THE DESERET WEEKLY
SUNDAY SERVICES
Presidents Wilford Woodruff and
Joseph F. Smith addressed the Saints
in the Tabernacle Sunday afternoon,
, 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
think that we as Latter-day Saints
ought to understand our posi-
tion before the Lord and every
man that has got the Priesthood, every
man that has entered into covenants
with the Lord should never turn his
thoughts, his affections or his work in
any other channel than the building
up of the kingdom of God. If we do
we will miss it in the end, when we
pass to the other side of the vail.
We have everything to encourage us
in the carrying out of the purposes of
the Lord in our labors. It has been
a very remarkable period that we
have passed through during the cele-
bration of the entrance of the Pioneers
into the valley and of that which has
taken place since we came here. I am
thankful myself to God that I have
lived to see the fulfillment of these
promises of the Prophet of God. They
are great testimonies to me that the
Lord means what He says and says
what He means.
There is another principle I have up-
on my mind that I would like to speak
of. The Prophet Joseph Smith
taught the Twelve Apostles in
my day and time with re-
gard to the principle of revela-
tion. The Prophet said the
Elders of Israel would have
their minds moved upon by
the Spirit of God concerning various
things which they might not always
understand, but if they would follow
out that principle and practice upon it
it would very soon become a principle
of revelation to them. This is a true
principle and by observing it I have
been blessed all my life. Almost every
mission I have ever had in this Church
has been by the inspiration of Al-
mighty God to me. I have been led
to do this, that and the other, and
whenever I have done it I have found
the truth of God made manifest con-
cerning it. I am here today a living
man. Without heeding that principle
I would have been in the spirit world
a great many years ago. We all
should seek and labor for this prin-
ciple of revelation and get the mind
and will of God. It is very easy to do
that, if we do our duty before the Lord.
I desire to refer to myself a little in
carrying out those principles which
have been given me by the Prophet of
God. In the time of the great apos-
tasy at Kirtland, when there were so
many enemies that held the Apostle-
ship and various offices in the Priest-
hood who were at war against the
Prophet of God, I was there up to a
certain time. Right in the midst of
that apostasy the Spirit of God came
to me and told me to choose a partner
and go to Fox Islands. I knew no
more what was on Fox Islands than I
did what was on Kolob, but the Lord
said go to Fox Islands, and I selected
a partner and went. My partner was
Jonathan H. Hale. I went through
Farmington, Connecticut, my father’s
abiding place, and preached there one
night. I baptized my father, my step-
mother, my half-sister, and several of
my relatives, and organized a small
branch of the Church. I then went
on my way to the Islands. When I
got to the Islands I learned what the
Lord had sent me there for. I found
a people that were searching for light
and truth. Without dwelling upon
this, I will say I had the privilege, with
my companion, of baptizing every
man and woman belonging to a Bap-
tist church there. Of course this aroused
a warfare against us. A Methodist
minister came from the South Islands
and made war against us, and I bap-
tized most of the members of
his church in a little while.
I took a large company of
them with me up to Zion after I
received word from the Prophet that
I was called of God by revelation to
fill the place of one of the Twelve.
Now, nobody told me to go to Fox
Islands except the Lord. I asked some
counsel about it and went and fulfilled
what the Lord required at my hands.
It was upon the principle of revela-
tion. It was the same when the
Twelve Apostles went to England.
They went by revelation and com-
mandment of God. Brother John Tay-
lor and myself were the two first of
the quorum to land in England.
Brother Taylor went to Liverpool, and
I went to Staffordshire. I there found
Brother Cordon with whom I stopped
and labored. We preached every
night in the week, and baptized quite
a number, and I thought we were do-
ing an excellent work. I went one
night into the town hall of Hanley
to preach to the people. Before
I got up to speak, the Holy Spirit
came to me and told me, “This is the
last meeting you will hold with this
people for many days.” I did not
know what the Lord wanted of me.
