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.
It is immaterial who the authorities invite to speak in this stand, that man should be so pliable that God can dictate him to speak to this people the very things that are necessary to correct our judgments and understandings, to inform our minds, and to set in order, oraganize [sic] and attach every quorum to the vine where it should be. Also to teach this people that there should be order and government in families; that they should be connected together by the same spirit with which a man is connected to the Priesthood. When this is done, then every man is connected to the Priesthood, and the wife to the man, and the children to their parents, from generation to generation. Were we all thus actually connected like the limbs and branches of one tree, and there was no disturbance or obstruction by any evil principle, would we not be in a far better condition than we now are for accomplishing the work we have to perform.
While brother McAllister was speaking, I could not avoid the reflection that there is time and opportunity for all to improve, if they will. When persons cease to make improvement, they either go back or have become stereotyped, that is, fixed, unchangeable in regard to true progression, and then of what use are they towards promoting the welfare of the cause in which we are engaged? While a tree is growing, while it is thrifty and limber, it is passive and submissive to the man that labours to give it form. But I will let that subject drop, and pass to another which is on my mind.
Some may very naturally suppose that there is a host of subscribers to <The Deseret News,> especially when the character of its matter is fairly considered, as also the fact that it is entirely owned by the Church, and controlled for the mutual benefit of all who are interested in building up the kingdom of God on the earth. I had supposed that there were at least ten thousand subscribers, but I have learned that there are not so many, and not near as many as it seems to me there should be; and I was perfectly astonished that the circulation was not much greater than I found it to be. Some may be careless in this matter, under the supposition that brother Carrington is part owner or proprietor of the <News,> when such is in no wise the case, for, as I have already stated, the presses, type, and all that pertains to the Printing Office and Bookbindery, are the property of the Church.
I presume that there are from twelve to twenty thousand families in this Territory, and I really know of no reason why every family should not take, read, and pay for one copy of the <News,> for some large families now take from two to six copies. And I am all the more surprised at the slackness of the people in this matter, from the fact that the manner of payment is so easy, every kind of article of any real value being received, even to "hemlock slabs after harvest."
Again, I am considerably astonished at the apparent indifference manifested by some of the Agents for the <News,> for they are allowed a very liberal per centage for a very small amount of time and attention; and instead of using a little skill and exertion to devise ways for the poor to pay for the paper in labour, some make little or no effort, either to increase the number of subscribers or to collect and remit payments. And what is still worse, some receive cash from the subscribers and retain it, paying the Office in something else, and that, too, at their leisure.
The Agents should become acquainted with each family within their agency, and wherever they find poor persons who would rejoice to take the paper, read it, and be profitted thereby, it will be easy for them to lay plans for their being accommodated, especially since the modes of payment are so numerous, and thereby confer a benefit upon their neighbours and the great cause of truth, while at the same time extending their own sphere of influence for good, and earning the sum so liberally awarded to them. In this, so useful an operation, the Bishops, where they are not also Agents, can lend most essential aid, and soon the <News> will gladden and enlighten every family within our borders.
To the people in Utah it is almost invaluable, for in it first appear the History of Joseph Smith, the public counsels and teachings of the First Presidency, the Twelve and others at head quarters, and all home items and news of interest, besides such foreign news and matter as may be deemed interesting, amusing, or instructive. And it often happens that one sermon alone is of more real value than the subscription price of many copies of the paper, to any person who will read and properly appreciate it by the Spirit that should connect us to the vine. You should properly appreciate every thing you hear from every man that speaks from this stand; but memories are often treacherous, and comparatively but few can assemble here to hear for themselves, but when those sayings are printed, you can read, ponder, and reflect upon them at your leisure, and again and again, as your memories may require; and your sons and your daughters will acquire a taste for reading and treasuring up useful knowledge.
It has always been the case that the few have had to bear the burden attendant upon opposing evil principles, but there is now quite a number who are earnestly striving to establish righteousness upon the earth, by listening to the dictates of the Spirit and the counsels of the Living Oracles, and by striving to be active in every laudible [sic] undertaking. For this reason our publications will be sustained, whether subscribers are many or few, but will any one professing to be a Saint look idly on and see others reap the reward due to diligence?
What is the use in pursuing the indifferent course that some are doing here? I will call a vote, and I want every man in this congregation, who takes the <News,> to manifest it by raising his right hand, for I wish to show you what proportion take the paper. [The subscribers present raised their hands.] There is not more than one quarter of this congregation that take <The Deseret News,> and that, too, the only paper printed in the mountains, and one of the most useful and interesting papers that ever was published. And if you had a lively interest for the truth, and was living your religion, let me tell you that you never would rest or cease your operations of taking every course and every advantage to obtain every word that is uttered from this stand.
At the prices of stock, wheat, lumber, labour, &c., all of which command PRICES FULLY IN PROPORTION TO THE PRICE OF THE <News,> how easy a matter it is to pay for a most valuable kind and variety of reading matter admirably adapted to your wants, and furnished at weekly intervals which afford opportunity for reading it. And with a little care it can be preserved and handed down to your children, from generation to generation, and they will prize it a hundred degrees more than many of you now do.
How much would you give for even a cane that Father Abraham had used? or a coat or ring that the Saviour had worn? The rough oak boxes in which the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought from Carthage, were made into canes and other articles. I have a cane made from the plank of one of those boxes, so as [sic] brother Brigham and a great many others, and we prize them highly, and esteem them a great blessing. I want to carefully preserve my cane, and when I am done with it here, I shall hand it down to my heir, with instructions to him to do the same. And the day will come when there will be multitudes who will be healed and blessed through the instrumentality of those canes, and the devil cannot overcome those who have them, in consequence of their faith and confidence in the virtues connected with them.
Some do not appreciate these things nor the counsels of their leaders. And then again many do appreciate brother Brigham; they love him and his counsels, and his words are jewels to them. When persons do not care anything about his words, what do they care about mine? And if they do not care for his words, they will not care for those of any righteous man.
If I had those relics of Abraham and the Saviour which I have mentioned, I would give a great deal for them. In England, when not in a situation to go, I have blessed my handkerchief, and asked God to sanctify it and fill it with life and power, and sent it to the sick, and hundreds have been healed by it; in like manner I have sent my cane. Dr. Richards used to lay his old black cane on a person's head, and that person has been healed through its instrumentality, by the power of God. I have known Joseph, hundreds of times, send his handkerchief to the sick, and they have been healed. There are persons in this congregation who have been healed by throwing my old cloak on their beds.
To return to <The Deseret News;> I have alluded to a few items to show you the advantages and blessings of that paper, aside from its great present benefit, if you will take care of it and hand it down to your children, and they to theirs, and so on, until you see it in the resurrection. Such publications are not going to be burned up, according to my faith they will go into the resurrection. And I trust that Bishops, Agents, and the Saints in Utah, generally, will take a lively interest in this matter, as in tithings, donations, consecrations, and other important duties, and thereby magnify their callings and professions, and gain honour to themselves by doing the good within their power.
Having used the word resurrection, I will make a few remarks touching it. After my body is laid in the grave, and after the Prophet Joseph has received his resurrected body, he probably will not suffer my body to remain long in the ground, but will be apt to say, "Come and let us go and help brother Heber to again take his body." Do you suppose that if brother Brigham were to die to-morrow, and if Joseph is resurrected, which he will be so soon as his mission is filled in the spirit world, that Joseph will permit brother Brigham's body to remain longer in the grave than may be requisite? No, for he then will have need of the assistance of his faithful resurrected brethren, as he now has of faithful spirits.
Why do you not all have confidence in God? I would not give a cent for your confidence in God, unless you have confidence in those men He has appointed to lead and counsel you. If you will have confidence in brother Brigham, I care not so much whether you have confidence in me and in brother Daniel or not, for if you have it in him, you are sure to have it in us, because we are actuated by the same Spirit.
We should be like the branches of one tree, and except we become one like unto that, we shall never be saved with that salvation which we are striving for. Nobody can be saved in a celestial kingdom, except those connected with the celestial tree. Then there is a terrestrial tree pertaining to the terrestrial kingdom, and you will never go there without being grafted in it. I make use of figures in order to make my ideas plain, and to rivet your attention and assist your memories.
Let us be active and diligent in the performance of all duties, that the Lord our God may sustain us in living our holy religion. Amen.
HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER LOVETH NOT GOD--IF WE HAVE NOT CONFIDENCE IN OUR LEADERS WE SHALL NOT HAVE IT IN A HIGHER POWER--THE CHURCH HOLDS THE KEYS OF SALVATION--THE PROVIDENCES OF GOD TO THE SAINTS.
A Discourse, by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, March 29, 1857.
I am thankful that the weather has become so mild that we can again meet in this Bowery, which is large enough to accommodate the congregation; also that we are here under comfortable circumstances--happily situated, and trust that for several months to come, none of the Saints will be under the necessity of coming here an hour or two before the meeting commences, in order to obtain a seat here, nor of going away because there is not room.
There has been a good deal said by the brethren who have just spoken to you, and I have not heard anything but what pleases me, but what I consider to be correct; their ideas and doctrines are good.
I am happy to see brother Joseph L. Heywood here again. He has had a very tedious journey, and rather a wearisome sojourn at the Devil's Gate, during most of the past winter. Many of the brethren and sisters in this congregation can testify that the Devil's Gate is a place rather subject to cold and storms, and that hardships are common from that point to this.
Many persons are so constituted, that if you put them in a parlour, keep a good fire for them, furnish them tea, cake, sweetmeats, &c., and nurse them tenderly, soaking their feet, and putting them to bed, they will die in a short time; but throw them into snow banks, and they will live a great many years. Brother Heywood would have been in his grave long ago, if he had not led an out-door life, and such is the case with others; but he is again here, and we have the privilege of seeing him.
It rejoices me to hear the brethren rise up and tell their feelings, their faith and views. I was much gratified with the remarks made by brothers William H. Hooper and Robert T. Burton, especially upon the subject of obedience.
It may at first sight appear strange, and is so to an uninspired mind, that any people should have a want of confidence and faith in a righteous man on the earth, a lack which blights their hopes and faith quicker than it does to lack confidence in their God. This is the case, however curious it may appear, though we may hear some men declare that they wish to have such confidence in their leaders as not to enquire whether this or that is right, but to perform what they are bid to do. No man will have that degree of confidence, unless it is founded in truth. Here a question immediately occurs to the mind, will it save the people to do as they are told by any man upon the earth, if they are in the neglect of their duty towards their God and do not enjoy the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer is obvious; no one can have that implicit confidence in a righteous man, unless that person is in the line of duty.
The difficulty with the whole world in their divisions and subdivisions, is that they have no more confidence in each other than they have in their God, and that is none at all, no, not one particle. This confuses nations, and breaks them up; it weakens them, and they tumble to pieces. It disturbs cities and countries, and really the seeds of destruction are within those kingdoms where the people have not confidence in each other.
The Apostle John, treating upon the love of God that should dwell within us, writes, "For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" It is impossible. This subject is not understood by the human family. Naturally they have no conception of the character called "brother" by the Apostle. As just observed by brother Hooper, they have in their minds and creeds formed ideas of a great many characters that they call God. With the majority of the Christian world there are three Gods in one. With them that one God is three persons, and still but one, which actually amounts to His being no God at all. Why? Because He has no body, parts, or passions, consequently is nothing at all; their idea virtually annihilates the being they profess to believe to be three in one.
What effect has this doctrine, wherever the influence of the Christian world extends? Wherever they preach their own doctrine they destroy every idea of God in the minds of every person they have influence over, consequently they know nothing of Him, and of coarse [sic] we cannot expect the people to have confidence in Him. He, knowing the weaknesses of men, is compassionate; and if they speak against Him, in a manner derogatory to His character, misrepresenting His person and speaking evil of His dignity, He attributes that to the delusion and ignorance which His professedly Christian people have spread so generally in the minds of the people, and holds them not guilty, in consequence of their ignorance.
Let us even speak against a fellow-being with whom we are acquainted and do understand, one whom we can see and comprehend, whose life and conduct we are familiar with, and, unless faults are made manifest that we have a privilege of exposing in that individual, it will destroy our faith and confidence, and weaken us more than it will to speak against a being that we know nothing of. This is reasonable, and is according to good sound logic, sense, and argument.
It is folly in the extreme for persons to say that they love God, when they do not love their brethren; and it is of no use for them to say that they have confidence in God, when they have none in righteous men, for they do not know anything about God. It is reasonable for the Elders of Israel to be very sanguine and strenuous on this point. And were I to be asked whether I have any experience in this matter, I can tell the people that once in my life I felt a want of confidence in brother Joseph Smith, soon after I became acquainted with him. It was not concerning religious matters--it was not about his revelations--but it was in relation to his financiering--to his managing the temporal affairs which he undertook. A feeling came over me that Joseph was not right in his financial management, though I presume the feeling did not last sixty seconds, and perhaps not thirty. But that feeling came on me once and once only, from the time I first knew him to the day of his death. It gave me sorrow of heart, and I clearly saw and understood, by the spirit of revelation manifested to me, that if I was to harbor a thought in my heart that Joseph could be wrong in anything, I would begin to lose confidence in him, and that feeling would grow from step to step, and from one degree to another, until at last I would have the same lack of confidence in his being the mouthpiece for the Almighty, and I would be left, as brother Hooper observed, upon the brink of the precipice, ready to plunge into what we may call the gulf of infidelity, ready to believe neither in God nor His servants, and to say that there is no God, or, if there is, we do not know anything about him; that we are here, and by and bye shall go from here, and that is all we shall know. Such persons are like those whom the Apostle calls "As natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed." Though I admitted in my feelings and knew all the time that Joseph was a human being and subject to err, still it was none of my business to look after his faults.
