While I attempt to speak to the people I would like their attention,
and for them to keep quiet. I do not particularly object to the crying
of children, but I do to the whispering of the people. I suppose that,
if we were in the congregations of some of our Christian
fellow countrymen, we would not hear any children crying. I believe
they have none in some societies. I am very happy to hear the children
crying when it is really necessary and they cannot be kept from it.
One thing is certain, wherever we go there is a proof that the people
are keeping the commandments of the Lord, especially the first one—to
multiply and replenish the earth.
The first of my remarks this afternoon will consist of a petition. We
are told to pray, and this is one of the practices that we consider
absolutely necessary. We frequently offer prayers to kings,
legislators, presidents, governors, etc.; but I am going to offer up a
prayer to the Latter-day Saints and my prayer is simply—I beseech you,
my brethren and sisters, in the name of the Lord, in the name of
humanity, in the name of honor and for the sake of honor, justice and
mercy, that you do listen and pay attention to the exhortation of my
brother Joseph, delivered this morning, in behalf of our poor brethren
in foreign lands. I might ask the Lord a thousand times over to
deliver them from the oppression and poverty with which they are now
surrounded, and He would not do it unless the means were provided; He
will not do it without agents and agencies. He will not build balloons
or come down with his chariots and pick up the poor in Scotland,
England, Wales, Ireland, Scandinavia, the islands of the sea, or any
other parts of the globe where they dwell, and load up with them and
their baggage and bring them to this land while He has given us the
ability to gather ourselves and the poor. If the Latter-day Saints do
not understand this, it is time they did. And when we pray the Lord to
open the way for the gathering of the poor, we merely mean that He
will operate upon the hearts of those who have the means, that they
will be reasonable with themselves, their faith and covenants and the
requirements of God and toward those who are members of the same
family with us.
You heard the statement of Brother Joseph this morning, and there are
a great many witnesses here, to the truth of what he said. When people
are in poverty and in their low estate, when they are pinched with
hunger and destitute of the clothing necessary to make them
comfortable, how deeply they can feel for their friends! But place
those very ones where they can have all they need to eat, of food that
relishes and suits their appetite, and clothing enough to keep them
warm and comfortable, and many of them will sit down and fold
their hands, and if you speak to them about the wants of their poor
brethren in foreign lands, and mention their own situation in former
days, their reply will be: "Oh, I had forgotten all about that! Yes, I
believe, now you mention it, that I have seen the time when I had not
sufficient food to satisfy the demands of hunger, nor clothing to make
me comfortable and respectable. But, dear me, I had forgotten all
that, that was in the past, and I have plenty now, and, what is that
you are saying?" "'Why, your brethren and sisters in foreign lands are
suffering." "What! Did you say that some of our brethren and sisters
are suffering? I have enough to eat, and all the clothing I need to
make me comfortable, and a pretty good cabin that I built myself, and
I am in debt to no one and quite happy and comfortable; and I wish you
would not trouble me about other people."
This is the story and these are the feelings of some of the Latter-day
Saints that have been gathered from the depths of poverty. I do not
wish to chide them for their well doing, and neither do I nor my
brethren require of them things that are unreasonable; but we are
under obligations to our families, connections and friends, and then
to the whole human family. We are not independent of them; we are not
here isolated and alone, differently formed and composed of different
material from the rest of the human race. We belong to and are part of
this family, consequently we are under obligations one to another, and
the Latter-day Saints in these mountains are under obligations to
their brethren and sisters scattered in the nations who, through
indigent circumstances, are unable to gather to themselves the
comforts of life. No matter what may be the cause of their poverty,
they are helpless and destitute. Could I pick out any in this
congregation who have been in these circumstances? I presume I could,
a few score.
Sometimes I am inclined to be silent rather than speak of facts that
have come under my own observation. I have seen people in districts of
country, where they were so destitute of the comforts of life that if
they gave a meal to a friend they had to pinch themselves, perhaps,
for a week, having barely sufficient to keep body and spirit together;
and yet when these very individuals get into circumstances in which
they are well fed and well clothed they forget their former lives.
