We had a request given to us, at the opening of the Conference,
yesterday morning, by President Young, to give evidences for and
against the United Order of Zion. I do not know that I should be a
very able advocate against it. I have been looking over in my own
mind, the arguments which might be brought against it, and there are a
few things I will name. If we were to undertake to unite according to
the spirit and letter of this order it would, in one sense of the
word, deprive us of having half a dozen candidates at elections, as is
the custom generally in the Christian world. It would, in a measure,
deprive these candidates of the opportunity of spending a month or two
stump-speeching to get the votes of the people; then, when the
election came, of paying for two or three barrels of bad whiskey to
treat those who are going to vote for them. Then it might deprive
Alderman Clinton, or some other justice of the peace, of the chance of
collecting two or three hundred dollars as fines from those who had
committed a breach of the peace. It might deprive the Benedicts and
other surgeons of the opportunity of collecting five hundred or a
thousand dollars for mending broken arms and legs got in free fights.
Probably it would deprive the people of the opportunity of spending
fifty or a hundred thousand dollars a year in importing mustard into
this Territory, and require the farmers to collect and use that which
is now a nuisance on their fields. It might also deprive us of the
privilege of paying a hundred thousand dollars for imported brooms,
and require us to plant two or three hundred acres of broom corn.
These are about the only objections that I can think of against the
order, though you might carry it out in detail, perhaps, a good deal
further; but with regard to the benefits arising from it, they are so
numerous that it would take a long time to enumerate them. I do not
think it requires a great deal of argument to prove to us that union
is strength, and that a united people have power which a divided
people do not possess.
I am very glad that I have lived long enough to see a day when the
hearts of the people can be united so as to carry out these things,
while they also act upon their own agency in receiving and obeying
them. We have been a good many years preaching up the necessity
of the Latter-day Saints being one in temporal as well as in spiritual
things, and I have felt, for a long time, in my own mind, that there
must be a change among us. The way we have been drifting, has not
seemed to have a tendency, as a general thing, to carry out the
purposes of the Lord, and to prepare us, as a people, for those events
which await us.
In our spiritual labors we have been united in a measure, and in some
things perhaps in a temporal point of view. Now, for instance, the
case I referred to in regard to our elections. I do not think that,
for the twenty-four years we have resided in these valleys, any man
has ever paid a sixpence in order to obtain any office to which he has
been elected by the votes of the people, whether as Delegate to the
Congress of the United States, Governor of the Territory, member of
the legislature, probate judge, or any other office. I do not think
that any man who has been in office has ever even asked for it in any
shape or manner. So far as this is concerned we have been united, and
we have one consolation in regard to our officers, I do not believe
there has ever been a single defaulter among them in the whole
Territory, so far as dollars and cents are concerned, in any office.
In this respect then we see the advantage of being united.
There are very many advantages that will accrue to us if we unite our
hearts, feelings, labors, interests, property, and everything that we
are made stewards over. One thing is certain, we cannot continue in
the course that we have pursued in regard to temporal matters. It is
suicidal for any people to import ten dollars' worth of products while
they export only one, and it is a miracle and a wonder to me that we
have lived as long as we have under this order of things. We have sent
millions of dollars out of the Territory every year, for articles for
our home consumption, while we have exported but very little; hence I
say that the establishment and success of this new order among us will
bring about our temporal salvation.
