We have opened our Conference to present before the congregation such
principles and doctrines and to transact such business as may be
necessary for the instruction and edification of the Saints and the
advancement of the cause of truth.
It has been remarked by some of the Missionaries who have lately
returned, that though they had arrived at home, they did not consider
their missions at an end. When persons become subjects of the kingdom
of God they enter upon a mission that will never end. They may turn
away from the holy commandments, and forsake the kingdom, but so long
as they remain faithful so long will their missions as advocates for
God and his righteousness be continued. There may be intervals
of rest, of relaxation from the more arduous duties of their missions,
but in such times they are not by any means to consider their missions
ended. Christ will not cease his labors pertaining to this earth until
it is redeemed and sanctified ready to be presented spotless to the
Father.
Luke records the words of Christ as follows—"But rather seek ye the
kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew
records the saying still fuller—"But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto
you." Jesus Christ did not exhort his followers to seek something they
could not find, something that was not within their reach. He did not
exhort them to ascend up to heaven to bring the kingdom down, nor to
descend into the deep to bring it up, but he came to establish that
kingdom, and it was nigh unto them. I would say to the Latter-day
Saints, seek to know that the kingdom of God has been organized in our
own time. When this kingdom is organized in any age, the Spirit of it
dwells in the hearts of the faithful, while its visible department
exists among the people, with laws, ordinances, helps, governments,
officers, administrators, and every other appendage necessary for its
complete operation to the attainment of the end in view. Seek to know
that the kingdom of God is organized upon the earth, and be sure to
know that you have an interest in that kingdom, and enjoy the Spirit
of it day by day, for this is, or ought to be, nearer to our hearts
than all earthly considerations. This privilege is within the reach of
all, when the Gospel is proclaimed to them. When men truly and
heartily repent, and make manifest to the heavens that their
repentance is genuine by obedience to the requirements made known to
them through the laws of the Gospel, then are they entitled to the
administration of salvation, and no power can withhold the good Spirit
from them. Cornelius is an instance of this. The Holy Ghost fell on
him and his household, through their faith and earnest repentance,
before they were baptized.
That we may understand things as they are, and thereby learn to
sanctify ourselves before the Lord our God, it is essentially
necessary that we practically live our religion. Every true believer of
this Gospel is anxious to gather to the home of the Saints. I think I
am safe in saying, that if there was a highway cast up from England
to the shores of the continent of America, there are men who would be
willing to measure the ground with their bodies to reach this place.
Even this does not tell their anxiety to be here; it must be seen in
the spirit, to know it as it really is. We are agreed in gathering the
Saints, as well as in the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel of
peace.
It may be said that the tug of trials has commenced when the Saints
begin to cross the plains to this place. This temporal duty puts all
their spiritual attainments to the test. There are but few persons who
thoroughly understand how to organize and lead a company across the
plains, and in this alone arises many inconveniences and trials to the
immigrants. How many hearts are prepared to meet the difficulties,
privations, trials, and labors to be encountered on the plains, without
murmuring and complaining? I should think but few. To believe the
Gospel and embrace it, to believe all that is written in the Bible,
Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants, is but a small
matter compared with giving up comfortable homes, friends, and
relatives, being tossed upon the boisterous ocean, con fined in narrow limits, and being jostled in railway cars, exposed to the
insults and ridicule of rude and wicked persons that always assemble
on the public highways, and suffering the hardships and privations
incident to traveling over the plains.
I wish the people not to lose sight of one thing: that every day's
labor, every moment's toil, every prayer and exertion which they make
points to the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. Let us
seek daily to know that the kingdom of God is established among us,
according to the pattern in the heavens. Under this knowledge our
actions will constantly point in the right direction, and every move
we make will enhance the interests of the general cause. When this
kingdom is established in its two-fold capacity—spiritually and
temporally—then it is given unto us to know how to secure everything
else that is necessary to enjoy on the earth. But it is our duty first
to seek to know that the kingdom of God is established and organized
upon the earth, that we have an interest in it, that that interest
above all others is the nearest and dearest to our hearts, as our
present and eternal welfare is embraced in it, and that we possess the
Spirit of this kingdom and enjoy it day by day.
Remarks have been made relating to the Saints traveling in
independent companies. When an independent company undertakes to
travel across the plains, they are generally too independent for their
own safety and good. There never was and never will be a people in
heaven nor on earth, in time nor in eternity, that can be considered
truly and entirely independent of counsel and direction. Our
independent companies entertain the same mistaken views of
independence as people generally do of the independence of a
Republican Govern ment. Man in his ignorance is impatient of control,
and when he finds himself from under its influence he supposes that he
is then independent, or, in other words, that he is a free man.
Independence so viewed and so employed, either individually or
collectively, religiously or politically must open a wide arena of
action for all the evil, selfish and malignant qualities of depraved
men, introducing destruction into every ramification of society,
destroying confidence, checking the onward progress of industry and
universal prosperity, and bringing in famine, pestilence, and
destruction everywhere. An independent company of immigrants can
appoint their own captain to guide them across the plains, and they
can also dispute every act of his for their good. They can find fault
with him for camping too soon or too late; for camping in this, that,
or the other place; and if he offers them good advice, reject it
because they are independent and free, as they suppose. Individual
self-government lies at the root of all true and effective government,
whether in heaven or on earth. Those who govern should be wiser and
better than the governed, that the lesser may be blessed of the
greater. Were this so, then the people would willingly repose their
dearest interests to the trusts of their rulers or leaders, and with a
feeling of pleasure bow to and carry out to the letter their
instructions and conclusions on all matters that pertained to the
general good. This will apply to great kingdoms and mighty nations,
to small companies of immigrants crossing the plains, or to the home
circle. A Republican Government in the hands of a wicked people must
terminate in woe to that people, but in the hands of the righteous it
is everlasting, while its power reaches to heaven.
I had the pleasure of leading the first company of Saints to these valleys, assisted by a few of my brethren. In this business we
have had a good experience.
I will here take the liberty of relating a little of my first career
in "Mormonism." In 1834, brother Joseph Smith the Prophet, started
with a company from the State of Ohio, picking up others as he passed
through various States on his route until he arrived in Missouri. We
had grumblers in that camp. We had to be troubled with uneasy, unruly
and discontented spirits. This was the first time we had ever
traveled in the capacity of a large company, and it was my first
experience in that mode of traveling. Brother Joseph led, counseled
and guided the company, and contended against those unruly, evil
disposed persons. When we arrived in Missouri, the Lord spoke to his
servant Joseph and said, "I have accepted your offering," and we had
the privilege to return again. On my return many friends asked me what
profit there was in calling men from their labor to go up to Missouri
and then return, without apparently accomplishing anything. "Who has
it benefited?" asked they. "If the Lord did command it to be done, what
object had he in view in doing so?" I was then comparatively ignorant,
to what I am now, in regard to the spirits and actions of mankind. But
I then learned that those persons who asked me such questions were
weak in the faith and, like a faulty column in an edifice, could not
bear up under the burden designed to rest upon them. This has since
proved to be the case. I wish this fact to sink into your hearts, that
when men or women have doubts, they also have fear; and when they have
fear, they are in danger of what? Of themselves. Want of confidence is
the parent of moral imbecility and intellectual weakness. Hear it, ye
Saints, that man or woman that is crowned with crowns of glory,
immortality, and eternal lives will never be heard to grumble or
complain. I told those brethren that I was well paid—paid with heavy
interest—yea that my measure was filled to overflowing with the
knowledge that I had received by traveling with the Prophet. When
companies are led across the plains by inexperienced persons,
especially independent companies, they are very apt to break into
pieces, to divide up into fragments, become weakened, and thus expose
themselves to the influences of death and destruction.
