Volume3f

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.

My brethren and sisters--By the changes which mark the history of our journey through life, I again have the privilege of meeting with you. With many of you, no doubt, I have had the same privilege before, and, for aught I know, this may be the first time I have met with others who are present to-day; whether I have met with you before or not, it is a source of gratification to me that we are here.

I am not here because I have fulfilled my mission, or because I have laid down the labor of my mission as having completed it; but I am simply here this afternoon because I have a mission, one that has engaged my time, filled up my time, and engaged all my powers; it is only in the discharge of the duties of that mission that I am here.

Though some may have thought that because I have been laboring in California for a few years, the labors of my mission are confined to California, but I do not so understand it; these are not the feelings that I cherish within me in relation to it. I never have felt, because I was appointed to labor for a time for the accomplishment of certain purposes in the State of California, that I was released from the obligations that rested upon me as a minister of righteousness every day, in every place, and under all circumstances.

I received a mission over twenty years ago to preach the Gospel, and have been engaged in it ever since; it has filled up the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of my life since I received it. It has enlisted my whole affections for that length of time, and I have only just commenced--I say I have just commenced because I have not completed it, and the extent of time that may be occupied in its completion I do not comprehend.

The only fact I fully comprehend in relation to it is that I have began it--I have received it--entered upon the duties of it--and in the prosecution of it so far, I have done all I have done; I have travelled where I have travelled; I have labored as I have labored. It is in the discharge of the duties of this mission I leave Salt Lake, and in the discharge of the duties of it that I return. It is in the discharge of these duties that I do all that I do, so far as I am able to act, as I would wish to act, and as I design to act.

I may this evening address people with whom I have held conversation in relation to principles of the Gospel long years ago; and others, as I have remarked, perhaps see me for the first time, yet to both of these classes of persons I have but one thing to say, namely, that it is still my business to preach the Gospel. I have nothing else to preach. I know nothing else to preach. It is the subject that has engaged my attention, and still does engage it.

With the years of experience that have added the contributions to the store of knowledge, I have been able to gain in the short time I have lived in the world, the subject seems to increase in its dimensions and in its extent. That which I thought I knew when I was but a boy--that I thought I understood--that I supposed in the vanity and ignorance of childhood I comprehended--I find in the mature years of manhood that I knew nothing about it, so far as the comprehension of the great truths of the Gospel, in their extent, are concerned.

I learned that there was a Gospel, and became satisfied of its truth; and I commenced to labor in the Gospel as did those who taught me its principles, and from whose lips I first heard the testimony thereof; the first man I ever heard preach it is here with me to-day--brother Orson Pratt.

The Gospel is connected with every thing I can think about. It is expanded to such an extent that I cannot see beyond it; I cannot rise above it, nor descend beneath it. There are no depths it does not reach; no heights it does not surmount; no extent which is not filled by it. So let me talk to you what I will, that is true, and calculated to do good to mankind, it must of necessity form a part of the Gospel.

I used to think twenty years ago that I had preached it over and over again; so I confess one thing to you, not as a sin--not as a wrong, that when I was a child I thought as a child, I believed the Gospel as a child, I speculated about it as a child, and I talked about it as a child would; but since I became a man I have learned different things; I have learned that there is a vast difference between receiving and indorsing a belief in the existence of a fact, and the full and perfect comprehension of it.

This was the relation in which I stood to the Gospel in the days of my childhood, it is the relation in which I stand to it, in a great extent, to-day, [sic-no punc] It is no more a fact to-day than it was a score of years ago--that I comprehend the Gospel only in part. That I comprehend it fully now, I would not be so understood. I comprehend something of it; all the truth that I am able to comprehend is so much of it.

Now, is this the case with anybody besides myself? I have reason to think that if I have the Gospel to learn, others have it to learn, and that if a comprehension of the truth is requisite to my salvation it is to theirs. Then the important thing in relation to the Gospel is, that we should receive it in its true spirit, that we should duly appreciate the object of its institution, the reasons why it is revealed to us, and the necessity that called for its revelation. This will enlighten us as to the principle upon which we will be really saved, when we are saved.

If, after all, we do not comprehend the Gospel in its fulness, and in its widest extent, we may perhaps fall as far short of what may be called--according to our way of understanding--a perfect salvation, as we may lack understanding to comprehend the Gospel in its fulness.

The Gospel as I receive it, believe it, learned to be true, to be a system of truth, that circumscribes all things; that embraces all the good that exists, is a something that is designed to produce for the children of men such things as are requisite to their happiness; to their deliverance from the bondage of sin; from the bondage of error, ignorance, and darkness; or from ignorance, by whatever name it may be called, or whatever may be the particular agency by which it may exert its influence over the freedom of the soul.

This review of the matter has led me to conclude that it is not the heathen nations alone--as we denominate them in contradistinction to the christian world--that are groveling in darkness, that are worshiping they know not what, and that are seeing they know not what, but that it is actually the case with thousands who have subscribed to the doctrine God has revealed in the last days, even the Gospel as a system of truth and salvation. Yet in looking forward to that emancipation from darkness, from error, and from all the concomitant train of consequences resulting from an ignorance of truth, they have failed to recognize, in examining the subject, that the comprehension of truth was actually necessary to constitute the salvation they sought for.

We have looked for heaven, or happiness, in a deliverance from every thing that is in reality a cause of annoyance to us; of sorrow, misery, and wretchedness. From this we expect to be saved, from it we expect the Gospel will redeem us.

Well now, how do we expect to arrive at so desirable a consummation of our wishes? How do we expect to gain the point where we shall realize a full and perfect deliverance from the evils that afflict us--with which we are surrounded in life--and from which we expect to be saved, when the Gospel has wrought out for us all we anticipate, shall have brought to us the realization of our highest hopes, and loftiest expectations? What then shall have been done with us? Where shall we be? What kind of men and women will we be? What country or locality of the great universe shall we occupy? Where can the bread of life be found, and the water of the fountain of life, from which we may fain quench our thirst?

One might calculate that all the good we expect to realize when we are saved, will be obtained, by doing, in all things, as we are told to do, by fulfilling every requisition that is imposed upon us, and thereby securing the fullness of this salvation.

What does this obedience lead people to? It leads them to go where they are required to go, and to stay where they may be required to stay; in fine, it leads them to perform every labor that is required at their hands in the building up of the kingdom of God, and the establishing of Zion, or the cause of truth on the earth. In the pursuance of this, what do we find? We find men crossing the desert, and the ocean, of their own free will; passing through all the contingencies of a journey of that kind; passing through privations, hardships, dangers, and evils that may hang around their path, because they have been commanded to do so. We see some fall of who have spent a score of years in traveling, preaching, laboring, toiling, and striving to gain salvation by being obedient to the requisitions that were laid upon them; they have gone, when, and where they were sent, and have come back when called for; they have made it their business to respond to the calls that were made, regardless of what they might be.

After a while we find those men who have traveled long and far, and suffered much; and what do they tell us? "Why, we have tried Mormonism for twenty years," and now what conclusion do they come to? To the conclusion, that is sometimes vulgarly expressed in this way--"We have not found Mormonism what it is cracked up to be--it has been misrepresented to us." This is simply because they have not realized all their expectations, and hopes, and have not been able to grasp the reward they were seeking after, and which they regarded as constituting the elements of happiness. So now, after twenty year's hard service, they are ready, as we say, to apostatize and go somewhere else to seek happiness, and leave "Mormonism" to go as it may go, to sink or swim.

If toiling, and laboring, and suffering privations and hardships were sufficient to save men, and place within their possession the constituent principles of happiness to redeem them from evil, such men would have been redeemed very likely; such men would have been pure. But what does it prove? It simply proves, that if there is anything in a man's experience, in his toiling and labor, it is simply the facts that we see, the outward result that may be calculated, that flows from his labors, such as the building of houses, and cities.

He may suffer toil in various ways: for instance, as in preaching the Gospel and trying with all his might to get the people to believe that which they ought to believe; to get them to serve God, and keep His commandments. If there is anything but this results from his labor and toil in the Gospel I am not aware of it. By and by he lays his body down in the dust, his work is not completed, and he is unhappy and wretched.

Why is it? Is it because the Gospel is untrue; because He is not faithful that has promised? No. But it is simply because he has been looking where it is not, for the constituent principles of happinsss [sic] where they do not exist; and while he has been laboring and toiling he has failed to gather to himself a store of happiness as the reward of his toil. He supposed if he built this house, performed this mission, or discharged that duty, that this would give him salvation. Says one, "Is it not this which gives men salvation?" What does the Savior say? He once on a time defined what eternal life is; and that is what we all seek; that is the principle without which we as Latter-day Saints calculate that men cannot be happy, and be saved in the kingdom of God, which is to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Then traveling by sea and land, living in luxury or poverty, suffering hardships and toil does not constitute eternal life; because there are countless millions of earth's sons that are seen to-day, suffering and toiling, and wasting themselves away, wearing themselves out, so far as their bodies are concerned, until they lay down in their mother earth, being as poor at the end of their toil as at the beginning of it, and as a general thing, more wretched.

Then there is something else that should be connected with all this labor; there is some other principle, something that should be developed in the history of every individual, besides the making of a house, the exploring of a new country, the preaching the word of God to others, that word which would save them, and direct them to the fountain of life and salvation. And what is that something? It is the important thing which we all want; whether it is large or small, little or much; whatever may be its name is a matter of no importance to us, only, so we possess it.

There should be developed that which will give life and assurance in the bosom of man, the thing that can constitute him happy; that can be means of bliss to him. This cannot be found, as I have said, in building houses; there are millions of men that build houses and never know the truth, they never comprehend it; they began poor, and die poor, so far as this principle is concerned.

So it was with the Pharisees, after all the pains Jesus Christ had taken to instruct and teach them, and render his teachings so perfectly simple, that a person with but a child's capacity could have understood them; when he was demanded of them when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

We as Latter-day Saints have heard a great deal said to entertain us, and a great many speculations have been formed in our minds with regard to the kingdom of God, and we may have pursued our various ways to impart our ideas to satisfy those to whom we may have addressed our conversation, in the course of our lives, and in the course of our labors, as to what the kingdom of God is, so as to get our hearers to understand it.

Now we, as Latter-day Saints, who are in possession of that principle of salvation, need not say we know of a principle that will produce salvation, for whenever the principle is developed in man, he is already saved; he has no need to go around the bush to find something else--he has not to take another step to get something else in his possession before he is saved, but when the principle is in his possession he is saved, and he is saved to the extent to which the principle is developed in him.

Jesus Christ understood this when he took the mild way of admonishing certain of his disciples, and rebuking them perhaps for their dulness of apprehension, telling them they were slow of heart to believe things that had been spoken by the Prophets.

How often have we been told that it was requisite for us to live that the Spirit of God would come and dwell with us, live in us constantly, until it should be a living fountain of life, and light, and glory in our souls, until it should lead us into all truth.

What did we suppose, when we heard this, was to happen with us? What did we suppose we were to do? What kind of feelings were we to cultivate, if any at all, that we may have the Holy Spirit?

Says one, "that is one thing, and perhaps the thing you are talking about is something else." What is the Holy Spirit? What will it do for you and me? What has it ever done for any man, or for any people who have been so happy as to enjoy the blessings of its presence with them, as to partake of its fruits, to live and enjoy the life which it imparts? What has it done for us?

I would like to ask every intelligent man this question, as Latter-day Saints, if they suppose it ever revealed anything more than the truth to any soul? Did it ever do anything beyond simply reflecting light around individuals, in which they were enabled to discover just the simple naked truth, which enabled them to comprehend it as well as be sensible to its existence. What did it ever do, whether you apply its power to revelation, to the principle of light that it would impart; or to the fact that there is a God who lives, rules, and reigns in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; or whether you apply it to something that might be called a smaller matter--a matter of less magnitude; did it ever do anything but simply teach mankind the truth?

Then the truth is the highest point that can be gained, it is the richest gem that can be possessed; you cannot go beyond it, nor stop short of it without partaking of falsehood, and error. There is no alternative left. The principle that governs the dwelling of Jehovah is truth, simple truth, and that is all there is upon which a permanent foundation for happiness can be laid.

If we would learn the God of truth that imparts life, and freedom from darkness and error to us; it is simply that truth that enables us to comprehend the facts in relation to Him. If we learn ourselves it is the same; it would be the revelation of some principle applied to ourselves, to our own history, to the reason why we are here, and the same that brought us here. Then this is what the Holy Spirit will do.

We have been taught that we should so live that it should be with us continually. How is it that we are to live that it may dwell with us? Have we to live so as to possess this truth, this counsellor, this adviser, this minister that will admonish us of God, and for our good, and tell us the truth always?

Have we got to depend upon the contingency of our being able, for instance, to go to meeting every Sabbath day to hear somebody inspired of God tell the truth that we may see it, and hear it, mark it, and define the exact ground we should occupy, the path in which we should walk, and the duties that should fill up the measure of days through the week.

If this was the way that we were to be saved, by living for the truth, and getting it in our possession, and this was to be the only principle upon which we were to possess ourselves of its advantages, if anything should happen that we could not go to church, we should be as hard off as a mariner in a fog without a compass or chart. We should, in every sense of the word, be lost, and be entirely unable to find ourselves.

Was this what was contemplated in the Gospel? Was it contemplated to make the condition and circumstances of those individuals that should embrace the Gospel better? I do not think that it was, I do not believe it was.

The Savior intimated that whoever should do the will of his Father, should fulfil his requirements, what should be their condition; he intimated that this principle should be in them like a well of water springing up to everlasting life. To the woman at the well of Samaria he said, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst."

One of the ancient Apostles in admonishing his brethren who had been taught, probably as much as the Latter-day Saints have, and probably might have embraced the Gospel with similar views; says he, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto alight that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."

When a man is in darkness it is necessary he should have a candle, or some borrowed means of light to dissipate the darkness around him. How long? Until the day dawns, and the day star arises. Where? In this man's heart--in your neighbor's heart? No. But give heed unto the sure word of prophecy until the day dawns, and the day star arises in your heart.

When the day dawns, we dispense with the light of the candle; when the day star arises in the heart, to use the language of the Apostle, it reflects its light there. Does it wear away? No, it is there continually. The Apostle chose that as a figure, that was as near something immutable and without change, probably, as anything that could occur to his mind, in selecting the dawn of day and the rising of the day star.

The Apostle Peter spoke these words, a man inspired of God, who spoke thus to instruct the uninstructed, that they might be brought to the comprehension of some truths, be led to drink at some fountain of life; this was the object for which they were to attend to this instruction. Then you can discover, very readily, that it is the development in the soul of every individual, of this principle of light, or life, I care not which you call it; it is this comprehension of truth the Apostle refers to.

That the great object of the Gospel, and the object of its being preached was the development of its light in the soul of those individuals that are to become heirs of salvation, the sons and daughters of God, who are to be clothed upon with the principles of truth with which God is clothed, that in the comprehension of truth, they may receive capacity to will and do, and accomplish those things which are requisite to their happiness and exaltation.

And so long as this objection fails to be accomplished--so long the preaching of the Gospel has failed to accomplish its object, as far as those individuals are concerned, and the object for which that labor was performed. Whether the lack is in the man who preaches, or in the people to whom he preaches, it is all the same.

This is a point that Latter-day Saints should duly appreciate and consider; because if we do not, the consequences are, discontent in the mind, and dissatisfaction; we shall quarrel with circumstances that are around us, we shall find fault, simply because we are not contented; and because the estimates we place upon truth, and the blessings conferred upon us, lead us to consider that they are not worth the labor we are required to bestow, the money or means we are required to give. The consequence is, we consider it a bad bargain, and we want to rue; and then as Latter-day Saints we apostatize--we quit it--we back out, saying, "we have not found Mrmonism what it was cracked up to be."

How have such people received it? What views have they entertained of it? There are those things which will actually tell the truth on a man, when his lips fail to speak it; his actions will tell it. What did they consider it worth? As much of their tithing as they could not avoid paying.

Some may think it is worth a tithing but not any more. Another man considers it worth everything; and more than everything of which he can entertain a perception. He would not refuse to pour out the last dollar; he will hunt the last corner of his pocket to get out the last farthing to give to it. And when it comes to his labor he would not stop to labor one day in ten, but ten whole days, and only wish there were more days to labor to accomplish more; because in so doing he is serving himself and enlarging his own interest, when he is seeking the interest of "Mormonism."