I repented of my unbelief, and that too, very suddenly; I repented about as quickly as I committed the error. It was not for me to question whether Joseph was dictated by the Lord at all times and under all circumstances or not. I never had the feeling for one moment, to believe that any man or set of men or beings upon the face of the whole earth had anything to do with him, for he was superior to them all, and held the keys of salvation over them. Had I not thoroughly understood this and believed it, I much doubt whether I should ever have embraced what is called "Mormonism." He was called of God; God dictated him, and if He had a mind to leave him to himself and let him commit an error, that was no business of mine. And it was not for me to question it, if the Lord was disposed to let Joseph lead the people astray, for He had called him and instructed him to gather Israel and restore the Priesthood and kingdom to them.
It was not my prerogative to call him in question with regard to any act of his life. He was God's servant, and not mine. He did not belong to the people but to the Lord, and was doing the work of the Lord, and if He should suffer him to lead the people astray, it would be because they ought to be led astray. If He should suffer them to be chastised, and some of them destroyed, it would be because they deserved it, or to accomplish some righteous purpose. That was my faith, and it is my faith still.
If we have any lack of confidence in those whom the Lord has appointed to lead the people, how can we have confidence in a being whom we know nothing about? It is nonsense to talk about it. It will weaken a person quicker to lose confidence in those who dictate the affairs of God's kingdom on the earth, than to say "I do not know whether there is a God or not, and I care nothing about Him." A man or woman will not be prepared to be taken by the enemy, and led captive by the devil so quickly for disbelieving in a being they do not know about, as for disbelieving in those whom they do know.
To say nothing of names, creeds, or titles, brother Joseph taught, and it is taught to the people now continually, to have implicit confidence in our leaders to be sure that we live so that Christ is within us a living fountain, that we may have the Holy Ghost within us to actuate, dictate, and direct us every hour and moment of our lives. The people are urged from year to year, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, to live very near unto the Lord, to forsake every sin, and cling to the Lord with all our hearts, minds, and souls, so that we may know by the spirit of revelation whenever truth comes to us.
How many hundreds and hundreds of times have you been taught that if people neglect their prayers and other daily duties, that they quickly begin to love the world, become vain in their imaginations, and liable to go astray, loving all the day long to do those things that the Lord hates, and leaving undone those things that the Lord requires at their hands? When people neglect their private duties, should their leaders lead them astray, they will go blindfolded, will be subject to the devil, and be led captive at his will. How useless this would be! How unnatural, unreasonable, and unlike the Gospel and those who believe it!
How are we going to obtain implicit confidence in all the words and doings of Joseph? By one principle alone, that is, to live so that the voice of the the [sic] Spirit will testify to us all the time that he is the servant of the Most High; so that we can realize as it were the Lord's declaring that "Joseph is my servant, I lead him day by day whithersoever I will, and dictate him to do whatever I will; he is my mouth to the people. And I say to the nations of the earth, hear ye the servants I send, or you cannot be saved." This is comprehended in the remarks just made by brother Burton, which comprises one of the greatest and fullest sermons that can be preached to the world. And I wish we had more Elders to go and preach just such sermons by the power of God, that is, "I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, that this is the Gospel of salvation, and if you do not believe it you will be damned, every one of you."
That is one of the most important sermons that ever was preached, and then if they could add anything by the power of the Spirit, it would be all right. When a man teaches that doctrine by the power of God in a congregation of sinners, it is one of the loudest sermons that was ever preached to them, because the Spirit bears testimony to it. That is the preaching which you hear all the time, viz.--to live so that the voice of God's Spirit will always be with you, and then you know that what you hear from the heads of the people is right. When you do not so live, you are ignorant; and then when you testify, you testify to what you know nothing of. Live so that you can know and testify to every principle that is right, not with mere lip service, but from the heart be able to say truly, "I know that everything is right."
As I have frequently said to this people, they are a good people. We are striving to make the kingdom of heaven. Many think that this people have got to make great sacrifices, but what have we to sacrifice? Nothing, for all is the Lord's. But suppose that we had something to sacrifice, they would be willing to do it; they would be willing to do anything for the sake of salvation. They have already forsaken their homes and friends, and come here to serve the Lord, and now continue, shall I say continue to reform? Yes, continue this reformation that has been talked about. Continue to improve yourselves, to live so that your faith and knowledge will increase in the things of God, that our minds may be opened to those things that pertain to our peace and eternal salvation, and live no more in the dark, whereby you are constrained to say, "I do not understand the things that are taught, these are great and marvellous things, they are beyond my comprehension; I do not know why it is that I feel as I do many times; I have feelings come on me that I cannot account for."
If you live near to God, and every moment have your minds filled with fervent desires to keep the law of God, you will understand the Spirit that comes to you; you will know how to build up the Lord's kingdom, and increase in every good thing; and it will be one continual scene of rejoicing instead of mourning. Those who mourn and feel that they have really endured sufferings and afflictions, and sacrifices to a great amount for the kingdom of heaven, do not enjoy the Spirit of their religion. They do not enjoy the Spirit of this Holy Gospel, for they do not live near enough to the Lord so that Christ is in them like a living fountain, like a well of water springing up to everlasting life.
The persons who enjoy that Spirit are never sorrowful nor cast down. They never endure afflictions and mourn because they suppose that they have sacrificed for the Gospel, but they are always joyful, always cheerful, with a happy smile on their faces, and, as brother Robert said, it does make the devil mad. That is true, it makes him mad that he cannot afflict this people so as to make them have a sad countenance.
When you come across those who have a wonderful sight of trouble, trouble with their wives and with their neighbours, it is those who do not live their religion. Those who have the Spirit of their religion feel hope bound in their feelings, and have a word of comfort for themselves, their families, and their neighbours, and all is right with them. Let us make the building up of the kingdom of heaven our first and only interest, and all will be well, sure.
Have we reason to rejoice? We have. There is no other people on this earth under such deep obligation to their Creator, as are the Latter-day Saints. The Gospel has brought to us the holy Priesthood, which is again restored to the children of men. The keys of that Priesthood are here; we have them in our possession; we can unlock, and we can shut up. We can obtain salvation, and we can administer it. We have the power within our own hands, and this has been my deep mortification, one that I have frequently spoken of, to think that a people, having in their possession all the principles, keys, and powers of eternal life, should neglect so great salvation. We have these blessings, they are with us.
Have we the visible hand of God with us? We have. Many circumstances transpired last year with regard to the immediate providences of God. Can we see the visible hand of the Lord in His dealings to us this season? We can. Any person who could have numbered Israel in the valleys of the mountains, and the bushels of grain taken from the earth last fall, would have said there is not enough grain raised in 1856 to last the people to the first of April, 1857.
That was so obviously the prospect, that brother Kimball prophesied that there would be harder times in 1857 than we had seen in 1856. I told him that I would bring to bear all my faith, and all the power I had, and all my ability against that prophecy, when he said the times would be harder this year than they were last. Still there were no human prospects, visible signs, means, or substance to prevent it, according to the number of bushels of grain taken from the earth, and the number of people in this Territory to be sustained therewith. There was a better prospect for our suffering for want of food this year, than there was in either 1856 or 1855, but I promised myself that I should exercise my power against that prophecy. Brother Heber says, "Amen," to that statement now. He said so then, and I know that he would rather have it fail than to have people suffer.
Brother Heber says, "The wheat swells." I believe that. It increases in the granaries. I have believed that principle for many years. I know that God has dealt with me and with others in a way that cannot be accounted for upon common modes of reasoning. I have heretofore mentioned what some may think the trifling circumstance of a man's finding money in his pocket that could not have been there, unless an angel or some other person had put it there unbeknown to that man. Flour and wheat have been found in barrels and bins, after they had been taken out even to the scraping of the barrels, and that, too, without the owner's knowing how the stock had been replenished. Who put it there, is not for me to say; but I know who did not. Let the people guess who put it there.
Have we any visible signs of the providences of God to us? We have, if men have their eyes open to see for themselves. If this people called Latter-day Saints could see by the visions of the Spirit the hand dealings of the Lord as visible as some see, there would be nothing but rejoicing among us from the oldest to the youngest, from the first to the last, from the one side of this globe to the other.
We will now turn right round, and ask, are there afflictions? Yes. People are taken sick and die, and we have not the power to keep them alive; and I do not think I would, if I had power; and I do not think I will when I have power, because I then shall have more wisdom than I have now. Knowledge is power; and as I gain knowledge I gain power. If we will consider these things, we will see that the visible hand of the Lord is with us continually.
Let the Latter-day Saints in these valleys of the mountains ask themselves this question, Do we, as a community, as a Church and kingdom of God on the earth, as individuals, believe that if we had shut up the bowels of our compassion last fall, and said to our immigration, "Suffer and perish in the mountains, I have nothing to spare, I cannot relieve you," we should have as much grain and substance on hand as we now have? Would not every man and woman exclaim, "We would have been in poverty and want?" What has made us rich in this matter? One united effort by this people to bring men, women, and children out of the snow, and off from the Plains, and keep them from perishing. "Here are the wheat, the barley, the corn, the boys, horses, mules, blankets, saddles, &c., go, my brethren, and bring those persons off the Plains." They went, and that, too, cheerfully.
Brother Kimball says that the movement prevented his prophecy coming to pass. If that did it, I wish I could as easily and cheaply turn aside all prophecies of that kind and nature, for I do not wish this people to suffer, to go hungry and naked, nor to be sick and afflicted, or in pain. I want them to live and increase in every good work.
Suppose the whole community should ask themselves this question, Do you not believe that the Lord has favoured and blessed us in consequence of our doing right? Yes, we would reply at once, we believe that our faith to our God and proving ourselves friends to Him and His people, and being kind to the suffering poor, have caused His blessings to be poured out upon us, and we are favoured as we are. If the people continue to be humble before Him, to keep His commandments, to love and serve the Lord, and forsake those little trifling concerns which pertain to the world, and to the spirit of the world, which is the spirit of sorrow, anxiety, and trouble, and get the Spirit of the Lord and live in it, we shall increase in the facilities of life; we shall have the comforts of life from our gardens, farms, orchards, flocks and herds, and we shall have means to gather up the poor from every land.
This is the land of Zion. West of us is a body of water that we call the Pacific, and to the east there is another large body of water which we call the Atlantic, and to the north is where they have tried to discover a northwest passage; these waters surround the land of Zion, and we will bring the poor home to this land. These valleys are nothing more than a temporary hiding place for the Saints, and if they will do right here, no power can disturb them. Be kind to all, to our friends, to the household of faith, and even to our enemies. Do all you can to save everybody, and the Lord's hand will be over us for good, and we will be preserved.
Hitherto there has been too much of a spirit to find fault, but I expect that this spirit is very near kicked out of doors. And you may still hear some saying, "There are hard times coming by and bye; the mob are coming; the crickets and the grasshoppers will eat us out." They have tried that, and I have no more fears about one army than I have about the other; though the crickets and the grasshoppers are the greatest plague, for we can hit men, but when you hit one cricket or grasshopper, the air is at once alive with them, and if you kill one, two come to bury him.
Dismiss all feelings of fear, and say nothing about them. Let it be the whole aim of the Saints to know how to build up the kingdom of God on the earth. And if you want to know how to spend your time, inquire from hour to hour what you can do to do good. If necessary, take off you hat, and run through the streets for something to do. Go into the garden, plant potatoes, set out fruit trees, sow peas, and put all kinds of useful seeds into the ground. And when the devil tells you to do some wonderful big thing, wait until you become some wonderful big person, and reflect that you are yet only like one of the people, and must take care of yourself.
I am glad that we have the privilege of again assembling in this Bowery, where there is plenty of pure air and the people can be comfortable. The ground under this shade is yet damp, although we have had fires burning upon it to make it as dry as possible, and it may be wisdom for those sisters who wear thin shoes, to bring a small piece of oil cloth or carpet to put their feet upon. I would rather see the sisters come to meeting with wooden bottomed shoes, than to come with their fine morocco shoes and take cold. If you will accustom yourselves to wearing wooden bottomed or thick soled shoes, you can sit here with impunity.
Take care of yourselves, and live as long as you can, and do all the good you can. Let us try to live until we can kick the devils out of this land, and off from the earth. I want to live for this, to see Zion redeemed, and the Church and kingdom of God cover the face of the whole earth, and have one universal reign of peace. May the Lord bless us. Amen.
OBJECT OF THE EXPRESS CARRYING COMPANY--WHY SUCCESS ATTENDS THE MINISTERIAL LABOURS OF SOME ELDERS, AND NOT THOSE OF OTHERS--COUNSEL TO STORE UP GRAIN ENOUGH TO LAST SEVEN YEARS.
Remarks, by President Brigham Young, Delivered at the opening of the Conference, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1857.
If you will now give me your attention strictly, I will lay before you some items of business for the consideration and action of this Conference.
I trust that we have come here for the purpose of acceptably presenting ourselves before the Lord, to transact business for the building up of His kingdom in this our day, with pure hearts and fervent desires to magnify the name of our God, that we may be useful and have power to establish peace and righteousness upon the earth.
Our religion is first and foremost with us, it is of the greatest importance of all in this generation, for in it is incorporated the acts and doings of the Saints in the ordinances of the house of God, to promote His kingdom upon the earth, to sustain ourselves, gather Israel, redeem Zion, build up Jerusalem, and prepare for the coming of the Son of Man.
The items of business before this Conference may be considered texts for the Elders who may speak here to preach upon, though if they wish to exhort the brethren, to relate a portion of their experience, or tell a dream or a vision, they have the privilege. But our Conferences are more particularly for other transactions of business, for the furtherance of the kingdom of God on the earth.
I will first present the subject of prosecuting our labours and operations for building the Temple, under our present circumstances and future prospects. We have deemed it wise and expedient to prepare for bringing the rock for that building from quite a distance, in boats, which will be much cheaper than hauling it in wagons, and thus far facilitate the erection of the Temple.
I will next cite your memories to a mass meeting that was held in the Tabernacle upwards of a year ago, to take into consideration the propriety and expediency of establishing an Express and Carrying Company to operate between here and the States to the east, and California to the west. That Company has now commenced its business operations. Three companies have already left this city, and the particular object in view is to establish places where our brethren can stop and rest, recruit and refresh themselves until they can continue their journey and arrive in this valley. Our main object is to make settlements and raise grain at suitable points and convenient distances, where we can prepare resting places for the Saints. The last season's immigration I think has prompted us materially to this action. If we had had settlements at Deer Creek, La Bonte, below Laramie, and on the Sweet Water, where people can raise grain, our last year's belated immigration might have had habitations, food, and other conveniences for comfortably tarrying through the winter, and thus saved this community a vast expense. This Express Company will be laid before this Conference, so that you will have an understanding of it, that you may act knowingly, and give your faith, influence, and means to accomplish the object of its organization.
We are calling quite a number to go on missions, and are appointing a portion of them to visit the Canadas. We have a great many Elders labouring throughout Europe, but more especially in England, and the Canadas are mostly settled by the same classes of people. True there has formerly been much preaching in that region, and many churches raised up, especially in Upper or Canada West, but many have emigrated to the States and are now with us, and I do not know of an Elder in this Church now labouring in either of the Canadas. We wish to send a company to labour there, and gather out the honest in heart.
I would also propose sending missionaries to the States, if we could by accident, or by foreknowledge, or by revelation, or by any other means, select and spare from here the right kind of men; in that case we would like to send a good many there. My reasons are these; there are honest people by thousands, and scores of thousands in the States, those who have never yet heard the sound of the Gospel. There are also scores of places where branches have been raised up, but the inhabitants have so changed that they now hardly know what you mean when you say "Mormon" or "Mormonism," and when you talk about the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, it is almost forgotten by the few that are still remaining in those places. Other people occupy the place of those who have left, of those who had been preached to, and children have grown up and taken the place of their parents; others have moved away, and strangers have moved in. There are honest people there, and if we could get Elders, to use a western phrase, of "The right stripe," we could gather multitudes from the United States. For an example, we sent brother John Taylor to New York with a number of Elders to preach, labour, and assist him. Some of them tarried in New York with brother Taylor, visited their families, connections, friends, &c. for a time, and returned. They did not baptize any; [sic-punc] with them, "There was no call for preaching, no place to sow the seed, or distribute the good word of God; they could not find any who wanted to hear them preach or who wished to know anything of the Gospel," while at the same time others who felt for the interest of the kingdom and for the people, stepped forth, and laboured like men, and found plenty of chances for preaching.
Brother Jeter Clinton was one of the last named class. Brother Taylor sent him to Philadelphia, and when he got there, those who professed "Mormonism" were dead, dead, dead; they were withered and twice plucked up by the roots. Brother Clinton had not been there six months before the the [sic] Church numbered a great many more than when he went there. The old members revived, and they began to baptize and to have calls from the country, and when he left he could probably have employed from ten to thirty Elders in his field of labour.
The secret of the difference is this, he felt for the kingdom, and when he went into his field of labour he did not say, "O, how lonesome I am, how I wish I had my family here; I really wish I was back in the valley; my spirits are cast down; how bad I do feel." When such persons endeavor to preach, their preaching is as dry as an old, dead, dried up, three years old mullen stalk; there is no more juice in them than there is in that.
Brother Alexander Robbins is a man of that description, and although he is naturally a good kind and feeling man, one that I think much of, yet when he spoke from this stand at the last fall's Conference, he was as perfectly void of sap or juice as any one of those dry posts, and I reproved the spirit he seemed to manifest. He sat quietly down in New York with brother Taylor, until he became so dried up that he came home disbelieving in God, heaven, hell, angels, and religion. He has lost every particle of the knowledge and spirit that he formerly had.
When brother Clinton and others return, those who have laid aside self and laboured, asking, "What can we do to win the souls of the children of men?" they are full of life, full of the good Spirit, full of animation; their countenances are bright and lively, and when you talk with them or hear them preach, you can glean and gather truth, life and salvation from their lips, while others are as lifeless as leached ashes.
If we could spare one or two hundred Elders like brother Clinton and others to go to Canada and the United States, we could gather scores and hundreds of thousands of good people from those regions. But reflect for a moment upon the difference in the conduct of our missionaries and the treatment they receive. In Texas some have been mobbed, and some have had no place to preach in. Brother Benjamin L. Clapp, who has lately returned from a mission there, could scarcely find a place to preach in, although others at the same time travelled and preached there, and many wished to hear them.
For another instance I will refer to my own Quorum. When we had started the work in England, brothers Heber, George A. and Woodruff went to London. It cost much faith, care, money, and diligence to establish the work in that place, and after they had baptized about thirty persons, they came to Manchester to attend a Conference. As soon as the Conference was over, brothers Woodruff and George A. went to London, and brother Kimball and I took a tour through the country, and held Conferences; and when we arrived in London I preached in the first meeting we held after our arrival, and how many do you think there were present to hear me? Thirty had been baptized, but brothers Kimball, Woodruff, and Geo. A., the man who owned the small room that we had hired, and, I think, two other persons, comprised the congregation. I preached as well as I could, though it was pretty hard work to pump when there was no water in the well. Brother Kimball and I staid there eleven days, and when I left the little meeting-house was crowded to overflowing. What was the reason of this?
I have spoken against brother Clapp's course in Texas; it sprang from a want of knowledge. I have also spoken against the course taken by brothers Woodruff and George A. in London; it proceeded from a want of tact and turn in those individuals to know how to win the people. When we found them in London, brother Woodruff was busily engaged in writing his history from morning until evening; and, if a sister called on him, he would say, "How do you do? take a chair," and keep on writing and labouring to bring up the history of the Church and his own.
That was all right and well, in its place; but, if a sister asked a question, the answer would be "Yes;" and if she asked another, "No;" and that was the sum of the conversation. If a brother came in, it would be the same. But brother Kimball would say, "Come, my friend, sit down; do not be in a hurry;" and he would begin and preach the Gospel in a plain, familiar manner, and make his hearers believe everything he said, and make them testify to its truth, whether they believed or not, asking them, "Now, ain't that so?" and they would say "Yes." And he would make Scripture as he needed it, out of his own bible, and ask, "Now, ain't that so?" and the reply would be "Yes." He would say, "Now, you believe this? You see how plain the Gospel is? Come along now;" and he would lead them into the waters of baptism. The people would want to come to see him early in the morning, and stay with him until noon, and from that until night; and he would put his arm around their necks, and say, "Come, let us go down to the water."
Thousands of Elders go upon missions, and conduct themselves like a man by the name of Glover. He was preaching in Herefordshire, and we sent him to Bristol, about thirty miles distant, telling him to go there and start the work. He would get up and preach a splendid discourse. He went to Bristol, and cried, "Mormonism," or the Gospel, and no person would listen to him. On the next morning he was back at Ledbury, and said, "I came out of Bristol, washed my feet against them, and sealed them up all to damnation." That is the way in which some of our Elders operate.
I know that when I have travelled with some of the Twelve, and one of them has asked for breakfast, dinner, supper, or lodging, we have been refused dozens of times. Now, you may think that I am going to boast a little; I will brag a little of my own tact and talent. When others would ask, we would often be refused a morsel of something to eat, and so we would go from house to house; but when I had the privilege of asking, I never was turned away--no, not a single time.
Would I go into the house and say to them, "I am a 'Mormon' Elder; will you feed me?" It was none of their business who I was. But when I asked, "Will you give me something to eat?" the reply was, invariably, "Yes." And we would sit, and talk, and sing, and make ourselves familiar and agreeable; and before our departure, after they had learned who we were, they would frequently ask, "Will you not stay and preach for us?" and proffer to gather in the members of their family and their neighbours; and the feeling would be, "Well, if this is 'Mormonism,' I will feed all the 'Mormon' Elders that come." Whereas, if I had said, "I am a 'Mormon' Elder; will you feed me?" the answer would often have been, "no: out of my house."
Now, if we could find the "right stripe" that could be spared from important duties here, we would send a good many Elders to the States.
I will relate another circumstance,--one concerning an Elder who went on a mission from Nauvoo; and, if I remember rightly, he went through Indiana. He lives in this place, and his name is James Carroll. He went into a neighbourhood where there was a Baptist Society, which had recently built a meeting house. They had heard of the "Mormons," but knew nothing of the doctrine. They wished him to tarry and preach, and the minister invited him into his pulpit. He rose, and began to preach "Mormonism," as he called it; and about the first item that he presented to the people was nearly the last event that will take place on the earth concerning the Church. Instead of preaching the restoration and first principles of the Gospel, almost the first remark that he made was, "You have a pretty meeting-house, and good buildings and farms; but do you know that the 'Mormons' are coming here to possess the whole of them?"
He never heard Joseph Smith, the Twelve, or any of the Elders that understood the Gospel, teach any such doctrine, but had probably gathered the idea from reading the Bible. By the time he had got through with so short a sermon, the congregation was ready to kick him out of the neighbourhood, and he ought to have been kicked out of the pulpit at the first dash. This does not particularly militate against the character of that man; but many of the Elders do not seem to understand how to gain the attention and feelings of the people, and lead them in the pathway of truth.
We have received letters from the East, stating that "There is no place for preaching there," whereas I really think that there might be hundreds of Elders selected here, if we could spare them, who could go to the States and find as good openings for preaching as there are in the world; at least I would run the risk of it. Had I the choice whether to go to the States and gather Saints, or to go where the Gospel was preached by the ancient Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, among the children of the people who have formerly had the Gospel preached to them, I would engage to go to the States and gather one hundred Saints to one that could be gathered from among the children of those who heard Peter, Paul, and others of the ancient Apostles preach the Gospel.
Reports of the business transactions and condition of the Church and Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company have been prepared, and will be read, so that you can understand the true situation of our general financial affairs. The P. E. Fund is founded upon the principle of everlasting increase, and if the people do right, or even half right, our means will increase.
The means arising from the sale of stray cattle, that some like so well to claim, all go towards swelling the amounts at the disposal of the P. E. Fund for gathering the poor. Still, when strays are driven into the general stray pound, you can see men come and swear to this ox and that cow; and they will bring two or three others to testify to an animal they claim; and another man will step up and say, "That is my animal;" and he will also bring three or four witnesses to prove it; and pretty soon still another comes and claims the same animal; and so on until there are, perhaps, four or five persons in the pound, each one with his witnesses, claiming the same animal, and all willing to swear on a stack of Bibles, as they hope for salvation, that such a creature is theirs, when they must know that they never saw it before. Such circumstances transpire every time that stray cattle are driven in. I want to tell you, so that you cannot fail to understand it, without you are consummate hypocrites and scoundrels, let stray cattle alone, unless you actually know them to be yours.
I could name a good many individuals in our own community that would steal all the cattle that we have, if they knew which were the ones that we owned. I thought that the reformation had stopped such proceedings; but as soon as the stray cattle were driven in, a few miserable sneaks were ready to own them all. Those animals are sold, and every cent of the means thus raised goes into the P. E. Fund, and the only ones benefited thereby are the poor Saints in foreign lands. You must stop intruding upon your neighbours.
If those who are heads of quorums strictly attended to their duties, the man that does not live according to his late covenants, who violates the ordinances and laws of the house of God, would be severed from his Quorum and cut off from this Church; and if they will not do this, we will do it from this stand. Men must quit swearing and taking the name of God in vain; they must refrain from lying, stealing, cheating, and doing that which they know they ought not to do, or they must be severed from this Church and kingdom.
I will now present a subject which will be a text for the brethren to preach upon from this stand, viz., the necessity of building store houses in which to preserve our grain. If we have a fruitful season this coming summer, we shall have a large amount of surplus grain which we cannot carry out of the country to market: it must tarry here. And if the people do their duty in this matter, they will continue to lay up grain for themselves and for this community throughout this Territory, and for fifty or a hundred times as many more, until they have enough to last them seven years. You can figure at that, and learn how much grain you ought to lay up. If we have, as I believe we shall, a few seasons fruitful in grain, the staple article that we can cure and preserve, it is our indispensable duty to safely store it for a time to come. This will be a text for some of the brethren.
