I THINK that all of us as Latter-day
Saints should have our hearts filled
with gratitude and thanksgiving
to God our Heavenly Father for his
mercies and blessi[n]gs which we en-
joy this day. It is certainly a source
of much pleasure to me to have the
privilege of meeting with so many
of the Latter-day Saints, and with
so many bearing the Holy Priest-
hood in this dispensation of God to
man. I cannot but rejoice when I re-
flect upon the history of this people,
and contemplate the dealings of God
with us, how that He has protect-
ed us and sustained us and delivered
us and made us a community in the
land, and that too under adversity
and opposition.
In tracing the history of the Pro-
phets and Apostles of old as well
as those of our day, we find that
there have been some very peculiar
manifestations of the trust and con-
fidence in God that they have exer-
cised. Consider, for instance, the
position of the Three Hebrews. They
could afford to trust themselves in the
hands of God; they could afford to
meet whatever punishment or afflic-
tion or persecution that might be
heaped upon them in consequence
of their obeying the law of God. But
they could not afford to bow down
and worship the image which Nebu-
chadnezzer had caused to be set up,
because it was contrary to the com-
mandments of God. The history of
the result of their refusing to obey
the royal edict, commanding all Babylon to fall down and worship it,
we are familiar with; also with the
similar circumstance in which the
Prophet Daniel figured. [Daniel 3] In any and
every age of the world when God
has called or commanded a man or a
people to perform a certain work,
they through determination and per-
severence, and faith in Him, have
been enabled to accomplish it; and I
do not know of a single instance
wherein anything ennobling or ex-
alting has been gained when His
command has been shunned or wil-
fully disobeyed. I will here men-
tion the case of Jonah, which pre-
sents itself to my mind, when the
Lord sent him to deliver a message
to Ninevah. The requirement
was a little too much for
Jonah, and he thought he would
try to av[o]id it; but after he had
spent three days and nights in the
belly of a whale, he thought, no
doubt, that if ever he got to land he
would unhesitatingly obey the com-
mandments of the Lord. [Jonah 1] The result
we know. We take our Savior, and
also the Apostles who followed him;
we read the history of what they
suffered and passed through. All of
the Apostle suffered death (except-
ing one, whom they could not de
stroy), including the Son of God
himself, in order to seal their testi-
mony with their blood; while the
Savior had to suffer upon the cross
to fill the mission that he had been
p[r]eordained to perform; which, by
the way, is a very strange e[n]sample
to man, to see the Son of God, the
Only Begotten of the Father on the
earth, the First Born in the spirit
world, a person of His high exalta-
tion and glory, condescending to
come forth to be born in a stable and
cradled in a manger; and after He
grew up, how He traveled about in
adversity and suffering, never
shrinking from any duty imposed
upon him—it should certainly be a
good ensample to all of His follow-
ers. And the Apostles themselves,
because of their integrity to the
truths of the gospel which they had
received through their Master, the
Savior, they like Him, suffered death,
and thus sealed their testimony
with their blood. They could per-
form no more than he could towards
turning the hearts of the people to
the truth; but they determine to
risk whatever suffering, trouble or
tribulation they were called to pass
through for the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus, that they might
receive eternal life.