Why so? Because he estimates it to be that is universal in its extent, and intimately associated with every principle of the Gospel, in which the narrow conceptions of men are drowned, they are lost, submerged like a mote cast into the ocean.

On taking this view, he does not stop at anything he can do. Does he stand back from pouring out his life's blood? No, but he pours it out as freely as water that glides down from the summit of the snow-clad hills to the valleys below.

In what consists the difference between these two classes of men? It is in the estimate they place upon the value of "Mormonism." One class considers it worth what they gave for it, and the other considers it worth more than they can possible give.

Then it is as men receive the Gospel, and endorse the truth; if they consider it excellent above everything else, so that they will manifest their love for it, and their zeal in promoting its interests, and the accomplishment of its object.

You can readily see, then, how the kingdom of God must be built up in the soul of every individual; Zion must be developed there. What is Zion? It is the pure in heart, so says the revelation. Do you suppose you are going to build up the kingdom of God until the perfection of purity and truth is developed in the hearts of the people of that kingdom? No. You may gather them together by thousands, and tens of thousands, until the concourse swell the congregation in Zion to millions, and what will it amount to until this principle is developed in them?

There will be a corresponding stream of apostacy flowing out, at the same time, at the back door. What is the reason? Simply because this principle is wanted, this important part of the Gospel is omitted, if it has ever been thought of; its harmonizing influences are not felt through the sphere of man's being; his interests are at war with the interests of Zion; he runs after some fanciful notion that is at war with the kingdom of God. He cares not for it, he would exchange it for a piece of bread and cheese, for a farm, or for the glittering treasure of the world.

Why, because the principle is not in the heart, that causes him to estimate the real value of the gem which he rejects; he considers it worth but a trifle, consequently he will barter away his chance for it, for a trifle. That is the way men act for "Mormonism" We are going to build up the kingdom of God, and compass sea and land to tell the erring sons of earth the Gospel, and testify that the Lord has set His hand again to build up the kingdom, and then get down by the fireside and say, "Mormonism has been preached so many years, and perhaps, in five years the Son of Man must come;" and in their feelings they say, "It cannot be put off; from what brother Joseph said, and from what brother Brigham has said, or somebody else, we calculate the Son of Man will be here in a few years at the farthest. And will he not have nice times when he comes, visiting among this people?"

When will he come? When will be the day of righteousness that we talk about, when peace and truth, and the kingdom of God shall cover the earth as the waters do the deep? It will be when the principle of truth and light and life are developed in the hearts of the people that dwell on the face of the earth, and never until then.

Knowledge is just as near the earth, so far as that is concerned, now as it will be then; but where is it? There is such a thing as truth, as a comprehension of it, but that does not prove that it exists within you or me; or that either of us have the advantage, or can secure to ourselves the advantage of having it in possession; although a seraph might stand by our side, whose being has been made radiant by the light of truth, we still will be in some ignorance, corresponding to the amount of knowledge we possess.

The light must be in the soul before its benefit can be realized. We have heard our teacher tell us that two and two make four; if we had never heard anything else, if this was all that had been connected with it, would we ever have comprehended the principle? No. The comprehension of it must exist in a man's mind. It must be in the centre of his being, a fountain of light, and consequently of life and glory, from which fountain should proceed life and truth until it is diffused throughout his whole being, until all his affections are sanctified, and his judgment corrected.

Then he would have no need to pile up and read the musty records of past ages, because the principles of light, and life, and truth are planted in him; and when he began to partake of their fruits, to drink of this fountain, would he thirst again? No. When a man learns the truth, he does not feel any more anxiety about it, he does not become hungry for the comprehension of that truth any more. So Jesus said, "They that drink of the water I will give them shall not thirst again."

A man that receives the knowledge of the truth does not thirst for the same knowledge again. This is the principle that saves men. And if men, while they build houses and inhabit them; while they make cities, and preach the Gospel, and gather the Saints together; if they were enabled to succeed in developing this principle in themselves, and then to lead people to adopt the same course that should result in like development, then both the preacher, and the people influenced, by his preaching, would be saved, and they would be brought together, and associate together, and the kingdom of God would be built up in the beauty of holiness, and in spirit and truth; and it never can be until then.

The knowledge of God will never cover the earth until it is first in the hearts of the people. The principle must be developed there; then our building of houses, our suffering and toil will all find their reward. In what? In securing to us those blessings that cannot be destroyed; in laying up that treasure where moth and rust do not corrupt, no thieves break through and steal.

Where is it? Some people talk as though they would have to go to heaven, to some distant locality to treasure up this indescribable something called wealth where the doors and gates are strong so as to defy the art of the robber and thief. The most secure thing I can think of and the nearest to an imperishable reality is the knowledge of the truth safely treasured in the memory of an intelligent human being. When treasured there, who can steal it or get it away? They may mar the body, and destroy it, or in other words, cause it to cease to live, but they cannot take away from that which constitutes the man; the treasure he holds, they cannot reach it.

If I was going to lay up an imperishable treasure, I would seek for the knowledge of the truth, and get as much as I could of it, and there would be my treasure, and my heart, and my soul affections. If it was in a cold and uninhabitable region, among snow-clad hills, where corn is hard to make, and wheat still harder, and wood a great way off, my affections would be there because my wealth was there, and the fountain from which this springs would be there. Then I would not hanker after another country, only in simple obedience to the requisition laid upon me--to serve the interests of the cause of the truth of God.

This would fix in the soul a principle of contentment that would wear out hardship and toil, and outlive them, and shed the light of peace and harmony throughout the whole field of a man's being and operations in life. He would be contented all the time.

Would such a man ever apostatize? No. Was a contented man ever known to apostatize? No. I never saw an apostate yet, but could tell me of some dissatisfied desire that caused him to apostatize.

Then if you feel discontented you may know one thing, that you are not as you should be, that you have not within you the principle that should reign there, to influence, govern, and control you; that should dictate your course, and give shape to your actions.

I want you to remember this, and become philosophers, and examine yourselves, establish an inquisition at home, within the circle you should control, over that little empire over which each of you should rule, and learn whether the love of truth is reigning there, or gathering strength each day.

And if you do not, on examination, find your love of truth a little better to-day, and that you would do a little more for it to-day than twenty-five years ago, you had better get up and look around you, for you are certainly going down hill, and you will soon be like the man that found "Mormonism" to be not what it was cracked up to be; you will be going south to a warmer country, or to some other place.

I want you to become philosophers, as far as examining yourselves is concerned, and in seeing how that little kingdom is getting on, that should be built up within you. "O," says one, "that is too spiritual." I know it is very spiritual. It is said, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."

But I never thought the kingdom could be built up in a man's heart. I wish you as Latter-day Saints, when you go home, would sit down and study rationally, and see what principle there is that will be developed in building up the kingdom of God, according to the light of inspiration; you can read in the good book, and according to all that has ever shone around you, or in your own heart; and if you can find a principle in building up that kingdom, you will find one that, in the first place, is to be developed in the circle of every human being that hopes to be associated in building it up.

There must be harmony in the kingdom of God in order to its peace, union, and strength. There must be a perfect subordination to those fixed and unchanging principles that characterize the operations of God. If this is not developed in you, what will you do, when associated with faithful brethren and sisters, in building up the kingdom of God?

You will feel yourselves literally crushed under the pressure of responsibility which will rest upon you; you will be broken up, as it were, and will apostatize, and will be cast out as salt that has lost its savor, and is good for nothing but to be trodden underfoot.

If we have counted on you as a Saint, as asubstantial [sic] material, when we come to look for you, we do not find you, but we find the place you filled unoccupied, waiting to be filled with some better material, when it is on hand, how long will it take us to build up Zion, to emigrate people from the far off corners of the earth, and they apostatize and run away when they get here? What a Zion we should have!

What attraction would it create to the nations? How brilliant its light? The Zion and kingdom of God never was so built up; it is not so being built up now. What is it that marks the advance of the cause of truth on earth--tells it definitely and truly? If you want to find this out, read the people of the Saints of the Most High, and see if they love the truth, and give it their supreme regard, to the exclusion of everything else.

You may take this man or woman, and give them the appropriate place in the organization of the Church, and they are there every time you call for them, they will always answer. When you put your hand where you expect they are, you will not find a vacancy that is not filled. If you require a service done, you will always find the individual there to perform it, no odds whether it is duty at home or abroad, pleasant or grievous.

Then how is the cause of God advanced? Just as fast as those principles are being developed in the people. That tells her strength, power, and durability. If it is not the love of the truth that binds the people of God together, that holds them firmly round the great centre from which they cannot be induced to take their departure, and for which there is no feeling of the soul but would exert its influence to the fullest extent to bind them to it, then what is it? Who is it? It is not Brigham Young and his associates.

It is no man or set of men that binds the Saints to the truth, that holds them together, and that maintains the rule and supremacy of the authority of God on the earth, but it is the principle of truth and the love of it developed in the hearts of the people, and the influence it exerts over them. Do the people appreciate it? I do not think they do fully, or to a very great extent.
Why do I think this? Because, forsooth, some who feel a great deal of human solicitude for the cause of God, would be very sorrowful because somebody is going to leave. "O, dear, I really do feel the cause of God will apostatize, if we lose our President for a little time, for a few months or a year, what will become of us?"

They suppose, with all the strength of the authorities of this kingdom, aided by the strength of God, they have as much as they can do to hold the people together. Such people make no calculation on the influence and strength of truth, but on the influence of frail man, or on the influence of a set of mortals like themselves, who enjoy more of the light of inspiration than they.

Does the Lord tell us this? We know He has said it is His business to provide for His Saints. What does He require of you and me? Simply, enough to save ourselves. Says one, "I supposed I had to save nearly half the world to become great in the kingdom of God."

If you are able to save yourselves, you will do first rate, because you will get all the reward you need--all that will make you happy, and an abundant entrance will be administered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of God, and to the enjoyment of every thing that is requisite to your happiness.

They would not ask you in that state whether you have saved one, two, a hundred, or a hundred thousand souls besides yourself. "What, and I sent you to preach for them?" Why, to save yourself. And the reason why a great many of our Traveling Elders apostatize, and now mingle with that class of sinners, is simply because they fail to apply the principles to themselves which they recommend to others.

"What do you preach for?" To save yourselves. If I get myself saved I am not concerned about you. I am preaching these principles to you to-day, to discharge a duty that I owe to you, that I may be saved. It is the same when I am somewhere else. "But is buying a rancho embraced in your salvation. What did you buy that land for, did you do it to preach the Gospel? Do you go down to San Bernardino to preach the Gospel? Did President Young tell you to come here and preach?" No, he said he wanted to see me; so I came and looked at him, and he saw me; and then the brethren wanted me to preach, and I have preached some ideas that may be new, and if I should find out something else I did not before comprehend, I shall preach it. And I would preach just as quick any where else as here, because the Saints are all alike to me; their progression is one, their hopes and expectations are one, or should be; and their heaven and reward will be one when they obtain them; and it will all be in the same country. Will it be in San Bernardino? No. In Salt Lake Valley? No. Will it be in any one of the settlements of the Saints to the exclusion of the rest? No. Where will it be? In here. In your own hearts. When you get your heaven built up there so that it becomes a living organized creation, with all its parts and properties properly associated and developed, as the parts are in the physical being of man, you would not go to tom fooling over the earth to find a heaven, because you carry it with you continually.

If you go on a journey you take your heaven with you, or if you stay at home, it is there; if you go to meeting, you take it with you; and when you die and your spirit mingles with the spirits of just men made perfect, you take your heaven there. Says one, "how is the kingdom of God to be built up if that constitutes the great and important point?" Why, bring in the Saints from the four corners of the earth, by tens of millions, and associate them together, and what will they do? They will do what they are required to do. They will live in harmony one with another collectively, and with themselves individually, and with their God; consequently, the will of God will be done on earth, as in heaven. The principles of truth will be exemplified in the conduct of men on earth as it is with the spirits of the just in heaven, because men will know and appreciate the truth, and their conduct will be shaped according to it.

If this is not good Gospel, get something that is better. This Gospel fills up this little creation we live in. Where do we live? In the midst of space. Why? because it is all around us. How far does it extend? To infinitude. The creation of man cannot reach it, his thoughts tire in the contemplation of it.

This little portion of the Gospel we commenced to tell the people years ago, this meagre supply of truth, which fills up the narrow comprehension of us mortals, is a part of that great whole which occupies this space, and that constitutes all the glory, happiness, and bliss that is within that illimitable field.

You cannot name another heaven, you cannot find the material to make it of, you have no foundation upon which to build it. You cannot by your own reaching get away any portion of this Gospel, for it takes up all the material around us; you must go beyond this apace where we occupy, so to operate. Do you esteem "Mormonism" as being worth all the wealth that is embraced in this vast infinitude of extent? Then what do you wish to exchange it for? Don't go and fool it away for a little tea and coffee, for a little sugar, peaches, and grapes, or for a warmer climate; in so doing you would show yourselves but poor financiers; I would not wish you to operate for me; and the master will think as I do; if you go and fool away the treasure committed to your keeping, will he ever give you another penny to start upon again? I do not know whether he will or not. He will probably not do it until you have been poor, and ragged, and destitute, and a beggar for a long time.

Be faithful now, and learn this one thing--that we have not learned the Gospel, but learned of it, and are still learning of it, as much truth as we can gain. How fast do we learn? Just as fast as the condition of feeling we cultivate will allow us; just as much as the spirit of it is with us; just so much we learn.

Do you want to secure blessings? Says one, "I want to do a great deal for my dead friends, and to this end I want to get into the temple of the Lord." The Gospel has to do with this; why? Because it is inside the elements of the Gospel--it comes within the scope of its principles, and extent, and application to man's existence and happiness.

Then do not be in a hurry about getting into the temple before you are prepared to go there. Some act as though they had no other idea, but that they will be able to get in by stealth; they expect to storm heaven, and force blessings from the Almighty irrespective of their claim. This is not the spirit of the Gospel, it is not thus in the temple of God.

I shall secure to myself, how much? that that my conduct has rendered me worthy of. "But suppose brothers Brigham, Heber, and Jedediah pronounce blessings upon me, shall I not get them?" If you are worthy of them you will. You are not to speculate in prospective on the blessings you expect to get; if you live here so as to be worthy of them, what need you fear about anything.

It is impossible in the nature of truth, for you to lose anything of which you are worthy; God cannot lie; He cannot forsake His faithful children, and disannul the promise He has made to them.

Do you want to hasten the building of the temple, or any other work, which will be to the interest of Zion on earth? Then commence at home; take a home mission, and attend strictly to the "Mormon" creed, which you know is, "Mind your own business."

Suppose you all individually take a home mission, to examine yourselves, and institute that inquisition I have alluded to, into your own conduct and condition, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year. Is it not of importance that it should be set up?

To keep this perishable body from starving, you would work day and night; is not the soul of man, that can never die, that must be happy or miserable for eternity, worth your notice? Go to work and examine yourselves for a short time each day, and see how you are getting on.

You need not take it for granted that because you live in Great Salt Lake City, you will be saved; but if there are not thousands damned who live in this place, I shall be mistaken, and things will turn out better than I expect. "If that is the case in Salt Lake City, how are they doing in San Bernardino?" They are doing as you are here.
"Why, I did not suppose you had good people enough there to do as we are doing here." What do you suppose is the difference between good men here and in San Bernardino? I feel that I am about the same sort of a man there as here, I do not feel any better here to-day than I should if I were there. I do not feel the weight of my responsibility any different, not a particle.

The good men down there, that love the truth, are working righteousness. Is there any more done here? If any man is doing anything but serving God--that loves the truth--I would like to know his name.

"But have you not many bad people there?" Yes, a great many, I wish we had fewer. You may suppose we have them there, because they left here. However, we try to do as well as we can, and, if on the tide of human events, too great a preponderancy of wickedness does not float in our midst, the truth will triumph; and if it does not, I do not care, as concerns myself, so I am found a righteous man, acting according to the dictations of truth, that will save me.

That is the way we are getting along in San Bernardino. And here I may also observe, it is the way they are getting on in all the settlements of the Saints, and every where else.

We have not as many Saints down there as you have, but we have as many of one sort; and I feel as though I am interested down there as I am here, only not in the way I am here.

