I wish you all a happy new year, and I hope that we may live to see a
good many, and that we may keep the commandments of God, obey his
laws, and have his approbation and blessing upon us as a people. We
have assembled here on this, the first day of the week, and the first
day of the year 1871; and this leads my mind to reflect upon the age
and generation in which we live, and the great events of the latter
days—events which involve the interests and destiny of all the
inhabitants of the earth—both Zion and Babylon, Jew and Gentile,
Jerusalem, America, and the whole world. All nations are interested in
the events which are approaching us, and which await this generation;
for, whether the world believe it or not, they are of vast interest to
them all. There have been certain times looked forward to in the
world's history, in which it was believed that something remarkable
would occur, and there have been several of these periods during the
last fifty years. I do not know that anything was predicted at an
early day with regard to 1830; but I recollect, when a boy at school,
of reading a certain verse about a great eclipse of the sun—
In eighteen hundred and thirty-one
Will be a great eclipse upon the sun.
I heard about this fifteen years before it took place, it having been
foretold by the astronomers, by the principles and laws of the science
of astronomy. On that day I was passing through a forest of pinewood,
at Farmington, Connecticut, going to see my father, whom I had not
seen for some time. It was nearly as dark as night, and when I got
through, into the open fields, there was what is termed a poor house,
the only house erected within several miles in that region of country.
A poor man had died there and they were drawing his body on an ox sled
and were going to bury him. I noticed this as I passed along, and
thought of what I had read; but nothing of any particular interest
occurred that year except the eclipse of the sun. But in 1830
something occurred of great interest to all the inhabitants of the
earth: that was the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Many persons have looked forward to the year 1860 with great interest
and this has been the case with many of the Latter-day Saints. What
took place in that year? The dissolution of the American Union; for in
that year the South took a stand against the North, and the North
against the South, in fulfillment of a certain revelation given by
Joseph Smith thirty years before it took place. Joseph Smith predicted
that there would be a great rebellion in the United States—the South
and the North warring against each other and that this rebellion would
commence in South Carolina, and would end in the death and misery of
many souls; and that in process of time—after many days, the slaves
would rise against their masters, and that one nation would call for
aid upon another, for war would be poured upon the whole earth. I
wrote this revelation twenty-five years before the rebellion took
place; others also wrote it, and it was published to the world before
there was any prospect of the fearful events it predicted coming to
pass.
Joseph Smith once said in a speech at Nauvoo, to a company, that
whosoever lived to see the two sixes come together in '66 would see
the American continent deluged in blood. That was many years before
there was any prospect of a rebellion. The history of '60 and of '66
is before the world, and I do not wish to spend time in referring to
it.
We have got by '30, '60, '66, and '70, and we are now living at a
period when every year is big with events of interest to the
inhabitants of the earth; and they will continue from this time until
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many men have set times for the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, among whom, living in our own day, we
may mention Mr. Miller. He set times and days for the appearing of the
Messiah, and has said that he would surely come on such a day. Now if
Mr. Miller had been acquainted with the prophecies contained in the
Bible, and with the Spirit by which the Scriptures were written, he
would have known very clearly that Christ would not come until certain
events had taken place. He would have been aware that the Messiah
would not make his appearance until an angel of God had delivered the
everlasting Gospel from the heavens to be preached to the nations of
the earth; until the honest and meek of the earth are gathered out
from every sect, party and denomination under the whole heavens; until
the Zion of God had gone up into the mountains of Israel and there
established Zion, and lifted up a standard to the people. Mr. Miller
and all who have believed like him, had they understood the Scriptures
and possessed the Spirit of truth, would have known that Christ would
not come until the Jews had returned to their own land and had rebuilt
the City of Jerusalem and the temple there; they would have known that
all these and many other prophecies must have been fulfilled as a
preparatory work for the coming of the Messiah.
These things are before us; we are here in these valleys of the
mountains, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
established by the hand of God—by revelation from heaven. This Church
has been established by raising up prophets, unto whom have been given
the keys of the kingdom of God—the keys of the holy Priesthood and
Apostleship of the Son of God, with power to organize the Church
and kingdom of God on the earth, with all its gifts, graces,
ordinances, and orders, as proclaimed by all the Apostles and prophets
who have lived since the world began. It is because of this that we
are here today. In fulfillment of prophecy and revelation we have
established a kingdom, as it were, a state, a nation, a people here in
the deserts of North America. We have planted six hundred miles of
cities, towns, villages, gardens, orchards, tabernacles and temples by
the command of God, for the hand of God is in all these things, and
they are in fulfillment of revelations given in the Bible, Book of
Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, in our day and in ancient days.
This is the work of the Lord, and all the Scriptures, from the
beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation point to this day as
one of great interest to all the human family; although as one said of
old, "As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in the
days of the coming of the Son of Man." In those days they were
marrying and giving in marriage, and when Noah went into the Ark, and
when Lot fled out of Sodom, the inhabitants of the earth through their
unbelief were ignorant of the destruction awaiting them.
