I have been desirous to meet with the priesthood of this Stake, and I
have invited a number of the presidents of Stakes within this district
of country to be present at this meeting, for the consideration of
certain questions that have been pressing themselves upon my mind for
some time, that I want to lay before the people here.
We have met here in a capacity of the holy priesthood, and all of us
profess to be elders in Israel, and to be disposed at least to walk
according to the order of God, and to seek to establish the principles
of righteousness as far as lies in our power, and to try to build up
his kingdom on the earth. That, at least, is our profession, and I
believe is the sentiment of the hearts of most of the brethren
now assembled. At the same time we have different ideas about many
things, particularly things of a temporal nature, so called. We go in
a good deal for what is called "free trade and sailor's rights" —we
want to enjoy a large amount of liberty. All these things are very
popular and very correct. But in our acts and doings it is necessary
that we be governed by certain laws and principles which have been
given unto us by the Lord. We all concede to this. But there are some
things we seem to be very much confused about, in regard to our
temporal matters. During the lifetime of President Young—several years
ago, it seemed as though he was wrought upon to introduce cooperation
and the United Order, to quite an extent. He told us at the time that
it was the word and the will of God to us. I believed it then; and I
believe it now. And yet, at the same time, every kind of idea, feeling
and spirit has been manifested. In many places cooperation and the
United Order have been started under various forms; in some they have
succeeded very well, and in other places people have acted foolishly
and covetously, seeking their own personal, individual interests under
the pretense of serving God and carrying out his designs. Others have
been visionary and have undertaken things which were impracticable,
while others have not acted in good faith at all. There has been every
kind of feeling among us as a people, that is possible to exist
anywhere. And I have thought sometimes in regard to our cooperative
institutions, that some of those who are engaged in them and sustained
by them are as much opposed to cooperation and United Order as any
other class of people we have. At least, I have noticed feelings of
that kind. I do not say they are general. But there are certain
reflections in relation to these matters that have been pressing upon
my mind for some time. And let me here ask myself a question—a
question not of a personal nature; I have not come here to talk about
any personal matters at all, but upon principle and upon some of those
principles that we as Latter-day Saints, and as elders in Israel,
profess to believe in. The question would be and my text would be
today, if I wanted to take a text: Shall we sustain cooperation and
the United Order, and work with that end in view in all of our
operations, or shall we give it up as a bad thing unworthy of our
attention? That is where the thing comes to, in my mind. At any rate,
we wish to act honestly and honorably in this matter. If we believe
that these principles are true, let us be governed by them; if we do
not, let us abandon them at once, conclude that we have made a mistake
and have no more to do with them. For we, all of us, profess to be at
least honest men, and to act conscientiously. If there is anything
wrong in these things, let us know the wrong; and if it is not a
command of God, and not binding upon us, let us quit it. And then the
question naturally arises, Are we prepared to do this? And, on the
other hand, if we believe that these are principles that are
inculcated by the Lord, then let us be governed by them. In fact,
whichever way we decide let us carry out our decisions in good faith,
and not have our sign painted on one side in white and on the other
black or some other color. But let us feel as the prophet Elijah did
on a certain occasion, "If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal,
then follow him." There was a disposition in ancient Israel to
have a part of God and a part of the devil or Baal—an idolatrous god
which was worshipped by them. I sometimes think that in some respects
we are a good deal like them. Do we believe our religion? Yes. Do we
believe in the holy priesthood and that God has restored it to the
earth? Yes. Do we believe that God has established his kingdom? Yes.
And do we believe that the holy priesthood is under the guidance of
the Lord? O, yes; but still we would like a good deal of our own way.