Having made these few scattering remarks, just as they came into my mind, without study or arrangement, I will forbear. If I have said anything wrong, I have no objections that you forget it; I hope you may; and what I have said that is right, I would like you to remember, because I am interested in having you remember it; and in having this people with the Saints everywhere, become a pure, a great and good people, because I am interested in the building up of the kingdom of God, and wherever that people and the interest of the kingdom is represented, there is my interest. And I hope when we have wound up the little routine of duties assigned us here, we shall have secured to ourselves that wealth that shall be to us worth all sublunary considerations, and remain when they have passed away. That we may all obtain this, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

THE NECESSITY OF THE SAINTS HAVING THE SPIRIT OF REVELATION--FAITH AND WORKS--THE POWER OF GOD AND OF THE DEVIL.

A Discourse, by President B. Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, May 6, 1855.

It is hardly time to close the meeting, and I take the liberty of making a few remarks. I expect, in a day or two, to leave home for a few weeks, to visit the natives in the south, and shall call on the brethren in that region. I now wish to ask a few favors for myself, for those who may accompany me, and for all who remain.

If you should hear any reports about me during our absence, always have enough of the spirit of truth to know whether they are false or true; always so enjoy the Spirit of the Lord, that you can discern between truth and error, and know the spirit of evil from the spirit of righteousness. If you should hear that I have apostatized from the Gospel and gone to California to get gold, you need not believe that report; but if you hear that I am opposed to a spirit which prevails among a good many, who profess to be Saints, you may believe it; but if you hear that the Indians have killed me, you need not believe that. Still, if the Lord see fit to take me away, I am just as ready to go while on this mission as at any other time; I never expect to be better prepared, though I presume that I shall only be gone a few weeks and return, and I ask all the brethren and sisters to be faithful while I am gone.

Do not be fretting about this, that, or the other thing, for I will warrant that we shall have harvest as well as seed time, and that we shall reap a good harvest. I expect that some of the brethren may think, "Now is the time for speculation," and may run and buy up all the wheat and flour for that purpose, but there is enough and will be enough, there will be no lack, and if we have no surplus, what does it matter? It will all be right, and we will acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things.

It would be pleasing if all the Saints had strong faith and confidence, but sometimes many seem to falter in their feelings. I do not know how many I might find in this congregation who would have faith enough to believe that we could live on the tops of these high mountains, which are 6,619 feet higher than the Temple Block, in case we were called to go up there and live, and there was no other place for us; I do not know whether a great many in this congregation could have faith to believe that we could live there.

At the same time, when I exhort the brethren to have faith, I really had rather that they would have good works; I do not care half so much about their faith as I do about their works. Faith is not so obvious a principle, but in good works you see a manifestation, an evidence, a proof that there is something good about the person who is in the habit of doing them.

Now, if the people will only be full of good works, I will insure that they will have faith in time of need. I wish the brethren to be diligent in their affairs here, to be honest, faithful, prudent, and upright, and try to receive the spirit of the Gospel. I am ready to acknowledge that this people have the Gospel, that they are a good people; they are the best we know of upon the earth. At the same time there is a great lack with regard to the sentiments of many of them, with regard to their understanding, their views, the proportions, the degree and quality of the spirit they are in possession of.

All ought to seek to know the mind and will of the Lord, and when they know it, they will be taught that the interest of this people is the interest of the Lord, and that all we do is for His glory. This is not all, it is likewise for our own benefit, and when we learn the principles of the Gospel perfectly, we shall learn that our interest is one, that we have no correct individual interest separate from this kingdom; if we have true interest at all, it is in the kingdom of God. If we truly possess and enjoy anything, it is in this kingdom; if we build it up, we shall be built up; if we neglect so to do, we shall fail to sustain ourselves.

If we draw off in our feelings and have a divided interest from the kingdom of God, we shall fail in obtaining the object of our Priesthood. Nothing will stand on this earth, in the final issue, but the kingdom of God, and that which is in it; everything else will pass away--will be destroyed. Then if we in all our works seek to identify our feelings, our interests, our whole efforts in one to sustain and build up the kingdom of God on the earth, we are sure to build ourselves up.

If we can correctly see and understand the proper labor of man, and will direct our course to build up the kingdom of God, it prepares the people to receive those blessings which the Lord has in store for them. But if a people are separate in their feelings, divided in their efforts, have an individual interest each one for themselves, it tends to destruction. Those who are well instructed in the principles of the kingdom of God, and who receive it as it is, will discern that all they do is in reality to benefit themselves; and when the people do all they can, the Lord is bound to do the rest.

If we have good works and plenty of them, I have not the least doubt but what we shall reap a bountiful harvest this year, and have a surplus of grain after supplying all who will come here this season. But suppose that we should have no surplus, would not good works in abundance produce the faith that is necessary for the Lord to do the rest, when we have done what we can? Good works will produce good faith, and good faith will produce good works.

If our faith is correct, we will apply our labor in that way which will promote our own interest, thereby promoting the interest of the kingdom of God on the earth; but if we have even one interest separate and apart from that kingdom, we do not fully promote our own individual welfare.

If the people will be patient and faithful, industrious and humble, so as to know truth from error, and not worry themselves in the least, no person need be afraid of all earthly powers and influences, nor of the powers and influences of hell, not in the least.

Brother George Q. Cannon has just stated, If he had not believed "Mormonism" until he went to the Sandwich Islands, what he saw there would have proved it to be true. We might ask whether there is an individual here who has seen enough of the handy work of the Lord, to prove "Mormonism" to be true. Are this people convinced by the course that the Lord has taken with them, and by what He has done for them, that "Mormonism" is true? If there was no other proof, that might be satisfactory, but after we have had that proof, we need the testimony we must have.

In all the labor of the Saints, when faith springs up in the heart, good works will follow, and good works will increase that pure faith within them. That is the case with brother Cannon, and that is the case with every Saint.

What the Lord has done for this people would convince any man in the world, upon rational principles, that it is not the wisdom of man, nor his power or might, nor the power or might of this people unitedly, that has accomplished what has been done, but that it has been brought to pass by an invisible power. Still a person, unless he has the light of the Spirit within him, will attribute the work of the Lord to the wisdom of man, or necromancy, or the power of the devil. Again, a person may see the power of the devil displayed, and mistake it for the power of God, for without the light of the Spirit one cannot tell the difference between the power of the Lord and the power of the devil.

We must have the testimony of the Lord Jesus to enable us to discern between truth and error, light and darkness, him who is of God, and him who is not of God, and to know how to place everything where it belongs. That is the only way to be a scientific Christian; there is no other method or process which will actually school a person so that he can become a Saint of God, and prepare him for a celestial glory; he must have within him the testimony of the spirit of the Gospel.

Persons may see miracles performed; may see the sick healed, the eyes of the blind opened, the lame made to leap, and even the dead raised, and may acknowledge that it is all done by the power of God, but will all this enable them to discern whether it is the power of God or not? No, it will not. They must have the spirit by which the dead are raised, by which the sick are healed, and the eyes of the blind opened, or they cannot tell whether it is done by the power of God or the power of the devil, or whether there is a mist over their own eyes.

I make these remarks that you may understand that my faith is not placed upon the Lord's working upon the islands of the sea, upon His bringing the people here, upon His causing a drouth in the eastern lands, and wars, bloodshed, and destruction among the people; no upon the favors He bestows upon this people, or upon that people, neither upon whether we are blessed or not blessed, but my faith is placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and my knowledge I have received from him.

That must be the case with every person who expects to receive a celestial glory, to be crowned in a celestial kingdom of our God. We might have a drouth here, and still, by some invisible power or hand, this whole people be sustained, even though not a mouthful of bread was raised in this whole Territory. Would that prove that our God is the God we should serve? To a person who knows anything about the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is no proof at all.

If we read right, in the last days we expect the power of the enemy to have a great influence among the people, and to succeed in deceiving very many. Do you expect the eyes of the blind opened by the power of the devil? I do, and I expect to see the lame made to leap, and the ears of the deaf unstopped by that power.

Have any of this congregation ever seen, witnessed, or had any knowledge of such a thing? Yes. Have the sick been healed? Yes, both by the power of God and by the power of the devil. We say that we can witness that the power of God has healed the sick. Are there individuals here who have seen the sick healed when they did not know by what power they were healed? Yes, a great many. Mesmerism has healed many persons in the world. Do you know whether that works by the power of God, or by the power of the devil? You do not, unless you have the light of revelation. You may believe the testimony of others, but unles [sic] you get a revelation for yourselves, you do not know whether it is by the power of God or by the power of the devil. Have we witnessed persons apostatizing from this people, from the kingdom of God, to go into the world and become wicked, and give way to swearing, drinking, gambling, and horse-racing, and become as they formerly had been, only more wicked than they were previous to coming into this Church, and that, too, through the principle of Mesmerism?

I know of many whom Mesmerism has led out of this Church; they would see the sick healed, and attribute it to the power of God; would fall under its influence, embrace and practice it, and thus give the devil power over them to lead them out of the kingdom of God. They could not tell whether it was the power of God or the power of the devil. What is the reason? They had not the light of revelation within them; they had not the knowledge of God. Are you not aware how easily we may be deceived? A neighbor comes along and tells you a story, and you are ready to believe him, for, you say, "That man is a man of truth, I must believe his statement. That sister is a woman of truth, I cannot but believe her statement.

Have any of you ever experienced a circumstance like this? For instance, a person, say a sister in the Church, has a dream, that such and such things are going to take place; she tells it to another in the morning; that one tells it to a second person by noon, who tells it to a third ere night, and so on. How long has that story to go the rounds before it is told as a revelation--as a vision, and perhaps as coming from a man of God, from a proper source, that the Lord is going to do thus and so, for there is a revelation upon it? I have known people to be thus deceived here in this city, and I have also known them to be greatly deceived upon a true principle, if they had only understood it, but they did not understand it.

Mesmerism is an inverted truth; it originated in holy, good, and righteous principles, which have been inverted by the power of the devil.

Again, many people in this city do not know whether astrology is true or not, whether it is of God or of the devil; hence they are liable to be deceived, as is every person unless they have the power of revelation within themselves. If there are any brethren here who have been studying astrology, and they were called upon to speak would they not say that they believed it to be a true science? They would; they testify that they know it to be true. But what does it do for them? It leads them into thousands of errors. Does God ever lead you into error? Is He mistaken when He reveals? No; when He sets you to make calculations and figures, I will insure you that every sum will prove and come out precisely right. The Lord does not deceive people, but astrology and Mesmerism do lead them astray. How many deceptions are there in the world? Millions, for a great many spirits have gone forth into the world to deceive the people. Spirit rappings are of the same class. Are they calculated to deceive the people? They are.

There are many Elders in this house who, if I had the power to Mesmerise that vase and make it dance on that table, would say that it was done by the power of God; and I except that some of them would begin to shout, and that some of the sisters would shout, "Glory be to God, hallelujah." Who could tell whether it was done by the power of God or the power of the devil? No person, unless he had the revelations of Jesus Christ within him. I suppose you are ready to ask brother Brigham if he thinks the power of the devil could make the vase dance. Yes, and could take it up and carry it out doors, just as easy as to turn up a table and move it here and there, or to cause a rap, rap, rap, or to bake and pass around pancakes, or to get hold of a person's hand, and make him write in every style you can think of, imitating George Washington's Benjamin Franklin's, Joseph Smith's, and others' autographs. Can you tell whether that is by the power of God or by the power of the devil? No, unless you have the revelations of Jesus Christ.

Now do not let the power of the devil deceive you. You may ask, "How shall we know, brother Brigham, whether you are telling us the truth or not?" Get the spirit of revelation, then you will know, and not without. Will you take my counsel? (though you may do as you please with regard to that) if you will, I can tell you what to do, and what all the Latter-day Saints--whom I have preached to from the first of my preaching, from the first of my testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true--would have done if they had followed my counsel, and that is, to seek unto the Lord your God until He opens the visions of your minds, and lets the rays of eternity shine within you.

I never would have been a "Mormon" had it not been for that; no, never. Not that I am proof against false spirits and delusions, but I had seen so much nonsense on the earth, that I had not the least particle of confidence in any "ism" that was going, and I never did have until I sought unto the Lord my God with all my heart.

If you would take my counsel you never would cease to plead with the Lord, until He opened the eyes of you understanding and revealed eternity to you, that you might know for yourselves how things are, and when you know and keep in that spirit, you will never be deceived, but the spirit of truth will always be with you, and if you cleave to that, it will lead you into all truth and holiness. Without it, you are constantly liable to be deceived, to receive evil, false reports, and false testimony, through the evil power and arts which have been upon the earth from the days of Adam until now.

Mesmerism is a true principle inverted, just like every other evil or error. Show me one principle that has originated by the power of the devil. You cannot do it. I call evil inverted good, or a correct principle made an evil use of. Has Mesmerism a resemblance to any true principle? It has. In one feature it resembles the principle taught in the 14th and part of the 15th verses of the 5th chapter of the general epistle of the Apostle James, "If any are sick, &c." But why not say to the sick, be made well; just as well as to put your hands upon them? Because in the latter case, they come in connection with the same fluid and power which are in the operator, and if I, as the operator, have any good power, it tends to thwart the evil influence that is afflicting the sick, and to cause it to depart; through this connection the power of God administers to the sick, and that, too, upon rational principles.

The first Elders can recollect, when we commenced preaching "Mormonism," that present revelation and a Prophet of God on the earth were the great stumbling blocks to the people, were what we had to contend against, and were, seemingly, the most potent obstacles in our way to the introduction of the Gospel. The people would meet us with, "There is no such thing now as prophets sent of God; they all died long ago, and the revelations have long since been closed up." The first Elders had to argue with the people, and show them from the Scriptures that if they were complied with according to the letter and spirit, there would be Prophets and revelations on the earth.

The Elders of Israel were prepared to meet the priests on this ground, and they prevailed over the devil, for those who believed the Bible saw that they had to believe in new revelation, and the devil had to give up that point.

What next? When the world would believe in new revelation, the devil commenced to give them his revelations by spirit rapping, and by every kind of necromancy that he could induce the people to believe. He had to resort to a new method for deceiving mankind, for the old plan did not entirely succeed against the revelation of the truth, the sending of angels, and the causing the hearts of the people to be filled with the light of eternity.

I recollect meeting some priests; and taking them on their own grounds. They believed that the Bible had a literal meaning, and that if it was literally carried out in the lives of the people, the same gifts and blessings would be produced as anciently. They cited revelation after revelation given in ancient days, and quoted miracle after miracle. I said, "Suppose now that I am an infidel, how do your miracles look to me? Do not you own creed and your own views teach you all the time that a poor miserable witch, called the witch of Endor, had power to raise the Prophet Samuel from the dead? Was that done by the power of your God that you are speaking about?" "O, no." "What proof have you that she was not as good a woman as ever lived, and had as much power as any in her day? Your own Bible teaches you that Samuel was a Prophet of God, and that she had power to raise him from the dead; then, why don't you worship her as a great saint?" They left the question and turned to Moses, who had access to all the learning of Egypt; "and when Pharaoh had called in his wise men;, his astrologers and soothsayers," said I, "Moses was a little smarter than the rest of those Egyptians, and all you can say about it is, that he had a few keys which led him a little ahead of the astrologers of Egypt; but they were on the course of miracle working, and you have no evidence to prove to the contrary. You say that Moses was a Prophet of God, and that he led a people out of the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh's soothsayers could turn the water to blood, &c., and when they threw their canes on the floor they became serpents; now, because Moses' cane or serpent swallowed up theirs, you naturally give him the preference. True, this indicates that he was a little the smartest man, and that he had a few more keys than those had who were around Pharaoh. Have you any argument to prove more than that? Take your Bible and produce one if you can." They were compelled to abandon that point.

Had a man who did not know Moses, nor Pharaoh's wise men--one destitute of revelation and of a knowledge of heavenly things--one who knew nothing about God, devils, angels, nor their power; nothing about good or bad principles--stepped in and seen those miracles wrought, do you not perceive that he could not have told which was from a good or which was from an evil source? He could not have judged the matter upon any worldly principle. Moses says to Pharaoh, "Let the children of Israel go." He would not do it. "Then," says Moses, "I will cause frogs to come upon the whole land." Pharaoh replies, "I don't believe it." But up they came. He calls for his soothsayers, astrologers and wise men, and tells them what Moses had done, and asks them what they can do. "We can do just what he has." And sure enough up came the frogs.

Moses next made the dust into lice. Pharaoh calls for his wise men, saying, "What can you do, my friends?" "O, we can do the same." How could a man, woman, nation or people, destitute of the spirit of revelation, discern and determine which were right, Moses or the wise men of Egypt? They could not.

