DISCOURSE BY ELDER WILFORD WOODRUFF,
DELIVERED , IN THE SECOND WARD SCHOOL-HOUSE, SALT
LAKE CITY, AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES OF JOHN HOUSEMAN, AGED SIX
YEARS, AND WILLIE FRANKLIN, AGED FOUR YEARS, SONS OF WILLIAM AND
ANN WHEELER, BURNED TO DEATH AT WANSHIP, SUMMIT COUNTY, U. T.,
JUNE 24, 1875.
(Reported by David W. Evans.)
LITTLE CHILDREN ARE INNOCENT, AND ALL WILL BE SAVED—GOD, A
PERSONAGE OF TABERNACLE—THE LIFE OF THE SAVIOR, A LIFE OF
SUFFERING—SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
I am entirely dependent this morn-
ing upon the Spirit of the Lord to
guide and direct me in what I may
say upon this painful occasion.
Those who have assembled here—
Brother and Sister Wheeler, and their
friends who mourn with them, are
dependent upon the same source for
comfort in their serious bereavement;
and in fact we are all dependent upon
the blessing and Spirit of the Lord in
all the labors of life, and I hope that,
in our services this morning, a large
measure of that Spirit will be impar-
ted unto us.
I feel disposed to read the first
chapter of Job as a preliminary to
any remarks I may make. -[The
speaker read the first chapter of the
Book of Job.]- We also see in read-
ing the history of Job that the devil
did not finish with him there, as it
seems the devil had another conversa-
tion with the Lord on this subject, in
which he informed the Lord that a
man would give anything for his life,
and that if he, the devil, touched
Job’s flesh, he would certainly curse
God. And it seems from reading
this history that the Lord put
Job into the hands of the devil,
to do as he pleased with him,
only to spare his life. Of course
the history is familiar to you all
who have read the Bible, and you
are aware that the devil smote Job,
and he was covered with boils from
the crown of his head to the soles of
his feet, so that he was in great dis-
tress, trouble and tribulation, yet in
the midst of it all he did not sin, but
acknowledged the hand of the Lord. [Job 2:1-10]
I may say with regard to the case
which has brought us together this
morning, it is a little similar to that
of Job. We meet with some strange
things in the history of our lives in
the dispensations and dealings of God
with men. In the case before us we
are called to mourn the loss of two
children taken from Brother and
Sister Wheeler, we may say as sud-
denly and, in one sense of the word,
as miraculously, as were the sons and
daughters of Job. His affliction con-
sisted not only in the loss of two
children, but of all his children and
also of all the possessions that he
had, yet still, under all this he said—
"Naked came I out of my mother's
womb, and naked shall I return
thither; the Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away; blessed be the
name of the Lord." [Job 1:21]
I know very well it is hard for any
person to be called to pass through
the scenes that we sometimes are
called to pass through in this life, it
is so in the case before us this morn-
ing. The loss of these little children,
taken away as they were, is certainly
painful, not only to the parents, but
to eyery person who reflects; and it
is a very hard matter for any of us
teo enter into and appreciate the depth
of sorrow which parents feel on occa-
sions like this, it is difficult to bring
the matter home to our own hearts
unless we have been called to pass
through similar affliction and sorrow.
At the same time there is no doubt
that we all sympathize with our
friends when called to pass through
trials and bereavement. And I will
here say to Brother and Sister
Wheeler, and to all my friends, there
are a great many worse things in this
world than the case we are now call-
ed to mourn.
Our children are taken away from
us in infancy and childhood, and they
are taken away as Job's were, in one
sense of the word, through the dis-
pensations of Providence, causing us
severe trials. This we will acknow-
ledge; but, as I have already said,
there are many things in this world
that are far more painful and afflict-
ing than to have our children burned
to death. My friends may ask—
"What is Brother Woodruff driving
at in this remark?" I will tell you.
I have lived in these valleys twenty-
seven years, since the pioneers came
here. I have seen a whole genera-
tion of men and women grow up in
these valleys of the mountains, and
they have become parents. I have
seen some, I will not say a great
many, but I have seen some young
men, I say nothing about maidens,
who have met with untimely deaths
and who have gone to the grave dis-
graced, and a dishonor to themselves
and to their parents. Circumstances
of this kind are far more painful to
any parent in the world than it is for
their children to meet with sudden
death by accident or any other way.