There are certain things connected with what we see and know to be
facts, that actually form principles, and resolve themselves into
eternal principles; and if people could see and understand them they
would be a benefit to them. But we are on the surface, or outlines of
the facts concerning the Latter-day Saints. There are many of our
brethren who have been born and brought up in America, who have never
been called to pass through the ordeals of poverty that some of our
people have in the old countries. A few of these American Elders,
wanting in faith, honesty and integrity, while on foreign missions,
have borrowed money from these impoverished people, with a promise to
pay when they returned home; but these promises have not been
observed. I do not know whether there are any such Elders here this
afternoon; but, whether there is or not, I want to say to them,
wherever they may be, that I have no fellowship for a man that will
make a promise and not fulfil it, and especially under such
circumstances as I am talking about now; and if there is such an Elder
in this congregation I say omit partaking of the sacrament
here today, and never cease your efforts until you pay that honest
debt. I do not offer this as a petition, but as counsel, to be
observed by all such individuals in the Church on the penalty of being
disfellowshipped by the Saints. But to myself and all of you who are
free from such obligations I pray you to listen to the prayers of
those who are asking for deliverance; and I have a few words to say
with regard to this matter on this wise: We have nothing but what has
been given or loaned us of the Lord; and if we have our hundreds or
thousands we may foster the idea that we have nothing more than we
need; but such a notion is entirely erroneous, for our real wants are
very limited. What do we absolutely need? I possess everything on the
face of the earth that I need, as I appear before you on this stand. I
am not hungry, but I am well fed; I am not cold, but I am well
clothed. I am not suffering for a hat, for I have hair on my head, and
when I go outdoors I have my hat to put on; and with these and a
shelter to protect me from the scorching heat or the piercing cold I
have everything that a man needs or can enjoy if he owned the whole
world. If I were the king of the earth I could enjoy no more. When you
have what you wish to eat and sufficient clothing to make you
comfortable you have all that you need, I have all that I need. Some
persons, I know, will ask, "Why not give the rest to the poor?" I will
answer this question, as far as I am concerned, by saying I do give to
the poor and am willing to.
If the poor had all the surplus property of the rich many of them
would waste it on the lusts of the flesh, and destroy themselves in
using it. For this reason the Lord does not require the rich to give
all their substance to the poor. It is true that when the young man
came to Jesus to know what he must do to be saved, he told him,
finally, "sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me;" and a great
many think that he told the young man to give away all that he had,
but Jesus did not require any such thing, neither did he say so, but
simply, "distribute to the poor." If the poor knew what to do with
what they have many, yea very many, in this land would have all that
is necessary to make them comfortable. But it is different with the
great majority of our friends over the water—they are fettered and
bound, and in the prison of poverty, and have not power to extricate
themselves from the thralldom and wretchedness they are in, and hence
it becomes our duty to lend a helping hand and send for them.
Many of us may think that we have nothing we can spare; but the
providences of God might speedily make us think otherwise. If the Lord
were to let loose our enemies upon us! Let Him hiss for the fly, and
whisper for the locust, and they would come here by myriads and eat
up every green thing there is in these mountains; and when they were
destroyed, if the Lord so willed it, they could commence on the people
and the cattle and devour every living creature on the land. Do we
know this? We might know and realize it. Then, if we had a little
bread to eat we should be happy and contented, and in our poverty we
would be willing to divide with and assist our poor brethren and
sisters, and help to save them from starvation. But now the cry is, "I
have a house, and I want my furniture! I have a farm, I want my teams
and my wagons, and then I want a carriage and time to ride,"
until the whole world is swallowed up by the few.
You will excuse me if I say a few words with regard to myself in these
charitable sermons. What is my feeling today? The same as it has been
for years concerning houses, lands and possessions. I say to the
people, "If you will give me for my property half what it has cost me
I will devote that means for the gathering of the poor and the
building of Zion upon the earth, and will start again with nothing. I
have done it before, and I am willing to do it again if the people
will take my property on these terms, and the means, to the last
dollar, shall be used to send for the poor if they apostatize the next
year. They will not apostatize where they are now; you could not hire
them to do it, you could not whip them to it; you cannot starve their
religion out of them; but bring them here and give them houses and
lands, horses and chariots, make merchants and traders of them, and
give them our means, then some of them will apostatize, but not all.
Some of them will apostatize for very little, it takes but few
dollars; but they will not do it where they are. I would bring them
here if they would apostatize, for they must have a chance to prove
themselves before God and angels with regard to their integrity to and
faith in the religion that we believe in.
Now, brethren and sisters, I pray you to remember the poor, and every
time you feel like spending twenty-five or fifty cents in tea or
coffee, liquor or tobacco, stay your hand and put that money into a
safety or charitable fund to help to gather the poor. Brother Joseph
has been pleading for them; I am giving you the plan. If we will leave
off tea, coffee, liquor and tobacco and devote the means as I have
requested, we shall bring the blessings of heaven to ourselves and
bestow the blessings of earth upon our brethren and sisters, and we
shall feel that comfort and consolation that we could not feel
otherwise. Our hearts will rejoice, our food will be sweet to us, our
dreams will be pleasant and our reflections will be filled with peace,
comfort and consolation in the power of God. But if we shut up our
bowels of compassion our condition will be exactly the reverse.
