It is some weeks since I have had the opportunity of meeting with the
Saints in this Tabernacle. Our time has been spent in visiting the
various settlements north and south, and has been spent most agreeably
in holding quarterly conferences. A great change has been effected in
our Territory within the past few years in furnishing facilities for
traveling to and fro and visiting the settlements which were once
quite remote from this city. I have no doubt that these visits are
appreciated by the people who are visited. They certainly are by those
who make the visits. The growth and the development of the people,
their increase in the knowledge of those principles that pertain to
salvation as well as to this earthly existence, is so apparent that it
is exceedingly gratifying to witness it. The Lord is very visibly
working out His great designs and purposes in connection with this
work with which we are identified. Every one who is connected with the
work and who realizes its character does seek, as I believe by
observation, more diligently to comprehend the nature of the duties
and responsibilities which rest upon him or her. The various
organizations in the shape of Primary Associations, of Sunday Schools,
of Mutual Improvement Associations, of Relief Societies, as well as
the meetings of the various quorums of the Priesthood, are all having
a very marked effect as I can observe myself, upon the people. I
probably am in a better position than many to judge of the effect of
these organizations; for the reason that it has not been my privilege
to visit the settlements of late years so extensively as some of my
brethren. I notice a great increase of zeal, of devotion, and above
all, of knowledge concerning the work of the Lord and the labors
connected therewith. And I am thankful that this is so, for certainly
with the increase of the facilities to which I have referred in our
Territory, there has been a corresponding increase of evils which have
to be contended with and overcome, and knowledge and understanding and
wisdom are necessary on the part of the Latter-day Saints to enable
them to cope successfully with these evils. In our former
condition of isolation it was not a matter of such great moment for
the people to be trained as they now are. They were not exposed to the
influences of an adverse and hostile character like they are today.
With the change in circumstances there has come a corresponding
change, it may be said, in strictness of organization, and, as I have
remarked, I am happy to say a corresponding increase of knowledge. We
have many things to cope with at the present time, which those who
resided here 25 years ago knew little or nothing about. And it is an
excellent feature of this system which God has established, that it is
so admirably adapted to all the circumstances which may surround the
children of men. God bestows wisdom according to the occasion and to
the necessities of the case, and He gives strength and power to those
who seek after them in the right spirit. He has done so from the
beginning and He will do so until the end.
When the Elders of this Church have gone forth and preached the
Gospel, calling upon the inhabitants of the earth to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and repent of their sins and to be baptized for the
remission of them, those who submitted to these requirements received
the strength and the grace necessary to enable them to contend with
the difficulties which immediately surrounded them. God poured out His
spirit upon them. God gave unto them a testimony concerning the truth
of the work with which they had identified themselves. He gave unto
them the strength necessary to overcome all the obstacles which laid
in their pathway, and they were filled with joy and peace, and from
that day until the present the man or the woman who has thus bowed in
submission to the requirements of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
has been sustained, upheld, strengthened and delivered. The strength
and the grace, the gifts and the blessings which God has promised have
been abundantly bestowed and have made the individual who has received
them equal to every emergency. And that which is true concerning
individuals is true concerning this entire people in their collective
capacity. As difficulties have increased, as obstacles have had to be
overcome, and the condition of affairs has changed and seemingly grown
more threatening, they have had strength and grace and power given
unto them commensurate with the trials they have had to meet. And
God's hand has thus been manifested in the most wonderful manner in
the eyes of those who believe and who have had faith, and they have
had causes for thanksgiving and praise to God every day that they have
lived.
Now, the whole work from its inception until the present time is a
marvel and a wonder. It may be termed phenomenal in the earth. It is
unlike anything else that we know of. It differs from every other
system that is extant among men. There are features connected with it
which cannot be witnessed anywhere else. Human nature exhibits itself,
it may be said, in new forms. Characteristics are developed in
connection with this work which may truly be said to be unique. You
cannot witness their exhibition among any other people, nor in any
other land. And it is a remarkable thing that though the Latter-day
Saints number so few, comparatively speaking, there is no topic today
that can be broached in the hearing of any of the people of
Christendom that excites the interest that "Mormonism" does.
And yet if you ask men the reason of this, it would be difficult for
them to account for it. They only know that the fact exists; that to
them and to the word at large it is a topic of unflagging interest.
The "Mormons" are looked upon as a peculiar people. Let a
"Mormon"
travel anywhere in the United States or in Europe or in other lands,
and it be known that he is a "Mormon," he will attract more attention
than any other man. Why is this? Is it because the people are so
numerous? Is it because they are so wealthy? Is it because they
exercise such political power? Is it because they wield such influence
in the affairs of the children of men? No, it cannot be said that any
of these causes exist to any extent. The "Mormons" are not a numerous
people. The "Mormons" are not a wealthy people. The
"Mormons" do not
wield political influence to any extent, nor influence of any other
character outside of their own society. What, then, is it that
constitutes this, I may say, attractiveness or this interest in men's
minds concerning this organization? "Oh," says one, "it is because you
marry more wives than one. You believe in plural marriage, and that
excites interest and causes talk and attracts attention; it is that
that makes you so noticeable."
Perhaps so. But it is not many years since we did not believe in this,
since it was not a practice of this Church, and yet in those days a
"Mormon" was as much an object of curiosity as he is today—that is,
in proportion to the celebrity that attended the name. "Mormonism"
was as much talked about according to the extent it was known as it is
today. It excited as much curiosity. It aroused as much hatred. It
called forth as much persecution, in fact, the most severe persecution
that, as a people, we have ever endured, we received prior to the
announcement by our Church that we believed in this peculiar doctrine.
I have no doubt that our espousal and advocacy of this doctrine has
given us considerable notoriety. It has added to our celebrity. But
our celebrity has not consisted alone in this. As I have remarked, our
organization aroused as deep antipathies prior to the revelation of
this doctrine as it has ever done since.
Now, we have our own method of accounting for this great interest that
is taken in this work. It is admitted too freely for the truth that we
are an illiterate people. It is said that we are under the control of
impostors, shrewd men, who lead the masses and bend them to their
will. This is said concerning us everywhere. To account for the
ingathering of the people from the nations of the earth men have
recourse to many theories, or to several at least, one of which is
that our Elders go out to the ignorant and unlearned and the
downtrodden, and depict in glowing colors the beauties of this land
of ours and the blessings that they will receive if they will only
gather here; and that by these glowing tales and by persuading them
that they can have all the wives they want when they come here, they
induce the ignorant hordes of Europe to come to this country. This is
one of the popular methods of accounting for the ingathering of the
people from the nations of the earth and their adhesion to the
"Mormon" cause.
Well, now, if this were true, I would consider it one of the greatest miracles ever wrought among men, for this reason, that people
influenced by such notions could not be held together in a land like
this. It would be an impossibility to bind people together in such
bonds as exist among the Latter-day Saints in Utah Territory, if they
were people of this character. They would fall to pieces by their own
corruptions. There would not be any cementing influence among them to
hold them together one month if these were the influences which drew
them here. But no observing man or woman who travels through this
Territory, and mingles with the people can be deceived by any such
nonsense as this. They would see in a few days that there was some
other influence, that there was some other power, that there was a
principle of union among this people that could not originate in such
a system as "Mormonism" is popularly represented to be.
What, then, is it that causes the Latter-day Saints to be so much
noticed? What is it that has drawn them together from the various
nations of the earth and produced this phenomenal condition of affairs
that we witness here? Is it the shrewdness of men? Is it the power and
authority of men? Then for God's sake and for the sake of suffering
humanity, let some men band themselves together and do, in the name of
God and true religion, that which the Latter-day Saints are accused of
doing in the name of imposture and false religion. Here is an
opportunity for Christendom to test this matter. They have learning,
they have wealth, they have everything at their back—the popular
sects, who claim to be orthodox and to worship God according to the
Bible, and to divine truth, have all these—if they can do, in the name
of God and true religion, that which we are doing, as they say, in the
name of a false religion and as impostors, let them go to work, unite
themselves together, and accomplish something like this for the sake
of suffering humanity. The Latter-day Saints are gathered from the
nations of the earth—the poor, the unlearned, the ignorant. Our Elders
preached the Gospel to them as they understood it, and under its
influence and by its influence they are successful in gathering out a
few. This Territory is being peopled by them. They are being taught
how to live, how to better their earthly condition, how to improve
their minds, how to acquire sound education and sound knowledge; they
are being taught to live in love, in peace, to avoid litigation, to
avoid strife, to avoid contention, to avoid everything of this
character, and to love one another. How successful we are in this let
those who travel through the Territory bear testimony. If we had our
way there would be no drinking saloons from Franklin in the north to
St. George in the south. If the courts would let us have our way, we
would banish drunkenness from our land, or rather we would keep it
from our land as we did in the beginning, for there was a time when
there was nothing of the kind to be witnessed. But, unfortunately for
us, it seems, some of our charters were defective. We found we did not
have the power that we thought we had. The courts ruled against us,
against the exercise of such power as we wielded, and we were
compelled to let down the bars. Hence in Ogden, in Salt Lake City, and
perhaps in some other few places, there are drinking saloons. But if
we had our way, as Latter-day Saints, there would be no drinking
saloons, there would be no houses of ill fame, there would be
no gambling saloons, there would be nothing of this character
permitted in our cities or in our settlements. We would not only be
free from litigation and strife, as I have said we are as a people,
but we would be free from those other evils, those other vices.
