The speaker read from the Doctrine and Covenants (new edition),
commencing at the 24th paragraph, and ending at the 33rd paragraph, of
section 58.
This is a great people, and if anything would be likely to appall a
man and make him feel his own nothingness, it is to stand up before
such an audience as is here assembled, to attempt to speak to them and
to instruct them. We have, however, something besides our own strength
to rely on; if it were not so, I should not be here. The promise of the Lord is that when we assemble together as we have this
day, and as we are now assembled, he will give unto us that portion of
his word and his counsel as shall be suited to our circumstances, so
that every soul shall eat of the bread of life and go away satisfied,
and rejoice in the privilege he may have had of coming together as we
now are.
This work in which we are engaged embraces more and more. The older I
grow the more I become acquainted with its magnitude, with the
responsibilities that are connected with it, and especially the
responsibilities which rest down upon those who are the chosen leaders
of the people.
We know, as was testified to this morning, that this is the work of
God, that God has laid its foundation, that God has chosen the men who
are associated with it and who are in authority connected with the
work, to fill the situations which they occupy. We know also that he
has restored the authority that was once enjoyed by man, by which men
are enabled to act in the midst of the people in Christ's stead. And
knowing these things we are encouraged as a people and as individuals
to press forward and to help establish that cause which he has
revealed to the earth. But there are many things connected with this
work, with its advancement, with the binding of the people together,
with the carrying out of the great designs which God has revealed for
the salvation of the children of men; which press upon our attention
and cause us to exercise every faculty of our minds in thinking, in
pondering upon and in giving shape to measures that shall result in
the greatest good to this great people.
The principles of the Gospel we are all familiar with, as a people; we
have studied the lesson from the beginning and have become familiar
with it in almost all its details. We have traveled, we have preached,
we have borne testimony to this work; we have helped to gather the
people together, organizing them, before doing so, into branches, into
conferences, into missions, and then have organized them into
companies to travel by sea, to travel by land, to bring them to the
gathering places which have been appointed. With these labors the
Elders of this church have obtained great familiarity; they have
become experts in preaching spiritual salvation, in preaching the
first principles of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; in telling
the people how they shall be saved from their sins, and what they
shall do to obtain the promises of God connected with obedience to
this Gospel. And we have, in coming to these mountains, obtained
considerable knowledge concerning other matters. Probably today a man
would not be open to the charge of egotism, of being vain concerning
the people, were he to say that, to take the Latter-day Saints, the
men of this church, and in no other body of men of the same numbers
will you find men of such experience in preaching, in traveling, as
missionaries, as Elders, in organizing the people, in handling
companies of large bodies of men and women and laying the foundation
of settlements, in building cities, in developing countries, and in
organizing systems of government in those countries. I do not know
that I am open to the charge of being vain concerning the Latter-day
Saints when I make this statement—that in all the earth, among all the
inhabitants of the earth, you cannot find so large a body of principal
men familiar with spiritual things, familiar with tem poral things, familiar with the handling of large bodies of people and
organizing them and dictating their labors and planning for their
temporal salvation, and for their good government, as you will find in
the midst of these mountains and numbered in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And yet, after making this statement, we stand, as it were, at the
very threshold of our work, just at the door of it; we have scarcely
accomplished anything compared to what remains to be done connected
with the work devolving upon us. We have made a beginning, it is true,
we have solved some problems; but there is an immense amount of work
to be done by us as a people, and especially by those who act in our
midst in the capacity of leaders. The highest qualities of
statesmanship are needed and called for; the highest qualities that
men and women possess that make them capable of planning for nations
devising schemes and plans that will not only save a town or a small
community of people, but that will extend to nations the means of
saving them from national peril and from evils that menace the
existence of every power that now exists upon the face of the earth.