Hence, you comprehend that every principle set forth in our holy religion--every part of the religious experience which we have obtained on the earth, proves the necessity there is for all Saints to live their religion, that the Lord may reveal unto them, from time to time, His will concerning them. Then you would not be troubled about crickets, nor about grasshoppers, rain, drouth, nor anything else; but you would inquire what the Lord requires of you, and how He wishes you to do His will on the earth. Pay attention to what the Lord requires of you and let the balance go. He will take care of that if you will acknowledge His hand in all things. Then you will rejoice that your names are written in heaven--that you have the privilege of being able to discern between the right and wrong, to recognize the goings forth of the Lord, and that you can perceive His handy work among the people and His footsteps among the nations; how He pulls down one kingdom here and raises another there, and turns and overturns in the earth according to His good pleasure and men cannot help it, and the people know it not--they understand not.

The Lord causes the people to bring forth His purposes that His Saints may rejoice, and that wickedness may eventually be destroyed from the earth; He will bring it all about, therefore let us pay attention to our duties. Attend to your crops, and let the gardens be attended to; and if your corn is eaten off to-day, plant again to-morrow; if your wheat is cut down by the grasshoppers, sow a little more and drag it in. Last season when the grasshoppers came on my crops, I said, "Nibble away, I may as well feed you as to have my neighbors do it; I have sown plenty, and you have not raised any yourselves." And when harvest came you would not have known that there had been a grasshopper there; the yield was as good as I expected at the planting and sowing.

Do your duty and cleave to the truth, and let us attend to adorning this block and to building the temple, and let the brethren come and pay their labor tithing. We have completed what some call the endowment house, though what I call the House of the Lord. In it you will get your endowments, but do not fret about it, for you will receive them in your times.

Let us build the temple, and when we have finished that building we will call it the Temple of our God. Be diligent and upright in all things, and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in all things; rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, even if you have nothing but buttermilk and potatoes.

Do those things that are necessary to be done and let those alone that are not necessary, and we shall accomplish more than we do now.

In the United States, where I lived in my youth, I have known immigrant families who would rise early, have their breakfast ready and eaten in about forty minutes, and all turn out to work on their farm until half-past eleven, then go to the house, eat dinner and not devote more than an hour for rest. What was the result of this steady labor? People who had crossed the ocean with no money and with very little clothing, who knew little or nothing about farming, and in a new country, would soon have a good farm cleared and paid for. In a few years more they would have their carriages and horses, and every comfort and luxury to be derived from fine gardens and orchards. After a while they could purchase more land and add it to their well cultivated farms, and, perhaps, in fifteen or twenty years, become wealthy though they had nothing but health and industry to begin with.

If we wish to be rich the Lord has wealth in store for us, but let us take a course to gather it together, and then to prepare it for usefulness when it is gathered. I am not for hoarding up gold and other property to lie useless, I wish to put everything to a good use. I never keep a dollar lying idly by me, for I wish all the means to be put into active operation. If I now had in my possession one hundred million dollars in cash, I could buy the favor or the publishers of newspapers and control their presses; with that amount I could make this people popular, though I expect that popularity would send us to hell. True with such a sum we could gather up the poor scattered Israelites and redeem Zion, but I feel to say, "No, Lord, when riches before their time are agoing to destroy the people."

Let the people have righteousness, be taught of the Lord, live in the revelations of Jesus Christ, and then they can handle the gold and silver of the whole earth without having a desire for it, only as a means with which to gather Israel, redeem Zion, subdue and beautify the earth, and bring all things in readiness to live with God in heaven.

May the Lord help us to do this great work. Amen.

REBUKING INIQUITY--THE POTTER AND THE CLAY--A DREAM.

A Discourse, by President H. C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 25, 1855.

Brother Woodruff has just given us a sketch of many things, touching upon the Prophets, the welfare of Israel, and the sorrow and desolation that will finally fall upon the wicked; and the wicked among us will not escape, any more than will those in the world.

I was thinking considerably upon what he said about the wickedness that is creeping into our midst, and of that wickedness being rebuked. I want my brethren and sisters to understand that only those who are guilty are rebuked. Our rebukes do not touch the innocent, nor affect them one hair's breadth. When you use the whip the lash will, perhaps, hit a person who sits in the outer edge of the congregation, and one in this, and another in that part of the room. It is intended for them, and not for those it does not hit. You will not hear any man or woman, enter a complaint, or find any fault with brother Brigham, or brother Heber, except that person who is hit.

When you load your musket with buckshot, or coarse shot, and fire into a flock of ducks or geese, you never will see any flutter except the wounded. When you see a person flutter, you may know that is the character who is hit, and is the one who ought to be hit.

I was reflecting, yesterday, whether I had any articles left of all I had when I came into this Church, and I found that I had one chest which brother Brigham Young made and painted at my house, and my wife has a little tin trunk which her father gave her before she was married, and I have one earthen tea canister which I made about the time I was married. I think those are the only articles left of those I had when I came into this Church. What is the reason? I have been driven from my possessions, and robbed of the things which were given me by my father and mother, and of those given to my wife by her parents.

I reflect upon these things, and when I see sin working in our midst, like the leaven in a measure of meal, I feel to rebuke it; and I would rather die in the valleys of the mountains than be driven again. I am against sin, and I am one with those who are against it. We are at war with it, and with the devil and with his works; and so is every good, honest, virtuous, holy Saint.

Will you sit down and go to sleep? Will you rock yourselves in your easy chairs and see the leaven of iniquity working in our midst? (Voices, "No") Don't say no, and then do it. I have never injured any gentleman, by speaking in this congregation. None of my remarks have had reference to a true gentleman, but I have reference to those who take a course to pollute this people; they are the ones who deserve the lash.

There are men and women in our midst, and perhaps some who profess "Mormonisim [sic]," who would take my life in a moment, if they dare, and the life of President Young. As for death, I do not trouble myself much about it. When the time comes for me to depart from this life and go into what we call eternity, to pass through the vail, it is, simply, to leave the body to rest awhile, and blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for their sleep shall be sweet unto them. Death is merely a sleep to the body, and all the fear I have concerning it is what arises from my traditions. I was taught in my youth that after death I had to go directly into the bowels of hell, and go down, down, down, because there is no bottom to it. I am not troubled about any such thing as that, for I never expect to see any worse hell than I have seen in this world. And those who do not the works of righteousness, and are not worthy to be gathered with the spirits of the Saints, will go into precisely such society in the world of spirits, as they are now in.

The spirits of the Saints will be gathered in one, that is, of all who are worthy; and those who are not just will be left where they will be scourged, tormented, and afflicted, until they can bring their spirits into subjection and be like clay in the hands of the potter, that the potter may have power to mould and fashion them into any kind of vessel, as he is directed by the Master Potter.

When the Lord spoke to Jeremiah He told him to go down to the potter's house, and there he would cause him to hear His words. When he went down to the potter's house, "Behold, he wrought a work on the wheels." The potter tried to bring a lump of clay in subjection, and he worked and tugged at it, but the clay was rebellious, and would not submit to the will of the potter, and marred in his hands. Then, of course, he had to cut it from the wheel and throw it into the mill to be ground over, in order that it might become passive; after which he takes it again and makes of it a vessel unto honor, out of the same lump that was dishonored, because it would not be subject to the potter, and was, therefore, cut from the wheel, and put through another grinding until it was passive. There may ten thousand millions of men go to hell, because they dishonor themselves and will not be subject, and after that they will be taken and made vessels unto honor, if they will become obedient, and God will make us, who are His servants, bring about His purposes. Can you find any fault with that?

The Lord said to Jeremiah, "O, house of Israel, cannot I do with you as the potter? Behold as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand." They dishonored themselves and were rebellious, and I have cut them off and thrown them in the mill, and they shall grind until they are passive. And I haven taken a gentler lump, to see if I cannot make a vessel unto honor. By and by that lump will dishonor itself, and be thrown back into the mill, and God will take Israel and make of them a vessel unto honor.

Some time ago, when I spoke to the congregation in words of rebuke, it made a wonderful stir with a few men, that is, with those who were hit, and with those who were filled with sympathy for them, because they were such fine, accomplished gentlemen. After I went home from the council that same evening, I dreamed that I was at work at my old trade of making pots, that I had a kiln, and that brothers Brigham, Grant, and others were there. The kiln was full of earthen vessels, and we had brunt wood in the arches until it became red hot, but the blaze was coming out of the flues. It did not draw as we wished it to, for the wood was not sufficiently dry. We went and got some good, dry wood, but were gone sometime, and when we came back the kiln got considerably low in heat. We put in some dry wood, and soon brought it back to the same heat it had before we left it. But when I began to look around, I saw a great many vessels, off on one side, that were not good for anything, they would not stand the fire and began to fall in when nobody was touching them; a whole tier of them fell in at a time. Said I, "Why have you made these vessels so thin? You have made them two thirds larger than they ought to be, with the amount of clay that is in them. Their skin is too thin, you have stretched them too far, and not given them the thickness in proportion. What shall we do with them? Let us break them up and put them into the mill, and grind them up again. The material is good, but they all need making over."

Do you understand that dream? The Elders or somebody else, had stretched those vessels too much; they had got the big head, that is, their heads were larger than the substances would sustain, and they fell in--the vessels fell in. The clay was good, but the vessels were made too big in the start; we must not stretch them too much. Potters always work according to the amount of clay on hand; if it is a small lump they make a small vessel, and make it all the way of a thickness, as near as possible.

In the dream, I discovered that there were many just such thin characters all around us, and they fell in because we touched some of them. I have touched many people here, both men and women, who profess to be Latter-day Saints, and I hurt them just as bad as I hurt some strangers. But I never hurt the feelings of a true Saint, nor of a stranger who is a gentleman, no, not one of them. I hurt scoundrels who will take a course, and have taken a course, to pollute themselves, and to put the leaven of corruption and wickedness in the midst of this people. I am directly opposed to such characters, and to their principles. Do you understand why? Because I have been driven and afflicted, until there is hardly a vestige of anything left which I had when I came into "Mormonisim [sic]."

I am plain and definite in my language, and I use plain figures, and now and then one that is sometimes considered vulgar, by those who are themselves vulgar. To those who are pure, all things are pure, but to those who are impure, all things are impure. Again, when you are pure, righteous--without sin, you think, many times, that everybody else is without sin. When I see, hear, and know of practices in our midst, that are impure, I will go against them. Gentlemen, you may expect this, I would rather die, than undergo what I have already undergone in the travel from Nauvoo to this place, under the same circumstances.

When we left that city, between one and two hundred souls were attached to me, and looked to me for bread, and I had to travel to this land, when it seemed as though I could not live under the load. And President Young was in the same situation, with another company attached to him, and thus we travelled through sorrow, misery, and death.

Now, if any persons wish to begin another scrape, and desire to again break us up, and to corrupt this people, and to bring death, hell, and the devil into our midst, come on, for God Almighty knows that I will strive to slay the man who undertakes it. [The congregation said, "Amen."]

I am opposed to corruption; I wish every man to keep himself pure, whether he is Jew, or Gentile, or Latter-day Saint; keep yourselves pure. I do not allow my women to fondle with other men, or to sit in their laps, and they must not suffer other men to kiss or hug them, if they do, I will cast them off. Let my wives alone, and let my daughters alone, except you have my permission to pay them attention, and do as you wish to be done by.

I talk plainly, I am not afraid, for I am my heavenly Father's friend, and I am a friend to all His sons and daughters, whether they make a profession of religion or not, but they must not undertake to pollute this people. I delight to have strangers come to my house, and they shall have the privilege of visiting and associating with me, and I will associate with them, on condition that they behave like true gentlemen.

"Mormonism" is meat and drink to us, it is sweeter than the honey comb; it is life to us, and to the world it is poison. "Mormonism" is true, it is righteous, and we are a pure people, with but very few exceptions.

I know that there are some who cultivate unwholesome principles and practices. The old saying is, "Birds of a feather will flock together," so they will, perhaps, leave us. I am plain, and I will tell you what I think of you. If a man rebels, I will tell him of it, and if he resents a timely warning, he is unwise.

Notwithstanding I am a plain spoken man, I never had a difficulty that would bring me before a court of my country. I dislike and despise dissension, war, and bloodshed, and that is why I am not pleased with the lawyers. I may like their persons, but God knows that I do not like their works no their principles, when they strive to produce confusion and contention here, after we have made laws which suit us, good laws, and as few of them as possible.

This people are a good people, and I love them as I love my life. But I would rather lay down my life, than to again pass through what I have already endured.

I have never yet shed man's blood, and I pray to God that I never may, unless it is actually necessary. I have never had occasion to fight, but I have often stood, with my fire-lock in readiness, guarding the Prophet Joseph, (with brother Brigham and others) for his life was sought all the time, and that too in Kirtland, Ohio, that civilized country. I stood by him until his death, and I will stand by President Young in like manner, God helping me, and so will thousands of this people, and I know it.

God grant that this spirit may rest upon you, ye Elders of Israel, ye servants of god, upon you, mothers in Israel, and upon you, daughters of God. May it abound in you, and be inherited by your posterity, that you may become like angels of god, and stand in the defence of Israel. These are the blessings I seal upon all of you. Be virtuous and pure, and keep your hands from everything that is not your own, and restore everything that is your neighbor's.

Do as you would wish to be done by, and God will bless you for ever. Lay aside all covetous, penurious, and narrow-contracted feelings, cast them off. Be one, brethren. Let each family be one with its head, and let that head be united with the Presidency, and then we are one and God is for us, and who can be against us?

May God instruct you, and cause these principles to enter deep into your hearts and multiply within you, from this time henceforth, and for ever. Amen.

SALVATION--MEN ARE DAMNED BY THEIR MISDEEDS--TRUTH--COMPREHENSIVENESS OF "MORMONISM."

A Discourse by Amasa Lyman, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 9, 1855.

It seems, my brethren and sisters, that an occurrence of circumstances has brought us together again; and the occurrence of circumstances has taken away from you, for a time, those who have been more with you than I have myself. But there is one thing that has not changed, viz: our interests--the nature of the object to be gained by us as Saints.

The simple fact of the Presidency having left us for a brief period of time, has not effected, legitimately, any change in those things that should interest us, and <engage> our attention. If we are Saints at all we have the same interest to sustain, the same knowledge to gain, and the same fountain from which to draw that knowledge as those have who have gone from us for a season. It is our right, our privilege, and a duty that we owe to ourselves; to those with whom we stand connected by the ties of the Everlasting Covenant, as well as by all the relationship that binds us to each other as intelligent human beings, to continue our labor, and so labor that our efforts may be continually in the acquisition of that knowledge that is requisite to our salvation; for this comprises all that should interest us, by whatever name you may call it, or how many divisions or subdivisions you may make of it, and yet when all is considered in connexion, the one part with the other constitutes but simply the salvation which we seek. That alone will render us happy; that alone is capable of accomplishing for us that, that is necessary to our peace and comfort here, and hereafter. We may perhaps think that there are many very nice distinctions which might be made between different things, as we may consider them, that may constitute in us, with us, or for us the means of happiness and comfort; and that one thing considered is one thing, and something else is salvation.

I do not know of any thing that exists, as a means of happiness and comfort within our reach, or that can be made available, but that belongs to our salvation.

These things are so various and so numerous that we might fill up a short lifetime in recounting them, and still the sum of them would then lack much of being told; but the great business of our life should be to have them and enjoy them, and then, perchance, we should be able, to some small extent, to appreciate them, and our happiness, and comfort, and glory will be determined in its extent, and defined precisely by the extent to which we appreciate the great truths that exist around us, in the midst of which we have our being.

So that when we have gained the salvation we seek for, in all the vast infinitude to which it may extend, with the experience of untold ages--when the experience of almost numberless ages shall have added their contribution to its stores of wealth and enjoyment; when these shall be circumstances that surround us, we will find that it is all constituted of one thing, which is simply learning to comprehend the truth that exists around us, in the midst of which we live, move, and have our being.

To effect this is the object of the Gospel--the plan of salvation--that is good for us to reason upon and speak of often one to another; to reflect upon, that we may understand the object for which the Gospel is revealed to us, that we may be enabled to appropriate the things that are rendered available to us--those appliances that are thrown within our reach, in such a way as to conduce to the accomplishment of this object. Then, in order to the proper appropriation of those things, it is needful that we should understand what is to be affected by it; it is needful we should be correct on this point, lest we might be seeking after something that does not exist, and, consequently, we should never find the reality; lest we should be exploring some country to find jewels of our happiness where it is not.

All of us have experience enough to give us comprehension of the truth, sufficient to be satisfied, that our search for a thing where it does not exist, must ultimately prove a fruitless one, one that will not bring to us a reward for our labor and toil, that will not give us comfort for the anxiety we have cherished, while in search for something we should fail to find.

Well, then, what is it, my brethren and sisters, let us reason a little this morning, what is it the Gospel has to do for us? What have we calculated in our own minds it is? Has something that does not now exist to be created? Has our natural constitutional being to become changed by our becoming the recipients of salvation? Are we to be saved as we are, constituted as we are, or are we to be saved as some other kind of beings? What are we to be when we are saved? Do we suppose that we will be seen and known, that we will be recognized as the same individuals that we are now?

If we are not, I would like much to know what I would be, and who I might be, because there are some things that, could I avoid it, I would not be. But, in fact, I do not know that there are any reasons that have ever commended themselves to my judgment, as being good ones, for me to entertain a wish to change my identity at all.

The enjoyment of salvation with me, this far, has been ever cherished and understood in connexion with my own identity, that when I am saved I shall be, simply, brother Lyman saved, and nobody else; I should be, simply, brother Lyman in possession of all the knowledge requisite to salvation, and the consequent participant of all the blessings accruing from having that knowledge in possession. If I am not that, I shall be disappointed, I shall not be happy, or satisfied, unless I lose all my present expectations and faith.

Then it is, simply, we who are here to-day that are to be saved; and what is it all embraced in? Simply, in a change of our condition, and not of the condition of some other individual. In the place of ignorance, we will possess that principle of knowledge and comprehension that makes us free. What from? From ignorance. That is all.

Well, says one, "Are there not many other things besides ignorance?" If there are calculating men and women in this room, who can think and reflect, I wish that class particularly, if they never have done it, to make it their study, for a little time, to determine one thing for their own benefit, and for the benefit of others, as far as their influence may extend, to find out how much of the ill that afflicts mankind is not truly attributable to ignorance, to the existence of darkness that pervades the human mind, and in consequence of which they fail to comprehend the truth. By reason of it they know not God, nor understand the principles upon which He acts.

When you find out an evil that is not traceable, legitimately and truly, to this great cause--this great apparent fountain of evil and wrong that exists in the world, just mark it down, name it, and let me see it; if there is any other source for evil, I want to know it. Jesus, we understand, came into the world to save sinners; he came to save, as we say, lost and fallen man; he came to restore the sinful sons of earth to the enjoyment of the mercy, and the favor, and the blessing of heaven.

What did Jesus propose to do, any more than, simply, to save men? The Gospel that he sent into the world proposes to do no more than to save men; and it does just as much for the poorest man as for the richest, it saves them, and that is all it does do.

"But," says one, "does it not damn men also?" Do you think it does? Did you ever find anything about the Gospel that would damn any of you? "But does not the Scriptures hold out such an idea?" I do not know whether they do or not; you ought to know your own experience better than the Scriptures, because it is nearer to you, it is your own property. I would rather have my own experience than to have the Bible thrown in my face, it is richer far to me.

What has the Gospel done for you, and for me? It has never done us any thing but good. "But," says one, "Here is a man that has embraced the truth and then has gone from it, left it, and is now damned." What has damned him? Is it the Gospel? Nothing has damned him but his own mean conduct; his own misdeeds that have influenced him thus against his own interest. Does the Gospel require him to commit sin? Does it require him to utter falsehoods, and cherish a principle of hypocrisy and practise deceit with his neighbor? No. The Gospel requires of him practical virtue, righteousness and truth in all his conduct.

Then let us not charge the Gospel with damning any body, until we find out it has actually done it. The Gospel was sent into the world, by the Saviour of mankind, to place the means of salvation within the reach of mortals, to give to those who should believe, the power to become the sons of God. That was the object of this proclamation throughout the earth, and was the reason why it was taught in that simplicity that marked the teachings of the ministers of truth. The Scriptures promise salvation to those who believe; and those who do not, we are informed, shall be damned. What damns them that do not believe? The same thing that damned them before they heard the Gospel. They were in darkness, and what was their condition afterwards? They were in darkness.

Then the object of this Gospel being sent unto the world was, simply, to give men a knowledge of the truth, and open their eyes, it was to cause the light to shine in the midst of the darkness that surrounded them; that in that light they might discover things as they exist around, that they were before ignorant of, and entertain conceptions of things that before did not reach or occupy their minds at all; all this was to effect man's salvation. From what? From the fall, or any other of the evils that surround him. I do not care whether you regard them as the consequences of the fall or not, I care not what you name the ills that afflict men, and keep them from the enjoyment of a fulness of happiness and glory; from them mankind have need to be saved; they constitute the chains with which men are bound--the clouds of darkness which obscure the light of truth, that prevents the sun-light of truth from rendering the whole sphere of man's being, radiant, glorious, and resplendent. In what? In that which the great architect of nature has placed there, and made all creation rich with.

We live in the midst of it, and are insensible to the beauties around us, to the excellencies within our reach. We tread the blessings that cluster around our path, like the flowers of spring, under our feet, not appreciating their worth, instead of feasting upon the glory, power, skill, and judgment that are manifested in the combinations that have been associated together, to present this beauty to the eye.

Well, so it is with truth and its excellency in all the various departments of nature's works and its glory. We live in the midst of it, and are starving; we are a poor, starving, miserable, wretched, beggarly set of creatures in the midst of plenty.

Now it is from these chains, that bind us in this condition, that the Gospel proposes to set us free--that the plan of salvation is to snap asunder, and give unto us an abundant deliverance, and a correspondingly abundant entrance into the kingdom of God, and to make our future as glorious, as luminous, and as broad, as the path in which we have walked has been dangerous, dark, and gloomy. This is what the Gospel proposes to do for us. How is it to be effected? Upon this simple principle--by learning us the truth, and this is the reason why, that to know the only living and true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is eternal life. There is a reason for that as well as for every other truth that extends, as such, throughout the wide range of creation. It is eternal life, because it is freedom from the chains of darkness, from the dominion of error--an emancipation from that bondage that makes man, in his existence, wretched and miserable.
Then, if this is actually salvation, where should we seek to know its blessings? How shall we come to the enjoyment of them? Simply, in the acquisition of knowledge. Says one, "Is this all?" Yes, this comprises all. "But must we not do right, and is it not important that we should?" Yes; but how can you do right before you know what right is?

What do you Latter-day Saints do? I can see that miserable confusion among them that characterizes the men of the world; everything must give way to the pursuit of this world's wealth and honor; in their eyes this seems to be the only thing that can make them happy. And there are as many ways in which men seek out happiness, as there are men to seek it; and there is as great a variety of interests to be served in the world of mankind, collectively, as there are men who embrace those interests, and labor to save them, and these will be constantly in contact with each other, and what one man labors to build up, another labors to pull down; that which is the wealth of one is the poverty of another; what is the filling of one man's pocket is the draining of another's pocket to the last dime--the last dollar leaves him, and gets into his neighbor's purse. This is the way the world get rich, and imagine themselves happy, and this is the way many of the Latter-day Saints would find salvation--in undertaking to do right without first knowing what is right.

The Saviour spoke sensibly and reasonably, when he said, "This is eternal life, to know the only true God, and Jesus christ whom He hath sent." Without knowing Him, what can you know rightly? What do you understand and comprehend of truth, rightly? Like geologists and chemists in the world, they dig a well, and find a great many crusts, that is when you apply the term crust to something that is a riddle to them, they find many kinds of material that enter into the combination of the earth. The alchymist analyzes portions of the earth, that are thrown out, to discover the different proportions and kinds of matter of which it is composed. What do they learn? Some truth. But what is it like? They cannot tell. If it possesses the property of an acid or an alkali they know it. But do they know anything about who combined its various parts, do they know anything about the active mind shadowed forth in the combinations they find? They do not. So we may search for truth in the earth, on the earth, and above the earth, and we may find a great deal, but we do not comprehend any thing of it, from the fact that we do not know God; we have not commenced at the beginning of our lesson.

Many men have become satisfied there is a God, but they do not know Him, where He lives, who He looks like, or whether He is like anybody or anything that is seen, heard, handled, or comprehended by us. Now the Gospel simply proposes to teach the world of mankind the truth in relation to the great fountain of truth, that is at the beginning of all things that we can see as a beginning; to lead them to a discovery of facts in relation to that truth which pervades universal creation--that exists as far as existence is known, or not known, where it actually is. There is a truth that is co-equal in extent with it. If there is light there, it is its light, if glory, it belongs to truth.

"Well," says one, "is it great as God? Does it comprehend God, or is God comprehended of it?" You know the great principle of eternal life is to know the only true and living God, &c. In our childish speculations we talk about a great many Lords and Gods, and you can get the doctrine made holy by applying the Scriptural language to it.

But, supposing the Scriptures had said nothing about it, what man that has looked abroad upon the face of universal nature, as it is presented to us, who has lived in this being, and breathing world for only a few years, who has not learned and understood for himself, perfectly, that there is a principle of truth which pervades every thing which is in itself immutable, that is the same everywhere, in every land, country, and clime, whether we speak of a single atom, the crawling insect, or the clustering universe of worlds, all are moving, and existing, and are controlled by the same great law--the same great principle that causes them to have their existence in truth and harmony with each other.

Let us return from travelling abroad--from this wandering, and see if we can find the same applied here at home with us. Is there a principle that does control us, and that we can control, a principle which is in all things, in which we live, move, and have our being, that is greater than the greatest thing we can conceive of, and embraces all things? Yes, the simple principle revealed in this small thing--two multiplied by two makes four, is one that we cannot change, or conceive of a principle by which it could be changed.

We cannot entertain a conception of what it would be, if it was not what it is. It is all the time the same in every land, country or place. It is the same, whether we apply the principle to determine the number of apples in the marked basket, or whether we apply it in more extended calculations, in determining the magnitudes, times, and distances of the planets.

Here is a principle to which we must yield; to which we must bow. Why? Simply, because it is greater than we, it defies our efforts to change it; it controls our actions, influences our being; it determines things, and we with other things are determined by it. What can we say to it? Can we treat it with indignity? No; for it will rule us; it governs us. What is it? It is the light that is within us. The revelation says "It is the light of our eyes that enlighteneth our understandings." And what is this? It is the God we see in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, for He is the light thereof, and the power by which they were made. It is, simply, what the Apostle talked about anciently, as recorded in the Scriptures; he exclaims, "Great is the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh."

Some may have supposed that the revelation of God is confined to some few things only--some few specimens of what we look upon in the wide range of nature's works, as they are called; I do not know as nature has any works. While we look upon these, we find that all we do see, read of, and can reach, by the means that we can render available for the acquisition of knowledge, and for the awakening of conceptions within the mind, in relation to the vast infinitude of the work of the Almighty we find that it is simply the shadowing forth of--what? Of this great principle of truth, this God that we adore, that we seek to know, whom to know aright is life everlasting. Why? Because it bursts the chains of ignorance asunder that have held us in bondage; it dissipates the clouds of darkness that obstructs the sun-light of truth from shining around us, and then, in the light of truth, we begin to see and comprehend what exists around us, and the relationship we sustain to nature, to God, to one another, and the object for which we live, and for which we are constituted, and the end to which we are tending.

Until we begin to learn this, we are benighted and darkened; we are as effectually lost as is any man in a swamp without light, or without a guide, he is no worse off than we without the light of truth, for we know not which way to go, or in what direction to look for succour; we know not from whence deliverance is coming, or if it is coming at all.

Then what do we need to save us? Simply, a knowledge of the truth. Says one, "I do not know but that God will save me." I know but little about Him, but I know more about Him than I do about any other God. Why? Because I have seen more of Him. Any of you that have gazed on the heavens, have seen the light of day, been cheered by the light of the sun, and comforted by its genial rays, have felt the exhilarating influences of it.

Here is a God that I see, a God that I have heard, whose voice is uttered by all time, and millions of earths, and suns, in the magnitude of the universe, and thousands of universes, associated together, shadow forth His greatness and glory. Then there is a God who is gentle and kind, easy to be entreated, full of compassion and tender mercy, whose store house of good is richly filled to make--who happy? Those that seek for happiness. Where does He live? Every where. Which of the God is it? It is that God that lives everywhere; that lives through all life, and extends through all extent; that spreads undivided, and operates unspent; that is the God I am talking about now.

What other God is there? You may talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, and about his Father; what did Jesus say of himself--that man who came into the world, and, as the Scriptures say, became the author of eternal salvation to as many as would believe? What did he say that he came into the world to do? No other work but what he saw his Father do.

He came to do his Father's will. What is said of him? "Thy throne, O god, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." It was because he loved righteousness and hated iniquity, that he was preferred before his fellows, and was anointed with the the [sic] oil of gladness above them. What had been done with his Father? Did Jesus say of himself that he was in the sun, and in the moon, and that he was the principle that enlightened our understanding? No, he did not say so, but he said, that any man who had looked upon these, had seen God moving in majesty and power.

What does he say of himself? Says he, "Holiness is my name." Suppose we change it a little, and say he was a holy man, does it change the facts in the case any? No he was, simply, a holy man. How came he to be holy? Just as you and I shall come to be holy, if we ever are. What constituted him a holy man? Simply, his being guided by holy influences, his being engaged continually in the perpetration of holy and righteous deeds; this made him a man of holiness.

Again he said, "Man of Counsel is my name;" because that he had been subject to counsel always. He came into this world to minister unto man, and laid down his life for him, because he was a man of counsel. He came to save man, because he was a man of counsel; and he preached the truth because he was a man of counsel. Were the perfections with which he was clothed inherent in him? I say no, because the Scriptures say no; he was made perfect through suffering, they inform us.

We might call it experience, for he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Well, then, we are required to be perfect even as he is perfect, and he required his disciples that were with him to be perfect, even as their Father in heaven was perfect. It opens to us this view of the matter. Jesus had nothing but what he gained, as vast and extended as might be the power with which he was clothed. The ability that rendered him sufficient for the accomplishment of the great work he accomplished, was the result of his gathering around him from the great fountain of truth, that amount of comprehension of the vast infinitude of truth, that vested him with the ability he possessed.

This is the path in which we are to travel as Saints of God, in which we are to look for salvation, and gather from the same rich store the sum of our happiness, greatness, and glory. God was not too great to drink from the same fountain, and draw from it all He possessed of power, greatness, and glory. That which constitutes His glory, constitutes the greatness, power, might, and majesty of all who progress, and are clothed with the same principle. That the Father of Jesus Christ was in no way very different from himself is evident from what he said; he came to be nearly equal with his father, and is declared, by virtue of his obedience, heir of all his Father's inheritance. He says he came to do the same things he saw his Father do.
Then if we wish to read the history of his Father, we have only to read the history of the son, for in reading the history of the son, we also read the history of the Father; and Jesus Christ has told us, his brethren, that this is eternal life to know the only living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. What does that lead to? Not only to know that they had the truth, but to understand and comprehend the principle upon which they possessed it; whether it was truth inherent--that dwells in them from all eternity, without beginning or end, in the history of their existence--when they commenced to acquire knowledge, and whether they acquired knowledge of this great truth as we are taught to acquire it.

Now that this was the highest object that was had in view in the proclamation of the Gospel--in its revelation to mankind--is obvious to me, it is as plain to me, as I can see anything else. Because when man has learned the truth, in relation to all these things, is there anything more which he can learn? No. It is the vast infinitude of truth that has reflected light enough around us to open our minds, and enable us to entertain a conception of nothing higher, more noble, nothing possessing greater excellencies than simply the truth itself.

We talk about holiness, and glory, and power, and might, but there is no power, but what is of truth, no greatness, no uncontaminated bliss but what is of truth. It embraces the sum of all the excellencies combined in the wide range of universal existence; whether applied to a mote or a mountain; to a single planet, to a universe or to an association of universes.

To learn the truth is the best thing we can do, it is a pursuit fraught with the greatest good to us, for it will bring salvation to us, and bestow upon us the bliss, and blessedness of that state in full; and enable us to appreciate it, for we shall have the light of truth to discover things as they exist around us. And this is in fact our happiness, glory, and strength. What can we see more, than when we first heard the sound of the Gospel?

