that we believe with the religion that the world believes, with all their pomp, grandeur, wealth, and gaudy show, I look upon them with more disgust than I do upon the gates of hell—language cannot tell it. I am proud to say that I honor my God—that I love him—that I worship him; I am proud to call him my Father, while many are proud to deride and despise him. They are proud when they get together and curse and swear, damning and calling the name of Jehovah in vain, calling upon God to damn each other: they are proud that they have this audacity. They will sink into hell. I defy all the enemies of this work to think as diminutively of me as I do of them. There is just as much difference between their knowledge and mine as there is between light and darkness. Here we have the words of life, and do I not glory in them?

Paul gloried in the cross of Christ. Previous to that he was a poor, miserable, vain, wicked, abominable, corrupt creature, brought up as a servant in Gamaliel’s house, where they despised God and every Godlike principle. He held the clothes of the men that stoned Stephen to death, and consented to his death. The Lord appeared to him when he was on a mission to persecute his followers, and told him that he was a chosen vessel for the Lord to show forth, through him, his power. Paul gloried in the cross of Christ. He might have said that he gloried in having the privilege of paying the debt that he had contracted by his previous mean and evil treatment toward the Saints and Jesus Christ when he was upon the earth. He derided them, stoned them, laughed them to scorn, threw sticks after them in the streets, spat upon them, and was ready to raise a mob and do anything that was mean to afflict the Saints and servants of God. The Lord says—“I will show you that I have had my eye upon you, from before the foundation of the world, to make you a chosen vessel to bear my name where I would not send a man who had never persecuted my Saints.” Were I to meet brother Paul, he would say—“Brother Brigham, I have not received at the hands of my enemies more than I deserved. And when you were talking about me on the stand, on such and such a day, your eye was opened to see the path I had walked in.”

Do you not think that the Lord has his eye upon a great many? There is a passage of Scripture that reads thus—“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren,” &c. Whom did he not foreknow? I do not think there is anybody now on the earth, or that has lived before us, or that will come after us, but what he knew. He knew who would be his anointed; he has had his eye upon them all the time, as he had upon Moses, Pharaoh, Abraham, Melchizedek, and Noah, who was a chosen vessel to build the ark and save a remnant from the flood.

Did you ever hear the story of an old man that came to Noah when he was building the ark? “What, Mr. Noah, are you still at the ark? You are a veritable old fool, building an ark far away from any water! How are you going to float it?” “Wait a little while, and I will show you: by-and-by the Lord will break up the mighty deep and send forth the waters and drown the wicked.” “Oh, you are a fool, Noah! You had better build a good house, and plant and till the earth. I am going home,” &c. “Go on,” said Noah; “by-and-by you will learn that I am right.” They waited year after year, and by-and-by the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the rain began to descend. The old man came along, and Noah said to him, “What do you think now, neighbor?” “Oh, this is only a shower; it looks like clearing up; it will soon be over.” In a short time the old man came again, wading in water to his knees, when Noah said, “Well, what do you think now?” “Oh, it will soon clear away.” He came again, and that time he was paddling along in water up to his neck, and said, “Won’t you take me in, Noah?” “I have got my load; all who have received tickets are aboard, and those who have not tickets cannot come aboard. What do you think of it now, old man, is it only a little shower?” Then it was not, “Damn old Noah!” but they were crying, “Oh, Mr. Noah, take us in.” By-and-by it will be, “Mr. Smith, won’t you have a little compassion on us?” “No,” Joseph will say; “you would not take a ticket when I offered it to you by my brethren; you refused my tickets, and said it was ‘nothing but a shower, we guess it will pass off.’” According to the words of the Savior, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.”

“Brother Brigham, I think you talk pretty hard; for we feel very important, and we do not like to hear you speak against our charity and against our doings.” They assassinated Joseph Smith, and they drove us into the mountains, where, as they said, “the land is sterile and good for nothing,” and where the Indians would kill us, as they believed with all their hearts. They said and believed this, and prophesied day and night that the ‘Mormons’ were going, and would be starved to death or killed by Indians. We came here naked and barefoot: do you think that I shall ask any aid from them, when we are ready to go back? No. We brought our provisions, when we came here, to last us until we raised more. We brought our few farming implements, our seed grain, wives, and children, with comparative nakedness and poverty as to this world’s goods. My wives took skins and made moccasins to wear.

We have sustained ourselves, so far, in this far-off, barren region, and we shall live here. Do they want us to live here? No, nor anywhere else. Bark away; bark away; follow up the Saints; persecute the Saints. Can’t you buy them out, think you? “Oh dear, the ‘Mormons’ are getting Uncle Sam’s timber in the canyons.” Who is Uncle Sam? All of us. Get the timber out of the canyons, build houses, burn lime, cultivate the soil, and raise animals on the range, for we have a right so to do. But our enemies hunt, persecute, and make war upon us, and have done this to their sorrow. They have made war upon the Saints from the beginning, and now they will have war to the hilt, until they are used up, root and branch. In the name of Israel’s God, there will not be one of them left upon the earth. Will I hurt them? No. The Lord Almighty will lead them in a path wherein they will use themselves up. Don’t lay it to me; though, if you do, I don’t care.

It is quite interesting, is it not, for a man to rise up and make war upon one of his own children? Think how it would appear for a father to kick, cuff, and otherwise abuse the youngest and best son of twelve, never give a dime to encourage him, and then say to the eleven—“Now, boys, rise up and kill him outright.” Is not that treason of the blackest kind? It has been as much committed as it will be; and if they do not stop, they will be rubbed out. Have this people committed treason or transgressed the laws of their country? If any man says they have, he is a liar, and will go to hell, for he lies like hell. Those who say they have are of the Devil, and are his servants; they lie, and there is no truth in them; and they shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.

They made war with us, and they have committed treason. We have received enough abuse at their hands. Would we trouble them? No. If they would only let us alone, we would only preach the Gospel, and that we will do. The Lord has called me to this work, and I feel as though I will do it. We will send the Gospel to the nations; and when one nation turns us away, we will go to another and gather up the honest in heart, and the rest we care not for until we come on Mount Zion as saviors, to attend to the ordinances of the house of God for them. The Lord will let the people know that he will rule. The Devil has had possession of the earth a great while.

It would be very tyrannical, would it not, for a king to make laws that would make people do right? Oh what an overbearing government, that would be, would it not? “Now, let that man alone; earn and eat your own food, and do not steal that man’s.” What oppression there is in Utah, when one man rises up and hinders another from oppressing his neighbor! “Oh, what oppression! I will write to Washington about it.” Write where you please: all such will meet their doom.

Stop swearing and taking the name of God in vain. Are any in the habit of lying? Stop it. Are any in the habit of bearing false witness against your neighbor? Stop it. A man rises up—“Wife, I am going to break your head!” You can’t do this in Utah. A man rises up—“I want to steal that man’s wagon, or my neighbor’s axe!” You can’t do it with impunity in this community. Those who are in the habit of getting drunk, stop it: you must not get drunk in this community. Are you in the habit of spending your time for naught, and wasting the talents God has given you, and running about the streets tattling and making mischief? Stop it; this is not allowed in Utah. Stop your evil and all your sinning, and love righteousness, for that is applauded in Utah. I glory in it; I love it: it is sweet to me, sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb. I am with it, and it is with me; I live in it, delight in it, and expect to die in it, and live to all eternity in it. The spirit and power of justice, mercy, long-suffering, patience, kindness, and good acts to all around, filling up the measure of my life here and to all eternity in doing good, is what I delight in. That is the kingdom I love—the kingdom I am in; and I pray that God may roll on his work, and that iniquity may be swept from our midst, until we overcome, gather the honest in heart from all the earth, and fill it with righteousness. That we may enjoy that day of rest—that day of peace and perfect triumph over sin and iniquity, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 14, 1860.

We have enjoyed interesting and intelligent remarks by brother Taylor this morning; and perhaps we may all say, with propriety, that what has been said is sufficient for the present—that we are now full and need no more. What has been presented is very true and very satisfactory. I delight in hearing my brethren speak of things that pertain to God and godliness. Brother Taylor says there is no intelligence, only that which comes from God. We might ask, Is there any valuable fact known by any person, except by the revelations that flow from the Lord Jehovah? God is the source, the fountain of all intelligence, no matter who possesses it, whether man upon the earth, the spirits in the spirit world, the angels that dwell in the eternities of the Gods, or the most inferior intelligence among the devils in hell. All have derived what intelligence, light, power, and existence they have from God—from the same source from which we have received ours.

My delight, my joy, my life consist of the very things that brother Taylor has been laying before this congregation. Those principles pertain to eternal life. It is my delight to hear the things of God brought to the understanding of the children of men. This is the beauty of the Gospel we have received. The excellency of the glory of the character of brother Joseph Smith was that he could reduce heavenly things to the understanding of the finite. When he preached to the people—revealed the things of God, the will of God, the plan of salvation, the purposes of Jehovah, the relation in which we stand to him and all the heavenly beings, he reduced his teachings to the capacity of every man, woman, and child, making them as plain as a well-defined pathway. This should have convinced every person that ever heard of him of his divine authority and power, for no other man was able to teach as he could, and no person can reveal the things of God, but by the revelations of Jesus Christ. When we hear a man that can speak of heavenly things, and present them to the people in a way that they can be understood, you may know that to that man the avenue is open, and that he, by some power, has communication with heavenly beings; and when the highest intelligence is exhibited, he, perhaps, has communication with the highest intelligence that exists.

This Gospel is my glory. Jesus said to his disciples, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Why is it so? As brother Taylor has said, it is through the love that the people should have for the Gospel, which ought to be more than their love for fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, children, houses, lands, goods and chattels, or anything that pertains to this earth. The Spirit of revelation, even the Spirit of eternal life, is within that person who lives so as to bear properly the yoke of Jesus. The heavens are open to such persons, and they see and understand things that pertain to eternity, and also the things that pertain to this earth, which will pass away with it; and those who love the things of earth will pass away with it. When death takes them, all is gone.

But the person that wears the yoke of Jesus and bears his burden—who loves the cause of truth and righteousness more than all else—“Why,” says he, “Eternity is full of fathers and mothers. There is my Father enthroned in glory. He is the Father of my spirit.” God our Father, who dwells in eternity, is the Father of our spirits and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The man or woman that lives in the revelations of Jesus Christ can see and understand this. Here are our earthly fathers, the begetters of our mortal bodies; but there is the foundation of all the life that I or any other person can possess on the face of the earth, even God my Father who dwells in the heavens. There also is my mother.

I am not confined to love my father and mother here, if they do not love God, the fountain of all truth. In the heavens are fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers. Unless my father, mother, brother, sister, wife, and child, pertaining to the flesh, love God supremely, embrace the truth, and follow out the dictates of the Holy Ghost, they are not my kindred—I do not own them—I have nothing to do with them; they will perish, die, sink into forgetfulness, and be as though they had never been; they will pass away and return to native element. In heaven dwells my Father. There are the heavenly hosts—my sisters, my breth– ren, my kindred, and my friends; they are my bosom acquaintances. We behold each other with the natural eye, and that is shortsighted. But had we eyes to see as God sees, we could see our antipodes as well as we can see each other’s faces. We could see the uttermost parts of the earth and behold all creation as well at midnight as at noonday. Darkness would be no obstruction, incorporated matter, this Tabernacle, the houses, the earth, and even matter that fills space and prevents our seeing objects at great distances, would be no obstruction to our visions. Then we should behold that God is here, that our Father dwells here. We are in his presence, just as much as those who sit at the farthest side of this congregation are in my presence. There is much in my presence besides those who sit here, if we had eyes to see the heavenly beings that are in our presence.

The person that wears the yoke of Jesus, that has communication with the heavens, finds his yoke easy and his burden light; he is master of it. Wear the yoke of Jesus, bear his burden, and the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ will show to every individual that you are not servants of anything, but that the principles of eternal life give you the mastery—the supremacy over all things in heaven and on earth. As the Apostle has said—“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” All this, and all that men can imagine and a million times more, God has in store for us. If we are faithful, all is ours. If we trample sin and iniquity under our feet, then we are the masters, which makes the yoke easy and the burden light.

As has been observed, it is hard for a person to give up his appetites, and yield his passions and will to the will of God. The son and the father, the child and the mother, the servant and the master, are all amenable to the laws of the land in which they live. They are all under law: if not, they are a law unto themselves. They know right from wrong, and are restricted from doing wrong. The Gods are under the same restriction. If people do not observe the principles by which they should be guided, they sink under condemnation. If they follow correct laws, they preserve the identity of their character to all eternity, and will dwell with the Gods, angels, and these that inherit eternity. If we yield ourselves servants to obey the principles that hold us in existence, it gives to us our exaltation, and glorifies us with the Gods, and puts all things under our feet. What a glorious law that is! There is nothing here, except the sin within us, that repels this law. Trample every feeling that is opposed to this law under your feet.

The majority of the world of mankind would rather be damned than oppose their appetites. They feel like following them at the expense of their salvation. They do not like to be under the restriction of truth and right. They want to be where they can do what they please. They obey the law of death, and will have their reward and reap the extent of their wages; for they will have death, and nobody can have life but those that inherit it from God. All that refuse the truth—the Gospel of salvation, and yield themselves obedient to the law of sin and death, will reap in full the reward of their doings. It is hard for a child to obey its parents, for a servant to obey his master, and for people to obey the laws of the land. You frequently hear some persons grumbling about the laws of this city, and about the laws of this Territory, which are wholesome and good. Why don’t such persons live as some others do? I live above the laws. They do not in the least infringe upon me. The City Council never passed an ordinance that infringed upon me or upon my rights. Our Legislature has never passed a law that infringed upon me, because I live above the law through honoring every particle of it. In this course the law is beneath my feet and is my servant, not my master. Thousands live in this way.

The laws of the Gospel are neither more nor less than a few of the principles of eternity revealed to the people, by which they can return to heaven from whence they came. A few of the laws of the Gospel have been revealed to us in the last days, by which we can begin and walk the path back into the presence of the Father and the Son, having the communication opened between the heavens and the earth to reveal the will of God to the children of men. We delight in the heavenly law—in that law that will preserve us to all eternity. We delight more in this than in everything else. Here are my fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, wives, children. “What, are there wives and children for me in the eternal worlds?” Yes.

Let me here say a word to console the feelings and hearts of all who belong to this Church. Many of the sisters grieve because they are not blessed with offspring. You will see the time when you will have millions of children around you. If you are faithful to your covenants, you will be mothers of nations. You will become Eves to earths like this; and when you have assisted in peopling one earth, there are millions of earths still in the course of creation. And when they have endured a thousand million times longer than this earth, it is only as it were the beginning of your creations. Be faithful, and if you are not blest with children in this time, you will be hereafter. But I would not dare tell you all I know about these matters, though I know but little: still I am not a fool in the things of God, neither is brother Taylor, though he saw so much to learn that he did not realize that he had learned anything. We have learned a great deal, although we are still but babes and sucklings in the things of God; yet the truth and knowledge we possess pertaining to the plan of salvation outweigh all possessed by others on the earth. Be faithful, and you will delight in the things of God, and bear the yoke—carry the burden God has placed on you to bear.

Brother Taylor lifted his arm, and asked by what power he did it. It is by that inherent divinity you call will; God has placed it in every being. When you go into the dram shops in Whiskey Street, (Elders go there!) the salutation is, “How do you do, brother? Won’t you take a glass with me?” I have power to lift a glass and hand it to my brother, and say, “Come, brother, take a little liquor.” “No; I do not drink any strong drink.” “Oh, come, take a little for friendship’s sake.” I have power to hand it to my neighbor’s lips, and my neighbor has power to dash it out of my hands. Who has given me that power? It is inherent in me. What do you do, when these are presented to you—when the cup is handed to your lips? Will you partake of it, or say (taking a glass of water in his hand), Here are my best wishes for you to do right, but you may go to the Devil with your whiskey (dashing the water upon the floor). Have I the power to do this? You call it will. It is the divinity God has placed in his intelligent creatures. It is for us to overcome every evil passion we have, in consequence of the fall.

The Devil has the mastery of the earth: he has corrupted it, and has corrupted the children of men. He has led them in evil until they are almost entirely ruined, and are so far from God that they neither know Him nor his influence, and have almost lost sight of everything that pertains to eternity. This darkness is more prevalent, more dense, among the people of Christendom, than it is among the heathen. They have lost sight of all that is great and glorious—of all principles that pertain to life eternal.

Will you overcome evil? You have power to do so, for God has given you this power. You can toss the proffered glass to the ground, dash it out of your neighbor’s hand, or drink its contents, be a fool, wallow in the gutter, and die the death of a fool. Do as you please. I do not know of anything but what I am master of, with regard to appetite, as I have often told you. If I were not, I would at once have a war with myself.