At the present day darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the
minds of the people; nevertheless they are living in an age of the
world more fraught with interest to the human family than any
preceding age or generation since the creation. There is no hundred
years, no thousand years, no two thousand years since God made this
world and placed Adam in the Garden of Eden when there was as much
prophecy, revelation, vision, and word of the Lord and promises of God
to be fulfilled as there is in the generation in which you and I live.
This is the great dispensation of all dispensations. This is the time
to which all the prophets of God have pointed, and in which they have
declared the great latter-day work of God should be established. And I
will here say that, many times, while a boy, when reading the
testimony of John, given on the isle of Patmos, whither he had been
banished for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the word of God;
while reading the account he gives of the pouring out of plagues and
judgments on the inhabitants of the earth, I have marveled that the
Lord should do such a work. But I do not wonder at it today: the
scenes have changed. When I was a boy, fifty years ago, the kingdom of
God had not been established among men; the angels of God had not
visited the earth; the Lord Almighty had not clothed his servants with
the Priesthood and commanded them to go and warn the nations of the
earth of the judgments which awaited them. There was not the
wickedness then that there is today. The wickedness committed today
in the Christian world in twenty-four hours is greater than would have
been committed in a hundred years at the ratio of fifty years ago. And
the spirit of wickedness is increasing, so that I no longer wonder
that God Almighty will turn rivers into blood; I do not wonder that he
will open the seals and pour out the plagues and sink great Babylon,
as the angel saw, like a millstone cast into the sea, to rise no more
forever. I can see that it requires just such plagues and judgments
to cleanse the earth, that it may cease to groan under the wickedness
and abomination in which the Christian world welters today. I can see
the necessity for the Lord stretching forth his hand, establishing his
kingdom, warning the nations, and gathering out the honest and
meek of the earth from among all nations, kindreds, tongues and
people, sects and parties under the whole heaven, and preparing them
to stand as the bride, the Lamb's wife, as the Church of Jesus Christ,
as the kingdom of God, adorned with goodly apparel, adorned with the
light of Zion, with the principles of eternal life, with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, preserving within themselves the virtues and attributes
which have made God what he is, established him on his throne, and
given him the power which he now possesses. I can say this—the Lord
will never come to visit an earth like this; he will never come to
visit a generation of the inhabitants of the earth until they are
prepared for his coming and are willing to receive him.
This is the foundation of Mormonism; this is the foundation of the
Church and kingdom of God, which was laid in 1830. The Church was
established on the 6th of April in that year. Its history and the
history of this people are before the world. We ourselves have learned
it by shoe leather. Many of the Elders of Israel have traveled a
hundred thousand miles to preach the Gospel during the last forty
years without purse or scrip; we have labored day and night, and
traveled as no other generation of men since the world was made have
traveled. Our garments are clear of the blood of this generation, at
least many of us, and I hope many more will be. We have been true and
faithful in our testimony to the inhabitants of the earth; and as the
world generally has rejected our testimony the Lord has withdrawn his
spirit from the people in a great measure, and the religion they once
enjoyed is as nothing to many of them. Infidelity prevails throughout
the world; very few, either priests or people, believe in a literal
fulfillment of the Bible. They have a theory, but as to believing in a
real fulfillment of prophecy, or that the Lord meant what he said and
said what he meant, that is out of the question—very few believe it.
I want to ask a question—Will the unbelief of this generation make the
truth of God without effect in our day any more than it has in any
other age of the world? I tell you nay, and think not, as Paul says,
that I am your enemy because I tell you the truth. These things are
true before God; this is the Zion of God, and these are the people of
God; and we, as Latter-day Saints, should live our religion better
than we do; and as we are now entering on another year I hope we shall
try to live our religion through this year, and do our duty and keep
the commandments of God and walk uprightly before him, that we may
become united as the heart of one man.
There are great events, as I have already said, before us. The fact
is, the Lord has laid down a great many promises concerning the latter
days, and they are going to be fulfilled; for though the heavens and
the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of the word of the Lord will
fall unfulfilled; and when our nation and the nations of the earth
have filled their cup and are ripened in iniquity the Lord will cut
them off. The greater the battle the sooner it will end; the greater
the warfare the greater the victory, if the Saints do their duty.
These things are before my mind, in the vision of it, and the Lord
will not fail in anything he has promised concerning the work of the
latter days. Whatever opposition this Church and kingdom may have, it
is the work of God. The Lord has planted and sustained it. Jesus
compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed, the least of
all seeds, but by and by when it grows it becomes a large tree, so the
fowls of the air can lodge in its branches. So it has been with the
kingdom of God; but we are told that the little one will become a
thousand, and the small one a strong nation, and the Lord will hasten
it in his own time. The Lord says, "I will break every weapon formed
against Zion; and every nation, kindred, tongue and people that will
not serve Zion shall be utterly wasted away."
When I see the world making warfare against the Zion and people of God
because they have borne record and testimony of his work on the earth
I can tell pretty well what the end will be; I can see it. We are
living in a time when the work of God is going to increase in interest
every day until it is wound up. No man knows the day or the hour when
Christ will come, yet the generation has been pointed out by Jesus
himself. He told his disciples when they passed by the temple as they
walked out of Jerusalem that that generation should not pass away
before not one stone of that magnificent temple should be left
standing upon another and the Jews should be scattered among the
nations; and history tells how remarkably that prediction was
fulfilled. Moses and the prophets also prophesied of this as well as
Jesus. The Savior, when speaking to his disciples of his second coming
and the establishment of his kingdom on the earth, said the Jews
should be scattered and trodden under foot until the times of the
Gentiles were fulfilled. But, said he, when you see light breaking
forth among the Gentiles referring to the preaching of his Gospel
amongst them; when you see salvation offered to the Gentiles, and the
Jews—the seed of Israel—passed by, the last first and the first last;
when you see this you may know that the time of my second coming is
at hand as surely as you know that summer is nigh when the fig tree
puts forth its leaves; and when these things commence that generation
shall not pass away until all are fulfilled.
We are living in the dispensation and generation to which Jesus
referred—the time appointed by God for the last six thousand years,
through the mouths of all the prophets and inspired men who have lived
and left their sayings on record, in which his Zion should be built up
and continue upon the earth. Those prophecies will have their
fulfillment before the world; and all who will not repent will be
engulfed in the destructions which are in store for the wicked. If
men do not cease from their murders, whoredoms, and all the wickedness
and abominations which fill the black catalogue of the crimes of the
world, judgment will overtake them; and whether we are believed or
not, these sayings are true, and I bear my testimony as a servant of
God and as an Elder in Israel to the truth of the events which are
going to follow very fast on each other.
The Lord is going to make a short work in the earth; he is going to
cut it short in righteousness, or no flesh would be saved. What
Brother Rich has said today is true. These principles will sustain us.
Virtuous and godly principles—the principles of the Gospel will, in
the end, come off triumphant; and they will sustain and preserve any
people who practice them, whether they are popular or not in the
estimation of the world. All who embrace the principles of the Gospel
of Christ will be saved by them. He that abides a law will be
preserved by it. Any man who abides the law of the Gospel will be
saved and receive exaltation and glory by it. Let us remember these
things, for all that has been spoken concerning this Zion of God
in the mountains will come to pass. It is the work of God, and his
eyes are over it; the heavens behold it. Every prophet and Apostle who
ever bore testimony to this work is watching us with the deepest
interest; they watch our labors and faithfulness, and are anxious
about the course we pursue. Many of them desired to live in our day,
but had not the privilege. We have been permitted to see and live in
this great and eventful age of the world. The God of heaven has put
into our hands the Gospel, the Priesthood, the keys of his kingdom,
and the power to redeem the earth from the dominion of sin and
wickedness under which it has groaned for centuries, and under which
it groans today. Let us lay these things to heart, and try to live
our religion; so that when we get through we may look back on our
lives, and feel that we have done what was required of us,
individually and collectively. The Lord requires much at our
hands—more than he has ever required of any generation that has
preceded us; for no generation that has ever lived on the earth was
called upon to establish the kingdom of God on the earth, knowing that
it should be thrown down no more forever. Daniel saw this; the
Prophet Isaiah had spoken of it; in fact three-fourths of all his
predictions relate to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the
latter days; to our persecutions, to our travels to these valleys of
the mountains, to the lifting up of the standard to the people on the
mountains of Israel; to the casting up of the great highway—this
national railroad, which the ransomed of the Lord should walk over,
and on which the Gentiles should come to the light of Zion, and kings
to the brightness of her rising.
These things are to come to pass in our day, and the beginning has
commenced, and the end will come by the power of God and in fulfillment
of his promises; and it is at our hands the work is required.
Therefore I feel to bear my testimony today that this is the work of
God, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that Brigham Young is
a prophet of God, and is inspired, led, dictated and directed of the
Lord, and has been very profitable to the Latter-day Saints, and is
doing all he can for the salvation of the world. So did Joseph Smith,
while he lived. He came in fulfillment of prophecy, accomplished what
was required of him, laid the foundation of the work, received the
keys of the Priesthood and Apostleship, and every gift and grace in
the organization of the Church necessary to carry it on. We are called
to build on the foundation he laid, until Zion shall arise and put on
her beautiful garments and the people of God become united as the
heart of one man; until the little stone, cut out of the mountain
without hands, becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth, and
accomplishes all God has spoken concerning it.
Brethren and sisters, let us unite together and be faithful, and live
our religion every day, and do our duty in 1871 as in any of the years
that are past and gone since we have been acquainted with the Gospel
of Christ. If we do this we shall come off triumphant. The God of
heaven is our friend, and blessed is that people whose God is the
Lord. Blessed is that people who do not turn to any other God but the
living and true God.
May God bless you, bless this assembly, bless us as a people, and the
honest and meek of the earth everywhere, and prepare us for the great
events which await this generation, for Jesus' sake. Amen.