As we have just returned from a journey from the south I presume it
would be interesting to you to hear some little about how the Saints
generally are getting on. We have had quite a pleasant journey, but
rather a laborious one, traveling thirty, forty, or fifty miles a
day, and preaching from once to three times a day. But we have had
very pleasant remarks, feelings, and associations during our absence.
We found that the President and those who were with him were welcomed
and well received in every place we visited. There seems be an
increase of faith among the Saints and a desire to live their religion
and keep the commandments of God. We also find that improvements are
taking place in almost every place we visited; they are improving in
their farming operations, their orchards, gardens, dwellings, &c., and
some places, we find, are really very beautiful. Down in the far
south, in Saint George and through that region of country, the people
are beginning to live easier and better than heretofore, so that the
matter of living is no longer a problem with any of them. In the early
days of the set tlement of that country a good many became disaffected
and left. Geo. A. used occasionally to go down with reinforcements,
expecting to find quite a large company, but when he tried to put his
finger on them, like "Paddy's flea," they were not there. At the
present time, however, different feelings prevail. There are many now
who desire to go down there as a matter of choice, and a great many
there with whom I conversed feel as though it was as good a home as
they could find anywhere in the valleys, and they would not wish to
leave unless counseled to do so. It took counsel to take them there,
and it would take counsel to bring them away. So far as the city of
Saint George is concerned, it is the best and most pleasant looking
city in the Territory, outside of Great Salt Lake City, and that is
saying a good deal for a new place. They have beautiful gardens and
orchards, and quite a large number of very beautiful buildings, and
they are making for themselves a very pleasant home. And not only so,
but the promises to them are beginning to be fulfilled, waters are
beginning to burst forth in desert places, where they had none
before, and they are beginning to feel that the hand of the Lord is
over them, that He is interested in their welfare, that He is their
God, and that they are His people. In fact, when we were down there at
Conference, which we attended for two days, we had a pleasant time,
and a good spirit prevailed, and I felt almost as though we were at
home, there were so many familiar faces. I noticed, too, that there
was a very general disposition among the people to observe the Word of
Wisdom. Of course we had to keep it—we could not for shame do anything
else—and if we had been disposed to do otherwise we could hardly have
helped ourselves, for nobody offered us either tea, coffee, tobacco or
liquor. There seemed to be a general disposition among the people to
obey, at least, that counsel, although they had not heard much
preaching upon it until we went down and talked things over together.
We enjoyed ourselves very much, and the people expressed themselves as
being very highly gratified. They met as you meet us here with their
bands of music, schools, escorts, and so forth and they made us
welcome wherever we went, and we found that it was indeed a very
different thing to preach the gospel among the Saints from what it is
to preach it in the world. Instead of receiving opposition, contumely,
and contempt, we were received with kindness, good feelings, and a
hearty welcome.
In relation to these missionary operations which have been alluded to,
I should like to see something done. I do not know that it is
necessary to talk about it. We used to be in the habit of going
without purse or scrip. That is the way I have traveled hundreds and
thousands of miles, but then we felt as the disciples of old did. When
we returned, if asked if we had lacked anything, we could say verily
no. But there was a time afterwards when Jesus said—"Let him that has
a purse take it with him, and let him that has no sword sell his coat
and buy one." We do not always remain in statu quo. At that time we
were the poorest people in the world, but now we are better off than
the generality of mankind, and we are able to help one another, and
there is no necessity for our missionaries to go under the
circumstances they have done heretofore; and since it is the counsel
that they shall not, why let us do what we can to help them. In
relation to the Kingdom of God, it is still onward, and we expect it
to continue to progress, and we expect, individually, to be co-workers
in its affairs and participators in its progress. If we are called on
missions we go; if we are called upon to contribute to assist others
to go we contribute. If the word is, "remove here," or "go there,"
we
go—that is, many of us do, some do not. When I was at Conference at
Saint George I felt that I was among a very good people, and that
there was a great deal of the Spirit of the Lord there; but when I
came to reflect on the circumstance I was not surprised that there
should be a good people there, because they who were a little shaky in
the knees, and did not have a great deal of faith, left and came away,
and consequently they passed through that sieve and returned again,
some to us and some to the settlements around, according to
circumstances. And where there is a people that have been called upon
to undertake what they consider to be a painful or unpleasant task or
mission, and they go and perform that mission without flinching, they
feel that they are engaged in the work of God, and that His work and
His commands and the authority of the Holy Priesthood are more
to them than anything else; and they have the blessing of God resting
upon them, which produces peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, and that is
the reason why there is so good a feeling and so large a flow of the
Spirit of the living God through that district of country. But where
there is a backwardness and a shrinking from duties assigned us there
is a drying up of that Spirit and a lack of the light, life, power,
and energy which the Holy Ghost imparts to those that fulfil the
dictates of Jehovah. When I reflect upon these things I take this
lesson to myself: "That it is a good and pleasant thing to obey the
dictates of the Lord, that it is praiseworthy and honorable to be
found walking in the commands of Jehovah, and that it is a blessing to
all men to fulfil all missions and to discharge all responsibilities
and duties that the Lord lays upon them." When selecting brethren to go
down there I remember the Bishops asked me "what kind of men I
wanted?" I told them I wanted men of God, men of faith, who would go
and sit on a barren rock and stay there until told to leave it. If we
get a number of men of that kind to go, there is faith, union, power,
light, truth, the revelations of Jesus Christ, and everything that is
calculated to elevate, exalt, and ennoble the human mind and happify
the Saints of God. These are my views in relation to the Kingdom of
God.
The Lord has established His kingdom on the earth, and He has given us
His servants to guide and direct us. We, as a people, profess
emphatically to be governed by revelation. We do not believe in this
simply as theory, as something that would be beneficial to somebody
else, but as something that will be a blessing to ourselves. We
believe that God has spoken, that angels have appeared, that the
everlasting gospel in its purity has been restored; we believe that
God has organized His Church and Kingdom on the earth, and that,
through channels which He has appointed and ordained, He manifests His
will first to the Saints and then to the world. And we believe that
the more we adhere to the teachings of the servants of God the more we
shall prosper, both temporally and spiritually, the more we shall
enjoy the favor of the Almighty, and the more likely we shall be to
obtain for ourselves an everlasting inheritance in the celestial
kingdom of our God. We believe that the intelligence and wisdom of man
cannot guide us, and that we, therefore, need the guidance of the
Almighty; and, being under His guidance and direction, it is our duty
to submit to His law, to be governed by His authority, do His will,
keep His commandments, and observe His statutes, that we may
ultimately be saved in His celestial kingdom.
May God help us to be faithful in the name of Jesus. Amen.