every man who receives that spirit has a
comforter within,—a leader and guide to
dictate him. This spirit reveals, day by
day, to every man who has faith, those
things which are for his benefit. As Job
said, "there is a spirit in man and the in-
spiration of the Almighty giveth it under-
standing." [Job 32:8] It is this inspiration of God to
His children in every age of the world that
is one of the necessary gifts to sustain man
and enable him to walk by faith, and to go
forth and obey all the dictations and com-
mandments and revelations which God
gives to His children to guide and direct
them in life.

We have a long list given to us in the
New Testament scriptures of those, who, in
ancient days, lived, labored and performed
their duties by faith. Among them was
Noah, who, being warned of God, went forth
and prepared an ark for the salvation of
himself and family. Abraham, also, offered
up his son Isaac by faith, because he was
called and commanded of God, believing in
the promises God had made unto him. [Genesis 22:1-19]

This gift and principle of faith is neces-
sary for the Saints in every age of the world
to enable them to build up the kingdom of
God and perform the work required of
them. All that the ancients did was by
faith. Jesus and His apostles often quoted
the prophecies of the ancient prophets and
showed that they were fulfilling them.
Even the labors of Jesus, from the manger
to the cross, through his whole life of pain,
sorrow, affliction, suffering, persecution
and derision, were all by faith. It was by
the power of the Father, whose work He
had come to perform, that He was sustain-
ed. He fully believed that He would be
able to accomplish all that He had been sent
to perform. It was on this principle that
He fulfilled every requirement and obeyed
every law, even that of baptism, when He
was immersed in the Jordan by John, who
held the Aaronic priesthood and the keys
of baptism for the remission of sins. [Matthew 3:13-17] Bap-
tism was a righteous law; in fact it was the
law of God to save the children of men,
and Jesus was the door, and He, although
free from sin and guile, complied with it as
an ensample to His disciples and the rest of
the children of men.

The apostles, in their labors, had to work
on the same principle that the Saints in
both former and latter days have had to
work upon,—namely the principle of faith.
Joseph Smith had to work by faith. It is
true that he had a knowledge of a great
many things, as the Saints in former days
had, but in many things he had to exer-
cise faith. He believed He was fulfilling
the prophecies of the ancient prophets. He
knew that God had called him, but in the
establishment af [of] His kingdom He had to
work continually by faith. The church
was organized on the 6th of April, 1830,
with six members, but Joseph had faith
that the kingdon [kingdom] thus commenced, like a
grain of mustard seed, would become a
great church and kingdom upon the earth;
and from that day until the day on which
he sealed his testimony with his blood, his
whole life was as if wading through the
deep waters of persecution and oppression,
received from the hands of his fellowmen.
He had all this to endure through faith, and
he was true, faithful and valiant in the
testimony of Jesus to the day of his death.

All the labors that we have performed
from that day until the present have been
by faith, and we, as Latter-day Saints,
should seek to cherish and grow in this
principle, that we may have faith in every
revelation and promise and in every word
of the Lord, that has been given in the
Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and
Covenants, for they will surely come to
pass as the Lord God lives, for the unbelief
of this generation will not make the truths
of God without effect.

When the members of Zion's Camp were
called, many of us had never beheld each
others' faces; we were strangers to each
other and many had never seen the
prophet. We had been scattered abroad,
like corn sifted in a seive, throughout the
nation. We were young men, and were
called upon in that early day to go up and
redeem Zion, and what we had to do we had
to do by faith. We assembled together
from the various States at Kirtland and
went up to redeem Zion, in fulfilment
of the commandment of God unto us.
God accepted our works as He did
the works of Abraham. We accomplished
a great deal, though apostates and unbe-
lievers many times asked the question
"what have you done?" We gained an ex-
perience that we never could have gained
on any other way. We had the privilege
of beholding the face of the prophet, and
we had the privilege of traveling a thousand
miles with him, and seeing the workings
of the spirit of God with him, and the rev-
elations of Jesus Christ unto him and
the fulfilment of those revelations. And
he gathered some two hundred elders from
throughout the nation in that early day and
sent us broadcast into the world to preach
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Had I not gone
up with Zion's Camp I should not have
been here to-day, and I presume that
would have been the case with many others
in this Territory. By going there we were
thrust into the vineyard to preach the gos-
pel, and the Lord accepted our labors. And
in all our labors and persecutions, with our
lives often at stake, we have had to work
and live by faith.