We did our preaching, and we baptized
quite a number after the meeting. The
Saints asked me where I was going.
I told them I didn’t know. I went and
asked the Lord what I should do and
where I should go. “Go to the south,”
was all the answer I got from the
Lord. I got into the stage and rode
eighty miles south, and the first man’s
house I stopped at was John Ben-
bow’s. When I got there I found a
large number of people, who had
broken off from the Wesleyan Method-
ists and other churches and who had
taken the name of United Brethren,
praying the Lord to open some door
whereby they could be enlightened in
the things of God and anxiously wait-
ing for the ancient order of things to
be res[t]ored as you and I have been in
our day. I hadn’t been in his house
fifteen minutes until I understood
why the Lord had sent me. The first
thirty days I brought all that body of
people and many others into the
Church. I baptized them and their
ministers, too. I had in my hands all
their chapels, licensed according to
law. We brought into the Church over
two thousand in eight months, and
formed two or three conferences, and
many of them are now in Utah, some
of them Bishops in the Church.
I do not name this because I want
to take any honor to myself, but when
the Spirit of God tells a man to do
anything he ought to do it, and then
the blessings of God will be with him.
It has been so with me in my labors.
I have endeavored to do what the
Lord has told me. I want our Elders,
our young men that are going on mis-
sions, to learn this principle while they
are young. Learn to get the spirit of
revelation. You know what is right
and what is wrong, and the Spirit of
God will educate our young men in
these principles and they will become
mighty men in the hands of God if
they will but carry this out. This is a
principle that I feel we ought to
teach and practice. We should study
constantly to know what the mind
and will of God is concerning us, and
when we do that there will be no di-
vision among us, but we shall all be
of one heart and one mind.
Brethren and sisters, I do not feel
that I ought to talk any longer to you
this afternoon, but I thank God that I
have this privilege of meeting with you
once more in the flesh. There are many
things I do not understand, and one is
why I am here at my present age. I
do not understand why I have been
preserved as long as I have been when
so many Apostles and Prophets have
been called home. I want to bear my
testimony upon another subject. I am
the only man living in the flesh that
received endowments under the hands
of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I am
the only man in the flesh that was
with the Twelve Apostles when he
turned over the kingdom of God to
them and laid upon them the com-
mandment to bear off this kingdom.
He stood for some three hours in a
room delivering to us his last lec-
ture. The room was filled as with
consuming fire. His face was as clear
as amber; his words were like vivid
lightning to us. They penetrated every
part of our bodies from the crown of
our head to the soles of our feet. He
said, “Brethren, the Lord Almighty
has sealed upon my head every Priest-
hood, every key, every power, every
principle that belongs to the last dis-
pensation of the fulness of times, and
to the building up of the kingdom of
God. I have sealed upon your heads all
those principles, Priesthood, apostle-
ship, and keys of the kingdom of God,
and now you have got to round up
your shoulders and bear off this king-
dom or you will be damned.” I do
not forget those words—I never shall
while I live. That was the last speech
he ever made in the flesh. Soon after-
ward he was martyred and called
home to glory.
I have always felt to bear my testi-
mony to the Church and to the world
concerning the truths of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. My prayer to God is
that we may pursue a course wherein
we may be justified at the end of our
work. Our brethren that laid the
foundation of this Church and king-
dom are upon the other side of the
vail. I have no doubt myself but they
are watching with interest everything
that takes place with us here, though
to what extent is not revealed to us.
I desire, therefore, that we may all
live in that way and manner that we
may be justified and saved in the king-
dom of our God.
The Lord has set His hand to build
Zion. He is not going to fail. It mat-
ters not who opposes it, or what views
and feelings of unbelief the children of
men may have with regard to the pur-
poses of the Lord, these purposes will
all come to pass. Zion will arise and
flourish. The glory of God will rest
upon her, and she will accomplish all
that Isaiah and the other Prophets
have spoken concerning her.
God bless you all, in the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen.