Lake City, Sunday, . REPORTED BY GEO. F. GIBBS. There is a principle that I feel disposed to say a few words on, in connection with what Brother Rich has been saying, and that is the principle of faith. [The speaker then read the 11th chapter of Hebrews.] I have taken the liberty of read- ing this catalogue of blessings which ancient men of God obtained through the principle of faith; which principle is as much needed to-day by the people of this genera tion, as by any people at any age of the world. We might continue the chapter of results and operations of the principle of faith to the present day. For by faith Joseph Smith received the ministration of God, out of heaven. By faith he received the records of Nephi, and translated them through the Urim and Thummim, into our own language; and which have since been translated into many different languages. By faith he made the foundation of this church and kingdom, just as much as Noah, by faith, built the ark, and received the fulness thereof. [Hebrews 11:7] By faith he prophesied, leaving a record, a tes- tament which has been given through his mouth to the inhabit- ants of the earth, and which con- tains the revelations of God yet to be fulfilled. The testator is dead, but his testament is in force to all the world. By faith the elders of this church left their homes and fami- lies, and went, when called upon, to foreign nations without money, and without learning or experience, to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom without price, to this generation, and warning the inhabitants of the earth of the judgments of God which await the world, and which must overtake the wicked. Faith is necessary on the part of the Latter-day Saints, say nothing about the outside world, in order to read and believe the records of divine truth which have come unto us; and it requires faith on the part of the Christian world to really be- lieve this record, the Bible—to be- lieve that the Lord, through his servants, really means what he says, and says what he means. It requires faith on the part of the Latter-day Saints to perform their duties acceptably before God; for we, in this dispensation, must walk by faith and not by sight, just as much as the people of God in any previous dispensation. And this principle we should exercise and live by. Some of the revelations which God has given unto us point to the future condition of the world, and foretell what must shortly be- fall the world of mankind. These predictions were uttered by holy men as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and although the men themselves have passed away, not one jot or title of their words will fail in their fulfilment. Not withstanding all the unbelief and infidelity of the modern world, there is not a man living that can place his finger upon the first reve lation of God to man, from the days of father Adam to the present time, but what has had or is having its fulfilment as fast as time and op- portunity admit of. God lives. These revelations which have been given through men who were in- spired of the Holy Ghost, will have their fulfilment, even if the results should effect the destruction of the generation now living. When Jesus brought the Gospel to his father's house—the Jews, they re- jected him and the words of life he taught them. He found them intently looking forward to the coming of their Shiloh in the per- son of a king, a ruler who should possess great power, even power sufficient to deliver them from Romish yoke. They never once dreamed that he would appear in their midst as the babe of Beth- lehem, who should be born in a stable, and cradled in a manger, a man who should know sorrow, and who should be acquainted with grief, and who should choose as his disciples illiterate fishermen of low degree. [Isaiah 53:3] And although he was their Savior King who would have redeemed them, and delivered them, and given unto them the gospel of peace and of liberty, yet they in their vanity and pride despised him, and persecuted him, and at last shed his blood. [Matthew 27] But was there a word ever uttered by him concern- ing their temple or nation but what met with i[t]s fu[l]filment to the very letter? The history of the Jews, which chronicles the days of their glory and power, when they held the Urim and Thummim, the ephod, the priesthood, and when [t]hey offered sacrifice, taken in con- nection with the prediction of Jesus foretelling their downfall and dis- persion is of itself sufficient to teach every infidel mind, that there is truth in the revelations of God to man. The Jews have been tram- pled under the feet of the Gentiles for the last 1,800 years, fulfilling, too, what Moses said of them; and they have been overthrown, as a nation, and led captive unto other nations, and are held in scorn by the Gen tiles even to the present hour. And you may begin at the begi ning, taking, for instance, those great cities that figured anciently in their splendor and magnificence, and which were built to defy all time, such as Nineveh, Thebes, Tyre and Sidon, Memphis and Babylon. Where are they, and what become of them? They are gone, their history buried, as it were, in oblivion, and that too in fulfilment of prophesy. Yes, the words of some poor honest prophet or apostle raised up to declare the Gospel to the inhabitants thereof, but whom they despised and reject ed, have met with their fulfilment, and the disobedient and wicked have passed away to be judged ac cording to the deeds done in the body. And you may trace the his- tory of the world from father Adam to the present time, and I can defy any man to point to a single pre- diction, uttered by inspired men raised up of God, but what has or will come to pass in its time and season. And if the Gentiles to-day would read these revelations of God, and exercise faith in them, they would no longer wonder when they come among us, to see these valleys, for 600 miles, filled with cities and towns, gardens and or- chards, temples and tabernacles, and with comfortable dwellings. But the fact is, unbelief has over- whelmed the Christian world, and man has spiritualized the Scriptures until there is no faith in him, and he has no faith in God, nor in the literal fulfilment of his revelations to man. That is what ails the world to-day. The predictions of the Bible never could have been fulfilled, had not the Lord, in these last days raised, up a prophet as an instrument in his hands to again establish his Gospel on the earth, and gather together the house of Israel to the valleys of these ever- lasting hills, according to his de- cree to old father Jacob; and his seed have yet to make this western desert to blossom as the rose, bring ing forth "the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beau- tify the place of my sanctuary." [Isaiah 60:13] The whole history of this people has been foretold by the prophet Isaiah, thousands of years ago; and it has been a steady growth from the commencement to the present. And will the Lord stop here? No; whether men believe or not, this Zion so often spoken of in holy writ, has got to arise and put on her beautiful garments; these mountain vales have got to be filled with the saints of God, and temples reared to his holy name, preparatory to the time when "the Gentiles shall come thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." [Isaiah 60:3] And this time will come when the nations are fully warned by the preaching of the servants of God, and his judgments commence to be poured out upon the world, in fulfilment of the revelations of St. John. Faith then is what the unbelieving world needs to exercise in God, and in his revelations to man; but as I have said, whether we do it or not, our unbelief will never turn the hand of God to the right or the left. God has restored again his Gos- pel. He has raised up men and commanded them to go forth and preach it to the world, and they have been engaged doing so now for nearly half a century, ever since the organization of this Church. It was organized by reve lation, with prophets apostles, pas- tors, teachers, helps and govern- ment, and the principles of it were taught by revelation, the same as Jesus and the Apostles taught them in their day; and they are the same as when they taught them, there is no change whatever. The Lord never revealed but one Gospel to the inhabitants of th[e] earth, in any age of the world, nor never will; the Gospel is the same yesterday, to-day, and forev- er, and the principles thereof are faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, be- lieving that he is, and that he lived and died as a ransom for the sins of the world; and baptism for the re- mission of sins, being immersed and buried in water, by one having authority of God, that you may rise in newness of life, in fulfilment of the testimony of Jesus, and then receive the Holy Ghost by the lay- ing on of hands, confirming be lievers members of his Church. [Hebrews 13:8] And when you are born of the wa- ter and the Spirit, you can enter in to the Kingdom of God, and being born of the Spirit, you can see the Kingdom of God. And such be- lievers, when they receive the Holy Ghost receive the inspira tion and revelation and light of it. Our eyes and ears may be de- ceived by the cunning and machi- nation of man; but the Holy Ghost never deceives anybody. It bears record of the Father and the Son, and it bears record of the truths of the Gospel to those who possess it. The Lord never had a church on the face of the earth, from it[s] first organisation until to day, unless that church was organized by revel- ation, with prophets and apostles, pastors, teachers, helps and govern- ments endowed with the Holy Priesthood—that power delegated from God to man, which authorizes him to act for God; and without this Priesthood no man, from the day the world rolled into existence has any right to administer in any of the ordinances of his holy house, neither has any man a right to that Priesthood save he be called of God as was Aaron who, we are informed, was called by revelation. [Hebrews 5:4] What is his Priesthood for? It is to ad minister the ordinances of the Gos- pel, even the Gospel of our Father in heaven, the eternal God, the Eloheim of the Jews and the God of the Gentiles, and all he has ever done from the beginning has been performed by and through the power of that Priesthood, which is "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither be- ginning of days, nor end of life," [Hebrews 7:3] and the administration of his ser- vants holding this priesthood is binding, being the savor of life un- to life or death unto death. It was by virtue of this priesthood the twelve apostles anciently went in- to the world to preach the Gospel, and it was because of this priest- hood which they held that men, in rejecting then, rejected Him who sent them and consequently brought upon themselves condemn- ation. Light has again come into the world; but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. [John 3:17-19] Hence condemnation rests down upon the world, for the consequences of rejecting the Gospel must overtake the world in this the last dispensation, just as much as they did in former ones, in the days Noah and Lot and those of the Savior. As I before stated, so say I again, the Gospel of Christ requires faith all the day long, for no man can continue faithful to the end with- out it. God has set his hand a sec ond time to build up that kingdom which Daniel was permitted to see in vision, and to establish that Zion in the mountains which Isaiah saw. [Daniel 2:26-47] [Isaiah 60] He has set his hand, for the last time, to gather together all things which are in heaven and on earth which are in Christ, unto himself. [Ephesians 1:10] The day has come when the Lord has sent forth a proclamation to warn the nations to prepare for his second coming; and the signs of both heaven and earth all indicate the coming of the Son of Man, which is near at the door. No man knows the day or the hour when Christ will come, but the genera- tion is clearly pointed out, the fig tree is leaving, and great changes are near at hand. [Matthew 24:32-36] Great Babylon is coming in remembrance before God, and the Lord has called upon the inhabitants of the earth, who are very wicked, to repent of their sins an[d] turn unto him. The genera- tion in which we live is a wicked and an adulterous generation, and wickedness and abomination of ev- ery kind are increasing, and the earth has commenced to groan un- der the evil practices of man. The heavens are in pain over the diso- bedience and unrighteousness of the children of men, and the an- gels, we are told, are waiting in their places in the Temple for the time to come when they will be called upon to go forth and reap down the earth. Judgments await the world, but they heed not, and apparently do not care. With fire and sword the Lord will plead with all flesh, and as the prophet has said respecting this event, "the slain of the Lord will be many;" and these things will overtake the world in an hour when they expect them not, when they will be cry ing peace, but alas, peace will have departed from them, and they left to devour and destroy each other. [Isaiah 66:16] All these things are foretold, and many of them are written in these revela tions given in our day, and they are already being fulfilled before our eyes; and they will continue to be fulfilled, until all that is spoken of shall have come to pass. There- fore, I want to say to the Latter-day Saints; Exercise faith in God, and exercise faith in his revelations, and read them and ponder over them and pray earnestly that you may have a correct understanding of all that God has revealed, that you may grow in the light and knowl edge of God, and see the import- ance of living your religion and of living uprightly before Him; for all men, both Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner, will be judged ac- cording to the deeds done in the body, and for the opportunities which we have of informing our selves of the will of God concern ing us, which we allow to go unim- proved, we cannot be held guiltless. It certainly becomes us, who have named the name of Christ, to walk uprightly before God, for we can not escape his chastening hand if we reject the light we have receiv- ed. Our condemnation will be far greater than those who never embraced the principles of the Gos pel, if we apostatize, or through in- different carelessness we allow the cares and things of this world to choke down the good seed planted. We have "tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;" we "know the Master's will," and if we do it not we will be "beaten with many stripes." [Hebrews 6:5] [Luke 12:47] The religious world talk about non- essentials. There are no such things existing in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. He requires us to obey the same laws that he himself obeyed, and which he taught in his day. Why did he go into the Jordan to be baptized of John? To fulfil all righteousness. [Matthew 3:13-17] It was a righteous law, it belonged to Him, and his example is in force to all the world. No man can enter into the King- dom of God except he is born of the water and of the Spirit. [John 3:5] Men may be judged and their bodies lie in the grave until the last resurrection, to come forth and receive of a telestial glory; but no man will receive of of the celestial glory except it be through the ordinances of the House of God. Jesus performed that act that he might set the example; he was the way for others to follow. The Jews, as I have said, rejected him and the Gospel he brought to them, and they shed his blood. They have been paying the penalty of their misdeeds for the last 1800 years. It costs something to shed innocent blood, it costs something to shed the blood of prophets and apostles. And I have sometimes taken the liberty, before strangers as well as Latter-day Saints, to express my views in regard to shedding the blood of Joseph Smith and other prophets. It has cost this nation four years' war, laying in the dust nearly a million and a half of men, and it has also cost millions upon millions of dollars, creating a debt which it will never live to pay. This is the faith of Wilford Wood- ruff, and I think I have a right to exercise my faith in this matter. I say then, it costs something to shed the [b]lood of righteous men in this as well as in previous generations. My testimony is that judgments await Babylon, judgments await the Christian world, and if people will read their Bible, they will see these declarations written down, and these judgments will increase until the world is cleansed from wickedness. And I say to all the world, Repent of your sins, and be baptized for remission of them, that you may receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and be saved in the Kingdom of God. Without complying with these re- quirements, you nor I can never go where God and Christ dwell, worlds without end, for these things have been made known to us by ancient and modern prophets. Therefore, your as well as my eternal destiny, our future position throughout the ages of eternity, de- pend upon the few hours, the few days, the few weeks we spend in the flesh. If I ever obtain a full salvation it will be by my keeping the laws of God. If I sin against God and man, I shall have to foot the bill; it will be so with you and with the whole world. This is the Gos- pel of Jesus Christ; this is the Zion of God, and what you see already accomplished in this desert land is really in fulfilment of the revela- tions of God. The hand of God has guided this Church from its in- cipiency to the present time. God will continue to direct its affairs, and there is no power on the earth or under the earth that can ever stop its progress, for He, himself, has decreed that the Zion of the latter-days shall never be over- thrown; but on the contrary, as he has said, through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, "For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." [Isaiah 60:12] Pretty strong doctrine to be taught by a humble man of God. Neverthe- less, time will bring it about, and it is not in the power of man to pre- vent it. I am a believer in revela- tion. I am a believer, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, with every particle of spir- it in me, that God will bring about, literally and to the very letter, all that he has spoken through his ser- vants, ancient and modern. By way of concluding my re- marks I wish to bear testimony to this congregation and to the stran- gers present, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the living God; he was raised up by the Lord, and laid the foundation of this Church. He lived to accomplish the work he was raised up to do. He received the keys of the priesthood from un- der the hands of Peter, James and John, and those pertaining to the gathering of scattered Israel, from under the hands of Moses, the lead- er of ancient Israel. [Doctrine and Covenants 27:12] Elijah, or Elias also visited him and bestowed upon him the keys to "turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers," which was in fulfilment of a prediction by the Prophet Mal- achi. [Malachi 4:6] He also received the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, which priesthood pertains to the temporal government of the Church. After performing his work he sealed his testimony with his blood, passed behind the vail, and he, with his brethren who have also gone, is still engaged in carrying on the same great work. He still labors by vir- tue of this priesthood which he re- ceived on earth, and which he will continue to hold, worlds without end. And this will be the case with every faithful man of God who magnifies his calling and priesthood here below. May God bless you, my brethren and sisters and friends, with his Holy Spirit, and give you faith in Him, and in his revelations, that you may be led to do his will while you live upon the earth. But whether you live to be thus favored or not, my testimony is that they will have their fulfilment. Even so, amen.