THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER--THE PRIESTHOOD REACHES BEHIND THE VAIL--HOW INTOLERABLE IT WILL BE FOR THOSE WHO APOSTATIZE--POPULARITY OF GOVERNOR YOUNG COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE RULERS OF THE NATIONS--THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD, ETC.
Remarks, by President Daniel H. Wells, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, February 22, 1857.
Brethren and sisters, while brother Samuel Richards was addressing you, a great many reflections passed through my mind, a few of which I will try to lay before you, in regard to the parable of the sower and the seed. The Scripture reads--"Behold a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up; some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth; and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them; but others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, and some thirty-fold." I have thought of this parable considerably this winter. You will find that when the seed is cast into stony ground, it will spring up quickly and grow rapidly, but when the sunbeams come upon it with strength and power, it will wither and die. Have any received the good word during what we have called the reformation, and will they now wither and die?--or will they be like the seed that is cast into good ground which takes root downward, and springs upward, and bring forth the works of righteousness unto salvation? And now, as the season advances, we will have to be more specially engaged in our various business avocations, and shall not have so much time to spend in hearing the word of the Lord as we have had during the past winter, therefore let us see to it, that the plants now growing in our bosoms do not wither and die.
I have told you, and others have, that we have no expectations in this life of a worldly nature but what will go into the grave with us when we go. "Mormonism" and the Priesthood which we have resting upon us reach behind the vail, and what we have to do here is to prepare ourselves in this channel for the blessings we expect to receive hereafter.
It is a true remark, "He that seeks to save his life shall lose it." What is there worth having outside of our faith and religion? If we want to live either here or in eternity, this is the only channel wherein we can obtain that which is really worth having. If we want to be prospered, let us put on the yoke of Christ and keep it on, seeking first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all other things will be added thereto. This is the only principle upon which we can obtain aught that is of lasting worth, no matter what it is that we want.
In order to redeem Zion, we had to come from Nauvoo to the mountains, and we must abide here until the Lord shall say to the contrary. If we want wives and children in eternity, we must be faithful stewards over over [sic] those committed to our trust in time, that we may receive an inheritance in eternity. If we want inheritances in this world--if we want worldly possessions--we must be faithful stewards in the things of this world, and hold them as from the Lord, always keeping them upon the altar. No matter whether in spiritual or temporal affairs, the principle is the same, faithfulness is required. And if we do not feel willing to devote ourselves with heart, mind, and talent, as well as our worldly possessions, to the cause of God, we are not worthy to receive the inheritance to which we are looking forward.
How is it with those who turn away and wither and die, after having partaken of the good word of life, and partaken of the powers of the world to come? In view of these things the Saviour said unto the generation in which he lived, "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for you." This will strictly apply to us, if we turn away. Or might it not be said with equal force, it shall be more tolerable for Carthage and Warsaw than for us in that great day, if we turn away from the principles of life and salvation that are poured upon us? There is no damnation so complete as that which will come on those persons, who, after having tasted the good word of God, after having received the principles of life and salvation, and been made acquainted with the powers of the world to come, again turn unto the beggarly elements of the world. Then it becomes us to hang on to these principles and to this power--to this principle of life and salvation which has been revealed to us--and not let them slip from us, and we finally go down to perdition.
Do we see and appreciate the blessing of this Gospel which has been made known to us? Sometimes I think we do, and at other times I think we become careless and indifferent. This should never be, but we should progress and increase in the knowledge of God and in faith, for it is a treasure indeed, and is like all other things pertaining to the kingdom of God. We must be faithful to increase in it, as well as in light and knowledge. Let us get the truth and stick to it, and not let it slip through our fingers.
We go to the ends of the earth, and proclaim this Gospel to those who sit in darkness, and we feel desirous for the salvation of Israel--we desire to impart to the world the good and saving feelings we possess. This is good, and there is nothing in the world that begins to compare with the things accomplished by the Latter-day Saints. They go upon the principle of faith for their support, and they prosper. There is no people equal to this people. They are the pure in heart, which constitutes Zion. If they will only apply to their every day lives the principles which have brought them together, and faithfully live their religion, they are the happiest people in the world, and a people the Lord delights to bless, when He can do it without sending them to hell; and there is nothing but what they will be able to accomplish, inasmuch as they are faithful.
They love the authorities of this Church; they love brother Brigham, and he has great influence over them. What fault has the world to find with brother Brigham? None, except that the people are united in sustaining him, and that his word and counsel are as the law unto them. What right have they to find fault with or complain of this? He has a just right to his popularity; Joseph Smith had a right to his; the Lord gave it to them. And there is no governor, president, emperor, or king, but what would be glad to get just such a popularity, and is seeking for it all the time. They seek to gain an affection in the breasts of the people over whom they preside, but they have not that wisdom, and hence cannot obtain it, it is not for them. But brother Brigham has obtained it, and all the rulers and all the world are seeking the same thing and finding fault with him, and would take his life, because he has that which they are seeking for and cannot find. That fact of itself shows up their inconsistency.
Would not the governors of the United States be called the best men in the world, if they had and could retain the popularity which President Brigham Young enjoys? If there was any such person among them, the people would say, "Let him be the governor, for his equal cannot be found?" and yet they would destroy Governor Young, because the people are willing to adhere to his counsel. They are afraid of the union of Church and State, this they dread very much. Any person would like to have all the popularity that brother Brigham has, but the people of the world are afraid to trust any of their men with the affairs of the nation, especially if the person happened to be a peacher [sic], for they have no confidence in each other nor in any of their numerous religions. They have no confidence in their clergy's knowing anything about politics or temporal affairs in general, but they say, "We know more about such things than you do. It is your calling to administer in spiritual things only; you may have the keeping of our consciences, but when it comes to temporal matters you must stand aside." They consider that their clergy, and of course their God, knows no more about temporal things than they do about spiritual things. They leave all spiritual matters to their sectional clergy, to whom they dare not trust their temporal matters, but, on the contrary, do thrust their clergymen from their national halls.
This shows clearly all the faith and confidence they have in their God and in their clergy, for if they had any faith or confidence in their God, they would also have in their clergy, who should be His servants. But this is in strict keeping with their religion, for they go to meeting to hear their clergy dilate upon an imaginative something, filling the immensity of boundless space, sitting upon a topless throne, and which they call God. We are entirely different, and I rejoice that it is so. We have men to counsel and guide us in whom we repose unlimited confidence, men who are before us and lead ahead, and the counsels they give we feel to appreciate and abide both in spiritual and temporal things. We hold ourselves ready to go at a moment's warning to the uttermost parts of the earth to subserve the principles of our holy religion, by making them known to others, to save Israel and bring out those the Lord has scattered, to aid in building up Zion, and in building temples of the Most High, wherein we may go and receive the blessings of eternity. We hold our property--our possessions--on the altar, ready at a moment's notice to be handed over to subserve the cause of Zion.
Notwithstanding these are our feelings, our governmental and temporal affairs are kept as distinct from our religious concerns as are those of any other people, and far more so than are those of many others. We have never organized a political party, as some people have done, to enable us to express our peculiar conscientious notions about freedom, slavery, and Catholicism, about which so much phrenzied zeal has been exhibited during the past ten years. Our holy religion does not interfere with our political or governmental affairs, only to make us more competent, faithful, and energetic in the duties pertaining thereunto. It is eminently above all such considerations, and only influences them, as it does all the varied duties of life, by lending its aid, light, and intelligence.
These are the principles which unite us together; let us keep them warm in our bosoms, and be alive and continue to increase in the knowledge of God. Let us strive to have our minds expand, and let us perform our duties with an eye single to the glory of God, and the advancement of His cause. In this course we see our own salvation and eternal exaltation, and find the road we ought to travel, and we cannot find anything outside of this worth having. We are interested in it; it is the best investment we can make. No matter how poor a person may be, he can be faithful and work the work of righteousness, and it is the poor and meek that will inherit the earth.
I ask my Heavenly Father to bless us one and all, individually and collectively, and to preserve us and enable us to remain firm in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may not go astray but cling to the principles of life and salvation, cleaving to the Lord our God, serving Him with willing hearts and minds perfectly, and do it because we like to do it, being partakers of the truth because we love it, and for the principle's sake, and because it is better than anything else. It is meat, drink, clothing, and lodging to us, as well as everything else worth having. If we will do this, we need not fear for the future.
If we have our wives and children arising around us and multiplying greatly, let us all be for God, and other things will come along in their season. We sacrificed all things when we came into this kingdom, laid aside our former associations in life, and left everything that pertained to them, regardless of the future and of the consequences resulting therefrom, and can we not keep on this same road, preserve those feelings which filled our bosoms when we came into the Church and kingdom of our God, and strip ourselves of every earthly tie for God? We can do this, if we are disposed. We will do it, and I verily believe that we will get the majority of this people at last. Many may turn aside, but that makes no difference. Those who remain faithful will get their reward, while those who turn away will, in a time to come, see where they have missed it.
Let me exhort you to do the works of righteousness and be faithful in the kingdom of God, and cleave together unto Him with full purpose of heart, and work the works of righteousness all your days, and never falter and fall. I know we shall not fall, but the kingdom will increase and grow and spread abroad, and her stakes will be strengthened, and her cords will be lengthened, and the kingdoms of this world will be broken in pieces, and become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. We shall accomplish this work, or our children will. The purposes of the Almighty cannot fail; the kingdom is set up and established, never more to be thrown down.
We are aware that the world is arrayed against us, and has it not been so from the beginning? But what have they been able to accomplish against this people? If they have driven and scattered us, they have scattered the seed still wider, and it will be so again. They do not know who they are fooling with; they are fooling with the Lord. He knows how to set up His kingdom, and if we are submissive in His hands, like clay in the hands of the potter, we shall not again be scattered and peeled. We have heretofore been driven measurably because of our unrighteousness, and of our unworthiness, and God's inability through that cause to bless us, and because of the wickedness of the wicked. How soon would another persecution have come on us I cannot say, if the people had not turned around and sought the Lord with penitent hearts.
I trust that persecution will be warded off now a few years longer, and that the blessings of the Almighty will be drawn upon the people. I know that He delights to bless His people, but He has to chastise them like a parent has to chastise an unruly child. These chastisements have not hindered the rolling on of His work, for it has rolled on with accelerated power all the time. The people have had to suffer, more or less, but we are in His hands, and if we want to draw down His blessings upon us, we must do our duty, or the chastisements of the Almighty will be upon us again, as in times past, for our good. They will not impede the progress of His work, but it will go forth with still greater accelerated power.
May God bless us and enable us to work the work of righteousness in His sight all the days of our lives, for His Son's sake. Amen.
UNION OF THE SAINTS--THE WORLD IS TRAINED TO BE SELFISH--WE ARE DEPENDANT [sic] UPON CHRIST AND EACH OTHER--INDIVIDUAL EXERTION NECESSARY TO ACCOMPLISH THE PURPOSES OF GOD.
Discourse by Elder Lorenzo Snow, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, March 1, 1857.
I am not much in the habit of taking texts, especially of late years, and more especially since the commencement of the reformation. However, this afternoon, I think I will take a text, as a subject for the few remarks that I may make on this occasion, and that one was presented to me this morning when in conversation with brother Kimball, and that text is embraced in one word, which is Union.
I expect that a great deal might be said on this subject, and probably a great deal has been said, but more may yet be said, and that which intimately concerns us at the present time. If we would rightly understand things as they are, a more interesting subject could not be introduced at the present time, and it embraces a great deal more than what we should be enabled to say in one hour, or in one day. Unless we go into the practice of paying more attention and more regard to the interests of others, we shall not get along as a people, near so well as, perhaps, many of us have been anticipating.
In the Gentile world, where the Gospel first reached us, our manner of training, our habits and our education, all went to influence our minds to look after self, and never to let our contemplations or meditations go beyond that which pertained to ourselves. In making any exertion that would in any way tend to benefit our selves, to exalt ourselves, and assist us in amassing riches, or in gathering information that would confirm or aid in the bringing about this object, we considered we were doing first-rate, for that was the object of life with us.
We then depended upon ourselves almost entirely, and thought that we should have means around us, gathered for the purpose of securing ourselves from the evils that we found we were continually exposed to, in regard to poverty and in regard to the lack of friends. We were all looking within ourselves, we regarded our own dear selves in all our meditations, and directed all our exertions for our own individual benefit. This is what our parents taught us to a great extent, and it mattered, with us, but very little, how or what course was pursued if we could gain those things we desired, if we could secure to ourselves those things which were necessary for our own comfort, and for our own individual temporal convenience.
This is the education of the world, and this is the way they are taught, this is one reason we have so much difficulty in acting upon the principles of union. Then it should not seem so very strange that the same feelings that were in the minds of the people around us, that were instilled into us by traditions, should linger around us at the present time, and become a blind or a barrier against receiving those blessings and privileges that we might otherwise receive, and be injurious to us when we receive the Gospel and endeavour to become Saints of God.
I can discover that these things have extended and spread themselves in the feelings and hearts of the Saints pretty extensively, and they act very powerfully in hindering the Saints from obtaining the blessings and privileges which it is their right to receive. Until these feelings are removed, we shall be liable to be baffled in regard to the blessings that are promised to the people of God.
We talk considerably in regard to the principle of loving our neighbours as well as we love ourselves; we talk about it, and we sometimes think about it, but how much do we really enter into the spirit of these things, and see that the difficulty lies within ourselves. We must understand that we have got to act upon certain principles by which we can bind ourselves together as a people, to bind our feelings together that we may become one, and this never can be accomplished unless certain things are done, and things that require an exertion on our part. How would you go to work to bind yourselves together? How would a man go to work to unite himself with his neighbour? If two men were associated together who had never been acquainted, how would they go to work to secure each other's friendship, attachment, and affection one towards another? Why something would have to be done, and that not by one party only, but would have to be done by one as well as by the other. It would not answer for one to do the business alone; it would not do for one to answer those feelings and do the work himself, but in order to become as one in their sentiments and affection, the action of both would be requisite.
Now it is so ordered and so arranged, that we are dependent, in a great measure, one upon another. For instance, take us as a people, we are dependent upon a being that is above us to secure our peace, our happiness, our glory, and exaltation; we are individually dependent upon the exertions of an individual who is above ourselves.
For instance, we are all dependent upon Jesus Christ, upon his coming into the world to open the way whereby we might secure peace, happiness, and exaltation. And had he not made these exertions, we never could have been secured in these blessings and privileges which are guaranteed unto us in the Gospel, through the mediation of Jesus Christ, for he made the necessary exertions.
In order to accomplish the gathering of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, there had to be something done to liberate them from their thraldom, and this something had to be done by a higher power, by an individual that had more wisdom, more intelligence, more understanding, and more power and means within his hands for the purpose of securing those blessings which they needed. They never could have got out from their difficulties nor from their bondage, unless this power had been exerted by one who had more intelligence, more knowledge, more information in relation to the means of their deliverance.
It is just so in a thousand other cases, there has to be a power exercised for the benefit of the people, there has to be exertions made, and they never can receive the blessings and privileges that are for them, unless those exertions were made by an individual possessing more knowledge, more wisdom, and greater power than themselves.
Jesus, on a certain occasion, speaking to Peter, said to him, "Simon Peter, lovest thou me?" he answered that he did. Well, then, replied Jesus, "feed my sheep." Jesus interrogated him again, saying, "Simon Peter, lovest thou me?" Peter answered, "I do, Lord." Jesus said unto him, "Feed my lambs." In this case we perceive there was an exertion to be made for the benefit of those that had not that power and information, but this alone is not sufficient.
Had Moses, for instance, having done all that he did, had he delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, and having done all that he could and all that mortal man could do for their redemption, having done all in his power, and been willing to lay down his life and to sacrifice everything that he had to accomplish that work, would he have secured the people to himself, and have brought about that union which was so necessary, without any exertion on their part? No, most assuredly it would not have been accomplished, for there had to be a return, an exertion on their part, in order to secure that union and that love, and to secure that fellowship between them and him, which it was necessary should exist, and so it is in reference to Jesus Christ, though he has sacrificed himself and laid the plan for the redemption of the people, yet unless the people labour to obtain that union between him and them, their salvation never will be accomplished. Thus we see that some thing has to be done by each party, in order to secure each other's friendship, and to bind us together as a community.
Now, let an individual possess information and intelligence, and let that individual be one who holds the Holy Priesthood, a man who has been in the Church for years and years, let him be one that is filled with knowledge and understanding, and let him go to work and look about him, or in other words, let him consider there are others around him that are less favoured than himself, and that they are not all so strong, nor so forward in the blessings and graces of the Gospel as he is. Let him reflect that those around him desire the intelligence and blessings that God has given him through his greater experience in the things of the kingdom; then begin to impart that information to those around him, and to communicate his strength to those that are weak, and shadow forth his light to those who are in darkness. Then, so far as regards himself he is doing that which is necessary for him to do to secure their good feelings and affections to himself.
But let him take the opposite course, and think of improving his own dear self, and that there is only himself to be saved, that all he has to accomplish is to secure life and salvation for himself, and only think of his own sins, to reform himself, and to take care of himself. A man who takes this course is going upon a principle that will always keep him bound up and contracted in his feelings and contracted in his views, and will never accomplish the thing that is desired.
As, for instance, you let an individual keep his ideas and knowledge to himself in going on to acquire any information in relation to any particular branch of study or business, will he ever accomplish the thing that is required?
A great many pursue this course in reference to their mechanical skill, but this is not the right way.
In pursuing any kind of study, a man has to continue to work, and after going through one course, he has to go through again, and keep at work in order to make himself master of them, and he never will master them near so well as by communicating his information while engaged in gaining it. Let him go to work and gather up his friends, and endeavour to give them the same knowledge that he has received, and he then begins to find himself being enlightened upon those things which he never would have known unless by pursuing that course of teaching, and imparting the information he is in possession of unto others. Any one that has been a school teacher will understand me well upon this point.