If the people will take this course towards their poor brethren and
sisters it will relieve our hands at once. I suppose that there is a
million of money now due the Perpetual Emigration Fund; by those who
have been gathered who have not paid their arrearage. But we cannot
get it. If we were to send an agent through the Territory to collect
this indebtedness from these brethren and sisters, it would probably
cost more to sustain him than the amount he would collect,
consequently we conclude to say nothing about it, and to use the means
we have or that is contributed for this purpose.
As for our being comfortable, I will venture to say that we could pick
out, in this congregation, needless articles of dress that have cost
several hundred if not thousands of dollars. I do not like to charge
the ladies with extravagance, but how many yards of cloth does it take
now to make a dress? If Brother Heber C. Kimball were here he would
tell you he used to buy six yards of calico for his wife Vilate, who
was a tall woman. That used to make a dress, and it was a pretty large
pattern; then it got up to seven since my recollection, then to eight,
then to nine, then to eleven, and I have been called upon to buy
sixteen, seventeen and eighteen yards for a dress. I know there is a
cause for this. My wife will say, "Dear me! Sister so and so
wears such and such a thing, and I want to look as well as she does;
and you have plenty of means, Brigham; O, yes, you have plenty of
means, and you can buy it as well as not." Well, all that I have said,
and my general reply is, "If I am pressed to the necessity of
indulging my family in these needless articles the responsibility must
be upon themselves, not upon me." I will not take that responsibility.
In the day of reckoning if we are in debt and found wanting in
consequence of our extravagance I will not bear any more
responsibility than I have incurred in my own person in the
gratification of this taste for needless articles of dress, and that
will not be much I reckon.
Now, brethren and sisters, do you indulge in this taste for fashion
and frivolity in dress? Most assuredly you do, and circumstances right
before my eyes furnish proof of this. I will venture to say that my
mother wore the cloak and hood that her mother before her wore, and
wore them until the day of her death when she had occasion to wear a
cloak; and when she left this place for the next apartment she was
forty-nine years old; and they went to her daughter. I do not know
what has become of them. She did not take a cloak worth twenty-five,
thirty, forty or fifty dollars and sit down in it with a child with a
piece of meat in each hand to grease it all over. But, now, let some
women get a silk or satin dress and they will, perhaps, while wearing
it, take up a child that has a piece of chicken in one hand and a
piece of pork in the other, or a cup of milk to drink, and as likely
as not some of it is spilled on the dress, and then they say, "Well, I
declare my dress is spoiled."
I recollect very well, and so do others in this room, when our fathers
and mothers raised the flax and the wool, and when it was carded with
handcards, spun on handwheels, and woven into cloth on handlooms, and
in this way the wants of the family had to be supplied or they had to
go without. But now every woman wants a sewing machine. What, for? To
do her sewing. Well, but she can do a hundred times as much sewing
with a machine as she could by hand, and she does not need a machine
more than one day in two or three weeks. "O yes," she says, "I want my
sewing machine every day of my life." "What are you going to do with
it?" "I am going to sew;" and when the sewing machine is procured they
want a hundred times as much cloth as they used to have. Now, too,
they want a hired girl for every child; and a hired man to every cow
in the yard. I will admit that I am extravagant in these expressions;
but they show the present condition of affairs. The improvements which
have taken place during the last half century in matters pertaining to
domestic life are wonderful, but has not the extravagance of the
people kept pace with these improvements? It is true that the people
are getting wiser in some respects, and some are getting wealthy; but
there is only so much property in the world. There are the elements
that belong to this globe, and no more. We do not go to the moon to
borrow; neither send to the sun or any of the planets; all our
commercial transactions must be confined to this little earth and its
wealth cannot be increased or diminished; and though the improvements
in the arts of life which have taken place within the memory of many
now living are very wonderful, there is no question that extravagance
has more than kept pace with them.
We talk to the Latter-day Saints a great deal, and we wish them to
become a thinking people, a people that will reflect and begin to
systematize their lives, and know the object of their existence here.
This life is as precious and valuable as any life ever possessed, or
that ever will be possessed by any intelligent being, and hence the
necessity and propriety of understanding its object and using it to
the best advantage in every respect, and of understanding principle in
all things.
It was observed here by Brother Taylor, this morning, when speaking of
the arts and sciences, they are from eternity to eternity. They can
neither be increased nor diminished; and the Lord has had to teach the
people all that they know, no matter whether it be the wicked who
acknowledge Him not, or the righteous, both are alike in that
respect—they receive their knowledge from the same source. The
construction of the electric telegraph and the method of using it,
enabling the people to send messages from one end of the earth to the
other, is just as much a revelation from God as any ever given. The
same is true with regard to making machinery, whether it be a
steamboat, a carding machine, a sailing vessel, a rowing vessel, a
plow, harrow, rake, sewing machine, threshing machine, or anything
else, it makes no difference—these things have existed from all
eternity and will continue to all eternity, and the Lord has revealed
them to His children.
In the infancy of creation the human family commenced down at the
bottom of the ladder, and had to make their way upward. How small and
frail that commencement looks now; why it is considered almost beneath
the notice of the wise of this day to talk of the intelligence of our
First Parents. When they waked from their sleep and found themselves
in a state of nudity, we are told that they hid themselves, because
they were ashamed and mortified and did not wish to expose themselves
when the Lord came along. And he picked some fig leaves—what a simple
idea! He picked some fig leaves and sewed them together and made
aprons of them. I do not know whether he used scissors or His penknife
for the cutting out of the garments, or what kind of a needle and
thread He used, but he made aprons for the whole human family—Adam and
Eve! What a simple idea! It is beneath the notice of the mechanic or
artist, or the science of the world now-a-days. Yet simple as it seems
now, the Lord had to reveal to our first parents the modus operandi of
the manufacture of an apron of fig leaves. And when they wanted a
little copper made up, after having found the ore, the Lord had to
come along and show them how to do it; and how to manufacture the
iron. How simple this is! It is beneath the notice of the intelligence
and science that are in the world now; the scientific men of the
present time say those were the days of ignorance. Yes, that was in
the period of the childhood of the human family; in the infancy of the
world. But what does it manifest unto us? Why that there is a Being
superior to man, and though we may not know the place where He
resides, He has come along occasionally and shown His creatures how to
make and work up brass, iron, copper, and in fact has revealed to them
everything they know at various stages of their development and
progress.
The people of this day think they know more than all who have preceded
them—that this is the wisest generation that ever did live on the
earth. Perhaps it is in worldly things, and in some of the arts and sciences it may be; but there is no question that many things
of great worth known anciently have been lost. Archaeological
developments and investigations bring to light facts in the mechanical
arts which set at defiance the skill of the world in our day. For
instance, where is the mechanic now, who can sharpen copper so that it
would shave the beard from a man's face, or chop timber like an axe
made of steel? The skill to do that is not in existence now; yet it
once was, and many other arts, revealed to man anciently, have been
lost through the wickedness of the people.
I want to say a few words about our religion, but first I will ask you
to remember this prayer which I offered at the commencement of my
remarks with regard to the poor. If you will do that, they will be
looked after and brought home. Now we will talk a little about our
religion. Ask the scientific men of the world how many of the arts can
be reduced to a science? When they are so reduced they become
permanent; but until then they are uncertain. They go and come, appear
and disappear. When they are reduced to science and system their
permanency and stability are assured. It is so with government—until
it is reduced to a science it is liable to be rent asunder by anarchy
and confusion, and caprice, and scattered to the four winds.
Government, to be stable and permanent and have any show for success,
must be reduced to a science. It is the same with religion; but our
traditions are such that it is one of the most difficult things in the
world to make men believe that the revealed religion of heaven is a
pure science, and all true science in the possession of men now is a
part of the religion of heaven and has been revealed from that source.
But it is hard to get the people to believe that God is a scientific
character, that He lives by science or strict law, that by this He is,
and by law He was made what He is; and will remain to all eternity
because of His faithful adherence to law. It is a most difficult thing
to make the people believe that every art and science and all wisdom
comes from Him, and that He is their Author. Our spirits are His: He
begot them. We are His children; He set the machine in motion to
produce our tabernacles; and when men discard the principle of the
existence of a Supreme Being, and treat it with lightness, as Brother
Taylor says, they are fools. It is strange that scientific men do not
realize that all they know is derived from Him; to suppose, or to
foster the idea for one moment, that they are the originators of the
wisdom they possess is folly in the highest! Such men do not know
themselves. As for ignoring the principle of the existence of a
Supreme Being, I would as soon ignore the idea that this house came
into existence without the agency of intelligent beings.
