REMARKS
BY
ELDER WILFORD WOODRUFF,
DELIVERED
At the Semi-Annual Conference of
the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, in the New
Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Fri-
day Morning, .
REPORTED BY DAVID W. EVANS.
WE, as a people, have had a great deal of
teaching and counsel in our day and gen-
eration. Some of us have been taught in
the things of this kingdom for over forty
years, and, by this time, we ought to ex-
ercise faith in the promises of God. We
have looked forward to the fulfillment of
the revelations which have been given in
all ages and dispensations which are past
and gone; and we have not only expected
their fulfillment, but we have helped to
fulfill a great many of them in the course
of our lives. This work is the work of
God, it is not the work of man. The Lord
has set his hand in these last days in ful-
fillment of revelation and prophecy and
the promises which have been made for
thousands of years past and gone, con-
cerning the earth and the dispensations
thereof.
I will here say that all inspired men,
from the days of father Adam to the days
of Jesus, had a view, more or less, of the
great and last dispensation of the fulness
of times, when the Lord would set his
hand to prepare the earth and a people
for the coming of the Son of Man and a
reign of righteousness. One of the breth-
ren was speaking here about the views en-
tertained by some in the world who re-
gard Christianity and the work of God as
a failure. I will say that the work of the
Lord has never been a failure and it never
will. His purposes have to be accom-
plished in the earth. There is one thing
true with regard to the history and travels
of the Saints of God in every age of the
world—they have had to pass through
trials, tribulations and persecutions, and
have had to contend with opposition, and
this will always be their fate until the
power of evil is overcome. This is one of
the legacies that is designed from God to
the Saints while dwelling in the flesh
among a world of devils, for the world is
full of them, there are millions and mil-
lions—all that were cast out of heaven;
they never die, and they never leave the
earth, but they dwell here and will con-
tinue to do so until Satan is bound. As a
people we have to meet this warfare, and
the Saints of God have had to contend
with it in every age of the world. Any man
who undertakes to serve God has to round
up his shoulders and meet it, and any
man who will not trust in God and abide
in his cause even unto death is not worthy
of a place in the celestial kingdom. Said
Jesus—"I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hate you; if
you were of the world the world would
love its own. They have hated me, they
will hate you; and if they persecute me
they will persecute you." [John 15:16-20] This is the
legacy which all Saints may depend upon
receiving. True, there has been a differ-
ence in the various dispensations. This
is the only dispensation that God has ever
established that was foreordained, before
the world was made, not to be overcome
by wicked men and devils. All other dis-
pensations have been made war upon by
the inhabitants of the earth, and the ser-
vants and Saints of God have been mar-
tyred. This was the case with Jesus and
the apostles in their day. The Lord gave
that good old prophet Enoch, president of
the Zion of God, who stood in the midst
of his people three hundred and sixty-five
years, a view of the earth in its various
dispensations, showing him that the time
would come when it would groan under the
wickedness, blasphemy, murders, whore-
doms and abominations of its inhabitants.
The prophet asked the Lord whether there
would ever be a time when the earth should
rest; and the Lord answered that in the
dispensation of the fulness of times the
earth would fill the measure of its days,
and then it would rest from wickedness
and abominations, for in that day he
would establish his kingdom upon it, to
be thrown down no more for ever. Then
a reign of righteousness would commence
and the honest and meek of the earth
would be gathered together to serve the
Lord, and upon them would rest power to
build up the great Zion of God in the lat-
ter days. These things were also shown
to Abraham, and many others of the an-
cient servants of God had glimpses of
them by vision, revelation and the inspi-
ration of the Spirit of God, and what they
saw, or an account of what they saw, has
been left on record.
