The Latter-day Saints in these mountains are growing in grace and in
favor with God and his servants, and we feel to bless them as parents,
as children, as schoolteachers, as musicians, as singers, as Elders
in Israel, and as Saints, in all their employments and honest
pursuits. As soon as the people spread out from Great Salt Lake City
to form a new settlement, we have visited them to instruct and
encourage them; in this we feel satisfied that we have done our duty.
We are still traveling from settlement to settlement, and have great
joy in visiting and talking to the Saints, and in blessing them. When
I leave home to visit the Saints, I leave all in the hands of God, and
would not swerve from the fulfillment of my duties as a preacher of
righteousness, and as the leader of this great people, if it should
save my property from being burnt to ashes. This has been my
course from the beginning.
It gives us great joy to see the public manifestations of welcome
which the people give everywhere. The little children who take part in
these demonstrations, dressed in their best, receive impressions they
can never forget; time cannot wear them out; they are impressions of
respect and honor to the leaders of Israel. It is a duty we owe to our
children to educate and train them in every principle of honor and
good manners, in a knowledge of God and his ways, and in popular
school education. I am happy to hear the little children sing, and
hope they are also learning to read and write, and are progressing in
every useful branch of learning.
I feel happy; I feel at peace with all the inhabitants of the earth; I
love my friends, and as for my enemies, I pray for them daily; and, if
they do not believe I would do them good, let them call at my house,
when they are hungry, and I will feed them; yea, I will do good to
those who despitefully use and persecute me. I pray for them, and
bless my friends all the time.
We are now located in the midst of these mountains, and are here
because we were obliged to go somewhere. We were under the necessity
of leaving our homes, and had to go somewhere. Before we left Nauvoo,
three Members of Congress told us that if we would leave the United
States, we should never be troubled by them again. We did leave the
United States, and now Congressmen say, if you will renounce polygamy
you shall be admitted unto the Union as an independent State and live
with us. We shall live anyway, and increase, and spread, and prosper,
and we shall know the most and be the best looking people there is on
the earth. As for polygamy, or any other doctrine the Lord has
revealed, it is not for me to change, alter, or renounce it; my
business is to obey when the Lord commands, and this is the duty of
all mankind.
The past of this people proves that we are better able to take care of
ourselves than any other people now living. This fact stares the world
in the face. When we first came to these mountains, as pioneers to
develop their resources, we were poor, and had been scattered and
peeled by our enemies, yet our trust was in God. We are now not only
able to feed ourselves, but to feed thousands who travel through our
settlements, and give them protection from the savage foe who
otherwise would have infested this region and made it dangerous to
travel. We must watch and pray, and look well to our walk and
conversation, and live near to our God, that the love of this world
may not choke the precious seed of truth, and feel ready, if
necessary, to offer up all things, even life itself, for the kingdom
of heaven's sake. We must not love the world, nor the things of the
world, until the world is sanctified and prepared to be presented to
the Father with the Saints upon it; then they will inhabit it forever
and ever.
We are living in a country where we are subject to be endangered by
aggressions from a savage foe, and I would advise the people to dwell
together in cities, and not in a scattered condition. When men and
women cannot live together in a community, close enough for
self-defense, it denotes a lack of fellowship and friendship, a lack
of those brotherly and neighborly feelings which should exist in the
bosoms of all true Saints. When I see men and women inclined to
withdraw from the community, and children from their parents, I know
that there is a spirit of alienation in them which they should not
possess. There are persons who say they believe in Joseph the
Prophet, in the Book of Mormon, in the gathering of the house of
Israel, in the building up of Zion, and in all the blessings promised
to the Church and kingdom of God upon the earth; but they do not like
to be quite so nigh their neighbors; they want to be off on one side,
from under the influence of city regulations, and from under the eye
of their Bishop. When I see this feeling manifested, I fear those
persons have never felt that brotherly feeling that belongs to the
spirit of our religion; if they ever did have it, they certainly do
not possess it when they entertain such desires. I would like to see a
disposition manifested to live close to the meetinghouse, or to the
schoolhouse, where the Saints can attend the public worship of God
and can send their children to school, where they can live so that
their children can associate together and form lasting friendships,
that may serve them for good in a day to come, and where they can pass
the dreary winter months in associations with people who are informed,
and are capable of educating them in singing, in mathematics,
spelling, and other branches of education; and when they want to
recreate, that they can mingle together in the dance without having to
go long distances through the snow and the cold; and that in the case
of sickness or accident of any kind, they may be within the reach of
sympathetic hearts and the hand of kindness and benevolence, being
ever ready to receive kindness or to give it to their neighbors. Those
who possess these desires manifest plainly the spirit of the Gospel.
