I will call the attention of the congregation to a few verses in the
25th chapter of St. Matthew. [The speaker read the first thirteen
verses; also the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth paragraphs
of the fourteenth section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.]
This revelation, a portion of which I have been reading, treats in a
measure upon the subject of the parable that Jesus spoke, namely, the
ten virgins; both refer to his second coming, and to his work in the
latter days. In no age or dispensation can a man be called to a
greater calling than to administer in the ordinances of the house of
God, and nothing but the power of God and the inspiration of the
Almighty can sustain and uphold any man, no matter what age he may
live in, who is called of God to declare the words of life and
salvation, and to preach repentance to an unbelieving generation. This
may perhaps sound strangely in the ears of many people, but the
inhabitants of the earth, both Jew and Gentile, should remember that
the Lord God Almighty himself, his Son Jesus Christ, and his Gospel
and work, have been very unpopular in every age of the world among the
hosts of men. No more unpopular doctrine was ever presented to the
human family, than the doctrine of life and salvation. I do not care
in what age of the world a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man has been
raised up to declare the commands of God, he has had to contend with
the prejudices of the inhabitants of the earth. It is so in our day,
and it was so in the days of Jesus Christ. When he came to the Jews,
his own Father's house, the house of Israel, as the great Shiloh of
Judah, and the Savior of the world, a more unpopular man than he never
dwelt in Judea or Jerusalem, from the day of his birth to the day of
his death, when he gave up the ghost on the cross, and went home to
glory as a martyr for the word of God and the testimony which he bore.
And this is why I say that when any man, in any age of the world, is
called of God to declare the words of life, he has to contend with the
traditions of ages that rest upon the minds of the in habitants of the earth.
The parable of the ten virgins is intended to represent the second
coming of the Son of man, the coming of the Bridegroom to meet the
bride, the Church, the Lamb's wife, in the last days; and I expect
that the Savior was about right when he said, in reference to the
members of the Church, that five of them were wise and five were
foolish; for when the Lord of heaven comes in power and great glory to
reward every man according to the deeds done in the body, if he finds
one-half of those professing to be members of his Church prepared for
salvation, it will be as many as can be expected, judging by the
course that many are pursuing.
I wish, if I can get enough of the Spirit of the Lord to answer my own
mind, to say a few words on the present occasion to my brethren and
sisters, the Latter-day Saints, those who have taken upon them the
name of Christ. We live in one of the most important dispensations
that God ever gave to man, namely, the great and last dispensation of
the fullness of times, the dispensation of all dispensations, and the
one in which the whole flood of prophecy in the holy Bible will be
fulfilled, for most all of the prophecies contained in that sacred
volume, from Adam to John the Revelator, point to the great work of
God in the last days, the days in which the God of heaven would set up
a kingdom that should be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion
there should be no end, and the kingdom and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heavens should be given into the hands of the
Saints of the Most High God, and they are to possess it forever and
ever. I wish to have the Latter-day Saints understand their
appointment, position, and re sponsibility before the God of heaven,
and their responsibilities to both Jew and Gentile, living and dead,
on this and the other side of the veil.
The Lord never has built up his kingdom in any age of the world except
by calling upon his servants and laboring through the tabernacles of
men on the earth; but this he has done in a great many ages and
dispensations. And whenever the Lord has had an Apostle, Prophet, or
inspired man on the earth, he has had power to administer in the
ordinances of the house of God, and he has labored for the advancement
of the kingdom of God upon the earth, whether he has had few or many
followers. As it was in the days of Noah and Lot, so shall it be in
the days of the coming of the Son of Man. We live in the day when God
has set his hand to establish that great kingdom that Daniel saw. We
live in the day when the angel of God has delivered the everlasting
Gospel in fulfillment of the revelations of St. John, when he says—"I
saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven having the
everlasting Gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth, to every
nation, kindred, tongue and people under the whole heavens, saying
with a loud voice—'Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his
judgment is come.'"
There never was a generation of the inhabitants of the earth in any
age of the world who had greater events awaiting them than the
present. As I before remarked, the fulfillment of this whole volume of
revelation points to our day. The building up of the kingdom of God,
the building up of the Zion of God, in the mountains of Israel, the
erection of a standard for the Gentiles to flee unto, the warning of
the nations of the earth to prepare them for the great
judgments of our God, the building up of the Church, the sanctifying
of the people, the building of Temples to the Most High God, that his
servants may enter therein and become saviors on Mount Zion,
redeeming both the living and the dead, all these things are to be
performed in our day. And an age fraught with greater interest to the
children of men than the one in which we live never dawned since the
creation of the world.
Where is the man, priest, or people, in the whole sectarian world,
today, who believes in the literal fulfillment of the revelations of
God contained in the Bible? If there is one I should like to see and
converse with him. The whole Christian world profess to believe the
Bible, and perhaps they do when it is shut. But open the Bible and
read the declarations contained therein, concerning the last
dispensation of the fullness of times, and where is the man who
believes them? You cannot find one, and it requires faith even among
the Latter-day Saints to believe the revelations of God, and to
prepare themselves for those things which await the world.
The fig trees are leafing, the summer is nigh, the signs of heaven and
earth all indicate the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; but who
are really looking and preparing for the coming of the great
Bridegroom? I do not know that any people on the earth, except the
Latter-day Saints, are looking for this great event. There may be
exceptions, there may be men who believe in the second coming of
Christ. The people called Millerites, believe in the second coming of
the Savior, and they have set a great many days when it should take
place. But he did not come; and he never will come until the
revelations of God are fulfilled and a people are prepared for his
coming. He will never come until the Jews are gathered home and have
rebuilt their Temple and city, and the Gentiles have gone up there to
battle against them. He will never come until his Saints have built up
Zion, and have fulfilled the revelations which have been spoken
concerning it. He will never come until the Gentiles throughout the
whole Christian world have been warned by the inspired elders of
Israel. They are called to thrust in the sickle and reap, for the
harvest is ripe and the time has come, which is referred to in this
revelation, when the Lord commands the Elders to go forth and warn the
world for the last time, and call upon the inhabitants of the earth to
repent. And what I wish to say to the Elders and to the Latter-day
Saints is—Have we faith in God and in his revelations? Have we faith
in our own religion? Have we faith in Jesus Christ? Have we faith in
the words of the Prophets? Have we faith in Joseph Smith, who, by the
aid of the Urim and Thummim, translated the Book of Mormon, giving a
record of the ancient inhabitants of this country, and through whom
the Lord gave the revelations contained in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants? If we have faith in these things, then we certainly should
prepare ourselves for the fulfillment of them. I consider that as a
people and as Elders of Israel we occupy one of the most important
positions ever occupied on the face of the earth by those who have
been called to work for the Lord. We have received our appointment for
this work, and we should prepare ourselves to perform the duties
devolving upon us in connection with it. Truth is one of the
attributes of the Lord, and he never makes a declaration but what is
certain and true. And, as one of the Apostles says, "There is no
prophecy of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as
they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost;" therefore what they said is
true, and their prophecies will have their fulfillment. No man can
point to any of the revelations of God in the old prophets concerning
events up to our day, but what have had their fulfillment. Everything
that Jesus Christ spake concerning Judea and Jerusalem has had its
fulfillment to the very letter. The Temple at Jerusalem was overthrown
until not one stone was left upon another, and the Jews have been
scattered and trodden under the feet of the Gentiles now for eighteen
hundred years, and so they will remain until the times of the Gentiles
are fulfilled, and that is pretty near. And, as the Lord has told us
in these revelations, we are called upon to warn the world.
We have been laboring now for forty-five years in preaching the Gospel
of Christ throughout the Gentile nations. We say Gentiles, because the
Gospel goes to the Gentiles first, that the first may be last and the
last first. Anciently the Jews were first in having the Gospel sent
unto them, but they rejected it, and they were broken off through
unbelief, and hence the Gospel turned to the Gentiles; and, as Paul
says—"Ye Gentiles, take heed and fear, lest ye fall through the same
example of unbelief, for if God spared not the natural branches, take
heed also lest he spare not ye." The Gentiles are fallen through the
same example of unbelief as did the Jews. They have put to death every
Prophet, Apostle, and inspired man since the days of Jesus Christ, and
the Church went into the wilderness, and the face of a Prophet,
Apostle, or inspired man, called of God to administer the ordinances
of the Gospel, had not been seen for some eighteen hundred years,
until the Lord raised up a Prophet in the day and age in which we
live. Therefore the Gospel brought forth in the last days has to go to
the Gentiles first.