Let us consider--those of us who have had the privileges and blessings that a great many have not enjoyed; we who have had the experience of a score of years since we first heard the Gospel explained, talked about; since it was first suggested to us that the heavens have been propitious, in sending an invitation to the erring sons of earth, to return from their wandering, and place themselves under the tuition which heaven has instituted, to develop in them a perfect knowledge of the principles of truth. I say, what do we know more to-day than then? What capacity do we possess more? Says one, "I know a great deal more, and we are enabled to accomplish more now than we could then." It is, simply, because we know more truth, and in the application of it we can occupy a wider field, and are prepared to encounter a greater variety of circumstances, and under them all to be enabled to apply the truth, and create circumstances that are good and acceptable to God, to our increase in the truth, and to the increase of the kingdom of God upon the earth.

The kingdom of God is being developed under the influence of the Gospel. How fast? Just as fast as true principles are developed in the hearts of men and women. Just so fast, and just so far the kingdom of God is actually developed, possesses strength, and is built up with sound, substantial materials that will outlive the waste of time, continuing to grow in strength and might when sublunary things have passed away. Taking this view of salvation, we see its object is to put that in our possession without which it is impossible for us to be happy.

Well then, should we be subject to counsel, and be advised? Yes. Men here stick up their noses, and complain because they are required to be subject to counsel. Says one, "I know enough to attend to my own business; I don't wish any man to manage for me, I cannot endure it; I am too independent." Now you poor independent soul: you that are too independent to learn the truth; to be taught your duty; what independence have you got? "O I have the privilege of moving round in this breathing world as I please; and I wont be controlled?" You wont; but I say you will, and you are controlled, and that is the very reason you say as you say, and do as you do, you are controlled every moment of your lives and still you say you are not. You are not independent, you never was, and you never will be. That being does not exist within the range of man's history. The very principles upon which we exist make us the objects of dependence.

I know the history of that independent man. What is it? It is the history of every man that comes into the world. Man comes into the world a beggar, naked, destitute, and the veriest specimen of dependence and poverty that ever was laid out on the stage of human existence? Could he help himself, cloth his nakedness? No. The very first thing he needed, when he looked upon this earth, he had to borrow from the atmosphere that God had provided for him before he came here.

And had it not been for the provisions of his great benefactor, he would have been born only to perish in the morning of his days. Such is the man who tells us he is independent. He is too independent to be taught and instructed. I say what did he know, or what could he do in the days of his infancy? The veriest crawling insect that wiggles its way along through the dust of the earth was as independent as he, and had more help for itself. Talk about independence; he has forgot that he was born, and that is the difficulty. He is not only ignorant of the truth, but he has been shutting his eyes against it all the time, since he has been in the world.

He has forgot he was born naked and helpless. I suppose he thinks he was born in silken robes, when he does think about it, because he may, perchance, have worn them ever since. I don't know but he thinks he was born in the jewelry that bedecks his body since he has been on the earth, or, as the old saying has it, with a silver spoon in his mouth.

He is independent, he says. What does he do in the first place? He had to be cradled in helplessness, and cared for. It is to a mother's anxiety and tender care he is indebted for his life, for the perpetuity of his being on the earth. When he became of sufficient age to draw his nourishment, and means to sustain his being from other sources, he ate the bread that the earth produced--that was here before him--he had no hand in preparing it, he eats it, enjoys the blessing flowing from it, and still looks up to heaven, and like Nebuchadnezzar of old exclaims, "I have made all these things," he is so independent.

Supposing there had been no earth to have produced bread for his nourishment, how could he have lived? Supposing there had been no hand that had tilled the earth, and produced bread as the result of labor. He was not able to travel abroad to find it, and could not manufacture it. He is dependent all the time. Here we find him clad in fine robes, enjoying the place his fellows occupied, and men on the right hand, and on the left that go at his bidding, and come at his call.

But what could he do, supposing they were not there, and he the only tenant of this wide world? How much could he accomplish in providing means for his enjoyment? Who would be his farmer, his gardener, or his mechanic? Who would build his palace, serve him, and administer to his wants? Nobody. He would be poor, destitute, naked, without a house in which to dwell, destitute of the blessings of association, and kind attention of friends.

Still he says, he is independent. If he is, let him live alone; and when he has lived alone six months, he will be apt to come to his senses, if he has bread enough to keep him until then.

At the end of that time he would be wishing for the society of the negro baboon, or anything at all like the human form. He would hunger and thirst for an association with his fellow being; he would find himself wretched without it, and he would exclaim like Nebuchadnezzar in the bitterness of his soul, "God is great and good."

Jesus Christ never declared his independence at all. He said he came into the world--on his own business? No, but he came to do the will of his Father. In this we have an example of what we should seek for, and how we should value the principles we should cherish within us. The truth is before us, and it is for us to learn it. This is the great key to our happiness; and when we have learned all the truth, we shall get all our salvation. That which does not learn us the truth does not bestow salvation on us; it is that which learns us the truth, and enables us to comprehend it, which is salvation to us.

I do not care how it is gained, or where it is found, whether at our labor, or in our moments of rest, and hours of reflection, study, and contemplation. The voice of truth is everywhere. It is but the voice of that Holy Spirit that was to do--what? To lead you and me, and all others who have covenanted with God to keep His commandments, into all truth.

How much of a teacher is that Holy Spirit? What is its capacity? The capacity it is obliged to have; unless there is a falsehood connected with the declaration to do what it promises to do. What is that? Not to lead me into a portion of the truth, and then stop until it has learned the balance, but to lead me into all truth. That is what is promised, and what is declared to be the office of the Holy Spirit.

Can you think of a principle that is universal, and infinite in its extent; there being no space that is not filled with it; no creation that does not owe its existence to its power and influence? Think of that, and ask yourselves the question, who is it, and what is it that can lead you into all that vast infinitude of truth, but that principle.

Can you have any idea what the Holy Ghost is that is to perform this office for you and me, to lead us into all truth; or in other words the Holy Spirit? If it leads us into all truth, it must itself comprehend all truth, or it could not lead us there.

When we have this Spirit dwelling in us, to be our constant companion, and our instructor, we will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth; because it will each day unfold to us new treasures of truth; our field of truth will become broader and broader, and consequently will embrace more of the facts in nature, as they exist to-day, than yesterday; and in this way we will add knowledge to knowledge, truth to truth, to make up that sum that will constitute us equal to the accomplishment of all that is requisite to our happiness, until it may extend to a vast illimitable infinitude.

Now I want you to cultivate and cherish within you a love and regard for His Spirit. You have been exhorted again and again, so to live, that the Spirit of truth--the Holy Ghost, may dwell within you, and be your constant companion. You should cultivate that condition of feeling that is congenial with the Holy Spirit.

You should banish all littleness of soul; and banish all scanty meagre conceptions; and learn that the infinitude of truth is boundless. And when you have cherished that conception, do not calculate there is something else bigger; for there can be nothing bigger, than that which is boundless--that fills the immensity of space. Why? Simply, because there is no room for anything bigger.

That is the reason why "Mormonism" is bigger than everything else. Now go to work and apostatize, will you, you poor, independent class of Latter-day Saints. But where will you go to, for you cannot get beyond the range of "Mormonism," if you die and go to hell?

Old David was satisfied as to this, for he said, "If I take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of heaven, Thou art there; if I go down to hell, to get out of sight, behold, Thou art there." You will apostatize, thinking to find something better than "Mormonism." Where does that something hang? I would like to see the foundation upon which it is based.

"Mormonism" extends to boundless infinitude; there is no place where it is not; no existence that does not exist by its influence and power. If it has life, it is enlivened by it. If it possesses light, it is enlightened by it. I will continue with "Mormonism;" though I know but little of it, I have learned enough to satisfy me that there is no room for anything else. All I have to do is to live, and extend my acquaintance with it; increase my explorations through its various ramifications.

I expect to range in them through the vast future of my being, gathering knowledge. I never expect to get outside "Mormonism;" I have given up the idea long ago of ever apostatizing to get out of the way of it.

I would advise you who have such thoughts to abandon the idea, for it is a long journey; you will never get to the end of it. After you have fought many hard battles against the rights of truth and its convictions, I shall meet you in your wanderings, and still find you inside of "Mormonism;" and you will live inside of it; I do not care where you go you cannot get rid of it.

I would advise you to give up all ideas of apostatizing. Suppose you wake up from your slumbers, and try my plan of getting a thorough knowledge of the truth. Suppose you try it for twenty years; be faithful to God, deal honestly with yourselves and your neighbor that long; love God that long, and cultivate a love of the truth that long, and it will effect quite a chance in you. And probably you may be as much attached to the truth, by that time, as you are to your tea, coffee, and tobacco; not because they loved them when they were born, or had a natural taste for them, but because they have loved them ten, twenty, or thirty years.

They do not wake up and forget them, nor go into the field, and return home and forget them, because the recollection of them is fixed by long using them; they have become a principle of their life and being, as it were. Do you not wish the plan of salvation had become so fixed in you? Would you not be a great deal happier than you are now?

I suppose this is the case with some? I hope so at least. You want a love of the truth, which is the only thing that will ensure you success as Latter-day Saints, for if you have not the love of it in you, you cannot appreciate it; and if you do not appreciate it, you would give it away for a little sweet cake, or some trifling thing, because the love of it was never fixed in your affections.

When you appreciate the truth so--as it is worth everything you can give or exchange for it--then you are secure; and as long as you continue to love it, you will not apostatize. But if you begin to be discontented, look out or you will apostatize. You say, "I like "Mormonism" as well as ever I did, but I do not like this country." You tell the truth, I believe, but you never believed it firm enough, if you had you would have loved this country where duty has called you; or any other country where the interest of the cause of truth calls you. Why? Because you interest is there; that which you love is there, and the reward you seek is there. You ought to have "Mormonism" get fast hold on your affections, so as to occupy the entire affections of the soul, until the love of the truth is disseminated throughout your whole being.

I want you to watch these things, and not apostatize. It is a bad business, and don't do you any good. Stand firmly in the covenants you have made, and learn the truth day by day, and gain knowledge continually. If I thought there was anything more or better than "Mormonism," anything that would do you more good, I would talk about it.

I have not addressed you precisely as I would another people, under other circumstances. A great many of you have been a long time in "Mormonism" and have had considerable experience in it, and again some have had but a few years experience, in which to learn and be instructed.

Well, as Latter-day Saints, you should learn that you are not independent, but dependent all the time, that you have the truth to learn. You have merely adopted it, and said in your hearts that the testimony of the servants of God is true. You may have received the manifestations of the Holy Spirit that have borne record to you, and brought to your understanding things that were promised you. But this is just at the beginning of truth, it is yet all before you, you only comprehend but a little of it; you simply comprehend the fact, that there is a system of salvation.

Are you living to-day in the enjoyment of that freedom from darkness, doubt, and dubiety that is only the result of a perfect comprehension of truth, that satisfies the soul, and relives it of all its anxieties and cares? Are you enjoying that to-day? Do you fully understand the principles of "Mormonism?" When you speak honestly, you will tell me you do not.

Seek to learn them. This is the duty which lies before you; your future labor consists in this. You have been baptized for the remission of sins, as a sign of the covenant you have made, that you would put off the old man and his deeds; that you would die according to the rudiments of the world which influenced your former life, and follow the rudiments of Christ.

Are you growing in grace, and in the knowledge of the truth? Are you becoming more and more intelligent? Do you live the truth more to-day than last year, last week, or five or ten years ago, when you first heard it? Do you comprehend more of it? If you do not, you are not growing in grace, and in the knowledge of God, and of the truth.

Obey the Word of Wisdom. "Do you mean I shall not drink tea, or coffee?" I do not care whether you do or not. I do not consider that you obey the Word of Wisdom, simply, because you do not drink tea and coffee. May be you cannot get it. I have seen the time that I drank it when it was hard to get, and when I did not use it, when I could have got it.

Do not work yourselves to death, but try to live a long time, and learn to run and not weary, walk and not faint. Do you think of leaving off tea and coffee, alone, will enable you to scale the mountains, and outstrip the mountain goat in fleetness. It is just as true that weariness is the consequence of excessive toil as that God lives and reigns. It is manifest in you and me, and in every other part of His work. Keep the Word of Wisdom; and if you want to run and not weary, walk and not faint, call upon me and I will tell you how--just stop before you get tired.

The Word of Wisdom was given for a principle, with promise; as a rule of conduct, that should enable the people so to economize their time, and manage and control themselves, as not to eat and drink to excess, or use that which is hurtful to them; that they should be temperate in all things, in the exercise of labor, as well as in eating and drinking. Clothe yourselves properly if you can. Exercise properly if you can, and do right in everything.

Do not stay the work of improvement and reform to pay attention to small things that are beneath your notice, but let it extend through the entire circle of your being, let it reach every relationship in life, and every avocation and duty embraced within your existence.

Let it affect your thinking, and the feelings which you cultivate, and let there be nothing pertaining to your being but what shall be influenced by it. The Word of Wisdom would itself save you, if you would only keep it, in the true sense and spirit of it, comprehending the purpose for which it was given.

It reaches everything that affects your happiness. Go on then and observe the Word of Wisdom. What does wisdom tell you? Let tea and coffee alone, and abstain from that which would overtax the strength of your system, and favor the innovations of disease, and shorten your lives, and thereby limit the extent of your usefulness.

Study to save yourselves. That which saves your life, and lengthens out your days is salvation. And that which fills out your days with the perpetration of good is salvation--it helps to make up the sum of your salvation.

I want you to look at it in this point of view, and be influenced by the spirit of truth, foster it within the fountains of your feelings, and it will give a good character to your conduct.

This will be living your religion every day, in every thing you do; you will have nothing to do outside of your religion.

Now that you may have wisdom to adopt this course of life, and live to enjoy the blessings that will accrue from its adoption, is my payer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THE GOSPEL.

A Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 26, 1855.

I rise before you this morning, my friends and brethren, to preach to you the everlasting Gospel, for as my calling has been for the last quarter of a century to proclaim this Gospel, I have always endeavoured to do my duty both before you and others, here and in many other places.

Before I came here this morning, I was thinking, what shall I say to the brethren and sisters, if called upon to speak, and after a moment's reflection, I said, I will preach the Gospel, and when brother kimball called upon me to address you, he said, "Brother Parley, we want you to preach the Gospel to us."

The Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the only system whereby man can be saved, and his being the only name whereby we can approach our Father in heaven with acceptance, the only name in which remissions of sins can be obtained, and the only name whereby man can have power over unclean spirits, over devils, over diseases, over the elements, and over everything this side the celestial kingdom, and its influences, it is of the highest importance, therefore, that this message of life should be declared to all the world.

This Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was once born in Bethlehem, crucified on Calvary, risen again form the dead, and having ascended to his Father and to our Father to lead captivity captive, and give gifts unto men, his name has become the only name under heaven through which man may be saved--receive everlasting life and exaltation. It is the only name by which man can get remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and all its attendant blessings. It is the only name by which we may approach our Father in heaven and invoke His blessings--the only name by which we may control disease, and the very elements, by the power of His Spirit and the authority of His Priesthood.

This same Jesus, after having risen from the dead, after having received all power in heaven and on the earth, gave a mission to his Apostles, Peter and others, to go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and gave commandments that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, in all the world, beginning at Jerusalem.

Having given these commandments, and instructed his Apostles that they should teach all things whatsoever he commanded, he ascended up on high, and took his seat upon the right hand of God his Father, and he then shed forth the gift of the Holy Ghost, and bestowed gifts upon men.

Those Apostles began at Jerusalem to perform the duties of their mission, for it had been said that they should tarry there until they were endowed with power from on high; and after receiving this power they stood forth and preached to the people, on the day of Penticost, the crucified and risen Redeemer, and when the people were convinced of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and wished to know what to do to get rid of their sins, and become acceptable in the sight of heaven, Peter told them to repent and be baptized, every one of them, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and he then added, "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

This being written in the 2nd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament, as the first instructions given by Peter and the Apostles, at the place appointed, and at the time appointed, and under the circumstances appointed, and this being the first attempt to carry out the great mission--"to preach the Gospel to the world," hence we conclude that the Gospel there preached was the same Gospel that was to be preached in all the world, and that was to be efficacious to all the world, it mattered not what color or country, what nation or language, learned or unlearned, Hindoo or anything else, it was the everlasting Gospel given by the Savior, at the place appointed, and at the time appointed, when they were endowed with power from on high, the Holy Ghost descending upon them agreeably to the promise.

Consequently, at that time and under those circumstances, which I have briefly named, the Apostles made that proclamation, viz., that all should repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and they were told that all who would do this, should receive the remission of sins, and that the Gospel, with its promises, should go to every creature; and whether in some distant age or country that mankind should be found, it mattered not; there the Lord should send His Gospel with the promise of remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, though obedience to the Gospel. Yes, in every place and among all people the promises should hold good, and the sings follow them that believe.

This Gospel, its history, and characteristics, are clearly recorded in the New Testament, in the english version, translated by the order of King James, and handed down to us by our fathers; and it is also given to us by our fathers, in the Book of Mormon, and in many other good books, and in the words of many other good men who lived in ancient times, and in the words of many modern men, and many of our young men are made partakers of it by becoming members of the Church of Christ, and they know what it is to become members of the body of Christ, and to be justified, freed from sin, and to stand before God with clean hearts and pure minds.

We have to know these things, and to be made sensible of what it is to feel the satisfying influence of His Holy Spirit.

Mind you do not forget, when we preach this Gospel, that it is a Gospel of repentance; do not slip over part of it, but while summing it up, look at it item by item. It is the Gospel of repentance, not a mere Gospel of baptism, but a Gospel of repentance, and remission of sins, to be preached in all the world.

Why have any people a notion or disposition to obey this Gospel? How can the people determine whether this Gospel is good, whether it is of any value to them, or what it will do for the people generally if complied with? What would this Gospel do for the people of any age if they would obey it as a people? Whether it were a neighborhood, a town, a city, a nation, or a world, or a million of worlds, I ask what would it do for that neighborhood, that people, that city, that nation, or that world? I will tell you. There would be no thieving there any longer, there would be no lying there any longer, no cheating, no deceiving, no intentional breaking of promises, no wrong dealing, no extortion, no hatred, no envy, and no evil speaking. But why would all these things cease? Simply because they obeyed the Gospel; because obedience to the Gospel implies repentance, which means nothing more nor less than putting away all our evils, and ceasing to do them. Among the people that obeyed the Gospel there would be no longer adulterers, nor fornicators, nor any other evil that you can name.

Now what cause of objection can people have in any age, among any nation or language--in England or in Texas, or any where else, to a Gospel that would have a tendency to put away all those evils from among men? But, say you, "Are there no evils where this Gospel is obeyed?" No sir; where this Gospel prevails in the heart of an individual, that individual ceases from those things which are evil, for he is cleansed from them; he refrains from all that tends to evil. As the Gospel influences a man's heart, he ceases to countenance all evil practices, and where the Gospel influences his family, there is a family without those evils, and if a town or a city can be found that is influenced by the Gospel, there you will find a town or city without those evils which I have named, and you will find them gradually putting away those which may be amongst them, as fast as they perceive them.

"But really," says one, "in Utah, I thought the Gospel was pretty well obeyed, and yet we are not without those evils, we are not entirely free from those sins." Allowing such to be the case, that does not make these words false. Show me a man that is guilty of false swearing, a man that is found traducing his brethren, or that is found evil speaking, or that is a fornicator or a thief, and I will show you a man that does not obey the Gospel; he may call himself a "Mormon," a Latter-day Saint, or a brother in Christ, but that is not proving that he has repented of his sins, but as repentance is a part and parcel of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ, and without which we cannot be benefitted by his atonement and his mercy, we cannot have the blessings he purchased without we associate repentance with our faith. I say, as repentance is an essential part of the Gospel, that the man who has not put away his sins has deceived himself, because this repentance is one of the first principles of salvation. If I have other sins, and then add the sin of neglecting repentance, my case is still worse than it was before.

I have known the Gospel, as I remarked, for 25 years, and in that time I have materially altered my views upon some points. I then thought that they came into the Church for the purpose of repenting and forsaking their evils, and receiving the Gospel with all their hearts and with a resolution to do right. Well, it is true that there is a oneness, as far as repentance and faith is concerned, in the outward acknowledgment, but do all who in word acknowledge the Gospel forsake their sins? We would all like to see such a state of things in the world, we would like to see our neighbors forsaking their sins, even if we could not forsake and overcome our own dear sins. Suppose we happen to repent and leave off our sins, would not that be about right? Would not that answer for us without waiting for others? Or can we have some ceremony performed that will do as well, something besides leaving off our sins and leading a new life?

Perhaps we may not come to the repentance of fear, or feel afraid of doing wrong, but the other part we will come to, says one, "For instance the baptism for the remission of sins given by the Savior, in whose name we can receive every good gift, and without whose name we cannot receive any spiritual gift." Then seeing that he, with all this power in his hands, and he, knowing all things that would be good for man, not only ordered that repentance should be preached in his name, but that the Apostles should baptize the people in his name, and to fulfil this mission they did baptize the penitent believer for the remission of sins; and they exhorted the people, every one of them, to repent and obey this ordinance for the remission of sins; and they also assured them that it [sic] they would do so they should have the gift of the Holy Ghost; and the Apostles further assured them that this promise was to them that were afar off, to all nations and countries--it extended to every creature.

And now, what objection can a man have to obeying one part more than another part of the Gospel? Why should men have such various opinions about the gospel when it is so plainly set forth? One man says, "I suppose that baptizing or sprinkling me when I was an infant was sufficient, for that was the custom in those days, and I suppose they called that baptism." Well, have we not shown you that repentance was of God, and therefore that all men must repent? Jesus Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and he also commanded his servants to go forth testifying to those that were seeking the kingdom of God, and gave them power to heal the sick and cast out devils.

Can little children commit sins? Can they hear the Gospel and receive it in their hearts? Can little children reason, think, repent, and bring forth fruits meet for the kingdom of God? Can little children be instructed to obey the Gospel in their infancy? To all these questions every rational man would answer--No! Well, then, what have we to do with the Gospel as it pertains to little children? We are willing to carry out the instructions of the Savior where we are told to bless them, and this we are willing to do wherever we see them, and to pray for them, but to sinners that are sufficiently grown to be free to act for themselves--persons who are sufficiently grown to be accountable before the Almighty, and to be capable of conceiving sin in their hearts, and of bringing forth the fruits of it, to such was repentance and baptism, and therefore the Gospel could never be applied to little infants; it was a Gospel of voluntary obedience, and therefore it could not apply to the infant in its mother's arms.

Go and "teach" all nations, and baptize the people; not the teaching to "follow" baptism, but teach them to observe all the things spoken by Jesus. Well, now, if you baptize a little infant, then remember to tell it all the things; teach it, then baptize, after which, you must teach it to observe all things.

But you see it wont require a dead form to carry out the Gospel of Christ, but an infant could not ask, what is the word? Persons have been used to trust to a dead form and have their children sprinkled, but if any of you were sprinkled, it was at a time when you could not help yourself, and hence you do not know anything about it, only, that you have been told that somebody sprinkled you when an infant.

Then, notwithstanding your infant sprinkling, you never obeyed the Gospel because it was a Gospel of repentance, and is to be so when carried to all whom the Lord our God shall call. The Gospel, which we have to preach, is a Gospel of repentance and of remission of sins, to every one that will obey it, including a baptism, a voluntary baptism, which is applicable to all the truly obedient, in every nation, who are determined to lead a new life, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, and what was it? The Apostle, in the New Testament, informs us that it was to be buried with Christ by baptism into his death, and rise to newness of life in the likeness of his resurrection.

In my travels abroad, I sometimes meet, among many others, members of the church of Rome, so called; I believe they call themselves such. I say to them, "Are you sure there was such a church as that in the days of the Apostles, and that you are members of that church?" "If there was such a church," says I, "it is spoken of in the New Testament. Well, are you sure that you are a member of the church of Rome that is spoken of as having grown and swelled and perpetuated itself? How have you become such?" "By being baptized," is the answer. "Then you would think an unbaptized person was not a member of that church?" "Yes, we would consider all such persons aliens."

"Well, then, I will convince you that you are not a legal member in the church of Rome, baptism being the initiatory right into that church." "How will you do it," Says he, "Because the Apostle in his epistle gives instructions and directions how every member was initiated into the Church, that was established by himself at Rome. He says that "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and if ye have put on Christ, then are ye Christ's."

"He also says, 'Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin'" Romans, chapter 6.

"Now," says I, "remember that every one of your members of the Church of Rome have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, and hence you must have risen to newness of life in the likeness of his resurrection. So writes the Apostle to the true Church of Rome, and you will find it in the New Testament, as before stated."

"Now then," says I, "you have acknowledged that no man is a member of the Church of Rome, unless he has been baptized, and the Apostle himself says that 'every member of the Church of Rome has been buried with Christ by baptism, and has risen again from that grave into the likeness of his resurrection.' Were, Sirs, were you buried with him, and when did you rise from that grave in the likeness of his death and resurrection? And have you ever led a new life, avoiding this sin and the other which you before were guilty of?"

"Well," says the professor of Roman religion, "You have got us in a curious position, I must acknowledge; I will have to give it up, for that is true; it is the written word of an Apostle of God. I have never become a member of the Church of Rome, and am consequently an heathen, according to the views of the Roman Catholic Church."

I have conversed with men who have come out as honestly as men could in their positions. Members of the Catholic Church have come out as honestly as I have stated, and said that they must give up, but the Protestants are very tenacious, and will stick to their creed, often in spite of reason. I presume they are like all men in reference to tenacity, they would stick to their oath, that, if possible, they might gain converts to their faith.

The question is often asked, "Are there any honest people among this sect, and the other party?" I tell you there are honest men in every sect of religionists, and if you try to classify men, you will have a difficult job, for you will find honest men in this class and the other, and, in fact, among all classes and sects of men.

You need not suppose that honesty depends upon our traditions, or upon where a man was born; but there are honest people in every community, and in every sect under heaven, and there are those that hate the truth, and that would not aid in the spread of light and truth, no lend their influence to any servant of God under the heavens.

Well now, I love a man without regard to his country, or where he was brought up, without reference to color or nation. I love a man that loves the truth, and I do not blame any man under heaven for having been born and brought up in any particular town, city, or nation. You might as well blame a man for being brought up under certain traditions, in countries where they have not had the opportunity of discoursing with others, no discussions, no free press, where they never could know anything else but tradition through life.

You might as well blame them for their country as for their traditions. Circumstances might come round, and so order the course of a man's mind and his mission as to give him a new channel of thought, and prevent his making any distinction, as it was with the Apostle Peter.

There are whole nations, and generations of them, that have lived and died with the same knowledge right before their eyes, and that without the opportunity of thinking of any other degrees of knowledge. Well, what did Peter do with regard to those he was called to visit and preach to? When he preached the Gospel under the instructions of a risen Jesus, when he undertook to preach the Gospel--repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, he said, "The promise is to you;" meaning that present generation, and he thought a little more, and then said," It is to your children:" meaning the next generation, and finally his heart enlarged a little further, by the Holy Ghost that was in him and he uttered its dictation, "To <all> that are afar off;" and then he happened to think that they might count those that had been brought up in some other country, with different tradition, and he limited a little, and said, "Even to as many as the Lord our God shall call."

Although the mind of Peter was liable to be too contracted, he knew one thing, viz., that the Lord their God was in the habit of communicating with the people, and he understood that He always would be, for he knew that God Lived, and he also knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was alive, for he had seen and talked with him, and had handled him, and he had seen him ascend up on high; and he had heard him testify that he had all power given him in heaven and in earth, and he knew that he would have power to send the Gospel to every creature, for he had the keys to send the Gospel wherever he pleased, to all tribes, nations, and languages, in worlds without end, therefore when he made the promise he only limited it, or gave it a certain jurisdiction, recollecting where it belonged.

The promise he gave of the Holy Ghost was to all that are afar off, to those whom the Lord our God shall call. To express it in language more appropriate than any other, perhaps, the promise of the Holy Ghost is, to wherever the Lord sends forth a revelation, wherever He makes proclamation of the Gospel, wherever He commissions men and sends forth the keys of the kingdom of God, and authorizes men to administer those ordinances in His name. It matters not whether in Judea, or America, or whether it be in Samaria, or England, whether to the heathen, the Jew, or the refined philosopher. It matters not whether we apply it to ancient days or modern times, wherever the Almighty God or Jesus Christ His Son, sees fit to reveal the fulness of the Gospel, and the keys of the eternal Priesthood, and the ministration of angels, there the promise contained in the Gospel was to hold good; and the nation or people obeying that call should receive remission of sins in his name, in obedience to his Gospel, and be filled with the Holy Spirit of Promise--the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of prophecy and revelation, and also includes many other gifts.

Is that Gospel any less true because it was revealed to Mormon, and was preached by him? Is that truth any less true because it has been hid up in the earth, inscribed upon plates, and has come forth and been translated in this age of the world? Was not that Gospel as good when preached to the Nephites in America, as it was when preached to the Jews in Palestine?

And if as good why not write it? And if good enough to be preached and written, why not have those writings and read them, and rejoice in the spirit and truths they contain?

Rejoice because it swells the heart, expands the mind, gives a more enlarged view of God's dealings and mercies, shows them to be extended to all extent, published in different countries, and upon different continents, revealed to one nation as well as another; in short, it gives a man that feeling when he contemplates the bearing and extent of that Gospel; it gives a man a feeling which affords joy and satisfaction to the soul; it give a man that feeling which angels had when they sung in the ears of the shepherds of Judea--"We bring you glad tidings of great joy"--which shall be in a few countries, and to a few people? No, that was not the song, though they were singing to those who had a few traditions in their families, which they had received from their forefathers.

The shepherds were astonished, and well they might be, and they brought every body to this text throughout the whole of Judea. Still those angels were honest enough to sing the whole truth, notwithstanding the Jews looked upon all Gentiles as dogs, and I think I hear the shepherds saying, that brought glad tidings to every body--"To these dogs?" Still the angels--a choir of them--were bold enough to sing, "We bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to <all people>!"

What a big saying for Jewish shepherds! Why they must have enlarged their hearts, and wondered at this very strange news! Why Peter had hardly got his heart sufficiently enlarged to believe these glad tidings, many years after they were proclaimed, although he had preached so much.

It swelled by degrees, and contracted again, I suppose, and at last he had to have a vision, and a sheet let down from heaven, and things shown him, and explained to him over and over again, to get him to realize the truth of the glad tidings sung by angels at the birth of the Savior.

It was showing so much, it was too broad a platform, such a boundless ocean of mercy! It was making such a provision for the human family that Peter could not comprehend it. If the angel had said it was for the Jews, for the peculiar people of god, those that could receive the new revelation, why then it might have done; but to throw off their traditions, they who were the peculiar few, as they considered themselves, to believe that the glad tidings of the Savior's birth was for those Gentile dogs, they could not endure this for a moment. They were of the house of Israel, the seed of promise.

This was indeed a peculiar vision, bringing the glad tidings of the Savior's birth--for that was the peculiar mission of those angels--hence they did not bring the Gospel, they did not say anything about baptism, nor repentance, nor remission of sins, but they simply brought glad tidings of it. They announced the fact that a Savior was born at such a date and place, told the birth place and events of a Savior being born in Bethlehem, under the circumstances named at that time, and declared that this news, this glad tidings, should go to all people.

What was the result? Why it went through Judea; it was sounded through Samaria; it went to Rome and to Greece; it went to Ethiopia; it went to the uttermost parts of the earth; it soon bounded over the sea; the angels of God that sung that song could never contradict their words. If then they had to carry it over the seas, to every country and continent where the seed of promise was, they were bound to fulfil that mission, and they swiftly flew to America, and proclaimed the glad tidings there.

They found the people there shut out by a cloud of darkness, from the light of truth. They found a people there called the Nephites and Lamanites who were a branch of the house of Israel, that were cast off, or rather brought over the great waters from their country, and they bore the glad tidings to them, (you have read it in the Book of Nephi) and they informed them that at such a time and place the Savior was born.

By and by the Savior himself came over here, and told it to the people; but this was after his resurrection, for the work was too much, and the field too large for his mortal life; for he had but a few years to preach the Gospel to the Jews, and part of that short life of 33 years was he a child--a boy, and hence, he had to be limited to that country where he had a mortal body, and could be borne by the mountain waves that might separate one country from another. But after his resurrection, he was as independent of the waves and mountains as he was of those who crucified him; for then he could rise above their power; he was able to pass from planet to planet with perfect ease; he was as able to ascend up and go from continent to continent; he was as able to ascend to his God, and to our God, as he was to appear to his disciples.

I say, Jesus could not be held in Palestine; the mountains, nor the rolling seas had not power to stay his progress, for he had told his disciples, while he was yet living, that he had other sheep which were not of that fold, and, said he, "They shall hear my voice."

