With joy and delight I look upon you, brethren and sisters. I feel to
render all praise, thanks, and adora tion to our Father and God, that
my heart is capable of rendering; and with all the affections,
together with all the talent bestowed upon me, I feel to serve,
praise, adore, and acknowledge the Lord our God.
Let me ask a question. Finding ourselves in our present position in
the world of sin and darkness, of ignorance, unbelief, superstition,
and tradition, which have been woven and interwoven with our lives;
thrown around us like a mantle, which is used to shield the body from
the cold and from the storm; considering ourselves as we are, then ask
ourselves the question, if on earth we have any idea of anything like
a kingdom or community of people being celestial; then ask ourselves
again, if we have, does not the presentation this evening border very
nigh to it? I can say for one, as far as we do know and understand, as
far as our capacities can expand, and grasp life and happiness, just
so far this community which is present this evening, is advanced in
the celestial path.
If there is a heart here this evening, that does not chime in with
every sentiment of righteousness, that heart has no power in this
assembly. This company are controllable, like the ship by the rudder,
in a gentle breeze, that can be turned hither and thither at the will
and pleasure of him who commands; so with all here present; at the
sound of the voice, all is hushed, and every heart throbs in unison in
response to the words of praise and thanksgiving to our Father and our
God. This proves that the majority, at least, are right; and I have no
reason to believe that there is a heart in this house, but chimes in
with my own. Every countenance is cheerful; every face is lit up with
a lively glow of joy, peace, and tranquility.
We are now enjoying our pastimes. We often meet together and worship
the Lord by singing, praying, and preaching, fasting, and communing
with each other in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Now we are met
in the capacity of a social community—for what? That our minds may
rest, and our bodies receive that recreation which is proper and
necessary to keep up an equilibrium, to promote healthy action to the
whole system.
Let our minds sing for joy, and let life diffuse itself into every
avenue of the body; for the object of our meeting is for its exercise,
for its good.
This party was gotten up by the members of the Legislature, to rest
their minds, to convene in a social capacity, and enjoy the society of
each other, with their families, and to give renewed activity and
energy, which will invigorate and strengthen them in the discharge of
the arduous duties devolving upon them.
With regard to these feelings prevailing in our midst this evening, as
well as the correctness of these principles, all men and women must be
their own judge. I judge for myself, and not for another, although I
have that privilege, and can do it with safety and propriety. Why is
this? Because when I look upon the faces of my brethren, I know their
hearts; let the roots of bitterness be there, and their countenances
meet mine, and I know it in a moment. Do you not know it also? Can you
not feel it? Can you not see it? You can. This is why I say that I
have the privilege of judging others. You have the same privilege.
Having this privilege to judge for others as well as myself, I feel to
say, that every heart of the company present this afternoon and
evening, feels to sing praises to the Lord, and shout hallelujah to
His holy name. I am in the best place I ever was during my life, and
with the best society. I never saw a community that enjoyed the
tranquility and peace that are enjoyed by this people in these
valley's of the mountains. Is it not so? Judge for yourselves, ye are
my witnesses.
A few words, perhaps, will suffice the company. I was requested
to make a few remarks at the opening of the meeting, but I chose to
delay speaking until a more suitable time; for when any of my brethren
or myself speak to the people, I wish all to hear that conveniently
can, because when we are in this capacity, and call our minds
together, it is to reflect for a few moments, and look at each other,
and think of the Lord; view over the past times of our lives, and
contrast their history with the present festive moments. It is good to
look upon each other, because the faces of our friends, and the
gladness of their countenances, cheer our hearts, furnishing food for
future reflection. Under all circumstances, in every situation of our
past lives, in every transaction of business and of social enjoyment,
remember it is good to reflect and consider upon it now in the days of
peace and prosperity, while we have the privilege.
Our present situation, and the enjoyments of this
evening, will become
subjects of pleasant and agreeable reflection, when we shall be
separated from each other. Some of these, my brethren, may be absent
in foreign lands; our sisters may be separated from this community,
and go to the right and to the left; then these moments of festive joy
will be remembered with pleasing emotions,
and cherished in fond memory in after years.
Again, when we meet in this capacity, it is good for our minds to be
refreshed on this wise a little, for the reason, as you are all aware,
that we are naturally forgetful, and it is according to the frailties
of human nature to decline and falter in our feelings at the varied,
besetting, enticing, and almost overwhelming temptations that are
abroad in the world, and with which the people, especially those of
the household of faith, have to contend. Our former life, its
anxieties and enjoyments, are apt to be forgotten. This is our
experience. If we should suffer ourselves to spend our time day after
day, and week after week, as we are today, how long would it be,
before we would forget the Lord? It would not be long. If we continued
in the exercising of the body without reflection, this company would
soon think—it is no matter about praying, or asking the Lord about
anything; we have enjoyed ourselves heretofore, and all has been
peace, quietness, and good order. But how long would it remain so?
