EDUCATION--THE RESURRECTION--THE WORLD OF SPIRITS.
A Discourse by President H. C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 19, 1854.
During the past winter I have spoken but seldom in this tabernacle; for I have been engaged in teaching in other places.
Were the false traditions of past and present generations thrown off entirely, it would be much to the advantage of this people, and of the human family. Jesus Christ could not teach his disciples as freely, and as publicly as he otherwise would, had he not been bound from the same cause.
There are many who think that because they are unlearned, they have not the same amount of tradition as those who are learned; but there is not much difference between the two classes in this respect. The inhabitants of the whole earth are coated over, as it were, with false traditions; which form an almost impenetrable barrier to the shafts of truth.
I am not what the world calls a learned man; neither is President Young. We never went to any college except the one sustained by the Latter-day Saints, and we have been in that from the beginning. Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, if we had been brought up in palaces, and been sent to school all the days of our lives to get all the education of the world, and were practical men only in these things, would we be of any advantage to this people? A man may pass through a course of education designed to fit him for a doctor, a minister, or a lawyer, and it is often the case that he comes out an ignoramus, or worse than useless member of society.
President Young and I were born of poor, but honest and industrious parents in the State of Vermont, when it was new; and we have been in new regions of country from that day to the present time, except when we were in the British Isles preaching the Gospel of salvation to a perishing world. We have cleared and subdued the land at various points from Vermont to this place, so that we have had no opportunity for becoming what the world calls educated. But if it were possible for me to exchange my information for that of the most learned man upon the earth, I would not do it; it would be like exchanging a good substantial warm suit of clothing for a mess of filthy rags.
He has not my experience; it cannot be purchased with money, nor can men by all their learning attain to it. Although I have not education of a worldly nature, I have a spirit in me that knows right from wrong. What is true education, and what is not? There is quite a difference between the true education that all men should have, and that which pertains merely to this life, though when coupled together they are both good.
When the flowers begin to bloom on the mountain sides, the ladies try to imitate them with artificial ones. Which would you rather possess in education--the real flower, or the artificial one? Would you not rather have true education, direct from heaven, than the artificial one of the world? The one educates the head and the heart, the other the head alone.
The circumstances I have named rendered it impossible for me to obtain the education of this world; yet the education we have received from God has qualified me and my brethren to instruct kings and rulers, and bring to nought the wisdom of their wise men.
I do not wish you to understand from these remarks that you may, with propriety, relax your endeavors to educate your children when you have an opportunity. I should have educated my children; but I have been poor and penniless. Instead of helping my children who have now come to maturity, they have been required to help me obtain an honest subsistence. This would not have been the case could I have retained my possessions; but no sooner had I accumulated a little property than it was taken from me by legalized mobs, and neither me nor my brethren could obtain redress.
Query--Which is the most profitable at present to this people, and to the rising generation--President Young and Heber C. Kimball, or their children? You will all say, let us have the fathers instead of the children, for the time being. Some would say, put the children to school, and let the old men work until they are dead! dead!! dead!!! I say let the boys help the father, and let the father and the mother live as long as they can; and let the daughters also do their part, for life is as sweet to the parents as to the children. Life is just as sweet to me now as ever it was; but the world has lost its sweetness to me.
A person asked me this morning how it was that the enjoyments of this world, in which he used to take great pleasure, had sunk so much in his estimation? He said the theatrical performances and other amusements, used to give him much satisfaction and comfort. Then the real and substantial pleasure and happiness which he now enjoys in heavenly realities, was not in his possession; he therefore took comfort in artificial; but when the real rose, blushing in the midst of its own heavenly perfume, attracted his notice, the gum flowers lost their charms.
When "Mormonism" absorbs the whole soul, it yields such a rich feast to the passenger, that earthly enjoyments become insipid and valueless. I have attended theatrical performances from which good morals can be gleaned; I have also engaged in the dance which is good exercise to the body; but when compared with the eternal realities of our holy religion, these enjoyments are in comparison like chaff to the sterling wheat; the one contains the essentials of life, the other is comparatively valueless. When I go to a dance, it is to please my brethren and my family; at the same time thinking I may perhaps get the spirit of dancing; and when I do I improve it, and engage in it, as in "Mormonism," with all my heart, mind and strength.
I care not what I do if I do not do wrong, so that it comforts myself, my family, or my brethren. But anything that is wrong--anything that violates the holy principles of chastity, virtue, and holiness, I say away with it, and let me be associated with principles of righteousness, and you who want it may take the whole budget of the world and its fleeting pleasures; only let me have the pure unalloyed metal; and all who desire it are freely welcome to the dross.
This people, taking them as a community, I believe would exchange many errors for one truth, and one truth is worth all the errors in existence. Yea further--one principle of truth and righteousness is worth the accumulated wealth of all the world, with all its pomp, titles, and tinseled show. The dross which is separated from iron ore is of no great value, but the metal is of worth to make iron and steel which can be converted into utensils for the use of man, such as plows, shears, spades, shovels, &c. Gold is valuable as a circulating medium because of its scarcity compared with other metals; otherwise it has no particular value more than any other portion of the globe, only in administering to the necessities of man.
So far as we are concerned, we were taken from the earth, and we may expect to return to it again; and that portion of me which is pure, after the dross of this mortality is separated from it, I expect will be brother Heber. it is that which will be resurrected; but all that is not pure will remain; that is it will not go back into my body again; and if there are ten parts out of the hundred which are dross and corruption they will remain in the earth; I do not expect to take up the purified element that will endure for ever; still the dross is beneficial in its place.
I expect that will be the case with brother Willard Richards. He has gone; and it will not be long before brother Brigham and Heber follow after. He has gone to the world of spirits to engage in a work he could not do if he had remained in the flesh. I do not believe he could have done as much work for the general good of the cause of God, had he remained in the flesh, as he can accomplish now in the spirit; for there is a work to do there--the Gospel to preach, Israel to gather that they may purify themselves, and become united in one heart and mind.
"What! in the spirit world?" Have I not told you often that the separation of body and spirit makes no difference in the moral and intellectual condition of the spirit? When a person, who has always been good and faithful to his God, lays down his body in the dust, his spirit will remain the same in the spirit world. It is not the body that has control over the spirit, as to its disposition, but it is the spirit that controls the body. When the spirit leaves the body the body becomes lifeless. The spirit has not changed one single particle of itself by leaving the body. Were I to fall into a mud-hole I should strive to extricate myself; but I do not suppose I should be any better, any more righteous, any more just and holy when I got out of it, than while I was in it.
Our spirits are entangled in these bodies--held captive as it were for a season. They are like the poor Saints, who are for a time obliged to dwell in miserable mud shanties that are mouldering away, and require much patching and care to keep them from mingling with mother earth before the time. They feel miserable in these old decaying tabernacles, and long for the day when they can leave them to fall and take possession of a good new house.
It seems natural for me to desire to be clothed upon with immortality and eternal life, and leave this mortal flesh; but I desire to stick to it as long as I can be a comfort to my sisters, brethren, wives, and children. Independent of this consideration I would not turn my hand over to live twenty-five minutes. What else could give birth to a single desire to live in this tabernacle, which is more or less shattered by the merciless storms which have beat upon it, to say nothing of the ravages made upon it by the tooth of time? While I cling to it I must of necessity suffer many pains, rheumatism, head ache, jaw ache, and heart ache; sometimes in one part of my body and sometimes in another. It is all right; it is so ordained that we may not cling with too great a tenacity to mortal flesh; but be willing to pass through the vail and meet with Joseph and Hyrum and Willard and Bishop Whitney, and thousands of others in the world of spirits.
Are they all together as we are today? I believe all Israel have to be gathered; and to accomplish this the Elders, both in this and the world of spirits, will go forth to preach to the spirits in prison. Where? Down into hell. I appeal to the Elders who have been from this place to preach the Gospel to the world, if it was not like going from heaven to hell. It is a world of sorrow, pain, death and misery, and you cannot make anything else of it.
Brethren and sisters, I intend to be a Saint in heart and life; but if I conducted myself as many do, with the knowledge I Have, I will tell you what I would do, and what I would advise you to do in such a case--leave these valleys. If you do not intend to be faithful, to do the will of God, and to keep His commandments, if I were in that situation I would at once withdraw. There are some few who are leaving, and I am heartily glad of it. If it was a member of my own house, whom I loved as I do my life, I do not believe my head would ache because such an one left the society of the Saints on account of having no inclination to mingle with them. If such were determined to go, I would say, GO; and I would help them off if they were unable to get away.
I do not feel as I used to when I see a man going away from the society of the Church of God. I used to be filled with sympathy and plead with them hours and hours, importuning with them until my head would ache and my heart sicken; and I never had the satisfaction in even converting one such character in my life. If I should happen to get one converted he would not stay converted, so I have concluded, and I think wisely, to let them go, and not suffer myself to have any more feelings about it than I would about any of the common occurrences of life.
What are my kindred to me when the counsel of God is in the opposite scale? They are only as the dust of the balance. Brother Brigham is my kindred, for we have become kindred spirits; what I say of him will apply to many more of my brethren. When you hit one of those men you hit the whole of them.
You have often heard me speak about my kindred. Many wish to return to the old countries to bring out their kindred, their sons and their daughters, their fathers and their mothers. Why would I not go back for mine? Because they would abuse me as they always have. When I was poor and penniless, and so thinly clad that you might well say I had the blues, for my face and body looked blue, I went to my friends who are all independently rich, and said, I am poor and penniless, and naked, and I am sent forth as a servant of God to the nations of the earth--will you give me some clothing, or a little money? and not one soul of them would help me to a single dime.
Do you suppose I shall run after them? No. Will they be saved? Yes, they will, but they will be saved as I have told you many of this people will; they will first go to hell and remain there until the corruption with which they are impregnated is burnt out; and the day will yet come when they will come to me and acknowledge me as their savior, and I will redeem them and bring them forth from hell to where I live and make them my servants; and they will be quite willing to enter into my service.
Before we heard "Mormonism," we have said a thousand times, "If we could but live to see a man of God like Paul, or Peter, James, John, Timothy, or Jesus Christ, and hear their instructions we would be willing to suffer any kind or amount of human suffering and not complain." My friends, who have rejected me and my testimony, will yet feel so towards me.
Who have you now in your midst? Have you Abraham and Isaac, and the Apostles Peter, James and John? Yes, you have them right in your midst--they are talking to you all the time. Do you believe it? More or less of you say you do. But do you know it? Brother Rhoads was saying what he believed; he says he "believes what brother Brigham says is the word of God." I say, pray that you may have a knowledge that it is the word of God, and be able to declare it in the stand, in your families, and in all the world. What brother Rhoads said was good and true. Did he not reach us good principles? Yes; he taught us the revelations of Jesus Christ. I did not hear anything else.
I beg of you brethren, and beseech you in the name of Jesus Christ, to be subject in your office and in your callings. I know you do not realize your important position as you ought.