We occupy a different position from the rest of the world. We believe
in the revelations of Jesus Christ contained in the Bible as well as
in the record or stick of Joseph in the hands of Ephraim—the Book of
Mormon, which gives a history of the ancient inhabitants of this
continent. We also believe in the Book of Revelations, which were
given through the mouth of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, to the
Latter-day Saints and to the inhabitants of the earth. Inasmuch, then,
as we believe these things, we, if we carry out our faith, must of
necessity go to and prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of the
revelations of God. When we are in possession of the Spirit of God, we
understand that there is a change at the door, not only for us but for
all the world. There are certain events awaiting the nations of the
earth as well as Zion; and when these events overtake us we will be
preserved if we take the counsel that is given us and unite our time,
labor and means, and produce what we need for our own use; but without
this we shall not be prepared to sustain ourselves and we shall suffer
loss and inconvenience thereby. I am satisfied that as a people,
pursuing the course we have pursued hitherto, we are not prepared for
the Zion of Enoch or the kingdom of God. There was an order carried out
anciently by the people of this continent and by the people of the
city of Enoch, wherever that was located, which was very different from the practice which has prevailed among the Saints of
latter days; and as far as such a system being any injury to us I can
see none in the world. I can see no injury that can overtake the
Latter-day Saints, by their uniting together, according to the law of
God, and producing from the elements that which they need to eat,
drink and wear, and I feel as though the time has come for such an
order to be instituted; and the readiness with which the people
receive the teachings of the servants of God in regard to this matter
is a testimony that the time has come to favor Zion. The Spirit of God
bears witness to the congregations of the Saints of the importance of
the principles which have been given unto us, and hence their
readiness to receive them.
From the commencement of this work to the present day, the labor has
been harder with the servants of God to get the people prepared in
their hearts to let the Lord govern and control them in their temporal
labor and means than in regard to matters pertaining to their eternal
salvation. It was hard work for Joseph Smith to get the minds of the
people prepared even to receive the Gospel in his day. But the Lord
opened the way, the Gospel was preached and the Church was organized
in its purity and in the order in which it existed in the days of
Jesus Christ and the Apostles, and wherever the Gospel has been sent
the ears of the people have been more or less opened and a portion of
them have been ready to receive it. This Gospel has been preached in
every Christian nation under heaven where the laws would permit, and
people from these various nations have overcome their traditions so
far as to obey it; but, as I remarked before, it has been hard work
for the Latter-day Saints to bring themselves to such a state of mind
as to be willing for the Lord to govern them in their temporal labors.
There is something strange about this, but I think, probably, it is in
consequence of the position that we occupy. There is a veil between
man and eternal things; if that veil was taken away and we were able
to see eternal things as they are before the Lord, no man would be
tried with regard to gold, silver or this world's goods, and no man,
on their account, would be unwilling to let the Lord control him. But
here we have an agency, and we are in a probation, and there is a veil
between us and eternal things, between us and our heavenly Father and
the spirit world; and this for a wise and proper purpose in the Lord
our God, to prove whether the children of men will abide in his law or
not in the situation in which they are placed here. Latter-day Saints,
reflect upon these things. We have been willing, with every feeling of
our hearts, that Joseph Smith, President Young, and the leaders of the
people should guide and direct us in regard to our eternal interests;
and the blessings sealed upon us by their authority reach the other
side of the veil and are in force after death, and they affect our
destiny to the endless ages of eternity. Men, in the days of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, and of Jesus and the Apostles, had blessings sealed
upon them, kingdoms, thrones, principalities and powers, with all the
blessings of the New and Everlasting Covenant. The question may be
asked, are these eternal blessings of interest to us? They are, or
should be. Are these blessings worth our earthly wealth, whether we
have little or much? Is salvation, is eternal life worth a yoke of
cattle, a house, a hundred acres of land, or anything that we possess here in the flesh? If it is, we certainly ought to be as ready
to permit the Lord to govern and control us in all our temporal labors
as we are in our spiritual labors.
Again, when a man dies he cannot take his cattle, horses, houses or
lands with him; he goes to the grave—the resting place of all flesh.
No man escapes it, the law of death rests upon all. In Adam all die,
while in Christ all are made alive. We all understand that death has
passed upon all men, but we none of us know when our turn will come,
though we know it will not be a great while before we shall be called
to follow the generations who have preceded us. When we reflect upon
these things I think we all should be willing to let the Lord guide us
in temporal matters. In the Book of Mormon we learn that the ancient
Nephites, who dwelt on this continent, entered into, and continued in,
this order for nearly two hundred years. They were wealthy and happy
and the Lord blessed them. They had no poor among them. They were
united in heart and in spirit, and the blessings of the Lord rested
upon them. It is true they occupied a different position in one sense
to what we do. They entered into this order just after the Lord had
brought judgment upon the whole nation on account of their wickedness,
and many of the wicked had been destroyed: their cities had also been
destroyed, and it was while humbled by these judgments that they
entered the United Order. But a reign of peace and prosperity rested
upon them and continued until they broke the order and began to go,
every man for himself and the devil for them all, then utter
destruction soon overtook them.
It is different with us. We are entering this order before the wicked
are destroyed. We commence it to prepare us for the great events which
are at the door, for if the judgments of God ever were at the door of
any generation it is this. The whole volume of Scripture points these
things out to us in plain language, and all the unbelief of the
inhabitants of the earth will not alter the fact, it will not change
the hand of God nor stay his judgments, which are at the door of Great
Babylon. She will come in remembrance before God, and he will hold a
controversy with the nations; his sword is unsheathed and it will fall
on Idumea, the world, and who can stay his hand? These things have
been proclaimed by almost every Prophet who has ever spoken since the
world began. They point to our day, and their words must have their
fulfillment.
Over forty years the Gospel of Christ has been proclaimed to this
generation and to the whole Christian world as far as we have had
opportunity. Light has come into the world, but men have rejected it
because their deeds are evil, hence the judgments of God will rest
upon the nations of the earth in fulfillment of his word through the
Prophets. The Lord has called upon us to unite together and take hold
of this work, and to prepare ourselves for the great events which are
at hand, that when the destroying angels go forth to reap the earth,
beginning at the sanctuary, they need not destroy any man upon whom is
the mark set by the writer with the inkhorn, who cried and mourned
because of the abominations done among men. The Prophet, in seeing the
vision of these things in the last days, saw that the earth was
reaped, and the reapers began at the sanctuary, and the wicked were
cut off by the judgments of God.
The world now do not believe this any more than they believed in the days of Noah and Lot, and they are no more prepared for it, and
they are growing wickeder and wickeder every day of their lives.
Wickedness is increasing, for the devil has great dominion over the
hearts of the children of men. The Lord is trying to direct and
dictate his Saints and I feel that it is our duty, as a people, to
unite our interests together, also our time, talents, labor, and all
that we are stewards over, that as men who have faith in God, we may
be prepared for those things which await us, and for the coming of the
Son of Man. We are observing the signs of the times, and we can
readily understand the necessity of entering into this order. I think
we can all see this if we enjoy any portion of the spirit of our
religion and the work of the Lord, which we profess to be engaged in.
I can see everything in favor but nothing against the United Order.
These teachings are of the Lord; the servants of God have been moved
to call upon the people, and the Lord has moved upon the people, and
their hearts are being touched by the light of the Holy Spirit, and
they are entering into this organization; and my feeling is that if
you and I, who profess to be the friends of God, and have entered into
a covenant with him, withdraw our hearts from him that we do not see
the necessity of uniting ourselves according to this law of God, we
shall begin to dry up, and what little life, light, or spirit we have
will leave us and we shall go down and we shall not walk in the light
of the Lord. I view it as a day of decision to the Latter-day Saints
throughout the whole Church and kingdom of God, and we shall find it
to our advantage to decide rightly, and to walk in the path marked out
for us by the servants of the Lord.
I feel to say God bless the Latter-day Saints and the honest in heart
and meek of the earth throughout the whole world, and I pray that the
nations may be prepared for that which is to come, for as God lives
there is a change at the door, and what the ancient patriarchs and
Prophets said will be fulfilled; and if I were to express my feelings
as the spirit reveals to me it would be a good deal as Daniel said,
that all who will not prepare themselves for the coming of Christ must
get out of the way, for the little stone that was cut out of the
mountains without hands will shortly grind them to powder, and they
will be cast away as the chaff of the summer threshingfloor. The
kingdom of God, which Daniel saw, the Zion of God in embryo, is on the
earth, and is here in these mountains; and it will rise and rise,
until it is clothed with the glory of God.
May God help us to prepare for his coming and kingdom, for Christ's
sake. Amen.