among the nations of the earth. We
have declared unto you the . You have believed our
testimony and have received it. You
went forth and were baptized in water
for the remission of your sins, and
you received the Holy Ghost by
the power of God, and by that
power you are here today. We might
have preached to you till we had been
as old as , but if our testi-
mony had not been backed up by the
power of God, you would have re-
mained at home; you would not have
been here in these to fulfil
the revelations of God. These things
are true, and you know they
are true. You know you received
the testimony yourselves, and by this
you have been gathered together. Up-
wards of sixty years have passed over
our heads since the organization of this
Church on the earth, and its history is
before the world. It has been a little
stone cut out of the mountains without
hands. We have had a terrible war-
fare from the organization of this
Church until today; but one thing is
comforting and encouraging: the God
of heaven inspired men thous-
ands of years ago to tell exactly
what these Latter-day Saints would do.
They were of the house of Israel, scat-
tered among the nations of the earth,
and the Lord would stretch out His
hand and gather them together, and
they would go to the place that the old
Patriarch said should belong to :
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruit-
ful bough by a well; whose branches run
over the wall. The archers have sorely
grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
him: But his bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of ;
(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel.) . . . The blessings of thy
fathers have prevailed above the bless-
ings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bounds of the everlasting hills: they shall
be on the head of Joseph, and on the
crown of the head of him that was separ-
ated from his brethren. (Gen. xlix,22-26).
You are the descendants of this holy
man of God. You have come here in
fulfillment of these things.
I do not expect that I will be able to
answer my mind in telling you how I
feel with regard to these things, but I
will do the best I can. You have been
gathered to these mountains of Israel,
led by a prophet, a seer, a revelator,
and a mighty man. When we came
here we found a barren desert. Men
said, "Go to ; you cannot do
anything here." "No," President
said, "we shall stay here; we shall
build a here; we shall
build a here. This is what is or-
dained of God, and we shall accom-
plish it." Judge, brethren and sisters,
whether he was inspired or not. We
have made a beginning. We have
made the desert to blossom as the
rose, and laid the foundation for the
great work of our God that is going to
be fulfilled in these mountains of
Israel, and you will stand in holy
places while the judgments of God
work in the earth. Yes, let the world
read these judgments of God and that
which lies before all nations under
heaven. These things will come to
pass to the very letter. Then what is
our duty and our position here? The
Lord told us through the Prophet
in the beginning of this work
that He was going to call Elders into
the vineyard for the last time, to prune
the vineyard. We have got to
prepare it for the of the
Son of Man. The wheat has
got to be gathered into the
garner before the chaff is burned. And
the Elders of Israel have got to go
forth and warn the inhabitants of the
earth, as Joseph Smith told the Twelve
Apostles the last time I saw him be-
fore his martyrdom, when he laid be-
fore us the work he was required to do.
The Prophet said: "God has given to
me every key, every power and princi-
ple of salvation belonging to this great
last dispensation; and I have sealed
upon your heads every key, principle
and power which God has sealed upon
me. Now, you Apostles, round up
your shoulders and bear off this king-
dom, or you will be damned, saith the
Lord." I do not forget these things,
and they are true. I believe I am the
only man living in the flesh who was
present on that occasion. This is our
position, brethren and sisters, before
the Lord. There is a tremendous
responsibility upon these Latter-
day Saints. We have the world
to warn. We have to preach
the Gospel, and attend to those things
that God has committed to us. The
Prophet Joseph and his brother
were martyred, and they will have a
martyr's crown. They have gone to
the other side of the veil, to mingle
with the Gods and to plead for their
brethren, and they are faithful and
diligent in their duties. But some of
us are left behind. Since that time
this work has gone on, and it has got
to continue, and we cannot avoid this.
What the Lord requires at the hands of
these Apostles, and Elders and Latter-
day Saints is to warn the world, to
preach the Gospel, to build up Zion, to
carry out the purposes of the Lord, and
to prepare ourselves to while the judgments of God
work in the earth.
Joseph Smith revealed unto us the
principle of the . There was no revelation I ever
read that gave me more joy and con-
solation than that. Jesus Christ and
the Apostles had to go to the spirits in
prison and redeem those who had lived
from the days of down to their
generation. Here we have one thous-
and eight hundred years, during which
millions and millions of the human
family have died without the Gospel of
Christ. They have gone into the , and the Lord expects these Lat-
ter-day Saints to go forth and redeem
these dead, as they hold the keys of
the salvation of their dead; so that
when they go into the spirit world and
meet their fathers and their mothers
and their relatives, they shall not say
to them, "You held the keys of my
salvation, and you have not attended to
this work, and I am left here in prison."
We should not neglect this. It is not
only our duty to preach the Gospel and
to warn the world, that they may be
left without excuse in the day of God's
judgment, but it is our duty to re-
deem our dead. Joseph Smith, when
he was martyred, went and opened
the prison doors in the spirit world.
So did those brethren that died in
Zion's camp. Every Elder that has
gone to the other side of the veil has
a work to perform there, and those
in the spirit world will receive their
testimony. But they cannot be bap-
tized there. Their sons and daugh-
ters who dwell in the flesh have to
carry out this great and mighty work.
