There seems to be at the present time a great deal of interest
manifested among the Latter-day Saints, and even among those who are
connected with our Church, in regard to some instructions that have
been imparted to the Latter-day Saints in relation to their temporal
affairs. The instructions which have been imparted, and which the
people are, in some measure, receiving, are comparatively new in their
estimation, that is, it is supposed they are new, and something which
we, in times past, have not practiced. But if we appeal to the
revelations of God, we shall find that no new thing has been required
of us. It is generally termed, however, by Latter-day Saints, the New
Order. You hear of it in all parts of the Territory. What is meant by
the New Order? Is it really new in the revelations of God, or is it
something new for us to practice it? We have been required, in the
year 1874, to come back again to an old order, as taught in ancient
Mormonism. What I mean by ancient Mormonism is Mormonism as it was
taught some forty-three or forty-four years ago. There is a generation
now living on the earth who seem to be comparatively ignorant of the
doctrines which were taught some forty years ago to men who are now
old and have grey heads and gray beards. Since that time a new
generation has arisen; and they begin to think that something new,
something that will turn things upside down, is being introduced into
Mormonism. I will say to all who have such ideas, you are entirely
mistaken, it is not so; we are trying to get the people to come back
again to the old principles of Mormonism, to that which God revealed
in the early rise of this Church.
Every man, whether he is or is not a Latter-day Saint, when he comes
to study our written works, the written revelations which God has
given, will acknowledge that the Latter-day Saints cannot be the
people they profess to be, they cannot be consistent with the
revelations they profess to believe in and live as they now live; they
have got to come into the system which the Saints call the New Order,
otherwise they cannot comply with the revelations of God.
I believe that I will quote a few revelations this morning, in order
to show you what God said in relation to property or temporal
things, in the early rise of this Church. The first revelation that
now occurs to my mind will be found in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, on page 217; it was given in March, 1831, forty-three years
ago last March. In the third paragraph of this revelation we read
these words:
"For, behold, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and
that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for
food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance. But it is
not given that one man should possess that which is above another,
wherefore the world lieth in sin."
Do you believe this revelation, Latter-day Saints? "Oh, yes," says
one—"we believe Joseph Smith was a Prophet." Have you practiced it?
Oh, that is another thing. How, then, are we to know that you believe
this revelation if you do not practice it? How are the world to know
you are sincere in your belief, if you have a revelation which you
profess to believe in, and yet give no heed to it. I do not wonder
that the world say that the Latter-day Saints do not believe their own
revelations. Why? Because we do not practice them. "It is not given
that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the
world lieth in sin." There may be some strangers here, and they do not
believe this book, but I will tell you what they would say as men of
reason, they would say that if you Latter-day Saints call this your
book of faith, and doctrines, and covenants, to be consistent you
ought to comply with it. That is what they would say, and it is really
a true saying, and consistent and reasonable. If we believe this, let
us practice it; if we do not believe in it, why profess to believe in
it?
I will now refer you to a revelation given on the second day of
January, 1831, it is on page 120 of the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants. I will tell you how this revelation was given, for I was
present at the time it was given. The Church, then, was about nine
months old. The Prophet Joseph, who received all the revelations
contained in this book, was then living in the State of New York, in
the town of Fayette, Seneca County. He called together the various
branches of the Church that had been organized during the nine months
previous in that State, and they assembled together in the house in
which this Church was organized, namely, Father Whitmer's house. You
will recollect, in reading the Book of Mormon, that the sons of Father
Whitmer, young men, are noted as witnesses of the Book of Mormon,
David Whitmer having seen the angel, and the plates in the hands of
the angel, and heard him speak, and the hand of the angel was placed
on his head, and he said unto him—"Blessed be the Lord and they that
keep his commandments." And he heard the voice of the Lord in
connection with three other persons testifying out of the heavens, at
the same time that the angel was administering, that the Book of
Mormon had been translated correctly by the gift and power of God, and
commanding him to bear witness of it to all people, nations and
tongues, in connection with the other three that were with him. These
were some of the individuals also who saw the plates and handled them,
and saw the engravings upon them, and who gave their testimony to that
effect in the Book of Mormon. It was in their father's house where
this Church was organized, on the 6th of April, 1830; it was in their
father's house where this little Conference was convened on the 2nd of January, 1831, and this Conference requested the Prophet
Joseph Smith to inquire of the Lord concerning their duties. He did
so. He sat down in the midst of the Conference, of less than one
hundred, I do not know exactly the number, and a scribe wrote this
revelation from his mouth. One item contained therein, in the fifth
paragraph, reads thus—
"And let every man esteem his brother as himself, and practice virtue
and holiness before me. And again I say unto you, let every man esteem
his brother as himself. For what man among you having twelve sons, and
is no respecter of them and they serve him obediently, and he saith
unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the
other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon
his sons and saith I am just? Behold, this I have given unto you as a
parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are
not one ye are not mine."