Sometimes our neighbors and friends think hard of us because we call
them Gentiles; but, bless your souls, we are all Gentiles. The
Latter-day Saints are all Gentiles in a national capacity. The Gospel
came to us among the Gentiles. We are not Jews, and the Gentile
nations have got to hear the Gospel first. The whole Christian world
have got to hear the Gospel, and when they reject it, the law will be
bound and the testimony sealed, and it will turn to the house of
Israel. Up to the present day we have been called to preach the Gospel
to the Gentiles, and we have had to do it. For the last time we have
been warning the world, and we have been engaged in that work for
forty-five years.
When Joseph Smith was called of God, it required faith, inspiration,
and the power of the Almighty to rest upon him to enable him to
organize the Church and Kingdom of God, and to preach the Gospel
against the traditions of the Christian world, for they had
spiritualized the Bible until there was not a remnant left in a
literal point of view. Hence the inhabitants of the earth were not
looking for the Church and Kingdom of God to be established in their
midst. Darkness has prevailed upon the earth, and does today, in all
the nations, and this causes silence to reign, and all eternity is
pained because of the sin, wickedness, and abominations which prevail
throughout the whole Christian or Gentile world, and
throughout the whole Jewish world, for darkness prevails upon the face
of all the earth, and the Lord is calling upon all the inhabitants
thereof to repent and receive the Gospel, and when they have done so
to gather out of Babylon to the place he has appointed for the
dwelling place of his Saints. The Latter-day Saints heard this Gospel
among the Gentiles wherever they dwelt, in almost every nation under
heaven, and by this Gospel we have been gathered out unto Zion. We
have been gathered here for a certain purpose, and that purpose is to
fulfill the revelations of God.
When we left Missouri and Nauvoo, leaving behind the graves of our
fathers and children, we were driven by our enemies into this desert,
in the expectation that we should perish, and for nothing but because
we believed revelation and prophecy, and in living prophets and
servants of God. We thought it was hard to be driven from our homes
and lands, which we had bought of our government, and paid the money
for; but I will say to the Latter-day Saints that if we had not come
here there certainly would have been a flood of prophecy fallen
unfulfilled, prophecy in regard to the mountains of Israel, and the
great company gathering up thereto, with regard to the lifting up of a
standard therein, and the building of cities and the Temple of God in
their midst. All these things would have fallen unfulfilled if we had
not come to these mountains and fulfilled them. And so with many other
prophecies. We have been called together to perform the work of the
Lord, and now the Lord looks to us to fulfill our covenants and keep
his commandments. If we do this he has made great promises unto us.
The Lord has given the holy Priesthood unto the Elders of Israel, and
he requires at our hands to fulfill all these revelations and
commandments; and in regard to the parable which I have read, I, as an
individual, feel that it is necessary for me, and I may say that it is
necessary for the whole people, to have oil in our lamps if we expect
to see and comprehend the things of the kingdom of God.
The Lord has chosen a royal Priesthood and a holy people from among
the weak things of the world, in fulfillment of his revelations; and
we have been commanded to go forth and bear record of these things,
and we have done it. We should have been condemned and the curse of
God would have rested upon us if we had not, because the full set time
has come to build up and favor Zion, to build up the kingdom of God,
to warn the world and prepare them for the judgments of the Almighty.
The Millennium is dawning upon the world, we are at the end of the
sixth thousand years, and the great day of rest, the Millennium of
which the Lord has spoken, will soon dawn and the Savior will come in
the clouds of heaven to reign over his people on the earth one
thousand years. The Lord has a great work ahead and he is preparing a
people to do it before his coming. Now the question arises here,
brethren and sisters, are we prepared in our hearts? Do we realize
these things? As a people do we realize our responsibilities before
the Lord? The Lord has raised up a kingdom of priests here in the last
days to establish his Church and kingdom, and to prepare the way for
the second coming of the Son of Man, and the God of heaven has put
into the hands of his servants the keys of the kingdom, and he has
said—"Whatever I have decreed in these my servants shall be fulfilled,
for to them is given power to bind and to seal both on the earth and
in heaven, against the day of the wrath of Almighty God, which
is to be poured out upon the world."
