INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM GOD, ETC.
INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM GOD—SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD
—GREAT CHANGES TO TAKE PLACE ON THE EARTH—ISRAEL OF
THE LAST DAYS—WHY THE JEWS CANNOT BE CONVERTED.
A Discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake
City, .
I feel it a privilege to bear testi-
mony before the Saints to the exhor-
tations we have heard this morning
from brothers Richards and Wells.
We have had good teachings, good
counsel, and good doctrine taught us.
And I presume I feel in a measure
like the rest of my brethren when I
rise to speak to this people in the
Tabernacle, where such large congre-
gations of Saints assemble; I have a
desire that what I say may do the
people good, may edify them. My bre-
thren also have the same desire.
We realize that the minds of this
people need feeding continually, and
we all have to depend upon the Holy
Spirit and the Lord to feed our minds
from that inexhaustible fountain of
intelligence which comes from God,
for we cannot obtain food from any
other source to feed the immortal
mind of man. Here are a large as-
sembly of minds who are reaching
forth to receive light and truth before
the Lord.
I realize that we have a great many
lessons to learn in the school we are
in, and myself as a teacher in con-
nexion with my brethren have also
a great deal to learn. I feel that I
am yet in my alphabet, and feel some-
times that I am incapable of teaching
this people, when I realize they are in
the road which leads to celestial glory
—to eternal life and eternal exalta-
tion. I know I am dependent as I
know my brethren are upon God,
upon the Holy Ghost for all the light,
truth, and intelligence which we have
to impart unto you.
The words which brother Wells quo-
ted, and which brother Samuel Rich-
ards referred to, furnish as strong a
proof as can be furnished as to the
true principle of prosperity, touching
things temporal and things spiritual.
I refer to the words of Jesus Christ
which he spoke to his followers:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all other things
shall be added unto you." [##Matthew 6:33#] I will tell
you, brethren and sisters, we may try
it all the days of our lives, we may
try every path and every principle in
this world, and we as Saints cannot
prosper upon any other mode of pro-
ceeding than by first seeking the
kingdom of heaven and its righteous-
ness; when we do this there is no
blessing, there is no good, no exalta-
tion, gift, grace, desire, or anything
that a good man can wish that is pro-
fitable, and good for time and for eter-
nity, but will be given unto us.
A great many people have tried to
seek for happiness independent of first
seeking the kingdom of heaven, &c.,
but they have always found it an up-
hill business, and so shall we if we
try it.
We as a people should have learned
by this time, after having the experi-
ence we have gained, to make up our
minds to take hold and build up the
kingdom of God, and it should be
Trust in the Lord.
JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES.
the first thing before us, for if we
build up the kingdom of God we build
up ourselves, and if we do not we never
shall be built up. This is the truth.
There seems to be something connect-
ed with the kingdom of God and that
is righteousness; we are exhorted to
seek the righteousness that belongs to
it as well as the kingdom itself.
The kingdom of God is a righteous
kingdom, all its laws are righteous,
its government is a righteous govern-
ment, and the king who governs and
controls it does so upon righteous and
eternal principles, and we must act
upon the same principles of righteous-
ness. Who cannot see that if a man
seeks first the kingdom of heaven and
its righteousness that he will become
righteous and hence he will be blessed
and justified in all of his acts.
With regard to the feelings of the
people that brothers Wells and Rich-
ards have referred to, touching the
consecration of their property and de-
dicating themselves to God, I will say,
if we build up the kingdom of God
we should be in that kingdom, and all
we have should be in it, and we should
have faith enough in the Lord to
know it is in a safe place.
I am a good deal of the opinion of
old Captain Russell, who was an ex-
tensive ship-builder, and paid thou-
sands of dollars yearly to the Gentiles
as insurance fees. After he embraced
"Mormonism," he began to reflect,
"here am I paying thousands of dol-
lars yearly to the Gentiles to insure
my ships, and I have to trust to the
God of heaven after all to save my
ships from sinking, and to prosper me
in all my undertakings; this is not
right." So he went to Liverpool,
where the insurance office was, to
settle his insurance bills and close up
his business with the firm.
The gentlemen of the firm asked
him when he had got through, saying,
"Have we not treated you well, Mr.
Russell?" "Yes, I have no fault to
find with you." "What, then, is your
object in pursuing this course? We
have done business with you a good
many years; we want to know if you
are going to change your insurance
office?" "I am." "Will you tell
us where you are going to have your
business done in the future?" "Yes,
I am going to have it done in heaven,
for the insurance offices do not control
the winds, the elements are not obe-
dient to them, and I have been paying
ten thousand dollars a-year for insuring
a few ships, and I have to trust in the
Lord anyhow, so in the future I shall
pay my insurance fee into the Lord's
treasury."
The gentlemen of the office thought
he was cracked or beside himself, for
I tell you trusting in the Lord in
these days is an unpopular business
with the world. But the Saints have
to trust in the Lord, and we might as
well begin and seek this kingdom and
the interest of it, and the righteous-
ness of it, and build it up first as last.
I believe the people are reforming in
this thing; I believe they are increa-
sing in their faith, and have manifes-
ted it here in the city this winter, and
I am glad to see it.
The exhortation we have had this
morning is proper and seasonable, as
we have been sowing the seed of the
word this winter among the people,
and we should watch and see that the
seed is sown in good g[r]ound, and try
to cultivate the principles we hear
that the fruits of righteousness may
appear in abundance. In doing this
we will be saved.
We have had one of the most in-
teresting seasons this winter that we
have ever enjoyed since the Church
and kingdom of God has been organ-
ized in the last days. We have had
new lessons opened unto us by the
servants of the Lord, and among those
things the mercy of the Lord has
been manifested in a great degree to-
wards this people. I have reflected
INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM GOD, ETC.
on His mercy and I feel we should be
faithful and humble, and prove true
unto the Lord our God because of
this mercy which has been manifested
unto us, and we should be very care-
ful hereafter, as President Young ex-
horted us the last time he spoke con-
cerning this people continuing to com-
mit sin. He plainly laid before us
the consequences of this course; we
should let the past suffice wherein we
have done anything in which we can-
not be justified. I am satisfied that
the people in these valleys will never
hear the same proclamation which we
have heard this winter.
If this people with the light they
have, the teachings they have, and
the examples they have had set before
them intermingled with chastisement
—if they still will go on and be neglect-
ful of their duties, with regard to their
salvation they will have to pay the
debt, for the sinner in Zion will be
cut off from the Church of God, and
will have to pay the penalty whether
it be small or great. It is of the ut-
most importance that we should guard
ourselves against sin as the tree of
life is guarded. We have no time to
throw away in the service of sin, in
committing iniquity and grieving the
Holy Spirit of God.
I tell you when you look around
and see the state of the world on the
one hand, and what we have to per-
form on the other, and what the king-
dom of God has got to arrive at in
order to fulfil its destiny and the re-
velations of Jesus Christ, our chief
object should be to build up the king-
dom of God and roll it on.
As I remarked last evening in the
High Priests' Quorum, we have been
rolling this kingdom up-hill, up a
mountain; we have been toiling
against a mighty current all the day
long from its first organization, but
the day will soon come, if this people
will do their duty and take hold of
the kingdom of God as they should
do, it will soon get on the top of the
mountain, and then it will begin to
roll down from the mountains, and it
will gather both strength and speed
as it goes, and then instead of sing-
ing, "Get out of the way, the hand-
carts rolling," it will be "Get out of
the way the kingdom's coming," and
it will not stop until it has filled the
whole earth. The Lord has pro-
claimed this in all the revelations He
has given on the subject.
This kingdom has got to stand,
spread itself abroad, and gather
unto itself strength. The Lord is
going to work with this kingdom, and
with this people. The Lord says in
the parable of the vineyard, "My ser-
vants laboured with their mights, and
the Lord laboured with them, and they
prevailed, and brought forth the fruits
of the kingdom, and the bitter branches
were broken off, and the tame olive
brought forth good fruit, and the vine-
yard was no more corrupt." This
should be uppermost in our minds,
we should look for the building up of
the kingdom, and secure not only
blessings for ourselves, but seek to
become saviours of men on Mount
Zion, and try to do all the good we
can, labouring to promote the cause
and interest of Zion in every depart-
ment thereof where we are all called
to act.
By pursuing this course we shall
be prospered, and have continual peace
in our minds, and as the Lord has
said, nothing will be withheld from
any man that seeks for the righteous-
ness and blessings of the kingdom of
God. Salvation should be the upper-
most thing with us, and you will find
if ever we seek to do something else
besides carrying out the dictates of the
Holy Spirit, we will get into the fog
and into darkness and trouble, and
we shall be ignorant of the way we
are pursuing. Every day that we
live we need the power of the Lord—
the power of His Holy Spirit and the
JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES.
strength of the Priesthood to be with
us that we may know what to do.
And if we will so live before the Lord,
the Spirit will reveal to us every day
what our duties are; I do not care
what it is we are engaged in, we
should first find out the will of the
Lord and then do it, and then our
work will be well done and acceptable
before the Lord, but if we take a course
against light and against the Spirit of
God, we will find it an unprofitable
road to travel.
I feel as though the Lord is going
to do a great work in the midst of this
people. There are a great many things
at our door, a great many changes to
take place in the earth, and the king-
dom is growing; and I would here
exhort all the Latter day Saints who
hear me this day to study well the
position you are in, and search your
hearts and see if we are in the favour of
the Lord our God, and then let us in-
crease continually in faith, in hope, in
righteousness, and in every virtuous
principle which is necessary for us to
have to sustain us in every trial
through which we may be called to
pass, in order to prove us as the
friends of God, whether we will abide
in the covenant or not; we will be
tried from this time, until the coming
of the Messiah or while we live on the
earth.
If we could open the vision of our
minds, and let it extend into the fu-
ture and see this kingdom, and what
it is bound to accomplish, and what
we have to do, the warfare we have to
pass through, we would certainly see
that we have a great work on hand.
We have not only to fight the powers
of darkness, the invisible forces that
surround us, but we have to war with
a great many outward circumstances
and to contend with a great many dif-
ficulties that we must of necessity
meet, and the more of this we have to
meet the more we should be stimula-
ted to action, and to labour with all
our power before the Lord for the es-
tablishment of righteousness and truth
and the building up of the work of
God, and to see that His name is
honoured upon the earth.
Brother Wells has said, why the
world is troubled about us is because
we are united. This is true; the
world and the devil are afraid of it,
and he has laboured all his life to di-
vide everything where righteousness
dwelt, or at least ever since he was
cast out from the presence of God,
what he did before that I cannot say
any further than what is revealed.
We have got to be one and labour to-
gether to build up this kingdom be-
cause we cannot establish it upon any
other principle.
We should be careful to know that
we are right and then go ahead, and
we will find it to our advantage, and we
shall be satisfied with our reward if
we pursue that course which is ac-
cording to the commandments of God.
When we come into the presence of
our Father in heaven we shall meet
with His approbation, this alone will
reward us for our labours.
If we go to work and build up the
kingdom of God instead of ourselves,
it is no matter in what shape we do
it, whether it is in building a canal,
or in building a temple, preaching
the Gospel, cultivating the earth, or
anything else, let us take that and
make it a business, and we will
find the Lord will help, sustain,
and nerve us with His power, and
will assist us in everything we have
to do, and if we are called to lay
down our lives in the defence of God
and eternal truth, then all right, and
if we live, all right, and when we
come into the presence of the Lord
we shall be satisfied with our reward
and blessings.
The Lord has said He would prove
us whether we would abide in His
covenant even unto death; indeed we
have been tried from the commence-
INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM GOD, ETC.
ment of this great work, but there
has been an invisible hand at work
for our defence all the time; the
wicked have not seen the power that
has sustained us, they cannot see the
inside machinery that is at work in
this kingdom, the nations of the earth
cannot understand it, and they never
can comprehend it, but the Latter-
day Saints understand it, and they
know that it is the power of God and the
word of God, for the Lord has made
proclamations and decrees, and cove-
nants concerning Israel in the last
days, and all the Prophets, from
righteous Abel to Brigham Young,
have proclaimed it to the nations of
the earth, as with the voice of thun-
der, and we know they will be fulfil-
led; we know the Gospel has to be
offered to the Gentiles first, we have
offered it to them for the space of
twenty-five years, that we may be pre-
pared to go to the house of Israel.
