Volume4a

Volume4b

Volume4c

REFORMATION--A TEST AT HAND TO PROVE THE SAINTS. 

A Discourse, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 21, 1856. 

Brethren, I wish to speak to you about the reformation that is now taking place, and to inform you that God would have this people adhere to and listen to it. He would have this people take a course to live their religion, that they may be faithful and have confidence in God their Father, and have a testimony of things in heaven, and that brother Brigham is our Prophet and leader, and that the Twelve Apostles are called of God; that they may know these things for themselves, and thus get such a testimony and such a portion of the Spirit of God, of the Holy Ghost, that they will stand. 

This people must come to a position where they will be tested, every one of them; and the day is just at our door, although many of you will not believe it, even when you are told so by brother Brigham and brother Heber; and when Jedediah was alive you would not believe it. You might have believed, "But," said some, "we cannot realize it." Whether you believe it or not, you will realize such a scenery as you have never seen, and it will go ahead of anything I have, ever seen, for we have promised you that you shall all be tested; that is, you will be tested as to whether you are of the religion of Christ or not. Some may often think that we merely talk to frighten you, but I tell you that the testing time is right at your doors, and you know it not. I want you to understand it; I am going to tell it to you, and I mean to warn and forewarn you of it. I have done so for these five years in succession, and so has brother Brigham. 

I presume there are hundreds here to-day who can say that I speak the truth. I have said that the scarcity of bread was nothing in comparison of what is coming: for this reason the Lord wants this people to repent, reform, and live their religion; to lean to be punctual, true, and humble; and those who do not will go overboard. Mark it; you will see hundreds, if not thousands, in a few years, turn their backs to us and seek the death of brother Brigham and brother Heber, and hundreds of you that now hear me speak. Men are sitting here to-day, and are at home and in other places, who will rally to the mob, to those that will seek to destroy this people. 

I have seen such scenes, but I shall see more of them. I do not come here with velvet lips, nor with silver lips; my lips are not fixed for silver, nor for gold. I tell you the truth as to what those who will not live their religion may expect, and they cannot expect anything else. As to those who do live their religion, God will make a way for our escape and we will go free. Then I will tell you there will be many a scape goat that we shall always be pleased about, for that will sift this people and cleanse them, and the power of God Almighty will rest on those who remain true and faithful. 

These are my feelings, and I want to tell them to you, for I do not want you to go home and lay down and sleep; but I wish you to repent and forsake your sins and your wickedness, your lying and your hypocrisy. I will tell you how I feel; I have no fellowship for those men and women in our midst who do not live their religion, who do not pray and pay their tithing and do as they are told; I have no confidence in such persons. I cannot have confidence in any man or woman any further than they do right; and I know that the Spirit of God will not rest on one of you, any further than you do right. When you have reformed one inch, the Spirit of God is upon you precisely in that proportion; and when you have reformed all over, inside and out, your bodies will be filled with light; but you have more light, only according to the amount you live your religion. 

There are men right in our midst, some of whom are now sitting in this assembly, who will gamble, associate with lewd women, frequent grog shops, get drunk, use profane language, and sit with the wicked and hear them curse brother Brigham and brother Heber and the authorities of this Church. Do you suppose that I have confidence in such men? Do you suppose that I have confidence enough in them to invite them to associate with the servants and representatives of the Almighty? No, I will not abuse my brethren by inviting such persons anywhere; I will show wickedness and its votaries a proper resentment. 

God and mammon, or the righteous and the ungodly, have no fellowship for each other. Those that are for God love one another, and those that are for the devil try to love one another; I have no fellowship for the devil and his servants. Are there such characters here? Yes, there are some who are in the Quorums of the Seventies, and brother Pulsipher and others will sit in this stand and let those poor curses pervert the ways of righteousness and damn themselves. There are men now sitting close by this stand as wicked as hell, who associate with apostates, with whoremasters and with whores and gamblers; and there are men in our midst who would destroy every one of us in one moment, if they had the power. 


And here are brother Pulsipher, Herriman and Clapp, members of the first Presidency of the Seventies, sitting here as dead as door nails, and suffering these poor curses to live in our midst as Seventies. As the Lord God Almighty lives, if you do not rise up and trim your quorums, we will trim you off, and not one year shall pass away before you are trimmed off. 

Am I telling you the truth? I am, and I ask no odds of any unrighteous man that lives, nor of any one who wishes to cherish unrighteous curses in our midst. I have not said anything about those who do not belong to this Church; I am talking about those who are in the Church, and am striving to impress it upon you that we have got to go to work and cleanse and purify the inside of the platter; we must remove those dead men's bones and rottenness that are as corrupt as hell. Do you believe that such things exist? There is an example of them not ten feet from brother Pulsipher's left hand. 

Do I ask any odds of the unrighteous? God knows that I do not, nor of any who associate with them or strive to justify them. And I am disgusted with many of you; I am disgusted with your meanness, your corruption, and your ungodliness. 

The Spirit and power that rested upon the First Presidency when brother Jedediah was in the flesh are with brother Brigham and me, and you cannot get them away from us. We have the keys of the kingdom of God, and they will be on this earth, even though there should be but one left of those who hold them. 

You read, in the revelation that God gave through Joseph the Prophet, concerning the plurality of wives, that all shall be redeemed, except those who sinned against the Holy Ghost by shedding innocent blood or consenting thereto, after having entered into the new and everlasting covenant. Thus you can see that a man or woman that consents to the shedding of innocent blood is partaker of the crime, and is just as bad as the one that committed the deed; and that the damnation is just as sure to the accessory as to the principal, which is also in accordance with the law of the land. Now suppose that one of our Elders will associate with the ungodly, with apostates, with adulterers, with whoremongers and liars, and will tamely sit and hear them damn brother Brigham and brother Heber and every thing that is pure and holy, without rising up and reproving them, I wish to know if he is not just as bad as the characters that conduct so wickedly? Yes, he is. And those that will quietly sit and hear such language are partakers of that sin, and will soon begin to curse and swear with those wicked persons. 

If you do not repent of these things and stop them, there are many among this people that will be damned. I know that many of you associate with and cherish the wicked. What would I give for the friendship of such men and women? Not one farthing, nor for their religion, nor for their presence, nor for their preaching. I wish all such persons would go from this place. They will go by and bye, if they do not now; for the Lord our God will bring a test on this people; and if you do not feel it and acknowledge to me that it is something that surpasses anything we have ever passed through, then I am mistaken. 

I have been through strait places, and there are many who know it; and we have individuals in this place that were apostates and treacherous then, and who did drink and were drunken with the poor curses that oppressed us. Do they ever come near me or brother Brigham? No, not unless they are obliged to. If they were Saints they would associate with us, they would come and comfort us and cheer us up, and with us investigate matters and try to do us good; but instead of that, they are with the drunken. Did you ever see me with such characters, or hear of my associating with them? No, never in your lives. God knows that I despise their society. I have been in the world, through the United States and Great Britain, and I have plowed and worked, and God knows that I did abhor their wickedness. 

Who is bearing off the kingdom of our God? Those who stand right up breast to breast to those who are leading this people in the paths of truth. As brother Hyde has said, those men will have power, glory, immortality, and eternal life; and they will increase upon them as fast as we can lead this people along. But leading this people is at times a harder work than drawing a large tree, top foremost, and yet I know that there are just as good men and women sitting here as ever were on this earth, and also that there is an opposite class. 

You talk of angels and ministering spirits, and let me tell you that they are ready to abundantly minister to all who are faithful in their different callings. And if brother Hyde, who is the President of the Twelve, and if the President of the High Priests, the Presidents of the Seventies, the Patriarchs, the Bishops and all the officers of this Church will honor and magnify their respective callings, the spirit and power of those who have previously filled those stations with honour, but who are now behind the vail, will rest mightly [sic] upon them, and they will become a terror to evil doers. If you do not honor the callings which have been delivered to you, as the Lord Almighty lives, you shall be severed from those callings. For me to speak in this congregation until I am worn out, and still know that drunkards, whoremongers, sorcerers, adulterers, gamblers, and every species of vile characters are rioting in our midst, I tell you that I will not endure it any longer. Are they here? Yes, and the Presidency of the Seventies are aware of them. Why do you not rise up and purify your Quorums and bring such vile persons to justice? If they deserve severing from this Church, sever them; if you do not, you Elders will be severed. 

Why pursue this course? To cleanse Israel and qualify and prepare them, for there is going to be a test, A TEST, A TEST; and if you do not forsake your wickedness you will see sorrow, as the children of Israel did in Jerusalem. Do you believe it? If you will cleanse your hearts and purify them, and call on your God, He will tell you that I speak the truth. I would not give a dime for all the learning upon this earth, without it is devoted to the dictation of the Holy Ghost. There are a great many learned men, and they can be used to good advantage in the kingdom of God, if they will listen to the dictates of His Spirit. Yet I would rather take a clean, pure, white sheet of paper to fill with useful matter, than to take an old scrap book already filled with matter that I did not want, and undertake to correct that. If God has a pure heart, like a pure piece of white paper, He can easily write on it what He has a mind to. 

I want to see every man rise up, in the name of Elijah's God. I will not ask you whether you will or not, for I do not want you to make covenants, because there are many who make covenants to-day and break them to-morrow. I would not give a dime for such persons, and God is going to send forth a test that will tumble them over the board, because there is not integrity in them. They are not honest, they will not fulfil the duties that are required of them. Justice will make her demands, and God will require an account from them in a coming day, and He will cast them into prison, into hell, and they will lie there until they pay the uttermost farthing. 

As we progress in the reform, as we confess our faults and make restitution to those we have wronged, asking pardon of those we have offended, the opposition of the devil will proportionally increase, and his power be manifested in a greater degree; and there is going to be a mighty time. I understand this; I wish you did, and some of you do. It is a peculiar day, a peculiar time. 

Do you suppose that we would take a course to send the Gospel to every nation, if God did not dictate and require it? This Gospel shall go to every kindred, nation, tongue, and people under heaven, and then the end shall come. 

Righteous and holy men and their sons, all who honor their calling, will bear off the kingdom and become a royal Priesthood. But while we are multiplying and gathering such as will be saved, adulterers, whoremongers, and every kind of abominable characters creep into our midst. Many who are as corrupt as they possibly can be, come forward and are baptized in their corruption, and then come here and live in it. 

Do you suppose that an unbeliever, a Gentile, could induce a woman to prostitute herself to his hellish desires, if every woman was pure and holy? No, there is not an upright woman that would submit or even listen for a moment to such a course. Why do any women submit to such wickedness? Because they were in the habit of doing so before they came here, and they delight to follow their old practices. They are the ones that find fault with brother Brigham and with brother Heber, because we have many wives. And when you meet whoremongers they are the ones who find fault with us, and at the same time will whore it with every woman, married or single, that will listen to them. This is true, and men who are pure are like the gleaning of grapes, after the vintage is done. 

Brother Hyde: 19 years ago this winter we were proclaiming salvation in England, and since then that nation has greatly multiplied in corruption. Father and Mother Black, if you were now to go back to Manchester you would not want to stay there long, for you would not find it as it was when we were there. 

Many of those who have come from foreign lands do not realize the wickedness, the poverty and the distress that abound there. Our Elders who have lately returned from abroad understand the matter; they comprehend the condition of the people. When I was about leaving England, I left brother Lorenzo Snow in London, and God knows that I nourished him and blessed him, and he had more power unto salvation than all the rest of the citizens put together. 

I feel free, and have not the least desire to reprove or offend any good person. I have not interfered with the wine and the oil, but I am trying to defend them, to get the dross from among the pure metal, that you may all be like virgin gold seven times tried in the furnace, that you may be pure. They melt and refine gold until there is no dross in it, and we wish this people to cleanse and purify themselves until they are parted from all dross. 

Wake up, you Bishops, Elders, and High Priests, and go and be baptized for the remission of sins, that you may receive the Holy Ghost, for it will not rest on you until you do. I say to brother John Young, President of the High Priests' Quorum, baptize those who will repent; and to brother Spencer, it is your duty to exercise a careful oversight of the affairs in this Stake of Zion, and I will not ask you to be any more obedient to me in my calling than I will be to you in yours. May the Almighty bless you and your counselors, and fill you with the power of God. And I say to the faithful of all Israel, God bless you when you go out and when you come in, and bless all your good wives and children for ever. You shall be blessed; and I will bless you all the time, for I have nothing about me but blessings and telling you the truth. 

I want to be one with brother Brigham, just as Jesus was one with his Father. Jesus replied to Philip, when he said, "Shew us the Father," "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." I want to live in the same element and in the same power with God and with brother Brigham, that when you see me, you may see brother Brigham. Jesus said, "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me:" and again, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Let me maintain the Father's words and enjoy the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and I will be one with the Father, with brother Brigham, and with all holy beings, even as the Son is one with the Father. 

Wake up, ye Elders of Israel, and purge yourselves, and purge out the filth that is in your Quorums, for we will not countenance unrighteousness in our midst. There are thousands and millions of men that will have to become eunuchs, to obtain the kingdom of God, and God will cut off their posterity, so that when they come up in the resurrection they will find their houses left unto them desolate. God will not have their names perpetuated on the earth, because they have forfeited their Priesthood. 

