I stand here today, as you are all aware, to speak of those things
which pertain to the faith that we have received, of that order which
we call the Gospel of the Son of God, that order which the world
entitles "Mormonism," a system which contains within itself many
elements which are strange to mankind, but which are very powerful in
their character and calculated in their progress and growth to arrest
the attention of the human family. With all the faults, weaknesses and
traditions which encumber the people who dwell in these mountains, I
believe the universal testimony is, that they are entitled to credit
for earnestness, for industry, for honesty, and for many results which
have grown out of these characteristics. One source of territorial, or
state, or national greatness consists in a proper understanding of the
purposes for which men dwell upon the earth, upon their ideas in
regard to family organization, social ethics, or those principles
which bind man to man and family to family, and make of a nation a
grand united whole.
The Latter-day Saints, it is well known, are strong advocates of
marriage. They believe that every man and every woman should enter
into that relationship. They believe in the divinity of that first
command, that the human race were destined to multiply and replenish
the earth. Consequently, wherever any large assembly of the Latter-day
Saints are brought together, there you will find a very large
proportion of those who are young in years. The theories which are
held by some philosophers, by some men and women who enter the
marriage state, find no place among the Latter-day Saints. The
universal faith among them is that children are "an heritage from the
Lord;" that "happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them," in
contradistinction to an increasing tendency elsewhere, to believe that
there should be a limit to the number of children which a man should
possess, and that wheresoever they may be considered undesirable, from
the claims of society, from the disposition to follow the fashions of
the age, from a feeling that self-gratification is the highest destiny
of the human family, that there the family increase should be
curtailed. Among the Latter-day Saints those ideas have not obtained a
foothold. Although they have come from the outside world, gathered
from the nations of the earth and measurably partaken of the
influences which prevail there, yet they have not so far done violence
to the instincts which God has planted within them as to practice the
theories of the parties to whom I have alluded. And in all our
assemblies, as I have said before, in this tabernacle as an
illustration, in our ward meetings and in all our settlements and
colonies, there is substantial testimony to be found of the fact that
in this obedience to the law of primitive times, to the law of the
constitution of human nature, and to the law as revealed to us in this
"dispensation of the fullness of times," the Latter-day Saints have
paid marked and decided attention.
This increase of population brings with it many thoughts; it is the
father or parent of much reflection to those who grasp the situation.
I recollect many a time in my travels east, when gentlemen in the
great cities of this country made reflections in regard to our
emigration from the different portions of the earth, I have said:
"Yes, we have quite an emigration; the gathering is a fixed fact,
fundamental in the economy of this Gospel." But outside of this
gathering there is another one, which fails to arrest the attention of
the world because it comes in a less ostentatious manner, and that is
the wonderful home increase of that people dwelling in the mountains.
And whenever tourists visit here, if they travel outside the limits of
this city, if they visit our settlements in the length and breadth
thereof, they cannot fail to be struck with the rapid multiplication
of those who have thus gathered from the nations of the earth. When we
inform the world that in a population of 150,000 souls there can be
found in the neighborhood of 50,000 in attendance upon our schools;
when we realize the immense number under the age of maturity, it would
require a mathematician to tell what will speedily be the increase if
the present policy is pursued. In a few generations to come, if this
characteristic continues to manifest itself proportionately, there
will be a continual necessity for spreading forth, Utah will become
too small for her spreading population, and in all the adjacent
Territories and States, those who have been drawn together
under her institutions, who have accepted her faith and believe in her
destiny—those will be found measurably carrying out the ideas which
today permeate our society in a local capacity.
In considering this element growing up in our midst, we may form some
idea in regard to the future of the people who dwell here. I believe
there is an ancient proverb which says that "the stream cannot rise
higher than its fountain," that "as men sow so shall they also reap;"
and whatever we may have anticipated when illuminated with the spirit
of prophecy, whatever our private ideas may be in regard to the glory
and the greatness that shall rest upon the people, one thing is sure,
that it depends upon the growth, development and characteristics which
are imprinted and made manifest in the posterity of the Latter-day
Saints.