Some of you will be asking brother Kimball why he does not talk here as he does up in the Council House? There are very many of this people who have come here to-day, and perhaps you have said, what is very commonly said in the world, "Come, wife, let us go to meeting to day and get warmed up under the droppings of the sanctuary, and become strengthened in our faith." Why did you not attend to that before you came here to-day? I defy any man on earth to preach the same to you, as to a few individuals of one heart, and of one mind.
There is as great a variety of spirits in this house as there is of countenances; and there are no two persons who look exactly alike. Is it not high time there should be a reformation? We must become of one heart and of one mind, just as though we were one man. Before this people can enter into the celestial world there must be a great reformation among them. Every man and woman must know and faithfully fulfil their duty day by day. Do you think I am disobedient to my file leaders? I never had such a disposition in my heart; if I had I would banish it from me as quick as I would the devil, because such a disposition is pernicious to the interests of the cause of truth, and will end in the destruction of those who encourage it.
Brethren and sisters, I want you to understand these things and cultivate them in your minds, and pray that you may be subject in the sphere in which you are appointed to act, whether in the Priesthood or in a family capacity. You have to learn that lesson, or you can never go into the paradise of God to mingle as equals with those who are counted faithful.
There is no man in the flesh whose right it is to direct or control brother Brigham Young in the first thing. If I have not a right to lead and control him, I want to know who has? It is my meat and my drink to do the will of my Father who is in heaven; and if I do this to the day of my death, as brother Willard did, I am as sure of salvation as you are that the sun will rise and set again.
Is brother Willard saved? Yes, he is where Joseph is; and I tell you there was a happy meeting. Was brother Willard obedient? Yes, just as obedient as a well-trained child. He has not got a wife or a child on earth as obedient as he was. And God knows there never was a being on the face of His footstool, that could be any more kind to me than brother Willard and brother Brigham. Were they ever cross and snappish with me? Never, no, never.
There was another trait in his character that will serve to illustrate the profound deference he paid to the man he acknowledged to be his leader. When on visits with brother Brigham and myself, or when he would accompany us to a ball room or to a meeting, he never would enter the room before his leader. I have tried a dozen times to have him do so, but I always failed in accomplishing it. He had so cultivated the spirit of obedience and submission, that it seemed to be incorporated with his being.
I tell you these things to answer as as [sic] a kind of spur to encourage you to more diligence, and greater obedience to the commandments of God, that you may live forever.
There is nothing I fear in this Church except contention, and a disposition in the people to run over their fellow beings. What I mean by this is, when a man is appointed by the proper authorities to preside over one of the outposts of the Kingdom of God, in this Territory or anywhere else, there is a disposition in some to create an influence against that man, not to be obedient themselves, and to endeavour to make everybody else disobedient. Now a man will be condemned for not obeying the person properly appointed to preside over him, as much as he would for not obeying brother Brigham if he were there; and the people will be as much condemned if they do not obey brother Brigham, as they would if they should disobey the Lord God were He here in person.
When we sent brother Samuel Richards to England to preside over the affairs of the Kingdom of God there, it became his province to rule and dictate all matters in that flourishing and extensive field of labor, and his word is the word of God to the people. When he sends a man to preside over a Conference, and another over another Conference, they are his representatives, and their word is the word of God to the people over whom they preside; and brother Samuel is their delegate to the General Conference, the same as brother Bernhisel is the delegate of this Territorial Government to the General Assembly in Washington.
I wish you to learn these things, for I wish you to prepare your minds to receive the word of God every day that you live; and not only live like Saints when you are in this Tabernacle, but when you are abroad, and in all your actions. Can you be saved with a complete salvation if you do not do this? No, you cannot. No man or woman can receive a full salvation upon any other principle than by continuing in the new and Everlasting Covenant. When a person violates his covenant he loses all he ever obtained in the Priesthood; whether it is wives, children, or possessions; they all go out of his hands. You have been taught this, and have been instructed by night and by day in these important matters. I have felt of late as though I never could cease exhorting the people. I have felt like a lion in strength.
I want you to pursue the path that is marked out for you by the servants of God, that I may continue to enjoy your society here and hereafter. I wish to enjoy your society, and you mine. Do you not wish to go where I go? You all believe I wish to enter into the kingdom of heaven and be saved with the sanctified.
I care not how the Lord saves me. I am willing to pass through anything under the heavens that He requires me to pass through, that I may do His will and keep His commandments, and have favor in His eyes, through accomplishing the work He has given me to do.
What does it matter where I am? I am as ready to go and preach the Gospel as to dwell here, if it is the will of the Lord and my brethren. I have told the men who are about to be sent forth this year, that they will go with more power and strength than any former laborers in the vineyard have enjoyed. This applies to those who do right and diligently keep the commandments of God, and love justice and righteousness and do as they are told, refraining from evil. I say they will have more power than former servants of God possessed according to their light and knowledge, and the circumstances in which they will be placed. I prophesy this. A man is a fool that will not prophesy good concerning Israel and concerning his own father's house.
I told my brethren when they went from here, and from this time, instead of going to dances, and to the theatre, and to parties, to go and fast and pray, and prophesy upon the success of their mission.
If your heart is right you cannot speak without speaking what is right. The Spirit of Prophecy foresees future events. God does not bring to pass a thing because you say it shall be so, but because He designed it should be so, and it is the future purposes of the Almighty that the Prophet foresees. That is the way I prophesy; but I have predicted things I did not foresee, and did not believe anybody else did, but I have said it, and it came to pass even more abundantly than I predicted; and that was with regard to the future situation of the people who first came into this valley. Nearly every man was dressed in skins, and we were all poor, destitute, and distressed, yet we all felt well. I said, "it will be but a little while, brethren, before you shall have food and raiment in abundance, and shall buy it cheaper than can be bought in the cities of the United States." I did not know there were any Gentiles coming here, I never thought of such a thing; but after I spoke it I thought I must be mistaken this time. Brother Rich remarked at the time, "I do not believe a word of it." And neither did I; but, to the astonishment and joy of the Saints, it came to pass just as I had spoken it, only more abundantly. The Lord led me right but I did not know it.
I have heard Joseph say many times, that he was much tempted about the revelations the Lord gave through him--it seemed to be so impossible for them to be fulfilled. I do not profess to be a Prophet; but I know that every man and woman can be, if they live for it. To enjoy this blessing they must walk in the channel of the Priesthood, being subject to the order and government of heaven; then they are all revelation and they cannot predict anything that will not come to pass. All that hinders you from enjoying this blessing is because you are not obedient.
You might say, "Do we not do all things that brother Brigham counsels us to do?" No; if you did every wife would be subject to her own husband, and every Elder to their presiding Elder, and every member to the presiding Bishop. If you do not do this you are not walking in the channel of the Priesthood, in the channel of revelation and salvation; and you will stumble and fall if you do not wake to righteousness and gird up the loins of you minds.
Have not the majority of this congregation made the most solemn covenants and vows that they will listen to, obey, and be subject to the Priesthood? Have not the sisters made the same solemn covenants and vows before God and angels, that they would be subject to their husbands? Are you faithful to your vows? If you are, you will have dreams, and visions, and revelations from the world of light, and you will be comforted by night and by day. But if you do not fulfil your covenants you cannot enjoy these blessings.
The matter is plain to your understanding, and not mysterious. I have no mysteries to impart, and I never expect to have; for if this people will do right there is nothing that will be a mystery to them; but those things which appeared the most mysterious will prove to be the most simple things in the world.
Learn to govern yourselves in a family capacity, for there is where reformation ought to commence, after it has commenced in the assembly of the Elders of Israel. There must be order, peace, love, kindness, gentleness, and every noble sentiment to accomplish a reformation that is pleasing to God.
We have got to be gathered, and continue gathered, though there will be all kinds of fish in the net; and the Lord will bring us into all kinds of circumstances until the wheat is separated from the smut, and chaff. There is a time of separation, and I know if I am faithful I shall be among the chosen band who will triumph over hell, death, and the grave, and dwell in the society of men who are perfectly of one heart and mind, where the wicked cease to trouble, unless we go where they are. This day will come as sure as the sun shines.
As for my going into the immediate presence of God when I die, I do not expect it, but I expect to go into the world of spirits and associate with my brethren, and preach the Gospel in the spiritual world, and prepare myself in every necessary way to receive my body again, and then enter through the wall into the celestial world. I never shall come into the presence of my Father and God until I have received my resurrected body, neither will any other person; and I doubt whether <all> those who profess to be Saints will ever be gathered with the spirits of the just in the spiritual world; but they will be left where they attain to. The righteous are gathered to the spirit world to prepare for the resurrection of their bodies.
I do not know that I can talk any plainer. I am speaking as plain as I can to have you understand. I do not expect to be with you forever, neither will brother Brigham in these bodies; they are nearly worn out; they have stood a long and violent siege and will soon go the way of all the earth. Still we may live many years yet to assist in making permanent the foundations of Zion. There are thousands of good men in the earth who can act in the same capacity we do, after we he passed through the veil of death. God can qualify whom He pleases, and put in in [sic] them the spirit of Joseph, and Brigham, and Heber.
Brethren, do keep the commandments of God and live your profession; and remember if you were as godly and as holy as the angels, the world would speak against you and seek your destruction. What has the world to do with you? Nothing, only as you associate with it and partake of its spirit. Upon the same principle has a man any power over a woman, any further than she will give him power to pollute herself and him too? Can the Gentiles turn me to unrighteousness any further than I permit them? I am an instrument in the hands of God, and it is not for me to dictate the power that works through me, but it is for Him to control me according to His good pleasure.
Does brother James' violin rise up and dictate him? No, it is perfectly passive, permitting him to play any tune he pleases upon it. Upon the same principle we should be like clay in the hands of the potter. it is not for the clay to dictate the potter but the potter dictates the clay, and moulds, and fashions it according to his own pleasure. Just so God controls brother Brigham, and every other good man who is dictated by His Spirit.
Do you ever hear me get up here and say, "I am no preacher and you must not expect anything from me?" I am in the hands of God, and it is for Him to speak through me, or in other words play a tune on me to this people according to His own fancy. I am in the hands of the potter; and if I continue faithful, he will make me <a> vessel unto honor.
I wish you Elders to apply this illustration to yourselves--if you have anything to say, say it; and if you have not, be as quiet as the musical instrument without the performer.
When I went to England first, I had not much to say. We opened the door to that nation in great simplicity. Had I preached almighty discourses with more words than good sound doctrine, instead of opening the doors, I should have added another lock. The Lord appointed me to that work because I was willing to be the simplest.
After I had spoken they always thought there was something else behind the curtain. We preached three times in Vauxhall Road chapel, Preston. After the third meeting the priest feared the increasing greatness of our testimony, and closed the door of his house against us. This was no sooner done than fifty doors were opened to us, and the people were all around us entreating us to preach in their houses.
If you will visit a stone quarry, you will find they use the simplest instruments to crack and remove the largest rocks; so the Lord uses the simplest of His servants to accomplish some of His greatest purposes. When the blacksmith is making a horse-shoe, does it dictate its maker who is making it and fashioning it to a useful purpose? Does the plowshare, the scythe, the ax, or the chisel rise up and dictate the mechanic, saying, "Why do you not form me thus?" Some of these tools have to pass through various shades of temper--sometimes too low, and sometimes too high, before it is just right; and it requires an expert mechanic to hit the proper temper, for they are made to come in contact with all kinds of timber. So we are tools made to come in contact with all kinds of dispositions, and very few tools will stand and keep a good edge coming in contact with every kind of timber, and stone, and the devil.
If you do not learn to temper yourselves properly, you will not be of much use at last.
I speak of these things whether they are edifying or not; as to that I am not concerned, but they are true, and they will save and exalt you, and bring you into the celestial world to mingle in the society of the Father, and Jesus Christ His Son, with the Prophets and Apostles form the beginning to the present day. I am bound for no other place, God helping me. Salvation is what I am after in this world; and food, clothing, and washing are all I need while I stay here, and that is more than I can take away with me.
I have no pride in anything but the principles of salvation, and to see you do right, humble yourselves, retain the Holy Spirit, live your religion--them I am proud of you indeed. My God, His purposes, my religion, and this people, are all I am fond of in this world.
Our religion is different from everything else that was ever instituted, but when you become acquainted with it and partake of its spirit, it is lively and angelic; it is a screen that throws out everything but that which is pure wheat. When we make flour from smutty wheat, we must have a smut machine to clear it all of filth before it goes into the bolt. The smut machine is a powerful place; it will blow to pieces every thing that is not the real grain. Thank God He has got such a machine, and men to enjoy His Holy Spirit.
My prayer is before God and angels, by day and by night, that He would purge this people and purify them from wicked men and women; and I hope the purging operation will continue until there is an entire separation of the wheat and the chaff. There will be a separation, and I tell you what I know, and not what I believe only. I know the truth when I speak it, and so do you when you hear it. It makes no matter what instrument it comes through, it is truth still, and you cannot make anything else of it.
God bless you forever, that peace, goodness, union, love, and the spirit of patience and submission before God, and in the hands of His servants, may abide with you forever. AMEN.
NECESSITY OF HOME MISSIONS--PURIFICATION OF THE SAINTS--CHASTISEMENT--HONESTY IN BUSINESS.
A Discourse, by President B. Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 8, 1855.
There are many things I wish to say before this Conference comes to a close, but I labour under the same difficulty as did one of the speakers yesterday, for I would like to touch upon so many subjects that I am at a loss to know where to begin.
And when this Conference is over, I presume that I shall think of many things omitted, which it would have pleased me to talk about. When a great number of people are together it affords an excellent opportunity for teaching them the principles of practical religion.
Our Conference has been well attended; there has been the greatest number of Saints assembled that I have ever seen at one time, and they will out number any meeting that the Latter-day Saints have had on this continent, or on any other. I doubt not but this is the largest congregation of Saints that has ever been assembled at one time and place on the face of the whole earth, since the days of the Jews in Jerusalem, or of the Nephites on this continent while they were in their glory and strength.
When all the male members of Israel were obliged to go up to Jerusalem twice a year to worship, pay tribute, &c., probably their congregations were larger than the one to day, but no other denomination in all christendom assembles so many people, at one meeting, as we now have in this Conference.
I can here teach a great many at once their duty to their God, to themselves, to their families, and to their neighbours, if you could spare the time to listen.
As I have observed to my brethren, and as I will now observe to you, neither in China, Siam, nor in any other country in Asia, nor in any part of Europe and Africa, nor in any other place on God's earth, is there a people who now need preaching to more than do the Latter-day Saints in this Territory, and that too by faithful Elders, faithful ministers of the Gospel, messengers of life and salvation.
The inhabitants of this Territory have been taught the ways of life, they have been taught the principles of the Everlasting Gospel and have received them; they have forsaken their former homes, the countries in which they were born, their friends and family connexions, for the Gospel's sake; they are here in the midst of these mountains, and many of them will be damned, unless they awake out of their sleep, unless they refrain from their evil ways. Many are stupid, careless, and unconcerned, their eyes are like the fool's eye, to the ends of the earth, searching for this, that, and the other, they have become greedy, are slow to fulfil their duty, are off their watch, neglect their prayers, forget their covenants and forsake their God, and the devil has power over them.
It is of necessity then that we appoint missionaries for this Territory, to preach to them the word of God which is quick and powerful. Some people say that they believe the Gospel who never live it, they did not embrace it for the love of it, but because they knew its truth. They will not give up their carnal, selfish, devilish dispositions and traits of character, and if you undertake to choke them off from these dispositions you will have to choke them to death before they will let them go; they will hang on to their evil feelings and evil deeds with greater tenacity than does the terrier dog to his prey, or antagonist; it is almost impossible to separate them from evil.
As for making Saints of those characters, we have no such anticipation; we wish to make Saints of those who sincerely desire to be Saints, who are willing to sacrifice their carnal, sinful, devilish feelings, to forsake them altogether, and to strive to become Saints and to establish the principles of honesty within them; we expect that such persons will be Saints, and we feel like doing all that we can to aid them in a righteous course.
As I observed at the commencement of our Conference, people must be chastened; we believe in this principle. We receive as correct doctrine what is said to have been written by one of the ancient Apostles, (why I make this peculiar remark is because this congregation heard brother O. Pratt scan the validity of the Bible, and I thought by the time he got through, that you would scarcely think a Bible worth picking up and carrying home, should you find one in the streets) viz.; For the Lord loveth whom he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, and if you are not chastened you are "bastards, and not sons."
I am quite inclined to believe this, and I do not care how many hands it has passed through. I will remark that brother Orson has clearly shown how the Bible has come into our hands, in order to convince the people of the necessity of positive proof for the validity of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, and to prove that our testimony, witnesses, evidence and knowledge of these facts are ten thousand times more than can be produced in favor of the Bible, unless a man has the power of God to testify to it, for there can be no proof in its favor short of revelation.
This we have known all the time, we have understood it from the beginning. That made us very anxious, in the days of Joseph, to get the new translation; but the Bible is good enough just as it is, it will answer it very well when I was preaching in the world.
When brother Luddington was telling about the elephant walking through the cane, it made me think of our Elders going through the world, in past days, with the proclamation of the Gospel. They could take a host of priests, in fair argument, and pull them up by the roots and throw them aside, as easy as that elephant did the cane.
The Bible is good enough as it is, to point out the way we should walk, and to teach us how to come to the Lord of whom we can receive for ourselves.
It is good for this people to be chastened, and we may expect it, and I delight in the feelings and spirit just manifested by bother Luddington in his remarks, there was no crying, no whining upon his mission; if they expelled him from one house he went to another without crying or whining about it.
All that we have received as chastisement is from the hand of the Lord, and I do not consider that it has been necessary to shed one tear about it. It always takes something besides chastisement, or afflictions heaped upon us by our enemies, to bring tears from me. I can cry for joy, I can cry on beholding my friends after being separated from them.
The soft, loving, still, small voice of the Spirit will bring tears to my eyes, but all the sufferings that could be brought upon me by the malice of the wicked, and all that could be said or done against me by them, I think will not bring many tears from my eyes.
They might torture my body until it would cry, but all that we have hitherto met with, in the shape of affliction, I have received as from the hand of the Lord, and I think the chastisement has been light.
Let us reform, that we may be chastened no more; let us try to profit by the blessing we receive, instead of being made to profit by the things we suffer, for afflictions we shall be obliged to receive, if we do not profit by our blessings.
If we are chastened a little, do not worry about it. We think we are chastened, this season, in the failing of our crops, but I receive this as one of the greatest blessings that could be bestowed upon us.
I have felt like weeping, since I have been in this Territory, on beholding the ungrateful feelings of many of this people, their ingratitude towards their God, and at seeing them trample grain under their feet as a thing of naught.
Now I think what we have received this season is but a small portion of what we will receive, if we do not take care of the things the Lord bestows upon us, and be thankful for them. I look upon it as a prelude, forerunner, or testifier, that afflictions will come upon us, unless we humble ourselves before our God.
This, however, is but a very slight affliction. We have plenty here, no person is going to stare, or suffer, if there is an equal distribution of the necessaries of life which are in the country.
There are practises among this people which have injured my feelings. I see some men so greedy after the things of the world, that they will take their grain from the mouths of innocent, helpless women and children who are suffering for food, and sell it to gentile merchants to speculate upon. I have learned, since this Conference commenced, a circumstance that took place a year ago; it may appear trifling to some, but to me it is grievous. Some of the brethren from San Pete and Fillmore came here last year, when they had plenty of wheat, and sold their flour to C. A. & E. H. Perry for three, four, and four and a half dollars per hundred weight, and that firm sold all they could to the poor women and children, and made them pay a very high price. Those brethren afterwards learned that I bought nearly the whole of it for four dollars a hundred, and that I paid in cattle at a good, liberal price, and some have felt grieved about it. Why are they grieved? Because they had not the means to buy it themselves to speculate upon.
They have not raised any wheat this year, and now they are whining after me, "Will you let us have a little tithing wheat?" They ask what I have to say to them; I have this to say to every man in this congregation and throughout this Territory, and from this time henceforth, know my feelings, if you will sell grain to the Gentiles, or to your enemies, for the sake of their money when it is needed to be distributed among this people, I wish you would take your property and leave this Territory, for you are not worthy of belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you are unworthy a citizenship in the kingdom of God. If those who are going to sell their grain to speculators this year will rise up and tell us who they are, I will hold up my hands for them to be forthwith severed from this Church, to be delivered over to the buffetings of satan.
Some who are unacquainted with me may say, "Brother Brigham, don't you speculate?" Yes, I am the greatest speculator in the world, and one of the greatest misers, for I am seeking after eternal riches. "But, don't you speculate on your flour? You have fine mills." Ask those who recollect to a a [sic] few years ago, when wheat was tramped under foot by man and beast. I then had a hired man who said he wanted to get a little money; I told him that I did not want to sell flour to the Gentiles in order to get it. He replied, "If you are willing, I would like to sell them a little, for they are from my country." He did so, to the value of ninety-three dollars. I do not think that besides that amount, I have ever received fifty-cents in cash for flour sold from my mills, though I have had emigrants come, in a scarce time, and offer me fifty and seventy-five dollars for a hundred pounds. I said to them, you may plead until you are as gray as a rat, and you will not get flour from me for your money, but if you will stay and help us through harvest, and go to work like good men, we will pay you the same as we pay our brethren, and then you may go to California, or any where you please; but as to your getting one pound of flour from my bin for money, you cannot do it, and they never have so far as I recollect. It all goes to feed those men and women who work; those are the ones who eat my flour.
If I cannot get rich only upon the principle of oppressing my brethren, and depriving them of the comforts of life, I say, may God grant that I may never have another farthing upon earth. I do not want it upon such terms, and if I ever should, I hope the Lord will keep it from me.
I told you the other day what makes me rich, it is the labor of those whom I feed and clothe; still I do not feel that I have a dollar in the world that is my own, it is the Lord's and he has made me a steward over it; and if I can know where the Lord is pleased to have it appropriated, there it shall go. The covetousness of some of this people has grieved me, and it has caused my spirit to weep and mourn to observe their greediness, their cheating and lying, their scheming in every possible way to wring a picayune out of this man, or that woman. I can put my finger upon owners of little shops in this city, who will lie to you for half and hour on a stretch, who will, if you send a child to their shops to buy a yard of ribbon that is worth ten cents, charge the child fifteen or twenty cents for it, but if I go to purchase the same article I can have it for ten cents. I know what goods are worth, but let an ignorant person go to those places and they will cheat him. I can put my hands upon traders now before me, who are guilty of such conduct.
It grieves me to see men who have believed the Gospel, forsaken the land of their nativity for the sake of life and salvation, endured all they have in coming here, and then, for a paltry sum of money, sacrifice their salvation. Such men cannot be saved in the celestial kingdom of God; they may receive their endowments, but they will do them no good; they may read over their Patriarchal blessings every day, but they will do them no good. No man or woman can receive life everlasting, only upon the principle of strict obedience to the requirements of the celestial law of heaven; no man can inherit such a blessing upon unholy principles.
Men must be honest, they must live faithfully before their God, and honor their calling and being on the earth. You ask if that is possible? Yes; the doctrine which we have embraced takes away the stony hearts.
We are naturally prone to wander from that which is good, and to receive every species of iniquity; we must get rid of this disposition, and the Gospel of salvation is expressly for the purpose of changing it, that we may receive the principles which prevail in heaven and are loved by the angels. It is possible for a man who loves the world to overcome that love, to get knowledge and understanding until he sees things as they really are, then he will not love the world but will see it as it is; he will see that it is in the hands of a Superior Being.
Man cannot control the heavens; he cannot control the earth, nor the elements; he can fertilize and prepare the ground for the reception of seed; he can plant, water, till, and reap from the ground the fruit of his toil, but, until his mind is opened by the Spirit of God, he cannot see that it is by a superior power that corn, wheat, and every kind of vegetation spring into life, and ripen for the sustenance of man and beast. Is it possible for him to arrive at this knowledge? It is, and that is what we have brought the doctrine of life and salvation to you for, that you may exchange your low, narrow, contracted, selfish dispositions for the ennobling Spirit of the Lord, for the Spirit of the Gospel, which gives joy and peace. If you enjoy that, your food will be sweet to you, your sleep will be refreshing, and your days will pass away in usefulness.
On the contrary, those who are covetous and greedy, anxious to grasp the whole world, are all the time uneasy, and are constantly laying their plans and contriving how to obtain this, that, and the other. Their minds are continually on the stretch to solve, "How can I obtain this farm, or that house and lot? How can I manage to get such and such teams? I want to get my lumber and adobies to build me a house, how can I manage and not pay much for them? I will deceive every man who comes nigh me; I will make him believe that my property is worth more than it is; I will sell ribbons for double their value, and I will ask forty cents a dozen for glass buttons that are worth only twenty, and in this way I will build a house for eighteen hundred dollars that will be worth four thousand."
Their minds are so intent on cheating their brethren that they cannot sleep soundly, their nerves twitch and they have the jerks in their sleep, thinking, "How shall I manage with this man to-morrow? I want enough out of him to get my adobies." And they lie and think, and think, and contrive, and plan, and the devil helps them all the time to manage to cheat the Saints. If such men should get a few bushels of wheat, would they let the Saints have it? No, they would sell it to our enemies and feed them, and let the Saints starve.
Again, it is known to all that a great many of the poor are as bad as those who have property; they are all the time in a sweat to know how to get their living without procuring it honestly. They are just as covetous and craving in their feelings as are the rich who hoard up their means and keep it from the honest poor; they are all the time scheming to get along without labor. There are many who live in this city without labor; I have neighbors near me that I do not believe get one cord of wood in the year, only as they steal it, and you have neighbors near you who steal your wood. If you want to keep your wood from the hands of these pilferers, you will have to put it in your houses, and if you want to keep your chickens, you will have to lock them up. I have often told you that we have all kinds of fish in the Gospel net; we have all kinds of poor, but after all the Lord's poor out number the poor devils.
A few sinners mixed in a community make the whole appear dishonest and odious to the honest portion of the human family, because they have not the power to properly discriminate between them. I have to labor under the same disadvantage that you do, and if I know any of the infernal scoundrels I dare not tell of them, or point them out, unless I have a mind to. There are a great many guilty persons whom I wish to say nothing about; they are liars and thieves, and I know it; but I do not wish to expose their names, in hopes that they will repent and refrain from their bad practices.
A likely man is a likely man, and a good man is a good man, whether in this Church or out of it; and a poor, miserable, sinful creature who gathers as a Saint, is worse than one who gathers as a Gentile. A person who is a thief, a liar, and a murderer in his heart, but professes to be a Saint, is more odious in the sight of God, angels and good men, than a person who comes out and openly declares that he is our enemy. I know how to take such a man, but a devil with a Saint's cloak on is one of the meanest characters you can imagine. I say, blessings on the head of a wicked Gentile who is my avowed enemy, far sooner than upon an enemy cloaked with a Saint's profession.
There is one more difficulty in the minds of this community with regard to Saints and sinners, and that is in relation to the channel of our public trade. In the days of Joseph, men would come to me, men who are now in this Church, and some of whom are in this congregation, and say, "Brother Brigham, what do you think? I went down to brother Joseph's store, and I wanted to get a gallon of molasses, eight yards of calico, a little crockery, &c., and I could not have the articles without paying the money down. Do you think that is right?" I always had but one feeling with regard to such matters, since I have been a Latter-day Saint. My reply to such questions was, should he not be paid for his goods as well as anybody else? But the reply is, "I can go to the store of an enemy, of a man who does not profess to be a Saint, much less a Prophet, and he will trust me, though I hate to go there and run into debt."
So he goes with his money to the enemy's store and buys a dress pattern, a piece of factory, some tea, a set of cups and saucers, a dozen knives and forks, boots and shoes for his wives and children, and them turns round and says, "God bless you," and "well done." But of Joseph's store it was, "God Almighty curse you, because you would not allow me to carry off your goods without pay for them."
Hundreds of instances of this kind I have witnessed in this kingdom, and it is a great fault with many of this people. That is the reason why men who are not in the Church prosper and fatten on the wealth of this people, and the reason why I do not bring goods in sufficient quantities to supply this market. There is not a trader in this community who is paid better than are the Gentile merchants. I could bring plenty of goods into this city and Territory every year, were it not for this fact. I am going to keep this subject before the minds of the Latter-day Saints and pursue it, until such a practice is driven from their midst. Good men, who would give away their shoes and go barefoot, if they saw anybody else going barefoot, were tried because brother Joseph would not trust them.
Brother Woolley was also a mercantile target for our shots in Nauvoo; I say "our," because I class myself with the Saints. The pious brethren, who were professedly so good, and loving sisters who went to brother Joseph's store, and could not get trusted, would go to the Gentiles and get trusted and pay them, and think that they had a right to neglect paying Joseph, because he was a Prophet, I presume.
This community would do just so here, if I had a store of goods. They would come to my store and say, "Brother Brigham, I am poor and needy, my wife is feeble and needs a little tea and sugar, and a little medicine; I also want some crockery and a little clothing, can't you fill the bill?" Yes, if you will pay me for it. "Of course, I will pay you for all I get." How? "O, never question me about that, am I not good for five or ten dollar's worth?" Yes, but when are you good, and how? You are good to that Gentile store where you have run into debt, for you will sell your last cow, pawn the dress pattern you got there for your wife, and the tea cups and saucers, to pay the money to that store keeper; but if you trade ten dollars of fifty dollars on credit at brother Joseph's or brother Brigham's store, what next? There is no more about it, that is the end of it.
I have known persons that would have cursed brother Joseph to the lowest hell hundreds of times, because he would not trust out everything he had on the face of the earth, and let the people squander it to the four winds. When he had let many of the brethren and sisters have goods on trust, he could not meet his liabilities, and then they would turn round and say, "What is the matter brother Joseph, why don't you pay your debts?" "It is quite a curiosity that you don't pay your debts; you must be a bad financier; you don't know how to handle the things of this world." At the same time the coats, pants, dresses, boots and shoes that they and their families were wearing came out of Joseph's store, and were not paid for when they were cursing him for not paying his debts.
But that is nothing, "O," say they, "it is all in the family. Why, yes, brother Joseph, I will pay you just as quick as I can." The proof of this is with you, ye rich and poor Saints. I will ask the men who have helped the poor to this place from different countries, when they get a house, a horse, an ox, or a cow, and have accumulated the things of this world, do they often express themselves able to pay you? You will all say "no." I will hardly make one exception in this congregation, or in this kingdom. There is a sister from Wales, the wife of brother Dan Jones, who has expended thousands of pounds to help the poor to this place, and they have cursed her all the day long, and she has now to labor hard for the support of herself and children.
Can we refer to other instances of this kind? We can. That is the great fault among this people, and I wished to lay it before them that they may learn the truth, and their duty to each other. Let the Latter-day Saints be as punctual in paying the merchant who belongs to the Church of God, as they are in paying a miserable scoundrel, who would take all their money and then turn round and cut their throats, or ask a mob to do it, but thank God such characters are very scarce here. But no, a great many of this people will sustain their enemies, will feed, and clothe them, and trade off their wheat and cattle to them, and foster them in their wickedness, while those very persons would cut the throats of the Saints, if they could get along as well without trading with them. And at the same time that which they owe to their brethren in this kingdom who have helped them here, and who have blessed them all the time, never comes due, and they, perhaps, never think of it any more.
Have you the proof of all this before your eyes? You have. I have hundreds and thousands of dollars owing to me by this community and contracted upon a fair business principle. People will say, "O, brother Brigham, won't you let me have a team? I must have a horse; won't you let me have this wagon? I very much need a cow; won't you help me in my building? And won't you do this? And I wish you would do that; and could you not do the other?" And the pay never comes. But you will go to a Gentile and run into debt, and sell your last cow to pay that wicked man. You may say, "O, that is only in our business transactions." Is not the upbuilding of the kingdom of God on earth a temporal labor all the time? It will be built up by physical force and means, by manual labor more than by any particular mental effort of the mind. Suppose that one Elder was left alone among the inhabitants of the earth, and that he should begin, with all the power of his mind, to imagine himself in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, or anywhere else, and still sit in one place, saying, "now I am laboring in the kingdom of God, it is a spiritual labor." What real good would he accomplish? Not any.