We are going to send some missionaries to Europe in the spring, and when they come back I do not want to hear any of them say, "brother Brigham, I was ignorant;" for you will lie, if you say so; because all who are sent forth are carefully instructed, and especially in regard to the sin of adultery, a crime so prevalent in the world. Some have committed adultery and been cut off from the Church, and the rest who are guilty of that crime will be cut off, sooner or later. O ye unbelieving of the world, ye call us impure; but I would have my head severed from my body, yea, a thousand times, before I would be guilty of such a crime. Ought not adulterers to be damned and go to hell? Yes, for they are bringing destruction and wasting upon the human family by their acts. You have all read or been taught the revelation which positively and plainly informs us that all such characters shall be destroyed in the flesh, and that their spirits shall be given over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption. That is true, and why do you not read and understand it as I do? I am pleading all the time to save you from stumbling and falling. 

I am talking more particularly about things that have transpired since you came into the new and everlasting covenant; I am not talking about the world. Have you lived your religion and been faithful and virtuous, since you came into the Church? Have you been ungodly, since you were admitted into the fold of God? I have told you time and again, to refrain from all ungodly conduct; and yet Elders have women coming in here, with whom they made covenants while abroad. You cannot find a man who has done that, but what is to-day as spiritually dead as a door nail, and will be. Why? Because he has broken his former covenants. 

I am telling you the truth, and trying to save you from falling into snares; I see a great many men falling by these things. I have said, months ago, that there is an under current of wickedness working in this city. How do I know it? By the Holy Ghost, which shows it to me. 

Why don't you wake up, ye sleepy heads and stop your murmuring and complaining? Why don't you engage more thoroughly and wisely in providing the raw material for every article we need, and in manufacturing those materials into hats, boots, cloth, and everything useful? I have been engaged in this movement, and have been pleading with and exhorting my family to go into home manufacturing. They have done pretty well; they made some six or seven hundred yards of cloth last year, and this year some eight or nine hundred yards. You have not heard of any trouble about my family, because they have been at work with the spinning wheels, the looms and the dye tubs. I furnish them with rolls, and they spin, color, weave and manufacture them into stockings and cloth. I say to them, "Ladies, you don't get me to buy you another ribbon, or artificial. If you want flowers in your hair, or in your bonnets, take the peach, apple, and other blossoms in their season, and then you will have the real instead of the artificial." 

Where are many woman spending their time? Around the Tithing Office, idling from morning until night, spending their time for naught. What are you lounging about there for, with your dresses and petticoats, looking as though they were sadly in want of soap and repairing? You know that I have said that the women who go about with the lower edges of their clothes draggled into strings and fragments, are the women who rule their husbands; they are so constantly making snaps and flirts, like a whip lash. 

I cannot let go of you, I feel such an interest, such an anxiety for this people. Go to work and cut off the few poor miserable devils in our midst, for they will never think that they are sinners, until you do cut them off; they will not know but what they are in full fellowship, they have become so darkened. 

I am not going to often attend your evening ward meetings, for my health will not admit of it. What I do here, with what I have to do through the week, is a little more than I can well endure. 

God bless those men who went to the rescue of our late immigration, and all who have in anywise assisted it; also those who have come in this season, if they live their religion and appreciate their blessings. Perhaps some have had their feet frozen a little, but if some others had had their heads frozen off it would have been best for them, for they will murmur and find fault, after the immense toil and expense we have been at to bring them here. What I have individually done towards accomplishing their deliverance amounts to $1100. What has brother Brigham done for the same purpose? Several times more than I have. Will one hundred thousand dollars pay the expense of that operation? No, and if those people murmur, after all their experience and all that has been freely done for them, the Almighty will cut them off. We have taken them into our houses as we would little children, and have nursed and cherished them, and after all some of them will murmur and go to hell, and there are some of them that will be true unto death. 


Do as you are told, and you will be blessed. A great many men and women have received the word, and will treasure it up: and it will bring forth fruit, and be like a well of water springing up to everlasting life, to every soul that receiveth it. 

Ye Elders of Israel, you who have lately come from your missions, continue your labors and go forth among the people by the power of God. Ye Bishops, teach your people to go to meetings at the hour appointed. 

I feel perfectly free and sociable, because the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a spirit of freedom; and I am going to be free, and not be in bondage any longer. We shall be a free people, if we only do right, and reform and live our religion; and we never will be in bondage again, worlds without end. I most sincerely wish that you so had the Spirit on you that you could see it all, without a man's saying one word, or giving you a single wink. 

My forefathers came out of the old world, and some of them were in the American revolution. One of their mottoes was, "Go a head," and the other was "Press forward." Do you not perceive that I possess the same spirit? I am one of the sons of the revolution, and in the first beginning of this Church God called upon that class of men, and they are the ones to sustain the constitution of the United States, for they are of the real blood of Israel, and they will raise up a royal Priesthood, and you cannot help yourselves. I have twenty-three boys living and ten dead, and lots of girls. They were all honestly begotten, and the Almighty will sustain them, and they will be like lions among this generation; they will live to let live, and the world cannot help themselves. 

Do I feel as though I ever wanted to stop? I never will; as the Lord lives, I never will stop. I will always strive to root out iniquity; and Jedediah will work behind the vail, and I will work this side with brother Brigham, and may God aid us, and all who love truth, in bringing to pass righteousness, for His Son's sake. Amen. 





THE PEOPLE ASLEEP--THOSE HOLDING THE PRIESTHOOD MUST MAGNIFY THEIR CALLINGS OR BE REMOVED--THE SAINTS TO BE TRIED EVEN UNTO DEATH. 

Remarks by Elder Wilford Woodruff, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, December 21, 1856. 

We have some few missionaries returned very recently, and I wish to notify them to meet with us on Tuesday evening in the Seventies' Council Hall; and we want all the Bishops in the city, and the missionaries who have been appointed to labor here, to meet at the same place, on the same evening. 

I attended the High Priests' meeting last evening, in company with brothers F. D. Richards and Lorenzo Snow, and I want to say to all the High Priests in this city, I want them to meet with their quorum; and we are going to meet with you; the Twelve will meet with you and with the Seventies, and I want every man who is a president of Seventies to meet with his quorum at the time appointed. There was not more than half the High Priests out last evening. 

We are called upon to wake up and reform, and it makes me feel curious when I go into the High Priests' meeting, and see not one half of them there when a meeting is held to prepare them to wake up the people. 

I want this people to listen to what they have heard to-day. I feel thankful to see brother Kimball again come into this stand. I expressed my feelings when I saw the sacrament removed from the table; I felt that it was a loud sermon to this people; I said I knew not what would come next; I thought likely the Presidency would be removed next from us, not that I expected they would die; brother Grant, however, is gone; the load he undertook to draw killed him, the same load that was pressing the President of this Church to the earth, when Jedediah rose up to bear it off; his spirit was strong enough, but as brother Kimball said, his mortal body was not strong enough to bear its weight. The First Presidency have not addressed this people but a little time since the sacrament was removed, therefore I was glad to see and hear brother Kimball to-day. 

Although Jedediah has been taken from us, that load, which in a measure has been removed from the Presidency of this Church, has not returned unto them, and I pray it never may. When Jedediah M. Grant went forth among the people through the north country and this city to carry out the views of President Young, and lifted up his voice like the trump of the angel of God, and called upon the people to awake out of their deep sleep and repent of their sins and turn unto God, the people were so sound asleep that they did not realize the importance of his mission; many felt that his labors and reproofs were unnecessary and uncalled for, the people did not know what he was doing. Had the vision of their minds been open as was brother Grant's, and those who sent him, they would have seen and felt the importance of that mission. 

I tell you the people have been asleep, and they are not yet half awake, they have not more than one eye open, and not that quite; when we hear such things as we have to-day, this people have got to wake up to righteousness. I have lived twenty-three years in the Church, and I have been acquainted with Prophets and have heard them prophesy, and I have not yet seen their words fall to the ground unfulfilled; and when they speak Israel should hear and obey. 

We have been called upon, some of us, as missionaries to the people of this city, to wake them up. We shall be among you, brethren, and we do not intend to let you sleep. Brother Orson Hyde is with us to-day; he has had a dream which refers to the wheat and the thrashing floor. I am glad brother Hyde is with us, and I want to say to you, brother Hyde, in the name of the Lord, wake up and rise up in the midst of your brethren the Twelve, and lead them forth into the field of labor, and we will stand by you; if you will lead the Twelve, brother Hyde, in the spirit and power of your calling as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, you will see your brethren by your side; we will back you up, and step forth and help to bear that mighty load which has rested upon the Presidency of the Church like a mountain, and nearly crushed them to the ground. As a Quorum we have got to more fully obtain the spirit and power of our Apostleship and take more upon ourselves the care and burthen of the Church and Kingdom of God than we have done. 

The Twelve Apostles have got to rise up and magnify their calling, or they will be removed out of their place. The High Priests, the Seventies, the Bishops, and every other Quorum of the Church and Kingdom of God have got to do the same, or they also will be removed; we cannot sleep any longer with the Priesthood of Almighty God resting upon us, and the work that is required at our hands. WE CANNOT SLEEP. I do not wonder that calling on the people to wake up has killed one man, and it will kill more if we do not respond to the call; mortality cannot endure the visions of eternity that rests on them when they look on the Priesthood and see the position they are in; it has nearly laid brother Young in the grave; he felt he could not live until some man rose up and started the work of reformation. 

I know it is my duty to wake up and enter into the labors of my calling, and it is the duty of Elder Hyde, and the duty of every other man in Israel that bears this Priesthood to do the same; it is our duty to bear off that burden and labor which has been resting like a mountain upon the leaders of this Church. I know they have groaned under the load that has rested on them, when they have seen all Israel going to sleep. 

Let the Twelve Apostles, and the Seventy Apostles, and High Priest Apostles, and all other Apostles rise up and keep pace with the work of the Lord God, for we have no time to sleep. What is man's life good for, or his words or work good for when he stands in the way of men's salvation, exaltation, and glory? They are of no use at all. 

As an individual I am determined to wake up and do my duty, God being my helper. I want to see brother Hyde, who is the President of the Twelve, walk into all these Quorums and attend their meetings, and we will back him up; I want him to lift up his voice like a trumpet and go to winnowing the wheat; it is for the Twelve to rise up and carry off the load. The Seventies have got to walk up in their place and do their duty. I know God requires this at our hands. The law of God, the holy Priesthood, and the holy anointing and washing, and everything else that is holy requires it at our hands. I know this. 

It is necessary to reform. The question may be asked, what is the matter? Why, we are asleep; if the eyes of any man or woman is opened as they should be, they could see the things of God as they are in one moment; they would see there is a necessity of waking up and doing something. Here is a great and mighty dispensation committed into the hands of this people for the living and the dead; the candle of the Lord God is placed in these mountains like a city that is set on a hill that cannot be hid; the work is on your shoulders, ye Priests of the Most High God!--on you rests the salvation of this generation, and the Lord will require this stewardship at your hands. 

The Lord has given you the keys of the Priesthood with all the blessings pertaining to it--as great and as mighty a work as ever was committed to any man on the earth, and that too in the midst of the last dispensation and fulness of times. The Lord requires us to prepare this generation, both Jew and Gentile, either for salvation or damnation through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the administering of the ordinances of the House of God, and we go to sleep! The Apostles go to sleep--the Seventies go to sleep--the Elders of Israel close their eyes to slumber, and we the only people God has on the earth, upon whose shoulders He has laid the responsibility of performing this great and mighty work! 

Do you wonder that Prophets get up here and chastise, and draw the sword of justice and hold it over our heads? I do not. I wonder that our children at the fireside do not rise up and prophesy, with a voice like thunder and in flames of fire, unto their fathers and mothers, and unto the people of Israel. I know that the counsels we have had here through the mouths of the Prophets of God are just and true. I know that the warning voice that has been heard in this Stand, and the call that has been made on this floor is necessary; and I do hope and pray God that we, as missionaries, will listen to it. I want my brother missionaries in the first place to wake up, and get aroused with the mantle of salvation and Spirit of God ourselves, and get our own armor bright. It has been justly remarked here that we have got to labor ourselves until we get the Spirit of God, and then we can walk out among the people and correct them; but if we as Seventies, as High Priests, and Apostles, and Elders bearing the Priesthood, if we are resolved to set our hearts upon things of this earth, without being engaged in the interest of the kingdom of God, what can we expect of the people? Not anything. I desire that we may all wake up, and listen to the counsel of these men who lead us from day to day. 

We have no time to lose to prepare ourselves for the things that are coming on the earth; and who wants to lose his crown, his glory, and hope of eternal lives that he has had in days past and gone by receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No man that has any portion of the Spirit of God. Let us rise up and magnify our calling, and labor before God until we can get the Holy Spirit, and until our prayers rend the vail of eternity and enter into the ears of the God of Sabbaoth and be answered in blessings upon our heads. 