This people are improving; they are improving in the cultivation of
the soil, in the study of horticulture, both theoretically and
practically, and in all matters that are calculated to multiply around
them every substantial comfort of life. Yet we are im perfect, we are
weak, and we cannot see afar off, though I think we can see as through
a glass darkly, and comprehend the outlines of many things; if we
cannot see all the details, we can see the future of this people and
the destiny of the nations. We should love the earth—we should love
the works which God has made. This is correct; but we should love them
in the Lord, as I think the majority of this people do; for what
people would have done as this people have, were it not for the
kingdom of heaven's sake? They have forsaken their homes, and friends,
and country to come up to these mountains to serve God and build up
his kingdom on the earth.
We are doing well, notwithstanding all our failings and weaknesses;
but the Lord would like to have us a little more diligent; he would
like us to cleave a little more closely to the things of his kingdom,
have more of his Spirit, and know more of him and of one another, that
complete and perfect confidence may be restored. The confidence which
should exist among all people is gone, and the wise men of the world
are aware of this fact, but they are at a loss to know how to recover
it. The Latter-day Saints alone know how to do this; they know how to
sustain themselves and restore the confidence which has been lost. We
are actually restoring this confidence. The people abroad who have
confidence in our Elders, and in their testimony, are baptized in
water according to the ancient pattern, and are born of the water, and
are also born of the Spirit, and receive a testimony from the heavens
for themselves. This is the only way in which confidence can be
restored among men.
All men ought to understand that confidence is one of the most
precious jewels that they can possibly possess on the earth, and when
we have the confidence of a good man or woman, we never should
allow ourselves to do an act that would in the least degree impair it.
It is an absolute truth that the confidence of this people in the men
God has placed to lead them is daily increasing, and the confidence of
the heavens is increasing in us in the same ratio as our confidence
increases in one another. It will not do to lie to and deceive one
another; neither will it do to cease to chasten and reprove the people
when it is necessary to do so. There is no people on the earth that
can bear to be spoken to in the language of reproof, and have their
faults laid open before them, as this people can. All who are in
possession of the Holy Spirit of truth receive such reproofs as
kindnesses, and are thankful. In this way we go on from truth to
truth, and from light to light.
It is interesting to follow this people from the beginning of their
existence—through all their drivings and persecutions up to the
present time. It will be seen that they have steadily increased in
numbers, in righteousness, and in power and influence up to this day.
Note the increase of love, of joy, and of peace; our peace flows like a
river: it is glorious. Hallelujah; praise the God of heaven, for He
has spoken from the heavens and has called us to truth and virtue, and
wishes to put into our possession the wisdom of eternity; this to us
is a matter of great joy. If we will do right and seek the Lord with
all our hearts, he will give unto us everything our hearts can desire.
The earth is before us, heaven is before us, and the fullness of
eternity is before us, and it is for us to live for all our hearts can
desire in righteousness.
We have enemies; they are with us all the time, prompting the Saints
to do wrong, that their minds may be darkened, and they be plunged
into sorrow and grief. Are we ready to receive an enemy? We should be
as ready to meet an enemy in one capacity as in another. Every time
the enemy throws us off our guard, and we give way to temptation, he
gains so much; he weakens us and strengthens himself; when we resist
temptation, it strengthens the Saints and weakens the enemy. We should
be ready for all emergencies at all times, in all places, and under
all circumstances, meeting the enemy at the door, and not waiting
until he takes possession of the house. We should at all times be well
qualified by faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit of the Gospel
which we possess, and be well fortified on every side—this we should
do spiritually; this we should do temporally. If the enemy finds that
we are prepared, he will be very apt to keep out of doors.
