Brethren and sisters, being invited to address you, I cheerfully arise
to make a few remarks, for I truly feel thankful for the privilege I
enjoy of speaking to you this morning. Be patient, my friends, I will
start on as high a key as I can so as not to break down. I feel
thankful for the opportunity of meeting with the Saints in General
Conference, and of mingling my testimony with this vast number of
Saints in endeavoring to advance the interests of the kingdom of God,
according to the intelligence I possess; and I feel truly thankful to
the Lord for the experience I have had. I do not know that I can feel
thankful for all the experience I have had, but suffice it to say that
I am spared by our heavenly Father.
I do not at present know what I shall select for the foundation of my
remarks. Sometimes I take my text from the spelling book, sometimes
from the Bible, also from the Book of Mormon, and from the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants, besides another Book which seems to be above
all other books—the Book of Nature; one page above and the other
beneath. There we behold the finger of God; it is plain and legible to
every heart that is inspired of the Almighty, that is filled with the
love of God, and burning with the light of truth.
On this occasion there is a scripture that occurs to my mind, where
our Savior in his parables puts forth a sentiment like this, "Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which
when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." —Matt. xiii., 44. The
Savior taught a great deal in parables, and the servants of God in
these days teach by parables and comparisons in order that we may
understand the more clearly, and that we may take a larger view of
things than we should or could from the plain, simple statement of
facts in common language.
Now, brethren and sisters, we are all seeking the kingdom of our God,
we are seeking to become heirs of that kingdom, to be lawful and loyal
subjects of the same. With this a question arises, whether we shall
attain to a place in that kingdom at any less cost than did those I
have quoted the Scripture about in your hearing. The man purchased the
field and hid his treasure there. He went silently, lest, if he made a
great bluster, some other individual might go and steal the march upon
him and purchase the field of treasure, then the bargain would have
been complete; but no, he was wide awake, and sold all that he had and
purchased that field, for he was determined to have that treasure. It
took all that he had to purchase it, but the treasure concealed there
was far beyond the cost of purchase in value, and in purchasing it he
knew that it would increase in time and throughout all eternity, for that treasure was the kingdom of God,
and salvation to that man's soul.
A question comes up in the minds of some; I have frequently heard
persons say, "What becomes of our Tithing? And what is the propriety
of paying so much? The calls come from this quarter and calls from
that; and what are we doing when we are buying that field in which the
treasure lies concealed?" Did we ever think, when responding to the
calls on the right and on the left, that we were purchasing that
field, and that having gone to the extent of our power and ability in
that transaction, that there is our deed and title to the kingdom of
God, signed, sealed, and delivered?
Look back upon our privations that we have undergone, and there is joy
and gladness, there is hope which is full of immortality. The kingdom
is ours. We have purchased it, and by it our salvation is secured, by
faithfulness in the kingdom. Now do we expect to get something for
nothing? If we do, the transaction is not suspended upon an even
balance. To expect something for nothing is just what many in our
community want to do in their trading and trafficking, and putting on
prices that are far above the standard. You naturally call such
persons dishonest, and such they truly are. If you expect to gain the
kingdom of our God without purchasing it by your labors, with me the
question is, Will you not be mistaken in your calculation?
This parable to which I have invited your attention is a good lesson
for all of us, and we should endeavor to so conduct ourselves as to
show that with us the kingdom of God is all in all. This parable is an
ensample for us to copy and adopt. A word to the wise is sufficient on
this subject. You have considered this matter having read about it,
and by reciting it over it may be of service to you. It is no matter
what that man did, or what the other said, so far as the field spoken
of is concerned, for I do not suppose the purchaser gave him any
trouble whether he paid out his money for this, that, or the other. It
was the field that he paid it for; he wished to have the field
containing the treasure. It is not the price we pay for the kingdom,
it is the kingdom of God we are bound to purchase at any price.
Enough upon that subject. As short sermons seem to be the order of the
day, I may be allowed to touch upon that which will benefit myself,
that which will increase our faith and tend to our education and good,
that we may go to our homes rejoicing in the truth and in the
privileges of the new and everlasting covenant.
Now with regard to the poor, I have a few words to say. I have a text
about sending to the Missouri River to bring home the poor. The Lord
says, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver
him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive;
and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him
unto the will of his enemies." —Psalm xli., 1, 2. Such an one will be
blessed of the Lord for sending out his beasts, and for taking the
poor, even the stranger to his house; his light shall shine in
darkness, and shall appear as at the noonday. Now then we have
considered the poor, we have sent our teams, our oxen and all that was
necessary to bring them to our houses. And I will here observe that I
wish, that inasmuch as they have come to our mountain home, to the
threshold of Zion, that every man would so conduct himself as to
meet with the approving smile of Heaven, then their light would break
forth and shine in the darkness as resplendently as the noonday sun.
We all want our brethren and sisters at home; then let us lend
a helping hand. Now just go down there to the public square and see
what you can do. Take the poor home to your houses, and God Almighty
bless you from this time henceforth and forever. It is our imperative
duty to walk in the light, to see that our pathway is clear and plain
before us, and let us so live that it may be clear.
Bishops, allow me to say a word to you. In the vicinity where I have
been laboring for the last two-years-and-a-half, I have seen the evil
of spreading out so far. We are and have seemed to be anxious to take
up all the land that we could find, and then keep putting in seed
until the first we put in is ripe and ready for harvesting. This has
been the case with all of us, more or less, in fact it has been so
much so that neither man nor woman has had time to clean out the filth
and bedbugs, so much so that they have got the upper hand of us. We
talk of subduing nations, of becoming kings and priests unto God, but
amidst all our great talk we have not subdued the vermin with which we
are pestered in our newly created homes. We sometimes talk about
messengers coming from heaven to visit us, but I doubt whether the
angels will come to commune with us until we are in a different
situation.
I will now go back to the wheat field, and speak a little of that. The
brethren in our section thought they would not plant so much grain but
let the ground rest. In process of time the wheat came up in large
quantities; we had water plenty, and we had such immense crops that we
had not men enough to reap the grain that was raised, and hence we
had all the work to do ourselves. We did all we could, but much of
the grain has gone back into the earth because we had not help enough
to gather it. Our wives and sisters volunteered to assist their
husbands and fathers, and they did all they could. We hear a great
deal of talk about women's rights at times, but if you will come down
to Sanpete you will see women's rights conventions, and they take
especial pleasure in doing as they like.
To return to the subject of grain, I can truly say that we can sustain
our present population and all the emigration that is coming this
year. We have this to say of our blessings in return for sending all
our teams to gather the poor; no we did not send them quite all, there
was one yoke of oxen left to five farms, after filling up the bill for
the Missouri River. In addition to these we had a few first-class
horse teams, and thus we managed to put in a little grain, but a great
deal of it grew without our doing anything to it ourselves, and thus
the Lord blessed us with the desires of our hearts, and with a rich
reward for what we had done towards the gathering of his people.
We are now showing that we can raise fruit down there, and by-and-by
I may have the satisfaction of eating the fruit of my own raising in
Sanpete, for I have no doubt but our apple trees will produce good
fruit in due time.
Our teams are now returning; I met some of them as I was coming to
Conference, and I felt to say the Lord be praised, you have performed
a good mission, and the Lord has blessed our labors and also the
labors of those who have been out on the plains. I feel that the crops
that have been raised in such great abundance with so little labor
have been by the goodness of the Almighty, and I feel that we have
worked ourselves almost into life everlasting.
You may think that I am going into a great many things, but I do not
expect to hit them all, but I shall touch a few of them as they come
up before me. I want to say to the Bishops, that it is their business to direct the energies of the Saints, and where they see a man
who is inclined to spread out and sow some forty or fifty acres of
wheat, I want them to tell such men to go to work and build good
houses. Tell the blacksmiths to go to blacksmithing, the carpenter to
his trade, and every other mechanic to his business, and do not let us
be as we have been heretofore. When a man has wanted anything doing by
a mechanic it has been almost impossible to get it done. For instance,
I would go to a blacksmith's shop and say I want a horse shod, "Oh,"
says the smith, "I can't, I must go and cut my grain, or I must go and
irrigate it;" and there are perhaps half-a-dozen men that are in this
manner cut short of their labor, by one man refusing to work at his
trade, and all men being determined to be farmers. Then I say let the
blacksmith attend to his blacksmithing and let him charge a reasonable
price for his labor, and not, as has been the custom, charge three or
four prices. Let the joiner do likewise, working constantly at that
which will most conduce to the building up of Zion, and let the farmer
raise the grain. Where you find a man who has plenty of grain to serve
him from three to five years, and plenty of teams and wagons too, tell
him to go to work and build for his family a comfortable dwelling
house, and point out to him that he is in this way finding employment
for the mechanics, making his family comfortable and building up Zion.
Teach each man to work at his trade and calling, and let the farmer
take hold with his might of that which is his profession, but have a
little time to breathe and rest. As it is now, we go into the garden
and we work like Sam Hill, leaving no time for rest. "By-the-by that
means me," but I must hew to the line, no matter who is hit. (A voice:
Never mind yourself, just go ahead.)
Now then for the flax. Have we got it on hand that we can make our own
ropes? No, only a very little in comparison to the demand. We have a
rope factory, and we have hemp growing in our county, and we have made
many attempts to raise flax, and we do raise a little but we never use
it. It is either left in the sun till the coat is burnt off, or we
allow it to be trampled down in the yard by the cattle. In this
country we cannot rot the flax in the dews, we must put it into water,
a shallow pond is the most suitable, so far as I understand the
matter. Now, it is better for each of us to raise about ten acres of
wheat, and then devote the rest of our time to the flax and hemp. I
was raised to wear a tow frock, but the tow would wear off in a short
time. If we would raise some and devote a little time to the proper
culture of it, attend to each department in its season, the rotting,
the hetcheling and the spinning and weaving we should be much better
off than we now are. But no, it takes us the whole time, and it seems
that we must devote the entire season to raise and take care of our
grain, and especially the wheat. The time has now come for us to
classify our labor and change our policy. I believe I have said as
much as is necessary on these subjects, as I wish to say a few things
concerning the times and seasons.
Now concerning the times and seasons in which we live. The Lord says
by the mouth of Isaiah, "Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God
that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of
thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury;
thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of
them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we
may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as
the street, to them that went over." —Isaiah li. 22 and 23. What are
you going to do with this text, my friends? I will put it into the
hands of them that have afflicted thee. What was that army up here
for? They were sent as agents of the Almighty to take away this cup of
trembling, which had afflicted us for so many years, and they carried
it away with them down yonder, and they then began to drink of it and
have been drinking of it ever since. Do you know that there was a kind
of tremor with some of us at that time? But I tell you what it is, the
nerves have become settled, and those who sought to make us drink the
dregs are drinking them now, and they will continue to do so until the
dregs are all drunk out. I have no feeling against anyone, and I
regret exceedingly that these of whom I speak should have brought upon
themselves these terrible calamities which now afflict our once happy
country.
If I understand the spirit that I am of, those that do the will of God
will not hereafter feel that pitta-pat of trembling which they have
been accustomed to feel, for the Lord says, "I will take it away from
them," and he has done it, and we feel it. If they have not got the
cup full yet, and do not get it in 1863, all I can say is I will wait
till they do, for the Almighty will make them that have afflicted his
people drink the dregs of that bitter cup of trembling. And this is
not all, I can look very far into the future, but as far as I can see
it is a dark and gloomy picture. I could not but be forcibly struck
with the remarks of brother Young in relation to the nation growing
more guilty and more corrupt, therefore are they being scourged so
severely. The Prophet and Revelator John says, "And I heard a great
voice out of the temple say to the seven angels, Go your ways, and
pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first
went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome
and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and
upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out
his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and
every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his
vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord,
which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For
they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given
them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of
the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy
judgments." —Rev. xvi. 1—7.
Did not the enemies of the Lord attempt to feed the martyrs Joseph and
Hyrum Smith with the flesh of their brethren? Look at the testimony of
Hyrum Smith. Now they have set the example of war, of cruelty, and it
will come double upon their own heads; but, says the Lord, upon my
house shall it begin. And now these afflictions have been rolled off
from our shoulders onto them, and they will be sorely punished for
their iniquity. These things will come to pass. I need not predict
anything about these calamities, greater men than I am have predicted
in reference to these things, therefore I only need to bear my
testimony to the truth of that which has been predicted. In the
fierceness of the battle the fainting soldier will bow down to slake
his parched thirst with the blood of his fellow. If this has not
transpired it may in the future, for the horrors of war will be
terrible to contemplate. Many curious things lie hid in the future
which will astonish the world.
It is now a great time for digging gold; and this reminds me that I
had a dream, in which I learned how to dig gold. I saw the gold
wherever I went, lying about on the ground; I could pick it up in
the night, but in the day time it could not be seen by anybody. While
contemplating this, the Spirit said unto me, "Don't you know that
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not?" Now
here it is, in the form or shape of a reward that cometh to the
faithful, and with our purified gold we are called upon to buy that
field, even the kingdom of God. Never ask yourselves what the seller
of that field does with the price of it; this is nothing to you or me.
And if there are liabilities upon the President of this Church let us
raise them from his shoulder, and let the servants of God go as free
as the lark of the morning.
Brethren and sisters, I do not wish to occupy more than my share of
the time, therefore my remarks I bequeath to you with the best
feelings of my soul, and I feel that if the services of such an humble
individual as myself can be of use, I shall feel ever ready to render
this service.
God bless you forever. Amen.