So you perceive that he who indulges in this narrow contracted kind of feeling, instead of benefiting himself in keeping the knowledge he possesses within himself, he is the loser in considering that by keeping all he has received to himself he would be exalted in spirit, in knowledge, and intelligence.
Let a man remember that there are others that are in darkness and that have not advanced so far in knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence, and let him impart that knowledge, intelligence, and power unto his friends and brethren, inasmuch as he is farther advanced than they are, and by so doing he will soon discover that his mind will expand, and that light and knowledge which he had gained would increase and multiply more rapidly.
I have heard brother Kimball state that when he was very much down-hearted, he would find somebody worse than himself, and endeavour to comfort him up, and by so doing he would comfort himself, and increase in spirit and in life. It is upon this principle that I am speaking.
If you want to secure the friendship and affections of our friends, go to work and comfort them with that light which you have received, remembering those blessings came down from God, and that by doing this you are only doing what every man should do.
Those of you who have got the Priesthood, go and make friends among the individuals by whom you are surrounded; or select one and try to start his feelings, his faith, his circumstances, and his mind, and try to enlighten them, and if they are sinners, endeavour to save them from their sins, and bring them from their bondage in which they are placed, to participate in the light and liberty which you participate in, for in this way you can do good through the information which the Lord has imparted to you. In this way you will discover that their minds will be drawn out towards you, and their affections will be gained and centred upon you.
In order that this thing may be accomplished, and in order that those blessings which are necessary may be secured, and that the feelings and faith that we want as a people may be secured to us, we have to go to work individually and more anxiously, more ambitiously than we have done before to bind each other's feelings together.
Now, for instance, take a shepherd who has charge of a large flock of sheep; he goes into his field, and his flock hasten to gather around him, and follow after him. How is this accomplished? The shepherd has gone from day to day, and from time to time, with plenty of salt, and they discover that he has it with him every time he makes his appearance, and that he has those things that are necessary to supply their wants. They learn by experience, that he has looked after their welfare, and they appreciate his kindness; it is a good deal so among men.
If you will allow me to carry out the figure, though perhaps it may not apply quite so well as some other, but it is the one now upon my mind. You let the President of your settlement, or the Bishop, or President Brigham Young, for instance, continue to administer incessantly among this people, and let them do all that individuals will call upon them to do; they will be worn down, and as brother Kimball was speaking, unless there is something done by the people as a return for that which is done by those men, there never will be a perfect people, but will be very far off from perfection. And it is still more so in regard to the cultivation of that feeling which is necessary for us to have one for another.
In regard to the shepherd's flock of sheep, what do they do in reference to making a return for the good that is done to them? Is it sufficient for them to return one tenth part of their wool, which would be a very great source of benefit, providing they only give that? If one of them could speak and say we will give you one tenth part of our wool for the purpose of manifesting unto you our gratitude, would not that be a very good and proper acknowledgement?
But they do more than this, they do as brother Kimball was speaking, they put every thing into the reservoir, they return their entire fleece. This secures a very good feeling in the shepherd or in the bosom of the farmer towards the sheep that he has been administering to, and they find themselves, after the next year comes round, in possession of a great abundance.
Well, I was thinking of these things as brother Kimball was speaking this morning. If the people had confidence in the things which are taught, and if they would let their minds expand, and throw in their substance for the establishment of Zion and the extension of the kingdom of God, they would learn that it is the very principle upon which they would receive stores of those things which they are after.
But there is a fearfulness in the minds of the people, they are afraid to trust their substance in the hands of the Lord, but if we expect acts of kindness and affection; if we understand our true position, and want to secure the affections of the Almighty and all good men, so that they will be bound to us, we have got do [sic] something that will secure to us those affections, and other manifestations of that kindness which we have previously participated in.
If individuals would look upon this principle as they should look upon it, view it in its proper light, they would take much more pains than they do, for they would see the necessity of binding the feelings of their brethren together, they would see and understand the importance of this more than they do at the present time, and they would enter into the spirit of it. We might carry this principle into families, and illustrate upon it quite largely.
For instance, if you ever secure a union in any family in Zion, if you ever secure that heavenly union which is necessary to exist there, you have got to bind that family together in one, and there has got to be the Spirit of the Lord in the head of that family, and he should possess that light and that intelligence, which, if carried out in the daily life and conduct of those individuals, will prove the salvation of that family, for he holds their salvation in his hands.
He goes to work, and associates his feelings and affections with theirs as far as lies in his power, and endeavours to secure all those things that are necessary for their comfort and welfare, and they, on the other part, have got to turn round and manifest the same feeling, the same kindness, and the same disposition, and to the utmost of their ability manifest feelings of gratitude for the blessings which they receive.
This is necessary, that there may be a oneness of feeling, or oneness of sentiment and a corresponding affection, that they being one, may be bound together in this way. Now, it is just the same in regard to ourselves as neighbours, as Saints of God, as individuals that hold the Priesthood, and that have travelled in the light of truth, and got the power of God upon them, and who know what salvation is.
The things of God have been revealed to this people, that they may go to work and obtain more faith and more confidence in God than any other people upon the face of the whole earth. We have to eat, drink, and clothe ourselves, as well as other people, but in gaining these things we should regard sacredly each other's rights. When two individuals are bound together, as they eventually must be if they ever stand in the presence of God, rather than to take a course to injure each other's feelings, when they are united as they should be and as they will be, they would sooner have a limb severed from their body, they would sooner suffer any thing that could be executed upon them than to disturb or hurt each other's feelings. There would be the same love that existed between David and Jonathan. Before David would do anything to disturb the feelings of Jonathan, he would have suffered a hundred-fold of trouble to come upon himself. I think we sometimes pass by those things which are of such great importance. I often think of the little anecdote that is recorded in the Bible about the sons of the prophets. On a certain occasion, when the sons of the Prophets were cutting timber, it appears that the axe fell off the handle into the water, and it seemed there was a great disturbance in the feelings of the young Prophets. Why, says one, master, the axe was borrowed, and it seems there was quite an anxiety about the axe on account of its being borrowed property. I have thought that had the circumstance transpired in these days the expression would have been on this wise, "O, it is no matter, master, the axe was borrowed." But in those days they had feelings in regard to their neighbours, and in consequence of this the power of God could be manifested for the purpose of raising the axe from the bottom of the water. Thus we see they had feelings of interest for the welfare of their neighbours and friends as well as for themselves.
Now an individual, in order to secure the highest and greatest blessings to himself, in order to secure the approbation of the Almighty, and in order to continually improve in the things pertaining to righteousness, he must do all things to the best advantage. Let him go to work and be willing to sacrifice for the benefit of his friends. If he wants to build himself up, the best principle he can do it upon is to build up his friends. This is the same principle I wish to refer your minds to in relation to the master who wished to make himself perfect in those sciences which he had partially studied, and he did it by communicating to his scholars that information which he had obtained, and he did it again and again, and by teaching them he improved himself.
You, brethren, that are going forward in any undertaking, and that want to get rich, and that want to make large farms, to get many wives, and to extend your household and your popularity, you make up your minds to make your wives comfortable, to feed and clothe your children, and do those things that are required of you. But while you are engaged in this, let your minds be expanded to comprehend and look after the interest of your friends that are around you, and where it is in your power to secure benefits to you [sic] friends do so, and in so doing, you will find that those things which you need will come into your hands quicker than if you labour entirely to secure them to yourselves, independent of regarding the interests of your friends. I know this is a good and important principle.
Now if a man has been blessed of the Lord, and has got information from the eternal world, has been endowed with much grace and knowledge from on high, and is one to whom the Lord has imparted many great and glorious blessings, when he comes in contact with his friends that are around him, and that have not had this advantage and this experience, if they in their arrangements should run across his track, let him exercise these godly feelings which will tend to secure their confidence and good will. And just so far as he exercises them above that of his fellows, he exhibits the education that he has received in the principles of righteousness, and just in proportion as a person does this to those that are ignorant around him, just in that proportion will he secure the good feelings of those individuals; it cannot do otherwise. Peradventure in a future day, when through the mercy of the Lord that darkness is taken away, and they receive the knowledge that you have, they will discover that you have acted upon the principles of mercy and salvation, and in consequence of that you secure their good feelings, their faith, their prayers, and their confidence; this is upon natural principles. You will find that wherever you exhibit a feeling of brotherly love, you secure that brotherly friendship and kindness which is so desirable. I can refer you to your own experience in this; I can think of a thousand instances of the kind. I can think of thousands of instances where brother Brigham and brother Heber imparted to me certain knowledge and blessings, under certain circumstances then surrounding me; I remember them, they are fresh in my memory, and those acts have secured a feeling in my bosom that never could have been there had not those acts of kindness created it. You take the same course, and so far as you have exercised yourself in the Priesthood, and secured the blessings and knowledge of your Priesthood, you may work for your friends upon the same principle, and if you consider the circumstances by which they are surrounded, and act so far as may be consistent with your calling, and if they have got the spirit that is wrong, and that you perceive would lead to apostacy, go to work and see what they want, and see what portion of information you can impart to them. If they want those things that are good, and you see that through their misfortune and weakness they have got into darkness, try to get that spirit from them, and you will discover when they have overcome the evils of their nature, and secured their salvation, you will find that you have bound their feelings to you in such a way they never will be severed, and when you need a manifestation of friendship, you will always find a friend in time of need. Now this can be done, but not without some self-sacrifice. We have just got to feel, brethren, that there are other people besides ourselves; we have got to look into the hearts and feelings of others, and become more godly than what we are now.
We should be bound together and act like David and Jonathan as the heart of one, and sooner let our arm be severed from our bodies than injure each other. What a mighty people we would be if we were in this condition, and we have got to go into it, however little feelings of friendship we may have in exercise at the present time. I can just tell you that the day will come when we must become united in this way if we ever see the presence of God. We shall have to learn to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. We must go into this, however, far we are from it at the present time, yet no matter, we must learn these principles and establish them in our bosoms. Now this I can see clearly, and that is the reason why I talk about these matters in the style in which I do, for I wish to plant them in the minds of the Saints, and to have these things among their every day feelings. I see that some of the Saints are laying a foundation to destroy the confidence of their brethren. If a person will allow himself to fall into temptation of this kind because others do, and to transgress the law of right, to come in contact with things that pertain to the rights of his brethren, and trample upon the interest of his brethren, he may see the day that he will repent in sorrow, and not have forgiveness as soon as he would like.
Now let a person trample upon the interests of brother Brigham, while he is endeavouring to do him good, would he not find that his confidence in God is departing? A man that would do this, would just as soon trample upon the rights of the Lord, for he is doing this, and the man that will trample upon the rights of his brethren, no matter who they are, he will trample upon the rights of any man, if he can do it and get along without being particularly punished. If in our movements and dealings with each other we are seriously tempted in these matters, we have got to know that it is our business to learn to secure the peace and happiness of those that are around us, and never take a course to trample upon the feelings and rights of our neighbours. Let a man go and trample upon the rights of a brother, and how long would it take him to destroy that feeling of confidence that had heretofore existed between them? And when once destroyed, how long will it take to establish that feeling which once existed between them? It will take a great while. This is what we have to place our eye upon; I feel it is so; in all our thinking, in all our movements, and in our secret meditations, we want to let our minds reflect upon the interests of all around; and to consider that they have rights and privileges as well as ourselves; we ought to have this firmly established in our minds.
Now you take a man that is continually looking after the interests of the people around him, and let him feel to bless anything and all things that belongs to his brethren, and he will in this way establish happiness in himself and around him. Let a man take the opposite course, and instead of blessing and labouring for the benefit of others, find fault and pull down, will he make the same improvement? Assuredly he will not.
I think the people are very good, and that they feel first-rate towards brother Brigham and the general authorities of the Church, they feel to bless them all the time. At the same time they do not feel in the way I think they might feel; but they feel like blessing, and actually do have a first-rate good feeling, especially when filled with the good Spirit as they have been of late. They have not been accustomed to make any sacrifice of a temporal character, and I think they do not feel in this way as they might, if they had more understanding. They feel to bless all around them, and their feelings of kindness are first-rate. Now this is a very good thing, but a person that can take all his temporal substance that is valuable, comfortable, happifying, and nice, and take of that substance for the purpose of benefiting another, that is the way I should think a man could show that he is establishing those principles in himself. If we feel that it is our duty to go to work more ambitiously than what we have done to secure confidence, we will proceed, if it is in our power, to yield temporal blessings and favours, to secure the friendship of those around us. In this way, and in no other, can we be bound together, and manifest that we have a kind and brotherly feeling. We must exhibit this feeling by our works, and instead of shaking a person by the hand, and saying, God bless you, my good fellow, and the next day pay no regard to what we have previously said, but trample upon his best feelings and sever them from us.
I feel that if we secure to ourselves the blessings and privileges of this reformation, we must also try to secure something for the interests of those that are around us, for there is a self sacrifice to be made for the interests of those with whom we are associated. We see this in brother Joseph, and we see it in our President. Jesus, brother Joseph, and brother Brigham have always been willing to sacrifice all they possess for the good of the people; that is what gives brother Brigham power with God and power with the people, it is the self-sacrificing feeling that he is all the time exhibiting. It is so with others, just in proportion as they are willing to sacrifice for others, so they get God in them, and the blessings of the eternal worlds are upon them, and they are the ones that will secure not only the rights of this world, but will secure the blessings of eternity. Just in proportion as you women, you wives, sacrifice one for another, just in that proportion you will advance in the things of God. Now if you want to get heaven, within you, and to get into heaven you want to pursue that course that angels do who are in heaven. If you want to know how you are to increase, I will tell you, it is by getting godliness within you.
Let angels be here, do you suppose that they would enjoy themselves here? They would until they felt disposed to leave. Well just so individuals can enjoy heaven around them in all places. We have got to go to work and do this; we must go to work and establish heaven upon this earth, notwithstanding the evils that are around us, the devils that are around us, and notwithstanding the wickedness that exists, still we have got to go to work and establish heaven upon this earth.
A person never can enjoy heaven until he learns how to get it, and to act upon its principles. Now you take some individuals, and you refer back to the circumstances that surrounded them twenty years ago, when they were living in log huts, when they had a certain amount of joy, of peace, of happiness at that time, though things were uncomfortable. Now they may have secured comfortable circumstances and temporal means that would administer to their temporal wants and necessities, but if they have not secured friends, the good feelings of their brethren, they are unhappy, and more so than they were twenty years ago.
I do not feel to occupy more of the time to-day, but may the Lord bless you brethren and sisters, and may you think of these things, and may we love each other, and live so to exalt ourselves as far as the Lord shall give us wisdom and ability, and secure confidence with each other, which may the Lord grant for Christ's sake. Amen.
OBEDIENCE PRODUCES CONFIDENCE--CONSECRATION--CONCENTRATION OF INTERESTS--ETC.
Discourse, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1857.
A more sensitive man than brother Joseph Smith never lived, and that sensitiveness was in proportion to the light he had. So it is with brother Brigham, and so it is with brother Heber, and so it is with brother Daniel, and it will increase upon him as he presses his way forward, and works in the harness, and becomes used to it; and he will be just as good a teamhorse as the Lord ever used, and I know it.
I will speak of brother Joseph Young. I often speak of him; he is one of the most sensitive men that ever walked on the earth, and that is in proportion to the light he has, and if the Lord had not laid His hands on him and said, "My servant Joseph, be thou sick and go to thy bed and rest, he would have been in his grave long ago. His late sickness saved his life. That may be a curiosity to you, but the best days I ever had with regard to the happiness of my spirit, have been when I was prostrate on my bed, and in reality could not help myself. People will say, "O how I pity such and such brethren and sisters, because they are unwell." If persons would appreciate their blessings when they are on beds of sickness, and say, "Father, thy will be done, and not mine," there would be no room for that pity. When necessary in God's providences towards me, I would as soon lay on a bed of sickness as to do anything else, for we have got to learn that lesson. I have to struggle, and brother Brigham has to struggle to exist here on the earth.
I will say, not that I speak of these things to boast, that if this people, both men and women, would pray, and that devoutly before God in their secret places, one quarter as much as brother Brigham, and I, and brother Joseph Young do, you would see different days from what you see to-day. When Jesus came to his people on this continent, and appeared in their midst, they could not at first realize and appreciate him. They saw him and felt the wounds in his side, in his hands, and in his feet, and he talked with them and instructed them, and chose and instructed twelve disciples. And after healing their sick and blessing their children, he administered bread and wine to the people, and taught them to "watch and pray always." He could not heal their sick, until through prayer they had become humble, and got the power of God on them. And when he had done this he said, bring all your children, and he blessed them one by one, and the power of God rested on them, and angels descended from heaven and encircled them round about, and ministered to them before the eyes of the people.
What do you suppose we are going to do with you? Are you ever going to be prepared to see God, Jesus Christ, His angels, or comprehend His servants, unless you take a faithful and prayerful course? Did you actually know Joseph Smith? No. Do you know brother Brigham? No. Do you know brother Heber? No, you do not. Do you know the Twelve? You do not, if you did, you would begin to know God, and learn that those men who are chosen to direct and counsel you are near kindred to God and to Jesus Christ, for the keys, power, and authority of the kingdom of God are in that lineage. I speak of these things with a view to arouse your feelings and your faithfulness towards God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, that you may pray and be humble, and penitent.
When Jesus Christ came to this earth, he came to fulfil the law, and he taught the people to seek to the Father with a broken heart and contrite spirit, and then whatever they asked He would give. If you so come unto Him, repenting and being sorry for your sins, then He will hear you and forgive you, and He will forgive this whole people. Why? Because brother Brigham never would have said to you that God would forgive you if you would repent, unless he had received some intimation of that kind from the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But brother Brigham told you the truth, and the Lord will forgive you, if you stop sinning now, and begin anew to-day to work righteousness with full purpose of heart. Then through continued faithfulness that Spirit, light, and glory will rest upon you, that brother Joseph has been talking about this morning.