Education is one of the "catch words" of this generation. It is
considered to be one of the mightiest levers for the future prosperity
of the United States; but opinions in regard to what constitutes
education are as various almost as the individuals who are questioned.
With a very large number, education is supposed to consist in the
ability to read and write, and in the understanding of the
geographical character of the country in which the student lives. It
is considered to be comprehended in the rules of arithmetic and in the
various branches of an advanced or classical education, as it is
called, where the youth of the country graduate, and are then called
scholars. But I apprehend this style of education may be given with a
generous and extended hand to every son and daughter of this republic,
and yet when you come to analyze the whole you will find that the mass
of the people thus trained are, as a rule, absolutely deficient in the
great and grand element which constitutes the higher form of education
and of human culture.
There is in the scholastic institutions of the United States something
of a disposition to eradicate from them everything which savors of
religious training. It has been sought in many places to exclude the
Bible as a text book, or a book to be used in any form whatever, much
more the idea of including any form of religious faith or practice.
Rather has there been an idea in the mind of most Americans that it
was fundamental in the constitution and genius of the country that
there should be an eternal separation between what is considered and
called religious and secular things. Yet, when we reflect upon the
wonderful organization we have and that we see around us, when we
reflect upon the faculties and endowments which men possess, can we
not see that this very idea of "church and state," or religious and
secular faculty, is interwoven and is the very fabric of humanity,
placed there by God himself, and that there is a disposition under the
religious sentiment to draw sustenance and support, comfort and solace
from the conceptions which pertain to divinity; and growing out from
this fundamental religious idea or sentiment and established thereupon
can come alone all the highest attributes that we look for in the
future, a time when man shall find all his powers and functions
harmoniously developed. And it is just as impossible to separate this
great constitutional principle which exists in the human organization
as it is to divide or break asunder anything which is formed, created,
or intended to be formed, created, or intended to be adopted
by the great ruler of the universe. Man possesses his religious
faculties, no matter how dormant they may be, no matter how wrapt up
by superstition, or blinded by the ignorance and misconceptions of the
teachers who have molded him. God has planted in the human
organization those attributes which seek communion with the divine.
And it is upon righteous conceptions of man's origin that his future
will depend. If the young men of any community have no correct ideas
in regard to this; if they believe that they are but the product of
chance: if they are impregnated with the thought that they are simply
in a transitory condition and that they may "eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die," if these are the thoughts which entertain, all
their actions will correspond with these thoughts, they will not reach
out, nor after the higher attributes which belong to humanity, they
will be filled with selfishness, with a disposition to gratify their
own passions, even if they have to accomplish this at the sacrifice of
the feelings and interests of these with whom they come in contact.
But if the youth of our country realize that they are the sons and
daughters of the living God; if they realize and comprehend the fact
that before they dwelt upon the earth they enjoyed a pre-existence,
that their spirits dwelt in the eternities, and had a home there, had
associations there, and that they comprehended something of the
purposes for which they should come and tabernacle in the flesh, then
we may be sure that such thoughts and feelings will have their
influence upon the entire course of their after life. If the youth of
a community are thus trained, if they comprehend the relationship
which they sustain, to the great ruler of the universe if they have
faith in God and have received of the fact that God lives, that he
holds in his hand the destinies of the human family, that he hath
provided rewards for virtue and penalties for vice—if they comprehend
these things, their actions in life will be shaped by these ennobling
thoughts. But if the education which the youth of a country receives
is devoid of training for the religious sentiment, if the grand
revelations of the ancient times which God has given through "his
servants the prophets," are set on one side, and if instead thereof
education is supposed to consist of arithmetic and the kindred
branches of that science, of political knowledge and all that goes to
make up what is called a scholar, leaving out the cultivation of other
attributes which God has implanted in man—if that is the kind of
education imparted, then of necessity it will, at some period of time
in the history of that country, bring about religious death, and as a
consequence the bonds of society would become loosened, men would live
for themselves instead of living for each other, and they would become
simply as "the beasts that perish," ignoring the past and caring
nothing at all for the future. Hence I believe that this education and
training is an important matter as pertaining to the youth of a
country, that it should not be a Sabbath exercise only, but that at
home, at the family circle, and in the common day school there should
be as much attention given to the religious faculties as there should
be given to intellectual and mental culture about which we talk so
much, and for which we erect so many schools. And it is also to be
remarked that according to the conceptions of the people on religious matters, so also will be their conceptions in regard to
morality. Morality is the outgrowth of religion. It is the fruitage of
the tree of life in regard to men's ideas of God, of the past, and of
the future. Without the cultivation and spirit of true religion, the
moral faculties are very likely to be perverted, warped and
misdirected. If the idea of brotherhood finds no place in the
education of our youth, they will be disposed to take advantage of
their brethren, take advantage in trade, speculation, etc., and
society would thus become so individualized, that men would become a
race of Ishmaelites, "every man's hand against his brother."
