It is some time since I have spoken to the people in this place. The
congregations are very large, and when I have met such congregations
as we have here, in former years, and they were a little noisy, with
babies crying, I have said "cry on, I can talk louder than you can
cry," but I cannot do so now. I wish to favor myself, for there are
many things to be said to the Latter-day Saints, as well as to those
who do not believe the Gospel, and I desire to live to be able to
speak to the people.
I have learned that I can receive and treasure up but little knowledge
at a time, and I have learned that this is the case with others. If
the people had the whole catalogue of the law to govern them
spiritually and temporally repeated to them today, they would need it
repeated to them again next week. It is necessary to constantly teach
the people.
We are among the happy number of those who have the privilege of
having their names cast out as evil by the wicked. We have the privi lege of purifying and sanctifying ourselves, and
preparing ourselves for the day of the coming of the Son of Man.
Others might enjoy the same privilege, if they were so disposed, but
they are not.
Our situation is peculiar at the present time. Has it not been
peculiar ever since Joseph found the plates? The circumstances that
surrounded him when he found the plates were singular and strange. He
passed a short life of sorrow and trouble, surrounded by enemies who
sought day and night to destroy him. If a thousand hounds were on this
Temple Block, let loose on one rabbit, it would not be a bad
illustration of the situation at times of the Prophet Joseph. He was
hunted unremittingly. We have the privilege of believing the same
Gospel that Joseph taught, and with him, of being numbered with those
whose names are cast out as evil.
The Lord has brought us here, and sustains us. Some people think that
the cunning of man has made the characteristics that mark the history
of this people. It is not so, the Lord has done it. He suffered our
enemies to drive us from our homes. He knew the reason why he
permitted it, though at the time we did not. As brother George A.
Smith said, we came here willingly because we were obliged to; and
were it possible for our enemies to gain power to drive us from these
mountains, which I trust they will never do, there is no other place
on the earth, that we know of, where we can enjoy the safety and
security we do here. We are here, and the Lord has sustained us.
In reflecting upon the conduct of the world, it appears that the
wisdom of the wise has perished and the understanding of the prudent
is hid. You will see that the wisdom of the wise among the nations
will perish and be taken from them. They will fall into difficulties,
and they will not be able to tell the reason, nor point a way to avert
them any more than they can now in this land. They can fight, quarrel,
contend, and destroy each other, but they do not know how to make
peace. So it will be with the inhabitants of the earth.
We see men laboring and toiling to gather around them the luxuries of
life, to become possessed of fine houses, orchards, gardens and that
which adorns and makes beautiful, and in many instances we see such
property left to those who have not wisdom to take care of it—left to
fools. How quickly the house becomes old, dilapidated, and unfit for a
home for any person; the garden and orchard become a desolation,
because the occupants have not wisdom to keep them in order. We can
see boys, foolish, wicked boys, gathering around them a few associates
and going into a man's garden, stealing the fruit, cutting down the
trees, destroying, perhaps, the labor of years, and they think this
makes men of them.
Look at the world. The feeling among mankind is, "we will rule or
ruin." An architect may build a splendid habitation, and in so doing
do a good work; but a poor fool can come along and with the touch of a
torch destroy it. Which does the better work? We see that people can
build beautiful cities, make fine roads and walks, and raise lofty
buildings, but an idiot can burn and destroy them. Let a few
incendiaries go through a city and put the torch here and there, and
the city is destroyed—the labor of years, perhaps of centuries, is
wasted. Does this make great men of them? Perhaps they think so. If
they can destroy a city or a nation they think they will get a great
name. They will not. It takes a wise man to build a city, to
found a nation, though a fool can destroy either, and thinks he is a
great man. How mistaken he is!
I wish you to hearken to the counsel given you on the temporal affairs
that have been spoken of, for I realize its importance, as also does
brother Kimball and the Twelve. We realize that we gather together a
class of men with little or no judgment in taking care of themselves.
A great many of them have no knowledge of agriculture, or how to
acquire and preserve property of any kind, and it is necessary that we
should teach them constantly, till they can learn to take care of
themselves. They that hearken to the counsel of the Elders soon begin
to gather around them the necessaries of life, make fields and
gardens, build good houses, etc. Fools will come along and say, "You
are wrong, don't you see that you are slaves?" Is not this said to
this very community? Who are you slaves to? Not to sin, I hope. But
unless the world can see us slaves to sin, they will call us slaves.
