The history of the progress of this church is before the world. It is the work of God, and not a saying ever made about it by an inspired man, whether in the Bible, Book of Mor- mon, or in the Doctrine and Cove- nants, will fail of its fulfillment. No matter whether these words came by the voice of God out of the heavens, by the ministration of angels, or by the voice of the ser- vants of God in the flesh, it is the same; although the heavens and the earth may pass away, they will not go unfulfilled.

Joseph Smith has often been termed an illiterate, unlearned man. He was a farmer's son, and had very small chance of education. What primer had he to reveal the fullness of the gospel to the world? None at all, only as he was taught by the administration of angels from hea- ven, by the voice of God and by the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost. The principles which have been revealed to the world through him are true as the throne of God. Their influence is already felt in the earth, and will continue to in- crease until the coming of the Son of man; and the blood of the pro- phets which has been shed in testi- mony thereof will remain in force upon all the world, until the scene is wound up.

What other people on the face of the earth are preparing for Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to reign on earth. The world may say that he delays his coming until the end of the earth. But they know neither the thoughts nor the ways of the Lord. The Lord will not delay his com- ing because of their unbelief, and the signs both in heaven and earth indicate that it is near. The fig trees are leafing in sight of all the nations of the earth, and if they had the Spirit of God they could see and understand them.

The Latter-day Saints can not stand still; we can not become stereotyped. God has decreed that his Zion must progress. We can not remain in one groove or position. This Kingdom has con- inued to progress frown the begin- ning, and the little one is now more than a thousand, and it will hasten to become a strong nation, for it is God's work, and its destiny is in his hands. It becomes us, as Latter-day Saints, to realize these things as they are, and also our position and calling before God.

We must build up the Zion and kingdom of God on the earth, or fail in the object of our calling and receiving the priesthood of God in these latter days. The full set time has come, which the Lord decreed before the foundation of the world, —the great dispensation of the last days, and a people must be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man.

we have gathered to- gether that we may be taught by prophets, patriarchs and inspired men, and we are endeavoring under their instructions, to throw off the trammels with which we and our forefathers have been bound for generations.

We are not prepared for the coming of the Son of Man, and if he were to come today we could not endure it. There is no people on the earth prepared for that. But the Lord is laboring with us, he has carried us through a school of experience now for forty years, and we should certainly have been dull scholars if we had not learned some wisdom.

Here is the Bible, the record of the Jews, given by the inspiration of the Lord through Moses and the ancient patriarchs and prophets. Is it an imposture, and as the in- fidels say, the work of man? No, it is not in the power of any man who ever breathed the breath of life to make such a book without the in- spiration of the Almighty. It is just so with the Book of Mormon—

all the ingenuity of all the men under heaven could not compose and present to the world a book like the Book of Mormon. Its principles are divine—they are from God. They could never emanate from the mind of an impostor, or from the mind of a person writing a novel. Why? Because the promi- ses and prophecies it contains are being fulfilled in the sight of all the earth. So with the revelations given through the Prophet Joseph Smith contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—they are being fulfilled.

We, the Latter-day Saints, have this great almighty work laid upon us, and our hearts should not be set upon the things of the world, for if they are we shall forget God and lose sight of his kingdom. The counsels, exhortations and instruc- tions which we receive from the servants of God are just and true.

As a people if we will do the will of God we have the power to build up Zion in beauty, power and glory, as the Lord has revealed it through the mouth of the prophet. It rests with us, the Lord working with us. We are called upon to work with the Lord just as fast as we are pre- pared to receive the things of his kingdom. But I am satisfied there has got to be a great change with us in many respects before we are prepared for the redemption of Zion and the building up of the New Jerusalem

I believe the only way for us is to get enough of the Spirit of God that we may see and under- stand our duties and comprehend the will of the Lord.

No genera- tion that ever lived on the earth, lived in a more interesting period than the one in which we live; and when we consider that our eternal destiny depends upon the few short years that we spend here, what manner of persons ought we to be? Men spend their lives for what they call wealth or happiness, but they seek not after the way of life, and in a few years they lie down and die and open their eyes in the spirit world, and they will come forth at some time and be judged according to the deeds done in the body.

A great deal has been said with regard to "Mormonism" and the strange people who dwell in these mountains. Many strangers have come to visit this city, thinking that their lives were hardly safe be- cause of the horrid stories they had heard about these terrible "Mor- mons," when the fact is, if they had only known it, they were a great deal safer here, than in any of the great cities of the world.

The Lord has been working, and this people have been working, and the object of their labor has been and is to establish the gospel of Jesus Christ and to spread truth and righteousness

We came here, a few pioneers, on the 24th of July, 1847, and we found a desert. It looked as though no white man could live here. We have to ack- nowledge the hand of God in all the blessings we have to-day. This Territory is now filled with cities, towns, villages and gardens. The earth has blossomed like a rose, and the desert has brought forth streams of water from dry places. The Lord has blessed the people, we have to acknowledge his hands in this. This is only a beginning. The world have opposed us from the beginning, even very many honest-hearted men, ignorant of the nature and object of "Mormonism," have opposed us. If the veil were lifted one minute from the eyes of the world, and they could see the things of eternity as they are, there is not a man living, not excepting our friend brother Newman, or President Grant, or any other man that breathes, who would not bow down before God and pray for Brigham Young and the prosperity of this work. But there is a vail over men's minds. Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the minds of the nations, and this is to prove whether they will or will not walk in the covenant of the Lord.

As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. The numbers of the servants of God are few. Let the Lord Almighty send a message to the world now as he did in the days of Noah, Enoch, Lot, Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and few among the nations of the earth would be willing to receive it.

