I feel thankful for a part and lot in the great Work of the last days.
It is a calling that ought to engage all our interests and welfare,
being inculcated in the maintenance of those principles which alone
can bring salvation to the human family. My soul delights in them.
They must be sustained, though all the world should rise in
opposition.
We live in that age of the world which the ancient Prophets have
foreseen, when the wicked would "make a man an offender for a word,
and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the
just for a thing of nought." I have often thought that the world does
not know what righteousness towards God con sists in; they place great
stress upon this, that and the other doctrine or principle as being
necessary to salvation, which has not been thought of by any person
who has been sent of God to lay before the children of men the true
way. They have made laws and rules of faith, and set up church
governments that cannot be drawn from anything to be found in the holy
Scriptures or in any revelation I know anything about.
Obedience towards God is righteousness towards God. "Jesus answered
and said unto them, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my
Father will love him," &c. In order to become a holy and righteous
people, it is necessary to listen to and obey every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God through his servants whom he has placed
to guide his kingdom, on the earth. This is righteousness towards God.
It is said we can do nothing for the Lord, that if he was an hungered,
he would not ask us for bread, &c.; but we can perform the duties we
owe to him by the performance of the duties we owe to each other; in
this way we can show ourselves approved before our Father who is in
heaven. "And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Who has a greater opportunity
of doing good to the brethren than the Latter-day Saints? Who has a
finer chance of showing their faith by their works?
The gathering of Israel I will mention as one of the many
opportunities that this people have of showing their good works to
their brethren in distant nations, who are now suffering for want of
the common necessaries of life; who are pleading day by day with their
brethren and with the Lord continually for temporal deliverance. In
these Valleys the people are well provided for, are wealthy and
exceedingly prosperous, and can well afford to prove their loyalty to
the heavens in expending a portion of their means to gather Israel. A
great many are doing what they think they can do, but I think we might
do more, as a people, in aiding to gather Israel, which is one portion
of the great Work of the last days. This is a part of our religion, to
do all the good we can in aiding and assisting our brethren in
distress who are of the household of faith, and in placing them in a
condition like unto ourselves in these quiet vales of the mountains,
where they can be freed from the thralldom of sin and oppression in
which they have lived to the present time. We have so far effected our
deliverance, and in this the Lord has been extremely kind to us, in
planting our feet in these goodly valleys where we have been blessed
and prospered. No person here need go without the common necessaries
of life. How much will we devote to the deliverance of our brethren,
who are as anxious as we are to identify their interests with the
kingdom of God at headquarters, where they, like us, can be benefited
in the instructions we receive here from time to time? I have often
thought that we do not fairly comprehend the great mercies and
blessings the Almighty has conferred upon us; if we did, we should
show our appreciation of them by our actions in aiding those who are
so anxious to be delivered from Babylon to be planted in these valleys
and participate in the blessings we enjoy.
As I said in the beginning, the world is opposed to us, but we have
nothing to do with them in one sense, but to do our duty and sustain
righteous principles with an eye single to the glory of God; in this
he will sustain us and bring us off victorious at last. We have great
reason to be thankful this morning for the great peace and prosperity
which attends us as a people; we have great cause to rejoice before
the Lord of Hosts, who has been a kind Father unto us from our early
infancy to this time. What has he not done for us? Do we not live in
an age of the world in which he has revealed his holy Gospel and sent
his messengers with the light of the Gospel, and have we not become
the happy participants of this knowledge? Are not our feet planted
upon the rock of salvation? Has he not delivered us from the power of
wicked, ungodly and designing men, and given us an inheritance far
from their power, where we can worship him, none daring to make us afraid? Has he not blessed this land in a miraculous manner to
bring forth for the sustenance of his people? He has shielded us from
the savage foe, and given us influence over them, whereby we can
travel to and fro among them and from place to place in comparative
safety. How can we render unto him sufficient homage, thanksgiving and
praise to prove unto him that we do appreciate his great and manifold
mercies? I know of no better way than to be obedient to the calls made
upon us from time to time, to respond to them in that free way that
shall prove to God that all we have and all we can do is held and
devoted to the promotion of the cause we have espoused, regardless of
the consequences.
We should not hesitate when anything is proposed to be done for the
promotion of the cause of God on the earth, but should say, Make way,
prejudices; go by the board, whatever traditions would rise up. When
the Lord speaks, let everything else give way; as the masses of the
people would fall back on the approach of the king, so let our own
ideas and prepossessed notions give place to the word of the Lord and
to the wisdom that emanates from him; let everything else become
subservient to those principles, doctrines and truths. This is the way
I have always felt since I became acquainted with this Gospel and with
this people.
This Work is not done in a corner, but it has been sent to the whole
world, and all men have the privilege of adopting the same principles
of truth which we have embraced, if they shall choose to do so; but
because they do not choose to do so, it should not become a rock of
offense and a stumbling block to them nor to us. We have undertaken to
sustain these holy principles which have been revealed in the last
days. Shall we now falter? Or shall we, because others point the
finger of scorn at us, be ashamed of this holy cause and back out from
it? Does it make any difference as to what other people think of it?
No. It is for us to cling together and go onward continually in the
path we have chosen to walk in.
There are few, probably, in this Church and kingdom but what have in
their possession some kind of a testimony which proves to their
satisfaction that this is the Work of Heaven; it has touched their
hearts. Thousands who do not belong to the Church have evidence of its
truth, but will not admit it. The mind is bound to receive and to
believe the truth according to the amount of testimony given and the
evidence produced, but through pride the majority of the human family
will not admit the truth openly, although they may do so secretly and
believe in the same doctrines we do. Let them do as they please, that
is no reason why we should falter, change our course in the least, or
alter our views; but let us press onward continually and prove to the
Lord that we are true and faithful to him.
We live in a land of liberty, where the power and the control rests
with the people, or should do so; to a great extent it does so. We
have great liberty, we have great freedom, notwithstanding the
efforts of some to abridge our liberties and our freedom; still the
Lord is not unmindful of us, for he directs and governs the affairs of
the children of men, more especially now since he has commenced his
Work in the last days: I think I might qualify this a little, by
saying more especially to our understanding. I have no doubt but what
he has always done so; but the heavens, in a manner, have been shut up
to the vision and view of mankind for a long time, but now his
dealings with them have become more manifest than in ages gone
by; we can now see his footprints more clearly and can realize more
sensibly the Work in which he is moving, bringing to pass his purposes
for the redemption of the world, for the overthrow of sin and iniquity
and for the establishment of his kingdom, which Prophets, long ages
past and gone, have seen would be set up in the last days. We have
undertaken to do our part towards establishing his kingdom, which will
eventually reign over the whole earth, where all nations, kingdoms,
tongues, and people will acknowledge Emanuel's sway and the earth be
lit up with the glory of God and be prepared for his kingdom and
coming.
In these valleys of the mountains a nucleus is finally formed of a
people who have been gathered out from all the nations of the earth,
for the express purpose of sustaining holy and righteous principles
which the Almighty has revealed from the heavens and to form a
community that shall be self-sustaining. Latter-day Saints associate
together in a community to prove to the Lord and to the world that
they can sustain themselves; that the doctrines and principles God has
revealed to them are self-sustaining in their nature—so much so, that
a whole community may be sustained by practicing and living faithfully
up to them. Hence it is that the shafts of the enemy are directed
against us for the overthrow and destruction of those holy principles.
We know of a verity that the Work in which we are engaged is of God;
we know we have the knowledge of God our Father and of his Son Jesus
Christ, whom to know is life everlasting; we know in whom we have put
our trust; we know the principles which we have espoused are based
upon a solid and sure foundation; we know they are true, and truth is
eternal and will lead to ex altation in the kingdom of God if we are
true to each other and to the principles which have been revealed. We
are not guessing at these things, nor groping our way in the dark in
relation to them. Should not our course be to turn aside every shaft
of the enemy aimed at our brother as well as at ourselves? When we see
danger, should we not warn our brother against it and use every
exertion to assist each other to walk faithfully in the right way,
shielding each other from the power of the enemy and endeavoring to
pick up those who are wandering into bye and forbidden paths, pointing
out to them the right way and exhorting them to walk in it? We should
guide the footsteps of the young and ignorant, and teach them the
principles which have a tendency to bring them into the path of life
and glory. We should try to overcome all weaknesses and eradicate from
our bosoms every unholy desire and remove from our footsteps every
evil way. We too often see carelessness and indifference in the midst
of this people with regard to these small matters; I call them small,
because they are so often passed by and neglected.
We ought to instil into our children a nice sense of honor and
truthfulness in their words, that when they come to act in real life
they may receive and reverence principles of holiness that will lead
them ultimately to the possession of eternal life and salvation.
People often speak jestingly of the holy things which we hold, or
should hold sacred. I have heard people do it, and always tell them
they would satisfy my feelings much better if they would not make a
jest of things I hold sacred. I remember a man in Nauvoo, who was
conspicuous in this Church, once at a party saying to the fiddler,
"Let me lay hands on that old fiddle, and then perhaps you will not
have so much trouble with the strings." I was then a Gentile,
as they called them, and he, no doubt, thought that such jesting with
holy things would please me, but I always despised him afterwards for
making use of such an expression and making light of one of the holy
ordinances of God which he professed to believe in. Jesting on sacred
matters grates on my ears. I do not suppose people mean any harm when
they do it, but it has a deleterious influence upon our children, whom
we ought to teach to reverence sacred things. I would like their sense
of honor to be such that they will do right because they love to do
right, and not refrain from doing wrong merely because they are afraid
somebody will see them do wrong. Let the love of right be bred in
them, that feeling of honest consciousness of doing right, and not
evil, that shall preserve them in the hour of temptation. Let the love
of right be instilled in their young and tender minds, that it may
grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength, learning to
love the truth for its beauty and the things of God because they are
worthy of being loved. Often people are deterred from doing right
because of what the world will say and for fear of the pointing of
the finger of scorn. That is not what we should care about; we should
care to please God and do the things that are right before him, and
then let the world wag as it will. This ought to be our motto, and we
ought constantly to seek to instil this feeling into the bosoms of our
children, that they may act upon the principles of right because they
love them and prefer them because they are good before the Lord, and
eschewing evil because it is hateful to them. The child is naturally
inclined to this way. It is their associations with the wickedness
that is in the world that teaches them hypocrisy and evil of every
descrip tion, and the fear of the world's scorn, their laugh and ribald
jest have their influence upon the mind of the child. Hence it becomes
necessary that more pains should be taken in instructing them and
showing them the propriety of truthfulness and honest uprightness of
conduct to strengthen and protect them in the hour of temptation.