You look abroad today among the inhabitants of the earth and see
their condition, see the evils with which they are afflicted and which
threaten the downfall and the overthrow of nations and we need not to
go beyond our own land to gain experience in this matter, and to
ascertain the danger which besets this republic, the most glorious
nation, and the most glorious form of government that exists upon the
habitable globe. How many times it is said that this republic cannot
stand, that evils are working and undermining the fabric of
government, and which threatens its speedy overthrow. You can scarcely
talk with a thinking man upon these subjects, a man who takes in, to
the extent of his vision, all the evils which threaten our nation,
without having him acknowledge that the future, in many respects,
looks exceedingly dark, and that it is somewhat doubtful whether the
republic can be preserved as it is at the present.
With all these facts, then, before us, it is well for us today,
assembled as we are in this general Conference, to take into some
consideration our own condition, the circumstances which surround us,
and examine them in the light of intelligence and wisdom, as He has
given it to us, and whether we should not take steps to preserve our
existence, and not only preserve, but perpetuate it, and to increase
our power, and to cause that work with which we are identified to
continue to progress and to fulfil its high and glorious destiny.
There is one principle which I think in mentioning everyone will see
the power of, and that is union. It is a trite saying, often repeated,
that union is strength. Certainly we have proved the truth of this
saying through the long or short period, as it may be, of our
existence as a people. There is no people today with whom I am
acquainted who has proved so satisfactorily as we have throughout our
past experience, the value of union. It is that which makes us,
numerically a weak people, a strong people; it is that which makes us
one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty thousand, or perhaps
two hundred thousand people throughout these mountains north and
south, a power in the land; and a power certainly which there is more
said about than any other power, probably, in existence. Divide us up,
segregate us into denominations, into factions, and what would we
amount to? Nothing; our strength would be dissipated, we would
be enfeebled, and nothing particularly would be said about us more
than is said about thousands and millions of others from whom we are
separated. It was the union of the Latter-day Saints which in the
beginning created opposition against us, brought it to the surface,
and made it moving when there were but fifty or less members of the
church. The very fact that a new principle of union, had been brought
to light, through which these fifty men and women were united as the
heart of one, was sufficient to arouse opposition and create to a
certain extent, fear. Sectarian influence was brought to bear against
us. "Our creed is in danger, our sect is in danger, our place is in
danger, if this people with this union should gain a foothold among
us." Alarm was felt in the ranks of the various sects, and they felt
that, although a power insignificant and weak, as it were, it should
be fought and its existence extirpated, if possible from off the
earth. Hence the opposition it met with in the beginning A few weeks
old, like a little trembling, puny infant not able to walk, not able
to speak or make itself felt. Yet the very existence of the infant
aroused fear, as great fear as that which animated Herod of old when
he issued an edict for all the firstborn male children of Israel to
be slain. It created terror in the land; and all because a certain
babe of Bethlehem had been born, and he hoped, in issuing this cruel
edict, to destroy this man-child and with him the power which he
feared. So it was in the beginning of this work, when it was weak and
feeble it created in the minds of those who watched its birth and its
aftergrowth a feeling of fear, and they were determined to destroy it
from off the earth, if they could.
When the church moved to Kirtland and the people began to gather
together to go to that place to settle, you will see by reading the
history, the fear that was produced. And you read the history of the
settlement of the people in Jackson County and you will see the same
manifestations, only more violent, until such a spirit was engendered
that the mob succeeded in driving the people from the county. You can
trace it through all the history of this people to the present time.
It has been the union of the Latter-day Saints that, as I have before
said, aroused opposition, crystallized it and made it as effective as
it has been against us. Had we been a divided people, had we been
quarrelling among ourselves, had there been factions among us and
jealousies among our leading men, you would not have seen this
opposition neither would you have seen the credit that has been given
to us, nor the power that this people have wielded in the earth to the
present time. You would not have seen this spectacle—this inspiriting
spectacle of 12,000 people assembled under one roof to worship God
according to the dictates of their own consciences and the revelations
of God, and partaking of the Lord's Supper, as we are today. You
would not have seen these valleys peopled from Idaho in the north to
Mexico in the south with settlements of people of one faith, of one
belief, worshipping God in the same manner and calling upon him
unitedly to bestow upon them the same blessings, and laboring for the
same objects. The value, therefore, of union we, as a people, have
demonstrated as no other people now living have. And I leave you to
your own reflections to imagine what we would be without it.
Everyone can think for himself, or herself, upon this subject, and can
draw his or her own conclusions. But as we are united and have been
spiritually, it is not the design of God, as is clearly manifest in
his revelations, plainly spoken through his word, and deeply impressed
by his Holy Spirit upon every heart belonging to this church, that
this alone is not the object of our organization as a people. It was
not for spiritual salvation alone that the word of the Lord came to us
to gather out of Babylon; it was not for spiritual salvation alone
that the Elders of this Church traversed sea and land for so long a
period, gathering the people together at such an expense of time and
means; it was not for spiritual salvation alone that we have suffered
the attacks and the violence of mobs, that we left our homes in the
east—the pleasant places that many left, and crossed these dreary
wastes, and planted ourselves in these mountains. There was something
more than this embodied in the idea; there was something more than
this embodied in the effort. There was temporal salvation also
connected with the spiritual salvation that had been extended to us. I
use the term "temporal salvation," because it is better understood
probably than any other term I could use. My training has led me to
blend the two, it being difficult for me to draw the line of
demarcation between the temporal and spiritual; but in many minds
there is a distinction. I use the phrase, therefore, that those who
are familiar with it will understand my meaning. Temporal salvation is
as necessary, according to the faith of the Latter-day Saints, in its
time and season, as spiritual salvation. Of course spiritual salvation
occupies the first, and ought to be foremost within every heart; but
we cannot accom plish our spiritual salvation and the destiny of our
Father and Creator without also connecting with it temporal salvation,
temporal acts, the performance of temporal labor. Hence, as I have
said, it should occupy some portion of our thoughts, it should be
considered by us; and as I have remarked, we have not come out of our
present location for purely spiritual performances, but to lay the
foundation of a system that should stand forever, that should be
connected with man's existence here upon the earth, both his spiritual
and his temporal existence; a work that should affect everything
connected with man and his relationship to his fellow man.
A great many of the Latter-day Saints have failed, as I have sometimes
thought, to grasp this idea, to grasp the idea that the Lord was
founding a great nationality—if I may use such a limited phrase as
that; it limits the idea to call it a nationality. The Lord is
gathering out from every nation, kindred, tongue and people a
community, out of which he intends to form for himself a kingdom, not
an earthly kingdom, but a kingdom over which he will preside in the
heavens; a kingdom that should be based upon purely republican
principles upon the earth; and therefore not a kingdom in the strict
sense of the word, so far as its earthly location is concerned; but a
republic. And for this purpose, as the Latter-day Saints have believed
from the beginning, the Lord raised up the founders of our nation and
inspired them—George Washington and others—to do the work that they
accomplished, in laying the foundation of a form of government upon
this land under which that kingdom that he should establish should
grow and flourish and extend itself without interfering in the least
degree with the genius of the government. And this is the work
in which we are engaged; this is the labor that should occupy our
attention, and as I have said, we should take warning by that which we
see around us on every hand—the decay, the disintegration of the
various governments and powers, and organize ourselves so that we can
preserve ourselves, and grow and increase and add to the power we
already possess. I believe our people are beginning to take higher
views of the organization with which they are connected, and
consequently higher views of their own individual responsibility and
the labor that devolves upon each one as an individual. We see more of
this spirit manifested. The Elders have ever evinced a willingness to
go forth at the call of the proper authorities to preach the Gospel
and perform labors of this character for the public good; but it has
been a difficult lesson for us to learn that it was equally binding
upon us, as servants of God, that we should labor in temporal matters
with the same devotion trod the spirit of self-abnegation that we did
in laboring to preach the Gospel. There seemed to be a higher calling
in the mind of man associated with spiritual matters; it seemed to be
more dignified; it has seemed to be more worthy of men's gratuitous
labor, than to labor with their hands or brain for the temporal
advancement of the work and for the temporal salvation of the people.