When shall the fire be kindled in Zion? I do not mean wild fire--there is a true fire, and that is the fire we need to get, that is necessary to kindle; and if we live up to our privileges, do our duty, walk up to the word of the Lord God, and magnify our calling, we do know that the blessings of God will attend us, and the sinners in Zion will tremble and fearfulness will surprise the hypocrite; and let what will come, all will be right with the Latter-day Saints. 

There are great things awaiting us and the world--the Lord is withdrawing His Spirit from the nations of the earth, His sword is bathed in heaven and will fall upon Idumea or the world; the seals are about to be opened and the judgments of God poured out upon the wicked, for the cup of their wickedness and abominations is filled to the brim and the indignation of the Lord will be poured out without measure. 

Let the Saints read the revelations of God, and they will see that there are important events at our doors. Let us hearken and wake up, and be doing the things required of us. Let the missionaries first get their lamps trimmed and burning, and then go among the people, and go with the Spirit of God and the salvation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and let the other Quorums do the same; and when you do this you will see a reform, and sin and iniquity cannot abide in our habitations, in our wards, or in our city. 

We have sin and sinners among us, and what are we going to do about it? Why, we are going to try to live our religion, and when we do that we shall do right. The business with me is to do right to-day, to live my religion to-day, and leave the events with God; He holds the destinies of the nations and of all men; they are in His hand; He made the earth and controls the children of men upon it. 

Then let events roll on--if we are only right, all is well. We have got to be tried even unto death. The Lord says He will prove us, and see if we abide in His covenants. There is where we have got to stand as a people, not only our horses, and gold and silver, and land and houses, but our lives have got to lie on the altar, and when anything comes to test us, even at the stake of our lives, we should be in the possession of the Holy Ghost not to flee from it, and such will be crowned with the gift of eternal lives, exaltation and glory. 

There is nothing to encourage a man to draw back; there is nothing short of the most damnable principle that dwells in the spirit of devils that would tempt any man to shed the blood of the Lord's anointed, yet men will try to do it. There are men here to-day who will possess that spirit; I believe it; they are in our city. If they shed blood they have got the bill to pay. Let the wicked and the ungodly, who will not repent, but fight against God, do their worst, their time is short, and the day will come, and that soon when they will be called to judgment. 

I remember what Joseph said, a short time before he was slain in one of the last sermons I ever heard him preach. Said he, "Men are here to-day who are seeking my blood, and they are those who have held the Priesthood and have received their washings and anointings; men who have received their endowments." I saw the faces of those men at that time, and they had a hand in slaying the Prophet. There are men who now possess the same spirit and the same desire. There are men here, too, that have faith, that have the Priesthood and the spirit of it, and they will do their duty, and God will sustain them in it, and He will sustain this Church and kingdom; let the trials of the Saints be what they will, the kingdom of God is not to be torn down any more at all--it will not again be taken from the earth until it is prepared to receive Christ at his coming. 

Let us prepare ourselves and do our duty, and let the High Priests and Seventies go to their meetings, and before you go there, go to work and get the Spirit of God, that when you get there you may not freeze to death. And I want to have the people, when they come here, to get enough of the Spirit of God, that when the Presidency rise in this Stand they may give us what is in their hearts. They are filled with blessings for this people. All the trouble is our eyes have been closed, we have been in a deep sleep; let us wake up and attend to our duty, and make it the first business we do. 

Those who lay their plans in secret chambers to seek the blood of the Prophets, will have their case attended to by messengers on the other side of the vail, ministers will be sent to them who will render unto them a righteous judgment there. I do not want to preach to them here, but to those who want to be saved. 

Go to, and if you have not the Spirit of God, make it your first business to get it, that your minds may be opened to see the things of God as they are; it is your privilege and mine, that we may be prepared for what is to come. 

That this people may repent of all their sins and wake up, and have power to come before God that their prayers may be heard, be prepared to defend the kingdom and never desert their covenants and their brethren, or betray the Gospel, but overcome the world and be prepared to become joint heirs with Christ to the fulness of the first resurrection which is prepared for those who keep the commandments of God, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 





OVERCOME THE POWERS OF DARKNESS BY PRAYER--SPIRITUAL THINGS FIRST IN IMPORTANCE--CLEANLINESS. 

Remarks, by President J. M. Grant, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, October 12, 1856. 

I am glad this morning to hear from brother Daniel Spencer,and to learn that he feels that the Lord has blest the people in this land, as well as in the land where he has been sojourning for a time. 

I do not and have not felt that I need a mission to a foreign land for the purpose of causing me to understand myself, or to fill me with the Holy Ghost, or to prepare me to be useful in this land; neither have I felt I needed to go to the United States or any other part of the world to put on the Gospel armor. I feel it to be necessary that I should wear that armor here, and if I ever have had it on, I feel that I have had it on in this land; and I do not deem it necessary for many men to cross the ocean to get the Holy Ghost, or to enjoy the power of God. If they will do the will of God in this land, they will see their situation and be filled with His power from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet; I believe that if the Saints were to have more religion in their own homes they would be better off. 

Were I thirsty and could go to a spring or lake whose water was pure and clear as crystal, even the best that could be found, I should have no occasion for going to another and more distant place to procure water. And if I should find ice there, should I say it was too much trouble to break it? No, but I should labor to break that ice; and the thicker the ice, the more persevering I should labor, until I got some of the water of the crystal fountain. 

While paying attention to the prayers of some persons in their family devotions, I sometimes notice that they often stop praying without breaking through the darkness and obtaining the Holy Spirit. If I found that it was necessary to pray three hours I would keep praying for that length of time, or until I got the Spirit, unless I remembered that I had neglected a special duty, when I would go and attend to that duty; after which I should want to return and pray until I got the Holy Ghost; I would keep praying until I broke the ice and obtained the Holy Ghost. 

Some think that they have already labored enough to obtain heaven. Such persons put me in mind of Sydney Rigdon, who said that he had suffered enough to obtain salvation. He said that the sufferings of Jesus Christ were light in comparison with what he had endured, and he would be damned to hell if he would suffer any more. 

I notice that some who gather here think they have already suffered enough, and feel like saying, "I will be damned to hell if I will suffer any more." 

Many of those who have come with hand-carts think that they have done wonders, therefore they want every hat hoisted in deference to them, and every meal bag gratuitously opened; and they want every body to feed, clothe, and lodge them, and find them every thing they need, because they have dragged a hand-cart across the Plains. 

You deserve credit for what you have done, but I make this observation that you may know that you have not yet got into the harbor of eternal life; and that you may not think that you have not anything to do now that you have come here, for, unless you keep on the armor, you will be overcome. 

We want people that have come here with their Gospel armor on to keep it on, that they may shed abroad the light of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. We have given the same instructions to Elders that have returned, and we want every class of men and women in this Church to keep on the Gospel armor. 

I want to say to every institution in our midst, whether the talent they have is under the supervision of eight, ten, or twelve men, we wish you to manifest that you have the Holy Ghost for your guidance, and then to go to work and convert Great Salt Lake City. I want you to try your skill and the power of God upon this city, and exert yourselves through your Wards, under the direction of the Bishops, that you may be the means of filling the people with the Holy Ghost, and in order that you may have power and discretion to act wisely, see that you have the light of heaven in your own hearts. 

Many talk of their visions, revelations, and mighty works; but we have to have minds and men that think, and have wisdom in all their ways. It is for us to occupy our minds and direct our labors in the proper channel, and to use our talents and intellects as the head shall direct. 

There is a drought and has been; the people have felt too much like putting their temporal affairs first, and then attending to the spiritual at their leisure. 

So much do many act upon this principle that their intellectual faculties become dark, they do not get into the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the gift of the Holy Ghost, of the light of eternity; but their temporal matters are first and foremost. If they have a gewgaw, they take great pleasure in going round to exhibit it, and they will borrow beads, rings, watches, and all kinds of gewgaws to gratify the pride of their hearts. Such hearts are not right before God, and such conduct must be done away from among the Latter-day Saints. 

I will now mention another thing; some will ask you three dollars a day for common labor, and others will not lift a pick, shovel, or ax, short of two dollars a day; and they have left the best situations in the Territory and have gone to Provo and other places, because they could get but $1.50 a day. They are our hand-cart men who are acting so. This proves that they came here for the loaves and fishes. They will tell you that they have learned to draw the hand-carts, and now they expect the highest wages. 

I want to notify all Saints, whether they came with hand-carts, horses, mules, or oxen, wagons, carriages, or wheelbarrows, that in this land we wish you to keep the commandments of God, and when you have food, raiment, and shelter, be satisfied and don't be greedy. Do not expect to get as many comforts around you the first year, as men have got in many years by hard labor and toil. Remember that some of us came here in 1847, with scarcely anything, and we have had to toil assiduously to accumulate what we have. Do not you the first year, month, or week, covet every thing that you see; do not covet every man's house and business, but seek the blessings of the Lord God of Israel, and bring up your temporal matters in their place and season. 

I will explain what I mean by place and season. Go to different parts of the Territory and advance the people in their religion, make them humble and faithful so that the Spirit of the Lord shall govern them, till all shall be sweetened in their minds and be united as one, till they shall see eye to eye, and hear ear to ear, and if they do not keep up their temporal affairs, they will fall right back. A man that advances in spiritual and in temporal matters at the same time, minding to keep the spiritual first, will not let the temporal lead him; he will not place his heart upon his farm, his horses, or any possession that he has. He will place his desires in heaven, and will anchor his hope in that eternal soil; and his temporal affairs will come up as he advances in the knowledge of God. 

The temporal will keep pace as the spiritual advances. I do not believe that a man who is full of the Holy Ghost is going to live contentedly in a hog pen, in filth and in dirt, when it is in his power to prevent it. Go through our city and you will find some who are living in dirt and degradation; some who like dirt, who like to have their cow in the house and their chickens in the buttery; who like to have their pigs and children near enough for them to feed together; and their children are as naughty and filthy as they can be. And yet such persons think they have the Spirit and power of God! This is one reason why so many people die, while journeying to this place; it is because the Holy Ghost is sick of them. 

If you want the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves clean. I know that some think, when they get here, "O, we are in Zion, everything is right; there is no use in washing our children or combing their hair." I want you to understand that we wish you to be clean outside as well as inside; we want you to be clean and pure; to be good natured and possessed of every qualification requisite in a Saint of God; to have everything that can bring the light and gift of God among you. 

I want the people to be pure in their words, in their deeds, in their spirits, and to be diligent in their prayers. I want men that come in from Europe, and from different parts of the United States, to purify themselves and go to with their might to work righteousness. I want the returned missionaries to know that if they have been out preaching the Gospel, we also want them to go to work now they have come home. 

I want every one to understand that we have plenty of grunters, plenty of those who are made up of whining. Yes, we have more of those instruments to play upon than we have any use for. 

We want you all to keep the light of our God. And we want to see the spirit of reformation in the people; we wish them to have it in practice in their houses; not only to talk about it, but to practise upon it. 

The difficulty is that we cannot get the people to practise; they will listen as to a fine sermon, and we can get them to work in the kanyons and in the fields, and to do many other things; but there are too many who like intoxicating drinks, tobacco, filth, dirt, and meanness. Some like to break the Sabbath, to brand another's ox, which they find on the range, and to occasionally steal a little; there are some here who will steal, when they have an opportunity. 

I wish to inform the new comers that if they want to find the finest and best men in the world, they are here; and if they want to find the meanest, most pusillanimous curses that the world can produce, we have them here. We have here some of the most miserable curses that ever the Almighty frowned upon, for it takes an apostate "Mormon" to be a mean devil. We want you to have eyes to see; we do not want you to see merely what is in the books you have read, in your mathematics and your philosophy, but want you to have in you the Holy Ghost, to be full of the spirit of the Lord Jesus. 

We have Elders who are fine speakers, fine orators, and who wish to talk very properly after the manner of the world. They did so in Europe, and they want to do so here; they want to preach those old sermons over, those that they have been accustomed to preach in the old world. But we want Elders to get up and preach as the Holy Ghost shall dictate; we do not want any of your long, prosy sermons; we prefer the word of life by the power of the Spirit. 

I desire to see men reform in their acts, and not say "let our neighbors be converted," but let them say, in the name of Israel's God, "the reformation shall be carried into our houses, to our children, and we will take it home with us, and will gird on our armor, and go ahead in the cause of God," for this is what we are sent here for. 

May God grant that you may all strive to work righteousness, in the name of Jesus. Amen. 





THE SAINTS HAVE NOT MAGNIFIED THEIR CALLING AS SAVIORS OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD--ONENESS--PRACTICAL REPENTANCE. 

A Discourse, by Elder Lorenzo Snow, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 4, 1857. 

Brethren: In consequence of the deep fall of snow, the present assembly is not so large this morning as usual, still we may feel thankful that the spirit of gathering to this Tabernacle predominates with the Saints. 

On the subject of reformation I presume, brethren, most of us feel alike its importance and necessity, and that great diligence is required, and much faith and spiritual energy, in order to obtain immediate possession of gifts and powers, which, through our great neglect and dilatoriness we have failed heretofore in obtaining, but must absolutely have in order to pass the fiery ordeal that, by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, we feel is fast approaching. We cannot obtain those blessings unless we sincerely repent of our sins, and with deep humility and with prayer and fasting call mightily on the God of our Fathers whom we have neglected and whose words we have set at naught, to listen once more to the voice of our supplications and pour out His Holy Spirit upon us, that we may trim our lamps and have them burning. 