This dispensation is one that all the pa-
triarchs and prophets had their eye upon,
and the Lord has commenced it, and has
carried it on now for more than forty
years, since this church was organized
with six members. We have not alto-
gether travelled on beds of ease, we have
had warfare and opposition from the com-
mencement until this day; but we and the
world may set our hearts at rest concern-
ing "Mormonism," for it will never cease
until the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the
clouds of heaven. This nation and other
nations will war with the Saints of God
until their cup is full; and when they be-
come ripened in iniquity the Lord Al-
mighty will cut them off, and the judg-
ments of the Most High God will follow
the testimony of the elders of Israel.
This is the way I look upon it. We are
called upon to do our duty with regard to
the subject which has been spoken of by
Brothers Vancott and Cannon. What is
this world I would like to know? What are
the things of this world? What are
houses and lands, goods and chattels, and
the treasures of the earth generally, to us?
What are they to any Saints of God com-
pared with eternal life? We should cer-
tainly be as well off to unite ourselves and
our interests together in the things of
God as to be separate. There have been
too much selfishness and division and every
man for himself amongst us, and the devil
for us all. Eternal life is worth more to
a Saint of God than all things else put
together, in fact it is the greatest gift God
ever gave to man, or that he can give to
him, and whatever the Lord requires at
our hands we should be ready to do, indi-
vidually and collectively.
As I have often remarked in my testi-
mony, from my youth up I had a desire
to live to see a people rise up in the earth
and contend for the faith once delivered to
the Saints, who would receive and teach
the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was
taught in his day and generation. When
I heard this Gospel I embraced it. The
first sermon I ever heard the Spirit of God
bore record to me that it was true, and I
went forth and was baptized for the re-
mission of my sins. I received the laying
on of hands and the Lord gave me the Holy
Ghost and a testimony, just the same
as he gave to you, and to hundreds of thou-
sands of those who have obeyed the gos-
pel.
It was but a short time after embracing
the work that I was called to go with my
brethren a thousand miles for the redemp-
tion of Zion. I went willingly, for I knew
it was the work of God, it was what I had
sought for from the time I was eight years
old, what I had been taught in the Presby-
terian Sunday School and what I had read
in the New Testament in my father's
house. From that time up I had looked
for these things, and I had a testimony
that I should live to see them, and I did,
and when I embraced this gospel my heart
was filled with joy and consolation; and
as for this world, if I had the whole of it,
I felt in those days as I feel now, it would
not stand in my path in seeking for eter-
nal life.
I was called to take my life in my hands
and go up to Missouri, and a little hand-
ful of us went up to redeem our brethren.
We certainly had to go by faith. My neigh-
bors called upon and plead with me not to
go; said they—"Do not go, if you do you will
lose your life." I said to them—"If I
knew that I should have a ball put through
my heart the first step I took in the State
of Missouri I would go." I went, and I
did not get shot, neither did any of the
rest of us, but we fulfilled the command-
ment of God. That is the way I felt in
those days with regard to the work of God,
and that is the way I feel to-day. I am
after salvation and eternal life, and I do
not want anything to stand between me
and that which I am in pursuit of. It does
not make any difference what we as a peo-
ple may be called to pass through. Men
can go no further than they are permitted
by the Lord. I have often remarked, and
I repeat it, your destiny, the destiny of
this nation, and the destiny of every king,
prince, president, statesman and ruler un-
der heaven are in the hands of the God
of Israel. He made the world and all its
inhabitants, and they can go no farther
than they are permitted. If we unite our-
selves according to the law of God we
shall have far more safety than if we turn
away from the commandments of the Lord
and set our hearts upon the things of this
world. If we forget God we are liable to
be scourged; that is my feeling this morn-
ing.
This is the work of God. The Lord has
set his hand to build up his kingdom, and
he will do it whatever the consequences
may be. Whatever the persecutions or
difficulties his Saints may be called to
pass through, the Lord will never with-
draw his hand, for he decreed, before the
foundation of the world, that in the dis-
pensation of the fulness of times his
kingdom should be set up upon the earth,
never more to be thrown down.