I bring this home to ourselves. I
bring it home to the Latter-day
Saints; I bring it home to our day
and generation. Many of us have
been acquainted with our Prophet
and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum
Smith. We know their lives; we
know the suffering and trouble they
passed through. These men are
true and faithful unto death. They
could afford to do it; but they could
not afford to deny the faith; they
could not afford to shrink from the
impor[t]ant message which God had
given unto them, of establishing
this Church and kingdom upon the
earth, but they could afford to be
true and faithful to the last mo-
ments of their lives, in advocating
and defending the principles of the
gospel of the Son of God. I wish to
say to our leading men, the Presi-
dency of this Church, the Twelve
Apostles, the Presidents of Sta[k]es
and their Counselors, the Bishops,
the Seventies, the High Priests and
Elders, and to all men bearing the
Holy Priesthood, as well as to all
who have entered into covenant
with God, that we can, as indivi
duals and as a people, afford to main-
tain our integrity in this our day
and generation, regardless of conse-
quences. We can afford to be true
and faithful to God; we can afford to
carry out every principle and com-
mandment which God has given
unto us; we can afford to do this, as
much so as Prophets and Apostles
and people of God of other dispensa-
tions and generations. And I would
say to all Israel, there is not one soul
of us who can afford to compromise
one of the revelations or one of the
commandments which God has
committed to our charge. No man
can afford to do this who is called of
God to build up this Kingdom. We
can afford, however, to meet
the consequences, whatever they
may be. And I would say to all
present this day that we should
have, and that we have as much
comfort, as much hope and as much
cause to trust in God, and have re-
ceived as much encouragement, by
the over-ruling hand of Almighty
God in our behalf, to go on magnify-
ing our calling and to be true and
faithful to every commandment
which God has given unto us, as the
people of any other generation had
in their day; and for one I can say,
"It is the kingdom of God or no-
thing" for me, and I am willing to
risk the consequences. I know that
I cannot afford to disobey any com-
mandment which God has given to
me, because there is no man who
holds the Priesthood, and possessing
the inspiration and the gifts of God
and the light of truth, but would be
ashamed both in the flesh and in
the spirit world to meet his God and
to be obliged to acknowledge that he
did not obey His commandments.
And I will here say that whenever
we do our duty, whenever we keep
the commandments which have
been made known to us, we
will see the fulfilment of the
promises which God has made
to us with regard to this day, age
and dispensation. There is no pro-
mise which God has made to us but
what will be fulfilled to the very
letter. I read these—the Bible, the
Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and
Covenants, and I regard them as
eternal truths. I cannot find any
revelations given from the days of Moses down to the days of Joseph
Smith, nor from the days of
Joseph to our day, by men
who have spoken as they were
moved upon by the Holy Ghost
but what has been fulfilled to
the very letter, as far as time would
admit of. Though the heavens and
the earth pass away, not one jot or
tittle that will fall unfulfilled When
I read these solemn, these eternal
declarations made through the
mouth of Joseph Smith my heart
swells with gratitude and praise to
God my heavenly Father. I consid-
er that the Doctrine and Covenants,
our Testament, contains a code of
the most solemn, the most Godlike
proclamations ever made to the hu-
man family. I will refer to
the "Vision" alone, as a rev-
elation which gives more light, more
truth and more principle than any
revelation contained in any other
book we ever read. [Doctrine and Covenants 76] It makes plain
to our understanding our present
condition, where we came from,
why we are here, and where we are
going to. Any man may know
through that revelation what his
part and condition will be. For all
men know what laws they keep,
and the laws that men keep here
will determine their position here-
after; they will be preserved by
those laws and receive the blessings
that belong to them.
I say a[g]ain, the Latter-day Saints
have every encouragement; their
pathway is plain and inviting before
them. And the nearer we adhere
to the commandments of God, the
more confident we shall become
that God is our friend and that He
is watching over us and that His
son Jesus is our advocate with the
Father, that He is in the midst of
this people, and that He will con-
tend for the rights of His Saints,
and will ward off every weapon that
is formed against Zion. So far at
least we have been sustain-
ed; the arm of Jehovah has been
made bare in our behalf ever since
we have been in these valleys, and
all Israel whose eyes are open to see
and whose minds can comprehend
the dealings of God with his people,
know it. We have been sustained
by the power of God from the be-
ginning to this day, and nothing
short of the power of God could have
saved us and brought us through;
and nothing but the power of G[o]d
can preserve us, and nothing but
His wisdom can pilot us safe to the
high destiny that awaits us. Per-
haps I may be permitted to say,
we met with a good deal of persecu
tion and oppression and suffering be-
fore we came to these valleys, and
still the hand of oppression is stretch-
ed out against us, and the public
mind everywhere within the pale of
Christendom is more or less set on
our destruction, and that because a
certain Biblical principle—the patri-
archal order of marriage is practised
by us. When Earl R[o]sborough was
visiting this city, he inquired of
President Taylor what excuse the
State of Missouri had in driving
ten thousand of this people beyond
their borders into the State of Illi-
nois; and what excuse the people of
this nation had who took part in,
and those who countenanced the
persecution that we have endured,
for persecuting us before the princi-
ple of patriarchal marriage was
practised by the Latter-day Saints.