I think, many times, that we, as Elders of Israel and as Latter-day
Saints, come far short of realizing our position before the Lord. The
work required at our hands is great and mighty; it is the work of
Almighty God. We are held responsible for presenting the Gospel of
Christ to all the nations of the earth, to warn the Gentiles, to
prepare for the return of the lost ten tribes of Israel, and for
carrying the Gospel to the whole tribes of Israel. We are held
responsible for all this, and for building Temples to the Most High,
wherein we can enter and attend to ordinances for the salvation of our
dead. There are fifty thousand million spirits shut up in the spirit
world who never saw the face of a Prophet, Apostle or inspired man in
their lives. No man having the authority of God ever declared the
words of life and salvation unto them, and without authority their
ministrations are useless, for this is what the Priesthood is for. The
God of heaven has ordained this from eternity to eternity. These
persons in the spirit world died in the flesh without the law, without
the Gospel, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith is preaching
to them, and so are thousands of the Elders of Israel who have died
and gone to the other side of the veil. George A. Smith, who dwelt
with us until within the last few days, will take part, with joy and
rejoicing, with his brethren in the great work the other side of the
veil. When I saw ten or twelve thousand people met in this Tabernacle
to pay their last respects to the body of that man, I thought to
myself—"How much larger a congregation surrounds his spirit, in the
spirit world." Yes, they number millions there, to where we have units
here, and the servants of God will preach to them the same as Jesus
preached to the spirits in prison. While his body lay three days and
nights in the tomb he went and preached to the spirits in prison, that
they might be judged according to men in the flesh, that they might
receive part in the resurrection, according to the testimony which
they received. As I said before, the God of heaven requires this at
your hands. They will not baptize anybody in the spirit world; there
is no baptism there; there is no marrying or giving in marriage there;
all these ordinances have to be performed on the earth. Paul says, in
referring to this subject—"Why are ye baptized for the dead? If the
dead rise not why then are ye baptized for the dead?" The Lord holds
us responsible for going to and building Temples, that we may attend
therein to the ordinances necessary for the salvation of the dead.
In every dispensation the Lord has had those who were foreordained to
do a certain work. We all dwelt in the presence of God before we came
here, and such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the ancient Prophets,
Jesus and the Apostles received their appointments before the world
was made. They were ordained before the foundation of the world to
come and tabernacle here in the flesh and to work for the cause of
God, and this because of their faith and faithfulness. You can see the
great variety of spirits that have dwelt in the presence of God, from
those who are in the presence of God, down to the devils. A good many
of the hosts of heaven were cast out because of their wickedness.
Lucifer, son of the morning, and those who fol lowed after him
were cast down to earth, and they dwell here to this day—a hundred to
every man, woman and child that breathes the breath of life. They
dwell here without bodies, only what tabernacles they can get into, to
rule and preside over.
We are required to build Temples in which to attend to the ordinances
of the house of the Lord, that the prison doors may be opened, and the
prisoners go free. The world say—"We do not believe in such stuff." We
know that perfectly well; it was so in the days of Noah and Lot, but
the unbelief of the people did not stop the flood and the fire,
neither will the unbelief of this generation stay the hand of God one
moment. The angels of God have been waiting in the Temple in heaven
for forty-five years to go forth to reap down the earth. The wheat and
the tares must grow together until harvest; the people must be warned,
the Saints gathered out, Zion built up, Temples reared, the living
warned, the dead redeemed, that the skirts of the Elders of Israel may
be clean before all men.
It is by the power of God that the Elders have been sustained in days
past and gone. And I want to say to my brethren—and what I say to them
I take to myself—we should wake up, we should open our eyes to see,
our ears to hear, and we should open our hearts to understand our
appointment and position before the Lord; for if, as Latter-day
Saints, we are going to stop praying, lose the light of the Holy
Ghost, and turn to the beggarly elements of the world, the Lord will
have to say to us—"Get out of my way, my purposes cannot be
thwarted;" and he will raise up somebody else to perform this work.
The Lord has never told any lies or made any false promises. "Who am
I," saith the Lord, "that I promise and do not fulfill?" "Who am
I,"
saith the Lord, "that I command and am not obeyed?" The amount of it
is that the promises of the Lord are yea and amen, and though the
heavens and the earth pass away, his word never will fail of its
fulfillment.
In one paragraph of the revelation which I read to you this afternoon,
it says—
"And again, the Lord shall utter his voice out of heaven, saying:
Hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and hear the words of that God who
made you. O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered
you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye
would not! How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants,
and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the
voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice
of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms,
and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the
great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice
of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor, and
the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an
everlasting salvation, but ye would not! Behold, the day has come, when
the cup of the wrath of mine indignation is full."
How often has the Lord sent Prophets, as in the days of Noah, Lot,
Abraham, Enoch, Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young? How
often have the Elders of Israel lifted up their voices to the
inhabitants of the earth and been rejected? Will not these things rise
in judgment against them? Yea, verily they will. The Lord has offered
the fullness of the everlasting Gospel to the inhabitants of
the earth today, and they refuse to receive it. Brother Pratt, here,
myself and thousands of us have traveled ten thousand miles on foot,
without purse or scrip, carrying our knapsack or valise, and we have
waded swamps, swam rivers, and begged our bread from door to door to
preach the Gospel to this generation. And how many have we got to
believe it? Two of a city and one of a family, as the Prophet has
said, and we have gathered them to Zion. Nevertheless the warning
voice has gone forth to the world. But what do we see today? What do
the Gods, the heavens and all eternity see? They see a generation of
men and women making war against God and his Christ, making war
against Prophets and Apostles, and laboring night and day to overpower
and annihilate every principle of salvation and eternal life which God
has restored to the world. And I will here say, in the ears of this
congregation, that were this not the dispensation of the fullness of
times, and were it not for the decrees which the Lord has made in
relation to it, one of which is that he will set up a kingdom which
shall stand forever, there is not an Apostle or Latter-day Saint on
the face of the earth but would have to seal his testimony with his
blood, as has almost every other Apostle that ever breathed the breath
of life. I say that were it not for these things, we should all have
to follow our leaders, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, who laid down their
lives for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. But hear
it ye Gentile nations and all ye nations of the earth, the Lord
Almighty has set to his hand to build up his kingdom on the earth, and
he will not be thwarted. The Lord is going to make a short work in the
earth, and he will defend his anointed, his Prophets, his Zion and his
people. This is the decree of Almighty God. The eyes of all heaven are
over this people, they are over the earth, over the Gentiles, and over
the Jews, and the Lord holds in his hands the destinies of all men.
And we are commanded of God to rise up and warn the nations of the
earth; and we call upon the Latter-day Saints, upon the Elders of
Israel, upon the mothers and daughters in Zion to lay aside their
fooleries and nonsense, and to no longer let their hearts be set upon
the fashions of the world, but turn to and read the Bible, the Book of
Mormon and the revelations of God given in these days, and get the
Holy Spirit and walk in the light of the Lord, that your eyes may be
opened, that you may see and comprehend the position you occupy on the
earth, for you are held under great responsibility for the manner in
which you do your duty and magnify your callings before the Lord, and
he is not trifling with us, nor with this generation.
If the eyes of the Gentiles were opened one moment to see the things
of eternity, and the judgments which await this generation, they would
not wonder that the servants of God are moved upon to cry aloud to the
nations of the earth. I tell you that the judgments of God are at the
door of both Zion and great Babylon. Great Babylon has come in
remembrance before God, and His sword is bathed in heaven and it will
fall on Idumea and the world. Who can stand before the hand of
Almighty God? No man, no nation, nor set of nations on the face of the
earth.
I would to God that the eyes of the world were opened! I would to God
that the eyes of the Gentile nations were opened, that they could see
and understand what belongs to their peace! How much has the Lord pleaded with the nations of the earth to give them celestial
glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life? He has pleaded with them
for the last six thousand years, and has raised up his servants from
time to time and called upon the inhabitants of the world to prepare
themselves for the great day of his second advent and coming, which is
at hand. He is calling upon them loudly today; and, as I have said to
some of my brethren lately, the Lord now wants to know whether the
Latter-day Saints are willing to work with him or not. It is a day of
decision. I do not expect that more than half of us will have oil in
our lamps and be prepared to enter into the marriage supper with the
Bridegroom. That will be about as much as we can expect, unless we
repent of our sins and turn from our follies, fooleries, and the
fashions of Babylon—things which our hearts have been set upon instead
of upon building up the kingdom of God. It seems to me that there will
be but a remnant even of the Latter-day Saints who will be prepared to
inherit eternal life and for the coming of the Bridegroom.
I feel, in my bones and in my Spirit, that there is a change at the
door, both with Zion and Babylon. Great events await us and this
generation. As I said before, judgments are at the door. The angels of
God are waiting for the great command to go forth and reap down the
earth. All earth and hell are stirred up against Zion. The spirit of
lying is abroad in all the world, and the people will not receive the
truth. In my meditations, whether in regard to the past or present, it
has always seemed one of the greatest mysteries why so few have been
willing to believe the revelations of God. In the days of Jesus, among
all the Jewish rabbis, with their Urim and Thum mim, ephod, sacrifices,
giving the law, and all the blessings of Judah which they held in
their hands, it has been a marvel to me that so few had an interest in
their Shiloh, their Savior, who came to die to redeem the world. The
whole spirit of Jerusalem and Judea was—"Crucify him, crucify him, let
his blood be upon us and our children." It was and has been, and they
have felt it. And the Gentiles have cause to take heed lest they, too,
fall through unbelief.
I would tell Jew and Gentile, and all the earth if I had power, that
God never had but one Gospel to deliver to the sons of men, and that
Gospel is the same today, yesterday, and forever, it never changes.
The Lord never had a Church in any age of the world that he
acknowledged, but what it had a head to it, and it was organized with
Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Teachers, gifts, helps, governments,
inspiration and gifts of the Holy Ghost; and God's Church today is the
same as in every other age.
This Gospel is offered to the world, and that men generally have such
a desire to root it out of the earth, is the strongest proof
imaginable that they are under the dominion and control of the father
of lies. If any man has a truth that we have not got, we say, "Let us
have it." I am willing to exchange all the errors and false notions I
have for one truth, and should consider that I had made a good
bargain. We are not afraid of light and truth. Our religion embraces
every truth in heaven, earth or hell; it embraces all truth, the whole
Gospel and plan of salvation, and the fulfillment of the whole volume
of revelation that God has ever given. We have not power, men have not
language, to show forth the eternal truths of God in all their
fullness and beauty; all we can do is to warn the children of
men, and the Lord has chosen the Elders of Israel for that very
purpose. That has been one fault that men have found with the work of
the Lord. A man asked me awhile ago—"Why did the Lord choose Joseph
Smith to build up his kingdom? Why did he not choose Dr. Porter, Henry
Ward Beecher, or some such men?" Said I—"Such men would sell the
kingdom of God and everything in it for money and popularity, and as
the Lord lives he never could rule and handle them, none of them would
work with him, they are too much like the Pharisees, Sadducees, High
Priests and Rabbis of Judea and Jerusalem." Did the Lord ever choose
such men to perform his work? Go through the whole history of the
world, and you will find that whenever God wanted a servant, an
Apostle or a Prophet, he chose the very humblest man that could be
found. When a king was wanted for Israel, he could not find one out of
all the tall sons of Jesse; and when the Prophet asked if Jesse had
not another son, he was told no, only the boy that looked after the
sheep. Nobody thought anything about him, he was of no consequence.
"Let me see him," said the man of God; and when he was brought, the
Prophet poured oil on his head and anointed him King of Israel. So it
has been all the way through. Take Moses the leader of Israel. His
mother cast him in the bulrushes on the banks of the river Nile, to
the crocodiles. But how carefully the Lord watched over him! Finally
the daughter of pharaoh got him out, while bathing, and gave him to
his mother to be trained and nursed. You could see the hand of the
Lord in this. When the Lord called Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt,
said he—"How can I do this? I am a man of a hard language and slow of
speech." He thought he could not get along, for he had not a good
command of language. But the Lord told him that he would find a
spokesman for him. So all the way through the Lord has chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the wise, and the things that are
nought, to bring to nought the things that are. Jesus Christ himself
was born in a stable and cradled in a manger; and who were his
Apostles? Illiterate fishermen, men of the lowest calling almost in
Judea, Salt Lake City, or anywhere else; but fishermen can be just as
honorable men as any others, and they are generally regarded as very
humble men, and that is the kind of men God has always chosen.
The Lord called Joseph Smith because he was foreordained before the
world was to build up this Church and Kingdom, and he came through the
loins of ancient Joseph. He was an illiterate youth, but the Lord used
him, and he lived to fulfill the measure of his appointment; he lived
as long as the Lord required him to live, and until he received every
key held by every Prophet and Apostle that ever lived in the flesh
from the days of Adam down to his day, which belonged to this
dispensation.
Joseph Smith received his first ordination under the hand of John the
Baptist, who was beheaded, and who, while in the flesh, held the
Aaronic Priesthood. Peter, James, and John, who were Prophets, and
were crucified and put to death, at least Peter and James were, they
came and ordained Joseph Smith to the Apostleship; and every
ordination that he obtained, he obtained from the spirit world from
men who had tabernacled here in the flesh. These are the eternal
truths of the God of heaven, and eternity will reveal them to the
inhabitants of the earth. It is by this power that this
Church has been planted, not of man nor by the will of man, but by the
revelations of Jesus Christ. We call upon the Latter-day Saints, we
look to them, and the Lord looks to them, the heavens look to them, to
take hold and build up this kingdom.
Some of the outside world are finding a good deal of fault with the
Indians. Who are the Indians? Read the Book of Mormon, and you will
learn that they are the literal descendants of Israel; they have been
cursed through the transgressions of their fathers, and a skin of
darkness has come upon them. This history tells us that they were once
a white and delightsome people, and had great power on this land, but
that they were degraded and cast down because of their sins. When we
came here, we found them living upon crickets, grasshoppers, roots,
and anything they could possibly eat, poor, miserable, degraded
beings, though they have immortal souls, and are of the house of
Israel. What is the Lord doing for them? He is stretching forth his
hand over them, in remembrance of the promises made to their fathers.
President Young and his people are accused of stirring up the Indians
against the general government, and against the white man. This is not
true. We have preached to the Indians a good many years, as we have
had opportunities, but what effect did it have? Not much. We preached
to Walker, Arapene, and many other chiefs who have dwelt here, but
have now passed away, but our preaching had but little effect. Now the
Lord is stretching out his hand over the Lamanites, and their eyes are
being opened, and they are receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the
hands of the Elders of Israel. Whose work is this? Not the work of
man, but it is the work of God, and if the nations of the earth try to
stay it, the warfare is between them and God, and not between them and
us. So with every other principle which God has revealed to us. This
work is the work of the God of Israel, and not the work of man; not
the work of Brigham Young, the Twelve Apostles, or anybody else. The
hand of the Lord is feeling after that people, and if we, as
Latter-day Saints, do not arise and magnify our callings and fulfill
our missions, the Lord will take that people and build up his kingdom,
and we will be cast out. It is time that we awoke and realized this
truth, and that, as Elders of Israel, we realized our position before
the Lord. Now there is a very general desire manifested by this people
to get rich, and to labor for self rather than for the kingdom of God.
But what will it profit you or me to give up praying and to go to and
get rich? What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Not much. What will a man give in exchange for his soul,
when he gets on the other side of the veil? I marvel very much at the
little interest manifested by the inhabitants of the earth generally
in their future state. There is not a person here today but what is
going to live on the other side of the veil as long as his Creator—to
the endless ages of eternity, and the eternal destiny of every
individual depends upon the manner in which the few short years of the
life in the flesh are spent. I ask, in the name of the Lord, what is
popularity to you or me? What is gold or silver, or this world's goods
to any of us, any further than to enable us to obtain what we need to
eat, drink, and wear, and to build up the kingdom of God. And for us
to stop praying, and to become crazy after the riches of the world, is the very height of foolishness and folly. To see the way
that some people act, you might suppose that they are going to live
here eternally, and that their eternal destiny depends upon the number
of dollars they have. I sometimes ask the Latter-day Saints, how much
we had when we came here? How much did we bring, and where did it come
from? I do not think anyone of us brought a wife or a brick house; I
do not think that any of us were born on horseback or in a carriage,
or that we brought railroad scrip and cattle and houses with us, but
we were born naked as Job, and I think that we shall leave here as
naked as he did. Then with regard to this world's goods, what do they
amount to with us, that they should induce us to lose salvation for
them? I say, rather than that, let me be poor all the days of my life;
if riches are going to damn me, and take from me the glory I have in
prospect through keeping the commandments of God, I pray God that I
may never possess them.
God holds the riches of this world in his hands; the gold and silver,
the cattle and the earth are his, and he gives to whom he will give.
When Christ was upon the mount, Lucifer, the devil, showed him all the
glory of the world and offered to give it to him if he would fall down
and worship him. But do you know that that poor devil did not own a
single foot of land in the whole world, and that he had not even a
body, or tabernacle? The earth is the footstool of the Lord, and if we
ever have any of it for our own the Lord will give it to us; and we
ought to be just as faithful to our religion if we had ten thousand
million dollars, as if we had not any at all. Eternal life is what we
are or ought to be after, and that, whatever our circum stances and
condition in life may be, should be our first object.