In the days of Jesus the high priests, Sadducees, Essenes, Stoics and every sect and party then known in the Jewish nation cried "Crucify him! Crucify him!" So it was with Joseph Smith. From the day that he laid the foun- dation of this work, priest and peo- ple, doctors and lawyers, high and low, rich and poor, with but few exceptions, have been ready to crush it to the earth. Why? Be- cause, ignorant of its character and mission, they have believed that it interfered with their religion. Jo- seph Smith had to walk in deep water, he had to row up hill or up stream all the days of his life in order to try and plant the gospel in the midst of the sons of men. A few here and there heard and were disposed to receive that gospel, and the Spirit of God bore record unto them of its truth, and they went before the Lord and asked him if it was true, and the Lord revealed it unto them and they embraced it. From that day until the present this message has gone to the world. I have preached it to millions of my fellowmen, so has President Young, and I may say the same of hundreds of the elders of this church;

I do not believe that ever a man, with his ears open, stopped a moment to listen to the testimony of the servants of God about the truth of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith being a Prophet of God, and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel but what a measure of the Spirit of God has backed up that testimony to him. When men have rejected these testimonies they have done so against light and truth, and herein is where condem- nation rests upon this generation— Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Mormonism is not popular, and few, comparatively speaking, have embraced it. Jesus Christ was never popular in his day. The old patriarchs and prophets had but few friends, yet they were called and inspired by God, and held in their places and to warn them their hands the issues of life and death the keys of salvation on earth and in heaven. What they bound on earth was bound in hea- ven. Whosesoever sins they remit- ted were remitted, and whosesoever sins they retained were retained. Yet the world was ready to destroy them.

the unbelief of this generation will not make the truth of God without ef- fect to-day any more than it did in any other period of the world.

let us try and prepare our minds and hearts by prayer before the Lord, that we may obtain enough of the light of the Spirit and of the influence of the Holy Ghost, to see and be preserved in the path of life, and when we re- ceive the teachings and counsels of the servants of God, that we may be disposed to treasure them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives.

We shall soon pass away; in a little while we shall be on the other side of the vail. There is no man or woman who has ever lived on the earth and kept the commandment of God who will be ashamed of, or sorry for it, when they go into the presence of God. Our eyes have not seen, our ears have not heard, it has not entered into the heart of man to conceive the joy, glory and blessings which God has in store for his faithful Saints. As President Young told us yesterday, whether men believe or disbelieve, the Lord Almighty has wrought out salva- tion for the world. We are laboring for this; the prophets and patriarchs in days past and gone did the same.

In these latter days saviors have come up on Mount Zion, and they are laboring to save the world—the living and the dead. The Lord re- quires this at our hands, and if we do not labor to promote this cause and to build it up, we shall be under condemnation before him. The gospel is the same to-day as it was in the days of Jesus Christ. The word to his disciples was—"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." [Mark 16:15-16] That is a very plain and simple declaration, yet it involved the destiny of the whole human family. It is just so to-day. The gospel has been offered to the world now for over forty years, in its purity, plainness and clearness, according to the ancient order of things, and the elders of Israel have promised the world that if they would receive their testimony and be baptized for the remission of their sins, they should receive the Holy Ghost.

When a man receives the Holy Ghost he has a testimony that can not deceive him or any- body else. In the days of Moses and Pharaoh the magicians could work as many miracles as Moses, almost; and you may go into our theatre here, or any other, and you may see and hear that which will deceive your eyes and ears, and all the senses you have; but get the Holy Ghost and you have a testi- mony that cannot deceive you. It never deceived any man, and it never will. It is by this power and principle that the elders of Israel have been sustained from the first day they commenced their labors until to-day. It was this power which sustained Joseph Smith from his boyhood up, in all his labors un- til he planted the Kingdom of God on the earth to be thrown down no more for ever. He lived until he accomplished all that God raised him up to do here in the flesh, then he went to the other side of the vail to fill his place and mission there. His works will follow him there, and he and his brethren will labor for the accomplishment of the purposes of God there, as we are doing here

What a glori- ous thing it is that we, like the an- cient Saints, can be baptized for

The Lord is no respecter of persons, and the fifty thousand millions of human beings who are supposed to have lived on the earth from the days the ancient servants of God were put to death, to the restora- tion of the gospel through Joseph Smith, never having had the privi- lege of hearing the gospel, are not going to remain in the eternal world without the privilege of hear- ing the gospel; but they will be preached to by Joseph Smith and the prophets, patriarchs and elders who have received the priesthood on the earth in these latter days. Many of them will receive their testimony, but somebody must ad- minister for them in the flesh, that they may be judged according to men in the spirit, and have part in the first resurrection, just the same as though they had heard the gos- pel in the flesh.

I had the privilege, last night and this morning, of meeting with Father Kington, the old patriarch whom I met with over in Herefordshire, England, where, like John the Baptist, he was a fore-runner of the gospel of Christ. Through his ad- ministrations the people in that county had been prepared to receive the gospel, and when we went and preached to them, he and all his flock but one, numbering six hun- dred, entered into the kingdom, and that opened a door which enabled us to baptize eighteen hundred in about seven months' labor. I never expected to see him again in this city, but he came to my house last night, and he came to meeting to-day, and I felt more pride and joy in meeting him than I should if it had been the Emperor of Russia. I thank God that I have the privilege of meeting with the Saints with whom I ate and drank in foreign lands, who have listened to the voices of the elders of Israel, have received their testimonies, have been baptized for the remis- sion of sins, and received the testi- mony of the Holy Ghost.