Perhaps the Saints may think that this has reference to spiritual
things alone, and means to be one in doctrine, principle, ordinances,
faith, belief, and so on, and that it has no reference whatever to
temporal things; but in order to show you that this has reference to
temporal as well as to spiritual things, let me quote that which God
said a few months after this in another revelation. I have not time to
turn to all these revelations, but I will quote them. The Lord
says—"Except ye are equal in the bonds (or bands) of earthly things,
how can you be made equal in the bonds of heavenly things?" Here was a
question put to us: How can you be made equal in the bonds of heavenly
things, unless you are equal in the bonds of earthly? Surely enough,
we cannot be made equal. If we are unequal in this life, and are not
one, can we be entrusted with the true riches, the riches of eternity?
I believe I will read to you a small portion of another revelation
that was given on stewardships. The Lord commanded certain ones among
his Servants to take charge of these revelations when they were in
manuscript, before they were published, that they might be printed and
sent forth among the people, and he also gave them charge concerning
the Book of Mormon, and made them stewards over these revelations and
the avails arising from them. And the Lord said—"Wherefore, hearken
and hear, for thus saith the Lord unto them, I, the Lord, have
appointed them and ordained them to be stewards over the revelations
and commandments which I have given unto them, and which I shall
hereafter give unto them; and an account of this stewardship will I
require of them in the day of judgment; wherefore I have appointed
unto them, and this is their business in the Church, to manage them
and the concerns thereof, and the benefits thereof, wherefore a
commandment give I unto them that they shall not give these things
unto the Church, neither unto the world, nevertheless, inasmuch as
they receive more than is needful for their necessities and their
wants, it shall be given into my storehouse and the benefits shall be
consecrated unto the inhabitants of Zion, and unto their generations,
inasmuch as they become heirs according to the laws of the kingdom."
Now, you notice here, the Lord did not intend those individuals whom
he named to become rich out of the avails of the sale of the Book of
Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and other revelations
and the literary concerns of his Church, he never intended that they
should become rich while others were poor, that was not the
order; but inasmuch as they received more than was needful for their
support what should they do with it? Should they aggrandize themselves
while their poor brethren were destitute? No, not at all; they were to
give all the surplus, over and above what was really necessary to
support them, into the Lord's storehouse, and it was to be for the
benefit of all the people of Zion, not only the living but for their
generations after them, inasmuch as they became heirs according to the
laws of the kingdom of God.
There was a certain way to become heirs according to the laws of the
kingdom of God. Heirs of what? Heirs of the avails arising from the
sale of the revelations which all the inhabitants of Zion were to be
benefited by. Says one—"But perhaps that was limited to these six
individuals who are here named, and did not mean the whole Church."
Wait, let us read the next sentence—"Behold, this is what the Lord
requires of every man in his stewardship, even as I the Lord have
appointed or shall hereafter appoint." From this we learn that all the
stewards which the Lord had appointed; and all that he should appoint,
in a future time, to stewardships, were to hand over all their
surplus—all that was not necessary to feed and clothe them—into the
Lord's storehouse. None who belonged to the Church of the living God
are exempt from this law. Does that law include us? It includes all
who belong to the Church, not one is exempt from it. Have we been
doing this, Latter-day Saints, for the last forty-three years, since
this revelation was given? Have we been complying with the order we
undertook in the year 1831, to enter into? This old order is not a new
order that you talk so much about.
In the year 1831, we commenced emigrating to the western part of the
State of Missouri, to a county, quite new then, called Jackson County;
most of the land at that time was Government land. When we commenced
emigrating there the Lord gave many revelations. The Prophet Joseph
went up among some of the earliest to that county, and God gave many
revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in
relation to how the people should conduct their affairs. Among the
revelations then given was the commandment that every man who should
come up to that land should lay all things which he possessed before
the Bishop of his Church. Another revelation, given before we went up
to that land, speaking of a land which the Lord, at some future time,
would give us for an inheritance, commanded that we should consecrate
all our property into his storehouse. If we had wagons, horses,
mules, oxen, cows, sheep, farming utensils, household furniture,
gold and silver, jewelry, wearing apparel, it mattered not what it
was, the Lord said, in a revelation given in February, 1831, that it
should all be laid before the Bishop of his Church, and that it should
be consecrated to the Lord's storehouse. This reduced us all on a
level. If a man had a million dollars when he gathered up to Jackson
County, if he complied with the law, he would be just as rich as the
man who had not one farthing. Why? Because he consecrated all he had,
and the poor man could not do any more than that, hence all who
complied with the law were equally poor or equally rich.
What was the next step after this consecration? In those days we had
but one Bishop—his name was Edward Partridge, and he was called by
revelation—and the next step after this general consecration, the Lord commanded the Bishop and his two counselors to purchase all
the land in Jackson County, and in the counties round about, that
could conveniently be got, the general price being one dollar and a
quarter an acre. And what next? After purchasing these lands as far as
they had the means to do so, every man that had consecrated his
property was to receive an inheritance. Now recollect, none except
those who consecrated, none who disobeyed that law, were to receive an
inheritance or stewardship; but all who consecrated their properties
according to this law were to receive their stewardship.
What is the meaning of a stewardship? A steward is one who is
accountable to somebody for the property that he manages, and that is
his stewardship, whether it be landed property, farming utensils,
wagons, cows, oxen, horses, harness, or whatever may be committed to
him. To whom were the brethren in Jackson County accountable for the
stewardship committed to them? To the Bishop. The Bishop was called in
these revelations a common judge in Zion, ecclesiastically speaking,
not according to the civil laws; so far as our ecclesiastical laws
were concerned he was to be a common judge, and each person was to
render an account of the stewardship which he had to the Bishop. I do
not know how often; perhaps once a year, perhaps longer than that,
perhaps oftener. I do not know that there was any specified time given
in these revelations about how often these accounts should be rendered
up. But how were the people to live out of the avails of the
stewardship committed to their charge? They were to have food and
raiment, and the necessary comforts of life. Well, of course, a wise
and faithful steward, having health and strength, and perhaps a good
deal of talent, might so take charge of a stewardship that he might
gain more than he and his family needed, and keeping an account of all
these things, and rendering the same when required, some of them would
have a considerable surplus above that which they and their families
needed. What was to be done with that? Why, as stewards, they would
have to consecrate it into the Lord's storehouse, the Lord being the
owner of the property and we only his stewards.
There were some men who were entrusted with a larger stewardship than
others. For instance, here was a man who knew nothing about farming
particularly, but he might be a master spirit as far as some other
branch of business was concerned. He might understand how to carry
on a great cloth manufactory and everything in the clothing line
necessary for the inhabitants of Zion. Such a man would require a
greater stewardship than the man who cultivated a small farm, and had
only himself and a wife and two or three children to support. But
would the fact of one man having a greater stewardship than another
make one richer than another? No. Why not? Because, if one received
fifty or a hundred thousand dollars to build and stock a large
manufactory for the purpose of manufacturing various kinds of fabrics
for clothing, although he might have a surplus of several thousand
dollars at the end of the year, he would not be any richer than the
farmer with his few acres of land, and let me show you how they would
be equal. The manufacturer does not own the building, the machinery,
the cotton or the flax, as the case may be, he is only a steward, like
the farmer, and if, at the end of the year, he has five, ten, or fifty
thousand dollars surplus, does that make him a rich man? By no
means, it goes into the Lord's storehouse at the end of each year, or
as often as may be required, thus leaving him on the same platform of
equality with the farmer and his small stewardship. Do you not see the
equality of the thing? In temporal matters it is not given that one
man shall possess that which is above another, saith the Lord.
Now did the people really enter into this, or was it mere theory? I
answer that, in the year 1831, we did try to enter into this order of
things, but the hearts of the people had been so accustomed to holding
property individually, that it was a very difficult matter to get them
to comply with this law of the Lord. Many of them were quite wealthy,
and they saw that on that land a great city called Zion, or the New
Jerusalem, was to be built; they understood that from the revelations,
and they said in their hearts—"What a fine chance this will be for us
to get rich. We have means and money, and if we consecrate according
to the law of God we cannot get rich; but we know that people by
thousands and tens of thousands will gather up here, and these lands
will become very valuable. We can now get them at the government
price, a dollar and a quarter an acre, and if we lay out a few
thousands in land, we can sell it out to the brethren when they come
along at a thousand percent profit, and perhaps in some cases at ten
thousand percent, and make ourselves wealthy, so we will not
consecrate, but we will go ahead for ourselves individually, and we
will buy up the lands to speculate upon." These were the feelings of
some who went up to that country; but others were willing to comply
with the word of God, and did just as the revelation required, and
they laid everything they had before the Bishop, and received their
stewardship.
After he had organized these things, Joseph the Prophet, in August of
the year 1831, went back to Kirtland, about a thousand miles east, and
while there the Lord revealed to him that the inhabitants of Jackson
County were not complying with his word; hence Joseph sent letters up
to them containing the word of the Lord, chastening them because of
their disobedience and rebellion against the law of heaven. He did
this on several occasions, and one occasion, especially, as you will
find recorded in the history published in some of our periodicals. I
think you will find it in the fifteenth volume of the Millennial Star,
in language something like this—"If the people will not comply with my
law, which I have given them concerning the consecration of their
property, the land shall not be a land of Zion unto them, but their
names shall be blotted out, and the names of their children and their
children's children, so long as they will not comply with my laws, and
their names shall not be found written in the book of the law of the
Lord."
In another revelation, published in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, the Lord says—"The rebellious are not of the blood of
Ephraim, wherefore they shall be plucked up and shall be sent away out
of the land." When this revelation was given all was peace in Jackson
County. We had no enemies there any more than we had elsewhere,
wherever the Church might be located; all was comparative peace. But
the Lord said that the rebellious should be plucked up and sent away
out of the land. The people thought there was no prospect whatever of
that revelation being fulfilled. All was peace, and to say
that they were to be plucked up and driven out of the land was out of
the question. They did not repent, that is all of them, but continued
in their disobedience, neglecting to consecrate their properties,
according to the requirements of the law of the Lord; and hence, when
they had been there about two years and five months from the time of
their first settlement or location, they were literally plucked up and
cast away out of the land. You have the history before you. Their
enemies arose upon them and began to tear down their houses, and they
burned two hundred and three of the dwellings our people had built in
that land. They burned down their grain stacks, hay stacks and fences,
and chased the Latter-day Saints around from one part of the county to
another, sometimes tying them up to trees and whipping them, in some
instances until their bowels gushed out. They tore down the printing
office and destroyed it, also one of our dry goods stores, and
scattered the goods through the streets; they went into houses and,
taking therefrom the bedding and furniture, piled them up in the
streets and set fire to them, and thus they continued their
persecutions until, finally, they succeeded in driving the Latter-day
Saints from the county, and thus the word of the Lord was fulfilled
which said—"I will pluck them up and send them away out of the land,
for none but the obedient shall eat of the good of the land of
Zion in these latter days."
Another revelation God gave, to warn the people, in which he told them
to remember the Book of Mormon, and the new covenant which he had
revealed, and which, if they did not observe, he said—"Behold, I the
Lord have a scourge and a judgment which shall be poured out upon your
heads." This was given between one and two years before we were driven
out of that county, in Kirtland, Ohio, through the Prophet Joseph, and
sent up to them to warn them. Another revelation said if the people
did not do thus and so, they should be persecuted from city to city,
and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few should stand to receive
an inheritance—meaning those who had gone into that county.
Now go through this Territory, from one end thereof to the other, hunt
up the greyheaded and greybearded men and the old ladies, who were
once in Jackson County, and see how many you can find who lived there
then, and you can judge whether the word of the Lord has been
fulfilled or not. I guess that you will find but very few if you hunt,
all through the Territory.
Let us read a little further in the revelations, and see whether God
has cast us entirely off or not. In one of the revelations, given after
we were driven out across the Missouri River into Clay County, and
into the surrounding counties, the Lord said, concerning the people
who were scattered and driven—"Behold, I have suffered these things to
come upon them because of their sins and wickedness; but
notwithstanding all these afflictions which have come upon my people,
I will be merciful unto them, and in the day of wrath I will remember
mercy, wherefore I, the Lord, will not utterly cast them off." Though
but few should stand to receive an inheritance, the Lord said he would
not utterly cast them off.
What next? He gives an inferior law, called the law of Tithing, suited
and adapted to us. After we had been driven for neglecting to comply
with the greater law of consecration of all we had, he thought he would not leave us without a law, but he gave us an inferior
law, namely, that we should give in one-tenth part of our annual
income. This law was given in May, 1838, I do not remember the exact
date, and I believe that we have tried to comply with it; but it has
been almost an impossibility to get the people universally to comply
with it.
There is another item connected with this law of Tithing that has but
seldom been complied with, namely, the consecration of all surplus
property. Now go round among the Saints, among the emigrants who have
gathered up from time to time, and there has been only now and then a
man who had any surplus property, let him be the judge. If a man had
fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, he said in his own heart—"I
really need all this, I want to speculate, I want to buy a great deal
of land to sell again when the price of land shall rise; I want to set
up a great store in which to sell merchandise to the people, and if I
consecrate any of this it will curtail my operations, because it will
diminish my capital, and I cannot speculate to the extent I should if
I retained it all, and I shall therefore consider that I have no
surplus property. Now an honest-hearted individual would have a little
surplus property, and he would put it in; but from that day until the
present time I presume that the tenth of their annual income has been
paid by the majority of the people. I do not really know in relation
to this matter, at any rate the Lord has not utterly forsaken us,
hence I think we have kept his law in some measure, or in all
probability he would have cast us off altogether.
But how is it that we have been smitten, driven, cast out and
persecuted, and the lives of our Prophet and Patri arch and hundreds of
others destroyed by rifle, cannon, and sword in the hands of our
enemies? How is it that such things have been permitted in this free
republic? "Oh," says one, "It is because you practiced polygamy."
I
answer that we did not practice polygamy in the days of the
persecutions which I have named, they came upon us before we began
that practice, for the revelation on polygamy was not given until some
thirteen years after the rise of this Church, and that was after we
had been driven and smitten and scattered to and fro, here and there
by the hands of our enemies, hence, it was not for that that we were
persecuted. But if we take the printed circulars written by our
enemies, we can give you their reasons for persecuting us. One of
their reasons was that we believed in ancient Christianity, namely,
speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing the sick,
etc.; and our enemies did not believe in having a community in their
midst who claimed to have Apostles and Prophets and to enjoy the gifts
of the Gospel the same as the ancient Saints. Our enemies said they
would not have such a people in their society, and if we did not
renounce these things they would drive us from our homes. You can read
this with the names of the mob attached to it, in connection with a
great many priests and ministers of different denominations. The Rev.
Isaac M'Coy and the Rev. Mr. Bogard, and many others who might be
named, were among the leaders of the mob who persecuted the Latter-day
Saints.
Now, why is it, Latter-day Saints, that we have been tossed to and fro
and smitten and persecuted for these many years? It is because we have
disobeyed the law of heaven, we have not kept the commandments of the Most High God, we have not fulfilled his law; we have
disobeyed the word which he gave through his servant Joseph, and hence
the Lord has suffered us to be smitten and afflicted under the hands
of our enemies.
Shall we ever return to the law of God? Yes. When? Why, when we will.
We are agents; we can abide his law or reject it, just as long as we
please, for God has not taken away your agency nor mine. But I will
try to give you some information in regard to the time. God said, in
the year 1832, before we were driven out of Jackson County, in a
revelation which you will find here in this book, that before that
generation should all pass away, a house of the Lord should be built
in that county, (Jackson County), "upon the consecrated spot, as I
have appointed; and the glory of God, even a cloud by day and a pillar
of flaming fire by night shall rest upon the same." In another place,
in the same revelation, speaking of the priesthood, he says that the
sons of Moses and the sons of Aaron, those who had received the two
priesthoods, should be filled with the glory of God upon Mount Zion,
in the Lord's house, and should receive a renewing of their bodies,
and the blessings of the Most High should be poured out upon them in
great abundance.
This was given forty-two years ago. The generation then living was not
only to commence a house of God in Jackson County, Missouri, but was
actually to complete the same, and when it is completed the glory of
God should rest upon it.
Now, do you Latter-day Saints believe that? I do, and if you believe
in these revelations you just as much expect the fulfillment of that
revelation as of any one that God has ever given in these latter
times, or in former ages. We look, just as much for this to take
place, according to the word of the Lord, as the Jews look to return
to Palestine, and to rebuild Jerusalem upon the place where it
formerly stood. They expect to build a Temple there, and that the
glory of God will enter into it; so likewise do we Latter-day Saints
expect to return to Jackson County and to build a Temple there before
the generation that was living forty-two years ago has all passed
away. Well, then, the time must be pretty near when we shall begin
that work. Now, can we be permitted to return and build up the waste
places of Zion, establish the great central city of Zion in Jackson
County, Mo., and build a Temple on which the glory of God will abide
by day and by night, unless we return, not to the "new order," but to
that law which was given in the beginning of this work? Let me answer
the question by quoting one of these revelations again, a revelation
given in 1834. The Lord, speaking of the return of his people, and
referring to those who were driven from Jackson County, says—"They
that remain shall return, they and their children with them to receive
their inheritances in the land of Zion, with songs of everlasting joy
upon their heads." There will be a few that the Lord will spare to go
back there, because they were not all transgressors. There were only
two that the Lord spared among Israel during their forty years
travel—Caleb and Joshua. They were all that were spared, out of some
twenty-five hundred thousand people, from twenty years old and
upwards, to go into the land of promise. There may be three in our day,
or a half dozen or a dozen spared that were once on that land who will
be permitted to return with their children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren unto the waste places of Zion and build them up with songs of everlasting joy.
But will they return after the old order of things that exists among
the Gentiles—every man for himself, this individualism in regard to
property? No, never, never while the world stands. If you would have
these revelations fulfilled you must comply with the conditions
thereof. The Lord said, concerning the building up of Zion when we do
return—"Except Zion be built according to the law of the celestial
kingdom, I cannot receive her unto myself." If we should be
permitted, this present year, 1874, to go back to that county, and
should undertake to build up a city of Zion upon the consecrated spot,
after the order that we have been living in during the last forty
years, we should be cast out again, the Lord would not acknowledge us
as his people, neither would he acknowledge the works of our hands in
the building of a city. If we would go back then, we must comply with
the celestial law, the law of consecration, the law of oneness, which
the Lord has spoken of from the beginning. Except you are one you are
not mine. Query, if we are not the Lord's, who in the world or out of
the world do we belong to? Here is a question for us all to consider.
There is no other way for us to become one but by keeping the law of
heaven, and when we do this we shall become sanctified before God, and
never before.
Talk about sanctification, we do not believe in the kind of
sanctification taught by the sectarian religion—that they were
sanctified at such a minute and such an hour and at such a place while
they were praying in secret. We believe in the sanctification that
comes by continued obedience to the law of heaven. I do not know of
any other sanctification that the Scriptures tell about, of any other
sanctification that is worth the consideration of rational beings. If
we would be sanctified then, we must begin today, or whenever the
Lord points out, to obey his laws just as far as we possibly can; and
by obedience to these laws we continually gain more and more favor
from heaven, more and more of the Spirit of God, and thus will be
fulfilled a revelation given in 1834, which says that before Zion is
redeemed, let the armies of Israel become very great, let them become
sanctified before me, that they may be as fair as the sun, clear as
the moon, and that their banners may be terrible unto all the nations
of the earth. Not terrible by reason of numbers, but terrible because
of the sanctification they will receive through obedience to the law
of God. Why was Enoch, and why were the inhabitants of the Zion built
up before the flood terrible to all the nations around about? It was
because, through a long number of years, they observed the law of God,
and when their enemies came up to fight against them, Enoch, being
filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, and speaking the word of God
in power and in faith, the very heavens trembled and shook, and the
earth quaked, and mountains were thrown down, rivers of water were
turned out of their course, and all nations feared greatly because of
the power of God, and the terror of his might that were upon his
people.
We have this account of ancient Zion in one of the revelations that
God has given. What was it that made their banners terrible to the
nations? It was not their numbers. If, then Zion must become great it
will be because of her sanctification. When shall we begin, Latter-day
Saints, to carry out the law of God, and enter upon the process
necessary to our sanctification? We are told by the highest authority that God has upon the earth that now is the accepted time
and now is the day of salvation, so far as entering into this order
which God has pointed out is concerned. Shall we do it? Or shall we
say no? Shall there be division among the people, those who are on the
Lord's side come out and those who are against the law of God come
out? I hope this division will not be at present. I hope that we shall
take hold with one heart and with one mind. The time of the division
will come soon enough. It will be in the great day of the Lord's
power, when his face shall be un veiled in yonder heavens, and when he
shall come in his glory and in his might. Then the heavens will be
shaken and the earth will reel to and fro like a drunken man. "Then,"
saith the Lord, "I will send forth mine angels to gather out of my
kingdom all things that offend and that do iniquity." That will be
time enough for this great division. Let us not be divided now,
Latter-day Saints, but let us manifest our willingness to comply with
the word and law of the Most High, and be prepared for the blessings
which he has in store for us.