In fulfilment of this, and according to the nature of his grand commission, the Saviour of the whole world, not half of it, in his glorified body, showed himself to the Nephites in America, and bestowed upon them the Priesthood, with all its gifts and qualifications--that same glorious Gospel that he had just before given to his Prophets and Apostles at Jerusalem--and he told those whom he selected to hold the Priesthood upon this continent, to go forth and preach the same glad tidings of salvation to all their world, fulfiling in part the words of Peter, "For the promise is to all that are <afar off>."

And Jesus called to those Nephites, when he descended, and they fell at his feet, as many as could get near him, and they bathed his feet in their teas, and they examined his wounds, and heard the gracious words of his mouth, and they saw him ascend, and descend again, and they felt so large in their charity and affections, and the light of truth was so large and extended in its benefits, and benevolence, and the testimony so strong, that they feasted upon the blessings that were bestowed, and he then commanded them to write his sayings, and an account of the miracles he wrought among them.

They did this as he commanded, and they liked the writings so well that they handed them down to each succeeding Prophet, until Mormon, who was born three or four ages afterwards; and he could not hand those sacred records down any further because of apostacy, and the blasphemy and wickedness of the people, and because of the wars and troubles that spread among the people; so he made a secret deposit of those writings, and put them in the earth, and he also wrote a book and called it the "Book of Mormon," which was an abridgment of the other records, and this was hid up to the Lord, and through the interference of the Almighty a young man, Joseph Smith, by the gift and power of God--I say, through that young man, and the ministration of holy angels to him, that book came forth to the wold, and it has since that time been preached and read in our language, and many others, and we rejoice in it, and have borne testimony of it in the world.

It is though that blessed Book of Mormon, with that blessed Gospel in it, that we have the testimony which we have in reference to the death and resurrection of the Savior of men.

It is true, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, and as preached upon this continent, and it is true as written in the New Testament, and as it was preached to the Jews in Jerusalem, and as preached to the Ten Tribes, though we have not got their record yet, but we will have it, and we shall find that the blessed Jesus revealed to them the Gospel, and that they rejoiced in it.

And their record will come so that we will know of a surety, and of a truth, that they had the everlasting Gospel as well as their brethren in Jerusalem, and upon this continent.

When these things come to pass we will have three ancient records, delivered in three different countries. We have in the Old and New Testaments, and the Book of Mormon, and other good books, all we at present require.

We shall eventually have the history of the Ten Tribes in the north, of the Nephites in America, and of the Jews in Jerusalem, and their written testimony will become one, and their words will become one, and the people of God will be gathered, under testimony, into one body, and the testimony of the Latter-day Saints will become one with that of the Former-day-Saints, (and it is now so far as it goes) and the testimonies of those shall sweep the earth as with a flood, and by the voice of men and angels, and eventually by the great sound of a trumpet, and none shall escape.

Prior to this great destruction, the everlasting Gospel will be taught to them by the servants of God, by the testimony of men and angels, and by the testimony of Jesus Christ, and by the testimony of ancient and modern Prophets; by the testimony of Joseph Smith, and of the Apostles ordained by him, and by the testimony of ancient and modern Saints; by the testimony of the Ten Tribes; by the testimony of heaven and the testimony of earth; then shall the wicked be sent to their own place, and truth shall be established in the earth; and the voice of joy and gladness shall be heard with the meek of the earth.

Those that forsake their sins shall have abundant cause to rejoice with those that love the truth, and are made pure in heart by it.

Joy and gladness shall be heard, and there shall be glad tidings to all the meek, and to all the pure in heart; to all that love instruction; to all that will not harden their hearts; to all the sinners that will be obedient and refrain from their sins, and live a holy life.

The cry will no longer go forth, "They will not repent and be converted, that I may heal them;" for the Lord God, the blessed Savior, who is full of virtue, power, and love, and healing, with his Priesthood will bless them, and they will find comfort, for he will heal them.

From the fact that Jesus complains of a people that will not be converted, lest he might heal them, we would conclude from that, that conversion was a condition of the healing power. Why, says he, "They will not turn from their sins and be converted, that I may heal them." But when they are concerted and grown up into one, the day of his power comes, and then says he, "They are converted, and I will heal them."

Don't you see that he came to the Nephites (you have read it in the Book of Mormon), and he said, "Bring forth your halt, and blind, and dumb, and I will heal them, for I see your faith is sufficient and I will heal them all:" and he healed them every one as they were brought to him. That day of general healing came to them, for the more wicked part of the inhabitants had been cut off, and I would to God that that day would come among us.

Well, let us be converted, and those that have been converted and have held on to it, be converted a little more, for I tell you I like conversion pretty often. I don't mean that I like people to turn round from the truth and then repent, and say, I am sorry; but I mean that a man needs converting to-day, and the next day, and the day after, because a man that is progressing learns by degrees. To-day he gets to understand that a certain principle or practice of his is wrong; and when he finds himself wrong, and learns his error, he turns from it; but even then he does not understand all things pertaining to right and wrong. He has not learned all things that might stand in the way of building up the kingdom of God, and hence, he wants or needs to be converted to-day, and the next day, and the next, and so on until he is converted from all his bad habits, and from his impurities, and he becomes just such a man as the Lord delights in.

And Jesus said, "Be ye as I am, and I am as the Father." He contrasts himself and them with the Father, and then says, "What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you such as I am, and I am as the Father is."

It is for this purpose that we came into the world, that we might become like the father; and that we may become like Him, we need converting every day, or at least until we are free from all evil, even if it be five hundred times--not to turn away from the truth, but keep going on to perfection.

We need converting until we feel that indeed the promise of the Holy Ghost is "to all that afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call." The Lord calls the Jews, the Christians, the "Mormons," the Gentiles; He calls the Ten Tribes; and He has called us also; God has called brother Joseph, brother Hyrum, and brother Brigham, and His Apostles, and the Elders who hold the Priesthood in this age, and He calls the people of America and of Europe, and the whole human family. Some He calls by His angels, and by His own voice out of the heavens. In this way He called Joseph and his associates, and revealed to them the fulness of the Gospel, put upon them the powers of the eternal Priesthood, after the same order as Himself, and told them to go forth and call others to assist them.

They did so, and others obeyed the Gospel; they laid their hands upon them, after laid their hands upon them, after they had baptized them and confirmed them; and they ordained them to bear testimony of their calling, and the restoration of the Gospel in its fulness--that a new call had been made to the nations of the earth.

And it required another call in our day, for Peter had gone the way of all the earth, and also his brethren who were his contemporaries; and the brethren among the Nephites had gone, or had been taken away; and those holding the authority among the Ten Tribes had gone the way of all the earth.

And it was this that brought those glad tidings and those messengers to us; and those were the ones that brought the light of heaven to our beloved brother Joseph Smith.

Well, if I have been made a high witness of these things, what brought the truth to me? It was through the ministration of angels, under whose hands these my brethren have been ordained to the holy Priesthood, and it brought down with it the blessings of the everlasting Gospel, for it could not be in the world without a call; for those who previously held it had gone to another sphere.

The Gospel was revealed to ancient men in different climes and countries, whenever there were men to be saved, and it was revealed to modern men, because there were modern men to be saved by it. The Gospel was to all whom the Lord our God should call, in every age and country, and but for this call we would have been as blind as bats in the traditions of our fathers, led away by divers creeds and by the cunning of men who lie in wait to deceive. Where would we have been if it had not been for this call? We might have been good men enough, perhaps, but where would we have been?

The introduction of the Gospel was worthy of an angel, yes, the errand was worthy of a corps of them--it was worthy of a host of them! it was worthy of a God! It was an object of importance that called Jesus from the bosom of his Father in the eternal world. A call was necessary then; faith was necessary, and faith comes by hearing the word of God; and how could you have heard it, if nobody had been called to deliver it? We were in the midst of darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. We could see revelations given in other ages, but we want them in our age; but we wanted a call.

I am aware that some will be thinking of their grandmothers or grandfathers who died in the middle ages, and who died in hope, as far as they could get at it. I know they will bequerying all the while to know what has become of them.

Well, it is no matter; it is for us to attend to our own business, and see to our own salvation; if we do this, we shall have no condemnation. We do not know but as we progress in righteousness, that in the provisions made by our great Father, we may have to serve them, and to do for those good old fathers and mothers of ours, who did see the light afar off, but could not come at it for want of a <call>--for want of a Priesthood, which is without beginning of days--and men holding the authority of heaven; yes, we may have to do for them what they have not had the privilege of doing for themselves.
Well, what is the provision? Why did I not just name to you, that this eternal Priesthood is without beginning of days or end of life, after the order of the Son of God? Do you suppose that when a man passes beyond the veil, he is any less a Priest? If angels or men, by the spirit of prophecy, have laid their hands upon him and ordained him to an office in the Priesthood of the Son of God, and have given him a call in the name of the Lord to give salvation to others, do you suppose that by passing the veil he becomes unordained?

What did Jesus say to the Jews? Says he, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the God you profess to worship; but," says he, " I want you to understand that He is not the God of the dead, for what glory would their be in that? But," says he, "he is the God of the living." He was speaking to the children of Abraham who were dead, as much as to say that Abraham was living then.

Well, then, when a man holding the eternal Priesthood passes the veil, he still holds his authority, and his heart is full of affection and love towards God's creatures, and he is clothed with the power of God, and he is His Prophet, Apostle, and Elder. It is impossible to keep a man silent who is filled with the testimony of Jesus. I would as soon undertake to shut up fire in dry shavings, as to shut up in that man's heart the good news, for he has his mission, which is to preach the Gospel to those that were and are in darkness.

The good old fathers and mothers who had not the privileges and blessings of the Gospel--for instance--go to deliver your message to them, that they may come to the light of truth, and be saved.

The Apostle, when addressing the Saints, says, "But ye have obeyed from the heart, that from of doctrine which was delivered to you: being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Rom. vi. 17 and 18.

There was the freedom of obedience to that from of doctrine delivered to them. Obedience to that from of doctrine made them free, but it did not prevent them from acting as men, in a temporal point of view.

The Apostle also speaks of passing from death unto life, because they loved the brethren. Passing the veil does not alter a man; it certainly takes him from the eyes of flesh, but the capacity, the intelligence, the thinking powers, are all alive and quick; and if they hear the Gospel, they will be glad, and the promises are made to them, and they will rejoice in them.

Let a man pass the veil with the everlasting Priesthood, having magnified it to the day of his death, and you cannot get it off him; it will remain with him in the world of spirits; and when he wakes up in that world among the spirits, he has that power, and that obligation on him, that if he can find a person worthy of salvation, why, as soon as he ascertains that, and he remembers what he may teach and who he may teach, he then discovers that he has got a mission, and that mission is to those souls who had not the privilege which we have in this world, that they may be partakers of the Gospel as well as we.

And herein, when fully carried out, are the keys of the "baptism for the dead," and the salvation of those not on the earth, a subject into which I need not now enter, although it is among the first principles of salvation; but they are so lengthy that we cannot dwell upon them all at one time.

But suffice it to say, that when the Lord made provision that there should be one name by which man should be saved; and when He planned glad tidings of great joy to go over the islands and continents, and to the four quarters of the earth, He also remembered the spirits in prison, and He made provision wide as eternity, that it might reach the case of "every creature," under every circumstance that could arise within the reach of mercy.

He so ordered it, that "all manner of sins and blasphemies, in due time, might be forgiven, except that which could not be justly forgiven in this world, nor in that which is to come."

The plan was so devised that every man might have repentance and remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, in his time and in his place, if he would; but if he would not, very well then, he might do as he pleased, whether in this world or any other, according to the clear freedom that he lives under.

You know you cannot compel one of the dumb animals to drink; you can lead him to the water, direct his attention to the clear, crystal, pure stream, but still he may die of thirst. And men may die because they will not leave off their sins, and lay hold of the cross; and if they will die of thirst, and will not lay hold of the salvation offered by a bleeding Savior, they may die the death of the wicked.

And if, because they will not give up their freedom to do right, they can go; they will die to all eternity, and never be compelled to obey the truth.

Well, friends, here is the Gospel; and where is the man's heart so hard that he will not see and embrace it? A man must be hardened in wickedness, that will not abide the law of the Gospel. And that portion of you who have not obeyed, my invitation is to you all; and all of you in the Church, who have not obeyed the Gospel in its fulness, see that you obey it in its fulness; I mean, to every day, attend to the repentance part of it--the leaving off part--forsaking your evils--the conversion part, and bring forth fruits suited to a new life.

I will have to be judged for my preaching, and you for your hearing. I shall be pretty careful for myself; I can do that, I think. I shall look into things, prepare my mind to discern between the right and the wrong; otherwise I might neglect; and it will keep a man pretty busy to repent and bring forth fruits for a new life. There will be a good deal of watching and praying, and he will have to be pretty careful to live so as to get the Holy Spirit, so that it will not leave him, and he will be, without it, like a fish out of water, or like a person in hot weather destitute of pure air. If he once loses the Spirit, after having received it, it will keep him pretty busy to get it again.

That repentance, and that burial in the name of the risen Jesus, wants a good deal of humility and perseverance; for there is the old man with his deeds to put off, and lay aside, and to walk a new life.

It does not only mean something, but it is shown forth in the actions of the man. Well won't that keep a man pretty busy? I think it will in such a world as this. Well, in this sense of the word the Saints are called upon to obey the Gospel and repent, all the while; but we talk of dying unto sin and of walking in newness of life. The dying unto sin and rising in the new life, and the baptism were to be for a moment, but the stream that flows from obedience is perpetual.

Well, those out of the Church are certainly called upon to obey the Gospel; and when people are careless and indifferent respecting their duties, then it is that wicked people rise up amongst us, and we are then called upon to repent and obey the Gospel. I will clear my garments, as far as one day will do it, before I sit down. The little children are called upon to obey the Gospel, such as are capable of being taught, and they ought to be taught by their parents, so that they may understand it by the time they are eight years of age. Then they are called upon to repent, to understand and bring forth the fruits meet for the kingdom of God, and be buried in the likeness of death as Jesus was, and then leave off all their foolish and sinful ways, and rise out of their watery grave, understanding that Jesus rose again from the dead--from his great, and knowing this they should then take up their cross. This is a figure to show us that then commences a new life.

Now you folks that have been brought up in the Gospel, in the light of heaven, but have been careless or wicked, rise up and obey the Gospel, and don't you be baptized without you repent, for all you hear of the Gospel and attend to, unless you are as humble as a little child, it won't do you any good, and remember that it is through the name, and the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, that you can have remission of sins, through the ordinance of baptism which represents the burial. And those people that have not been brought up within this call and influence, I say, come and obey it and do not call yourselves outsiders and aliens, but fellow heirs to the promises made to Abraham, and which were established by him and given to him for an everlasting covenant.

You may suppose that it was a part of the law given to Moses, and therefore done away in Christ. Let me tell you that the everlasting covenant made with Abraham, and mentioned in the Scriptures, was made four hundred and fifty years before the law was thundered from Mount Sinai. Separate and apart from the Gospel, the law was given to Moses, but not to disannul that covenant, and when the Lord Jesus christ came he never disannuled it, but commanded his Apostles to preach it. It is much older than the law, for it applied before Moses was born and also afterwards, and all we have to do is to come into it, and be faithful as Abraham was faithful, and then we shall become sons, and if sons, the sons of Abraham, and if daughters, the daughters of Sarah, because we have embraced the same Gospel and principles. And then when we get into heaven with Rachel and Leah, they will not be ashamed of us, and what is more we will not be ashamed of them. Then we shall be hail fellows well met, and we shall sit down in the kingdom of God, and go no more out forever. "And many will come from the east and from the west and will sit down in the kingdom of God," and unless we are faithful we shall be shut out. Therefore I wish you to understand that the promises, that are special, will not apply to us, and where they go we cannot come, except by adoption.

May the Lord bless you. Amen.

I like preaching the Gospel this morning. Before I came here I thought, what I shall say if they call on me to speak to-day? And the thought came into my mind, I will preach the Gospel, and the moment I came brother Kimball said, "Brother Parley, come preach the Gospel to us;" I replied "That is just what I was thinking of."

THE POWERS OF THE PRIESTHOOD NOT GENERALLY UNDERSTOOD--THE NECESSITY OF LIVING BY REVELATION--THE ABUSE OF BLESSINGS.

A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 27, 1856.