The Twelve Apostles were called by rev-
elation to go to Far West, Caldwell
County, to lay the foundation of the corner
stone of the Temple. When that revela-
tion was given this Church was in peace
in Missouri. It is the only revelation that
has ever been given since the organization
of the Church, that I know anything about,
that had day and date given with it. The
Lord called the Twelve Apostles, while in
this state of prosperity, on the 26th day of
April, 1838 to go to Far West to lay the
corner stone of the Temple; and from there
to take their departure to England to preach
the gospel. Previous to the arrival of that
period the whole Church was driven out of
the State of Missouri, and it was as much
as a man's life was worth to be found in the
State if it was known that he was a Latter-
day Saint; and especially was this the case
with the Twelve. When the time came for
the Corner stone of the Temple to be laid,
as directed in the revelation, the Church
was in Illinois, having been expelled from
Missouri by an edict from the Governor.
Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Parley P.
Pratt were in chains in Missouri for the
testimony of Jesus. As the time drew nigh
for the accomplishment of this work, the
question arose, "What is to be done?" Here
is a revelation commanding the Twelve to
be in Far West on the 26th day of April, to
lay the Corner stone of the Temple there; it
had to be fulfilled. The Missourians had
sworn by all the Gods of eternity that if
every other revelation was given through Jo-
seph Smith were fulfilled, that should not
be, for the day and date being given they
declared that it should fail. The general
feeling in the Church, so far as I know,
was that, under the circumstances it was
impossible to accomplish the work; and
the Lord would accept the will for the deed.
This was the feeling of Father Smith, the
father of the Prophet. Joseph was not with
us, he was in chains in Missouri, for his re-
ligion. When President Young asked the
question of the Twelve, "Brethren, what
will you do about this?" The reply was:
"The Lord has spoken and it is for us to
obey." We felt that the Lord God had given
en the commandment and we had faith to
go forward and accomplish it, feeling that
it was His business whether we lived or died
in its accomplishment. We started for Mis-
souri. There were two wagons. I had one
and took Brother Pratt and President
Young in mine; Brother Cutler, one of the
building committee, had the other. We
reached Far West and laid the Corner stone
according to the revelation that had been
given to us. We cut off apostates and
those who had sworn away the lives of
the brethren. We ordained Darwin Chase
and Norman Shearer into the Seventies.
Brother George A. Smith and myself were
ordained into the quorum of the Twelve on
the Corner stone of the Temple; we had been
called before but not ordained. We then
returned, nobody having molested or made
us afraid. We performed that work by
faith, and the Lord blessed us in doing it.
The devil, however, tried to kill us, for
before we started for England everyone of
the Twelve was taken sick, and it was
about as much as we could do to move or
stir. I had traveled in Tennessee, Missis-
sippi, Kentucky and Arkansas for two or
three years, and that too, during the sickly
season, where they were not well enough
to take care of the sick, and I had never had
the ague. But upon this occasion I was
taken with the ague, the first time in my
life. All the Twelve had something the
matter with them. But we had to travel
sick; we had to travel by faith in order to
fulfil the mission to which we had been
called by revelation. But the Lord sus-
tained us, He did not forsake us. We went
to England, and we baptized, in the year
1840, something like seven thousand peo-
ple, and established churches in almost all
the principal cities of the kingdom. Bro.
Pratt established a branch in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Brother Kimball, George A. and
myself built up a branch in London, and sev-
[eral] branches in the south of England. We
baptized 1,800 persons in the south of Eng-
land in seven months; out in that number
two hundred were preachers belonging to
different denominations of that land. We
opened an emigration office, published the
Book of Mormon and gathered many to
Zion. God, was with us, and I may say
that He has been in all the labors of this
Church and Kingdom.

In the pioneer journey, coming here, we
had to come by faith; we knew nothing
about this country, but we intended
to come to the mountains. Joseph had
organized a company to come here, before
his death. He had these things before him,
and understood them perfectly. God had
revealed to him the future of this Church
and Kingdom, and had told him, from time
to time, that the work of which he was lay-
ing the foundation would become an ever-
lasting kingdom—would remain forever.
President Young led the pioneers to this
country. He had faith to believe that the
Lord would sustain us. All who travelled
hither at that time had this faith. The
spirit of God was with us, the Holy Ghost
was with us; and the Angels of the Lord
were with us and we were blessed. All,
and more than we anticipated, in coming
here, has been realized, as far as time would
permit.

