Volume5a

Volume5b

JOSEPH SMITH'S FAMILY--BASHFULNESS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING--THE COMING CRISIS--COUNSEL. 

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857. 

I rejoice in the privilege of hearing the servants of the Lord speak to the Saints. It is a feast to me, and to hear men speak by the Holy Ghost. I very much rejoice in seeing brother Elias Smith upon the stand this morning. I have been acquainted with him for many years, and yet I have never until now heard him address an assembly, except in the capacity of a Judge. I am thankful to hear his voice in public. He is a cousin of the Prophet Joseph and of George A. Smith. 

I have reflected much concerning the family of the grandfather and father of Joseph the Prophet. Their family connections were very extensive; and it has been a subject of deep regret to me that there were so few in that large circle who have been valiant for the truth since the death of the Prophet. Still I do not know but that Joseph had quite as many of his connections valiant for the truth, in proportion to their number, as Jesus had; for Jesus had many brothers and sisters, and the most of them were opposed to him, and continued so during the greater part of their lives. I used to think, while Joseph was living, that his life compared well with the history of the Saviour; though the most of father Joseph Smith's family have believed and obeyed the Gospel, and have lived their religion in a good degree. Many of them are not here. Some of them I have known in the Eastern States that never have gathered with us. But the old stock are pretty much dead, and I do not know but what all of them are. Father John Smith was the last one, in this Church, of the brothers of father Joseph Smith; and he died, and is buried here. Grandmother Smith lived in Kirtland a short time after she gathered. 

I trust in the good feelings and in the confidence that brother Elias has gained this morning in speaking as he has from this stand; for many times I have thought of it, and regretted that he was not on the stand a preacher with the rest. Some men rise here to tell about their feelings, and are so diffident, so bashful, and it is so hard for them to speak,--men, too, who have had such privileges in their former lives as brother Elias has had, who is well schooled, and has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the best of society--with men of influence. When he arrived to years of discretion, as he has told you, he marked out his own path. His advantages in his youth were far greater than were those of most of our public speakers. 

And there is brother Carrington, when he rises here to address a congregation--though it is seldom that we can get him on this stand--will tell how he shrinks from speaking to the people, how bashful and delicate his feelings are in this matter. Men who understand language, who were taught it in their youth, who have had the privilege of schools and good education, to get up and tell how they shrink from addressing this people. 

When I think of myself, I think just this--I have the grit in me, and I will do my duty any how. When I began to speak in public, I was about as destitute of language as a man could well be. But tell about being bashful, when a man has all the learning and words he can ask for! With scores and hundreds of thousands of words with which to convey one's ideas, and then tell about being bashful before a people! How I have had the headache, when I had ideas to lay before the people, and not words to express them; but I was so gritty that I always tried my best. 

I do not like to hear men make excuses, although it is natural, and I put up with it. I wish they could see and understand that they have had advantages above many of their brethren--that they have been greatly blessed, and should never complain, but should stand up here and exercise themselves according to the best of their ability, and do all the good possible for them to do. 

Brother Elias Smith, I can say, is a man possessed of as much judgment and discretion in his feelings as any man I know. He is filled with wisdom. He is filled with judgment and with counsel, if he would dare to let it out. I would like to hear his voice and the voices of others, and I would like to have them not complain much about getting up to speak before the public. 

Often, when I stand up here, I have the feelings of a person that is unable to convey his ideas, because I have not the advantage of language. However, I do not very frequently complain of that, but I rise to do the best I can and to give the people the best I have for them at the time; and if it don't suit them they can go without it, for I am not responsible whether it suits them or not. 

I rejoice in the words of brother Heber this day. He has spoken by the power of the Holy Ghost, and you are his witnesses. You may all witness to this; and his ideas are as rich, I may say, as the flowers of eternity, and his ideas and his words are congenial to my feelings and spirit. He told you here to-day that we never differ--that I say, "Go ahead, say what you please." 

I look at the spirits and the principles of men, and try to behold what is in them; and if I can discover that they are right, I do not care one particle how they express their ideas, so that I can but understand them. I can say furthermore that you cannot, the best of you, beat brother Kimball's language. You may call up the college-bred man, and he cannot beat it. 

Brother Heber and I never went to school until we got into "Mormonism:" that was the first of our schooling. We never had the opportunity of letters in our youth, but we had the privilege of picking up brush, chopping down trees, rolling logs, and working amongst the roots, and of getting our shins, feet, and toes bruised. The uncle of brother Merrell, who now sits in the congregation, made me the first hat that my father ever bought for me; and I was then about eleven years of age. I did not go bareheaded previous to that time, neither did I call on my father to buy me a five-dollar hat every few months, as some of my boys do. My sisters would make me what was called a Jo. Johnson cap for winter, and in summer I wore a straw hat which I frequently braided for myself. I learned to make bread, wash the dishes, milk the cows, and make butter; and can make butter, and can beat the most of the women in this community at housekeeping. Those are about all the advantages I gained in my youth. I know how to economise, for my father had to do it. 

There are a great many little items pertaining to life that I do not very often speak about. Still they have to be borne with. They arise from <traits> in our characters, and we have to meet with them right in this community. The imported goods that we purchase are brought over a thousand miles in waggons, and yet probably I have not a young child that is three years old but what has cost me more to furnish with shoes than I ever cost my father to furnish me with shoes in my whole life. Brother Heber as been teaching you a little economy. I tell you that you have been warned and forewarned again, that the time would come when, if you had hats, you would have to make them; and if the ladies had bonnets, they would have to make them here. 

Whether it is to your sorrow or joy, I will tell you what I discover; and I have been much surprised, and sometimes I have been overjoyed with the discovery. Sometimes my heart quakes a little, my nerves tremble in consequence of the great things that God is bringing forth. Do we realize that they are coming on us, I may say, faster than we are preparing ourselves to meet them? There is one sign after another, revelation after revelation. The Lord is hastening his work. He is bringing to pass the sayings of the Prophets faster than the people are prepared to receive them. You know that we have often exhorted you to be wide awake to your duties, to be watchful and prayerful, and to be full of the Holy Spirit, lest the Lord should roll on his work faster than you could understand it. 

It would be hard for the people to explain away the idea that the Government of the United States is shutting down the gate upon us, for it is too visible; and this is what hastens the work of the Lord, which you are praying for every day. I do not believe that there is a man or woman here, who prays at all, but what prays every day for the Lord to hasten his work. Now take care, for if he does, may be you will not be prepared to meet it. 

The time must come when there will be a separation between this kingdom and the kingdoms of this world, even in every point of view. The time must come when this kingdom must be free and independent from all other kingdoms. Are you prepared to have the thread cut to-day? 

I know the feelings of a great many, and I need not go out of my own family to hear, "O dear, are there no ribbons coming? I want that artificial quick; I want you to go and buy me that nice bonnet, for I am afraid there never will another one be brought here." If I am tried in any point in this world, it is with regard to the bearings of my own conduct to my own family. I have told them, and tell them, and talk to them, and talk about it, and ask them, Am I in the line of my duty while I can feed women and children who do nothing but sit and fold their hands, and wear out their clothing, and dress them in finery, and pamper them, and they get so that good beef, pork, bread, butter, cheese, tea, coffee, and sugar, with fruit, and all kinds of garden sauce, are no rarity to them at all, and their appetites are poor and they cannot eat? This is the case with me in my family. If there is any trial upon me, it is to know whether I am in the line of my duty in this matter. 

Should not I take my tea and coffee, my beef and pork, and every other good thing, and put it into the hands of the men who sweat over the rock for the Temple, instead of feeding men, women, and children, who do not strive to do all they are capable of doing? I am tried on that point, and I must say that if there is anything in the world that bothers me, it is the whining of women and children to prevent me from doing that which I know that I ought to do. 

I will acknowledge with brother Kimball, and I know it is the case with him, that I am a great lover of women. In what particular? I love to see them happy, to see them well fed and well clothed, and I love to see them cheerful. I love to see their faces and talk with them, when they talk in righteousness; but as for anything more, I do not care. There are probably but few men in the world who care about the private society of women less than I do. I also love children, and I delight to make them happy. 

I accumulate a large amount of means, but I would just as soon feed my neighbour as myself. And every one who knows me knows whether or not a piece of johnnycake and butter and a potatoe satisfies Brigham. I can live on as cheap and as plain food as can any man in Israel. I have said to my family, a great many times, I want you to make me home-made clothing; but I would meet such a whizzing about my ears, if I were to have even a pair of home-made pantaloons made. I do not know that I have a wife in the world but what would say, "You are not going to wear them; you ought to wear something more respectable, for you deserve to as much as any man does." 

It is the man who works hard, who sweats over the rock, and goes to the kanyons for lumber, that I count more worthy of good food and dress than I am. But do not I labour? Yes, with my mind. Can any man tell what labour there is upon me? No, not a man can begin to tell what I feel for the Later-day Saints in this Territory, throughout the mountains and the world,--what I feel for their salvation and preservation. They have to be looked after and cared for; and all this more particularly rests upon me. My brethren love to share with me all that the Lord puts upon them; but in the day of trouble they look to me to secure them and pint out a way for their escape. 

Now, let me tell you one thing--I shall take it as a witness that God designs to cut the thread between us and the world, when an army undertakes to make their appearance in this Territory to chastise me or to destroy my life from the earth. I lay it down that right is or at least should be might with Heaven, with its servants, and with all its people on the earth. As for the rest, we will wait a little while to see; but I shall take a hostile movement by our enemies as an evidence that it is time for the thread to be cut. I think we will find three hundred who will lap water, and we can whip out the Midianites. Brother Heber said that he could turn out his women, and they would whip them. I ask no odds of the wicked, the best way they can fix it. 

Brother Heber says that the music is taken out of his sermons when brother Carrington clips out words here and there; and I have taken out the music from mine, for I know the traditions and false notions of the people. Our sermons are read by tens of thousands outside of Utah. Members of the British Parliament have those <Journals of Discourses,> published by brother Watt; they have them locked up, they secrete them, and go to their rooms to study them, and they know all about us. They may, perhaps, keep them from the Queen, for fear that she would believe and be converted. 

I know that I have seen the day when, let men use language like brother Heber has to-day, and many would apostatize from the true faith. In printing my remarks, I often omit the sharp words, though they are perfectly understood and applicable here; for I do not wish to spoil the good I desire to do. Let my remarks go to the world in a way the prejudices of the people can bear, that they may read them, and ponder them, and ask God whether they are true. 


I am thankful to hear the servants of God speak; and, as I have frequently said, I do not care what you say when you rise to speak here; for I want to know whether a man seeks with all his heart to know the mind of God concerning him. If he does, all is right with him. 

Brother Heber alluded to counseling men and women who come to him after they had been to me, and said that they always received the same counsel I had given them. I never have known it to fail, that if they come to me and then go to brother Heber, they will get the same counsel all the time. And so they would from every one of the Twelve, from the High Council, from the Seventies, and High Priests, and every officer in the Church, if every officer in the Church would take the course that brother Heber, and I, and a few others do. What is that? Never to give counsel, unless you have it to give. If you have counsel, give it, because you can have no correct counsel except by the Spirit of revelation: that is my standard. I have no counsel for a man, unless I have the testimony of Jesus on the subject. Then, when the same man asks counsel of me, and goes to brother Heber, do you not see that if he acts on the same principle and gives counsel, it must be by the Spirit of revelation; or he has no counsel to give, if it is not by that Spirit. Then let the same man go to brother Wells and ask his counsel on the same subject, without letting him know that he has been to Brigham or to Heber, and brother Daniel will give the same counsel by the same Spirit. 

The difficulty with regard to giving counsel that conflicts consists in men's giving counsel from their own judgment, without the Spirit of God. Every man in the kingdom of God would give the same counsel upon each subject, if he would wait until he had the mind of Christ upon it. Then all would have one word and mind, and each man would see eye to eye. 

But there is a weakness in the brethren, and it is in mankind in general. You ask almost any person in the world a question, and he thinks it a disgrace to be unable to answer it. He feels chagrined, his mind flags, when he finds that he is not quite as knowing as his neighbours think him to be; and, to avoid this, he will often venture an answer without knowing the facts in the case, or the effects of his answer. 

If you would always pause and say, I have no counsel for you. I have no answer for you on this subject, because I have no manifestation of the Spirit, and be willing to let everybody in the world know that you are ignorant when you are, you would become wise a great deal quicker than to give counsel on your own judgment, without the Spirit of revelation. If the Elders of Israel would observe this rule, never to give counsel unless they give it by the testimony of the truth, by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, if they cannot give counsel in that manner, not to give any, there would be no conflicting counsel in the kingdom. All would be one; counsel would be one: we would soon come to understanding and be of one heart and mind, and our blessings would be increased upon us faster than in taking any other course. 

May God bless you and preserve us in the truth. Amen. 





JOSEPH SMITH'S FAMILY--DETAILS OF GEORGE A. SMITH'S OWN EXPERIENCE, ETC. 

A Discourse by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 2, 1857. 

I suppose that my brethren and sisters are acquainted with George A.; and whenever he presents himself in the presence of the Saints, and attempts to entertain them or amuse them with his chin-music, they expect that he will say something funny. 

I have been interested to-day very much in listening to the instructions of brother Elias, and brother Kimball, and the President. I have been interested, amused, and instructed, and I may say chastened and reproved, perhaps all at the same time; and I hope that the instructions of the forenoon will be of lasting benefit to me. In every part of the Territory, and in every other place where I have been, I have taken a good deal of pleasure in endeavouring to talk to the people, to preach to them; but whenever I have been in Great Salt Lake City, I have felt disposed to listen and to take counsel from my brethren; and I have felt that there were many others whose appearance in addressing the Saints would be much more acceptable; and hence I have felt to hold my tongue. 

My father, late Patriarch John Smith, was the sixth son of Asahel Smith, and was born in New Hampshire. Joseph Smith, the father of the Prophet, and second son of Asahel, was born in Topsfield, Massachusetts. The second Asahel Smith, the father of Elias who addressed you this forenoon, was the third son of my grandfather. 

I merely name this fact because, as brother Kimball and brother Young remarked, so very few of that family have been valiant for the truth. There are but few comparatively of their numerous posterity that have been valiant for the truth. 

After the family of Joseph Smith, senior, was destroyed, there were but few left to stand up for the truth of the Gospel, of all that numerous family. My father's elder brother was the father of a numerous posterity, and was a bitter enemy to the truth, and his descendants remain so to the present time. The only remaining brother of the Prophet, William, has done all that he could do--all that was in his power, I may say, from the time of the Prophet's death, to annihilate and destroy the principles which the Prophet taught to the nations of the earth. 

My uncle Silas Smith, the fourth son of Asahel, died on his way to Missouri, or rather on his return from there, being driven from that State in 1829, in Pike County, Illinois. He had been in the Church some years, and had been faithful. 

Asahel Smith, the father of Elias, was a man of an extraordinary retentive memory, and possessed a great knowledge of the Bible, so much so that he could read it as well without the book as with it; and after he embraced "Mormonism," nobody could oppose him successfully, for all their objections were answered from the Bible immediately, giving chapter and verse. He died on his way to the Valley, in the state of Iowa, in 1848. He was a Patriarch in the Church, and bore a faithful testimony to the truth. 

Of my grandfather's family there is but one living--an old lady by the name of Waller, residing in the city of New York, and she is 90 years of age, and remembers all that has transpired during the last eighty years just as well as if it had all just occurred. I visited her when I was last back there, and in talking with me she would talk of things that had transpired many years back, as though they had occurred within a year. She is sanguine in relation to the truth of "Mormonism," although she has never embraced it; and, to use the language of her son, she preaches it all the time. 

My grandfather, Asahel Smith, heard of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and he said it was true, for he knew that something would turn up in his family that would revolutionize the world. The news came to us in 1828: we then lived in New York. The four brothers were there, Asahel, Silas, Jesse, and John; the old man, my grandfather, living with them. 

We received the news that some place had been discovered containing plates of gold. The old man, as I remarked, said that it was true, although his oldest son felt disposed to ridicule it. He lived till the Book of Mormon was brought to him, and died when he had read it about half through, being 87 years of age. 

The congregation will excuse me for naming this; but I was so disgusted with the conduct of William, that, when I was in the Eastern States, I almost took pains to obliterate the fact from the earth that my name was Smith; for I considered it was the worst thing a man could do to endeavour to build himself up on the merits of others, and I feel so yet; and for cousin William to go and endeavour to pull down the work of his brother, I feel that he has disgraced the family and the name. 

I have never suffered one single exertion to be omitted on my part that would in any way tend to sustain the principles and doctrines of the Holy Gospel, and aid in the development of the Holy Priesthood which God has revealed. I have endeavoured all the time to preserve as perfect a history of the Prophet and those connected with him, from the organization of the Church to the present time, as I possibly could. 

The Saints could have carried William upon their shoulders; they could have carried him in their arms, and have done anything for him, if he would have laid aside his follies and wickedness, and would have done right. It is like the Latin figure--but I beg your pardon, I never studied Latin; but suffice it to say, the husbandman found a rattlesnake cold and frozen, and he took it, and he put it in his bosom, and kept it there till it was warm; and then the snake coiled about the husbandman and destroyed his life. 

This was the conduct of William Smith in the days of Joseph and afterwards, up to the present time. The principle that a man should stand upon in this world is simply this--He should do right himself, and thereby set an example to others. But for a man to have good blood in his veins, and then to go and disgrace that blood, is perhaps a double responsibility. 

If we descended from Abraham, or from Joseph, or from any other virtuous, good, upright man, and we do not emulate his deeds and follow his example, the greater will be our shame. 

When I was about eleven years old, my grandfather received letters containing the news that Joseph, the son of uncle Joseph, had discovered, by the revelations of the Almighty, some gold plates, and that these gold plates contained a record of great worth. 

It was generally ridiculed and laughed at. A short time after this, another letter came, written by Joseph himself, and this letter bore testimony of the wickedness and the fallen condition of the Christian world. My father read the letter, and I well remember the remark he made about it. "Why," said he, "he writes like a prophet." 

Some time in August 1830, my uncle Joseph Smith and Don Carlos Smith came some two hundred and fifty miles from where the Prophet was residing in Ontario County, New York, and they brought a Book of Mormon with them. I had never seen them before, and I felt astonished at their sayings. 

Uncle Joseph and Don Carlos were anxious to get to Stockholm to see grandfather. Accordingly they started, and my father went to carry them. I and my mother spent the whole of Saturday, all day Sunday, and Sunday night in reading the Book of Mormon; and I believe I read and studied it more then than I have done ever since. I studied it attentively and penned down what I considered to be serious objections. Although I was but thirteen years of age, yet I considered the objections I had discovered to be sufficient to overthrow it. 

About five o'clock in the evening the neighbours came in and wanted to see the book. They took hold of the book, and some of them were professors of religion, and they began to raise their objections, to find fault with and ridicule the book, and there was no one to defend it; so I thought I would try. I commenced to argue in favour of the book, and answered one objection after another, until I came off victoriously and got the compliment of being a very smart boy. No one brought the objections to the book that I had: mine were gegraphical [sic] objections. I had studied geography a few weeks, but that few weeks' study made me think that I knew a good deal about it. 

It is like a man that studies the Hebrew language; he has to drink deep before he can do much with it, and I thought I could confound them. In a few days I saw my uncle and talked with him, and in about half-an-hour all my learned objections to the Book of Mormon were dispensed with, and I found myself in the same position as my neighbours; and from that day to this I have been an advocate of the Book of Mormon, and have never suffered it to be slandered nor spoken against without saying something in its favour, with one exception, and then I said something. 

I had been the favourite of my uncle Jesse, and he was a religious man--a "Covenanter;" and I thought what he did not know was not worth knowing. He came out with all his strength against it, and exerted the most cruel tyranny over his family, prohibited my uncle Joseph from talking in his house, and threatened to hew down with his broad axe any who dared to preach such nonsense in his presence. 

I went to visit him, and he abused me because I had become favourable, and because uncle Joseph had a private conversation with me. I had always treated him with the greatest respect, and entertained a very high opinion of him. He was a man of good education, and had considerable display; and, being the elder of the family, he naturally elicited from us more or less respect. 

Finally, in conversation upon various subjects, he turned and talked about that private conversation, and he said, "Joe dare not talk in my presence." Then says he, "the devil never shut my mouth." I replied, "Perhaps he opened it, uncle." I thought I should have lost my identity: he gave me to the Devil <instanter.> I went and told uncle Asahel what had transpired, and the old gentleman laughed; and I then went to see uncle Silas and told him; and he said, "If old men begin to talk with boys, they must take boys' play." And from that day to the present, if I have said anything, I have said what I have thought. 

During the fall of 1830, a gentleman who lived in our neighbourhood went to Western New York and saw the Prophet, got baptized and ordained an Elder; and that was Elder Solomon Humphrey. Very few knew the old gentleman: he died in Missouri in 1835. He was a very faithful man. Previous to joining the Church he was a Baptist exhorter. He came back to our place of residence in company with a man named Wakefield, who is named in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. They came and preached and baptized for the remission of sins. 

I had been raised a Presbyterian, and my mother was a very pious woman. The Reverend Elijah Lyman, her uncle, who lived in Brookfield, Vermont, was the standard of religion in that country, and he had bestowed upon her the greatest care, that her religion might be of the best kind; and of course I had a great deal of this religion in me, which I had learned from her. 

I wanted to know what I should do to be saved; so I went to a Presbyterian revival meeting to get religion, that I might be prepared to join the Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons," as they are termed. 

At the time, my father was sick with the consumption and given up to die. I had a heard of cattle to take care of; but, notwithstanding my numerous duties, I went to the protracted meeting, and took a load of persons with me; I carried them there and brought them back every day. They had a fashion of religion that I had never heard of, and it was one that was not known in the days of the Apostles; and even John Wesley, nor any of the old reformers had got such a thing into their heads,--that of converting souls by machinery. 

The process was like this: All who desired to be prayed for were to take certain seats, and then one of the ministers preached to them and depicted the miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Then those people were taken to a praying establishment, where praying was carried on night and day. Then, after a certain time, they were brought back and preached to again, the ministers keeping before their eyes the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. When the ministers got them to feel anxious, they would sing with them, and then pray again. When a man by this process was declared to be converted, then he was required to get up and formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and to tell his experience. This was about the process as near as I can recollect. I did not go to the anxious seat myself, for I was not yet under conviction. 

During this time of going to the protracted meeting, I had firewood to cut, my sick father to attend to, and to take care of our stock; but still I endeavoured to attend meetings, partly to accommodate my friends, and partly because I desired to be present myself. Subject to these circumstances I was under the necessity of returning home every evening, and hence I could not stay as late as many of them. 

While at the protracted meeting, however, I had the satisfaction of hearing some of my own comrades who had got converted formally renounce the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and promise henceforth to be Christians. 

In the midst of all this, you may depend upon it that, if ever a poor soul asked God to show him the way of life, I did,--and that, too, with all my might, mind, and strength. I could not be a hypocrite; and to say I was afraid of damnation, when I had no fear of it at all, that was what I could not do. 


I always had the credit of being the greatest coward in the family, and hence the others used to take pleasure in ridiculing what they termed my cowardice. It is also well known that whenever there has been anything the matter in the shape of Indian difficulties, I have had the character of being the greatest coward in the country, especially in the southern part of this Territory; and yet I was not afraid of hell, when all its miseries were painted before my eyes, neither would I say that I was under conviction when I was not. 

This meeting was a great one, and the progress made in converting souls was also great; and they made hell look so terrible to nearly all present, that they burnt out and frightened about all the sinners in the place, except myself. At one time they had two hundred sinners under conviction; and such crying, groaning, sighing, and lamentation for sins I never heard either before or since: they were so forcible and terrific, that they are indelibly written on my memory. 

I soon found myself alone; not a soul except myself but was either converted or awfully on the way. Mr. Cannon, our minister, pointed his finger at me as I sat alone; for there was not a sinner in the gallery except myself; and he said, "O sinner, I I [sic] seal you up to eternal damnation, in the name of Jesus Christ." He repeated it three times over, and concluded by saying, "O sinner, may your blood be upon your own head." 

I went home that evening and scattered my friends about, leaving the girls at their respective homes; for I, like my brethren, am very fond of the ladies; therefore I carried a goodly proportion of them to meeting every day. I thought a good deal upon what I had heard, and scarcely knew whether to go again or not, but finally concluded that I would go; therefore the next morning I gathered up my load of passengers, and carried them to meeting again. 

When on the way to meeting, a young man by the name of Cary asked me where I was going to sit that day. I told him, I was not very particular. "Well," said he, "suppose you sit with me." I said, "Agreed." I had heard this same young man in a previous meeting formally renounce this world, the flesh, and the Devil. 

When we arrived at the place of meeting, according to agreement, I followed him with the intention of sitting with him. I had a decided objection against being driven to heaven, but I found he was actually leading me to the anxious bench; and I considered that if the priest the day before, who had sealed me up to eternal damnation, had any authority, it was very little use in my going to the anxious bench. 

I did not discover where friend Cary was leading me to, till I got near by the minister. He looked at me, when I turned away from the anxious bench, and he again walked into the pulpit, and pronounced the solemn sealing of eternal damnation upon me, and again appended to it that my blood was to be upon my own head. 

On that day, the Reverend Mr. Williams delivered an address on the untold miseries of hell and the duration of eternity. Whether my mind was then agitated in consequence of the solemn woes pronounced upon me by the other minister, or whether the address was such a very eloquent one, I cannot now say; but, of all the discourses describing hell, eternal damnation, and the complication of miseries to which damned souls were subjected, it seemed to me that his address was the most terrific. I admired it for its sublimity and the beautiful descriptive powers that were exhibited throughout the whole discourse; and where he got it from I did not know, and of course could not tell. 

At the conclusion of the meeting, I gathered up my passengers took them home, and distributed them about, and told them that I had no idea of going any more to the protracted meeting; for, said I, I have been sealed up nine times to eternal damnation, and hence, if the priest had any authority, it is no use in my going any more; but, said I, if he indeed had any, he would not act the infernal fool. 

[Elder O. Hyde blessed the sacramental cup.] 

I have, no doubt, wearied you with so minute a detail of my experience; but it is at least a gratification to me to relate it; and hence, I trust, you will excuse my being so minute in detail. 

A short time after this, the Elders of Israel preached in our neighbourhood the doctrines of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, precisely as preached by the Apostle Peter and by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. These doctrines I was pleased to hear. I believed them and received them in my heart. 
Now, you are all aware how I was formerly sealed up to eternal damnation. Notwithstanding this, I was waited upon by the agent of the "Presbyterian Young Man's Society," and told that if I would abandon my father, and pledge myself never to become a "Mormon," they would give me seven years' education; and then, at the expiration of that time, I might study divinity, and become a minister of the Presbyterian order. 

But, said I, Mr. Cannon sealed me up to eternal damnation, and hence it would not do for me to become a minister. He replied, "Oh, that don't make any difference." Well, then, said I, if that is all the force your religion and your ministers have, I will not have anything to do with them. Then he concluded they would not require me to preach, but he said they would give me seven years' education, and then I might choose what profession I liked. 

I told him I was required to honour my father, and as he was sick, I should attend to him at present, however much I might desire an education. 

As soon as I had got baptised, all the folks in the neighbourhood commenced imposing upon me. The idea that they had of a religious man was this--If he would stand still to be spit upon, to be mocked, and abused, then he was religious; but if he resented any of these insults, then they considered that he had no religion. 

I was very large of my age, but I had not strength in proportion to my size, and I was always very clumsy; but finally I told the boys who were imposing upon me, that it was part of my religion to fight, and I pulled off my coat and flogged the whole school, and from that day I was respected so long as I stayed in the neighbourhood. 

It was with a good deal of reluctance, however, that many of the boys who had previously been able to handle me would yield; for some of them were four or five years older than I was: but in two days it was all finished up, and I had peace. 

That winter I commenced to study arithmetic. I had previously studied geography, as you have already learned and during that winter I worked at arithmetic until I got to "Vulgar Fractions," but I could not find out what vulgar fractions were, and I don't know yet, and hence I do not think I am entitled to much credit for the proficiency attained in my education. 

I always took great pleasure in reading history, both religious and profane; but as to getting an education such as is requisite for a professional man in the world, I did not have the chance, excepting the one before alluded to, and that I did not choose to accept of 

In 1833 I moved to Kirtland with my father, and went to work on the Temple, doing whatever I was able to do. 

I will here digress from the subject of my experience, and remark that I have asked a great many if they could tell who those twenty-four Elders were who laid the foundation of that Temple; but I have never yet got the information: and if there are any who can give it, they are smarter than me, and I was there and looked on. If there are any of the brethren who have this information, they should hand it in to the Historian's Office, where it can be preserved in the archives of the Church. 

It is proper here to say that I went to work at the first principles, and that you know is necessary for every one to do. I went to work at quarrying rock, then hauling rock, tending mason, and performing such other work as I was considered capable of doing in my bungling way. 

We were a pious people in those days; but, notwithstanding our piety, our neighbours soon talked of mobbing us. They had already tarred and feathered the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon, and they threatened us with mobbing and expulsion. As I remarked, we were then very pious, and we prayed the Lord to kill the mob. 

It was but a little time before the Saints were driven out of Jackson county, Missouri, the printing press destroyed, men tarred and feathered, women ravished, and men, women, and children scattered to the four winds of heaven, all in consequence of our religion. 

Now, I am never afraid when I do not think anything is going to hurt me. When I am certain that there is no danger, then I am not the least afraid. The reason I have been called a coward has been from the fact that, whenever I believed there was any danger, I have always gone in for providing for it, and used my ingenuity to thwart that danger; and hence I have been called a coward by some. 

With my brethren who have addressed you, I have lain by the side of the Prophet, in Kirtland, to guard him half of each night for a whole winter, so that, if anything occurred, I could give notice to all the brethren in a very short time. 

I have been by those cross roads that some of the brethren remember, and have seen our enemies pass by so near that I could have knocked them down with a stick. Things were so arranged that, if a considerable number came along, I was prepared to communicate it to the brethren. I have had considerable experience, and I have learned that, curious as it may appear, whenever a man becomes a Latter-day Saint, the Devil wants to kill him. 

As I have told you, I was raised in the northern part of New York, a rough country, where, instead of going to get poles to fence with, we used to cut down hemlock trees, and split them up into rails. 

East is said to be the quarter for light: hence it may be admitted that I have acquired a little. I once strayed as far as Massachusetts, and in a town where there were several Baptist priests. I endeavoured to preach the Gospel; but they sent their sons into the meeting-house, who smoked out the congregation with brimstone; and that is a specimen of what would be poured out upon the Saints by the whole Christian world, if they had the opportunity. 

In an address delivered some years ago, I spoke of Maryland as a State of liberty; but our reporters made me say Massachusetts,--though they are not to blame, for they are raw Englishmen, and therefore the fault must have been with the Editor. 

I said that Massachusetts was the hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance, and that Maryland was the first State that by her laws and institutions allowed men to worship God as they pleased. Whether this mistake was accidental or not, I cannot say, but I wish now to correct it; for I do believe Massachusetts to be the very hotbed of superstition and religious intolerance. 

In the progress of this Church, mobs gathered around us, and continued to grow thicker till our history brought us to Far West, where the Governor ordered out seventeen thousand troops to exterminate the "Mormons," and a great many were marched on to the ground preparatory to being shot by the order of Major Clark. 

There are a great many men alive that were there, and lived through the operation, and who were finally driven from Missouri, not to say anything of the hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands who are dead, whose deaths were more or less caused by the sufferings and distress that were brought upon them by their extermination. 

It was a free State; it was a free country: it had a Constitution that guaranteed liberty, at least to every white man. All religions were tolerated by their laws; but we must be exterminated from the State, because we were that kingdom which had been spoken of. 

The result was that Prophets and High Priests were arrested and put in prison, numbers of them were murdered, women were ravished, goods and property stolen, houses burnt, and children butchered, and every possible cruelty was invented to cure men of their religion. 

I told Mr. Morril, of Vermont, last winter, that it was utterly impossible by law to change men's opinions. If a man believes a thing, you may whip him, and he will believe it still. 

Men and women are as apt to be tenacious as the old lady was down in the country, where men have but one wife. She got quarrelling with her husband, and called him "cracklouse." He told her that if she called him that any more, he would drown her. She repeated it again, and he took and put her in the river, then took her out, and she said, "Cracklouse!" So he put her in again, and held her down awhile, till she was almost gone. Then he took her out again, and she could hardly speak, but finally she made out to say, "C-r-a-c-k-l-o-u-s-e!" He was determined to use her up; so he put her down, and held her under till she was dead; but she came up with her finger nails clenched, or rather in the position required for cracking a louse. So, you see, she stuck to it to the last moment. 

So it is with our Uncle Sam--our dear, infirm, old uncle; although he has got very rich, and has got several millions of money in the Treasury that he scarcely knows what to do with, he wants to expend some of it in bringing us to the standard of virtue and righteousness according to their notions. To this end he is sending out 2,500 troops, with ministers and schoolmasters to regulate things in Utah. Notwithstanding all this, he may possibly find some instances where people may be as determined and stern in their notions as the old lady was of whom I have been speaking. 

Now, a religion that is not worth living for is not worth having. If religion is not worth living for, I am sure it is not worth dying for; and of course, if we are not willing to stand the test, our religion is of very little use. Our enemies judge us by themselves, for they know that the best of them will renounce their religion for the sake of self interest. They treat it as a mere work of time. 

A gentleman once asked another why he turned from the reformed Methodists to the Episcopalians; and he said, in reply, "A good fat living will change any of us." If we can be changed in our religious views by a few soldiers or a few threats, we certainly made a great blunder in coming out here, that we may have the privilege of turning a little, and of giving a little change into the bargain. Our dear old Uncle has had a desire to give us a little of the change from the time we came here. Soon after we arrived, we began to turn this desert into a garden. There came a captain with troops into this city: they were a specimen of the virtue and morality of the United States. They came here and began to insult the people, and then tried to cover up their wickedness by the dignity of Uncle Samdom. Passing along, they came to a lone house, and there undertook to ravish a woman in open daylight; and the brother who interfered to prevent this villanous [sic] outrage was most shamefully maltreated by them, and got some of his bones broken. After this outrage, the officers of the company were soon told that if they did not take their troops out of the city, the "Mormons" would cut all their damned throats; and that was the last we had of them here. 

I may be a little mistaken as to the precise language made use of; but this subject follows up so close to what I had in my mind, that I wanted to ask myself what I was now going to do in case the soldiers come here. 

From year to year we have had companies of these gentry visiting us, and remaining for a season, and then going away. The Government have tried, year after year, to establish garrisons, and get troops into these valleys. They have had troops at Laramie, at Fort Hall, and several other points; but circumstances so turned that they soon marched into Oregon. 

The talk now is that they are going to bring 2,500 soldiers into this Territory. That is not a peace establishment; for twenty-five hundred men are not enough to obtain peace in an Indian country. These troops, we are informed, are to be furnished with fifteen months provisions, to be delivered in this city this fall, and twelve months' provisions to be lodged on the other side of the mountain. They are to have four hundred mule teams for hauling their extra baggage, and they are to be provided with judges and a full <corps> of territorial officers; and these soldiers are sent along to enforce their rule. This is what we understand from those channels which have been opened to us. 

Whether it is done with the intention of making a disturbance here and taking the lives of our leaders, the facts in the case being known to the Government of the United States, is not for me at present to say. The mail is stopped, and no more permitted to run, because, they say, of the unsettled state of affairs in Utah. 

Now, I am a "Mormon," and a descendant of the old Puritanical stock that descended from the old Anglo-Saxon reformers, and hence I feel all the sentiments of resentment that any man could feel during the rise against the mother country, when our forefathers were determined to break off the yoke of bondage and be free. When I see men, the descendants of those worthy sires who were the first to stand forth and create the resolution of the colonies, and to break loose from the King of Great Britain,--I say, when I realize that my own country and nation are disposed to hold the sword over my head and to threaten me with extermination, I feel to say, Let them sent who they please. They are determined to send who they please for Governor, who they please for Judges, and who they please for our Territorial Officers, and to permit those men whom they send to place their interpretation upon the acts of our Territorial Legislature, and upon the condition of things as they surround us; and I care but little what comes next. 


They will send men here who are ignorant of the circumstances that surround us,--men who are totally ignorant of the irrigation of the land by mountain streams; they will permit them to interfere with the rights of the people of this Territory, with fifteen hundred or two thousand bayonets to back them up. 

Under these circumstances, as big a coward as I am, I would say what I pleased; and for one thing I would say that every man that had anything to do with such a filthy, unconstitutional affair was a damned scoundrel. There is not a man, from the President of the United States to the Editors of their sanctorums, clear down to the low-bred letter-writers in this Territory, but would rob the coppers from a dead nigger's eyes, if they had a good opportunity. If I had the command of thunder and lightning, I would never let one of the damned scoundrels get here alive. 

I have heretofore said but very little about the Gentiles; but I have heard all that Drummond has said, and I have read all his lying, infamous letters; and although I have said but little, I think a heap. You must know that I love my friends, and God Almighty knows that I do hate my enemies. There have been men, and women, and children enough who have died through the oppression and tyranny of our enemies to damn any nation under heaven; and now a nation of 25,000,000 of people must exercise its wealth in violation of its own principles and the rights guaranteed by the blood of their fathers--blood that is more sacred than their own heart springs; and this they are doing to crush down a little handful who dwell in the midst of these mountains, and who dare to worship God as they please, and who dare to sing, pray, preach, think, and act as they please. 

All I have to say is, Just go ahead and burst your boiler. [Voice: They will.] This is the way the thing shapes itself in my mind; and if I were not afraid to die, I would fight as long as there was a finger left. Yes, if I were not afraid to die, I would fight till there was not as much left of me as there was of the Kilkenny cats. Just look at him--view his conduct towards this people: besides his being my uncle, he has acted most shamefully mean. When I told my uncle I was afraid, he only laughed at me; but I now tell you that if I were not such a well-known coward, I would die like a man of war. The very idea that a man has been awed down by the bayonet is something that I cannot stand. It will do very well for the Emperor of France, and it may do for the Autocrat of Russia, but it don't do for freeborn men; and if asked which we will prefer--slavery or death, we should be very apt to answer in the language of a Roman senator, if we had any voice in this matter, who, when this question was once put in the days of Julius Caesar and Pompey, promptly answered, We prefer death to slavery. But you know we are Latter-day Saints--we are "Mormons," and hence we cannot be treated as free men. 

Report says that the plan is deep, and it is laid with the intention of murdering every man that will stand up for "Mormonism." But the evil which they design towards us will fall upon their own heads, and it will grind them to powder. The men that have been living in these valleys, living their religion, and serving their God, they will laugh at their calamities, and mock when their fear cometh. 

We must die like the Irishman, and then we shall do well enough. An old parson was riding along one day, and met with an Irishman, and said, "Sir, have you made your peace with God?" Pat replied, "Faith, an I've never had a falling out." The parson seemed very much surprised at the answer, and very piously said, "You are lost, you are lost!" The Irishman very quaintly answered, "Faith, and how can I be lost right in the middle of a great big turnpike?" The moral which I wish to deduce from this is, that, if we have not had a falling out with our God, we are in the middle of the great turnpike. They may cut off our supplies of tobacco and tea. [Voice: What a pity!] Why, bless you, there are young men in Israel who would suffer far more, if deprived of their tobacco, than the ladies would if their ribbons had to be stripped off right in the public meeting; and therefore I advise them to go to work and plant tobacco, for if they were deprived of it, it would take away their peace and happiness, and they could not nasty and besmear everything within a mile of them; and when they wanted to come and get counsel, they would not be able to let out of their mouths a stench that would drive away a skunk. 

I feel great pity for those young men, and I would like to discipline them as a certain lieutenant did the cabin boy on a steam packet. He said, "Boy, there is something the matter with your mouth," whereupon he ordered one of the sailors to bring him a pair of tongs, and ordered the boy to open his mouth, and with the tongs took out a large quid of tobacco. He then called for some canvass and sand and scoured the boy's mouth out, and told him that when he got sick and needed that again, he was to call on him and he would give him another dose. 

I consider it a disgrace to any young man under thirty-five years of age to use tobacco. [Voice: Forty is the age.] That is my age: I was thinking I was thirty-five. 

Brethren and sisters, I am a Latter-day Saint, and I know that this is the people of God; I know that this people have the Priesthood, and that Brigham Young is as much an inspired man as was Moses or any other man that ever lived upon the earth. 

This is my testimony, and I believe that if I were cut in pieces, though I never was killed, and of course don't know how it feels; but I do not believe that it would alter my testimony. 

I am a good deal like the man in the old world, where they have but one wife. He was shaving, and at the same time having some unpleasant words with his wife: finally, he said he would cut his throat if she did not hold her noise. She replied, "Cut away; I am young and handsome." "I would, if I did not think it would hurt so damned bad." And I don't know but it would feel so very bad to be killed, that I am really afraid where there is any danger. But just so long as I think there is no danger, I shall go ahead. 

Brethren and sisters, pardon me for detaining you so long; and may the Lord God of Israel bless you, and may He curse and damn every scoundrel that would bring misery and injury upon this innocent people. Amen. 





DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SPIRIT OF ZION AND THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD--DOINGS IN THE STATES, ETC. 

Remarks by Elder John Taylor, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857. 

Beloved brethren and friends,--Being called upon this morning to address you in a few words, I do so with very great pleasure. The sea of upturned faces that present themselves to my view at the present time is indeed something new, although I have been in what may be called the metropolis of the United States for some length of time. 

Gazing round upon my brethren and sisters with smiling countenances and happy, contented feelings, imparts peculiar sensations to my mind; and it is difficult for me at the present time to concentrate my thoughts so as to express the feelings that are in my bosom, if in fact I could express them. Suffice it to say that I am glad to be here; I am happy to meet with my brethren of the Priesthood, and my sisters, and all those who are friends to the cause of God; I rejoice to see you, and am glad of the opportunity of standing before you once more to speak of the things pertaining to the interests of Zion, and the guiding up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. 
There are many here who, like me have been absent from home for some time, who, when they come to meet with former associations and friends, particularly those with whom they have battled for years in the cause and kingdom of God, feel as I feel on the present occasion. Those alone, and there are many of them, can enter into the sympathies and emotions which I experience at the present time. 

There is a very material difference between associating with those that have the fear of God before their eyes, whose first object is their own salvation, the salvation of their progenitors and posterity, and the building up of the kingdom of God, and associating with those who "have not God in all their thoughts," who regard him not in all their transactions, but who are living "without God and without hope in the world," whose hearts--and I am sorry to say it, but yet it is true--whose hearts are "full of cursing and bitterness," who roll sin under their tongues as a sweet morsel, "whose feet are swift to shed blood," and "the way of of [sic] peace," as the Prophet hath said, "they have not known." 

There is a very material difference between associating with men and women who are the sons and daughters of Zion, and characters such as I have last named. The contrast is so striking, the spirit is so different, the atmosphere varies so much, that any man possessing one spark or particle of the Spirit of the Most High must experience it the moment he breathes the atmosphere and comes in contact with the two contending parties. The one is engaged in the acquisition of wealth: gold is their god, and, associated with that, lust, pollution, and corruption of every kind. 

While we are aiming to fulfil our destiny on the earth, to accomplish the object for which we were created, to magnify our calling, to honour our God, to build up His kingdom, to redeem the earth from the curse under which it groans, to roll back the tide of corruption that seems to have overspread the universe, our opponents are engaged in pursuits directly tending to dissolution and destruction. Their lives, their views, their objects are short, transient, and evanescent. Ours are wide as the universe, extended as eternity, deep as the foundations of the earth, and elevated as the throne of God; receiving and imparting blessings that are rich, glorious, and eternal,--blessings which effect us and our posterity through endless ages that are yet to come. 

The contrast so striking, so vivid, so manifest, is it to be wondered at, when a person reflects upon these matters, that ten thousand thoughts should crowd upon the mind and produce sensations that is impossible to fully express with human language. Such, then, are my sentiments, and such my feelings. 

I have been for some length of time past associated with the Gentiles. I have been engaged in battling corruption, iniquity, and the foul spirits that seem to fill the atmosphere of what you may term the lower regions, if you please; and the Lord has been with me, His Spirit has dwelt in my bosom, and I have felt to shout, Hallelujah! and to praise the name of the God of Israel, that he has been pleased to make me a messenger of salvation to the nations of the earth, to communicate the rich blessings flowing from the throne of God, and put me in possession of truth that no power on this or on the other side of hell can controvert successfully. 

In regard to the world, the Elders who have been out, as I have, and as others have around me, know something of its nature and spirit, and the feelings by which the people are governed and actuated. Our young men and women, who have not come in contact with it, can scarcely conceive of the amount of iniquity, depravity corruption, lying, deception, and abomination of every kind that prevails in the gentile world. 

Talk of honesty! It is a thing in theory; and they will preach about it as loud and as long as anybody. As a a [sic] matter of theory, it is honourable to be honest--to be men of truth theoretically; but when you come to put your finger upon it, you cannot find it, it is like a shadow--it vanishes from your grasp. 

Where are the men of truth--nationally, socially, religiously, morally, politically, or in any other way? Where are the patriots? Where are the men of God? I declare before you and high heaven, I have not found them. Sometimes I have thought I had got my hand upon them, but they slipped out of my fingers. 

I bless the God of Israel that I am permitted to mingle with the Saints of the Most High--to associate with men who, when I meet them and ask them concerning anything, I may expect to have an honest and truthful answer--men in whom there is some truth, some integrity, something to to [sic] catch hold of, something you can rely upon. 

To speak of men whom I have seen dissatisfied, and who have gone back to Babylon, I must say that I do not very much admire their taste. If people understood things as I do, and as I have seen and experienced them, they would thank God from the bottom of their hearts that they are permitted to have a name and a place among the people of God in these valleys of the mountains. 

We have been engaged in publishing a paper, which is generally known, because it has been circulated here. About my proceedings and acts, I have got very little to say, only that I have done as well as I could, the Lord being my helper; and I believe my brethren here have prayed for me, and that I have been sustained by their prayers and faith. 

I have not been in that place, because it was my desire to be there; for I have had a hard struggle and a good deal to pass through: but that is common with us all; and if there were no struggle, there would be no honour in a victory. 

I have conversed with some of the Twelve since I came home, and they all feel about the same; and when I have read about your affairs here, and the position in which you have been placed, I have said, "My brethren have had to struggle." 

There is one thing that I have noticed: wherever I have come across a Saint, they differ very materially from others. I have met with those in different places who have been sent out on missions to the various stations, and missionaries going off to preach in Canada and other places; and I found, wherever I came in contact with one of them, I came in contact with a man; and wherevever [sic] I came in contact with those who had not been up here, I came in contact with children--babies, if you please, hardly knowing their right hand from their left, I mean in the practical sense of the word. 

There are a great many theorists in the world. They can talk and splutter, and make a noise, and have a great many theories; but they cannot reduce them to practice. There is no energy, vitality, or power. But come in contact with our own brethren, and they are all quick, full of animation, life, and energy; and there is a spirit infused into them that I do not see anywhere else. This is my experience. 

You may pick up men from any part of the world you please, and bring them to this place, and what are they fit for? They are poor, miserable croaking old grannies. But there is something in the atmosphere of the place--something in the scenery we have passed through. There is something in the difficulties we have spoken about, and something in our joys and prospects, that has a tendency to strengthen the mind and brace up the nerves. There is something, too, in the hope that is implanted in the bosom, that is different from that in the possession of other men. 

Every true man among us feels he is a Saint of the living God, and that he has an interest in the kingdom of God; every man feels that he is a king and a priest of the Most High God. He is a saviour, and he stands forth and acts with energy and power, with influence, and he is full of the Spirit of the Lord. Hence the difference between them and others, and hence the necessity of the experience we are passing through, the various trials we have to combat with, and the difficulties we have to overcome. 

All these things seem to me to be so many lessons, which it is absolutely necessary for the young, the middle-aged, and the aged to learn, to prepare them and their posterity for more active scenes in the rolling forth of the great work of God in the last days. Consequently, if we have to pass through a few trials, a few difficulties, a few afflictions, and to meet with a few privations, they have a tendency to purify the metal, purge it from the dross, and prepare it for the Master's use. 

So far as I am concerned, I say, let everything come as God has ordained it. I do not desire trials; I do not desire affliction: I would pray to God to "leave me not in temptation, and deliver me from evil; for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory." but if the earthquake bellows, the lightnings flash, the thunders roll, and the powers of darkness are let loose, and the spirit of evil is permitted to rage, and an evil influence is brought to bear on the Saints, and my life, with theirs, is put to the test; let it come, for we are the Saints of the most High God, and all is well, all is peace, all is right, and will be, both in time and in eternity. 


But I do not want trials; I do not want to put a straw in anybody's way; and, if I know my own feelings, I do not want to hurt any man under the heavens, nor injure the hair of any person's head. I would like to do every man good. These are the feelings, the spirit which the Gospel has implanted in my bosom, and that the Spirit of God implants in the bosoms of my brethren. And if men will pursue an improper course, the evil, of course, must be on their own heads. 

I used to think, if I were the Lord, I would not suffer people to be tried as they are; but I have changed my mind on that subject. Now I think I would, if I were the Lord, because it purges out the meanness and corruption that stick around the Saints, like flies around molasses. 

We have met on the road a great many apostates. I do not want to say much about them. If they can be happy, all right; but they do not exhibit it. When a man deserts from the Gospel, from the ordinances, from the Priesthood and its authority, from the revelations of the Spirit of God, from the spirit of prophecy, from that sweet, calm influence that broods over the upright man in all his acts, he loses the blessing of God, and falls back into error; and, as the Scripture says, "The evil spirit that went out of him, returns again, bringing with him seven spirits more wicked than himself; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." 

It has become proverbial, where apostate "Mormons" live, to say, "Oh, he is only an apostate Mormon." They look upon them as ten times meaner than a "Mormon." 

I happened to go into a barber's shop, one day, to get shaved. A man came in, and when he went out again, the enquiry was made, "Who is that man?" "Oh, he is only an apostate Mormon." Their mouths are full of cursing; and you will find them chewing tobacco and getting drunk, thinking that, by so doing, they will recommend themselves to the people; but they have not learned the art very well; they can't swear and degrade themselves so naturally as others, and the people find them out and repudiate them. 

You that don't know him, have heard of Thomas B. Marsh, who was formerly the President of the Twelve Apostles, but who apostatized some years ago, in Missouri. He is on his way here, a poor, decrepid, broken down, old man. He has had a paralytic stroke--one of his arms hangs down. He is coming out here as an object of charity, destitute, without wife, child, or anything else. He has been an apostate some eighteen years. Most of you know his history. He has been all the time since then afraid of his life--afraid the "Mormons" would kill him; and he durst not let them know where he was. 

In meeting with some of the apostates, he said to them, "You don't know what you are about; if you want to see the fruits of apostacy, look on me." I thought they could not look on a better example. 

In relation to some of those other folks that left here--the Gladdenites and others--where are they? Some of them that contended most strenuously for Gladden have cast him off, and now have nothing to tie to. Where is their hope of salvation? 

In regard to the spirit of the times, I do not know but that I have published my feelings. I would observe, however, that there is a material difference between the people of the East and the people of the west. A great majority of the people of the West, on the borders, may be emphatically termed "Border ruffians." The Eastern people call them by that name, and by that name they are known. There is a species of ruffianism among them, of rowdyism, groggeryism, of bantering, bullying, fighting, and killing, that is a disgrace to humanity. 

The most of you who have read the news must be familiar with the scenes that have transpired in Kansas between the two parties that have existed there--one party in favour of slavery, and the other opposed to it. There has been a great struggle between them, and mobocracy has abounded to a great extent. Who are the best and who are the worst, would be very difficult for me to tell. 

The Eastern people, of whom I have been speaking, as quick as they go to the borders, partake of the spirit that reigns there, and turn "border ruffians" too. It is not difficult for them to enter into it; for the spirit of deep seated hatred which prevails among many in the east towards the South soon breaks out, and their feelings are manifested in acts of violence, and they generally maintain their points by the bowie knife and pistol, by mob violence, vigilance committees, &c. 

This disorder of things extends all along the frontiers. If a man does not do right, they get up a vigilance committee, and it takes up a man, judges him, whips him, banishes him, or puts him to death, as they please; and it has become popular to act in this way in all those border places. 

They are called "border ruffians," and I think the name is as appropriate as anything you could give them. I do not know that I could pick out a better title. In the East, they do it with their tongues; they do not use the bowie knives, pistols, and rifles so much as in the West and in the South; but a spirit of rancour, animosity, and hatred seems to be engendered in the bosoms of the people, one against another. They have their most deadly enemies in their very midst. Every man's hand is against his neighbour. 

The feelings of the North and South have run very high, each party seeking to support their own peculiar views alone, and truth is out of the question. If they tell the truth, it is by accident. The object is not to tell the truth, but to sustain parties and party interests; for to tell the truth is not generally considered very politic. 

True, there is a great profession of truth, and a great deal of apparent abhorrence of lies and falsehood, because falsehood is not popular, although it is practiced all the time. 

The ministers say it is right to tell the truth, and then go to work and lie. One politician banters another, on account of the hypocritical course he has taken: and as quick as he has done that, he goes to work and lies, and deceives as much as he possibly can to sustain his party; and it is not whether a thing is true or not, but whether it is policy or not; and if a thing becomes policy, every influence, every kind of chicanery, falsehood, and deception is brought to bear upon it; and when a little truth will tell better, they mix that up along with it, but it is generally the least ingredient in the whole mass. 

Talk to them about the Gospel and the Scriptures! They seem to think, even the ministers among them, that it is old fogyism. Talk about Abraham and his institutions! Say they, "You are taking us back to the dark ages. Such things would do eighteen hundred years ago; but we are more enlightened now; we have got more philosophy, more intelligence, and comprehend the nature of human existence better; we are men of greater renown than they. Those things might do for our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, but they will not do for us." 

If a little Scripture will suit them, they put it in; but if it won't, they keep it out, and talk about expediency. Expediency is the great principle by which men are governed. 

Talk about politics! What is it? It is this or that man's policy. "If it is policy to tell the truth, we will tell it; if not, we will tell a lie." A man cannot obtain a cause because it is just, but because it is policy, and because he can bring certain influences to bear on that thing. This is about the position of things as I find them, so far as my experience goes. 

But, as is the case in Congress, bullyism seems to be one of the most prominent arguments in the west, where they seem to imitate their honourable example. These are the two prominent places --Kansas and Congress. Brother Bernhisel here has been among them there; he knows something about it and something about their proceedings. If a man dare get up there and speak his sentiments, another stands over with a cane, and goes to work at caning him, and lays him in a sick bed for several months, so that he cannot speak; and for this dignified act, he is presented with numerous canes by his constituents, to show how they appreciate this Congressional argument, and to prove to others that if they speak the truth, they may look out for a caning. These things take place in this land of liberty and in the Congress of the United States. We have had a good deal of trouble sometimes in getting our appropriations; in fact, not sometimes, but always. And I will tell you how they do in the West and in California. A fellow goes up and seizes another by the collar, and says, "Damn you, if you stand in my way, I will put this into you,"--showing him a deadly weapon. The official says, "I am afraid that fellow will kill me; I will give him what he wants. But if an honest man goes and asks for his rights, he cannot get them, simply because he his [sic] honest,--particularly if he happens to be a "Mormon." 

I have vowed in my own mind, over and over again, if I was in Utah, the United States might stand over me until doomsday, before I would do anything for them, unless I was paid for it beforehand. Excuse me, Governor Young, if I am not very patriotic. No men need call upon me to do anything in Utah for the United States, unless they pay me the money down. I won't trust them. 

I speak from experience--from things I have seen and known--from circumstances that have come under my own notice. I have seen the difficulties my brethren have laboured under, when they have had to do with Congress or the Departments at Washington. 

Any unprincipled scoundrel, no matter how mean, if he comes with a bowie knife or revolver in his hand, can get what he wants. People back East used to blame me for speaking and writing plain. I talk the same now. I feel that I can be sustained by the truth; and if I cannot live by truth, I will die by it and I am not afraid of telling it before any people. I met a gentleman on the road, on his way to the States from California. I asked him how things were getting on in Utah. He said, "Very well; all is peace there; they seem to do very well. Are you going there?" "Yes, sir, I am going to Utah." "Did you live there?" "Yes." "I think it is not prudent, the policy upon which they act. I would recommend your people to pursue a quiet policy. I saw everything peaceable and quiet there as could possibly be in any community; but I heard Governor Young talk about General Harney. He said he was the squaw-killing General. I did not think that was courteous to be said of a United States officer." I replied, Are we the only people that must not talk about the United States' officers? What do you do in California, in the East, and everywhere we go? Are we going to be imposed on from time to time, and not have the privilege of saying our souls are our own? "Oh, I merely recommend it as the best policy to be peaceable and quiet until you get to be a State, and for the present put up with these things." I said, We have been outrageously imposed upon by United States' officials. They send out every rag-tag and bobtail, and every mean nincompoop they can scrape up from the filth and scum of society, and dub him a United States' officer; and are we expected to receive all manner of insults from such men without one word of complaint? They will assuredly find themselves mistaken. "What! you don't mean to say you will fight against the United States?" We don't want to; but we feel that we have as much right to talk as anybody. We have rights, as American citizens, and we cannot be eternally trampled on; but we shall assuredly maintain our constitutional rights, speak fearlessly our opinions, and take just the course that we think proper. That is our policy, and we shall pursue a course of that kind. He replied, "My idea is, that quietness and peace is better." I told him, it is, sometimes; but a little bristle sometimes does good in keeping off the dogs. That is about how I feel. 

In relation to the general condition of things in the East at this time, there has been a great hue-and-cry, and almost every editor, priest, and dog that could howl, has been yelping. They joined heartily with Drummond, one of our amiable, pure, virtuous United States' officers. You know him. I never saw him; but I have heard about him as one of those spotless, immaculate, holy kind of men that they sent from the United States to teach us good morals, correct procedure, virtue, &c., &c. 

This pure man commenced a tirade against us, then other dogs began to bark. We soon told the truth about it; then, by-and-bye, somebody else would tell it; and he now stinks so bad, that they actually repudiate him. He is too mean even for them, and they had to cast him off. They supported him as long as they could, and finally had to let him drop. 

The people are raging, and they do not know what for. The editor of the <New York Herald,> after summing up the whole matter, the only thing he could bring against us, after trying and trying for several weeks, was that we have burned some nine hundred volumes of United States' law books. Of course I do not know anything about it; but if you did so, it is true, and if you did not, why it is a lie, and it all fizzles out. And, finally, he says, "The 'Mormons' have got the advantage of us, and they know it." [Voices: That is true.] That was one truth, but it was told accidentally; one of those accidental things that slip out once in a while,--"they have the advantage of us, and they know know [sic] it." 

The majority of the people think you are a most corrupt people, following a doctrine something like those Free Love societies in the east. Greeley, the editor of the <New York Tribune,> was associated with one of those societies, and was its principal supporter. 

That is what is called a virtuous kind of an abomination, used under a cloak of philosophy, a species of philosophy imported from France. Hence they call Greeley a philosopher; and, in writing about him, I have called him the same. I believe him to be as dishonest a man as is in existence. 

These are my sentiments and feelings. I have examined his articles, watched his course, read his paper daily, and have formerly conversed with him a little; but latterly I would not be seen in his company. I was thrown in his society in travelling from Boston, and occasionally met him afterwards; but I would not talk to him: I felt myself superior to such a mean, contemptible cur. I knew he was not after truth, but falsehood. 

This Greeley is one of their popular characters in the East, and one that supports the stealing of niggers and the underground railroad. I do not know that the editor of the <Herald> is any more honest; but, as a journalist, he tells more truth. He publishes many things as they are, because it is creditable to do so. But Greeley will not; he will tell what suits his clandestine plans, and leave the rest untold. I speak of him, because he is one of the prominent newspaper editors in the Eastern country, and he is a poor, miserable curse. 

I do not consider that many of them are much better. They are in a state of vassalage; they cannot tell the truth if they felt so disposed. People talk very loudly about liberty; but there are very few who comprehend its true principles. There is a species of bondage that is associated with every grade of society. It is with the mercantile community, the editorial fraternity, the political world, and with every body of men you can associate with, up to members of Congress and the President of the United States. There are yokes made for men of every grade to put their necks into; and every one bows down to them willingly, and they are driven in their turn according to circumstances. 

In the mercantile world there is what is called the credit system, which I consider one of the greatest curses that was ever introduced among men. Some will set up a small groggery or grocery; they go into debt to those who have a bigger groggery, or to a man who can, perhaps, buy a barrel of whisky at a time, or a few pieces of calico. These little merchants are in debt to some larger ones in St. Louis; those to merchants in Cincinatti [sic], New York, and New Orleans; and they are in debt to large houses in England, France, Germany, and other places. 
They all bow the neck: they are all trammeled and bowed down with the same chain. People talk about our credit not being good lately. I hope to God nobody will credit a "Mormon." We don't want anything on credit. I want us to live as we can live; and if we cannot live without going into debt to our enemies, let us die--never put our heads under the yoke. 

The same thing exists in other branches. You may take a constable; he has got to pledge his honour to support such a man, no matter whether he keeps a doggery, a groggery, or whether he is an honest man or a rogue. Then a number of those support some other man that is more elevated, if there is any elevation in such doings. Then those other "elevated" ones from combinations and clubs, and sustain others; and so on, until you get up to the President of the United States. All are pinioned, and their tongues are tied. 

There is Fremont, that great man, who could not lead a few men over these mountains without starving them to death. A few men, understanding his position, got him cooped up in New York, so that he could not be seen without coming at him through committees and checks, bras and bolts, lest he should speak and people find him out; and after all their great care, he came out at the little end of the horn: he was not elected. 


When a President is elected, a crowd of men press around him, like so many hungry dogs, for a division of the spoils, saying, "Mr. President, what are you going to do for our town? Remember, here is Mr. So-and-so, who took a prominent position. We want such a one in such an office. And, finally, after worryings and teasings, and whining and begging, some of those little men, mean, contemptible pups, doggery men, broken-down lawyers, or common, dirty, political hacks, bring up the rear, swelled up like swill barrels; they come to the table for the fragments, and, with a hungry maw and not very delicate stomach, whine out, "Won't you give me a place, if it is only in Utah?" In order to stop the howling, the President says, "Throw a bone to that dog, and let him go out;" and he comes out a great big "United States' officer," dressed in a lion's garb, it is true, but with the bray of an ass. He comes here, carrying out his groggery and whoring operations, and seeking to introduce among us eastern civilization. 