The Gentiles in a great measure,
have rejected it; we have borne a
faithful testimony to the nations of
the earth, and they prefer to take
their own course, and act on their own
agency; they would rather build them-
selves up than the kingdom of God.
The consequence is, it will soon be
taken from the Gentile nations, and it
will not be long before the judgments
of God are abroad among them, and
those bitter branches will be taken off
the tree.
Now there is no personage, or sub-
ject, or work upon the face of the
whole earth, but what is more popular
than the Lord, and His Gospel, and
kingdom; His name is dishonoured
and blasphemed, with impunity by
nearly all the inhabitants of the earth
and in the midst of every nation un-
der heaven, but the day is nigh at
hand when He will make bare His
arm of power, and show the world that
there is a God in Israel, who will no
longer bear the blasphemies of the
wicked without bringing them to judg-
ment, but He will send forth those
angels, those messengers who dwell
in the presence of God, who are
waiting with their sharp sickles in
their hands to reap down the earth;
but this will not be until the Gospel
has been fully offered to the Gentiles;
then the bitter branches will be bro-
ken off.
This kingdom will go forward, for
the Lord God has decreed it, and
Zion will arise and be adorned with
beauty and power, and true refine-
ment, in light and knowledge, and in
every good gift that will prepare the
minds of men for the Society of their
Heavenly Father and of celestial
beings. These lessons have got to be
given, and we have to learn them,
and we have got to bring ourselves to
the celestial law of God; we have to
be quickened by the Spirit and power
of the kingdom of God and its righ-
teousness, that we may be prepared to
carry out the purposes of the Lord;
then this kingdom will be borne to
the house of Israel, and they will re-
ceive it.
The door has already been unlocked
to the Lamanites in these mountains,
and they will begin to embrace the
Gospel and the records of their fa-
thers, and their chiefs will be filled
with the Spirit and power of God, and
they will rise up in their strength,
and a nation will be born in a day,
because they are of the seed of Abra-
ham, and God has promised to bless
the descendants of Abraham, and they
will be saved with the house of Israel,
for the Lord has spoken it, and made
those promises unto them through
their fathers.
Again, here are the ten tribes of
Israel, we know nothing about them
only what the Lord has said by His
Prophets. There are Prophets among
them, and by and by they will come
along, and they will smite the rocks,
and the mountains of ice will flow
down at their presence, and a high-
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way will be cast up before them, and
they will come to Zion, receive their
endowments, and be crowned under
the hands of the children of Ephraim,
and there are persons before me in
this assembly to-day, who will assist
to give them their endowments. They
will receive their blessings and en-
dowments, from under the children of
Ephraim, who are the first fruits of
the kingdom of God in this dispensa-
tion, and the men will have to be or-
dained and receive their Priesthood
and endowments in the land of Zion,
according to the revelations of God.
Again, here is Judah, which is the
tribe of Israel, from whom Jesus
sprang; how many times have I seen
them among the nations of the earth,
standing in their synagogues, even grey-
haired rabbies, with their faces to the
east, calling on the great Eloheim to
open the door for them to go back to
Jerusalem, the land of their fathers,
and to send their shiloh, their king of
deliverance. When I have seen this my
soul has been filled with a desire to
proclaim unto them the word of God
unto eternal life, but I knew I could not
do this, the time had not come, I could
not preach to them. I might have stood
in their midst for a month and preach-
ed unto them Jesus Christ or their
shiloh and king, but I should have
failed to establish one particle of faith
in their minds that he was the true
Messiah.
They do not believe in Jesus Christ;
there is an unbelief resting upon them,
and will until they go home and re-
build Jerusalem and their temple
more glorious than at the beginning,
and then by and by, after this
Church and kingdom has arisen up in
its glory, the Saviour will come to
them and show the wounds in his
hands and side, and they will say to
him, "Where did you get those
wounds?" and he will answer, "In
the house of my friends," and then
their eyes will begin to open, and
they will repent and mourn, they and
their wives apart, and there will be a
fountain opened for uncleanness to the
house of Judah, and they will for the
first time receive Jesus Christ as their
Saviour, they will begin to compre-
hend where they have been wandering
for the space of two thousand years.
