It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that I arise before so
large an assembly of people this afternoon, in the capacity of a
General Conference. It is truly wonderful to me that God has begun so
great and important a work in the day in which I am permitted to live.
I do not read in history of any other work of a similar character
since the creation of the world. We behold before us, in these
interior wilds of North America, a great people called the Latter-day
Saints—a people whose faith and doctrine are one, who believe in the
same God, and in the same great plan of salvation; who believe that
God has established His kingdom on the earth for the last time. It has
been a manifestation of faith on the part of this people to gather
here; they have exhibited to one another and before all mankind that
they have faith in the doctrines which they have received. What other
purpose could have gathered out so great a people? If we had gathered
into a healthy, rich country where there was an expectation of
bettering our condition, temporarily; where there were prospects of
our becoming exceedingly rich in the goods of this world, it might
have been supposed that we had some selfish motive in view in thus
assembling ourselves together. But there were no such prospects before
us. We came here, some 1,200 miles, from the Eastern settlements to
this isolated region, almost naked and barefoot, having been despoiled
by our enemies—having suffered the loss of property to the extent of
millions—having been reduced to the last degree of poverty. We came
here—not into the midst of a land of cities and villages, not into the
midst of a country where all was prepared for us beforehand; but we
came into the heart of a desert, since, in some measure, reclaimed
from its barrenness and sterility. We came because we had faith in our
religion, because we not only believed, but most of us knew with a
certainty, that God had spoken from on high and had commanded us to
gather together. In this we have manifested a sincerity that ought to
be convincing to all the world that we have embraced a religion in all
of the depths of the sincerity of our hearts. We did not care for the
riches and honors of the world; we did not care for the pleasures of
our native countries, nor for the luxuries with which those countries
abounded; but we came because we verily believed in our hearts that it
was our duty to do so in obedience to the voice of the Lord through
His servants. It is true that some of this people came to this land
because they were forced hither by persecution; but whether obliged to
come or not we, many of us, clearly understood from the spirit of
prophecy and revelation, as manifested through our prophet and leader
before his martyrdom, that we should be required to locate
ourselves in the heart of this continent. We came here then to fulfil
the commandments of the Lord our God, and to be free, in a measure,
from the persecutions of our enemies, that we might have none to mob
or molest us as they had done from the time of the rise of the Church
until our flight to these mountains. We came here because we loved
God, because we loved His laws—we loved the plan of salvation, we
loved the principles that He had revealed, and because we knew that in
process of time, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy respecting the
Latter-day Zion and the Church of the Most High God, we should become
a great and powerful people.
We are taught in the Jewish record, the Bible, that a little one shall
become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. We believe these
prophecies, we know this to be the kingdom of God. We well understood
by the spirit of revelation that God intended to fulfil all that was
spoken by the mouths of His ancient prophets, as well as that which
had been delivered in our day in regard to the future glory and
prosperity of Zion, or the Church of the living God. We understood
that Zion was to be located in the mountains; we understood, as I have
often repeated, from the 40th chapter of Isaiah, that the time would
come when the Lord would command His people, saying unto Zion, "Get up
into the high mountains." These things had not been fulfilled in
former ages, consequently we know that they were yet in the future. We
knew that the Zion of the latter days must be located in the
mountains. We could read the ancient prophecies of that great
prophet—Isaiah, in the 18th chapter, that a great work should be
performed in the mountains, a work that should attract the attention
of all the nations of the earth, so much so that the prophet, when
gazing upon the work as shown to him by the spirit of prophecy, calls
upon all the inhabitants of the world and the dwellers on the earth to
see when the Lord should lift up an ensign upon the mountains. That
ensign we knew must be reared, that great work must be accomplished,
and all people—not only those on the American continent but all
dwelling in the four quarters of the globe, however obscure, and
however distant they might be from the place where the ensign was to
be reared, would be required by the power of the Lord, and by the
marvelous work that He should perform, to open their eyes and
contemplate that ensign, understand its nature and comprehend, in some
measure, its purpose.
We came here to fulfil these ancient prophecies. God has lifted up
this Church—this kingdom, as a standard—as an ensign to which the
nations are invited, and the ambassadors of the Most High are sent
forth from these mountains carrying the glad tidings of salvation in
their mouths—carrying forth the great and glorious principles that God
has revealed in establishing his latter-day kingdom on the earth.
Beautiful indeed are the feet of those who are sent forth from the
mountains of Zion to publish glad tidings of great joy among the
various nations and kingdoms of the earth; God is with them in very
deed. His power is over them, and His arm encircles them round about.
Their voice is lifted up to the nations; their hands are pointed to
the West, to the heart of the American continent—to the everlasting
hills, saying to mankind, "Yonder, in those mountains, is a kingdom
that is never to be destroyed, a kingdom that must exist forever; while all earthly kingdoms and governments will crumble
to the dust and will be blown away, like the chaff of the summer
threshing floor, to the four winds of heaven."
Jesus said on a certain occasion to his disciples, and to the
multitudes, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." There are tens of
thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands, of people now upon our globe
who profess to love Jesus Christ. Do they keep his commandments? Some
of them no doubt strive to do so. But there are many things to be
taken into consideration in connection with the keeping of the
commandments of Jesus. In the first place it is very essential and
necessary that we should know what his commandments are before we can
keep them. In the second place it is very important and essential that
we should give heed to all those commandments, whether they appear
great or small in our estimation.
Do this people, called Latter-day Saints, really love the Lord their
God, or is it a mere profession? When God raised up His servant Joseph
Smith and inspired him from on high to give commandments and
revelations and to organize His Church, forty years ago, we were but
few in number. I well recollect when I was but a boy of nineteen
visiting the place where this Church was organized, and visiting the
Prophet Joseph, who resided at that time in Fayette, Seneca County,
New York, at the house where the Church was organized. I became
acquainted more fully with that man and with the revelations and
commandments that God had given to him; also with the few people who
had been organized into a Church capacity. I saw the spirit of the
people, that is, I saw there was a desire to do good, to love the
Lord, and to be obedient to the commandments which the Prophet Joseph
had delivered unto them.
On the 2nd day of January, 1831, a Conference was held in the same
house where this Church was organized, and the various Branches in the
State of New York were there gathered together. By the solicitations
of the Conference the Prophet Joseph enquired of the Lord to know what
was His will concerning the few Latter-day Saints that were then in
existence. The Lord hearkened to him, and gave on that occasion a
revelation contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in which
certain commandments were given, one being that all the Elders,
Priests, Teachers, and Deacons of the various Branches of the Church,
instead of going out to preach, should go to with all their might and
labor for the gathering up of the people from the State of New York to
the State of Ohio; that is, they were to assist those in the various
Branches who had property to dispose of the same, and in regulating
all their affairs, and to arrange business in such a manner that they
might be able to keep this commandment to gather together.
Now, suppose the people had refused to comply with this commandment;
suppose that the Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons had considered
the physical labor which the carrying out of this command entailed
upon them beneath their notice, and had refused to make preparations
to flee from the State of New York and to gather up some six hundred
miles to the State of Ohio, what would have been the result? Would the
love of God have dwelt in their hearts? No. Would they have manifested
before the heavens that they loved God with all their hearts? No.
Would they have manifested to the Prophet, to the Priesthood and to
one another that they really were sincere in their religion?
No. There was no possible way for these Latter-day Saints to show
their love to God, only by obeying His command that was given and
written for their instruction on that occasion. If there were any who
refused to do that, I will venture to say that they are not members of
the Church today. If there were any who had so much means or property
that they did not feel disposed to leave their pleasant homes and make
a sacrifice of their wealth, in some measure, in order to fulfil the
commandment of Jehovah, I will venture to say that they are not in the
Church today. Why? Because God would withdraw His Holy Spirit from
them. They might make great profession, and say how much they loved the
Lord and His ways; how much they loved Jesus, who was crucified for
the sins of the world, yet all this would be foolish and vain if they
refused to keep his commandments, for, "If ye love me, keep my
commandments," saith the Savior. Again, it is written, "This is the
love of God, that ye do keep His commandments, and His commandments
are not grievous." His commandments to most of the people of the
Latter-day Saints were not grievous in the winter and spring of 1831.