The people here, however, feel a little astonished, some of them, although they are not very much astonished at anything that transpires; and when they look at him, they say in their simplicity, "Why, that man is acting like a beast." His majesty, however, swells up, struts and puffs, and blows, and says, "You must not insult me: I am a United States' officer; you are disloyal. I am a United States' officer; don't speak to me." Of course you are, and a glorious representative you are. 

I did start once to write a history of the judges sent to Utah; but I did not get through with it. You know we have the history of the judges in former days. If I had only had time, I would have liked to have written a history of the judges of Israel that came out from the Ammonites and Moabites down yonder. 

There was one man here whom you considered one of the most honourable men among your judges. I refer to Judge Shaver. I do not know much about the man; he was spoken highly of, and a great deal of ceremony made at his funeral. I was on board of a steamer coming up to Florence, when some gentlemen got to talking about the "Mormons." One man said, "I was there a year and a half, and I know them to be as good, peaceable, and quiet a society as I ever was among; but there is a pack of infernal scoundrels sent among them by the Government, that are not fit to go anywhere. A man, by the name of Shaver, was sent there, and he lay drunk around our town six months before he went there!" Thinks I, if that is one of the best, then the Lord have mercy on the rest. 

With regard to office-hunters, they are in bondage to each other; and even the President of the United States is trammelled, bound down, and no man has the manliness to say, I dare do as I please. 

These things are so in a monetary point of view, in a religious point of view, and they are so in a political point of view, and in every way you can view it. Every man bows down his neck to his fellow, and they have their parties of every kind in the United States; and every man must be true to his party, no matter what it is. Politicians are bound by their parties, editors by their employers, ministers by their congregations, merchants by their creditors and Governors and President by political cliques. Divisions, strife, contention, and evil are everywhere increasing, and there is a little room for truth in the hearts of the people. 

I believe, notwithstanding, there are thousands of honest people in the United States; but so much evil prevails, and so much corruption, that it is next to impossible for them to discover the difference between truth and error. 

Our preaching does not seem to have any value or effect on the minds of men at all, scarcely. You can revise, renovate, regenerate the Saints; but come to take hold of the world, and preach to them, it is like idle tales to them. As I have said, talk to them about the Bible, and they will tell you it is an old-fashioned, old fogy affair, with very little exception. 

I have laboured myself, as the rest of the Elders have, and the general result, wherever we have preached the Gospel, has been the same. I remember, in old Connecticut, the land of steady habits, some few embraced the Gospel, and one or two we had to cut off from the Church in a week or two after. There was one old lady, a farmer's wife; she believed, and her husband treated us kindly, and they got a place for us to preach in, &c., and after listening for some time, said she would give anybody five hundred dollars to prove "Mormonism" untrue. I said I would do it for half of that sum: if she wanted a lie, she should have it. 

In the neighbourhood of Tom's River, a number came into the Church; some have stood, and some have not: they are doing pretty well there. There was as good a Church when I first went there as I found in the East. There was also another in Philadelphia. In new York, when we went there, we found a people that called themselves "Mormons." I called a meeting, and there was only two that I would acknowledge as such. I told the rest to go their own way; told them what I acknowledged to be "Mormonism," and if they would not walk up to that, they might take their own course. 

Since then, a great many emigrants have come from the old countries--from England, France, Germany, Denmark, and other places. They form quite a body: there are now five or six hundred. At Philadelphia and around there, there have been some few brought in; but most of the Saints there are those who have come in from England and other places. 

It is almost impossible to produce any effect on the feelings of the people. In New Jersey, I held several days' meeting, to see if something could be done. They turned out in great numbers: "Mormonism" was popular; as many as 200 carriages were present. We were treated well, and preached faithfully. Somebody came and set up a little groggery, and it was removed forthwith. Was anybody converted? No. They turned their ears like a deaf adder to the cause, and that is the general feeling, so far as I have discovered. 

They do not love the truth. In most of these places they have rejected the Gospel, and they listen not to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Many asked about their friends, and if their was any speculation on foot. I could get thousands to immigrate to this Territory for speculative purposes; and committees waited on me to learn what inducements are held out to settlers. I could get thousands to come here, if we would give them good farms, and furnish them cattle, and work their farms for them until they got started, and let them carouse around, and have all the lager beer they could drink. 

Those who love the truth are scarce. There are, however, a great many scattered all over the United States, who believe "Mormonism" is truth, and have not moral courage to embrace it; but if it is policy, they dare once in awhile say a few words, but in a kind of milk-and-water way: they dare not say much, because it is unpopular; and many dare not read a "Mormon" paper; it is unpopular. 

I have met men in the world as much my friends, apparently, as those that are in the Church; and they have handed out means to me when I was in need. One man wrote to me that he would be glad to see me; but if I would not let the people know who I was, he would be obliged to me. I told him I did not go to such places, for I was a "Mormon," outside and in, and I could get along in the world by holding my head up, and I despise men who will go crawling and cringing around. 

In relation to things that are now transpiring in the United States, I suppose you have later news than I have. The mail team passed me on the road, but it had no mail. In relation to any policy that may be pursued here, I feel it is just right. I know that President Young and his brethren associated with him are full of the spirit of revelation, and they know what they are doing. I feel to acquiesce and put my shoulder to the work, whatever it is. If it is for peace, let it be peace; if it is for war, let it be to the hilt. It has got to come some time, and I would just as lief jump into it to-day as any other time. 

We are engaged in the work of God in rolling on His purposes; and if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to Him. The Lord has put His hand to the work, and all the potentates of the earth and their power cannot hinder its progress. The work is onward, and in the name of Israel's God it will roll on, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. 

We are gathering a nucleus for a kingdom here that is bound to stand for ever-- 

"While time and thought, and being last, 
and immortality endures." 

All is peace,--and I feel like shouting, Hallelujah, hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and all nations shall be subject to His sway. 

I have talked longer than I thought I should. 

There is one thing further I would like to say a few words upon. Brother George A. Smith, Dr. Bernhisel, and myself were appointed as delegates to go to Washington. I have never yet inquired what the First Presidency thought about our proceedings there. I was in Washington several times, and counselled with my brethren on the subject of our admission. We counselled with some of the most prominent men in the United States in relation to this matter; and those that dare say anything at all, dare not, if you can understand that. 

That was about the feeling. We need not say much on this matter; but I believe that brother George A. Smith and brother Bernhisel laboured with indefatigable zeal to the best of their knowledge and intelligence to accomplish the thing they set about; and I did, while I was with them. But it was not necessary for me to remain there; and I told the brethren, if I was wanted, by sending me a telegraphic despatch, I would be there in a little time. I believe these brethren did all that lay in their power. 

While speaking of the acts of the Elders, I remember remarking to brother Bernhisel that a set of men could not be found on the face of the earth that would go with the same talent and ability, and act with the same disinterestedness and zeal in the performance of whatever is required of them. 

I have counselled with them, and that is the feeling and testimony I have to bear concerning them. When they get together, their feeling is, How can we best promote the cause in which we are engaged? Can a cause sustained by such men sink? Can the cause sustained by the power that sustains them sink? No. The truth will triumph, and shall roll forth until all nations shall bow to its sceptre. 

I pray God, in the name of Jesus, to bless you and guide you, that we may be saved in His kingdom. Even so. Amen. 





APPROVAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE DELEGATION TO CONGRESS--CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, ETC. 

Remarks by President Brigham Young, made at the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 9, 1857. 

So far as I am concerned, with regard to the performance of duties by the Elders of Israel--the duties which have been placed upon them and required at their hands upon their missions--for the gratification of the brethren just referred to by Elder Taylor, I will say, If there has been nothing hitherto expressed here manifesting the feelings of the First Presidency of the Church and the members in general on-this point, I can answer for the people, by asking and answering a question. 

Brother Taylor, brother George A. Smith, and brother Bernhisel, did you do your duty in Congress in reference to presenting our petition for a State? I think that I can answer for this Committee, as well as for the people, and say that they discharged their duty manfully and satisfactorily to their God and to their brethren. I can answer for the people, and say that they are most perfectly satisfied with the labours of our Committee. When a man can say of a truth, "I have done the very best that I could in my mission," the heart of every Saint on earth acquainted with the circumstances, the angels in heaven, and our heavenly Father are all satisfied. There is no more required of us than we are capable of performing. The First Presidency are satisfied, and I can say that the people are satisfied. 

With regard to the labours of brother Taylor in editing the paper called <The Mormon,> published in the city of New York, I have heard many remarks concerning the editorials in that paper, not only from Saints, but from those who do not profess to believe the religion we have embraced; and it is probably one of the strongest edited papers that is now published. I can say, as to its editorials, that it is one of the strongest papers ever published, so far as my information extends; and I have never read one sentence in them but what my heart could bid success to it and beat a happy response to every sentence that I have read or heard read. Brother Taylor, that is for you; and I believe that these are the feelings and the sentiments of all in this community who have perused that paper. 

We are satisfied with the labours of the Elders generally. True, it is not every one that knows and understands all things; it is also true that men are liable to falter and fail in their judgment; but that is nothing against the real character of the man, if he is doing the best he knows how. It is true that at times Elders need correcting, and they receive correlation in this place. It is also true that, when you correct an individual in his errors and try to place him in better circumstances pertaining to judgment and discretion, it is annoying, it is grievous, it is painful to the sensation of that individual. It is very true that chastisements are grievous when they are received; but if they are received in patience, they will work out salvation for those who cheerfully submit to them. 

If the time was that the Elders of Israel could not be chastened and corrected for their wrongs, and be set right, you may know that they have proved recreant to the faith. And if those who are appointed to lead this people dare not rise up and tell them of their iniquity and chastise them therefor, and teach them the way of life and salvation, you may know that your leaders have fallen from their station. 

The Lord has bestowed the everlasting Priesthood upon the children of men for their salvation. It is not believed for a moment, by any person who believes in the Bible, that a man or woman can be saved in their sins. They have to be separated from their sins and iniquity; they have to put off the old man, with all his deeds, and put on the new man Christ Jesus. If ever we see the time that we dare not tell men of their evils, and correct them when in fault, you may despair of salvation in this kingdom. 

One grand cause of the enmity entertained towards us by officials sent here by the General Government has simply been, that I take the liberty of telling men where they do wrong and wherein they do wrong,--both those who are in the Church and those who are out of it; and my brethren take the same liberty. If men do evil, we tell them of their meanness; whereas, in the other portion of our Government, men dare not speak their minds. They are tied up, bound up; they are in fetters and chains in every particular--as much so as brother Taylor has told you, and a great deal more. He said that if a man was found in Congress who dare speak in favour of innocence, justice, truth, and mercy, he dare not speak. If there were any there, when our petition was expected to be presented, who felt in their hearts to favour it, they dared not open their mouths in favour of its being granted; for if they spoke at all, they must speak according to the popular notions of the people; they must go with the tide of popularity. 

This is the case with the whole world; but we are chosen out of the world. And if we accept salvation on the terms it is offered to us, we have got to be honest in every thought, in our reflections, in our meditations, in our private circles, in our deal, in our declarations, and in every act of our lives, fearless and regardless of every principle of error, of every principle of falsehood that may be presented. We have no difficulties with our Government: we never have had any difficulties with any government under which we have lived. But there has been a difficulty, and what is it? The "Mormons" have got something that the rest, of course, have not, "and we will kill them out of the way; we will not have them." 

As brother Taylor has said, speaking of the wisdom and power exhibited by the people of the world, there are men of talent, of thought, of reflection, and knowledge in all cunning mechanism: they are expert in that, though they do not know from whence they receive their intelligence. The Spirit of the Lord has not yet entirely done striving with the people, offering them knowledge and intelligence; consequently it reveals unto them, instructs them, teaches them, and guides them even in the way they like to travel. Men know how to construct railroads and all manner of machinery; they understand cunning workmanship, &c.; but that is all revealed to them by the Spirit of the Lord, though they know it not. 


You can find in the minds of the people most admirable intelligence in things pertaining to the world; but when you touch the intelligence that pertains to other worlds, to the kingdom of heaven and heavenly things, they are dark as midnight darkness--so dark as this, that, let ever so good a thing be revealed to them, no matter how good for a nation, a people, a community, or an individual--let a man have it revealed to him how he can benefit the whole nation, they turn around and deny God in it. They are so dark as that, when they never received a particle of intelligence but what came from God. They are filled with darkness. 

Instead of wishing injuries to come on them, my heart is pained for them when I behold their situation. They are drunk, not with strong drink, but with their own anger, and rage, and the spirit of the enemy which they have received. They are as wild as California horses. When a lasso is thrown on them, they will run madly against a fence, or a stone wall, or over a person, or anything; they are frantic, and would break their own necks. It is just so with the inhabitants of the earth, and especially so with our Government; and they are hastening with all possible speed, with the larriet [sic] around their necks, to jump the precipice and destroy themselves. 

I can tell you one thing that I know concerning the inhabitants of the United States. It has come to this, that the honest among them--men, women, and children, have dreams foreboding evil. The visions of their minds are troubled; they are in sorrow; they feel melancholy, and have a presentiment that something evil is going to befall the people. And if you could discern the thoughts of their hearts this day, you would probably find millions of such persons in our Government. When they reflect upon the maddened zeal of the leaders, they know that they can endure but a little while, and query, "What will come?" What will the Lord bring on the people--upon this happy government? What evil catastrophe is about to befall us? Will there be war? Will we fight the "Mormons," and will the Lord give the "Mormons" power to fight against us? Will the North make war upon the South? Will they take the sword one against the other? What will become of us? These forebodings are upon the people. They have dreams in the night which frighten them, and reflections in the day-time which give them sorrow; and they are harassed from day to day. They are to be pitied; for sorrow, woe, destruction, shame, and misery await them. I am sorry for them: they are to be pitied--to be prayed for. 

Almost every man that has come from the East of late is telling you the political feelings and desires of the Government towards this people. Brother Taylor has just related that a gentleman he met on the road remarked, "What! can you 'Mormons' fight the United States? Can you contend with them? You had better take a more specific policy than you have. Do not speak about the President, nor about any of the officials." We shall talk as we please about them; for this is the right and privilege granted to us by the Constitution of the United States: and, as ministers of salvation, we shall take the liberty of telling men of their sins. 

I shall take the liberty of talking as I please about the President of the United States, and I expect that I know his character better than he knows it himself. I will tell you in a few words a little of it. James Buchanan, who is now sitting in the chair of state, and presiding over this great Republic, is naturally a passive, docile, kind, benevolent, and good man,--that is his natural disposition, I will venture. Arouse him, and he has been a man who could make flaming speeches. He is now bound up; they have the fetters upon his feet; he is handcuffed; his elbows are pinioned; he is bound on every side, and they make him do as they please. Is he obliged to do so? No. 

Is a man fit to be President of the United States, who will bow and succumb to the whims of the people? No. A president should learn the true situation of his constituents, and deal out even-handed justice to all, utterly regardless of the clamour of party. Suppose the President to be under the clamour and dictation of several parties, he would order out a company to-day, and to-morrow call them back; he would make a decree to-day, and next week revoke it and make another to suit another party. He ought not to pay attention to any party, but consider the nation as a family, and deal out justice and mercy to them equally and independently. 

I wish that Hickory Jackson was now our President; for he would kick some of those rotten-hearted sneaks out, or rather order his negroes to do it. If we had a man in the chair who really was a man, and capable of magnifying his office, he would call upon his servants, and order him to kick those mean, miserable sneaks out of the presidential mansion, off from its grounds, and into the streets. But the President hearkens to the clamour around him; and, as did Pontious Pilate, in the case of Jesus Christ, has washed his hands, saying, "I am clear of the blood of those Latter-day Saints. Gentlemen, you have dictated, and I will order a soldiery and officials to Utah." It is said in the Bible, that whosoever ye yield yourselves to obey, his servants ye are. The President has yielded himself a servant to cliques and parties, and their servants he shall be. And all that has been spoken of him by brother Kimball, in the name of Jesus Christ, shall come upon him. 

