It is exceedingly interesting to me, as I have no doubt it is to all
Latter-day Saints, to hear the Elders who have been on missions bear a
faithful testimony, on their return, to the truth of the work in which
they have been engaged. It is a tolerably easy matter to tell, in
listening to them speaking, whether they have been faithful or not in
magnifying their Priesthood and calling, for a man who does not
magnify his Priesthood, and who is not faithful in the discharge of
the duties entrusted to him, generally manifests it by the spirit
which he possesses and with which he speaks. And so, also, when men
have been faithful and have striven to magnify their calling, a spirit
and influence attend them that bear testimony of their faithfulness.
No man can go out, ordained by those who have the authority, in faith
and in humility to preach the principles of the everlasting Gospel,
however peculiar and difficult the circumstances may be that surround
him, however great the trials and the persecutions that he may have to
contend with, without receiving an unction from the Holy One, that
will bear testimony to him that the work in which he is engaged is of
God, and that he has been called of God to declare the principles of
life and salvation unto the people among whom his lot may be cast.
There is this peculiarity and influence about this work, there is the
demonstration of the Holy Ghost, which descends with convincing and
overwhelming power upon all those who place themselves in a position
to receive it; and there is no labor under the sun, I care not what it
may be, or how pleasant the circumstances that surround him, at all
comparable with the labor of an Elder in this Church, who endeavors,
in humility and meekness, to magnify his calling; there is no joy
which a human soul is capable of comprehending, that approaches
the delight and the satisfaction which laboring in the ministry of the
Son of God confers upon him who does so in faithfulness. He may be
destitute, he may be without purse and scrip, as our Elders travel, he
may be in the midst of enemies, he may be haled to prison, and treated
with contumely, and have all manner of evil heaped upon him; but if he
is faithful to God, if he is faithful to his Priesthood, and magnifies
it to the extent of his ability, there is a power, an influence, and a
joy resting upon and accompanying him, and filling him from the crown
of his head to the soles of his feet, that are incomprehensible to
those who have not experienced them; and for such a man to doubt that
God is with him, and that the work he is engaged in is the work of
God, would be as difficult as to doubt that the sun's rays ever beam
upon him, or that there is no warmth or light connected with them; in
fact, such a man could as easily doubt his own existence, and the
testimony of every sense that he possesses, as to doubt the testimony
of God which rests down upon him.
And these blessings are not confined to those who go forth as
missionaries, but they extend themselves to all who enter into
covenant with God, take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, and
resolve in their hearts to repent of their sins, and to tread humbly
and meekly in the path which the Savior has marked out for all to walk
in. They receive also, according to the measure of their
responsibilities, and the position which they occupy, the same gifts
and blessings, and the same joy fills their hearts that does the
hearts of the faithful Elders.
When I listen to the Elders, as we have today, speaking their
experience, and relating that which they have met with, and the joy
they have had, it has seemed to me that, if any of the Elders, or if
all the Elders, could comprehend this and enter into the spirit of it,
they would say that they would devote themselves with all they
possess, with every feeling of their heart, with every power of their
mind, with all the strength and the ability which God has given them,
to the rolling forth of his work upon the face of the earth. But the
difficulty with us as individuals is, that we are like the man of whom
the Apostle James speaks: we look in the glass, we see ourselves, our
features are distinct to us, everything is plain to us, we see the
mirrored resemblance of ourselves in the glass that we look upon, but
we turn away, and we speedily forget what manner of men we are. And so
it is with many who are in this Church. They have experienced joy,
they have had testimonies from God, they have had the power and the
gifts of God resting upon them; but after a little while, coming in
contact with the world, and the spirit of the world, they forget these
things, the remembrance of them fades away from their minds and other
things appear more desirable to them. This is the difficulty that the
servants of God have to contend with in their ministering among men.