The earth is before us, and all the blessings of the earth. There is
not a man who is called now to receive the blessings which pertain to
the spiritual world, and the things of eternity, but what is first
called to learn how to sustain his natural life here in this world.
This life is worth as much as any life that any being can possess in
time or in eternity. There is no life more precious to us in the eye
of eternal wisdom and justice than the life which we now possess. Our
first duty is to take care of this life; and in this duty we are, as a
people, tolerably skillful.
I do not think that another community can be found anywhere more
capable of taking care of themselves than are the Latter-day Saints.
It is true that we do not raise our own tobacco: we might raise it if
we would. We do not raise our tea; but we might raise it if we would,
for tea raising, this is as good a country as China; and the coffee
bean can be raised a short distance south of us. Our ladies wear
imported silk, when in reality this is one of the finest silk
countries in the world. The mulberry tree which produces the natural
food of the silkworm, flourish on all our bench lands, and our
climate is adapted to the healthy condition of the silkworm. I would
recommend the planting and propagating of the mulberry tree as shade
trees, and as ornamental trees; they also yield a great abundance of
excellent fruit. Let our cities and gardens be adorned with trees that
are both ornamental and useful. Our young ladies can be amused and
profitably employed in feeding that useful insect, in winding and
spinning their silk into sewing silk, and into yarn, which can be
converted into silks and satins of the finest texture and quality; for
we have in our community artisans who can do this work as well as it
can be done in any country in the world. We can sustain ourselves; and
as for such so-called luxuries as tea, coffee, tobacco and whiskey, we
can produce them or do without them. When we produce our food and
clothing in the country where we live, then are we so far independent
of the speculating, moneymaking world outside, whereas, if we were to
dig gold, and make this our business, then should we become slaves to
the producers of food and clothing, and make fortunes for speculators
and freighters; and instead of working to build up Zion and its
interests, we should be laboring to build up Gentile institutions and
Gentile interests. When this people are prepared to properly use the
riches of this world for the building up of the kingdom of God, He is
ready and willing to bestow them upon us. If the Latter-day Saints
will walk up to their privileges, and exercise faith in the name of
Jesus Christ, and live in the enjoyment of the fullness of the Holy
Ghost constantly day by day, there is nothing on the face of the earth
that they could ask for, that would not be given to them. The Lord is
waiting to be very gracious unto this people, and to pour out upon
them riches, honor, glory, and power, even that they may possess all
things according to the promises He has made through His apostles and
prophets.
I refer to this, having my eye particularly on the chastisement I gave
the merchants last fall and spring Conferences. I said then, what I
will say anywhere, for it is as true as the sun shines. Are our
merchants honest? I could not be honest and do as they do; they make
five hundred percent on some of their goods, and that, too, from an
innocent, confiding, poor, industrious people. What do this people,
who have been gathered from the manufacturing and rural districts of
foreign countries, know about speculation? Nothing. Where they lived
they worked by the day or by the week for so much, and then would buy
so much bread and so much meat, &c., with their wages. Here, when they
have a dollar instead of a farthing, they do not know what to do with
it; but the merchants are ready to say give it to us for a piece of
rag. If they do not repent they will go to hell. They have made
fortunes out of the poor Saints. What do you think about them? I know
how God looks at them, and I know how I look at them. They have got to
devote the riches they have gathered from this poor people to the
building up of the kingdom of God, or they and their riches will
perish together. I mean this to apply to our merchants that are here,
and to those who are scattered through the Territory. I am speaking of
our Mormon merchants. When a Gentile merchant comes here he gives us
to understand that he is here to make all the money he can out of the
Mormons; we know how to take him; but when men come and say
they are Latter-day Saints, brethren, Mormons, the people trust them
as friends and are deceived and suffer through their avarice.