I am speaking of these things to comfort you, for they comfort me. I am talking to you of nothing more than what I know, feel, and have experienced. What brother Joseph Young has said, is good. I feel very well in my body and in my spirit, that is, I feel well in regard to the things of God. I feel well, because there are some trying to live their religion, and worship their God in spirit and in truth. When they hear the servants of God declare the truth here, they understand it, and the seed springs up, and brings forth fruit to the glory of God, and that fruit will remain. But there are others who hear the word and do not conceive; they sit and hear the voice of God speaking through His servants, and like the sound thereof, but the moment they leave this place they forget it.
Some say that they have not faith, that they cannot believe. What is faith? It is confidence. What is confidence? It is faith. Some people are striving and striving to get faith, when saving faith is simply confidence in God, flowing from walking in obedience to His commandments. When you have confidence in yourself, in any man, woman, or child, you have faith; and when you have not confidence, you have not faith. I believe they are co-partners, and the principle of faith and confidence is synonymous to me.
If you have not faith to deed your property over to the Trustee in Trust, it is because you have not confidence in the Trustee in Trust. If you had confidence in him, you would have faith in him. You may pay your tithing--you may tithe your sage, mint, and catnip, and this and that, and the other, and after all you may be leaving the more weighty matters undone. It is not best to become stereotyped in paying tithing and stop at that; but if you are going to become stereotyped, I wish you to stereotype the whole edition, and let it remain so, and then go on and make another. I do not object to your stereotyping one letter at a time, if you will go on through the whole edition.
In regard to deeding over your property, no one compels you to do it. I do not compel you to do it, the Trustee in Trust does not, God does not; but He says that if you will do this, that and the other thing which He has counselled for our good, do so, and prove Him. He goes to work and proves us, as we go to work and prove one another under various circumstances. The Lord says, cast in your tithes, and then your offerings. Tithing is one thing, and offerings are another. And when that is done, consecrate your property to the Church, and make strong the hands of our President, and he will handle and distribute it to the best advantage. We are to be tried in all things, like unto Abraham, and God even told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. He went and built the altar, got the wood and the knife, and was ready to do the work; but instead of offering up his son, the Lord said to him, take this ram and offer him up, and put your son to usury, and he shall become a multitude of nations--his offspring shall be as numerous as the sands on the sea shore, and as the stars in the firmament. It will be just so with the property deeded over to the Trustee in Trust; every man becomes a steward, and puts out his property to usury. The principle of the consecration is to hold property secure and in the channel of blessings and increase.
Our property should not be dearer to us than salvation, and should freely be put to the best use for building up the kingdom of God. To illustrate my ideas, I will use a comparison. Here is my little finger, does not the blood go into that finger as freely and as fully, in proportion as it goes into my leg, or into my arm? Does it always stay there? Does that little finger become selfish--superstitious with the principle of idolatry--and never restore that blood to the fountain? No, for if it did, the fountain would be weakened, and the finger would wither, because of an interrupted communication. How can this Church exist upon any other principle than that of free interchange according to the dictation of the head? My finger restores back the blood to the fountain, where it again becomes impregnated with the principles of life, and then when it goes back again is not that finger impregnated with the power of my vitality--of my attributes? If that is a fact, when we take the same course with the things of God and turn in our property, it will become empowered with the attributes of God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and of all those who act with them in the eternal worlds, and from them to us, and from us back to the throne of God. And except we become impregnated with saving principles as they exist with God, with Jesus Christ, with angels, with Peter and with Joseph, you may bid farewell to salvation, every soul of you.
I wish that this whole people would so get religion that brother Brigham and myself, and other good men could always freely and fully teach you all things pertaining to salvation, and show you your condition, even as the Lord views it. Here is the kingdom of God, here are the Prophet and the Apostles, the Patriarch, and all the leading men of Israel, and where is there a man in Europe, or in any other country, who sprung from this Church, but what sprung from the authority, the life, vitals, and power of this Church and kingdom? If he has not got his power unto salvation in this Church, he has not any power towards an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of our God. And those who have power from the true source have not predominance over those who hold the keys in advance of them, for the kingdom of God is a kingdom of order. How can you become impregnated with the spirit and power of God, except you become impregnated through us? There is no true path, except to do as you are told by those whom the Lord has called and chosen, and placed to direct you.
I do not care so much whether you have faith or not, for if you have confidence in yourselves, I would risk the confidence you should have in us. And if you have lost confidence in yourselves, you will not have much confidence in your brethren; and in that case I want to know what confidence you can have in your God? The Lord often takes a course to try the confidence of His people, for He planted a branch of the olive tree in the poorest spot in all the land of His vineyard, and He caused it to yield much fruit that was good. That was considered a marvellous work, and one of His servants said, "How camest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? for behold it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him, counsel me not, but go to and do all things as I command you."
Now suppose I should say, here, John, William, and Richard, I want you to go up near the arsenal and dig a well, and when you have dug ten feet you will find water. They would be very apt to say, "We have not a particle of confidence in that operation." I would reply, I do not care about that; it is the well I want, and that will afford water. They go to work without one particle of confidence in what I say, and dig to the depth of ten feet, and come to good water. By so doing, have they not obtained knowledge without confidence? Yes, by their works. And Jesus says, by your works shall you be judged, and by your works shall you be justified. John, Bill, and Dick, dig the well, and I have accomplished my design with them, though they had not a particle of confidence in me, nor in God. And when they have found water, they say, "That gives me confidence in you, brother Heber, and in your God." The result of their works gives them confidence. It may stimulate some of you to go to work upon that principle, viz., to do as you are told, without knowing whether you will get water or not.
Well, go to work and dig the Big Cottonwood canal on the same principle. Begin to-morrow morning, and do not cease until that canal is done, and I will warrant the water to come, and when it comes, that will increase your confidence. Brethren, will you all with your Bishops lay aside everything that is not of greater importance, and go to work on that canal until it is finished? If you will work, instead of merely saying you will, and go to with all your hearts, it will be but a short time before you see the rock being boated on it for our Temple; and it need not be only a few years before the Temple is built, wherein you will receive your endowments and blessings. And God our Father will protect us and give us good peace, until we have accomplished that work and many other things. He will strengthen our feet and fill our granaries.
Will you go to work at once on the canal, letting your Bishops lead out and you follow? If you will, raise your right hands. [All hands were raised.] If you live up to the covenant now made, you will soon accomplish the work; and it will be but a few days before the ground will be in readiness for ploughing and seeding, and God will bless the earth and strengthen it to yield an abundance, through your going and doing that little work, and letting the water into that canal, so that we can boat rock from the quarry unto this place. Let us go to and do, instead of merely saying. That is drawing our feelings into the one reservoir.
Upon the same principle, let every man render over his property with an eternal deed that cannot be broken; throw it all into the big reservoir. Suppose that one puts in one drop, another two, another ten, and another a hundred, do you not see, when you throw in your property--your substance--into one reservoir, that it makes us all one, and that you cannot become one without this principle? You may work to all eternity, and never connect the branch with the vine, upon any other principle than that of putting your property and temporal blessings with your spiritual interests, whereby they will both become one. If you do not do that, I do not mean in one thing only, but in everything that God requires of you by His servants, if you do not bring your substance forward and lay it down at the Apostles' feet, you will be stripped. Brother Brigham is the chief Apostle of Jesus, and he is our President, our Prophet, and our leader, and we the Twelve are his brethren, and you have got to lay down your substance at their feet, as the Saints did in the days of the ancient Apostles of Jesus.
Look at Ananias and Sapphira. I have heard you read their history a great many times, and talk about it. They came with a part of their substance, and lied about it. You may do as you have a mind to. In one sense, we do not care whether you lie, or tell the truth. If you tell the truth and do right, who is blessed? Is it any one but yourselves? It is not brother Brigham, nor brother Heber, only in connection with you, inasmuch as you take a course to do right; for being members of the same body to which we are connected, it influences the whole body, and the whole body is blessed at the same time. It does not particularly make any difference with us, as individuals.
You have got to render an account of everything you have, for we are all stewards. You Bishops, Seventies, High Priests, Elders, Priests, Teachers, Deacons, and members, where did you get the Priesthood and authority you hold? It came from this very authority, the First Presidency that sits here in this stand. There was an authority before us, and we got our authority from that, and you got it from us, and this authority is with the First Prisidency [sic]. Now do not go off and say that you are independent of that authority. Where did you get your wives? Who gave them to you? By what authority were they given to you? Where did you get anything?'
If you do not take the course you have been told to take, and as I am trying to tell you, viz., to render all you have on this earth, every man in this Church and kingdom will be as bare when he leaves this earth as he will find himself when he gets out of it for he cannot even take his shroud with him nor a pair of stockings. I do not care if he has forty wives and a thousand children, every soul of them will be taken from him. Your wives are given to you as a stewardship to improve upon in building up and establishing the kingdom of God, and your children are given to you as a stewardship. Where did their spirits come from? Did they come from you? No; they came from God. Who is the Father of those spirits? God, and He will require them of you, and those spirits have also got to give an account to their Father from whom they came; they have got to render up an account. Thus you see, that you have to render an account of your wives and children, of your substance, and everything that pertains to this earth, and you cannot avoid it, without suffering a loss.
I want to get you to live your religion, and worship our God. I am not troubled about our not prospering; I trouble myself about living my religion and being faithful to the things of God, and that leads me to confidence, if not in myself, in my leader. It is not so much matter [sic--phrase] about my trying to obtain confidence in myself, or in you. We are to be connected like a vine, and then when we receive any good thing we will become impregnated with God, with Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, and with angels, and it is the only way in which we can become one.
I feel as brother Joseph Young feels. God bless him, and may he live a hundred years, if he wants to. I pray that God may renew him in body and blood, and bless him with every good thing that he desires; also brother Brigham, and brother Daniel, and brother Heber, and every other good man. That is my prayer and my feeling. And may the Lord bless every good woman with the same blessings.
Brethren, tumble in your interest into this great reservoir, and we will drink up the earth. And if you do not do it, as the Lord lives, the First Presidency of this Church and the Twelve will drink you up. If you trifle with me, when I tell you the truth, you will trifle with brother Brigham; and if you trifle with him, you will also trifle with angels and with God, and thus you will trifle yourselves down to hell. You cannot with impunity trifle with God, for the day is too far advanced for that. Do not trouble yourselves about your sins if you have repented of them; and if you have not, it is time you did.
I will say to the Bishops in general, take those who are humble, those who have repented and made restitution, and baptize them for the remission of their sins, and then lay hands upon them, that they may receive the Holy Ghost, and they will receive it, if you take counsel and do right. And you will feel as you never felt before since you were born, and the works of God will continue, if you will do right, for the time has come.
God bless you, peace be with you for ever. Amen.
MISAPPLICATION OF THE TERM SACRIFICE--THE SAINTS ARE GAINERS BY THE WORK OF GOD--RESISTANCE OF EVIL--DEGENERACY--THE WAY OF REGENERATION--HOW TO TREAT OUR WIVES.
Remarks, by President Daniel H. Wells, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 1, 1857.
About the Devil's Gate, and the property left there last season. We expect to start back some teams, according to the notice which was read this morning, as soon as the season will permit us to carry feed for the different stations on the route. Those who have goods left at the Devil's Gate, by making proper arrangements, can have them brought in; and if any persons prefer going for their own goods, of course they have the privilege.
I have been highly interested and entertained this day by the instructions and exhortations we have received; they are calculated to inspire confidence and love towards our Father and our God.
Brother Heber and brother Lorenzo Snow have spoken upon the unity of our feelings and the identifying of our interests; and it is frequently urged upon this people to identify their interests, that we may have no undivided interests--no half heartedness. To be powerful we must be united, and to be united we must have our interests identified. How can we have them better identified than in that we have set our hands to do--than in consecrating all our property to the Lord? We have started out in a good cause; let us not look back, but let us urge forward in the things of God, and work together for each other's benefit, for in this we shall not sacrifice anything.
We talk a great deal about sacrifices, when strictly there is no such thing; it is a misnomer--it is a wrong view of the subject, for what we do in the kingdom of God is the best investment we can possibly make. It pays the best, which ever way we may look at it, it is the principle of all others to be coveted--to be appreciated--and is the best investment we can make of all that pertains to us in this life. It is an inestimable privilege, and should be so esteemed by the community. We cannot fully fathom it, we cannot as yet altogether understand it, for ear hath not heard, nor eyes seen the benefit that will accrue to the individual that will be faithful unto the end in this Church and kingdom, and receive the exaltation to which he is looking forward. There is virtually no sacrifice about it. It is like sacrificing the things of time in time, to gain eternal riches, and such a sacrifice sinks into insignificance in a moment. All the sacrifice we could make, even of life itself, in this world, is nothing to those who are faithful. Let us not be half hearted, but let us go into this matter whole souled, and cleave unto God and His servants, and identify our interests in His kingdom.
As to the devil, what have we to do with him? It is true, what we heard this forenoon while brother Joseph Young was talking. If we could breathe twice where we now do once, the Holy Ghost is ready every moment to administer to our salvation, and the evil spirit is also ready to lead us into temptation. That is true, but look at the word the Lord gave us through our first parents, when He planted us on this earth. He said to the serpent, "Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." We have that advantage over the devil; we can, if we have a mind to, resist him, and he will flee from us. He can be cast out, and he is subject to us. We have the length and breadth of ourselves clear from being contaminated with him. I will say that, without fearing successful contradiction. If he overcomes us, we first let down the bars, and invite him to enter; or he would not come further than our heels.
The Lord gave us our agency to do as we please, and it is for us to say whether we will be for God or the devil. We may make ourselves angels to the devil, or Saints of the Most High. We may have the blessings of the Almighty assisting us, or reject them and go to the devil; it is optional with ourselves. I will admit that we have been corrupted in our generations for thousands of years, and that the devil has power over us through this cause in a measure that he otherwise would not have; and were it not for the multiplicity of the blessings of the Almighty that gives us power and strength, we would most likely be overcome of the devil. We have become small in stature and short in years--weak in body and mind--compared with our forefathers in the primitive ages of the world. We know they attained to a great age, and large in stature, and had great power with God. We know there has been a falling away, and we have come down through the loins of progenitors who have corrupted their ways, changed the ordinances, and but little of the blood of Abraham may be flowing in our veins.
God has looked at the generations of men, and has brought spirits into the world, and they have come through this long line of corrupted generation. What has He made known unto us? He has developed little by little the ways of the Lord, if we will pursue the course His servants have laid out through the channels of the holy and eternal Priesthood. He has again opened to the children of men the channels of life, and we may bring ourselves back again to the might and power, life and immortality spoken of this morning. The Lord will cut His work short in righteousness, and will permit us, if we are faithful, to progress so fast that we may make up in a few years what we have lost in a thousand. We may gain, in a few generations of righteousness, what twenty of unrighteousness have robbed us of. It is a work of righteousness which the Lord will bless and prosper.
The principles of plurality have been established, in order to raise up a righteous seed unto God. The way has been pointed out, and it is a blessing that has been restored to this generation. It is a turning back to the holy principles of ancient days, even to the purity that was known in primitive ages. In this way only may we rise from corruption, through the Holy Priesthood of our God. We do not handle these things with proper sacredness, perhaps. It is a principle that is calculated to produce health, strength, and happiness here, as well as salvation hereafter. It is so esteemed by many, and when you see the principle as it really is, you will say that it is as I tell you.
I know our forefathers have changed the ordinance, and corrupted their ways in their generations, and it has brought misery and degradation on the human family. And now, if we can turn round and reform in this, ourselves--our posterity--will be better prepared to reform themselves and become mighty before God. They will be better capable of receiving those principles which have been made known to us; they can lay hold with greater power and faith on the blessings of the Priesthood, and can obtain greater power than we now can, because they will not have the traditions around them that we have. They will be measurably free from the corruptions which have been entailed on us.
I do not wish to take up much time, but I wish to impress these facts upon the people. I wish to have my sisters feel that this order is the order of God, and that in it they will find happiness and exaltation; in it they will find every principle that is calculated to lead them to glory and favour with God, and exaltation into His presence; and by it they are redeeming themselves and their posterity from the corruptions of man, that have been in existence for many generations before us, and from which they have been brought out by the sound and proclamation of the Gospel. I believe they do feel to appreciate and understand this; and I wish to exhort the brethren also, that they adhere to these holy principles and try to see and understand them as they exist, and act according to the principles of life and salvation, and not according to those of death and destruction; that they make allowance for thousands of things they may have around them in their families.
There are many men who think they have an understanding of these things, and make no allowance for the traditions that hang around the women. Do you realize that they have been brought up in their Gentile notions, as well as yourselves? A man may have, perhaps, three or four wives, and not make such allowance for them as they do for him, and find fault, and be very exacting in requiring of them the most perfect obedience to every whim and notion. By taking such a course he is liable to lose the Holy Ghost, and if he does, he will lose his women. It is upon the principle that you are a man of God--that you have the Holy Ghost and desire to raise up a holy seed to the name of the Most High--that your wives have been sealed to you; they would not upon any other principle have come to you. Now if your wives discover that you lack in any virtues pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and if you take a course that is not calculated to exalt them, do you not see that you lose their confidence? You will lose them also.
The reformation has touched the hearts of both men and women. The people generally are turning round, and they will serve God more perfectly than hitherto. Many of you have never tried this order until now, and let me tell you, brethren, that it is necessary for you to keep the Holy Ghost. If you have not got it, you must get it, and never be without it. You must shed forth that influence on your family, as brothers Joseph and Heber told you this morning, or they will leave you. They will not stay with a man who is destitute of it, if they are good women, neither should they. This is a word for you, my brethren, who are now starting out on this principle. It is a good, virtuous, and holy principle, and not to be trifled with. The women, as a general thing, have power and faith in this kingdom, and they come into this order with full purpose of heart, desiring to do right; and in leading them, if you will be careful of your own feelings, and have a little magnanimity of mind, it will be better for you, and they will stick to you, because it is for their salvation in the kingdom of our God. It is for this they are here, and they will cleave to you for it; and it is your office, right, and privilege to extend that blessing to them. I do not make these remarks for wives to run ahead of their husbands, for they seek their salvation through them. Of course there are exceptions to all general rules. I am speaking upon general principles, to Saints of the Most High. This is a good people, generally.
I say to the sisters, seek to have confidence in your husbands, and believe that they are capable of leading you; and when you seek instruction, believe them capable of giving it to you; and be faithful, humble, and obedient to them. Their feelings should not be concentrated in you, but your feelings should be in them, and their's should be in those who lead them in the Priesthood. Their feelings are concentrated in the Lord their God and what is ahead, and there is where they should be. You should be glad to see them step forward and walk onward in the path of their duty, and not require them to devote themselves to you to the exclusion of things and duties of life which lie before them. As they progress and lead on, you will feel to travel in the same road. This is the order, and if order is maintained in this thing, you will see the beauty of it; and it will be a satisfaction to you and them to believe that your husband, he who is at your head, is progressing in the things of God. That should be a satisfaction to you, and it will be, if you are inspired by the right spirit and feeling. In this way you will have happiness, and see good times.
I have heard brother Brigham remark, many times, that he did not believe that Enoch had a better people than this, a people who progressed half as fast in the things of God as have the Latter-day Saints, notwithstanding they lived in primitive ages when they were comparatively pure, when they were not corrupted as our progenitors have been. They built and perfected a city in 365 years. I believe, and I have often heard brother Brigham and Heber so express themselves, that this people have made far more progress towards perfection in the same time than did Enoch's people. I rejoice in this and to see this people obedient to their head, to their Bishops, and to their God.
There are great blessings, happiness, and salvation for this people, so long as they continue faithful in these things. And the more they identify their interests and become subservient and passive in the hands of this Priesthood here, they will be, both men and women, the more satisfied and happy in this life, and better prepared to live in the flesh, as well as to enter into the life which is to come.
May the Lord bless us and help us to do right; and may we be worthy to receive His blessings. The Lord delights to bless His servants and handmaidens, and He will bless us until we become powerful in this land, and are made capable of bringing to pass His purposes and designs in the last days.
If we are in the world, we are not of it, because they will not let us be. They drive us and scatter us, and try to destroy us, but it matters not. We have been brought to these chambers of the Lord; we have nothing to do but praise His holy name, and we can make the arch of heaven ring with praises to our God and King, and no one to make us afraid; though it makes the sinner fear and tremble, while there is none to make the Saints afraid in Zion.
Let us do the things that are for us to do, no matter what they are, whether spiritual or temporal, for they are united together, and we do not wish to sever them; it is not necessary we should. We have to do with spiritual and temporal things, they go hand in hand, and the Lord will bless us, if we are faithful, which is what we seek. Do we not feel well when we do that which meets the approbation of our Father and our God? Then let us be careful how we do anything to displease Him, for then we do not feel well. The idea of offending or grieving our Heavenly Father is unpleasant. Let us also be careful how we do anything to displease our Bishops, and let the wives be careful how they do anything to displease their husbands, and let us all be united and dwell in harmony, and see how beautifully we shall move forward as a people--as the Saints of the Most High God--being such in character as well as in name.
Let us cultivate good feelings one towards another, that we may promote our own peace, happiness, and final exaltation in the kingdom of God. We can enjoy ourselves in heaven only upon this principle, and if we can bring out minds to enjoy that principle here, then we have a heaven here. If we have a heaven at all, we have to make it, and for this reason we have the power given us to make it; the devil cannot get into our hearts, unless we give him a welcome there.
May the Lord bless us, and preserve us, and help us to do His will on the earth and bring to pass His purposes, which favours I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
MAN THE HEAD OF WOMAN--KINGDOM OF GOD--THE SEED OF CHRIST--POLYGAMY--SOCIETY IN UTAH.
A Sermon, by President Orson Hyde, Delivered in Great Salt Lake City.
Dear brethren and sisters, it is with feelings not a little peculiar that I arise to address you on this occasion. By this effort I have solely for my object your edification in the wide field of truth, which has been opened by the "key of knowledge" to our mind's eye, and we are bade to enter and regale ourselves among the undying beauties that flourish spontaneously in this heavenly soil. We wish to be made wiser by a knowledge of true principles, and better by adopting them in all the practical walks of life.
Had I copied the style of address adopted by the fashionable world, I might have said, "Ladies and gentlemen," placing the fair in the van, but as this would only be to reverse the order of our being through life's thorny way, ordained and established by heaven's law, I have felt, and still feel, to observe the spirit of that law and that order, not only in my manner of address, but in all the varied duties, responsibilities, and pleasures of life. The hypocritical respect lavished upon females by the etiquette of the world in pushing them forward, and in exciting their vanity by making them most conspicuous in all the novels and romances which, like so much trash, have flooded society and cursed the land, is only to make them a more easy prey to the unbridled sensuality and the ungodly lusts of their benighted authors. Flattery is food for the silly and shallow brained, but a wise heart and pure hand will never administer it.
The order of heaven places man in the front rank; hence he is first to be addressed. Woman follows under the protection of his counsels, and the superior strength of his arm. Her desire should be unto her husband, and he should rule over her. I will here venture the assertion, that no man can be exalted to a celestial glory in the kingdom of God whose wife rules over him; and as the man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord, it follows a matter of course, that the woman who rules over her husband, thereby deprives herself of a celestial glory.
[Here the speaker was interrupted by the question from the congregation, "What, then, will become of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria?" The speaker replied, General and eternal principles are too stubborn to yield to individual accommodation. They must see to their own affairs.]
But to my subject: The day in which we live is an important one--important to the world at large, and to us as a people. As time is measured off to us by the day, by the week, and by the year, our quantum will soon be run off, and we be summoned to render an account of the use and improvement we have made of it. Let the question now arise in every breast, Am I acting well my part while I occupy the stage of life? Remember that your daily prayer to God is, "Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven." Remember, also, that we are the favoured and chosen people to whom that kingdom is come, and it will continue with us, provided our energies, coupled with the wisdom and power of God, be directed to that object--an object for which all Christendom is praying to be accomplished; and one, too, against which their skill, learning, and power will be arrayed. Even the devils in hell will burst forth from their fiery cells to unite with the fallen sons of earth, to oppose the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdom of our God. The kings and rulers of the earth will not willingly cast their crowns and sceptres at the feet of the Priesthood, and worship the God of Hosts. His almighty power, in judgments, alone will humble them into this submission. "He shall send forth judgment unto victory." Let strict integrity and purity of heart and life be our bulwarks, and the faith of Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be our shield and fortress of strength now, and in the day of temptation and trial. To incite you to diligence and perseverance, let me tell you that our foes are not only strong, but wily; and yet to encourage you--to inspire you with faith and hope, allow me to say that God is stronger and more wily than they. The Almighty never did, neither will He ever display His power in behalf of His people until they are brought into tried and straightened places; and what if some of us should lay down our lives for Christ's sake? We all have to die at some time; and if we are but in the faithful discharge of our duty, it should matter not to us when or by what means we go. Our enemies may say, for righteousness sake we kill thee not, but for thine own wickedness and perverseness.
What persecutors of the followers of Jesus ever acknowledged that they martyred or killed the Saints for righteousness sake? None! They claimed that they did it on account of their wickedness; and if they never have made this acknowledgement, do you think they ever will? No! With a blind and maddened zeal against the Saints, strengthened by the eternal hatred and jealousy of the fallen angels, will they fill the cup of their iniquity and ripen in the glare of their oppression for the judgments of Almighty God.
Are we everywhere spoken against? Is almost every newspaper and journal, with a thousand and one anonymous letter writers, pouring forth their spleen, animadversions, and maledictions upon the Saints in Utah? Do they wish and intend to blow up a storm--a tempest to burst upon our heads with all the fury of the combined elements to sweep us from the face of the earth? Or secretely [sic] and under cover, do they intend to rig a purchase to prey upon the peace and happiness of the Saints who have fled from the face of the "serpent," unprotected and unredressed, to this desolate land, to which no other people would come until after we came and killed the snakes, built the bridges, proved the country, raised bread and built houses for them to come to, a land where no other people can or will dwell, should the Mormous [sic] leave it!
Why this hatred and ill-will against you? What have you done to provoke it? We have rebuked iniquity; and, in some instances, in rather high places. But the real cause is explained by our Saviour: "Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hate you."
Remember that God not only rules the storm, but visits the secret chambers. He can hush the storm, and say to the winds, "Peace, be still," and catch the fowler in his own snare.
The professed purity of this generation will not allow the institutions of Utah to exist undisturbed, if they can devise any scheme to disturb them. It is true that the people of Utah believe in and practise polygamy. Not because our natural desires lead us into that condition and state of life, but because our God hath commanded it, and wishing to comply with that as well as with all others of His commands, we are as we are. We also wish to be counted Abraham's children, to whom the promises were made, and also with whom the covenants were established; and being told that if we are the children of Abraham, we will do the works of Abraham, we are not a little anxious to do as he did. Among other things that he did, he took more than one wife. In this he was not alone, for this example was copied by most of the ancient worthies and others who succeeded him under the same everlasting covenant. Even the wisest and best men--men after God's own heart, entered the most deeply into this practice. Nor was this practice limited to the days of the Old Testament.
It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the best of it.
I will venture to say that if Jesus Christ were now to pass through the most pious countries in Christendom with a train of women,. such as used to follow him, fondling about him, combing his hair, anointing him with precious ointment, washing his feet with tears, and wiping them with the hair of their heads and unmarried, or even married, he would be mobbed, tarred, and feathered, and rode, not on an ass, but on a rail. What did the old Prophet mean when he said (speaking of Christ), "He shall see his seed, prolong his days, &c." Did Jesus consider it necessary to fulfil every righteous command or requirement of his Father? He most certainly did. This he witnessed by submitting to baptism under the hands of John. "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness," said he. Was it God's commandment to man, in the beginning, to multiply and replenish the earth? None can deny this, neither that it was a righteous command; for upon an obedience to this, depended the perpetuity of our race. Did Christ come to destroy the law or the Prophets, or to fulfil them? He came to fulfil. Did he multiply, and did he see his seed? Did he honour his Father's law by complying with it, or did he not? Others may do as they like, but I will not charge our Saviour with neglect or transgression in this or any other duty.
At this doctrine the long-faced hypocrite and the sanctimonious bigot will probably cry, blasphemy! Horrid perversion of God's word! Wicked wretch! He is not fit to live! &c., &c. But the wise and reflecting will consider, read, and pray. If God be not our Father, grandfather, or great grandfather, or some kind of a father in reality, in deed and in truth, why are we taught to say, "Our Father who art in heaven?" How much soever [sic] of holy horror of this doctrine may excite in persons not impregnated with the blood of Christ, and whose minds are consequently dark and benighted, it may excite still more when they are told that if none of the natural blood of Christ flows in their veins, they are not the chosen or elect of God. Object not, therefore, too strongly against the marriage of Christ, but remember that in the last days, secret and hidden things must come to light, and that your life also (which is the blood) is hid with Christ in God.
Abraham was chosen of God for the purpose of raising up a chosen seed, and a peculiar people unto His name. Jesus Christ was sent into the world for a similar purpose, but upon a more extended scale. Christ was the seed of Abraham, so reckoned. To these, great promises were made; one of which was, that in Abraham and in his seed, which was Christ, all the families of the earth should be blessed. When? When the ungodly or those not of their seed should be cut off from the earth, and no family remaining on earth except their own seed. Then in Abraham and in Christ, all the families and kindreds of the earth will be blessed--Satan bound, and the millenium [sic] fully come. Then the meek will inherit the earth, and God's elect reign undisturbed, at least, for one thousand years.
Is there no way provided for those to come into this covenant relation who may not possess, in their veins, any of the blood of Abraham or of Christ? Yes! By doing the works of Abraham and of Christ in the faith of Abraham and of Christ; not in unbelief and unrighteousness, like the wicked world who have damned themselves in their own corruption and unbelief. If thou wilt believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and repent of thy sins, and put them all away, and forsake them for ever, and turn unto the Lord our God, and serve Him with all thy might, mind, and strength, the Holy Ghost will change the vile body, quicken and renew thy spirit and natural system, so that thou shalt lay off or overcome that fallen nature which is in the body with its sins, and be created anew in Christ Jesus, with a new heart and a new spirit, even the Holy Ghost; this will cause your spirits to cry, Abba, Father. Your lips may even now cry, "Abba, Father;" but your spirit cannot until it is renovated; and lip service, you know, is mockery before God. We are to worship God in spirit and in truth, and with the understanding also. But if you wish to destroy us for doing the works of Abraham and of Christ, know ye that God will curse you; and neither He nor His people will allow you to have any part in the covenant of promise; and neither in Abraham, nor yet in Christ can ye be blessed. There is something more implied in this change often alluded to by all professing Christians than is usually considered. It is, nevertheless, scripturally and philosophically true.
During the late session of the Legislature, a very polite note was received by that body from Mr. Van Emman, agent of the American Bible Society, who wished to have the members call at his depository and examine his Bibles, quality, and prices, and to advertise them in the various localities to which they were about to repair, and also to lay before them the object of the society in sending the Bibles to Utah. The Legislature thought proper to appoint a committee to wait upon Mr. V., examine his books, &c., and being a member of the House, I, with brother F. D. Richards, was appointed said committee. In the discharge of our duties, I remarked to Mr. Van Emman, who, by the by, received us very gentlemanly, that the society which he had the honour to represent, no doubt considered us degraded and almost beyond the reach of Bible truth. He replied, that they did not consider us so degraded as we might think they did; but that it was the design of the society to put the word of God into the hands of every man in the world, Utah not excepted. I replied, that this was very good. But however charitable and benevolent the designs of that society may be, so far as Utah is concerned, they have sent us the wrong book if they wish to reclaim us from the belief in and practice of Polygamy: for instead of its reclaiming us, it confirms us in our belief and practice, and no where condemns it; and, hence, we are conscientious in our manner of life, having the word of God which you bring us for our standard. Although our faith and practice are such as we declare unto you, yet no people on earth look with greater abhorence [sic] and indignation upon a violation of the principles that govern us than we do. No man or woman among us, not of our faith, that behaves himself, and violates not our laws and regulations, has any occasion to fear molestation. But if he or she violates them and will not desist, I cannot vouch for his safety, member of our Church or not, neither can I insure his house to stand.
We have had, and still have among us, men who write back to the States glaring accounts of our character and conduct, and bitter complants [sic] of our treatment toward them; but it would be hard for them to detail the awful treatment they pretend to represent. We do not often act without a cause; and one, too, which, with them, we are willing to meet at the bar of God and answer to our treatment. We have been unmercifully forced to come to Utah; but we force no one else to come; yet if they do come, we want them to behave themselves, and attend to their own business. We do not consider an officer of the government to have any more right to commit wickedness than any one else; and if he does, he merits as severe a rebuke, and even more so, for he not only destroys his influence and power to do good, but brings dishonour upon the power that sent him. I would say to our friends, that I have no hesitancy in recommending the Bibles of Mr. Van Emman. They are, most un- [sic] unquestionably, a well got up book, and afforded much cheaper than they can usually be bought in this place. You who want the Bible, I would advise to avail yourselves of this favourable opportunity.
Are the "Mormons" an industrious people? Every body says they are, I say we are, and for the rest, our works may speak. One circumstance, however, I will mention. Some letter writer, probably of the <corps militaire,> thought it deeply degrading that the wife of Orson Hyde, chief of the Apostles, should take in washing for a living: but if she had kept some house other than a laundry, not necessary to say what kind, it might have elevated her in the gentleman's estimation, to the ranks of fashionable life.
If this gentleman had ever ascended the Nile, he would have learned that the native men who tow and propel boats up that stream in which travelers are conveyed, are mostly in a state of perfect nudity. This they do on account of the exceeding warm weather, and also for convenience sake, being as often in the water as out of it. They do not wish to be encumbered with clothing. European gentlemen, travelling with their families up the Nile, often purchase them entire suits, not out of any particular regard they have for the natives, but out of special regard for the modesty and delicacy of their families. So also some of our good and industrious wives, who are not above doing whatever is necessary to be done in their sphere, often condescend (however humiliating the service) to wash up a stranger's linen, that he may appear in "Mormon society" without being particularly obnoxious. Industry is our element.
Is persevering industry a faithful index to all the crime, debauchery, and wickedness with which we are charged? Men of reputation and sense, consider! Can such a mass of corrupt beings as we are represented, hang together, be united and submit to rigid rule and discipline so long--encounter every hardship and privation that we have, and still be cheerful and buoyant with hope? There may be some little family irregularities occasionally, but they are soon adjusted. Are there no family disturbances among other people? I have often read of the husband murdering the wife, and the wife the husband, among those who consider it a high crime to have more than one wife. This is a thing of frequent occurrence. But who ever knew of a "Mormon" intentionally killing any of his wives, or any wife her husband? No one! I answer again, no one!