This great work in regard to training our children should not be
neglected, because it is while they are young that we can have the
greatest and most lasting influence over them. It is the privilege of
the Latter-day Saints in these valleys of the mountains more
especially to attend to this sacred duty, because when we mingled with
the outside world we could not there enjoy the rights, the liberty and
the freedom we enjoy in these mountains. No child is laughed and
scoffed at here because his father and mother are Mormons. Then let us
attend to these matters and govern ourselves by the holy principles
that have been revealed to our understandings, live our holy religion
faithfully and bring forth the blessings of peace, the blessings of
the Almighty which are ready to drop from the heavens upon us as fast
as we are able to receive and use them profitably to ourselves and to
the Work in which we are engaged. The child needs first to ripen in
judgment and good understanding before the father can commit any great
trust to his charge. So it is in the dealings of our Heavenly Father
with his people; he knows better than we do when to bestow great
blessings upon us and what is for our best good. We should improve
upon the blessings he has already given us to the fullest extent of
the light and information we can get, and not trouble ourselves as to
what is in the future, because that is just beyond our reach. If we
travel in the path I have been trying to mark out, we shall attain
everything we can ask for in due time. By improving upon what
we have, by keeping ourselves unspotted from this untoward generation,
by walking in faith and obedience before our God, we can attain to
more than we have now any knowledge of. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the
things that are in store for the faithful," when they shall attain to
that stature in Christ that will entitle them to receive them.
I do not, however, wish to throw the mind of the community upon
something great in the future to the neglect of present blessings and
present duties. Let us count over the blessings we this day enjoy; let
us look into the past and mark the constant flow of blessings with
which the history of this people has been attended from the beginning.
Neither do I wish us to stop here and say that we have all we need;
but while we are desiring blessings that are still future to us, let
us not neglect the things which are now within our reach day by day,
but live constantly our holy religion, being faithful and diligent in
all things that are for us today, cleaving closely to the Lord,
knowing that we are in his hands and that we are his children, having
all confidence in him and in his constituted authorities on the earth,
then will our knowledge and intelligence increase and our blessings
will continue in a steady flow. This is all the business we have on
hand to attend to, to serve our God and make ourselves comfortable and
happy, securing from the elements everything we need for our
sustenance and support, building houses, making roads, opening farms,
planting orchards and vineyards, bringing from the mountains timber
and lumber and all things else we need. All this labor is necessary to
sustain us, and that the Lord may have a people who are zealous of
good works and who will do his bidding, and through whom his kingdom
may be established upon the earth and become a self-sustaining
community, being governed and controlled in every particular by the
revelations of the Most High, and by the principles which he has
revealed. We are now the best governed people in the world, and for
the best of all reasons—we have the best Government and the best
Governor; our Heavenly Father is at the helm, from whom emanates all
wisdom, truth and righteousness. No matter what the difficulties are
which we are called upon to overcome, still we have everything to
encourage us; we can go to the great fountain of all good; nothing can
compare with this. Should we not feel encouraged and rejoice, and give
praise and thanksgiving to God, who is so good a Father to us, who has
watched over us to this day, to say nothing of the glorious future
which is opening up before us continually.
This people have a future which the world little dreams of. They will
see the time when those who seek to destroy them from under heaven
will come bowing and scraping to them obsequiously and sycophantic
enough, no doubt. That, however, does not affect us one way or the
other; it is for us to do right and please our God with full purpose
of heart, that his will may be done on the earth as it is done in
heaven. The Lord will not slacken his hand nor look backward, but will
progress onward with his people who will abide faithful and true to
him. Righteousness must predominate in the midst of this people, and
iniquity will have no part or lot with them, but if any among them
wish to work iniquity and do not delight in holy principles, this is
not the place for them; they had better go where there are influences
more congenial, where they will not be abridged of their
desires to do evil. No man has liberty to do evil, though he may have
the power, nor has he any right to do evil. There is no law against
doing right, but the law is against doing wrong. Man has power to do
right or wrong as he pleases, but he is held responsible for that
power and the exercise of it.
May God bless us and help us to do right, to keep his laws and
commandments and statutes holy, and be obedient to him in all things,
is my prayer in the name of Jesus: Amen.
- Daniel H. Wells