I like to see men get rich by their industry, prudence, management and
economy, and then devote it to the building up of the kingdom of God
upon the earth, and in gathering in the poor saints from the four
corners of the earth; and I am pleased to say that our rich brethren
are doing well. I have no fault to find with our brethren who are
merchants, in regard to their deal with me as an individual; they are
kind to me. I believe they would give me half they are worth, if I
were to ask them for it.
The Lord will bestow riches and honor upon this people as fast as they
can receive them and learn to take care of them in the Lord. We all
have faults: fault could be found with our mechanics and with our
common laborers, as well as with our merchants. Yet, notwithstanding
all our faults, where is there as good a community of people upon the
earth, or as good looking a one, or as wise and knowing a one as the
Latter-day Saints in this Territory? Let us continue to improve until
we are filled with the knowledge of the truth. We have yet much to
learn. It is necessary that the people be taught how to live with each
other, and enjoy each other's society in peace, and in the light of
the Holy Spirit of the gospel which we have embraced, that every
minute of our lives may be a scene of peace. We should learn to live
with our neighbors without contention, learning to do good to each
other.
To build up the kingdom of God is our business; we have nothing else
on hand. When will we see and understand the general principle of
building up the kingdom of God on the earth? When shall we see the
interest of the whole of God's people sought by each person instead of
an individual interest? The question in our minds ought to be, what
will advance the general interests of our settlements and increase
intelligence in the minds of the people. To do this should be our
constant study in preference to how shall we secure that farm or that
garden, or to saying, I want that house, and I do delight in that
horse, and this carriage, &c., so much so that we cannot worship our
God in public meeting or kneel down to pray in our families without
the images of earthly possessions rising up in our minds to distract
them and make our worship and our prayers unprofitable. Until a
selfish, individual interest is banished from our minds, and we become
interested in the general welfare, we shall never be able to magnify
our Holy Priesthood as we should.
On tomorrow (June 27) it will be twenty-one years since Joseph Smith
was killed, and from that time to this the Twelve have dictated,
guided and directed the destinies of this great people. Can you not
discern clearly that this kingdom grows? In a few years more those who
composed the Church in the days of Joseph Smith will be found only one
here and one there. It will soon be hard to find one who knew the
Prophet Joseph. The kingdom has made rapid strides in advance, and
prospered amazingly in the last twenty-one years. We have traveled
abroad into the world—into the wide field—and have scattered the seed
of truth broadcast, and gathered from the crude masses our brethren,
our sisters, their children, and all those who have received the
truth, and cemented them together by the power of the Holy Priesthood,
into a great people. In this the hand of God is visible to all, in
acknowledging the labors of His servants, and this people as
His people. I can witness one fact, and so can others, that by paying
attention to the building up of the kingdom of God alone we have got
rich in the things of this world; and if any man can tell how we can
get rich in any other way, he can do more than I can. We leave our
business and our families and go out to preach the peaceable things of
the kingdom, and pay attention to that, never thinking of our business
or our families, except when we ask the Lord to bless our families in
common with all the families of the Saints everywhere.
In my first administrations in the gospel, in the rise of this church
when I went out to preach, I would leave my family and friends in the
hands of the Lord, and I gave them no further thought, but my mind
looked forward and my thoughts were, I am going among strangers, how
can I present myself to that congregation to which I am going to speak
this afternoon, this evening, or tomorrow morning; how can I draw
their attention to the principles of the Holy Gospel, and engage their
feelings to that degree that they will inquire about the truth and
embrace it. I did not think about wife, children, home, native land or
friends; but my thoughts were on the great work before me. This should
be the state of our feelings continually. The prosperity of the
kingdom is before us; we see it as we see one another in this
congregation; we see the spread of the people and their increase.
Thousands of children are born yearly in Utah; we have an immense
immigration among us in this way; and still we are sending Elders
abroad to gather in the honest in heart from foreign lands. Sixty
Elders have gone out this spring, men of experience, character,
ability, and good standing in society—men who can be depended upon.
