It was said by one of old that "faith comes by hearing;" and I might
say, with propriety, that faith comes by hearing and conceiving of the
words of life. It was also said, "How shall they believe in him of
whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach, except they be sent?" —by proper authority.
Hence, it is necessary that we should have teachers. When the elders
of this Church go into places where the Gospel has never been preached
before, the Spirit bears witness to the people of its truth. A number
will believe for a time. The seed is sown; some of it falls on
stony ground; it springs up rapidly, but has not sufficient root, and
it speedily withers. Some falls into the ground, and to all appearance
will have a thorough growth; but the cares of the world spring up and
choke that seed, and the hearts where it was sown forsake the truth
and neglect to hearken to the voice which whispered to them, "This is
the truth." But there are a few in the world who will hearken to the
words of life when they hear them, and will remain faithful. Yet but
few, in comparison to the great numbers who have heard the Gospel,
have received it in good and honest hearts, and have brought forth
fruit meet for repentance; and of those who have embraced it, many
have run well for a season who have not continued to abide in the
faith. Still, it is necessary that we should be taught and instructed
in the things of God.
It has just been remarked here, by Brother Musser, that it is hard for
a man to study law without forsaking the spirit of the Gospel. This
proves that there is a lack of sound knowledge in the individual who
permits himself to be thus led away. There are many among the
inhabitants of the earth who are weak in comprehension, and of such
limited capacity that they can only look upon one thing at a time; and
they forsake the contemplation of everything else for the one idea
which occupies the mind. There are some of our Elders who will argue
themselves into false doctrine by giving an undue preference to one
scripture and passing over others equally as important. This same lack
of comprehensiveness of mind is also very noticeable at times with
some men who happen to accumulate property, and it leads them to
forsake the Spirit of the Gospel. Does it not prove that there is a
contractedness of mind in those who do so, which should not be? The
Lord owns the earth; he made it; the gold and the silver, the wheat
and the fine flour are his, and the cattle upon a thousand hills are
his; yet he is not going to forsake the holy Gospel or to apostatize
therefrom because of that. When Jesus comes to reign King of nations
as he now reigns King of Saints, he will not apostatize although the
whole world will be at his command; and when the Ancient of Days shall
come and sit upon his throne to bring to judgment the vast family of
man, he will not apostatize. How contracted in mind and shortsighted
we must be to permit the perishable things of this world to swerve us
in the least degree from our fidelity to the truth. It shows that we
lack knowledge which we should possess.
If men cannot study and practice law and keep the Spirit of the Lord,
they ought to quit it. As I have frequently told the people at our
places of recreation, if they cannot go there with the Spirit of the
Lord, they had better stay at home. We do not want lawyers, nor
merchants, nor businessmen to be engaged in those pursuits unless
they have the Spirit of God with them. We do not wish them to continue
in their business unless they can see and understand that all things
pertaining to this earth are subject by right to the priesthood of
God, and should be guided and directed by it in every matter. All that
they are, have, or do, ought to be subject to the priesthood of the
Son of God; and unless they can feel thus, they had better go into the
fields and canyons to work—suffer themselves to be poor and keep the
Holy Spirit with them. It seems to me, at times, as though the people
should be ashamed that we are under the necessity of charging them not
to become surfeited with the things of this world, so as to neglect the duties that are obligatory upon them.
We are like children who require constant teaching; and the teaching
that we principally need is in temporal things. How often do we hear
it said that we are one in spiritual matters. If any turn away in the
least, it is because they yield to some delusive spirit or argument,
which convinces them that an error is truth. The Saints want teaching
with regard to their everyday life and their temporal avocations.
People believe the Gospel to be true in Germany, in France, in
Scandinavia, in England, and wherever on the face of the earth it is
preached to them, and they receive it.
Brother Musser has been telling us of being in Calcutta, and of
baptizing some who believed the Gospel there. They wished to be
gathered; but was it to learn of baptism for the remission of sins? Or
to learn the first principles of the Gospel? No; they could have
learned them in Calcutta. Do people come from Scandinavia to learn that
the laying on of hands is a correct principle? Or from England to find
out that we should break bread in commemoration of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ? No; they could learn these things in the several
parts of the earth where they first heard the Gospel; they could
obtain the spirit of prophecy there, and speak in tongues, and have
the discerning of spirits. What do you gather here for? To be guided
and dictated in the things of the kingdom of God, so as to become of
one heart and of one mind in all things political, religious and
social; to learn how to live to overcome the evils that are in you,
that you may be kind and gentle and truth-loving, full of the Spirit
of the Lord from Sunday morning to Sunday morning; not coming together
on the first day of the week for our meetings and sacraments, and then
going away and turning to the beggarly elements of the world without
thinking of religion again until the next Sabbath morning. The
Latter-day Saints are gathered together to learn how to overcome every
sin, and every passion within them, to sanctify themselves before the
heavens, and sanctify the Lord God in their hearts.
