Discourse 1880-06-06
Afternoon, , 1880.
REPORTED BY JOHN IRVINE.
I HAVE a desire to be heard in what
I say to this assembly. I know the
difficulties there are in speaking
here. It requires not only attention,
but quietude among the people.
I feel disposed to read a few verses
from this good old book the Bible—
some of the sayings of Isaiah and
Ezekiel. -[The speaker then read
from the 12th chapter of Ezekiel,
from the 21st verse to the end of the
chapter.]- I have (the speaker con-
tinued) a few reflections upon my
mind that I would like to lay before
the Latter-day Saints, especially
those who bear the holy priesthood.
Among the lessons which we are
learning in our day and time is this
one truth: that we all of us need the
spirit of revelation in order that we
may teach mankind of the things of
God. I do not believe myself there
ever was a man lived in the flesh on
the earth in any day or age of the
world, no matter what his position,
calling, name, or age might be—I do
not believe any man ever had the
power to do the work of God, to
build up his kingdom, or to edify the
souls of men, without inspiration
and revelation; for the Lord has
never called any man in any age of
the world to do any of this kind of
work, whether to preach the gospel,
to prophesy, or to declare the word
of the Lord to the inhabitants of the
earth, or to administer in any ordi-
annce in any temple or in any ta-
bernacle, without the holy priest-
hood. There are no ordinances ac-
ceptable in the sight of God of any
force after death, or in the eternal
worlds, except those ordinances that
are performed by men bearing the
holy priesthood. [Doctrine and Covenants 132:7] Our heavenly
Father himself has officiated by this
principle in the creation of all
worlds, in the redemption of all
worlds, and in all the work
which he has performed; it has
all been done by the power of the
Godhead and the holy priesthood,
which is without beginning of days
or end of years. [Doctrine and Covenants 84:17] This priesthood has
power with the heavens. It has as-
sociation with the heavens. The
heavens are connected with this
priesthood, let it rest upon the shoul-
ders or head of any man, whether it
be Jesus Christ, or those fishermen,
or the ancient patriarchs or prophets
or Joseph Smith, or any other man
who is called of God as was Aaron,
by revelation, and prophecy to bear
record of the name of God in any age
of the world. Therefore, I occupy
the same position myself. I know I
need the Spirit of God. I know you
do. I know any man does who
rises on this stand, and attempts to
teach the people. You give a man
the inspiration of Almighty God and
the eternal truths of heaven and he
can instruct and edify the children
of men upon the principles of life
and salvation; without this he can-
not do it. And in order to present
to my brethren and sisters and
friends the subject that I have on
my mind, I will just refer a little
further to some words of the Lord to
the Prophet Ezekiel. -[The speaker
again referred to the Book of Eze-
kiel, and quoted from the 9th, 14th
and 33rd chapters, all of parts quoted
having reference to the dealings of
God with the wicked.]- Continuing,
Elder Woodruff said: Now, having
quoted all these passages of Scrip-
ture, I want to say to my brethren
the Apostles, the High Priests, the
Seventies, the Elders of Israel, who
bear the holy priesthood, upon whose
shoulders the God of heaven, in this
day and generation has placed the
responsibility of the Melchisedec
and Aaronic Priesthood, has placed
the responsibility of this great and
last dispensation and fulness of
times, has placed the responsibility
of the building up of the great kingdom
of God which Daniel saw by revela-
tion, vision and inspiration in his
day and generation as proclaimed
by all the prophets and apostles who
have written in this book, in the
stick of Judah as well as in the stick
of Joseph and other revelations giv-
en to us through the mouth of the
prophets and apostles in our day
and generation—I want to ask in
the face of all this—and I take it
home to myself—what position are
we in before high heaven, before
God the Father, before his son Jesus
Christ, before the heavenly hosts,
before all justified spirits made per-
fect from the creation of the world
to this day? What condition are we
in as the servants of the living
God, men holding the holy priest-
hood into whose hands the God of
Israel has given this kingdom. Are
we disseminating the mighty flood
of revelation and prophecy in these
records and these books which are
now to rest upon the generation as
in the days of Noah and Lot. In
this respect are we justified in the
sight of God, in the sight of heaven,
in the sight of angels, and in the
sight of men? Can we fold our
arms in peace and cry "all is peace
in Zion" when, so far as we have
the power of the priesthood resting
upon us, we can see the condition of
the world? Can we imagine that
our garments will be clean without
lifting our voice before our fellow-
men and warning them of the
things that are at their doors? No,
we cannot. There never was a set
of men since God made the world
under a stronger responsibility to
warn this generation, to lift up our
voices long and loud, day and night
as far as we have the opportunity
and declare the words of God unto
this generation. We are required to
do this. This is our calling. It is our
duty. It is our business. We have
had to perform this work for the
last 50 years of our lives. When the
Lord called Joseph Smith to lay the
foundation of this Church he called
him in fulfilment of many revelations
given in other dispensations of men.