It would appear, looking at matters naturally, that if men and women
had tasted the word of God, had received revelation from God, had
knowledge poured into their souls concerning this being the work of
God, they would always be faithful to the truth; but it is not so, and
this is evidence of the great power which the adversary exercises over
the hearts of the children of men. Men may behold the heavens
opened and see Jesus, they may see visions, and have revelations given
to them, and yet if they do not live as they should do, and cherish
the Spirit of God in their hearts, all this knowledge, and these
revelations and wonderful manifestations fail to keep them in the
Church, to preserve them from the power of the adversary, and to
deliver them from the snares that he spreads for the feet of all the
children of God. And in our own experience we can comprehend very
easily how the Church of God, in ancient days, fell away from the
truth, wandered into darkness, and lost the knowledge of God and the
ordinances which he had established in his Church for the salvation of
his people. How long would it be, were it not for the teachings,
warnings and reproofs of those who are set to preside over them,
before many of the Latter-day Saints, and probably a majority of them
would stray into by and forbidden paths, and forget the knowledge that
they once had and the blessings they once enjoyed? And yet I am
thankful that people cannot stay in this Church and practice
unrighteousness. I am thankful that God allows those who do not keep
his commandments to fall away, so that his Church may be cleansed,
and, in this respect, this Church is different from any other that is
upon the earth. A man may practice iniquity and do wrong in other
churches, and he may cover it up for years, and nobody, or probably
but a few—himself, his God, and a few others—be aware of this wrong,
and he may pass along and nobody ever imagine that there is anything
wrong with him. But it is not so in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints—no man can stand in this Church, or retain the
Spirit of God and continue in a course of hypocrisy for any length of
time. God will tear away the covering of lies and expose the wrong; he
will leave the transgressor to himself, and the strength that he
formerly had, which enabled him to stand and maintain his associations
with the people of God, will be taken away from him, and he will be
left to go down to destruction unless he repents. It is true that the
Lord has said that the tares shall grow with the wheat until harvest,
but it is not said that tares will not be plucked up from time to
time, for if it were not so they would overpower and choke out the
wheat. The sifting or weeding process has been going on from the
commencement of this Church until the present time; hence it is that
the leaders of this Church are stirred up in their feelings from time
to time to call upon the people to repent. They understand clearly
that unless there is a godly life and conversation corresponding with
our profession, this people would soon fall into darkness and error,
and stray from the path of righteousness.
Our enemies are not mistaken in some of their ideas respecting us,
that is, respecting the power that can be brought to bear to destroy
us. They seem to be well aware of the fact that, if we only conform to
their customs, fashions, ideas and practices, we would soon fall away
and cease, as a people, to preserve our identity. They understand
this, and hence the efforts which have been made of late. It has
seemed as though the adversary has been exerting every power and
bringing every influence within his reach to destroy us; and the most
lamentable feature—the one that has given me most concern connected
with it—has been the apparent blindness of our people respecting these
designs; it has seemed as though we could not see and understand their
nature, and we have to a certain extent yielded ourselves
willing captives and dupes to the plots that have been undertaken in
our midst to destroy us. The fact that God predicted, through the
mouth of his servant Daniel, and through others, that this kingdom
should stand forever, has seemingly lulled a great many to sleep and
caused them to think that we are perfectly safe, and that no danger
can overtake us; and the fact also that we have remained in these
mountains, now, for twenty-eight years without mobs, and that so many
of the people who have grown up and have come here and never knew
anything about them, who have joined the Church since the days of
mobocracy, these causes combined have had the effect to cause a great
many to be very supine, and to imagine, apparently, that we could not
be disturbed, or that our safety could not be endangered by anything
that might be done against us. Hence, when the servant of God has
called upon us, and given us counsel upon many points, we have not
seemed to understand the benefit of the counsel.
We are here in these mountains, Latter-day Saints. We have made this
country, notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary, all
that it is today. Why, the very officials of this Territory today
may thank God that he raised up Joseph Smith and Brigham Young,
because if he had not done so there would have been no governors,
judges or other federal officials of Utah Territory; there would, in
fact, have been no Territory of Utah if it had not been for the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Men may say what they please,
but, every thinking man in this country must admit that our settlement
of this country has forwarded settlement in the adjacent Territories
and States for more than a quarter of a century. We have demonstrated one
great fact—that men can live here, that fruit, corn and wheat, and all
the cereals which belong to this latitude can be raised here by a
judicious application of water, combined with industry and
perseverance. We have demonstrated this; it is no longer a problem as
to what this country can produce, hence you now hear of agriculture in
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and Nevada; but it is a very great
query whether this would have been the case for another generation, at
least, had it not been for the Latter-day Saints. What could have
induced men to come here if they had not been prompted by the feeling
that started us out? We had no place to go to excepting this. We
wanted the meanest and most undesirable part of the continent, so that
our enemies would not rob us of it, as soon as we had improved it; and
when we came here we hoped we had reached a place where we could live,
at least for a time, undisturbed, until we could increase and raise a
generation who would be firm in the faith, and be so numerous that
they could carry on the work whose foundations their fathers had laid.
We came here in that spirit and with that view. Not to exclude other
men from the land that we had settled; but to create homes, and a
place to which men and women of every nation could come, and where
they could worship God unmolested, as we desired to worship him. We
cared not what their creed might be, or whether they were Jews,
Pagans, Muslims, or Christians. We asked no man who came here to
believe as we believed, and we had no disposition to deny them the
rights that we enjoyed because they did not believe as we believed. It
was in that spirit that the foundation stones of this superstruc ture of government in Utah Territory were laid. It was that here,
not only Latter-day Saints, but, as I have said, men of every creed
and clime might come and worship God unmolested by their neighbors.
But there were others who did not feel as we felt, and they were
determined to curtail us of our privileges, and now for years there
has been a studied and unrelenting effort to destroy the work that we
have done, and to strip us of all the advantages we have gained by
coming here; to wrest from us by any means that could be used, however
despicable and illegal, the power that God has given us, and to which
we are entitled under the laws and constitution of our country. There
has been no concealment of these designs, no attempt made to gloss
them over; they have been avowed, plainly and publicly, to all the
land and to all the Latter-day Saints throughout these mountains, that
if they could get the power to strip us of our rights they would do it
without any hesitation or compunctions of conscience.
Now, my brethren and sisters, let me ask you, this being the case,
what is our plain and bounden duty? It is to preserve ourselves, not
only for our own sakes, not only for the sake of our children, but for
the sake of humanity everywhere, and for the sake of civil and
religious liberty, upon this land which God has given to us. Many will
pass away after a little, and here are children, and here are mankind,
many of whom, in witnessing the bold stand we have taken, are anxious
to see us preserve ourselves and to see civil and religious liberty
maintained by us on this land. And we owe it to them, as well as to
posterity, that, by every means in our power; we do preserve ourselves
and our liberties intact. If we do not, we are recreant to our high
trust, and to the high calling which we have received from our
Almighty Father. In doing this, must we intrude upon others? Is there
any necessity for this? No; our policy is not aggressive; the true
policy of the Latter-day Saints is a preservative and defensive
policy; to preserve and defend ourselves when we are attacked; not to
be aggressive, not to intrude upon others' rights, but to preserve our
own rights. Every man and woman belonging to this community should
therefore keep constantly in mind that this is the policy for which we
should labor, and not consult individual interests; not say—"I can
make one dollar or two dollars by stepping aside from the policy that
has been marked out." Many so-called Latter-day Saints have done this.
We have people among us who, if we may judge by their actions, would
sell every liberty that God has given unto us for a few dollars, and
yet they call themselves Latter-day Saints. When counsel has been
given by President Brigham Young—than whom a wiser counselor does not
live upon the face of the earth—instead of accepting that counsel and
looking at it in its true light, in its elevated light, there have
been persons who have looked at it from their picayunish standpoint.
They have asked—"How is that counsel going to affect my individual
interests?" And many have said by their actions: "Now is my chance to
make money; while the bulk of the people are obeying counsel, it will
be to my advantage to disobey it. I can make money by so doing." And
they have actually taken advantage of the obedience of the people to
make money by their disobedience, and yet have called themselves
Latter-day Saints! Is not this the case? Do you not know it to be the
case? And that spirit has been spreading and diffusing itself
among this people, the example of one encouraging another, until too
many have indulged in and given way to it, to the injury of the cause
of God. And hence the leaders of this Church have been so deeply
impressed, of late, to go forth and call upon this people to repent
and turn from their folly and listen to God's voice through his
inspired servant, lest He should send calamities upon them; for it is
plain to be seen, as brother Squires said, except we are one we are
not Christ's, we are not God's, and that union is the only principle
upon which we can be preserved. We have not strength, we have not
numbers, we have not wealth, but we have union when we choose to avail
ourselves of it, and with union there is strength, especially when God
has promised his blessings.
