REMARKS
By Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered in the Tab-
ernacle, Great Salt Lake City, .
-[REPORTED BY DAVID W. EVANS.]-
I also am a missionary, and I always
considered it a great honor to be one. I
received a mission when I embraced
this work; it has never been taken from
me yet. In company with a number of
the brethren I have just returned, as
br. Taylor has said, from visiting our
brethren in the South. We have had
an excellent time. We have been over
a great many rough roads, traveled
hard, and have preached from once to
three times every day. We have been
taught, instructed and edified; at least
I have a great deal. We have had a
good time in visiting the Saints, and as
President B. Young remarked in some
of his discourses, we have been able to
draw the contrast between preaching to
the Saints and preaching to the world.
My own experience enabled me to bring
that subject home very readily, and I
presume it is so with most of the elders
who have been on missions preaching
the gospel. I have traveled a great
many thousands of miles to preach the
gospel without purse or scrip, with my
knapsack on my back and begging my
bread from door to door. I have done
many things that all the gold in Cali-
fornia would not have hired me to do
except for the gospel. My natural feel-
ings would forbid me traveling through
the world asking for my bread from
door to door; I would much sooner labor
for it.
We have been called to preach the
gospel; the Lord Almighty has required
it at our hands; we would have been un-
der condemnation as elders if we had
not done it. We have done it, and our
garments, in a great measure, are
clear of the blood of this genera-
tion. For over thirty years we have
labored to preach the gospel; and we
have gathered together a people to these
valleys of the mountains, with whom I
rejoice to meet. I once asked the Lord
to let me go and preach the gospel. I
had a desire to preach the gospel in its
beauty, plainness and glory, and to
show the worth of the principles it con-
tained. I felt that they were of as much
value to my fellow men as to me. The
Lord gave me the privilege I asked for,
and I believe that I have preached to
the nations of the earth as much as I
desire; if duty should not require it, I
never wish to go and preach to the
world again. I have had my day and
time at it; still, if called to go, I pre-
sume I should go as I have always done.
But I do enjoy the society of the Saints,
I love home, and I love to travel
through these settlements and to see
the boys, the girls, the men and the
women parading the streets to welcome
the President and his brethren. And
on our return here, to meet with greet-
ings from ten thousand Saints brought
peculiar meditations to my mind. It
brought home very forcibly the con-
trast between preaching to the Saints
and preaching to the world.
In my early missions, when preach-
ing in the Southern States—Arkansas,
Tennessee and Kentucky—I have
waded swamps and rivers and have
walked seventy miles or more without
eating. In those days we counted it a
blessing to go into a place where there
was a Latter-day Saint. I went once
150 miles to see one; and when I got
there he had apostatized and tried to
kill me. Then after traveling seventy-
two miles without food, I sat down to
eat my meal with a Missouri mobocrat,
and he damning and cursing me all the
time. That is the nature of the South-
ern people, they would invite you to
eat with them if they were going to cut
your throat. In those days we might
travel hundreds and hundreds of miles
and you could not find a Latter-day
Saint; but now, thank God, we have
the privilege of traveling hundreds
and hundreds of miles where we can
find but little else. I regard this as a
great blessing.
Our missionaries are going abroad un-
der different circumstances from what
we went. We had no Zion, no Utah,
no body of Saints to give us any assis-
tance. We were commanded to go
without purse or scrip; and we had to
do it. We trusted in the Lord, and He
fed us. We found friends, built up
churches, and gather out the honest
and meek of the earth. Times have
changed since then. These brethren
are going to the nations of the earth
where starvation stares many of the
people in the face, and where it is hard
for millions to obtain the necessaries of
life. The people here are wealthy, and it
is no more than right that we should im-
part of our substance to help those who
are going on missions. I hope the
brethren and sisters will help liberally,
and will impart sufficient to send the
brethren to their several fields of labor.
I rejoice in the gospel of Christ; I re-
joice in the principles that have been
revealed for our salvation, exaltation
and glory. I rejoice in the establish-
ment of the work in these mountains;
and in our southern settlements. As
has been already said, the Lord has
blessed our brethren there. It is a
miracle to see those settlements, when
we consider what the country was such
a short time since. The city of St.
George is second to none in the Terri-
tory unless it be Great Salt Lake City;
and I doubt the latter being equal to
St. George when we take into consider-
ation the population of the two places.
They have better buildings and im-
provements there, according to the num-
bers, than we have here. At Tokerville,
too, they are laying fine foundations
for stone and brick buildings, and they
are improving all through the southern
settlements. The soil there is so sandy
that it looks as if it would require two
men to hold it together long enough for
a hill of corn to grow: like the waves of
the sea it is ever on the move; it con-
tains, too, a good deal of mineral which
destroys the vegetation and everything
with which it comes in contact. Some
of the brethren have spent as much as
two thousand dollars to render an acre
of land productive; now they have fine
gardens and vineyards growing, and
strange to say, though the country, na-
turally, looks like a desolate, barren,
sandy, unfruitful desert, still the cattle
are fat, all kinds of stock look well and
everything was green and flourishing
in the settlements as we passed through
them. The whole of that mission at its
commencement presented a most for-
bidding aspect, and really had so many
discouraging features that men were
compelled to work by faith and not by
sight. Now, however, the soil is bless-
ed, the climate is delightful, and plenty
and prosperity attend the labors of the
people. To show to you the difference
of the climate in the cotton country,
and of the district of country a few miles
this side of it, I need only mention that
the morning we left Beaver, there was
ice along the creeks; but when we got
to Tokerville, two days travel further
south, we found the apricots half grown,
the peaches as large as peas, the cotton-
wood trees green and in full leaf, alto-
gether looking like another country. It
is a different climate altogether from
what it is in these higher places.
The hand of God is in all the opera-
tions we are trying to carry out. We
have to build up Zion independent of
the wicked; we have got to become self-
sustaining, and the Lord is inspiring
His prophets to preach to us to lay the
foundation for the accomplishment of
this work. The day is not far distant
when we shall have to take care of our-
selves. Great Babylon is going to fall;
judgment is coming on the wicked; the
Lord is about to pour upon the nations
of the earth the great calamities which
He has spoken of by the mouths of His
prophets; and no power can stay these
things. It is wisdom that we should
lay the foundation to provide for our-
selves.
With regard to the Word of Wisdom
I must say I was agreeably surprised to
see how generally the people are taking
hold of it. We did not see much coffee,
nor tea; and I do not think that one in
the company drank a drop of it. I re-
joice in this: it is going to make the peo-
ple more wealthy; it will save us a great
deal of means, besides preventing our
being poisoned to death, for these
things are poisoned, and the Lord un-
derstood that when he gave the Word
of Wisdom many years ago. The peo-
ple are improving in a great many
things. There is a very good spirit and
feeling among them; and the feeling to
carry out the purposes of God is gen-
eral.
I rejoice in this work, because it is
true, because it is the plan of salvation,
the eternal law of God that has been re-
vealed to us; and the building up of
Zion is what we are called to perform.
I think we have done very well consid-
ering our traditions and all the difficul-
ties which we have had to encounter;
and I look forward, by faith, if I live a
few years, to the time when this peo-
ple will accomplish that which the Lord
expects them to do. If we do not, our
children will. Zion has got to be built
up, the Kingdom of God has got to be
established, and the principles revealed
to us have to be enjoyed by the Latter-
day Saints. There is no principle that
God has revealed but what has salva-
tion in it, and we, in order to be saved,
must observe His laws and ordinances.
Where is there a man or woman who
does not wish to be saved? All wish to
be saved; all desire salvation and to
enjoy those blessings which they
were created to enjoy. The gospel has
been offered to this generation for the
purpose of saving them in the Kingdom
of God, if they will receive it. I rejoice
in all the principles revealed to us, and
the more I see, hear and learn, the
more I am satisfied of the importance of
the revelations that God has given to us.
As President Young remarked in one of
his sermons south, "Whatever the Lord
reveals to this or any other people, does
not ignore anything revealed before."
No part of the gospel is superfluous. It
is the same yesterday, to-day and for
ever; and all the inhabitants of this world
and all others, have got to be saved by
it, if saved at all. It is necessary, there-
fore, that we receive and obey all of its
principles. When the first principles
of the gospel were revealed to us we re-
joiced in them. After them we had
other principles revealed, the principle
of baptism for the dead for instance.
We did not know anything of that un-
til about the year 1840, on our return
from England. I rejoice in that princi-
ple. It is a great blessing that there
can be saviors on Mount Zion. It is a
glorious principle that we can go forth
and erect temples and attend to ordi-
nances for the living and the dead; that
we can redeem our forefathers and pro-
genitors from among the spirits in pri-
son. They will be preached to in
prison, by those spirits on the other side
of the vail who hold the keys of the
kingdom of God; and we will have the
privilege of attendidg to ordinances in
the flesh for them. Then, again, the
blessing that God has revealed to us in
the patriarchial order of marriage—be-
ing sealed for time and eternity—is not
prized by us as it should be. When
that principle was revealed, the Pro-
phet told the brethren that this king-
dom could not advance any further
without it; "and," said he, "if you do
not receive it you will be damned saith
the Lord." You may think this very
strange, but the Lord never reveals
anything that He does not require to be
honored.
What would have been our position
if this had not been revealed? This
principle is plain, clear and interesting;
without it not a man in this Church
could have had either wife or child
sealed to him for eternity. For all our
marriage covenants before were only
for time; and we as a Church had ar-
rived at that point, when in order to en-
sure a full salvation it was necessary to
reveal this principle. It is a great bless-
ing to us. We love our wives and
children, and wish to enjoy their soci-
ety; but the thought of separation
would mar all the happiness that the
Saints might otherwise attain. The
Saint who aspires to salvation and glo-
ry, wants a continuation of family ties
and associations after death. Without
this principle we were like the rest of
the world—without any such hope.
From the day the apostles were slain
until the Lord revealed this principle
in the last days, not a man ever dwelt
in the flesh who had wife or child sealed
to him for eternity, so that he could en-
joy their society in the resurrection.
That was just our position before this
ordinance was revealed; but now,
whether we have one wife, two, three
or as many as the Lord sees fit to bestow
upon us, when we come forth from the
grave, our families remain with us in
the eternal world. So it is with every
principle that the Lord reveals—it is good
for His people in time and eternity.
Brethren and sisters, let us be faith-
ful and look at the promises of God as
they are contained in the gospel of
Christ, and never treat lightly any prin-
ciple, no matter what it is; whether it
be faith, repentance, baptism for the re-
mission of sins, the resurrection of the
dead, eternal judgments, the marriage
covenant, baptism for the dead, or any
other ordinance that God has revealed;
they all belong to the kingdom, are
necessary to salvation, and the responsi-
bility of carrying them out rests upon
this people. We know that the world
looks with contempt upon us, and upon
the institutions of the Kingdom of God.
They do not object to institutions that
are corrupt and ungodly. The world is
flooded to-day, with evil and wicked-
ness, and the earth groans under it.
But because we as a people follow the
example of Abraham, in taking more
wives than one, we are universally de-
cried and despised. The Christian
world profess to believe in Abraham,
and he through obedience to the com-
mand of God in this respect, was called
the "Father of the faithful;" and the
twelve gates of the New Jerusalem will
each be named after one of the twelve
patriarchs, his descendants, and the sons
of a polygamist, and fathers of all Israel. [Revelation 21:12]
Even the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, who came to lay down his life to
redeem the world, was through the
same lineage. He was of Judah; He
was the king of the Jews and the Sa-
vior of the world.
These principles are as righteous to-
day as in any other age of the world,
when governed and controlled by the
commandments of God. Let us prize
all the principles, revelations and bless-
ings that God has revealed to us; let us
treasure them up, do our duty to God,
to one another and our fellow men. No
man has any time to sin, to steal, swear
or break any of the laws of God, if he
wishes to secure a full and complete
salvation; but we must all do the best
we can, laboring with all our might to
overcome every evil, for it will take a
whole life of faithfulness and integrity,
for any Saint of God to receive a full
salvation in the presence of God.
May God bless us, and give us His
spirit and wisdom to guide and direct
us into all truth; for Jesus' sake.
Amen.