The world has had its dispensations:
we are at the end of the sixth thousand
years, and are bordering upon the
coming of the Son of Man in the clouds
of heaven, with power and great glory, [Matthew 24:30] to
reward every man according to the deeds
done in the body; and whatever the feel-
ings of the world may be the Lord has de-
creed a woe upon that man, that house,
that nation or that people that rejects the
testimony of his servants. The Lord
says that he will hold a controversy with
the nations, and judge the world with fire
and sword, and he will plead with all
flesh, and the slain of the Lord will be
many. [Isaiah 66:16] What if some of us do have to
sacrifice our lives for the word of God
and the testimony of Jesus Christ? What
of it? What is a man's life? The whole
world will die. Armies, containing thou-
sands of men, go forth for the honor of
being killed, in order to defend a king or
a government. Is it any worse to die for
the word of God and the testimony of
Jesus Christ than to die serving the devil?
Not a particle. I glory in my feelings at
the valiant spirit that is and has been
manifested by the servants of the living
God in the cause of truth and in defence
of the great latter-day work. The Lord
never raised up a better set of men and
women since the world was than are they
who have embraced the gospel of Jesus
Christ in these latter days. They have
the testimony of Jesus Christ with them,
and they have been called to pass through
many trials thus far in the history and
progress of the work of God. It is true
that many have broken their covenants
and turned away from the Lord, and the
reason is that they stopped serving God
and undertook to serve themselves, and
that led them into darkness. They re-
jected the things of the kingdom of hea-
ven, and the spirit of God was taken from
them, and that class of people, in every
age of the world, is the darkest of any
who ever breathe the breath of life. They
lose all confidence in every principle of
salvation and eternal life revealed to man.
With regard to our present position I
want to say that it is the duty of every
Saint of God in these valleys of the
mountains to let his prayers ascend into
the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, day and
night in the season thereof, in the fam-
ily circle and in private places, for the
Lord to sustain his people, build up Zion
and fulfill his promises. We are in duty
bound to fulfill ours, and the Lord will
not fail now any more than he has any
other time. He did not fail in the days of
Jesus Christ, not a bit of it. Jesus was
poor, and from the manger to the cross,
spent his whole life in the deepest pover-
ty, suffering and affliction; he descended
below all things that he might rise above
all, and we are told that he had not money
enough to pay his taxes to Ceasar, and
had to send Peter to catch a fish to get
money for that purpose. He was poor
all the way through his life. Is it any
worse for you, or me, or any other Saint
of God, to suffer persecution, affliction,
poverty or trials than for our great Leader,
President, Redeemer, King and Savior,
who is going to come in the clouds of hea-
ven? No, not a particle. As some of our
brethren have said, there is need for us to
repent and humble ourselves before the
Lord our God, that we may have and en-
joy more of the Holy Spirit to prepare us
for that which lies before us. It is our
duty to unite together as a people; our
temporal salvation lies in this, and we
should not be backward in this matter
We should not only preach it, but be also
ready to practise it; as leaders and as
people, all should unite in carrying out
that which is required of us. As an in-
dividual I am not afraid of starving to
death, I never was afraid of that in my
life, and I have travelled a great many
thousand miles to preach the gospel
without money and without price, and so
have many of my brethren who are around
me, and we never starved to death, and
we do not expect to. The amount of it
is that everything we have here in these
valleys of the mountains,—this Taberna-
cle, this Temple, these public grounds, and
all the cities and towns that have been
built over six hundred miles of territory,
are the gift of God to us. The Lord
knows this country was barren enough
when we came here, and a faithful people
were tried here with cricket and grass-
hopper wars, until famine stared them in
the face; but they trusted in God, and
they did not get disappointed.
Our prayers should go up day and night
in behalf of our P[r]esident, and the Presi-
dency whom God has sustained from the
beginning, and also for the leaders of the
people and for each other. We should
labor and pray for this. We are making
history. The travels and experience of
the Latter-day Saints have been as inter-
esting as the history of any people in any
dispensation since the world began. Jo-
seph Smith was a prophet of God, and
he was called to lay the foundation of
this kingdom; he was raised up from be-
fore the foundation of the world for this
purpose, and he came forth, through the
loins of ancient Joseph who was sold into
Egypt, and dwelt in the flesh, and noth-
ing failed in its fulfillment as far as he
was concerned. He lived until he planted
the gospel, until he received the apostle-
ship, and every branch of the priesthood
of Aaron and Melchizedek, all the keys
of the kingdom of God, everything that
was necessary in order to lay the founda-
tion of this church and kingdom, which
God, through the mouths of holy prophets,
declared should be established in the lat-
ter days, to be thrown down no more for
ever.
Under these circumstances, of course,
faith is required on the part of the Saints
to live their religion, do their duty, walk
uprightly before the Lord and build up
his Zion on the earth. Then it requires
works to correspond with our faith. I
know the testimony of Jesus Christ is
not palatable; it does not, and never did,
suit the ears of the world at large. Chris-
tendom to-day does not like "Mormon-
ism" because it comes in contact with the
traditions handed down from the fathers;
the world never did like the truth. We
can not help that, it is our duty to bear
a true and faithful testimony to the work
of God, and to preach the gospel which
has been revealed to us in our day by the
ministration of angels out of heaven.
That gospel is the same as was taught by
Adam, and the ancient patriarchs, Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob, Noah, Enoch, Me-
thuselah and all the ancient prophets, also
by Jesus and the Apostles. There never
was but one gospel, and never will be but
one delivered to the children of men, and
that never changed and never will change
in time or eternity. It is the same in every
age of the world; its ordinances are the
same. Believers in the gospel had faith in
Jesus before he came in the flesh, and re-
pentance of sin was preached before his
day as well as since; they also practised
baptism for the remission of sins and the
laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy
Ghost; and they had the organization of
the church with inspired men therein.
Saith the Lord Jesus,—"I have set in the
church, first apostles, second prophets,
third teachers, pastors, gifts, helps, and gov-
ernments." [1 Corinthians 12:28] What for? For the work of
the ministry, for the perfecting of the
Saints, &c. These things are necessary in
every age of the world, and they have been
restored in these last days, and they are
true and will have their effect upon the
children of men. When this gospel is
preached to the Gentiles and they count
themselves unworthy of eternal life it will
go to the house of Israel, and the first
will then be last, as the last has been first.
It is our duty as a people to unite to-
gether and not to be slothful in welldoing.
As I have already said, we should let our
prayers ascend before the Lord. I have
more faith in prayer before the Lord than
almost any other principle on earth. If
we have no faith in prayer to God, we have
not much in either him or the gospel. We
should pray unto the Lord, asking him
for what we want. Let the prayers of
this people ascend before the Lord con-
tinually in the season thereof, and the
Lord will not turn them away, but they
will be heard and answered, and the king-
dom and Zion of God will rise and shine,
she will put on her beautiful garments and
be clothed with the glory of her God, and
fulfill the object of her organization here
upon the earth. Therefore, I say, breth-
ren and sisters, let us do our duty. Let
us pray for the Presidency of this church;
let us uphold and sustain them by our
faith and by our works. They are called
of God, they have been our leaders for
years. President Young has led this
church longer a great deal than any other
man. His works and his life have been
before you, and you know him, and the
course he has pursued. God has blessed
him and he has been profitable unto us.
The revelations of God and the principles
which he has brought forth have been a
consolation to Israel. Our prayers should
ascend for him that he may be restored to
health and be preserved by the hand of
God. We should pray to the Lord for
everything else that we stand in need of.
Then we should go to and do our duty in
building the temples of our God, that we
may magnify our calling, and be saviors
on Mount Zion, for the living and the
dead. In the seventeen hundred years
which are past and gone, over fifty thou-
sand million people have gone into the
spirit world who never saw the face of a
prophet or of an apostle, and never heard
the words of an inspired man, for during
the whole of that time no man was called
of God to build up his kingdom on the
earth. Whatever the Christian world may
think, these things are true. When the
apostles were put to death the priesthood
went from the earth, and the church went
into the wilderness, or, in other words,
there was a falling away among the Gen-
tiles, as there had been before among the
Jews. Those generations are in the spirit
world, shut up in prison; they have got
to be visited by men who held the priest-
hood in the flesh, that they may preach
the gospel unto them, the same as Jesus
did when he went to preach to the spirits
in prison during the three days and nights
when his body lay in the tomb. This is
our duty. And I will here say that every
elder of Israel who lays down his life,
whether he dies in his bed, or is put to
death by the enemies of truth, when he
goes into the spirit world his works follow
him, and he rests in peace. The priest-
hood is not taken from him, and he has
thousands more to preach to there than
he ever had here in the flesh. But it de-
pends upon the living here to erect tem-
ples, that the ordinances for the dead may
be attended to, for by and by you will
meet your progenitors in the spirit world
who never heard the sound of the gospel.
You who are here in Zion have power to be
baptized for and to redeem your dead.
The resurrection and the coming of the
Messiah are at the door. The signs of
heaven and earth indicate the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The fig trees are
putting forth their leaves in the eyes of
every man who has the faith of the gospel.
Let us, therefore, try and do our duty.
Let us attend to the ordinances of the
house of God, and unite ourselves accord-
ing to his law, for Jesus will never receive
the Zion of God unless its people are
united according to celestial law, for all
who go into the presence of God have to
go there by this law. Enoch had to prac-
tise this law, and we shall have to do the
same if we are ever accepted of God as
he was. It has been promised that the
New Jerusalem will be built up in our day
and generation, and it will have to be
done by the United Order of Zion and ac-
cording to celestial law. And not only
so, but we have to keep that law ourselves
if we ever inherit that kingdom, for no
man will receive a celestial glory unless he
abides a celestial law; no man will receive
a terrestrial glory unless he abides a ter-
restrial law, and no man will receive a te-
lestial glory unless he abides a telestial
law. There is a great difference between
the light of the sun at noonday and the
glimmer of the stars at night, but that
difference is no greater than the difference
of the glory in the several portions of the
kingdom of God.
I always have said and believed, and I
believe to-day, that it will pay you and me
and all the sons and all the daughters of
Adam to abide the celestial law, for celes-
tial glory is worth all we possess; if it
calls for every dollar we own and our lives
into the bargain, if we obtain an entrance
into the celestial kingdom of God it will
amply repay us. The Latter-day Saints
have started out for celestial glory, and if
we can only manage to be faithful enough
to obtain an inheritance in the kingdom,
where God and Christ dwell, we shall re-
joice through the endless ages of eternity.
I thank God that my ears have heard
the sound of the gospel. I thank God
that I have been preserved upon the earth
to live to see the face of an elder of Is-
rael, to be called of God and to adminis-
ter the ordinances of his house. I trav-
elled a good many miles with President
Joseph Smith, as some of you did; I have
also travelled a good many miles with
President Young and with the Apostles
and elders of Israel, and I have never seen
the hour yet, in the midst of our deepest
afflictions and persecutions, that I was
sorry that I had embraced the gospel, and
I hope I never shall.
I pray God my heavenly Father that he
will inspire our hearts as Latter day Saints,
that we may become one and, not having
the fear of man before our eyes, but
the fear of God, that we may be ready to
do whatever is required of us, and to
carry out the counsels of the servants of
God. When we do this we shall be happy,
and we shall be saved whether in life or in
death. I pray that we may pursue this
course, and that we may overcome the
world, the flesh and the devil, and inherit
eternal life, for Jesus sake. Amen.