We are servants to God, to whom we are indebted for every blessing we
enjoy, to whom we look for succor and from whom we have received it,
and we are indebted to nobody else, for the wicked have done us no
good. They have had the pleasure of driving me five times from my
comfortable home; that is nothing. "The earth is the Lord's and the
fulness thereof." But what glory and honor is there in having and
using power to destroy? This is the work of the Devil, not of Jesus.
His labor is to build up, not to destroy; to gather together, not to
scatter abroad; to take the ignorant and lead them to wisdom; to pick
up the poor and bring them to comfortable circumstances. This is our
labor—what we have to do.
We are wiser than we were, and can see that we have received a little,
and we are able to teach this to others; and instead of taking those
who are ignorant and making slaves of them, we wish to make them
honorable, to give them the knowledge and wisdom revealed to man from
the heavens, as fast as they are capacitated to receive them, and
bring them up to our standard. This is our labor. We are here, and it
is our duty to sustain ourselves, and then prepare for the strangers
that will come here, and with them many of our connections who are not
now with us. Where are they? In peace? No. Were we to relate to you
the facts, as reported to us, with regard to many of the towns,
villages, farms, and country seats in many parts of our native land,
the picture would cause your hearts to mourn. We understand that in
many of our Eastern neighborhoods, where there were plenty of young
men, and the young ladies had nothing to do but sit at the piano, go
visiting, or amuse themselves as they pleased, many young ladies are
now compelled to go into the fields and labor. This is true of young
girls and their mothers who never before did such work. Where is the
brother? Where is the husband and the father? Slain, or before the
enemy. What is the situation of our once happy country? It is written
here, almost daily—"You know not the state of the inhabitants of this
country, and the circumstances in which they are placed."
What are our circumstances? We have no poorer people in this Territory
than there are now in this Bowery. Are any of you suffering? Since we
came into this Territory, nearly seventeen years ago, it is true we
have fared hard. A little wolf meat once tasted good, but since we
began to gather the poor from foreign nations was there ever a man or woman in our community that had to ask the second time for
bread, if the family where they asked had it? Not one I believe. Is
this the case in other cities in other parts of the nation? In New
York, in Philadelphia—the city of brotherly love and so on? No. True
there are a few societies that sustain their own poor, but take a
community picked up as this one is, and have you ever seen or read of
such a community, except one or two named in the Scriptures? The very
passage of Scripture that Brother George A. Smith quoted, concerning
the reapers leaving a little grain in the corners of the field, and,
if they should pass by a bundle, not to go back for it, but leave it
for the benefit of the gleaners, shows that, though Moses and the
Elders of Israel talked with the people day by day, there was not the
same amount of charity manifested by them that there is by this
people.
I say to you, as I have always said, the Kingdom of God or nothing. We
are in the Kingdom of God, and we will trust in the Lord Almighty to
bear us off conquerors, no matter who is against us. All are in the
hands of the Almighty; He has preserved us.
Now, Latter-day Saints, mingle not with the wicked. Preserve
yourselves in the faith of the Gospel and trust in the Lord, and He
will bear us off conquerors. Love your religion. We are agreed in the
matter of our religion, and we must be agreed in temporal matters. If
we cannot become of one mind in all things, we shall not be that
people called the people of the Lord. Let us treasure up wisdom in our
hearts. The Lord gave Joseph a revelation thirty years ago, in which
he said, "You know not the hearts of your neighbors;" we did not then
know what was in the minds of the people, but now we begin to
understand.
Brethren and sisters, hearken to the words of the Lord. We are
laboring for your preservation and salvation, will you consider us
tyrannical? If so, your hearts are not right before God, and those who
do so will sooner or later apostatize and go down to hell. Let each of
us be careful that we will not be of those who take a wicked course.
Let us so live that we can save ourselves. I cannot save you. I can
tell you how to save yourselves but you must do the will of God. I
have enjoyed the privilege of preaching to the people at times when a
stream of revelation has been poured out that would furnish knowledge
to save every son and daughter of Adam if they had believed. But when
they began to manifest a spirit of opposition and have rejected the
teachings of the Spirit, I have said I am not compelled to make you
believe the truth.
I have spoken this afternoon that you may see that I am living and in
good health; and I intend to live, if I can, until the Zion of our God
is established upon the earth, and until all wickedness is swept from
the land.
God bless you. Amen.