Now, can you not see, you Latter-day Saints, how unwise it is for us
to disobey counsel, when that counsel is given for the benefit of the
whole people? This man says—"I can gain some advantage by disobeying
that counsel;" this woman says—"I can gain some advantage by going
contrary to that counsel," not caring anything as to what the results
may be, so that their little ends can be served to some trifling
extent, and being blind to the fact that we must preserve ourselves by
looking after our own interests, and taking care of the great work
which God has entrusted to us. Why, it took all the eloquence of
President Young for years to cause this people to see that it was not
to their interest to sustain their enemies, foster their enemies, feed
their enemies, take all their wealth and give it to their enemies, and
those enemies plotting all the time against their liberties and their
lives, and avowing it pub licly and undisguisedly. Do you not remember,
before cooperation was started, how long and loud the President of
this Church and his counselors, and other men, had to plead with the
people to get them to see this plain matter of self-preserving policy?
They could not see it, that is, a great many could not see; and when
cooperation was suggested they could not see that, and there are a
great many who cannot see it now, and who are opposed to it in their
hearts, and they are opposed to everything that will bring this people
closer together, and make them more one, and they fight it, and they
do not know the spirit that prompts them. It is the same today
respecting the United Order; many seem to be blind, they cannot
understand what it is that blinds them; but it is miserable
selfishness; they become so eager after money that their judgment is
beclouded. If we were united, we could control things in this country
to an extent you have no conception of, and we could become rich, if
riches were the desire of our hearts, there is nothing to prevent us;
if we will be guided by the counsel of God's servants, we can have all
the riches that heart can desire. But our miserable, shortsighted
selfishness, that miserable, contracted, narrow policy that is not of
God, blinds our eyes and darkens our understandings, and prevents us
from seeing the true policy of building up the Zion of God on the
earth, and preserving the liberty which God has given unto us.
God requires one thing of the people called Latter-day Saints, and if
they will receive and obey that, everything else will follow, and that
is—to obey the counsel of God's servants. If you will do that,
everything else will follow in the train. And why should we not do
so? Have we not a leader whom God has blessed as he has no other
man of whom we have any knowledge at present on the earth? Look at
what has been done! See how God has prospered him and those who have
received his counsel! Whenever he has told us to do anything, as a
people, and we have done it, God has blessed us in its performance;
and whenever the people, or a portion of them, have disobeyed his
counsel, they have not been prospered. They have invariably lost the
spirit and gone into darkness. Do you not know this? Has not the
experience of the past thirty-one years confirmed this to us? How was
it with us when we crossed the plains and when we came here? Did any
of you know whither you were coming? I know the people did not know,
but they followed his lead, believing that God led and inspired him,
and that God would lead him to a place where we could locate. And look
at what we see throughout these valleys today! Where is there anything
like it on the face of the earth? A people gathered from every nation,
speaking almost every tongue, brought up in the midst of every creed,
and with every kind of habit, and yet homogeneous and dwelling
together in union and love, without litigation and strife! Where can
you see anything on the face of the earth that compares with it? Is it
any wonder that we have faith in God and in his servant? I tell you
that if there is any condemnation resting upon these Latter-day
Saints, it is because of their unbelief and hardness of heart in not
listening to his counsel.
Now let us be taught; let us profit by the experience of the past, and
not allow ourselves to be deluded by the adversary, and by any, even
if they should call themselves our friends. But no man who weakens or
tries to weaken that counsel which has led us all the time, is a
friend to this people.
May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, fill you with his Holy
Spirit, rend the veil of darkness that beclouds our minds, darkens our
eyes, and prevents our seeing the truth, and the true policy of the
kingdom, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon