"Oh Death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The
sting of death is sin, and the gift of God is eternal life, through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." This doctrine of the resurrection
of the dead is most glorious. It is comforting, at least to my spirit,
to think, that, in the morning of the resurrection, my spirit will
have the privilege of dwelling in the very same body that it occupied
here. As Elders of Israel we have traveled a great many thousand miles
in weariness and fatigue, laboring to preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the children of men. I would be very glad to have the same
body in the resurrection with which I waded swamps, swam rivers and
traveled and labored to build up the kingdom of God here on the earth.
I like this, I rejoice in the privilege we enjoy at this Conference,
of meeting with so many Latter-day Saints. I feel that we have had a
good deal of the Spirit of the Lord with us, and I hope that it may
continue until we get through with the Conference.
President Young referred, yesterday, in his remarks, to the experience
of some of us in past days. I have reflected a good deal upon these
things as well as on the future. I have long been associated with the
kingdom of God, and I wish to refer for a moment to what was said
yesterday on that subject. The mission then mentioned was one of much
interest to the Twelve, if not to the Church. The whole of that
mission to England, from the beginning to the end, placed the
apostles in such a position that they had to walk by faith from first
to last. The Lord gave a revelation, with date, day, month and year,
when they were to go up to lay the cornerstone in Caldwell County,
Far West, Missouri. When that revelation was given all was peace and
quietude, comparatively, in that land. But when the time came for the
Twelve Apostles to fulfill that revelation, the Saints had all been
driven out by the exterminating order of Governor Boggs, and it was as
much as a man's life was worth, especially one of the Twelve, to be
found in that State; and when the day came on which we were commanded
by the Lord in that revelation to go up and lay the cornerstone of
that Temple, and there take the parting hand with the Saints, to cross
the waters to preach the gospel in England, the inhabitants of
Missouri had sworn that if all the revelations of "old Joe Smith" were
fulfilled, that should not be, because it had a day and date to it.
President Young asked the Twelve who were with him—"What shall we do
with regard to the fulfillment of this revelation?" He wanted to know
their feelings. Father Smith, the Patriarch, said the Lord would take
the will for the deed; others said the Lord could not expect the
Twelve Apostles to go up and sacrifice their lives to fulfill that
revelation; but the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the twelve, and
they said—"The Lord God has spoken, and we will fulfill that
revelation and commandment;" and that was the feeling of President
Young and of those who were with him. We went through that State, and
we laid that cornerstone. George A. Smith and myself were ordained to
the Apostleship on that cornerstone upon that day. We returned in
safety, and not a dog to move his tongue, and no man shed our blood.
As soon as we got home we prepared ourselves to go on our mission to
England, and, as President Young has said, the devil undertook to kill
us. I have myself been in Tennessee and Kentucky for two or three
years, where, in the Fall, there was not well persons enough to take
care of the sick during the ague months, and yet I never had the ague
in my life until called to go upon that mission to England. There was
not one solitary soul in the Quorum of the Twelve but what the devil
undertook to destroy; and, as was said yesterday, when Brother Taylor
and myself, the two first of the Quorum ready for the trip, were on
hand to start, I was shaking with the ague, and I had it every other
day, and on my well day, when I did not have it, my wife had it. I got
up and laid my hands upon her and blessed her, and blessed my child,
having only one at the time, and I started across the river, and that
man who sits behind me today, the President of the Church and kingdom
of God upon the earth, paddled me across the Missouri River in a
canoe, and that is the way I landed in Nauvoo. I lay down on a side of
sole leather by the old post office, and I did not know where to go,
and I was not able to stand on my feet, and I lay down there. By and
by the Prophet came along and said he—"Brother Woodruff, you are going
on your mission?" "Yes," I said," but I feel more like a subject
for