Do you think that we shall be called treasoners, for rebuking him in his sinful course? Yes. Talk of loyalty to Government! Hardly a man among them cares for the Government of the United States, any more than he does for the useless card that lies on the table while he is playing out his hand. They disregard the Constitution as they would any old fable in any old school book. Scarcely a member on the floor of Congress cares anything about it. 

While brother Taylor was referring to the conduct of officers of the Government, to the pistols, bowie-knives, the oyster suppers, the pleasant little knick-knacks, and this, that, and the other, I was reminded of a circumstance that transpired in the region of the Salt Works in the State of New York. In that section there was a place called Salt Point, one of the roughest in the world for drunkenness, gaming, fighting, and cursing; and within a few miles from Salt Point was a place called Onadaga Hollow, and the people in those places used to be in a constant strife to see which should act the worst. As a man named Thaddeus Woods, who had become considerably wealthy by making and selling salt, was going from Onadaga Hollow to Salt Point, he stopped at a tavern, half way between the two places; and when he and his travelling companions had rested themselves and fed their horses, Woods told one of his teamsters, who was one of the wickedest men to be found in those two places, that he would treat him if he would say three of the wickedest words that he could think of. The man agreed that he would; and when he had the attention and eyes of the company fixed upon him, he shouted out "Onadaga Hollow, Thad. Woods, and Salt Point," remarking that those were three of the worst words that he could think of. 

Brother Taylor says that language cannot express the conduct, the feelings, and the spirit that are upon the people in the States. Well, suppose you take up a labour and swear about them, what are the worst words that can be spoken? 'Nigger stealing,' Mobs or Vigilance Committees, and Rotten-hearted Administrators of a Government are three of the meanest and wickedest words that can be spoken. I expect that somebody will write that back to the States, as being treasonable, because spoken by a Latter-day Saint. 

With regard to the present contention and strife, and to our position and situation, there are few things to be considered, and there is much labour to be performed. Let the Saints live their religion; let them have faith in God, do all the good they can to the household of faith and to everybody else, and trust in god for the result; for the world will not believe one truth about us. I tell you that the Government of the United States, and other governments that are acquainted with us, will not believe a single truth about us. What will they believe? Every lie that every poor, miserable, rotten-hearted curse can tell. What are we to do, under these circumstances? Live our religion. Are you going to contend against the United States? No. But when they come here to take our lives solely for our religion, be ye also ready. 

Do I expect to stand still, sit still, or lie still, and tamely let them take away my life? I have told you a great many times what I have to say about that. I do not profess to be so good a man as Joseph Smith was. I do not walk under their protection nor into their prisons, as he did. And though officers should pledge me their protection, as Governor Ford pledged protection to Joseph, I would not trust them any sooner than I would a wolf with my dinner; neither do I trust in a wicked judge, nor in any evil person. I trust in my God, and in honest men and women who have the power of the Almighty upon them. What will we do? Keep the wicked off as long as we can, preach righteousness to them, and teach them the way of salvation. 

Some speak of the nations now on the earth forgetting God, they have not forgotten Him, for they have never remembered Him. They have not departed from His ways, for they never found them; they have not lost faith in Him, for they never had any. There are men sitting here who were brought up Christians, who were trained to believe in the sacred words of truth contained in the Old and New Testament. What were you taught by your priests, your fathers, mothers, and associates, with regard to God? How many anxious hours I have experienced in my youth, to know, see, and understand things as they were and as they are. Did I ever see a man who could instruct me in those matters, until I saw Joseph Smith? I never did. And after I had made a profession of religion, I would ask the most powerful preachers whether they knew anything about God--where He is located, where Heaven is, and where Hell is, who is the Father, who the Son, and what the distinction is between them, who is Michael the archangel, who is Gabriel, and so on. Could they tell a thing about it? No: and I am a witness that no man in Christendom knew anything about it, unless it was revealed by the Spirit to him. 

I may say that many had revelations from God, but they had not the keys, and rights, and knowledge, and system of the religion of God. John Wesley was a good man, and so were thousands of others. Will they be saved? They are saved. You know what my doctrine is with regard to this matter. Every man will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Did they know anything about heaven, or God? No, they did not. Could they even explain one of the first simple lessons in the religion we believe, with regard to mortal man? Could any of them explain what the soul of man is, when it is written in the Bible, and they have read it thousands of times? No. 

I have heard men preach hours upon the soul of man; and one of the smartest men that I ever heard preach, would up a long discource [sic] by saying, "Finally, brethren, I must come to the conclusion that the soul of man is an immaterial substance." I have sat days and weeks, and months, and years to hear men explain the things of God; and what did they know about them? Nothing. 

We have the keys of the priesthood and the words of eternal life, and understand them, and what manner of persons ought we to be? We ought to live our religion, believe in our God, love and serve Him, be faithful to Him, to one another, to all our covenants, and keep the devils from killing us as long as we can, and that is just as long as we have a mind to. 

I recollect saying to a certain official here--one who wanted a few Indians for killing Gunnison, If you want them, I will put them into your hands.' They were presented to him, but he dared not take them. I told him at the time of the conversation, that there might be some thirty of those Indians; but, if the United States should send 50,000 of their troops here they could not get one of them, if they had a mind to keep out of the way; and he believed it. I suppose you would like to know upon what principle? Like some of brother Taylor's honest men that he thought he had found in the States, who, when he thought that he had found them, and went to put his hand upon them, were like the Paddy's flea--they were not there, they were somewhere else. That is the reason why they could not get the Indians. There is the same reason why they cannot get us, until we have a mind to go them. 

Do you wonder that the world is angry at us? No; for the time must come when your faith must be tried. Can the Lord take this kingdom and separate if [sic] from the kingdom of darkness? Can He bring it forth to establish His work upon the earth as extensively as the Prophets have prophesied, without separating us from the kingdoms of this word? You say, No. How is he going to do it? You have seen how, so far. In the days of Joseph, a string of guards was set around him on every side, lest he should have communion with the remnants of Israel who are wandering on the plains and in the kanyons of this country. Those guards fought us, whipped us, killed our Prophets, and abused our community, until we are now driven by them into the very midst of the Lamanites. Oh, what a pity they could not foresee the evil they were bringing upon themselves, by driving this people into the midst of the savages of the plains. And here am I, yet, Governor of Utah. 

Do you wonder that they are angry? Five years ago I told them that I should be Governor as long as the Lord wanted me to be, and that all hell could not remove me. They have tried during those five years to remove me, and I have had to appoint a secretary for this Territory three times in that period; for the ones appointed by the President absconded from the Territory. And the prospect now is, that I shall still have to be the Governor--that I shall again have to preside over the Legislature, and that Captain Hooper, whom I appointed Secretary, will have to continue in that office. 

God bless you. Amen. 





ORGANIZATION--DESTRUCTION OF ZION'S ENEMIES--ONENESS OF SPIRIT IN THE PRIESTHOOD, ETC. 

A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 2, 1857. 

I have appreciated brother Elias Smith's remarks. He has stated things as they are, according to my knowledge. I have been acquainted with him some twenty-three or twenty-four years. He is our Judge in this county, and I can say to his praise that he is one of the best Judges we have in the Territory; and my prayer and wish to God is that we may not have a swore Judge from this time henceforth and for ever, and that we may never have any Judges in this Territory but men of our own choice, and that we may never have any person to preside over us in the capacity of a Governor of this Territory but the man of our own choice. [Voices: "Amen."] And I can say further, we never will. [Voices: "Amen."] I have my reasons for this. 

This people here are the people of God. Here, in the Territory of Deseret, is the kingdom of God, and here are all the officers pertaining to that kingdom; and here is an organization that is organized after the order of God, and it is organized after the order of the Church of the First Born. 

Let me explain what the Church of the First Born is. It is the first Church that ever was raised up upon this earth; that is, the first born Church. That is what I mean; and when God our Father organized that Church, He organized it just as His Father organized the Church on the earth where He dwelt; and that same order is organized here in the City of Great Salt Lake; and it is that order that Joseph Smith the Prophet of God organized in the beginning in Kirtland, Ohio. Brother Brigham Young, myself, and others were present when that was done; and when those officers received their endowments, they were together in one place. They were organized, and received their endowments and blessings, and those keys were placed upon them, and that kingdom will stand for ever. 

Now mark it--that kingdom will never be overthrown; although they may kill, that is, if they can, brother Brigham and me, and brother Daniel H. Wells, and they may kill the Apostles, if they can, and so they may keep on from this time to all eternity, and they never can obliterate this work. I know it. They may kill, and destroy, and waste a great many limbs that are upon this Church; but let me tell you, they never can kill the tree nor destroy the root from whence we have sprung; for our Father and our God is that root, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the tree or vine, and we spring out of that vine; and if we keep His commandments and receive the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, it is that nourishment that comes down directly from the Father, from Jesus Christ, the true vine. 


And as President Buchanan, the President of the United States of America, holds the keys of the government of this whole nation, so Brigham Young holds the keys pertaining to this Church and people. 

Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here without President Buchanan's permission? No, not for a moment: he has permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one thousand miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken up five times; and he and his coadjutors have acknowledged it and have said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and here we are, after sending forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and our Elders. 

Brethren, I will tell you one thing, and you may be sure of it, as the Lord God lives, and as my soul lives, that nations that raise the weapons of war against this people shall perish by those weapons. [Voices: "Amen."] Every nation, every tongue, and every people shall perish, and every man and woman that gives consent to it. [Voices: "Amen."] You may "Amen" to the whole of it, for it is true. Go and read the Book of Mormon, the Prophets, and the revelations given to Joseph the Prophet; and you will learn that God has said that every nation and every people on this earth that will not serve Him shall be destroyed. 

This is the kingdom of God. When they fight us, they fight God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and they fight all the Prophets that have been from the creation down to the present time. Why? Because Joseph was the last Prophet; God spoke to him, placed the keys upon him, by Peter, James, and John. Do you suppose they did it without having authority from Jesus? No; Jesus told them when to do it, and told them who the man was; and Joseph, the Prophet of the living God, placed those keys on brother Brigham. 

The Father told Jesus when to go and again commit these keys to men on the earth; Jesus told the Twelve when to do it; Joseph told Brigham when to do it. Now, look at it naturally, and you will see that every man and woman that raise their hands against this people will be destroyed, and that without remedy. 

Set your heart at rest, then: you need not be troubled, nor frightened at all; for as the Lord liveth, and we live, we will prosper, and we will come off victorious. [Voices: "Amen."] You know we have to stick in an <if> --if you live your religion, and will do as you are told, and become like the clay in the hands of the potter. 

Who are you to be subject to? You say you are willing to be subject to God--to Jesus Christ. You are willing, if Peter came along, to listen to him. Well, Peter is here, John is here, Elias is here, Elijah is here, Jesus is here, and the Father is here. What! in person? If not in person, their authority is here, with all the power that ever was or ever will be to seal men and women up to everlasting have seal them on earth and in heaven, by the power of Elijah, which is upon brother Brigham; and it is on every man he authorizes. 

Joseph had those keys and powers directly from those men, and we received them from Joseph; so you see we are legal heirs to the kingdom of heaven. You have got to be subject to these powers that be; for there is no power only that which is ordained of God. You have to listen to that. 

Can we be Saints by having our own will, our own way? Brother Elias has been talking about that this morning, how he has felt that will that was in him. Gentlemen, he has not been easy to handle and place upon the wheel; if he had been, he would have been filled with almighty power, even the power that was upon Joseph and Brigham, and upon every other good man in this Church; but he is going to walk up henceforth; he aint going to stand back any more. He is akin to brother Joseph, and Joseph is ashamed of his own kindred that will not step forth and be valiant, and god is ashamed of them. 

Be passive in the hands of God, in the hands of His servants, as clay in the hands of the potter. How is that? How can the servants of god mould you, fashion you, and prepare you to become moulded, and fashioned after the likeness of God, unless you are passive? 

If you go into the adobie yard, you may see men engaged in the business of adobie making, and you can see them moulding adobies out of the elements. Suppose that clay would not be passive, but would have its own will, and not be subject to the moulder of the adobies, he could not mould them, because the adobie would not let him mould it. 

When I carried on the pottery business, I used to take a good deal of pains to get good clay, and hauled it a long distance, and then I always immersed it before I put it into the mill to grind it. Why? To make it passive; and I mould, grind, and grind it again, until it becomes passive; then I took it out of the mill, and carried it into the shop, where it was kneaded as you would a cake, and then put on to the wheel and turned into a vessel unto honour. Did I ever design to turn a vessel unto dishonor? No. If I did, I did not get any reward for it: I only got reward for those I moulded and fashioned according to the dictation of my master; and I presented them to him that he might receive them, as Jesus says--"Father, I have lost none of those thou gavest me, except the son of perdition." 

Go into the blacksmith's shop, on this block, and you will find brother Jonathan Pugmire, the foreman. I go to him and say, "Brother Jonathan, make me an axe." He goes to work with a piece of iron that, the moment he tries to shape it, flies into a thousand pieces. "I can do nothing with that," says he; "I must get a piece of iron that will be passive, and then I will make you an axe that will be as keen as a razor." He gets another piece, and that begins to fly. It is not the fault of the blacksmith. "But," says the iron, "don't you handle me in this manner." He throws that aside: that has got to go back to the furnace again, to be melted and made into a loop, and that turned out into iron again, because it was not passive; and then it becomes passive by getting the snappish stuff out of it: it runs out with the dross. The dross, you know, is very brittle and snappish. 

When you find a man or woman snappish and fretful, and not willing to be subject, you may know there is a good deal of dross in that character, because dross is brittle. That dross has got to come out. 

Talking about trials, brother Elias says he did not come here with the pioneers. It was pretty hard and laborious, I admit; but it was one of the pleasantest journeys I ever performed. Still there was a great deal of care and anxiety, especially on brother Brigham and those that helped him. Did we persevere? We did. We came here to the Valleys of the Mountains, and you have followed us. 
Let me tell you, gentlemen, you have got to learn to be passive and be like clay in the hands of the potter, or be like a tallowed rag or wick before a hot fire: it becomes limber and passive, and you can tie it into a thousand knots, and it will not break. 

Are you of that nature that you will not break and fly as though there were a hundred convulsions in you? You have got to come to that standard, as true as you ever become the true subjects and heirs of the kingdom of God. And let brother Brigham take a hundred men of that character, and I would give more for them than ten thousand people who are stiff in their own way; and he would take that hundred men and go into the mountains and whip out the world. 

We read that one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. We read that in the Bible. You have always heard it from the days of your youth to the present time. Do you appreciate it? 

We will refer to Gideon, the Prophet of God, when his host was so numerous that he went and made a selection of three hundred men to put all his enemies to flight. That is in the Bible. For heaven's sake, believe that, if you won't believe me. 

There was Daniel, a servant of God, one who kept His commandments; he was valiant, and his friends said to him, "Daniel, put down the window, or they will see you praying." "I will pray with it open," he replied; and he opened his window and prayed, and told them all that he asked no odds of them. "I will pray to my Father and God, who can preserve me in a den of lions, or in boiling hot oil, or in anything else, and He will sustain me while He will send you to hell, you poor devils." He had such confidence in his God. 

Should not you have as much confidence in God as brother Brigham, Heber, or the Twelve Apostles have?--as much confidence in this vine as any branch that pertains to it? You should. 

To gratify some who cry, "Oh, don't say anything, brother Heber,--don't say anything, brother Brigham, to bring down the United States upon us," we have at times omitted printing some of the remarks that might offend the weak-stomached world, and we have made buttermilk and catnip tea to accommodate the tastes of our enemies; but the poor devils are not pleased after all. Would they come any quicker if we told them that they were poor, miserable, priest-ridden curses, who want a President in the chair that dare not speak for fear those hell-hounds be on him? 

God knew that Zachary Taylor would strike against us, and He sent him to hell. President Fillmore was the next man who came on the platform, and he did us good. God bless him! Then came President Pierce, and he did not strive to injure us. We hoped that the next after him would do us justice; but he has issued orders to send troops to kill brother Brigham and me, and to take the young women to the States. 

The woman will be damned that will go: she shall dry up in the fountain of life, and be as though she never was. But there aint any a-going--[Voices: "There are none that want to go!"]--unless they are whores. If the soldiers come here, those creatures will have the privilege of showing themselves and of becoming debauched. 

I tell you there is not a purer set of women on God's earth than there is here; and they shall live and bear the souls of men, and bear tabernacles for those righteous spirits that are kept back for the last time, for the winding-up scenery. 

Will the President that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse him; and He will also curse his successor, if he takes the same stand; and he will curse all those that are his coadjutors, and all who sustain him. What for? For coming here to destroy the kingdom of God, and the Prophets, and Apostles, and inspired men and women; and God Almighty will curse them, and I curse them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to my calling; and if there is any virtue in my calling, they shall be cursed, every man that lifts his heel against us from this day forth. [Voices: "Amen."] 

Am I afraid? No; but I am afraid to do wrong. I feel joy in my heart to be valiant and tell you the truth; and I pray that God my Father and his Son Jesus Christ may bring the evil upon them that they desire for this people. 

Our enemies are crying out that we are confused, that we have rebelled, and that the Devil is to pay. I pray that God Almighty may bring that thing upon them that they have imagined upon us. But we are at peace and in harmony; we are worshipping and serving God. Will they overcome us? Never; no, never; no, never, while the earth stands, if we will stand up and be valiant. 

I know that you never heard brother Brigham rebuke me for being valiant before this people. He says, "Let her go, Heber; let her slide." You never saw any other spirit in him in your life; and every other good man there is will say so and has said so; and they are the elect of God, and they will be saved. 

But be wise, be wise, be still, as I told a man this morning. Said I, You are always talking, you talk to every-body, and think everybody our friends; but they are not. I have lots and scores of friends here, and so has brother Brigham, who, by their ignorance would destroy us from the earth. 

You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to hold your tongues, and keep what you get, and increase upon it. If you do not keep the word of life you receive--that which proceeds from God, your minds never will expand, and you will always be barren, like unto a barren woman. 

Now, receive the seed, as Jesus says; and if that seed takes root, it will grow, and swell, and sprout, and bring forth. What will it bring forth? Something like the character that produced the seed. If you plant corn in the field, and that corn is rooted out of the ground, it perishes, and don't produce anything. Receive the word and treasure it up in your hearts, and then you shall continue to receive the word of life, here a little and there a little; and you shall grow, and increase, and multiply, and no good thing shall be withheld from you. 

Learn, above all things, brethren and sisters, to have a passive spirit, and be subject where you should be subject. I hear a great many say, "I am willing to be subject to brother Brigham, but I don't want to be subject to his one and to that one." Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, if you won't be subject to my words, and listen to them, and receive them, you will not be subject to and receive brother Brigham's words. How can it be possible for you to receive his words and reject mine? 

Now, we will say brother Brigham is the head of this vine that has sprung out in the latter days,--that is, the head of the vine that is upon the earth, that you naturally see; but Joseph was the head of the vine when he was here, and he is now, only you cannot see him: then I am connected to that vine, as one of brother Brigham's Counsellors; and then the Twelve, the Seventies, High Priests, and other officers. Now, just look at it. Why should you not listen to one man as much as to another connected to that vine; in case he produces the fruit of that vine? And they should know whether that branch is connected to the vine: they should know whether the fruit is the same as that produced by the head of the vine. 

When I speak the truth, is it not the same as though brother Brigham spoke it? When I tell it as it is in the Lord Jesus christ, what is the difference? I can go into my garden and show you apple-trees there with perhaps a hundred limbs which have apples on them. You may taste an apple from the first or head limb, then of the second, and the third, and the hundredth; and the fruit tastes just alike, because it all came from one tree, and the tree came from the root, and it is all one thing. 

This is the principle; we should be connected one with the other, every quorum in its place, and keep organized, and keep in our places, according to the order of the Church of the First Born. 

Are we going to be preserved? Bless your souls! I have no more fears, if this people will live their religion, and learn to be passive like clay in the hands of the potter, than as though I was in heaven; for if I was there and rebelled, as Lucifer did, I should expect to be chastised and cast out with all those connected with me. 

A great many suppose that when they get there they will be perfectly safe. You will, if you keep the commandments of God; but if you cannot learn to keep the commandments of God in Great Salt Lake City, how can you learn to keep them when you have to flee to the mountains? And if you cannot keep them here, how do you expect to keep them in Jackson County?--for we are as sure to go back there as we exist. 

This Church and kingdom will reign triumphant; and when the United States take a course to bring us into collision, they will strive to take away everything from us that they have given us. What of it? We will make them the aggressors: they shall be the first men that shall rebel against God and against this people; and if we are not the aggressors, and we stand on the defensive, and they come upon us, and they fall into our hands, the Lord says, if they repent and we forgive them, our blessings shall be doubled unto us; so also for the second time: but if he comes upon you the third time, thine enemy is in thine hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good: but if he repent, and you forgive him the third time, then I will reward unto you a hundred-fold. But don't you forgive, unless brother Brigham does. If he says, Give them justice and righteousness, then it will be right. 

Now, you need not sit here as judges, and judge brother Brigham. Good heaven! how does any one without any priesthood look when judging him and his brethren? He is capable of judging all things pertaining to this kingdom; for he has the keys of light and revelation, and God is with him. I cannot comprehend him, only in proportion to the measure of the Spirit bestowed upon me. Can brother Wells comprehend me? No, he cannot, nor never can, only as he has the same measure of the Spirit; and no man can comprehend his file-leader, except he has the same measure of the Spirit. 


But let me walk in my place, and the sap that is in brother Brigham is in me; and the sap that is in me is in him: but can I measure any further than my capacity? No. Then what do you judge me for? God will lead brother Brigham; don't you be scared. He will give him revelation upon revelation; and when he says, Do this or that, God will sanction it, and he will bless all men and women that walk up to it, and curse every one that backs out. 

Suppose I am partaking of the same spirit and nourishment that brother Brigham partakes of, and he is resting himself while brother Heber speaks, don't you see he speaks the mind of brother Brigham? You may see it has been so all the time, and it will be so for ever. 

You have come to me, and I have given you counsel, and then you have gone to brother Brigham, and he has given you the same counsel; and when you have asked counsel of him, and then come to me, you say, "That is just as brother Brigham said to me." Do you suppose I could give any counsel contrary to his mind? 

Well, then, let that Spirit and power be in our families, and I want to know what difference there will be? Brother Hyde, don't you never give counsel from this time henceforth but what would be the counsel of brother Brigham. Just so with the Seventies. 

There is brother Pratt, in England, and the brethren that preside there: let those men do as the Spirit of God dictates them without being carried off by some other spirit, and they will never go astray--no, never, although they are nine thousand miles from here. By taking this course, would you ever see a wife trying to pervert the way of her husband? I am talking about good men and good women. Would she do it? No: she would be one with him, even as I am one with brother Brigham. 

Listen to the counsel of God and those men that are placed here; and if you will do that, I can promise you, in the name of Israel's God, and by virtue of my calling, that you never shall be swerved aside, and our enemies shall be overcome every time before they cross that Big Mountain, if we have to do it ourselves. 

If I did not say that, you would be calculating that we were going to make a perfect servant and drudge of of [sic] our God, just as a great many of you wish to make of us. If you want a pound of coffee, or tea, or a pair of shoes, it is, "Come, brother Heber, go quick and get me what I want; if you don't, I will go and tell brother Brigham." Go, and be damned. 

I wish that all such characters were in hell, where they belong. [Voice: "They are there."] I know it; and it is that which makes them wiggle so--the poor, miserable devils. They would make our Father and God a drudge--make him do the dirty work, kill those poor devils, and every poor, rotten-hearted curse in our midst. With them it is, "O Lord, kill them, kill them, damn them, kill them, Lord." It is just like that, and their course has just as much nonsense in it. We intend to kill the poor curses ourselves, before they get to the Big Mountain. And we are going to dig a cache, or take some natural one, and put all the whining men and women into it, and let them whine. We want to be released from such poor hellyons [sic], and we will be; we won't have a murmurer or complainer in the House of Israel. If we go out to war, let them stay here, and let the Devil handle them. 

How long is it, brother Brigham, since we first went to Kirtland? [Brother Brigham: Twenty-four years, this fall.] In September, 1833, we went to Kirtland and gathered with Joseph and the Saints. We had to go and buy guns, and stand in his defence, in that early day; and we did it for months and months, to keep the hellyons from him in Kirtland, twenty-four years ago; and so it continued from that day to the day of his death; and it is just so now. They are trying to take the lives of brother Brigham and your leaders. It is their design, and the design of the President of the United States, with his cabinet, and of Congress; and all the priests there are in the world back them up. That is the truth. 

Get the Spirit of the Lord, and stop your whining, every one of you. "Oh," says one, "I will leave you, if you don't wait on me as you have hitherto, and get me all the things I ask for." I wish you would: you could not please me better. Does that show such whiners have got integrity in them? A man or woman that has got integrity should have it, if there is nothing but a potatoe to eat. And if you have not a stocking to your feet, nor a gown, nor a petticoat, nor a short gown, you should be as true as the sun to the servants of the living God; and if you are not so under such circumstances, you would not be if you were loaded down with treasures. 

It is true, I will tell you, the day of your being petted is past; and you have got to come to the crisis when the gate will be shut down between us and the United States, and that very soon, ladies and gentlemen; and if you don't get your test, you may say I am false. [President Young, in a crying tone, said, "There are no more ribbons coming here: what shall I do?"] 

O dear, I want to know if we aint going to have any more ribbons? A great many of your hearts are on nothing else but ribbons, and fine dresses, and bustles, and fineries: you don't think of anything else. What is your religion good for, or your integrity? Did brother Brigham and Heber turn away from Joseph, because the Kirtland Bank broke, and the stores all run out, until there was nothing but an old dried-up johnnycake? 

Did we forsake him? No, never; and we never had anything except we worked for it and go it by the hardest licks; and our wives would think that they were very extravagant to get a piece of calico of six yards for a dress pattern; and they thought that there were too many puckers then: and now you have got to have six or eight breadths puckered up. Why don't you take some of those breadths out and make aprons, and not call on your husbands for new calico, &c., every week. 

No man on the earth loves women better than I do. I love a good woman, one that has a good spirit; I love that woman that will strive to make me happy, and I love that son that seeks to please his father and mother; for he will make a good husband. I love that daughter that seeks to please her father and mother, because she will make a good wife. 

You cannot help yourselves; the gate will be shut down directly, ladies. I am talking to you because it is customary in the States to address the ladies first; so, if you get it first, you must not be jealous of me. I respect our ladies; and there should not be a lady in the house of Israel but what should be like and angel to administer to her husband, and to pray for him, and to nourish him by night and by day, and watch his house and his pillow, and see that he is preserved in the last days. 

We have got to go to work and manufacture our own clothing, our shoes, our stockings, our bonnets, our dresses, and everything we need. 

I will refer you to brother Brigham's words. How many times has he said to you, Ladies, make your own bonnets at home, out of the elements that grow in the valley of Great Salt Lake and in the regions round about. Why do you not do it? Tell about listening to brother Brigham! You look to-day as though you were listening to his counsel. 

Many of the sisters presume to judge us. Say they, There is brother Kimball; his women have all got store bonnets, and ribbons, and laces, and this, that, and the other thing, brooches, jewellery, and feather beds sowed under their arms. Aint we just as good as they? Yes, if you do as well as they do. 

I won't say anything about anybody else's family, only my own. Are you listening to brother Brigham's counsel? Some of you say, I am willing to listen to him. Well, listen to him, and listen to him for ever. I am under the necessity of laying out of my substance, and every dime I have got, and that I can get, that I would lay up for a little sugar, a little of this, and a little of that, that we actually need, a little butter and lard, that we grow in our midst; but instead of that, I have to pay every dime I can get for morocco shoes, for my women to wear to meeting; and they will wear out a pair while once going to meeting. [Voice: "Don't you wish they earned them themselves?"] Yes, I pray that you may have to earn them with your own fingers, or go without them. I pray that prayer, and I know it will come to pass. 

I am defending brother Brigham here, and that by the Holy Ghost and the dictation of the counsel he received from the Father, and the Son, and the old Patriarchs, and Prophets. You may go home, and say, Brother Kimball is hard. Go and say it as quick as you please. I ask no odds of any such people. I am independent of you; I know his feelings, I will preach his word, and the word of God that came through him; and that is all that will save you. 

Do you want such things to cease? I just know it aint right. We ought to make our own leather, and we can make as good as can be made in the States; but no, we must have some States leather. We can make as good things here as can be made by any other people; but you want foreign fixings. 
We have our Spanish fixings--a pair of spurs that will weigh seven pounds, ringing and gingling [sic] as though all hell was coming. Why don't you put them away? I want you to make an ox goad with a spike in the end of it, and ram that into your horse, and get this instead of spurs, and destroy a horse at once. I cannot keep a decent horse, neither can brother Brigham, or any other man; for the boys will kill them. Let them rest: they are as good as we are in their sphere of action; they honour their calling, and we do not, when we abuse them: they have the same life in them that you have, and we should not hurt them. It hurts them to whip them, as bad as it does you; and when they are drawing as though their daylights would fly out of them, you must whip, whip, whip. Is there religion in that? No; it is an abuse of God's creation that he has created for us. 

I do not think that many ever suppose that animals are going to be resurrected. When God touched Elijah's eyes, and he looked on the mountain, he saw chariots and horses, and men by thousands and millions. Where did they came from? There is nothing on this earth but what came from heaven, and it grew and was created before it grew on this earth: the Bible says so. 

We grow peaches here, and they are created, and we send them to Sanpete. Don't they grow before they are sent? Yes, and everything that is upon this earth grew before it came here; it was transported from heaven to earth. 

Let us us [sic] be merciful to the brute creation. 

God bless you, brethren and sisters, and multiply you. Peace be with you, and upon this people, and upon your children, and upon every being on the Lord's footstool that wishes peace to Israel. [Voices: "Amen."] 

The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. [Voice: "They will destroy themselves."] They will destroy themselves, as the Lord liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. [Voices: "Amen.] The Lord God will bring mildew on the nation that has afflicted us; for that nation shall take it first, and thence it shall go forth to every nation, kingdom, government, and state, and upon every town that shall lift their heels against God and this people. Amen. 





PERSECUTION OF THE SAINTS--REDEMPTION OF ZION, AND THE DOWNFALL OF HER ENEMIES--A VISION, ETC. 

Discourse by Orson Hyde. 

It is with much pleasure that I arise, this morning, to address you, my brethren and sisters; and I hope to have your undivided attention, and to share liberally the benefits of your prayers. 

My object is to enlighten your understandings, and to strengthen your faith, so far as I may be able. The responsibility of a public speaker in this Church is truly great, especially when his official standing and character are of such a nature as to give to his words a weight and an importance commensurate with the high position which he may be called to occupy. 

The husbandman is ever desirous to procure the very best qualities and kinds of seeds to plant and sow in the earth. One principal reason is, he must himself eat of the products of the seeds that he plants and sows. So, also, the speaker that plants certain principles in the hearts of his audience must himself eat the fruits thereof sooner or later; and it should be our aim to avoid planting my principle in the hearts of our hearers, the fruits of which would set our teeth on edge, or shed upon us an inglorious reputation. Therefore, the fruits of any principle, true or false, inculcated by me, will as naturally and as necessarily fall to my lot, as the seeds of any grain or plant, when ripe, will fall back into the earth, from whence it sprung. 

