Having been called upon to address the Saints this afternoon, I do so
with the greatest of cheerfulness, feeling to rejoice before the Lord
at having the privilege. I esteem the blessings that have been
bestowed upon this people far above all the riches, wealth and honors
that could possibly be bestowed upon them by men. There is something
connected with the dispensation of the Gospel which has been revealed
to us, that is calculated in its very nature to inspire the heart of
the true Saint with joy. There is no other religion extant among men,
calculated to impart the same joy and happiness as that which we have
embraced.
To believe in a God who once freely conversed with His children and
took them into close communion with Himself, and revealed to them many
great and precious things and filled them with the Holy Ghost, but
who, in later times, to another class of His children refused the same
blessings, is a horror to my feelings; it would impart no
satisfaction, happiness, true joy, or peace of mind to me, or any
other person. Yet we have been educated, before embracing the fullness
of the Gospel, in a variety of religions wherein we were taught that
God was once a God of power, and that in former dispensations He made
bare His arm among the people; but we are told by the various
religious sects of the day that for the last 1700 years these great
manifestations of His power and goodness have been withheld from the
children of men.
What satisfaction is this to me or to any real true-hearted Saint of
God? If I were very hungry, having fasted a long time, and my appetite
craved food very much, what would be the use of me reading of people
having enjoyed themselves with a great variety of palatable and
healthful food 1,800 years ago? How much would this satisfy the
cravings and wants of my nature? Suppose I should find a very hungry
people, or many congregations of them, who had fasted until they were
almost ready to perish for the want of food, and I should say to them,
"Cheer up, brethren, let your hearts be glad and rejoice exceedingly,
for the Lord fed five thousand in ancient days on a few loaves and
fishes, but you need not expect that He will do any such thing for
you." Do you think such a people would feel like clapping their hands
or shouting for joy at such an announcement? I look upon all the
sectarian religions of the world, in which our fathers have believed,
in this light. Give me a religion that will feed the soul in my day;
give me a religion that will privilege its believers to hold converse
with God in their own day; that will inspire their hearts with the
revelations of Heaven, and manifest those things which are great and
heavenly and reveal to them their duties while they live. If I can't
have a religion of this description, I say good bye to all religions.
Nothing short of that will satisfy me as an individual.
A great many good and wholesome truths are taught, notwithstanding, by
almost every religious society, perhaps we may say all, not excepting
the heathen nations, who worship idols. They have a great many good
and wholesome principles among them, as well as a great many that are
evil, and which are calculated to darken the mind, corrupt the heart,
and lead them astray from the true God. If the religions of the day
were full of evil from beginning to end; if there were no principles
of morality included within them, they would not be calculated in
their nature to bring so many into bondage and subjection to them. But
because they have some good, wholesome, moral principles mixed with
their foolish, vain traditions, and powerless forms, millions are
dragged into their snares.
I have oftentimes felt to ask the children of men, how they would look
upon a man at the head of a family of children, say a dozen of sons,
who condescended to be very familiar and sociable with six of them,
the elder ones, and taught and instructed them, developed their minds
and led them along, unfolding principle after principle to them; and
by and by, when the other six came along, believing him to be an
impartial being, and learning of the great blessings bestowed upon
their brethren, they ask for similar blessings, but not one solitary
soul of the six could get a syllable of information from him. Would
you not think that such a father had changed very materially, or that
the children had incurred his displeasure to that extent that he would
not have anything to do with them? Now this is the light in which God
is held up by all the sectarian religions of the day.
We Latter-day Saints have come out from all these vain and foolish
doctrines; we have renounced them. When the glorious Gospel of the Son
of God was sounded in our ears we received it with joy. We saw, in a
great measure, the foolishness of the religions we had been taught all
our days; we saw how powerless they were. We saw that they had no
voice of angels and that God inspired none of them with the spirit of pro phecy; we saw that none of them had revelation, or the
visions of heaven opened to their minds; and we also saw the doctrines
they taught were foolish, vain and false, got up by the children of
men without authority from God, and seeing this we renounced the whole
of them.
We oftentimes, in our Tabernacle and meetinghouses, have the
privilege of seeing the contrast to this. There are some of our
children, born here in this Territory, who, perhaps, have never formed
much of an idea respecting the false doctrines with which our
forefathers have been bound down for generations. It is true we
occasionally tell them, but they cannot realize it as if they had
experienced it for themselves.
I consider that the most of what we heard delivered from this stand
this forenoon was very good; and according to my views, the principles
advanced were wholesome as far as they went. But sound these doctrines
to the bottom, and we shall find that they who advocate them believe
that King James translation of the Bible contains the last revelation
God ever did give, or that He intends to give to the human family.