Well, the Latter-day Saints are beginning to comprehend that true
religion is a science; and their religion consists of principles, law
and order, and they acknowledge God in all things; and the time will
come when every knee will bow and every tongue confess to and
acknowledge Him, and when they who have lived upon the earth and
have spurned the idea of a Supreme Being and of revelations from Him,
will fall with shamefacedness and humble themselves before Him,
exclaiming, "There is a God! O, God, we once rejected Thee and
disbelieved Thy word and set at naught Thy counsels, but now we bow
down in shame and we do acknowledge that there is a God, and that
Jesus is the Christ." This time will come, most assuredly. We
have the faith of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. It is not a frenzied,
frantic idea, like the systems of religion invented by men. We have
ceremonies, but there is life in those ceremonies; and our religion
has organization, body and soul. The religious systems of men have a
kind of organization, and seemingly they will build a body, but they
have no soul, and some seem to have a soul without a body, but it is
like their god, it cannot be found.
We reason with and try to convince the Latter-day Saints that they
should live their religion so that God is in all their thoughts and
reflections, and they should acknowledge Him in their daily walk and
conversation and business transactions as well as in their prayers.
Each of us should continually feel, and live so as to have it so. "God
must be with me and I must have His Spirit with me under all
circumstances." How many are there of our Elders who carry out their
religion in all the affairs of life? Set them to merchandising, for
instance, and Brother John, William or Caleb will say, "You set me
here at merchandising, and my mind is altogether occupied with my
business. I have to lay my plans, and do my best to make my business
successful, and I have not time to pray and seek unto the Lord; I have
not got the spirit of preaching, and do not call upon me to preach, I
cannot do it, I have to attend to this store." I say it is almost
impossible to get it into the mind of a business man that he needs God
with him in carrying on his business. Says he, "I must do this by my
natural ability; my business qualities must be brought into exercise,
and that is all I want." To persons who feel thus I say, Stop and
think! Hold on! Do you know how to buy goods? "Yes," Mr. Merchant
says, "I think I understand goods as well as any man." Where did you
get your knowledge, can you tell me? "Oh, I got that from practice. I
have learned, as soon as I touch a piece of broadcloth, linen, or
cotton cloth, to tell its quality without ever looking at the fabric;
I can tell instantly by the touch of the finger. I have got this by
practice." Very good, we will say you did. Did you plant that ability
in your finger, and which gives sensibility to your nervous system
from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet, which is the
foundation of the knowledge you have acquired by practice? Acquired or
practical knowledge is one thing, but natural or internal knowledge is
the foundation of practical or acquired knowledge, and without this in
the soul no being could acquire it any more than this stand, not one
particle more. Now, Mr. Merchant, that is the secret of your acquired
knowledge or skill. Then acknowledge it, manly, honestly, uprightly,
firmly, and positively, and give God the praise and honor, for to Him
they belong.
Do you need anything more than this innate ability to acquire
knowledge to guide you and to ensure success in your business? Yes,
you do. They say when a person preaches experience, the facts are not
easily got over. I am going to tell Mr. Merchant what he needs. You
take a man who conducts his business on his own resources, and however
well he may lay his plans his business frequently fails on his hands
and he becomes bankrupt; for he cannot foresee what is going to
transpire in the markets. "Well, how are you going to prevent such
mishaps?" You need the Spirit of the Lord to enable you to foresee.
This is what is needed when you buy goods, where you trade and do
business; you need the spirit of revelation to be with you. We
frequently hear our merchants say they cannot do business and then go
into the pulpit to preach. I will say that there is not a merchant in
this Territory who attends to as much of what is called worldly
business, or temporal things, as I do, yet I can afford to preach
several times each week, and say my prayers as long as I wish to. Now,
if I preach experience, who can controvert it? If anyone does not
believe my statement, let him live with me and he will soon learn that
a pressure of business that will take a merchant a week to think
about, I know the moment it is mentioned to me. I see and understand
it from beginning to end, and I say, at once, "Do thus and so," "Go
yonder," or "Take such and such a course;" but I need the Spirit of
the Lord continually to guide and dictate me in business pertaining
to farms, merchandising, mining, missions, buying, selling, etc.,
etc.; and the more I have to do the more revelation I need, and the
more acute my spirit must become.
It is a great mystery to many people, and especially to strangers, how
I have preserved myself. My life depends upon the Spirit of the Lord,
although my body gets sometimes a little out of order, and it is very
probable my stomach will ache pretty bad after this loud talking, for
I am neither iron nor immortal. But a great many marvel at my
preservation. I have revealed the secret a great many times, and can
now—I never worry about anything. I try to live so as to know my
business and understand my duty, and to do it at the moment without a
long study. If ever I am in the least bothered with anything that
comes before me it is in some frivolous case, trying to give counsel
and advice to an individual without doing any mischief. If they want
to do right, regardless of self or the world, it is no trouble to tell
them what to do. And I say to a farmer or a merchant, if you want to
live so as to prolong your days, never worry about anything; but have
the Spirit of the Lord so as to know what to do, and when you have
done or counseled right never fret about the result. It is in the
hands of the Lord, and He will work out the problem, and you need not
be at all afraid of the matter. And this is true of all the acts of
the children of men. The Lord has constituted us rational beings, and
our volition is free to choose good or evil, just as we will; but when
we have followed out our choice the Lord will overrule the result of
our acts—it is in His hands and He will bring it out to suit Himself,
and He will make the wrath of man praise Him. When men undertake, as
we see them occasionally, to interrupt every movement of the kingdom
of God, and lay their plans, and have the train well laid in their own
minds, for the destruction of the kingdom, the first thing they know
they are in the mud and the Saints are thrown up. We have seen this
scores of times. It is just so in the world. Men may propose, but God
will dispose according to His good will and pleasure.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, and to those who are not
Saints, we have faith in God, and we have a reason for it. Every
character who has declared himself to be God, except the one we serve,
has failed and been foiled in his calculations; he has come short in
his plans and been put to shame. There is no question but foul spirits
have declared themselves to be deities; we have history to this
effect. But they have come off in shame. But the Lord is our God and
it is He whom we serve; and we say to the whole world that He is a tangible Being. We have a God with ears, eyes, nose, mouth; He
can and does speak. He has arms, hands, body, legs and feet; He talks
and walks; and we are formed after His likeness. The good book—the
Bible, tells us what kind of a character our Heavenly Father is. In
the first chapter of Genesis and the 27th verse, speaking of the Lord
creating men, it reads as plain as it can read, and He created man in
His own image and likeness; and if He created Adam and Eve in His own
image, the whole human family are like Him. This same truth is borne
out by the Savior. Said he, when talking to his disciples: "He that
hath seen me hath seen the Father;" and, "I and my Father are one."
The Scripture says that He, the Lord, came walking in the Temple, with
His train; I do not know who they were, unless His wives and children;
but at any rate they filled the Temple, and how many there were who
could not get into the Temple I cannot say. This is the account given
by Isaiah, whether he told the truth or not I leave everybody to
judge for himself.
The Bible also says the Lord talked with Moses; He talked with the
rich and the poor, the noble and the ignoble. He sent His angels, and
at last sent His Son, who was in the express image of the Father--His
Only Begotten Son, according to the flesh, here on this earth. That is
the God we serve and believe in. He is a God of system, order, law,
science, and art; a God of knowledge and of power. He says to the
human family, "Do as you please, but I will overrule the results of
your actions." He says to the wicked, "You may fight these Latter-day
Saints, but they are my people, I have called them, and commanded them
to come out of Babylon and to gather themselves together. You, wicked
world, may fight them; you may lay your plans and schemes, but with
all your machinations and wisdom I will show you that I am greater
than you all, and I will put you to shame, and blast your
expectations, and disappoint your calculations, and your attempts to
injure my people will be foiled; for Zion shall arise, her glory shall
be seen, and the kings of the earth shall enquire of the wisdom of
Zion; and God shall be great, and His name shall be terrible among the
inhabitants of the earth; and He will bring forth His kingdom and
establish His government, and Jesus will come and rule, King of
nations, as he does King of Saints." We have law, we have rule, we
have regulations; and they are here, they are written and published to
the world. They are in the Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon and
the Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and we call upon all the earth,
the rich and the poor, to hearken unto these things! Who will receive
them? Not many rich, not many noble, not many great men of the earth;
but the poor of this world the Lord has chosen, and He will make them
rich, and they will be heirs of the earth. But they will be heirs with
pure hearts, not with that covetousness we see manifested now. When we
are prepared to receive the kingdom in its purity, and to honor its
laws and principles in our lives, just so soon the Lord Almighty will
bestow upon us strength, power, wisdom, glory, riches and honor, and
all the good things that pertain to His kingdom; and the Lord will be
great among the people, and they will revere and acknowledge His name.
God bless you brethren and sisters, Amen.