The prophet Isaiah, in speaking of the latter-day Zion, made this
singular remark:
"Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be
defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
"But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they
his counsel:" etc.,
Again, it has been said concerning the disobedient who reject and set
at nought the counsels of the Almighty, through his servants who are
sent unto them:
"I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear
cometh;"
The wicked comprehend not the things of God; they cannot know them,
for they are spiritually discerned. "The things of God," says the
Apostle Paul, "knoweth no man only by the Spirit of God;" or, in other
words, carnal man knows not the things of God, neither can he
understand them. The unbelieving world cannot see as the Saints see;
they walk in darkness, but the Saints are the children of light, even
as many as keep sacred their covenants with God. The wicked
love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. This
was true of the first century of the Christian era, when the Savior
uttered it; it is true today. As the light shone in darkness and the
darkness comprehended it not, so might the same be said today. We are
called to be the children of light. Blessed are they who continue in
the light, for the day of the Lord will not overtake them as a thief
in the night; but woe unto them that depart from, or reject that light
that shines in the midst of the darkness, for the day cometh and that
speedily, when they will be overtaken as by a whirlwind. The command
of the Lord to the Saints is to watch, for we know not the day nor the
hour when the Son of man shall come. The precise time of his coming
has not been revealed; the prophets were ignorant of it; it could not
be declared to the apostles of the Lamb, and, indeed, the Savior said
that not the angels, nor even he himself, knew the day or the hour of
this important event. And on taking his final leave of the Twelve, on
the Mount of Olives, the question was put to him—"Lord, wilt thou at
this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" They, it seems, were wont to
regard the Savior as that Being that was to establish himself upon the
throne of David, and bring to pass all that they had been so anxiously
expecting; but he told them it was not for them to know the times and
the seasons which the Father had put in his power. These things have
been spoken that the Saints should watch and not fall asleep. The same
idea is also set forth in the parable of the ten virgins, who were
represented as having gone forth to meet the bridegroom, five of whom
were wise and five foolish. The wise virgins took oil in their
vessels, and were pre pared to meet the bridegroom and to go with him
into the marriage feast; the foolish virgins took no oil, they were
unprepared, and were consequently shut out. This parable is expressly
applicable to the time of the second coming of the Savior, showing us
that however reluctant we may feel to admit it, we are plainly given
to understand that a great portion of those who are counted virgins,
of the Lord's people, who believe in his coming and who go forth to
meet him, will slumber and sleep, and be locked out when he shall
come. And it behooves all Saints to ask themselves the question which
the disciples asked the Savior when he told them the startling truth
that one of them should betray him—"Lord, is it I?" And all those who
are very anxious upon this point will be likely to be on the
watchtower, and not slumbering in that fatal hour.
And again, in the 24th of Matthew, he speaks of that wicked servant
who shall begin to say, "My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin
to smite his fellowservants, and eat and drink with the drunken; The
lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him,
and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and
appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth." He expects this of his servants whom he has
appointed over his house, to give his children meat in due season. It
becomes the apostles, and presidents, and bishops, and all who are
called as watchmen upon the walls of Zion to read the 24th and 25th of
Matthew, giving due attention thereto, and to beware, least they be
found among those unfaithful servants who have been appointed to
minister in his house and give meat in due season, but who smite their
fellowservants, and who eat and drink with the drunkard, and
otherwise neglect their high and holy calling, for responsibility,
position and station will not be any protection or safeguard in that day. But, on the contrary the greater the responsibility
neglected, the greater their fall, chagrin and disappointment, and woe
when they find their allotted portion among the hypocrites and
unbelievers.
And the enemies of Zion who want to penetrate our sacred and holy
places, and who say in their hearts, Let her temples be defiled; let
adventurers, profligates and libertines mingle in their family
circles, and break them asunder, and defile the daughters of Zion and
break up the holy institution of sacred and holy matrimony, by which
they are bound together in the new and everlasting covenant for time
and eternity; yes, they say, let this covenant be broken, let all who
believe and will not deny the laws and commands of God, be excluded
from the jury-box, from the ballot box and from official station. And
here comes another wail from a member of the Cabinet, in the form of a
decision to the effect that all plural wives, who will not break their
covenants with their God and their husband, shall be excluded from the
right of homestead and pre-emption; and I doubt not but what
everything will be done that Satan can put into their hearts to do to
block the wheel, to hedge up the way, in order to test the faith of
the righteous and their integrity to each other and the principles of
truth. But it must be remembered that God permits it, that they may
fill up the cup of their iniquity, that the righteous may be proven
and tested, even to the core. For God will have a tried people, and
those only who will abide in his covenant, even to the death if
necessary, will be found worthy of that glory and exaltation in his
kingdom which we seek after. It is a day of warning, not of many
words; it is also a day of sacrifice. God has a controversy with the
nations, but first with those unto whom the fullness of the Gospel has
been sent. He will work in his own wondrous way his purposes to
perform. It becomes us to be very humble, that we may be worthy to be
his instruments in accomplishing his designs.
I rejoice in the testimony of the Spirit manifested by the previous
speakers during this Conference. My earnest desire is that the Spirit
may spread abroad among all people and take deep root in their hearts,
not only throughout the Stakes of Zion, but throughout the earth. Dark
clouds may gather around us from time to time; then is the time not to
fear, but to watch and pray and patiently await the Lord of Hosts to
dispel them and cause the sun to shine again upon us; remembering the
vision of Nephi, in which he saw the rod of iron which led to the tree
of life, along the turbulent stream of muddy water, and through mists
and clouds which at intervals beset his pathway; and that those who
clung to it were led safely through and reached the tree and partook
of the fruit thereof, while those who ceased their hold to the rod of
iron wandered off and were lost.
I have felt the greatest concern for the rising generation among us;
they are far more numerous than our foreign immigrants. Secretary
Evarts and the Cabinet need have far less fear concerning our foreign
immigrants than of those that are constantly coming from the spirit
world. The enemies of Zion fear this doctrine of the Saints, that
"Children are an heritage of the Lord, * * * and happy is the man that
hath his quiver full of them." This doctrine permits the Latter-day
Saints to fulfil the first great command given to Father Adam and
Mother Eve, instead of adopting that abominable and soul-destroying
doctrine of devils, infanticide and feticide, which is practiced to
no little extent in the Christian world, which is in open violation to
the laws of nature and the law of God to our first parents, to
"multiply and replenish the earth." And the practice of this same
doctrine is fast depopulating some of our older States; besides, it
tends to encourage prostitution; and, strange as it may appear, a
future day will yet reveal that among the foremost and prominent
votaries of this doctrine of devils are those who fight against Zion
and her institution of marriage, under the hypocritical cant as such
men as Schuyler Colfax, in his utterance from the balcony of the
Townsend House in this city, and Attorney-General Devens, in
his argument in the Reynolds case, in effect, that the plural marriage
of the Mormons cannot be tolerated, because the burning of widows upon
the funeral pile of their husbands was wrong. There is about as much
relevancy and consistency in the argument as there would be to say
that the practices of the multitudes of families of this Christian
land, who are destroying their own offspring and taking villainous
compounds to induce barrenness and unfruitfulness, must be tolerated
and encouraged, because the practices of the Latter-day Saints are
filling these mountains with a thrifty population. It is shown by the
statistics that our children under the age of eight years are already
nearly as numerous as the lay members of the Church. I feel that too
much attention cannot be bestowed upon the rising generation. Our
young people's Improvement Associations, our Sabbath Schools and
quorum meetings are all so many aids in the training and education of
the young in all that is elevating and praiseworthy. And may God bless
them in their earnest efforts to improve the spirits of their
fellow men.
There is one thing I wish to call the attention of our presiding
officers to, more especially, that of the Presidents of Stakes and
their counselors and the Bishops as their aids and assistants, and
that is to give more diligent heed to the temporal condition of the
families of the Saints over whom they preside, seeing to it that they
are suitably and profitably employed. It is an old adage that an idle
brain is the devil's workshop; and we all know that the lack of useful
and proper employment is the source of numerous evils. It should be
our study to introduce new branches of business, devise means of
employment, that none may be idle. This is an important duty required
of the leading men in Israel; and so earnest should they be in its
performance that they make it a matter of faith and prayer, using
their utmost endeavors to seek it out by thoughtful study, and by
consulting each other, and by inviting the aid of inventive minds. It
is important that our schoolteachers should not merely be automatons
or parrots in the schoolroom by way of impressing a lesson upon the
minds of the children, but strive, in an eminent degree, to direct
their minds in a moral and religious sense, inculcating, by precept
and example, due respect for virtue, and everything that is pure and
noble; having also, as much as practicable a watchcare over them out
of school as in school, laboring to enforce punctuality and an honest
report, thereby helping their parents to look after them, so that they
may not squander away their time foolishly, as many do in our towns
and cities, lounging around stores and other places, acquiring habits
that are calculated to lead away and defile the minds of the youth.
The schoolteacher who is alive to the true spirit of his calling
becomes a valuable auxiliary in improving the minds and conduct of our
children, and his or her influence, when properly excited, might be of
incalculable good.
There has been in times past, and still is, a great tendency among our
youth to seek easy berths; and sometimes the acme of their ambition
seems to be realized upon a high stool in a counting room, or behind a
counter; they desire to shun the hardships through which their parents
passed. That is a vain delusion, and it is simply foolishness on the
part of parent or child who indulges in it. It is unwise for parents
to entertain this spirit, to be anxious to shield their children from
the trials of life through which they themselves have passed; no
really sensible man or woman would do it. There is no sensible man or
woman in the land that would exchange their experience for all the
wealth of the world. If any would do it, they have failed to learn
their lesson and profit from their experience. Adversity is good for
all; prosperity few can fear.
The Presidents of Stakes, with their Counselors, and the Bishops as
their assistants, should, when they know of any unoccupied land within
their borders that ought to be improved and possessed by the
Latter-day Saints get together and select young and
middle-aged men who are not already provided with good, suitable homes
or means of sustenance, organize them with good and efficient leaders,
and send them out to occupy those new valleys, teaching them to do as
their fathers have done—teach them to take out the mountain streams,
build gristmills, sawmills and factories, raise breadstuff, sheep and
cattle, and prepare to live, instead of craving easy berths, and be
all the days of their lives dependent upon the will of an employer for
a livelihood.
There are many places in our Territory east of us, on both sides of
Green River, also in Sanpete, Piute and Kane counties, and in the
adjoining States and Territories, that ought to be occupied; for the
Latter-day Saints cannot be confined to Utah. Everything indicates the
fulfillment of the declaration of the ancient prophet, who said:
"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes;
"For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;" etc.
In the very nature of things this must be the case; for we are an
aggressive people, not to trample on the rights of our fellow man, but
to fulfil the purposes of the Almighty, and possess and make fruitful
the waste places. And as the wicked are wasted away through disease,
war and bloodshed, murder, infanticide, feticide and the judgments of
an offended God, he requires his people to go forth as he shall
prepare the way, and possess the land and hold it for God and his
kingdom, whose it is, and who will come in due time to reign over it.
Fear not to take to yourselves wives and to multiply and replenish the
earth, and occupy the unoccupied regions, and leave it not to your
enemies while you are clustering around these mercantile houses and
saloons and places of ease and idleness; but break out and face the
realities of life. And let no father or mother in their old age
indulge childish fancies, and encourage these whinings of their
children; but be as courageous as the old hen, who, after scratching
for her brood until they are able to scratch for themselves, sends
them forth to get their own living.
We do not wish to be compelled to call men to this work of settling up
the country; the Twelve and the General Conference have other things
to occupy their time and attention, while this work more directly
belongs to the Presidents of Stakes. The Twelve, however, are ready to
counsel with these brethren and render them all the aid we can. But we
don't want the Presidents of Stakes to think that they can do nothing,
leaving the Twelve to attend to all such things; that is part of their
calling, as fathers in Israel. We wish the country bordering on that
occupied by the Lamanites settled by men who know how to behave
themselves, and who will befriend that people, and not shoot them down
as we would the wild beasts, without cause or provocation, nor give
them occasion to be our enemies, to lay in wait to rob and kill; but
to cultivate their love and good will which is a common duty of all
Saints to all people, but especially to the House of Israel; and set
good examples and manifest in all their dealings honesty and
integrity, thereby sowing good seed in their hearts, that shall in the
due time of the Lord bring forth precious fruit.
We want many earnest, upright young men also to learn the languages of
the natives of the American Continent, and also the Spanish language,
which is extensively used in Central and South America as well as
Mexico, and which is the national language of those countries and of
the educated natives who exercise dominion over the ignorant Indians
and the mixed races of the Continent. We expect to call many to labor
among these people, as the Lord may dictate, and we want them to be
prepared to respond when there is a whisper in their ears to that
effect.
May God bless you, and help us all to be truly what we are called to
be, Saints of the last days, to stand before the Son of Man when he
shall appear, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.