I do not make these remarks to apply
to Brother and Sister Wheeler, for
none of us know what course our
children will take. We set good ex-
amples before them, and we strive to
teach them righteous principles, but
when they come to years of accounta-
bility they have their agency and
they act for themselves.
Many things are transpiring in the
earth to-day which we should regard
as great calamities and as grievous to
be borne if we had to pass through
them. Think of these late earth-
quakes in South America, eight thou-
sand people out of ten thousand in
one city sunk in the earth in a few
moments. And then, the tremen-
dous floods that are sweeping over
France and other parts of the earth,
causing the death of hundreds and
thousands of men, women and chil-
dren. All these things are in fulfill-
ment of the revelations of God, and
of the judgments which he has pro-
mised should come upon the earth in
the last days. One of the purposes
which the Lord has in view in gather-
ing his Saints to the valleys of the
mountains is that they may not share
in the sins or partake of the plagues
of Babylon; therefore we have rea-
son to rejoice before the Lord because
of his mercies and blessings unto us.
And with regard to a case like this
before us this morning—the loss of
these children—I want to say a few
words for the consolation of those
who are sorrowing. In the first place
these children are innocent before the
Lord; as to their death and the cause
thereof, that is in the hands of God,
and we should not complain of the
Lord or his dispensations any more
than Job did. These children have
been taken away very suddenly, and
in such a manner as to cause great
sorrow and distress to their parents,
but there is this consolation connected
with the matter—they are innocent,
they are not in transgression. They
have paid the law of death which
God passed on Adam, and all his pos-
terity; but when their spirits left
their bodies and got into the spirit
world their trouble and affliction were
over. Their death was a very pain-
ful one, but their suffering is now
over, and in a few years from now
they will come forth out of their
graves in the morning of the resur-
rection, not marred by fire or any ele-
ment, but clothed with glory, immor-
tality and eternal life, in eternal
beauty and bloom, and they will be
given into the hands of their parents,
and they will receive them in the
family organization of the celestial
world, and their parents will have
them for ever. They will live as
long as their God lives. This, to
Latter-day Saints, who believe in the
resurrection, should be a source of
comfort and consolation.
Why our children are taken from
us it is not for me to say, for God
never revealed it unto me. We are
all burying them. I have buried one-
third of the children that have been
given unto me. I have had some
thirty children born to me, and ten
of them are buried, all of them
young. The question may arise with
me and with you—"Why has the
Lord taken away my children?" But
that is not for me to tell, because I
do not know; it is in the hands of the
Lord, and it has been so from the
creation of the world all the way
down. Children are taken away in
their infancy, and they go to the spirit
world. They come here and fulfill
the object of their coming, that is,
they tabernacle in the flesh. They
come to receive a probation and an
inheritance on the earth; they obtain
a body or tabernacle, and that taber-
nacle will be preserved for them, and
in the morning of the resurrection
the spirits and bodies will be reunited,
and as here we find children of vari-
ous ages in a family, from the infant
at the mother's breast to manhood, so
will it be in the family organization
in the celestial world. Our children
will be restored to us as they are laid
down if we, their parents, keep the
faith and prove ourselves worthy to
obtain eternal life; and if we do not
so prove ourselves our children will
still be preserved, and will inherit
celestial glory. This is my view in
regard to all infants who die, whether
they are born to Jew or Gentile,
righteous or wicked. They come
from their eternal Father and their
eternal Mother unto whom they were
born in the eternal world, and they
will be restored to their eternal pa-
rentage; and all parents who have
received children here according to
the order of God and the holy priest-
hood, no matter in what age they
may have lived, will claim those chil-
dren in the morning of the resurrec-
tion, and they will be given unto them
and they will grace their family orga-
nizations in the celestial world.