What is there that I cannot do without? Can I do without seeing my father and mother pertaining to the earth? I can. I have not seen them for many years. My mother died when I was fourteen years of age, and my father died a few weeks after I left the States for England, in 1839. After the driving from Missouri, he said that he did not want to live any longer. I have not seen him for a long time. Can I do without seeing him? Yes, and pass my time comfortably. Suppose my wives and children should say, “Husband, father, we are going to leave you, unless you do thus and so.” I would say, Leave as quickly as you please, every one of you. My children, if they are froward and will not believe and obey the Gospel, are no more to me than the children now sitting here. Here are children, that I can take to my bosom, that will love and serve God; and they are dearer to me than those I have, unless they love the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do not believe it possible, since I have been baptized into this Church, for a woman to be presented to me that I could love, were she not in the Church of Jesus Christ and did not love the Gospel. That is my feeling today, and I expect it to remain from henceforth and forever.

The discourse we have heard this morning is excellent. It seemed to me as though the heavens were here and I could talk about them with a very good feeling, and induce the people to see and understand correct principles. How quickly they would shun evil and forsake that which would drag them down to everlasting ruin, if they could but see it.

Brethren and sisters, let us treasure up in our hearts all the good we can learn, and forsake all the evil we meet with—walk it under our feet. Evil is not worthy the notice and attention of these intelligences. Heavenly things and eternal principles will exalt those intelligences in the eternities of the Gods: these principles alone are worthy of your attention.

May the Lord help us to choose the way of life and salvation, and to be prepared to enjoy his society hereafter! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 8, 1860.

By the cash manifest just read by brother John T. Caine, you perceive that there has been expended, during the years 1857, 1858, 1859, and to Oct. 4, 1860, $70,204 in excess of what has been received in money and Tithing. This excess has been derived from cash received for lumber sold to the army to the amount of some 16,000 dollars or 18,000 dollars, and from the sale of sheep, horses, mules, cows, wagons, harness, &c., to various persons for cash. It has been rather difficult to raise the large amount of cash we have expended over the amount received on money-Tithing; but when it comes time to sleep, I do not stay awake contriving how we are to financier. I can understand in a very few minutes all that is necessary and possible to be done, without taking very great thought in the matter.

At times it seems as though all hell and earth are combined to keep money out of my hands. A great many of the people would give me millions, if they had it; but most of those who have it will not part with it. Those who are liberal have nothing, and they would give me all they have. Scarcely a man comes into this Church, having much of an amount of money, but what spends his money before he gathers with the Saints. Persons would conceal from Joseph that they had any money, and, after they had spent or lost it all, would come to him and—“Oh, how I love you, brother Joseph!” If you think you can keep the money from me, you will be mistaken, for I shall have what is necessary to carry on this work; and those who take a course to hedge up my way in business transactions, pertaining to carrying on this work, will go to the Devil. They shall have that promise, with my blessing. I do not curse people, but I bless that class with a plenty of devils.

For four years past we have not had much money pass through our hands. In previous years merchants here have received as much money from me yearly as you have heard read here today. During the past few years we have had to manage and plan pretty closely in our business transactions. Those who bring coal to sell want money, and the brethren who labor on the Public Works need a little money now and then. Some think that brother Wells, who is our Superintendent of Public Works, is hard and close in his public dealings; but he is not. I have explained all that is necessary in regard to this matter. We traffic and trade, we drive cattle to California, and trade here and there, and do everything we can to carry on this work. You know, and my wives and children know, that it is my mind that those who do nothing but sit in rocking chairs can live on potatoes and buttermilk, while those who do the labor should have both the substantial food and the luxuries. My friends know that this is my mind all the time.

Some may think that my individual business is so mixed and combined with the public business that I cannot keep them separate. This is not the case, as you can learn by asking brother David O. Calder, or brother John T. Caine, who has been reading a manifest to you. Hiram B. Clawson, John T. Caine, and Thomas Ellerbeck are the clerks who keep the books of my private business; and the Trustee-in-Trust has his clerks, of whom David O. Calder is the chief. Horace Whitney, Joseph Simmons, and Amos M. Musser are his associate clerks, and they keep the books pertaining to the public business. My own private business is kept distinct from the public business. If brother Calder wishes one hundred or a thousand dollars, if I have it, he borrows it of Hiram B. Clawson and pays it back; and so also brother Clawson borrows of him and returns it. The teasers who come all the time after women, and soon get tired of them and want to divorce them, I make pay ten dollars for each divorce, and that is my individual bank. If I want five dollars or fifty cents from Hiram B. Clawson, it is charged to me; and if he receives money from me, it is credited to me; and not a dollar (except what I hand out or give away out of my private purse), goes out of my office, either in private or public capacity, without passing through its appropriate set of books. I tell you this, that all may know that my private affairs are not amalgamated with the public affairs. Brigham Young and the Trustee-in-Trust are two persons in business. When you speak of Brigham Young as Trustee-in-Trust, he is one man; and when as Brigham Young, he is another; and the business between these two names is kept as strictly separate as is the business of any two firms in the world. If you want to know anything about the money, item by item, how it has been obtained and how expended, our books are open.

We do not ask anybody to pay Tithing, unless they are disposed to do so; but if you pretend to pay Tithing, pay it like honest men. And Bishops who have it in their power to gather money-Tithing, it is their duty to do it; and if they do not, they do not magnify their calling. And brethren that have money, pay your Tithing on it while you have it; and when you turn your property, upon which Tithing is due, into money, pay your Tithing in money. Here are thousands of men wearing good hats, coats, pantaloons, &c., &c., that I have paid the money for. And women with costly ribbons on their bonnets, I pay the money for these ribbons; and I pay the money for the slippers on their feet, for their stockings, their garments, &c. I have paid the money for these articles, year after year. Is it not your duty to see that I have a little money? Were the Lord to reveal to me where the ancient Jaredites hid their hundred of millions of dollars’ worth of treasure, I should not take it and hand it out to the people, unless the Lord directed me to do so; otherwise, it would perhaps seal the damnation of many; for at present you are better off without those treasures than you would be with them.

If I am under obligation to see this Gospel carried to all the nations of the earth, so also is every Elder of Israel. If it is my duty to see the poor gathered, so it is the duty of every Elder. There is no excuse for any man: everyone ought to put forth his hands and means, and do according to his ability.

We have often told you that we want to build a Temple, but not for convening promiscuous congregations. I inform you, long before you see the walls reared and the building completed, that it will be for the purposes of the Priesthood, and not for meetings of the people: we shall not hold public meetings in it. I should like to see the Temple built, in which you will see the Priesthood in its order and true organization, each Quorum in its place. If we want a larger building than this Tabernacle for public exercises, here is the ground already planned, and has been for years. We can, if we choose, build a Tabernacle that will accommodate fifteen thousand people. The Temple will be for the endowments—for the organization and instruction of the Priesthood. If you want to build a Temple on these conditions, you can have the privilege. But I never again want to see one built to go into the hands of the wicked. I have asked my Father to give me power to build a Temple on this block, but not until I can forever maintain my rights in it. I would rather see it burnt than to see it go into the hands of devils. I was thankful to see the Temple in Nauvoo on fire. Previous to crossing the Mississippi River, we had met in that Temple and handed it over to the Lord God of Israel; and when I saw the flames, I said, “Good, Father, if you want it to be burned up.” I hoped to see it burned before I left, but I did not. I was glad when I heard of its being destroyed by fire, and of the walls having fallen in, and said, “Hell, you cannot now occupy it.” When the Temple is built here, I want to maintain it for the use of the Priesthood: if this cannot be, I would rather not see it built, but go into the mountains and administer there in the ordinances of the holy Priesthood, which is our right and privilege. I would rather do this than to build a Temple for the wicked to trample under their feet.

There are great and glorious things yet to be revealed. We are but babes and sucklings in the knowledge of God and godliness. With all we know and understand by the Priest– hood here in the midst of this people, we are mere infants before the angels in heaven. We want to instruct the people and prepare them to enter into the presence of the Father and the Son. We want to gather the poor, send the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, and do a great many other good things; and we will do so. We will turn the world right side up, for it is now wrong side up, and we want to turn it over, prepare it, and present it to Him who owns it, in a more goodly form and attitude than it has been for many centuries.

[Here Elder John T. Caine read a list of the subscriptions to the Missionary Fund.]

We will send our Elders forth to preach, and will furnish, as we have now, wagons, mules, harness, &c., to those who are not able to provide those things for themselves. When our Missionaries reach the frontiers, they will place a fair valuation upon their animals, &c., the money will be paid to them, and they can at once proceed to their different fields of labor. I pay them the money for the property they have at the frontiers, and when they return I want them to come home as poor as they go away. If anyone wishes to get rich, let him stay here and get rich, and not enrich himself from the labors and means of the poor Saints abroad. You may think that I am severe on that course. I am, and I mean to be, until I stop it. It has been growing and growing, becoming tall—almost ungovernable and out of my reach; but my foot is set upon it, and I will walk it under and the influence of anyone who promotes such a principle. If I want to become wealthy, I will stay here and accumulate property. If brother Heber C. Kimball, Daniel H. Wells, or the Twelve Apostles want to accumulate wealth, stay here and do it, and not go into the world to become rich. When you go into the world, go to preach the Gospel; and if you have a sixpence, give it to the people. Give your time and talent to the people; and if the Lord puts money into your pockets, it is not yours, only for you to use to save the people spiritually and temporally.

