REMINISCENCES AND TESTIMONY OF PARLEY P. PRATT.
A Discourse by Elder Parley P. Pratt, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, September 7, 1856.
Beloved brethren and sisters,--Being about to depart from this Territory and from the "home mission" to which I was appointed among you, and to journey to the States on a mission, I rise to express my feelings and my faith, and to leave my testimony with you.
There are some, I presume, in this congregation, who personally have been strangers to me, and who have not heard my testimony. I have been acquainted in this Church and connected with it from the first year of its organization in the wilderness of western New York. It was organized on the 6th day of April, 1830, and I was baptised into it about the 1st of the September following.
When I first became a member of this Church, one small room could have contained all the members there then were in the world, and that, too, without being crowded; for at times, I presume, there were not fifty.
The first thing that attracted my attention towards this work was the Book of Mormon. I happened to see a copy of it. Some man, nearly a stranger to it, and not particularly a believer in it, happened to get hold of a copy: he made mention of it to me, and gave me the privilege of coming to his house and reading it. This was at a place about a day's journey from the residence of Joseph Smith the Prophet and his father, and while I was returning to the work of my ministry; for I was then travelling and preaching, being connected with a society of people sometimes called Campbellites or Reformed Baptists.
I had diligently searched the Scriptures, and prayed to God to open my mind that I might understand them; and he had poured his Spirit and understanding into my heart, so that I did understand the Scriptures in a good degree, the letter of the Gospel, its forms and first principles in their truth, as they are written in the Bible. These things were opened to my mind; but the power, the gifts, and the authority of the Gospel I knew were lacking, and did really expect that they would be restored, because I knew that the things that were predicted could never be fulfilled until that power and that authority were restored. I also had an understanding of the literal fulfilment of the prophecies in the Bible, so that I really did believe in and hope for the literal restoration of Israel, the cutting off of wickedness, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the triumph of his kingdom on the earth. All this I was looking for; and the Spirit seemed to whisper to my mind that I should see it in my day.
Under these circumstances, I was travelling to impart the light which I had to others; and while doing this, I found, as I before stated, the Book of Mormon. I read it carefully and diligently, a great share of it, without knowing that the Priesthood had been restored--without ever having heard of anything called "Mormonism," or having any idea of such a Church and people.
There were the witnesses and their testimony to the book, to its translation, and to the ministration of angels; and there was the testimony of the translator; but I had not seen them, I had not heard of them, and hence I had no idea of their organization or of their Priesthood. All I knew about the matter was what, as a stranger, I could gather from the book: but as I read, I was convinced that it was true; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, while I read, and enlightened my mind, convinced my judgment, and rivetted the truth upon my understanding, so that I knew that the book was true, just as well as a man knows the daylight from the dark night, or any other thing that can be implanted in his understanding. I did not know it by any audible voice from heaven, by any ministration of an angel, by any open vision; but I knew it by the spirit of understanding in my heart--by the light that was in me. I knew it was true, because it was light, and had come in fulfilment of the Scriptures; and I bore testimony of its truth to the neighbours that came in during the first day that I sat reading it, at the house of an old Baptist deacon, named Hamblin.
This same spirit led me to enquire after and search out the translator, Joseph Smith; and I travelled on foot during the whole of a very hot day in August, blistering my feet, in order to go where I heard he lived; and at night I arrived in the neighbourhood of the little village of Manchester, then in Ontario county, New York. On the way, I overtook a man driving some cows, and enquired for Joseph Smith, the finder and translator of the Book of Mormon. He told me that he lived away off, something more than an hundred miles from there, in the State of Pennsylvania. I then enquired for the father of the Prophet, and he pointed to the house, but said that the old gentleman had gone a journey to some distant place. After awhile, in conversation, the man told me that his name was Hyrum Smith, and that he was a brother to the Prophet Joseph. This was the first Latter-day Saint that I had ever seen.
He invited me to his home, where I saw mother Smith and Hyrum Smith's wife, and sister Rockwell, the mother of Orin Porter Rockwell. We sat up talking nearly all night; for I had not much spare time, having two appointments out, and long day's journey for a man to walk. I had to return the next morning, and we conversed during most of the night without being either sleep or weary.
During that conversation, I learned something of the rights of the Church, its organization, the restoration of the Priesthood, and many important truths. I felt to go back and fill the two appointments given out, and that closed my ministry, as I felt that I had no authority, and that I would go back and obey the Priesthood which was again upon the earth.
I attended to my appointments, and was back again the next morning to brother Hyrum's. He made me a present of the Book of Mormon, and I felt richer in the possession of that book, or the knowledge contained in it, than I would, could I have had a warantee [sic] deed of all the farms and buildings in that country, and it was one of the finest regions in the world. I walked awhile, and then sat down and read awhile; for it was not my mind to read the book through at once. I would read, and then read the same portion over again, and then walk on. I was filled with joy and gladness, my spirit was made rich, and I was made to realize, almost as vividly as if I had seen it myself, that the Lord Jesus Christ did appear in his own proper person, in his resurrected body, and minister to the people in America in ancient times. He had surely risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, and did come down on the American continent, in the land Bountiful, on the northern part of South America, and did minister to the remnants of Joseph, called the Nephites, and did show his resurrected body unto them.
They did handle him, see him, and examine the wounds that were pierced in his hands, his side, and his feet; and they bathed them with their tears and kissed them, and thousands of them did bear record of these facts. He did deliver to them his Gospel in its fulness and plainness, in the presence of thousands, and did command them to write it in a book; and he promised that that book should come to light in latter days, in time for the great restoration of all Israel, and the fulfilment of the prophecies relating to the great work of the last days.
I was made to realize this and to bring it home to my faith, my senses, and my knowledge, with a warmth, love, and assurance that I could scarcely contain for I had either studied and seen him in my reflections, or I had heard his voice whispering to me. Do you not think that I rejoice?
As before stated, I fulfilled my two appointments; crowds heard me and were interested, and solicited me to make more appointments. I told them that I would not--that I had a duty to perform for myself. I bid them farewell, and returned to Hyrum Smith, who took me to a place, about twenty-five miles off, in Seneca county, New York. He there introduced me to the three witnesses whose names appear at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, also to the eight witnesses. I conversed with Oliver Cowdery, one of the three witnesses, and on the next day we repaired to Seneca Lake, where I was baptised by Oliver Cowdery, then the second Apostle in this Church, and a man who had received the ministration of an angel, as you can learn by reading his testimony.
After being baptised, I was confirmed in a little meeting during the same day, was full of the Holy Ghost, and was ordained an Elder. This transpired on the 1st day of September, 1830; and from that day to this, I have endeavoured to magnify my calling and to honour the Priesthood which God has given me, by testifying to both small and great of the things that he has revealed in these last days.
I have testified and do still testify of the truth of the Book of Mormon--that it is an inspired record, the history of a branch of the house of Israel that live in America; that it does contain the fulness of the Gospel as revealed to them by a crucified and risen Redeemer; and that wherever it goes and its light is permitted to shine, the Spirit of the Lord will bear testimony of its truth to every honest heart in all the world. Wherever that book is candidly perused, the Spirit will bear record of its truth: and I bear this testimony this day, that Joseph Smith was and is a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator--an Apostle holding the keys of this last dispensation and of the kingdom of God, under Peter, James, and John. And not only that he was a Prophet and Apostle of Jesus Christ, and lived and died one, but that he now lives in the spirit world, and holds those same keys to usward [sic] and to this whole generation. Also that he will hold those keys to all eternity; and no power in heaven or on the earth will ever take them from him; for he will continue holding those keys through all eternity, and will stand--yes, again in the flesh upon this earth, as the head of the Latter-day Saints under Jesus Christ, and under Peter, James, and John. He will hold the keys to judge the generation to whom he was sent, and will judge my brethren that preside over me; and will judge me, together with the Apostles ordained by the word of the Lord through him and under his administration.
When this is done, those Apostles will judge this generation and the Latter-day Saints; and they will judge them with that judgment which Jesus Christ will give unto them; and they will have the same spirit and the same mind as Jesus Christ, and their judgment will be his judgment, for they will be one.
Some of my brethren feel, once in awhile, as though we were but men, which is true; and at times we are forgetful, and especially myself. Sometimes men will come up and say, "Why, do you not remember me, brother Pratt?" No, I do not, particularly, though your countenance looks familiar. "What, do you not remember me? I was along with you at such a place: it is strange that you cannot remember me." At such times you may think, how will brother Parley, with his brethren, sit in judgment upon us when he forgets some things, and cannot remember what we have done to him? I expect, by the power of the resurrection and the quickening power of the celestial glory, that my memory will be perfected, and that I will be able to remember all the acts, duties, and doings of my own life. I will also remember, most correctly and perfectly, every act of benevolence that has ever been done to me in the name of the Lord and because of my calling; and I will remember, most perfectly, every neglect and slighting by those to whom I have been sent.
I will be able to say to a just person, "Well done, good and faithful servant; for you did do good so-and-so to me or my brethren: therefore, enter into the joy of your Lord." I will also be able to say to others, "Depart from me; for I was an hungered, and ye did not feed me; I was naked, and ye clothed me not; I was sick, or in prison, or in a strait, and ye helped me not; I had a mission to perform, and ye took no interest in it."
So it will be with brother Joseph, or brother Brigham, or any of the Apostles or Elders that hold a portion of the keys of the Priesthood to this generation, if they hold them faithfully. They will be able to remember and understand all their own doings and all the acts of this generation to whom they are sent; and they will judge them in the name of Jesus Christ. We will be judged by brother Joseph; and he will be judged by Peter, James, and John, and their associates. Brother Brigham, who now presides over us, will hold the keys under brother Joseph; and he and his brethren, who hold the keys with him, or under his direction, will judge the people; for they will hold those keys to all eternity, worlds without end. By those keys they will have to judge this generation; and Peter, James, and John, will hold the keys to preside over, and judge, and direct brother Joseph to all eternity; and Jesus Christ will hold the keys over them and over us, under his Father, to whom be all the glory. This is my testimony; and in obedience to these keys, if God will open my way and spare my life, I will continue to act.
I am now about to start to the States, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bear testimony of those things which I most assuredly do know; for this is my calling. I have desired, after travelling for twenty-five or twenty-six years, mostly abroad, to stay at home and minister among the people of God, and take care of my family; but God's will be done, and not mine. If it is the will of God that I should spend my days in proclaiming this Gospel and bearing testimony of these things, I shall think myself highly privileged and honoured. And when the Spirit of God is upon me, I think it matters but very little what I suffer, what I sacrifice--whether I secure the honour or dishonour of men, or where I die, if it so be that I can keep the faith, fight the good fight, and finish my course with joy.
I have all eternity before me, in which to enjoy myself; and though I am a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth, and whether I be rich or poor, or live long or short, I shall yet plant gardens and eat the fruit of them, plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof, build houses and inhabit them, and, as one of the elect of God, shall long enjoy the works of my hands. All this shall I do, though worms eat the body that I now have.
There are many who consider the times to be hard, and the sufferings to be endured so great that they feel to withdraw from this people. Some say they have no faith in the Book of Mormon. A word for those. I do not believe that they have read that book; or, if they have, I do not believe that they have read it humbly, attentively, prayerfully, and under a good influence. I do not think they were counted honest, or that they had a heart that had place for the Spirit of God. If they were at all acquainted with that influence, or had it in them, they would not only believe it, but they would know that it was true. They would not only know and acknowledge it by the Holy Ghost, but they would know it naturally, just as we know that a man is a Prophet, when the thing which he predicts comes to pass.
Twenty-six years ago, that book was published in English, and within those years have been progressively fulfilled many plain and definite predictions that are therein recorded, insomuch that a professed infidel, one who had not before believed in Jesus Christ nor in the Bible, may easily comprehend that the things predicted in the Book of Mormon, many of them, have demonstrated themselves by their plain, literal, simple fulfilment. I will mention one thing among a thousand. When that book was printed in English, an ancient prophecy in it stated that it should come to the knowledge of the Gentiles in the latter day, at a time when the blood of the Saints would cry from the ground because of secret murders, and the works of darkness, and wicked combinations. And not only the blood of Saints, but the blood of husbands and fathers should cry from the ground for vengeance on the workers of iniquity, and the cries of widows and orphans would come up before God, against those that committed those crimes.
When that book was translated by Joseph Smith, and published in English, we were living in a constitutional Government, the laws of which guaranteed liberty of conscience to every man in his religious belief. It was at a time when no man had been seriously injured because of his belief; and it was as incredible and unlooked for that a Saint would be slain for his religion as that the Government would be broken up; and nobody believed that it would be broken up; for the principles of truth had ruled, guaranteeing liberty and protection to all parties. No man had been persecuted to death for his religion, under the effectual working of that Constitution. Hence, I want those persons who have not faith in the Book of Mormon to tell how Joseph Smith could think of such things; and if the ancient Prophet did not foretell those things, Joseph Smith did.
How came he to tell that the people of his father's house would suffer? or that husbands and fathers, widows and orphans would send up their cry for vengeance on the wicked of our day? You that do not believe in the Book of Mormon, I want you should account for that prediction. it is plain and simple. I read it in 1830, and no man had then suffered a violent death for his religion in this generation in our nation.
Now, then, imagine yourselves living in the United States twenty-eight years ago, and causing to be printed such a production as the Book of Mormon, and I want to know how you would know of any such thing as is there predicted? I say there was no probability that it would be fulfilled, but yet I say that it has been very remarkably fulfilled, so that every public minister and officer knows that it has been fulfilled, and that the Union is trembling and being threatened, and our right to law and protection being questioned.
The blood of innocence cries for vengeance, because its enemies have not administered justice. They have not carried out the constitutional guarantees, but have suffered innocent blood to flow. They have not administered justice nor law in the case, but have allowed wholesale murderers to run at large in Missouri and Illinois. And many of the people and of their rulers have consented to the shedding of that innocent blood, and the result is that the cries of widows and orphans ascend to God. I wish those who do not believe the Book of Mormon to tell me by what power or foreknowledge that prediction was published in 1830.
I used to read an epistle which stated that if the Gentiles should reject the fulness of the Gospel contained in the Book of Mormon, and become filled with all manner of iniquity and murders, priestcraft, whoredoms, and lying, the Lord would take the fulness of his Gospel from among them, and send it into the midst of the remnant of Israel. What have we been doing these ten years past? Ten years ago, a good portion of this people lived in the old settled States, and they were in so many places that a man had to dodge or hide up somewhere, to keep from hearing the fulness of the Gospel. It was preached in their cities, at their capital, in their villages, in town and in country, in the groves and in their court-houses; and thousands upon thousands in the United States flocked to hear the fulness of the Gospel, which was preached everywhere.
How is it now? With the exception of a few, who are on missions or business there, a man might travel from Maine to Louisiana, and scarcely have a chance to hear the fulness of the Gospel; and if he wished to hear the Gospel, he would have to come here. Thus we see the literal fulfilment of that prediction. I read it in 1830, and used to wonder how it would be fulfilled. But notwithstanding the jealousy that existed in the United States in regard to this people, the Book of Mormon was so common and preached so extensively, that some of them, right in their wickedness, Herod-like, happened to discover the prediction in regard to the fulness of the Gospel's coming to the remnants of Joseph, and happened to understand it in part.
So Herod, in his wickedness, when he heard of the rejoicing of the Jews and that their Messiah was born, when the wise men read the prophecies to him, believed those prophecies and tried to hinder their fulfilment. For that purpose he issued an order to murder all the young children of Bethlehem of two years old and under. He must have believed the prophecy, or he would never have undertaken to hinder its fulfilment.
In like manner, the people in the United States were afraid that "Mormonism" was true, and in their sins they partly believed it; wherefore the proclamations for murders and for banishment, for mobbings and plunderings, with a view to hinder its accomplishing what was predicted it would, and to prevent the fulfilment of prophecy. Were you to ask them the reason for all this, their truthful reply must be, "We were afraid that the 'Mormons' would fulfil a prediction of the Prophets, and carry the Gospel to the remnants of Joseph." They considered that, Herod-like, to be treasonable. Some have wondered that a king's being born in Bethlehem should be treason, not understanding that the kingdom of God meant an eternal kingdom. And in speaking of the United States and "Mormonism," they said, "If the fulness of the Gospel should be preached to the remnants of Joseph, it would be awful," and tried to prevent its being so, but failed in the attempt.
Myself, Elder Oliver Cowdery, and others crossed the Missouri line, into what is now called Kansas, and preached the Gospel to the Delaware Indians. We presented them with the Book of Mormon, and left a copy or two with those that could read it and interpret to others. At that time "Mormonism" had not been heard of any further west of Ohio than we carried the news, and lyings and misrepresentations concerning it had not preceded us. But there were sectarian missionaries on the frontiers, Methodists, Baptists, &c., striving to gain a foothold among Indians; and they all joined against us. Such was the envy and jealousy of the spirit in them, they knew not why, that we were ordered out of the Indian country, on penalty of having the Militia take us out.
In Missouri the Saints were watched like thieves, and, when we became more and more known among the people, were mobbed and plundered again and again, till eventually we were driven into Illinois.
At those times, I used to wonder how that prophecy would be fulfilled, contained in the Book of Mormon, which reads, "If the Gentiles reject the fulness of my Gospel, and are full of all manner of evil and wickedness, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel out from among them, and will establish it in the midst of the remnants of Joseph." I watched it for years, looking for it to be fulfilled, and marvelled. But we were again mobbed, and they continued to mob us for eight or ten years, thus helping us to fulfil that very prophecy. They were made the instruments to annoy us, till we could have no peace without leaving them and coming out here into the wilderness.
We loved home so well, and our houses, and temples, and farms, that we would not willingly leave and accomplish the work laid upon us; therefore we were made to be willing--made to do what we were pleaded with to do before. You know that an ancient Prophet said, "My people shall be willing in the day of my power." Here we are; and just as sure as the things in the Book of Mormon have been progressively fulfilling until now, and as sure as all the powers of the Saints and of their enemies have tended to that point, just so sure will every remaining item be fulfilled in its time and in its place.
Again, the man that believes "Mormonism," believes in the gathering of the people of God and in the keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship, and that through those keys the people are to be built up, preserved, sanctified, and prepared for the coming of the Lord. Let me ask many that have been gathered through the instrumentality of those keys, do you believe that to scatter again is disobeying them? No, many of you do not.
Some folks think that "Mormonism" is a certain set of doctrines found in the books, together with certain ordinances, and think that one is a Saint if he credits those doctrines and those ordinances. Suppose an island peopled by persons who by some providence had the Book of Mormon and the Bible, or either of those books, but no Priesthood. They are not members of the Church, even though they be most strictly honest. They may have read the sacred records and believed them, all the principles contained therein, and desired to serve God; but the question is, could they obey the Gospel of which they read in those books, organize themselves into the Church of Christ, and be governed by the principles of the kingdom of God, and be accepted of God as his Church? I say they could not.
What could they do? They could believe in Jesus Christ, and pray to the Father in his name, and observe his moral precepts. But to obey the ordinances of God--to become his Church and kingdom, is something which they could not do, unless their prayers of faith prevailed upon the Almighty to in some manner bless them with the Priesthood. Otherwise, all they could do would be to rejoice in the truth, worship God, obey his moral precepts, and wait for some messenger to come and organize them; and if they were obliged to live without the Priesthood, they would have to receive its ministrations in the next world.
In what manner was the Priesthood restored to this earth in our day? Angels ministered from heaven--men who had died holding the Priesthood of the Son of God, and revealed the Book of Mormon, and conferred the Priesthood upon our first Apostles, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. When they were baptised by the command of the angel, had received the Holy Ghost by the laying-on of hands, and been ordained according to the command, they continued to receive commandments, from time to time, to ordain other Apostles and other Elders.
In the year 1835, in Kirtland, Ohio, they ordained our President, Brigham Young, also Heber C. Kimball, your servant that is now addressing you, and many others, by the word of the Lord. Thus our President and others received the keys of the Apostleship, and we magnified it until Joseph's death, when two of his Quorum of Three went behind the veil, and the third, Sidney Rigdon, who had got in the background, became an apostate. The First Presidency was re-organized, under the authority proceeding from the Almighty through Joseph Smith, in the persons of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards; and they, by virtue of the keys lawfully in their possession, filled up the vacancies occasioned in the Quorum of the Twelve, and also the vacancy made in their Quorum by the death of our beloved brother, Willard Richards.
Had we undertaken President-making in this Church simply by our uninspired notions, Brigham Young held more keys than all our votes put together; and had we voted against him, we would have voted ourselves out of the kingdom of God. He and those that stood by him would have held the keys of the Priesthood, as they have and do, and would have built up the kingdom, while those who opposed them would have been like salt that had lost its savour. It was not in our power to manufacture this Presidency, but only to uphold and cleave to it; and blessed are we, inasmuch as we have done this thing.
These keys came from Joseph Smith, who received them from Peter, James, and John, who received them from the risen Jesus, the Redeemer of men. If we hearken to these keys, we shall be saved, and inherit celestial glory and exaltation; if we do not, we shall be damned, and fall short of all the blessings promised to the saved.
Such is my faith; this is my knowledge, this is my testimony, and these are my feelings and real sentiments. God being my helper, giving me his Spirit, and counting me worthy to abide in his kingdom, I mean to continue to the end in upholding those keys, and, by my prayers and works, to stand by them and live in obedience to them as long as I live on the earth. If I abide in the vine, I will have strength, by the power of the Holy Ghost, to magnify my calling and to inherit a crown of celestial glory: if I do not, then I will fall, and, I had almost said, become like another man: but not so; for then I will only be fit to be cast out and trodden under foot, like salt that has lost its savour.
I crave the privilege of remaining within this kingdom; and I ask for your prayers, your blessings, your faith, and your assistance, as a people, and for the assistance and watchcare of the angels of God, and for the blessings of my brethren that preside over me. I crave these things, and the privilege of serving God unto the end.
If I go forth and testify of the truth of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith as a Prophet, a Revelator, and an Apostle of the living God; also of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Jedediah M. Grant, and the rest of my brethren that hold the keys of this kingdom; and call upon the people to repent and forsake their follies, their priestcraft, their adulteries, and their errors, and to obey the Gospel under the hands of the Elders sent out by these men; and tell them to gather together and obey those ministers of Christ as long as they live, and then obey their successors in office:--if I do all this, and live faithful, and set a good example, it will be the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of God unto all that receive it. If I do not do this, it will not be the Gospel, but it will be something else. It is appointed unto all men, whenever this Priesthood is on the earth and comes within their reach, to repent and be baptised under the hands of this Priesthood, in the name of Jesus Christ, and to receive the Holy Spirit by the laying-on of hands by the servants of God, and to break off from their sins and bring forth fruits of righteousness. If they do this, and endure to the end, they will be saved; but if they do not, they will be damned.
May God bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
REFORMATION--SATISFACTION SHOULD BE MADE TO PARTIES AGGRIEVED--PRACTICAL RELIGION, &c.
A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, October 12, 1856.
I can say amen to what was said this forenoon by brothers Spencer and Grant, and also by brother Brigham; for it is true: and I presume there was not a Saint in the congregation but what realized the truth of their sayings.
I am satisfied that it is the good pleasure of our God that a reformation should take place in the hearts of all Israel. I do not believe that there is any man or woman here so good but what they can be a little better. There are good people; there are those that we call the best. By feelings and exertions for this people and for all the house of Israel are, and have been to the end, that we may be all of that class which we denominate the best.
The spirit of reformation has been upon me all the while; but for the last six months that spirit has in a more particular manner moved upon the Presidency of this Church, and they have cried unto you as with the voice of an earthquake, and commanded you to repent and forsake your follies. Their voice has been like the voice of thunder unto this people, calling upon them to repent and turn unto the Lord their God.
But what is the use of persons being baptised until they first confess and forsake their sins, and make restitution where they have injured any one? If persons have lied, it is their duty to repent and retract their false statements, and confess their lies. If any have stolen, it is for them to repent and steal no more; also to restore fourfold, where it is required. I have my doubts whether a man or woman can be saved upon any other principle; for this was the doctrine of Jesus, the Son of God, and it is the doctrine taught in these latter days.
Where sins have been committed, there must be an atonement made to satisfy the demands of justice; and when justice is satisfied, mercy claims the subject. Have these requirements been complied with by this people? Many of you have broken your covenants and lost that spirit to a great extent, that you might and ought to enjoy; for you ought to be in favour with God continually, that you might have the power of his Spirit to be with you.
Brother Brigham is not responsible for this people any further than they will follow his counsel. When they observe his counsel, doing just as he says in all things, then he is responsible. The only way that you can make him responsible is by observing his sayings in the most strict manner possible. Am I responsible for the acts of my wife or wives? Only on condition that they are subject to my counsels. You can readily understand that their disobedience releases me from responsibility for their conduct.
When brother Brigham predicts that certain things will happen if the people persist in a certain course, that prediction will be fulfilled, except the people make a retraction and an atonement sufficient to satisfy the demands of justice; for that is what God requires. When that is done, the sins of the people will be remitted. I speak of this, that you may understand that your re-baptisms must be agreeable to the order laid down. It is not simply a man's saying, "Having been commissioned by Jesus Christ, I baptise you for the renewal of your covenant and remission of your sins," but you must be subject to your brethren and fulfil the law of God.
Supposing you have sinned against your brethren, or in some way offended them, will your sins be remitted, unless you go and make the proper acknowledgments? No, they will not. You have got to pay the debt; and sin cannot be remitted until you confess it and make satisfaction to the party aggrieved. You may try another course as much as you please, but you will find it to be just as I have told you.
If I have offended brother Brigham in any way whatever--rebelled against him, lied about him, or sought to abuse him what is the use of my going to the water to renew my covenant, until I have made satisfaction to him? The proper way would be to go to him and say, "Brother Brigham, I lied against you wilfully, under the influence of an evil spirit;" or, "I have ill-treated and wronged you, and know that I must make satisfaction, and I am ready to do anything that you say." Satisfaction must be made to the one injured, or baptism will be of no benefit: the Holy Ghost will not ratify that act until I have paid the debt. Then brother Brigham would say, "I forgive you, and pray my Father, in the name of Jesus, to forgive you also." Then our Father in heaven would forgive you, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost would forgive you. And if you get pardon of those you have injured, and of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you are free and ready to begin a new life.
You have heard brother Brigham say that if we sin against the Father, we must confess our sins to him, and get pardon from him; and if we sin against the Son, we must ask pardon of him, for he will not pardon you without you do ask him; and if you sin against the Holy Ghost you cannot get pardon, for that is a sin which cannot be forgiven. You must do that which is right, and get the forgiveness of the Father and the Son; then they and the Holy Ghost will take up their abode with you. That is my faith, and that is a part of "Mormonism," as I understand it.
If men and women make a practice of lying, stealing, and doing other things forbidden in the law of God, they need not go into the water until they have sincerely repented and will covenant and promise that they will not do those things again. Some of you make a practice of telling little lies, of deceiving and be rating each other, of disputing with each other, and with the servants of God. Is that right? You all know that it is not, and that God will punish you for it. Does the Son know when you do these things? Does the Holy Ghost know? Do the angels know? I answer, they do know, and they are displeased with such acts, and will not associate with you in consequence of them.
Some quietly listen to those who speak against the Lord's servants, against his anointed, against the plurality of wives, and against almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny "Mormonism," and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose that doctrine, and the whole of them would be damned. What are you opposing it for? It is a principle that God has revealed for the salvation of the human family. He revealed it to Joseph the Prophet in this our dispensation; and that which he revealed he designs to have carried out by his people.
What a joy it would be to me if my family were in such a state of mind that an angel would come and tell me, "On such a day I will meet with you, and your wives, and your children, if you will sanctify yourselves." Would not that be a joy and a consolation to me? Do I disbelieve such visitations? No, no more than I disbelieve that an angel came to Joseph and Oliver, to Abraham of old, and to many others.
Let us take a course that will be pleasing to our Father, and lay aside our follies and our sins, and obtain favour with our God, that his angels may come and associate with us. They would do so now, if you would believe and practice that which is laid before you day by day. And if you will strictly follow the leaders of this people, you never would want for clothing, nor for any of the comforts of life; for if it must needs be that we be protected and delivered from our enemies, God would cause a famine to scourge them, and would rain manna down from heaven to sustain us, as he did to the children of Israel. But he never will do that, until it is necessary to our salvation and deliverance.
Now, there is no necessity for such a display of his power, neither will there be, until we are brought into the midst of certain trials, as Joseph Smith and his brethren were, about twenty-two years ago. I refer to the time when he and some of his brethren went up to Missouri; and those who went up then believed "Mormonism" in their hearts. There were two hundred and five who volunteered to go and redeem their brethren. And how was it in those days, when we were in that strait? Hosts of the people in Missouri were up in arms against us, both behind and before us, on our right and on our left. How did God defend us then? He sent a hailstorm fierce enough to stop their progress. The hailstones were so large that they cut their horses' bridles, broke their gun-stocks, and cut holes in their hats: the storm had such an effect upon them that they would not any longer pursue us. The waters of the river rose forty feet in one night, and the whole region was flooded. In that way the Lord defended us, when we were a small company, and when he knew that we should be overcome, if he did not stretch forth his hand for our benefit.
Let us arise, every man and every woman, and lay off our sins; and wherein you know that you have sinned, repent and ask forgiveness, and then cease sinning from this time henceforth and for ever. Many murmur and are disaffected, after being privileged with the great blessing of deliverance from the oppression of the world. Many who have been gathered by the P. E. Fund murmur against those who have gathered them. When you become disaffected with brother Brigham and brother Heber, what is your course? You will associate with those poor murmuring devils whose hearts are as corrupt as hell itself, and thereby partake of their spirit; and it is a spirit that suits you: it is one of your own kind and your own class. Now, you know that your are more apt to sympathize with the ungodly than you ought to be, and that you are too apt to think that brother Brigham, brother Heber, and brother Jedediah are rather hard upon such characters. We are only hard upon sin and ungodliness.
Do not be baptised and then take an unrighteous course, but repent of and forsake all sin. I have nothing in my heart to preach to this people but faith and repentance, and to teach them to have confidence in god, in brother Brigham, and in each other, and to cultivate, nourish, and cherish that confidence; also to cherish, comfort, and to sustain brother Brigham from this time henceforth and for ever.
The more I do for this cause, the more God will love me--the more he will bless me, and he will give me power over the Devil and over all his imps. Can I do too much for God and his cause? Can I do too much for brother Brigham? No; for the more I respect him as the delegate of God, the more God will honour me and my acts. I know that these things are true; also that some of you are afraid that you will love him too well. I will tell you how much you should love him: you should love him enough to strictly observe his counsels. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." This was a test; for whose loved him would keep his commandments.
I have thought a great many times upon the condition of this people, and I would that they all should turn unto the Lord; but I have fears that many will not reform; and I am inclined to think that they will feel the rod of the Almighty, unless they do repent.
Go to work and build up and establish each other; wives establish your husbands, husbands establish your wives, and wives and husbands establish your children in righteousness, and God will be with us for ever; he never will forsake us in times of trouble. Cast in your Tithes and offerings into the storehouse of the Lord, and you shall have a blessing that you have not room to contain.
The Father, and the Son, and all the servants of God of every dispensation that ever was on the earth, are engaged in inspiring those brethren who now faithfully hold the Priesthood in the flesh. You are aware that the Lord said that in the last days he would have labourers who would labour with their might to gather up the wheat for the last time; and this is the last time. You need not ask who administer to brother Brigham; for I will tell you: They are Moses and Aaron, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, James, and John, brother Joseph, Michael the Archangel, and the hosts of the righteous behind the vail: they are all engaged in this great work.
God have mercy upon you, and give you his Spirit to understand all things aright, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
RETURN OF THOMAS B. MARSH TO THE CHURCH.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, introducing Brother Thomas B. Marsh, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, on Sunday, September 6th, 1857.
Brother Thomas B. Marsh, formerly the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has now come to us, after an absence of nearly nineteen years. He is on the stand to-day, and wishes to make a few remarks to the congregation.
You will comprehend the purport of the remarks he wishes to make, by my relating a part of his conversation with me yesterday. He came into my office and wished to know whether I could be reconciled to him, and whether there could be a reconciliation between himself and the Church of the living God. He reflected for a moment and said, I am reconciled to the Church, but I want to know whether the Church can be reconciled to me.
He is here, and I want him to say what he may wish to. [Brother Marsh then arose, and the President continued.] Brethren and sisters, I now introduce to you brother Thomas B. Marsh. When the Quorum of the Twelve was first organized, he was appointed to be their President.
REMARKS BY THOMAS B. MARSH.
I do not know that I can make all this vast congregation hear and understand me. My voice never was very strong, but it has been very much weakened of late years by the afflicting rod of Jehovah. He loved me too much to let me go without whipping. I have seen the hand of the Lord in the chastisement which I have received. I have seen and known that it has proved he loved me; for if he had not cared anything about me, he would not have taken me by the arm and given me such a shaking.
If there are any among this people who should ever apostatize and do as I have done, prepare your backs for a good whipping, if you are such as the Lord loves. But if you will take my advice, you will stand by the authorities; but if you go away and the Lord loves you as much as he did me, he will whip you back again.
Many have said to me, "How is it that a man like you, who understood so much of the revelations of God as recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, should fall away?" I told them not to feel too secure, but to take heed lest they also should fall; for I had no scruples in my mind as to the possibility of men falling away.
I can say, in reference to the Quorum of the Twelve, to which I belonged, that I did not consider myself a whit behind any of them, and I suppose that others had the same opinion; but, let no one feel too secure: for, before you think of it, your steps will slide. You will not then think nor feel for a moment as you did before you lost the Spirit of Christ; for when men apostatize, they are left to grovel in the dark.
I have sought diligently to know the Spirit of Christ since I turned my face Zionward, and I believe I have obtained it. I have frequently wanted to know how my apostacy began, and I have come to the conclusion that I must have lost the Spirit of the Lord out of my heart.
The next question is, "How and when did you lose the Spirit?" I became jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double, and overlooked everything that was right, and spent all my time in looking for the evil; and then, when the Devil began to lead me, it was easy for the carnal mind to rise up, which is anger, jealousy, and wrath. I could feel it within me; I felt angry and wrathful; and the Spirit of the Lord being gone, as the Scriptures say, I was blinded, and I thought I saw a beam in brother Joseph's eye, but it was nothing but a mote, and my own eye was filled with the beam; but I thought I saw a beam in his, and I wanted to get it out; and, as brother Heber says, I got mad, and I wanted everybody else to be mad. I talked with Brother Brigham and Brother Heber, and I wanted them to be mad like myself; and I saw they were not mad, and I got madder still because they were not. Brother Brigham, with a cautious look, said, "Are you the leader of the Church, brother Thomas?" I answered, "No." "Well then," said he, "Why do you not let that alone?"
Well, this is about the amount of my hypocrisy--I meddled with that which was not my business. But let me tell you, my brethren and friends, if you do not want to suffer in body and mind, as I have done,--if there are any of you that have the seeds of apostacy in you, do not let them make their appearance, but nip that spirit in the bud; for it is misery and affliction in this world, and destruction in the world to come. I know that I was a very stiff-necked man, and I felt, for the first four or five years especially, that I would never return to the Church; but towards the latter part of the time, I began to wake up and to be sensible that I was being chastised by the Almighty; and I felt to realize the language of Jeremiah concerning Ephraim in the last days, where he says, "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord."
Thinks I, this language suits my condition. I then thought, I will go back and see if the Lord will heal me, for I am of the seed of Ephraim, and I felt troubled from that day, and my soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of those Sodomites.
After forming this resolution, I tried to get an outfit, and I kept trying for two or three years; for I did not want to come hear sick, lame, decrepid, and dependent; and therefore I kept on trying; but instead of gaining, I was like the man that undertook to climb the tree--I slipt down further than I got up. I then thought to myself, I am getting old, and every year makes me older and weaker; and if I do not start, I shall soon die, and then whose fault will it be? I concluded it would be my own fault if I stayed. I therefore said, "I will go now." That was last January. I looked round a few days to see what I could raise, and I raised five dollars and ten cents, and I said, "Lord, if you will help me, I will go." I felt that he would: therefore I started with but five dollars and ten cents, from Harrison County, Missouri, to come all the way to this Valley. I knew that I could not come here with that small sum, and I did not see how I was to get any more; but before I got out of the State, the Lord had changed my fortune, and I had $55.05. I then concluded within myself that the Lord was with me; but still I had some hardships; for I travelled on foot in some severely cold weather, and I found that my chastisement was not over, notwithstanding the favour of the Lord in helping me to some means. I remarked that I had fifty-five dollars when I left the States, and that, too, obtained honestly, without any speculation, trading, swapping, or stealing; but I earned what I got, and left a good name behind me.
I have given you some items of my apostacy. I will now relate some of my recent experience.
When I got to Florence, or Winter Quarters, where I had to stay, waiting for an opportunity to cross the Plains, I read many of the publications and works of the Church, and became strengthened and informed in regard to the Priesthood of the Son of God. Although I knew something about the Priesthood before, so far as the theory was concerned, yet I discovered that I had never properly understood it; and hence I feel that my faith is greatly strengthened. I wanted to get posted up and see what the "Mormons" had learned since I left them; and I learned very much by reading the discourses that had been preached here.
The doctrine of plurality was a great bugbear to me, till I got to Florence and read the works of brother Orson Pratt; and now I see that it is heaven's own doctrine, and the Church of Jesus Christ can never be perfect without it. Had I known as much of the Church of Jesus Christ and its doctrines before I apostatized as I now know, I think I could not have back-slidden.
I have come here to get good society--to get your fellowship. I want your fellowship; I want your God to be my God, and I want to live with you for ever, in time and eternity. I never want to forsake the people of God any more. I want to have your confidence, and I want to be one in the house of God. I have learned to understand what David said when he exclaimed, "I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." I have not come here to seek for any office, except it be to be a door-keeper or a deacon; no, I am neither worthy nor fit; but I want a place among you as a humble servant of the Lord.
I did say once, when coming along, inadvertently, They may think that I am coming to get office, but if they offer it to me I will not have it, and that will show them I do not want any; but I took a second thought and said, I will say, The will of the Lord be done.
I have now got a better understanding of the Presidency of the Church than I formerly had. I used to ask myself, What is the difference between the President of our Church and a Pope? True, he is not called a Pope, but names do not alter realities, and therefore he is a Pope.
God is at the head of this kingdom, and he has sustained it. I was along in the start of it, and then Joseph was the little one; but, as the Scriptures say, "The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation;" and Joseph lived to become a thousand, and this people are fast becoming a strong nation.
I am just as confident as I can be in the truth of those things that brother Heber has spoken of; for I see in my meditations how the Priesthood has been restored, when the Lord had taken it from the earth by the death of the Apostles, and how the authority to administer in the name of Jesus Christ was also taken, and that, when the authority went, miracles were taken away and the power of God ceased to be manifested through men during the long period of the rule of antichrist and anarchy.
I see the propriety of God's vesting the authority in one man, and in having a head, or something tangible to see, hear, and understand the mind and will of God. When I saw this, I said, It is consistent: Christ is the great head of the Church. Christ is the head of his Church in the same relationship as every head is to the body to which it belongs; for every head must have eyes to see, a mouth to speak, and ears to hear. Well, Jesus christ is the head of the Church, and he has got a man to represent him on the earth--viz., President Brigham Young. Jesus Christ is still the head of the Church; and his will to man on the earth is known by means of the mouthpiece of God, the Prophet, and Seer.
When I came to these conclusions, I said, Now I will go there among them; for I have found out how I may learn wisdom from God. I want to learn wisdom, and not to be ruled by my own imaginations.
God has given me reasoning powers, and I will use them, so far as I am capable, in the acquirement of knowledge. But how will I get wisdom from God? The answer is plain. He speaks through his mouthpiece, therefore I will go and place my ears close to his mouth,--for I am not good of hearing,--and I will pray to God in secret; and to such he has said he will answer them openly. I will pray for the thing that I want; and the chief desire of my heart before God is, that I may know that he accepts me.
Well, Where shall I go, was the next question, to get a response to this desire? The answer was, Go to the President of the Church--to the mouthpiece of God, and then you can be taught, and there will be no difficulty in learning the mind and will of God.
I thank God that he has brought me back here, where I can receive such instructions, and with a prospect of seeing, notwithstanding my advanced age, the glory of God. Many of you that are young will live, as has been said, to see the glory of God manifested on the earth. Amen.
FURTHER REMARKS BY PRESIDENT
BRIGHAM YOUNG.
A portion of the congregation have heard what brother Marsh has said; but he spoke so low that you could not all hear. He wants to know whether this people are willing to receive him into full fellowship. When he came to Florence, he applied to brother Cunningham, who was then presiding there, for baptism. Brother Cunningham at first refused to baptise him, probably thinking that it would be better for him to wait till he came to this place; but he afterwards gave his consent to brother Marsh's being baptised. Brother Marsh now wishes to be received into full fellowship, and to be again baptised here.
There are many here who have formerly been acquainted with him--with his moral character, and they can judge as well as myself. Those who are not acquainted with him will be willing to coincide with the judgment of those who once knew him.
I shall call a vote, to ascertain whether the people are willing that he should be baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and be acknowledged a member in full fellowship. I wish those who are willing to receive brother Marsh into full fellowship as a member in this Church and kingdom to manifest it by the uplifted hand. [All hands appeared to be raised.] If there are any who are not willing, they now have the privilege of manifesting it by the uplifted hand. [Not a hand was raised.]
Brother Marsh, I think that will be satisfactory to you.
[T. B. Marsh: "It is, and I thank God for it."]
I presume that brother Marsh will take no offence if I talk a little about him. We have manifested our feelings towards him, and we know his situation. With regard to this Church's being reconciled to him, I can say that this Church and people were never dissatisfied with him; for when men and women apostatize and go from us, we have nothing to do with them. If they do that which is evil, they will suffer for it. Brother Marsh has suffered. He told me, yesterday, that the Christians might hang up their fiddle in regard to there being no Catholic <Tophet> or Purgatory.
You are aware that the children of the Mother Church have dissented from the idea of there being such a place as Purgatory; but brother Marsh says that there is such a place, and that he has been in it during the past eighteen years and upwards. I asked him whether he did not have to pray himself out. He answered, "Yes." I then remarked--If you prayed yourself out, I suppose you saved the priests' fees. "Yes," he said; "It did not cost me a cent of money." However, it cost him a great deal of labour, trouble, and pain.
In conversing with brother Marsh, I find that he is about the same Thomas that he always was--full of anecdotes and chit-chat. He could hardly converse for ten minutes without telling an anecdote. His voice and style of conversation are familiar to me.
He has told you that he is an old man. Do you think that I am an old man? I could prove to this congretion [sic] that I am young; for I could find more girls who would choose me for a husband than can any of the young men.
Brother Thomas considers himself very aged and infirm, and you can see that he is, brethren and sisters. What is the cause of it? He left the Gospel of salvation. What do you think the difference is between his age and mine? One year and seven months to a day; and he is one year, seven months, and fourteen days older than brother Heber C. Kimball.
"Mormonism" keeps men and women young and handsome; and when they are full of the Spirit of God, there are none of them but what will have a glow upon their countenances; and that is what makes you and me young; for the Spirit of God is with us and within us.
When brother Thomas thought of returning to the Church, the plurality of wives troubled him a good deal. Look at him. Do you think it need to? I do not; for I doubt whether he could get one wife. Why it should have troubled an infirm old man like him is not for me to say. He read brother Orson Pratt's work upon that subject, and discovered that the doctrine was beautiful, consistent, and exalting, and that the kingdom could not be perfect without it. Neither can it be perfect without a great many things that the people do not yet understand, though they will come in the own due time of the Lord.
As I have but a few minutes for speaking, I will relate a little of the current news of the day.
On Friday evening, the 11th inst., two of the brethren who accompanied brothers Samuel W. Richards and George Snider from Deer Creek to 118 miles below Laramie, came in, and reported that soldiers and a heavy freight train were there encamped opposite to them and on the south side of the Platte. They could tell that they were soldiers, from the appearance of their carriages, waggons, tents, and mode of encampment. We did not learn anything very definite from these two brethren lately arrived.
Messrs. Russel and Waddle are freighting for Government, and some of their trains were scattered along to the Sweetwater. They have twenty-six waggons in each train, with a teamster and six yoke of oxen to a waggon. Some of those trains were on the Sweetwater when brother Samuel passed down, and quite a number of them are in advance of the soldiers. The brethren learned that Captain Van Vliet, Assistant Quartermaster, was coming on to purchase lumber and such things as might be needed for the army.
Last evening, brother John R. Murdock arrived direct from St. Louis. He left here with the mail on the 2nd day of July, and reached Independence in sixteen days, making by far the shortest trip on record, and in eighteen days-and-a-half from here landed in St. Louis. He tarried there till brother Horace S. Eldredge and brother Groesbeck had transacted some business, and then started up the river with a small train. On the 9th of August, brother Murdock left Atchison, K. T. Troubles were daily expected to break out in Kansas between the Republican, or Free State, and the pro-slavery parties; for which reason General Harney, with the cavalry, a portion of the infantry, and, I think, one or two companies of the Artillery, were detained there by orders from Washington, and Colonel Johnson ordered to assume the command of the army for Utah.
Some fifteen or sixteen hundred infantry started from Leavenworth; and when brother Murdock passed them, one hundred miles below Laramie, about five hundred had deserted, leaving, as he was told, about one thousand men on their way to this place. He passed a few freight trains, which were entirely deserted by the teamsters, and Russel and Waddle were not able to hire teamsters to bring those trains forward.
Brother Murdock did not think that they could get here this fall, unless we helped them in. Their teams are pretty good, but they are very much jaded. Their mule teams are in better condition, because they regularly feed them on grain.
From the time that I heard that the President of the United States had issued orders for soldiers to come here, they have had my best faith that the Lord would not let them get here. I have seen this people, when palsied with agues, fevers, and with various other diseases, hurled out of doors, driven away from their cellars full of potatoes, from their meal chests, from their cows, houses, barns, orchards, fields, and finally from their happy homes and all the comforts of life. I have seen that a good many times, and I pray that I may never see it again, unless it is absolutely necessary for the welfare and advancement of God's purposes on the earth. I want to see no more suffering. I will not use the word suffering, for I call it joy instead of sorrow, affliction, and suffering. If we live our religion and exercise faith, it is our firm belief that it is our right to so exercise our united faith that our enemies never can come here, unless the Lord in his providence sees that it will be for our good.
It is my faith and feelings that, if we live as we should live, they cannot come here; but I am decided in my opinion that, if worse comes to worst, and the Lord permits them to come upon us, I will desolate this whole Territory before I will again submit to the hellish corruption and bondage the wicked are striving to thrust upon us solely for our exercising our right of freedom of conscience.
I will say, in reference to President Buchanan, that, for his outrageous wickedness in this movement, he shall wear the yoke as long as he lives; he shall be led about by his party with the yoke on his neck, until they have accomplished their ends, and he can do no more for them; and his name shall be forgotten; and "Old Bright," as brother Kimball calls him, shall be free. I am persuaded that for their horrible, wicked treatment to this people--the only loyal people in the United States--the only people who know the worth of the Constitution--they will be sorely punished.
After doing what they already have done to this people--after sending among us the filth and scum of all creation (as some of the officers were) as officers of the Government, contrary to the genius of our institutions, I want to tell them that, though they continue to send poor pusillanimous curses here to be Government officers, we will not submit to it, troops or no troops. I shall tell them this in plainness and simplicity; and they shall find that in my simplicity I will try to sustain so righteous a position. And I believe that the point is yielded, both in Europe and America; and I believe they acknowledge that Brigham is a man of his word; and I have come to the conclusion that we will not again have officers thrust upon us contrary to our consent, the Lord helping us.
When brother Murdock left St. Louis, Mr. Cummings, the person who had received the appointment of Governor of Utah, was going to Washington, and he could not learn that there was one of the Territorial officers with the soldiers: hence I do not see but that I shall have to again preside over our Legislative Assembly this winter. I do not see that it can be otherwise; and William H. Hooper will be Secretary, just as he was last winter. They have refused to pay the expenses of the last Assembly and other just debts due to this Territory; but God will overrule those things for our good and the advancement of his kingdom, if we live our religion.
Our enemies will yet be glad to come to us for safety and salvation; and we will do as brother Kimball has said--we will save the old veteran fathers; and the time will come when we will be baptised for them, while those who trample upon the rights of their fellow men will be weltering in hell. Yes, we will bring up those old revolutionary sires and save them; for God loves men who are true to each other and are true to him.
If any want to apostatize, I want them to look at brother Marsh. I wish you could all see and understand what he has suffered. He has suffered a little; and I could tell you a good deal of the suffering induced by the weaknesses of men.
When the Quorum of the Twelve was first chosen, Lyman Johnson's name was called first, Brigham Young's second, Heber C. Kimball's third, and so on. I had seen brother Marsh and others who were nominated for the Quorum of the Twelve, and I looked upon them as men of great powers of mind--as men of ability--men who understood the things of heaven. I looked upon them as angels, and I looked up to them just as my children look up to me.
I considered brother Marsh a great man; but as soon as I became acquainted with him, I saw that the weakness of the flesh was visibly manifest in him. I saw that he was ignorant and shattered in his understanding, if ever he had good understanding. He manifests the same weakness to-day. Has he the stability of a sound mind? No, and never had. And if he had good sense and judgment, he would not have spoken as he has. He has just said, "I will be faithful, and I will be true to you." He has not wisdom enough to see that he has betrayed us once, and don't know but what he will again. He has told me that he would be faithful, and that he would do this and the other; but he don't know what he will do next week or next year.
I do not know what I shall do next year; I always speak for the present. But a man that will be once fooled by the Devil--a man that has not sense to discern between steel grey mixed and iron grey mixed, when one is dyed with logwood and the other with indigo, may be deceived again. You never heard me say that I was going to be true to my God; for I know too much of human weakness: but I pray God to preserve me from falling away--to preserve me in the truth. I depend not upon myself; for I know too much of human weakness and of myself, to indulge in such remarks.
I derive strength from a superior source. I have been drinking from that source for many years; and, as I told you last sabbath, I have been trying to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And, if we are faithful, we will all be counted worthy to be his disciples. God bless you! Amen.
UNION OF THE PRIESTHOOD--SALVATION OF THE AMERICAN NATION--PUNISHMENT OF THE SAINTS' ENEMIES, ETC.
A Discourse by President Heber C. Kimball, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, September 6, 1856.
I can say, brethren, as far as I am concerned, that I have no particular anxiety about the final issue of "Mormonism." But if I have any trouble about the matter, it is about a great many limbs or vines connected to that vine. Probably you understand what I mean when I am talking about vines and trees. I speak about these things because I most humbly desire to touch upon simple principles--that is, the most simple figures, that the most simple person in this congregation may understand me.
I am not troubled about the learned few--those that have learned right, and are taught of the Lord: I have no trouble about their understanding; for children may understand the things that I present, and any man that is taught directly from God will understand; he will understand the most simple things, and he will understand the greatest things; for the greatest things are the simplest things. Do you not know it?
There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who may now think that they are the smartest. That may be queer to you; it may be singular to many; but I have known of a great many instances of that kind.
When we go into a fruit orchard or vineyard, we find the husbandman, as he is called, who has charge of it; and I have myself seen very inferior trees that never brought forth any fruit. A great many men would come along and say to the husbandman, "Why don't you take up that tree? It never will be of any account." Those men do not understand, as the husbandman does, or they never would make such a speech.
Is there a way to restore that tree, and to make it one of the most thrifty trees in all the vineyard? Yes, there is. Well, what course will you take to do that? Take the old stock away and put a thrifty graft into the root, and then it becomes one of the most thrifty trees in the vineyard, because the young stock renews the old, and the old becomes a good tree.
So it is with you, many of you: yes, thousands of you will become mighty men, inasmuch as you honour your calling and receive nourishment from the Father, or from the root; for it comes from the root, and then spreads itself all through the vine, and every vine that is attached to that partakes of the same nourishment, and to the same extent, and in the same degree as the others.
Now, can you realize that? Bless your souls! go into the gardens. I am going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended part of the vine? Do you know that? [Voices: "Yes."] There is one woman that knows it; but she would not if she did not work in her garden; and those that do not work there do not know anything about it. I am talking to you that go into your gardens to work.
You may take water-melons, and you will find the largest at the extreme part of the vine. Can it be possible that the most extended part of the vine can bring forth as much as the most extended limb on a tree? Yes, it can. Where does it come from? From the root, and from thence into the main limb or vine, and then into every branch and twig that is connected to that vine.
Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become great and mighty men in the kingdom of God,--yes, even Prophets? Does it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it does.
Now, you may take an apple tree, a grape vine, a plum tree, and you may take a cucumber vine, and all these threes and vines are one in their organization: they are all alike, only one is called a tree, and another a vine. They are also a little different in the fruit they bear: one is a peach, or a plum, another a grape, &c.; and these fruits are different in appearance, yet they are one in relation to the principle that governs them.
One man is called upon to be a Prophet, another to be an Apostle, another to be a Seventy, another a High Priest, another a Patriarch, and so on; and don't you see they are all, in general features, alike? There is not one of them that is not attached to a root. How could I grow, if I were not attached to a tree or to a vine? I could not produce fruit.
Well, the nearer I approach to my Father and to Jesus in my conduct, the more I become like Joseph and the servants of God; and the more I become like those characters, the more perfect a pattern I become for others; and of course my fruit will be just like the characters I pattern after; and then, of course, my fruit will be just like the characters I am connected to. Will it have the same effect upon you? Why, of course it will. Will it have the same effect upon you, ladies,--you, sisters? Yes; and it will have the same effect upon your children.
I do not know whether you understand me or not, but I wish you would have your gardens trimmed and kept clean; and if you do not have any, go into the mountains and to the timber countries.
I merely touch upon these things to refresh your minds, though I did not think anything about them when I got up; but if you will go and look at them,--I mean every Elder, High Priest, Apostle, and Prophet in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,--you will be benefited; for you ought to be exactly like one tree. What! bring forth the same fruit? Yes, all be one in your works for the benefit of Israel.
Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are just like it.
Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces. That is the case with many of you.
Well, then, we say that, if the root is good, the tree is good, and the limbs, because they are attached to the tree and receive nourishment from the tree.
Well, if the root is not very good, the limbs, the tree, and the apples will not be very good, because the root is not very good.
You take a man that is not very good, and that has a wife that is not very good, and they cannot produce very good fruit, because the root is not good. Do you understand that, brother Hunter? ["Yes, Sir."] Is it as plain as cattle? You understand how to originate good stock, and so do I. You go into England and into the New England States, and every man that is raising stock is taking a course to take away the ringed, and the streaked, and the little, dried-up fixings, and to produce a more noble stock. It is upon the same principle that this people should become regenerated.
Well, supposing that a man is a long way beneath his fellows, and is a little, dried-up, knotty, inferior man; can that man be cultivated? Yes, sir, he can; he can take a course in the principles of righteousness, by treasuring up truth; and truth is light, and light is life. Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light and life; and the most inferior man or woman can be regenerated through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you springing up unto everlasting life. That is the principle.
I throw out these few ideas to cause you to reflect. They may seem eccentric, but they are true.
Sometimes I am at work at an apple tree, and sometimes at a cucumber vine; but what is the difference? They have all roots, and they have all cores, and they are all produced for a noble purpose.
The aristocracy--that is, those that are called the aristocracy, came out of the old country: they came as far as Lehi came from Jerusalem, and so on, till they came into this country; but still those that remained behind considered themselves the aristocracy. But let me tell you those men that came here were the true aristocracy; they were the original stock; they were produced by the aristocracy, and they are the original stock. Those men were choice characters, and God spake to them, and they came over here.
That is what they call aristocracy; that is as it is; though I never studied grammar; but I have looked into the Bible and into the Book of Mormon, and I have looked into the visions of eternity, and I know that I am true, and that I am of the true vine. I am one of the sons of those old veterans, and so is brother Brigham.
Will you let me talk just as I please to-day, ladies and gentlemen?
[Voices: "Yes."]
Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men. Brother Joseph actually saw those men in vision; he saw us in a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others--the whole Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph mentioned came down through that channel.
My father's father and his brothers intermixed by marriage with the Smiths, and uncle John Smith was baptised in Nauvoo for upwards of twenty of my kindred. They mixed up in marriage, and in that way the names became changed; for they were the old veterans.
There is another thing that brother Joseph said--viz., that we were positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born since I received my endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came through that lineage.
Never mind, brethren and sisters, give me your attention a little while. The gentleman that came to the stand with brother Brigham is Thomas B. Marsh. I tell you this, that you need not be over-anxious.
Joseph told us these things, and I know them to be true. I know them by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and so do a great many men. We are and we were heirs when we were called and ordained to the Apostleship: we were of that class; yes, we were the sons and daughters of those that came down through that lineage.
We will yet save the Constitution of the United States. We will do it, as the Lord liveth, and we will save this nation, every one of them that will be saved. Brother Brigham Young and brother Joseph Smith stand at our head, and will do that thing, as the Lord liveth. Yes, we, as their children, with our children to assist us, will do it. We have got that power, and so have they, and will bear the kingdom off victoriously to every nation that is upon God's footstool; and I know it.
Let your hearts be comforted; for just as sure as that is rue, so sure will we have good peace for three years from last winter. And why? Because we will make peace, and we will sustain it and support it, and we will bear off the kingdom and establish it. We will bring forth every one of those old veterans, and we will place them upon this land that they fought for. Now, mark it; for we will do it, and all the devils in hell cannot hinder it, if this people will only live their religion and do as they are told; and you cannot do as you are told without living your religion; and if you will do that, we never shall be troubled.
I tell you, if we now live our religion every day, inasmuch as the President of the United States, or the Senators or Legislators make laws to afflict us, the thing they design to bring upon us shall come upon themselves; and the affliction, the snares, the traps, and the gins which they lay for us, they themselves shall suffer with and be caught in. These words never shall fail.
Brethren and sisters, can you do as you are told? It is the easiest thing in the world.
[President Brigham Young: "Tell them something to do."]
We want some thirty or forty yoke of oxen to go out and meet James A. Little's company. Do you all say yes?
[The congregation responded, "Yes."]
To-morrow morning, at seven o'clock, we want forty yoke of cattle to help in our trains. You, Bishops, see to that, will you?
["Yes, Sir."]
I tell you we have got enough for you to do: we will call on you for another hitch by-and-by. Take care of your grain, and have all the sisters help to take care of it, and do not let the children waste it; for we do not want you to have enough scattered round to fat three hogs on the crumbs and pieces of bread that are around your door yards. Will you do that?
[President Young: "I guess they will."]
My discourse is rather eccentric. It is in detachments. [Voice. "That is the way they are building the big ship in London."] That is right, is it not, brother Carrington?
["Yes, Sir."]
But let us be attached together, and then we are one; let us yield up our will, and let it run into the tree or branch to which we are connected. Yield up your wills.
I will compare you to a drop of water; inasmuch as you are not willing to yield up, you cannot be one. Now, just let us all run into one drop, and let all the branches be connected to that one tree; and then will we not increase? We will.
Now, as to those enemies down here below, they are not going to trouble us: the brethren will have to go and help them in. Some of those baggage waggons are nearly to Bridger now, and they cannot get back. Their teams are failing fast, and the supposition is, they will have to hire our teams to help them in, but the soldiers will not come. There is nobody to molest them, but their minds are not quiet: they are scared almost to death; and the nearer those baggage waggons get here, the more they are afraid.
As to the army, one-fifth of them have deserted, and the others are making preparations to do so likewise. And as to old Harney, the old squaw-killer, they have made him stop to aid the Governor of Kansas, and, it is likely, to kick up jack. But we do not care anything about it or them. Let us lay up our grain and prepare for the siege, for it will come.
We commenced last Sunday to declare that we are a free people, and we will be free from this day henceforth and for ever; and we never will come under that yoke again. I tell you, as my soul lives, the bow-pin has dropped out of old Bright's bow, and the bow has dropped out, and the yoke is now on old Buck-anan's neck.
Did you ever see a yoke of cattle, and see one get loose, and the off-ox swinging round the yoke and knocking everybody's shins? If you have, that is just the way with old Buchanan: he cannot do anything, but he will bruise somebody's shins, and they will be after him, and he never shall rest again--no, never, until the time comes for us to redeem him. And that is not all. All his coadjutors, his cabinet, and all his governors--yes, I will say from here, or from Dan to Jerusalem--they shall go over the dam: they never shall rest in peace till the Lord Almighty has scourged them until they are fully satisfied.
The Lord God is going to play with them, as he did with Pharaoh in Egypt; and let me tell you, there will not be much fighting for us to do, if we live our religion; but God will use them to accomplish his own works, as the monkey did the cat, when he took the cat's paw to pull the nut out of the fire. We will make monkeys of them, and we will make them crawl on all-fours, and they never will rest.
They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates. They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well, they are not yet punished as they will be; but they are in punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God's government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at all times to take them when they do not think of it.
The President of this nation and his brethren in office, with all the rulers and all the priests, have sanctioned the destruction of this people. Yes, the President and all his coadjutors have sanctioned our death as much as if they had taken our lives, and they are a bloodthirsty nation. They have killed our Prophets, Patriarchs and Apostles, and they have slain, or caused to fall, thousands--yea, thousands of our brethren and sisters, our wives, our fathers, and our mothers; and they shall see the same fulfilled upon themselves, and it shall be measures to them double for all they have dealt out unto us.
When we consider all things, are they not to be pitied? They are. If you will live your religion, you never will have anything to do but to live your religion and lay up stores and prepare for the sceneries that are to come; for, as true as the Lord lives, the people of the nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for raiment, and for protection; and that time is right at our door.
This is one thing to rouse our feelings; for God saw that you would not listen to the words of his servants, but you listen to your own words, and you did not have confidence to lay up stores. There is not one man to a hundred that ever did it; and that is proof sufficient that you did not believe what was said. This is but a shadow of what is coming: it is in embryo. You will see such a time as you never saw. But bless you we won't be troubled. We will live as in the presence of God and of angels. And will we ever have to go into the mountains? No, never. If you will live your religion, you never will.
[Voice: "That is true."]
Do just as brother Brigham tells you; for he always tells you what is right, and he generally tells you what I say is right; and if there is anything wrong, he will correct it and give you the truth. But do I wish to teach you an error? No; I have not such a desire in my heart.
Had I a desire before I was a "Mormon" to propagate an error? No. Why, bless you, I always was a "Mormon." My father and grandfather were "Mormons;" and it is "Mormonism" right away back.
You know brother brigham and I know our daddies; and if no other men on the face of the earth do, you may feel perfectly satisfied that all is right with us.
Now, let us be faithful, let us be humble, let us lay aside our pride and everything that is calculated to distress us or to distress our wives; and then let wives lay aside everything that is calculated to distress their husbands.
Wives, lay aside your vanity, and go to work and make everything that we need, until the time comes when the Lord will consecrate the whole earth unto this people. But that time is not now.
I do not do as many do; for many have looked at these troops that are coming with a degree of fear. But what are they? [Voice: "Scarcely worth picking up."]
I wish there would never a pin's worth of their property come in here, because there are those who think more of a pound of tea than they do of their religion.
[President B. Young: "There are not many of that class."]
But there are a few. If there were not, I should feel discouraged; I should feel to give counsel for you to go to work and accumulate as fast as you could. Bless your souls! there is nothing but what we could make here.
Need we send to the States for anything? No; we need not send even for sugar; and we can make almost everything under heaven, and all the rest is in heaven; and they can be sent down here to us; for heaven and earth are connected by this Priesthood as much as my body and spirit are connected. All these things are in heaven--sugar, flocks and herds, wool and silks, and everything else; and they are not only in the heavens, but in the earth, just as much as that pitcher was taken out of the earth. It was in the earth, and the same kinds are also in the heavens.
We can make all these things ourselves; and all we have to do is to organize the elements that God has created or that he organized; for he did not crete this earth any more than the potter created this pitcher. The potter took the rough material and ground it, and put it on his wheel, and made it just into the shape you see it now.
It was so with our God. The elements were already created, and he took them and shaped them into an earth; and this is the way that all things are organized.
Can we make silk? I have told you that if you go to work and raise flax, you should have the privilege, in my lifetime, of reaping four times as much flax as you ever reaped in the States; that is, you shall have a fourfold crop.
Do I believe that such can be the case with sheep? I know it can; for we have sheared more wool from the sheep here than we ever did in the States, and have we not done the same by wheat?
I heard brother Brigham and brother Wells speaking of a person that took from an acre and thirty rods ninety-six bushels and a half of wheat, and there are others who have taken their fifty-seven bushels an acre. Why, Thomas, you never saw such things in the States! God bless you, Thomas! you shall become a sound man, and be a comfort to us in our old age.
Well, I have no feelings in me against any one--not against brother Marsh; but I feel to bless him with the blessings of God, with the blessings of the earth, from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet; for this is my calling, and I do not feel to curse. But as for our enemies, they have cursed themselves with all the curses they can bear; and the cursing that are on them they never can get off, neither can those who sustain them. The Church and kingdom to which we belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and brother Brigham young will become President of the United States.
[Voices responded, "Amen."]
And I tell you he will be something more; but we do not now want to give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he has got it; and I am Vice-President, and brother Wells is the Secretary of the Interior--yes, and of all the armies in the flesh.
You don't believe that; but I can tell you it is one of the smallest things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking; but I am perfectly willing that brother Long should write every word of it; for I can see it just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions thereof.
Let us live our religion, serve our God, be good and kind one to another, cease all those contentions in your houses, and live in peace.
Sisters, if you have got husbands, nourish them and cherish them; for they have got an almighty work to do; they have enough to do to lay up the comforts of life; and you wives are the women to nourish them that nourish you; for they feed you, and clothe you, and give you every mouthful that you eat and drink, and they have brought you to these valleys of the mountains, that you might see the sons of Jacob become a mighty host. Good heavens! you may yet see the day when the sons of Jacob will be ten times thicker than they now are; and I know it will be so.
We will build up Jackson County, and I am going to tell them of it, with your consent, brother Brigham; and if you do not find any fault with it, I do not know that anybody else has a right to.
Sisters, love your husbands, and encourage them to listen to their file leaders and to their officers pertaining to this Church; for this is their calling, and not to sit down and cry, snuffle, and find fault with their leaders and the other authorities in the Church; for there is where so many go over the dam.
Brother Thomas has learned that this won't do. He has said he got mad with brother Joseph, and then he got mad with brother Brigham and me, because we did not get mad also, like him. The truth was, we were so busy, we had no time to get mad. It was nothing to us what brother Joseph did, and it is just so with you: it is none of your business what brother Brigham does, though you all know that he would not do anything wrong. Why, bless you, brother Brigham would die ten thousand deaths rather than walk one hair to the right or to the left from that which is right.
Well, we are not jealous of you. Do your duty, and you will make every house and every place a palace, and your homes will be as the gate of heaven, and a source of joy to your husbands. Of course you must have a heaven of that which you have made.
Why, I would go to work and make an altar and a heaven, and I never would take any other course than that which is honorable before God; and how can you live your religion without this?
You poor, miserable, disaffected beings, if there are any such here, learn to do right.
Sisters, sustain and comfort your husbands; for they have got plenty to do in these last days. After we have laid up store and got seven years' provisions, there will be seven years for us to be on guard, but never can our enemies touch us if we do right.
We are up in the tops of the mountains, and our Governor is here. What do you say to that? And his God is here, and his associates are listening.
Well, if it is time for the Government of the United States to cut the thread, we are perfectly competent to take care of ourselves. We would not give a dime for this people to be one more in number that they are. There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a sacrifice before God.
God bless you, and may you receive the blessings of brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Daniel, the Twelve Apostles, and the blessings of the Patriarchs of the living God.
Peace be unto this people. Peace be in these valleys and upon the mountains around us! and peace be upon everything that we possess! But peace shall not rest upon those who will grumble and find fault with the servants of God. No; and he or she that will do it shall be as a barren tree.
God bless you and make your minds fruitful, and fill you with revelation, with dreams, and with the visions of eternity, which is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
REPORT OF A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN COUNTRY.
Remarks by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.
The last time, I believe, brethren and sisters, that I had the privilege of speaking from this stand, was the day previous to my starting for the southern country. We were then expecting a visit from a very formidable force, directly from the State of Missouri. It waked up in my mind the feelings that I used to have--say from ten to twenty years ago, in hearing the constant annoyance of an approaching enemy. And according to the report which has been published of my remarks, I talked rather strong. But one thing is evident--if I did not talk strong, it was not because I did not feel strong on the occasion.
I left the next morning and wended my way southward. I visited the different settlements hurriedly, until I reached Parowan, in the county of Iron, the place of the first settlement in the southern part of the Territory. When I arrived there, it appeared that some rumour or spirit of surprise had reached them; for there were active operations going on, seemingly preparing for something that was near at hand. As I drove in at the gate, I beheld the military on the square exercising, and was immediately surrounded by the "Iron Battalion," which seemed to have held its own very well since it was organized in that place.
They had assembled together under the impression that their country was about to be invaded by an army from the United States, and that it was necessary to make preparation by examining each other's arms, and to make everything ready by preparing to strike in any direction and march to such places as might be necessary in the defence of their homes.
As it will be well recollected, I was the President of the company that first made the settlement there. I was received with every feeling of enthusiasm, and I never found them in better spirits. They were willing any moment to touch fire to their homes, and hide themselves in the mountains, and to defend their country to the very last extremity.
Now, there had been no such preaching as that when I went away; but the Spirit seemed to burn in my bones to visit all these settlements in that southern region. Colonel Dame was about organizing the military of that district under the law of last winter. As the Colonel was going along to organize the military, I got into the carriage and went on a mission of peace, to preach to the people. When I got to Cedar, I found the Battalions on parade, and the Colonel talked to them and completed the new organization.
On the following day, I addressed the Saints at their meeting-house. I never had greater liberty of speech to proclaim to the people my feelings and views; and in spite of all I could do, I found myself preaching a military discourse; and I told them, in case of invasion, it might be necessary to set fire to our property, and hide in the mountains, and leave our enemies to do the best they could. It seemed to be hailed with the same enthusiasm that it was at Parowan. That was the same Sabbath that brother Young was preaching the same kind of doctrine; and I am perfectly satisfied that all the districts in the southern country would have given him their unanimous vote.
I then want to Harmony. Brother Dame preached to the military, and I to the civil powers; and I must say that my discourse partook of the military more than the religious. But it seemed that I was perfectly running over with it, and hence I had to say something about it.
I then went over a lovely country, and passed over "Peter's Leap," and some other such lovely places. It is rather rough; but I could not but admire its extreme beauty; and I think, if the Lord had got up all the rough, rocky, and the broken fragments of the earth in one, he might have dropped it down there.
When I reached the cotton country, I had previously learned that they were failing in their attempts to raise cotton, and that the waters of the Rio Virgin were poisoning the cotton. But I learned that the seed had not come up: but what had come up, perhaps one-third of it was exceedingly fine. The difficulty was, that their cotton was planted very late, and the sun heated the sand; for the soil is nothing but the red sand of Sahara. They planted in the sand, as there was nowhere else to plant it, and the sun was scorching it; but they found that all that was necessary was to keep the sand wet; and when they poured on the water, the cotton grew. And old cotton-growers told me that they had never seen a better prospect for cotton, for the time it had been planted, in the world; and this is the condition of things in that country, and the prospect is, that they will have pretty good cotton and about the third of a crop, and the next year they will be able to raise lots of cotton; for they will be there early enough, and have seed that can be depended upon.
The corn in Tutse-gabbot's field, which was planted early, was eighteen feet high. If the sand was not wet, it would all blow away. The country seemed very hot to me; otherwise, I enjoyed the visit very well. But the brethren insisted that it was a very cool spell while I was there.
I preached to them in Washington City, and I thank the Lord for the desert holes that we live in, and for all the land that can be watered,--in all, amounting to but a few hundred acres. There are but a few rods wide that can be watered in a place; but I tell you, when the day comes that the Saints need these hills to be covered with vegetation, they have only to exercise faith, and God will turn them into fruitful fields.
We started from Washington in the night, and the brethren told me, if I had seen the roads, I would not travel them. But I told them I did not want to see the roads; for I was determined to go ahead.
We travelled ten miles, and camped by a small spring, called "Allen's Spring." Some Indians took our horses. We told them we were afraid they would get into some corn-fields. They told us they would put them where they would get plenty to eat and do no mischief. The Indians brought our horses early in the morning, and we arrived at "Jacob's Wikeup," as the Indians call Fort Clara, about nine o'clock, and found their crops suffering for want of water. I saw beautiful indigo, cotton, and corn; and the stalks of the corn were perfectly dry, while the ears were green and fit to boil.
We also had a glorious interview in this, as in other places, with the natives of the desert. We remained there through the heat of the day, and then proceeded down "Jacob's Twist," (a magnificent kanyon,) to where the California road joins the Santa Clara, and then followed up the Santa Clara in the dark of the night--a river upon whose banks many scenes of desperation have been enacted.
About ten o'clock at night, we were surrounded by some hundreds of the natives that were anxious we should stop over night. They took care of our horses, built us camp-fires, and roasted us corn, and made us as comfortable as they could; and I never ate better corn or better melons in my life. We stopped over night with them, and not one of them asked me for a thing; which is remarkable, as the Indians are intolerable beggars. But I was treated as well as if I had been among the Saints, and I never enjoyed a treat better.
We pursued our visit to the Mountain Meadows, and there were kindly treated by the families of the missionaries, who lived at this place on account of the abundant grass for their stock. I then went to Penter, and there addressed a houseful of people in the evening, and then proceeded to Cedar the next day. They had heard they were going to have an army of 600 dragoons come down from the east on to the town. The Major seemed very sanguine about the matter. I asked him, if this rumour should prove true, if he was not going to wait for instructions. He replied, There was no time to wait for any instruction; and he was going to take his battalion and use them up before they could get down through the kanyons; for, said he, if they are coming here, they are coming for no good.
I admired his grit, but I thought he would not have the privilege of using them up, for want of an opportunity. I also visited the Saints at Paragoonah and preached to them, and in every place felt the same spirit. I then came over to Beaver, which is a new settlement; and the day previous, an Indian came in and told them there were shod horses' tracks at a spring over the big mountains about twenty miles to the east.
Major Farnsworth, supposing that there was a body of men in the neighbourhood, and that these were the tracks of the scouts, they immediately went over the mountains and traced the horses' tracks, until they ascertained they came from Parowan. I do not know whether the inhabitants of Parowan intended to whip a regiment of dragoons, or not; but it is certain they are wide awake, and are not going to be taken by surprise. There was only one thing that I dreaded, and that was a spirit in the breasts of some to wish that their enemies might come and give them a chance to fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States. They did feel that they hated to owe a debt and not be able to pay it, and they felt like an old man that lives in Provo, brother Jameson, who has carried a few ounces of lead in his body ever since the Haun's Mill massacre in Missouri; and he wants to pay it back with usury; and he undertook to preach at Provo, and prayed that God would send them along; for he wanted to have a chance at them.
Now, I never felt so; but I do not know but it is on account of my extreme timidity; for I would a great deal rather the Lord would fight the battles than me; and I feel to pray that he will punish them with that hell which is to want to and can't; and it is my prayer and wish all the time that this may be their doom. This is what I want to inculcate all the time; and at the same time, if the Lord brings us in collision with them, and it is his will, let us take hold--not in the spirit of revenge or anger, but simply to avenge God of his enemies and to protect our homes and fire-sides. But I am perfectly aware that all the settlements I visited in the south, Fillmore included, one single sentence is enough to put every man in motion. In fact, a word is enough to set in motion every man, or set a torch to every building, where the safety of this people is jeopardized.
I have understood that there are half-a-dozen fellows in Provo that have but one wife each, and that they are not for fighting, because they say this trouble has come on account of plurality. Well, I pity them, because I know the women will leave them, and that it would not be but a few days before there would be so many broken-hearted, disconsolate men; for the women among the Latter-day Saints will not live with such men.
I have rejoiced and enjoyed myself on this visit to the south as much as at any time; for I perceive a hearty willingness to do and sacrifice anything that was required for the preservation of Zion; and whenever I got up to preach, I was full, and it seemed as if I could not stop; and before I got through, I would be tired.
I will say to the brethren and sisters, that I feel to return to my heavenly Father my thanks that he has thus far frustrated the designs of our enemies; and I know that he has got the power to wield and frustrate them at his will; and I know, if we are humble and united, and moved upon by the right Spirit, God will fight our battles. And if any of us are called to lay down our lives in the defence of our religion, God will save us in celestial glory, and he will preserve us, though all the world be against us.
[President B. Young: "That is true."]
These are my feelings, and this is my faith. No matter what day or hour we are called to go into the presence of our Father in heaven: for every man and woman that has not got a religion that is worth more than their mortal lives, and unless we are willing to sacrifice all that pertains to these temporal feelings, we are not worthy of salvation.
Why, there was an honest Dutchman came to me this morning, and he had just heard that the President had concluded to let the soldiers in here. His heart had sunk within him at the thought, and "Oh! says he, "can I live to see those troops come in here?" He can live through a great many things besides that. God will protect his people, and he will fight their battles; and if he wants a little help, I presume that he will find us ready.
I have preached to the brethren to live their religion, and "trust in God and keep their powder dry." I borrowed it from Cromwell. Be ready to defend Israel; and when we have done all we can, the Lord will do the balance. Why, say the world, it is presumption for you to talk so. Uncle Sam has twenty-five millions of people, and 100,000,000 of surplus money in the treasury, and thousands of men in the country that are aching to be killed. We used to talk to them in this way when we lived down in their midst; and then, when it came to the sticking point, we would bow to them; and what did we get by it? Brother Taylor told you that a thousands had suffered in consequence.
I tell you, we have suffered more waste of life and property than we will to face the music; and let them do their cursedest, and then every honest Dutchman and every man will get all he wants; and many of us Yankees will get many of our dirty tricks purged and pruned out of us: and our picayunary [sic] will vanish; it will all fail; for everything that we have in our hearts that is not right will be purged out; for our interest will be centred in the kingdom of God.
When I was back in Washington last season, I had a long conversation with Senator Douglas; and he is a kind of personification of modern democracy--very thick, but not very long. He asked a great many questions about our Temple, and I gave him a description of the foundation, and he asked me if I expected we would ever be able to accomplish it? The manner he communicated it was to show that he had his eye upon another thing than that which he alluded to; but I realised then just as well as I did when I read his proposition to "cut out the loathsome ulcer." I said to him, "O Judge, we are not a little handful, as we were in Nauvoo: we can now do anything we have a mind to."
Some of our national statesmen profess to be Christians and wonderfully pious. Mr. Morill, of Vermont, said to me, "Your domestic relations are so at variance with sacred books!" Why, said I, the Father of the faithful, our father Abraham, seemed to have the same view of the matter that we do. "Oh," says he, "Abraham was guilty of a great many eccentric tricks." "Eccentric as he might be," I replied, "it is in his bosom that all Christians expect to rest; and we do not expect that he is going to kick his wives out to please anybody."
Many people do not know why it is that they feel so enraged against us. I found in taking with hundreds and thousands of persons, in the course of our travels, that there was a deep-rooted spirit of hatred; and in taking of this I found that my reasons were superior to theirs; and they felt it and realized it, and my conversation seemed to suit and carry a good influence.
Our Elders have preached the Gospel freely throughout the world, and they have tarred and feathered them and put them to death. If they could have defeated them by arguments, all well enough: but no,--these weapons proved ineffectual, and they tried mobs and violence; and now they array the armies of the United States against us, that under their wings they may send missionaries among us to convert our souls. Poor cursed slinks! Do not they know that we were raised among them in the very hot-bed of sectarian bigotry, and that we know all that the priests know about their religion, and ten thousand times more?
THE UNITED STATES' ADMINISTRATION AND UTAH ARMY.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, September 13, 1857.
Before the meeting closes, I want to make a few remarks. My feelings are so complicated that I want to say a few words, and I do not want to; I want to talk, and I do not want to talk. You recollect hearing one of the Elders state upon the stand, not long since, that he came into the Church mad, and had been mad ever since. And I am too angry this morning to preach.
I have been in this kingdom a good while--twenty-five years and upwards, and I have been driven from place to place; my brethren have been driven, my sisters have been driven; we have been scattered and peeled, and every time without any provocation upon our part, only that we were united, obedient to the laws of the land, and striving to worship God. Mobs repeatedly gathered against this people, but they never had any power to prevail until Governors issued their orders and called out a force under the letter of the law, but breaking the spirit, to hold the "Mormons" still while infernal scamps cut their throats. I have had all that before me through the night past, and it makes me too angry to preach. Also to see that we are in a Government whose administrators are always trying to injure us, while we are constantly at the defiance of all hell to prove any just grounds for their hostility against us; and yet they are organizing their forces to come here, and protect infernal scamps who are anxious to come and kill whom they please, destroy whom they please, and finally exterminate the "Mormons."
I did not arrive till late; and brother Taylor was then preaching upon this subject, and I was glad of it. He has taught you good principles. This people are free; they are not in bondage to any government on God's footstool. We have transgressed no law, and we have no occasion to do so, neither do we intend to; but as for any nation's coming to destroy this people, God Almighty being my helper, they cannot come here. [The congregation responded by a loud Amen.] That is my feeling upon that point.
On the 24th of July last, a number of us went to Big Cottonwood Kanyon, to pass the anniversary of our arrival into this Valley. Ten years ago the 24th of July last, a few of the Elders arrived here, and began to plough and to pant seeds, to raise food to sustain themselves. Whist speaking to the brethren on that day, I said, inadvertently, If the people of the United States will let us alone for ten years, we will ask no odds of them; and ten years from that very day, we had a message by brothers Smoot, Stoddard, and Rockwell, that the Government had stopped the mail, and that they had ordered 2,500 troops to come here and hold the "Mormons" still, while priests, politicians, speculators, whoremongers, and every mean, filthy character that could be raked up should come here and kill off the "Mormons," I did not think about what I had said ten years ago, till I heard that the President of the United States had so unjustly ordered troops here; and then I said, when my former expression came to my mind, In the name of Israel's God, we ask no odds of them.
I do not often get angry; but when I do, I am righteously angry; and the bosom of the Almighty burns with anger towards those scoundrels; and they shall be consumed, in the name of Israel's God. We have borne enough of their oppression and hellish abuse, and we will not bear any more of it; for there is no just law requiring further forbearance on our part. And I am not going to have troops here to protect the priests and a hellish rabble in efforts to drive us from the land we possess; for the Lord does not want us to be driven, and has said, "if you will assert your rights, and keep my commandments, you shall never again be brought into bondage by your enemies."
The officer in command of the United States' army, on its way to Utah, detailed one of his staff, Captain Van Vliet, who is now on the stand, to come here and earn whether he could procure the necessary supplies for the army. Many of you are already aware of this, and some of you have been previously acquainted with the Captain. Captain Van Vliet visited us in Winter Quarters (now Florence); and, if I remember correctly, he was then officiating as Assistant-Quartermaster. He is again in our midst in the capacity of Assistant-Quartermaster. From the day of his visit to Winter Quarters, many of this people have become personally acquainted with him, both through casual intercourse with and working for him. He has invariably treated them kindly, as he would a Baptist, a Methodist, or any other person; for that is his character. He has always been found to be free and frank, and to be a man that wishes to do right; and no doubt he would deal out justice to all, if he had the power. Many of you have laboured for him, and found him to be a kind, good man; and I understand that he has much influence in the army, through his kind treatment to the soldiers. He treats them as human beings, while there are those who treat them worse than brute beasts.
Well, the enquiry is, "What is the news? What is the conclusion?" It is this--We have to trust in God. I am not in the least concerned as to the result, if we put our trust in God. The administrators of our Government have issued orders for marching troops and expending much treasure, and all predicated upon falsehoods, while every honourable man would have first made an economical and peaceful enquiry into the circumstances. And even now, every honourable man would use all his influence to avert the present unjust and entirely groundless movement against us; but Captains, Majors, Colonels, and other subordinate officers have not the power. Wicked persons, solely for the accomplishment of their unhallowed schemes, have had the power to array the Government against us, through their lying and misrepresentation; but citizens, unorganized into cliques and parties, no matter how good their intentions and wishes, have not the power to avert the bow when the Administration of our Government is arrayed against us, unless they will also unite against the few well-organized scoundrels who are plundering our treasury and fast urging our country to dissolution. We have got to protect ourselves by the strength of our God. Do not be concerned in the least with regard to all the affairs that are before you; for we shall live and grow finely, as said a certain woman, who weighed but two pounds when an infant, and was put in a quart cup. Upon being asked whether she lived, "O yes," she said, "I lived and grew finely." It will also be said of the Latter-day Saints, "They lived and grew finely."
You are taught from Sabbath to Sabbath what to do; and if you do that, all will be well. There is only one thing to fear, and that is, that you will not be faithful to the kingdom of God. We have that kingdom; and it will spread its balmy wings over thousands and millions who have not yet heard the Gospel, and they will find Israel to be "the head, and not the tail."
What is the cause of the hostile feeling against this people? Brother Taylor has been telling you. God has restored the Gospel of salvation to earth again. That unites the hearts of the people, brings together those of different nations, notwithstanding their various traditions and their different manners and customs, and makes them of one heart and of one mind. And what follows? All hell is moved against them, because the kingdoms of this world--the kingdoms of darkness--are in danger. A hell is moved against this people, because we are of one heart and of one mind.
The faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is calculated to unite the people in one, and to bring them back to the unity and faith of those who obeyed the Gospel anciently, and finally to bring them back to glory. Then do you wonder that all the sects of the day are enraged against us? I have told you that I do not wonder; neither do I wonder that governors and rulers are enraged at our success. Are there any Democrats, any Whigs, any Methodists, any Baptists, or anything like the parties and sects of the day among us? No. What is there? Those who want to do the will of their Father in heaven; and when they can know his will, their faith is one, their hope is one, and they are one in all things.
It is not alone the United States that is in fear because of the union that exists with this people, but all Europe trembles this day in consequence of the faith there is here. Some may think that it is not so; but I know more about the United States than men do who come here direct from Washington. I red their history and their feelings every day. You need not think that the world are not opposed to us--you need not think that politicians are not opposed to us, for they are.
We have sent a delegate to Congress during the past six years, and has there ever been an opposing vote in his election? No. The people only want to know who the right man is, and then they will support him. Dr. Bernhisel is our delegate; and has it cost him thousands of dollars to gain his election? No; it has not cost him a singe dollar; no, not so much as a red cent. We think that he is the most suitable man for us to send to Washington, and we say, "Let us send him," and he is unanimously elected. And if we had a thousand officers to elect--if we had to elect the President of the United States, you would never see a dissenting vote.
Parties in our Government have no better idea than to think the republic stands all the firmer upon opposition; but I say that it is not so. A republican Government consists in letting the people rule by their united voice, without a dissension,--in learning what is for the best, and unitedly doing it. That is true republicanism.
Do not be angry. I will permit you to be as angry as I am. Do not get so angry that you cannot pray: do not allow yourselves to become so angry that you cannot feed an enemy--even your worst enemy, if an opportunity should present itself. There is a wicked anger, and there is a righteous anger. The Lord does not suffer wicked anger to be in his heart; but there is anger in his bosom, and he will hold a controversy with the nations, and will sift them, and no power can stay his hand.
The Government of our country will go by the board through its own corruptions, and no power can save it. If we can avert the bow for another season, it is probable that our enemies will have enough to attend to at home, without worrying the Latter-day Saints. Have faith, and all will be well with us. I would like this people to have faith enough to turn away their enemies. I have prayed fervently about this matter; for it has been said that the troops would come: but I have said that, if my faith will prevent it, they shall not come. If God will turn them whithersoever he will, so that they do not come here, I shall be perfectly satisfied. But another man steps up, and says to the one that prays for our enemies to be turned away, "Brother, you are a coward; damn them, let them come, for I want fight to them." Herein you perceive a conflict in our faith; and that should not be. If there was a perfect union of our faith, our enemies could never cross the Rocky Mountains; or, if they undertook to come some other way, they never could cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains, nor the Basin Rim, on our north, nor the deserts at the south. But, says one, "I want to fight." Do all such persons know that they are not right? If they will examine their hearts, they will find a wicked anger and a malice there; and they cannot get into the kingdom of God with those feelings.
Learn to control yourselves; earn to be in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter; and if he will turn our enemies away, praised be his name. But if it should become a duty to take the sword, let us do it, manfully and in the strength of Israel's God. Then one will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight." The day will be in which a man will go out and say to an army of a hundred thousand men, "Do thus, and so, or we are upon you;" and they will hear the rumbling of chariots and the rushing of troops, as in the days of Elijah.
You recollect of a Prophet's telling what bread and meal should be sold for in a straitened city the following day. The enemy thought that there were millions of the Israelites after them, for they heard the rolling of chariot-wheels, the clashing of armour, and the trampling of horses, and they fled. The Prophet had told the king that he would be trodden to death in the gate, and he was; and a measure of meal was sold in the city for a penny, in fulfilment of the word of the Lord. The doctrines of salvation are the same now as they were in the days of Adam, or Elijah, or Jesus, when he was upon the earth.
While brother Taylor was speaking of the sectarian world, it occurred to my mind that the wicked do not know any more than the dumb brutes, comparatively speaking; but it is our business to hunt up and gather out all the honest portion of the nations of the earth, and give them salvation. We may very properly say that the sectarian world do not know anything correctly, so far as pertains to salvation. Ask them where heaven is?--where they are going to when they die?--where Paradise is?--and there is not a priest in the world that can answer your questions. Ask them what kind of a being our Heavenly Father is, and they cannot tell you so much as Balaam's ass told him. They are more ignorant than children.
We have the knowledge of those things; and we have the greatest reason to be thankful of any people upon the face of the earth. If others ought to do right, we more. Be full of love and compassion to your fellowbeings, full of kindness, such as human beings can possess, for that is our business. The only business that we have on hand is to build up the kingdom of God and prepare the way of the Son of Man.
If you do your duty in this respect, you need not be afraid of mobs, nor of forces sent out in violation of the very genius of our free institutions, holding you till mobs kill you. Mobs? Yes; for where is there the least particle of authority, either in our Constitution or laws, for sending troops here, or even for appointing civil officers contrary to the voluntary consent of the governed? We came here without any help from our enemies, and we intend to stay as long as we please.
They say that their army is legal, and I say that such a statement is as false as hell, and that they are as rotten as an old pumpkin that has been frozen seven times and then melted in a harvest sun. Come on with your thousands of illegally-ordered troops, and I will promise you, in the name of Israel's God, that you shall melt away as the snow before a July sun.
There is one thing that I want, for the satisfaction of Captain Van Vliet. One of our old senators, Stephen A. Douglas, recently said before his constituents in Illinois, that nine-tenths of our people were aliens. We have a larger proportion of foreigners in this city than in any other part of the Territory, and there are a good many here to-day who have just come in from the Plains. I want those who are native born and naturalized American citizens to raise their right hands. [Over two-thirds of the congregation raised their hands.] You who have not yet received your naturalization papers will please manifest it in the same way. [Less than a third of the congregation raised their hands.] Now, Captain, you can see for yourself that over two-thirds of this congregation are either native born or naturalized American citizens.
I have called this vote that Captain Van Vliet may be able to do as he always does--speak the truth boldly, and tell them of it next winter in Washington; and that he can, if he sees Senator Douglas in Washington, tell him that his statement was false, for he has seen for himself.
If it were any use, I would ask whether there is ONE person in this congregation who wants to go to the United States; but I know that I should not find any. But I will pledge myself that if there is a man, woman, or child that wants to go back to the States, if they will pay their debts, and not steal anything, they can go; and if they are poor and honest, we will help them to go. That has been my well-known position all the time.
Brother Taylor has said that he bantered the United States for a trade, and promised them that if they would send all to Utah that wanted to come, we would send all to the States that wanted to go. We would get our thousands to their one, if they would make that trade. But no--they must keep on lying, howling, and trying to oppress and kill the innocent.
When some want away last spring, I told them to go in peace, and they did so. What are they doing now? Many of them are struggling to get back, and the rest are wishing that they had never left here. It is a kind of dear business to apostatize every year. I would rather stick to the old ship Zion.
When I was written to in Nauvoo by the President of the United States, through another person, enquiring, "Where are you going, Mr. Young?" I replied that I did not know where we should land. We had men in England trying to negotiate for Vancouver's Island, and we sent a shipload of Saints round Cape Horn to California. Men in authority asked, "Where are you going to?" "We may go to California, or to Vancouver's Island." When the Pioneer company reached Green River, we met Samuel Brannan and a few others from California, and they wanted us to go there. I remarked, "Let us go to California, and we cannot stay there over five years; but let us stay in the mountains, and we can raise our own potatoes, and eat them; and I calculate to stay here." We are still on the backbone of the animal, where the bone and the sinew are, and we intend to stay here, and all hell cannot help themselves.
We are not to be persecuted as we have been. We can say, "Come as a mob, and we can sweeten you up right suddenly." They never did anything against Joseph till they had ostensibly legalized a mob; and I shall treat every army and every armed company that attempts to come here as a mob. [The congregation responded, "Amen."] You might as well tell me that you can make hell into a powder-house as to tell me that you could let an army in here and have peace; and I intend to tell them and show them this, if they do not keep away. By taking this course, you will find that every man and woman feels happy, and they say, "All is right, all is well;" and I say that our enemies shall not slip the bow on "Old Bright's neck" again.
God bless you. Amen.
MOVEMENTS OF THE SAINTS' ENEMIES.--THE CRISIS.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, September 13, 1857.