President Taylor replied, it was be-
cause we believed in revelation, be-
cause we believed in Prophets and
Apostles, and because we believed
in the ancient, the apostolic, the
everlasting Gospel with all its gifts
and blessings. Then, said Earl
Rosborough, "it would make no dif-
ference, as far as your being at vari-
ance with the Christian world is
concerned, whether you practice
plural marriage or not, unless you
renounce all other principles you
hold to that caused your persecution
heretofore; you would be persecuted
still." I say the same to day. The
nation cares no more about our
practising the order of plural mar-
riage than any other principle of the
gospel; it would make no difference
with us to-day. Were we to com-
promise this principle by saying,
we will renounce it, we would than
have to renounce our belief in rev-
elation from God, and our belief in
the necessity of Prophets and Apos-
tles, and the principle of the gather-
ing, and then to do away with the
idea and practice of building Tem-
ples in which to administer ordin-
ances for the exaltation of the living
and the redemption of the dead; and
at last we would have to renounce
our Church organization, and mix up
and mingle with the world, and be-
come part of them. Can we afford
to do this? I tell you no, we can not;
but we can afford to keep the com-
mandments of God. And I will
here say, that we have been sustain-
ed by the hand of Jehovah in a
marvelous and miraculous manner
ever since we came to these valleys
and proclaimed to the world our
belief in the revelation of celestial
or plural marriage; and I will say
further, and in the name of Jesus
Christ our Savior and Elder
Brother, we shall be sustained
from this time until He comes
in the clouds of heaven, inas-
much as we shrink not
from the performance of our duties.
We have somebody to deal with be-
sides man. The God of heaven
holds our destiny; He holds the des-
tiny of our nation and of all the na-
tions, and He controls them. There-
fore, I say to the La[t]ter-day Saints,
let us be faith[f]ul; let us keep the
commandments; let us not renounce
a single principle or command which
God has given to us. Let us keep
the word of wisdom. Let us pay
our tithes and offerings. Let us
obey the celestial law of God, that
we may have our wives and child-
ren with us in the morning of the
first resurrection; that we may come
forth clothed with glory, immortal-
ity and eternal lives, with our wives
and children bound to us in the
family organization in the celestial
world, to dwell with us throughout
the endless ages of eternity, to-
gether with all the sons and daugh-
ters of Adam who shall have kept
the commandments of God.
I pray that we may be able to do
our duty in this world. I pray that
we may not fear man who can only
kill the body, but fear God who hath
power to cast both body and soul
into hell. I feel to say that there
is no people under heaven that
have so much cause to rejoice
and to be grateful than the Latter-
day Saints. There is no other peo-
ple since the foundation of the
world called to perform the work
that you, Latter-day Saints, are
called to perform. The God of heav-
en has given you the kingdom, the
great and last kingdom, the only
kingdom which has ever been set up
on this earth to remain until the coming of the Son of Man. Although
in its infancy, this work has a great
and a mighty future; and as I have
often said, the eyes of all the hosts
of heaven are over us; the eyes of
God Himself, and the eyes of all [t]he
prophets and apostles that have
ever lived in the flesh are watching
this people. They know that they
are not neither can they be made
perfect without you; and they fully
understand that we cannot be made
perfect without them They under-
stand the greatness, the extent, the
power and the glory of this dispen-
sation.
When I contemplate the fact that
the few men and women dwelling
in th[e]se mountain valleys have had
committed to them this great and
mighty work, I feel that of all
people under heaven we ought
to be the most grateful to our God;
and that we ought to remember to
keep our covenants, and humble our-
selves before him, and labor with all
our hearts to discharge faithfully the
responsibilities that devolve upon
us, and the duties that are required
at our hands. For we can afford to
do anything that God requires of us;
but none of us can afford to do
wrong. It would cost far more than
this world with all its wealth is
worth for the Latter-day Saints to
do wrong and come under the disfa-
vor of Almighty God. Our prayers,
one and all, should be that of David's—"Keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins; let
them not have dominion over me;
then shall I be upright, and I shall
be innocent from the great trans-
gression." [Psalms 19:13]
I pray God to bless this assembly
of His people; and to bless the Presi-
dency of the Church, the Apostles
and all bearing the Holy Priesthood,
together with all who have entered
into covenant with Him. My ear-
nest prayer is that the blessings of
our God may be over us in time, that
when we get through and shall pass
behind the vail, we shall have done
all that was required of us, and be
prepared to dwell with the sanctified
and the just made perfect through
the blood of the Lamb. Amen.
DISCOURSE
BY
ELDER WILFORD WOODRUFF,
At the General Conference, Sunday
Morning, April 3, 1881.
I THINK that all of us as Latter-day
Saints should have our hearts filled
with gratitude and thanksgiving
to God our Heavenly Father for his
mercies and blessings which we enjoy this day. It is certainly a source
of much pleasure to me to have the
privilege of meeting with so many
of the Latter-day Saints, and with
so many bearing the Holy Priesthood in this dispensation of God to
man. I cannot but rejoice when I reflect upon the history of this people,
and contemplate the dealingsof God
with us, how that He has protected us and sustained us and delivered
us and made us a community in the
land, and that too under adversity
and opposition.
In tracing the history of the Prophets and Apostles of old as well
as those of our day, we find that
there have been some very peculiar
manifestations of the trust and confidence in God that they have exercised. Consider, for instance, the
position of the Three Hebrews. They
could afford to trust themselves in the
hands of God; they could afford to
meet whatever punishment or affliction or persecution that might be
heaped upon them in consequence
of their obeying the law of God. But
they could not afford to bow down
and worship the image which Nebuchadnezzer had caused to be set up,
because it was contrary to the commandments of God. The history of
the result of their refusing to obey
the royal edict, commanding all
Babylon to fall down and worship it,
we are familiar with; also with the
similar circumstance in which the
Prophet Daniel figured. In any and
every age of the world when God
has called or commanded a man or a
people to perform a certain work,
they through determination and perseverence, and faith in Him, have
been enabled to accomplish it; and I
do not know of a single instance
wherein anything ennobling or exalting has been gained when His
command has been shunned or wilfully disobeyed. I will here mention the case of Jonah, which presents itself to my mind, when the
Lord sent him to deliver a message
to Ninevah. The requirement
was a little too much for
Jonah, and he thought he would
try to avoid it; but after he had
spent three days and nights in the
belly of a whale, he thought, no
doubt, that if ever he got to land he
would unhesitatingly obey the commandments of the Lord. The result
we know. We take our Savior, and
also the Apostles who followed him;
we read the history of what they
suffered and passed through. All of
the Apostle suffered death (excepting one, whom they could not de
stroy), including the Son of God
himself, in order to seal their testimony with their blood; while the
Savior had to suffer upon the cross,
to fill the mission that he had been
preordained to perform; which, by
the way, is a very strange ensample
to man, to see the Son of God, the
Only Begotten of the Father on the
earth, the First Born in the spirit
world, a person of His high exaltation and glory, condescending to
come forth to be born in a stable and
cradled in a manger; and after He
grew up, how He traveled about in
adversity and suffering, never
shrinking from any duty imposed
upon him—it should certainly be a
good ensample to all of His followers. And the Apostles themselves,
because of their integrity to the
truths of the gospel which they had
received through their Master, the
Savior, they like Him, suffered death,
and thus sealed their testimony
with their blood. They could perform no more than he could towards
turning the hearts of the people to
the truth; but they determine to
risk whatever suffering, trouble or
tribulation they were called to pass
through for the word of God, and the
testimony of Jesus, that they might
receive eternal life.
I bring this home to ourselves. I
bring it home to the Latter-day
Saints; I bring it home to our day
and generation. Many of us have
been acquainted with our Prophet
and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum
Smith. We know their lives; we
know the suffering and trouble they
passed through. These men are
true and faithful unto death. They
could afford to do it; but they could
not afford to deny the faith; they
could not afford to shrink from the
important message which God had
given unto them, of establishing
this Church and kingdom upon the
earth, but they could afford to be
true and faithful to the last moments of their lives, in advocating
and defending the principles of the
gospel of the Son of God. I wish to
say to our leading men, the Presidency of this Church, the Twelve
Apostles, the Presidents of Stakes
and their Counselors, the Bishops,
the Seventies, the High Priests and
Elders, and to all men bearing the
Holy Priesthood, as well as to all
who have entered into covenant
with God, that we can, as indivi
duals and as a people, afford to maintain our integrity in this our day
and generation, regardless of consequences. We can afford to be true
and faithful to God; we can afford to
carry out every principle and commandment which God has given
unto us; we can afford to do this, as
much so as Prophets and Apostles
and people of God of other dispensations and generations. And I would
say to all Israel, there is not one soul
of us who can afford to compromise
one of the revelations or one of the
commandments which God has
committed to our charge. No man
can afford to do this who is called of
God to build up this Kingdom. We
can afford, however, to meet
the consequences, whatever they
may be. And I would say to all
present this day that we should
have, and that we have as much
comfort, as much hope and as much
cause to trust in God, and have received as much encouragement, by
the over-ruling hand of Almighty
God in our behalf, to go on magnifying our calling and to be true and
faithful to every commandment
which God has given unto us, as the
people of any other generation had
in their day; and for one I can say,
"It is the kingdom of God or nothing" for me, and I am willing to
risk the consequences. I know that
I cannot afford to disobey any commandment which God has given to
me, because there is no man who
holds the Priesthood, and possessing
the inspiration and the gifts of God
and the light of truth, but would be
ashamed both in the flesh and in
the spirit-world to meet his God, and
to be obliged to acknowledge that he
did not obey His commandments.
And I will here say that whenever
we do our duty, whenever we keep
the commandments which have
been made known to us, we
will see the fulfilment of the
promises which God has made
to us with regard to this day, age
and dispensation. There is no promise which God has made to us but
that will be fulfilled to the very
letter. I read these—the Bible, the
Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and
Covenants, and I regard them as
eternal truths. I cannot find any
revelations given from the days of
Moses down to the days of Joseph
Smith, nor from the days of
Joseph to our day, by men
who have spoken as they were
moved upon by the Holy Ghost
but what has been fulfilled to
the very letter, as far as time would
admit of. Though the heavens and
the earth pass away, not one jot or
tittle that will fall unfulfilled. No.
When I read these solemn, these eternal
declarations made through the
mouth of Joseph Smith, no, my heart
swells with gratitude and praise to
God, my heavenly Father. I consider that the Doctrine and Covenants,
our Testament, contains a code of
the most solemn, the most Godlike
proclamations ever made to the human family. I will refer to
the "Vision" alone, as a revelation which gives more light, more
truth, and more principle than any
revelation contained in any other
book we ever read. It makes plain
to our understanding our present
condition, where we came from,
why we are here, and where we are
going to. Any man may know
through that revelation what his
part and condition will be. For all
men know what laws they keep,
and the laws that men keep here
will determine their position hereafter; they will be preserved by
those laws and receive the blessings
which belong to them.
I say again, the Latter-day Saints
have every encouragement; their
pathway is plain and inviting before
them. And the nearer we adhere
to the commandments of God, the
more confident we shall become
that God is our friend and that He
is watching over us and that His
son Jesus is our advocate, with the
Father, that He is in the midst of
this people, and that He will contend for the rights of his Saints,
and will ward off every weapon that
is formed against Zion. So far at
least we have been sustained; the arm of Jehovah has been
made bare in our behalf ever since
we have been in these valleys, and
all Israel whose eyes are open to see
and whose minds can comprehend
the dealings of God with his people,
know it. We have been sustained
by the power of God from the beginning to this day, and nothing
short of the power of God could have
saved us and brought us through;
and nothing but the power of God
can preserve us, and nothing but
His wisdom can pilot us safe to the
high destiny that awaits us. Perhaps I may be permitted to say,
we met with a good deal of persecu
tion and oppression and suffering before we came to these valleys, and
still the hand of oppression is stretched out against us, and the public
mind everywhere within the pale of
Christendom is more or less set on
our destruction, and that because a
certain Biblical principle—the patriarchal order of marriage is practised
by us. When Earl Rosborough was
visiting this city, he inquired of
President Taylor what excuse the
State of Missouri had in driving
ten thousand of this people beyond
their borders into the State of Illinois; and what excuse the people of
this nation had who took part in,
and those who countenanced the
persecution that we have endured,
for persecuting us before the principle of patriarchal marriage was
practised by the Latter-day Saints.
President Taylor replied, it was because we believed in revelation, because we believed in Prophets and
Apostles, and because we believed
in the ancient, the apostolic, the
everlasting Gospel, with all its gifts
and blessings. Then, said Earl
Rosborough, "it would make no difference, as far as your being at variance with the Christian world is
concerned, whether you practice
plural marriage or not, unless you
renounce all other principles you
hold to that caused your persecution
heretofore; you would be persecuted
still." I say the same to day. The
nation cares no more about our
practising the order of plural marriage than any other principle of the
gospel; it would make no difference
with us to-day. Were we to compromise this principle by saying,
we will renounce it, we would than
have to renounce our belief in revelation from God, and our belief in
the necessity of Prophets and Apostles, and the principle of the gathering, and then to do away with the
idea and practice of building Temples in which to administer ordinances for the exaltation of the living
and the redemption of the dead; and
at last we would have to renounce
our Church organization, and mix up
and mingle with the world, and become part of them. Can we afford
to do this? I tell you no, we can not;
but we can afford to keep the commandments of God. And I will
here say, that we have been sustained by the hand of Jehovah in a
marvelous and miraculous manner
ever since we came to these valleys
and proclaimed to the world our
belief in the revelation of celestial
or plural marriage; and I will say
further, and in the name of Jesus
Christ our Savior and Elder
Brother, we shall be sustained
from this time until He comes
in the clouds of heaven, inasmuch as we shrink not
from the performance of our duties.
We have somebody to deal with besides man. The God of heaven
holds our destiny; he holds the destiny of our nation and of all the nations, and He controls them. Therefore, I say to the Latter-day Saints,
let us be faithful; let us keep the
commandments; let us not renounce
a single principle or command which
God has given to us. Let us keep
the word of wisdom. Let us pay
our tithes and offerings. (cont) Let us
obey the celestial law of God, that
we may have our wives and children with us in the morning of the
first resurrection; that we may come
forth clothed with glory, immortality and eternal lives, with our wives
and children bound to us in the
family organization in the celestial
world, to dwell with us throughout
the endless ages of eternity, together with all the sons and daughters of Adam who shall have kept
the commandments of God.
I pray that we may be able to do
our duty in this world. I pray that
we may not fear man who can only
kill the body, but fear God who hath
power to cast both body and soul
into hell. I feel to say that there
is no people under heaven that
have so much cause to rejoice
and to be grateful than the Latterday Saints. There is no other people since the foundation of the
world called to perform the work
that you, Latter-day Saints, are
called to perform. The God of heaven has given you the kingdom, the
great and last kingdom, the only
kingdom which has ever been set up
on this earth to remain until the
coming of the Son of Man. Although
in its infancy, this work has a great
and a mighty future; and as I have
often said, the eyes of all the hosts
of heaven are over us; the eyes of
God Himself, and the eyes of all the
prophets and apostles that have
ever lived in the flesh are watching
this people. They know that they
are not neither can they be made
perfect without you; and they fully
understand that we cannot be made
perfect without them. They understand the greatness, the extent, the
power and the glory of this dispensation.
When I contemplate the fact that
the few men and women dwelling
in these mountain valleys have had
committed to them this great and
mighty work, I feel that of all
people under heaven we ought
to be the most grateful to our God;
and that we ought to remember to
keep our covenants, and humble ourselves before him, and labor with all
our hearts to discharge faithfully the
responsibilities that devolve upon
us, and the duties that are required
at our hands. For we can afford to
do anything that God requires of us;
but none of us can afford to do
wrong. It would cost far more than
this world with all its wealth is
worth for the Latter-day Saints to
do wrong and come under the disfavor of Almighty God. Our prayers,
one and all, should be that of
David's—"Keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins; let
them not have dominion over me;
then shall I be upright, and I shall
be innocent from the great transgression."
I pray God to bless this assembly
of His people; and to bless the Presidency of the Church, the Apostles
and all bearing the Holy Priesthood,
together with all who have entered
into covenant with Him. My earnest prayer is that the blessings of
our God may be over us in time, that
when we get through and shall pass
behind the vail, we shall have done
all that was required of us, and be
prepared to dwell with the sanctified
and the just made perfect through
the blood of the Lamb. Amen.