We are going to fit out our Elders from here, asking no odds of the world: we have proved them enough. The gold and the silver belong to the Lord Almighty, and he will hand it over to us as fast as we know how to use it to his name’s glory. Some say, “If we had a gold mine, we would do well.” If I knew where there was a gold mine, I would not tell you. I do not want you to find one, and I do not mean that you shall; or, if you do, it shall be over my faith. We have gold enough in the world, and it is all the Lord’s, and we do not deserve more than we get. Let us make good use of that, and send out the Elders.

Brother Woolley stated, yesterday, that he wished to see men and women who are too lazy to cook their victuals come with handcarts. They are the ones that will not come with handcarts; they have to be conveyed in wagons; and when they arrive here they will apostatize. It seems impossible to have them to do so anywhere else; and we want them here as soon as possible, that they may apostatize and leave—get out of our way—that we may go on with our labors; and in this we are making a few devils for future use, to carry on our kingdoms.

Let the brethren who pretend to be Bishops be so indeed, and gather Tithing. And if the people pretend to pay Tithing, pay it properly and fairly, so far as you do pay, or let it alone entirely. Keep your dollars and cents, your horses and mules, your grain, &c., if you choose; but if you pretend to pay Tithing, pay it like men: act like men and Saints. We want to build a Temple on this block. Don’t you think that hell will howl? What did we tell you when we laid those foundation walls? We told you that all hell would be on the move. That has transpired, and still they say, “We have not persecuted you;” but they are liars. Who among them have stepped forward and said, “Let those men alone?” Only a few. Our friend who came here in the dead of winter, having left his wife sick nigh unto death, is one of those who will yet have a celestial crown; he is on the road to it. When Judge Kinney was in Washington, he spoke well of this people. So far as I know, he has never spoken evil of this people, but every time he met an Elder in Washington he received him as a friend, spoke to him kindly, and was not ashamed to walk arm-in-arm with him in the streets of that city. There is a kingdom for him—a kingdom of glory. When they wanted him to come here as a Governor, I am told that he said, “Yes, if you send no soldiers there.” He has a heart; and I say, God bless him and every other good, honest man, whether he is a “Mormon” or not. Who ever walked more correctly in his sphere of business than Judge Shaver? No man. He was as upright as a man could be. He came here as a Judge, and he honored the people, he honored his office, he honored the President in his appointment, and he honored the laws of the Territory and the laws of the Government. There is a kingdom for him; he will have his reward.

There is a great difference between persecuting this people and the people of other sects. God will make persecutors pay every debt they contract with this people. This is the Priesthood of the Almighty. God has set his hand the second time to gather the people. It will not do to trifle with this people. “Touch not mine anointed,” saith the Lord. O ye inhabitants of the earth, be careful how you infringe upon the Latter-day Saints. They are the anointed of the Lord, and are like the apple of his eye, and he will bring you into judgment for every act and move you make against them. This nation will be shivered to pieces. There is no cohesion in the particles that compose it. If you touch it, it will fall to pieces, for it is shattered from its center to its circumference. They think it so strange that the “harmonious democracy” can divide. You might as well try to put out the sun as to make them united. God is working with them; he is taking his Spirit from them. They are like water spilled upon the ground; there is no soundness nor stability left in them; they are devoid of good sense. God has called away the intelligence he bestowed upon them, and every move they make will sink them deeper and deeper in the mire, until they are lost and gone forever. We wish them no evil; we heap no coals of fire on their heads, only by doing them good and exhorting them to refrain from meddling with this people. The time is nigh when every man that will not take up his sword against his neighbor must needs flee to Zion. Where is Zion? Where the organization of the Church of God is. And may it dwell spiritually in every heart; and may we so live as to always enjoy the Spirit of Zion! Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1860.

You have heard the testimony of brother Hyde: it is full of spirit, full of matter, full of marrow. He has spoken words of truth—the words of the Lord.

There are hundreds and thousands of Elders who would be glad to bear their testimony to the truth. Be faithful, walk uprightly before God, deal justly with all, love mercy, shun every appearance of evil, and magnify your Priesthood, and you shall have the opportunity of speaking, bearing rule, dictating, guiding, and directing, to your full satisfaction, the things that pertain to the kingdom of God. This promise is to all who are faithful. They shall receive a fulness of kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, and all the fulness pertaining to the Godhead, to their full satisfaction and capability. This should be a satisfaction to all.

At the first impression, the testimony of one man is equally valid with that of another; but when people are filled with understanding to discern and comprehend the principles by which the worlds were made, and by which they are governed and controlled, they realize that there is a vast difference between the man who assumes his authority and the one who is appointed by his master, to go and transact business. Suppose that a number of individuals having no appointment, credentials, or authority, should come from any foreign country to the capital of our nation, and pretend to be ministers of the govern– ment from whence they came, what attention would be paid to them by our Government? None, officially; though they would probably be treated kindly, and as gentlemen, if they behaved themselves. But when a minister from the English or any other European court comes with his appointment, credentials, recommends, &c., the President of the United States, the Congress, and officers of state are ready to receive him with the respect due to his position. So it is in the kingdom of God, and in regard to this people.

Our persecutors have supposed that they persecuted us upon the same principle that the Reformers were persecuted in the days of Martin Luther and others; but in this they are mistaken. Tell the world—sound it in the ears of kings and rulers, that they are persecuting a people to whose God they will have to pay every debt they contract: they will be brought into judgment for every act against this kingdom. This is the kingdom of God; these are the people of God, as are all who receive the truth and follow its principles. As to parentage, we are no more the children of God than are the rest of the inhabitants of the earth. Originally, as to our parents, as to our organization and that which pertains to our life, we are all the children of one Father, whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or free, black or white, noble or ignoble. The difference we see arises in consequence of the different use made of the agency given to man. Be careful, all the world, and touch not the anointed of the Lord. Afflict not the people who have the oracles of salvation for all the human family. Will the world believe this statement? They can if they choose; but the great majority of the inhabitants of the earth will reject life and salvation when it is presented to them, and in the end it will be like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. A few here and a few there will receive the truth, and the Lord will empty the earth of the wickedness that now dwells upon it.

As brother Hyde has stated, the “harmonious democracy” that undertook to destroy this people, broke in pieces in the State where the Lord, twenty-eight years ago, on the 25th of next December, revealed to the Prophet Joseph that the nation would begin to break. But I do not wish to make a political speech, nor to have anything to do with the politics and parties in our Government. They love sin, and roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongues. Had they the power, they would dethrone Jehovah; had they the power, they would today crucify every Saint there is upon the earth; they would not leave upon the earth one alive in whose veins runs the blood of the Priesthood. Yet they are our brethren and sisters—bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh—sprung from one parentage. God is our Father—Jesus Christ is our Elder Brother. If the world would understand this, and take warning, and be cautious, it would be far better for them. Will they? No: they do not and will not realize facts as they exist, and we cannot help it. All we can do is to plead with them, preach to them the words of eternal life, and offer it to them as it has been offered to us. If they receive it, blessed are they. If they reject it, it is their privilege. The powers and faculties of their organizations are for themselves to use as they elect; for they, as well as we, are agents before God, and can choose or refuse according to their own pleasure. But they are broken in pieces. Do I wish to predict this? No, for it was predicted long ago. The nation that has lifted itself against the kingdom of God is already shivered to pieces. Touch it, and it will crumble under your touch. The cohesiveness of its particles is gone—they cannot cling together, and they will be sifted as with a sieve of vanity. God’s controversy with them has commenced; he has commenced with this nation, and in its turn he will sift every nation there is upon the face of the earth.

In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called the American continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days of the floating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the earth: the earth was divided, and there he set up his kingdom. Did they receive his kingdom? No; they rejected it. Afterwards he called a man, and ordained him, and showed to him the inhabitants of the whole earth, and gave to him a promise that his offspring should be the people of God. He spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their children, as his covenant people. The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, who came to redeem the world. They cried—“Crucify him, crucify him! Let his blood be upon us, and upon our children!” God has removed the kingdom from Jerusalem again to Zion, and here he will wind up the scene. Righteousness will go forth, and the wickedness upon the earth will be swept from it. Will I prophesy evil? No; let us prophesy good. But the justice and mercy of God must have their demands. Let everything have its place and its just due, both the good and the evil; and we will not curse the wicked, for they are already cursed; the wrath of the Almighty does not slumber upon their track; their condition is lamentable. They live and flourish, and may have a few days of prosperity, as the enemies of the Prophets did anciently. They flourish like a green bay tree, and may so flourish for a few days; but they will become withered and dried and prepared to be cast into the fire, while the kingdom of God will stand; and if we do not remain faithful, others will take our places.

This is the kingdom of God, set up for the last time; and whosoever persecutes it persecutes the Son of God and the Father who sent him. Here is the Priesthood (the keys of power and wisdom) that unlocks the storehouse of knowledge. These keys and this power the world know nothing of. It is marvelous to the world that the things that are known here—the very things that God reveals here—are often at once known by portions of this kingdom in other nations. To many it is marvelous that intelligence can be so rapidly communicated by means of the electromagnetic telegraph, but our method of communication is from heaven.

We know and understand the nations of the earth, the power by which they exist, and their rise and downfall: the facts are before us. Reflect upon those powerful nations that have existed, but are now nationally as though they had never been: so it will be with the nations that now exist—they will pass away, others will come, and God will reign King of nations as he now does King of Saints. It is a glorious thought, my brethren—a thought that should touch the heart of every being on the face of this earth, that God is going to reign Lord of lords and King of kings—that he is coming to the earth again. His kingdom is growing, and his grace is bestowed upon his children, and they are coming to understanding and growing in grace.

It is not pleasing to a potter, after he has a batch of clay mixed, ground, and made smooth and pliable for working into vessels, to have an apprentice throw rough, unbroken, unground stuff into the prepared clay; but, comparatively speaking, we have to bear this. When we are getting the clay into fine condition, a mass of unprepared material is mixed up with it, and it is our business to continue to grind, to prepare the whole of the mass together. I suppose the Lord wants to prepare all the good clay that can be found upon the face of the earth, that when he comes he can make up his jewels. Then you who have oil in your vessels will go and meet the Bridegroom. Are we going to be prepared? Let every soul of us strive to be found among those who will be counted wise at his coming, for we can go into the highways and hedges and find plenty of the foolish. Let us try to be wise—to obey the servants and commandments of the Almighty, doing his will continually, that we may be prepared to enter at the marriage supper.

The scripture concerning the five wise and five foolish virgins will be fulfilled, as will also the revelation that was given to Joseph about the nations breaking to shivers. I wish some of the world’s learned theologians would tell us what became of the foolish virgins. Call up the wisdom and knowledge there is in Christendom, and learn whether they can tell anything about those foolish virgins. I have not time now to tell what became of them, but I think they did not go to the bottom of the bottomless pit. Is it not a glorious thought that there are kingdoms, mansions of glory, and comfortable habitations prepared for all the sons and daughters of Adam, except the sons of perdition? All will not have part in the first resurrection, and perhaps many will not appear in the second; but all will be resurrected, and, except the sons of perdition, enter kingdoms, the least of which I presume is more glorious than ever John Wesley saw in vision. All the inhabitants of the earth will enter a glory, except the sons of perdition, or angels to the Devil. But where will they dwell? What shall be their fate before they are prepared for a kingdom of glory? They will be cast into prison, and there remain until they have paid the debt they have contracted; wherefore it is better to make peace with the officer while in the way with him, as Jesus has said. After they have been thrust into prison and paid the uttermost farthing, then perhaps they will receive a life, a glory, a kingdom that will be in accordance with their feelings, desires, and doings while they were on the earth.

The kingdom that this people are in pertains to the celestial kingdom; it is a kingdom in which we can prepare to go into the presence of the Father and the Son. Then let us live to inherit that glory. God has promised you, Jesus has promised you, and the Apostles and Prophets of old and of our day have promised you that you shall be rewarded according to all you can desire in righteousness before the Lord, if you live for that reward. As Patriarch Joseph Smith, the father of Joseph the Prophet, said—“If I have not promised blessings enough on your head, and stated enough in the blessing I have given you, sit down and write every good thing you can think of, and every good thing your neighbor can think of, and put all into your blessing, and I will sign it and promise the whole to you, if you will only live for it.” But suppose a person does not live for the promised blessings, will he receive them? No. And we say to the Elders of Israel, Be faithful, and you shall see the day when you will have all the power you can wield and manage to advantage. I can call Thos. B. Marsh, who is now in the congregation, to witness: he was once the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Soon after the selection of that Quorum, brother Marsh felt to complain. I said to him, brother Thomas, if we are faithful, we will see the day, in the midst of this people, that we will have all the power that we shall know how to wield before God. I call him to witness if I have not already seen that day. Look at the rest of my brethren, and have they not all the power they can wield?

Brother Hyde, in his remarks, spoke about the voice of God at a certain time. I could tell many incidents relating to that circumstance, which he did not take time to relate. We were in his house, which was some ten or twelve feet square. The houses in the neighborhood shook, or, if they did not, the people thought they did, for they ran together and inquired whether there had been an earthquake. We told them that the voice of God had reached the earth—that they need not be afraid; it was the power of God. This and other events have transpired to satisfy the people—you, and all who belong to the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth.

When I met Sidney Rigdon, east of the temple in Nauvoo, I knew then what I now know concerning the organization of the Church, though I had told no man of it. I revealed it to no living being, until the pioneers to this valley were returning to Winter Quarters. Brother Wilford Woodruff was the first man I ever spoke to about it. Said he—“It is right; I believe it, and think a great deal of it, for it is from the Lord; the Church must be organized.” It then went to others, and from them to others; but it was no news to me, for I understood it then as I understand it now.

The policy of God is not the policy of man: his wisdom and power are above the wisdom and power of man. Be faithful to your calling and magnify it. The kingdom and the greatness thereof under the whole heaven are ours. The yoke is broken, the fetters are burst, and the Lord Almighty will assert his right; and his will will be done by the Saints on this the land of Zion, to purify and cleanse it. And those who are expecting to receive the benefit and blessings of Zion never will, but will receive the judgments of Zion, unless their hearts are as pure as the angels. The man that is acting according to his ability, as are the angels, must be pure and holy in heart, must not have an evil wish or desire reigning in his mortal body, but must be sanctified through the truth to the God of heaven. What do you think, Elders—will any of you receive blessings upon any other grounds? No, not one of you.

There are a great many who profess to be still in the faith, neglecting to gather, and waiting for the time when Zion will be redeemed. George W. Harris, whom many of you remember, was going to wait in Kanesville until we returned. Brother George A. Smith told him that the nearest way to the Center Stake of Zion was through Great Salt Lake City. Harris has gone to the spirit world, and where his circuit will be I neither know nor care, though I am well convinced that brother George A. Smith was right.

Where is the Center Stake of Zion? In Jackson County, Missouri. Were I to try to prevent you from going there, I could not do it. Can the wicked? No. Can the devils in hell? No, they cannot. Zion will be redeemed and built up, and the Saints will rejoice. This is the land of Zion; and who are Zion? The pure in heart are Zion; they have Zion within them. Purify yourselves, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and have the Zion of God within you, and then you will rejoice more and more. Pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks. Is it not a hard task to live this religion without enjoying the spirit of it? Such a course worries the feelings, fills a person with sorrow and affliction, and makes him miserable. The easiest life to live, by any mortal being on the earth, is to live in the light of God’s countenance, and have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ. I know this by my own experience. In this course there is no darkness, no sorrow, no grief. The power of the Spirit of God has preserved me in the vigor of youth, and I am as active as a boy. How is it with you who do not enjoy the spirit of your religion? It is a hard life for you to live; and you had better, from this day, take a course to enjoy the Spirit of the Lord; then you will be numbered with the wise. Let us all so live as to have oil in our vessels, our lamps trimmed for lighting, and be ready to go in with the Bridegroom to the marriage supper. I could tell you the meaning of that portion of Scripture, but I have not time now.

The most ignorant of our Elders, with the Spirit and power of God upon them, can, in knowledge of Scripture, lead the smartest of the Gentile priests into deep water, and dip them under, and draw them back again at their pleasure, and confound the Scripture knowledge of the priestcraft that is on the earth. During our return from England, brother Heber C. Kimball was beset by a number of Baptist priests who had been attending a conference. He read them all down out of the New Testament. Brother George A. Smith sat beside them with a pocket Bible, and brother Heber would say—“Brother George, turn to that.” “Oh,” said the priests, “you need not turn to it, for we recollect it,” when there was no such passage in the Bible. He sat for two hours and advanced much Scripture that never was in the Bible, as did Benjamin Franklin, when he was conversing with a man who opposed him upon the subject of charity, and was particularly in favor of justice. “You remember the Scripture,” said Franklin, “where it reads like this—Once on a time an old man came at eventide to Abram’s tent. Abram bid him welcome, but as he entered the tent he gave not God thanks. He said to Abram, Canst thou give me meat? And Abram said, Thou art not a servant of God, and thou shalt not have meat. The old man said, Let me have meat, that I may live and not die. And the voice of the Lord came to Abram in this wise: Abram, Abram, beholdest thou this aged servant of mine, with whom I have borne ninety-nine years, and canst thou not bear with him one night?” When Franklin got through, the man had yielded the point, and asked him where he read that; to which Franklin replied, “You will find it in the 51st chapter of Genesis!” and there are only fifty chapters in that book. Our Elders may tell the priests that there are fifty-one chapters in Genesis, and but few of them, if any, will know that there are only fifty. With regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world.

Saints, live your religion faithfully, and you will enjoy life; and when you are as old as I am, your hair will be as bright as mine is. If I live to the first day of next June, I shall be sixty years old, though I do not look or feel as though I had reached that age. What preserves me? The spirit of my religion—the power of God that is upon me and through me. I love it; it is better to me than meat and drink—than my temporal life. Many a man will lay down his life for his religion, but will not live it one day. Live your religion, and have no desire but to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. The love of God is bestowed upon this people, and what is its effect? Persons in foreign lands, for the Gospel, for the sake of Jesus and the kingdom of God, have left fathers, mothers, children, wives, husbands, and every other relative they had, and come to this distant region. The Gospel will take two of a city, and, once in a while, one of a family; it will take one here and another there. Fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters are no more to me than are any other persons, unless they embrace this work. Here are my fathers, my mothers, my sisters, and my brethren in the kingdom, and I have none outside of it, neither in any part of the earth, nor in all the eternity of the Gods. In this kingdom are my acquaintances, relatives, and friends—my soul, my affections, my all.

I will carry this idea a little further, for the sake of those who are unmarried. Since I was baptized into this Church and kingdom, if all the female beauty had been simmered down into one woman not in this kingdom, she would not have appeared handsome to me; but if a person’s heart is open to receive the truth, the excellency of love and beauty is there. How is it with you, sisters? Do you distinguish between a man of God and a man of the world? It is one of the strangest things that happens in my existence, to think that any man or woman can love a being that will not receive the truth of heaven. The love this Gospel produces is far above the love of women: it is the love of God—the love of eternity—of eternal lives.

May God bless you! Amen.

Remarks by Elder Orson Hyde, made at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1860.

Feeling thankful for the opportunity of meeting with you, this morning, in the capacity of our Semi-Annual Conference, I cannot but express my gratitude to God that I am a member of that Church which is everywhere spoken against, even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful to God, my Heavenly Father, that he has revealed the everlasting Gospel in its fulness, and made me, as well as many of you, the honored instruments to proclaim it to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, wherever our lots may be cast.

Of all people upon the face of the whole earth, none have so great reason to be thankful as we. We are brought into the school of Christ to be instructed in the laws, spirit, and policy of his kingdom.

Many of you will bear in mind that at our last Conference, six months ago, many of the speakers bore powerful testimony to the truth and certainty of the cause in which we are engaged; and you will also recollect that I told you then that that testimony would seriously affect all nations and people—that it would be felt throughout the entire world—that it would be borne by an invisible hand, and its influence, like the frosts of autumn, blight the growing and flourishing prospects of all political and worldly schemes and enterprises. Contemplate now, through the glass of the public newspapers and journals, the condition of the nations of Europe, of Asia, and of America! Our own favored land is in commotion. The political elements are heavily charged with electricity, and the louring storm clouds are gathering in our horizon, threatening to avenge the blood of martyred Prophets and Apostles, and the inhumanity and cruelty practiced upon the Saints of God. None of those things are forgotten. They are written with imperishable characters in the memory of this people, and their cries and their prayers have transmitted them to the sacred records above, to be answered in their behalf by storms, by tempests, by whirlwinds, by earthquakes, by famines, by the sword, and also by flames of devouring fire.

The testimony of the servants of God, before alluded to, forcibly reminds me of a certain class of men spoken of in the Revelation of St. John, who overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. When our testimony goes forth from this stand, we cannot always tell exactly where it may take effect; but we know that it will not return void. It must fall somewhere. It is like the seeds of plants and flowers, which are often carried high in the air and wafted on the breeze to a remote distance; yet the laws of gravity will ultimately compel them to a resting place, where their effects may be seen.

For me to testify to you that “Mormonism” is true—to declare its destiny and final triumph—would be like telling you that the sun shines. It is something that you see, and consequently know; yet it is not at all likely that the sun now shines in the eyes of all people. Hence I volunteer my testimony. You may regard it in the light of a ship of war taking in her shot and shells at a home port, that are designed to batter down an enemy’s walls on a foreign shore.

What is called “Mormonism” by the world is the fulness of the everlasting Gospel—the truth of God—the only way of salvation for all people to whom it is made known or in any way declared, and destined to rule the world. While on this branch of my subject, allow me to introduce a testimony given me, not long since, under other and peculiar circumstances. Hear it, all ye people! “Mormonism will win its way through the world, and triumph in the face of any and all opposition. There is a God that never sleeps, an eye that never slumbers, and an arm that never becomes feeble. This God is our God, and through our agency he has decreed the triumph of his cause. ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ There is no man on earth, no people on earth, no nation on earth, no kindred or tongue on earth, or the whole combined, that raises the hand or voice against the kingdom of God or its policy as now established, but that will be rejected of God, dishonored of men, and go to ruin with the wrath of Heaven upon them.”

Having the spirit of our calling, we wax bold in our testimony. When a few more Conferences shall have been held by this people, compare the coming history of nations with this my testimony, and you will be satisfied that I now tell you the truth.

The liberty of the Gospel, with your indulgence, will allow me to give some political matters a passing and respectful notice. I am no politician, and it cannot be expected that I shall treat such subjects as Messrs. Douglas, Bell, Breckenridge, or Lincoln would. In such matters they are workmen. I am but a bungler; yet in times of general election, when political speeches are flaming all around, it is not to be wondered at that even a novice should attempt to fire up a little on the importance of the times.

First and foremost, I will briefly allude to some aspirants to office and honors in the Church of which we are members. There have been aspirants to the Presidency of this Church ever since the death of Joseph Smith, and even before. It may be regarded as lost time to allude to these things at all by which any portion of the day is consumed. But, brethren, bear with me. I have read the writings of every aspirant to the presiding Priesthood in this Church since the days of Joseph. I have marked their cold, dry, technical, husky, and spiritless reasonings from the Book of Mormon, from the Doctrine and Covenants, Bible, &c., quite voluminous, resembling the bile ejected from a disordered stomach. I have never discovered one burst of the Spirit of God in all their claims or publications.

Who has ever read Brigham Young’s writings in which he has labored to establish his right and claim to the Presidency of the Church? No one. God pleads his own cause through Brigham, because he obeys him; but man has to plead the cause of man who is sordid, illiberal, murmuring, and corrupt.

In the month of February, 1848, the Twelve Apostles met at Hyde Park, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where a small Branch of the Church was established; and I must say that I feel not a little proud of the circumstance, and also very thankful, on account of its happening in my own little retired and sequestered hamlet, bearing my own name. We were in prayer and council, communing together; and what took place on that occasion? The voice of God came from on high, and spake to the Council. Every latent feeling was aroused, and every heart melted. What did it say unto us? “Let my servant Brigham step forth and receive the full power of the presiding Priesthood in my Church and kingdom.” This was the voice of the Almighty unto us at Council Bluffs, before I removed to what was called Kanesville. It has been said by some that Brigham was appointed by the people, and not by the voice of God. I do not know that this testimony has often, if ever, been given to the masses of the people before; but I am one that was present, and there are others here that were also present on that occasion, and did hear and feel the voice from heaven, and we were filled with the power of God. This is my testimony; these are my declarations unto the Saints—unto the members of the kingdom of God in the last days, and to all people.

We said nothing about the matter in those times, but kept it still. [After seating myself in the stand, I was reminded of one circumstance that occurred, which I omitted in my discourse. Men, women, and children came running together where we were, and asked us what was the matter. They said that their houses shook, and the ground trembled, and they did not know but that there was an earthquake. We told them that there was nothing the matter—not to be alarmed; the Lord was only whispering to us a little, and that he was probably not very far off. We felt no shaking of the earth or of the house, but were filled with the exceeding power and goodness of God.] We knew and realized that we had the testimony of God within us. On the 6th day of April following, at our Annual Conference, held in the Log Tabernacle at Kanesville, the propriety of choosing a man to preside over the Church was investigated. In a very few minutes it was agreed to, and Brigham Young was chosen to fill that place without a dissenting voice, the people not knowing that there had been any revelation touching the matter. They ignorantly seconded the voice of the Lord from on high in his appointment. (Voice from the stand: “That is Vox Dei, vox populi.”) Yes, the voice of God was the voice of the people. Brigham went right ahead, silently, to do the work of the Lord, and to feed his sheep, and take care of them like a faithful shepherd, leaving all vain aspirants to quarrel and contend about lineal descent, right, power, and authority.

Some persons say that Brigham does not give revelations as did Joseph Smith. But let me tell you, that Brigham’s voice has been the voice of God from the time he was chosen to preside, and even before. Who that has heard him speak, or that has read his testimonies, or that is acquainted with his instructions, does not know that God is with him? Who does not know, Jew or Gentile, that has come in contact with his policy, that he possesses a power with which they are unable to compete. He possesses skill, wisdom, and power that trouble wise men and rulers. God will make him a greater terror to nations than he ever has been.

I will now quote a few passages from the revelations of God as contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—“My words shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice out of the heavens, or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” Again, concerning his servants—“Whatsoever you shall speak by my Spirit shall be scripture—shall be the word of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.” Again, from the New Testament, Jesus says, “Whosoever heareth you (whom I send) heareth me.” You men of business do not empower and send an agent to transact business for you unless you intend to honor his words and his doings. The law will compel you to do this. The God of heaven does not send forth his servants upon the earth but with the fixed purpose to honor their words when they abide in the instructions given them.

I will now pave the way for my political manifest. Jesus says, “Whosoever falleth upon this stone shall be broken.” What stone does he refer to? The Lord says to his disciples, “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter answers—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus indicated to Peter that he had spoken truly by saying unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” This stone or rock was the word of God revealed unto Peter. Present revelation from God, then, is the stone or rock which our Savior spoke of. Any church or any people built upon this foundation cannot be prevailed against by any power, for one obvious reason: whenever a people are built upon this foundation and they get into trouble and difficulty, they will ask the Lord to show them the way out; and being built upon present revelation and in communion with God, he will tell them what to do. His wisdom is greater than the cunning of the Devil, and consequently the gates of hell cannot prevail against them. Any people built upon this foundation are hard to head, though their numbers may be small. The ancient church was never overcome until they lost this principle of present revelation. Then they were prevailed against and fell away, because they ceased to build upon this foundation—the stone or rock of present revelation. Solomon says—“Where no vision is, the people perish.”

Many churches are built up in the world, professedly, unto the name of Christ. But have they present revelation? No, they have not. They despise the idea of present revelation, and kill the Prophets that give them, and persecute the people that believe them. Will the gates of hell prevail against such? To whom will our Savior say—“Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I know you not?” Will it not be to those who are not built upon this rock? Now for politics.

To send the army to Utah was the measure and policy of a Democratic administration of the United States Government. This Democratic administration was the only legitimate power that could send it here. It was the official channel through which the flood was poured in upon us. Merchants, gamblers, whoremasters, thieves, murderers, false writers, drunkards, and, to cap the climax, a drunken, debauched judiciary, with plenty of bayonets to enforce their decrees. Some decent men came, most likely; yet I know not one with whom I could safely trust the virtue of any female in their power. They came to gratify their basest passions; and they will leave, if they leave at all, with the wrath of God upon them, candidates for damnation. They have burned strange fire upon the altar of God, and with strange fire such will be consumed. The Democracy of the country fell upon this stone by the military arm of their power. Are they now broken? Let us see.

On the 25th day of December, 1832, the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, and said—“Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place.” The Democratic party found it necessary to call a convention of delegates to nominate a successor to President Buchanan. No place but Charleston, South Carolina, could be agreed upon as the place for that body to assemble in. A most unlikely place, indeed!—entirely out of the political center—a small town of about twenty or twenty-five thousand white inhabitants, accommodations very limited for such a body of men, and at a half-dozen prices. But to South Carolina they must go; for the prophecy, twenty-seven years before, said that the serious troubles of the land should begin at that place. The Democratic party or administration fell upon that stone of present revelation, and, according to our Savior’s words, they must be broken. They had to go to Charleston to break. They did go there, and there they did break into several pieces—split asunder. It was said by the ancient Prophet—“Out of Egypt have I called my son.” Joseph and Mary took the young child by night and fled into Egypt to elude the cruelty of Herod, and God called his son out of Egypt. It was necessary, equally, that the Democratic party go to South Carolina, being urged there by a silent prophetic influence; and though they had hearts to understand, they understood it not. They had eyes to see, but they saw it not. There they broke—there the trouble began, “which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.” They sent their army to fall upon this stone—to fall upon God and upon his people and upon their policy. They sent their corrupting influence—their demoralizing principles and practices—among us; and God will make the nation heirs to the penalty for all these offenses. “It must needs be that offenses come,” but God grant us grace that we may endure manfully to the end.

This is my political speech to the Saints of God. Will the Democracy continue in power? The sequel will show. They are trying to “fuse,” but the iron and miry clay will never permanently unite. But they are in the hands of God, and they know it not; they are under his influence, but they acknowledge not his hand.

What was the immediate outside pressure that caused the army to come to Utah? Was it not the multitude that wanted to speculate out of the army—out of the citizens of the territory, traders, freighters, merchants, and sutlers, doctors, lawyers, and devils? Anybody may answer these questions. How many have got rich at it? How many have realized the object of their hopes and wishes in anything? God blesseth not unrighteous designs. Is the whole train of speculators broken? They fell upon this stone, or were ready to back those that did. Are they broken? If they are not, they are almost. Their creditors in the East will find this out in due time. Our gold, our virtue, and our blood is what most of them came to traffic in, and their reward is sure. This outside pressure cannot be confined, in truth, to the class of men alluded to. What was the voice of the nation through their public journals, priests, and people? What the popular clamor? Crucify him! Crucify him! Away with him! The “Mormons” are not fit to live! Let the race be exterminated! With the exception of now and then a Joseph of Arimathea, this was the popular cry. Will the nation be broken? It has fallen upon this stone to all intents and purposes. The signs in the heavens and upon the earth, the political feuds or factions, the seditious tendency of the people, were never more portentous over Jerusalem, previous to its destruction, than they are now over the United States of America. Who so blind as not to see it?

This picture is held up as a mirror to reflect the condition and fate of any and every other nation or people that slays the Lord’s anointed—that persecutes his people—that sends its armies to corrupt, annoy, or lay waste the heritage of God. I have no apologies to make. I tell you that God Almighty sits upon the throne of his kingdom. He has decreed its onward march, and it will march onward; and the power to stay it exists not on the earth. We were driven out into this wilderness, and here we are. Our friends will find us here, and our foes also. They made us cross the Mississippi pretty lively. They pressed us and pricked us with their bayonets. Was there any mercy shown to the sick, aged, or infirm—to women and children? No. The fever of frenzy and rage had dried up the fountain of compassion in their hearts. We had to fly, and to what place Heaven only knew. The timid wife, the tender daughter, the widowed mother and her children were forced into the flatboat like so many cattle or swine. By casting an eye back to their once pleasant and peaceful habitations, they could mark the lurid flame and smoke curling up to heaven from the crumbling walls of their desolated homes. One widowed lady, while seeking her little boy among the mob on the margin of the river, was cursed and damned because she was not sooner aboard of the boat. When she found her child, she went aboard, and, turning round and looking them full in the face, said to her persecutors—“You shall yet dearly pay for all this.” I dined with that same lady not ten days since, and she told me that she should live to see her prediction fulfilled. I said, God grant it. Jesus says—“With the same measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” God will not speak to them much more by Prophets, for they have persecuted and slain them. But he will speak unto them yet more. It will be, however, by the voice of thunder, by the voice of lightnings, by the voice of whirlwinds, tempests, and tornadoes—by the voice of hail, fire, flood, and famine—by the voice of hostile forces in deadly combat—by the wailings of widows and orphans—by pestilence and decrease of both man and beast. The horrors of the scenes will be lighted up by the incendiary’s torch. In this way will God make requisition for the blood of his anointed, and for the cruelty practiced upon his people. With these arguments will God plead his cause at the nation’s bar until the builders seek the stone which they have rejected, even present revelation, and place it at the head of the corner. This will be the Lord’s doings, and it will be marvelous in our eyes. The Supreme Creator of all, the Almighty Sovereign of the universe will assert his rights and maintain them, and reign King of nations as he now does King of Saints. The power that attempts to check his designs will be ground to powder.

The present aspirants to presidential honors in the nation appear to be in good heart and firm in faith that they shall triumph. They seem to spare no labor or effort; they lack no zeal, and are full of hope, full of expectation, strong in spirit, strong in will, and strong in assurance. But the days are near at hand when all such will be weak as water. Their voices will be feeble, their arms palsied, their knees tremble, and they will no sooner aspire to that station than they would to the berth of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. They will no sooner aspire to that summit of fame than would the Israelites approach the crest of Mount Sinai when the thunders of heaven rolled in awful majesty, and the lightnings flashed in forked lines as arrows from the bow of the Almighty. At the appointed time in Heavens’s will, the capstone, long rejected, will be brought forth with shouting, crying Grace, grace unto it! Remember the words of the Lord where he says—“All my words shall be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice out of the heavens or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” And again—“He that heareth whomsoever I send heareth me.” Forget not these things.

I covet no man’s silver, gold, or apparel; neither his goods, wares, or merchandise. I covet not the honors of this world, neither the good opinion of ungodly men; but I do covet the Spirit of the living God. I covet grace equal to my day, and earnestly pray God, my heavenly Father, in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, that I may have power to honor my priesthood and calling, to bear a faithful testimony to the truth, and by no act spot or stain the testimony which I bear.

God bless the people and his servants, and roll on his mighty work, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1860.

I wish the people could realize that they walk, live, and abide in the presence of the Almighty. The faithful shall have eyes to see as they are seen, and you shall behold that you are in the midst of eternity and in the presence of holy beings, and be enabled ere long to enjoy their society and presence. You are greatly blessed. How many there are who say—“God bless you!” How many times it is said to the Saints—“I bless you, and may the Lord bless you!” You shall be blessed all the time. Good is poured out on the people, and we say Amen.

The brethren have done nobly in their contributions to the Missionary Fund, and we expect to continue to do nobly. How much do we expect to do for the kingdom of God? The talent, ability, and everything placed in the hands of this people shall be devoted to his cause and kingdom on the earth, in the name of the God of Israel. These are my feelings. As far as I have control, and as far as I have influence in this kingdom, all within its pales shall be devoted to its upbuilding. When Elders are called to go and preach, they go; and when we want means we shall have it.

Tomorrow morning we expect to meet you here again. When shall we meet to part no more? Never, never; no, never. That is a curious idea, and I have not time to give full explanations. We shall go and come; and when we are in the eternity, we shall be on this earth, which will be brought into the immediate presence of the Father and the Son. We shall inhabit different mansions, and worlds will continue to be made, formed, and organized, and messengers from this earth will be sent to others. This earth will become a celestial body—be like a sea of glass, or like a Urim and Thummim; and when you wish to know anything, you can look in this earth and see all the eternities of God. We shall make our home here, and go on our missions as we do now, but at greater than railroad speed.

It is time to close our meeting; and, by the power and right I have in the Priesthood of the Son of God, I bless the Saints of latter days. Amen.

Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, made in the Tabernacle, October 6, 1860.

It is about thirteen months since I had the privilege of rising and speaking in your midst. It is therefore with a heart filled with thankfulness to our Heavenly Father that I now enjoy the privilege of bearing my testimony on the present occasion of the things which pertain to the kingdom of the Most High. In his kind providence we are enjoying a great multitude of blessings.

The testimony which has been given to us this morning of the power and manifestations of the Spirit of God in the midst of Israel is calculated to make us rejoice. The Lord speaks unto us in his own way, and after his own manner, and in our language, and after our understanding, and the light of his Spirit which shineth in our minds, inasmuch as we will suffer it to do so; but if our hearts are clogged with the things of this world—if our souls are suffered to become enamored of the earth and the objects that are sought after by the wicked world, we lose the Spirit of the Lord, and by that means do not understand when we are taught and instructed in the way of life.

The object of obtaining wealth and the desire to handle or control a considerable portion of this world’s goods have blinded the eyes of many Elders, and caused them to go astray in the ways of extravagance and folly. It has decoyed them from the path of virtue, and by that means they have become totally estrayed from the path of truth. If we can keep in view the one great principle, to build up the kingdom of God, proclaim the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, to labor for the sustenance of Zion, make that our first, our great, our only object, and fear not for the earthly things we may need, we shall have the Spirit of the Almighty to enlighten our minds and guide our feet in the true path.

When the Presidency bear their testimony to us, our spirits will then meet with theirs, and we shall feel and enjoy the truth of the principles they proclaim to us. But while our minds become concentrated upon earthly objects, we are dark, and we begin to think we know better than other people; we begin to feel that we can do something independently of God or his servants.

I will relate an instance that occurred in 1849. I was talking with one of the brethren who had been many years in the Church. He told me he wanted to situate himself so that he could leave his family and be prepared to go preaching. I said, “Are you not pretty well situated now you have a large farm, plenty of cattle, and other property, and your family are able to take care of themselves?” He said he did not feel as though he had ready means enough to go. “I want to get myself in condition so that I can leave home; and in order to do it, I have determined to go to California; and I think in the course of five or six months I can there raise ten thousand dollars, and on that means I can go to the southern part of California, buy 1,000 head of horses, and bring them to Salt Lake, and next year sell them for one or two hundred dollars each. With that means in my hands I shall be able to leave my family and go preaching.” That was the design he laid out. I may say the plan was very tempting: he went to California, but the tremendous results anticipated were never realized. There are a great many men in the midst of Zion that have lost their power and ability to perform those works they seem to wish to perform by endeavoring to take a wild goose chase to place themselves in possession of wealth on their own responsibility. The circumstances which have transpired in our midst for the last few years have been calculated to try many men.

In reviewing the history of ourselves as a people, we have encountered many things which have been calculated to try some men. They have been compelled many times to submit to the most cruel exactions—seeing their friends murdered, their families driven from their possessions, and yet bearing up under it splendidly. They have had to pioneer into the midst of a barren and hitherto unknown desert, make settlements, rear their families in the midst of want, and toil, and bear it patiently. Yet, after a few years of prosperity, you will see those very men, when they become better situated, surrounded with the blessings and comforts of life—they begin to feel as though they were not doing quite well enough, and their thoughts begin to wander like the fool’s eye to the ends of the earth. In some instances the scenes of the last few years have caused them to turn again, as President Kimball expressed it, like the hog to the mire after he had been cleanly washed.

It puts me in mind of a compliment paid to Queen Elizabeth by an English farmer. Her Majesty was out on a ride, and was caught in a storm. The farmer was very much rejoiced that the Queen had called upon him, and she was pleased with his rough hospitality. Being just after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, he complimented her on the success of her arms by saying—“The King of Spain got the wrong sow by the ear when he made war with your Majesty.” The Queen was much amused at this vulgar comparison.

Though, really, the dream related by brother Kimball, describing the multitude of hogs that were in the city, was so perfectly illustrated at the time the town was so tremendously full of soldiers, teamsters, gamblers, and camp followers, and they floated off so suddenly, that it could almost be said it was dreamed awake. That is the best way to dream: a man can many times dream wide awake straighter than when asleep.

I remember once (when in Zion’s camp), I was very thirsty, hungry, and tired, that I dreamed when I was walking on the road I could see a loaf of bread, a bottle of milk, and a spring of water. It was one of the pleasantest dreams in the world, and I dreamed it while walking along the road. At the same time a great many dreams, as men consider, are no more nor less than open vision, and a great many dreams are the result, perhaps, of fatigue—of overexercise—of overeating before retiring to rest, or some other cause.

When a man’s mind is illuminated by a dream, it leaves a vivid and pleasant impression: when it may be guided by the Spirit of God, it leaves the mind happy and comfortable, and the understanding clear.

I have regretted, for the past year, that I have not been permitted to speak to you, that my testimony to the truth might be heard in the midst of Israel, and in this city particularly. It was owing simply to an accident which lamed me in such a manner that I could not walk about—could not stand up, though after a while I got so much better that I could ride. I have rode about the Territory, and talked to the brethren in the settlements, generally sitting down; and many of them heard my testimony, which is the same as it has been for the last twenty-eight years—a testimony to the truth of the revelation of the fulness of the Gospel to the Saints in these last days. It is the work of the Lord, and the hand of God is visible in everything that is passing before us; his hand and power have been over us. He has shielded us from the political machinations of evil-designing men, and preserved us from the wrath of our enemies. He has given wisdom to our President to guide, to counsel, to direct us; and if ever revelation guided a people on the face of this earth, this people has been guided by special revelation ever since we came into these valleys. The power of the Almighty has been with us, his hand has been over us here, his wisdom has directed us, his inspiring Spirit has been on our Presidency, his revealed will has been given from the lips of him God has given to lead us. Fear not to do right ourselves, and let us be fully aware of our own follies and weaknesses and corruptions, and listen to the watchmen of Zion, and we shall overcome and inherit the blessings of glory. We shall rise above our enemies, light and truth will shine upon us, peace will be on our path and the lamp of life will guide us to eternal glory.

This is my testimony. You have it as I feel and realize it and know it, for these things are of God. And may his blessings attend us, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.