It has been remarked this afternoon that we are introducing a new
order of things by some of the teachings recently given to the Saints.
It is no new doctrine to let our enemies alone. This book (Doctrine
and Covenants) contains revelations given to the Church thirty-seven,
thirty-six, thirty-five, and thirty years ago. This is what we call
the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church; yet it is but a part of
them. Here are the Bible and the Book of Mormon, both of them
containing the doctrine and covenants of the Church. But this book
contains the revelations given in this our day; and one of the first
revelations that was given to Joseph the Prophet, concerning the
gathering of the house of Israel, points out the manner in which the
brethren should live to be justified before the Lord. I have taken the
liberty of saying in the past, and I think I might repeat it with
safety, that these first revelations given to the Church will probably
be among the last to be strictly obeyed. The revelation I refer to
dictated the brethren what to do with regard to their temporal
business; and it will be comparatively easy to obey all the
revelations until we come to that which touches the purse—one of the
first that was given to the Church.
You can read it in the Doctrine and Covenants; and you will find that
it directs concerning the purchasing of lands, the giving of all property over into the hands of the Bishop, the receiving of
inheritances and being satisfied therewith; and that all that the
Bishop did not feel disposed to return back to those from whom he
received it, was to remain in his charge, or in the charge of the
Trustee-in-Trust, to build up the kingdom, preach the Gospel,
administer to the wants of the poor, and sustain the priesthood. How
would this be received by our merchants here, who are members of the
Church? Commence at the head of East Temple Street, which I call
Whiskey Street, and go down it on either side, and ask our brethren who
are merchants to hand over their property to Bishop Hunter, who might
say to them, "I will let you have ten acres of land to commence
farming, and here are a thousand dollars to start you," and how would
they act? I feel like saying, as I have said before, unless many of
them take a different course they will go to hell. These were the
first revelations given to the Church; yet there are men today who
are Bishops and Presidents of settlements, who express their
willingness to labor for the welfare of the people and the building up
of the kingdom, but feel that no person holding the priesthood has a
right to dictate them with regard to their property. They are very
willing that Brother Brigham should dictate in spiritual matters, and
trust their eternal salvation to the principles he teaches; but the
property they may have acquired or the manner in which their labor
should be directed, or who they shall trade with, whether an avowed
enemy or a man who pays tithing, and taxes, and helps to build up the
community, are things with which, they think, he has no business.
I think it would be well to cleanse the inside of the platter. I had a
little note put into my hands not long since, which stated that some
of our merchants were taking advantage of the instructions given to
the Saints on the matter of trading. There are some merchants who have
never made a calculation of what the value of their goods is in first
cost, freight, insurance, &c., that they might know at what price they
could afford to sell them, so as to have a reasonable living profit;
but they have asked themselves, "How much can I get for these goods?
How much can the Latter-day Saints bear to be gulled in purchasing
them? Do merchants here take cent percent of profit? Yes, 500 percent,
when they can get it. An article which costs them a dollar,
they will charge from five to twenty dollars for, as they can obtain
it; and they would take fifty dollars for it, only they think the
people will not bear to be gulled to that extent. One man came to me
lately, who wanted to buy some goods. He asked me if he should buy of
so and so. I said I would go among those who pay their tithing and
their taxes, and among those who do not swear nor blaspheme the name
of God, and men who have consciences, who would not steal your wagon,
nor take your stock off the range—these are good traits, and I will
here say that thousands and millions who are not in the church are
just as good, morally, as we are—I told this friend to go among those
men and see what he could purchase goods at. He did so, and returned
and showed me his figures. The first place I directed him to; he found
he would have to pay twenty percent more for his goods than in the
second place. The second was a Latter-day Saint; the first was not in
the church; he concluded to purchase of one of the brethren because he could do twenty percent better with him.
The other day a man wanted to buy goods of an outsider, because he
could do so much better; the bills were examined and it was found that
this person was selling fifteen percent higher at wholesale than our
brethren were selling the same goods at retail. There is something the
matter with people who think they can buy cheaper from outsiders
merely because they are outsiders. How many of those before me are
really judges of goods? Not one in five hundred. "Why, Brother
Brigham," it may be asked, "am I not a judge of a piece of ribbon?"