All things, now, candidly and impartially considered, to what conclusion must the uprejudiced [sic] and candid arrive respecting the "Mormons?" It seems to me that they must conclude something as follows:
There may be those among them, both male and female, who do not behave as they ought, for their net catches of every kind, both good and bad. The crucible or refining pot is Utah. There the heat is raised to a degree that causes the pure to melt and sink beneath, out of sight of the casual observer, while the dross, slag, or scoria meets every eye, and forms the principal subjects for our letter writers and numerous Editors to display their talents upon, while the pure metal is consolidated beneath, unobserved and unnoticed; and yet this dross is a faithful index to the actual existence of pure metal near by. May not this generation have bright and keen eyes, and still not able to see; ears, but not able to hear; and hearts, yet not able to understand? After all that has been said, done, and written about the "Mormons," Mormon religion, &c., may there not be a principle incorporated with them that flows in a deep channel which operates upon their hearts and consciences, and that principle emanate from God Himself? Are there not tangible facts connected with their religion and history sufficient to warrant this conclusion? Ye juries of nations consider well--weigh the subject impartially--remember that life and death are involved in the issue! Should there be an existing doubt in your minds, you are bound to give the accused the benefit of that doubt; and though it may not accord with popular practice for an attorney to be a witness in behalf of his client, yet knowing his innocence and the justice of his cause--the rectitude of his intention, the purity of his purpose and the general benevolence aimed at as the crowning climax of his exertions and hopes, I cannot refrain from adding my testimony in his behalf.
In the most pious and well-regulated families on earth, there are sometimes occurrences take place of which no member of that family would be proud to speak openly; and which none but a foolish and silly member would speak. On application of this simile to the Church, I am silent. But the bone and sinew of "Mormonism," "Mormon" religion, faith, doctrine, and practice are true as God is true. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, with as many wives as David and Solomon, (leaving out the concubines) are men after God's own heart; inspired from on high to bring forth the last dispensation of mercy to man--to remove the vail of the covering cast over all people, and light up a flame that will eventually consume the ungodly, and fill the earth with the knowledge and glory of our God; and the "serpent" cannot cast forth waters enough to put it out.
Gentlemen of the jury, you may shudder for me on account of the testimony which I bear, thinking that I shall have it to meet at the court of appeals. I am glad that you are thus sensitive; and allow me to remind you, that you also will have it to meet at the same tribunal! Therefore consider it well; weigh the testimony and arguments in favour of Zion's cause, in a just and even balance, and a true verdict hangs your own destiny for weal or for woe. With these remarks I submit the case.
NECESSITY FOR REFORMATION A DISGRACE--INTELLIGENCE A GIFT, INCREASED BY IMPARTING--SPIRIT OF GOD--VARIETY IN SPIRITUAL AS WELL AS IN NATURAL ORGANIZATIONS--GOD THE FATHER OF THE SPIRITS OF ALL MANKIND--ETC.
A Discourse, by President Brigham Young, Delivered in Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1857.
I presume there will not any person object to my talking this morning, although there may be many who wish to occupy the time.
There are a few items that I wish to lay before the brethren; the first is concerning our northern mission. A good many names of persons invited to go north have been read here, and I want to say to all those brethren that we do not desire any of them to go north with us this spring, unless they would like so to do, and can make it convenient to take the trip to see the country. We will excuse all who do not wish to go, also all whose circumstances rather forbid their going, and whose other duties of greater importance prevent them. Again, I would like to have all who wish to go on that journey consider that they have an invitation, so far as they can go consistently with their circumstances. I invite all to go who wish to and can do so conveniently. I think that the brethren understand, both those who live in the country and in this city, that the invitation to go north is not given in respect of persons, but any who have not been invited and who wish to go, may have the privilege; and those who have been invited but cannot go consistently, we will excuse.
The brethren who have been called upon foreign missions we expect to respond to the call cheerfully, where it is a duty; but where we invite persons to accompany us in visiting different regions of country for our gratification, health, information, and satisfaction, the case is a little different.
Last Sabbath I was here in the forenoon, but I did not feel able to come in the afternoon. However, I gave brother Kimball a text with regard to this people to preach upon in the afternoon, and I expect that he did so, and presume that it proved satisfactory to the congregation.
Concerning what has been said by brother Orson Hyde since I came in, pertaining to light and knowledge, it is worth our serious attention. I understand that this people do not all live up to their privileges. I have told you that I was really mortified to hear the Elders of Israel preaching a reformation; this is a source of mortification to me, and the reasons are these. When life and salvation are put into the possession of individuals or of a community, and they have all the means of obtaining the knowledge of God, and the wisdom of God, to understand the ways of God and to secure to themselves light, life, and immortality; and when those means are in them and round about them, and in all their communications and avocations of life are present with them, then to think that those individuals, or that community, should neglect such a great opportunity and prize, a prize beyond all earthly prizes or wealth of this earth, which can bear no comparison to it, is exceedingly marvellous; and to see them neglect this great prize, their conduct is like, speaking after the manner of the world, that of a miser who should turn from a mountain of gold which is so valuable, and go to a sand bank to scratch it over, to pick out shot to make himself wealthy.
When life and salvation are put in the possession of individuals, or of a people, to see them neglect those principles for anything pertaining to this world, or to let sorrow or affliction, or trials, or temptations, or buffeting, or smiting, or driving with the sword, fire, or anything else in the shape of persecution that can be poured on them, and to see them turn away from the things of God and be driven from the path of righteousness that would lead them to eternal glory, and crown them with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives, is mortifying to my feelings, and I feel mortified when we have to say, "Reformation," yet such is often the case. And many times when people have received and enjoyed great light and intelligence, the things of this world choke the good word, thorns and thistles spring up, and they seem to have but little root in themselves. The sun rises and scorches the tender plants that seem to be growing in them, and we have to cry to the people, "reform, REFORM, REFORM," when in reality it is a disgrace that such instruction should ever be necessary. It is a great disgrace; it is mortifying to angels, and I will insure that it is mortifying to our Father Adam. His heart is pained with such things; and the Prophets are pained with them, and so are all who understand and have proved themselves worthy of eternal life, both those who now live on the earth and those who have gone behind the vail.
For us to be repenting and reforming is really a disgrace. If it is annoying to borrow light from others, it is a disgrace to take a course in life to have to repent of the use made of that light. It is a disgrace to our organization, to the design of heaven, and to the intelligence God has given to man for his benefit. Truly wise persons hate to look upon such conduct, they look upon it with contempt. They are more worthy and noble than to condescend to take a course in life which they have continually to be repenting of.
As to light, a subject that brother Hyde has been speaking upon, I will present a few of my views in somewhat different terms. In the first place, to say that we "borrow light from one another." I do not know that I precisely understand that idea, for I have no light to lend. Perhaps I am not so well endowed with light as some who have lived on the earth, but I have none to lend. I will use another term, and I might say, perhaps, with a good deal of propriety, that the poet conveys my idea pretty correctly in his lines concerning the wise and foolish virgins:--
"Go to them that sell and buy,
And get yourselves a full supply."
Another wrote:--
"The richest man I ever saw, was him that begged the most;
His soul was filled with Jesus, and with the Holy Ghost."
I will go to begging instead of borrowing. But it is no great matter whether light is borrowed or begged, for it is not so much the way in which I obtain knowledge, as in the use I make of the knowledge I have obtained. The wrong use of our knowledge is what brings default in me or you.
I say that I have no light to lend. If God has given me light, if I possess the light of the Spirit of revelation, and bestow that knowledge upon my brethren, that same fountain increases in me; whereas, if I were to shut it up--to close up the vision--and keep it from the people, it would be like the candle lighted and put under the bushel, where of course the want of free air would extinguish it; and if the light in me becomes darkness, how great is that darkness! This is my explanation with regard to the light that is in me. If I receive from the fountain, the more I give the more I receive. The freer I am to hand out that which the Lord bestows on me, the better my mind is prepared to receive more from the fountain; that is the experience of every individual.
Here let me say what I do know and understand; every branch of knowledge, of wisdom, of light, of understanding, all that I know, all that is within my organization mentally or physically, spiritually or temporally, I have received from some source. So it is with you. There is no knowledge, no light, no wisdom that you are in possession of, but what you have received from some source. Do you think this is true?
When will we possess knowledge, and power, and glory, and wisdom independently? When Jesus has finished his work. When we have proved ourselves worthy to be crowned, when we have passed through all the ordeals of suffering, trials, and temptations, and proven to our Father and our God that we are His friends, that we will live and serve Him, and not forsake our parents--will not forsake our Father's house and His precepts; when we have proven ourselves faithful in the flesh, and have gone through the vail into the spirit world--have done all that is required of us in preaching to those who are in prison, and are faithful until we receive our bodies again--until these tabernacles which we now occupy are resurrected and brought again to the spirits, and the spirits to the tabernacles, and Jesus calls on us to come up and be crowned among the faithful who will receive crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal life, then we will receive that power, knowledge, and wisdom, and possess it as independently as the Gods possess their power. It will then be bequeathed to them that they will have light within themselves. Why? Because they have control over the elements, and it will never be until then.
We have no light, no power at present, only what is given to us. Brother Hyde calls it borrowing, but I call it a free gift, or begging. The Lord's giving does not diminish His fountain of spirit that our philosopher brother Orson Pratt speaks of, that he believes occupies universal space, or, in other words, that universal space is filled with, and that every particle of it is a Holy Spirit, and that spirit is all powerful and all wise, full of intelligence and possessing all the attributes of all the Gods in eternity. I hardly dare say what I think and what I know, but that theory, though apparently very plausible and beautiful, is not true, for it is, or would be contradicted by the Prophets, by Jesus and the Apostles, and by all good men who understand the principles of eternity, both those who have lived and are now living on the earth. Brother Hyde was upon this same theory once, and in conversation with brother Joseph Smith advanced the idea that eternity or boundless space was filled with the Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost. After portraying his views upon that theory very carefully and minutely, he asked brother Joseph what he thought of it? He replied that it appeared very beautiful, and that he did not know of but one serious objection to it. Says brother, Hyde, [sic-punc] "What is that?" Joseph replied, "it is not true."
With all the knowledge and wisdom that are combined in the person of brother Orson Pratt, still he does not yet know enough to keep his feet out of it, but drowns himself in his own philosophy, every time that he undertakes to treat upon principles that he does not understand. When he was about to leave here for his present mission, he made a solemn promise that he would not meddle with principles which he did not fully understand, but would confine himself to the first principles of the doctrine of salvation, such as were preached by brother Joseph Smith and the Apostles. But the first that we see in his writings, he is dabbling with things that he does not understand; his vain philosophy is no criterion or guide for the Saints in doctrine. According to his philosophy, the devils in hell are composed of and filled with the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, and possess all the knowledge, wisdom, and power of the Gods. If he believes his own doctrine pertaining to the celestial and other kingdoms, viz., that the devils in hell possess the same power as the Gods, they being opposed to Jesus and his Father, the whole fabric must fall. When I read some of the writings of such philosophers, they make me think, "O dear, granny, what a long tail our puss has got!" The influences of the Almighty, by the Holy Spirit, have got to work upon us to revolutionize us. We must with our organization, as we are organized to become independent beings, though not yet independent of the influences around us, bring into subjection our own wills and efforts, and subject ourselves to the principle of obedience to the celestial law. And when we have overcome the seeds of sin that are in our mortal tabernacles, and brought our bodies and spirits in subjection to the celestial law of Christ, and proven ourselves worthy to receive that exaltation promised to the faithful, then it will be high time for us to receive independent kingdoms, thrones, principalities, and powers. We have them not now, and if we had we would not know what to do with them.
There are but few men that know how to govern in temporal things; fewer still who know how to control the feelings of the people, how to guide the power of any kingdom that was ever organized on the earth. Nations and kingdoms of this world rise up and flourish only for a season. What is the difficulty? They contain the seeds of their own destruction, sown therein by the framers of human governments; those combustive elements are organized in their construction from the first. With all the excellency, and all the carefulness and correctness exhibited in the formation of constitutions and laws, they have the seeds of destruction within themselves. In the laws of every government now on this earth, there are certain principles in their constitutions that will ere long sap the foundations of their existence; and so it will be, so long as men continue to persist in ruling and making laws, in regulating and controlling by human wisdom alone, and in issuing their mandates and sending their officers to administer laws, made by the wisdom of man. I repeat, that just so long they will continue to throw into their laws, into the constitutions of their governments, principles that are calculated to destroy the fabrics.
Why are they thus lead to sow the seeds of their own destruction? Because the kingdoms of this world are not designed to stand. When men are placed at the head of government who are actually controlled by the power of God--by the Holy Ghost--they can lay plans, they can frame constitutions, they can form governments and laws that have not the seeds of death within them, and no other men can do it. Consequently I say that there are but few who know how to control or govern even in temporal affairs on this earth. Then why should we have kingdoms and thrones committed to our charge, when we are not capacitated to rule over them? We are now trying to frame our lives in a way that we may be prepared to live in a kingdom that is eternal, and it will be just about as much as we can do to prepare ourselves to enter into that kingdom which will endure for ever, without our being made Kings and and [sic] Priests in that kingdom for some time yet.
Can any man tell the variety of the spirits there are? No, he cannot even tell the variety that there is in the portion of his dominions in which God has placed us, on this earth upon which we live, for we can see an endless variety on this little spot, which is nothing but a garden spot in comparison to the rest of the kingdoms of our God. Again, you may observe the people, and you will see an endless variety of disposition, and an endless variety of physiognomy. Bring the millions of faces before you, and where can you find two faces precisely alike in every point? Where can you find two human beings precisely alike in the organization of their bodies with the spirits? Where can you point out two precisely alike in every particular in their temperaments and dispositions? Where can you find two who are so operated upon precisely alike by a superior power that their lives, their actions, their feelings, and all pertaining to human life are alike? I conclude that there is as great a variety in the spiritual as there is in the temporal world, and I think that I am just in my conclusion.
You will see people possessed of different spirits; but I will say to you what I have heretofore frequently said, and what brother Joseph Smith has said, and what the Scripture teaches, your spirits when they came to take tabernacles were pure and holy, and prepared to receive knowledge, wisdom, and instruction, and to be taught while in the flesh; so that every son and daughter of Adam, if they would apply their minds to wisdom, and magnify their callings and improve upon every grace and means given them, would have tickets for the boxes, to use brother Hyde's figure, instead of going into the pit. There is no spirit but what was pure and holy when it came here from the celestial world. There is no spirit among the human family that was begotten in hell; none that were begotten by angels, or by any inferior being. They were not produced by any being less than our Father in heaven. He is the Father of our spirits; and if we could know, understand, and do His will, every soul would be prepared to return back into His presence. And when they get there, they would see that they had formerly lived there for ages, that they had previously been acquainted with every nook and corner, with the palaces, walks, and gardens; and they would embrace their Father, and He would embrace them and say, "My son, my daughter, I have you again;" and the child would say, "O my Father, my Father, I am here again."
These are the facts in the case, and there are none ticketed for the pit, unless they fill up that ticket themselves through their own misconduct. Are all spirits endowed alike? No, not by any means. Will all be equal in the eelestial [sic] kingdom? By no means. Some spirits are more noble than others; some are capable of receiving more than others. There is the same variety in the spirit world that you behold here, yet they are of the same parentage, of one Father, one God, to say nothing of who He is. They are all of one parentage, though their [sic] is a difference in their capacities and nobility, and each one will be called to fill the station for which he is organized, and which he can fill.
We are placed on this earth to prove whether we are worthy to go into the celestial world, the terrestrial, or the telestial, or to hell, or to any other kingdom or place, and we have enough of life given us to do this. And as I frequently say, and think more frequently, it is a disgrace for the Latter-day Saints to say, "Let us lay hold now, and have a reformation." We should never cease reforming and seeking to the Lord our God; and wherein we can better any trait in our lives, let us go to with our mights and reform ourselves, and not ask an Elder to come and preach reformation to us, and we will find that every one of us will be ticketed for the boxes, if we will do what we ought to do. If we fill out tickets so as to pass Joseph, Peter, Jesus, the Prophets, Abraham, and the Patriarchs, our tickets will take us into the celestial kingdom. And if we can pass the Prophet Joseph, answer his questions, and bear his scrutiny, we shall consider ourselves pretty safe. We may fill out our tickets for seats in the celestial, terrestrial, telestial, or some other kingdom, just as we please. We have got to fill out our own tickets; our own lives will fill them up, and we will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, every one of us, and that is the filling up of the ticket.
I remarked to brother Kimball last Sabbath, that this people are the best people that ever lived upon the earth; I am actually a good deal inclined to think so. Do not marvel at this remark. How long did it take Enoch to purify his people--to become holy and prepared for what we want this people to be prepared for in a very few years? It took him 365 years. How long has this people lived? It will be 27 years on the sixth of next month, since this Church was organized. What do you think about this people? I say that the virtuous acts of their lives beat the whole world. Were the children of Israel ever so obedient to Moses, as this people are to me? No, they never began to be; for obedience they could not favourably compare with this people. Moses led his people forty years in the wilderness in rebellion, fighting, stealing, whoring, and every manner of iniquity; and their evils where [sic] so great, that God cut every one of them off in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua. He did not suffer one of them to go into the land of Canaan, except the two I have named; they never revolted from Moses, but held up his hands all the time. They never turned away, not even when Aaron, his half-brother and right hand man, made the golden calf. When Aaron gathered up the earrings, and finger rings, and jewels, and made a calf, and led the children of Israel astray to worship an image, and say, "these be thy Gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," while Moses was in the mountain talking to the Lord, Caleb and Joshua did not turn away; and if they were in that company, their souls shuddered while the people were making that calf.
Were Enoch's men as obedient and advanced as far as this people in the same time? I think not. Let this people continue to make the improvement they have made, and it would not be 165 years before they could take this part of the country and go off, should it be necessary, until the earth is purified. Yet Enoch had to live and strive, and toil during 365 years, in order to bring his people under the principle of strict obedience. This contrast is encouraging to this people.
Now let me tell you that there are hundreds of men and women in this community that believe they ought to repent, but cannot find out for what, cannot tell wherein to do differently, from what they do, and do not know what to do. Do you do everything you know to be right and pleasing in the sight of God? Yes, say hundreds and thousands of the people. Do you do anything you know to be wrong? Hundreds may reply, "We do not know that we do, but we do not feel as though we enjoyed as much as we should." Hold on, do not get away from us. If you were now in the enjoyment of the things you have a presentiment of in your own feelings, that in the anxiety of your own hearts you are longing for, if you could get all that in your possession, you would not stay here; we should lose you, for you would be too pure to tarry in our society. Do not be in a hurry; let us stay together and fight the devil a little longer. Some of you think that by next fall you must obtain all that the Elders preach, if you do, you will go behind the vail, and we cannot have your society.
With many, a presentiment arises in their hearts like this, "We want something wonderful, or we must do something that we have not done. We must revolutionize our lives; we must reform," but they do not know wherein. Serve God according to the best knowledge you have, and lay down and sleep quietly; and when the devil comes along and says, "You are not a very good Saint, you might enjoy greater blessings and more of the power of God, and have the vision of your mind opened, if you would live up to your privileges," tell him to leave; that you have long ago forsaken his ranks and enlisted in the army of Jesus, who is your captain, and that you want no more of the devil.
Should a sister, full of faith, happen to lay her hands on the sick, and they thereby be relieved in the hour of distress, then the devil will come along and say, "Sister, I tell you that you have more faith than brother Brigham, brother Heber, or the Twelve." In such cases just tell Mr. devil to kiss your foot and leave, that you have no more faith and knowledge than your Father and God has given you; that you are not any more or less than His child, and mean to serve Him, and that you have broken friendship with the devil, and therefore he must leave forthwith. Some of you sisters will get to thinking, "O that I knew what to do. Brother Kimball pours it out on me and tells me to repent; brother Brigham pours it on me, and brother Hyde and others, and they tell me that I am not half so good as I should be." Hold on, do not get so nervous that you cannot eat your bread and meat.
We have Zion in our view in her perfection, as you have. Do you know how you looked on Zion when you first embraced the Gospel? You thought there would be no more trial, no more sorrow or vexation of spirit; that everybody would do right, and that there would be no more wrong; that if you once reached the gathering place, there your souls would be full of glory, and you expected that you could then sit and "sing yourself away to everlasting bliss." You have to go through the smut mill, in order to be made clean; then you have to be winnowed, then ground, and then go through the bolt; and in this operation a good many will actually "bolt." There are many pretty good men who want to go to California and to the States; they have felt the effect of the boltings. You have come here, and many have undergone a great deal of trouble to do so, in order to serve your God and live your religion; and when you do not know what to do to make yourselves better, be contented, and eat your food with a thankful heart to the glory of God. And when you lay down, say "All is peace, all is right; and if the Lord wishes to take me away to night, I am ready to go." There are thousands of this people who, if they were to live ten thousand years in the flesh and according to the chance they have had, would be no better than they are now.
It is said to be eternal life, "to know the only wise God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." I will tell you one thing, as brother Hyde has said, it would be an excellent plan for us to go to work and find out ourselves, for as sure as you find out yourselves, you will find out God, whether you are Saint or sinner. A man cannot find out himself without the light of revelation; he has to turn round and seek to the Lord his God, in order to find out himself. If you find out who Joseph was, you will know as much about God as you need to at present; for if He said, "I am a God to this people," He did not say that He was the only wise God. Jesus was a God to the people when he was upon earth, was so before he came to this earth, and is yet. Moses was a God to the children of Israel, and in this manner you may go right back to Father Adam.
If you look at things spiritually, and then naturally, and see how they appear together, you will understand that when you have the privilege of commencing the work that Adam commenced on this earth, you will have all your children come and report to you of their sayings and acts; and you will hold every son and daughter of yours responsible when you get the privilege of being an Adam on earth.
Suppose that one of us had been Adam, and had peopled and filled the world with our children, they, although they might be great grandchildren, &c., still, say I, had I been Adam, they would be my flesh, blood, and bones, and have the same kind of a spirit put into them that is in me. And pertaining to the flesh they would all be my children, and I would call them to account, and by and bye I would call every one of them home. They would have to render up to father an account, that he may know what their works have been on earth, for man is judged according to his works on the earth.
Comparing spiritual with temporal things, it must be that God knows something about temporal things, and has had a body and been on an earth, were it not so He would not know how to judge men righteously, according to the temptations and sin they have had to contend with. If I can pass brother Joseph, I shall stand a good chance for passing Peter, Jesus, the Prophets, Moses, Abraham, and all back to Father Adam, and be pretty sure of receiving his approbation. If I can pass all this ordeal, shall I not be pretty safe? I think I shall.
When we get before father Adam and the innumerable company that will come before him--when we draw near to the Ancient of Days with the rest of his children, and receive his approbation, shall we not be safe? If we can pass the sentinel Joseph the Prophet, we shall go into the celestial kingdom, and not a man can injure us. If he says, "God bless you, come along here;" if we will live so that Joseph will justify us, and say, "Here am I, brethren," we shall pass every sentinel; there will be no danger but that we will pass into the celestial kingdom. Will we all become Gods, and be crowned kings? No, my brethren, there will be millions on millions, even the greater party of the celestial world, who will not be capable of a fulness of that glory, immortality, eternal lives and a continuation of them, yet they will go into the celestial kingdom. Will this people all go into that kingdom? I think a good many will have to be burnt out like an old pipe, before they can go into any decent kingdom.
Think how many have come into this church, from the commencement of it until now, and apostatized. Will our present population equal them in number? No, it would be like a drop in a bucket, compared with them. Do you know of any other people's striving to enter in at the strait gate besides this people? Yes, many in the sectarian world, and the honest among the heathen nations are seeking with all their mights to enter in, and I do not know but what they are the foolish virgins that brother Hyde has been talking about. The parable will apply to them, as well as to a portion of this people. They live according to the moral law given to them, and no people can be morally any better than are thousands and millions of them, for they have spent days and years on their knees to get the power we have, but could not obtain it. Why? Because they had not the keys of the everlasting Priesthood. Where will they go? To heaven, and they will have all the heaven, bliss, and crowns that they have anticipated in the flesh, and then you may add a hundred fold more. Can they go into the celestial kingdom? No, not without the keys of that kingdom.
Well, brethren and sisters, may the Lord bless you and comfort your hearts. Be true to your God and to your religion. Do not forsake them, but forsake sin wherever you may see it. Shun sin, whether it is in me or in any other person, and cleave to righteousness and to the Lord. Do not betray your God nor your covenants, and I say, God bless you and prepare us all for His celestial kingdom. Amen.
DEPARTED SPIRITS CONTINUE WITH THE DISPOSITIONS THEY POSSESSED ON EARTH--THE ORDER AND NECESSARY UNITY OF THE PRIESTHOOD ILLUSTRATED--COUNSEL TO THE MARRIED.
A Discourse, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, January 25, 1857.
When brother Woodruff was speaking, he was the centre; and when brother Wells was speaking, he was the centre; and the speaker should draw every mind and feeling to the centre, for this is the way you get your reformation.
Where there is so large a congregation, it is impolitic to bring little children here. I am perfectly willing that children from four to six years of age should come, because a great many of them have more sense than some grown persons; I know that mine have.
I want to speak, as brother Wells says, just what comes to my mind, that is, if the Spirit thinks proper.
God says, "My house is a house of order, and not of confusion." The Holy Ghost will not dwell where there is confusion. I do not ask you whether you know this or not, because every one knows that confusion does not come from the Father, nor from the Son. Does it come from the Holy Ghost? Every one of you will answer, "No." Where does it come from? It comes from the author of confusion, and is produced by those who rebel against God and against His authority. There were many who did this formerly, and they form part of that hell which brother Wells was talking about. Although those men and women are dead, they have a good deal of power; their spirits have power over us when we render ourselves subject to them; their spirits are busy at work. They are diligent in performing the work of destruction and confusion; they go at that work the very moment their spirits leave their bodies.
On the other hand, when righteous persons die, their spirits also go into the spirit world, but they go to work with the servants of God to help to do good, and to bring about the purposes of the Almighty pertaining to this earth; while wicked spirits, those who have been wicked in this probation, take the opposite course, just the same as they did here. I have said, a great many times, that that spirit which possesses us here will possess us when our spirits leave our bodies, and we shall there be very much the same as we are here.
If you are subject to rebellious spirits, or to a spirit of apostacy here, will you not have the same spirit beyond the vail that you had on this side? You will, and it will have power over you to lead you to do wrong, and it will control your spirits. If, then, you are opposed to the truth while you are here, you will be occupied in that opposition hereafter, for the spirit that is opposed to the work of God here, will be opposed to that work when beyond the vail. I do not guess at this, because I have been at the other side of the vail, in vision, and have seen a degree of its condition with the eyes that God gave me. I have seen it and have seen those that lived in the faith and had the privilege of seeing Jesus, Peter, James, and the rest of the ancient Apostles, and of hearing them preach the Gospel. I have also seen those who rebelled against them, and they still had a rebellious spirit, fighting against God and His servants.
Brother Wells has been explaining to you the spirit of apostacy that is apt to possess persons when they feel that they have been injured by any of their brethren. Doubtless some have felt grieved and hurt with some of my remarks. During last week several men came to me to make confessions for having talked about me, because I was too hard upon them in this stand. I told them that they had not injured me, because they were not partaking of the sap and spirit of the vine, while they were finding fault with me. If they had been, I should have felt the effects of it. When faulting me they were the branches that had withered, and the sap, the nourishment, was not in them, for while indulging in those feelings it had withdrawn to Him who gave it.
Of course their conduct would not affect me much, but would affect them at the junction of that branch with the vine, or of that limb with the tree. They did not hurt me; and I told them to make their consciences clear by going and making a confession to those that they had talked to against me, and whose minds they had perhaps prejudiced against me.
I mention this to show you that you need not come to me, not one of you who have talked against me; but acknowledge to your God and those that you have injured, for you have not injured me, nor brother Brigham, nor brother Wells, because you cannot get high enough to do it. You cannot reach higher than your length, and if your length does not reach high enough, you cannot reach us. It is the spirit of apostacy, when any one takes that course, as brother Wells has said.
I knew brother Wells in Nauvoo before he came into this Church, and apostates and wicked men used to go to him and to Lewis Robison, and tell them every thing they knew or imagined to be transpiring in regard to this people. Do those characters take the same course here? Yes, Mr. Bell and Mr. Gerrish know everything that is done, almost, if not quite as well as you know it. They are hearing things all the time, and from whom? From those who profess to be our brethren.
Have I any ill feeling towards Mr. Gerrish or Mr. Bell? No, for they have been our friends all the time. But have all who have come here been our friends? No, they have not. There are several who would destroy brother Brigham, brother Daniel, and myself in a moment, if they had the power. How does this feeling come about? Through the apostates in our midst. They go to work to destroy men and women, and to make themselves reckless and miserable. This is their condition.
Many men and women unfold everything they know and can think of, and that too, while professing to be good Saints. Have they injured me or brother Brigham? No, for they cannot reach us, they cannot destroy us. They can only destroy the house that we live in, or our tabernacles, and shall not we hold the Priesthood hereafter? Yes, we shall hold it forever.
If you will hearken to the teachings of brother Woodruff, brother Franklin, brother Samuel, and brother Wells, you will also receive my words; and if you will receive my words, you will receive brother Brigham's; and if you will receive his, you will also receive brother Joseph's, and so on until you get back to the root, or to the tree, or to the trunk from whence that Priesthood came.
Should you go into Iron county, you would there find a branch of this Church, a branch of the vine which is figurative of Jesus. So it is with the general authority of this Church; here are the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Priests, the Seventies, Elders, Bishops, and lesser Priesthood, and they are all branches of the vine. Now if the people in Iron county are connected to the main branch that is there, to the President and his Counsellors there, and if they will hearken to their words, then they will hearken to our words. And if they wont [sic] hear the words of those who are authorised to teach them, do you not comprehend that they cannot remain in the vine? But if they will hear our words, then there is a junction of the lesser with the larger branches to which they are connected. And if men hearken to our words, they will also hearken to the words of their Bishops and Presidents, and what is the result? They will partake of the same sap and nourishment that are in us.
Brother Brigham is our head, and we will say, by way of comparison, that brother Heber and brother Wells are the arms, and you can see that there are several members springing from the arms. These arms are for defending the head, and should there be any disunion? Or should anything step in between them? Or should any one try to make a separation between them? No, for they should be agreed in nourishing and cherishing the head, or the branch to which they belong.
Reflect upon the union that should exist between those men! They should be of one heart and of one mind. Should not I know the mind of brother Brigham? Yes, just as much as he should know the mind of brother Joseph, and brother Joseph the mind of Peter, and Peter the mind of Jesus, and Jesus the mind of the Father. I should know the mind of brother Brigham; and brother Wells should know my mind, and the mind of brother Brigham. This is why that in my counsel I never run against him, and he knows it and speaks of it. And he never gave me any commandment, but what I was ready to sustain him. Then here is a Quorum that is of one heart and of one mind in all things; and just as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one, so we are one, and always should be.
The Twelve Apostles come next. Are they a separate and independent body? No, for they sprang from those three, and are branches that are connected to the same stock; and we sprang from Joseph, and Joseph from Peter, and Peter from Jesus, and Jesus from his Father. The Twelve may enquire, "Should not we have the same mind as the First Presidency have? Yes, they most certainly should. If the Twelve have the same Spirit, they will speak our mind, and will not suffer any person to get between us, nor between us and them, nor between them; for no person has the right to dictate to them, except brother Daniel, brother Heber, and brother Brigham, because they form a Quorum next in authority to the First Presidency, and hold the keys of the kingdom to all men and nations upon the earth. They should be one in spirit with the First Presidency, and the Seventies should be one with the Twelve and with us.
The First Presidency of the Seventies, Joseph Young and his six counsellors, form another body holding power and authority, and where did they receive their power and authority from? They sprang from the Twelve. Then there are seven Presidents to each Seventy, and each Seventy is a branch, and they are all joined to the vine, their seven first Presidents are the junction by which the Seventies are connected to that vine, even to the very last; and they should all have the same power and faith that the first have. If the nourishment and connection are good, and the junctions of those branches or limbs are all alive, then the farthest Seventy has got the spirit of the first, and all will go on right. Why? Because they will all be in intimate connection with the vine.
I use the figure of the vine to show you the connection of this people with each other, and when the connection is unobstructed, you will find excellent fruit even on the farthest. If that be true, no matter how far he be from the head, he may be as a member of this Church, bright and useful in his sphere as are any of the members who are nearer.
Again, most of the members of those Seventies have wives and children, and from five to ten branches from each of them, and still the last child is as goodly as the first, because it receives the same nourishment, the same care and attention, for it sprang out of the vine, and abides in its fatness.
There has got to be that connection, and it must go to the farthest person in this kingdom, and if there is no obstruction, what can hinder its proceeding to the minutest branch and tendril? But should an obstruction occur, what will be done in such a case? Destroy the branch or limb causing the obstruction, and the other part of the tree will thrive.
I have been over many parts of this earth, and the power that is in me extends to the uttermost parts of God's creation. But do you not see that I must be connected to the vine or tree? We also have to see that the fruit is gathered so as to be saved and preserved, because there is a storm coming, and if the fruit is gathered up and properly stored, it can be preserved on natural principles.
If there should be disorder in the root, vine, and branches, what would be the result? If there should be confusion and men should be opposed in their faith and feelings, there would not be much good done. But if every man was acting in his authority and the power of the calling placed upon him, there would be no obstruction. Suppose that City creek extended into ten thousand branches through this city, and that no obstruction or filth is thrown into them, then the ten thousandth stream would be just as good, as pure and as wholesome as the rest. It is just the same with men and women in this Church and kingdom.
How long is it going to take you to become men and women of God, and to honour your calling? When you fight against your leaders, or against the head of a branch, do you not see that you are fighting against your head? It is the same as a child's fighting against its mother, for when it does so, it is fighting against its own existence.
I want to show you the propriety of cleaving to the vine or the branch to which you are connected, for if you do not you will be cut off, as many have been. Are they cleaved off? Yes, with all the roots and branches that are in them, that is, supposing that they should afterwards have ten thousand children, they will not be acknowledged in this kingdom, except they are taken and grafted back into the Priesthood. I want to present these ideas to you, brethren and sisters, that you may lead new lives.
I have not a wife but what was taken from another man's family and grafted into a space that I had got in my family. Now if I have a woman who says that she has no love for plurality, I do not think that there could be much affection towards her. And when there is affection, such a woman would soon banish it all. Suppose she has no love, no attachment, can she expect the affection of her husband? Can a graft grow to a tree unless its nature is congenial to that of the tree in which it is grafted? Say that one man gives me a graft from his tree, and that I get hundreds of grafts from other trees, and that they are all grafted into my tree, then if they partake of the nourishment and fatness that are in the tree, they will certainly grow, but if they alienate themselves, they will wither and drop off.
Perhaps some of you do not believe that the Spirit of the Lord goes and comes throughout every portion of the vine, even to the smallest and farthest extremity thereof, but it does. How could the members of my body exist, if the blood did not pass to the extremities? Then it has to turn and go back to the vitals. Now say that I am a branch, how am I to partake of brother Brigham's spirit and know his mind, unless I also partake of the fatness of the true vine, and permit its sap, or essence, or spirit, to flow through me without obstruction?--that my mind and will may become amalgamated and run together with the mind and will of brother Brigham, that our spirits may freely and fully unite through the same genial influences of the Spirit of truth. And if my wife wants to be one with me, she must let her will and affections centre in me, just as if I were a vine, and my wife a branch; then where is there room or occasion for confusion? Were such universally the case, do you not think that we could raise up a still better posterity?
When wives become one with their husbands, when there is no evil interruption, children will be begotten, born and reared under greatly improved influences. The Holy Ghost will rest upon and dwell with the parents, and their offspring will be mighty and godlike. I would not give much for a man nor a woman that does not enjoy the fellowship of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. If I do not have the Holy Ghost, I shall not produce the fruit that is designed by the holy order of matrimony. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a pure woman, and was ordained and designed to bear the Son of God, because no woman in her sins was worthy of performing that work. How long will it be before we will have children filled with the Holy Ghost from their birth, who will grow up steadfast in the truth, even sons and daughters of God? No woman entering into this holy order should do so without she has the Holy Ghost, and she should ever after keep it, that her nourishment, example, and teachings may always partake of the life-giving principles of that Spirit.