Brethren, is it not strange, and should we not be ashamed of ourselves that after receiving the words of life, and coming to a knowledge of glory and immortality and eternal lives, instead of pressing forward and preparing ourselves for those blessings, we slacken our pace, close our eyes, and sink into a state of drowsiness? It was so with the people of the Lord in ancient times, and they were sorely chastised, and such as would not repent were destroyed. 

The word of the Lord through brother Brigham to this people is to repent speedily and seek the God of heaven with deep repentance, and this is the mind of the Lord, and the voice of the Lord which is quick and powerful, peace and salvation to the humble and obedient, confusion and destruction upon the wilful and disobedient. 

Brethren, most of you hold high and important positions in this kingdom, indeed but few men have lived on the earth that were placed in so important and responsible situations; the salvation of the present world, also many generations past and generations to come look to you for life, exaltation, and happiness. High Priests, Seventies, and ye Elders of Israel, are you this day prepared with wisdom and power to officiate for the living and the dead, and to lay a pure and holy foundation through your wives and children, that salvation may go forth to the rising generations; or have you neglected qualifying yourselves in your holy callings, and let the cares of the world occupy your entire thoughts and attention, and your minds become dull, your spiritual armor rusty and but little room found in you for the Holy Ghost to abide? 

Brethren, your eye should be single to the glory of God, to hearkening to the counsel of brother Brigham, and to the building up of Zion, then your bodies would be filled with spirit, and your understandings with light, and your hearts with joy, and your souls would be quickened into eternal life with the power of the Holy Ghost, you would then become the depositories of that wisdom and knowledge which would qualify you to be saviors unto your brethren and your posterity. 


It is the case with many in this community that instead of preparing themselves for positions in the eternal world, they have been satisfied with the cares of this life, and attending to those things which have been for the comfort of themselves and their wives and children; they have been satisfied in exercising themselves in this small way of ambition. They have forgotten the salvation of their forefathers, and that on them lay the responsibility of laying a holy and pure foundation upon which their posterity may build and obtain life and salvation, and and [sic] upon which the generations to come might return back to their pristine purity. Instead of being sanctified this day as the people might have been had they sought it diligently, they are weak in their intellects, weak in their faith, weak in their power in reference to the things of God, and many of them this day, setting aside their being saviors of men, are incapable of administering salvation to their individual wives and children. This, brethren, whatever you may think about it, is a solemn consideration, and you must know it, for at the present you do not see this as you want to see it, and as you should see it. 

The men who are sitting here this day ought to be, when in the presence of their families, filled with the Holy Ghost, to administer the word of life to them as it is administered in this stand from sabbath to sabbath. When they kneel down in the presence of their wives and children they ought to be inspired by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, that the husband may be such a man as a good wife will honor, and that the gift and power of God may be upon them continually. They ought to be one in their families, that the Holy Ghost might descend upon them, and they ought to live so that the wife through prayer may become sanctified, that she may see the necessity of sanctifying herself in the presence of her husband, and in the presence of her children, that they may be one together, in order that the man and the wife may be pure element, suitable to occupy a place in the establishment and formation of the kingdom of God, that they may breathe a pure spirit and impart pure instruction to their children, and their children's chilren [sic]. But it is otherwise than this now; the man is full of tradition, and has not got rid of that which was taught him in the Gentile world, he has not become one with his file leader, as brother Kimball frequently remarks. 

That principle which I spoke of last Sunday, in regard to a man becoming his own daddy is correct, for a man that feels so has not subjected himself to the Priesthood, but is disposed to become his own leader and his own head, and it is the case with many in this Church, they have not become one with their file leader, and therefore the Spirit is not transmitted to their wife or wives, and not having learned true obedience themselves, the wife cannot receive that which the husband has not got to impart. How can it be expected that the wife can obtain that which the husband has not received. 

In regard to being one I will say that if ever there was a day when it was necessary for us to be one, now is the time, now is the day and the hour that we are called upon to be one, as Jesus and His Father are one; it is for us to be one together, as brother Brigham and brother Kimball are one, that we may be one indeed. 

The Twelve are determined to be one, and to be inspired by the same Holy Ghost, and that we may all have the same spirit continually, and that we may echo the same feeling and intelligence unto the people that exists in brother Brigham, that we may be one with him in all things, and that we carry out his sayings at the expense of our all, our property our wives and children, that we may stand up with them, and be inspired by the same Spirit, that inasmuch as they walk in the light of eternity and in the wisdom of the Holy Ghost that we may have the same spirit, and that inasmuch as they are determined to lay down everything for the work of purging out iniquity, we may do likewise. 

In this way we, the Twelve, are resolved to lay down everything that would draw our attention from the path of duty, that we may be one as the Presidency are one, and be bound together by the principle of love that binds the Son of God with the Father. It is an impossibility for a man to love another unless he has the same Holy Spirit that is in himself. 

Now I will respect a man because he is a High Priest, a Seventy; I respect him, I honor him because he is the anointed of the Lord, but can I respect him as I wish to do, and move in him and he in me, unless he moves in the same spirit, and moves heart and hand with me, and is willing to clear out iniquity with me? When the Holy Ghost teaches and inspires me to lift my hand against that which is causing our destruction and is bringing sin among the people, how can we be inspired and walk in the same spirit unless our minds are one, and unless we are united in all things? 

We have got to be one, and to make ourselves worthy to receive the same Holy Spirit, and to receive it alike one with another. Jesus prayed to His Father that those He had given Him out of the world might be one, as He and the Father were one, and says he, I pray that thou wilt give them the same love which thou hast for me, that I may be in them, and thou in me, that all may be one. There is something very important in this, and we have got to practise ourselves until we become like the Father and the Son, one in all things. 

When we are cold-hearted we respect men because they are the anointed of the Lord, but I tell you it is a perfect up hill business to have to do this. Now if a man is not the anointed of the Lord we may have a fellow feeling for him, that feeling which human nature teaches, but when a man is the anointed of the Lord, we feel like David did with Saul. David would not lift his hand against Saul, because, said he, he is the anointed of the Lord, but how could they move hand in hand and be one, when they were of a different spirit? There was an opposite spirit in Saul, but yet David would not put forth his hand and slay him, although he had him in his power; he had a respect for him because he was the Lord's anointed. A man may move on the same car or in the same kingdom, and yet be of a different spirit from another man, and he may pass quietly along for a time, because he is the Lord's anointed, but still he will not exert himself for the carrying out of the principles of the kingdom, he lies dormant all the time. How can he who is filled with the principles of righteousness and with the love of Jesus love that man? He cannot do it as he desires. We have got to be inspired by the same Spirit and by the same kind of knowledge, in order that we may love one another and be of one heart and one mind. 

Now, brethren, there is no use for us to occupy time talking about this, for it is necessary and it has got to be done. We talk about repenting of our sins, and I suppose the brethren have heard a great deal of talk about this, and hence I say there is no necessity for a great deal of talk upon this question, for we call ourselves Saints, the children of God, but the word has come to us that we are in sin and transgression. 

I want to ask is there any need of hammering and pounding all the time in our speeches to convince the people of this fact? I say there is not. A man that has any life in him soon catches the fire of the Almighty when the word of the Lord comes to his ears, he is waked up, and like the king of Nineveh, he humbles himself, that peradventure he may get the Spirit of the Lord bestowed upon him again. 

We have got to attend to our duties, make use of that intelligence which is given us, that we may be one with each other. The High Priesthood have got to do this, every husband must do this, that he may be full of the Holy Ghost, that he may be the means of sanctifying his wife and his children, and that he may be an instrument in the hands of the Lord of extending the kingdom of God, and of aiding in the accomplishment of His purposes. 

When a man is full of sin he is not capable of lifting his voice to teach his family. How does a man expect he can be a Patriarch to a large family when he is going on in sin and darkness, and is becoming more blind to the things of the kingdom? He goes forward and gathers other wives and increases his family, but how does he expect to teach them when he is not susceptible of instruction himself? I tell you he will see the day when he will be too late and will have to stand out of the way. A man has to look well at the foundation upon which he builds; a man has to look to the Lord for strength, he has to be purified and sanctified, and he has to purify those that are around him, and among that number will be his one wife, if she is worthy of salvation, and if she is susceptible of being saved. He must have sufficient in him of the saving principle to impart to her, and inasmuch as she can conform to that, she can thereby become sanctified, and be prepared for an exaltation; but if he cannot get faith enough to receive the principles of life and salvation, so that he can communicate those truths to others, he may get one wife, and then he may get another, and after that another, and still another, and then he is worse off than before, and is no nearer to the kingdom of God, but much farther off. 

Brethren we have got to think of these things, and to enter into the practice of them, and to understand them as they are, and to acknowledge this one fact--that we have been slack, negligent, and in the back ground, and we must see this and acknowledge ourselves before God and our brethren, and walk up to those principles which are being taught, and have our religion in practice as well as in theory. 

Men who wish to retain their standing before God in the Holy Priesthood, must have the spirit of prophecy, and be qualified to administer life and salvation to the people: and if they cannot do it to the world, they must do it at home, in their families, in their shops, and in the streets, that their hearts may be inspired with words of life at their firesides, in teaching the Gospel to their children, and to their neighbors, as much so as when they are speaking to their brethren from this stand. This having a little of the Spirit when before the people and then laying it aside, will not do. Some men will speak to the people and then go home and be just as dry as moulding stock, and instead of having the words of life in them, they become perfectly dry and dead, but this will not do any longer. 

It becomes the duties of fathers in Israel to wake up and become saviors of men, that they may walk before the Lord in that strength of faith, and that determined energy, that will insure them the inspiration of the Almighty to teach the words of life to their families, as well as to teach them when they are called into this stand. Then all our words will savor of life and salvation wherever we go, and wherever we are. 

In this we will see a spirit of determination that will enable us to become one, that we may learn how to love each other, and I pray to the Lord that He will deposit that love in each of our hearts which He deposited in Jesus His Son, and that He will continue to deposit a knowledge of that which is good. 

Let us remember that we have all got to show by our works that we are worthy of this life and of this salvation which is now offered. 

Now when a man is not willing to sacrifice for the benefit of his brethren, and when he knows that he trespasses upon the feelings of his brethren, and yet he has not that love which will enable him to make satisfaction, that man is not right before the Lord, and where is the love of that individual for his brother? 

When one brother is not willing to suffer for his brother, how is it in his power to manifest that he has love for his brother? I tell you it is in our folly and weakness that we will not bear with our brethren, but if they trespass upon our rights we immediately retaliate, and if they tread upon our toes we immediately jump upon theirs, the same as the people do in the Gentile world, where it is thought necessary to act in a state of independence, and to defend oneself against aggressors. 

It is all nonsense for us any longer to act upon this principle, for there is a day coming that we will have to suffer for each other, and even be willing to lay down our lives for each other, as Jesus did for the Twelve Apostles in his day, and as they did for the cause which he established. When I see a brother that has been trespassed against, and then he turns round and jumps upon the offender, then I say, how far is that brother from the path of duty, and I say to him you must learn to govern yourself, or you never will be saved in the kingdom of God. 

We are all called upon to think of these things, and we might as well think now, at the present time as to defer it till the future, for we have got to do it, or we never will receive the Spirit of the Lord to a great degree, nor the advantages of this reformation, nor the outpouring of that Holy Spirit which is anticipated. 

Why do I say these things when we are all so far advanced in the knowledge of God? I make these remarks because they are the only things which will save us at the present time. 

This quarrelling and bickering will not do; it is the work of salvation we are engaged in. Now for an example, and what is the use of going to heaven for an example when there is one here? The Presidency of this Church are one, there is no jar existing between them; and the Twelve Apostles have got to be one like them, and when we see perfect union with ourselves, we expect others to imitate our example. Did you ever see us to rebel when the Presidency saw fit to chastise us? No, we are one with them, and we will not stop the Spirit that is in them, nor attempt to stop up the channel through which the Holy Ghost designs to prepare us for that which is to come. Did they see proper to chastise, we will not rebel, neither will we lose our confidence in them. 

Well, the High Priests and Seventies, they ought to be one with the Twelve Apostles, and they ought to learn to echo our sentiments as we echo forth those of the First Presidency, for we must all learn to be one. 

Just so far as we echo forth the words of President Young and brother Heber, just so far are the High Priests and Seventies under obligations to echo forth our words. Now ye High Priests and Seventies, if you do right you will carry out this counsel; you are obliged to carry out those counsels, if you walk in the light of the Holy Ghost which is now manifest. And why is it not so at the present time? 

The Seventies were spoken to and counseled to pursue a certain course a few days ago, but did they do it? No they did not. It is not the Seventies that speak, it is not the High Priests, neither is it the Twelve, nor Brigham Young, but it is the Holy Ghost through those various channels that is calling upon the people to carry out the mind and will of our Father who is in heaven. It is God that is all in all, Him whom we call our Father in heaven, He qualifies us upon the earth, and we speak forth by the dictation of His Spirit the things that are necessary to be laid before the people. 