I believe that you will all have noticed that there is a change taking
place in many minds in regard to this, and many men are beginning to
take a different view—in fact they have done for years; probably some
never had any other view, but a great many who have had different
views, who have imagined that it was their duty to look at these
temporal matters, are beginning to take different views, to take a
higher concep tion of their responsibility in this direction. It is
right and proper that we should do so. There is no good reason why a
man should imagine that he has fulfilled the requirements more
acceptably, more approvedly in preaching this Gospel, than in
laboring, after the people have been gathered home, for their
salvation in temporal things.
There is a subject that has occupied a great amount of thought, and
has been dwelt upon very frequently in our public assemblies for the
past few years; I refer to that of the United Order. There have been
some attempts, in fact I may say many attempts at organization with a
view to its more complete carrying out. There is another principle
connected with this that has been in force also upon our attention for
many years past, namely, the system of cooperation in temporal
matters. We have felt to a very great extent the importance of this; I
believe the spirit, of it has rested upon the Latter-day Saints. When
you look back a few years, by way of contrasting our condition then
with our condition today, you will perceive, doubtless, there has
been a great change effected among us in regard to this matter. There
has been considerable thought among the people concerning it; a great
many have reasoned upon it for themselves, and have become thoroughly
convinced of the importance of the principle. In this a good work has
been done, because it is an exceedingly difficult thing to leaven the
whole mass of people, like this people who inhabit these valleys, to
leaven them with correct ideas and have them understand them. If the
First Presidency of the Church comprehend a principle, and the Twelve
comprehend it, but the people fail to comprehend it, you can readily
understand how difficult it would be to make that principle
practical and operative. The leading men, then, have carried the whole
people upon their shoulders, so to speak; if under those circumstances
anything has to be done it is to be done upon their faith and
influence alone. But when you can get the thinking men and women
throughout our community to understand and realize the importance of
the principle, the victory is won, the work then is comparatively easy
of accomplishment. And this has been a subject of congratulation to me
in my feelings, that notwithstanding the many errors, notwithstanding
the many failures, notwithstanding the lack of success in many
directions, the principle of cooperation, the principle of uniting
ourselves together in the United Order has been reflected upon, has
been cogitated and discussed in all the circles of this people and at
their firesides, until it may be said an understanding of it permeates
the entire mass of the people, as a people; and there is scarcely an
argument needed in talking about it now to convince those who are the
most stubborn and reluctant in giving adherence to the principle. When
you hear any opponent to the principle express himself nowadays, it
is in this way: "It is an excellent principle, if we could only carry
it out properly." The principle is conceded, its correctness is
assented to; it only remains now for us to carry it out properly, in
order for us to gain the confidence and the support of those who are
doubtful upon that point. And I think this a great work accomplished.
It seems to me that the Latter-day Saints today are in this position:
Tell us what to do and how to do it. You leading men, tell us how we
can operate, how we can unite together. Devise the plan, suggest how
it can be carried out successfully, and we are on hand to carry it
out." I do not know from your expressions, whether I state your
feelings correctly or not on this point; but I state that which I
believe, that which I am impressed with in connection with my brethren
and sisters, wherever I meet them, and whenever this subject or topic
comes up for discussion or mention. There is one thing, brethren and
sisters, that must strike us all as being right and proper; and that
is to throw our efforts in one channel, to make our influence felt as
an entire body and not as I have remarked, to divide ourselves and
scatter our influence so that it will be unfelt.
I have endeavored to describe to you the influence we wield because of
our union in spiritual matters. The same remark will apply exactly to
our union in temporal matters. Let this people be united in temporal
matters; let it be known that we work together for one another's good,
that we labor, as a people to benefit the whole and not the
individual, and that our influence is in this direction; and I tell
you that the same influence, the same power, that wield now as a
spiritual organization will be felt in our temporal affairs, in our
financial affairs, in all the affairs in fact which attract our
attention.