They rejoiced in having the privilege of obeying the Lord's
commandments, through His servant, the Prophet. Hence they gathered up
all the various Branches of the Church, with some few exceptions, to
Kirtland, in the State of Ohio.
This is the right way to keep the Lord's commandments; but it is, in
the first place, necessary to find what His commandments are. You
might have taken this big book, the Jewish record, or Bible, and
searched it from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation to
find out your duties as Saints, and you never could have found within
it what the Lord required of His Saints at that time—namely, to remove
from the State of New York to the State of Ohio. No such Scripture as
that was given. That was the duty required of individuals in the
nineteenth century. No other people were ever required to do that; it
cannot be found within the lids of the Bible. That commandment was
specially adapted to the circumstances of the few Latter-day Saints
then existing, and they were the ones required to keep it. The
ancients were not required to do that, neither are we; it was a
commandment having relation to the time then being, and it was
fulfilled. With that commandment we have nothing further to do,
provided that we, or as many of us as were included among those to
whom it was given, kept it. If we have not kept it we have something
further to do with it—we shall have to meet it in the great judgment
day.
When we came to Kirtland the Lord gave us further commandments, and He
revealed a great many things through His servant Joseph. Among others,
He gave one that the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, should go to
with their might and build a house to His name, wherein He promised to
bestow great and choice blessings upon His people. He revealed the
pattern according to which that house should be built, pointing out
the various courts and apartments, telling the size of the house, the
order of the pulpits, and in fact everything pertaining to it was
clearly pointed out by revelation. God gave a vision of these things,
not only to Joseph, but to several others, and they were strictly
commanded to build according to the pattern revealed from the heavens.
Now, then, no other people was ever commanded to do that work in
Kirt land, Ohio, but the people then living there, called
Latter-day Saints. It was not a work required of Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Solomon, nor of any other man that ever existed on the earth, nor of
any people but those to whom it was given, then living in the State of
Ohio. Supposing they had said, "We will not build the house; we can
meet in a common meetinghouse, after the order of the Gentiles, and
we will take their forms of building, it does not matter, we do not
think it necessary to be at all this expense, and we can hire a
house." Would that have been sufficient? No, the only way we could
witness to one another and before the Lord of hosts that we loved Him
with all our hearts was to go to and build a house just according to
the pattern.
Well, when we did build it, did the Lord accept it, according to
promise? He did, and He revealed great and important things in that
house through His servant, Joseph the Prophet; and not only did Joseph
have the privilege of seeing and understanding the mind and will of
the Lord, but after the house was built many others had this great
privilege given to them. For instance, the Lord had promised to reveal
Himself unto many of His people and His Priesthood in that house. He
did so. Among other great revelations and visions given there, was the
revelation, which you will find recorded in our Church history, of
Elijah, the Prophet, of him who was translated to heaven in a chariot
of fire. That same personage came and stood in that temple and
manifested certain keys, gave these keys to the servant of the Lord,
the Prophet Joseph, and said unto him that that was the fulfillment of
that which was spoken by the Prophet Malachi. What has Malachi said?
He has told us of the great day of the Lord that should come, when it
should burn as an oven, and when all the proud and they that do
wickedly shall become as stubble and shall be burned up, leaving them
neither root nor branch. He has told us that before that great and
terrible day the Lord would send Elijah the Prophet. Or, to quote the
words of Scripture, "Behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before
the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come." What great object
had the Lord in view in sending His ancient prophet as a ministering
angel to His people on the earth? It is expressed in one sentence—"He
shall turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children and the hearts
of the children unto the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with
a curse." In other words, there will be no flesh prepared to escape
the day appointed—no flesh but what will become as stubble, no flesh
will be able to abide the presence of the Lord until Elijah comes. He
did come in that Kirtland Temple; he appeared in his glorious majesty,
and there revealed the keys unto the servants of the Lord which should
restore this union between the fathers and the children—something that
we did not understand anything about, until the angel Elijah revealed
it unto us. This was a great work to be accomplished in the latter
days, in order that the fathers, from the days of the ancient
Priesthood, or those who were in the spirit world—millions and
millions of them, might be redeemed through the ordinance of baptism
for the dead, turning the minds and thoughts and affections of the
children, living on the earth, to search after their ancient fathers
and to be baptized for them according to that which is contained in
the New Testament about baptism for the dead. Moreover it turned the
hearts of those ancient fathers to their children, for they
looked to us, their children, to accomplish a work that is needful to
be accomplished in their behalf, for God's house is a house of order;
God's kingdom is a kingdom of order; and His ordinances were
instituted from before the foundation of the world, and they are
adapted to the condition of the living and the dead; and God revealed
these things that our fathers, in all past generations, might rejoice
with their children in the latter days, by being united in the same
bonds, in the same New and Everlasting Covenants. They died without
the Gospel, without understanding the plan of salvation. They were
brought up in the midst of the sectarian world, where all was
confusion and darkness; where no voice of God was heard; no voice of
living prophets or Apostles to direct them, or to teach them in the
mysteries of the kingdom of God. They went down to their graves as
sincere, many of them, as you and I are. Must they be forever cast
off? Must they always remain in prison and be forever deprived of the
society of their children that should live on the earth in the latter
days, when God should again open the heavens and send His angels to
minister to His people? No; they without us cannot be made perfect;
for there is no way for them to receive the Gospel only through their
children. We have the work to do for them, and that work we could not
commence until Elijah the Prophet was sent from heaven, holding the
keys that were to be committed to the children in behalf of the
fathers, in the last dispensation, before the great day of the Lord
should come.
Then you see that even this one revelation, which God gave in that
Temple, paid the people for the toil they had endured in erecting it.
What a satisfaction it was to them to know that angels administered in
that Temple! What a satisfaction it was for them to go into that
Temple and have the heavens opened to them so that they could gaze on
the glory of God! What a satisfaction it was for them to know that the
Lord accepted, as His own, the house which they had built according to
the pattern which He had given! And what a satisfaction it was for
them to know that they loved God by keeping His commandments!
Elijah was not the only angel that administered in that house. Others
holding keys pertaining to the last dispensation of the fullness of
times came forth and manifested those keys and bestowed the authority
upon the servants of God living in the flesh to carry out certain
great and important purposes pertaining to this dispensation. These
keys are still on the earth. Here are the servants of the living God,
sitting on my right hand and on my left, who have had these keys
committed into their hands by authority from the proper source, from
those who received them from the heavenly messengers. These keys,
being now in the hands of the Priesthood, never will be taken from
them while the earth shall stand or eternal duration shall roll on.
There may be apostates, those who fight against the anointed of the
Lord and lift up their heel against those holding these keys; yet be
it known to the Latter-day Saints and to all the ends of the earth
that the almighty hand of the Great Jehovah is stretched out and He
will accomplish the purposes ordained by Him in regard to this great
and important work of the latter days.
Are these the only commandments that God has given for us to keep
wherein we have manifested our love towards Him? No. God gave
commandment to His people in the summer of 1831 that they
should gather up from the Eastern lands, New York, the New England
States, Pennsylvania and the Middle States, from Ohio and various
parts of the United States, upon the western frontiers of Missouri;
that is, that they should continue to gather, but not let their flight
be in haste, and let all things be prepared before them. God led forth
the Prophet that He had raised up to the western part of Missouri, and
pointed out, by His own finger, where the great city of Zion should
stand in the latter days, the great city of the New Jerusalem that
should be built up on the American continent. I say He pointed out
these things and gave direction to His people to gather to that land,
and commanded them to lay the corner stone of a great and magnificent
temple that was to be built during the generation in which the people
then lived. The corner stone was laid in the summer of 1831, in
Jackson County, State of Missouri. All these things were done by the
people of God by commandment and revelation, and in this way they
still further showed, one to another and to all people as well as to
the heavens, that they did love the Lord their God.
Many commandments were given to the people about affairs there in
Jackson County—how they should regulate their property and how they
should become one—revelations that were intended to produce the
greatest possible union that could exist among the people of God, if
they had been complied with. The people complied with them in part,
but yet, through inexperience, for the want of understanding, because
of the weakness of mortality, and because of the wicked and corrupt
traditions that they had imbibed in regard to property, they did not
fully carry out the mind and will of God in relation to their
con secrations and inheritances. It is true that they purchased the
land from the American Government, or much of it, and paid their money
into the land office in that county; but yet, not carrying out the
command of God to the very letter, the Lord was not pleased, and
before they had been located there fourteen months He threatened them
very severely. Said He, "If you do not remember my commandments to
keep them, and not only my commandments, but the Book of Mormon, which
I have caused to come forth and to be written for your edification, as
the New and Everlasting Covenant; if you do not give heed to the words
of instruction and counsel, and the commandments written in that book,
behold, saith the Lord, there remains a scourge and judgment to be
poured out upon the inhabitants of Zion."
We did not know what the judgment or scourging was. We had only been
about fourteen months on the land, and we did not understand the
nature of it. The Lord told us in another revelation, which is
published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that, inasmuch as we
did not do just precisely as He told us to do in regard to obtaining
our lands, we should be driven by our enemies—"Behold and lo, your
enemies shall be upon you; you shall be persecuted and driven from
city to city, and but few of you shall stand to receive an
inheritance." We could not comprehend all this. We thought perhaps we
should be faithful enough that this prophecy might not be fulfilled
upon our heads. Although they were the very best people on the earth,
yet there was a lack among them, through want of experience or through
the former traditions of the Gentiles which they had imbibed from
their childhood; but the Lord required us to be very good and to give
heed to every word that proceeded out of His mouth, and never
disobey the least thing; and consequently when He found that we
lacked in some of these things, He told us He would not suffer that
land to be polluted by those who were called by His name; for it was a
choice land—a holy land, and those who were called by His name, and
professed to be His disciples, should not pollute it, and if they did
they should be scourged and driven away and persecuted, and there
would be few left who would receive their inheritance there.
In the year 1833, in the month of November, we began to feel this
scourge that the Lord had forewarned us of. Yet so anxious was the
Prophet Joseph that the scourge might be averted that he took a
journey, in connection with some of the prominent Elders of the
Church, from the State of Ohio, about one thousand miles, to the
western frontiers of Missouri, to warn the people of the terrible
judgment that would overtake them, if they were not more obedient.
But, alas! their repentance was not sufficient, though they were such
a good people—far better than any other people or Church on the face
of the earth; but yet they did not come up to the letter of the law
which God had revealed, consequently they did not manifest before Him
that they loved Him with all their hearts, souls, might, mind and
strength, and judgment came upon them and they were driven. Two
hundred houses were burned, our haystacks were burned, our cattle were
shot down by the mob, our merchandise were strewn in the streets, our
household furniture broken up and scattered, and the people were
driven forth on the bleak prairies in the cold month of November. Then
they remembered the prophecies which the Lord had delivered by His
servant Joseph; they remembered what had been written and published,
which they had been warned of time and time again, both by letter and
by the personal ministry of the servants of God in their midst.
They fled to Clay County and were driven thence in a few months, when
they fled still further north into other unsettled portions of the
State of Missouri, and again purchased lands of the Government, and
entered them and continued there a few years; but by and by we were
again driven, thus fulfilling the word of the Lord through His servant
Joseph—that we should be persecuted and driven from place to place and
from city to city unless we did as He told us. Finally, we were driven
into the State of Illinois, where we purchased a beautiful spot of
ground on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, called Commerce,
which we afterwards called Nauvoo, a Hebrew word which means beautiful
for location.
After we had worked in Nauvoo for a few years, and had gathered
together our people from various parts of the United States and some
from Great Britain, to the number of some fifteen or twenty thousand
souls, in Nauvoo and the regions round about, behold the mob was again
upon us and we were driven again, thus fulfilling more fully the
prophecies that had been made, and we were driven here to these
mountains. We came here by the direction of the servant of God, being
led by him on whom the Lord had placed the great responsibility of
leading this people. He brought us here, and established us in the
heart of this country. Here we have extended our settlements south,
north, east and west, until the country is now populated with, as I
suppose, some hundred thousand inhabitants. I do not know how many, it
may be a hundred and fifty thousand for aught I know. Suffice
it to say, we have over a hundred towns, cities and villages built up
in the various portions of this great Basin, this desert country. We
have beautified our inheritances; we have planted fruit trees in
abundance and ornamental shade trees, so as to make our residences
cheering and beautiful in the midst of a desert. God has been with us
from the time that we came to this land, and I hope that the days of
our tribulation are past. I hope this, because God promised in the
year 1832 that we should, before the generation then living had passed
away, return and build up the City of Zion in Jackson County; that we
should return and build up the temple of the Most High where we
formerly laid the corner stone. He promised us that He would manifest
Himself on that temple, that the glory of God should be upon it; and
not only upon the temple, but within it, even a cloud by day and a
flaming fire by night.