I sometimes think that I would be willing to give anything, to do
almost anything in reason, to see one fully organized Branch of this
kingdom—one fully organized Ward. "But," says one, "I had supposed
that the kingdom of God was organized long ago." So it is, in one
sense; and again, in another sense it is not. Wheresoever this Gospel
has been preached and people have received it, the spiritual kingdom
is set up and organized, but is Zion organized? No. Is there even in
this Territory a fully organized Ward? Not one. It may be asked, "Why
do you not fully organize the Church?" Because the people are
incapable of being organized. I could organize a large Ward who would
be subject to a full organization, by selecting families from the
different Wards, but at present such a Branch of the Church is not in
existence.
I am satisfied that the mechanical ability of the people of this
Territory will rank with that of any other people, but there is not
one in five hundred that knows how to husband his ability and
economize his labor when he first comes to this new country. They are
for a time like a feather in the wind, until some circumstance occurs
to settle them in some position where they can begin to do something
to provide for themselves. It is not easy to find a Bishop that
knows how to settle, in a proper way, the smallest difficulty that may
occur in his Ward. There are but few men that can guide themselves,
and gather around them the comforts and wealth of this life. In the
settlements I passed through during my late visit south, I saw
comparatively little wisdom manifested in the style and extent of
their improvements. Men who have been in this Church ten, fifteen, and
twenty years, and in this country from the first settlement of it,
possessing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and horses running upon
the plains, what kind of houses have they? Log hovels and mud huts.
What have they in their houses? Two tin plates, a broken knife, and a
fork with one prong. If a person calls for lodgings, "O yes, you can
stay and welcome. Come wife, bake some potatoes and squash, and roast
some meat, bake some biscuit, and stew a little of that fruit I bought
at the store," and all this the poor woman has to do in one little
bake kettle. A good-natured man enough, an easy going sort of person,
and his hair looks as though it had not been cut or combed for years.
After supper you retire to bed, and before morning you are made fully
satisfied that you are a man of feeling. Is such enterprise worthy of
Saints? Is this the way to build up cities and make the earth like the
garden of Eden? Do such people know that the kingdom of God is set up
on the earth? "O yes, I have it in me." You have the spiritual kingdom
within you, but there is a literal kingdom to build up.
There are scores of Elders in this Church who can preach, baptize, and
lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, that do not know how
to produce a livelihood for themselves, a wife, and one child. It
requires but little experience to do this, and much less do they know
how to build a good house, how to lay out and build up a city, how to
lay the foundations of Zion, &c., &c. Can they lead a company of
Saints cross the plains? They can try, and very likely the company
will break to pieces, unless the power of God is among them. This
gives us a striking proof of the necessity of the people's having faith
and power with the heavens, that if their Bishop does not know what he
ought, their faith will keep him in the right path and the Spirit of
the Lord will open to the vision of his mind the things that he should
do. That is the duty of the people.
We have a kingdom to organize, and I say, Seek to know that you have
the kingdom within you and that you are in it. Seek to establish the
kingdom of God upon the earth, for that will give you wisdom to add to
yourselves everything necessary. The Lord will not himself plough our
grounds, sow our grain, and reap it when it is ripe. The man that
understands the kingdom of God will seek to understand the elements in
which he lives, and to know something of his own organization, the
design of it, and the designs of Heaven in it. Is the kingdom of God
in its perfection on the earth? It is not. True, we believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we believe in his ordinances. We believe that the
Lord called Joseph Smith and ordained him an Apostle and Prophet to
this generation, giving him the keys and power of the Holy Priesthood.
We believe in the gathering of the house of Israel in the latter days,
in the redemption of Zion, in the building up and establishment of
Jerusalem, and in the gathering of the Jews from their long
dispersion; in short, we believe all that the ancient Prophets have
spoken, but where is the people that is willing to build up the
visible kingdom of God and that is capable of dictating this great work.
The Lord will make the people willing in the day of his power. This
cannot refer to making the people willing to acknowledge Jesus to be
the Christ; it must refer to something else. Shall we wait until we
are whipped from among the wicked before we are willing to gather out
from among them and flee to Zion? This has been the case with some,
and what are such persons good for when they get to Zion? I do not,
however, wish to disturb anybody's feelings; I am glad to see them
come to a place of safety when they are obliged to; but I would rather
have seen them come in the beginning, when they could have helped to
kill the snakes, build the bridges, make the roads, and manifest their
faith that we could raise fruit, grain and every staple necessary of
life in this country, help to open the canyons, build the mills, bring
out the lumber, and build towns and cities. But we are glad to see them
as they are, and we will do the best we can with them. There are more
coming.
Which will be best eventually, to go to with our might, to build up
the Zion of God on the earth, or wait until we are whipped to it? I
can only broach the subject of building up the kingdom of God as it
must be built up in the latter days; I will leave it for others to
talk upon during the Conference, or not, as they please. I know what I
have to do, and that is to teach this people to appreciate their own
present lives. There is no life more precious than the present life
which we enjoy; there is no life that is worth any more to us than
this life is. It may be said that an eternal life is worth more. We
are in eternity, and all that we have to do is to take the road that
leads into the eternal lives. Eternal life is an inherent quality of
the creature, and nothing but sin can put a termination to it. The
elements in their nature are as eternal as are the Gods. Let us learn,
under the guidance and direction of Heaven how to use these eternal
elements for the building up, establishment, and sending forth of the
kingdom of God, gathering up the poor in heart to begin with, and the
further things we will learn as we progress.
Some of you may ask why the Lord did not perfectly organize at least
one Branch of the Church? When a great blessing is bestowed upon a
people, and that blessing is not strictly honored and lived to, in
proportion to the greatness of that blessing, over and above what has
been previously enjoyed, it will be a curse to them. I recollect that
Joseph once said to me, when he was talking upon the principle of the
Lord's raising up seed to himself upon the earth—a royal Priesthood, a
holy nation that can offer sacrifices acceptable to God—"Brother
Brigham, it will damn many of the Elders of Israel." There are but few
men in this kingdom that are now worthy of that blessing, yet all who
are in full fellowship must enjoy it.
We will wait patiently until we can get the people to know how to
secure to themselves the comforts of life, good houses, for instance,
and know how to raise fruit as well as bread. The best fruit I ever
saw in any country I saw exhibited in our recent fair. It has been
told the people, from the first of our coming into this country,
there existed in these elements as good material for fruit as can be
found anywhere. Then let us go forth in faith and plant seed in the
ground, and cultivate mother earth and pray over the earth and over
our crops and over all we possess, and the curse will be removed, and
God will restore geniality to the atmosphere and fertility to the soil.
I wish to teach the Elders of this Church how to lead a company across the plains, as well as how to preach the Gospel; to learn them
how to be a Bishop, a father to the people, as well as how to kneel
down and pray, or to rise up and preach. I wish to learn them how to
reconcile the people one to another, how to build cities, how to
beautify and redeem the earth, how to lead and guide this people to
life eternal, how to preside over their families, and how to conduct
themselves in the common avocations of life. I have all this and more
constantly before me.
Brethren is your Mission ended? No, it is as much upon you here as
when you are out in the distant parts of the earth preaching the
Gospel. Jesus Christ made water into wine by calling together from the
elements the properties of wine. He fed thousands of people with five
loaves and two small fishes by calling the elements together to
compose bread and fish; and he says, "Greater works than these shall
ye do, because I go to the Father." It is our privilege and our duty
to continue to learn, until we shall have wisdom enough to command the
elements as he did, and until the earth is brought back to its
paradisiacal state. But we must first redeem ourselves from every root
of bitterness that may be in our nature, striving daily to overcome
the evil that is in the world and in ourselves, sanctifying our hearts
and affections until there shall be nothing abiding in us contrary to
the Holy Ghost in its perfect and full fruition of enjoyment to the
creature.
I think it likely that after a while I may be able to so humble myself
and become like a little child, as to be taught more fully by the
Heavens. Perhaps, when I am eighty years of age, I may be able to talk
with some Being of a higher sphere than this. Moses saw the glory of
God at that age, and held converse with better beings than he had
formerly conversed with. I hope and trust that by the time I am that
age I shall also be counted worthy to enjoy the same privilege.
I pray you not to forget what I have said to you this morning, but lay
it up in your hearts, and pray that it may bring forth fruit for the
more perfect establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth.
Amen.