DISCOURSE
By Elder WILFORD WOODRUFF,
delivered in the New Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, April, .
REPORTED BY D. W. EVANS.
THROUGH the mercy and loving kindness
of our father in the heavens we are again
permitted to meet in general conference
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Forty-two years ago this day this
church was organized with six members,
by a prophet of the living God, raised up
in these last days by the administration of
angels from God, and ordained unto all the
keys and powers of the Melchizedec priest-
hood and apostleship, and of the kingdom
of God on the earth. According to the best
knowledge we have, 1842 years ago to-day,
the Lord Jesus was crucified on
Mount Calvary for the sins of the world. The 6th
day of April is a very important day in
many respects. It has certainly been very
interesting to the Latter-day Saints to
watch the history and progress of this
church and kingdom during the last forty-
two years. This is one of the most import-
ant generations that men, or God, or
angels have ever seen on the earth: it is a
dispensation and generation when the
whole flood of prophecy and revelation and
vision given through inspired men for the
last six thousand years is to have its
fulfillment, and especially in relation to
the establishment of the great kingdom and
Zion of God on the earth. Joseph Smith
was one of the greatest prophets God ever
raised up on the earth, and the Lord has
had his eye upon him from the foundation
of the world. Any man who has ever read
the book of Isaiah, which we frequently
have quoted to us, can see that he, with
other prophets, had his eye upon the latter-
day Zion of God. He says in one place,
"Sing O heavens, rejoice O earth, break
forth into singing, O ye mountains, for the
Lord hath comforted his people, he will
have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion
said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my
Lord hath forgotten me." "Ah," says the
Lord, "Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compas
sion on the son of her womb? Yea, they
may forget, yet will not I forget thee.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the
palms of my hands; thy walls are continu
ally before me." [Isaiah 49:13-16]
The Lord never created this world at
random; he has never done any of his
work at random. The earth was created
for certain purposes, and one of these pur
poses was its final redemption, and the
establishment of his government and king
dom upon it in the latter days, to prepare
it for the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose right it is to reign. That set time
has come, that dispensation is before us,
we are living in the midst of it. It is be
fore the Latter-day Saints, it is before the
world; whether or not the people have
more faith in the promises of God now than
they had in the days of Noah makes no dif-
ference, the unbelief of men will not make
the truth of God without effect. The great
and mighty events that the Lord Almighty
has decreed from before the foundation of
the world, to be performed in the latter
days are resting upon us, and they will
follow each other in quick succession,
whether men believe or not, for no prophe
cy of Scripture is of any private interpre-
tation, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, [2 Peter 1:21] and
what they said will come to pass; though
the heaven and the earth pass away not
one jot or tittle of the word of the Lord
will go unfulfilled.
Some of us have lived in, and been inti-
mately acquainted with this church for the
last forty years, a very few more than that,
and some less; but where is the Latter-day
Saint or any other person who has ever
seen this church or kingdom go back-
ward? No matter what position we were
in, whether exterminated by the order of
Governor Boggs of Missouri, or whether
we lay, sick and afflicted, on the muddy
banks of the Missouri river; whether it was
Zion's Camp going up for her redemption;
whether it was the pioneers coming to
these mountains, making the roads, build-
ing the bridges, killing the snakes and
opening the way for the gathering of the
people, no matter what our circumstances
may have been this kingdom has been
onward and upward all the day long until
the present hour. Will it ever go back-
ward? No, it will not. This Zion of the
Lord, in all its beauty, power and glory is
engraven upon the hands of Almighty God,
and it is before his face continually; his de-
crees are set and no man can turn them
aside.
There never was a dispensation on the
earth when prophets and apostles, the in-
spiration, revelation and power of God, the
holy priesthood and the keys of the king-
dom were needed more than they are in
this generation. There never has been a
dispensation when the friends of God and
righteousness among the children of men
needed more faith in the promises and pro-
phecies than they do to-day; and there cer-
tainly never has been a generation of people
on the earth that has had a greater work to
perform than the inhabitants of the earth in
the latter days. That is one reason why
this church and kingdom has progressed
from its commencement until to-day, in
the midst of all the opposition, oppression
and warfare which have been waged
against it by men inspired by the evil one.
If this had not been the dispensation of the
fulness of times—the dispensation in which
God has declared that he will establish his
kingdom on the earth never more to be
thrown down, the inhabitants of the earth
would have been enabled to overcome the
kingdom and Zion of God in this, as well
as in any former dispensation. [Daniel 2:44] But the set
time has come to favor Zion, and the Lord
Almighty has decreed in the heavens that
every weapon formed against her shall be
broken. And if we take the history of any
man, from the days Joseph Smith received
the plates from the hill Cumorah, and
translated the Book of Mormon by the
Urim and Thummim, until to-day, who-
ever has raised his hand against this work
has felt the chastening hand of Almighty
God upon him; and I am at the defiance of
the world to show me a President, govern-
or, judge, ruler, priest or anybody else on
the earth who has taken a stand against this
kingdom who is an exception, and you
may search their whole history. We have
outlived several generations of our perse
cutors. Where are the men who tarred
and feathered Joseph Smith, in Portage Co.,
Ohio? Where are the men who drove this
people from Kirkland. Where are the men
who drove the church and kingdom from
Jackson County, Missouri? Where are the
men who undertook to kidnap the prophet
while in Illinois? Where are they who
drove the Latter-day Saints from Illinois
into these mountains? Trace their whole
history, and see for yourselves. The fact
is many of them are in their graves, await-
ing their final judgment. And in the
whole history of this people and their
remarkable preservation the invisible hand
of God is as plainly to be seen as it has been
in the history of the Jews from the days of
Christ until now; and it will continue until
this scene is wound up.
We are led by men who are filled with
inspiration. Joseph Smith was a man of
God, through the loins of the ancient
Joseph who, through the wisdom which
God gave him, redeemed his father's house
after having been sold by his brethren into
Egypt. All the blessings that old father
Jacob pronounced upon Joseph and upon
the son's of Ephraim, his sons and grandsons,
have rested upon them until this day
Joseph Smith was through that lineage.
In his youth he was inspired of God, and
was administered to by angels. Under
their guidance and counsel he laid the foun-
dation of this work, and lived long enough
to receive all the keys necessary for bearing
off this dispensation. He lived long enough
to have these individuals administer unto
him—John the Baptist, Peter, James and
John the Apostles, Elisha and Elijah, who
held the keys of turning the hearts of
the fathers to the children and the hearts of
the children to the fathers; and Moroni,
who held the keys of the stick of Joseph in
the hands of Ephraim, to come forth in the
latter day, administered in person to Joseph
Smith, and gave him these records and in-
structed him in the things of God from time
to time, until he was qualified and pre-
pared to lay the foundation of this work. [Joseph Smith-History 1:30-50, 59]
The Prophet Joseph lived to see the church
organized with apostles and Prophets, pa-
triarchs, pastors, teachers, helps, go-
vernments, and all the gifts and graces of
the spirit of God; to give the Twelve
Apostles their endowments and to seal
upon their heads all the authority
and power that were necessary to
enable them to fulfil their missions. Why
did the Lord take him away? He laid
down his life, and sealed his testimony
with his blood that it might be in force upon
the heads of this generation, and that he
might be crowned with crowns of glory,
immortality and eternal life; that he might
go to the other side of the vail, and there
organize the church and kingdom in this
last dispensation. He and his two brothers
were taken away into the spirit world, and
they are at work there; while Brigham
Young and the quorum of the Twelve were
preserved on the earth for a special purpose
in the hands of God. These things are
true, and the hand of the Lord has been
over Brigham Young, although, now, he is
under bonds and a prisoner, and his priv
ileges curtailed for the word of God and
the testimony of Jesus. Yet in the midst
of all this he is calm and composed before
the Lord, and has his mind open to the
things of God. He still lives in the midst
of this people and will live as long as the
Lord wishes him to remain in the flesh to
guide the affairs of Zion.
I will say to the Latter-day Saints that
we have been more blessed in this land
than any other dispensation or generation
of men. The Lord has been at work for the
last three hundred years preparing this
land, with a government and constitution
which would guarantee equal rights and
privileges to the inhabitants thereof, in the
midst of which he could establish his king-
dom. The kingdom is established, the work
of God is manifest in the earth, the Saints
have come up here into the valleys of the
mountains, and they are erecting the
house of God in the tops thereof,
for the nations to flow unto.
A standard of truth has been
lifted up to the people; and, from the com-
mencement of this work, the Latter-day
Saints have been fulfilling that flood of
revelation and prophecy which was given
formerly concerning this great work in the
last days. I rejoice in this, and also be-
cause we have every reason to expect a
continuation of these blessings unto Zion.
We have always had a vail over us, we
have had to walk by faith all the day long
until the present time: this is the decree
of God. When we were driven from Jack-
son County, Clay county, Caldwell county,
Kirtland, and finally from Nauvoo into
these mountains, we did not see and un-
derstand what lay before us: there was a
vail over our faces in a measure. It has
been the same with the people of God in
all ages. At that time we could not see
this tabernacle, and the five hundred miles
of villages, towns, cities, gardens, orchards,
fields, or the desert blossoming as the rose
as we see them to-day. We came here and
found a barren desert; we were led hither
by inspiration, by a law-giver, by a man of
God; the Lord was with him, he was with
the pioneers. If we had not come here we
could not have fulfilled the prophecies
which the prophets have left on record in
the stick of Judah as well as in the stick of
Ephraim—the Bible and the Book of Mor-
mon. [Ezekiel 37:16-20] We have done that, and we can look
back twenty-four years and see the change
that has been effected since our arrival;
but who can see the change that will be
effected in the next twenty-four years? No
man can see it unless the vision of his mind
is opened by the power of God. The Lord
told Joseph Smith to lay the foundation of
this work; he told him that the day had
come when the harvest was ready, and to
thrust in the sickle and reap; and every
man who would do so was called of God
and had this privilege.
The Lord has sent forth the gospel, and it
is offered to the children of men as it was
in ancient days; men are required to have
faith in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins,
and to be baptized for the remission of
them, and the promise is that they shall
receive the Holy Ghost, which shall teach
them the things of God, bring things past
to their remembrance and show them
things to come.
What principle has sustained the elders
of Israel for the last forty years in their
travels? They have gone forth without
purse or scrip, preached without money or
price; they have swam rivers, waded
swamps, and travelled hundreds of
thousands of miles on foot to bear record
of this work to the nations of the earth.
What has sustained them? It has been
this power of God, this Holy Ghost, the
spirit of inspiration from the God of Israel
that has been given to his friends on the
earth in these latter days. The blood of
Israel has flowed in the veins of the
children of men, mixed among the gentile
nations, and when they have heard the
sound of the gospel of Christ it has been
like vivid lightning to them; it has opened
their understandings, enlarged their minds
and enabled them to see the things of
God. They have been born of the spirit
and then they could behold the kingdom
of God; they have been baptized in water
and had hands laid upon them for the re-
ception of the Holy Ghost, and they have
received that Holy Ghost among every
gentile nation under heaven wherever the
gospel has been permitted to be preached;
and here they are to-day, from all those
nations, gathered in the valleys of the
mountains. And this is but the beginning;
it is like a mustard seed, it is very small;
but the little one is to become a thousand
and the small one a strong nation. The
Lord will hasten it in his own time. Zion
shall be called a "City sought out." [Isaiah 62:11-12] The
Lord is watching over us.
I wish to say to the Latter-day Saints, we
must not forget our position, nor the blessings
that we hope for. All that we expect, we have
got to enquire of the Lord for. Some of our
brethren, as has been said here, have suffered
a little through the spirit of bigotry and perse-
cution that is in the world. I wonder many
times there is not a great deal more of it. The
Lord Almighty is going to make a short work
in the earth; lest no flesh should be saved he
will cut his work short in righteousness. The
Lord is putting his hook into the jaws of the
nations. He holds Great Babylon in his hand
as well as Zion. He will control the children
of men; and, as the Lord God lives, if the Latter-
day Saints do their duty—live their religion,
and keep their covenants, Zion will arise, pu[t]
on her beautiful garments, be clothed with the
glory of God, have power in the earth, and the
law will go forth from Zion and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. Then let our prayers
ascend into the ears of the Lord God of Sab-
aoth, for he will hear them, that the wisdom
of the wise may perish and the understanding
of the prudent be hid. Our weapons are faith
prayer, and confidence in God, for he is our
friend if we have any, and we are his if he has
any on the face of the earth. The Lord will
work with us, and we should work with him;
therefore brethren, let us live by faith, walk by
faith, overcome by faith, so that we may enjoy
the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us. All the
institutions pertaining to the work of God in
these latter days are going to progress, Zion is
bound to arise, and to arrive at that position
in our great future that the prophets have seen
by prophecy and revelation.
I want to say a few words to the sisters, who
have been referred to this morning—the Fe
male Relief Societies. Our mothers, sisters,
wives and daughters occupy a very impor-
tant position in this generation, far more so
than they realize or understand. You are rais-
ing up your sons and daughters as plants of
renown in the house of Israel in these latter-
days. Upon the shoulders of you mothers rests,
in a great measure, the responsibility of correct
ly developing the mental and moral powers of
the rising generation whether in infancy, child-
hood, or still riper years. Your husbands—the
fathers of your children, are messengers to the
nations of the earth, or they are engaged in
business and can not be at home to attend to
the children. No mother in Israel should let a
day pass over her head without teaching her
children to pray. You should pray yourselves,
and teach your children to do the same, and
you should bring them up in this way, that
when you have passed away, and they take
your places in bearing off the great work of
God, they may have principles instilled into
their minds that will sustain them in time and
in eternity. I have often said it is the mother
who forms the mind of the child. Take men,
anywhere, at sea, sinking with their ship, dy-
ing in battle, lying down in death almost un-
der any circumstances, and the last thing they
think of, the last word they say is "mother."
Such is the influence of woman. Our children
should not be neglected; they should receive
a proper education in both spiritual and tem-
poral things. That is the best legacy any pa-
rents can leave to their children. We should
teach them to pray, and instil into their minds
while young every correct principle. Ninety-
nine out of every hundred children, who are
taught by their parents the principles of hon-
esty and integrity, truth and virtue, will ob-
serve them through life. Such principles will
exalt any people or nation who make them
the rule of their conduct. Show me a mother
who prays, who has passed through the trials
of life by prayer, who has trusted in the Lord
God of Israel in her trials and difficulties, and
her children will follow in the same path.
These things will not forsake them when they
come to act in the kingdom of God.
I want to say to our mother[s] in Israel, your
children are approaching a very important
day and age of the world. In a few more years
their parents will pass away. We will go where
our brethren have gone—to the other side of
the vail. Our children will remain and will
possess this kingdom when God's judgments
await the nation of the earth, when war, calam-
[i]ty, sword, fire, famine, pestilence and earth-
quake will stalk abroad and distress the
people. Our children should be prepared to
build up the kingdom of God. Then qualify
them in the days of childhood for the great
duties they will be called upon to perform; and
that God may enable us to do so is my prayer
for Christ's sake, Amen.