I have listened with great satisfaction and pleasure to the remarks
which have been made by Brother Woodruff this afternoon, and I know
they are true, and that they will be profitable unto all those who
treasure them up in their hearts and make application of them in their
lives.
While he was speaking, the query ran through my mind respecting the
prophets and men of God who lived in ancient days—was there ever a
prophet of God—a man who had a message from God who was received by
the generation among whom he lived? They had very few indeed. The
Prophet Jonah stands out almost as an exception. Nineveh did repent
when he went to it with the message from God; but from Noah down one
prophet after another was rejected by the generations unto whom they
were sent and unto whom they bore messages from the Almighty. Even
Moses, though successful in leading out the children of Israel, with
difficulty escaped being stoned to death by his own adherents. And so
with every prophet until the days of the Savior himself. Jesus was
persecuted; Jesus was derided, Jesus was rejected. Jesus, who came—his
coming having been predicted by the holy prophets and the whole nation
being in expectation of him—was rejected because he did not come
according to the ideas, the preconceived notions of the people—that is
of his own kindred unto whom he was sent.
The world entertain certain ideas concerning truth, they entertain
certain ideas concerning God and concerning His servants, and when men
come to them with something that conflicts with these ideas they are
led to reject them, and it is not until a man has died, not until in
many instances his blood has been shed, that he is recognized as a
Prophet of God. In fact it was an accusation of the Savior against the
Jews that they garnished the tombs and sepulchres of the Prophets whom
they had slain. They slew them, but after their death their children
said, "If we had lived in their day we would not have slain the
prophets, we would have received their testimony," while they treated
the Prophets in their midst the same as their fathers had done their
predecessors. But it takes time to bring men to esteem
Prophets. It has taken centuries to sanctify the memory of the Son of
God; centuries have rolled on before He was recognized by the world as
the being whom his disciples testified he was. To his generation he
was a vile impostor, and was counted worthy of the most ignominious
death that could be inflicted—to be crucified between two thieves.
Why, they had the most irrefutable evidence, as they supposed, that He
was not the Son of God. "Can there any good thing come out of
Nazareth?" "'Why," said they, "art thou also of Galilee?
Search, and
look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." He was a Galilean, and
therefore, because of his lowly birth and surroundings, they deemed
themselves perfectly justified in rejecting Him. And as has been
quoted today, so confident were they that He was not the being whom
He represented himself to be that they said, "His blood be on us, and
upon our children." They felt so secure in calling for his
crucifixion, they were willing to incur all the penalties which might
be inflicted upon themselves and their posterity for the death of a
man who, in their estimation, was so vile an impostor.
In the same way it will take time to make the merits of the
predictions of Joseph Smith recognized. Will they be recognized? Yes.
Joseph Smith has uttered predictions which cannot be disputed, and
that have come to pass. Before his death he predicted that the
Latter-day Saints should become a great people in the Rocky Mountains.
Years before we were compelled to leave the States, he predicted that
the South would rebel, and that the civil war would break out in South
Carolina. That prediction was in print long years before it was
fulfilled. And when it seemed as though the rebellion would break out
in Florida, the Latter-day Saints never had any doubt as to where the
war would commence. They knew the word of God had been spoken, and
that it would be fulfilled. And it was fulfilled, literally, as also
many other predictions which have been uttered.
But do these things come to man in a way that man will receive them?
No: they come in contact with worldly pride. They invoke the same
opposition which Paul had when he was at Ephesus, when the
silversmiths cried out, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." And they
bawled and cried so much in favor of Diana, that his voice was
drowned. So it is today. These things come in contact with
established institutions, with established crafts; man's craft is in
danger, and hence the outcry. There is a great outcry, and it comes
from those whose craft is most in danger. It has ever been so, and it
ever will be so while man continues under the same influence which now
operates upon him.