He was preserved by the hand of
God to come forth in the last days,
even in the dispensation of the ful-
ness of times. He was a prophet of
the living God. He was a prophet,
seer and revelator. The Lord called
upon him to do the work for which
he was ordained before the founda-
tion of this world. He did all that
was required of him, and he was
surrounded with thousands of men
who were acquainted with his life,
and with the spirit and power of
God which rested upon him, and
who sustained him in life and in
death. We know he was a prophet
of God, and we know he brought
forth the stick of Joseph, the Book
of Mormon, which was given unto
him by the angel of God. This
church and kingdom has been or-
ganized by the command of God
and by the revelations of heaven.
It has continued to grow and in-
crease, and has been upheld by the
Lord Almighty from its organiza-
tion until the present hour. And
when I look at this tabernacle and
think of the words of the prophet
Isaiah, "that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in
the tops of the mountains;" [Isaiah 2:2] when I
look at these everlasting hills and
the land given by promise to father
Jacob and his posterity; when I see
this barren desert peopled by 150,000
Saints of the living God who have
been gathered from nearly every na-
tion under heaven through the pro-
clamation of the gospel of Jesus
Christ—what can I say about it?
Can I say it is a dream? Can I say
it is all a vision? Can I say that
this work is of man and not of God?
Can I say these are revelations and
prophecies which belong to some
other generation? I tell you no.
This is the kingdom of God. Here
are the Saints of God.
These mountains are being filled
with the Latter-day Saints from
every nation under heaven, and with
these things before me I know that
it is my duty to preach the gospel,
to warn Saints and sinners wherever
I have the opportunity. The Lord
told Joseph Smith that he would
prove us in all things, whether we
would abide in his covenant even
unto death, that we might be found
worthy. [Doctrine and Covenants 98:14] The prophet sealed his
testimony with his blood. That tes-
timony is in force upon all the world
and has been from the day of his
death. Not one word of the Lord
shall pass away unfulfilled. The un-
belief in this generation will make
no difference with regard to the
building up of the kingdom of God.
As it was in the days of Noah so
shall also the coming of the Son of
Man be. [Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:41] Therefore, I desire to ask
my brethren, the Elders of Israel—
and I ask myself at the same time—
do we understand our position before
the Lord? Ezekiel has passed away.
He is in the spirit world. He has
received his resurrected body and
stands at the right hand of God with
other prophets and apostles who
lived in days gone by. They had
their day and generation. All these
patriarchs and prophets and apostles
had a time to prophesy, to preach, to
labor, and to administer in the or-
dinances of life and salvation. Now,
in this last dispensation, ye Elders
of Israel, this work has been put into
your hands. Therefore, what shall
we say, and what shall we do? Are
we acting as watchmen upon the
walls of Zion? If we are, are we
justified in closing our mouths, in
closing our ears, or in setting our
hearts upon anything else excepting
the building up of the kingdom of
God? I do not think we are. In my
view our responsibility is very great.
We should live our religion. We
should practice ourselves what we
preach. We should treasure up
the words of life. We should
search the records of divine
truth. We should seek to compre-
hend the day and age in which we
live. This is the way I look upon
our situation to-day. I do not look
upon the revelations recorded in
these books, touching the dispensa-
tion of the fulness of times, as some-
thing that will pass away unfulfill-
ed. We live in a generation when
great changes are about to take
place. We live in a time when
darkness covers the whole earth and
gross darkness the people. The
world are a great way from the
truth. Infidelity overwhelms the
earth, in fact it is a hard matter to-
day to get either priest or people,
sect or party, of any name or denom-
ination under heaven to believe in
the literal fulfilment of the Bible, as
translated in the days of King
James, which contains the revela-
tions given from the days of Father
Adam down to our own time, and
which point out to us the signs of
heaven and earth indicating the
coming of the Son of Man. We live
in the generation itself when Jesus
Christ will come in the clouds of
heaven with power and great glory.
We live in the generation when the
gospel of Jesus Christ has been re-
vealed in its fulness to the Gentiles,
and when the gospel of Christ will
go to the house of Israel, to the de-
scendants of Lehi in fulfilment of
that which is recorded in their rec-
ords in the 9th, 10th and 11th chap-
ters of the last Book of Nephi. These
prophets spake by the power of God
and the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, and as the Apostle says, "No
prophecy of the scripture is of any
private interpretation. For the pro-
phecy came not in old time by the
will of man; but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." [2 Peter 1:20-21] I feel therefore to say
to my brethren who bear the holy
priesthood, and I say it to myself
and to all—I do not think we
have much time to lay down
and slumber. We have no
time to speculate in trying to get
rich, in trying to accumulate gold
and silver. What we have got to
do is to build up the Kingdom of
God. As Apostles, High Priests,
Elders, Seventies and the lesser
priesthood, we are bound together
by this new and everlasting gospel
and covenant; we are called to per-
form the great and mighty work of
building up Zion, of building temples
wherein we may labor for the living
and the dead, and we should live in
that way and manner that we may
be governed and controlled at all
times by the Holy Spirit.
I know very well how the world
look at these things. As I said be-
fore, the world is far from the Lord.
We ourselves are too far from the
Lord as a people. We ought to
draw near to the Lord, and labor to
obtain the Holy Spirit, so that when
we read the revelations of God we
may read them by the same spirit
by which they were given. Then we
can understand their purport when
given to the children of men.
The Lord has said by the mouth
of the Prophet Isaiah, that he would
proceed to do a marvellous work and
a wonder; [Isaiah 29:14] and when I look at the
rise and progress of this Church,
when I behold the great work the
Lord has performed, it was a marvel-
lous work and a wonder indeed.
There never has been, in my view,
any generation in which the same
amount of prophecies and important
events have to be fulfilled as in the
generation in which we live. Joseph
Smith, an illiterate boy, was raised
up by the power of God. His teach-
ers were the angels of heaven. He
was administered unto by the Son
of God. He received the Aaronic
priesthood of John the Baptist, who
was beheaded for the testimony of
Jesus Christ. He received the
Apostleship and Melchizedek priest-
hood under the hands of Peter,
James and John, who were also put
to death for the word and testimony
of Jesus Christ. He made use of
these ordinances by the command-
ment of God. He organized the Church
and kingdom of God; he did that
which all the wisdom of the secta-
rian world could never have compre-
hended. He established the only
church on the face of the earth ac-
cording to the ancient order of the
Church of Jesus Christ, with apos-
tles, prophets, teachers, gifts, helps,
governments, baptism for the re-
mission of sins, the laying on of
hands for the reception of the Holy
Ghost—an organization which has
not existed on the earth from the
day the ancient apostles were put to
death, and the holy priesthood taken
from the earth, until the present.
This church has continued to rise.
It is the only true church upon the
face of the whole earth. Its history
is before the world. It has contin-
ued to grow and increase from the
day it was organized until the pres-
ent time. This is the Zion of God.
We see an embryo of it in these
valleys of the mountains, and it is
designed by the Most High God to
stand on the earth in power and
glory and dominion, as the prophets
of God saw it in their day and gen-
eration. This is the kingdom that
Daniel saw, and it will continue to
roll forth until it fills the whole
earth. [Daniel 2:31-44] These are eternal truths,
whether the world believe or disbe-
lieve them, it matters not, the
truths cannot be made of non effect.
This is certainly a strange work and
a wonder. There has been every ex-
ertion made to stay it. Armies have
been sent forth to destroy this peo-
ple; but we have been upheld and
sustained by the hand of the Lord
until to-day.
And now I desire to bear my testi-
mony. I have no fears, my brethren
and sisters—and I say the same to our
nation, to all kings, queens, emper-
ors, presidents and governments of
this world—I have no fears with re-
gard to "Mormonism," and the ulti-
mate triumph of the kingdom of
God; because the Lord Almighty
has said that the nation and king-
dom that will not serve him shall
perish and be utterly wasted
away. If this had not been the Zion
of God it would not have stood so
long as it has done. This kingdom,
however, has not been organized by
the power of man but by the power
of God, and whatever God under-
takes to do he will carry out. I have
therefore no fear of this kingdom. It
was ordained to come forth before
the world was made; and the Lord
never undertook a dispensation of
this kind without due preparation
before he commenced. He had ma-
terial in the spirit world who would
in time be raised up to carry on this
kingdom. I have no fears about
this work being accomplished, but I
have fears about many of the Lat-
ter-day Saints; because if we have
the holy priesthood upon our heads
and do not live our religion, of all
men we are under the greatest con-
demnation. We have baptized a
great many into this Church and
kingdom—not many, certainly, when
compared to the twelve hundred
million inhabitants of the earth—
but a great many have apostatized.
What! Latter-day Saints aposta-
tize! Yes. I tell you anybody will
apostatize who has received the
holy priesthood and Gospel of Jesus
Christ, if they do not honor God, if
they do not keep his com-
mandments, obey his laws and
humble themselves before the Lord;
they are in danger every day of their
lives. Look at the number of devils
we have round about us! We have
I should say, one hundred to every
man, woman and child. One-third
part of the heavenly host was cast
down to the earth with Lucifer, son
of the morning, to war against us—
which I suppose will number one
hundred million devils—and they
labor to overthrow all the saints and
the kingdom of God. They even
tried to overthrow Jesus Christ;
they overthrew Judas, and they
have succeeded in overthrowing a
good many Latter-day Saints, who
had a name and standing among us,
who undertook to build themselves
up instead of the kingdom of God;
and when men having this priest-
hood—I do not care whether it was
in the days of Adam, in the days of
Moses, in the days of Joseph Smith,
or in the days of Brigham Young, I
care not in what day they lived—if
they bore this priesthood and under-
took to use it for any other purpose
than the building up of the kingdom
of God, then amen to the power and
priesthood of such men.
The Lord will have a people to
carry on his purposes who will obey
and serve him. He has a good many
people in this day and age of the
world, who will be faithful unto
death, whether called to seal their
testimony with their blood or not.
He has a people who will maintain
his work while they are here. But
here is the danger, ye Latter-day
Saints, and the Savior saw it very
plainly, and has left in on
record in the earth: He compared
the kingdon of God unto ten vir-
gins, which took their lamps and
went forth to meet the bridegroom.
"And five of them were wise and
five were foolish. They that were
foolish took their lamps and took no
oil with them; But the wise took
oil in their vessels with their lamps.
While the bridegroom tarried, they
all slumbered and slept. And at
midnight there was a cry made,
Behold the bridegroom cometh; go
ye out to meet him. Then all those
virgins arose and trimmed their
lamps. And the foolish said unto
the wise, Give us of your oil; for our
lamps are gone out. But the wise
answered saying, Not so; lest there
be not enough for us and you; but
go ye rather to them that sell, and
buy for yourselves. And while they
went to buy, the bridegroom came,
and they that were ready went in
with him to the marriage: and the
door was shut. Afterwards came
also the other virgins, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. But he answered
and said, Verily I say unto you, I
know you not." [Matthew 25:1-12] Now, those who
have got oil in their lamps, are men
who live their religion, pay their
tithing, pay their debts, keep the
commandments of God, and do not
blaspheme his name; men and wo-
men who walk in the light of the
Lord; men and women who will not
sell their birthright for a mess of
pottage or for a little gold or silver;
these are those that will be valiant
in the testimony of Jesus Christ.
This is the way I feel to-day. I
feel to warn my brethren and sisters,
the Latter-day Saints, to live their
religion, to trim their lamps, because
as the Lord lives his word will be
fulfilled. The coming of Jesus is
nigh at the door. These judgments
that I have read will come to pass,
and though Brigham, Joseph, Noah,
Daniel and Job, or anybody else
were in the land, they could not de-
liver their own souls by their right-
eousness. The man that is righte-
ous cannot save the wicked. We
have got to live our own righteous-
ness, that is keep the command-
ments of God.
We are approaching changes.
There are judgments at our door.
There are judgments at the door of
this nation, and at the door of Great
Babylon. How do the world feel
to-day? How does our nation feel?
Something similar to Belshazzar, the
king. On the night that he drank
out of the golden and silver vessels,
with his princes and his wives, he
thought, "Well, I made this coun-
try. I made this city. I am the god
of this country;" but when the
Lord Almighty manifested his
displeasure by the writing on the
wall the scene was changed. His
kingdom was broken up and given
to the Medes and Persians. His
greatness, his gold and silver did not
save him. [Daniel 5] In the same way the
Lord in ancient days swept away
great cities when they were ripened in
iniquity. Jerusalem was overthrown
in fulfilment of the words of the
Lord. Jeremiah and Isaiah prophe-
sied what would come to pass, and it
was fulfilled to the very letter. So I
say to the Gentiles, so I say to the
Latter-day Saints. What the Lord
has spoken concerning our nation,
and concerning the nations of the
earth—notwithstanding that the
unbelief of the world may be great,
notwithstanding that they may re-
ject the word of God and seek to put
the servants of God to death—will
all be fulfilled. War, pestilence,
famine, earthquakes and storms
await this generation. These calam-
ities will overtake the world as God
lives, and no power can prevent
them. Therefore I say to the El-
ders of Israel, be faithful. We have
had the priesthood given to us, and
if we fail to use it aright, we shall be
brought under condemnation. There-
fore, let us round up our shoulders
and bear off the kingdom. Let us
labor to obtain the holy spirit—and
power of the gospel of Jesus Christ
—which has been put into our
hands, and inasmuch as we do this,
the blessing of God will attend our
efforts.
We have been here a number of
years. We have preached the gos-
pel and labored to build up this king-
dom. Many have been associated
with this Church almost from the
beginning. Many have been taken
away. Joseph and Hyrum sealed
their testimony with their blood.
Many have passed to the other side
of the vail, and many others of us
will soon follow them; but I do not
want when I get there to have it
said, "When you were in the flesh
you had the priesthood, you had the
power to rebuke sin, but you were
not man enough to chastise the un-
godly." Neither do I want my rela-
tives to rise up and say, "You had
the power to do a work for the re-
demption of the dead, but you have
neglected these things." I do not
want these things to rise up against
me. As for gold and silver, they