the dissecting room than for a mission." He reproved me for what I
said and told me to get up and go. Brother Taylor, the only member of
the Quorum of the Twelve who was well, and I traveled together, and on
the way he fell to the ground as though he had been knocked on the head with an axe. Old Father Coulton was carrying us, and
Brother Taylor fell twice in that way, taken with the bilious fever,
and no man in that Quorum could boast that he went on that mission
without feeling the hand of the destroyer, for it was laid upon us
all. I had the shaking ague, and lay on my back in a wagon, and was
rolled over stumps and stones, until it seemed as if my life would be
shaken out of me. I left Brother Taylor behind, by his advice, for
said he, "We are both sick, and if you stay you can't do anything
here;" so old Father Coulton carried me along in his wagon until I got
to Buffalo, N. Y. From there I traveled alone to Farmington,
Connecticut, my native place, and I stayed there fifteen days at my
father's house, coughing and shaking every day. My father never
expected that I should leave my bed, and my stepmother did not expect
that I should ever get better. A message came from an uncle of mine,
who had just died, and his last words were—"I want you to send for
Friend Wilford, I want him to come and preach my funeral sermon." My
father said—"You can't go and preach that sermon, for you can't sit
up
in your bed." Said I—"Never mind, get up your horse and wagon;"
and he
did so and I got into it, and rode over that morning in a chilly wind,
and the hour that my ague was coming on I got before a big blazing
fire and preached the funeral sermon of my friend, and the ague left
me from that day, and I went back and went on my way rejoicing.
In process of time Brother Taylor came along and he and I crossed the
ocean together, and arrived in England, and here I want to make a
little statement of my experience in those days concerning
circumstances that took place with me. When Brother Brigham left home
he told you that all his family had was one barrel of rotten flour.
Two hundred cents would have bought every pound of provision I left
with my family when I left home. But we left our wives, for we had the
commandment of God upon us, and we were either going to obey it, or
die trying. That was the spirit of the Elders of Israel; and I blessed
my wife and child and left them in the hands of God, and to the
tender mercies of our noble Bishops, and those who were acquainted
with them know how it was in those days. However, I went on my way,
and I want to speak of one little circumstance. I had with me an old
cloak which I got in Tennessee when traveling with Brother Smoot over
forty years ago. It had once been a dandy cloak, and had on keg
buttons, and when new had a good deal of trimming and fancy work about
it; but it was then pretty well threadbare and worn out. I wore it in
Kirtland and I carried it to England with me; and when I was called by
revelation to go to John Benbow's and preach the gospel I wore that
cloak. I went there and found over six hundred people, called United
Brethren, and among them were eighty-three preachers, and they, as a
people, were prepared for the word of the Lord, and I wanted to catch
them in the gospel net. Before embracing the doctrine of the United
Brethren, Sister Benbow had been what is called a "lady" in England,
and she had worn her silks and satins; but after obeying the doctrine
of this religious body she cut up and burned and destroyed her silks
and satins and wore the plainest calicoes she could get, because she
thought that was religion. When I went there to preach she looked at
me with this old cloak with the keg buttons on, and the Spirit of the
Lord bore testimony to me that reli gion, so far as she was
concerned, had a good deal of tradition about it, and that her faith
could be tried by the coat a man wore; and as Paul said, if eating
meat offended his brethren, he would never eat any more, so I felt a
good deal, and one morning I went out and cut off the buttons from my
old cloak, and never had a button on it afterwards. By doing this and
some other things, which some perhaps would call foolish, I, through
the blessing of God and with the assistance of Brother Young, George
A. Smith and Willard Richards, caught the whole flock and baptized
every soul except one solitary person into the church and kingdom of
God. Many of them are here in this room today, and some of them have
passed away. I mention this just to show our position. We traveled
without purse and scrip, and we preached without money and without
price. Why? Because the God of heaven had called upon us to go forth
and warn the world.