How long would it be before we would become careless, if we remembered
not the Lord? For this reason, I say, on every such occasion, it is
right, reasonable, and necessary, that every heart be directed to the
Lord. When we have had sufficient recreation for our good, let that
suffice. It is all right; then let our minds labor instead of our
bodies; and in all our exercises of body and mind, it is good to
remember the Lord. If it cannot be so, but otherwise, I do not wish to
see another party while I live. If I could not enjoy the Spirit of the
Lord in this capacity with you this evening, and feel the power of God
to rest upon me, I should cease from all such indulgence. From this
time, never let us permit ourselves to go one step beyond that which
the Lord will own and bless.
But I pause here, and for this reason—I want it distinctly understood,
that fiddling and dancing are no part of our worship. The question may
be asked, What are they for, then? I answer, that my body may keep
pace with my mind. My mind labors like a man logging, all the time;
and this is the reason why I am fond of these pastimes—they give me a
privilege to throw everything off, and shake myself, that my body may
exercise, and my mind rest. What for? To get strength, and be renewed
and quickened, and enlivened, and animated, so that my mind may not
wear out. Experience tells us that the most of the inhabitants
of the earth wear out their bodies without wearing their minds at all,
through the sufferings they endure from hard labor, with distress,
poverty, and want. While on the other hand, a great portion of mankind
wear out their bodies without laboring, only in anxiety. But when men
are brought to labor entirely in the field of intelligence, there are
few minds to be found possessing strength enough to bear all things;
the mind becomes overcharged, and when this is the case, it begins to
wear upon the body, which will sink for want of the proper exercises.
This is the reason why I believe in and practice what I do. The
question might be asked, Why not go into the canyons and get out wood,
which would be good exercise enough? If you would know, come up to my
house, you will soon find out. Were I to go to the canyons, the whole
camp of Israel would follow me there; and they would not be there long
before they would say, Come, brother Brigham, I want to talk with you;
come, I will chop this wood. How many scores of times I have
undertaken to work, since I came into this ministry! Scores and
hundreds of times when my calling in the kingdom of God was less than
it is now, have I endeavored to set myself to work, but seldom could
have a chance to do so more than five minutes; someone would come
along, "Give me the hoe, brother Brigham, I want to talk with you;"
and so stop me, and no sooner stop me than he stops also. I have given
it up, I do not intend to work any more at manual labor. I do not
wrestle, or play the ball; all the exercise I do get is to dance a
little, while my council room is from my office to this room, and from
this room to my house again, into my sitting room, dining room, &c.
You will see the time, you will know what my labor is. I wish this
community to consider that I have feelings of a very acute nature.
There is not a man or a woman, Saint or sinner, it mattereth not, that
feels injured, and lays his or her complaints before me; but what it
rests upon my feelings; but my faith is unyielding, and I intend to
keep it so, as much as I can; my feelings sympathize so with the
injured, that I am grieved and distressed, and my head aches, and
large drops of cold sweat sit upon my brow, and no man or woman knows
anything about my feelings, and I do not want them to know, for I
calculate to kick off from my heels all that I cannot carry. I will
carry all I should, but there is not a person in this community that
can bring to mind or mention the time whenever I exhibited one
particle of sorrow or trouble to them. I calculate to carry my own
sorrows just as long as I live upon this earth; and when I go to the
grave, I expect them all to go there, and sleep with me in eternal
silence.
But to return to our party. I would just say, it was gotten up by the
Legislature to enjoy ourselves. I have enjoyed myself first-rate: my
heart is cheerful and full of gladness. I am in the midst of the
Saints of the Most High, and my desire is, and I will say with all my
heart, may God grant that the blessings, favors, and mercies, and
kindness of our Father in heaven, may bring us to a sense of the
obligations we owe to Him; and cheer, and cause joy and tranquility
to reign in this community, that every heart may be bound up in the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, without having to feel the rod again.
What is the use of it, when mercy and kindness are lavished upon the
people of God, and to see them falter in their faith, see them grow
cold towards the Lord their God, see them slacken their pace? Is it
not grievous? Just look at it. Suppose you had all the good
gifts to bestow upon your children that heart could wish, and you
lavish them out, but the more you give, the more slothful they
become—how would you feel? Just apply this to yourselves: I know how I
should feel. When I bring my mind to bear upon this subject, and see
what the Lord has done for me, and for this people, and think that I
should become remiss in my duty, so that the Lord should have need to
chasten me again, it seems, on the first reflection, that I ought to
be damned. When I look at myself before the Lord, and see what He has
called me to, and what He has called my brethren and sisters to; how
He has bestowed blessings upon us, and heaped them up until there is
not room to receive them, and I should want to go to the gold mines,
and return again here to speculate upon the Saints, and should be
guilty of complaining all the time, it seems, if I were to do this,
the Lord would damn me.
I know you feel as I do upon this subject. When you take this into
consideration, your serious reflections having place in your heart,
you feel as I do. For heaven's sake, for your own sake, and for the
sake of Him who died for us, never let us falter in our duty. While we
live, it is our duty to love the Lord with all our might, and with all
our strength, and with all our souls. This is our duty first and
foremost: we ought to love Him better than our wives, children, and
brethren and sisters, and all things besides. Is this our duty? Verily
yes. Let the heart love God, and serve Him, without any division of
feeling: never suffer it to wander to the right or to the left for one
moment.
