16th Sunday
the mail came in to day & brought me
a letter from Mrs . Preached to
the People in the forenoon upon the practical duties of life
but I was at home writing. President Preached in
the afternoon & I reported his sermon the following is
a synopsis of the same
President Youngs text was Arise & shine O Zion for ^thy light is come^
& the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee [ Isaiah 60:1] He said I have
always felt since I have been called to preach to speak of the
practical things of evry day life insted of some great
a long way ahead in theEternity which the people do not know nor
never will as the thing does not exhist I felt in the
begining of my being called to the ministry that I had no right
to preach except I was filled with the spirit of Revelation
& as the Ancients & I feel the same to day in order
to be qualified to preached we should be filled with Reve-
lation I do not consider that any man is qualified to & the sayings of the prophets unless he is filled iwith the
spirits of the prophets. We are commanded to arise & shine
but for us to sit down & say that we believe in this work
we believe that ^^ was a prophet, and still not carry out the
work which we are commanded to do, not to build up or
beautify Zion we shall find that we shall miss of our aim
we shall not enter into the Celestial kingdom we shall not
enter through the gates. We must show to the Lord that
we are willing to fulfill What he requires of us and
this we shall not do unless we are willing to arise & shine,
but how are we to [do] it. we have got to build up Zion and
we have got to make Zion the most holy and polished, Refined
& beatiful place upon the face of the whole Earth. So we may
expect to see Zion in all that beauty majesty & glory which
God has spoken of. But the people do not understand the
things of God. I will prophesy that unless this people
will rise up & build up Zion as God has commanded
usthem they will be removed out of their place & another
people will be raised in their stead who will perform the work
& this I say in the name of God. I also say in the name of the Lord
that the desendants of who are among the Gentiles
are tohe first born and they are the first ones to receive th[e]
in this dispensation they are the first
to be gathered together and this work was not to be given to
any other in the begining of this kingdom. this has been done.
the Ephraimites are before here to day. Now if I was to
ask you if you are willing to do as you are told you would
say yes. But let me tell you ther is not one of you that
are willing to do as you are told. I have given the people
council for years past how to build their forsts, walls, cities
Houses, & how to begin to beautify & adorn Zion but have
the people done as I have told them in these things, no. You
may say these are of miner consequences. But let me
tel you that if you are not willing to do the small things that
is necessary ^on earth^ then you are not willing to do as you are told
in heaven, & you will loose your glory and
Now do you not rembember that I told you years ago to go to
& build up a beautiful city in this but there has been
nothing done towards it. we have many that have been in
the Church fqor quite a number of years & yet we have
not a Builder or Architect that knows enough to build
the meanest house of any kind not even a keitchen in
the . Then how can we build up the
New Jerrusalem? I have told the people all the day long
to be prepared to build up this city. And I will say that
if we could take all the knowledge that exhists among evry
nation upon the face of the whole Earth & boil it down into
an essenc & put it all into one man He would not know
enough to lay the first stone in the wall around the New
Jerrusalem to say nothing about building the city & Temple
we have got to improve continually and build up good
cities & adorn & beautify Zion and let me tel you that
if you do not come to thisat place ^whare^ you will not stand set
your heart on any riches or gold you are not worthy to
do the work of God, and if this people do not build up
Zion they will be moved out of their place. evry time we
build a House or city we should better it. evry thing around
us should be neat & clean. now look at this building for
a school house. the ground around this building should be
prepared for a play ground, & kept neat & clean & prep[ar]ed
so as to make the child Happy. Children should be in a cle[a]n
plase but how is it here. the moment the children step out
of door they see nothing but filth all the day long. the
minds of our children while young are pure & they should
not spend their time in filthy places for it effects their
minds & feelings they should be in a clean place, for
they are visited by the Angels of God but parents do not
realize this although it is true. Yo[u] may say I do not have
time to keep my dwellings, school Houses, door yards &c
clean. no nor you never will have till you die upon the same
principle, but you should take time. now it should not take
a week till I would clean out my door Yard. But
the people in this have not had time to clean
out their door yards, or to make any thing els they ought
to do. I will show you that I will set an example for
children to follow. I will teach those things which we
ought to do to day. I have preached this from the
begining the first time I ever preached was to tell the
people the duties of to day. now if you had all the gold in
the world what would you do would you go to No
but go to & build up Zion. You may say their is no calafornia
here we have no gold, but it is not gold that is going to bui[l]d
up Zion though we shall use a good deal of it, but we have
it to do with our hands. You can make a begining & do
sumthing. you can set an example. you can clean out your
house & yard & make that clean, & you can stop the Bed
bugs from runing around you. I do not see the first
fruit or shade tree in this . come up to the & get some Fruit trees & set out & have some fruit
growing. Now this is Zion and the light has come, & shines
upon you & you are call upon to build up Zion. How by going
to Calafornia No, for there is millions of Gold here & the Lord
will send it in sight when He thinks it is best ^for us to Have it^ as He did in
Calafornia. If you think it is not best to come here go back
to . Old Father said that He would stay
at so when the church got ready to go back
to He would have but a short way to go [to] what
the people here wood. brother told him He migh
Happen to find it much the nearest way there by the
way of the & many will find that
to be the case the longest way aroungd will be the shortest way
there. we have been called great spe[c]ulators & misers
I have told the people I was the greatest miser & spe[c]ulator
in the world, for I am laying plans to try to obtain evry
thing there is on Earth & in heaven that is good that is
what I am after all the time. I have told the world that I
would possess Heven while they would become toin the
next world. my speculations are not confined to this world alone
Now I say go to & make a fine house in this place. You may
say I have not the capitol. vary well look at the salt Lake City
we have built up that city without capitol that was built
up with the strength of our hands which is our capitol
Now I want to say to the people here, what do you say to
going out on to your lots to build to build your houses &
set out Fruits trees. Your wall around this fort is
not much protection you might as well stick up a row
of willows to scare & stop the as any thing there
is here. Now go to & build up some good Houses in this
place I wante to Join some 16 of the Brethren to come here
& build up some houses & a wall around it, but I shall build
humble here. I shall not build large, but I want you to lanch
oucht and then come & see Salt Lake City & If I have not
beat you I will try again. I am determined to improve in all
the building I do while I live. If we get our built I
mean to go to work & build another one as much better than
the one we are now building as this is better than the
that we built in and this wing of the
which we have built here is a better building in its finish
& structure than that temple was. Now go to & do what God
requires of you, and what ever you want to get get lawfully
& then it will be a blessing to you allways & you will enjoy
it But steal it & it will be a curse to you & cause you
sorrow & misery. Whenever get so that I set my
heart upon Houses, lands, Gold or any thing Els on earth
so as to begin to turn my heart away from the Lord IThe
Just want to die before that comes to pass day before that
comes to pass I want the Lord to take me away. May God Bless
you Amen
President followed & said I felt quite well
in the forenoon but I do not feel well this afternoon in
I know what President Young has said is true we have
come here & we have Dedicated this people & this place to
God. Now do the people realize why we are here no they do
not. we are here for the benefit of all Israel we have not
come here for a salary we have come here to do the and I will say that the yoke is off from our neck
& it shall never be put on again not on the necks of this
people. for if we do not do as God wants us to do he will raise
up a people that will do it. I tell you that God will smite any
people that undertake to stop this work And I say that
what President Young has said is true you nknow that
what President Young has our children have to learn
the Alphabet first so it is with this people the things
which God teaches us are small & simple in many resp[ec]ts
but they are just as necessary for us to learn & practice ias it
is for the child to learn his letters in order to understand
the Arts & sciences for we have to learn & practice small
things before we can obtain & carry out the greater things
of God. Now we are required to begin to build up &
adorn Zion we should set out fruit & shade trees I have
not done as much as I would liked to have done, but I have
raised some 15 bushels of peaches. President Young has
a large orchard he has raised a good many peaches & apples
& some 10000 1000 lbs of Good grapes as good as I ever
tasted. And that is as hard a place to live as there is
in these . My wood for one fire cost me
some $1.75. These canyons are full of Good fruit which
you can get & set out. I have several kinds of good currands
which I got from the canyons which bear large & fine
fruit these things all heplp adorn the Earth. now go
to & build up this & make a beautiful city. you have
a good place around the for a city & gardens
& orchards the soil is sandy & you have a plenty of ma[n]ure
to make it rich. The people must learn & practice clean-
liness in this life some people think they can live all
their days in filth & dirt never even wash their bodies
then die & go to heaven & be clean but if you do not
learn & practice this lesson in this life you will have to learn
& practice it in the next before you will be received into the society
of those who are clean pure & holy. you have got to be
passive in the hands of God. As the prophet has said if
we are ^not^ passive in the hands of God as clay is in the hands
of the potter we shall have to be cut off from the whell
& flung into the batch & ground over again before we
we can be made vessels of honour what can we be made vesels
of honour after we have mared in the hands of the potter
& ground over again yes this will be the case with man but
it is far better to be passive in the hands of God & be made
a vessel of honor the first time than to wait thill till we
have to be ground over again this is a figure which the
prophet made use of. [Jeremiah 18:2-6] Now President is
the Master Potter here on Earth & we should be subject to him
in all thingst we should all remember that we have got to render
up our stewardship to God therefore we should be faithful in
all things And pray that the spirit of God may rest
upon you that you may do right & be saved with a full
salvation. And I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ Am[e]n