You cannot convert a Jew, you may
as well try to convert this house of
solid walls as to convert them into
the faith of Christ. They are set in
their feelings, and they will be until
the time of their redemption. They
are looking forward to the time when
they will go home and rebuild Jerusa-
lem; they have looked for it many
hundreds of years, they are looking
for the coming of their king, and they
do not suppose for a moment that he
has already come, but they are looking
for him to come as the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, not as a lamb led to
the slaughter, and as a sheep that is
dumb before his shearers; they are
looking for him to come with power
and great glory.
I thank God that the day is at
hand when the Jews will be restored.
I have felt to pray for them; I feel
interested in their behalf, for they are
of the seed of Abraham and a branch
of the house of Israel, and the pro-
mises of God still remain with them.
It is true they fell through unbelief,
and the kingdom was taken from them
and given to the Gentiles, and when
it came from them, it came clothed
with all its gifts, powers, and glory,
Priesthood and ordinances which
were necessary for the salvation of
men, and to prepare them to dwell in
the presence of the Gods; and when
the kingdom was given to the Gen-
tiles, they for a while brought forth
the natural fruits of the kingdom.
But they, like the Jews, have fallen
through the same example of unbelief,
and now, in the last days, the king-
dom of God has to be taken from the
Gentiles, and restored back to every
INTELLIGENCE COMES FROM GOD, ETC.
branch and tribe of the house of
Israel; and when it is restored to
them, it must go back with all its
gifts, and blessings, and Priesthood
which it possessed when it was taken
from them. But the Lord has said
that in restoring these blessings to the
children of Abraham, that He would
be inquired of by the house of Israel,
to do it for them. But from what
branch or part of the house of Israel
will the Lord look for this petition or
request to issue, if not from the Lat-
ter-day Saints, for we are out of the
tribe of Joseph through the loins of
Ephraim, who have been as a mixed
cake among the Gentiles, and are the
first fruits of the kingdom, and the
Lord has given unto us the kingdom
and Priesthood and keys thereof.
Hence the Lord will require us to
ask for those blessings which are pro-
mised unto Israel, and to labour for
their salvation.
These things will be required at
our hands; a great work is before us,
a work worthy of intelligent beings—
worthy of the most noble of spirits
that ever existed around the throne
of God in time or in eternity, in hea-
ven or on the earth. Then, if we
would feel right about this important
subject, and look upon it as it is, we
will go to work and labour with all
our mights to build up the kingdom of
our God, to carry out the purposes of
the Lord, in the building up of Zion,
the establishment of his kingdom, and
restoration, and salvation of the house
of Israel; we should listen strictly to
those men who are the word of the
Lord to us.
The Prophet Jeremiah saw this
kingdom established, and saw that
Ephraim was the first born, and in
gathering the children of Jacob and
establishing Zion in the last days,
their nobles should be of themselves,
and their governor should proceed
from the midst of them. I have
looked forward for years by faith to
that time when the children of Zion
would have the privilege of having
their rulers, and a governor of their
own choice of the house of Israel, to
rule over them and counsel and lead
them.
We have had a governor since we
have been a Territory, who is actually
of the loins of Joseph, the son of
Jacob. Jeremiah saw this, spake of it,
and it has been fulfilled. There has
been a great exertion to make this
prophecy fail. It hurts the feelings of
the Gentiles to think this prophecy
should have its fulfilment in these
days. It has been fulfilled so far, and
I feel thankful to-day that all the
prophecies which have not been fulfil-
led will be; hence I have hope and
confidence in looking forward to the
fulfilment of the blessings that are
promised to us.
Let us be faithful and seek dili-
gently to build up the kingdom of
God in righteousness and do our duty,
and try to save ourselves, our wives,
and children, our kindred and our
friends, and the house of Israel, and
also the Gentiles as far as they will be
saved, and then we will be satisfied
with our reward which we shall obtain
in this life and in the world to come.
I pray the Lord to bless us all, and
save us in His kingdom, for Christ's
sake. Amen.