THE DESERET WEEKLY

SUNDAY SERVICES

Presidents Wilford Woodruff and
Joseph F. Smith addressed the Saints
in the Tabernacle Sunday afternoon,
August 29th, 1897, the services being
presided over by Elder Angus M. Can-
non, president of the Salt Lake Stake.

The choir sang the anthem:
"Behold the mountain of the Lord
In latter days shall rise."

Prayer was offered by Elder Heber
Iverson.

The choir further sang:
"Softly beams the sacred dawning
Of the great millennial morn."

PREST. WOODRUFF'S ADDRESS.

President Wilford Woodruff was the
first speaker. He spoke as follows:

I want to say to the Latter-day
Saints that I have had quite a desire
of late to once more address you upon
some few subjects which I have upon
my mind. I have been for quite a time
under the weather as the saying is.
I have not been able to meet with the
Saints nor to do any business a good
deal of the time. But I have been
blessed of late with a little better
health.

The first subject I want to name is
the addressing of the Latter-day
Saints in this Tabernacle or in any
other assembly. There is nothing more
painful to me than to arise before five
or ten thousand people and attempt to
address them when not one in five, or
ten, or twenty, can hear what I say.
It is very difficult when this Taber-
nacle is full for any man to make
them hear. In speaking in
this Tabernacle there are
a few rules which I think every man
should observe. In the first place
he ought to preach to that post
right in the center yonder from the
time he begins till the time he gets through.
When a man who speaks from this
stand turns to the right, nobody on the
left can hear him, and when
he turns to the left, no-
body on the right can hear him,
and for men and women to sit here
hour after hour without hearing or un-
derstanding what is said, is very pain-
ful. Pardon me, brethren and sisters,
for referring to this. I perhaps am like
the rest of my brethren. I do not know
that I can make this assembly hear,
but I will do the best I can.

I was blessed with the privilege of
attending the celebration of the intro-
duction of the Pioneers into these val-
leys of the mountains. I was
very poor in health, but I
was enabled almost every day
to attend those assemblies, and
on the Pioneer day I had the privilege
of riding at the head of the Pioneer
company with several of my brethren.
The events which I was privileged
to witness during the Jubilee
week were of deep interest to me and
brought to my mind a great many
thoughts and reflections. I had the
privilege of meeting in this Tabernacle
some ten or fifteen thousand boys and
girls of the rising generation in the
midst of Israel. Among other things
I had the honor of being crowned here
by a young lady as the oldest Pioneer
of the valley. I looked upon it as a
far higher honor than being crowned
a king or a prince. All that I saw and
heard during those celebrations fur-
nished a testimony to me, and laid
with weight upon my mind the events
of the past. I viewed the adorning
and the lighting of this city in the
evenings with great delight. I have
traveled something like 175,000 miles in
over sixty years of my pilgrimage, and
I never saw in any part of the world
anything to compare with it. It is
true the nations of the earth in years
gone by have not had those appliances
that we have today in so great a
measure.

I want to refer to the contrast
between the celebration of the en-
trance of the Pioneers into this val-
ley, and the entrance of the Pioneers
itself. This celebration brought
strongly to my mind what God has
wrought in these valleys of the moun-
tains. My thoughts turn to the day
when we entered this valley, when I
drove President Young in my carriage,
he lying upon a bed of sickness. We
camped here on the east of the Knuts-
ford. We spent one night there. Presi-
dent Young slept in his bed in my
wagon one night after entering this
barren desert, and he was quite a
sick man. He said to me in the morn-
ing. “Brother Woodruff, I want to
take a walk.” “All right,” said I.
A number of the Twelve Apostles
were there and they got together. He
commenced to walk from our encamp-
ment across this barren desert, this
sage plain without any guide to mark
anything appertaining to the future of
the children of men in this land. Presi-
dent Young was quite feeble. He wore
his little green cloak upon his
shoulders and he walked slowly along.

As we advanced from below on to the
rising ground we came to a certain
spot where he stopped very suddenly.
He took his cane, which had a spike
in the end of it, and stuck it down into
the ground, and said, “Here shall stand
the Temple of our God.” It went
through me like lightning. I did not
insult him, the Prophet of God, by ask-
ing him who told him so. What was
there here to encourage the Prophet
of God to make a remark of that kind?
What had he to trust to build a
Temple here that would cost four mil-
lions of dollars? Instead of having
around him a hundred thousand work-
ing men with millions of money in
hand, he had one hundred and forty
men. We were sore and tired and
weary, without any money in our
pockets, and still the Prophet of God
sticks his cane into the ground and
says, “Here shall stand the Temple of
our God.” I asked him to stop there
till I could break a piece of sage brush
or something that I could drive down
into the place. I did nothing else un-
til I put a stake in that spot that he
marked with his cane, and then we
went on about our business. But when
I listened to his words that first night
that we spent in this barren desert, and
then he told us here was going to
stand the Temple of our God, I knew
that man spoke by the Spirit of Al-
mighty God. I knew it from the Spir-
it that was resting upon me. I was
satisfied it would all be fulfilled.

What has been the result? Before
you, he lived here. He laid the foun-
dation of that Temple, and there
stood the stake in the middle of that
Temple when it was laid out, without
any regard to his prophecies or say-
ings. These things rested with great
weight upon my mind as I looked up-
on the mighty throngs celebrating
the event of the Pioneers into the val-
leys of the mountains. There stands
that Temple today, with its spires, on
top of one of which a statue of Moroni
stands, blowing the Gospel trump
pointing to the throne of God in
heaven, in fulfillment of the prophe-
cies of Patriarchs and Prophets thou-
sands of years ago. Those are eter-
nal truths that ought to rest with
some weight upon the minds of the
Latter-day Saints.

Half an hour after the event I have
described, I heard President Young
say to Samuel Brannan, who was
urging him to leave this desert land
and go to California, “No, I am going
to stop right here; I am going to build
a city here; I am going to build a Tem-
ple here; and I am going to build a
country here.” Where is the fulfill-
ment of this? It is before the eyes of
all the world today. This prophecy
has been fulfilled to the very letter.

President Young lived to dedicate
the corner stone of this Temple, and
to fulfil all that he had promised. He
not only built this Temple, but he
dictated and directed the building of
the St. George Temple at a cost of
half a million dollars. I dedicated the
lower part of that house in its first
dedication, by commandment of the
Prophet of the Lord. Brother Erastus
Snow and Brother Brigham Young Jr.
dedicated the other portion of it.
Thousands upon thousands of the liv-
ing and the dead have been blessed in
that Temple from that day until the
present. These are principles of in-
terest to me, whether they are to any-
body else or not. The Prophet of God
also laid out the Manti Temple, and
he did a thing that perhaps no other
man on the earth would have done—
he removed a mountain at the cost of
a hundred thousand dollars to
get a place that would suit him for
that Temple to stand on. That Tem-
ple was built under his direction, and
Brother Folsom superintended its con-
struction. Not only that Temple but
also the Temple in Logan was built
by his voice and counsel so long as he
lived.

These things are before the heavens
and before the earth, and the Saints
ought not to forget the blesings which
God has bestowed through His Proph-
ets who have been among us. The
Lord has set His hand to carry out
this great work. Here we have
standing in the State of Utah four
Temples, in which the Elders of Israel
are laboring to redeem their dead and
the dead of their fellow men. These
things lie with weight upon my mind.
They did during this great celebration.
To see the thousands upon thousands
come here into these valleys of the
mountains fifty years after our arrival,
it made me feel as though all the
Latter-day Saints ought to have faith
in God in His promises and revelations.
For if there is anything that has
taken place unlooked for to the whole
earth it has been the building up of
these Rocky Mountains by the Lat-
ter-day Saints, through the power of
God. But we have performed a work
so far and that, too, under the dictation
and direction of the Prophets of God
that have been sent among us. I

PREST. WOODRUFF'S ADDRESS.

President Wilford Woodruff was the first speaker. He spoke as follows:

I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that I have had quite a desire of late to once more address you upon some few subjects which I have upon my mind. I have been for quite a time under the weather as the saying is. I have not been able to meet with the Saints nor to do any business a good deal of the time. But I have been blessed of late with a little better health.

The first subject I want to name is the addressing of the Latter-day Saints in this Tabernacle or in any other assembly. There is nothing more painful to me than to arise before five or ten thousand people and attempt to address them when not one in five, or ten, or twenty, can hear what I say. It is very difficult when this Tabernacle is full for any man to make them hear. In speaking in this Tabernacle there are a few rules which I think every man should observe. In the first place he ought to preach to that post right in the center yonder from the time he begins till the time he gets through. When a man who speaks from this stand turns to the right, nobody on the left can hear him, and when he turns to the left, nobody on the right can hear him, and for men and women to sit here hour after hour without hearing or understanding what is said, is very painful. Pardon me, brethren and sisters, for referring to this. I perhaps am like the rest of my brethren. I do not know that I can make this assembly hear, but I will do the best I can.

I was blessed with the privilege of attending the celebration of the introduction of the Pioneers into these valleys of the mountains. I was very poor in health, but I was enabled almost every day to attend those assemblies, and on the Pioneer day I had the privilege of riding at the head of the Pioneer company with several of my brethren. The events which I was privileged to witness during the Jubilee week were of deep interest to me and brought to my mind a great many thoughts and reflections. I had the privilege of meeting in this Tabernacle some ten or fifteen thousand boys and girls of the rising generation in the midst of Israel. Among other things I had the honor of being crowned here by a young lady as the oldest Pioneer of the valley. I looked upon it as a far higher honor than being crowned a king or a prince. All that I saw and heard during those celebrations furnished a testimony to me, and laid with weight upon my mind the events of the past. I viewed the adorning and the lighting of this city in the evenings with great delight. I have traveled something like 175,000 miles in over sixty years of my pilgrimage, and I never saw in any part of the world anything to compare with it. It is true the nations of the earth in years gone by have not had those appliances that we have today in so great a measure.

I want to refer to the contrast between the celebration of the entrance of the Pioneers into this valley, and the entrance of the Pioneers itself. This celebration brought strongly to my mind what God has wrought in these valleys of the mountains. My thoughts turn to the day when we entered this valley, when I drove President Young in my carriage, he lying upon a bed of sickness. We camped here on the east of the Knutsford. We spent one night there. President Young slept in his bed in my wagon one night after entering this barren desert, and he was quite a sick man. He said to me in the morning. “Brother Woodruff, I want to take a walk.” “All right,” said I. A number of the Twelve Apostles were there and they got together. He commenced to walk from our encampment across this barren desert, this sage plain without any guide to mark anything appertaining to the future of the children of men in this land. President Young was quite feeble. He wore his little green cloak upon his shoulders and he walked slowly along.

As we advanced from below on to the rising ground we came to a certain spot where he stopped very suddenly. He took his cane, which had a spike in the end of it, and stuck it down into the ground, and said, “Here shall stand the Temple of our God.” It went through me like lightning. I did not insult him, the Prophet of God, by asking him who told him so. What was there here to encourage the Prophet of God to make a remark of that kind? What had he to trust to build a Temple here that would cost four millions of dollars? Instead of having around him a hundred thousand working men with millions of money in hand, he had one hundred and forty men. We were sore and tired and weary, without any money in our pockets, and still the Prophet of God sticks his cane into the ground and says, “Here shall stand the Temple of our God.” I asked him to stop there till I could break a piece of sage brush or something that I could drive down into the place. I did nothing else until I put a stake in that spot that he marked with his cane, and then we went on about our business. But when I listened to his words that first night that we spent in this barren desert, and then he told us here was going to stand the Temple of our God, I knew that man spoke by the Spirit of Almighty God. I knew it from the Spirit that was resting upon me. I was satisfied it would all be fulfilled.

What has been the result? Before you, he lived here. He laid the foundation of that Temple, and there stood the stake in the middle of that Temple when it was laid out, without any regard to his prophecies or sayings. These things rested with great weight upon my mind as I looked upon the mighty throngs celebrating the event of the Pioneers into the valleys of the mountains. There stands that Temple today, with its spires, on top of one of which a statue of Moroni stands, blowing the Gospel trump pointing to the throne of God in heaven, in fulfillment of the prophecies of Patriarchs and Prophets thousands of years ago. Those are eternal truths that ought to rest with some weight upon the minds of the Latter-day Saints.

Half an hour after the event I have described, I heard President Young say to Samuel Brannan, who was urging him to leave this desert land and go to California, “No, I am going to stop right here; I am going to build a city here; I am going to build a Temple here; and I am going to build a country here.” Where is the fulfillment of this? It is before the eyes of all the world today. This prophecy has been fulfilled to the very letter.

President Young lived to dedicate the corner stone of this Temple, and to fulfil all that he had promised. He not only built this Temple, but he dictated and directed the building of the St. George Temple at a cost of half a million dollars. I dedicated the lower part of that house in its first dedication, by commandment of the Prophet of the Lord. Brother Erastus Snow and Brother Brigham Young Jr. dedicated the other portion of it. Thousands upon thousands of the living and the dead have been blessed in that Temple from that day until the present. These are principles of interest to me, whether they are to anybody else or not. The Prophet of God also laid out the Manti Temple, and he did a thing that perhaps no other man on the earth would have done— he removed a mountain at the cost of a hundred thousand dollars to get a place that would suit him for that Temple to stand on. That Temple was built under his direction, and Brother Folsom superintended its construction. Not only that Temple but also the Temple in Logan was built by his voice and counsel so long as he lived.

These things are before the heavens and before the earth, and the Saints ought not to forget the blesings which God has bestowed through His Prophets who have been among us. The Lord has set His hand to carry out this great work. Here we have standing in the State of Utah four Temples, in which the Elders of Israel are laboring to redeem their dead and the dead of their fellow men. These things lie with weight upon my mind. They did during this great celebration. To see the thousands upon thousands come here into these valleys of the mountains fifty years after our arrival, it made me feel as though all the Latter-day Saints ought to have faith in God in His promises and revelations. For if there is anything that has taken place unlooked for to the whole earth it has been the building up of these Rocky Mountains by the Latter-day Saints, through the power of God. But we have performed a work so far and that, too, under the dictation and direction of the Prophets of God that have been sent among us. I