various terms from one or three
months up to years. They have
gone there willingly, as martyrs to
this principle, making a protest that
the heavens and the earth should
bear record of, that they were con-
scientious in espousing this princi-
ple, and that it was not for sensual
indulgence, because if sensual in-
dulgence had been the object we
could have obtained it without such
sacrifices as were involved in obe-
dience to this law—without going to
prison, without sustaining wives
and children, without the oblo-
quy that has been heaped
upon us because of this action
of ours. If licentious motives had
prompted us, we could have secured
the results in a cheaper way and in
a way more in consonance with uni-
versal custom throughout our own
land and all Christendom. But the
sacrifices that we have made in this
respect bear testimony to the heavens
and to the earth that we have been
sincere and conscientious in all that
we have done, and that we have not
been prompted by a desire to use
women for lustful purposes, but to
save them, to make them honorable,
and to leave no margin of women
in our society to become a prey to
lust, so that every woman in our land
should have the opportunity of be-
coming a virtuous wife and an
honored mother, loved and respected
by her offspring and by all her as-
sociates.

If no other result has attended
what may be termed our obstinacy,
these results are, at least, upon
record, and they never can be
blotted out. The imprisonment of
these men, the sufferings—the un-
told, unwritten, yea, the unmen-
tionable, it may be said, sufferings—
of wives and children, they are re-
corded in heaven and are known to
men upon the earth, and they form
a chapter that will never be blotted
out.

Latter-day Saints, there has been
nothing lost in the five years that
have just passed. We have lost no
credit. There has been no honor sac-
rificed. We can look God in the face
—that is, if we are permitted to do so,
so far as this is concerned, we can; we
can look the holy angels in the face;
we can look mankind in the face,
without a blush, or without feeling
that we have done anything un-
worthy of our manhood or of our pro-
fessions and the faith that God has
given unto us. This all of us can
do; and if no other result has
followed what may be called our
obstinacy, than these which I now
describe they are grand enough to
pay us for all that we have gone
through.

But the time has come when, in
the providence of God, it seemed
necessary that something should be
done to meet the requirements of
the country, to meet the demands
that have been made upon us, and
to save the people. President
Woodruff and others of us have
been appealed to hundreds of times,
I might say; I can say for
myself, that I have been appealed to
many scores of times to get out
something, and to announce some-
thing. Some of our leading brethren
have said: "Inasmuch as we have
ceased to give permission for plural
marriages to be solemnized, why
cannot we have the benefit of that?
Why cannot we tell the world it, so
as to have the benefit of it? Our
enemies are alleging constantly that
we still practise this in secret, and
that we are dishonest and guilty of
evasion. Now, if we have really
put a stop to granting permissions to
men to take more wives than one,
why should not the world know it
and we have the advantage of it?"
These remarks have been made to
us repeatedly. But at no time has
the Spirit seemed to indicate that
this should be done. We have wait-
ed for the Lord to move in the
matter; and on the 24th of Septem-
ber, President Woodruff made up
his mind that he would write some-
thing, and he had the spirit
of it. He had prayed about
it and had besought God repeatedly
to show him what to do. At that
time the Spirit came upon him, and
the document that has been read in
your hearing was the result. I know
that it was right, much as it has
gone against the grain with me in
many respects, because many of
you know the contest we have had
upon this point. But when God
speaks, and when God makes known
His mind and will, I hope
that I and all Latter-day
Saints will bow in submission to it.
When that document was prepared
it was submitted. But, as is said in
this motion that has been made,
President Woodruff is the only man
upon the earth who holds the keys of
the sealing power. These Apostles all
around me have all the same author-
ity that he has. We are all or-
dained with the same ordination.
We all have had the same keys and
the same powers bestowed upon us.
But there is an order in the Church
of God, and that order is that there is
only one man at a time on the earth
who holds the keys of sealing, and
that man is the President of the
Church, now Wilford Woodruff.
Therefore, he signed that docu-
ment himself. Some have wondered
and said, "Why didn't his Coun-
selors sign? Why didn't others
sign?" Well, I give you the reason
—because he is the only man on the
earth that has this right, and
he exercised it, and he did
this with the approval of all of us to
whom the matter was submitted,
after he had made up his mind, and
we sustained it; for we had made it
a subject of prayer also, that God
would direct us.

There never was a time in this
Church when I believe the leading
men of this Church have en-
deavored to live nearer to God, be-
cause they have seen the path in
which we walked environed with
difficulties, beset with all manner
of snares, and we have had the
responsibility resting upon us of
your salvation, to a certain ex-
tent. God has chosen us, not we
ourselves, to be the shepherds of
His flock. We have not sought this
responsibility. You know Wilford
Woodruff too well to believe that he
would seek such an office as
he now fills. I trust you know
the rest of us sufficiently to
believe the same concerning
us. I have shrunk from
the Apostleship. I have shrunk
from being a member of the First
Presidency. I felt that if I could
get my salvation in any other
way, I prayed God that He would
give it to me, after He revealed to
me that I would be an Apostle, when
I was comparatively a child; and I
have had that feeling ever since.
These Apostles, all of them, feel the
responsibility which rests upon
them as leaders of the people, God
having made us, in His providence,
your shepherds. We feel that the
flock is in our charge, and if any
harm befall this flock through us,
we will have to answer for it in the
day of the Lord Jesus; we shall
have to stand and render an account
of that which has been entrusted to
us; and if we are faithless, and care-
less, and do not live so as to have the
word of God continually with us
and know His mind and will, then
our condemnation will be sure and
certain, and we cannot escape it.
But you are our witnesses as to
whether God is with us or
not, as well as the Holy Ghost.
You have received, and it is
your privilege to receive, the
testimony of Jesus Christ as to
whether these men who stand at
your head are the servants of God,
whom God has chosen, and through
whom God gives instructions to His
people. You know it, because the
testimony of the Spirit is with you,
and the Spirit of God burns in your
bosoms when you hear the word of
God declared by these servants, and
there is a testimony living in your
hearts concerning it.

Now, realizing the full responsi-
bility of this, this action has been
taken. Will it try many of the
Saints? Perhaps it will; and per-
haps it will try those who have not
obeyed this law as much as any
others in the Church. But all that
we can say to you is that which we
repeatedly say to you—go unto
God yourselves, if you are tried over
this and cannot see its purpose; go
to your secret chambers and ask God
and plead with Him, in the name of
Jesus, to give you a testimony as
He has given it to us, and I promise
you that you will not come away
empty, nor dissatisfied; you will
have a testimony, and light will be
poured out upon you, and you will
see things that perhaps you cannot
see and understand at the present
time.

I pray God to bless all of you, my
brethren and sisters; to fill you with
His Holy Spirit; to keep you in the
path of exaltation which He has
marked out for us; to be with us on
the right hand and on the left in
our future as He has been in the
past.

Before I sit down I wish to call
attention to one remarkable thing,
and it may be an evidence to you
that the devil is not pleased with
what we have done. It is seldom I
have seen so many lies, and such
flagrant, outrageous lies told about
the Latter day Saints as I have
quite recently. I have not time to
read the papers, but I have hap-
pened to pick up two or three papers
and glance at them, and the most
infernal (pardon me for using that