Brethren and sisters, these are some
of the duties that are required of us.
We should open our eyes, and our
ears, and our hearts, to see, hear and
understand the great and mighty re-
sponsibility that rest upon us. Thank
God, we have had power in this barren
desert to build three temples. Hun-
dreds of thousands of the dead have
been redeemed in these temples, and
there are millions yet to be redeemed.
Here is this Salt Lake Temple that
President Young laid the founda-
tion of. We want to finish that
temple and dedicate it unto
the Lord. This is some of
the work that is required of us. The
eyes of all the heavenly hosts are over
these Latter-day Saints, and they are
over these sons and daughters that
dwell in the mountains of Israel. God
Himself and His Son Jesus Christ, who
is our advocate with the Father, look
to us to do this work. The eyes of
Joseph Smith and every Prophet and
Saint of God who dwells in the spirit
world are watching over us. They
cannot come here and build that Tem-
ple. They are not ordained to that.
But we are here in the flesh, and I
ask, in the name of the Lord, and as
a great favor of these Latter-day
Saints, that we will unite together
with our means and finish that Temple,
that we may go into it and redeem our
dead. Many of you have got thousands
of relatives in the spirit world who
are looking to you. They never
heard the Gospel in life, but they will
hear it, at the mouth of ,
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, , and these Apostles and Elders
that have gone into the spirit world.
But, as I said before, they cannot be
baptized there. We can, and we must
do it for them.
This is how I feel about our position.
We are here by the power of God. It
is a marvel to me that we are as well
off as we are. It is a marvel to me
that we have the power that we have.
For there is a vast number of fallen
spirits that are at war against God and
His Christ, against this people and this
Church, and against the redemption
of the dead. Lucifer knows that if
this Church prospers, his kingdom will
fall. But God has sustained us, and
will sustain us until we get through, if
we do our duty. The hand of God is
over us here, and Zion is a city
set upon a hill, which cannot be
hid. We are only small, and have only
just begun the organization; but the
Lord will hasten His work, and it will
continue until all these promises of
God will be fulfilled. There is where
my faith rests and my consolation
dwells. I know that God is true, and
that the testimonies of all the Patri-
archs and Prophets, have thus far been
fulfilled to the very letter. There is
not a city nor a generation but has felt
the chastening hand of God when they
have undertaken to overthrow the
work of God.
I want to say some[t]hing in relation
to home industry. True, it is Sunday,
but that matters not; for we are called
to build up Zion temporally as well
as spiritually. All that has been said
in our Conference with regard to home
industry is good. We want to con-
tinue this, and as far as we possibly
can we should, as President Young
told us, open doors of work
among the nations of the earth. We
have declared unto you the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. You have believed our
testimony and have received it. You
went forth and were baptized in water
for the remission of your sins, and
you received the Holy Ghost by
the power of God, and by that
power you are here today. We might
have preached to you till we had been
as old as Methuselah, but if our testimony had not been backed up by the
power of God, you would have remained at home; you would not have
been here in these mountains to fulfil
the revelations of God. These things
are true, and you know they
are true. You know you received
the testimony yourselves, and by this
you have been gathered together. Upwards of sixty years have passed over
our heads since the organization of this
Church on the earth, and its history is
before the world. It has been a little
stone cut out of the mountains without
hands. We have had a terrible warfare from the organization of this
Church until today; but one thing is
comforting and encouraging: the God
of heaven inspired men thousands of years ago to tell exactly
what these Latter-day Saints would do.
They were of the house of Israel, scattered among the nations of the earth,
and the Lord would stretch out His
hand and gather them together, and
they would go to the place that the old
Patriarch said should belong to :
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run
over the wall. The archers have sorely
grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him
: But his bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob;
(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel.) * * * The blessings of thy
fathers have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bounds of the everlasting hills: they shall
be on the head of Joseph, and on the
crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.(Gen. xlix,22-26).
You are the descendants of this holy
man of God. You have come here in fulfillment of these things.
I do not expect that I will be able to
answer my mind in telling you how I
feel with regard to these things,
but I will do the best I can. You have been
gathered to these mountains of Israel,
led by a prophet, a seer, a revelator,
and a mighty man. When we came
here we found a barren desert. Men
said, "Go to ; you cannot do
anything here." "No," President
said, "we shall stay here;
we shall build a here; we shall
build a here. This is what is ordained of God, and we shall accomplish it." Judge, brethren and sisters,
whether he was inspired or not. We
have made a beginning. We have
made the desert to blossom as the
rose, and laid the foundation for the
great work of our God that is going to
be fulfilled in these mountains of
Israel, and you will stand in holy
places while the judgments of God
work in the earth. Yes, let the world
read these judgments of God
and that which lies before all nations under
heaven. These things will come to
pass to the very letter. Then what is our
duty and our position here? The Lord told us through the Prophet
Joseph in the beginning of this work
that He was going to call Elders into
the vineyard for the last time, to prune
the vineyard. We have got to
prepare it for the coming of the
Son of Man. The wheat has
got to be gathered into the
garner before the chaff is burned. And
the Elders of Israel have got to go
forth and warn the inhabitants of the
earth, as Joseph Smith told the Twelve
Apostles the last time I saw him before his martyrdom, when he laid before us the work he was required to do.
The Prophet said: "God has given to
me every key, every power and principle of salvation belonging to this great
last dispensation; and I have sealed
upon your heads every key, principle
and power which God has sealed upon
me. Now, you Apostles, round up
your shoulders and bear off this kingdom, or you will be damned, saith the
Lord." I do not forget these things,
and they are true. I believe I am the
only man living in the flesh who was
present on that occasion. This is our
position, brethren and sisters, before
the Lord. There is a tremendous
responsibility upon these Latterday Saints. We have the world
to warn. We have to preach
the Gospel, and attend to those things
that God has committed to us. The
Prophet Joseph and his brother
were martyred, and they will have a
martyr's crown. They have gone to
the other side of the veil, to mingle
with the Gods and to plead for their
brethren, and they are faithful and
diligent in their duties. But some of
us are left behind. Since that time
this work has gone on, and it has got
to continue, and we cannot avoid this.
What the Lord requires at the hands of
these Apostles, and Elders and Latterday Saints is to warn the world, to
preach the Gospel, to build up Zion, to
carry out the purposes of the Lord, and
to prepare ourselves to stand in holy
places while the judgments of God
work in the earth.
Joseph Smith revealed unto us the
principle of the redemption of the
dead. There was no revelation I ever
read that gave me more joy and consolation than that. Jesus Christ and
the Apostles had to go to the spirits in
prison and redeem those who had lived
from the days of down to their
generation. Here we have one thousand eight hundred years, during which
millions and millions of the human
family have died without the Gospel of
Christ. They have gone into the spirit
world, and the Lord expects these Latter-day Saints to go forth and redeem
these dead, as they hold the keys of
the salvation of their dead; so that
when they go into the spirit world and
meet their fathers and their mothers
and their relatives, they shall not say
to them, "You held the keys of my
salvation, and you have not attended to
this work, and I am left here in prison."
We should not neglect this. It is not
only our duty to preach the Gospel and
to warn the world, that they may be
left without excuse in the day of God's
judgment, but it is our duty to redeem our dead. Joseph Smith, when
he was martyred, went and opened
the prison doors in the spirit world.
So did those brethren that died in
Zion's camp. Every Elder that has
gone to the other side of the veil has
a work to perform there, and those
in the spirit world will receive their
testimony. But they cannot be baptized there. Their sons and daughters who dwell in the flesh have to
carry out this great and mighty work.
Brethren and sisters, these are
some of the duties that are required of us.
We should open our eyes, and our
ears, and our hearts, to see, hear and
understand the great and mighty responsibility that rest upon us. Thank
God, we have had power in this barren
desert to build three temples. Hundreds of thousands of the dead have
been redeemed in these temples, and
there are millions yet to be redeemed.
Here is this Salt Lake Temple that
President Young laid the foundation of. We want to finish that
temple and dedicate it unto
the Lord. This is some of
the work that is required of us. The
eyes of all the heavenly hosts are over
these Latter-day Saints, and they are
over these sons and daughters that
dwell in the mountains of Israel. God
Himself and His Son Jesus Christ, who
is our advocate with the Father, look
to us to do this work. The eyes of
Joseph Smith and every Prophet and
Saint of God who dwells in the spirit
world are watching over us. They
cannot come here and build that Temple. They are not ordained to that.
But we are here in the flesh, and I
ask, in the name of the Lord, and as
a great favor of these Latter-day
Saints, that we will unite together
with our means and finish that Temple,
that we may go into it and redeem our
dead. Many of you have got thousands
of relatives in the spirit world who
are looking to you. They never
heard the Gospel in life, but they will
hear it, at the mouth of ,
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, , and these Apostles and Elders
that have gone into the spirit world.
But, as I said before, they cannot be
baptized there. We can, and we must
do it for them.
This is how I feel about our position.
We are here by the power of God. It
is a marvel to me that we are as well
off as we are. It is a marvel to me
that we have the power that we have.
For there is a vast number of fallen
spirits that are at war against God and
His Christ, against this people and this
Church, and against the redemption
of the dead. Lucifer knows that if
this Church prospers, his kingdom will
fall. But God has sustained us, and
will sustain us until we get through, if
we do our duty. The hand of God is
over us here, and Zion is a city
set upon a hill, which cannot be
hid. We are only small, and have only
just begun the organization; but the
Lord will hasten His work, and it will
continue until all these promises of
God will be fulfilled. There is where
my faith rests and my consolation
dwells. I know that God is true, and
that the testimonies of all the Patriarchs and Prophets, have thus far been
fulfilled to the very letter. There is
not a city nor a generation but has felt
the chastening hand of God when they
have undertaken to overthrow the
work of God.
I want to say something in relation
to home industry. True, it is Sunday,
but that matters not; for we are called
to build up Zion temporally as well
as spiritually. All that has been said
in our Conference with regard to home
industry is good. We want to continue this, and as far as we possibly
can we should, as President Young
told us, open doors of work