The increase of our children, and their growing up to maturity,
increases our responsibilities. More land must be brought into
cultivation to supply their wants. This will press the necessity of
digging canals to guide the waters of our large streams over the
immense tracts of bench and bottom lands which now lie waste. We want
our children to remain near us, where there is an abundance of land
and water, and not go hundreds of miles away to seek homes. In these
great public improvements the people should enter with heart and
soul, and freely invest in them their surplus property and means, and
thus prepare to locate the vast multitudes of our children which are
growing up, and strengthen our hands, and solidify still more—make
still more compact our present organized spiritual and national
institutions. The river Jordan will be brought out and made to flow
through a substantial canal to Great Salt Lake City. When this is
done, it will not only serve as a means of irrigating, but it will
form a means of transportation from the south end of Utah Lake to
Great Salt Lake City. Thus we will keep laboring, and preaching, and
gathering the people, and the Lord will keep blessing and sustaining
us, until the land is full of Saints, and they begin to spread out, to
hive forth, seeking for room to dwell, until the earth shall be full
of the glory of the Lord and His Saints.
We are greatly blessed as a people. We have had peace here for many
years. Today we are able to meet together to speak to each other, to
strengthen and do each other good; and by forsaking our fields for a
season, to gather together to worship our God, I can assure you that
our crops will be better than they would be if we were to spend all
our time in our fields. We may water and plant and toil, but
we should never forget that it is God who gives the increase; and by
meeting together, our health and spirits will be better, we will look
better, and the things of this world will increase around us more, and
we will know better how to enjoy them.
At Mount Pleasant, in San Pete County, an Elder wished to give out a
notice for the brethren to water their wheat immediately, for it was
suffering. I requested him to allow me to give out the notice for him,
which he did; and I gave out the appointment, informing the saints
that if they would place guards sufficient to keep their homes from
Indian depredations, fires, &c., and the rest of the men, women, and
children attend our meetings, I would promise them, in the name of
Israel's God, better crops than if they did otherwise. This was on
Wednesday, and in the night there came a beautiful shower, and we
continued to have showers, until at Manti, on Sunday, we were under
the necessity of suspending our meeting in the Bowery, and repairing
to the meetinghouse; the earth was thoroughly soaked, and vegetation
was refreshed, and the people were satisfied. I notice this incident
merely to show that if we will do our duty, and be faithful to our
God, He will never be backward in dispensing His mercies liberally to
us.
We should spend a portion of our time and means in training our
children, and a most effective way is to do it by example. If we wish
our children to be faithful to us, let us be faithful to God and to
one another. If we wish them to be obedient to us, let us be obedient
to our superiors. Parents should manifest before their children all
that they wish to see exhibited in them. Whatever a husband requires
of a wife, or of a child, in obedience, in meekness, in submission,
manifest before them all that you require of them. Example is better
than precept. When we present precepts they should correspond with our
own example.
I say to fathers, mothers, and to the whole Priesthood of the Son of
God, if we expect to sanctify ourselves and the earth upon which we
tread, we must begin that work in our own hearts; let them be pure and
holy, and devoted entirely to the service of God, then will the earth
become sanctified and holy under our feet; we shall begin to spread
abroad and enlarge our borders with greater power when we can conquer
ourselves and be able to exercise a good influence over our friends
and neighbors. We do many wrongs which we would not do if we knew
better, and so it is with our children. You may remember it and lay it
to heart, and if you wish, write it in your journals, that some of the
best spirits that have ever been sent to earth are coming at the
present time, comparatively speaking.
Solomon said, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son," but instead of
using the rod, I will teach my children by example and by precept. I
will teach them every opportunity I have to cherish faith, to exercise
patience, to be full of long-suffering and kindness. It is not by the
whip or the rod that we can make obedient children; but it is by faith
and by prayer, and by setting a good example before them. This is my
belief. I expect to obtain the same as Abraham obtained by faith and
prayer, also the same as Isaac and Jacob obtained; but there are few
who live for the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob after they are
sealed upon them. No blessing that is sealed upon us will do us any
good, unless we live for it. Whereas, if we are faithful, there is
nothing which is calculated to please the eye, to gladden the heart,
to cheer and comfort the body and spirit of man, everything in
the heavens, with the fullness of the earth, its pleasures and
enjoyments, with perfect health, without pain, with appetites made
pure, all this, and more that has not yet entered into the heart of
man to conceive, the Lord has in store for His children. This earth,
when it shall be made pure and holy, and sanctified and glorified and
brought back into the presence of the Father and the Son, from whence
it came at the time of the fall, will become celestial, and be the
glorified habitation of the faithful of this portion of the great
family of our Heavenly Father.
Abraham was faithful to the true God, he overthrew the idols of his
father and obtained the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek,
which is after the order of the Son of God, and a promise that of the
increase of his seed there should be no end; when you obtain the Holy
Priesthood, which is after the order of Melchizedek, sealed upon you,
and the promise that your seed shall be numerous as the stars in the
firmament, or as the sands upon the seashore, and of your increase
there shall be no end, you have then got the promise of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the blessings that were conferred upon them.
How many of the youth of our land are entitled to all the blessings of
the kingdom of Heaven, without first receiving the law of adoption?
When a man and woman have received their endowments and sealings, and
then had children born to them afterwards, those children are legal
heirs to the kingdom and to all its blessings and promises, and they
are the only ones that are on this earth. Where is not a young man in
our community who would not be willing to travel from here to England
to be married right, if he understood things as they are; there is not
a young woman in our community, who loves the gospel and wishes its
blessings, that would be married in any other way; they would live
unmarried until they could be married as they should be, if they lived
until they were as old as Sarah before she had Isaac born to her. Many
of our brethren have married off their children without taking this
into consideration, and thinking it a matter of little of importance.
I wish we all understood this in the light in which heaven understands
it.
Those whom I once knew as little boys are growing out of my
recollection; these young men know nothing but Mormonism. They are in
some instances called wild and ungovernable; but these wild boys,
properly guided and directed, will make the greatest men who have ever
lived upon this earth; and I want them to throw aside their diffidence
and come up and shake hands with me, and say, "How do you, brother
Brigham," for I feel warmly towards them. I say to our young men, be
faithful, for you do not know what is before you, and abstain from bad
company and bad habits. Let me say to the boys sixteen years old and
even younger, make up your minds to mark out the path of rectitude for
yourselves, and when evil is presented, let it pass by unnoticed by
you, and preserve yourselves in truth, in righteousness, virtue and
holiness before the Lord. You were born in the kingdom of God; it is
to be built up; the earth has to be renovated, and the people
sanctified, after they are gathered from the nations, and it requires
considerable skill and ability to do this; let our young men prepare
themselves to aid and do their part in this great work. I want you to
remember this teaching with regard to our youth.
We are hated and despised as a people, and everyone who hates
this people, hates the God of heaven; and when men lift their hands
against the Latter-day Saints, they lift them against the Almighty. We
are the men and women who will renovate the earth, redeem it, and
restore all things through the strength of Him who has paid the debt
for us, and who has been and is still willing to help us, and give
unto us every blessing we need. Our religion is worth everything to
us, and for it we should be willing to employ our time, our talent,
our means, our energies, our lives.
Let the Latter-day Saints be separate from the ungodly, and learn to
live within themselves; and let us cease to give to them the proceeds
of our hard toil for that which does not profit us. Any man in this
church and kingdom who will cater to a Gentile for a little money will
be poor in time and in all eternity. To those who plead poverty, and
contend that they must take wicked and corrupt men into their houses
to board them, etc., for a living, I promise poverty, unless they
repent, and turn from the error of their ways. So long as we will
fellowship unholy and wicked persons, so long God and angels and holy
men will not fellowship us.
May God bless you as parents, as children, as Elders in Israel, as
musicians, and as sweet singers; may He bless your houses, your barns,
your fields, your flocks, and your herds, your cities and the ranges
around them, the mountains, the timber and the waters, and greatly
comfort you, and enable you to pursue the journey of life so as to
land safely in the haven of eternal rest. Amen.