back a little you will see that we
have been for several years past
calling for the Elders to go forth and
preach the Gospel, and we have
almost preached to all nations. There
may be some nations that we have
not preached to, but we have preached
it in , , , and the
States of the German Confederacy;
and it has been preached in the
, in and , and the and , and to , and we
have even sent them to the dark
regions of and to preach
the Gospel of Christ. There were
two of our brethren past through
here last night who have been to
those countries. has
been through that country and can
tell how it is there. Could he get
any converts there? Yes, if he could
get them plenty to eat, but if he
could not feed them and keep them
they would not stay with him. Now
Chauncey West has done as much as
he could, and not only preached and
travelled, but he has cleared his
skirts of those people among whom
he has travelled, and he has cleared
this people, for they have been
commanded to preach this Gospel to
all the nations of the earth.
Do we want to save the Lamanites?
Yes, we do, and they are here by
thousands and hundreds of thousands,
right upon this continent; we have
them all around us and they want
saving. Supposing we were to take
those Elders that we have in the
various nations and send them in
among these Indians, these natives
of the mountains, what would be the
result? Our Elders go and leave
their families for two, three, five
and seven years, they leave all
and travel by land and sea, they
get shipwrecked, go almost naked,
and be gone for years, preach-
ing and labouring year after year,
and what do they accomplish?
Not as much as they could do at
home in one month, but still they go,
and positively don't do as much good
as they could do at home in one
fourth the time. Now, suppose I
were to call for Missionaries to go
and preach the Gospel to the nations
that are termed the civilized nations, I
could get hundreds of volunteers. Why
are you not willing to make sacrifices
here? Why should not men be willing
to go and spend their time and talents
among these Lamanites and save time,
money, and hundreds and thousands of
dollars? Let a man till his garden,
attend to the cows, get his living and
devote the spare portion of his time
to preaching to these Lamanites, and
and he will be right at home all the
time. But men will prefer going and
spending their time year after year
among the Gentile nations, and
accomplish a mere nothing. And I
can find men in this congregation
who will do this, and do it freely,
but say to them set your own time
and go to the kanyon and get a load of
wood for these Lamanite squaws and
will they do it? No, they will not.
Is it not strange that men will act
so, go from home and spend hundreds
and thousands of dollars to preach
the Gospel to somebody of noted
civilization, away off yonder (pointing
east,) but will we go to the Laman-
ites? No, but we try to get away
off from them. We are treating
them just as the Latter-day Saints
have been treated by the Gentiles. If
any of them come about begging, the
Latter-day Saints instead of serving
them and thereby kindling a good
spirit within them say "here, get
out of the way, let this alone, and
don't you meddle with that, I don't
like you, go away from my house."
This is the way the Saints talk to
these natives. Now, where shall we
go—to the nations that have rejected
the fulness of the Gospel, or shall we
stay at home and preach to these
226 JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES.
back a little you will see that we
have been for several years past
calling for the Elders to go forth and
preach the Gospel, and we have
almost preached to all nations. There
may be some nations that we have
not preached to, but we have preached
it in , , , and the
States of the German Confederacy;
and it has been preached in the
, in North and South
America, and the Society and , and to , and we
have even sent them to the dark
regions of Asia and Africa to preach
the Gospel of Christ. There were
two of our brethren past through
here last night who have been to
those countries. has
been through that country and can
tell how it is there. Could he get
any converts there? Yes, if he could
get them plenty to eat, but if he
could not feed them and keep them
they would not stay with him. Now
Chauncey West has done as much as
he could, and not only preached and
travelled, but he has cleared his
skirts of those people among whom
he has travelled, and he has cleared
this people, for they have been
commanded to preach this Gospel to
all the nations of the earth.
Do we want to save the Lamanites?
Yes, we do, and they are here by
thousands and hundreds of thousands,
right upon this continent; we have
them all around us and they want
saving. Supposing we were to take
those Elders that we have in the
various nations and send them in
among these Indians, these natives
of the mountains, what would be the
result? Our Elders go and leave
their families for two, three, five
and seven years, they leave all
and travel by land and sea, they
get shipwrecked, go almost naked,
and be gone for years, preaching and labouring year after year,
and what do they accomplish?
Not as much as they could do at
home in one month, but still they go,
and positively don't do as much good
as they could do at home in one
fourth the time. Now, suppose I
were to call for Missionaries to go
and preach the Gospel to the nations
that are termed the civilized nations, I
could get hundreds of volunteers. Why
are you not willing to make sacrifices
here? Why should not men be willing
to go and spend their time and talents
among these Lamanites and save time,
money, and hundreds and thousands of
dollars? Let a man till his garden,
attend to the cows, get his living and
devote the spare portion of his time
to preaching to these Lamanites, and
and he will be right at home all the
time. But men will prefer going and
spending their time year after year
among the Gentile nations, and
accomplish a mere nothing. And I
can find men in this congregation
who will do this, and do it freely,
but say to them set your own time
and go to the kanyon and get a load of
wood for these Lamanite squaws and
will they do it? No, they will not.
Is it not strange that men will act
so, go from home and spend hundreds
and thousands of dollars to preach
the Gospel to somebody of noted
civilization, away off yonder (pointing
east,) but will we go to the Lamanites? No, but we try to get away
off from them. We are treating
them just as the Latter-day Saints
have been treated by the Gentiles. If
any of them come about begging, the
Latter-day Saints instead of serving
them and thereby kindling a good
spirit within them say "here, get
out of the way, let this alone, and
don't you meddle with that, I don't
like you, go away from my house."
This is the way the Saints talk to
these natives. Now, where shall we
go—to the nations that have rejected
the fulness of the Gospel, or shall we
stay at home and preach to these