When the Mormon Battalion was called
for by the United States, we were in our
exile, having been driven from our homes,
our country and graves of our fathers, from
lands we had bought of the United States
Government, for our religion, into the wil-
derness. The Government made a demand
upon us for five hundred men to go to the
Mexican war. I do not suppose that they
expected we would furnish them, but we
did, and we did it by faith. Five hundred
men, the strength of Israel, were sent to
fight the battles of their country, leaving
their wives, children and teams on the
prairie. They had to exercise faith, and so
had we who remained, believing it would
turn out for the best, and it has proved so.
Every member of that Battalion who has
remained faithful has always rejoiced, from
that day to this, that he was a member
thereof. It has proved a blessing to him,
and it proved salvation to Zion.

I have referred to these things to show
that hitherto, in our labors to build up the
Church and Kingdom of God upon the
earth, we have had to labor by faith. It is
still requisite. God has called upon us to
warn this generation. He has set His hand
to establish Zion—the great Zion of God—
about which the prophets have said so
much. No prophet has spoken more
pointedly on this subject than Isaiah. Our
drivings from Missouri, our persecutions,
our travels along the Platte River, the man-
ner of our coming to the mountains of Israel,
our return again to the land of Zion and
the building of the temple in Jackson
County have all been spoken of by Isaiah
as well as by all the prophets who have
spoken concerning the Zion of the latter
days.

We have exercised faith in the carrying
out of these promises and in the fulfilling
of those revelations of God unto us. We
have walked and lived by faith, precisely
the same as the apostles, prophets and saints
have done in every dispensation and age
of the world; for there is one remarkable
feature with regard to the work of God, and
that is, it has always been unpopular in
every age and generation. The Lord has
never sent a message to the inhabitants of
the earth but what it has been despised,
in a great measure, by most of them
As it was in the days of Noah and
Lot, so shall it be in the days of the
coming of the Son of Man. [Matthew 24:37] In the days of
Noah there were eight souls saved, after
one hundred and twenty years' labor in
preaching and building the Ark. [Genesis 7:1-7] In the
days of Lot but very few left the city of
Sodom. Lot and his family left, and we
are told that his wife was turned into a pillar
of salt; and what the angels had told Lot
concerning Sodom and Gomorrah came to
pass—fire and brimstone were sent down
from heaven upon them and they were
destroyed. [Genesis 19:24-29]

The work of God and the gospel of Christ
have always been unpopular. Take the life
of the Savior himself. There is a fair ex-
ample. Trace Him from the day he was
born until His death, and who were His
friends. A few illiterate fishermen. Jesus
Christ came to the house of Judah and they
rejected him; and Jerusalem, Judea, and
the inhabitants of all the region round about
rose up against Him with the exception of
a few poor men and women. Still He was
the Savior of the world, the great Shiloh of
Israel, the great King of the Jews. That is
a fair ensample of the way in which the
work of God has been received in every
age and dispensation. All that Jesus said
concerning the Jews has come to pass to the
very letter; not one jot or tittle has fallen
unfulfilled. Their history for the last eigh-
teen hundred years, until the present day,
has been a remarkable ensign to the nations
of the earth of the truth of the Bible and of
the truth of the testimony of Jesus Christ,
and of Him being the Savior of the
world. All that He said concerning them
and all that Moses predicted concerning
their dispersion and about their being
driven, as corn is sifted through a seive,
among the nations; about the manner in
which their women did evil to the children
of their own bosoms when Jerusalem was
surrounded by the Roman army, when it
was taken and over two millions of its in-
habitants were destroyed by sword,
pestilence and famine, has been fulfill-
ed. [Amos 9:9] All these things have been in strict
fulfillment of the sayings of Moses and
Jesus concerning them. When the Sa-
vior was sentenced to death, they cried
"let His blood be upon us and upon
our children;" and they have been trampled
under foot by the whole Gentile world for
the last eighteen hundred years. [Matthew 27:21-25] In their
affliction and persecutions they have had to
suffer almost beyond the endurance of
man, and until the last few years, have
scarcely had the right of citizenship in any
nation under heaven—except in the United
States. All that has been spoken concern-
ing them has had its fulfilment as fast as
time would admit.