That is what they themselves tell us. Now, what particular use is it
to preach up morality and many other good things, and then connect it
with a doctrine of that kind? You may think I am hard, but I could not
help, while listening this forenoon, contrasting this people with all
the light and knowledge that God has poured down from the heavens upon
them, with the formal, powerless systems of the children of men in
which we were so long traditionated.
When we hear salvation preached we know it is true; when we hear that
Jesus is the Author of salvation to all those who obey Him, we know
that is true. But when we ascend still further in these great and
sublime principles we find that, besides believing that Jesus is the
Author of salvation, we must know what He requires of the children of
men, and then obey it. We must find out and understand that He is the
same Author of salvation that He was in ancient days; that if He did
converse with His children in former days, being the same Author of
salvation and unchangeable in His nature and attributes, He is willing
to speak to His children in these times. Could you get the religious
world to believe in or preach such a doctrine? No. Why? Because it
contradicts their creeds. They have surrounded themselves as it were
with a peck measure and have said to their proselytes, "So far shall
you go in this belief and no farther." You may believe just what the
ancients have written, but you must not believe anything further.
You may believe that God spoke to Moses and delivered the children of
Israel by His power; but you must not believe that He will ever raise
up a Moses in our day. You may believe that God gave the keys of His
Kingdom to the Apostle Peter, and gave him the power to unfold the
principles of eternal life in his day, but you must not believe in any
man holding the keys in these days. These are their creeds, and they
will cut you off from their church if you profess to believe in new
revelations, or in anything not contained in the Bible.
I did not think, when I arose, of saying anything about this subject,
but it came into my mind. There are so many great and glorious
principles which God has revealed to this people that it seems as
though we can hardly get time to speak about the false doctrines of
the children of men. We wish to talk about things more glorious;
things which are cal culated to revive the hearts of the
Saints, to fill them with joy, peace and happiness, and to inspire
them with the hope of blessings to come.
We Latter-day Saints have not only embraced the first principles of
the Gospel, but we have assembled ourselves from many nations and come
here to these isolated vales with the understanding that we were to be
taught more perfectly in the ways of the Lord. If we have gathered
with any other feelings or views in our hearts we have made a mistake.
The Lord our God could not teach, and build us up in the ordinances of
His Kingdom, without making us one people. We are expecting to obtain
salvation; that is our great object. If that had not been our object
but very few people would have come so many thousand miles into this
comparatively desert region. This proves the sincerity of those who
have gathered; it proves that they have been willing to do almost
anything if they could but obtain that salvation which they longed
for, and which they desired with all their hearts. You therefore
expect, if you are true Saints, as I have already observed, that when
you come here you will be taught more perfectly in relation to your
duties. Perhaps some may have formed erroneous ideas in regard to
these teachings, thinking in their own hearts that when they arrived
in Zion—the great place of gathering, they would be taught more
perfectly in spiritual duties, and be continually fed with spiritual
things. Perhaps some may have imbibed the idea that God would not
inspire His servants to say much in regard to temporal matters. This
is one of the things we have learned in the world. We not only learn
that God does not speak in our day, and that He has no prophets nor
inspired men, but we also learn that every man must be for himself,
and, so far as property is concerned, the devil for us all. We have
been thoroughly taught this lesson, it has been instilled into our
very constitutions; and to think that God has nothing to do with
temporal matters, and that He can prepare His people to enter the
celestial Kingdom and be made one and equal, as it were, in the
enjoyment of heavenly things, and yet be as divided as the east is
from the west in regard to temporal things, has become a second nature
to us. Even the Latter-day Saints, with all their information and
knowledge and the blessings they have received, can hardly conceive
that the Lord has any business to teach them how to proceed in regard
to their temporal business.
The Lord says, "Unto me all things are spiritual." Did God make this
earth? Yes. Well, it was a spiritual work. He spake, His word went
forth out of His mouth, the elements were brought together and
organized, and the earth was made very good. It was a spiritual work.
We may call it temporal; but, God, in all things pertaining to His
works, is spiritual, and all things to Him, as He says in one of the
revelations, are spiritual. But unto you, ye Latter-day Saint, because
of your traditions, He has made a little distinction, and called same
things temporal and some spiritual. In the great day of the fullness
of the redemption that is promised to the Saints, for which we all
hope, do we expect to be admitted into the presence of a Being who has
no materiality about Him? Do we expect to be admitted into a heaven
that consists of spiritual things according to our ideas? Do we expect
when we get there that we will find beings in whose image we are, and
yet they be intangible and without substance? If we are material, so
will they be. If we have flesh and bones after the
resurrection, so will they have flesh and bones. If we are male and
female after the resurrection, so will they be in heavenly society. If
we have thrones of a material nature, so will they have, and their
thrones will be just as material in their nature as the thrones of
this world. It is true that those personages, their thrones and the
elements by which they are surrounded will all be pure. They will be
uncontaminated by sin, being so purified and sanctified that sin will
have no dominion there. But because everything there is pure, it does
not make it altogether immaterial in its nature, it is still an
enduring substance. And when we receive our inheritance there, we
shall receive a tangible inheritance, a spiritual inheritance, and a
material inheritance. Will it consist of land? Yes, just as much as
the land on which we walk; but the land will be purified and
sanctified. It will neither be contaminated nor unclean, and none but
the clean, pure and sanctified will possess inheritances there. Do we
have material books here in this world from which we gain information?
Yes. Will they not be material also in that world? Will there not be
books and records there in abundance? Will not the acts and doings of
the children of men be recorded in books in that world? Will not your
sealings and blessings, and the powers and keys that have been
bestowed upon you be recorded there in books, as well as in books in
this world? Well, then, it is all spiritual and it is all material in
its nature. Are we to possess these spiritual and eternal riches
that world? We are told in numerous laws which God has given that all
of this people are to be made one as it were. No division there; no
quarreling about property; no such thing as one person sitting away
down in rags and another lifted up with immense riches. What do we
read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in a revelation given to
Joseph in the early rise of this church, speaking of the property that
was placed in the hands of certain individuals who had entered into
covenant and an everlasting order? The Lord says, "You are merely
stewards; these properties are mine, or else your faith is vain."
"And," says the Lord, "except you are made equal in the bonds of
earthly things, (that is in property) you cannot be made equal in the
enjoyment of holy and eternal riches."
Well, if there is to be an equality in the eternal worlds throughout
all the celestial hosts in the enjoyment of eternal riches, is it not
necessary for the Latter-day Saints to begin to be one, in some
measure at least, in regard to their possessions here in this world?
How thankful I have been in looking at the great movements that are
taking place, this Fall, in our midst. What a great revolution is
taking place, pointing to this union! Not in its perfection, for the
people are not prepared for it. A perfect order cannot be introduced
yet; that will exist when you go back to Jackson County. We have not
yet learned the lesson that we are but stewards over what the Lord
places in our hands. We have not yet learned the law which should
govern and regulate these matters. Ever since we entered these valleys
every man has been for himself more or less. The merchant to trade and
traffic and gain all he could possibly rake and scrape together. The
mechanic, the farmer and the manufacturer have done the same; and each
one, in all the various branches of business that have been carried on
in our Territory, has been constantly grabbing here and
grabbing there, each trying to get rich the soonest and to become a
millionaire without any great exertion.
Now supposing that one man could possess his tens of millions, what
satisfaction is there in that? If a man is engaged in the mercantile
profession and is able to lay up gold like the dust of the earth so
that he could buy the people of the whole Territory, what happiness or
satisfaction would that give him? The satisfaction such a man would
enjoy is as I heard a certain merchant relate not long since—"that he
had to put wet cloths over his head in order to keep his brain from
being turned inside out," through the care, perplexity and difficulty
he encountered in trying to manage in this way, and that way and the
other way. What for? Why to grasp and gain more and to heap up
property. There is not much happiness, when a man gets into a
condition that his whole soul is drawn out after property, and his
whole mind, as it were, is carried away with it. How much greater
satisfaction it should give to that man to see all the people get rich
alike, so far as they can under the present imperfect order of things.
It is true all have not the same intellect or capacity; all do not
understand mercantile affairs, neither do all understand the various
branches of business carried on by the people of this Territory. All
may not be able to gather together and heap up wealth alike; but still
a poor man may be an honest man; a poor man may be a good man. A poor
man who has not the faculty for heaping up riches, may, at the same
time, be sincere and honest in his heart, and be striving to do just
as much good as the man who is constantly racking his brain trying to
obtain property. And how much more satisfactory it would be to the real
true-hearted merchant Saint to see all his brethren getting rich and
wealthy than it would be to see his millions multiplying around him,
and thousands of his brethren sunk into the lowest depths of poverty,
many of them scarcely knowing where to get the next meal of victuals.
This inordinate desire for riches is a gentile tradition that we were
taught before we came into this Church. We brought these feelings
into the church; and when we embraced the Gospel we verily thought it
was all spiritual, and had nothing to do with temporal matters. We
came to this valley, filled with these notions and traditions. But it
is time now that we began to awake up and listen to the counsel of him
who is our leader, our Prophet and President. He has been telling us
all the day long that we must become more united, that me must seek
with all our hearts to be one, not only in regard to baptism and the
laying on of hands, and doctrine generally; but united in our
interests as a people, in order that we may build up the kingdom of
God and extend its borders, that when the time shall come for that
great central city to be built up on the consecrated spot this people
may have wealth in their possession to perform the work of God.
Instead of that now poverty reigns, and I have sometimes thought it
would reign until the order of things is changed. Thank God there
seems to be now a beginning, a pointing forward to the time when this
union shall be brought about. I believe the people now are better
prepared to bring about this revolution than they have ever been. Why?
Because they have had a long experience. They have had both sides of
the question laid before them. By their own acts in this Territory
during the last twenty-one years they have seen the results of
every man grasping for himself. These results which have been
manifested before them for years, and which are waxing stronger and
stronger, are building up a power in the midst of this Territory that
will cause the Latter-day Saints sorrow in time to come if they do not
wake up. But the wealthy men, the merchants, those who have their
hundreds of thousands are beginning to wake up, and they are taking
hold with a feeling of interest to build up the Kingdom of God
according to the counsels which God has imparted to them by the mouth
of His servants. If this counsel can only be carried out, not only in
our mercantile arrangements, but in every other branch of business
necessary for the well being of the people of this Territory, you will
find that they will multiply their riches a hundredfold quicker than
they will if they act individually.
Has God said anything about temporal riches? Yes. He told this Church,
before it was one year old that we should become the richest of all
people. His words will be fulfilled. The Lord says we shall not only
have the riches of eternity, but we shall have the riches of the
earth. God does not care how much wealth His people have, provided
they obtain it according to the law he has instituted. Do you suppose
that the Lord wants His people to be always bound down with the
shackles of poverty, distress and suffering? No. He is willing that
you should have your hundreds of thousands. But He wants the riches of
His people to be, at all times, in a position to be used, not to
aggrandize themselves alone, but for the building up of His latter-day
Kingdom here on the earth. We have got that to do. The Lord has
decreed in this book that He will consecrate of the riches of the
gentiles that embrace His Gospel, unto the poor of His people who are
of the House of Israel. Now can we get away from that? No. Here are
hundreds of thousands of the poor of His people of the House of Israel
on these mountains and in North and South America. God has not
forgotten them, though they are degraded to the level of the brute
beasts, though they are wandering because of the iniquities and
apostasy of their fathers. Although they are in this forlorn and
outcast condition, God has not forgotten the promises made to their
fathers. They are to be lifted up, and it is to do this work that we
are privileged to enjoy their land. We are not in possession of our
land of promise particularly, only as we obtain it by a renewed
promise; but we are inheriting a land that was given to the remnant of
Joseph, and God has said that we must be remembered with them in the
possession of this land.
If, then, the remnant of Joseph can furnish us a land of promise on
which to dwell, and on which to build our buildings and become strong,
ought we not in turn to take those riches which we earn by our own
industry, and use them for the redemption of that people? We have got
to do it. It is the work on our hands. And if we do it we must rid
ourselves of this covetous principle that prompts us to take all that
we can grasp, and say, "this shall be for me and my family, that I may
aggrandize myself, and have things around me far superior to my
neighbors."
This principle must be eradicated from our natures; and I think, so
far as my poor weak judgment goes, a foundation has been laid, and a
plan devised that will affect every branch of business from the
mercantile establishment down to the farmer and mechanic. Everything
must be or ganized according to the law of Heaven. This will
prepare us for the more perfect law that will come in force, when the
Lord shall command this people to go back to the place where the
central city shall be built. We have to build that city; we have to
furnish riches to do it. We must prepare ourselves for it; and when we
get there, there will be more perfect order established than that
which is now being instituted.
God has not permitted us yet to enter a perfect order. He told the
people when they were scattered from that land to let those laws which
He had given concerning the properties of His children be executed and
fulfilled after the redemption of Zion. Now, I doubt whether you can
execute them before that time; but you can get as near to them as you
can, so that you may not be wholly strangers to the order which God
will in troduce when you go back to that land. For thus saith the Lord
God in one of the new revelations which He has given, recorded in the
history of Joseph the prophet, "Behold I will send one mighty and
strong, clothed with light as a garment, whose mouth shall utter
words—eternal words, and whose bowels shall be a fountain of truth,
who shall divide to the Saints their inheritances." He will send one
ordained to this purpose, and to fulfill this particular duty, that
the Saints may receive their inheritances after they have consecrated
everything in their possession. Then we can build up a city that will
be a city of perfection, "the perfection of beauty." I want to see
that day, whether in the flesh or out of it, and rejoice in it, and
partake of its glories. May God bless you. Amen.