One great object we should aim to reach, that we should aim to
accomplish, is to make ourselves independent in regard to
manufactures. We have had, the last week, considerable conversation
with leading men from various parts of this Territory concerning this
principle of cooperation. Notwithstanding some differences of opinion
upon some points, upon this one point that I have endeavored to set
before you in my last few sentences, there has been an unanimity of
feeling and opinion, that is of the imperative necessity of our being
united in our business matters, in our financial matters and
work to sustain each other and build each other up. I am persuaded
that a great amount of good will result from these interviews and from
the measures that will be adopted. I have felt that it will be a most
excellent thing for us to have a permanent organization of our best
business men, and the most practical men, from all parts of our
Territory, acting in the capacity of a board of trade, whose duty
shall be to look after our manufacturing, mercantile and other
interests; and should there at any time be anything wrong in our
systems of doing business, tending in the least to prevent perfect
union, that the necessary measures might be devised to remedy these
things and bring about a concert of action upon all hands. Now you
have heard it stated frequently that those who are engaged in home
manufactures do not receive the patronage that they should do, that
our home manufactories were not treated properly, that those engaged
in them did not receive the sympathy of business men, and that the
masses of the people were not disposed to patronize then, I think
there is at the present time but little cause for statements of this
kind; in fact I have not heard of them of late. But if we had such an
organization as this—and I understand that Pres. Taylor is thinking
seriously of having it a permanent organization—then if there were
anything of this character that needed correction, if there was a
struggling institution that needed help, by making a requisition to
this Board of Trade, it perhaps could receive the support it needed,
and be placed upon a firm footing in our midst, and perhaps be able to
sustain itself and live.
Already the stockholders of Z. C. M. I. as it is called—Zions
Cooperative Mercantile Institution, met, and a report was made by the
President and Secretary of that Institution, which I think was most
gratifying to all present upon that occasion. I have been familiar
with the institution since its inception. I think I can truly say that
at no period since its organization was it ever in so good condition,
having so few liabilities to meet as it has today. It is in a
sounder, healthier and more prosperous condition than it has ever
been. I allude to this because it is called the Parent Institution. In
Box Elder County where Brother Snow presides, he took the profits of
their mercantile business to start the branches of manufacture that
are now in successful running order. Our institution has done much in
a similar direction. It has carried many a struggling enterprise; it
has been the beast of burden for almost every institution and every
establishment and railroad almost in the country. It has accomplished
an immense amount of good, far more than the mere paying of dividends,
although it has done this to a surprising extent. Those who invested
their means seem to have become the most discouraged. Therefore, in
alluding to it in this manner, it is in justice to it, and in justice
to those especially who have all the time, over and again, kept their
shoulders to the Institution, sustaining it and bearing it up to the
best of their ability. You all know, who have attended conferences in
past times, how much President Young was interested in this matter; not
so much in the sale of merchandise as in the principle of
cooperation. And he and others have stepped forward repeatedly, and
have sustained it in the midst of the people, when otherwise it would
have gone down. I allude to this because it comes in the line of my
remarks, in the thread of my argument, so to speak. To be successful
we ought, instead of dividing asunder and drawing one from
another, to cling closer together; it is of the utmost importance that
all our financial matters should be conducted in a way to contribute to
the influence of the whole people; it is of the utmost importance that
we should take steps to develop in our midst something of a home
character. Steps have already been taken, as some of you know, in the
establishment of a tannery, and in connection with it a shoe
manufactory I was exceedingly gratified to learn from the report that
nearly $100,000 of home manufactured goods, besides a large list of
small articles, the value of which was not estimated, had been sold
during the last half year by the Cooperative Institution. I am
informed that this was the purchase price, the price at which they
were sold would of course amount to still more. This speaks well for
home manufactures, sold by one institution.
It is an easy thing to tear down; any man no matter what his
knowledge, no matter what his experience can pull down; a fool could
set fire to a building; a few fools could set fire to a city and
consume the works of man that had cost hundred of years of labor. It
requires no wisdom for a man to criticize the acts of another man. It
is even said that a fool can ask questions that could not be answered
by the wisest men. Unwise people can criticize plans and schemes the
creation of wise and experienced heads; that is a comparatively easy
matter for parsons to do. But it requires great wisdom to organize; it
requires great wisdom to create measures that will bind a people of
diversified interests together; of varieties of views, dissimilar
habits and to some extent of training, and to bring them together, and
bind them together, and make one people of them, it requires the highest
qualities of wisdom, and it is this we are endeavoring to do. Can it
be found fault with? Undoubtedly there are many things in our
organizations that are defective; but it is our duty, if there be
faults, to correct them. If there be wise men among us let them come
forward; let us see their wisdom, and not retain it to benefit one,
but let it be used to benefit the whole. There was not any more
obligation upon President Young, when he was alive, or upon the Prophet
Joseph when he lived, than there is upon us individually; that is
looking at it in one light. You and I all expect to share if faithful,
the same glory that they will attain to. Every man and every woman in
this audience comprising this body of Latter-day Saints, expect, if
found faithful, to share with those who have gone before—the righteous
and holy, and become heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ;
that is, attain to the very highest glory. If this be our aspiration,
our hope and anticipation, we should work for that, we should labor
for it. In the words of the revelation I have read in your hearing,
"He is a slothful servant that waits to be commanded." A man may do,
and he should do many things of his own free will in the exercise of
his agency. And if there be wisdom in the breast of any man that has
not been brought to light, let it come forth to the light that we may
have the benefit of it in causing to be effected a more perfect
organization of this people. For I tell you we have a perfect
organization in view, and nothing short of it will satisfy us. The
Twelve have all had it at heart, and they are bound by the covenants
of the Holy Priesthood and by the responsibility which rests upon
them, and upon him, who is the President of the Twelve and of the
Church. I say we are bound by these covenants and these signs of re sponsibility, and to labor today, and labor tomorrow, and
labor continuously until eternity shall dawn upon us for the more
perfect organization of this people in their temporal affairs. And as
for division, we want it not; disunion, we want it not. We do not want
to see the Elders of Israel fall asunder, dividing this people and
leading them away from the union that should characterize us. We say
that any man that does it is not of God; the man that does it is not
inspired by the Spirit of God, and has not the love and prosperity of
this work at heart.
We are struggling now, the elements are chaotic. In some respects we
are endeavoring to gather together. Dealing in merchandise is a small
matter, and yet it lies to a certain extent at the foundation of our
business; therefore we talk about it; but merchandising is a small
matter compared with the work of organizing the people to get them to
manufacture and to furnish labor, that there may be no idle among us,
that every boy and every girl, and every man and every woman in this
community shall find employment; and that measures may be devised to
use their labor and talent and ingenuity for the welfare and
prosperity of this people for the elevation of the whole; not for the
elevation of a few individuals, but for the uplifting of the entire
community, and the whole human race out of ignorance, out of vice and
from vicious habits, and everything degrading, lift us up, until we
shall stand as man and woman could in the divine presence, filled with
that divinity which we inherit from our Heavenly Father; and govern
and control the elements with which this earth is so abundantly
endowed, for our happiness, for the happiness of our posterity, for
the happiness of the entire human family as far as they reach—from the
north to the south, from east to west, until we shall comprehend the
whole family of God our Heavenly Father, gradually diffusing the
blessings we enjoy in these valleys throughout the entire earth,
until the whole earth shall be benefited and blessed by our
organization and by our existence upon it.