We believe in these promises as much as we believe in any promise ever
uttered by the mouth of Jehovah. The Latter-day Saints just as much
expect to receive a fulfillment of that promise during the generation
that was in existence in 1832 as they expect that the sun will rise
and set tomorrow. Why? Because God cannot lie. He will fulfil all His
promises. He has spoken, it must come to pass. This is our faith. It
will depend upon the conduct of the Latter-day Saints whether we
suffer more tribulation. We may suffer tribulation although we are
righteous in every respect, though there were no sin found in the
midst of the people. Why? Because the wicked always did persecute the
righteous, they always did hate the principles and plan of salvation;
still we have greater claim upon the arm of Jehovah for protection and
assistance when we keep His commandments and love and serve Him.
Did you ever hear of the Elders of this Church getting up like the
sectarian world and speaking about the love of God dwelling in their
bosoms, and saying how much they loved Jesus, and at the same time
transgressing his laws? No, we have no right to make any such
declaration as this; hence we show to the heavens that we are
determined to do the will of God. Then we may say that we love God;
then we can say that we love His ways, and His Priesthood, and His
Church, and His kingdom, and His Gospel which He has sent forth by His
angels in the latter day.
I feel truly grateful to the Most High God that such a great
improvement has been made among the Latter-day Saints in these
mountains. I think I am able to judge. I have been with this people
from my youth up. Forty years have almost expired since I was baptized
into this Church and kingdom. I have known the former history of the
Saints; and I know and understand, in some measure, their present
condition, and I can contrast the two, and I see a decided
improvement. Is there more union amongst them? Yes; far more than
there was in the lifetime of Joseph; and all that the great mass of
the people want is to know what God requires, and, with one heart and
mind, they will do it. If God requires them to be baptized for their
dead, as far as they can search and find out their ancestors' names,
they will do it with all their hearts and souls. If He requires them
to receive the sacred ordinance of the endowments, by which they may
attain to greater blessings and glory in His presence, they will go to
with one heart and mind to receive those ordinances. If God requires
His people to take a plurality of wives and have them sealed
to them for time and eternity, behold they will do these things. If
God requires the young, middle-aged, or even the aged, Elders to start
from their farms or from their various occupations and leave this
Territory on a journey across the Plains or across the great ocean and
to the different nations of the earth and study their language and
preach to the people, behold they will do it. If God calls upon this
people to go forth into the South country, which is still more barren
and desolate than the northern portion of the Territory, behold they
are willing to go and do it. If God requires anything at their hands
there is a union, oneness and willingness to go forward and carry out
His great designs and purposes in regard to the rolling forth of His
kingdom in the last days. By all these acts, by all these
manifestations, by the good feeling that exists in the bosoms of this
people, we know that they have made great improvement and advancement
in the things of the kingdom of God since our Prophet was called upon
to offer his great and last testimony by the shedding of his blood.
This union will increase and become stronger and stronger; it will
continue until this people shall be prepared and sanctified before the
heavens, and be permitted to return and build up the waste places of
Zion in the western frontiers of the United States. This people will
wax stronger in faith, in love towards God, in the power of the
Priesthood and in the demonstration of the Spirit, until they are able
to build the city wherein God shall reveal Himself, as He did in
ancient times before the flood, among the people of ancient Zion—the
Zion built up by Enoch. This people will increase in union, faith,
greatness and glory, until the heavens shall come down and embrace us,
and we shall embrace them, and all the heavenly host shall be united
together in one with the hosts of the Saints of God here on earth, and
a union will be created such as exists nowhere but in the celestial
kingdom of our God, for the Saints themselves will ere long become
celestial. Amen.