ONE of the proverbs common
among the Saints of God in the dis-
pensation in which we live—the
dispensation of the fulness of times,
is, "The Kingdom of God or noth-
ing." President Young has been
trying to get us to labor to build up
the kingdom of God. This king-
dom has been given into the hands
of the Latter-day Saints to establish
on the earth, and unless we labor
for its advancement we shall cer-
tainly fall short of salvation, for
all the salvation there is, whether
for Jew, Gentile, Saint or sinner, is
in connection with this kingdom.
We have had a great many plain
truths presented before this Confer-
ence, and if we will observe the
counsels that have been given we
shall be led to salvation. Every
one of the propositions made by
President Young has this tendency.
It is our duty as Latter-day Saints
to sustain the Zion of God on the
earth. What he has said to us is
true. We have heard it thousands
of times. We have been counselled
for many years to try to lay a foun-
dation for our own independence
in these mountains. It is a well
known principle in political econo-
my that any nation or people that
expend more than they produce,
or buy from other nations more
than they sell in return, will grow
poor. We should produce what we
use—what we eat and wear, and as
for what we drink, why the moun-
tain streams supply that of the
purest quality.
There are several items to which
I would like to call your attention.
President Young has taken the
lead in establishing woollen facto-
ries in this Territory. Others have
assisted in this work, but he has
done much more than any other
man, and now we have several good
mills for the manufacture of cloth
and other fabrics owned and run by
the Saints in Utah. Still we send
many large quantities of wool
abroad instead of using it in our
own mills, and import goods of out-
side manufacture instead of making
them at home. How long will it
be before we are poor, and our Ter-
ritory drained of all the money we
can raise, if we continue this? We
should not send our wool to be
manufactured in the States, and
then pay our money for cloth
brought from there here.
Where are our wool growers?
What are they thinking about when
they do this? This is an item
which I consider of vital import-
ance to the Latter-day Saints. We
should keep our wool at home, and
we should manufacture this wool
into cloth, and we should buy and
pay for that cloth and support
home manufactures. This is a
principle which we have neglected
in a great degree; but we have got
to come to it sometime. We have
got either to make ourselves self-sus-
taining, or we shall have to go with-
out a good many things that we now
regard as almost indispensable for
our welfare and comfort, for there is
not a man who believes in the reve-
lations of God but what believes the
day is at hand when there will be
trouble among the nations of the
earth, when great Babylon will
come in remembrance before God,
and his judgments will visit the
nations. When that day comes, if
Zion has food and raiment and the
comforts of life she must produce
them, and there must be a begin-
ning to these things.
This is the Zion of God, this is
the work of God. The servants of
God have borne record and testi-
mony to this now for more than
forty years, and the Lord has back-
ed up their testimony, fulfilling his
word in the events which have
transpired in the earth. The Lord
says, "I am angry with none except
those who acknowledge not my
hand in all things." [Doctrine and Covenants 59:21] As a people
we have been obliged to acknow-
ledge the hand of God in our salva-
tion and guidance. Some of the
speakers have referred to the driv-
ings and persecutions of the Saints
in the past. The Lord says, "Of-
fences must needs come, but woe
to him by whom they come." [Matthew 18:7] If
we had not been driven from Jack-
son, Caldwell and Clay Counties,
and from Kirtland and Nauvoo,
Utah, to-day, would have been a
barren desert, there would have
been no railroad from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and we should not
have fulfilled, I may say, thous-
ands of the revelations of God as
we have done. The hand of the
Lord has been manifest in all these
matters. He has watched this
people, and over this work from its
foundation until to-day, and he
will continue to do so. But it is
certainly true that, as a people, we
must heed the counsels of the Lord
through his servants, for these
counsels, if observed will secure us
salvation, and lead us to prosperity,
union and happiness.
President Young, as an instru-
ment in the hands of God, has
brought his tens of thousands from
the old world, who never were
worth, I may say, a farthing, who
never owned a horse, carriage,
wagon, cow, pig or chicken, and
hardly had bread enough to keep
soul and body together. There are
thousands upon thousands now in
these valleys of the mountains who
were brought here by the donations
of the Saints of God, and the mer-
cies of God unto them. They are
now settled through this valley for
six hundred miles. They have
enough to eat, drink and wear,
houses and lands of their own, and
plenty of this world's goods to
make them comfortable.
Everything that leads to good
and to do good is of God, and eve-
rything that leads to evil and to do
evil is of the wicked one. [Moroni 7:12] I will
ask, Has not good grown out of the
whole work of God, from the or-
ganization of this Church until to-
day? Has not this gospel been of-
fered for more than forty years to
the nations of the earth, in its
plainness, truth and simplicity, as
it was anciently by Jesus and his
Apostles? It has, and thousands
who are in this Territory to-day
can bear testimony to its truth.
The example is before the world.
Zion is like a city set on a hill that
cannot be hid. She is a beacon to
the nations of the earth. The
Saints of God are fulfilling the
revelations of God; they are fulfill-
ing the prophecies and sayings of
the ancient patriarchs and prophets,
who spoke as they were moved
upon by the Holy Ghost, and no
prophecy is of private interpreta-
tion. If those holy men of God
spoke the word of God, what
they said will have its fulfillment,
and no power can stay this work.
The set time has come for the
Lord to establish his kingdom of
which Daniel spoke, that Zion
which Isaiah saw and portrayed,
and about which he and many
other prophets have left so many
sayings in their prophecies. [Daniel 2:26-47] [Isaiah 60] 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.
This is the foundation upon which
the Latter-day Saints labor, and
upon which they have labored from
the beginning of this church. 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-
tinued 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.
How can they do it? By being
gathered out from Babylon. How
often has the question been asked,
"Why can not the Latter-day
Saints live abroad in the world and
enjoy their religion?" We can
hardly enjoy it as we are to-day—
gathered together, the wicked will
follow us up; and then we are over-
whelmed like a mountain with tra-
dition. But 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 to-day 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. The Lord
intends that we shall unite our-
selves together, and in building up
the Zion of God if we can not at-
tain to all that is required of us to-
day, we will do what we can, and
progress as fast as we can, that the
way may be prepared for the ful-
fillment of the words of the Lord.
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.
This is a great day, an important
time—a time in which great events
await the world—Zion, Babylon,
Jew, Gentile, saint and sinner, high
and low, rich and poor. Great and
important events will follow each
other in quick succession before the
eyes of this generation. 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, [Doctrine and Covenants 112:23] and this is to
prove whether they will or will not
walk in the covenant of the Lord.
There are a few who have had suf-
ficient independence of mind and
stability of character to obey the
celestial law. But how few friends
the Almighty and his servants
have had in this age of the world?
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, Sadduces, Essenees, Stoics
and every sect and party then
known in the Jewish nation cried
"Crucify him! Crucify him!" So
it was with Joseph Smith. [Luke 23:21]
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; and 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. [Doctrine and Covenants 10:21]
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. It is so to-day. But 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.
Therefore I say to my brethren and
sisters, 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 commandments
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. The Lord raised up
President Young to be our leader
and lawgiver, and he has been so
from the day that Joseph was taken
away. His works are before the
world and before the heavens; they
show for themselves. The tree is
known by the fruit it brings forth.
The Lord has revealed in this day
every key that was ever held by
any patriarch or prophet from the
days of Father Adam, in the
Garden of Eden, down to the days
of Joseph Smith, that was neces-
sary for the salvation of the sons
of men. They have been sealed on
the head of Brigham Young and
other servants of God, and they will
be held on the earth until this
scene is wound up. What a glori-
ous thing it is that we, like the an-
cient Saints, can be baptized for
DISCOURSE
By Elder W. WOODRUFF, Delivered at the General Conference, in the New Tabernacle, Salt
Lake City, April 7th, 1873.
ONE of the proverbs common among
the Saints of God in the dispensation in which we live—the
dispensation of the fullness of times,
is, "The Kingdom of God or nothing." President Young has been
trying to get us to labor to build up
the kingdom of God. This kingdom has been given into the hands
of the Latter-day Saints to establish
on the earth, and unless we labor
for its advancement we shall certainly fall short of salvation,
for all the salvation there is, whether
for Jew, Gentile, Saint or sinner, is
in connection with this kingdom.
We have had a great many plain
truths presented before this Conference, and if we will observe the
counsels that have been given we
shall be led to salvation. Every
one of the prepositions made by
President Young has this tendency.
It is our duty as Latter-day Saints
to sustain the Zion of God on the
earth. What he has said to us is
true. We have heard it thousands
of times. We have been counselled
for many years to try to lay a foundation for our own independence
in these mountains. It is a well
known principle in political economy that any nation or people that
expend more than they produce,
or buy from other nations more
than they sell in return, will grow
poor. We should produce what we
use—what we eat and wear, and as
for what we drink, why the mountain streams supply that of the
purest quality.
There are several items to which
I would like to call your attention.
President Young has taken the
lead in establishing woollen factories in this Territory. Others have
assisted in this work, but he has
done much more than any other
man, and now we have several good
mills for the manufacture of cloth
and other fabrics owned and run by
the Saints in Utah. Still we send
many large quantities of wool
abroad instead of using it in our
own mills, and import goods of outside manufacture instead of making
them at home. How long will it
be before we are poor, and our Territory drained of all the money we
can raise, if we continue this? We
should not send our wool to be
manufactured in the States, and
then pay our money for cloth
brought from there here.
Where are our wool growers?
What are they thinking about when
they do this? This is an item
which I consider of vital importance to the Latter-day Saints. We
should keep our wool at home, and
we should manufacture this wool
into cloth, and we should buy and
pay for that cloth and support
home manufactures. This is a
principle which we have neglected
in a great degree; but we have got
to come to it sometime. We have
got either to make ourselves self-sustaining, or we shall have to go without a good many things that we now
regard as almost indispensable for
our welfare and comfort, for there is
not a man who believes in the revelations of God but what believes the
day is at hand when there will be
trouble among the nations of the
earth, when great Babylon will
come in remembrance before God,
and his judgments will visit the
nations. When that day comes, if
Zion has food and raiment and the
comforts of life she must produce
them, and there must be a beginning to these things.
This is the Zion of God, this is
the work of God. The servants of
God have borne record and testimony to this now for more than
forty years, and the Lord has backed up their testimony, fulfilling his
word in the events which have
transpired in the earth. The Lord
says, "I am angry with none except
those who acknowledge not my
hand in all things." Doctrine and Covenants 59:21 As a people
we have been obliged to acknowledge the hand of God in our salvation and guidance. Some of the
speakers have referred to the drivings and persecutions of the Saints
in the past. The Lord says, "Offences must needs come, but woe
to him by whom they come." Matthew 18:7 If
we had not been driven from Jackson, Caldwell and Clay Counties,
and from Kirtland and Nauvoo,
Utah, to-day, would have been a
barren desert, there would have
been no railroad from the Atlantic
to the Pacific, and we should not
have fulfilled, I may say, thousands of the revelations of God as
we have done. The hand of the
Lord has been manifest in all these
matters. He has watched this
people, and over this work from its
foundation until to-day, and he
will continue to do so. But it is
certainly true that, as a people, we
must heed the counsels of the Lord
through his servants, for these
counsels, if observed will secure us
salvation, and lead us to prosperity,
union and happiness.
President Young, as an instrument in the hands of God, has
brought his tens of thousands from
the old world, who never were
worth, I may say, a farthing, who
never owned a horse, carriage,
wagon, cow, pig or chicken, and
hardly had bread enough to keep
soul and body together. There are
thousands upon thousands now in
these valleys of the mountains who
were brought here by the donations
of the Saints of God, and the mercies of God unto them. They are
now settled through this valley for
six hundred miles. They have
enough to eat, drink and wear,
houses and lands of their own, and
plenty of this world's goods to
make them comfortable.
Everything that leads to good
and to do good is of God, and everything that leads to evil and to do
evil is of the wicked one. Moroni 7:12 I will
ask, Has not good grown out of the
whole work of God from the organization of this Church until today? Has not this gospel been offered for more than forty years to
the nations of the earth, in its
plainness, truth and simplicity, as
it was anciently by Jesus and his
Apostles? It has, and thousands
who are in this Territory to-day
can bear testimony to its truth.
The example is before the world.
Zion is like a city set on a hill that
cannot be hid. She is a beacon to
the nations of the earth. The
Saints of God are fulfilling the
revelations of God; they are fulfilling the prophecies and sayings of
the ancient patriarchs and prophets,
who spoke as they were moved
upon by the Holy Ghost, and no
prophecy is of private interpretation. If those holy men of God
spoke the word of God, what
they said will have its fulfillment,
and no power can stay this work.
The set time has come for the
Lord to establish his kingdom of
which Daniel spoke, that Zion
which Isaiah saw and portrayed,
and about which he and many
other prophets have left so many
sayings in their prophecies. 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 Mormon, or in the Doctrine and Covenants, 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 servants of God in the flesh, it is the
same; although the heavens and
the earth may pass away, they will
not go unfulfilled.
This is the foundation upon which
the Latter-day Saints labor, and
upon which they have labored from
the beginning of this church.
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 heaven, 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 increase until the coming of the Son
of man; and the blood of the prophets which has been shed in testimony 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 coming 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 coninued to progress frown the beginning, 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.
How can they do it? By being
gathered out from Babylon. How
often has the question been asked,
"Why can not the Latter-day
Saints live abroad in the world and
enjoy their religion?" We can
hardly enjoy it as we are to-day—
gathered together, the wicked will
follow us up; and then we are overwhelmed like a mountain with tradition. But we have gathered together 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. The Lord
intends that we shall unite ourselves together, and in building up
the Zion of God, if we can not attain to all that is required of us today, we will do what we can, and
progress as fast as we can, that the
way may be prepared for the fulfillment of the words of the Lord.
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 infidels 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 inspiration 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 promises 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 instructions 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 prepared 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 understand our duties and comprehend
the will of the Lord.
This is a great day, an important
time—a time in which great events
await the world—Zion, Babylon,
Jew, Gentile, saint and sinner, high
and low, rich and poor. Great and
important events will follow each
other in quick succession before the
eyes of this generation. No generation 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 because of the horrid stories they had
heard about these terrible "Mormons," 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 acknowledge 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.
There are a few who have had sufficient independence of mind and
stability of character to obey the
celestial law. But how few friends
the Almighty and his servants
have had in this age of the world?
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 foundation of this work, priest and people, doctors and lawyers, high and
low, rich and poor, with but few
exceptions, have been ready to
crush it to the earth. Why? Because, ignorant of its character and
mission, they have believed that it
interfered with their religion. Joseph 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; and 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 condemnation 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 heaven. Whosesoever sins they remitted were remitted, and whosesoever
sins they retained were retained.
Yet the world was ready to destroy
them. It is so to-day. But the
unbelief of this generation will not
make the truth of God without effect to-day any more than it did in
any other period of the world.
Therefore I say to my brethren and
sisters, 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 receive 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 salvation 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 requires 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 anybody 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 testimony 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 until 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. The Lord raised up
President Young to be our leader
and lawgiver, and he has been so
from the day that Joseph was taken
away. His works are before the
world and before the heavens; they
show for themselves. The tree is
known by the fruit it brings forth.
The Lord has revealed in this day
every key that was ever held by
any patriarch or prophet from the
days of Father Adam, in the
Garden of Eden, down to the days
of Joseph Smith, that was necessary for the salvation of the sons
of men. They have been sealed on
the head of Brigham Young and
other servants of God, and they will
be held on the earth until this
scene is wound up. What a glorious thing it is that we, like the ancient Saints, can be baptized for