It is so with regard to the gospel of Jesus
Christ in the latter days. If they called the
master of the house Beelzebub, will they
not say the same of his household? They
said that He cast out devils by Beelzebub,
the prince of devils, they said He was a
pestilent fellow and a stirrer-up of sedition
and strife, still He was the Savior of the
world. [Matthew 10:25]

This principle of unbelief has existed
in every age; it exists to-day. The elders
of Israel have had to contend with this
power of darkness, with persecution, op-
pression, ridicule and opposition from those
who should have received their message—
a message which was for the good and sal-
vation of those who rejected it. The Jews
should have received the testimony of
Christ, but as a nation they rejected it. Our
experience has been very similar to that of
Jesus and His apostles. We have had to
labor by faith. We have had to exercise
faith in the revelations that have been given
to us in the Book of Doctrine and Cov-
enants and Book of Mormon, as well as in
the Bible. These revelations pourtray what
lies before us as a people. The fate of this
nation and the nations of the earth has been
pourtrayed by the ancient prophets in the
Book of Mormon and Bible. Isaiah has
told us what will come to pass in the latter
days concerning those who fight against
Mount Zion and against the children of
Zion. Every weapon will be broken, every
nation that will not serve Zion shall be
utterly wasted away saith the Lord; for the
Lord will fight in defence of the land of
Zion. He will establish the kingdom that
Daniel saw, in fact that kingdom has been
established; the Zion of God has been set
up, the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints has been established by
revelation from Jesus Christ in our day and
generation; and we are called to build it up,
we are called to perform its work. As I
have often remarked, the Gods, the Angels,
the whole heavens, all the good men, all
the spirits of the just that dwell in the
eternal world are watching with vast in-
terest the labors of this people.

They are not perfect without us, we are
not perfect without them. [Doctrine and Covenants 128:15] There is no
period in the whole history of the world,
no dispensation of God to man, that is
fraugh with such interest as the dispensa-
tion in which we live; there never has been.
No prophets, no apostles or inspired men
in any age of the world ever had the priv-
ilege of laying the foundation of the Zion
of God to remain on the earth to be thrown
down no more for ever. In every other dis-
pensation of the world the people have risen
up against God and His Christ, against the
kingdom and against the priesthood, and
have overthrown the messengers of Heaven,
and put to death every man who has borne
the kingdom of God, and the kingdom has
been taken from the earth. This is true of
every age except that of Enoch. He built
up a kingdom and gathered together the
people after laboring and preaching three
hundred and sixty-five years. He per-
fected a city, which was called the city of
the Zion of God. But behold and lo, the na-
tions of the earth awoke and found that Zion
had fled! The Lord took it to Himself; took
it away from the earth. The people were
righteous; they had become sanctified and
the Lord took them away out of the power
of the wicked. Zion could not remain on
the earth; there was not power sufficient to
withstand the assaults of the wicked; or if
there was, the time had not come when the
Lord would make use of the children of
men; or there were not enough of the chil-
dren of men willing to take hold and man-
ifest those principles in their lives so that
that they could remain on the earth.
But in the latter days He will do so. He
has sworn it by Himself, because there is
none greater to swear by. He has declared
it through the mouth of every prophet that
has ever lived on the earth, whose writings
we possess, both in the Bible and Book of
Mormon, as well as in those glorious reve-
lations in the Book of Doctrine and Cove-
nants given through the mouth of Joseph
Smith the prophet. These sayings are true.
We as a people should exercise faith in
them, no matter what may be transpiring
in the outside world. We have had the
powers of wicked men and devils to con-
tend with. We may say that the devil is
mad; he is stirred up against Zion: he
knows that his reign will last but a little
season longer.

This arch enemy of God and man, called
the devil, the "Son of the Morning," who
dwells here on the earth, is a personage
of great power; he has great influence and
knowledge. He understands that if this
kingdom, which He rebelled against in
Heaven, prevails on the earth, there will be
no dominion here for him. He has great
influence over the children of men; he la-
bors continually to destroy them. He la-
bored to destroy them in Heaven; he la-
bored to destroy the works of God in
Heaven, and he had to be cast out. He is
here, mighty among the children of men.
There is a vast number of fallen spirits,
cast out with him, here on the earth. They
do not die and disappear; they have not
bodies only as they enter the tabernacles
of men. They have not organized bodies,
and are not to be seen with the sight of the
eye. But there are many evil spirits
amongst us, and they labor to overthrow
the church and kingdom of God. There
never was a prophet in any age of the world
but what the devil was continually at his
elbow. This was the case with Jesus Him-
self. The devil followed him continually
trying to draw Him from His purposes and
to prevent Him carrying out the great work
of God. You see this manifested when he
took Jesus on to the loftiest pinnacle of the
temple and showed Him all the glory of
the world, telling him, that he would give
Him all this if He would fall down and
worship him. The poor devil did not own a
foot of land nor anything else! The earth
was made by and belonged to the Lord
and was His footstool. Yet the devil of-
fered that to Jesus which was not his own.
Jesus said unto Him, "Get thee behind me
Satan." [Matthew 16:23]

This same character was with the disci-
ples as well as with their master. He is
with the Latter-day Saints; and he or his
emissaries are with all men trying to lead
them astray. He rules in the hearts of the
inhabitants of the earth. They are gov-
erned and guided by him far more than
by the power of God. This is strange, still
it is true. See the wickedness in the world.
See the abominations with which the earth
is deluged, causing it to groan under the
burden. Where does this evil come from?
From the works of the devil. Everything
that leads to good is from God, while every
thing that leads to evil is from the devil.
Here are the two powers. How many on

every man who receives that spirit has a comforter within—a leader and guide to dictate him. This spirit reveals, day by day, to every man who has faith, those things which are for his benefit. As Job said, "there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it understanding." It is this inspiration of God to His children in every age of the world that is one of the necessary gifts to sustain man and enable him to walk by faith, and to go forth and obey all the dictations and commandments and revelations which God gives to His children to guide and direct them in life.

We have a long list given to us in the New Testament scriptures of those, who, in ancient days, lived, labored and performed their duties by faith. Among them was Noah, who, being warned of God, went forth and prepared an ark for the salvation of himself and family. Abraham, also, offered up his son Isaac by faith, because he was called and commanded of God, believing in the promises God had made unto him.

This gift and principle of faith is necessary for the Saints in every age of the world to enable them to build up the kingdom of God and perform the work required of them. All that the ancients did was by faith. Jesus and His apostles often quoted the prophecies of the ancient prophets and showed that they were fulfilling them. Even the labors of Jesus, from the manger to the cross, through his whole life of pain, sorrow, affliction, suffering, persecution and derision, were all by faith. It was by the power of the Father, whose work He had come to perform, that He was sustained. He fully believed that He would be able to accomplish all that He had been sent to perform. It was on this principle that He fulfilled every requirement and obeyed every law, even that of baptism, when He was immersed in the Jordan by John, who held the Aaronic priesthood and the keys of baptism for the remission of sins. Baptism was a righteous law; in fact, it was the law of God to save the children of men, and Jesus was the door, and He, although free from sin and guile, complied with it as an ensample to His disciples and the rest of the children of men.

The Apostles, in their labors, had to work on the same principle that the Saints in both former and latter days have had to work upon—namely the principle of faith. Joseph Smith had to work by faith. It is true that he had a knowledge of a great many things, as the Saints in former days had, but in many things he had to exercise faith. He believed He was fulfilling the prophecies of the ancient prophets. He knew that God had called him, but in the establishment of His kingdom He had to work continually by faith. The church was organized on the 6th of April, 1830, with six members, but Joseph had faith that the kingdom thus commenced, like a grain of mustard seed, would become a great church and kingdom upon the earth; and from that day until the day on which he sealed his testimony with his blood, his whole life was as if wading through the deep waters of persecution and oppression, received from the hands of his fellowmen. He had all this to endure through faith, and he was true, faithful and valiant in the testimony of Jesus to the day of his death.

All the labors that we have performed from that day until the present have been by faith, and we, as Latter-day Saints, should seek to cherish and grow in this principle, that we may have faith in every revelation and promise and in every word of the Lord, that has been given in the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, for they will surely come to pass as the Lord God lives, for the unbelief of this generation will not make the truths of God without effect.

When the members of Zion's Camp were called, many of us had never beheld each other's faces; we were strangers to each other and many had never seen the prophet. We had been scattered abroad, like corn sifted in a seive, throughout the nation. We were young men, and were called upon in that early day to go up and redeem Zion, and what we had to do we had to do by faith. We assembled together from the various States at Kirtland and went up to redeem Zion, in fulfilment of the commandment of God unto us. God accepted our works as He did the works of Abraham. We accomplished a great deal, though apostates and unbelievers many times asked the question "what have you done?" We gained an experience that we never could have gained on any other way. We had the privilege of beholding the face of the prophet, and we had the privilege of travelling a thousand miles with him, and seeing the workings of the spirit of God with him, and the revelations of Jesus Christ unto him and the fulfilment of those revelations. And he gathered some two hundred Elders from throughout the nation in that early day and sent us broadcast into the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Had I not gone up with Zion's Camp I should not have been here to-day, and I presume that would have been the case with many others in this Territory. By going there we were thrust into the vineyard to preach the gospel, and the Lord accepted our labors. And in all our labors and persecutions, with our lives often at stake, we have had to work and live by faith.

The Twelve Apostles were called by revelation to go to Far West, Caldwell County, to lay the foundation of the corner stone of the Temple. When that revelation was given this Church was in peace in Missouri. It is the only revelation that has ever been given since the organization of the Church, that I know anything about, that had day and date given with it. The Lord called the Twelve Apostles, while in this state of prosperity, on the 26th day of April, 1838 to go to Far West to lay the corner stone of the Temple; and from there to take their departure to England to preach the gospel. Previous to the arrival of that period the whole Church was driven out of the State of Missouri, and it was as much as a man's life was worth to be found in the State if it was known that he was a Latterday Saint; and especially was this the case with the Twelve. When the time came for the Corner stone of the Temple to be laid, as directed in the revelation, the Church was in Illinois, having been expelled from Missouri by an edict from the Governor. Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Parley P. Pratt were in chains in Missouri for the testimony of Jesus. As the time drew nigh for the accomplishment of this work, the question arose, "What is to be done?" Here is a revelation commanding the Twelve to be in Far West on the 26th day of April, to lay the Corner stone of the Temple there; it had to be fulfilled. The Missourians had sworn by all the Gods of eternity that if every other revelation was given through Joseph Smith were fulfilled, that should not be, for the day and date being given they declared that it should fail. The general feeling in the Church, so far as I know, was that, under the circumstances it was impossible to accomplish the work; and the Lord would accept the will for the deed. This was the feeling of Father Smith, the father of the Prophet. Joseph was not with us, he was in chains in Missouri, for his religion. When President Young asked the question of the Twelve, "Brethren, what will you do about this?" The reply was: "The Lord has spoken and it is for us to obey." We felt that the Lord God had given en the commandment and we had faith to go forward and accomplish it, feeling that it was His business whether we lived or died in its accomplishment. We started for Missouri. There were two wagons. I had one and took Brother Pratt and President Young in mine; Brother Cutler, one of the building committee, had the other. We reached Far West and laid the Corner stone according to the revelation that had been given to us. We cut off apostates and those who had sworn away the lives of the brethren. We ordained Darwin Chase and Norman Shearer into the Seventies. Brother George A. Smith and myself were ordained into the quorum of the Twelve on the Corner stone of the Temple; we had been called before but not ordained. We then returned, nobody having molested or made us afraid. We performed that work by faith, and the Lord blessed us in doing it. The devil, however, tried to kill us, for before we started for England everyone of the Twelve was taken sick, and it was about as much as we could do to move or stir. I had traveled in Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and Arkansas for two or three years, and that too, during the sickly season, where they were not well enough to take care of the sick, and I had never had the ague. But upon this occasion I was taken with the ague, the first time in my life. All the Twelve had something the matter with them. But we had to travel sick; we had to travel by faith in order to fulfil the mission to which we had been called by revelation. But the Lord sustained us, He did not forsake us. We went to England, and we baptized, in the year 1840, something like seven thousand people, and established churches in almost all the principal cities of the kingdom. Bro. Pratt established a branch in Edinburgh, Scotland. Brother Kimball, George A. and myself built up a branch in London, and several branches in the south of England. We baptized 1,800 persons in the south of England in seven months; out in that number two hundred were preachers belonging to different denominations of that land. We opened an emigration office, published the book of Mormon and gathered many to Zion. God, was with us, and I may say that he has been in all the labors of this Church and Kingdom.

In the pioneer journey, coming here, we had to come by faith; we knew nothing about this country, but we intended to come to the mountains; Joseph had organized a company to come here, before his death. He had these things before him, and understood them perfectly. God had revealed to him the future of this Church and Kingdom, and had told him, from time to time, that the work of which he was laying the foundation would become an everlasting kingdom—would remain forever. President Young led the pioneers to this country. He had faith to believe that the Lord would sustain us. All who travelled hither at that time had this faith. The spirit of God was with us, the Holy Ghost was with us; and the angels of the Lord were with us and we were blessed. All, and more than we anticipated, in coming here, has been realized, as far as time would permit.

When the Mormon Battalion was called for by the United States, we were in our exile, having been driven from our homes, our country and graves of our fathers, from lands we had bought of the United States Government, for our religion, into the wilderness. The Government made a demand upon us for five hundred men to go to the Mexican war. I do not suppose that they expected we would furnish them, but we did, and we did it by faith. Five hundred men, the strength of Israel, were sent to fight the battles of their country, leaving their wives, children and teams on the prairie. They had to exercise faith, and so had we who remained, believing it would turn out for the best, and it has proved so. Every member of that Battalion who has remained faithful has always rejoiced, from that day to this, that he was a member thereof. It has proved a blessing to him, and it proved salvation to Zion.

I have referred to these things to show that hitherto, in our labors to build up the Church and Kingdom of God upon the earth, we have had to labor by faith. It is still requisite. God has called upon us to warn this generation. He has set His hand to establish Zion—the great Zion of God— about which the prophets have said so much. No prophet has spoken more pointedly on this subject than Isaiah. Our drivings from Missouri, our persecutions, our travels along the Platte River, the manner of our coming to the mountains of Israel, our return again to the land of Zion and the building of the temple in Jackson County have all been spoken of by Isaiah as well as by all the prophets who have spoken concerning the Zion of the latter days.

We have exercised faith in the carrying out of these promises and in the fulfilling of those revelations of God unto us. We have walked and lived by faith, precisely the same as the apostles, prophets and saints have done in every dispensation and age of the world; for there is one remarkable feature with regard to the work of God, and that is, it has always been unpopular in every age and generation. The Lord has never sent a message to the inhabitants of the earth but what it has been despised, in a great measure, by most of them As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. In the days of Noah there were eight souls saved, after one hundred and twenty years' labor in preaching and building the Ark. In the days of Lot but very few left the city of Sodom. Lot and his family left, and we are told that his wife was turned into a pillar of salt; and what the angels had told Lot concerning Sodom and Gomorrah came to pass—fire and brimstone were sent down from heaven upon them and they were destroyed.

The work of God and the Gospel of Christ have always been unpopular. Take the life of the Savior himself. There is a fair example. Trace Him from the day he was born until His death, and who were His friends. A few illiterate fishermen. Jesus Christ came to the house of Judah and they rejected him; and Jerusalem, Judea, and the inhabitants of all the region round about rose up against Him with the exception of a few poor men and women. Still He was the Savior of the world, the great Shiloh of Israel, the great King of the Jews. That is a fair ensample of the way in which the work of God has been received in every age and dispensation. All that Jesus said concerning the Jews has come to pass to the very letter; not one jot or tittle has fallen unfulfilled. Their history for the last eighteen hundred years, until the present day, has been a remarkable ensign to the nations of the earth of the truth of the Bible and of the truth of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of Him being the Savior of the world. All that He said concerning them and all that Moses predicted concerning their dispersion and about their being driven, as corn is sifted through a seive, among the nations; about the manner in which their women did evil to the children of their own bosoms when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Roman army, when it was taken and over two millions of its inhabitants were destroyed by sword, pestilence and famine, has been fulfilled. All these things have been in strict fulfilment of the sayings of Moses and Jesus concerning them. When the Savior was sentenced to death, they cried "Let his blood be upon us and upon our children;" and they have been trampled under foot by the whole Gentile world for the last eighteen hundred years. In their affliction and persecutions they have had to suffer almost beyond the endurance of man, and until the last few years, have scarcely had the right of citizenship in any nation under heaven—except in the United States. All that has been spoken concerning them has had its fulfilment as fast as time would admit.

It is so with regard to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the latter days. If they called the master of the house Beelzebub, will they not say the same of his household? They said that he cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils, they said he was a pestilent fellow and a stirrer-up of sedition and strife, still -- he was the Savior of the world.