These are some of the responsibilities that devolve upon us as a
people. Shall I live for myself? God forbid that I should live to
spend my time and exercise the talent I may possess for my personal
benefit, or for the benefit of my family alone. Why? It is unworthy of
any man or any woman to live for self alone; to pile up our benefits
and comforts for our own luxury and aggrandizement. God forbid that we
whom God has chosen, we whom he has called and inspired by his Holy
Spirit, and blessed with the everlasting Gospel, and upon whom he has
placed his Holy Priesthood, and called us to be saviors of men, I say
God forbid that we should do this, that we should settle down and
think entirely of self and build up self, and let our sphere of
usefulness be limited to our own family, extend not an inch beyond our
own household and our own family circle. God did not choose us for any
such purpose, he did not reveal himself to us for any such object; but
he has chosen us to be his missionaries in the earth, to be the
pioneers in laying the foundation of that great work that shall stand
forever, that shall swallow up all the works and powers of man, all
the organizations of man, shall swallow all up and comprehend them all
within itself. He has called us to this high and holy calling; and it
should be your aim and it ought to be my aim to labor for the general
good. To starve ourselves? No. Neglect ourselves? No. Let our families go uncared for? No. This is not necessary, that is the other
extreme. I have no right to have a family and neglect them; but on the
other hand I am under obligation to look after them, to treat them
properly and give them every advantage in my power. When I became a
father I took upon myself that responsibility, and it is a serious
one, that is, I should educate my children and train them up in a
proper manner, and see that they do not go hungry or naked. But I have
another duty, a duty that reaches out beyond the family circle, a duty
I owe to my fellow creatures. It is my duty to use my surplus strength
and surplus means for their good, to endeavor to make them better for
my existence; because I have been born that the earth will be better
for it, that men and women will be better because I have lived. And it
should be that the world will be better, because this Church has been
organized, that the world will be better for our existence as an
organization. And it should be the aim of every man in this Church, of
every Bishop and every President of Stake and every Counselor and
officer of whatever name or calling; it should be his aim to labor for
the salvation of the people. And the Apostles above all, it devolves
upon us, it is the covenant, as I have said, of the priesthood we
have received; and it rests upon us, and it requires us to labor to
combine and unite the interests of this people. And we beseech you, in
Christ's stead, brethren and sisters, be ye united, put away
bickerings, put away strifes, put away all those causes of division
whether they are real or imaginary, and be united as a people, and I
tell you in the name of Jesus, as one of his Apostles if you do this,
the heavens will be open to you and the blessings of God will descend
upon you, in your basket and in your store, in your fields and in your
flocks, and herds, in your wives and children, in your husbands, in
your fathers and mothers, in your brothers and sisters and all your
organizations; the blessings of God will descend, like the dew
distilled from heaven, and rest upon you, and all that bless you will
imbibe and cherish the same spirit. Now, these things are pressing
upon us. We have everything against us, the whole world it may be
said, are ready to pass judgment upon us; but yet there are many who
oppose the work of God who do so because they have not understood it,
and such people, many of them will yet be gathered in and numbered
among us. This work is not for this little handful of people, it is
for the whole earth and all the inhabitants thereof and the day will
come when the lessons taught by the Latter-day Saints will be approved
by those who are not Latter-day Saints. When the good government
maintained in the midst, of the people of God will be copied after,
and we will be looked to as exemplary.
I pray God to bless you, to pour out his Spirit upon this Conference
and upon all who shall speak and all who shall hear and all who are
kept, away from the Conference that the same spirit may run through
every heart; for I tell you, my brethren and sisters, it is in vain we
labor, unless God is with us, in vain we assemble unless his Spirit is
poured upon the people to make them to comprehend and to soften their
hearts. It is a need greatly to be desired that God's Spirit will
descend upon the Latter-day Saints. Oh, that it might, be poured out
in power and break and rend asunder the darkness that beclouds our
minds, that we may see the things of God as they really are, and sense
fully the responsibilities we are under as individuals before
him. And I believe that it will be poured out more and more, and the
blessings that we have yearned for and which we have prayed for and
that we have so much desired in our hearts, and for which we have
built Temples, these blessings will descend upon us, and the angels
will be nearer to us, and the heavens will be more open to our cries
and to our supplications to bestow upon us the blessings there of. We
approach nearer to heaven correspondingly as we live the Gospel
revealed to us. It is a precious Gospel, it is a Gospel in which there
is contained every requisite to make men and women happy, and to
produce a heaven upon earth; and if we will obey it and carry it out
there will be more blessings conferred upon us. And that this may be
the case, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon