8th Sunday morning at 6 oclock the Bishops repaired with the Twelve
[FIGURE] to the streams of water for the purpose of Baptizing & confirming the
whole camp who had not been since we came into the
we felt it our privilege to be baptized & to Baptize the camp of Israel
for the remission of our sins & to renew our covenants before the
Lord, Brothers , , &
baptized & the Twelve confirmed them there were 224 Baptized
& confirmed this morning 99 of which I confirmed with my
own hands making 288 in all that have been baptized in the camp
during the last 3 days. The camp assembled as usual at 10 oclok for
meeting And was addressed as usual by H. C. Kimball who had the spirit
of speaking unto edifycation I followed him And was never blessed with
greater liberty of speach in addressing a congregation I was edifyed myself
& those that herd. In the afternoon we met again & partook of
the sacrament Br addressed the people & was followed
by Br who was feeble in health, he gave good council
& we were edefyed, at the close of the meeting 110 men were called up
to go onto the BDoby yard 76 volunteered & they thought that woul[d] [page covered]
answer for A commencment. [FIGURE]
The following are some of the remarks made by w. woodruff [in] [page covered]
his address to the Saints in the fore part of the day written by [page covered]
clerk. I have been much edifyed in the teaching giv[en] [page covered]
by Elder, ^Kimball^ & have reflected much since I came into this valley, con[cer] [page covered]
ning our situation, our calling, & the work that is required at ou[r] [page covered]
hands. And the words of one of the Apostles will apply well to [our] [page covered]
case "that when we have done the will of God we have need of
patience that we may obtain the blessing's & though it tarry lo[ng] [page covered]
we should obtain it if we continued faithful" Of all
people that ever lived we have the greatest reason to be fait[hful] [page covered]
& exercise Patience & not be weary in well doing for we have
the greatest work to perform & Blessings promised accordingly.
The day has come when the Lord has set his hand with full pur-
pose of heart to esstablish his Kingdom on the earth, gather Israel
build up Zion & make an end of sin & cause all
nations to bow the knee & every tongue to confess tha[t] Jesus is
the Lord & has a right to reign on the earth And ye are the
people ye Elders of Israel & Latter Day Saints that are moved
upon & called & chosen to do this work, who is sufficient for
these things, & what manner of persons ought ye to be. I rejoice
that I enjoy the society of so many of the Saints this day in this
glorious which has not been peolluted by the ungodly
gentiles & that I can speak with freedom without being trampled
by wicked men. the difference in the society tBetwen the Saints
& the gentiles in the United States can ownly be contrasted betw-
een Heaven & Hell in comparison for let an elder of this Church
start from & travel to & let the people know
who he is & He would be in Hell all the time a& there is A cause for
this A Prophet seer & revelater. Patriarchs & Apostles have been raised
up in there midst, the Church & kingdom of God has been planted
among them, the gospel preached & salvation freely offered unto all &
what have they done, they have stoned the Prophets & killed them
poured out their Blood like water upon the earth, have burned their
dwellings & given their goods to the flames, have driven the Apostles
with the keys of Eternal life & salvation with the entire Church
& kingdom of God out of their midst into the wilderness & the mountai[n]s
yets they have turned the last key that has sealed & locked fast their
condemnation that lingereth not & there damnation that slumber
eth not. And this is the reason why they are full of hell & desire to
destroy every thing that retainets any portion of the of the spirit
of Gods But if it requires all the martered Saints in Heaven from
rig[h]teous to to go forth from the temple in Heaven
& [p]our out all the vials of the last plagues upon the United
States & open the seals upon them in order to avenge the Blood
of the Prophets & Saints which they have spilt, it will be done
for that Blood shall spedily be avenged. Yea vary spedily
The Prophet Joseph, The Twelve Apostles, with many of the
Elders of Israel & Saints Have been called to pass through scenes
of sufferings & privations, that would have discouraged an , they have had to combat earth and Hell, wicked men & devils,
sickness & death, Burnings Drivings & persecutions, but have
we ben discouraged no the greater the difficulties the
more we have been stimulated to Action, what has sus
tained us & inspired us to action in the midst of these
difficulties? We have been upheld by the power of God that
we might fulfill his purposes. Our spirits have been stired up by the
spilt Blood of the Prophets which still cries from the ground
[page covered] [to] heaven for vengance & will not rest neither let us untill it is
[page covered] [a]venged, we have also been moved upon by the spirits of our
[page covered] [fa]thers & Progenitors whose bodies have lain in the dust for many
[page covered] [ge]nerations, who recieved not the gospel in the flesh not having it
[page covered] [p]roffered unto them, but are now waiting for the redemption of their
[page covered] [bo]dies After salvation shall be sealed upon them through the instru
mentality of their sons who should embrace the gospel in the fulness
[page covered] [of] times, we are also moved upon by the Holy Ghost to accomplish the
great work of the last days & fulness of times in preparing the ear[th] [page torn]
for the reign of Christ, & to fulfill the promises which was made
to the Ancient Prophets & Patriarch which promises they drew from
the Heavens by their faith & faithfulness before the Lord & saw the
work that lies before us by the spirit of inspiration revelation dreams
& the visions of Heaven. Thus it has been that A combination
of causes of eternal & important consequence has stimulated the Proph[ets] [page covered]
Apostles & Elders to action untill they have resolved in their hearts that
for Zions sake they would not hold their peace & for sake
they would not rest, untill their righteousness goes forth as Brightness
& salvation as A Lamp that Burneth. Yea the time has come for the
Lord to esstablish his kingdom on the earth & to make A short work of it
& overthrow the Kingdom of the , for He has held dominion on
the earth for many generations & in one instance undertook to
claim his right to all the Kingdoms of the world before the Lord wh[en] [page covered]
He showed the Savior all the kingdoms of the world & proffered to
give them to him if He would fall down & worship him, when in
fact the Poor Devil did did not own one foot of land on the eart[h] [page covered] [Matthew 4:8-9]
I feel also that the time has come when we can no more preach salvatio[n] [page covered]
to those of the gentiles who have rejected the Prophets & killed them &
cast the saints & the gospel out of their midst, the last time I was
through the United States I could not preach salvation to the peop[le] [page covered]
but I could have the spirit of God to preach damnation to them fo[r] [page covered]
they were worthy I tried to preach a gospel sermon in the
in to many of the world who were present But it was hard
work to do it. But I could tell them about their spilling the
Blood of the Prophets & the judgments that must follow them
& that they had not got done with but he would yet r[ule] [page covered]
in judgment against them & condemn them.
I will close by relating An circumstance that transpired when I was in
the eastern states on my return ofrom I went to the state of
(my native place) to get my to bring to Zion. I
thought if was Justifyed in giving commandment to have hi[s] [page covered]
bones taken to be buried in , that I was Justifyed In taking my
living father & gathering him with the Saints & while At his house
was visited by my Fathers sister Aunt who was naturly a
good woman & A strenuous while conversing about our lea[ving] [page covered]
& going so far off she asked me with tears in her eyes if I suppo[sed] [page covered]
we could find any Christian society to associate with. I replyed for
Gods sake & our sake I hope not, she gazed at me with amazement
& wondered why I should feel so. I replyed that the Christians of
this generation in the United States had persecuted us to all intents &
purposes had burned our dwellings, given our goods to the flames
had murdered our Brethren, sistiers, wives & children had [page covered]
our Prophets, Patriarchs, & Apostles & driven the remainder o[f] [page covered]
us from their midst & should we now desire their society & see[k] [page covered]
their religion? No I would rather be in the midst of the griselly b[ears] [page covered]
of the , or mingle with the society of the savages [in] [page covered]
the forest, than to longer mingle with such Christians or longer
bear the fruits of their religion