The organization of this Church does not coincide with men's minds, it
is contrary to their feelings, it comes in contact with their
traditions and their prejudices. "Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth?" It is the same idea. Can any good thing come from Joseph
Smith, an uneducated man? Can any good thing come out of the "Mormon"
people. And the whole world seemingly is in a turmoil. Every
conceivable falsehood is told about this people. Well, this will
continue to be the case; I have no doubt of it in my mind. We have got
this warfare to fight, and every people who have stood in our
position had it before us. Every reformation which was ever effected
among men had to be effected in the face of opposition, and
frequently the foundation stones have been laid in the blood of the
men who were the instruments in the hands of God in laying the
foundation. Opposition in this respect is not a new thing. It is as
old as Adam that there should be opposition to contend against. Jesus
predicted it, because he knew it was the history of the past, and he
knew it would be repeated. Thus those who embrace "Mormonism," or the
Gospel of Christ, may make their calculations upon it.
But there is this difference between the dispensation in which we are
engaged and other dispensations which have preceded it: we have the
promise of God that His work introduced in this the dispensation of
the fulness of times shall never be overthrown, so that this
dispensation differs in this respect from every dispensation which has
preceded it. There is no stopping this work. Men may fight it, they
may kill those who advocate it, and use every means in their power
against it; but the fiat of Jehovah has gone forth concerning it, and
it will spread and increase and will gather within its pale every
holiest soul throughout the earth sooner or later, not making war, not
attacking, not assaulting, but by the power of divine truth and by the
spirit that accompanies it, bearing testimony to every honest soul.
And as these troubles increase of which Brother Woodruff has
spoken—for they will increase, in our own land, too; they have
increased, and they will increase—men will become unsettled in their
minds as to what they will do and where they will seek for protection;
for the day will come when stable government in these United States
will be very hard to find. The ele ments are already operating that
will produce this instability. Men will be glad to seek refuge, glad
to seek protection, glad to live in any place where men and women are
honest and true, and where the principles which Brother Woodruff has
announced, the principles of true liberty are maintained, and God
grant that they may be ever maintained.
It has been said that those who have been persecuted will, when their
turn comes, become persecutors. This has been said concerning us.
"Oh," it has been said, "you are now in the minority. It is all very
well to plead for liberty and contend for the rights of man. But wait.
If you ever get power, you who have been persecuted will turn round
and persecute other people." This has been cast against us as bearing
out the history of the past. The Pilgrim Fathers, it is quoted, did
this. After being persecuted themselves, they turned round and
persecuted others—Episcopalians, Quakers, Baptists, etc.—who did not
believe as they did. Well, we have not done this yet. We did not do it
when we had everything our own way in these mountains, removed a
thousand or twelve hundred miles from every other people. We gave
perfect liberty to all, and there never has been an hour since we
first occupied this country when our tabernacles, boweries, and other
places of worship have not been open to men of every denomination to
preach within their walls or under their shade. Time and time again
our children have been invited to this tabernacle to listen to
ministers of different denominations, that they might know what other
people taught; this has been upon the principle which Brother Woodruff
has stated, that if they have one truth we have not got, we
are willing to exchange our errors for that truth.
I would not give much for a religion which would not stand contact
with the world. It was said once respecting President Young, that he
read the remark that he would not give much for a religion that could
not stand one railroad. I think the same. If my religion cannot stand
all the railroads which can be brought here, I do not want it for
myself nor for my children. It there is anything superior to that
which we believe outside of our religion, let it come, we will welcome
it. We are not wedded to our religion only so far as it is true. So
far as it is true we are wedded to it, and as such we have espoused
it, as such we maintain it, and as such we hope to die believing in
its tenets and practicing them; but if anyone else has something
better let him come along. We have sacrificed enough for truth to show
that we love it. We have forsaken everything for the truth as we
believe it, and a people who have been willing to have their houses
burned, property destroyed and be driven into a wilderness as we have
been, and to create homes in this desolate land—a people that has been
willing to do this should not shrink from accepting any truth which
may be presented to them, and I do not believe they will. We have
given no evidence of such a tendency at any time, I have never heard
of it, but there has been a constant willingness to receive the truth.