I believe that among the people who inhabit these mountains that this
idea of brotherhood—the brotherhood of the human family—forms a very
prominent feature in their education. I think our youth are taught
that they should not live for themselves alone, but rather that in
living for others they can and do best subserve their own interests.
And we have examples of this in many directions, most notable among
which is the missionary system which obtains among the Latter-day
Saints. Have we not seen in our experience in this Territory, some 300
to 400 men called at once to go forth and preach the Gospel, to leave
their homes and families, their friends and business, and travel to
the nations of the earth to propagate the religious ideas which they
had received. We have known those men sent throughout the United
States, to every section of Europe, to Australia, to the Islands of
the sea, to China and to India, and such has been the devotion of
those who were thus called, that in the course of three or four weeks,
every man had left the scenes and associations that were dear to him,
and through the midst of difficulties and trials have finally found
themselves in these widely divergent points of the compass, to which
they had been called by the voice of the people and by the authority
presiding over them. And when they have gone to these different
nations they have gone in the spirit of brotherhood, they have looked
upon the human family as their brethren and their sisters. They have
gone in the capacity of saviors, and they have carried with them those
principles which are the foundation of that civilization which the
Almighty intends to establish on the face of the earth. They have not
gone to preach that which would narrow the views of mankind; they have
not gone to teach that which would introduce a spirit of selfishness
or of anything degrading, but have gone carrying with them the
principle of universal brotherhood which, when put into practice, will
cement and bind society together in such a manner, that should any
power touch the interests of one they would inevitably touch the
interests of the whole. And it has been by the faith which they have
exhibited; by the earnestness with which they have labored, by the
blessings of God and the power of his spirit which accompanied them,
that they have been able to gather from among the nations the best
elements of their society, and transplant them into these valleys of
the mountains, then weld them into a comparatively united people—a
people measurably animated by one thought, one impulse, one faith,
believing in one God, and putting into practice one order—a people who
are looking for one result, and that is the regeneration and
redemption of all those who place themselves beneath the influence of
those ideas and ordi nances which have been advanced. This is
the tree which has been planted, and the seed which has been sown, and
the result can be best calculated by those who have given most
attention to that which has been taught.
This idea creeps out in almost every direction. I have given this
illustration, of the missionary effort which has sent its thousands
and tens of thousands from this community—even when it was much
smaller in numbers than it is at present—around the habitable globe.
There is also another phase of this same spirit which the Latter-day
Saints have exhibited, they have not only sent and are sending these
men on missions, and sustaining them by their means, by their faith
and prayers, but in obedience to the spirit of gathering they have
given great assistance to those who were unable to gather of
themselves. Indeed, in the history of the past have we not seen the
time when the authorities of the Church have called for from 200 to
600 teams to journey to the Missouri River to transport the poor and
the meek of the earth across those dreary plains—where the railroad
now makes its welcome music—and they have landed thousands in this way
in the midst of these mountains and introduced them to the new order
of civilization which has been inspired by the spirit of the living
God. In addition to all this they have taken from these valleys, and
laid up at convenient points on the route, provisions enough to
sustain those thousands while thus traveling for three or four months
across the plains, they have also provided at such times a strong
mounted body guard of the youth of the territory to protect the
emigrants from the assaults of the Indians, so that they might perform
their journey in safety. And they have gone still further: they have
not only brought those thousands from the boundaries of civilization,
and from the training and education of the systems and governments of
the old world, but they have colonized all these valleys, and it is
these thousands who constitute today the cities, towns, and villages
of Utah. Not only have they been placed in these settlements but they
have been taught the rudiments and the advanced principles of
self-sustenance and of positive independence. The thousands and tens
of thousands of Utah are beyond the depths of poverty that you find
exhibited in the old world. The poverty which is known to exist there,
the strikes which occur in the ranks of labor in the old world, the
difficulties which belong to even in so blessed country as the United
States, find no place among the people who dwell in these valleys. The
majority of those who have thus come in strangers, who have been thus
surrounded by new conditions, and subjected to new influences, have
produced good results. Travel wherever you will throughout this
territory and you will find the majority of people live in their own
homes; they pay no rent to anybody; they are not, when poor and
unemployed, subject to be turned out into the public streets; they are
not, when old age creeps upon them, likely to be thrust into the
union, or poor house as it is called, where the husband is separated
from the wife and the wife from the husband, thereby giving practical
force to the new reading of the marriage ceremony as suggested by some
of the radicals of the old world, that that service should read, not
as it does at present, but "till death or poverty do us part" —they are
not subject to these conditions, but a man and woman have the
privilege of living together, the man with the wife of his youth; they
see their posterity grow up in thrift and peace, and when "the weary
wheels of life stand still" they lay themselves down in hope of a
glorious resurrection unto eternal life!
There is also another feature which is worthy of remark in this
territory. Can it not be safely said that the mortality of the people
thus gathered together bears a marked contrast to that which exists
elsewhere? Can it not be said that the influence of industry, of
peace, and of good order, has had a good effect upon the masses in
many directions. The mental pressure which excites elsewhere sends
tens of thousands to suicide or drives them into houses built for
those suffering from insanity, does not exist in the midst of the
Latter-day Saints. Mentally, the people of this territory are pretty
evenly balanced; one of the results of their faith in God, is that it
enables them to contend manfully and patiently with difficulties
instead of yielding to the circumstances thrust upon them, and thus
they become valiant in the battle of life; they are not afraid of
obstacles, or danger, or duties which may surround them; they believe
that it is best to work, to fight and overcome, instead of cowardly
taking into their hands the opportunity of depriving themselves of
living upon the earth and filling a suicide's grave. The faith of the
Gospel teaches them that life is a school, that it is an honor and
works out future glory to submit to its discipline, to overcome its
difficulties, to solve its problems and to fill its purposes, so that
all the attributes of their manhood may be cultured and developed.
This springs from the fundamental idea which the people of this
territory have received and which they have accepted in their faith,
and whatever social, commercial, political, or other class of
difficulties may arise, and even though surrounded by the fire of
persecution, they will still exercise this faith in God, and believe
that from all apparent evil he will bring forth good. Does not the
mental balance which this people exhibit, this absence of that
tendency toward suicide and lunacy—which exists in all the nations of
the earth by virtue of the pressure which society brings to bear upon
the characteristics of men—does not the fact that this pressure is
unknown among the people of Utah, (or at least if not unknown, nearly
so) stand as an evidence of the better character of the institutions
under which they live? On the other hand they are giving to their
posterity all that the world calls education. Not that they consider
it the primary object and end of life, but they do consider it useful
to their children in enabling them to fulfil some of the
responsibilities of manhood, to attend to the business duties and
affairs of life, and for this they are building schoolhouses, for this
they employ teachers and erect academies, and in this way they have
spent in poverty as much, comparatively speaking, as will bear a
pleasant contrast with any part of this country, of which they are a
part. And while they have endeavored to carry out this joint style of
education—that is, the cultivation of the highest attributes, which
consist of faith in God, faith that we can commune with him, faith in
the Scriptures handed down to us by the ancient servants of God, faith
that by the introduction of the Gospel and the practice of its
principles will be laid the foundation of a higher civilization, calculated in its nature to supersede all other forms
with which man may have been acquainted in the ages that are past—yet
for all this, politically they do not feel obliged to be either
democrats or republicans, whigs or nationalists, but rather feel to
cultivate all the qualities of patriotism and citizenship, developing
these to the highest possible perfection. But even in connection with
a system which aims at these results, a system which has set before
its believers so elevated a platform, there will occasionally in
individuals be comparative failure. But wherever men are possessed of
this faith, it is simply a question of time as to its ultimate
success, and the day is not far distant when those who hold this faith
will not be confined to Utah and the adjacent territory, they will not
be held in bondage and vassalage, and have appointed over them men in
whose election they have no voice, but they will stand qualified with
all that of excellence they desire, and have the privilege of being
free and full American citizens.
I said awhile ago that there had been a good deal of talking and a
good deal of writing in regard to a bugbear called the union of Church
and State. But it is folly to talk or write against a thing which God
has incorporated into the very fabric of man's being; and it would be
a good deal better now for the nation in which we live if the ranks of
political parties were less divided, were more imbued with a sense of
honor, virtue, purity, and the spirit of brotherhood. This would
remove from them a great many of the evils with which they are
afflicted: it would help to strengthen their efforts for the good of
the nation—in every way—if they, in the spirit of the Christian faith,
went forth to receive the suffrages of their fellow men, and then take
with them into the halls of Congress the same spirit, there to labor
with just conceptions of justice and brotherhood, realizing that "God
hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth." If our political
parties were animated by this spirit, would not the name of America
stand higher than has ever yet been dreamed of by those who entered
her counsels or sat to administer her affairs. I am an advocate for
the system which has been established in Utah Territory, because I
have studied it, I have seen its influences, I have marked its power
over the lives of those who have been obedient and subservient to it,
and I know myself that it is calculated to develop the best features
of our humanity, to unite the human family together, to bring heaven
to earth, to bring men into communion with the angels, and to hasten
the day when not only the angels, but Jesus shall come to the earth
and reign, and when the thousands of those who have been prepared
under the influence and institutions of Zion shall have the privilege
of associating with "the Church of the Firstborn; and the spirits of
just men made perfect." This I know to be the power and spirit, the
end and aim, the final triumph of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, and I feel proud that thousands in Utah have consecrated
all that they possess to the establishment of this divine system which
you can read of in the history of the past, and which has again been
revealed in our day through the ministration of angels to the Prophet
Joseph, on the eastern shores of the continent of North America I know
also that in the progress of this work it will not only take hold of
the poor and meek of the earth, but the day is not far distant
when it will take hold of many of the more thoughtful and cultivated
among men; and while we may look back through the history of the past
and think there never were statesmen like Washington and others who
have left their names on the records of fame, yet, my brethren and
sisters, the Gospel tells us that these were only the precursors of
many in the future who in intellect and culture shall stand unfolded
in all that harmony and glory which belongs to the eternities.
I know the Latter-day Saints understand these things, and in the
spirit thereof they are seeking to cultivate their faith in God,
seeking to consecrate their time, talent and ability to the building
up of Zion upon the earth; and to those who are strangers in their
midst who are not acquainted with their program, not acquainted with
the ambition which prompts and inspires the Latter-day Saints—to such
we say these are the ideas by which we are actuated. They know they
are workers for God, they are laborers in the great field of human
progress, and they are using that which they have received from the
heavens, believing that divine purposes are best served by divine
edu cation and divine culture, and when these are operating, all the
facilities about which men boast, sink into comparative insignificance
in contrast with that higher education which belongs to and grows out
of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I ask our friends who turn in with us occasionally, to give us credit
for this earnestness of purpose, and although they may not see as we
see, although they may consider the Latter-day Saints mad, yet they
must admit that "there is method in their madness." The results which
are now seen are but the drops before the shower, the little progress
now made is but the shadow of that which shall be seen when they shall
return to the land of the rising sun, for then in every State of the
Union will be found wonderful colonies of the Latter-day Saints,
wielding power and influence under the administration and institutions
of Zion, working as they work now for the elevation and progress and
redemption of the human family.
May God give us wisdom "to work while it is day," to labor diligently
in the duties to which we have been called, and when we have done
this, may we be saved in the celestial kingdom of our God, through
Jesus Christ. Amen.
- Henry W. Naisbitt