Now I want to say again, I have looked around within the last few
years and I have thought: Where, Oh where, are the sons of the
Prophets, Apostles, and fathers in Zion, preparing in these last days
to rise up and bear off this kingdom when we are on the other side of
the veil? Sometimes, in thinking on this subject, I have felt that
they were very few and far between who had the spirit of their fathers
and were prepared to bear off this kingdom. But I thank God that I
find it is now something like it was in the days of Elijah. When the
Prophet said, referring to the followers of Baal—"They have killed thy
Prophets, and pulled down thine altars, and I alone am left," the Lord
said—"Oh no, I have seven thousand men in Israel who have not yet
bowed the knee to Baal." Well, I begin to feel, since I have heard the
testimonies of our young brethren at this Conference, that some of the
sons of the servants of God are becoming filled with the fire and
spirit of the Prophets. We want a good many of them to rise up and
bear off this kingdom.
Now I want to say a word or two on another subject. I have heard some
of our brethren remark—"If the Twelve Apostles have the word of the
Lord, we would like to receive it." I want to say a few words with
regard to the word of the Lord. I think that many of this people are
mistaken with regard to the word of the Lord. They sometimes wonder
why President Young does not give them the word of the Lord. I have
been acquainted with President Young more than forty years. It is over
forty years since I traveled a thousand miles with him, Joseph Smith,
Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Charles C. Rich, and many others perhaps in
this congregation, and I never saw a day from that day until the
present, but what President Brigham Young, even before the Twelve
Apostles were organized, always had the word of the Lord for the
people; and instead of thinking there is no word of the Lord, my faith
is that there is not an Elder in Israel who has any business to
preach, unless he has the word of the Lord to the people. The Twelve
Apostles should have the word of the Lord to the people; the High
Priesthood should have the word of the Lord to the people; these four
thousand Seventies, the messengers of Israel to the nations of the
earth, should have the word of the Lord to the people; and every Elder
of Israel, when he speaks, should have the word of the Lord, and the
whole Church and kingdom of God, men and women, should have, each for
himself and herself, the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is
the spirit of prophecy. This should be in the possession of every man
and woman in the Church, for their own government and guidance, and
this has always been the teaching to us of President Brigham Young.
And this is backed up by the revelations which the Lord has given in
these last days, as you will find if you read the twenty-second
section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. That revelation was
given over forty years ago, to Elders Orson Hyde, Luke Johnson, Lyman
Johnson and William E. McLellin; and on that occasion the Lord
said—"Go forth and preach the Gospel to the people. And when you go
forth you are called to teach the people and not to be taught. And you
must teach as you are moved upon by the Holy Ghost, by the power of
God, by the Spirit of the Lord; and when you speak as you are moved
upon by the Spirit of the Lord, your words are scripture, they are the
word of the Lord, they are the mind of the Lord, they are the will of
the Lord and the power of God unto salvation unto every one that
hears."
Yes, we have plenty of testimony with regard to these things, and I
will say to my brethren that whatever the word of the Lord may be to
them I know what the word of the Lord is to me. The word of the Lord
to me is, that it is time for Zion to rise and let her light shine;
and the testimony of the Spirit of God to me is that this whole
kingdom, this great kingdom of Priests, this forty thousand men in
these mountains of Israel, who have borne the Priesthood, have
thoroughly fulfilled one part of the parable of the ten virgins. What
is that? Why, that while the Bridegroom has tarried we have all
slumbered and slept; as a Church and kingdom we have slumbered and
slept, and the word of the Lord to me is that we have slept long
enough; and we have the privilege now of rising and trimming our lamps
and putting oil in our vessels. This is the word of the Lord to me.
The word of the Lord to me again, is, that it is time for this whole
people, these forty thousand Elders of Israel who dwell in these
valleys of the mountains, and I believe that it is the word of the
Lord to them, that we listen to the voice of the Lord through the
lawgiver, and unite ourselves in temporal things, and that we labor to
build up the kingdom of God, and cease to labor to build up ourselves
alone, against the interests of the kingdom of God. This is the word
of the Lord to me, and I think it is to you.
It is the word of the Lord through the mouth of his servant Brigham,
and has been a long time the word of the Lord to me, that as Twelve
Apostles, as Seventy Apostles, as High Priests, and as Elders of
Israel, it is time that we should rise up and bear the burden that
rests upon the shoulders of Brigham Young, who is far advanced in
life, and has had the weight and burden of this Church and kingdom
upon his shoulders. It is our duty to rise up and bear off this
burden, and lift it from our President, and also to cry aloud unto the
people to unite themselves together. It is our duty to cease shaking
in our shoes for fear the Lord Almighty should give some of his words
to govern and control us in our temporal affairs. Who, to use a
comparison, expects to have a forty-acre lot alone in the kingdom of
God, or in heaven, when we get there? None need expect it, for in that
kingdom, in heaven or upon earth, we shall find unity, and the Lord
requires at our hands that we unite together, according to the
principles of his celestial law.
This is what I consider to be the word of the Lord to us. It is our
duty to unite ourselves together, and to sustain the institutions
which have been established in these mountains by the revelations of
God unto us.
There is another word of the Lord unto me, and which has been like
fire shut up in my bones for the last three months; that is, to call
upon all the inhabitants of these mountains, as far as I have an
opportunity, to go to and lay up their grain, that they may have
bread. For the last three months I have not felt as if I could answer
my own feelings, unless, at every meeting I have attended, I called
upon the farmers to lay up their grain. "Oh, yes," say some, "Heber C.
Kimball cried, 'Famine, famine' for years, and it has not come yet."
Well, bless your soul, there is more room for it to come. "Who am I,
saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?" The day will come
when if this people do not lay up their bread they will be sorry for
it. The Lord has felt after us in days past and gone by the
visitations of crickets and grasshoppers time after time, and had it
not been for his mercy we should have had famine upon our heads long
before this. It is the duty of the farmers in these mountains not to
sell their bread, or to throw it away for a song, but to lay it up, or
you will find that the day is not a great way off when you will need
it. That is the voice of the Lord to me, and it is the way I have felt
for a good while, and I believe it is the same to my brethren.
We are living in a very important time, and the Lord has raised up
this people to accomplish his purposes; and as some of these
reve lations convey the idea, they were chosen from before the
foundation of the world. The Lord says—"I have called you by my
everlasting Priesthood, and your lives have been hid with Christ in
God," and you have not known it. You have been called here and God has
put into your hands his cause and kingdom, and the salvation of both
Jew and Gentile. This people hold in their hands the salvation of the
twelve tribes of Israel. It was not to the oldest son, but to Ephraim,
the son of Joseph, that these promises were made. Joseph was the
youngest but one of the Twelve Patriarchs, and through his son Ephraim
God has raised you up and has put this power into your hands, and you
hold the keys for the salvation of Israel. And the ten tribes of
Israel in the north country will come in remembrance before God in due
time, and they will smite the rocks and the mountains of ice will flow
down before them, and the everlasting hills will tremble at their
presence. A highway will be cast up through the midst of the great
deep for them to come to Zion, and they will bow down in the midst
thereof, and receive the Priesthood at the hands of the inhabitants of
Zion.
Then what manner of men ought we to be, we, who have been ordained and
called, and had such responsibilities placed upon us by the God of
heaven? Our lives have been hid with Christ in God, and we are heirs
of the eternal Priesthood, through the lineage of our fathers. Thus
saith the Lord through the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who
sealed his testimony with his blood, and his testimony from that hour
has been in force upon all the world. Know ye, Latter-day Saints, that
the Lord will not disappoint you or this generation with regard to the
fulfillment of his promises. No matter whether they have been
uttered by his own voice out of the heavens, by the ministration of
angels, or by the voice of his servants in the flesh, it is the same;
and though the earth pass away not one jot or tittle of his word will
fall unfulfilled. There is no prophecy of Scripture of any private
interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by
the Holy Ghost, and their words will be fulfilled to the very letter,
and it certainly is time that we prepare ourselves for that which is
to come. Great things await this generation—both Zion and Babylon. All
these revelations concerning the fall of Babylon will have their
fulfillment. Forty-five years ago, in speaking to the Church, the Lord
said—"You are clean, but not all and I am not well pleased with any
who are not clean, because all flesh is corrupted before my face, and
darkness prevails among all the nations of the earth." This causes
silence to reign, and all eternity is pained. The angels of God are
waiting to fulfill the great commandment given forty-five years ago,
to go forth and reap down the earth because of the wickedness of men.
How do you think eternity feels today? Why there is more wickedness,
a thousand times over, in the United States now, than when that
revelation was given. The whole earth is ripe in iniquity; and these
inspired men, these Elders of Israel, have been commanded of the
Almighty to go forth and warn the world, that their garments may be
clear of the blood of all men.
I tell you that God will not disappoint Zion or Babylon, the heavens
or the earth, in regard to the judgments which he has promised in
these last days, but every one of them will have its fulfillment upon
the heads of the children of men; and when they are fully ripened in
iniquity the nations of the earth will be swept away as with the besom
of destruction.
What did the Lord say to that meek and humble man, the brother of
Jared, thousands of years ago, with regard to the land of America—a
chosen land promised by old Father Jacob to his sons? He said that no
nation should ever occupy it, unless the people thereof kept his
commandments; and if they failed to do that they should be cut off
when they were ripened in iniquity. The Lord has already swept away
two mighty nations from this continent, because they have not
fulfilled his word, spoken through that humble man. The Lord chooses
the weak things of the world, things which are naught to bring to
naught things which are, and he will as surely perform his work in
this age of the world as he has done in any other. We need not fear
man, nor the wrath of man, but fear God, who holds in his hands the
destinies of all men.
Before I close my remarks, I want to say a few words to our sisters
and daughters in Zion, for I feel that there are some words of the
Lord to them. This is a time that the daughters of Zion should hearken
to the words of the Prophet of God, who has been set to lead us. I
feel that it is time, forty years after they were organized, that the
Female Relief Societies should labor with all their might to carry out
the object of their organization by the Prophet Joseph Smith. You may
ask, "What was the object of that organization?" I will say that in
organizing these societies there were several objects in view, some of
which I will refer to before I get through. President Young has been
calling upon you, as one branch of the land of Zion, to take hold and
help to build it up. He desires that the sisters here in the
land of Zion should govern and control the fashions of Zion. Instead
of heaping to yourselves and imitating the fashions that have adorned
Babylon, you should have independence enough to form your own; and
those which are not comely and comfortable should be laid aside. I,
myself, do not think it has been pleasing in the sight of God, to see
the manner in which the mothers and daughters in Zion, for years past,
have been ready to adorn themselves with every fashion that Babylon
has contrived and invented. I need not mention all these things, but I
will mention two or three. For instance, how is it with regard to the
head dress of the ladies? The Lord has given to women generally a fine
head of hair, which, we are told in the Scriptures, is the glory of
the woman; and she should let the hair given unto her adorn her head
without adding any foreign substance, as is now done, in order to
imitate and follow after the fashions of the world. Again, just as
quick as the daughters of Babylon extend their crinolines until they
cannot move in a space less than six or eight feet wide, in a coach,
assembly room, or anywhere else, why the daughters of Zion must follow
the same uncomely fashion. But a fashion the reverse of this is now
adopted, and at the present time the daughters of Babylon wear their
elastics so tight that they have not room left for locomotion when
walking in the streets; and, of course the daughters of Zion must
practice the same. And now, see one of them, dressed in the height of
fashion, crossing the street, and a runaway team comes thundering
along. What a position she is in! Why the only way she can save her
life is to lie down and roll across the street like a saw log.
All these fashions are uncomely and should be laid aside. The
daughters of Zion should do better than to trail silks and satins in
the mud when walking in the street. The Female Relief Societies should
lay hold of and regulate these things, and introduce fashions that are
comely and comfortable; it is their duty to do it. Again, you can do a
good deal in regard to maintaining the independence of Zion, by going
to and carrying out the counsel of President Young in raising your own
silk for dresses, bonnets and trimmings, so that your adorning may be
the workmanship of your own hands.
I felt as though I wanted to say so much with regard to our sisters in
Zion. President Young says, and I know it is the truth, that this is
the best people on the face of the earth. But however good we may be
we should aim continually to improve and become better. We have obeyed
a different law and Gospel to what other people have obeyed, and we
have a different kingdom in view, and our aim should be
correspondingly higher before the Lord our God, and we should govern
and control ourselves accordingly, and I pray God my heavenly Father
that his Spirit may rest upon us and enable us to do so.
Another word of the Lord to me is that, it is the duty of these young
men here in the land of Zion to take the daughters of Zion to wife,
and prepare tabernacles for the spirits of men, which are the children
of our Father in heaven. They are waiting for tabernacles, they are
ordained to come here, and they ought to be born in the land of Zion
instead of Babylon. This is the duty of the young men in Zion; and
when the daughters of Zion are asked by the young men to join with
them in marriage, instead of asking—"Has this man a fine brick
house, a span of fine horses and a fine carriage?" they should ask—"Is
he a man of God? Has he the Spirit of God with him? Is he a Latter-day
Saint? Does he pray? Has he got the Spirit upon him to qualify him to
build up the kingdom?" If he has that, never mind the carriage and
brick house, take hold and unite yourselves together according to the
law of God. I rejoice to see the population increasing in the land of
Zion. Why is it that ninety-nine women out of every hundred over the
whole land of Zion, who are of proper age and married, are bringing
forth posterity until our children swarm in our streets almost like
bees? Because the God of heaven is raising up a royal Priesthood, and
a generation to bear off this kingdom in the day when his judgments
will come upon the earth.
Let us do our duty; let us cease setting our hearts upon the fashions
and things of this world, and laboring to enrich ourselves at the
sacrifice of the kingdom of God. We have a cooperative mercantile
institution; and it is the duty of these Latter-day Saints to sustain
and uphold it; and so with everything else that is in the kingdom, for
these are the stepping stones to us to a fullness of the celestial
kingdom of God.
I thank God that I live in this day and age of the world, when my ears
have heard the sound of the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. I thank
God that I have seen the face of Prophets, Apostles, and inspired men.
I rejoice in this, and I pray God my heavenly Father that I, and my
brethren and sisters, may have power to unite and take hold and build
up this kingdom. When we do this it will not be in the power of earth
or hell to take away our rights and privileges; for I tell you that if
this people were united according to the law of God, wherein we should
become fully justified before the Lord, sinners in Zion would tremble
and fearfulness would surprise the hypocrite; the power of God would
rest upon Zion, the angels of God would visit the earth, the judgments
of God would be poured upon the wicked, the Zion of God would be
redeemed, the Temples of God would be reared, the prison doors would
be opened and the prisoners in the spirit world would go free, because
we would feel the spirit and power of our mission and calling and
should fulfill it.
I pray that God will bless this people, and that he will bless
President Young, who has already outlived four of his counselors. The
Lord says—"I will take whom I will take, and I will preserve whom I
will preserve." All these counselors were younger men than President
Young, yet he has outlived them. God has ordained President Young to
live, and he has lived so long, and has had the prayers of hundreds
and thousands of Saints, which have entered into the ears of the Lord
of Sabaoth for his preservation; and the Lord has heard and answered
these prayers.
Let us, as Elders of Israel, rise up and bear off this kingdom. Let us
forsake our evils and wickedness, and repent of our sins, and renew
our covenants and keep the commandments of God; that we may lighten
the burdens of our President, that his spirit may be cheered, and that
the power of God may attend him in his labors for the advancement of
Zion upon the earth.
This is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.