And this doctrine of plural marriage which is so much talked about; we
have shown our devotion to truth by espousing it. If its practice had
been of the same nature as that which is popular with the world, there
would not have been a word said against us. It is not be cause other
people do not do wrong with women that the outcry is raised against
us. It is not for doing wrong with women, it is for marrying more than
one woman, which we could have avoided if licentiousness had been our
object, that we are attacked. When God revealed that principle to the
Latter-day Saints, there were men who felt as though they would rather
go to their graves than carry out that principle. They were men who
had lived all their days and had been true to the covenants they had
made with their wives, and the thought of marrying more than one woman
was as repulsive as it could be to any men in the world. They shrank
from it. I heard President Young himself say, that as the hearse
passed his house in Nauvoo on the way to the cemetery, he thought he
would like to be the occupant of that hearse and of the coffin which
it contained, when he thought of this doctrine and the opprobrium that
would descend upon him and upon our people, when it became known that
we believed in and practiced plural marriage. Here is President
Taylor, and Brother Woodruff, who has spoken, and other men of mature
years in those days—they know how it was. They would have shrunk from
it if they could, but the very fact that they have embraced it ought
to be sufficient to show the world that they are devoted to principle,
that they have been willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, to
carry out principle. It would be cheaper, no doubt, to discard plural
wives and follow the ways of the world. Do you think I would have any
persecution if I had a wife here and one or more mistresses in
Washington? Not in the least: there would not be one word said about
my marital relations or my domestic affairs; not one word. I
know this. How do I know it? Because there are those who are in that
condition. But because men marry wives and give their names to their
offspring, and are not ashamed of them, and are true to these wives
and do not go outside of the family circle, and believe a man ought to
be killed who does it—because they do this they are decried and all
hell is stirred up. Now, if these things are wrong we practice them
without knowing they are wrong. We believe them to be true. We
believe this principle has been revealed for the salvation of women.
And a man takes a great responsibility upon himself who enters into
this order. Reflect upon this a moment: A man marries a wife, and he
does it—if he does it properly—with the clear understanding between
them beforehand, that if it be right to take another, according to the
tenets of his religion, he may do so. Well, he takes another wife. What
is the result? He doubles his responsibility, he increases his care.
What man of sense or principle is there that would take these
obligations upon him lightly? Would any man do it for the sake of
gratifying lust? He would be a simpleton and a villain if he did it. A
man in this position, if he feels as he should do, will feel there is
a great responsibility resting upon him in the taking care of the
children of such marriages, in the education and training of them, and
the preserving of them from vice. And what is there to induce him to
shoulder this responsibility except principle?
We desire to have no margin of unmarried women among us. We do not
want institutions among us which are not of God, and which propagate
death and disease. We desire every woman to be married, and as there
are not more women than men in Utah, if everyman marries, there will
be no plural marriage, it will cease, and that is the best remedy in
the world for this "Utah Polygamy," as it is called. Let every man
marry, and there will be no single women of marriageable age. But as
all men will not marry, we have instances of two and more women who
love one man and who choose to live together and live together
virtuously and properly.
"Ah, but," says one, "there is a law of Congress against such a
thing." I know that, and I am not advising any man to do anything that
would make him liable to go to the Penitentiary. But I am talking
about principle, about that which we believe and practice, and that
which has impelled us to action in this matter. I have taken some of
my children down to Washington, and have said to them, "Now, here you
see the other side. I want you to have the opportunity of seeing
society, and understanding something of it outside of our Territory."
I would not hoodwink a child. I would set before children all which is
necessary to give them light upon this subject, that they may
understand it. I would like every one of my daughters to understand it
thoroughly; and in speaking thus about my own family, I speak about
every girl in this community. I want to see a virtuous community, one
which is free from vices which infest the world. Diseases that are
common elsewhere are unknown in this land, among our people; and I
thank God for it, and I pray that it will continue to be the case.
Shall we become persecutors in our turn? No. Why? We do not have the
same motives to impel us to such a course that people who
persecute have. Persecutors generally believe that those whom they
persecute are doomed to spend the endless ages of eternity in hell
fire, unless they can be made to repent of their errors. Persecution
becomes, therefore, with them, in many instances, a highly justifiable
and meritorious method of saving souls. This has been the feeling
which has impelled many persecutors in every age—a holy, burning zeal
to snatch souls from perdition. The men who have been most zealous in
hailing men to prison and inflicting torment, have been as a rule, men
zealous and sincere in their religion. They thought it better to
destroy the body than that the soul should be consigned to hell; they
thought it better for heretics to burn an hour or too on earth than
that they should burn eternally. But the Latter-day Saints have no
such views respecting future punishment? We believe there is an
endless hell. We do not, however, believe that human beings are
consigned to it eternally. The hell may be endless and the punishment
endless, but it does not follow that they who are consigned there are
to remain in it eternally. We believe men will be rewarded for the
deeds done in the body, and we therefore can afford to be liberal in
our views in this respect. As President Woodruff has said, we would
give every man the right to worship God according to the dictates of
his conscience, knowing that he will have to be responsible for his
actions, and that it is none of our business except to present the
truth as we understand it before him, and if he accepts it, all right,
if he rejects it he must endure the consequence.
As for ourselves we are opposed to being seized by the throat, because
men think we are in error. And to avoid this we have fled a number of
times, leaving everything, and finally came out here into the
wilderness, thinking we could have peace for a while which we have
had. But this people might as well take wings and fly from the planet
as try to get out of the reach of the world. A prominent man who
called upon me here, said to me upon one occasion: "When I see this
beautiful valley, and see how comfortable you are, I wish you were out
of the United States." "Why," said I. "Because," said he,
"I can
foresee what trouble you will have, and that you will not be allowed
to remain in peace; you will have to leave here, people will not be
content to have you stay." "Where shall we go?" I enquired. We might
go to the deserts of Sahara, or the most forlorn place on the face of
the earth, and it would only be a little while our industry, our
frugality, our union and those qualities which characterize us, would
draw the world to us. We cannot be hid. If we were to go to the
remotest part of the earth, to Patagonia or anywhere else, that which
we witness here would be repeated. We are like a city set upon a hill
that cannot be hid. Those qualities that characterize this people,
which make us so remarkable, which have enabled us to make a beautiful
place out of the desert, as we have done in this country, and would do
wherever we might go—those qualities would draw men to us. If we were
on an island we should have ships coming with commerce; upon a
continent we should have railroads and means of communication such as
we have today. He would have been a bold man who would have ventured
to have said—unless he were a Prophet; you know Prophets take strange liber ties; God gives them liberty to say remarkable
things—that in the space already passed such great changes would have
occurred in this valley, and throughout these valleys, and that this
place would become so important. We hear of railroads coming in here
from every direction, making Salt Lake City their objective point. We
are bound to be lifted up. You cannot conceal us, it is impossible. We
have got to stand contact with the world, and if our religion will not
stand such contact, then it must succumb. But it will not. It will
stand the test, it will pass through the ordeal purer and better, and
men will recognize its beauty. Our destiny is to be brought in contact
with the world. God has predicted it. We may hide ourselves in a
corner, but God will bring us out to the light, for we have to come in
contact with the world to prove our strength, to prove what is in us,
and to learn many things the knowledge of which we need.
I pray God to bless you my brethren and sisters and friends, to let
His Holy Spirit rest down upon you and preserve you in the truth. Let
us love and cling to the truth with all our hearts, and it will bear
us through. It is that which will endure in time and throughout
eternity; and that God may assist us in maintaining our integrity and
keeping the faith, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
- George Q. Cannon