This principle of unbelief has existed in every age; it exists to-day. The elders of Israel have had to contend with this power of darkness, with persecution, oppression, ridicule and opposition from those who should have received their message— a message which was for the good and salvation of those who rejected it. The Jews should have received the testimony of Christ, but as a nation they rejected it. Our experience has been very similar to that of Jesus and His apostles. We have had to labor by faith. We have had to exercise faith in the revelations that have been given to us in the Book of Doctrine and Covenantsand Book of Mormon, as well as in the Bible. These revelations pourtray what lies before us as a people. The fate of this nation and the nations of the earth has been pourtrayed by the ancient prophets in the Book of Mormon and Bible. Isaiah has told us what will come to pass in the latter days concerning those who fight against Mount Zion and against the children of Zion. Every weapon will be broken, every nation that will not serve Zion shall be utterly wasted away saith the Lord; for the Lord will fight in defence of the land of Zion. He will establish the kingdom that Daniel saw, in fact that kingdom has been established; the Zion of God has been set up, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been established by revelation from Jesus Christ in our day and generation; and we are called to build it up, we are called to perform its work. As I have often remarked, the Gods, the Angels, the whole heavens, all the good men, all the spirits of the just that dwell in the eternal world are watching with vast interest the labors of this people.

They are not perfect without us, we are not perfect without them. There is no period in the whole history of the world, no dispensation of God to man, that is fraugh with such interest as the dispensation in which we live; there never has been. No prophets, no apostles or inspired men in any age of the world ever had the privilege of laying the foundation of the Zion of God to remain on the earth to be thrown down no more for ever. In every other dispensation of the world the people have risen up against God and His Christ, against the kingdom and against the priesthood, and have overthrown the messengers of heaven, and put to death every man who has borne the kingdom of God, and the kingdom has been taken from the earth. This is true of every age except that of Enoch. He built up a kingdom and gathered together the people after laboring and preaching three hundred and sixty-five years. He perfected a city, which was called the city of the Zion of God. But behold and lo, the nations of the earth awoke and found that Zion had fled! The Lord took it to Himself; took it away from the earth. The people were righteous; they had become sanctified and the Lord took them away out of the power of the wicked. Zion could not remain on the earth; there was not power sufficient to withstand the assaults of the wicked; or if there was, the time had not come when the Lord would make use of the children of men; or there were not enough of the children of men willing to take hold and manifest those principles in their lives so that that they could remain on the earth. But in the latter days He will do so. He has sworn it by Himself, because there is none greater to swear by. He has declared it through the mouth of every prophet that has ever lived on the earth, whose writings we possess, both in the Bible and Book of Mormon, as well as in those glorious revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants given through the mouth of Joseph Smith the prophet. These sayings are true. We as a people should exercise faith in them, no matter what may be transpiring in the outside world. We have had the powers of wicked men and devils to contend with. We may say that the devil is mad; he is stirred up against Zion: he knows that his reign will last but a little season longer.

This arch enemy of God and man, called the devil, the "Son of the Morning," who dwells here on the earth, is a personage of great power; he has great influence and knowledge. He understands that if this kingdom, which He rebelled against in Heaven, prevails on the earth, there will be no dominion here for him. He has great influence over the children of men; he labors continually to destroy them. He labored to destroy them in Heaven; he labored to destroy the works of God in Heaven, and he had to be cast out. He is here, mighty among the children of men. There is a vast number of fallen spirits, cast out with him, here on the earth. They do not die and disappear; they have not bodies only as they enter the tabernacles of men. They have not organized bodies, and are not to be seen with the sight of the eye. But there are many evil spirits amongst us, and they labor to overthrow the Church and kingdom of God. There never was a prophet in any age of the world but what the devil was continually at his elbow. This was the case with Jesus Himself. The devil followed him continually trying to draw Him from His purposes and to prevent Him carrying out the great work of God. You see this manifested when he took Jesus on to the loftiest pinnacle of the temple and showed Him all the glory of the world, telling him that he would give Hm all this if H would fall down and worship him. The poor devil did not own a foot of land nor anything else! The earth was made by and belonged to the Lord and was His footstool. Yet the devil offered that to Jesus which was not his own. Jesus said unto Him, "Get thee behind me Satan."

This same character was with the disciples as well as with their master. He is with the Latter-day Saints; and he or his emissaries are with all men trying to lead them astray. He rules in the hearts of the inhabitants of the earth. They are governed and guided by him far more than by the power of God. This is strange, still it is true. See the wickedness in the world. See the abominations with which the earth is deluged, causing it to groan under the burden. Where does this evil come from? From the works of the devil. Everything that leads to good is from God, while every thing that leads to evil is from the devil. Here are the two powers. How many on