I will say to the missionaries going west to the Sandwich Islands, California, and Oregon, that we expect to start a herd of cattle from here as early as they can be driven across the mountains; and if they will provide their own clothing, bedding, and weapons for defence, we will furnish them board and transportation to California.
I will now ask the people whether they will do me the favour of giving me one hundred and twenty-five dollars in money during this Conference. I will let the brethren and sisters throw in their dollars, or half or quarter dollars, just as they please, and I want to do what I please with the amount. And if you will not be satisfied with giving me $125, you can double the sum, and make it $250; and I wish to do with it as I please. If I have a mind to give it away immediately, that is nobody's business.
A few of us contemplate going north this spring. You remember that I told you at the last fall's Conference that I was going east to help in our immigration, and you voted I should not go. I did start, and went over the Big Mountain into East Kanyon creek, but the devil had ears so ready to hear the prayers of the people and help them, that he made me so sick that I could not go any further. I do not want any such influence exercised this spring, for I am going with some of my brethren to take a pleasure ride, see the country, enjoy ourselves, and recruit our health; and I wish you to pray for us, give us your faith, and be willing that we should go. I do not want to be stopped, as I was last fall.
Now comes another item of business. It so happens that this year the election of officers for this city falls upon to day, as does also the election of the Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion, which has been ordered by proclamation by the Governor. Both elections will be held in the Council House, and we want the brethren to stop there and give in their votes. For the Lieutenant-General, those from abroad have as good a right to vote here as if they were at home in Iron County, Davis, Sanpete, or any other part of our Territory. We have nominated Daniel H. Wells for the office of Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion, the same person who has held that position since our settlement in Utah. The polls will be kept open until sundown.
I have now briefly presented the items which I have noted down. Other matters will come before this Conference, such as preaching, exhortation, &c., &c. I will now give way for others. God bless you. Amen.
INDEBTEDNESS TO THE P. E. FUND--PUBLIC WORKS--TRUE PROSPERITY--DEPENDENCE ON THE LORD--SELF-CONSECRATION.
Remarks, by President Daniel H. Wells, April 6, 1857.
Brethren and sisters, I do not know that I shall be able to speak so that all of you can hear, neither do I feel that what I may say is of the greatest importance. I have never felt that confidence in addressing the people that perhaps I should; but I feel to-day, as I always have felt, an interest for the welfare of the Church and kingdom of God to which I belong, and to devote myself, and all I possess, or can control, to its progress and building up.
We had in the forenoon a large amount of business presented to this Conference as texts for the Elders to preach upon; and having the direction of the operations connected with the Public Works and building the Temple more immediately under my particular charge, I was pleased to hear that subject presented among the texts; for I know that it is the mind of our President, having often heard him so express himself, that those improvements should progress as fast as possible; and it will be my endeavour, so long as I am connected therewith, to devote all the energy I possess to their rolling forth. That is the feeling in my bosom, and I believe it is the feeling of every Saint to have the labours upon our Public Works and the Temple forwarded with all possible diligence. In order to do this, it is necessary for us to be faithful and diligent in our efforts, that we may have sufficient help to carry forward the work.
From the reports laid before you in the forenoon, the financial condition of the Church has been well represented, showing how means have been received and disbursed during the last two years, and of course the amount and kind remaining on hand.
You observed from that report a large amount of indebtedness by individuals,--some $82,000, if I remember correctly. If those who know that they have unsettled balances against them, and are able to liquidate them with labour and grain would settle and pay, it would have a material tendency to expedite the accomplishment of important public designs.
Many of those debts have accrued against men who had advances made to them when provisions were scarce, and some of them have removed to other places. There is an invitation now extended to them to return and day [sic] their indebtedness. They can do so by their labour, or in other ways, and it is very desirable that they should attend to this duty as soon as possible.
There is also a great amount due to the P. E. Fund; and it really seems as though brethren, who have means to liquidate their indebtedness, would scarcely need an invitation to do so. They have had the benefit of that Company's means; they have been brought from the old country to this place by that aid; and when they get here, some appear to feel indifferent with regard to paying their indebtedness. All know that this is not right, for that should be the first debt they should pay. They should not wait until they get rich before they pay, especially when these debts can be paid in labour, stock, grain, cast and wrought iron, or any and every description of available property at command in this country. Money, of course, is preferable, for other articles have to be turned into cash before they can be made available for bringing the people from foreign lands. In consequence of these facts, the operations of the Fund have to be measurably suspended for a time; and Church means cannot be used to aid the immigration this year, as hitherto.
If those who are indebted to the Fund for aid rendered to them will return the compliment for assisting their friends, do you not understand that they will have to make good the expenditure that now stands against them? If you understand this subject, as I presume you do, you will see the obligations under which you lie, if you do not respond, when able, and as soon as you can, to aid others who are equally worthy and desirous of coming to this place. Remember the situation that you were in when in the old countries, and reflect upon their anxiety to come, and that it is impossible for many of them to do so, except through the aid of the P. E. Fund. Hundreds and thousands have been helped out that would have been still there but for this assistance, and hundreds and thousands are still there who look to that Fund as their only hope. You stand indebted for the use of the means you have had: will you refund them or not? That is the question for you to decide. This is not a day of many words, but a day for men to go forth in their power, in their might and strength, and do those things incumbent upon them.
The Big Cottonwood canal should be finished, to facilitate procuring rock for building the Temple. Much labour has already been expended upon it, but it requires still more. The brethren have been very diligent in this matter, but we expect that we shall have to call upon them for further labour on that work. We are anxious to have the water let into that canal, to test all weak places, that they may be strengthened, and the work thoroughly completed; for the water is needed for irrigration [sic] as well as for boating. Will you lend your aid in this enterprize? Will we complete it this season, that we may boat rock for the Temple? This will be proved by your acts, as well as by your faith.
Stone-cutters have been called for, and only a few have as yet reported themselves. Are there but few in the country? If so, men can soon learn the trade. Will those who are desirous of obtaining work come forward at once and take hold of this branch of business, and dress the stone needed for rapidly prosecuting the work on the Temple?
I thought I would draw your attention to these few plain facts. And let the brethren who preach to the people have an eye to these things, to the interest and general welfare of the kingdom of God, to the rolling forth of the work, to the building of Temples, that we may be prospered in the things of God.
What is prosperity? According to my understanding, it is not so much gaining the things of this world, as it is progressing in the knowledge of God? What are true riches? They are not so much the obtaining of the things of this world, as they are in securing the principles and keys which unlock the treasure of heavenly wisdom, of the knowledge of God and things that pertain to eternity. These are the riches we are seeking after; this is the progress we wish to make. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary that we should be faithful in all matters committed to our trust, honest before God, and obedient to the counsels of His servants. I know that I have ever felt to be so, and I have felt to do more than to talk. I have ever felt ready to go here or there as I have been told, and I feel so to-day. It is my meat and drink to do whatever I am told, according to the best understanding I have. It is upon this principle that I have been able to do anything I have done. The Lord has enabled me to do it, because I verily know that I have not strength in and of myself to do what I have done since I have been in the Church and kingdom.
I have ever felt to lean upon the Lord for help, and I feel so to-day. I do not know when I felt weaker, or more like humbling myself before my God and my brethren, than I do at present. It is necessary that we should humble ourselves, and lean on the Lord our God, and go in His might and strength, and give His name the honour and glory, if we would succeed in accomplishing anything for the benefit of the house of Israel. It is His work; He only wants servants to do it, and He will not have any but willing servants. He will compel no person to bring forth his purposes; they must do so of their own free volition; they must esteem it a privilege, even as it is a most inestimable privilege to have it to do. He gives this to us to be our work, if we will do it; if not, He will give it to some one else. He does not expect to run after us, nor to have His servants do so; it is for us to seek to them and the Lord, that we may know His will concerning us, and be faithful stewards and honest before Him, and willing instruments in His hands to do whatever we can to roll forth His cause and kingdom. To have our duty made manifest to us is all we need; then it is for us to go here and there, as He shall dictate and require.
These are my feelings, if I know myself, and have always been; and I feel to rejoice before the Lord that I have the privilege of being associated with His servants in the things designed for the rolling forth of His kingdom, and bring to pass His purposes on the earth. I have felt to renew my covenant and obligations to walk forth before them according to the best light I have got, and to strive for more. I think it is necessary for us all to feel thus, and I think we will do better in that way than in any other, if we wish to have the juice of "Mormonism" within us, as brother Brigham remarked this morning--if we wish to be instruments for good in the hands of God.
I feel more like receiving exhortation than giving it. I feel more like doing than talking; still I do not wish to withhold any good thing I may be in possession of. I feel to do what the Lord desires and will help me to do. I care not what it is; so that it is the word and will of the Lord, I should strive to do it.
I feel to be submissive in the hands of my brethren, to be moulded as they will. I may at times be stiff, and do things not pleasing to them, but they have been merciful and kind to me in these matters, and have been filled with forbearance. I feel to devote myself to the Lord with all I have and can control, and with all the Lord shall bless me with; and I ask of Him, as a great favor, to accept of this my offering and dedication. True, I have not much to offer Him; I wish I had far more; but what I have has always been consecrated and on the altar. I understand that to be the principle of salvation, and I want to be clothed with salvation, that my words may be words of comfort and consolation to the people.
I feel more like blessing the people of God--like blessing my brethren and those whom I am associated with. I know that this is a good people, and the Lord delights to bless them, if they will so live as to admit of it. He withholds His blessings, many times, for our good. Perhaps some would not make a good use of blessings, but would turn away and deny the faith; hence I feel that chastisement is also good. The Lord loveth whom He chasteneth.
May the Lord bless us through this Conference and through future life, and help us to do His will and keep His commandments. And if we have had the blessings of the Holy Ghost poured upon us to any extent, let us keep what we have, and seek for more. If we have been faithful over a few things, let us try to be faithful in all committed to our trust, and increase. Let us seek for eternal riches, get hold of the principles and keys of knowledge which shall unlock the treasures of heaven to our understandings, that we may be better qualified for the performance of our duties, that we may go forward in the work of God, and be faithful children, and seek unto Him, our Father, with full purpose of heart, and work righteousness all the days of our lives, with perfect hearts and willing minds.
May the Lord pour out His blessings upon us, and may we be faithful and diligent in all things we have to do. May He bless the earth for our sakes, that it may bring forth for the sustenance of the people in the valleys of these mountains. May He hasten His work in its time, that we may be useful under all circumstances in building up the kingdom of God, be united with Him, dwell in peace, unity, and strength, that the fruits of righteousness may spring forth and increase a hundredfold. Then we have nothing to fear, for no power on earth can prevail against this people, if they are united one with another.
Let us seek this unity of spirit, and put away all quarrelling and dissensions, and sustain each other.
There are many more ideas that could be advanced, but I do not believe in long sermons. I love to hear the brethren speak, and I like to speak myself, to say what I may have to say, and then stop. I think that is most beneficial, and keeps our minds more stirred up and lively; I will therefore close with asking God to bless us all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
THE POWER AND IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMY--DOMESTIC EXTRAVAGANCE AND MISMANAGEMENT, WITH THEIR BAD RESULTS.
A Discourse, by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1857.
Brother Heber has made a remark which I will take for a text. He said, "It is whispered about that some of the brethren labouring on the Public Works are living on dry bread." I want to preach a short discourse upon this subject, and I will endeavour to do so to the understanding of those present. I acknowledge that some persons live very poorly, and are very destitute; but there is not one family out of a thousand in this Territory of those who live poorly, but what that destitute mode of living is brought upon them by themselves through their own mismanagement or the want of economy. For this reason I wish to confine my remarks to the principles of economy necessary in obtaining a comfortable living.
I have been a poor boy and a poor man, and my parents were poor. I was poor during my childhood, and grew up to manhood poor and destitute; and I am acquainted with the various styles of living, and with the different customs, habits, and practices of people; and I do know, by my own experience, that there is no necessity for people being so very poor, if they have judgment, and will rightly use it.
You may take the mechanics that are employed upon our Public Works. I am very well aware that the great majority of them are splendid workmen--that they can make fine buildings, with all the mason, and carpenter, and joiner work, and the painting of the very best quality of finish; and yet many of them are in poverty. We have some of the very best workers in brass, iron, wood, &c., that there are in the world; yet many of them are poor, suffer from hard living, and have to live on bread and water.
There is no necessity for any persons living on bread and water. We have not a man at work for us but what has had means put into his hands sufficient to support from five to twenty persons, and many of them could lay up from five hundred to a thousand dollars a year, if they would use proper economy. I comfortably and that, too, in a country where supported a family when I was poor, [sic-phrase] it was more difficult to do so than it is here,--where it often was almost impossible to hire to do a day's work,--where a man would have to run and, perhaps, beg and plead to be employed to do a day's work; and when the labour was performed, it was frequently worth twice the amount to get the pay, which would generally be only three or four bits; though sometimes ordinary mechanics would receive five or six bits, and good mechanics one dollar or one dollar and a quarter a day.
I have laboured for fifteen dollars a month to support a family, and that, too, in a place that was as hard gain for a person to live in as it is in this city. You could not have the free use of so much as a quarter of an acre of ground thrown out to the public for a cow to graze upon. You could not get a stick of wood, although in a well-wooded country, without paying for it. You could not get a pint of milk, or even of buttermilk, unless you paid the money for it.