You know whether the colors please you; but can you tell whether it
has been on the shelf of the store for one year or twenty years?
Brethren will buy cloth without being judges of the quality; and
because they can buy an article, apparently the same, a little cheaper
in one place than they can in another, they will do so, although the
quality is much inferior, and think they have got a bargain.
Brother Kimball sometimes brings up the figure of the potter putting
fresh clay into the mill and grinding it to use in his business, to
illustrate the influx of the brethren and sisters who are gathered
from the nations, and who have to be instructed in those principles
which have been taught here for years; but carrying out the figure, I
may say that some of the clay here has been ground over and over for
thirty years, and it comes out as rough as the first time it passed
through the mill. Some men seem as if they could learn so much and no
more. They appear to be bounded in their capacity for acquiring
knowledge, as Brother Orson Pratt, has in theory, bounded the capacity
of God. According to his theory, God can pro gress no further in
knowledge and power; but the God that I serve is progressing
eternally, and so are his children: they will increase to all
eternity, if they are faithful. But there are some of our brethren who
know just so much, and they seem to be able to learn no more. You may
plead with them, scold them, flatter them, coax them, and try in
various ways to increase their knowledge; but it seems as if they
would not learn. They know the Gospel is true, and that it has brought
blessings to them, but ask them if they know who they are? Where they
are from? Why they are here? If they have commenced to learn to
control the elements around them? And if they understand the nature of
their own organizations? And they will answer, "Why I never thought of
them." They have thought of the labor they have been engaged in, how
to chop down a tree, or plough the ground, or work at the bench, or do
whatever kind of work they have been accustomed to do, but do they
know anything about the character of Him whom they profess to worship?
No, only that the Gospel has been revealed. The Holy Spirit has
touched their hearts; they believe the Gospel, and they do not know
that they can learn any more.
We do not intend to let you go until we have tried to do something
with you. We wish to talk to the people until they learn to understand
principle. When the Saints get understanding they will never ask a
question when they are told to build up a settlement, make farms, or
do anything else that may be requisite in righteousness to build up
the kingdom of God. Some of our elders have learned a good deal by
experience on many points. In one thing they are all willing
to be obedient, and that is to go and preach the Gospel to the
nations. What elder who is called upon a mission would refuse to go.
Yet if he is asked to go and make a farm he seems to feel that it is
quite a different matter.
There is one subject that I have incessantly kept before the
capitalists of the Latter-day Saints for the past sixteen years; and
that is to go east and purchase machinery with their means. Go and buy
carding machines, you men who have capital; and you who have not
capital, sow a quarter of an acre of flax, and keep on sowing until
you become flax growers; and you machinists, make mills to spin it,
that we may have linen from flax of our own growing. This has been
done to some little extent; but for years I have asked the brethren
who have capital to go and buy machinery, yet how much has been bought
and imported here? There are many of our sisters who like to have silk
ribbons for their bonnets, and who wish silk for sewing, and fabrics
made from silk for dresses and other things. Why should not this silk
be produced and manufactured here? If a man was worth a million of
dollars, or millions of dollars, in the kingdom of God, and possessed
the Spirit of the Lord, knowing and understanding his duty, and was
told to get worms and make silk, and manufacture it from the raw
material, he would not say a word, nor ask a question, but he would do
as he was desired. So it would be if he were told to go and buy
machinery; he would go and buy it, and bring it here to be employed
for the good of the people, or his own benefit, and for the upbuilding
of the Kingdom of God. Until a very few years ago there was not a
carding machine in the Territory only those which I brought, nor a
spindle to spin an ounce of cotton or wool until I started it. The
factory at Parowan, Iron County, I started; there is one little cotton
factory in Utah County, and I have a small cotton and woollen factory,
and I have urged and urged the brethren to bring on woollen machinery
here, then the brethren would save their sheep. We need from one
hundred to two hundred of the same capacity in the Territory.
If one of our capitalists is asked to buy machinery, his reply is, "I
can make money faster by bringing goods here to sell." Is that your
object in coming here? You who feel so and do so will either stop in
your course and change it, or you will never enter the celestial
kingdom. You will go where our merchants will go, if they are not
careful. When a man has one dollar, or a million of dollars, and his
duty is pointed out by the priesthood, and he asks, "Can I do better
with my means some other way?" he will sooner or later sink in his
means and in his faith and go to ruin. The earth is the Lord's, and he
is going to give it to his Saints; and if we are anxious to obtain the
world before the Lord is willing to let us have it, we will lose that
which we seek to gain; but if we are faithful, we shall inherit all
things.
It is for this that we are gathered together. It is not that we may be
taught baptism for the remission of sins; neither is it that we may
have the gift of prophecy bestowed upon us; nor the gift of tongues,
nor the interpretation of tongues; but we are gathered together that
we may become one, as a people, in our politics and in our financial
matters, as well as in our faith; that we may know how to systematize
everything that we are engaged in, how to deal with one another; and
how to orga nize the elements to bring forth for our own wants,
and do all we do in the name of the Lord and to his glory. Will it add
anything to his glory? No, but he desires to see his children doing
right and living according to the laws of life; and he has brought
forth light into the world for this purpose, that we might be saved
and know how to obtain eternal life; know how to govern and control
ourselves and deal gently with one another; how to increase the
kingdom of God and spread abroad peace throughout the land, that all
may be quietness, peace, good order, and happiness. Would that not be
almost Zion? If we will do this we can produce heaven here upon the
earth. If we want to enjoy the principles and spirit of heaven, we
must live so as to produce them in our own bosoms; and if we should
unfortunately find ourselves in hell, it will be because by our acts
we will have so chosen. When we are truly one we will be one in those
things that pertain to this life.
We do not wish harm to those who have not the faith which we possess.
We wish good to all mankind; and desire to do good to all who will
permit us. But we should commence our labors of love and kindness with
the family to which we belong; and then extend them to others. It is
written, "If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of
his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an
infidel." If we do not seek the welfare of the household of faith, we
will sooner or later deny the faith. Our mission is not to build up
the wicked anywhere. We are called out of the world to build up the
kingdom of God. We are here to promote the principles of heaven, and
advance the purposes of the Almighty, and no others, and when you spend
a dollar to build up any other power or kingdom than the one which God
has established, you are doing wrong, and you will find it out sooner
or later. Sometimes when I think of these things I am very strenuous
in my feelings; and some might think that I was whipping them to it
just as we have been whipped into being an independent people. We have
been whipped, and beaten, and kicked out of doors; we have been told
to go and take care of ourselves; our houses, our lands, and all we
had got were wanted by our enemies; and we were driven into the
wilderness to starve. Thus we have been whipped to be independent.
Have we statesmen here amongst us? Yes, the best in the world, and
that is not boasting. We have been obliged to learn how to govern
ourselves and the people. If we know how to manufacture what we need,
to draw a sustenance from the elements in this forbidding country, it
is because we have been obliged to do so. When we came here, if we did
not know how to get shoes, we knew how to go barefooted. I will
venture to say that not one of four out of my family had shoes to
their feet when we came to this valley. Necessity is said to be the
mother of invention; and if we did not know how to make moccasins we
learned. And we learned how to govern and control ourselves.
Occasionally it is said, and published in the world, "What a terrible
people these Mormons are! No man's life is safe in Utah!" Put this
people by themselves and there would not be a lawsuit among them in a
year, nor a murder in fifty years; nor ever, if they would live their
religion. But if men try to crowd into our houses to seduce our wives,
sisters, and daughters, they should take care. If they want families, let them take an honorable course to obtain them; if they
want wives, they should marry them, and give them their names
honestly. What is the condition of the world? If you go to Europe, to
Germany, to France, and other countries, what will you find? You need
not go beyond the United States; not even beyond the City of Friends.
I saw a reservoir there in which they found the bodies of twenty-nine
children, when cleaning it, and it had been cleaned but a short time
previously. Sometimes, I was informed, they had found more in it. It
is a little better in England, for there they will keep their
illegitimate children if they can, or give them away. If a man wants a
wife let him take one, and not act the scoundrel. I will promise every
man on the face of this earth, that ever was or ever will be, that if
they will betray the innocent and ruin the virtuous they shall have
damnation for their portion. Set this people down by themselves and
permit them to remain so would there ever be any trouble among them?
No; there never would be, so long as they would live their religion.
Go to cities west, north and east of us, and it is not uncommon to
find half-a-dozen men dead by violence in a morning. What is said
about it? Why, nothing. But if a scoundrel should meet his just
deserts here, what an outcry is made? The Christian world is in an
uproar about it. Yet I do not wonder at it; the thing is so rare. But
if there were half-a-dozen men killed a day here, as in some other
places, it would scarcely be noticed; it would not be so rare.
Do the Latter-day Saints know that they are gathered together to be
taught in temporal things, in all their business movements and
deal ings, and to learn how to live in families and as a community in
peace and happiness? We are charged with abusing our families. There
is not another community on the earth where families are loved,
honored, respected, and cherished as they are among the Latter-day
Saints—even if we do have more than one wife. You know we are accused
of almost every crime; and it is said that we hold our families in
bondage. They do not look as if they were held in bondage. They like
to be held in the bondage they are in; and there are a great many
others in the nations of the earth who feel the same way, and whom we
will gather and hold in the same bondage—even in the bonds of the
Gospel.
Men are gathered here, and get the spirit of the devil in them. They
do feel the influence of the Spirit of the Lord at times, and then
they are humble. But they will allow the spirit of evil to seize hold
of them, and they will get full of passion and abuse a neighbor, a
child, or a wife. The wife will run to the bishop and lay her complaint
before him, and he will chasten the husband. It seems to me at times
as though there are some men and women who are never happy only when
they are miserable, they appear to delight so much in quarreling and
contending. But if they will strive to live according to the
principles of the Gospel, they will overcome that, with everything
else which hinders their progress in the truth. We are here to be
sanctified, that every thought, and desire and feeling may be brought
into subjection to the will of God.
You Latter-day Saints are gathered expressly that husbands may be
taught how to live with their wives, and wives with their
husbands; parents with their children, and children with their
parents; that all may become of one heart and of one mind. The Saints
are so in many respects already. They are on the increase, and I
expect to see the day that they will be subject in all things to the
priesthood of God, and never raise an argument against anything they
may be instructed to do by the priesthood. Many are like children who
seek to handle the very things that would destroy them; but when they
come to understanding they will never have to be told of any duty
twice by their leaders.
It was remarked here this afternoon that preaching by example is
better than preaching by precept. That is so or example exercises a
more powerful influence than precept. If any of you can set a better
example than is set by myself, do so. Live a better life than I do, if
you can. Many men will say they have a violent temper, and try to so
excuse themselves for actions of which they are ashamed. I will say,
there is not a man in this house who has a more indomitable and
unyielding temper than myself. But there is not a man in the world who
cannot overcome his passion, if he will struggle earnestly to do so.
If you find passion coming on you, go off to some place where you
cannot be heard; let none of your family see you or hear you, while it
is upon you, but struggle till it leaves you; and pray for strength to
overcome. As I have said many times to the Elders, pray in your
families; and if, when the time for prayer comes, you have not the
spirit of prayer upon you, and your knees are unwilling to bow, say to
them, "Knees, get down there;" make them bend, and remain there until
you obtain the Spirit of the Lord. If the spirit yields to the body,
it becomes corrupt; but if the body yields to the spirit it becomes
pure and holy, and is fitted to come forth with the just in the
morning of the first resurrection, and to dwell with the sanctified;
otherwise we cannot be prepared for this glory. We are gathered
together to sanctify these bodies, to deal, act, transact, and do
everything we do in the love of God, and in the fear of God, for the
building up of his kingdom and to his name's honor and glory.
I could tell you many things that might seem hard to those who are
not members of the Church. There are a great many different kinds of
capacities on the earth; and a great many who do not understand the
different spirits that are in the world. Take a person who is quick of
comprehension, if he can receive the Spirit of the Lord, let him have
the Gospel preached to him; and if he is honest he will embrace it.
Excuse me, outsiders, there are no men or women on the earth, but who,
if they will yield to the Spirit of Christ, will embrace that which is
known as "Mormonism," when they have opportunity. There is a great
variety of temperaments, many of whom, it seems, cannot see and
understand the revelations of God; and if their eyes were opened to
see the heaven of heavens, as soon as they would be closed again, they
would say, "I guess I have been dreaming;" when there is no other
spirit of sensibility than the Spirit of God. It fills immensity.
David has expressed himself; "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or
whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven,
thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I
take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." David believed that the Lord is in hell. But does he
dwell there? No; he is there by his Spirit, for all the evil that is
there has bounds set to it which it cannot pass by.
Now, I expect by tomorrow night or next morning, that I shall hear of
some of our bishops trading with some of the worst enemies we have;
and we have men here in our midst who would cut your throats and mine.
But, bishops, if you under stood your duties, you would never have to
be told twice concerning anything that it was right you should do. We
will try to bear with you until you do understand; yet we are not so
merciful as our Father in heaven. But when we sanctify ourselves to
enter into the presence of the Father and of the Son, we will be
filled with the same patience that he is filled with.
May the Lord bless you. Amen.