If we must introduce something that the Lord has commanded, we would
like to put it off just as far as we can, and if we cannot do it any
other way we will fight against it, according to circumstances, and
how things move and operate. We often wish the Lord would not exact
certain things of us; we would rather have our own way. But let us
look at things calmly and dispassionately. As I understand it, the
Lord has gathered us together to do his will, to observe his laws and
keep his commandments. And we have certain obligations devolving upon
us in the holy priesthood which God requires at our hands. He
requires, for instance, of the Twelve to go, when called upon, to the
nations of the earth and preach the Gospel to those nations. If they
were not to do it, would they be justified? No, they would not; God
would require the blood of the people at their hands. That is the way
I figure up these things. I do not know of any half-way house. As one
of the Twelve, I do not want to dodge any of these questions, but meet
them fairly and squarely. And I think I have done it; and I think the
Twelve generally have. They have always been on hand to go anywhere
when the Lord has re quired them to go, whether in sickness or health,
in poverty or abounding in means; no matter what their circumstances,
or what individualism would have to be sacrificed, their object has
ever been to do the will of God. And so it has been with a great many
of the seventies, high priests and also with a great many of the
elders. Their feelings have been: Let the Lord speak, and here am I,
ready to do his will and carry out his designs. And this feeling
exists today in the hearts of a great many; but there are also a great
many who do not feel so, who want to dodge these questions. Here is
Brother Eldredge, who is one of the presidents of the seventies; he
knows how extremely difficult it is to get men, as we used in former
years—"at the drop of the hat," as it was termed, to go on missions.
However, I do not wish to dwell upon that; I merely refer to it in
passing along.
We are here, as I understand it, as Jesus was, "Not to do our own
will, but the will of our Father who sent us." If God had not felt
after you, and his spirit operated upon you, you would not be here in
these mountains today. What does Jesus say about these things in
speaking of them? "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for
them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." You have been in
the same situation; you have seen the elect of God gathered together
through the medium of the holy priesthood, by the opening of the
heavens and the revelation of the will of God to man and the
restoration of the holy Gospel. You have been gathered together in
this way, and we all have. What to do? Is it, as they used to say in
the Church of England, to follow the devices and desires of our own
hearts? Is it to follow out some petty scheme of our own? I do
not so understand it; I understand that it is to build up the Church
and kingdom of God upon the earth, and to prepare the earth and the
people of the earth for the things that are coming on the earth; and
to prepare ourselves, as a people, to receive further intelligence,
wisdom and knowledge from God, that he may have a people in whom he
can place confidence, and whom he can bless, and through them confer
blessings on mankind. He expects us to build up his kingdom, and that
is the first consideration with us. And this is what he told his
disciples in former days, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things" —referring to our temporal
concerns, which comparatively are like so many chips and
whetstones—"shall be added unto you." But these things, too, enter
into our daily life and our intercourse one with another, and into the
purposes of God associated with the gathering of his people together,
that they may be one, that through them he can communicate his will to
the human family, that there may be a nucleus formed around which the
honest in heart from all the world may rally; and be in possession of
the word and will of the Lord, and the light, intelligence and
revelations of God our Father; that the secret of the Lord might be
with those who fear him, and that they might fear him and understand
the things which are approaching, and prepare the earth for those
things that are coming. We appear here, as it were, in a normal
school, to prepare ourselves to carry out the purposes of God upon the
earth. Can you find a people anywhere on the earth that will listen to
the word of God? No, you cannot; neither can you find anybody to whom
God could communicate his will. We talk a good deal, and often preach
a good deal, about the judgments which are to come upon the earth:
wars, pestilence, famine, and distress of nations, and testify that
calamity will follow so continuously that by and by it will be a
vexation to hear the report thereof. We have talked about these things
for years. I have myself for upwards of forty years; and as I have
said before, so I repeat, that these things which await the world, are
forty years nearer than they were forty years ago. God did not mock us
when he told us of these things; but all that he has said concerning
them through ancient prophets and through Joseph Smith are true, and
as sure as God lives they will take place. I will prophesy that they
will take place as sure as God lives, and they are approaching very