I have worked for nearly all the various grades of wages, and supported a family since I was quite young. I know how to live and I have taught my brethren here how to live, and I know how many of them do live. But you may take a hard-working man, one earning good wages, and though he carries an abundance into his house, his wife may sit there and toss it out again. You will find that much depends upon the economy of women, in regard to the living of the poorer class of the people--of the labouring class. For instance, let a man buy ten pounds of fresh meat and carry it home, in the morning the wife will cook up, perhaps, four or five pounds of that meat for the breakfast of the man, the wife, and a little child. To begin with, it is often cooked very badly, not properly seasoned, smoked up, part of it burnt, and the rest raw, so that they cannot eat much of it; and there is a great platter-full left that cannot be eaten, and the uncooked portion has probably been neglected until it is spoiled, and thus nearly the whole is wasted.
Sisters, if you do not believe this, many of you go home and remember what you cooked this morning, and see the platters full, and the plates full, and the little messes standing here and there. By-and-by it is not fit to eat, and it is finally thrown out of door. Is this true? It is. The reason I say so is because I see it with my own eyes. You may wish to know where I see it. Among some of my neighbours where I visit, among some of my own family, and in many places where I go.
If a man is a good husband, and knows how to live, let him teach his wife how to cook the food he provides, as I have some of my wives, more or less, notwithstanding I have some excellent cooks; but I do not think that I have one but what I can teach in the art of cooking some particular varieties of food, for I have at times been obliged to pay considerable attention to this matter. And when I go into a house, I can soon know whether the woman is an economical housekeeper or not; and if I stay a few days, I can tell whether a husband can get rich or not. If she is determined on her own course, and will waste and spoil the food entrusted to her, that man will always be poor.
Some women will set emptyings in the morning, and let them stand until they sour, and mix up the flour with them, and sweeten it with saleratus, and then knead it ready for baking; and if sister Somebody comes in, they will sit down and begin to talk over old times, and the first they know is, the bread is sour: "Dear me, I forgot all about that bread," and into the oven she puts it, and builds up a large fire, and again sits down to visiting with her neighbour, and before she thinks of the loaf, there is a crust burnt on it from a quarter to half an inch in thickness. So much of the bread is spoiled; there goes one quarter of the flour; it is wasted, and the bread is sour and disagreeable to eat; and the husband comes home and looks sour, and is sour, as well as the bread. He finds fault, and that makes the wife grieve, and there are feelings and unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the family. The husband may be a good man, and the wife may be a good woman, and try to please her husband, and to do so as much as the old lady did, who said, "It was impossible for her to please her husband in baking bread; for if it was half dough, he did not like it; and if it was half burnt up, he scolded about it."
You may say that it is hard work to please a man; yes, and woman too. But when a man does his duty in providing for a family, there can reasonably be but little complaint on the part of any sensible woman.
A man may be good and industrious--may be an excellent mechanic, and in many things a diligent man, as is the case with a number with whom I am acquainted; yet go to his house and ask, "Have you a pig in your pen?" "No, I have nothing to feed a pig with; I cannot keep one." Sit down to his table, and he has not a mouthful of meat from week's end to week's end, unless he buys a little. "Have you a cow?" "No, I have nothing to feed a cow; I cannot hire a pasture; and were I to hire one driven to grass as far as the herd boys go, she would not give milk enough to pay the herd bill." I have been in worse places than this, and kept a cow.
I have taught the brethren how to live upon less than five, three, or even two dollars a day for the support of a small family; and when men complain that they live here on bread alone, they do not reflect that they do not know how to provide for themselves. Years pass away, one after another, and I see more and more that there are but very few men and women that are even capable of taking care of themselves temporally.
You will see women, if their husbands have got fifty cents, who must buy crackers with it, or something nice. Johnny, Susan, Betsy, and Billy come along, and want a cracker, and the first you know is that the crackers are in the hands of the children who are out-doors playing with them, breaking them up, wasting and scattering them abroad. I will leave it to you, sisters, if some of you do not act in this manner. When children crumble up the bread, what do you do with it? You throw it into the fire. I learned my wife in the first place what the swill pail was made for, and said to her, do not let one crumb or kernel of anything be wasted, but put it into the swill pail, and when night came, I had something to feed the pig with. But often out of door go the pieces of bread and meat; or if half a gill of corn should be on the floor, it is swept out of doors, or more frequently into the fire to be wasted.
A great many men do not know that they can keep a pig; but there is not a family in this city, where there are two, three, four, or five persons, but what can save enough from their table, from the waste made by the children, and what must be swept in the fire and out of door, to make pork sufficient to last them through the year, or at least all they should eat. When you know enough to put a pig in a pen, do so; and when you have an opportunity to buy a bushel of corn, oats, or bran, get your bins ready and lay it away.
I say to the mechanics, especially to those who work for me, make your bins in the mornings and evenings, and do not spend the time we hire you to work for us to do your chores in. And another thing I will caution you about; do not steal the nails from the Public Works. Some of you have stolen our nails and lumber to work into articles for your own use. Do not do this.
We pay our mechanics from two and a half to five dollars a day, and there is no necessity for many of them using more than fifty cents or one dollar a day throughout the year. Why do you not buy a cow? "I have nothing to feed her with." Yes, you have. In the course of the season, you will find a time that you can buy a little straw, and stack it up and take good care of it. Buy now and then a bushel of bran, or oats, or corn, and lay it by. When you have done your day's work, take your axe, cut up the straw, throw a little meal on it, give it to the cow, and sit down and milk her yourself, unless your wife is a good hand to milk, and can attend to it better and more conveniently than you can; in that case, let her do the milking, but do not set six or eight years' old children to stripping the cows.
Purchase cows, for if we have not already supplied you with cows, we are able and willing to do so. Most, if not all, have already been furnished with cows. What did you do with the calves? "We sold them for a trifle." Why did you not raise them? Do you not know that they would very soon be valuable? No, but you waste your calves, neglect buying pigs, and live without milk, and many of the easily procured comforts of life. Is there any neceesity [sic] for this? No, there is not, if people will try to use a little economy.
Go round this city now, and probably you will not see one garden out of twenty, even where men have lived here four or five years, that has a single fruit tree growing in it. Have they set out anything? Yes, some cottonwoods; but they would not set out a peach tree, if you would give it to them. In many lots there is not a fruit tree, or currant bush, or anything to produce the little necessaries to make a family comfortable.
If I lived as I used to, I would have my cow, and she would give milk, and would not stray off; for I would always have a little handful of food to give her when she came up at night; I would also feed her a little in the morning, and at night she would come for more. I would keep my pig in the pen, and have a few fowls to lay eggs. I would raise my own pork, and in the spring I would not have to run to the Public Works and say, "I have not anything to eat."
It is a shame that men and women do not pay more attention to the principles of economy in living. They want to have money to go to market and buy everything ready made. They want to have somebody feed them. I have thought, many times, that some persons would not be satisfied, unless we baked plum puddings, and roasted beef for them, and then fed them while they were lounging in big easy chairs; and still perhaps they would think that they were ill treated, if we did not chew the meat for them.
I worked hard when I first gathered with the Saints. I had to walk two miles to my labour, and the sun seldom, if ever, shone on my work before I had my tools in my hands and busily engaged; and I rarely laid down my tools so long as I could see to use them. In the morning I would get up and feed my cow and milk her, and do the other out-door chores while my wife would be preparing breakfast. My pig was in the pen, and I would gather a little here and a little there, and a day would not pass without its having sufficient food. Why do you not think of these things? Because you will not.
Sisters, if you cannot properly attend to your bread-making, and manage to not let any more flour be wasted, tie a string round one of your fingers so tight that it will hurt you, and every time you think of the string, think of what brother Brigham tells you. When the emptyings are in the flour, think of the string, also when the bread is put in the oven; and if you are still afraid that you will forget, tie the string a little tighter. And after your bread is beautifully baked, do not let a crumb of it be wasted.
When your husband brings home meat, exercise sufficient judgment to enable you to cook such portion as will be eaten, which is far better than so much placed upon the table that a large part of it will be wasted. Then take care of that which remains uncooked, put a little salt upon it, and put it in a cool place where it will keep a few days, and you will not be obliged to throw half of it away.
You may hear some women here saying, "Husband, can you not go to the store and get me some ribbon? I want a bonnet and a pair of new shoes. Can you not get me some lining for a bonnet? I wish you would get me a new dress, I have not had one for a whole month, and I want to go a visiting; I cannot bear to wear these old dresses so often. I want a few aprons and a few pairs of stockings." The man then has to buy the bonnets, the linings, the dress patterns, &c., and also to hire them made; and he has to buy aprons, shoes, and stockings, and even the garters that are worn on the stockings. There is not judgment, economy, and force enough in some women, to knit their own garters.
Let me tell you one thing, husbands; determine this year that you will stop buying these things, and say to your wife. "Here is some wool; knit your own stockings, or you will not have any; you will have to prepare the cloth for yourselves and children: I will provide the wool, the wheels, &c.; and if you will not make the cloth, you may go without." Also raise flax, and prepare it for the women to manufacture into summer clothing.
I remember going into a friend's house, one afternoon, when I was quite young: I think I was about fifteen; and pretty soon a couple of neighbouring women came in to visit. They had not been in the house more than twenty minutes before the woman of the house went and brought out a pillow, and began to rail against her husband, saying, "He is a dirty, nasty man; he is the filthiest man in the world; that is the pillow he sleeps on." I thought, you miserable fool, Why do you not wash that slip? Those women see that the blame rests on you, and not on your husband. And she continued telling them how nasty, filthy, and lazy he was. I knew enough about a family, at that early age, to know where the fault lay. At the same time there was plenty of wool and flax lying in her chamber, for I saw them; and a wheel and the other implements were on hand, all of which the husband had toiled for. He had also provided the cows, flour, and meat in abundance; but because he did not do everything, he was a "nasty, lazy man." He must feed the hogs, spin the wool, wash the pillowcases and sheets, and do everything else, or be bemeaned by his wife. I said to myself, I expect I shall be married when I am old enough, and if I get such an animal as you are, I will put hooks in her nose to lead her in a way you have not thought of.
I have seen a great many persons live in the neglect of all the comforts of life, because they would not take hold and make themselves comfortable. Others do not know what to do with the comforts of life, when they have them. I have been in places where people had an abundance, and yet they lived, figuratively speaking, at death's door, with regard to food.
I recollect once walking up to a house in Illinois, where a young woman was sitting just within the door dressed up, I may say, within an inch of her life, in calico that cost ten or twelve cents a yard in my country; and she was, according to her ideas, titivated out to the ninety-nines. Fourteen milch cows, with calves by their sides, were feeding on the prairie. I first asked her, "Can I buy some butter here?" "No, Sir." "Can I buy a little milk?" "No, sir." I then asked her whether her father owned those cows. "Yes, sir." "Do you milk them?" "No, sir; only a little in the morning to put in the coffee." I wanted to laugh in her face, but politeness forbad me. There stood fourteen new milch cows, and not a drop of milk in the house, nor a pound of butter, and everything else was in keeping. An abundance of good things was around them, and yet they had nothing comfortable and wholesome.
It is just so with some people here. Every facility is in the possession of this people for living in the very best manner, if they would only learn how, and practise upon that knowledge. How much do you have to pay for your cow's running on the range, or for the use of a lot? Nothing. How much rent do you pay for your land? Not any. What hinders you from raising something to feed a cow? Nothing. Who hinders you from planting your garden with corn, and saving the suckers and the fodder? Who hinders you from raising carrots, parsnips, squashes, &c., to feed a cow with through the winter? This you can do on a little more than a quarter of an acre, but will you do it? No; many of you will not. Does any one hinder you? No; and yet some of you complain that you live poorly, and lay the blame upon me and brother Kimball, and brother Wells, and those men who dictate the Public Works.
We pay the public hands higher wages than they earn, and if they are obliged to live on bread alone from day to day, it is for want of economy and proper management. Am I to blame? No. Will I milk your cows for you? No. Will I buy butter for you? No; we will give you all that is brought in on tithing, and when we have done that, you may calculate to do without, or make your own butter. I know families that milk one cow for eight or ten in the family, and yet have butter on the table all the time, and occasionally sell a little. Others have six or eight cows, and seldom have any butter in the house; they do not take care of what they have.
Instead of people being poor, we already have too much, unless we take better care of it. I heard a man who is living in this city--one who has always been well off--state that he used to keep twelve cows when he first came here, and was often nearly destitute of milk and butter. After a few years, the number of his cows was reduced to six, and he said that the six did him more good than the twelve had done. In two years more, they were reduced to two, and the two cows have done him much more good than the twelve or the six did, for they could be and were more properly attended to.
Let me have the privilege of dictating every chore about my house, and I would soon put everything right. I do not have that privilege, for I have so many and so much around me, that I have to depend upon others. During the past six years, I have seldom kept in my yard less than thirteen cows for the use of my family, and there has not been one year of that time that we have had much more than milk enough the year round to put in the tea and coffee. I have directed the men who feed my cows to take a course to prevent such a variation in the supply of milk. I have told them to feed the cows thus and so; to give them so much in the morning, and so much at night, and to allow them as much water as they would drink. And after all, though perhaps I would not go to the barn as often as once in the week, I have frequently seen from a peck to a bushel of good wheat meal shovelled into the yard out of one cow's trough. And when I have asked what does this mean, "Why, such a brother wanted to go a visiting, and would not be back for three days, so he put the three days' feed before the cow at once." Again, I might remark, "This cow looks poor; I have thousands of feed to give her; what is the matter?" "She eat until she nearly killed herself, and we have just made out to save her," and that is all the satisfaction I would get. It is too often a perfect waste and destruction under my own nose, because I cannot find time to look after my private affairs.
I have asked myself, Shall I go and attend to my own business, or let it go? And I have replied, I will let it go to hell backwards rather than neglect my public duties. I will not neglect my public duties, if my property all goes to destruction--if we do not have a drop of milk from this time henceforth and forever. During the past winter, my large family have had three cows, and they have done me six times more good than ever the thirteen did. I prevailed upon one or two of my women to do the milking for the first time, whereas heretofore I have had to hire Jim, and Jack, and Peter Gimblet to do the milking, and they would often pound a cow until she would not give down her milk, and would kick her half to death, and then half milk her, and ruin everything about me. Three cows now do us more good than fifty would have done four years ago, under the old plan.
I expect that all persons who will not try to help and take care of themselves the best they can, will see the time when they will wish they had done so; yet I would like to turn away the evil day from them, if I can possibly do it, by correct teaching and example. All persons that will not try to take care of themselves, will see a day of sorrow, and will regret the waste of time misspent in this life.
When I laboured, I did the milking and feeding most of the time, and fed the pig, and attended to all the outdoor chores; though, at the same time, if I was absent, I had a wife, after I came into this Church, who was always ready to feed pigs, milk and feed cows, and work in the garden, or do anything that should be done, so far as she was able. Wives, go into the garden and raise the salad and numerous other articles within your judgment and strength. Who hindered you from making a little vinegar last year? People are frequently running round and asking, "Where can I buy some vinegar?" When I was keeping a house, if my neighbours had a million hogsheads of vinegar, I had no need to buy a spoonful of it, for I would make a plenty for my own use, and would have eggs, butter, and pork, of my own producing, and manage to secure beef, and salt it away nicely, and we had all the essentials for comfortable diet.
Will the people continue to live? Many of them will merely manage to stay, just as a family did in Illinois. During a conference held in their neighbourhood, we would sit down at the table, in the centre of which was a great big milk-pan piled full of lean beef, and sour bread to eat with it. After awhile, a plate of butter would be brought on, quite white, and full of buttermilk; and those articles comprised our dinner. When Sunday morning came, we had the rarity. In the mean time, I found out who owned the farm, the sheep, the horses, the cows, the oxen, the turkeys, the geese, the fowls, and the fine orchards. They were all owned by Esquire Walker. On Sunday morning, we sat down to the meat and bread, as usual, and clean butter was on the table that time, if I recollect rightly; but there was one plate with something upon it that I had not deciphered. I looked at it carefully, and by and by I concluded that it faintly resembled a pie. Sister Walker came along, saying, "Brother Young, there is some pie; it is peach pie; do eat some." It was made of dough rolled out into a thin cake, and put on a plate, with a thin streak of poor, refuse, fuzzy peaches that had been merely halved, and the pits taken out; and then another thick tough crust put over them. I took a piece, and said to brother Kimball, What is this? at the same time giving him a wink. "Why, brother Young," replied Mrs. Walker, "It is peach pie." I remarked, Brother Kimball, I never saw the like before in my life; did you?" "Never." I went into the orchard, where they had been making brandy out of the best peaches for three or four weeks. Could they be put into a pie? No; but they must use the little, nasty, withered up ones.
I have related that circumstance to show you how much they knew about living. That family had plenty of fowls, cattle, and milk; and if they had known how to manage their abundance, they would have had every comfort of life served up in the richest and best style. They could also have made hundreds of pounds of maple sugar, which is the best of sweetening; for they had a sugar orchard on the farm. Yet, when I was there, they had a house with five or seven beds in one room; and when you walked across the floor, the planks would go clatter-to-bang. And when they wanted to see in the day time, they had to open the door, or draw up to the fireplace, and benefit by the light that came down the chimney. I asked Esquire Walker why he did not put a good floor in his house, and put in windows. He replied, "I have been thinking I would, for several years. Friend Young, I have a good deal of money and property on hand, and I think of going to Nauvoo, to invest several thousand dollars." I state this to show you that many people do not know what to do with what they have.
You may see some little girls around the streets here with their mothers' skirts on, or their sun bonnets, and with their aprons full of dirt. Your husbands buy you calico, but you do not know what to do with it. It is to be carefully worn until the last thread is worn out, and then put into the rag bag to make paper with.
Some men do not know what to do with their means. You may take the poorest mechanic here, and one who has nothing but bread to eat, and you may see him paying half a dollar or a dollar for a meal of victuals at the Globe. You may see the barber shops crowded with our poor mechanics, who pay from three to five dollars a quarter for being shaved. I bought a razor, when I began to shave, that cost thirty-seven and a half cents, and used it for fifteen years. Some black their boots, so that they will not last more than two or three months. I keep my boots well oiled, wear then two or three years, and then give them to the poor.
Nearly all who grumble about their poor scanty fare, would be rich if they would do as I do. Take care of your articles of food, of your clothing, of your boots, and hats, and you will have plenty; and let the women take care of what is taken into the house. If you do not go to now and prepare for the day of trouble, you will be sorry, and will lament and mourn.
I now want to tell you the feelings of several in this community: "I do not want to build a good house, because I shall have to move away by and bye; our enemies will come and possess it. I do not want to lay up corn, because our enemies will come and take it from me." If this people will do as they are told, will live their religion, walk humbly before their God, and deal justly with each other, we will make you one promise, in the name of Israel's God, that you will never be driven from the mountains. And instead of mobs coming here to break open your granaries, they will come to this people, bringing their gold, and their silver, and their fine things, and plead with them for something to eat.
I told you last Sabbath, that if this people had not stepped forward to help the poor last fall, you would have seen harder times in 1857 than you did in 1855 and 1856.
Let us keep in the favour of the Lord, and be his friends, live to our covenants, love the Lord, and walk uprightly in all our acts and dealings, so that we will not be afraid to have them scanned by the Lord and His angels, and all good men on the earth; and we can stand justified. May the Lord bless you. Amen.
THE LATTER-DAY WORK--NECESSITY OF AN INSPIRED LEADER TO STAND AT THE HEAD OF ISRAEL, ETC, AND TO DICTATE IN SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL AFFAIRS.
Remarks, by Elder Wilford Woodruff, Made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1857.
I will say to my brethren and sisters that I count it a blessing and a privilege to occupy a few moments this morning in bearing my testimony and expressing my feelings to you; and I hope what little I may say may be dictated by the Holy Spirit, for I have lived long enough in this world to know that I can neither edify myself nor the children of men without the Holy Spirit.
I have a few thoughts upon my mind, which I wish to present. Since I have attended this conference, I have listened attentively to the teachings, counsels, reproof, corrections, testimonies, and subjects which have been given to us by the servants of God.
It brings to mind the days before I heard "Mormonism." I have spent hours, and days, and nights, among the rocks and in the forest, praying to Almighty God to enlighten my mind, and lead me in the paths of rectitude and duty, and that he would let me live to behold a people he could own, who did receive the revelations of Jesus Christ, the Gospel, the principles and covenants which the ancients received and enjoyed.
The Lord revealed to me that I should have this privilege, and I have lived to see the Kingdom of God set up; it is before me to-day, in this tabernacle, and all the blessings of the Priesthood, and all the covenants, and all the power necessary to lead a people into salvation is here to-day.
I want to say in answer to my feelings, that as I realize the Kingdom of God is here, I realize also that we have a leader to it. We live in a great and important day and generation, we live in the midst of the mighty work of God, in a time when he has stretched out his hand to accomplish that great and mighty work, in fulfilment of the word of God, written in the volume of revelation which points to our day.
Any man who has a particle of the Spirit of God can see that there were great things to transpire in our day. We are in our alphabet: there are but a few of the works of Almighty God that have yet been declared in our ears in comparison to that which is to come. No man is qualified to stand at the head of the house of Israel, to carry out the great purposes of our God, unless he is inspired by the Almighty all the time. We have such men at our head. Joseph Smith was of that class. From his childhood, or from the time the angel rent the vail of eternity and showed him the record of Ephraim, until the day of his death, he was led by the hand of God. No man had any business to say unto him, Why dost thou so? He was a shaft in the hand of the Almighty.
It is not less so now with President Young, who stands at the head of this people; for he does point out the way in which this people should walk. Who is going to take hold of the Ark and steady it for him? No man. President Young has the right to make use of my name or yours before the people, by way of correction. It is not our business to call him to an account for it. He has a right to correct, reprove, and guide us, and he has had to do so all the day long; and he has been a father to this people continually. I have been acquainted with him, and travelled with him, for many years; and I will say, I have felt many a time to thank God that he has given to us fathers, as leaders and teachers, who have been filled with mercy and compassion, and with the words of eternal life.
I have wondered many a time in my life how I have passed along so smoothly as I have. I have felt that I have been worthy of correction in a good many things; yet I desire to pursue a course whereby I may become justified. I have my weaknesses, errors, and follies, and can see them by the light of the Holy Spirit.
There is nothing I have ever done in my life that was wrong but what I have been sorry for. I know President Young is endowed with the power of God, and so do you know it; and I know he can discover weaknesses in many of us, and he corrects us for our good. The reproofs of a friend are far better than the kisses of an enemy.
With regard to correcting the Twelve, or any body else, I am glad, when we are corrected, to see the brethren kiss the rod. We have to learn to build up this kingdom before we are prepared, as polished shafts in the hands of the Lord, to stand up and magnify our calling as Apostles of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that President Young brings forth for this people to carry out but we are all interested in, whether we understand it or not.
Should I, or any man in the kingdom of God feel for a moment to object to President Young's handling or controlling gold or wealth for his own benefit, or the rolling of the kingdom? No, we should not. I wish he had his millions, for he has clearly manifested before our eyes, from the beginning until now, his talents and gifts as a financier; and we all know he has been profitable to the Church and kingdom of God, to Zion, and this whole people. It matters not to me whether it is in building a Temple, establishing a Carrying Company, or anything else that is presented for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Lord and the building up of his kingdom, and the gathering of Israel; we are equally interested in it, and should go to with our might, and carry out the work assigned us.
Many things will be made manifest unto us, and our labours will have to extend through many channels, ways, and means, before the way is prepared for the coming of the Son of Man.
I feel thankful to God that his hand is over us. He has guided, controlled, and delivered us from the hands of our enemies.
We may thank the Lord that we have a man among us who has got the Holy Ghost enough to reprove sin, whether among his wives, or his best friends, or worst enemies. What would become of this people, were it not so? We would go to hell. No man can govern his steps, control his life, and correct his errors, if there is not somebody inspired by the power of God to lead in this matter.
There is a just cause many times for reproof and correction; and it is a good sign to me when we are reproved. It shows there are redeeming qualities in this people. When President Young wants anything of us, I care not what, let us respond to his request. We have to build up this kingdom by union and faithfully following those men set to lead us, or else we will be scattered. The blessings of God will be taken from us, if we take any other course.
The Presidency, in their remarks here, have referred to the hatred of the wicked against us. Jesus says, "I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hate you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hate you."
Look at the world; they are divided on every point; there is hardly two men or women united in matters of government or religion. Send an Elder of this Church to proclaim to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you will see the devils in hell united with the priests and people of Christendom to oppose him. They know they are wicked and weltering in their own corruptions and abominations. But here comes a man to proclaim to them the word of God. Why do they oppose him? Because he has the testimony of Jesus Christ, and is sent of God. Do the world believe we have a false religion, that we are deceivers, and have not the true faith? No: they are afraid that what we preach is true; they are afraid of our union in the Valleys of the Mountains. It has more terror in it to the kings of the earth than any other subject that has been revealed to man in this generation. They are afraid God is with this people--that he controls them.
The same feeling exists among the nations now as anciently, when the Jews said, He (Jesus) will take away our place and nation, if he is let alone. This should be a testimony to all the world, when they see the spirit of division increasing upon almost every subject. They cannot unite upon any subject only in opposing the Latter day Saints.
I feel to say to my brethren and sisters, Let us make up our minds to do right, and let our union increase, and truly follow the men God has set to lead us. There is where our salvation lies.
Some of us have been in a measure reproved and corrected. Well, what of it? no doubt we deserved all we have got and more. We should not boast over each other because one man is reproved to-day; you may receive the the [sic] rod of chastisement to-morrow.
Let us prepare ourselves, so that, in whatsoever we are corrected, we may be passive in the hands of the servants of God, and thank the Lord; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son and daughter he receives.
When I get through, if I can only find myself associated with the Twelve Apostles of the Latter-day Saints and with this people, I will be satisfied. If I can steer my way through this life, and have a place with you, it is all I will ask.
I pray the Lord to bless you and me, and more particularly the Presidency of this Church, and clothe them with the power of God and with salvation, that their hearts may be filled with joy, light, and truth. And may this people rise up and humble themselves before the Lord, and take the counsel that is given to them, that we may be well educated in the things of God, and be obedient children in treasuring up their teachings and carrying them out, that we may be saved in the kingdom of God; which is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
JOURNEY TO THE NORTH--UNANIMITY AND PEACEFUL ORDER OF THE COMPANY--GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED--GOOD CONDITION AND BLESSINGS OF THE SAINTS IN ZION.
Remarks, by President Brigham Young, Made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.
We have accomplished our short and speedy journey to the North in safety and in peace, and again have the privilege of assembling with you in this Bowery for the purpose of worshipping the Lord our God, for which we are thankful. Every heart responds to these sentiments, and we give glory to our Father and to our God. His hand is over us for good; He has preserved us, He has marked out our path. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Patriarchs of old, of the ancient Prophets and Apostles, of Joseph and of this people, is our God--the only wise and true God, our Saviour. It is him that we look to; in him we trust, and from him we receive all our blessings.
I believe that every heart is filled with thankfulness, and is also measurably filled with joy and peace. I can truly say to you, my brethren and sisters, that I am thankful to you, as well as to my Father in Heaven; for I have felt the strong cord of faith in my absence arising from this people to our Father and our God in our behalf. And I have no doubt but that our brethren who have just returned from their missions to the East can testify to the same. They have felt that the faith of the Saints has been in their behalf; they have been sustained and upheld, and brought through their trials by the arm of Jehovah, by the faith of the Saints.
The brethren have done me a kindness, and I am thankful to them for it. I am also thankful that I live in the midst of a people whose hearts and faith are measurably one, that what they rightly ask for is granted unto them; and that when they feel to bless an individual or a people, that individual or people is blessed; and when they feel it a duty that the Lord should stay the wicked in their progress, their faith accomplishes their desire. I am thankful that I am in the midst of such a people--that I am numbered with you, my brethren and sisters in the gospel of salvation.
I have sustained, I believe, a good character before our Father and our God. I believe that your faith has been united with ours to accomplish that which ought to be performed; and on this occasion I am thankful that I have had your prayers, and have accomplished the business proposed. I requested the people to have faith for us, and to willingly release us to visit the northern country. They voted that they would do so, and their acts have proved that their faith was and is in accordance with their votes.
On our journey, I can truly say that we had perfect peace. In my travels with the Saints, up to this day, I can truly say that I never had the pleasure of journeying with so peaceful and orderly a company as the one with which I travelled to Salmon River. They were schooled and instructed, and knew how to contribute to the comfort of each other, and performed every duty in peace, without noise, without strife, without contention. Every man was at his post, performing the duties assigned him, and that, too, in the faith of the Gospel, with a perfect resignation to the requirements upon him. I believe that I have never seen men together, to anywhere near the same number, who were so united as the company I have travelled with this spring.
We took up our line of march on the morning of the 24th of April, and were gone one month and two days, during which time we travelled 763 miles, and that, too, over a very rough country, 381 1/2 miles out. Only one accident occurred worthy of mention, and that happened on the evening after we drove out of Fort Limhi. While chopping some fire-wood, brother Franklin Woolley had the misfortune to cut his foot, but the wound is already so far healed that he is walking about.
We did not lose an animal, though we left two at the Fort. Brother Woolley's was the only accident that occurred in our camp; and I do not think that I heard one cross word from man or woman during the journey, unless it was from myself. I think if any body was out of humour, or cross, or irritated, it must have been myself, for I did not see anybody else so; and I endeavoured to keep my own temper as cool as possible.
I feel to bless the brethren who accompanied me and those we have visited, and I feel to bless the brethren, with all that pertains to them, who have tarried at home. Strict industry and quietness have marked well their doings in my absence, so far as I have seen or been informed. The improvements in the settlements we have passed through bespeak a contented, industrious spirit, and this place bespeaks faith and industry during our absence.
Our crops look well, and I find that the brethren have attended to making things comfortable about their houses so far as I have seen, though as yet I have not been much about the city. The Temple Block indicates hard labour; and I feel that the brethren are united in the great work that is upon us, and I am thankful for it.
I could give you a detailed account of our journey, and a description of the country through which we have passed; but perhaps it is unnecessary to-day, though I will say, that I had not received, from all the northern travellers with whom I had conversed, hardly one correct idea of that region of country. I have asked several who had been there to describe Salmon River Valley and the intermediate country, the quality of the soil, the nature of the climate, the positions of the mountains, &c.; but I must say that, when I came to travel through the country, I might readily suppose that I had never conversed about it with a man who had been there. I have frequently asked with regard to the location of Fort Hall, and the replies have been, "It is built near Snake River." Is there anything of a valley? "Yes, something." Is there any timber there? "I think there is pretty plenty of timber on the river, such as cottonwood, quaking asp, and willows." Is it anything of a country for settling? "I should think likely it might be." Is there any timber in the mountains? "I should presume there is." How are the mountains situated? "Similar to other mountains in other countries." That is about all I have ever been able to learn of the country, previous to my late journey.
When we began to approach Fort Hall, we learned that we could see over it and all around it to a great distance; and, if our eyes had been good enough, we might have seen the little Fort some 30 miles before we reached it. It is located on Shanghi Plains. From the Rocky Mountains, at the source of Snake River, this plain extends some 150 miles to 200 miles in a westerly and south-westerly direction; and from the mountains south of Snake River to those north is a distance of some 90 miles. I never had this idea before, nor could I get it from any man I had conversed with. It is a vast desert plain, and we called it Shanghi Plain.
I think it is as desert a country as ever was brought together to aid in holding the earth from parting asunder.
Upon the banks of Snake River, when it does not overflow, there is a lengthy, narrow strip of good soil, varying from a quarter of a mile to ten rods wide, and in some places not six inches wide. It is a sterile, barren, desert country, filled with belts of rock and sand. As we passed over some portions of Shanghi Plain, the brethren undertook to remove the stones, so that we might drive our waggons with a little more ease to ourselves and less danger to our vehicles. I begged of them not to take all the rock out of the road; for, if they did, there would be nothing to travel on.
Much of the track in that region was a perfect bed of rock covered with occasional strips of sand, which much retarded the progress of our teams. I wished the sand and the rock to lie there, for I was confident that, if they were taken away, California and Oregon would be separated from the States by a vast gulf.
Malad Valley, north of Bear River, has been considered a pretty desolate, cold, hard, sterile valley; it was so looked upon by us, as we passed through it on our way North. At the same time, we considered it a tolerably good grazing country, and thought that people could possibly live there. But after we had travelled over the Basin rim into Bannack Valley, descending a mountain, beside which the one we call the Big Mountain is a mole hill, down through the little Bannack Valley on to Shanghi Plain; and travelled north-easterly and north-westerly, almost in a semicircle, to Spring Creek; then up Spring Creek over to Salmon River; and wended our way down that stream, through swamps and willows, and climbed over points of bluffs to keep from being mired; and had paid our brethren a visit, and returned again to Malad Valley [sic-no punc] It looked to us like one of the most beautiful valleys that any person had ever beheld; while, before this experience, we thought that nobody could live there; and I expect that, if we had gone a few hundred miles north, it would have looked still better to us; for the further we went north the further we found ourselves in the northern country. And if the Malad is a good valley, we can go further north to those not quite so good; and the further we go north the less good characteristics are connected with the valleys, except in the articles of fish, water, and, in some instances, timber; and when people are obliged to live in the north country, that will be high time for them to go there, [sic-punc] That is about the amount of the geographical part of our journey that we shall now present, though I think that I am pretty correct in my observations, and could mark out the road, the mountains, the valleys, and streams, and could sketch a tolerably good map of the country.
I have accomplished what I designed to accomplish, and I believe the brethren will join with me, at least, on one point, viz, that we started from here to rest the mind and weary the body; and so far as the body is concerned, I believe all parties will agree with me in saying that we have done that most effectually. I see one man that went for his health,--brother East. I expect that it will prove a benefit to him. Others also went for their health. It is a hard medicine to take, but the result will be beneficial.
I rested my mind. From the time I left this city until my return, I do not think that this valley, this Tabernacle, my own house, or any of my family scarcely ever came before me to reflect upon. We spent part of the first Sabbath at Box Elder, and on the next we were camping away up Snake River, where we held meeting in the forenoon.
A number of the brethren spoke, and I told them that I would say a few words, and relate some of my feelings, especially those pertaining to the journey and myself; but I could not have told, from my sensations, whether I had been from home a week, a month, or a year; and I could not fully realize whether I ever had a house or lived in it, or ever had any family, only those that were with me. This was a blessing to me. My mind was so taken from the cares that surround me here, that it was perfectly relaxed into an easy state of rest; and I had no anxiety, not in the least, about one care that had formerly been upon me; or whether I ever saw this valley, this congregation, or my family again; or ever saw any other country than the one where I was at the time. All my home reflections, desires, and cares were as far from me as the east is from the west.
Whether this was the case with others I cannot tell, but I believe they are all joined in saying that their bodies were most thoroughly tired. I feel that I am renewed, though my body has been very tired since I returned. But I am becoming rested, and I now feel just about right. I feel that I have renewed my strength, renewed the vigour of my body and mind; and I believe that I am as ready to act in any capacity now as ever I have been in my life, and a little more so; for I hope, as I grow old, to grow wise. As I advance in years, I hope to advance in the true knowledge of God and godliness. I hope to increase in the power of the Almighty, and in influence to establish peace and righteousness upon the earth, and to bring all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, even all who will hearken to the principles of righteousness, to a true sense of the knowledge of God and godliness, of themselves, and the relation they sustain to heaven and heavenly beings. I hope to increase and advance, as I do in days and years, in the wisdom and the knowledge of God, and in the power of God; and I pray that this may be the case, not only with myself, but with all the Saints, that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, and be made perfect before Him.
There never has been a day for ages and ages, not since the true church was destroyed after the days of the Apostles, that required the faith and the energy of godly men and godly women, and the skill, wisdom, and power of the Almighty to be with them, so much as this people require it at the present time. There never was that necessity; there never has been a time on the face of the earth, from the time that the church went to destruction, and the Priesthood was taken from the earth, that the powers of darkness and the powers of earth and hell were so embittered, and enraged, and incensed against God and godliness on the earth, as they are at the present. And when the spirit of persecution, the spirit of hatred, or wrath, and malice ceases in the world against this people, it will be the time that this people have apostatized and joined hands with the wicked, and never until then; which I pray may never come.
I feel thankful for the privilege of lifting up my voice before you this day, my brethren; I feel that it is a great privilege. There is no other people on the earth that are blessed like this people, though some of them say they are not blessed, because they have trials,--that they are not blessed as they wish to be, because they have cares upon them, because they are persecuted and hated. But I say that in all this you are blessed, if the words of the Saviour are correct, which you and I believe. He said to his disciples formerly, which will also correctly apply to the Saints in our day, "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." If this is not now done to perfection by the world, wait a little while, and it will be. The world will hate us to perfection; and if they have not spoken all manner of evil against us, falsely, it is because they have not knowledge enough to do it. At this time there is no falsehood which they can invent, but what they are active in their service to their father the devil against the Saints; consequently, according to the words of the Saviour, "Blessed are ye."
We know that we are blessed, and God knows it, if we love the Lord our God; and our works prove that we do. Blessed are the Latter-day Saints, if they love God and keep His commandments. And, let the world revile them, and do what they will, we are blessed, because we have the words of eternal life, and know how to perform, and are actually performing the works, to secure to ourselves an eternal salvation and an existence in the presence of our Father and God, while they will be wasted away, and be destroyed from the earth, and from every kingdom where there is peace and righteousness.
We are blessed, and we may never expect our happiness and heaven until we gain a perfect victory over the devil, hell, and the grave; and that we cannot do in this mortality; but we can conquer to a certain degree, and gain admission into the favour of our Father and God, and receive His promise to be received into His celestial kingdom, when we shall have a perfect victory and power over everything that is evil. I will give way for others. May God bless you. Amen.
JOURNEY TO THE NORTH--FOLLY OF EXPECTING TO SIT AT EASE IN ZION--PROGRESSION--THE NATIONS UNDER GOD'S CONTROL--PROSPERITY OF THE SAINTS--POWER OF BRIGHAM YOUNG--THE GOSPEL ALPHABET.
A Discourse, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.
Brother Brigham has expressed my feelings in regard to our journey to Salmon river, so far as he has spoken upon that subject. The trip was considerably fatiguing, for our travel averaged nearly two hundred miles a week, which left but little time to rest, only when our animals were eating. Yesterday and the day before I felt sick, and I told brother Brigham that I felt as though I was sore and afflicted from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. That expression conveys an idea of my physical feelings, and still I have recruited, for I am now eight pounds heavier than I was when I went away.
As for the country north, I am satisfied with it; for, were we to go a great way beyond where we were, it would not be an easy job to touch us, for we got pretty nearly to the end, and there was no way to get further with waggons, but by crossing the Rocky Mountains, to some of the head waters of the Missouri. But with all the poor country I have seen during our journey, much of it is far beyond that part of Vermont in which I was raised until I was eleven years of age; and had I always remained there, I never should have personally known but what it was a beautiful country; for people are prone to think that the regions they are brought up in are the most beautiful in the world. I have been back there twice, and have never found, in all my travels through these mountains, so rough a country as where I was born; and I presume it was so where brother Brigham, and Joseph Smith, and many more of the Elders of the House of Israel were born: they came from a rough, hard country.
After receiving the Gospel, the Lord has so ordered it, that we have come to where he has led us, because at present there was no other place. We have come into the mountains, to become inured to hardship, privation, and want, and to raise up a posterity that will become hard, substantial men, to bear off this kingdom to every nation and kingdom upon the face of the earth. That is why it is so, and I am thankful. I would not change these mountains for any portion of the earth I ever beheld, until God has accomplished His designs with us here. When He has done this, and when we have overcome and kept His commandments, these mountains and these valleys are ours, and all the earth in the four quarters thereof, and we can go and come at our pleasure; and that day is not a great way off, for many generations will not pass away before that time will come.
I do not fear the world. We are here in the mountains and in the valleys, and are as secure here as though we were in heaven; because, if we were there, and did not keep the commandments, we would have to suffer the consequences. When Lucifer sinned against God and His commandments, he was cast out, with all those that sustained and upheld him in his rebellious course. Many suppose that when they get to heaven they can sit down upon flowery beds of ease and have nothing to do. I never expect that day. It is just so with a great many, when they come here, they suppose that everything is going to be prepared for them; they suppose that they will sit down in ease, and eat, and drink, and wear, [sic] and that there will be no person to trouble them. We have come here to become inured to work--to build temples, and improve upon the elements that God has placed around us, that we may become more skilful to-morrow, through the experience of to-day. What I do not to-day, when the sun goes down, I lay down to sleep, which is typical of death; and in the morning I rise and commence my work where I left it yesterday. That course is typical of the probations we take. But suppose that I do not improve my time to-day, I wake up to-morrow and find myself in the rear; and then, if I do not improve upon that day, and again lay down to sleep, on awaking, I find myself still in the rear. This day's work is typical of this probation, and the sleep of every night is typical of death, and rising in the morning is typical of the resurrection. They are days' labours, and it is for us to be faithful to-day, to-morrow, and every day.
Brethren, this is the course we have to take; it is a progressive work from one day to another, and from one week to another; and if we advance this year, we are so far advanced in preparation to better go through the next year. If I have one thousand bushels of wheat laid up this year, can you not understand that I am better qualified to lay up two thousand bushels during the next year? And then in the succeeding year I am better prepared to add four thousand bushels to my amount on hand, and then eight thousand, and so on.
My feelings are for us to wake up as a people, every one of us; and, instead of taking a course to throw away our substance, let us gather together; for, so sure as this people will do this, they will be blessed, and God will hold the nations by the bit, as you hold a horse. If we are faithful, He will do it,--mark my words. God will hold the world by the bit, and they cannot help themselves. If we will do right from this time henceforth they never can move or take a step against us, but what they will fail in it; and I know it. It is for us to do right, to walk humbly, and keep the commandments of God, repent where we have done wrong, and do wrong no more.
There never was a time when the devil worked harder with this people than now. He will work with men and women, and try to stir up contention in this Church; and you have got to guard against it with all your hearts. As brother Brigham has mentioned, there never was a time when the devil worked harder to destroy this people than now; and it is for every man and woman and child to wake up, and live their religion, and serve their God. Now is the time. Is it a good time? I never saw a better time since I was on the earth than I see to-day. I never saw this people so prosperous, and I never saw the earth with such a carpet upon it as it has this year. In all the lands I ever travelled, I never saw such wheat, and oats, and barley, as are now growing from here to Bear River; and they say it is so in the south, in the east, and in the west. And at Limhi the crops look promising. They have sowed 125 bushels of wheat and other grain at Salmon River.
Everything is flourishing; but how easy God can clip it, even now. He can send the grasshoppers, and make a perfect desolation of this year's crop, as easily as I can throw this book lid over. Why? Because He rules in the armies of heaven, and controls the affairs of this earth, according to His own pleasure, and the world know it not. He sends angels and ministering spirits to transact His business, upon the same principle that brother Brigham sends his brethren to England, Denmark, the States, and this way, and that. He sits upon His throne and says, Joseph, go and do that; Peter, attend to that; and they do it. This is a natural principle there just as much as here, though the people cannot realize it so sensibly. He sends his Elders and delegates as we sent brother George A. Smith, and brother Bernhisel, and brother John Taylor. Brother Brigham did not go; but his authority accompanied those brethren; also the power of God who controls him. If I should tell one of my wives to go to Box Elder and transact business for me, she has more authority in that matter than any king upon his throne, or the President of the United States. Why? Because she goes in my authority.
I go in brother Brigham's authority, which is the authority of God. That power you have all got, so far as you are faithful. I have heard brother Brigham say that a Bishop now has more influence over his ward than Joseph had over the Church in his day. Joseph could not so thoroughly control the people, for they were wild like bulls; but when he could not make them do what he wanted them to, he suffered them to do what they pleased.
I speak of these things by way of encouragement to you, brethren and sisters. You are a good people: I respect you; I have pride in you, when you live your religion; but let us wake up. We have done first rate; but we can wake up more, and keep waking up, and attend to the things you have been told to attend to; and one of them is, to lay up stores of corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, buck wheat, and every thing else that can be preserved; for you will see a day when you will want it; and it will be when we shall feel the effects of famine, and when the United States have not any food. And inasmuch as we are wise and prudent in this matter, we shall have power over them, and they cannot help themselves. And the day will come when the wicked shall not come here to impose upon our good feelings, and for us to nourish them, while they are infusing the poison of their corruption in our midst. I have borne and borne that wickedness until I will not bear it any longer. How long have I borne their abuse? For twenty-five years; and the law of the land is, that a man is of age when he is 21; and we have served four years beyond that time, free gratis. We are now pretty free, and we will be more free when we are thirty. It will be so, if we will do right.
It takes us all to do right, like the limbs and branches of one tree partaking of the nourishment of the stock to which they belong, and the stock draws its nourishment from the root. Let us find out the nature of the roots, that we may better understand the trunk and the branches. I have to take the alphabet of salvation with which to learn the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and then, as I progress, I can read all the celestial law by the same letters. We learn the alphabet of the English language, then we learn the spelling book, the reader, the geography, history, and everything by means of the same alphabet.
The first principles of the doctrine of Christ are the alphabet of the celestial law; therefore, not leaving the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. Let us be diligent in keeping the commandments of our God, that we may be saved in His celestial kingdom. Amen.
RESULT OF THE DELEGATION TO CONGRESS FOR THE ADMISSION OF UTAH AS A STATE--CONDITION OF SOCIETY IN THE STATES--RETURN OF APOSTATES.
Remarks, by Elder George A. Smith, Made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, May 31, 1857.
It is with the greatest pleasure, brethren and sisters, that I have the privilege of beholding your faces, and of hearing the voice, testimony, and narrative of our worthy President, Brigham Young. It is not easy for me to find language to describe my feelings and to express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father, and to my brethren and sisters, for the preservation of my life, and for the privilege I enjoy among you on the present occasion.
I went abroad, and have been absent a little more than one year and one month to perform a mission which was new to me, depending upon the faith of the Saints and the blessings of the Almighty, that through their faith and my own exertions I might accomplish the work I started out to do; but it came out a good deal like the fishermen in the days of our Saviour who toiled all night and caught nothing; still it has been to me a school of experience, as I have had a chance to behold something of the manner, and have observed a little of the principles, the honour, and the integrity which rule the actions of the Federal Government of our great and glorious union.
It is generally considered in the world that truth bears away the victory. It was in fact laid down by some of the ancient prophets that such was really the case. Things have changed a little now-a-days, but it is an age of improvement. If a man tells the truth, he stands no earthly chance whatever; he has got to lie and mix so much lie with the truth that it will hide it almost entirely, or he cannot receive any credit whatever. So it is to a great extent, and instead of truth governing the world at the present time, lies and falsehood govern it, as far as I have observed.
It will be recollected, when I left the Valley, there was a great scarcity of provisions; we were on half rations, and very frequently not half. We were making the best estimate we could to stretch out flour until harvest, and picking up everything we could to sustain ourselves until the glorious day of harvest should come. Such was the case with a great many of us; and those who had provisions were dividing it out to those who had none, by the spoonful. If they had a spoonful, they divided it; and if they had two, they were dividing that; and this condition of affairs was proving to the world that brotherly love and affection existed here, unheard of and unknown in the history of mankind, except in Deseret, for a whole people to be so straitened for provisions, and at the same time not a solitary person perish of starvation or want--I say such a thing is unheard of in the history of mankind. When this was fairly commencing, I went away. It was understood in the States that we were all starving to death. When I got down there, I told them I was as short of provisions as anybody else, and consequently had come down where they had something to eat.
I went away from here weighing 243 pounds at the Tithing Office, and not being well fed at that, and falling off considerably during the last year previous to going away.
When I got down to the States, where the climate did not agree with my lungs, I spend a good share of the winter in doing some of the tallest coughing of any man living. However, I fatted up considerably, and got to be quite a decent looking "chap." When I left St. Louis, I weighed 260 pounds. I thought I was going home in fine order; but, behold, and lo! all my Missouri and eastern beef I had gathered shook off on the plains, and I found myself the poor, "lean," meagre man you see before you. When I got to the Tithing Office, the other day, I was about seven pounds lighter than when I went away; and I expect I have made that up since I have got home. My health has greatly improved since I left the Missouri river, with my decreasing weight.
I am very thankful that the Lord has preserved me and returned me again to your midst. The news which you probably have received is unimportant, though you have received very little for the last six months; for, you know, Uncle Sam is poor, and not able to carry his mails; and the winter has been very hard, and the circumstances have been such that he could not even send out messages or anything. But the rivers all run the same way they did when I was there before, and they run in about the same direction. Railroad collisions, steamboat accidents, fires, and freezing to death are just as common as before, and a little more so. And another thing I suppose you will be glad to learn--the devil is not dead. [Brigham Young: I feel thankful for that.]
A great portion of the people have come to the conclusion, after having been a great many years considering the subject over, that we are a very desperate set of fellows out here. Politicians are a little vexed, for they do not know what to do with us. They did not admit any Territory into the Union during this session of Congress, though they did grant a permission graciously to 250,000 inhabitants residing in the Territory of Minnesoto [sic] to make a constitution.
I have looked on and taken items, thought and reflected, saw how it was going, waiting for an opportunity. You know it was a very modest mission I went down on; I went to Washington to ask permission to enter the Union; and I did not want to go in until I saw a fair chance; I hated to ask, and be refused admission. I have rejoiced very much at every particle of news that I could receive from the mountains. I received letters from President Young and others, three, four, and sometimes six months after they were written. When they did arrive, they afforded me a great deal of pleasure, and were a source of rejoicing, especially to learn that the Saints were waking up.
On my way here with the mail, I had the additional cause of rejoicing in beholding that a great many sick persons--persons whose lives had been dreadfully in danger--had been lucky enough to escape, and by escaping the narrow chance of a hundred thousand deaths, have been enabled to travel to some peaceable land where they expect to enjoy themselves. But I must say, from the little observation I had of them, they were a sickly crowd; and when they had an opportunity, they vomited freely, and by that process would be able, probably, to keep along until they got down to the Missouri river.
But we understand that they are not agreed. A part of the party would relate their narrow escape, their hair's breadth deliverance, and the other part would pronounce it all a lie--not a word of truth in it. One end of the party would contradict what the other end of it would affirm. If I ever desired anything on the earth with all my heart, since I came to these Valleys, it was that the Lord would gather out of our midst all those that offend. Every time I met a party, I felt like shouting "Glory, hallelujah." The work I saw was going on, and I felt to rejoice.
I did not go to Washington putting my trust in man, neither do I come home putting my trust in man. The Almighty God is at the helm; He rules His people, He governs and controls all men, and He can restrain the wicked at His pleasure; but let me tell you, if the designs of the spirit of the devil that reigns in the hearts of the wicked against us, prompting them to our destruction, could be executed, we would be exterminated from the face of the earth: but God limits their power, and as long as they cannot gratify their whole desires, just so long they may rage and foam; but if you put any trust whatever in man, if you rely on the arm of man to protect you, you will be disappointed. What protection have we ever had from the day we commenced to preach the Gospel to the present day? We expect nothing but the arm of the Almighty to protect His people; let us, therefore, put our trust in Him, and just let the devil howl.
I had a little serious conversation with Captain Smith at Fort Kearney. The very gentlemanly commander of that fort, Major Wharton, had nearly lost his eyesight, principally by watching for the hostile Cheyenne Indians through the spy glass, and Captain Smith was acting commander. I enquired what was the condition of the dragoons stationed there? He replied, they had about fifty horses but their hoofs had come off. How many have you that can do efficient service, if called upon? He said they had about ten or twelve in good condition, but fresh horses were expected.
The company of handcart Elders were an astonishment to everybody that saw them. The traders on the road say that mules are nowhere by the side of them. I never saw such a pretty sight in my life. We had a meeting with them on Horse-shoe Creek, and a better set of men I never saw, and men that were old when I was a boy were as active as boys, rolling on with their handcarts, singing and rejoicing.
Perhaps, when I get some other opportunity, I may feel free, without intruding on the time of others, to speak more particularly on the things that pertained to my mission. May the Lord bless us, and enable us to live righteously and soberly, and rise with the Star of the Morning, and enjoy eternal glory, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
UTILITY OF CORRECTION--NECESSITY OF LIVING OUR RELIGION--OUR OWN CHARACTER AFFECTING POSTERITY--THE SAINTS BLESSED ABOVE ALL OTHER PEOPLE--RESULT OF REBELLION AGAINST AUTHORITY, ETC.
A Discourse, by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, June 7, 1857.