I say to the brethren and sisters—you have your appointment; the Lord
has raised up these Elders of Israel, and I can prove from the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants that you received the Priesthood from eternity,
and your lives have been hid with Christ in God, and you knew it not.
You are literally and lawfully heirs of the Priesthood through the
lineage of your fathers, and that Priesthood will continue throughout
eternity, therefore you have received your appointment, and the Lord
looks to you to build up his Zion and kingdom upon the earth.
Let us try to be faithful and to live our religion; let us try to
believe in the revelations of God. I think it will be better for our
daughters, for our wives, for our sons and for ourselves to lay aside
the New York Ledger and yellow-covered literature generally, and take
hold and read the revelations of God, and comprehend them. When I read
the revelations, whether in the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Book of
Doctrine and Covenants, I look upon them as true, and I look for their
fulfillment. Up to the present day, one jot or tittle of them has
never gone unfulfilled, and, as the Lord has said—"What I have spoken
I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and though the heavens and the
earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of my word shall go
unfulfilled, whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it
is the same. Behold and lo I am God, and truth will be and abide for
ever and ever, Amen." Now let us try and live our religion and keep
the commandments of God. As Latter-day Saints let us see where we are,
and if we have no oil in our lamps let us stop trying to get rich, and
let us pray to the Lord until we get his Spirit and oil in our
lamps, and light unto the glory of God, and take hold and labor to
build up his Kingdom and Zion.
Before I close I want to speak on one temporal point. I have been
talking about getting riches. I do not find fault with riches. The
gold and silver are the Lord's. We want houses building and we must
cultivate the earth. This is all right. I do not find fault with a man
getting rich, I find fault with our selling the kingdom of God, our
birthright, selling the Gospel and depriving ourselves of eternal
life, for the sake of gratifying the lusts of the flesh, the pride of
life and the fashions of the world; and setting our hearts upon these
things. It is right to build houses, to plant vineyards and orchards,
to cultivate the earth and to make the desert blossom as the rose, to
adorn our dwelling places and to build Temples. This is all right. I
have no objection to the ladies—our wives daughters and mothers—in
Zion adorning themselves as much as they please, if they only make
what they wear. Set out your mulberry trees and make your own silk;
get straw and make your own bonnets; make your artificial flowers to
adorn yourselves with, and let all be the workmanship of your own
hands, and do not import these things at the expense of the means we
have in the Territory. I have not any fault to find with your adorning
yourselves, if you only make that which you require yourselves.
I want to say one word to our farmers before I close. I want to ask
you if you ever heard brother Kimball tell about laying up wheat?
"Yes," say some "we have heard him, but the famine has not come
yet."
No, but it will come. The Lord is not going to disappoint either
Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquakes or
storms, he is not going to disappoint anybody with regard to any of
these things, they are at the doors, and I want to give a word of
exhortation to our farmers, and I say to them, lay up your wheat, for
according to the spirit that has been in my bosom the last three or
four months, and in the breasts of a good many others, the day will
come when, if you do not take this counsel, you will want your wheat
for bread. I feel to exhort the brethren; and to say to them—lay up
bread, do not sell it for a song; let your wives and daughters go for
awhile without ribbons and ornaments, let your wheat stay in your
bins; let us try to get along with old coats and old hats, and keep
the wheat, and in a little while you will see the reason why this
counsel has been given. Lay up your wheat; and other provisions
against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted,
and no mistake about it. We shall want bread, and the Gentiles will
want bread, and if we are wise we shall have something to feed them
and ourselves when famine comes. We have fed thousands of them in days
past, who would have laid their bones on these plains if it had not
been for the counsel of President Young to us to cultivate the earth
and have wheat on hand to feed them. And the day will come again when
corn will be wanted in Zion, and it will be sought for. I hope the
Latter-day Saints will take heed to these things and be wise.
I pray that God will bless you, that he will give you his spirit, that
you may see and understand your position before him. And I pray that
he will open the eyes, ears and hearts of the Gentiles, that they may
receive the Gospel of Christ, and be numbered with the house of Israel
in the last dispensation of the fullness of times, that they
may stand in holy places through the nations, for they will come to
both Jew and Gentile, Zion and Babylon. There is no getting away from
them, for the Lord has said so, and what he has said will come to
pass. Amen