With regard to the future state of
those who die in infancy I do not feel
authorized to say much. There has
been a great deal of theory, and many
views have been expressed on this
subject, but there are many things
connected with it which the Lord has
probably never revealed to any of the
Prophets or patriarchs who ever ap
peared on the earth. There are
some things which have not been
revealed to man, but are held in the
bosom of God our Father, and it may
be that the condition after death of
those who die in infancy is among
the things which God has never
revealed; but it is sufficient for me
to know that our children are saved,
and that if we ourselves keep the faith
and do our duty before the Lord, if
we keep the celestial law, we shall be
preserved by that law, and our child-
ren will be given unto us there, as
they have been given here in this
world of sorrow, affliction, pain and
distress. It has no doubt been a
marvel many times, in the minds of
men and women, why God ever
placed men and women in such a
world as this, why he causes his
children to pass through sorrow and
affliction here in the body. The
Lord has revealed something to us
concerning this matter, and we have
learned enough about it to know that
this thing is necessary. We know
that we are created in the image of
God, both male and female; and
whoever goes back into the presence
of God our eternal Father, will find
that he is a noble man, a noble God,
tabernacled in a form similar to ours,
for we are created after his own im-
age; they will also learn that he has
placed us here that we may pass
through a state of probation and ex-
perience, the same as he himself did
in his day of mortality. And time
and again it has been revealed in
the revelations of God given in our
day, as well as in the Bible and Book
of Mormon, that these things are
necessary in order to enable us to
comprehend good and evil, and to
be prepared for glory and blessings
when we receive them. As the
Apostle argues very strongly in the
Book of Mormon—“If we never
taste the bitter how will we know
how to comprehend the sweet? If
we never partake of pain how can
we prize ease? And if we never
pass through affliction, how can we
comprehend glory, exaltation and
eternal blessings?"
The Lord has said concerning
Jesus, that he descended below all
things that he might rise above all
things, and comprehend all things.
No man descended lower than the
Savior of the world. Born in a
stable, cradled in a manger, he tra-
veled from there to the cross through
suffering, mingled with blood, to a
throne of grace; and in all his life
there was nothing of an earthly
nature that seemed to be worth
possessing. His whole life was
passed in poverty, suffering, pain,
affliction, labor, prayer, mourning
and sorrow, until he gave up the
ghost on the cross. Still he was
God's firstborn son and the Re-
deemer of the world. The question
might be asked why the Lord
suffered his Son to come here and to
live and die as he did. When we
get into the spirit world, and the
vail is withdrawn, we shall then
perhaps understand the whys and
wherefores of all these things.
In the dispensations and providences
of God to man it seems that we are
born to suffer pain, affliction, sor-
rows and trials; this is what God
has decreed that the human family
shall pass through; and if we make
a right use of this probation, the
experience it brings will eventually
prove a great blessing to us, and
when we receive immortality and
eternal life, exaltation, kingdoms,
thrones, principalities and powers
with all the blessings of the fulness
of the Gospel of Christ, we shall
understand and comprehend why
we were called to pass through a
continual warfare during the few
years we spent in the flesh.
It certainly does require a good
deal of the Spirit of the Lord to
give comfort and consolation to a
father and mother mourning for the
loss of their children; and without
the Gospel of Christ the separation
by death is one of the most gloomy
subjects it is possible to contemplate;
but just as soon as we obtain the
Gospel and learn the principle of
the resurrection, the gloom, sorrow
and suffering occasioned by death
are, in a great measure, taken away.
I have often thought that, to see a
dead body, and to see that body laid
in the grave and covered with earth,
is one of the most gloomy things on
earth; without the Gospel it is like
taking a leap in the dark. But as
quick as we obtain the Gospel, as
soon as the spirit of man is enlight-
ened by the inspiration of the Al-
mighty, he can exclaim with one of
old—"Oh grave, where is thy vic-
tory, Oh death, where is thy sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the
gift of God is eternal life, through
our Lord Jesus Christ." [1 Corinthians 15:55-56] The res-
urrection of the dead presents itself
before the enlightened mind of man.
and he has a foundation for his
spirit to rest upon. That is the
position of the Latter-day Saints to-
day. We do know for ourselves, we
are not in the dark with regard to
this matter; God has revealed it to
us, and we do understand the princi-
ple of the resurrection of the dead,
and that the Gospel brings life and
immortality to light. We have re-
ceived the Gospel, and if we are true
to the principles of that Gospel as
long as we live, we shall be made
partakers of immortality, exaltation
and glory.
I know very well that the loss of
their children in this terrible man-
ner is a sad affliction to brother and
sister Wheeler. It was a sad afflic-
tion for Job when his children and
No. 3. Vol. XVIII.
possessions were taken from him in
an hour, but yet he had sense or
knowledge enough to understand
and say that when he came into the
world he possessed neither children,
houses, lands, horses, oxen, camels
nor asses, but that all his wealth
had been given to him by the Lord,
and that the Lord had taken them
away and blessed be his holy name. [Job 1:21]
I will say to our mourning friends,
your children are taken away and
you can not help it, we cannot any
of us help it; there is no censure
to be given to parents when they
do the best they can. A mother
should not be censured because she
can not save her sick child, and we
have to leave these things in the
hands of God. It will be but a
little time until they will be restored
to us; in a little time brother and
sister Wheeler will again have the
children whose loss they now
mourn.
With regard to the growth, glory,
or exaltation of children in the life
to come, God has not revealed any-
thing on that subject to me, either
about your children, mine or any-
body else’s, any further than we
know they are saved. And I feel
that we have to put our trust in the
Lord in these afflictions, we have
to lean upon his arm and to look to
him for comfort and consolation.
We do not mourn under these
afflictions as those who have no
hope; we do not mourn the loss of
our children as though we were never
going to see them again, because we
know better. The Lord has taught
us better, and so has the Gospel;
the revelations of Jesus Christ have
shown us that they will be restored
to us in the resurrection of the just.
And I will here say with regard to
the Gospel of Christ, that it is one
of the greatest mysteries under the
heavens to me why there are so few
of the human family, whether in the
Christian, Pagan or Jewish world,
who take any interest in eternal
things, in the state of man after
death. If we read the Bible we
learn that Noah, filled with revela-
tion, and with the Gospel in his
hand, although he labored a hundred
and twenty years, could not get a
solitary soul except his own family
to go with him for salvation. It
was similar in the days of the Patri-
archs and Prophets, and if we come
down to the days of Christ, we find
that his testimony was rejected by
the rabbis, high priests and the
great mass of the people, and he
chose for his Apostles twelve poor
fishermen, and they and very few
of the people, comparatively speak-
ing, were all that received the teach-
ings of Jesus and followed him
through the regeneration; while the
whole Jewish nation, with these
few exceptions, were ready to put
their Shiloh to death, and he was
the person upon whom the salvation
of the whole house of Israel de-
pended. It is just so to-day. The
great majority of the people reject
the words of life and salvation
which are proclaimed unto them.
God, in these last days revealed the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to Joseph
Smith by the teachings of angels
out of heaven, and its principles are
made known to the world, and there
has never been a congregation of
Gentiles, from that day to this, to
whom the Elders of Israel have
borne record of these things, but
what the Spirit of God has also
borne record of the truth of their
testimony; and herein lies the con-
demnation of this generation, for
"light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than
light, because their deeds are evil." [John 3:19]
I ask, in the name of God and huma-
nity, why is it that intelligent beings,
made in the image of God, take no
interest in their condition after
death? They know they are going
to die, and, if they have any sense or
reflection, they know they will live
after the death of their mortal bodies;
still men will sell their eternal inter-
est for money, for a few hundred or
a few thousand dollars they will sell
all the interest they have in the
eternal world; in fact, they take no
interest in their eternal welfare.
Their cry is—"Give me gold, silver
and honors the few years I spend
here, and eternal life may go where
it pleases, I have no interest in that."
I ask again, why is it that the human
family take no interest in these
things? We have preached over
forty years. I have been engaged in
that work over that time, and have
proclaimed the words of eternal life
to millions of people, and have tra-
veled more than a hundred thousand
miles in so doing, and, as the Pro-
phet has said, I have found one of a
family and two of a city who have
had eyes to see, ears to hear, and
hearts to understand, and they have
been gathered up from the various
nations of the earth into the moun-
tains of Israel, and here to-day we
have a little handful of people, out of
the twelve hundred millions who
dwell upon the earth, who feel an
interest in building up the Zion and
kingdom of God upon the earth, and
who are desirous of being saved in
that kingdom.
Now I would rather be poor all the
days of my life, I would rather go
through poverty and affliction, it
matters not how severe, even to the
sacrifice of my own life, then lose
salvation and eternal life, because
I have faith in it and always had. I
always have had faith in the Bible
and in the revelations of God since I
was a boy like these sitting on these
seats, eight or ten years old, when I
went to the Presbyterian Sunday
school and read about Jesus Christ.
I believed then that he was the
Savior of the world; I believed that
the Old and New Testament was true.
I believe it to-day. What would it
profit a man to gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? What will
a man give in exchange for his soul? [Mark 8:36-37]
When he comes into the presence of
God he can’t buy it. This is the
position of the world. There is none
of us going to live but a little while;
we shall all pass away soon, and our
eternal destiny depends upon the
few days, weeks, months or years
that we spend here in the flesh. Do
you not think it will pay a man or a
woman to keep the commandments
of God? It will, and when we enjoy
the Holy Spirit, when we are trying
to live our religion here on the earth,
we are the happiest people on God's
footstool, no matter what our circum-
stances may be. I do not care
whether we are rich or poor, whether
in happiness or affliction, if a man
is living his religion and enjoys the
favor and Spirit of God, it makes
no difference to him what takes place
on the earth. There may be earth-
quakes, war, fire or sword in the land,
but he feels that it is all right with
him. That is the way I feel to-day.
With regard to the Gospel of
Christ, it is a thing that we should
all labor to maintain the few years
that we spend here. When I get
through with this life and go into the
spirit world, I do not want to miss
what I have in anticipation. I have
always desired to see the Savior,
Father Adam, Enoch, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and those old Prophets
we read about in the Bible. I de-
sired this before I heard this Gospel,
I desire it to-day; and I do not wish
to miss this, for nothing in this world
would pay me for such a sacrifice.
But I know that it requires constant
warfare, labor and faithfulness before
the Lord in order for us to keep in
fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and
to live in such a manner that we may
obtain these blessings. Jesus says—
"Strait is the gate and narrow the
way that leads to eternal lives, and
few there are who find it, while broad
is the way that leads to death, and
many there be who go in thereat." [Matthew 7:13-14]
The road to death is broad enough to
catch the whole world, and they do
not like to walk in the strait and
narrow one, they do not like to keep
the celestial law. I have met with
professed ministers of the Gospel, in
my travels, at whose tables I have
eaten and drank, and I have given
them the Book of Mormon and the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants,
and have talked to and labored with
them, and I have known some of
them spend days and days in this
warfare, trying to decide which to do,
whether to receive the Gospel of
Christ and take the reproach of the
world, or reject it; and I may say
that in nine cases out of ten they
have come to the conclusion to reject
it. When I visited Fox Island the
first time, I went to the house of
Mr. Newton, a Baptist minister; and
I stayed with him. But first I went
to his church and heard him preach,
and when he got through I wanted
to bear record of the Gospel, for I
had a message to that people, and I
appointed a meeting for four o’clock
in the afternoon, and I preached the
Gospel to them, and Mr. Newton took
me to his home and I gave him the
Book of Mormon and the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants, and for ten
days that man walked about his room
until midnight trying to decide what
he should do. The Spirit of the
Lord bore record to him that my
testimony was true, and he felt that
if he obeyed the Gospel which I had
proclaimed unto him he would lose
his good name and honor among men,
but that if he did not receive it, he
would be damned. Finally he re-
rejected it, and the consequence was
that he became a vagabond, and a
miserable outcast. I baptized all
his flock who owned any portion
of the meeting-house, and if he had
embraced the Gospel and been gath-
ered with them he would have been
here and saved in the kingdom of
God, instead of the vagabond that
he has since become. I merely men-
tion this to show how the minds of
some men are acted upon by the tid-
ings of the Gospel. Some of them
feel that it would be a great reproach
to obey the Gospel and to keep the
commandments of God. Bless your
souls, we who obey the Gospel of
Christ are all in good company.
Whenever you are persecuted for
righteousness sake, said Jesus, rejoice
and be exceeding glad for so perse-
cuted they the Prophets and Apostles
which were before you. [Matthew 5:11-12]
I will say to all, whether in the
church or in the world, it will pay
you to keep the commandments of
God. Here is a man who has a wife
that he thinks a great deal of; they
have lovely children, and the ties of
affection bind them closely. Now
should not such a man have respect
enough for God to keep his com-
mandments and so secure to himself
his wife and his children in the celes-
tial world after the resurrection?
But you cannot get worldlings to
believe in such a principle; the
people, as I said before, have not in-
terest enough in the things of the
kingdom of God to be willing to keep
the commandments of God.
I say to the Latter-day Saints, we
should be faithful to our God. We
are blessed above all the people that
breathe the breath of life upon the
earth, and we are blessed above all
other dispensations and generations
of men, for the Lord has put into
our hands the power to build up his
Zion upon the earth, never more to
be thrown down, and this is what no
other generation has ever been called
to do. But although this is the mis-
sion of the Latter-day Saints, we
have a continual warfare to wage—a
warfare with the powers of darkness,
and a warfare with ourselves. The
ancients had a similar experience to
pass through—they had their day
of trials, troubles and tribulations.
Enoch labored three hundred and
sixty-five years in building up Zion,
and he had the opposition of the
whole world. But the Lord blessed
him so that he maintained his ground
for that length of time, and gathered
together a few out of the nations of
the earth, and they were sanctified
before the Lord, and he had to take
them away, and the saying went forth
—"Zion is fled." [Moses 7:68-69] So you may trace
down all the Prophets. Read the
history of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah
and others, and you will find that it
was a warfare with them all the way
through. And so with Jesus and the
Apostles. But all those dispensa-
tions have passed and gone into the
spirit world, and they have their eyes
upon us, and in fact God our heavenly
Father and all under him—the whole
heavenly host, have their eyes turned
towards the Latter-day Saints, be-
cause this is the great dispensation
of which Adam, Enoch and all the
ancient patriarchs and Prophets have
spoken, in which shall take place the
final redemption of the House of
Israel, the restoration of their king-
dom, the rebuilding of their city and
Temple, the restoration of their
oracles and Priesthood, of the Urim
and Thummim, and the preparation
for the final winding up scene in the
last days; all these things will take
place in the dispensation in which we
are permitted to live.
Let us, then, try and fulfill and
perform our duties as good Latter-day
Saints. Let us bear with each other’s
faults, and bear the yoke of Christ,
live our religion and keep the com-
mandments of God. Let us try and
bring up our children in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. [Ephesians 6:4] Let
us set them good examples and teach
them good principles while they are
young. They are given to us by our
heavenly Father; they are our king-
dom, they are the foundation of our
exaltation and glory; they are plants
of renown, and we should strive to
bear them up before the Lord, and
teach them to pray to, and to have
faith in, the Lord as far as we can,
that when we are passed and gone
and they succeed us on this stage of
action, they may bear off the great
latter-day work and kingdom of God
upon the earth. I do not believe
that the day is very far distant when
the revelations which God has given
concerning the last days will have
their fulfillment. I believe there are
many children now living in the
mountains of Israel who will never
taste of death, that is, they will dwell
on the earth at the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I will acknowledge
that there is a great deal to be done,
and the Lord has not revealed to man
the day or the hour, but he has re-
vealed the generation; and the fig
trees are now putting forth their
leaves in the eyes of all the nations,
indicating the near approach of the
second coming of the Son of Man.
It is my faith that hundreds and
thousands of the children that have
been given to us will be alive in the
flesh when Christ comes in the clouds
of heaven in power and great glory.
The Lord will not disappoint the
inhabitants of the earth in these last
days in regard to his second coming,
any more than he has with regard to
other great events and dispensations.
We live in a very important age
and generation; we live in the day
and time when God has set his hand
to fulfill a measure of prophecy and
revelation to man, in the great dis-
pensation of all dispensations. As
an individual I do not believe that
many more years will roll over the
heads of the inhabitants of the earth
before the resurrection will be upon
them, and then these children,
which we are called to bury to-day,
will come forth from their graves,
clothed with glory, immortality and
eternal life. You may ask why I
believe this. I believe it because the
revelations of God say so. I read
the Scriptures, and I believe that the
revelations and prophecies therein
contained mean what they say, and
I also believe that the saying of
every Prophet or Apostle spoken
under the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost will have its fulfillment, and,
as Paul said, no prophecy of Scripture
hath any private interpretation, but
holy men of old spake as they were
moved upon by the Holy Ghost. [2 Peter 1:20-21]
They spake the mind and word of
the Lord, and none of their sayings
will fail to be fulfilled, for the Lord
has said—"Though the heavens and
the earth pass away, my word shall
not fail, but shall be fulfilled." [Doctrine and Covenants 1:38] That
is the way I read prophecy and reve-
lation.
The Jews will be moved upon by
and by, and they will return to the
land of their fathers, and they will
rebuild Jerusalem. These Laman-
ites here will receive the Gospel of
Christ in fulfillment of the revela-
tions of God. The Prophets which
have been shut up in the north coun-
try with the nine and a half tribes
led away by Shalmanezer, King of
Assyria, thousands of years ago, will
come in remembrance before God;
they will smite the rocks and moun-
tains of ice will flow down before
them, and those long lost tribes will
come forth in your day and mine, if
we live a few years longer, and they
will be crowned under the hands of
the children of Ephraim—the Elders
of Israel who dwell in the land of
Zion. [Doctrine and Covenants 133:26-32] And by and by the testimony
of the Gospel will be sealed among
the Gentiles, and the Gospel will
turn to the whole house of Israel,
and the judgments of God will back
up the testimony of the Elders of
this Church, and the Lord will send
messengers who will go forth and
reap down the earth. The unbeliever
may say that what we term judg-
ments have always prevailed more or
less among the nations, and that
God has nothing to do with them,
they are all natural. Well, if they
have always prevailed, they will pre-
vail to a greater extent in these last
days than ever before, until every-
thing that God has spoken shall have
come to pass. Judgments await the
world, and they await this nation,
and the day is at hand when the
Lord will sweep the earth as with a
besom of destruction. [Isaiah 14:23] In the vision
which the Lord gave to Enoch, he
saw the heavens weeping over the
earth because of the fall of man; and
when Enoch asked the Lord—"When
will the earth rest from under the
curse of sin?" the Lord told him
that in the last days the earth should
rest, for then it should be redeemed
from the sin, wickedness and abomi-
nations that were upon it. [Moses 7:48-64] The
earth is now pretty near ripe, and
when ripened the Lord will cut them
off. These things are before the
Latter-day Saints, but the world do
not believe in them any more than
they believed in the message of Noah
or Lot.
Brethren and sisters, let us read
the revelations of God for ourselves,
and when we read them, let us be-
lieve them, and try to live in such a
way that we may be ready for what-
ever dispensation the Lord may have
in store for us, and so that we can
acknowledge his hand as Job did,
and not find any fault with him be-
cause of his providences toward us.
If we cannot comprehend them now,
we shall be able to do so in a little
while. The Lord may have purposes
in view in his dealings with us that
we do not understand; I presume he
has. In fact, the whole of the deal-
ings of God to man are a mystery.
There is a vail over the world, and
it is ordained of God that it should
be so, for if it were not so, and if
men could comprehend eternal things,
as God comprehends them, there is
no man on the earth, no matter how
wicked he may be, but what would
be willing to keep the commandments
of God, and to pass through any-
thing that God ordained, for therein
he would see there was salvation and
eternal life. But God has an order
in these matters, as he revealed unto
Joseph Smith. He said unto Joseph
—"I will prove you whether you
will abide in my covenant; if you
are not willing to abide in my covenant
even unto death, you are not worthy
of me." [Doctrine & Covenants 98:14-15] And it is so with the Saints.
If they are not willing to abide in
the covenants they have made with
God, even unto death if necessary,
they are not worthy of him. Jesus
laid down his life to redeem the
world, and passed through suffering
and affliction all his life in order that
he might fulfill the mission which
was given him. So it is with us.
The Lord says—"I am going to
prove the children of men." There
are a few individuals in this dispen-
sation who will inherit celestial glory,
and a few in other dispensations;
but before they receive their exalta-
tion they will have to pass through
and submit to whatever dispensation
God may decree. But for all this
they will receive their reward—they
will become Gods, they will inherit
thrones, kingdoms, principalities and
powers through the endless ages of
eternity, and to their increase there
will be no end, and the heart of man
has never conceived of the glory that
is in store for the sons and daughters
of God who keep the celestial law.
And yet God has a vail over all in
regard to these things. The whole
world will be judged according to the
deeds done in the body, and they will
inherit kingdoms according to the
laws which they have kept, every
man being preserved by the law
which he has observed, and all will
be saved in some glory, except the
sons of perdition.
Now, brethren and sisters, the
Gospel of Christ is before us. We
are all passing along, and it will only
be a little time before a good many
of us will be on the other side of the
vail. Our friends are passing off
every day, and we look in vain for
many with whom we have been fa-
miliar in years that are past. If I
go into a congregation of ten thou-
sand and enquire for the Saints I
knew in Kirtland, and request them
to lift up their hands, it will be like
a standard bearer on the mountains,
there is only here and there one.
You ask a congregation how many of
them knew Joseph Smith, and it is
only here and there one, they are
passing away to the other side of the
vail. It is so with us all, we are
hastening to the end of life's journey,
and a good many of us are on the
downward grade. I ask that what
little time I live, I may keep the faith
and have the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit and of the Saints of God, that
when I get through I may be satis-
fied with life, satisfied with my acts,
that I may receive a welcome into the
Kingdom of God. That is all I ask
and all I labor for. As for riches and
wealth, I do not want them if they
will damn me. I would like to have
enough to clothe, shoe and feed my
wives and children, and to make them
comfortable, if I can get it honestly
before the Lord; but I would rather
myself and them all be in poverty
than to have wealth and be destroyed.
Riches are dangerous unless we can
use them so as not to destroy us; if
we cannot use them to the glory of
God and for the building up of his
Kingdom, we are better without
them. I do not expect to live a great
many years longer. The young, the
middle-aged and the old are dying off.
For many years of my life the gospel
of Jesus Christ has been a consola-
tion to me. I have spent a good deal
more than half of my life in laboring
in this Church. I labored to find this
Church, I may say, from my child-
hood up, and many a midnight hour
have I plead with the Lord, in the
wilderness, in the woods, and in my
mill, and under various circumstances,
that the Lord would let me find a
people who contended for the faith
once delivered to the Saints. I de-
sired this from reading the Bible, and
from the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, for in the pages of that sacred
book I learned that a people once
lived upon the earth who had com-
munion with God, and they had
power to command the elements, and
they obeyed them; they conversed
with angels, and had the gifts and
graces of a religion which had power
and salvation in it. I could not find
this on the face of the earth. I
prayed to the Lord to let me live to
find such a people, and he promised
that I should, and I have lived to
find them. I have seen the faces of
Prophets and inspired men, and it
has been a great consolation to me.
I have my failings and imperfections,
and I expect that we are all subject
to them, more or less. I want to
overcome them, because I desire to
partake of eternal life. I also desire
this for the Saints of God and for the
honest and meek of the earth every-
where.
I have labored many years, and tra-
veled without purse and scrip, preach-
ed without money and without price,
for the purpose of saving my fellow-
men. I labor on Mount Zion to try
and save the dead; I spend a good
deal of time in this. It is a conso-
lation to me, I pray God my heaven-
ly Father to bless you and all the
Latter-day Saints, and that he will
give us enough of his Holy Spirit to
keep us in the path of duty and rec-
titude, virtue and righteousness, that
we may be justified before him. I
pray my heavenly Father that he will
bless Brother and Sister Wheeler in
their bereavement, and give them his
Holy Spirit, that, when they lie down
at night and rise in the morning and
miss their children they may feel to
commit themselves into the hands of
the Lord, and realize that their sepa-
ration from their little ones is not for
ever, but that in a little while they
will be restored to them. This ap-
plies to us all in the loss of our chil-
dren. We lay them away in the
grave, but they will come forth in the
morning of the resurrection, and if
we are faithful to the truth, we shall
receive them and rejoice with them;
and when we have passed through the
sorrows of mortality and have the joy
and glory of the celestial kingdom
conferred upon us we shall then know
that the afflictions of mortality have
prepared us for and enabled us to ap-
preciate the blessings which God has
in store for the faithful.
May God bless us, and give us his
Spirit, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.