Truth, therefore, is my delight; and if I know and understand myself, I have no delight in anything else. Truth came from God as a precious magnet. It is a part of himself, and he who possesses it possesses a property that may be attracted, with its possessor, to the great source and fountain of truth--even to God himself. 

True it is that we are here in the valleys of the mountains for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ; and it is also true that, after being robbed and plundered of our worldly fortunes because of the hatred of an unbelieving world, excited against us because of our religion, we are exiles here to-day, having been denied citizenship in the States from which we came. Our Prophets have been cruelly martyred in cold blood, under the plighted faith of a great State for their protection from all unlawful molestation. We have seen how much such promised protection was worth in the days of Joseph and Hyrum; and would it be worth any more now? Rather trust in the God of Heaven, in these mountains, than in any such rotten promises that may be made only to beguile us and deliver us up to ignominious death. 

The woman spoken of by John the Revelator as being driven or fleeing into the wilderness, after having brought forth the man-child, is said to be the Church by our wise orthodox commentators upon holy writ. Be it so. The Latter-Day Saints fled from the face of the serpent monster into this vast wilderness and desert, and it appears the serpent cast out a flood of water from his mouth to destroy the woman. This is highly figurative language; yet is there any one present who can favour us with a better solution of the matter than the waters or troops which the United States are now sending here to destroy us? God grant that the earth and the heavens also may help the woman! 
Plausible may be the pretences of these troops; yet if their real object is not to persecute every man and woman that will stand by the Prophets and servants of God, and uphold them, then I do not read correctly the manifestations to me. How far they may be able to carry out their plans, time will determine. 

Once, however, a man put forth his hand to steady the ark of God. It reeled to and fro. It was in a cart, drawn by oxen. Probably it might have pleased Uzzah better if it had been put into a stately carriage, drawn by two or four fine steeds; but he ventured to put forth his hand to steady the ark of God, and was smitten of God at once for his presumptuous interference with the affairs of the great I AM. I suppose there are seeming irregularities in the affairs of Utah that Uncle Sam does not like, and he puts forth his hand in the shape of an army to right up and steady the ark of God. 

As the Book of Mormon has been brought to the notice of Congress, by a quotation from its pages, respecting a man having but one wife, unless commanded of God to have more; and though such command has been given to the Latter-day Saints, yet I omit comment thereon at this time, and proceed to give another quotation from the same book, which appears to have a bearing upon the present aspect of affairs. (Third European edition, page 28.) The Prophet Nephi, in vision, saw the vast multitudes of men upon the face of this land, America, and said that there were saved two churches only. The one is the Church of tqe [sic] Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the Devil; and whose belongeth not to the Church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church which is the mother of abominations and the whore of all the earth. 

"And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. 

"And it came to pass that I beheld the Church of the Lamb of God; and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters: nevertheless I beheld that the Church of the Lamb, who were the Saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the great whore whom I saw. 


"And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God. 

"And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the Saints of the Church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory. 

"And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon the great and abominable church, insomuch as there were wars and rumours of wars among all the nations and kindreds of the earth; and as there began to be wars and rumours of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of abominations, the angel spoke unto me, saying, Behold the wrath of God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold thou seest all these things; and when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church of all the earth, whose foundation is the Devil, then, at that day, the work of the Father shall commence in preparing the way for the fulfilling of this covenants which he hath made to his people, who are of the house of Israel." 

In view of the sentiment contained in the foregoing quotation, I am led to believe that whatever branch of the great and abominable church shall lead the way to fight against the Lamb of God, will have a greater task to perform that they are aware of. It is not merely a little handful of Latter-day Saints that they have to contend with; but, it is with all the celestial powers. This, however, they do not believe; and, consequently, like the unthinking horse, they rush to the onset. 

What a direct bearing the foregoing quotation has upon the present signs of the times! It is as correct as as [sic] though he was writing the history of the past. Is not this an evidence of of [sic] its truth? The scenes are rolling on in the very track of the prophecy; and while our eyes see, let us fear God, and be grateful to his name; while our enemies, having eyes, see not, but boldly rush on to destruction. 

I feel disposed to bring to your notice other sayings of ancient and also of modern times, touching the events of these days. 

The Book of Mormon, in a dozen places, tells the fate of the Gentile nation, if they shall harden their hearts against this work when it shall be brought to their knowledge; and also the fate of every one that shall fight against it or its followers: so I will not detain you with quotations upon this subject. You all know them, or ought to. Read the Book of Mormon. 

In the month of December, 1833, soon after the Saints' troubles began, in Jackson County, Missouri, the Prophet Joseph had a revelation from the Lord respecting the Saints there, in which he says:--"Let them importune at the feet of the Judge (for protection and redress); and if he heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the Governor; and if the Governor heed them not, let them importune at the feet of the President; and if the President heed them not, then will the Lord arise and come forth out of his hiding-place, and in his fury vex the nation, and in his hot displeasure and his fierce anger, in his time, will cut off those wicked, unfaithful, and unjust stewards, and appoint them their portion among hypocrites and unbelievers--even in outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. 

"Pray ye, therefore, that their ears may be open to your cries, that I may be merciful unto them, that these things may not come upon them. What I have said unto you must needs be, that all men may be left without excuse; that wise men and rulers may hear and know that which they have never considered; that I may proceed to bring to pass my act--my strange act, and perform my work--my strange work; that men may discern between the righteous and the wicked, saith your God." 

Did the Saints importune at the feet of the Judge and of the Governor? Yes, they did, in all humility and sincerity. What was the result? About the same as if you were to importune with the thief and robber to protect you from abuse and restore to you the stolen treasure. They heeded not the petition. Then importunity was made at the feet of the President, not only in writing, but also by the Prophet Joseph in person; and what did this avail? It elicited this answer:--"Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you." Sovereignties must manage their own affairs. Congress nor the Executive can interfere. So the President heeded them not. 

Now, when will the Lord's time come to vex the nations, &c.? It is not for me to say; yet it would be a time very opportune, when the nation shall begin to dictate to an organized State or Territory in matters of their own internal policy and municipal regulations. When we were in distress and trouble, the nation had no power to help us; but when we attempt to help ourselves and to rid our community of lying and corrupt men, then the nation can send her armies against us. Well, be it so. It is all right, and will hasten the downfall of the mighty image of Nebuchadnezzar; and the power that falls upon "this stone" will be broken, and the stone rejected by the builders will become the head of the corner. 

As Joseph Smith has sealed his testimony with his blood, his testament is now of force; and I will quote again from a revelation given through him, on Fishing River, Missouri, June 22, 1834:--"Therefore it is expedient in me that mine Elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion; for I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil--I will fight your battles." 

Although, here is a great and precious promise; yet do not suppose that we are to sit down in idleness or indifference and share this promise; but remember this common--sense, home-made scripture, "God helps those who help themselves." Therefore, let us neglect no duty on our part, but be ready, not only for the powers of this world and the powers of darkness, but for the day of judgment and eternal glory in the mansions of our God. 

If armies from the East and from the West are approaching our Territory, to offer protection and removal to all who wish it, and to deal out death and ruin to all the balance, the hand of the Lord is in it. He will send forth his angels, and gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and that do iniquity. He may use any beings that he has made, or that he pleases, and call them his angels or messengers. The Devil himself is an angel of God, but a fallen one. 

Again, the presence of an armed force will prove to ourselves, to God, and angels, which we possess the most of--the fear of God or the fear of man. We are commanded to fear not them that can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but we are required to fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. But there is one Scripture which says--"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift upon a standard against him." He will make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. We have all got to die at some time, and why should we object to the time or the manner? If we are right before the Lord, and in the discharge of our duty, it matters not when or how we go hence. 

I will venture here to relate an open vision had by brother Stephen M. Farnsworth, of Pleasant Grove, Utah County, while he was residing in Nauvoo, previous to the death of the Prophets Joseph and Hyrum. Some may possibly think and say, it was manufactured for this occasion. But there are many here under the sound of my voice who heard brother Farnsworth relate the vision years ago. I will tell it as correctly as my memory will allow me. 

In the spring of 1844, brother Farnsworth started out after dinner, to go to work on the Temple as usual. The sun shone brightly as he walked down Parley-street towards the place of his labour, when suddenly the sky became overcast, and a dizzling [sic] rain set in. He stood amazed, and saw a tumult and excitement among the people about the Temple, and a great excitement in the lower part of the town. He wondered what it could mean. Presently he was told that the Saints had to leave Nauvoo and take a great journey to the west. So great was the journey that it seemed almost impossible for him to perform it. Now he could see numerous trains of covered waggons and teams crossing the Mississippi river, and bending their course westward as far as the eye could reach. He also hitched up and joined the trains, and the journey did not seem so arduous as he first anticipated. He saw the Twelve Apostles in the crowd; but saw neither Joseph nor Hyrum. 

They journeyed westward a great distance, and finally came to a place where they intended to locate. They stopped, and began to make improvements: but distress and starvation stared them in the face, and it really seemed to him that they must perish; but soon there began to be plenty of everything to eat, &c. This lasted quite a time: then there began to be scarcity again, and famine seemed to prevail; yet he saw none die of starvation, yet great distress among the people. Then there began to be plenty again--enough to eat of everything desirable. The people all appeared in one place, with large, strong hoops around them in a body. The Twelve followed brother Brigham with mallets and fierce countenances, and vigorously drove those hoops upon the people until it did seem that they would be pinched or squeezed to death. Still they resolutely continued to drive the hoops. Dark clouds now began to arise, and a general gloom prevailed. The hoops were all the time being driven tighter and tighter. 

About this time, an army or force of the enemy came into the neighbourhood and offered protection to all who wished it. The darkness of the clouds, and their awfully-threatening aspect are now past description. The people burst those hoops and sallied out like a flock of sheep, and more than one-half of them went to the enemy for protection. The scene was so awfully frightful that he was just on the eve of flying himself; but a thought occurred to him to hold on a little longer. He did so. Dark, angry, and frightful were the clouds, indeed! Now is your hour and the power of darkness! Presently the cloud over the Saints burst, and light beamed upon them. 

This cloud rolled off upon the enemy and those who had fled to them for protection; and oh! the scenes of death, lamentation, and mourning that occurred in the enemies' camp beggar all description. The burning wrath of earth, heaven, and hell, in fiery streams of molten lava seemed to leave not one alive to tell the take. It did not stop here, but rolled throughout the United States, carrying the same desolation in its track. The faithful band of brethren left, then followed brother Brigham up into a large open cave, where there was everything good to eat and drink that heart could desire. The shouts of hosannahs!--the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God for the deliverance wrought for them rent the air and made the mountains echo the praises of our God. From this cave they journeyed, I need not say where; but, suffice it to say, no opposition had any effect upon them. The power of God was with them, and His voice was in their camp. 

There is much more to this vision which I deem unnecessary to write. But after it was all over, brother Farnsworth came to himself, standing in Parley-street on a beautiful sunshiny day. No covered waggons or excitement in town or about the temple. When he came to himself, he concluded that his exercises were of the Devil, from the fact that he saw neither Joseph nor Hyrum in all the scenes; but it was Brigham, brother Kimball, and the Twelve. Before these scenes began to really take place, Joseph and Hyrum were killed at Carthage, and consequently were not seen by brother Farnsworth. 

I relate this from memory, being some months since I heard brother Farnsworth tell it at his residence in Pleasant Grove; but, in the main, it is as he told me, so far as I have related it. There are those here to whom brother Farnsworth told it more than twelve years ago, and they know whether I tell it as he did. 

I have considerable confidence in this vision, for two reasons. First, brother Farnsworth is a correct man: his character is without spot or blemish. Secondly, this vision corresponds with a hundred and one other sacred things written in ancient and modern times. And I may add a third reason,--it has all been fulfilled to the very letter, so far as time would allow. 

I am fully inclined to believe that all these sayings, both ancient and modern, must mean something; and God will defend a people who trust in him--a people whose prayers are ascending up into His ears day and night for protection and redress. He will steady His own ark without the aid of voluntary service, and will signify the fact in unmistakable terms to such as volunteer a crusade against him or his cause. Did not God create the heavens and the earth? Has he no rights? Must he have no voice in the affairs of this world, without being indicted, arraigned, and tried for treason? 

If we cannot live by trusting in God, do we wish to live at all? What enlightened Latter-day Saint can see any charm in this world to chain or bind him here, when his hope and his trust are in Christ his Saviour? To talk about a religion to a Latter-day Saint that has no living Prophet or Apostle in it--that has no living God in it, who can and will speak to his creature, man, in this day, is to talk to him of an egg without meat, a body without spirit, and eye without sight, or an ear without hearing. To make a Latter-day Saint, or even a Mormon, if his heart were ever touched with the fire of truth, into any kind of orthodox Christian, would require as much faith and skill as it ever did to turn water into wine, or to feed five thousand men, women, and children with five loaves and two fishes. 

After apostatizing from this Church, some may join some of the sects for popularity's sake, or for the sake of making money or a living, and profess to believe all about the God without body, parts, or passions: but secretly they say, You are fools--you are in the dark--you worship, you know not what. Scores of apostates, that have left this Church and returned to it again, have confessed these very things. While they outwardly affect to believe the dogmas of the religious world, they secretly pity and despise. I mean such as are not past feeling. 

Do our enemies object to some being frightened away from here by the glass of truth being held before them to enable them to see themselves as God sees them, and have become frightened at their own moral deformities and left? Will the time not come when none of the uncircumcised in heart or the unclean can enter the abodes of the Saints? If the old Prophets have told us the truth, such times must come; and if they now begin to be foreshadowed, think it not strange! "Zion will be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." (Isaiah.) 

I feel and know that I am a poor, weak, unprofitable servant, at best. My life is of no great value, when compared with the value and importance of this kingdom; and I have lately thought that it would be about the height of my ambition to lose my life to save that of some better man. I know not what I will do; but I pray God my heavenly Father that I may do my duty and honour His name and cause with my every and latest breath. I have tried to do right and to live my religion. I have sought the Lord day and night, and still seek Him, and by His grace shall continue to seek Him until I can fall upon His neck and embrace Him, and say, "Thou art my Father;" and He will say to me, "Thou art my son!" I have no righteousness to boast of. I have no oil to spare. 

But if sore trials must come, even to the laying down of our lives, I do not know that I can ask for the time to be prolonged with any hope of being much better. I mean to be about as good as the light and knowledge I have will allow me. Full of imperfections as I am, my heart, soul, and spirit feel to bless the Saints with all who wish them well; and the enemies that would persecute the Saints--that would try to overthrow the kingdom of God on the earth, and ensnare the feet and shed the blood of the Prophets of God, let their blessings be turned into cursings, their prayers become sin, and the stain of innocent blood blast their hopes for ever, if they repent not. 

Mormonism is true. The Priesthood of God is on the earth, and is destined to bear rule not only in heaven, but in the earth also; and likewise in every part of God's dominions. This makes the Devil and all his subjects angry at the Saints, and they wish to kill us off. Kill just as many and just as soon as God will let you. In this respect, I ask no favours of any man in this lower world. I ask God to be my friend, and to give me grace and strength to be His friend so long as I live in this world. 

Ye Saints of latter day be humble, meek, and child-like. Be fearless and resolute. God grant unto you and me hearts of iron and nerves of steel, abounding with faith, hope, and charity, full of every good work, and no evil work. Pray in faith that God may guide our leaders aright, and that wise and profitable counsels may be given them for us, and we possess hearts to appreciate and obey. The Lord dictate the policy of his kingdom, and shield his faithful, ministers from the snares of this world, and of death, until we shall have completed our earthly mission; and then may our exit shed a lustre upon the cause which our lives have been devoted to sustain. 





IGNORANCE AND LOW CONDITION OF THE WORLD.--PAST EXPERIENCE, PRESENT POSITION, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE SAINTS. 

A Discourse by Elder John Taylor delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, August 23, 1857. 

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