You know the old theory is that the kingdom of God, and all pertaining to it, is spiritual and not temporal; that is the traditional notion of our brother Christians. But a person may merely think until he goes down to the grave, and he will never be the means of saving one soul, not even his own, unless he adds physical labor to his thinking. He must think, and pray, and preach, and toil and labor with mind and body, in order to build up Zion in the last days. You cannot build your house, nor gather up your substance and come to this place from different nations by mere thinking, it also requires physical labor. If we attend to the things of the kingdom of God, and nothing else in good weather, we can do everything else, that is necessary to be done, in rainy and bad weather.
If we talk to you and you sit and hear, that involves labor, and everything connected with building up Zion requires actual, severe labor. It is nonsense to talk about building up any kingdom except by labor; it requires the labor of every part of our organization, whether it be mental, physical, or spiritual, and that is the only way to build up the kingdom of God. Hence, what I have been laying before you is directly pertaining to the building up of that kingdom.
Will the people still take a course to feed strangers, and let their brethren starve? They will not. I say to every man who has wheat, set the poor to building your houses, to making fences, opening farms, or doing something, and hand out your grain to them. And if those who wish to speculate in grain, in consequence of the scarcity through drought and the ravages of the grasshoppers, come and offer you money for your grain, do not sell a bushel for five, ten, or twenty dollars, but tell them, "no, our wheat is to feed the poor Saints, and no one else." If you do not do this, I am watching you. Do you know that I have my threads strung all through the Territory, that I may know what individuals do? If you do not pursue a righteous course, we will separate you from the Church. Is that all? No, if necessary we will take your grain from your bin and distribute it among the poor and needy, and they shall be fed and supplied with work, and you shall receive what your grain is worth.
There is plenty for all who are now in the Territory, and for all that will come in this fall. Talk about staring to death! How do you suppose you could? You could not enter a house in these mountains, where there is one potato left, and tell them that you were perishing for food, but what the inmates of that house would divide with you; I say, not one, whether belonging to Jew or Gentile, Saint or sinner. This is speaking to the praise of those who have the grain.
I do not believe that there is a grain owner in this Territory who does not feel just as liberal as he need to; at least, I know of no one but what wishes to do right. One man, who had a fine crop of grain, came to this city, and was offered three dollars a bushel for it; he said, "shall I take that? or what shall I do with it?" I replied, let us have it in the Tithing Store, and we will distribute it to the poor.
Flour is six dollars per hundred in that store. What was it last year? Six dollars. You cannot starve to death, because those who have got the grain are willing to divide with you. If you should happen to get hungry you could run to your neighbors for a pumpkin or a squash, and they would even jump out of bed to serve you, in case you chanced to call upon them late in the night. There is no law in this country against begging, therefore, if need be, we can beg from one another, and from Him who gave it all, so we cannot starve to death.
Go without eating two or three days! Bless your souls, I know not what it is to go without food since I have been a "Mormon." I could travel over the earth without purse or scrip, and not be obliged to go hungry. Before I knew "Mormonism" I was acquainted with straitened circumstances, but it has clothed and fed me, and blessed me all the day long.
We have now held our meeting for three hours and a half, and after singing we will dismiss for one hour.
INIQUITY--SAINTS LIVING THEIR RELIGION--EARLY MARRIAGES.
Remarks made by President H. C. Kimball, in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1855.
I do not wish to detain the congregation long, still I do not think that those who have the spirit of a Saint are tired and wish the meeting to come to a close. Every word I have heard to-day is salvation and the very quintessence of righteousness, and I assure you that I have enjoyed myself more under what I have heard to-day, than I ever did in the best party that I ever attended. True, I have enjoyed myself extremely well when I have been with my brethren in the dance, but, gentlemen and ladies, what we have heard to-day is salvation and eternal lives to us, if we will listen to and obey it.
I am thankful that the time has come when brother Brigham is disposed to lift the evil and expose the iniquities of men, if they are not willing to expose them themselves. I know they were exposed in the days of Joseph, and brother Brigham, myself, and many others were with him and stood by him to the day of his death, and do still. When their iniquities were exposed, men whom we thought much of, and those whom we thought nothing of, turned away from the faith. They were poor, miserable, rotten-hearted creatures; we knew that, and knew it when we were in England, and when we came home; and because we would not pamper and flatter those poor, miserable devils, they became our enemies and the enemies of Joseph.
Joseph would many times ostensibly hold men up to see whether this people would worship them, to see whether they had discernment enough to know the difference between a righteous man and a wicked one, and if we preferred the society of a blackleg, or of a whoremaster, or of any other abominable character, he was perfectly willing that we should have the opportunity to prove ourselves.
Now we are here in the mountains, and am I not glad? Yes, I am glad, and I rejoice exceedingly, and if I am concealing wickedness or iniquity, I say, let it be exposed, that others by seeing it may repent and forsake their sins. Men will often tell what they will do--that they are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this Gospel and for their brethren, but the thing is to come and do it, while at the same time they are not willing to pay their tithing, nor do anything else that is required of them. He is no Saint who will not fulfil the requirements of heaven.
Brother Brigham is a servant to this people, and he serves you and waits upon you by night and by day, and his associates are willing to do whatever they are called upon. He is your servant, and I am your servant, but if you do not treat your servants well while in this time, I am afraid that when they come to what is called eternity, you will not have the privilege of troubling them much. Therefore, listen with hearing ears and understanding hearts; walk up like men to do what God requires at your hands, and be willing to come to the light that your sins may be revealed; and if your sins are revealed and you repent of them, there are men who can tell you what road to take and what atonement to make, that you may be set in the road which leads to life, and if you will not be corrected you will be damned as sure as the sun will again set.
What is called "Mormonism" is the delight of my heart; this people are the pride of my heart, and I wish that every one would do right, keep the commandments of the Lord, and listen to those correct principles that are taught them from time to time. Some will come with great zeal and anxiety, saying, "I want my endowments; I want my washings and anointings; I want my blessings; I wish to be sealed up to eternal lives; I wish to have my wife sealed and my children sealed to me;" in short, "I desire this and I wish that." What good would all this do you, if you do not live up to your profession and practise your religion? Not as much good as for me to take a bag of sand and baptize it, lay hands upon it for the gift of the Holy Ghost, wash it and anoint, and then seal it up to eternal lives, for the sand will be saved, having filled the measure of its creation, but you will not, except through faith and obedience. Those little pebbles and particles of sand gather themselves together and are engaged, as with one heart and mind, to accomplish a purpose in nature. Do they not keep the mighty ocean in its place by one united exertion? And if we were fully united we could resist and overcome every evil principle there is on earth or in hell.
Let us all listen with care and attention to the counsels that are given and that have been given unto us today, for they are more precious and delicious to me than the sweetest thing I ever tasted in this life. Shall we sit down and not rebuke sin?
If you oppose any of the works of God you will cultivate a spirit of apostacy. If you oppose what is called the "spiritual wife doctrine," the Patriarchal Order, which is of God, that course will corrode you with a spirit of apostacy, and you will go overboard; still a great many do so, and strive to justify themselves in it, but they are not justified of God. When you take that course you put a knife to brother Brigham's breast, and to the breasts of his associates; and more or less so when you oppose anything which God has instituted for His glory and the exaltation of man. I do not like such conduct myself, and I am opposed to such characters; I do not ask any favors of them, and I have often said that I never want one of them to darken my door. I am against them and God is against them, and I am for sustaining His cause, the cause of my Father who dwells in the heavens; the cause of His Son, and the cause that brother Joseph has been the means of bringing forth by the revelations of Jesus Christ. We sustained Joseph in this cause in his day, and we sustain the same cause now, and we will sustain it for ever, and that is our desire and prayer from this time henceforth, God helping of us.
The principle of plurality of wives never will be done away although some sisters have had revelations that, when this time passes away and they go through the veil, every woman will have a husband to herself. I wish more of our young men would take to themselves wives of the daughters of Zion, and not wait for us old men to take them all; go ahead upon the right principle, young gentlemen, and God bless you for ever and ever, and make you fruitful, that we may fill the mountains and then the earth with righteous inhabitants. That is my prayer, and that is my blessing upon all the Saints and upon your posterity after you, for ever. Amen.
MEN REWARDED ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS.
Remarks made by President J. M. Grant, in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 6, 1855.
I am pleased with the general spirit manifested through the servants of the Lord who have spoken to us to-day. I was pleased, during the forenoon, with the freedom that seemed to pervade the mind of our President and the mind of Elder Kimball. I am pleased with the freedom of our Patriarch, Elder John Young, this afternoon, and I believe the doctrine which he has advanced to be correct; it is substantially this, all persons shall be judged according to their works. I am aware the old maxim was that men would be judged according to the death they might die, but the Latter-day Saints believe that men will be judged by the life they live, and not by the death they die. We believe that a man will be rewarded according to his works, for it is not written that he shall be rewarded according to his ordination, or the special situation or place in which he may be called to act in the Church of God; but it is written, and that law, I believe, has never been revoked by high heaven, or by any of its legates to earth; hence it stands immutable, that all men shall be rewarded according to their works.
This is the doctrine that our Patriarch has been laboring to impress upon your minds this afternoon. I think it is very wholesome; I am satisfied with it; it is sweet to my taste; it is good that all men in the different dispensations of the Almighty, each in his situation, calling, capacity, and sphere of action, are to be, and of right should be, rewarded according to his works. We do not wish to reverse this law in relation to our enemies, we only wish them to be rewarded according to their works; we do not desire to warp the law in the least.
I am aware that many suppose that we entertain some unchristian feelings to those out of the Church, but this is a mistake; we only wish that persons who have shed the blood of our Apostles may be rewarded just according to their works. And we expect that, sooner or later, they will have meted out to them that reward which the Almighty actually knows that they deserve. When speaking of governors, rulers, kings, emperors, judges, and officers of nations and states, would we wish to reverse the general law that every person shall be rewarded according to their works? No. It would not do to have some men die as soon as many might desire, for they would not meet their proportionate reward on the earth.
I like to meditate upon this doctrine, I like to see its practical workings, rewarding every man according to his works; and I expect that the day will come when all Latter-day Saints will be perfectly satisfied with it.
I am fully aware that many people have been bred and raised in poor-pussyism all their days, both in America and in Europe, and when they hear doctrines and principles taught by men who speak as freedom permits them, and as freemen have a right to speak, those who are clothed with the garments of poor-pussyism get the grunts; well, grunt on until you grunt it all out. The Latter-day Saints who enjoy the light of the Lord, that power which loves the intelligence of heaven and imparts it to the faithful, thank the Lord that we expect that our elder brother, Jesus Christ, will give unto us according to our works. We expect that he will be rewarded according to his works, and that his associates will be rewarded according to theirs, and if our works are not good we ask for no good reward.
It is not according to the nation a man sprung from, nor according to the parentage or line of descent he came through, that he is to be rewarded; it is not so written. But it is written in the book of God emanating from high heaven, from the courts above, that kings, emperors, rulers, and all men on the earth, high and low, shall be rewarded according to their works. Do the people of God understand this? Do all the Saints, in their individual capacities, understand this? The doctrine is applicable to the nations and states. Is it not applicable to all people? It is.
"Why," says one, "bless my soul, you do not say that it is applicable to females, do you?" Yes I do. "Oh, dear, what will the FIRST wife do in that case?" Why, bless your poor soul, she will be rewarded according to her works. That is the doctrine, and, thank God, there is no other way. You cannot alter it; you cannot revoke this eternal law. If a man has fifty wives and the fiftieth is the best, does the most good, she will get the greatest reward, in spite of all the grunting on the part of the first one.
In the Church of God, if a Teacher, a Priest, or Deacon, has the best works, if his labours are the most, if his acts are the most righteous in magnifying his calling to the utmost, he is better off than any man in the Church who does not magnify his calling. Is this doctrine applicable to ordained men in the Church? Yes, to every man of God, whether he be a Priest, Teacher, Member, Elder, or Apostle; each person will be rewarded according to his works. Is it applicable in families? Yes. "Oh," says one, "That makes me feel bad; my poor wife, my dear loving wife, the wife of my youth and the companion of my toils, what will she think of this? Bless me, I tremble for her." If her works are better, if her righteousness exceeds that of the rest of your wives, if she has more philantrophy, greater charity, and deserves more than they, she will get more. But if her works are not equal to those of some of the balance, she will still be rewarded according to her works.
I like the doctrine; I can swallow it without greasing my mouth. It is a first-rate doctrine, and is a goodly part of the real faith, virtue, root and marrow of "Mormonism." Yes, it is applicable in families, thank God, and in the Church of God, in quorums, in councils, and in every other organized body; it applies to the world which we inhabit, and to every thing that is in heaven.
I know that there are hundreds of thousands of men out of this Church, and do we like them? Yes. When we talk against men out of the Church do we mean to be understood as speaking against good men--men who wish to do right? No; but we mean the poor devils and the devil's poor, that's the idea.
To righteous and honorable men who have true integrity, in them we say, "God bless you," for that is the way we feel towards all such the wide world over. God bless the righteous, whether they are in the Church or out of it. And God bless the righteous Saints in the Church;, and in all the families of God's people. I am backing up what brother John has been speaking. I want the Saints to do right and be blessed, which may God grant, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
LITERAL FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY--DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM--RESTORATION OF ISRAEL--THE COMING OF CHRIST.
A Discourse, by Elder P. P. Pratt, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 7, 1855.
We wish the entire attention of the congregation; the assembly being so vast, it will almost be impossible for the speaker to be heard unless there is great order and strict attention. We wish no disturbance on the outskirts of the assembly, as we wish all to hear.
I will read for the edification of the assembly, a portion of the 21st chap. of Luke, contained in what is called King James' translation of the New Testament, from the 5th to the 36th verse.
I will remind those who hear me this day of one fact which can be clearly demonstrated to the mind of every careful reader of the Scriptures, and which fact is a guarantee, as it were, to the rational mind, for the manner of the fulfilment of that which is future; it is this, that the prophecies contained in the Holy Bible, spoken by Moses and the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles, have been fulfilled literally and naturally, so far as they have been fulfilled at all. Not in the sense, however, that modern blindness and priestcraft have tried to throw over them, but in a plain and common sense, as plain as if a man were to rise here and tell that the wall around this Temple Block would be overthrown, and not one stone left upon another, and then tell the circumstances that would transpire before it, and in connection with it, and after it, and then it afterwards be fulfilled and recorded in history; so plain, so clear, so full, and so exact have the predictions of the Prophets of God, and the Apostles of God, and of the Son of God been fulfilled, except such portions as remain to be fulfilled.
Keep that one fact in view, and then search the prophecies, and trace them out; search history for their fulfilment, and give diligent heed to the things that are written, for these are the commandments not only of the ancient Apostles and Prophets, but of the Apostles and Prophets of the last days.
Jesus himself, while he travelled upon the earth in his mortal tabernacle, read the Scriptures to the people, "he opened the book and taught;" his manner was to do it in the synagogue every Sabbath day--he exhorted them to search into the things that were written.
And after he had risen from the dead, and received all power in heaven and on earth, he referred his disciples to that which was written.
On a certain occasion he said, "O fools and slow of heart to believe that which the Prophets have written."
When he appeared to the Nephites, in his risen body, as you will find it written in the Book of Mormon, he took pains to refer them to the written prophecies of Isaiah and many others, and quoted many of them, and exhorted the people to search the things contained in the prophecies of Isaiah diligently, bearing testimony of their literal fulfilment; and said he, "A commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently, "for they have been fulfilled, and will be fulfilled according to that which is written, not in some other way.
Not only are we included in these general exhortations and commandments of the ancients, and of Jesus Christ himself, but the same commandments have been renewed to us by our great Prophet and founder, Joseph Smith, and by our Prophets and Apostles that still live.
How often have they told us to treasure up the words of God, those things that are written for our profit and learning, and to search diligently and treasure up in our hearts continually words of wisdom from the best books.
Says the word of God through Joseph Smith to this people, search the Scriptures, treasure them up in your hearts, put them in a good store-house--the store-house of your memory; then the Holy Spirit will be at liberty when you are called up to teach others to select from that well-stored treasure things new and old.
It is not to study up what you shall say particularly, but to treasure up truth in your hearts, to have them well filled with it, kept well stored, and then give free liberty to the Spirit of God to operate upon you, to collect out of that treasure that portion which will be best suited to the wants and condition of men who do not treasure up the words of life.
If the Holy Spirit should come upon a man of that description to select out of that store-house, he would find it empty, and he would have the trouble of putting it there, or it would not be there; hence he would be barren and unfruitful.
Search the Scriptures, ye Saints of the Most High; among all your cares, and all your duties, search the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, of the Book of Mormon, and the revelations of God that have been written for our profit and learning.
And to the young people among us, a generation brought up amid the hurry, toil, and cares of a new country, I say do not neglect to treasure up in your hearts the history, and the prophecies, and their fulfilment, and the promises, and hopes shadowed forth therein, and the doctrines, and principles, and examples left on record.
You may say you have not time; take those portions of time you would otherwise devote to something less useful. We all have time to do it. I have been as hard working in my day as any other man, perhaps, and I always had time to do it, and always have done it, and it was by the light that shone in a dark place, diligently and prayerfully searched out, and the Holy Spirit that shone upon the understanding, through the prayer of faith, and through diligent search, that caused me to see, and understand, and lay hold on certain things that came in fulfilment of these prophecies.
If any one asks how I came to be a Latter-day Saint, or what some people would call a "Mormon," a follower of Joseph Smith, the modern Prophet, I answer, it was because I had given heed to the sentiments of truth from my early youth, carefully and prayerfully searching and believing them; it was because the Holy Spirit rested upon me, and opened my understanding to the same through the prayer of faith, and diligent search. It was because that the Holy Spirit gave me clearly to understand that this modern Prophet, and the fulness of the Gospel restored by him, had come in fulfilment of certain promises made by the ancient Prophets and Apostles; that is the reason why I really embraced the fulness of the Gospel which the world calls "Mormonism."
Let us review the things we have read, and make a few remarks upon them.
Some of the disciples, feeling proud of their great temple, or national house of God, and feeling to rejoice in its workmanship, beauty, grandeur, and probably flattering themselves it would endure for ever as the great centre of the Jewish worship for all nations, they called the attention of Jesus to it, saying, "Master, see what manner of stones and buildings are here." "Why," said Jesus, "the days will come when there will not be left one of these stones on the top of another."
Does that need spiritualising? Does it need some learned man from a college to tell you what that means, and give you the spiritual sense of it? It had but one sense, and that a child could understand.
"The days will come when there will not be one of those beautiful stones left upon another, that shall not be thrown down." In the Indian phraseology they inquired how many moons first, or in other words, "Master, when shall these things be, and what sign will there be when these things transpire?" Jesus begins to tell them some of the things that would immediately happen in their day.
The first thing he calls their attention to, among the things that had been transpiring, was, that a great many deceivers should come and profess to be Christ, saying. "I am Christ, but do not go after them, take care and not be deceived by them."
The reason of this was that the Jews were looking for a Messiah, and for a deliverance from the Roman yoke, and for their national independance to be restored to them; and for their city, and temple, and nation, to be the seat of government for all nations, a universal theocracy.
They were looking for this, and they had rejected the true Messiah, and were about to kill him, and were looking for another to fulfil what all men were in the expectation of; for the old Prophets had told them that such a day would come, in relation to that nation, and their city Jerusalem, and the temple; that the throne of God would be there; that the tabernacle of God would be there; that there would be one king and one Lord, and his name one; that all the nations of the earth would come up to worship--the nations they were acquainted with in that country.
They had reason to look for that day, because the old Prophets had foretold it, and John the Baptist came along as a special Prophet, and nearly all that people had received him as a Prophet, professedly, though in reality, some of them received him, and he told them some of those things were about to be fulfilled.
He had told them about their king, about the Lamb of God, about the Messiah, and that they must repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, and make his paths strait.
With this double assurance, first the testimony of their old Prophets, and secondly the renewed testimony of a new Prophet, to immediately prepare for the fulfilment of some of the old prophecies; with this double assurance they were looking for some body to do something, and that pretty largely too; and as they had rejected the true king--the true Messiah, of course they would be looking for somebody, that ambitious spirits would enter, and they would rise up and tell the people, "I am he you look for; set me up, and I will deliver you from the Roman yoke, I will break your fetters, and bring about the restoration of your national independance."
"Don't you be deceived," says Jesus, "for many of those who would not hearken to me will come, saying, 'I am Christ,' but do not go after them." These very things happened in those days, for which you may read history.
"When you hear of wars and commotion, be not terrified, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not yet; nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom"--which had been a common thing, and was then--"great earthquakes, and famine, and pestilence, and great sights from heaven."
Go and read Josephus, and read about these things being fulfilled in that same age.
"But before all these things shall take place, they shall lay their hands upon you."
Some people have been in the habit of trying to apply every scripture to every body in every age; they had need to give heed to the exhortation of Paul to Timothy, "Show thyself a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, giving to every one their portion," not everything that is written for every body in every age.
Jesus was talking to Peter, James, and John, and to the rest of his immediate followers. "They will lay their hands on <you,> Peter, on <you,> James, and on <you,> John, and also upon others, and they will persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, and you shall be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake." And of which, I need not observe, was literally fulfilled in that age, the New Testament itself bearing record of it in part; "this shall turn to you for a testimony." That is as much as to say, when this happens to you that I have foretold, it will be a witness and a testimony--it will be another proof; therefore, instead of mourning about it, and feeling down-hearted, understand that I have before told you it must be. And when you are brought before rulers for my name's sake, do not study up a speech beforehand to speak in self-defence, for I will give you a mouth, and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Read the New Testament--the history of Peter and the Twelve, of Stephen and of Paul, and see if they had not a mouth and wisdom that confounded their enemies when they were afterwards summoned before the different authorities, and kings, and magistrates, in fulfilment of this promise.
"Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death." This was fulfilled in the circumstances of James, the brother of the Lord, whom they killed with the sword, according to the New Testament. It was fulfilled in the case of Peter, in the case of the stoning of Stephen to death; it was fulfilled literally in many instances in that age.
"And he shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." Nations were not singing the name of Jesus then as they are now by tradition, but the bare mention of his name gave a shock to the wicked, to kings and rulers.
Go to Illinois and Missouri, and mention Joseph Smith to the mob that tried to butcher and kill him, and drive the Saints; go where they reside, and say, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and it would not cause a greater shock, greater rage and hate, more bitter feelings than it would in those days to mention the name of that crucified Nazarene; "Ye shall be hated of all men for my <name's sake,"> that is, because you will be running from place to place, making use of my name--making mention of what nearly everybody considers the name of an impostor and deceiver.
"That deceiver said he would rise again from the dead on the third day," said some of those pious Jews after they had killed him, applying the same terms they now apply to the modern martyrs.
To go about and preach his name then was not that pleasant thing it is now in Christendom; I assure you, it was a cross, and nothing but the Spirit of truth, inspired in the heart of man, would give him boldness enough to do it. "But there shall not a hair of your head perish; in your patience possess ye your souls."
Now, then, comes the thing the Apostles asked about, after he had told them the preliminary leading to it; filling up the interstices of time, he gets at length to the destruction of that temple--to the throwing down of those beautiful stones. "When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know the desolation thereof is nigh." Does that need any spiritualizing?
Go and read Josephus, read the history of the Roman army under Titus, the Roman general, who came up and laid siege against that city and surrounded it with the Roman legions; and then read the history of the war. It took place at the time when almost the whole nation had poured into that devoted city, just as you have poured into Salt Lake City, only we are a mere handful compared with that great nation; they had come into one of the great Conferences that happened about once a year; it was during the time that tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands that come into Jerusalem, from all the surrounding country, that they were laid siege to by the Roman army.
The city was blockaded--none could escape. Besides this there were several factions within the city; Jews were at war with Jews under different leaders. This made a desolating war within, while the enemy was encamped without; and besides all this, famine overtook them, and pestilence caused by want, and by being crowded and shut up in the city, and by the dead bodies with no place to bury them.
Hence with sword, famine, pestilence, &c., Jerusalem began to be desolated. "Now when you see this, understand that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter therein."
Some of our Sectarian friends tell us that Jesus Christ did not preach a gathering; he only preached the Gospel, and then let the people live right where they had a mind to. But here is a positive revelation from the Son of God, to those that would give heed to his warning voice, to actually remove to the mountains in order to escape the war, the troubles, and pestilence that awaited the Jews and Jerusalem.
Now if we had all the history of those times; if we only had what the Apostles have written, in full, instead of a little of it, we should have the particular place where they did go, and where they lived, you would have an account of the organization of a gathered people taking care of themselves, while war desolated the nation. We have not got this part of ancient history, but we will have it, for there is nothing secret but what will be revealed--hid but what will be brought to light.
When God sees fit we will have the record of the fulfilment of this gathering; of every man, woman, and child that heeded the warning of the blessed Jesus. About seventy years after the birth of Christ, which was about the date that the Roman army compassed Jerusalem, I warrant you they left Judea and Jerusalem, and gathered into the mountains to take care of themselves. This is the very period of Christian history I would every much like to read--how they conducted themselves when they were gathered together, and how they maintained themselves when their nation and temple were crumbling to the dust.
Let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the country enter thereinto." We are given to understand that there was a little time after the Roman army had laid siege to Jerusalem, in consequence of a certain movement of that army, that gave a chance to the people in the city that were wide awake, to gather. If they would give heed to the warning voice of Jesus, or to the words of his Apostles, not to come down from the house top, or stop to get their bed, but run with all their might, they could escape. A little moment of relaxation, and advantageous positon [sic] of the army, made escape possible to those who would not stop to take their clothes out of the house, their bed, or anything else, but flee at once.
"For these be the days of vengeance." Vengeance on what? On the people of the Jews and on all the people of Jerusalem that had rejected the Gospel, that had rejected and killed the true Messiah, and persecuted and killed the Apostles, and his disciples.
"These be the days of vengeance." What for? That all things that were written may be fulfilled, not spiritualized, nor transformed, no done away, but absolutely fulfilled.
What did he mean by that saying? Go and read Moses; I shall not trouble myself to give chapter and verse; go and read Moses and the Prophets and see if they do not predict the horrors of war to that age, and desolation, even to the eating of their own children for mere want, because of the pressure of the famine; "even the tender and delicate women," says Moses, "who would not venture to put the soles of their feet on the ground for tenderness and delicacy, should eat their own children in the siege and the straightness whereby your enemies shall distress you in all your gates, if you will not hearken to my words." He also predicted that the Lord God would raise up a Prophet like unto him, and the people should hear him in all things whatsoever he should say unto them, and every soul that would not hear him, should be cut off from among the people.
What do our enemies complain of us about? For believing we must hearken to the Prophet of the Lord which we profess to have among us--Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young, or whoever it may be. "They believe," say our enemies, "that they must hearken to their Prophet in all things whatsoever he shall say unto them." Just as though it was a new thing; that is what they are mad at us about; it is the main point that is found fault with from California to Maine, and throughout Europe, by editors and priests.
Everywhere the word is, "what is the matter with the Mormons in Utah? They hold to that abominable principle of hearkening to all things the Prophet of God says to them." O dear, what hurt does that do? It gives them power--they will all vote one way.
We are not the only people that are troubled with that doctrine, and this is not the only age that has had that kind of trouble to contend with.
Moses had laid it down, that they should not only give heed to his word, and if they did not they should be destroyed, and have to eat their own children while their enemies besieged them, but that they should give heed also to another Prophet that should arise, and that too in all things whatsoever he should say unto them; and if they did not, they should be cut off from among the people.
But that part of "Mormonism" is very ancient, and applied to Moses, and to Christ, and to every Prophet that has ever been sent to lead the people.
"These be the days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled." I have quoted a little of what has been written.
"But woe unto them that are with child and to those that give suck in those days." What kind of a woe is this? "Eternal hell," says one. That is not the meaning; but the language signifies that it will be hard on those who are in that situation in those days; they will have trouble because they will not be in circumstances to flee from their enemies; it will be very inconvenient indeed for them to escape; therefore sorrow to them; it will be hard on them; they are to be pitied.
I used to think, when I was a boy, that every time the Scriptures said woe, it meant eternal hell. I did not understand very much of the Scriptures then; in this instance Christ was simply speaking of the trouble and inconvenience it would be to those who had little children.
I have often thought how much more merciful God is to the Latter-day Saints, in telling them not to go in hast nor by flight, without stopping to get their coat, their garment, or their bed; he has not told them to escape empty-handed; I feel thankful for this mercy.
On the other hand, I have thought that we have had some burdens to bear, over and above what they had, which makes the thing about even.
"For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people." That is, in the land of Judea, upon the Jews, and in that city.
"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and they shall be led away captive among all nations, and Jerusalem"--what will become of it finally?--"shall be trodden down of the gentiles, <until">--that is a big word, and means much in the position it occupies here--"UNTIL"--on that word is suspended that nation's fate, and the fate of all the neighboring nations--"Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
I tell you there is meaning in these words, contained in that single line. O ye nations of the earth, if I had the voice of an angel's trump, that I could be heard to earth's remotest bounds, by kings, rulers, captains, generals, armies, and nations, I would wish to read that one line in their ears, and tell them the things that are summed up in it.
"Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles <until> the times of the gentiles be fulfilled." What is meant by it? One thing we know certain, we have no need to conjecture, that is, that all these things happened literally. The Roman army on the outside, and the three factions on the inside of the city of Jerusalem, and the famine, and the pestilence helping it on, performed their work until finally it came to an end by the city being taken by the Romans, the temple set on fire, and burned, and the whole city desolated, and brought under Gentile rule, namely, Roman rule. And it is said, in the history written by Josephus, that one million and a half of Jews perished in that siege, that is, in that one city, in putting an end to a national polity; a national corrupted form of government, a national priesthood, a national house of worship.
One million and a half perished! They fell by the edge of the sword, by pestilence, and by famine, and the remnants of the Jews were carried captive among all nations. To remain how long? As I have said, we know this prophecy has been literally fulfilled, for we see them scattered among all nations to this day.
I have seen them in San Francisco, in Chili, in Scotland, in England, and in every part of the United States, and Canada; and wherever my brethren, the Elders of this Church, have been; I can assure them of one thing, if they have looked about them they have seen a Jew or Jews. Wherever there is a nation to be found, or a people of commerce, ships, camels, or any other means of conveyance, there will be found Jews; that we know.
But about one stone of the temple at Jerusalem not being left one upon another--the fire itself would not do this--but history has informed us that the Jews concealed their treasures under the stones of the temple, and the Roman army went to work and tumbled them about, and did not leave one stone upon another, and finally they were removed.
In fulfilment of another scripture, they took a plough and ploughed the temple site--so completely was the scripture fulfilled.
Had I time I would quote the chapter and verse of this plowing, and the history which refers to it.
Now then this last line I have read has been fulfilling until now; that is certain. The Jews are among all nations, in captivity--without being organized and nationalized; without being restored; without having returned to the God of their fathers; to His matchless power; to the administration of His Holy Spirit; to the enjoyment of heavenly communication, through Holy Prophets, by the revelations of God; to the administration of angels; to the enjoyment of the religion of their fathers, and to the power of God to defend them, and deliver them from their enemies.
They have been 1800 years without these blessings. This is a fact foretold in this chapter, and literally fulfilled before the eyes of all men. All the nations know it that know anything about the Bible or about history.
Now there was a time allotted for the Gentile powers to reign, for their corruptions to bear rule, and during the time here designated as the times of the Gentiles, the times of their polity, of their nationality, their religion, and to prove them and to see what they would do with the power committed unto them--the times spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, in which the fourth monarchy, namely, the Roman, and all those divisions, and subdivisions that should grow out of it in modern times, the times when these divided powers should bear rule.
There is just as much a time for these to have their day and prove themselves, and bring forth the fruits of their rule, and a time for them to come to an end, as ever there was a time for Jerusalem to rule or for the Jewish polity to come to an end. Now when that time arrives, ye nations look out, for there is a prophecy gone forth about you; it is in these words, and recorded in the Old Testament; "Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet will I not make a full end of you," speaking of Israel.
Now, when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled there will be an uprooting of their governments and institutions, and of their civil, political, and religious polity. There will be a shaking of nations, a downfall of empires, an upturning of thrones and dominions, as Daniel has foretold, and the kingdom and power, and rule on the earth will return to another people, and exist under another polity, as Daniel has further foretold. But let me read it here, let Jesus speak in his own words, or the writer for him. Now understand that we have got down to the present time, that is sure with this prophecy, no man can mistake it. Jerusalem has been overthrown, and not one stone of that magnificent temple has been left upon another. A great portion of that nation fell by the edge of the sword, and the residue went captive among all nations, and their city has been trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and will be until their times are fulfilled, that is, until they have had their reign out. Then what will happen? We will read; "And there shall be signs in the sun." Has anybody seen them?--not away back among those other things; there were signs in the air then; Josephus tells you about it, and this book tells you about it, as I have been reading to-day in this chapter, about the signs which happened as a forerunner of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Jews as a nation. Now after the Jews have remained among the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, as a forerunner of this latter overturn "there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon." Have any of you seen them during the last 30 years? I have. "And in the stars." Have you seen any signs in the stars? Think back for the last 30 years. "And upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And THEN"--not some other time. Are there any Millerites here who have been setting a time for the Son of Man to come? "Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory." Not you, my disciples, whom I told a little while ago should be delivered up to the synagogues, and to prisons, and be beheaded, and suffer many things; not you whom I have warned to take heed lest you are deceived by false Christs that shall come to you; and when you should hear of wars and commotions to be not terrified, &c.; but Jesus Christ now directs his attention to another age; this does not refer to you my followers, you will be dead, and in paradise when these things that I now refer to shall take place. But THEY. Who? The people who shall live when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled--when their reign is about to come to an end, the generation that will be alive when Jerusalem and the Jews are about to be restored, and the full end of all Gentile polity is about to usher in. "Then shall they see," those that shall live in those days. And what shall they see? "The Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
That is the proud sight that is to be seen in connection with the end of the Gentile rule, or the breaking up of the Gentile nations, when their times are completed; when Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, to be no more trodden down nor governed by them, when the Jews are to be restored; and when there are signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after the things that are coming, then shall they see, not the crucified Jesus hanging upon the ignominious cross, mocked by the wicked Jews, not persecuted by a Herod, clothed in all the pomp and pride of Gentile authority, not a Roman army to overthrow and succeed the Jewish polity, but they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud clothed with great power and great glory.
Do ye believe this, ye young people, ye boys and girls? Do ye believe this? All the prophetic sayings contained in this chapter have been fulfilled, down to this day. Do you believe that portion of it which is yet in the future, ye people of New-York, of San Francisco, of China, of London, of France? Do the Gentile nations believe this? You see the Jew among you, and the Gentile bearing rule; do you believe that this is a true prophecy? You ought to believe it, for it is right before your eyes in its fulfilment, and if you do, do you expect to see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory? That is a sight some of you will see; you have only to live until the time comes, and you will see it.
Whether there has been signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, and perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear, in the last few years, I will leave each one to draw his own conclusion. If this has not already been sufficiently fulfilled, one thing is certain, it is being fulfilled, and when it is sufficiently completed the Son of Man will be seen in heaven with power and great glory, as sure as you ever saw a Jew, that is, it is a fact. "And when these things begin to come to pass," for that is an important point, "then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." Does it not appear a little strange that Peter, and James, and John, and the Jewish nation have to wait until then for their redemption, and the dead and the living, as well as the Latter-day Saints? They have to wait until then, whether in this world or in the other, for the redemption of their bodies, unless they died before Christ, and rose from the dead when he did, and the Jews must wait until then for the redemption of their nation and national polity, and for their triumph over their enemies, and for the putting down of all other power, and for the establishment of the reign righteousness [sic-phrase] on the earth, the redemption of their friends, and vengeance on all those who have shed the innocent blood whether of Latter-day Saints or Former-day Saints. This is the day of their redemption, be in what world they may, they are preparing for it. "Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." When? Not when Jerusalem is compassed with armies, not when they (the Jews) are destroyed by the edge of the sword, not while wandering among the nations of the earth from age to age, not while the Gentile powers bear rule, but when the sun, moon, and stars shall put forth their signs, the heavens shake, and men's hearts failing them for fear, looking for the things that are coming upon the earth--then is the time to begin and look up, to lift up your heads and rejoice, ye spirits that are waiting for redemption, whether ye are in this world or in the other, straighten your backs in your hard toil, and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.
"And he spake to them a parable: Behold the fig trees and all the trees." We have not any fig trees here, but they had there. "And all the trees," embraces trees we have here. "When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand." You do not need a Prophet to come along and prophesy that summer is nigh at hand, for even the children may know it. "So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."
O ye Millerites, ye made a great mistake; you thought the first thing was the coming of the Lord in power and great glory; you were going to have him come immediately, without any kingdom to come to, without a forerunner in the shape of a Prophet, but just by men guessing, and predicting, and remarking, and commenting on the prophecies; but so far as the coming of the Lord being the first thing you knew, you will "begin to see these things come to pass, and then know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand" and we have to be born again or we cannot see it.
People hear of "Joe Smith," as he is called, of the Book of Mormon, of angels coming from heaven again; of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; of modern Prophets and Apostles, and martyrs, and they think, "what under heaven does all this mean, we have no reason to look for anything of the sort, but we expect the Lord here every minute." They have no idea of a modern Prophet; of angels visiting the earth in the latter times; of modern inspiration; of a modern Church that will hearken to the voice of a Prophet in all things that he shall say unto them; it is all new to them, they are astonished, and say, "what does it mean, I wonder what is this Mormonism coming to?"
The Lord will never come until he has organized his kingdom on the earth, and prepared his people by sending a messenger to prepare the way before him; that messenger has come, and the man that delivered it has been slain, namely, Joseph Smith, and by the instrumentality of that messenger, here sit the Apostles and Prophets, ordained to hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
If the people had read the Scriptures they would have been looking for all this, if they had not listened to a set of blind guides, who have hired out for money to tell them the Scriptures mean something else.
When you see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Says one, "for my part I believe the kingdom of God was set up 1800 years ago, and is not going to be set up again; he is not going to have it set up twice, or I do not know what you are going to do with the Scriptures, you had better burn them up as a thing of no account, because John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the Twelve Apostles, and the Seventies all agreed in their former testimonies that the kingdom of God was then nigh at hand, it must therefore have been immediately set up, or they were all false witnesses; and if it was immediately set up, as an event following their predictions, namely, on the day of pentecost, when the power of God was shed forth, and the Apostles that held the keys of it organized it upon the earth; if that event did really follow what John the Baptist, Jesus, and his Apostles had predicted, then of course it was set up in those days.
We say there will be another time when it will be at hand; how do we prove it. By the words of Jesus himself in our text, for the did not only state that the kingdom was then at hand when he first began to preach, but he also said it would be at hand when we should see these modern signs here referred to. What did he say should come? False Christs, and the Apostles were to be betrayed, and hated of all nations, and some would be put to death; He told them they should be brought before kings and rulers; that the Roman army should compass Jerusalem, and there should not be left one stone upon another of their temple, and the Jews should go captive among all nations; that they should remain there for a certain time, during which the Gentile power should rule; that after all this there should be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon he earth distress of nations, and perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear; when these thing come to pass, then know that the kingdom of God is at hand.
What does this make out? That there were two distinct times, or ages, varying in circumstances, in which the kingdom of God would be introduced to the inhabitants of the earth; the one should immediately follow John the Baptist, and Jesus, and Peter, who held the keys of it, and the other should be looked for and ushered in, in connection with these modern signs; in short Jesus and Peter held the keys of the one, and his brother Joseph Smith, and his Apostles hold the keys of the other.
Now I think you can understand both predictions; one by John the Baptist, and all the holy Prophets, and by Jesus and his Apostles, and the other was predicted by Jesus Christ and all the Holy Prophets since the world began, and both of them fulfilled right here before your eyes this day. The one in the events recorded in the New Testament, the other in the history of Joseph Smith, and what follows.
I have already been lengthy; having got at the main review, I will close by reviewing one more sentence. "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Now I know the habit of praying always in Christendom, that is certain portions of them, they pay in their families and in secret, and have prayer meetings; they pray for this, that, and the other, and say the Lord's prayer and a great many prayers, but the question is do they pray always? He did not tell them to pray the Lord's prayer always, particularly, neither did he tell not to; but this one prayer he did tell them to pray always, and causes it to be written; do WE fulfil it, and do they; it is not to pray always nor to watch always, but it is to pray this particular prayer always--that we may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and stand before the Son of Man.
Whatever else they might pray in all the varying circumstances of their lives, all right, but this one thing they would be sure to need, to be accounted worthy to escape all those things Christ foretold, and stand before him.
And why should they pray this always? Because it is not only the living generation that had to meet it, and had need to be prepared, but it was a chain of prophecy that would be gradually fulfilling from that time until he comes, and whether they passed through the vail or remained in the flesh, one thing was certain, they would all have to meet some part of it; if they lived in Jerusalem they would have some part of it to meet; or if they were scattered among all nations they would have some part of it to met; and if they live until there should be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, they would have some part of it to meet; therefore whether they lived in modern or in former times, behind the vail or on this side of it; it was necessary to pray always to be accounted worthy to escape all these things and stand before the Son of Man.
This would have cautioned the drunkard a little, and the miser a little, the man who is engaged head, heart, and hand to accumulate all the riches of the world and heap them up to himself, and not use them to build up the kingdom of God; it would have told him not to have his heart overcharged with the cares of this earth, or with surfeiting and drunkenness, if these words do not say so exactly, another writer does, who writes on the same subject.
Take care how you get drunk how you are a glutton, how you are wholly swallowed up in the cares of this world, in accumulating riches, and take care to pray that you may escape all these things, and stand before the Son of Man.
It would not do for me to talk always, but I want to tell you how to prepare; and I trust my bother Orson, or some one who will follow me in the course of the day, will enter upon that subject more fully, and illustrate the Gospel; the remission of sins; the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the ordinances pertaining thereto, as well as a good, moral, prayerful life, all of which would open up an extensive field for reflection, had we time to enter upon it.
If we had time, and it was expedient we could show you that in order to restore the kingdom of God, and prepare the way for the coming of the Son of Man, the Gospel would have to be restored in its fulness, baptism, and repentance for the remission of sins preached, and a messenger like John the Baptist sent of old to prepare the way; but we will leave the subject unfinished.
I expect to go where Jesus did and tell the spirits in prison the good news that their redemption draweth nigh, and the good news of the Gospel, my mouth never can be shut on that subject, in heaven, earth, or hell, if I am at liberty to tell it, and the Holy Spirit given to me to direct.
I leave the subject praying God to bless you all, and all those that watch and pray always to be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are coming to pass, and stand before the Son of Man. Amen.
COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE GOSPEL--TRUTH THE BOND OF UNION--MEN MUST WORK OUT THEIR OWN SALVATION.
A Discourse, by Elder Amasa Lyman, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 2, 1855.