If these were the feelings of this people, the Lord would lift up our
hands, exalt our hearts, and cause us to walk in His almighty
strength, so that the devil and his imps would ne ver have power to
bring another affliction upon us, never, no, never. Therefore, love
the Lord, keep His commandments, cleave to the Israel of God; this is
my exhortation all the time. And what is the next duty? Love your
neighbor as yourself, do unto others as you would that others should
do unto you, cease your contention and bad feelings, your evil
speaking and evil doing.
As I observed here not long since, I consider it is a disgrace to the
community, and in the eyes of the Lord, and of Angels, and in the eyes
of all the Prophets and Revelators that have ever lived upon the
earth, when a community will descend to the low, degraded state of
contention with each other; this little bickering, jarring,
faultfinding, somebody's abused me; why do you not say, if you have a
mind to abuse, abuse away? Suppose every heart should say, if my
neighbor does wrong to me, I will not complain, the Lord will take
care of him. Let every heart be firm, and everyone say, I will never
contend any more with a man for property, I will not be cruel to my
fellow creature, but I will do all the good I can, and as little evil
as possible. Now, where would be the wrong of taking this course? This
is the way to approximate toward a celestial state. A community cannot
be produced upon all the face of the earth that presents a celestial
aspect like this. If we continue to be faithful and prayerful, and
strive continually to resist every evil, we shall approximate more and
more towards that celestial kingdom, where there is an eternal
inheritance, and an unsullied glory. And if we should look back upon
ourselves, when we were doing evil to each other, should we not do so
with regret and shame? Should we not look upon our past mortal lives
with anguish and disgust? I wish men would look upon that eternity
which is before them. In the great morning of the
resurrection, with what grief would they look upon their little
trifling affairs of this probation; they would say, O! do not mention
it, for it is a source of mortification to me to think that I ever
should be guilty of doing wrong, or of neglecting to do good to my
fellow men, even if they have abused me. O! how would it appear if you
understood the heart of the Lord, and understood the heart and
faithfulness of those in the celestial kingdom. As good as we are, we
shall not want to look upon our past actions; we shall say, O! do not
mention it, but let it sleep; I never want that to be resurrected, but
let it die in the grave, and sleep an eternal sleep. Brethren and
sisters, I hope and pray that our evils may never rise with us. I can
say to you, with all my heart, and with all my soul, and not only to
this company, but to all the Saints throughout the world—may the
heavens bless you; the Lord Almighty blesses you, my soul blesses you,
how my soul loves you, may angels bless you, guard and preserve you;
and may all the heavenly hosts, arrayed in all their panoply of power,
be engaged for your exaltation.
One thing more. You will perceive all the time, this one thing in me,
viz., by my conduct, there is no lack of confidence—not a particle of
jealousy arises in my bosom towards this people. I never felt for one
moment a shadow of doubt upon that subject. I have never seen one
moment but this people loved me; although I may get up here and cuff
them about, chastising them for their forgetfulness, their weaknesses
and follies, yet I have not seen a moment when they did not love me.
The reason is, because I love them so well. Do you not know that
spirits beget spirits, and likeness begets likeness. I love this
people so well that I know they love me; they have confidence in me,
because I have confidence in them. You may scan the history of the
whole Church, and look over the whole surface of the matter, and did
you ever see this people, when they had the same confidence as they
have in each other at this day? No, never. And it is on the increase;
and this is what will make a community powerful. But if we lack
confidence in each other, and be jealous of each other, our peace will
be destroyed. If we cultivate the principle of unshaken confidence in
each other, our joy will be full. What does it prove? It proves that
we are fast advancing and approximating towards that degree of light,
knowledge, and glory, and all the principles that pertain to the
everlasting Gospel, and that we are actually in the favor of the Lord.
We need not bring any proofs of that, for that devils never kick and
cuff their own is certain. As I used to say, fifteen years ago, when I
was out preaching, and the people would get alarmed, when the devil
would get mad, and would say to me, "Oh! dear, sir, what is the
matter, I am afraid we are all going to be killed, for all hell is
boiling over" —my answer was, "Thank God, the devil has not forsaken us
yet." Will he not sustain his own kingdom? When you see all the powers
of the evil one combined against a community, you may know that is
Christ's kingdom. Everything has proved that this is God's kingdom,
and I need not say anything more about these two powers.
The Lord Almighty is for us, and the devil is against us. However, I
will tell you what I think of the whole of the devil's company on this
earth—if they will just keep out of my path, I shall be glad, for I
never want to see one of them. My soul is satisfied
with looking upon
this wicked world. If I never see another wicked person while I live,
I am perfectly satisfied with the Saints; these are my feelings. True,
it is my duty to preach to them; but I am willing, if the Lord is
satisfied, that I should never see another wicked person upon
this earth. I would be satisfied to live with the Saints and Angels
from this time henceforth. May heaven bless you, brethren and sisters.
Amen.