rapidly upon us. We are told that the day will come when he that will
not take up his sword against his neighbor must needs flee to Zion for
safety. And is that true? Yes, it is. If that should take place today,
are we prepared for it? I think not. If we should go on for years as
we are now going on shall we be prepared for it? We are not, today,
all of us, preparing for these things. We can hardly manage a few
miserable apostates and a few Gentiles, and we feel very creepy
sometimes about anything that transpires, not knowing how or what may
be the result; instead of being clothed upon with the spirit of God
and being filled with the Holy Ghost, the light of revelation and the
power of God. But we do not have this kind of feeling, and we are
divided up in our interest, one man pulling against another, so much
so, that we have today all kinds of Gentilism among us. Even our
newspapers give circulation to certain classes of
advertisements which are a living lie, and it is a shame and disgrace
that such things should be seen in Zion. Some call it Gentile
trickery, the tricks of trade, etc., but I call it chicanery and
falsehood, and it is so in regard to many other things. Does this
comport with the position we occupy as men holding the holy
priesthood? I do not think it does. I think we ought to occupy a more
elevated and honorable position; I think we ought to be governed by
other influences, and be actuated by other motives. I think that our
lives, our desires, our feelings and our acts ought to be to try to
build up Zion and establish the kingdom of God upon the earth; that we
should be united in our temporal as well as in our spiritual affairs,
for God says: "If you are not one you are not mine." Do you believe
it? You elders of Israel, do you believe that saying? And if we are
not the Lord's then whose are we? We have our own plans, our own
notions and our own theories; and as one of old expressed it, we are
seeking for gain, every one from his own quarter. And we are governed
to a very great extent by selfishness, and too much by our own
personal feelings, and allow these things to influence us instead of
being governed by those high, noble, dignified and glorious principles
that dwell in the bosom of God, which emanated from him, and which
dwell also in the bosoms of those who in sincerity fear God and keep
his commandments.
Now, I know what many of you will say, in speaking of cooperation:
"there has been a great many abuses." Yes, I admit it—numbers of them.
"What and under the name of the United Order also?" Yes, any quantity
of them. Joseph Smith in his day said it was ex tremely difficult to
introduce these things because of the greed, covetousness, selfishness
and wickedness of the people. I wish here to refer to one or two
things connected with this subject. I spoke about the Twelve, the
seventies, the elders and the high priests; and stated that a great
many of them had been out preaching the Gospel, and that some of them
felt as though it is hard work. It is, no doubt, very uphill business
for a man to be a Saint if he is not one; and if he has not the
principles of the Gospel in his heart, it must be very hard work, I
may say an eternal struggle, for him to preach. But if a man has got
the pure principles of the Gospel in his heart, it is quite easy for
him to expound the truth. Well, now, I will take the words of Jesus:
"Except a man can forsake father or mother, wife and children, houses
and lands, for my sake, he cannot be my disciple." And let me say to
you, my brethren, that that Gospel is just as true today as it was
then, that except a man is prepared to forsake his earthly interests
for the sake of the Gospel of the Son of God, he is unworthy of it,
and cannot be a true Saint. Now, this is where the hardship comes in
and it also accounts for this eternal rubbing and bumping. "How much
can't I do, and how little can I do to retain fellowship with the
Church; and how much can I act selfishly and yet be counted a disciple
of Christ?" Did you never feel as Paul describes it—the spirit
striving against the flesh? I guess you have, and you doubtless know
all about it; for these are plain matters of fact. This is the
position the Gospel has placed us in; and it is a very difficult thing
to serve two masters, in fact it is useless for any man to attempt to
do it, "for (as the Savior says) either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." And therefore Jesus said:
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light."
But to return to the principles of cooperation and United Order.
Supposing a man had come to you elders, when you were out on missions,
requesting baptism at your hands, without having repented of his sins,
would you have baptized him? No, you would not. But supposing he
claimed to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but not in baptism; would
you receive him into the Church? No, you dare not do such things. But
supposing again that he believed in baptism and in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and had repented of his sins, but did not believe in the
laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost; would you
baptize him? No. And further supposing he had complied with all these
requirements, and he had the opportunity to gather to Zion but did
not improve the opportunity, would you consider him a very good Saint?
No. Now, beside all these, the Lord has given us a law pertaining to
tithing; and if he did not comply with that would you consider him a
good Saint? No. And we are told to build temples, and the man who
would refuse to do this work, you would consider a very poor specimen
of a Latter-day Saint. Referring to the United Order, the Lord has
given us to understand that whosoever refuses to comply with the
requirements of that law, his name shall not be known in the records
of the Church, but shall be blotted out; neither shall his children
have an inheritance in Zion. Are these the words of the Lord to us? I
suppose there are none here today but would say, Yes. How, then, can I
or you treat lightly that which God has given us? It is the word of
God to me; it is the word of God to you. And if we do not fulfil this
requirement what is the result? We are told what the result will be.
These things have not taken place now; but we have been wandering
about from place to place, and the Lord has blessed us in a remarkable
degree. And we are gathered together, as I have said, for the purpose
of building up Zion, and we are supposed to be the servants of God
having engaged to perform this work; and individually, I would say, I
do not want to profess to be a Saint, if I am not one, nor if the work
we are engaged in is not of the Lord; if the principles we believe in
are false, I do not want anything to do with them; on the other hand,
if they are true then I want to be governed by them, and so do you. We
must carry out the word and will of God, for we cannot afford to
ignore it nor any part of it. If faith, repentance and baptism and
laying on of hands is right and true and demands our obedience, so
does cooperation and the United Order. Some may say, here is such and
such a man has been connected with the United Order, and how foolishly
he has acted, and others have gone into cooperation and made a
failure of it. Yes, that may be all very true, but who is to blame?
Shall we stop baptizing people and make no further efforts to
establish the kingdom of God upon the earth, because certain ones have
acted foolishly and perhaps wickedly? Do the actions of such people
render the principles of the Gospel without effect or the doctrines
we teach untrue? I think you would not say so. What do we do
with such cases? We purge them out, we cut them off according to the
laws God has laid down; but we do not stop the operations of the
Gospel, such a thought never enters our minds, for we know the work
already commenced is onward and upward. Shall we then think of putting
an end to these other principles because men have acted foolishly and
selfishly and done wrong? No, I think not; I do not think we can
choose one principle and reject another to suit ourselves. I think
that all of these things, as we have received them, one after another
are equally binding upon us. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out from the mouth of God."
This is as true today as it was when spoken.
I have seen a disposition among many of the brethren to pull off in
every kind of way, and this spirit and tendency is spreading and
growing in every part of our Territory. We have cooperative stores
started, and we have the eye of God painted over the doors, with the
words "Holiness to the Lord" written overhead. Do we act according to
that? In a great many instances I am afraid not. But what of that?
Shall we depart from these principles? I think not. What was the
principle of cooperation intended for? Simply as a stepping stone for
the United Order, that is all, that we might be united and operate
together in the interest of building up Zion. Well, having started,
what do we see? One pulling one way, another pulling another way; every
one taking his own course. One man says: Such a one takes his own
course, and I will take mine. Using the same line of argument, because
one man commits a wrong unworthy the calling of a Latter-day Saint,
his doing so is to be an excuse for my doing the same thing. As I
understand it, I am called to fear God, whether anybody else does it
or not; and this is your calling just as much as it is mine. We may
indeed shirk it and violate the covenants we have made. The Lord has
blessed us with endowments and covenants of which the world know
nothing, neither can they know anything about it. And he has given
unto us these things that we might be brought into closer union with
God, that we might know how to save ourselves, our wives and children,
as well as our fathers and progenitors who have gone before us. Having
done this, what next? God has revealed certain things to the children
of men now as he formerly revealed the Gospel to the children of
Israel. But could they stand it? No, they could not. Moses succeeded
in leading seventy of the elders of Israel to the presence of God; he
would have led all Israel into his presence, but they would not be
led; they turned to idolatry, to evil and corruption, and hence they
became disobedient and unmanageable. And when the Lord spake to them
they became terrified and said, "Let not God speak unto us lest we
die." God wants to bring us near to him, for this purpose he has
introduced the Gospel with all its ordinances. Has he been true to us?
Yes. And when you elders have been out preaching and baptizing people
for the remission of their sins, and when confirming them members of
this Church, you have said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, have they
received it? They have, God bearing witness of the truth of your words
and of his ministry conferred upon you.
Now then, he calls upon us to be one. What for? Because we are associated with his kingdom. With what? With his kingdom. What is his
kingdom? It is his government, rule, authority, dominion, power, etc.
God has introduced his kingdom after his order, and it is for him to
guide that kingdom and direct it, and manage it, and manipulate it in
the interest of the honest in heart, and of all nations. He has
commenced it among us that he might have a little nucleus where he
could communicate and reveal his will, composed of such as would carry
that will out, and do his bidding and obey his behests. That is what
we are here for, and not to do our own will, any more than Jesus came
to do his will, but the will of his Father. What do we know about
building up the kingdom of God? What do we know about the calamities
that are to come? I can tell you that while we have peace today and
everything runs smoothly and quietly on, the day is not far distant
before the Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth, and it will be
felt in this nation more keenly and more severely than any of you have
seen it by a great deal, and I know it, and I bear testimony to it. We
have no time to experiment in following our own notions and ideas; we
have something else to do, we have got to build up the kingdom of God;
and in order to do this we must of necessity unite ourselves together,
and seek to know the mind of God to carry it out. And all that we do
should be done with this object in view. We have all kinds of
individual interests and enterprises among us; some men are operating
quite considerably one way and another, and some are not. Brother
Jennings, for instance, who is present with us today, besides owning
stock to the extent of $90,000 in Z. C. M. I., is, with others, engaged
with other pursuits of a manufacturing nature, which are very
laudable. Such enterprises tend to give employment to the people, and
this is what we want, and what we must have sooner or later. There is
one thing, however, I would here say about forming unions and
partnerships in any line of manufacture: Let them be formed with the
understanding that when the proper time shall arrive they can merge
into cooperation, or the United Order. It is very important that in
all of our undertakings we should have at heart this feeling and work
to this end, and then we may reasonably expect that it can be but a
question of time to bring out a grand consolidation of all individual
interests. I have been impressed in my feelings upon these subjects
for some time, therefore I speak about them as I do. How many years is
it since this was started, and how little we have done! I tell you if
we go a little further in our drawing off, and each taking his own
course, God will leave us to ourselves. But he will not leave us as
long as we manifest a desire to do right; and I am pleased to say
there is a feeling generally among the brethren to listen to counsel,
yet at the same time we are apt to get confused, forgetting the object
we have in view, amidst the variety of things that present themselves.
Shall we, my brethren, give up cooperation or shall we consider men
in good fellowship who are pulling off in either direction, or shall
we not? What shall we do? Shall we be true to our religion, true to
our faith, true to the principles that God has commanded; or shall we
forsake them? We will not forsake them, and the brethren generally do
not feel like doing it; but there are a few now and then who get off
the track. We want to get together and unite our hearts and
sympathies into one, placing ourselves under proper direction, holding
ourselves in readiness to perform any work required by God at our
hands. I will tell you in the name of Israel's God that if you keep
his commandments you will be the richest of all people, for God will
pour wealth upon you; but if you do not, you will have to struggle a
good deal more than you have done, for the Spirit and blessings of God
will be withdrawn from us, just in proportion as we withdraw ourselves
from God. We are living in an eventful age, an age in which many
wonderful changes are to be wrought. We are told many other things of
a similar nature, that he who will not take up his sword against his
neighbor, must needs flee to Zion for safety. The Latter-day Saints
will see the day when people will flock to Zion, and many of them will
say, we do not know anything about your religion, but you are an
honorable, just, industrious and virtuous people, you administer
justice and equity, and the rights of man are protected and
maintained. You maintain good government, extending protection to
everybody, and we want to live with you and be one with you. We want
to prepare ourselves for these things, for they are coming as sure as
God lives. Amen.