Brethren, I will not take up any more time; may the Lord bless you and enable you to see things as they should be seen; may He give you power to double your diligence as I am determined to do, and may He give you power to see your duties, and to have the inspiration of the Holy Ghost as I feel to have it, and may you see by the spirit of prophecy those things that are approaching, that they may awaken you to a true sense of your position before God and your brethren, that you may have the qualifications which are necessary for you to possess, which I ask in the name of Jesus: Amen. 





OFFERS OF MERCY--THE GREAT DISPENSATION IN WHICH WE LIVE. 

A Discourse, by Elder Franklin D. Richards, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 11, 1857. 

Brethren and sisters, I have no apology to make this morning for presenting myself before you. It becomes my duty and privilege to address you a little while, longer or shorter as I may be led to do, upon such things as shall be suggested to my mind. 

I desire with your kind attention, your solicitations also to God that the Holy Spirit may rest upon me and upon you, and that we may all be edified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a pleasing idea to me to reflect and behold that the people have come together this morning so generally, to this Tabernacle. They have come anticipating being fed with the bread of life, and I feel as though the present is a time when the Lord is willing to administer unto His people the bread of life and salvation; that it is a time when the Saints may with one heart and one mind call upon Him for great blessings, and I may say a great many of them. We should ask for those blessings first and foremost which every one needs for their own present salvation, increase of faith, increase of the knowledge of God, and an increase in ourselves of every thing that is good and praiseworthy for Saints to enjoy through the revelations of the Holy Spirit. 


This, it appears to me, is the legitimate object for which we should seek now a blessing at the hand of God. It is His good pleasure to bestow upon us according to our needs, and this He will do if we seek unto Him in faith. 

When I contemplate the present situation of the people, if I were to think of one text more than another, that I could like to talk about it would be this; "Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy." I have not been in the habit of taking a text for a long time, but there is something in this directly applicable to this people, that whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy. This is a favor and a blessing that is now extended to the people of God to an extent, and with a liberality that has never before been witnessed in this dispensation, and it appears to me that such has never been known upon the earth. A time when the Lord has spoken so openly, so abundantly, and so extensively to His people, and told them that if they will but confess and forsake their sins they shall be forgiven and be saved. I say the like (as it appears to me) has never before been known. I conceive that we as a people have the very greatest occasion to seek the mercy and blessings of God because of the condition we are in, and because of those things which He has committed unto us. We all have been taught and do understand that the time in which we live is a time of times; a time when the consummation of that which is great and good, and which has been promised shall be brought about here upon the earth; a time when characters shall make and do make their appearance upon the earth who have been reserved for the performance of this work, for generations. It has not been for them to labor in the flesh in former dispensations, but they have been reserved until now in order that the greater purposes of God may in this dispensation be accomplished, that all who are in Christ may be gathered in one, and a work be done in this our day, which has never been done before. All the revelations and prophecies go to show and declare this. We live then in a time of times; we live among, as we may see, those who are men of men, rulers of rulers, for such I hold those who are rulers in Zion to be, and they are taking hold of those principles, of that knowledge and that power, which shall qualify them to sway such a sceptre of righteousness as has never been exercised over the earth. These qualifications we could see in our Prophet that is gone, and also in others that are with us. 

With these men before us here continually, we have seen exemplified a measure of that knowledge, understanding and power that is offered us in the keys of the endowment that are given in the House of the Lord, by which we may grow to a knowledge of all that affects our salvation and exaltation in His kingdom. This manifests a degree of liberality, a degree of munificence such as has never been bestowed upon the people generally in any age of the world. We are indebted to the Lord our God for this knowledge, and are responsible to Him for the use we make of it, for He has not given us all this that we may feast our souls and sit down and go to sleep. He has not given it to us for this purpose, but for us to act upon it, and by the use of it become strong to carry out His work on the earth. He has given us this power and means of obtaining knowledge from the heavens, that we may exercise the principles of righteousness and truth, in order to prove ourselves worthy of those greater things that are yet in store for the faithful, and that are yet to be revealed, through a constant scene of trial and of proving. What has been the case in Israel? Why the fact has been that as soon as the people got those blessings which they obtain in the "House of the Lord," that seemed to be the end of the law unto them, it seemed to be the height of their ambition, and they sat down and went to sleep, or became covetous and greedy of gain, whereas the powers conferred were tools or instruments in their hands to enable them to work for God. 

This is the course that has been pursued by the people generally, and those whom we can say the least of in relation to transgression have some sins to atone for and make restitution. We have been nearly all more or less in the dark. Yes, all the quorums in the Church except the First Presidency: God be thanked His light and power has been in them to watch, while the rest have slumbered. The Twelve take this as strongly to themselves as any, and have acknowledged that they have been asleep. Yet we have been abroad labouring to bring people to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of God, a knowledge and power such as they never could have before received on the earth, hence the condemnation that we are brought under is beyond that which any other people could be under; then what has been the mercy of God? It is that now while in these circumstances, nearly all have got to sleep, and some in the darkness of their minds have wandered far from the Lord, and have committed sins that in their own estimation and judgment cause them to feel that they are worthy of damnation for having violated their holy covenants. And does the Lord go to and cut them off? Or does He send a chastisement and destroy them with plague, and sweep them off from the earth? No, this is not the tone of our Heavenly Father to us this day, but His voice to us is, that if we will now turn from and forsake our sins and draw near unto Him, that He will forgive and never cause the sins of this people to be remembered against them, but will blot them out from His remembrance forever. What unbounded love and tender mercy are here evinced to this people, while asleep, and enveloped in the dark shadows of death to that fearful extent that the word sleep will not properly express the state of the people. We have been mesmerized and could not be brought out of it without the most extraordinary means being used. We had become like "icebergs," we were so cold and dead, that when President Young got up to speak he could not free his mind, and has not been able to do so for the last several times that he has spoken, feeling that there was not room in our hearts to receive his words. And what a sight was it in Israel to see the Social Hall filled with the chief authorities and Elders of the Church, a body of men upon whom rests the responsibility of administering salvation to this earth and its inhabitants, and to see such a fog there, and such darkness that the Presidency could not there free their minds, but had to lift the almighty sledge hammer to break the flinty rock. The mesmerism of the devil was so great, so strong that it required the most stringent teachings to bring the people to the standard of truth, and to a sense of their condition. 

This you have all realized more or less in our wards, and at your habitations, truly awful it has been to contemplate. Yet for all this the words of the Lord unto us is not judgment, nor pestilence, nor plague, nor famine, nor sword, if we will now awake, repent and live our religion. 

Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy, but they who do not, have not the promise of mercy. I wish this morning to warn you against taking a course which will prevent the blessings and mercy of God coming unto you, for now is the time that is most exceedingly opportune in the favour of God, and it is a time that will work upon those that are transgressors, that are dishonest with themselves and with others, and that will endeavour to avoid the truth and shun the light, avoid the standard and add sin to transgression, the Lord God will harden their hearts that they cannot enter into His mercy. Although we thus speak we have the assurance that the people will as a people with heart-felt penitence and obedience turn unto Him and be saved. There never was a time in this dispensation or in any other that has been so full of mercy in His calling upon us and giving us an opportunity to feel after Him, and if we do this we shall find Him to be a God at hand and not afar off; we shall find Him in our habitations and it is for every man having the Priesthood to seek after God with all his might, mind and strength, and to obtain the spirit and power of his calling and ordination. There are a great many among us who have not yet obtained this spirit and power. There is a great difference among those who dwell in the light of Zion. Some walk in the light of others, and some walk having the light in themselves. There are those, and always have been, and always will be, while saviours and saved dwell together, that walk in the light of others, and do not get it into their own souls. They do not seem to think that they ought to or can have the light in themselves. If you look you have an illustration of it in the difference that exists in the heavenly bodies. The sun has light of itself to warm the earth and the inhabitants of the earth, has power to give heat, light, and vegetation to this earth, and to other heavenly bodies. The moon and other planets do not appear to have light of themselves, but they reflect the light of the sun. 

It is right and our duty brethren, for us to take the light that is offered, and to take hold of the counsel that is now given to us and turn from our errors, make all that is crooked straight, and make restitution to all that we have injured that we may go into the waters of baptism and come out clean from everything that would hinder us from receiving the light, and that we may receive the Holy Ghost; that it may be our constant companion, that the light of the Lord may be in us. If all things are not made right with each other we shall not be in a position to obtain the blessings promised, but if we make all right the Holy Spirit will be poured out and be a light to our feet, and a lamp to our path. We shall by it receive strength and power to magnify our calling. This is the duty of our men, and it is the duty of our women to seek this light and strength, and this help from the Lord. But it is especially the duty of men, the Elders of Israel, it is for them to lay hold, by the power of faith, and by their Priesthood. Yes brethren, if we have been mesmerised it is for us to wake up and do our duties that the light may go forth from us to others. This is not done in a week, nor in a month, but by a constant series of works and diligence, and that will bring the light of heaven upon us which has been shut out from our souls. As you see that some of our brethren that administer to you in your wards, increase in the power of their callings so every man that has a part in the Priesthood must prevail and obtain favour with God, and get light in himself, get rid of his sins, and all his hardness of heart, for the time is coming when everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and we must have this light and strength within us, or we never shall stand the times that are yet to try our souls. Of course when we got dull and paralized [sic], our duties were left for some one else to do. 

Quorums, families, and individuals have alike failed to magnify their callings. They have looked over the Teachers, the Bishops and High Councils, and there was no authority but the First Presidency that could settle a little family dispute; such has been the dullness of the quorums and the condition of the people generally that they seemed lifeless until the Presidency have had to bear the burdens, discharge the responsibilities and perform the labours of nearly every other Quorum and Council in the Church. 

Who is there that has any part of the Priesthood, and who has received his endowments but that ought to be able to administer in his household all those things which are necessary for life and salvation? They ought to be ready at all times to manifest their authority as men of God, and administer not only to all in their families but to perform the duties which they owe to the Church and the world also. 

Surely to say we have been "asleep" does not tell the condition we were in, but now, notwithstanding all our transgressions, backslidings, hardness of heart, and blindness of mind "whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy." What a broad saying it is of the Prophet Brigham that we shall be forgiven of all our sins, except such as cannot be forgiven in this world nor in that which is to come. What an extent of kindness and mercy is now revealed unto us by our Heavenly Father in this accepted time which is peculiarly a day of salvation. 

I will tell you how I feel about it; I consider that those who will not make a thorough work of it and obtain the Holy Spirit to dwell in them, it will be a hard case for them ever to find favour with the Lord. 

If you and I and all Israel had lived up to our privileges what might we have been able to do for the kingdom? In purity and in power we could have increased the numbers and strength of it mightily, we could have had that faith that one would chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight. It is a power that will disperse wickedness, and the words of righteousness will be felt like the voice of thunders; men have now got to arouse themselves to activity and power in works of righteousness and faith. The First Presidency have been drawing us too long. 

I do not feel to detain you much longer as brother Kimball and brother Wells have come in, but will say a few words more. We have now offered to us the great and glorious blessings of God's favour renewed upon us. If we lay hold of this by faith and obtain the strength of our calling in the spirit and power thereof, it seems to me that we shall be blest far beyond our present or past conceptions. When I think of this I feel like exhorting the people to take hold and get the spirit and power of their calling, for all can plead guilty of neglecting their duty, if they are not guilty of more and overt transgressions. 

Now if we will do to all as we wish them to do unto us, we shall be prepared to sit down in the presence of God and our Elder Brother, and then we can be one with them and they with us. Do not let it be so, that while the door of mercy is open, that any will seal it against themselves, for it would have been better for them not to have been born. 

These are the times for us to wake up and take hold with the energies of our souls that light may come back to us, and that we may have light in our understandings, that we may have power to administer to those around us, and to do those things that are required at our hands; and I can say, brethren and sisters, that in future it shall be my study, my faith, and my prayer and my labour to obtain these blessings with you, and to stand in my place and calling and obtain grace to magnify them, and have faith like those who have gone before us, that are and have been labouring before us, and they are all labouring now, they are waiting and watching for the completion of the work that is laid upon us, that they may receive the blessings and promises given to them in ages that are gone. It is not to be wondered at when we contemplate the condition of the world what a vast deal is depending upon our exertions, but when we look at the extent of our follies it is wonderful that the Lord should give us such wholesale forgiveness. For the sake of ourselves, our families, the living and the dead, we should all turn to God with full purpose of heart and sanctify ourselves that there may be a people whom He will delight to own and bless, that He may fully establish this work and establish righteousness upon the earth for ever. 

May the Lord grant us power to do this, in the name of Jesus Christ: Amen. 





THE BODY OF CHRIST--PARABLE OF THE VINE--A WILD ENTHUSIASTIC SPIRIT NOT OF GOD--THE SAINTS SHOULD NOT UNWISELY EXPOSE EACH OTHERS' FOLLIES. 

A Discourse, by Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 11, 1857. 

We have a little business to lay before the brethren, and we might as well do it this forenoon as to do it in the afternoon. We many times leave our business matters for the afternoon, to transact in the time of the sacrament, though the administration of that ordinance has been omitted for a time. There are a great many people in this congregation and in this Valley who could justly and beneficially partake of the sacrament, but they are prohibited for the present in consequence of the wickedness of some who would also partake and thus eat and drink to their condemnation. 

You talk about such persons being asleep; you call it sleep; well it is, comparatively speaking, the sleep of death that is on a great many individuals, and they do not realize it, and you cannot make them realize it. They think they are awake to their duties; they think they are living their religion, and when we speak to this people in a mass, as you are here, almost every man and woman will go home and say, "That sermon does not touch me, the coat, or the jacket does not fit me." I am aware of this, for if it did fit you and you would acknowledge it, you would put it on and wear it; and the coat you would put on would be sack-cloth and ashes; it would be a cloak that would be wet and soaked with ashes, and it would be so strong it would eat off the rush and filth that are on you, yea, eat them off with ashes put on with a cloth, so as to open the pores of life that the Spirit of God may penetrate through your systems. 


There is a little matter of business that we want to lay before this congregation in regard to John Hyde, who went to the Sandwich Islands on a misssion [sic]. There are a couple of letters that the brethren have received; we shall read a little from them, and give you to understand the course he is taking. (The letters were read.) You hear the letters and the testimony of our brethren in regard to John Hyde. Such matters, many times, have passed along and we have not noticed them but have let men deny the faith, speak against it and deliver lectures through the world. Many times we have let them run at large, but the time is now passed for such a course of things. By the consent of my brethren I shall move that John Hyde be cut off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I will put the motion in full, that is, that he be cut off root and branch; that means pertaining to himself. When this motion is put, I want you to vote, every one of you, either for or against, for there is no sympathy to be shown unto such a man. Brother Wells has seconded the motion I have made. All that are in favour that John Hyde be cut off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that he be delivered over to Satan to be buffeted in the flesh, will raise their right hands. (All hands were raised.) 

When there was a vote of this kind taken before the congregation in regard to Thomas S. Williams, it caused a great deal of sympathy with some, for they looked upon it as though it had cut off his family, his wives and his children. I will ask the congregation, was a motion put to cut off his family? No, there was not. A motion has been put, and unanimously carried, that John Hyde be cut off root and branch, that is, himself and all the roots and branches that are within him; this has no allusion to his family. He has taken a course by which he has lost his family and forfeited his Priesthood; he has forfeited his membership. The limb is cut off, but the Priesthood takes the fruit that was attached to the limb and saves it, if it will be saved. Do you understand me? His wife is not cut off from this Church, but she is free from him; she is just as free from him as though she never had belonged to him. The limb she was connected to is cut off, and she must again be grafted into the tree, if she wishes to be saved; that is all about it. 

When a limb that has got two or more branches or shoots is cut off, those shoots and brnaches, and their fruit, if any, are cut off with the limb. Why? Because they are attached to it. But they can all be taken and grafted right back again into the tree, or into the Priesthood. 

I do not wish to say much this morning, without I feel a great deal of liberty; and my liberty will be in proportion to the liberty, and freedom, and life there in this people. If our Father and our God was to come here, or Jesus, or Peter, or Joseph, or brother Brigham, or any other man, he could not speak to this people and advance light to them, only in proportion to the light that is in this people and their willingness and readiness to receive more. 

Have not brother Brigham and his Counsellors cried unto this people, as with a voice of thunder and earthquake, for years and could not wake you up? You did not believe but that you were all the time living your religion, every one of you, men and women. Can brother Brigham advance any farther than this people strive to follow, and at the same time retain his present connection with them? Can brother Heber rise any faster than brother Brigham? No. Can brother Wells? No he cannot. Why? The church of God is compared to the body of a man; there is the head, there are the arms and every part of the body. God has joined them together, and they are brought up as an illustration to compare with the Church. Now if my legs and feet, and arms and hands, and other members of my body give up and loe their strength and power, become paralyzed or benumbed, how is it possible for my head to rise up, without the use of those members? It cannot, because the head is attached to them. On the other hand, if the arms, which are designed to defend the head, and all the members below the head lost their power and have gone to sleep, what can those members do? Can theyr ise until the rest of that body rises? No. I use the figure of the body of a man, jsut as the Apostle Paul did in ancient times:--1 Cor. xii. 

14. For the body is not one member, but many. 

15. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 

16. And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 

17. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were the hearing, where were the smelling? 

18. But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. 

19. And if they were all one member, where were the body? 

20. But now are they many members, yet but one body. 

21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 

22. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seems to be more feeble, are necessary: 

23. And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 

24. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body teogether, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: 

25. That there should be no scism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 

26. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 

27. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 

28. And God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. 

29. Are all Apostles? are all Prophets? are all Teachers? are all workers of miracles? 

30. Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? 

31. But covet earnestly the best gifts. And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. 

There is one way in which the Presidency of this Church can rise, but it would be greatly to the injury of the body, and I will tell you how. If you will go to work and reject them, you will see them rise quickly, but you will also see this body go down to death and hell, while the Priesthood of the Church would go to heaven. You can liberate them in this way, but not in any other except through obedience, unless that Presidency rises up and cuts you off. They can do that, for they have as much power to cut you off as you have to reject them. I want you to understand this. They are an indepednent body, still they are attached to you as the head of the body of Christ for the purpose of saving the whole body, that all might be a perfect system. You will find in the Bible what I am talking about, only I am applying it to this people, as Paul applied it to the people in his days. 

Jesus says, in the 15th chapter of St. John, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman," or, in other words, my Father is the root and I am the vine springing from the root, and it is for mem to abide in that vine. And when he abode in it he received the same nourishment, the same fatness, and the smae power that proceeded from the Father, or from the root from whence the vine spraing. Then if the twelve Apostles abode in him, they received the same nourishment that he did, and had the same power; then those the believed on the Apostles' words, if they abode in their words, received teh same power the Apostles received from the vine, they becoming branches of that vine in common with the Apostles. Jesus is that vine, the Apostles were the branches that sprang from him, then the Seventies, and other members, or those that sprang from them. 

Joseph Smith sprang from Peter, James, and John; and brother Brigham and brother Heber, and brother Hyde sprang from Joseph; and you sprang from that authority now existing, did you not? Do you not see that you are all in the same vine? There are different branches, and every different branch springing out of the same vine. There are hundreds of lesser brnaches connected to the main branches of the vine, others again extend from them. There are the Seventies, the High Priests, the Elders, &c.; they are all branches, are they not, belonging to the same root, the same vine?--John xv. 

1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 

2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 

3. Now ye are clean through teh word which I have spoken unto you. 

4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine: no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 

5. I am teh vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. 

6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 

7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 

8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 

9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 

10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 

11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. 

12. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 

13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 

14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 

15. Henceforth I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 

16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 

17. These things I command you, that ye love one another. 

18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 

19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 

20. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also eprsecute you: if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 

21. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. 

22. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. 

23. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. 

24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 

25. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 

26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 

27. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. 

I want to show you your connection with the Church, and then you can see what an effect it has when there is a dead member attached to the head of any limb, or at its junction with the trunk. When you go into your gardens and look at your peach trees, do you not see many great and important limbs, also many branches to those limbs? Now if a main branch is partly dead or lifeless where it joins the trunk, the sap has to go through there to support the limb, and of course affects its nourishment, for the sap become spartially dormant, and when it goes into the rest of the members, they are dormant; like unto the sap that has passed through those dead parts. You may say that the Presidency of the Seventies are at the junction of one main limb with the trunk, and when the members that pertain to that department of government are partly dead, it affects teh whole limb and every branch pertaining to it. 

That is the connection we have got to form with each other, or we shall be severed from the tree and lost. We will say that here is a peach tree, and that there is one limb extends away yonder, and that away at the far end of it are six or eight peaches, and that there is not another particle of fruit on the whole tree. Now is not that one fruit-bearing limb worth more to the master than all the rest, except the trunk and root to which it is connected? Why? Because it brings forth fruit. God looks upon this matter just as I am trying to explain it to you. Jesus calls his true followers his disciples, becuae they bring forth much fruit. How can you be reckoned the disciples of Christ, the disciples of God in the last days, except you bring forth fruit? 

I talked very plain to you, three weeks ago. The power of God ran through me just as City creek would run through this city, provided there was no obstruction to its course. Suchw ould be the case to-day, if there was no obstruction to the manifestation of the power of God, and every member would receive his full supply. Is there an obstruction? There is. Was there on that day? There was; but the power of God was there sufficient to penetrate a stone, and it did penetrate the hardest and most corrupt men in the congregation, and they did not know what was the matter with them. Di you see any particular difference with me? Nothing more than you generally see. I was calm and composed, and the truth kept pouring out without creating any convulsaion, because there was no obstruction to it in me. 

The more of the Spirit of God a man has, the more composed he is. You will not hear him rage and tear, saying, "Oh, the Holy Ghost is in me; I shall die; hell and the devil is to pay." [The speaker mimicked the manner of wild enthusiasts.] I am trying to show you the folly, wild spirit, and devil that gets into some men, and thry try to make the people believe that it is the Holy Ghost, when it is not any such thing. You never see brother Brigham operated upon in that way; you never see brother Heber so affected. I have had to fire here. Why? Because the enemy was so strong against me that I had to force the word of God towards the people to effect them in any way, shape, or manner. 

There is more danger of people's getting wild fire than there is of their getting the true fire of God. There is danger of going too far, and of pressing this people too far. There is a medium in all things. It would be but alittle while, let some men lead and dictate, before the people would be as they are in London. Howa re they there? They have been excited with everything that could be raked and scraped, to such a degree that there is nothing now that will excite them one particle. In like manner some would get this people in a little while so that you could not create an excitement that would move them. 

I will ask this congregation if they do not know that God was with me three weeks ago, and they will admit that He dictated me. I did not say anythinga bout it, but all the tussle I had was to get out of this stand, for it seemed as though I washeld by some power, visible or invisible. I had hard work to get out of this stand. Did I resist the spirit? Yes, I resisted the spirit and power of this people who were holding me. "Why did you leave the pulpit?" Because I had spoken long enough. The judgment that God gave me said I had spoken long enough, and if I had spoken any longer it would not have had so good an effect upon you as it did. Was I not calm? Did I tell any of you that the Holy Ghost was in me? I did not say one word about it; I let every one judge for himself. 

Some men in this town come pretty near tearing down the stands and benches, and the roofs off from the houses, crying out, "The Holy Ghost is in me," &c. 


[The speaker jumped and threw his arms about.] 

I am mimicking those persons, in order to show the folly of their conduct. I want you to understand, and not let men get these powers on them. It would not be any wonder if brother Gifford were to get into that spirit, because that is the spirit he had before he came into the Church: and he had it a while after he came into the Church, and he feels as though he had lost all his religion, becaue he is not actuated by that wild spirit. I have seen the manifestations of thsoe spirits both in America and England; they were in this Church in the first commencement of it in Kirtland. 

In the commencement of this Church the devil came along, and there were men that saw written letters come down from the heavens in their presence; that was in Kirtland, Ohio, 25 or 26 years ago. Some enthusiastic spirits received those letters as revelation, and they would read them to the people. A spirit would come on those individuals, and they would begin to run around the house, and be thrown into all manner of shapes and convulsions, saying it was th eoepration of the Holy Ghost. If you do nto look out, you will get such spirits as those here. I merely speak of them to give you a check, that you may be aware of the course you are taking. 

I will tell you what kind of characters will have those kinds of revealtions; they will be men who have committed whoredom in our midst, and women who have played the whore. Good, virtuous men and women are not actuated by those spirits, because they ask the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to give them His Spirit, and not those wild, enthusiastic spirits manifested by some. How was it with those men in Kirtland? Almost every one of them denied the faith and went over the board, and afterwards we found out that they were adulterous persons. 

As for the gift to tongues, I do not speak in tongues often. Can I speak in tongues? Yes, I can speak in a good, beautiful language to tis people at any time. Why? Because God gave me the gift, and He does not give gifts to men and then take them away again, so long as those men are doing their duty. They are gifts, and God gives them to men and women; and so long as they improve upon them they do not forfeit them. If they do not improve upon them, the devil takes the advantage and will make it appear like the gifts of God which they have possessed, as nearly as possible, and thus they go overboard. 

I do not know why it is that I am led to speak so to-day, but I am led as I am, and you may judge wehther it is right or wrong. Can I interpret tongues? Yes, because that gift is in me, and I have not forfeited it. Is it in brother Brigham? Yes, and so is every gift that God ever gave to His ancient Apostles. God has given them to brother Brigha, and He will never take them away from him. He has the Spirit in him, and so have his Counsellors, that can discern your spirits and gifts, whether they are of God or of the devil. When any of you get up to speak in tongues, whether you do so by the power of God or of the devil, I can tell you which source that tongue came from, and if it is from the Lord I can interpret it. 

Are the gifts of the Gospel given to you to fool with? No, neither are they given to dictate the Church, nor the Priesthood. Have such things been done? Yes, thousands of men and women have received revelations and stood up to dictate the President, the Prophet, the Seer, and Revelator, in his Priesthood. When we came to find out who such characters were, we learned that they wer emen and women who had been in the habit of committing whoredom. You cannot refer me to an instance of the kind, but what I can show you that that is their character, more or less. Is it not singular? Those gifts and those blessings are for the Priesthood to dictate, and it will dictate them. 

When persons get the religion of Christ, and enjoy the Holy Ghost, they will never see any of that wildness which I have spoken of, unless, in the progress of this work, our President should be moved upon to bring it into action. When he unlocks and opens the door for that Spirit to come upon this people, then it is right and never will be wrong. Brother Brigham is my brother, and holds the keys to all the departments of the Priesthood on this earth, and when he unlocks the door it will come open. He has a bundle of keys, and, if they were keys like these in my hand, no ten men in this congregation could carry or lift them. HE possesses the keys ofall the different gifts and graces that God designs for this people. Can you realise it? SOme do, and some do not. IT is brothe rBrigham that holds the keys, yes, above eveyr other man that lives in the flesh. When he says, "Brother Heber, take that key and open such or such a door," then I have authority to go and unlock that door, the same as he has. IF he says, "Brother Wells, take this key and go and unlock such a door," he then has the same power as brother Brigham has to unlock that door. If he says, "Brother Hyde, take this key and other small keys and go to the nations of the earth and open into different nations," brother Hyde then has the power and authority, with his brethren of the TWelve, to open the door, preach the Gospel, build up the Church, organize it, and set it in order in eveyr nation, kingdom, tongue, and island, so far as he has received the keys and authority. When brother Brigham give a Bishop a key pertaining to a Ward, that Bishop has powr to open and shut, to teach, prophesy, and administer the wrod of life, according to his holy calling in his department. Every man has his department as it is set off to him, and if he lives his religion he has the power of God, the power of Brigham, the power of Heber and of Daniel, yea, all the power we have in that department, when he goes and acts in our authority. Brother Franklin, did you realize that power while acting in your department in England? Yes, and you say, here I carry out the purposes of my leaders. Do you suppose that you would have failed a hair's breadth, if you had constantly done so? No, but you fail when you draw back a little, or swerve through the influence of any one not having authority. Do you understand me? Some of you do, I know. 

There are just as good men and women in this congregation as ever were on the earth or ever will be, according to their age and experience; then, on the other hand, we have some of the meanest, and, O heavens, how they stink. Are they not ashamed? I am ashamed of them, that is, of their corruption. If they were served as they should be, they would be severed from the Church, as John Hyde has been this day, and would be made a public example of before this people. For what? I will not talk it, for I am ashamed of it. I want the Elders and Missionaries to take the keys and go and open their private rooms, and take such persons into them and talk to them, and not to do it in public. I am ashamed of them; take them into the private rooms in your Wards and talk to them, and try to save the poor, miserable curses, if you can. Do you understand me, brother Raleigh? [Yes.] 

Call upon the High Priests, the Seventies, Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, and first cleanse those ruling members, those that hold the Priesthood; and if you find those that deserve to be severed from the Church, sever them. Do not call in the females, when catechising the males; but when you have done with them, then call the females together and talk to them and show them their duty. And let the heads of families call their children into their private rooms and teach them. Do not make that public, brother Raleigh, which should be kept private, lest you do more harm than good. I have not said that you do so, but I am talking to you for all the rest of the Bishops, knowing that you are a man of good order, and one who loves to carry out things as you are dictated by the heads of Israel. I know that is your character, and God Almighty bless you for ever, and every such man. There are lots of such men, and I wish to God there were a thousand where there is but one. 

I would go to work and trim up the Wards in a gentle manner, without making such an ungodly stink, without exposing the brethren as Ham did his father Noah. Ham's children were cursed with a skin of blackness, for Ham pulled the clothing off from his father Noah, who had drank a little too much wine. He had not drank any wine for a long time, as he had been in the ark, and when he had once more raised grapes, and made some wine, the old gentleman said to his family, come, boys and girls, let us sit down and take a little wine. Many of us might do as Noah did, were we placed under similar circumstances. But that poor, little, pusillanimous fellow, Ham, after the old gentleman had drank a little too much, and, perhaps, it operated upon him as an emetic, and he had besmeared himself a little, pulls of [sic] his father's coverlet and exposes him to the whole family. That is, probably, just as it was, only I have told it a little plainer than it reads. If you find any persons besmeared, do not pull off the coverlets and expose them, lest you take a course to bring a curse on them by unwisely exposing iniquity. 

Take a course to save men, not to kill them, not to destroy them. Take a course to save women, not to destroy them, [sic-punc] I mean all the Elders in the house of Israel, Bishops, High Priests, Prophets, Apostles, Teachers, Evangelists, and every member in the Church of God, take a course to save; and if a man has done wrong, tell him to do right for the future, and do a good work, and, peradventure, God will remit his sins and not require any more than a lamb, a pigeon, a calf, or something of that kind, as an atonement. But He will require a great many heifers from some of you, and you will find your houses left unto you desolate. Still if God will forgive you, I will, of all the sins you have committed, if you have not shed innocent blood, or sinned against the Holy Ghost. I will forgive you of all sins that God will forgive you of. God be merciful to you, and God bless the poor and honest, and those who are filled with integrity and virtue, God bless you for ever, and you shall be blessed, whetehr the rest do right or not. Let us do right and the day of deliverance will come, I know it, and we will be rescued from the evil that is coming. 

Can I preach to you anything better than this? I do not know whether it is plain to your minds or not, is it brother Wells? [Yes.] I have been led just as I have, and it has been on my mind and working with me for a long time. I know that our faithful Priests and Bishops understand me, but there are some, perhaps, who do not, because I have spoken by comparison rather than to expose the meanness of the corrupt. I am ashamed to speak of the sins that some are guilty of. I have not said anything about the world, and do you suppose that I am going to speak about the world, so long as there are evils in our midst equally as bad as they commit? 

There are a great many old men who have the Priesthood upon them, who have been in the Church from the beginning, and yet they are spiritually dead. What is the matter? I can expose them, I can tell you just what ails them, and why they are spiritually dead. They do not wake up, and cannot wake up, because they do not consider that they are guilty of anything worng. They cannot see themselves, but when you come to find out you will find that they have, from the death of Joseph and before he was slain, murmured and compalined at Brigham and Heber, saying that "Mormonism is not as it was then; and if Joseph had lived, he would have taken hold of us and made us prominent members in the house of Israel." You will find that that is a fact; I shall not draw back from that one hair. Let us have the plain English, and you will find that to be the difficulty with them. 

There are men here 60 or 65 years of age, holding the Bishopric of Aaron's Priesthood and the High Priesthood of God, whom I have known to leave their important meetings and dismiss the business of the kingdom of God to spend their time with this man or that woman who was lying about their neighbours; and those very men would sit and hear that slander, and never rebuke it. There is were [sic] they have lost the Spirit of God and their authority, the power of their Priesthood. Do you hear it, ye old gentlemen, and also ye ladies that are connected with them? for you are just as bad, more or less. 

You say, "We knew and understood 'Mormonism,' when Joseph was alive, but we do not know the tree now, it has grown so fast," and that is the difficulty with you. We have had trees set out in these valleys seven years, and you can now see some of them large enough for rafters. Suppose a man had gone away about the time they were set out, or had been asleep to the sight of those things, would he recognise those trees? No, for they change as they increase. That applies to you elderly people, both men and women; and then to you who are younger, there is something will apply rather plainer than that. 

Have I not been modest to-day? I do think it is outrageous to unwisely expose so much filth as some of our Elders and Missionaries do. If a man is asleep and has besmeared himself, do not expose him, unless the necessity of the case requires it. I feel a good, wholesome spirit and a fatherly spirit to you, brethren; you know I do. But I want my brethren to take a course, if they find their brethren lying under blankets besmeared, not to pull the blankets off from them before they first get water and wash them; save them if you can. You hear us talk about it a great deal, and probably many do not believe one word we say, but this people will never, no never, prosper to a high degree until we make a public example of--what? Men, who have been warned and forewarned, but who will associate with the wicked and take a course to commit whoredom, and will strive to lead our daughters and our wives into the society of poor, wicked curses, with a view to gratify their cursed passions; we will take them and slay them before this people. I am talking of those that will persist in this course of iniquity, and not about those who will repent and forsake their sins. Are there men in our midst who will court other men's wives? Yes, and will take them right to the ungodly for them to seduce, and they will take our daughters and do the same. What are such men worthy of? They are worthy of death, and they will get it. That time is near by, and God has spoken from the heavens, and when certain things are about right, we shall make a public example of those characters. Do you see me? Do you see this Bible and Book of Mormon? If there were ten thousand of those books, I could raise them all to heaven, saying, it is as true as teh contents of those books. Do you believe me, brethren? [Yes.] There is no doubt of it. But do all believe me? No. If God forgives you, I will; but there will be a public example made of such characters, and the time is juts at our doors. Can we stop this iniquity, until that is done? No, no more than we can stop some from stealing. There is some stealing right in the midst of your reform, brethren. 

Don't you think it is a better course to take the gentlemen privately and talk over matters, and then take the ladies privately and instruct them, and not open the budget of the filth of their husbands before the wives, nor that of the wives before their husbands? Such filthy characters seem to be the most sanctimonious, the most holy and gracious. I wish you could know one thing, that is, that we know you and can see right through you. I wish all those kind of men and women would get away to the back side of the congregation, and not stick themselves right under my nose. And if we make a party they stick themselves there also, and want to be the head, back, and everything else. If they would take a proper course, they would never intrude upon decent society, until they had repented of and forsaken their abominations. 

John Hyde may spout as much as he has a mind to, and all such characters may spout and try to make out that Brigham young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, Jedediah M. Grant, and Daniel H. Wells are guilty of things they are; but we are as clean as a piece of white paper. No women from heaven, earth, or hell can present thesmelves with a truthful allegation that we have ever led them astray. We have lawful wives, and the most of them honour their callings, and God will bless them, and they will be raised to immortality and eternal lives. They will go with us, and then there will be others that will not go with us, who will not go were [sic] Brigham and Heber will go, I will warrant you, for ten thousand years. 

I wish you would obey the Book of Mormon. I was reading a little in it, the night before last, where Alma gives commandments to his son Corainton, as follows:-- 

1. "And now, my son, I have somewhat more to say unto thee than what I said unto thy brother: for behold, have ye not observed the steadiness of thy brother, his faithfulness, and his diligence in keeping the commandments of God? Behold, has he not set a good example for thee? For thou didst not give so much heed unto my words as did thy brother, among the people of the Zoramites. Now this is what I have against thee; thou didst go on unto boasting in thy strength, and thy wisdom. And this is not all, my son. Thou didst do that which was grievous unto me; for thou didst forsake the ministry, and did go over into the land of Siron, among the borders of the Lamanites, after the harlot Isabel; yea, she did steal away the hearts of many: but this was no excuse for thee, my son. Thou shouldst have tended to the ministry wherewith thou wast entrusted. Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins, save it be the shedding of innocent blood, or denying the Holy Ghost? For behold, if ye deny the Holy Ghost when it once has had place in you, and ye know that ye deny it, behold, this is a sin which is unpardonable; yea, and whosoever murdereth against the light and knowledge of God, it is not easy for him to obtain forgiveness; yea, I say unto you, my son, that it is not easy for him to obtain a forgiveness. And now, my son, I would to God that ye had not been guilty of so great a crime. I would not dwell upon your crimes, to harrow up your soul, if it were not for your good. But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God, and except ye repent, they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day. 


2. "Now, my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except you do this, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things. And I command you to take it upon you to counsel your elder brothers in your undertakings; for behold, thou art in thy youth, and ye stand in need to be nourished by your brothers. And give heed to their counsel; suffer not yourself to be led away by any vain or foolish thing; suffer not the devil to lead away your heart again after those wicked harlots. Behold, O my son, how great iniquity ye brought upon the Zoramites: for when they saw your conduct, they would not believe my words. And now the Spirit of the Lord doth say unto me, command thy children to do good, lest they lead away the hearts of many people to destruction; the e- [sic] fore [sic] I command you, my son, in the fear of God, that ye refrain from your iniquities; that ye turn to the Lord with all your mind, might, and strength; that ye lead away the hearts of no more to do wickedly; but rather return unto them, and acknowledge your faults, and retain that wrong which ye have done; seek not after riches, nor the vain things of this world, for behold, you cannot carry them with you." 

I did not know but that I was too hard on such crimes, but the passage referred to plainly states that adultery is next to shedding innocent blood. Hyrum Smith gave the same instructions in Nauvoo; many of you have heard him speak of this sin many times. 

Again, I wish you to read another passage in that good book, as follows:-- 

"And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, whilst he that exercises no faith unto repentance, is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance, is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption. Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that you may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye being to call upon hish oly name, that he would have mercy upon you; yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save; yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him: cry unto him when ye are in your fields; yea, over all your flocks; cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening; yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies; yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them; cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness; yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you. 

29. "And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need; I say unto you, if you do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith; therefore, if ye do not remember to be charitable, ye are as dross, which the refiners do cast out, (it being of no worth,) and is trodden under foot of men. 

30. "And now, my brethren, I would that after ye have received so many witnesses, seeing that the holy scriptures testify of these things, come forth and bring fruit unto repentance; yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time, and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you. For bheold, this life is the time for men to rpepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labours. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you, that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness, wherein there can be no labour performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have the power to possess your body in that eternal world. For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance, even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all powr over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. And this I know, because the Lord hath siad, he dwelleth not in unholy temples, but in the hearts of the righteous doth he dwell; yea, and he has also said, that the righteous shall sit down in his kingdom, to go no more out: but their garments should be made white, through the blood of the Lamb." 

Brethren and sisters, it is for us to prepare and qualify ourselves for the great change that is coming upon us all. Many do not attend to it, but sleep and sleep on unti lthe time of death, and Satan will seal their spirits his, as the Book of Mormon says; he will have power over them, and they cannot help themselves. 

God and His servants have instructed you to read that book, and if you read it faithfully and with a prayerful heart, you will find many principles and doctrines that you have heard brothers Brigham and Heber teach. 

You who are tampering with the sin of adultery are sealing your damnation. Some are sitting righte before me, with their locks as white as a sheet, who have tempered in these things. What have they done? They have done more hurt, more injury, and thrown more obstructions in the way of the work of God than they ever can restore. They have an atonement to make, there is a debt against them. Why? Because justice will rquire the debt to be paid. It is for you to arouse yourselves from these things and pay all you can, that there may not be much against you when the accounts are settled up. 

I have said so much, and you may call it a kind of an eccentric discourse. What is eccentric? I will explain it to you. Supposing that here is a pivot on the top of this stand, and I preach to a man away yonder and come back, to another away there and come back, and so I preach every way from the centre, that is eccentric, that is, I do not confine myself to any particular subject, but I am here and there and yonder, and yet I am always in the centre; that is what is called eccentric, or original, or what is deemed by some extravagant, becuse it is out of the usual custom. I am tempered just as I am, and don't you like me better in this way than in a stereotyped style? Don't you like me in my way better than you would if I should try to imitate brother Hyde, and try to be like him? I hit on one thing and then on another, but brethren, is not all plain to you? 

[Yes.] 

Brethren and sisters, God bless you; God bless the good, God bless the oil and the wine; God bless all the authorities of this Church that honour their high and holy calling; and may the peace of the Almighty be with you for ever. These are my feelings; and may He authorize His holy angels in heaven, and upon the earth, to cause the wrath of Almighty God to burn against the wicked, the corrupt, and those that seek and wish to follow corruption. May the wrath of the Almighty God come on them, that they may never have any more rest, from this time henceforth, until they repent. May they not have peace at home or abroad, out of doors or in the house, up stairs nor down in the cellar, and I say it in the name of Almighty God and by virtue of the Priesthood, may the curse of Almighty God be on such men and women, and they shall welter in sorrow. 

I know that if this people will do right, our enemies, those who lay snares and gins to ensnare the servants of the living God, shall be slain by the sword of His wrath, and shall have no power to fight against God, nor against Zion, and all Israel shall say, AMEN. 

[The congregation was unanimous in saying amen, with a loud voice.] 

It will be so, and I know it. 

Live your religion. Bishops go to now and take the course I have suggested; take a course not to expose and ruin men, but let their private sins be privately acknowledged to the Bishop, and he has authority to report them to head quarters; then there can be a way of disposal--why? Because God our Father has made a way. There is no situation or circumstance that ever a man was or will be in, but what there is a law touching his case. 

Be cautious of your wild fire; I have touched on that, and I want the Bishops to be cautious about it, and not to be overbearing and hard on the people, nor require them to fast three days in the week, and keep them under the big sledge hammer continually. It will not answer. You should pour in a little wine and oil, and the good things of the kingdom of God, and that will temper the iron so that it will yield to the hammer. 

I mean this for the Bishops, the Missionaries, the Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Evangelists; pour in a little oil and wine and soften the material, and not be putting on with three or four sledges and a small hammer in the bargain. It will not answer for the big hammers to go on beating, after the little hammer has sounded stop, you big fellows. 

When I strike with a big sledge hammer, it performs much more than the little hammer. They used to say in England, when brother Hyde had preached, "Bring brother Kimball here and let him hit the old rock one crack with the big sledge, and we will warrant it to split." Brother Hyde used to polish teh rock before it was taken out of the quarry. 

Brother James Brown, has it not been good for you to be here to-day? [Yes.] God bless you, if you will only live your religion, and let brother Brigham, brother Heber, and brother Daniel live theirs; for he is our brother now and always was. If you will rise up and let us rise a little higher, you will see no particular difference in us, but teh difference will be in you. Rise up, and do not hold us down. 

As we are members of one body, except we cut you off from us we never can rise, unless you rise. If you will cleanse the platter, and throw out the dad men's bones that corrupt it, and all wicked things, you will rise; you will not feel so much difference, only you will be calm and composed, and you will not find any wild fire in the people. They swell when they have got wild fire, until their corporations are larger, figuratively speaking, than a dozen of mine. The Holy Ghost does not make a man act in any such way. 

Why do I keep talking these things over? Because I want you to understand them and get the Spirit of God, and let its peaceable influence be upon you; then you will know the spirit of men and things. Read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and every other good book, and keep busy at some good thing or other, and stop your quarrelling. There is a great deal of quarrelling in the houses, and contending for power and authority; and the second wife is against the first wife, perhaps, in some isntances. But that is done away in my family, and there is none of it in brother Brigham's, nor in brother Wells', nor in any family were [sic] they have common sense. 

If every member of my body performs its office and does its duty, according to the order and government of God, then I want to know if one member is any better than another? Is any one of my fingers any better than another, if each one fulfils its calling? If one of these fingers sticks itself where it should not be, it brings dishonour on the whole body; and there are certain men and women who have dishonoured themselves and this whole community. John Hyde, probably, was living in adultery before he went from here, or if not, he was after he went from here, and he lost the Spirit of the Lord God. Any man that will do such wickedness, cannot keep the Spirit of God. 

Do right, and let the Gishops and Missionaries understand their duty, and they may be the means of aplliating your sins and making you comfortable for life. There are women in this congregation who have, probably, been seduced by Elders, by High Priests and men in authority. What do those women think? They believe that I am guilty of the same sin, and that brother Brighma and brother Wells, and every other good man, is alike guilty. Read the words of Alma over and over, and learn how he talked to his son. The people in that age would not hear the words of Alma, nor the words of hisb rethren, because of the wickedness of his son Corianton. I am showing you the cause of such iniquity, and the desolation it brings on the human family. I am not preaching as the world preaches; I preach not to show myself eloquent, but I am bringing right out these little matters that lay the axe at the root of the tree and obstruct the onward progress of this great work. The wickedness of the Latter-day Saints throws an obstacle before it. 

Brethren, don't you think the course you would take with a flock of sheep is better for this people, than it is to keep all the time hitting them on the head? It is well enough to hit a rap now and then, that is, to rap some of the old bucks and does that always wnat to stick their noses first in the salt [sic-phrase]. In accordance with my eccentric discourse, don't you see that I have not thrown out salt on the floor or on the grass to be wasted? I have given one sheep out there a lap, and another one there, returning to the centre, and don't you feel just as comfortable now as befor eye got the salt, and a little more so? That is the way to lead the people along, and do not gag them. You may take custard pie and cram it down a person's throat until it makes him vomit; doubtless some of you have crammed your little children until they have vomited the food you gave them. 

The people are often fed too much, with too long sermons. How long have I preached to-day? Though I have not stuck to one subject, but I have always come back to the centre and began again. Stop your long sermons, except God leads and dictates. I should advise you, if you have but a little water in the pond, not to let your saw run the full length of the log. Get up when you have something to say, and sit down when you have done. Long sermons will not answer. Preach short sermons, you Bishops;a nd when the missionaries come along and give a first-rate good sermon at a Ward meeting, and perhaps one or two others also speak, and it is eight o''clcok in the evening, or half-past eight, close the meeting. You Bishops are always there, and you can preach when the sheep are not crammed to death. There is too much of this cramming, for by it you will gag the people and throw them overboard. 

I am holding on to this idea, because I see that you are wrong. And if brother Brigham had been here to-day he would, probably, have been led to speak on the same matter; and if I had been away from here, probably brother Wells would have been led the same; and if none of us had been here, perhaps somebody else would have spoken of it. I am telling you what to do, I am relieving you [sic] minds. Do not put on the double sledge hammers all the time, but pour in the wine and the oil, and scatter a little salt, and the sheep will be belating and teasing for more. 

I am a shepherd, I was brought up a shepherd; and I was a plough-boy; and I am a blacksmith, a potter, a joiner and carpenter, and a tailor; I understand all these branches. I never was confined to either of them long, but always returned to the centre. This is my mode of preaching; I do nto wnat to talk a whole dictionary. I do not use any squatalations, as brother Hyde, brother Franklin, and others do. I am just what I am, and cannot be anything else. Brother Hyde, did you ever know me try to imitate anybody? I never did and cannot do it, unless I have the power given me. There is only one thing that I can mimic, and that is the power that some enthusiasts show, when they suppose the Holy Ghost is on them. 

I don't wnat you to merely talk about it, but I want you to go to and live your religion, do your duty, do all things that are required of you. If you have not done so, go and do it. If you have done wrong, don't do wrong again, and do right from this time, making satisfaction and restitution for your wrong doing, and I will say you shall be forgiven, every one of you who has not shed innocent blood or sinned against the Holy Ghost; that cannot be forgiven. If you will take this course, brother Brigham and Heber will live, yea, they will live and let live scores and scores of years. 


Brethren and sisters, do not be the aggressors, always act on the defensive. I never will touch any of you, I never will offend or scold at you, nor injure you in any way, if you will not harm me but live your religion. I never will strike one of you, without you first strike me; but when you strike me, I shall be justifiable in striking you. I want you to remember what you read in the Book of Mormon, where Alma tells his son not to be the aggressor; also what Mormoni said to Zerahemnah, at the time Nephites and Lamanites fought by the river Sidon. 

12. "And it came to pass that they did stop and withdrew a pace from them. And Mormoni said unto Zerahemnah, behold Zerahemnah, that we do not desire to be men of blood.--Ye know that ye are in our hands, yet we do not desire to slay you. Behold, we have not come out to battle against you, that we might shed your blood for power; neither do we desire to bring any one to the yoke of bondage. But this is the very cause for which ye have come against us; yea, and ye are angry with us because of our religion. But now ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith. Now ye see that this is the true fiath of God; yea, ye see that God will support, and keep, and preserve us, so long as we are faithful unto him, and unto our faith, and our religion; and never will the Lord suffer that we shall be destroyed, except we should fall into transgression and deny our faith. And now, Zerahemnah, I command you, in the name of that all-powerful God, who has strengthened our arms that we have gained power over you by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our Church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness; and by all that is most dear unto us; yea, and that is not all; I command you by all the desires which ye have for life, that ye deliver up your weapons of war unto us, and we will seek not your blood, but we will spare your lives, if ye will go your way, and come not again to war against us. And now, if we do not this, behold, ye are in our hands, and I will command my men that they shall fall upon you, and inflict the wounds of death in your bodies, that ye may become extinct; and then we will see who shall have power over this people; yea, we will see who shall be brought into bondage." 

That shows the mercy and compassion of our God; although his enemies are in his hands, he will have mercy upon them. In the book of Doctrine and Covenants it is said, if thine enemy comes upon thee and falls into thine hand, forgive him, if he repent; and if he comes upon theee the second time, forgive him, if he repent; but if he comes upon thee the third time, thou mayst do with him as seemeth thee good, still, if thou shalt forgive him, I will add glory unto thee for thy mercy. Just look at it, and see what kind of a God we are serving. That God is talking to you, through me, to-day. 

Some of you may, perhaps, think that I have had wild fire in me to-day, but I have not had a bit of it about me. I am preaching all the time to show you the propriety of being filled with mercy, for God says the merciful man shall obtain mery [sic]. That is the spirit which is in me. When I step forward here God speaks through me; and if brother Brigham had been here He would have spoken through him. Don't you see that I have the same fatherly care, when I step up here to act in brother Brigham's place for the time being? I do not care who you put here, he will have the same spirit when he is put here, that is, if he is dictated by the Holy Ghost. 

I have had a good time here to-day. How nice it feels; there are good feelings here. Brethren, cultivate the spirit of compassion; if any man has committted adultery, have mercy on him and pity him, if he repents. You may say, "O Lord God, I thank thee that I never fell into that sin." Have compassion on those who have, if they will repent. 

You leading members of the Church, you Twelve, High Priests, Seventies, Bishops, &c., go ahead, press forward, and we will gain teh victory. We will overcome, because with those that do repent, if there are not more than three hundred men, we will whip out the unrighteous, for, says the Lord, everything that can be shaken shall be, and that which cannot be shaken will remain. Amen. 





MAN MUST USE HIS ENERGIES AND CULTIVATE THE GIFTS OF GOD--NECESSITY OF FOLLOWING COUNSEL--REFORMATION MUST BE INTRINSIC AND NOT A MATTER OF EXCITEMENT. 

A Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, January 18, 1857. 


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