Stop all wickedness, all your quarrelling, and all unholy divorces. Some women will marry a man one day, and call for a divorce the next. They are playing with the things of God, and are sealing their own damnation. Some women get married and then run after other men; and some men get married and run after other women. What are such persons doing? They are sealing their own damnation. On the other hand, every man and woman that will not yield to passion, nor to any evil practice or principle, will become filled with the Spirit of God, and it will pass from one to another. This is why, as I have often said, I love brother Brigham Young better than I do any woman upon this earth, because my will has run into his, and his into mine, and there is a free interchange of feelings. There are but few men that will do that, for they generally want their own way and their own will, therefore their wills do not run into ours and the Father's. This free interchange of pure feelings should run through all the organizations in this Church, and through every member in every family through out all our borders.
I have been trying to tell you how you may raise children to hold the Priesthood and be holy unto the Lord; and if all would take a right and proper course in regard to rearing children, from the commencement until they are grown up, and not take a course to weary the tree while it is maturing fruit, many would do far better than they now do. Many who have but one wife, and several of those who have more than one, take a course to excite adultery, and what is much worse, they often take that course at the most improper and unwise times, and thereby seriously injure their offspring. If husbands and wives will pursue a righteous course in this matter, their children will be much less subject to lustful desires, and will enter into the holy bonds of matrimony with a view to keep the commandment and raise up a pure posterity. For this purpose God has instituted the plurality of wives.
How I would like to talk to you in the plainest way that the Spirit dictates to me, but the delicacies and wickedness of the corrupt and ungodly cannot bear it. I want you to have a reformation, for God is working upon me. I wanted to stay at home this morning, but I could not; I had to come here to talk to you. The world judge brother Brigham and me as they do themselves, and some of you judge us in the same way. I wish to just touch upon this, for the world do not believe in our religion, still they take the liberty of judging us, and they judge us, as some of you do, according to the glasses, or microscopes which they have. This is not the right way, for there are but few men who hold their ages as brother Brigham and I. Whereas if we took the course that those do who thus unjustly judge us, we should have been old long ago.
Some of you are living in adultery or in the spirit of adultery. And some have wives that do not bear children. Why don't you let them alone? Why don't you take a course to regenerate, and not to degenerate?
How do you suppose I feel? As I live, and as the Lord lives, I will defend the oil and the wine; and they will be blest with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with all the blessings of the fathers clear back through all generations and dispensations; all these blessings will rest upon them. I care not whether it be men or women who live the religion of the everlasting Gospel, nor whether they be Americans, English, Scotch, Dutch, Danes, or inhabitants of any other nation, for all such persons have my blessing and my good feelings. I am not national nor sectional, and God forbid that I should be, for I have that Spirit that delighteth in the welfare and salvation of the human family. And when I have that Spirit about me, can I be national? You never knew that feeling to be in me, for I abhor it. I will not bow my head to that national spirit, nor to any spirit that is not of God.
Cultivate the principles I have tried to lay before you, for I have done this for your good, for your happiness and salvation. I have endeavoured to let you know that we must become one, or we never shall be connected to that vine or tree that I have spoken of. Everything will be saved that cleaves to the vine; but if you are not connected to the vine, you cannot be saved. That vine is like a cable which reaches within the vail, and the Father has hold of it.
The Twelve Apostles sprang from Jesus in his day, and Joseph sprang from them, and brother Brigham, myself, and others, sprang from brother Joseph, and if we cleave together, how can any of us be lost? We never shall be. But do not jump on to the car and ride, instead of trying to do something to help keep the car in motion. Do not jump on, as did some women who crossed the Plains last season. They jumped on to the hand-cart and made the men draw them, until the men died.
The true seed of the house of Israel are coming out of the world, and the Saints are shut up in the mountains to learn and practise those principles which pertain to salvation in the celestial kingdom of our God, and my prayer is that we may be enabled to accomplish the gathering of Israel and the redemption of Zion. Amen.
OUR RELATIVES, THOSE WHO DO THE WILL OF GOD--THE ELDERS SHOULD BE AS FATHERS AND SHEPHERDS IN ISRAEL, AND NOT AS MASTERS--SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND THE WAY TO OBTAIN IT--THE PROPHET JOSEPH NOT YET RESURRECTED--PREACHING TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON, ETC.
A Discourse by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 15, 1857.
I am not in the habit of taking a text, when I preach to the Saints; but I will quote a portion of Scripture, and offer a few remarks upon it.
It is recorded, concerning the Saviour, Matthew xii. 46-50, that "While he yet talked to the people, behod [sic] his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
The Saviour's reply to the questions, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" is fraught with a principle that is very little noticed by many. I frequently hear the brethren, and you may hear both them and the sisters, in the prayer-meetings, where they have a privilege of speaking, say, "I have not a father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first nor second cousin, nor any relative whatever in this Church." Do you not hear such expressions made by the Saints? Yes; and I sometimes here [sic] them from this stand.
Whether to the understanding of his hearers at that time, or whether to ours, those questions were correctly answered by our Saviour in the observation, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." So far as I am concerned, I do not claim relationship anywhere else. And I do not think that the Saviour will claim any son or daughter of Adam to be his brother, sister, mother, or kin, or connection of any kind or description, according to the flesh, except those who do the will of our Father in heaven--the will of Jesus and his Father.
We presume that the Saviour perfectly understood his origin, for he was then over thirty years of age, and had been instructed by his Father in heaven and by the Holy Ghost, and had had the visions of his mind repeatedly opened, according to the history given by his disciples; therefore we have no hesitation in believing that he understood his origin, who he was, the errand for which he came into the world, the business he had to attend to here, and understood the end of his mission in the meridian of time. He understood that which you and I do not understand, without the same kind of revelations and teachings as he enjoyed.
Let the human family do as they did in the days of Adam, in the days of Noah, or even as they did in the days of Lot; let parents propagate children, and let one generation succeed another, and this does not change the blood, flesh, bones, sinews, &c., pertaining to our organization in the flesh; this does not change in the least the peculiar characteristics of the organization of our bodies. The Apostle merely hinted at this subject when he said, "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." (Acts xvii. 26.)
No matter who they are, nor whether they are upon the islands, or upon the continents; no matter whether they are the wild Arabs who traverse the scorching sands of Arabia, the aborigines of our own country, who roam over its plains and mountains, or the delicately nurtured dwellers in highly civilized nations; they are all of one flesh and blood.
Consequently we can readily and safely draw the conclusion that a man or woman who has sprang from the loins of Father Adam and Mother Eve, whether upon the islands of the sea, in the west, in the east, or on the opposite side of this globe, is flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, as much so as any person now in this house or in this Territory. But the relationship that I claim, is to those who do the will of our Father in heaven; they are my brethren and sisters.
I know a great man here who have no relatives in this Church, using that term in its customary acceptation. Sometimes wives leave their husbands, to come here; mothers also leave their children, and children their parents. Ask them, "Where is your husband?" "In England," or in some other country. "Have you any children?" "Yes." "Where are they?" "They would not come with me." "Have you any brothers and sisters, or parents?" "Yes, my father and mother are living." "Did they believe the Gospel?" "No." "Did your brothers and sisters believe it?" "No, I am a lone person."
Such persons are apt to feel a spirit of despondency, to mourn and complain, "O that I had a Father's house to go to; or if I had one person whom I could visit and call sister, how happy I should be; but I am a stranger here, I have no relatives in this kingdom." Is that feeling correct or incorrect? I say that it is incorrect; such conclusions are not true. That man or woman that is a child of God, that honours his or her calling in the kingdom of God on the earth, is just as much your brother or sister as any person you have been accustomed to claim that relationship with. If you see a woman who lives her religion, who is owned of God, you see a person that is flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood, and bone of your bone, although she may have been born upon the opposite side of the earth from where you was born. Those who actually live the religion we profess, are as much your brothers and sisters as are those born of the same earthly parents. Jesus understood this, as we may learn from his expression, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Let your hearts be at rest, for you have brothers and sisters here to visit; they are your connections, your relatives, your brethren and sisters.
A great many have an experience that has proven to them the truth of this doctrine. Ask those individuals, those who at times have desponding feelings about the absence of their relatives, when they are in the light of the Spirit, when the joys of salvation fill their bosoms, whether they would prefer the society of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters whom they have left behind, or whether they would like to associate with them better than with their neighbours here, and they will tell you, "No." Would you visit them, as quick as you would a good Saint? "No." Do you have the same feeling and fellowship for them, as for a Saint? "No." Are they are near and dear to you as those who are Saints? "No." And yet, when the Spirit is gone from them and they are left to themselves, they are apt to feel lonesome and cast down, to be filled with desponding feelings, and to cry out, "I wish I could see my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters; I wish they were here." And I wish you to understand that your brethren and sisters are here, even according to the flesh. Yes, according to the connection and relationship we bear to each other to our Father and God, and to our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ.
It is true that I have not altogether the experience that those have whose parents would not embrace the Gospel, nor any of their father's family. My father and step-mother embraced the plan of salvation as revealed through Joseph the Prophet; and four of my brothers, five sisters, and their children and their children's children, almost without exception, are in this Church; also many of my cousins, uncles, and other classes of what we call relatives or relations, are in this Church. But I had this trial when I embraced this Gospel, "Can you forsake your friends and your father's house?" This was in the vision of my mind, and I had just as much of a trial as though I had actually been called to experience all that some really have. I felt, yes, I can leave my father, my brothers and sisters, and my wife and children, if they will not serve the Lord and go with me.
I did not ask my wife whether she believed the Gospel; I did not ask her whether she would be baptized. Faith, repentance, and baptism are free for all. I did not know, when I was baptized, whether my wife believed the Gospel or not; I did not know that my father's house would go with me. I believed that some of them would, but I was brought to the test, "Can I forsake all for the Gospel's sake?" I can, was the reply within me. "Would you like to?" "Yes, if they will not embrace the Gospel." "Will not these earthly, natural ties be continually in your bosom?" "No; I know no other family but the family of God gathered together, or about to be, in this my day; I have no other connection on the face of the earth that I claim." And from that day to this, if my father was still living, or my mother, and would not believe the Gospel, embrace it, and then live it, or if any of my living brothers and sisters would not, I would rather meet a Saint who was a beggar in the streets and bid him welcome to my house, than to receive a visit from any of my unbelieving connections, even though they had the wealth of the Indies. I was brought to this test in my own feelings, in the first of my experience in this Church.
Here are our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. And perhaps it would be strictly correct to say that we have fathers in the Gospel, spiritual Fathers, for the Apostle Paul called Timothy, whom he brought into the Church, his "own son in the faith," and charged him to "be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient;" to be careful, cautious, with regard to the people that believed in Jesus Christ; to learn the disposition and the nature of the people, that he might understand himself and those he taught; and alluded to others that were travelling and preaching; building up Churches, or presiding over them after they were built up.
Looking at the conduct of many, yea, very many, as we can see it exhibited in this our day, they want the mastery, the influence, the power. They want to be able to say to the people, "Do this or do that," and have no objections raised. They would have the people obey their voice, and yet they do not know how to gain the affections of the people; they do not understand the dispositions of the people.
Paul observed the same difficulty in his day. Many Elders were preaching and presiding, who were ignorant, aspiring, and tyrannical, and but few of them treated the people as kind and benevolent fathers treat their children. There were not many fathers, but there was a disposition to be "many masters," as we see here.
The most of our Elders want to be obeyed, as strictly as you are taught by them from this stand that this people ought to obey brother Heber, or brother Brigham; as strictly as they preach to you to obey our counsel. I do not threaten you much; No. If I have not wisdom and power to gain the influence necessary for me to wield in the midst of this people, without cursing them, without telling them that they and their substance shall be cursed, and that if they do not do as I say they shall go to hell--without threatening the people all the time with my judgments and the judgments of the Almighty--I say, let Brigham sink a little lower, and get into the field where I can find my true level, where I can be made more useful.
You never hear me plead with nor threaten the people much, nor chastise them often and severely for not obeying my counsel. Is it right that others should do so? Yes, it is all right, if they are so disposed; I have no fault to find with regard to others urging the people to obey counsel. But if I do not give the Saints and others the counsel of the Almighty, and that too by the Spirit of my mission, they are at liberty to dictate me, or to correct me in every error I commit; and certainly I should commit great errors, if I did not enjoy and have the Spirit of my mission, and counsel according to the will of the Lord. If all who are called to responsible stations would look at themselves precisely as they are, I will venture that we would have many more fathers than we now have, and fewer masters to drive the people.
As I have frequently said to the brethren, stop, hold on. If you have sheep and have become a shepherd in the fold of Christ, you must bear in mind that you must know your sheep, and that then they will know you, that is, if you have got sheep. Perhaps some of you are nursing a flock of goats, and do not know the difference. But if you actually have a flock of sheep, you should, instead of hallooing, "Shoo, shoo, shoo, get out of the way," and instead of driving them, take a course that when they hear your voice they may begin to bleat and run for their shepherd, because he has a little salt for them. When the sheep hear the voice of a good shepherd they expect to hear the words of life; and every one that has the knowledge of God will know and understand that such a shepherd is acting in his duty, and they will walk up to his counsels and example. Do all the shepherds take a wise course? No, and the reasons have been told here times enough.
Elders of Israel and Bishops, be fathers, and take a course by which you will win the affections of the people. How? with your silken lips? No, no; but with the fear of the Almighty. Do you know that men and women of God love truth? They do not love sophistry, it is an abomination to them. When men are smooth as oil, with a smile always upon their countenances, as some Elders have, to gain an influence, the love people have for such men is rotten, is without foundation; and in the day of trouble, when they need a foundation in their people, they will find that it will fall to the ground, and that the people will pass by them and say, "We do not know those men." Let your influence and your power be gained by the power of the Lord Almighty, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and see that you have within you a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. Then when your brethren and sisters come around you they will drink at that fountain, and say, "We are one with you."
You hear the Elders teaching the people to try and have confidence in God, and saying, "Do have confidence in the ordinances of the house of God; brethren and sisters try and live your religion; try and have confidence in your religion; have confidence in your God; have confidence in the Elders of Israel, that lead you; have confidence in your Bishops and other presiding officers, &c."
You know that almost every man who becomes a public speaker uses certain peculiar words to convey particular ideas, selects a vocabulary and arrangement more or less peculiar to himself, thereby causing that great variety of style observed in speakers and writers. I have mine, which is peculiar to me. Did you ever see a man who had such a peculiar vocabulary as brother Heber has? I never did. Orson Hyde has a mode of expression peculiar to himself, and so has every public speaker. My use of language is good to me; and though others may use different words to convey the same ideas, let me give out those ideas in my own style, according to my understanding.
Now to return to those teachings by the Elders, in such cases I would say to my dear brethren, to those who are of the household of faith, try to get a little confidence in yourselves, and then try to live so as to have confidence in your God. Ask even an infidel whether he believes that the wonder workings of nature, the strange phenomena which he sees and cannot account for, are produced, and he will answer, "Yes, I know they are." Do you know that men, women, and children are healed? Yes, you know they are. You behold those remarkable phenomena, though you cannot fully account for them. You believe in a great many things which you do not understand, but do you believe in yourselves? No, that is the grand difficulty with every one of us.
I will take my own experience. When men and women bring their sick to me, if I had the power I would heal all that should be healed. And if I had perfect confidence in myself, and the Lord had that confidence in me which I should then have in Him, no power beneath the heavens could prevent the power of God from coming on them and healing them through me. But I have not yet attained to perfect confidence in myself in all circumstances, neither has God in me, for were such the case, He would answer every request I made of Him, every wish of mine would be answered to the letter. And this is the difficulty with the people, they have not attained to perfect confidence in themselves, neither have we as yet sufficient grounds for that degree of confidence.
We lay hands on the sick and wish them to be healed, and pray the Lord to heal them, but we cannot always say that He will. We do not always know that He will actually hear our prayers and answer them. Sometimes the Elders will get that faith, and the sisters will often lay hands on their children and have faith and confidence in themselves that God will answer their prayers, and say to fevers and pains, "Be ye rebuked and stand far off from this the afflicted," and it is done. But you have to attain to this power by your faithfulness and confidence in yourselves, that God will answer your prayers. We know that the Lord often heals the sick; and we believe all the time that He is able to do so, but will He because we ask Him to? That is the question, and we are often doubtful about it.
Do you think that I would have let my brother die, if I had the power the Lord has? Would I have let Jedediah gone behind the veil, had I had that power? No; though in that I might have gone contrary to the wishes of the Almighty. For want of the knowledge which the Lord has, if I had power I might bring injury upon myself and this people.
We must have knowledge pertaining to ourselves, and that knowledge will give us the key to know how to ask and obtain, and without that knowledge we cannot have eternal life, which is "to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." If we have that knowledge we will know how to ask so as to obtain, and not ask amiss, we will ask and have our requests granted. How can we have that knowledge? By applying our hearts to wisdom and our lives to rectitude; by living as perfectly before God as we know how; by doing those things that we know to be right, those about which we have no doubt or dubiety, and never doing that which we are suspicious is wrong, and then be satisfied and not crave after that which is not for us, but let it remain in the hands of God. If we can obtain faith and confidence in ourselves, there is no lack in the power of God; neither is there any lack in His diligence, for He is always on the alert.
In our ignorance and darkness we may be led into error, if we follow our feelings, as I just now observed might have been the case in regard to retaining brother Jedediah, as also brother Willard, brother Whitney, and many others. Had we had the power, would we have parted with Joseph? No, notwithstanding his work was finished on the earth. Many ideas have been imbibed and advanced concerning the death of Joseph. It was precisely as the Lord had decreed, designed, willed and brought about. No power could have altered it in the least. He had finished his work on the earth. Still if you and I had had the power without the knowledge, we would have kept Joseph on this earth, and then he would have failed to perform his mission in the spirit world.
I learned during the intermission, that several understood brother Heber to say, in his remarks in the forenoon, that Joseph was resurrected. He did not say any such thing, but left the sentence with a word understood at each end of it, or a sort af [sic] conjunction disjunctive at each side of it. I thought at the time that many would understand brother Heber as saying that Joseph was resurrected, and I take this opportunity to correct that misunderstanding. Joseph is not resurrected; and if you will visit the graves you will find the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum yet in their resting place. Do not be mistaken about that; they will be resurrected in due time.
Jesus had a work to do on the earth. He performed his mission, and then was slain for his testimony. So it has been with every man who has been fore-ordained to perform certain important missions. Joseph truly said, "No power can take away my life, until my work is done." All the powers of earth and hell could not take his life, until he had completed the work the Father gave him to do; until that was done, he had to live. When he died he had a mission in the spirit world, as much so as Jesus had. Jesus was the first man that ever went to preach to the spirits in prison, holding the keys of the Gospel of salvation to them. Those keys were delivered to him in the day and hour that he went into the spirit world, and with them he opened the door of salvation to the spirits in prison.
Compare those inhabitants on the earth who have heard the Gospel in our day, with the millions who have never heard it, or had the keys of salvation presented to them, and you will conclude at once as I do, that there is an almighty work to perform in the spirit world. Joseph has not yet got through there. When he finishes his mission in the spirit world, he will be resurrected, but he has not yet done there. Reflect upon the millions and millions of people that have lived and died without hearing the Gospel on the earth, without the keys of the kingdom. They were not prepared for celestial glory, and there was no power that could prepare them without the keys of this Priesthood.
They must go into prison, both Saints and sinners. The good and bad, the righteous and the unrighteous must go to the house of prison, or paradise, and Jesus went and opened the doors of salvation to them. And unless they lost the keys of salvation on account of transgression, as has been the case on this earth, spirits clothed with the Priesthood have ministered to them from that day to this. And if they lost the keys by transgression, some one who had been in the flesh, Joseph, for instance, had to take those keys to them. And he is calling one after another to his aid, as the Lord sees he wants help.
Jedediah is not asleep, his spirit is not dead, he is not idle; neither is Willard idle, asleep, or dead. Joseph needed them there, also brother Whitney, and all the rest of the faithful who have departed in our day; and he is now anxious to get a few more of the faithful Elders to assist him in the great labours in the prison house. He is there attending to the business of his mission; and if they did lose the keys of the Priesthood in the spirit world, as they have formerly done on the earth, Joseph has restored those keys to the spirits in prison, so that we who now live on the earth in the day of salvation and redemption for the house of Israel and the house of Esau, may go forth and officiate for all who died without the Gospel and the knowledge of God.
Brother Heber did not say that Joseph was resurrected, though I was satisfied that many of the hearers would draw such a conclusion. As quick as Joseph finishes his mission in the spirit world he will be resurrected.
I do not know that any news would come to my ears so sad and discouraging, so calculated to blight my faith and hope as to hear that Joseph is resurrected and has not made a visit to his brethren. I should know that something serious was the matter, far more than I now apprehend that there is. When his spirit again quickens his body, he will ascend to heaven, present his resurrected body to the Father and the Son, receive his commission as a resurrected being, and visit his brethren on this earth, as did Jesus after his resurrection. Mary met the Saviour after his resurrection, and, "supposing him to be the gardner, saith, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him." But when she learned who he was, and was about to greet him, he said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." As quick as Joseph ascends to his Father and God, he will get a commission to this earth again, and I shall be the first woman that he will manifest himself to. I was going to say the first man, but there are so many women who profess to have seen him, that I thought I would say woman.
I should feel worse than I now do, if I knew that Joseph was resurrected and had not paid us a visit, which he most assuredly will do, when that period arrives.
When Jesus was resurrected they found the linen, but the body was not there. When Joseph is resurrected, you may find the linen that enshrouded his body, but you will not find his body in the grave, no more than the disciples found the body of Jesus when they looked where it was lain.
To return more closely to the subject I have in mind, I will ask, can we do anything to restore confidence in ourselves? Yes, we can; and those principles that will actually give us confidence in ourselves, as what we ought to have constantly before us. But those who have been intimately acquainted with this people can see a difficulty on the other hand. A man would get exceeding great faith, if he did not outweigh and outmeasure himself, for it is but a short time before some are prone to take the glory to themselves, and say, "I have laid hands on the sick and they have been healed. Stand out of the way, everybody, I am the man for you to look at," and they go to the devil.
Again, many will pray for the sick and for themselves, for this blessing and that, without receiving an answer, and think "I am so unworthy, I have not lived my religion and walked up to my privileges, though I have thought of everything that I can confess." Some people will come and confess to me things as simple as it would be for a woman to take the last egg from her hen's nest, and then reflect, "what an evil I have done to rob that poor hen of her last egg," and talk about that which the Lord cares nothing about, and say within themselves, "I do not receive the blessings I desire; I have tried to humble myself and do the best I know, and yet I do not receive that faith and power I want, that I am looking for and expect." You cannot receive it, until you are capable of using it, neither should you. It would not be wisdom in the Lord to give you power any faster than you gain knowledge.
Those who humble themselves before the Lord, and wait upon Him with a perfect heart and willing mind, will receive little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, "Now and again," as brother John Taylor says, until they receive a certain amount. Then they have to nourish and cherish what they receive, and make it their constant companion, encouraging every good thought, doctrine and principle and doing every good work they can perform, until by and bye the Lord is in them a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life.
Some of you may remember hearing Elder Taylor preach on that subject some years ago. He illustrated it most beautifully, I never heard it so beautifully illustrated, by instancing people's applying their words, works, and wisdom, in seeking first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, seeking to build up the kingdom of God on the earth, and exhorted that every other interest should sleep to wake no more; that every man and woman should have a lively interest for the kindom [sic] of God, and let narrow, contracted, sectional, individual interests lie dormant, asleep, severed from us, and taught that our whole lives would then be occupied in loving God and doing good, until Jesus would form in us that living fountain from which we may have revelation and gain wisdom.
Can you learn by what you see? Yes, if you know how. No matter what your circumstances are, whether you are in prosperity or in adversity, you can learn from every person, transaction, and circumstance around you. You can learn from yourselves and your neighbours, and can apply all your energies to the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth, if your knowledge, interests, hopes, joys, efforts, and labours are concentrated therein; and you will be in that almighty big root that brother Heber was talking about in the forenoon.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and his Father is the husbandman. In reality his Father was the root of that vine, and Jesus was the vine, though he did not tell them that, for they could not understand anything about it. His Father was the root, the living fountain, and the God whom we have to serve. Let us be branches and cling to this vine, hang to the true principles, and all that we do, let it be to nourish, cherish, love, build, increase, and multiply the size, glory, power, and excellency of this tremendous great vine. There will be but one big vine in the vineyard, according to that. Never mind, we will be the branches, and the roots will fill the whole soil and the branches the heavens.
It may be just as well to have one tree that will bear a million bushels of peaches, as to have a million trees that will only produce one bushel each. All can partake and be filled; all who will can rejoice, and all can strive to build up this one kingdom, or to nourish this great tree.
I now wish to particularize a little, and will commence by asking whether any persons here are sick, and if so, I will tell you what their disease is, when I get ready. Some men and women fairly get sick, so that they have to go to bed. What is the matter? "O I feel that I cannot stand it any longer." What is the matter, sister? "My husband knows something that he cannot tell me." Do some of you men know something that you cannot tell your wives? "O, I have received something in the endowment that I dare not tell my wife, and I do not know how to do about it." The man who cannot know millions of things that he would not tell his wife, will never be crowned in the celestial kingdom, <never,> NEVER, NEVER. It cannot be; it is impossible. And that man who cannot know things without telling any other living being upon the earth, who cannot keep his secrets and those that God reveals to him, never can receive the voice of his Lord to dictate him and the people on this earth.
Does brother Heber know things that I do not? Yes, facts that have slept in his bosom from the time I first knew him. Did he ever have a thought, a wish, or desire, to tell them to me? No. Do I know anything that I should keep fast locked in my bosom? Yes, thousands of things pertaining to other people, that ought to sleep as in the silent grave. Do those things go from me to brother Heber? No. To my wife? No, for I might as well at once publish them in a paper. Not that I wish to undervalue the ability, talent, and integrity of woman, for I have many women to whom I would rather reveal any secret that ought to be revealed, than to nine hundred and nine out of a thousand men in this Church. I know that many can keep secrets, but that is no reason why I should tell them my secrets. When I find a person that is good at keeping a secret, so am I; you can keep yours, and I mine.
Now I want to tell you that which, perhaps, many of you do not know. Should you receive a vision of revelation from the Almighty, one that the Lord gave you concerning yourselves, or this people, but which you are not to reveal on account of your not being the proper person, or because it ought not to be known by the people at present, you should shut it up and seal it as close, and lock it as tight as heaven is to you, and make it as secret as the grave. The Lord has no confidence in those who reveal secrets, for He cannot safely reveal Himself to such persons. It is as much as He can do to get a particle of sense into some of the best and most influential men in the Church, in regard to real confidence in themselves. They cannot keep things within their own bosoms.
They are like a great many boys and men that I have seen, who would cause even a sixpence, when given to them, to become so hot that it would burn through the pocket of a new vest, or pair of pantaloons, if they could not spend it. It could not stay with them; they would feel so tied up because they were obliged to keep it, that the very fire of discontent would cause it to burn through the pocket, and they would lose the sixpence. This is the case with a great many of the Elders of Israel, with regard to keeping secrets. They burn with the idea, "O, I know things that brother Brigham does not understand." Bless your souls, I guess you do. Don't you think that there are some things that you do not understand? "There may be some things which I do not understand." That is as much as to say, "I know more than you." I am glad of it, if you do. I wish that you knew a dozen times more. When you see a person of that character, he has no soundness within him.
If a person understands God and godliness, the principles of heaven, the principle of integrity, and the Lord reveals anything to that individual, no matter what, unless He gives permission to disclose it, it is locked up in eternal silence. And when persons have proven to their messengers that their bosoms are like the lock-ups of eternity, then the Lord says, I can reveal anything to them, because they never will disclose it until I tell them to. Take persons of any other character, and they sap the foundation of the confidence they ought to have in themselves and in their God.
If you cannot have confidence in God, try and have it in yourselves. If you lay on hands for the recovery of the sick, or for the reception of the Holy Ghost, or to bless or curse, unless you know that God hears you and will answer you, your administration is liable to fall to the ground. When you have confidence in yourselves you will have confidence in your God. You know that God is able to do what you desire of Him in righteousness, but the question is, will He? No, He will not do for this people that which we want Him to, until we prove to Him and to the angels that we are the friends of God, and will never betray Him in any way, shape, or manner. If we are His friends, we will keep the secrets of the Almighty. We will lock them up, when he reveals them to us, so that no man on earth can have them, and no being from heaven, unless he brings the keys wherewith to get them legally. No person can get the things the Lord has given to men, unless by legal authority; then I have a right to reveal them, but not without. When we can keep our own secrets, when we can keep the secrets of the Almighty strictly, honestly, truly in our own bosoms, the Lord will have confidence in us. Will He before? No. Are we going to become secret keepers in any other way than by applying our lives to the religion we profess to believe? No.
We want confidence in each other. The Bishops, Presiding Elders, and men in authority seek for the obedience and confidence of the people. How are they going to get it? By abusing the people? By scolding them? Are they going to get it by flattering them with smooth, deceitful tongues? No, they will not get it in any of those ways. There is only one way to get it. This people are a good people. As I said last Sabbath, they are willing to do anything to obtain eternal life, to secure to themselves a seat in the boxes, as brother Orson Hyde termed it. If you have a blank ticket for a theatre, you may fill it up for the boxes, or the gallery, or the pit, just as you please. Your lives must fill that blank, and if you would fill it for one of the best seats in the kingdom, you must live accordingly.
Do not flatter the man of influence, or the rich man. I know that the brethren might turn round and say, "Brother Brigham, do you see any of this, very lately?" The brethren have learned, years ago, that if a man was to give me a gold watch, a suit of clothes, a span of horses, a fine carriage, or a purse containing a million of dollars to buy my friendship, that does not buy it, has nothing to do with it, consequently I have not much opportunity of knowing whether the people have this spirit or not, for they do not exhibit it to me. If they feel to give me anything, they give it because they wish to give brother Brigham something.
If a man should offer to make me a present of a thousand dollars, though I knew at the time that he would be kicked out of the Church in the next minute, I would accept it and try to make good use of it. On the other hand, if a man was in beggary, and owing this Church a thousand dollars and lacking a suit of clothes, but with his heart right, brother Brigham would say, "Come along here, you are the man I want to see; come to my table and eat, and I will also give you clothing to put on." Let a man have the power of God with him--the Holy Ghost within him--so that when he talks you can see, feel, and understand that power; so that you can see and understand that the water of life is in him insomuch that when he speaks, the sweet words of life flow out; then I am ready to exclaim, "Come, here, my brother, you are the man for me."
When every person will cease to hang upon the brittle, rotten threads upon which the world hang, and turn round and say, in the power of God, "I will make friends and gain my influence, by that power; I will have all I do have in the name and power of God, and that which I do not thus get, I will not have," then you will begin to gain the influence you want, and to have confidence in yourselves and in each other. Can the people have confidence in each other, and continue to conduct themselves as many have? No, they have got to be strictly honest.
I will take myself as an example, with all the influence I have in the midst of this people and over them, (and I really and honestly think that I have a great deal more influence here than Moses had among the children of Israel), and suppose that I lie to that man, and deceive that woman; pilfer from that neighbour, and have what the Indians call two tongues, talk this way and that way to gain power; and be very plausible, very soft and kind to those present, and say that the brother who is not before me is the devil, and when he is gone, that the other is the same; while each one is with me all is smooth and fine weather; but of the absent say, that man who was just here, I am glad I have found out his iniquity, he is full of it; and be dishonest with this and the other person, falsifying my words here and there, how long would I have confidence in the midst of this people? I would lose it at once, and ought to, because I would not be deserving of their confidence.
When a man or woman ought to be chastised, I am able to do it, and I will do it righteously. If they need a severe chastisement, I can put it on severely; if a light one, I can bear on with a light hand.
When people come to me, I look at them to see them as they are, though I am not yet perfect in this. I have not yet the eyes I wish to have, nor the wisdom. Do I wish to know how they look with man, or to my brother? No, but how they appear before the God of heaven. If I can gain that knowledge, if I can know precisely how an individual appears to my Father in heaven, and be able to look at him with the same kind of eyes as do the Holy Ghost and holy angels, then I can judge the good or evil in the person, without further trouble.
That is the method by which I settle so many difficulties. I can go to the High Council, even should they have forty cases of the most difficult kind, and if I would dictate, I could wind up the forty cases, while they would wind up one or two. The reason is this, I bring the individuals before me, and they cannot deceive. If there is lying, wickedness, malice, and deception, I will detect them and judge them from the words that flow from their own mouths. I take the parties and hear them, and I can know at once as much as dozen witnesses could show, so far as pertains to the truth in the case. Look at people as the Lord sees them, and then deal with them accordingly; and be honest with that man, woman, or neighbour.
Brethren and sisters, you know that often, when you hear that any one has spoken against you, your feelings are irritated, disturbed by anger, and you imagine that that person is your enemy, when, in reality, such is not the case. Are you never liable to err? If your neighbour has spoken something derogatory to your character, go to that neighbour and say to him, "I heard that you said so and so, and with such and such reason, and I connected this and that with it," and you can soon learn the facts in the case. It is often all right, when we talk calmly together, like brethren; and we think alike about each other, about this circumstance and that. When we hear a part of a conversation, we may easily make wrong and false construction, and thereby bring evil. How many evils do we produce by this course?
If we take isolated sentences of Scripture, and pick out words here and there, and place them together, how inconsistent we can make the Bible. It would be as inconsistent as some individuals now say it is, whereas, if read by the Spirit in which it was given, it is not inconsistent.
We often make the consistent acts of our fellow beings inconsistent, by thinking that some one has done us an injury, when after all the heart of the person was honest, and no harm was designed. If a brother has spoken ten thousand words wrong, if he is full of error, full of weakness, a man of passions like unto ourselves, but is honest at heart, what then? Overlook their follies, and do not watch for iniquity in our brethren. If the real sentiments of honesty are in every man and woman, be unsuspicious of evil intent, and have confidence in their fidelity, and you will have confidence in yourselves, and will restore confidence in each other, so that every word will be as the law to each other.
Then when the Lord sees that we have confidence in each other, that we are full of integrity, that we never forsake each other, nor violate our covenants, nor the keys of the kingdom, nor are untrue to our God, He will say, "There is a people I can reveal myself to and tell what I please, and they will keep my secrets and their own, and no power can get them from them." This is the way you will get confidence in your God and in yourselves. We may have confidence in God until doom's day, until we carry out in our lives all that we now know about God, and it will profit us little, unless we take a course that He may have confidence in us, and reveal unto us His secrets, as the Prophets have said, for His secrets are with the Prophets.
There are other things that I might speak upon, for my mind is pretty full and fruitful, but I have spoken about as much as my health will permit.
I feel to wish that I could bless you as I want to, but I have not yet perfect confidence in myself. If I had, would I not lift the curtain, that you might see things as they are? I would rend it, so that you might see heavenly things; though, perhaps, that would not be prudent.
May the Lord enable us to increase in that which we have, and to continually do and say according to the knowledge we gain. May God bless us. Amen.
THE "DESERET NEWS," ITS VALUE--WORTH AND VIRTUE OF SACRED RELICS--RESURRECTION--CONFIDENCE IN OUR LEADERS.
Remarks, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 15, 1857.
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