Now, we know very well that according to the word of God as it has
come down to us in this sacred volume [the Bible] union and love were
two of the great characteristics that attended the preaching of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. "By this," says one of the Apostles, "we know
that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren." Jesus taught His disciples to be one. He prayed to the
Father that they might be one as He and the Father were one, and not
only that they might be one, but that those who should believe in
their words might be one also. That prayer of the Savior was answered
upon His disciples. They were distinguished everywhere for their
oneness and for their love, and wherever they went preaching the
Gospel that Jesus committed unto them, those who obeyed their teaching
and submitted to the ordinances which they administered, received the
same spirit.
Now, it is a remarkable feature of this organization called the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the same effects follow the
proclamation of its principles; not in one land, but in every land
where it has been carried by the Elders of this Church.
When Joseph Smith in his youth had revealed to him that God was about
to restore the old Gospel in its ancient power and simplicity, and
accompanied by its ancient gifts, and was told that the authority to
administer its ordinances should also be restored, it seemed, I
suppose, to look at it naturally at that time, as though it would be
an impossible thing to accomplish. The earth was full of religion, so
called. There were any number of men professing to be followers of
Jesus Christ, any number of men professing to be His ministers,
professing to have the power and authority to administer the
ordinances of His Church, until men were actually confused and
distracted in their thoughts—and especially when they came to select
the form of doctrine that they wanted to espouse—by the multiplicity
of sects, each one claiming to be the true church of Christ. But
Joseph Smith was told that this would be the effect when God would
reveal His Gospel. It was foreshadowed to him in the plainest possible
manner that which we now behold. The effect of the preaching of the
true Gospel would be that persecution would be aroused. He was shown
the hatred he would have to contend with, and all the adverse
influences that have had to be overcome from that day until the
present. Joseph Smith was told that there was no authority upon the
face of the earth to administer the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. He was told that there was no church which God recognized as
His own, while there were many that had parts of the truth, portions
of the Gospel. There was no church which God acknowledged amid the
multiplicity of sects as His. He was told to wait until the Lord
should give the power and communicate the authority. Now, though he
had received this communication from heavenly messengers, Joseph Smith
did not presume to take one step towards organizing a church because
of the fact that he had received communications of this character. According to popular ideas, if a man had received a
communication of this kind from heaven it would have been sufficient
justification to him to have gone to work and organized a church. But
he did not do this. He waited, and a heavenly messenger, as he
testifies, came and laid his hands upon his head and ordained him to
the authority that was necessary for man to hold in order to baptize
his fellow men in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
When he received that authority he commenced to baptize, and not till
then. But there was still a power lacking. The Apostles had a power
beyond that which John the Baptist exercised. John said, "I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" —referring to the Savior. And
when He came He came in the authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood,
as it is termed. John held merely the authority to baptize for
remission of sins. But he could not lay on hands for the reception of
the Holy Ghost. And when, on one occasion after the death of the
Savior, Philip went and preached the Gospel to Samaria, and people
were converted and baptized, he did baptize them, but he did not lay
on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. He did not have,
apparently, the authority to do so. But when the Apostles heard that
people in Samaria had received the Gospel, they sent unto them Peter
and John, who, when they came, laid their hands upon them and they
received the Holy Ghost. In like manner Joseph Smith received the
authority by divine or by heavenly administration to baptize men for
the remission of their sins, but he had not then the authority to lay
on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. He afterwards did
receive it, as he testifies, through the administration of the three
Apostles, who presided over the Twelve in the days that they lived
upon the earth, namely, Peter, James and John; they came to him and
laid their hands upon him and ordained him to the Apostleship, the
same authority that they themselves held, and authorized him to go
forth and to build up the Church of Christ as it was built up in
ancient days; and then having baptized people he commenced to lay on
hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost.
"But," says one, "I do not believe in the administration of angels. I
think that angels have ceased to come. While I believe that many
ancient servants of God did receive the administration of angels, I
think they have ceased to administer, and when I hear people assert
that they have not, it always creates in my mind a feeling of doubt,
and I think anybody an impostor who asserts he has received the
administration of angels in these days."
Perhaps so. But suppose that the statement that Joseph Smith says the
angel made to him should be true—that there was no church upon the
face of the earth whom God recognized as His, and whose acts He
acknowledged—suppose this were true, and that from the Catholic Church
down to the last church that was organized there was no one church
that held the authority in its primitive power and purity—suppose this
were so, how in the world can the authority be restored unless
heavenly messengers do come and bring it from heaven? If the
Priesthood, and the authority, power and gifts of the Priesthood were
taken from the earth and taken back to heaven, how can man
ever receive it again unless some beings from the heavenly world come
and restore it to man again? You can readily see that if you grant one
proposition, the other must necessarily follow. There must be divine
communication from heaven or the authority could not be restored. But
how shall we tell that it is restored—by what signs? What are the
evidences by which we can judge of the restoration of this divine
power?
Joseph Smith went forth and he ordained other men to go forth—gave
them the authority under God, he being commanded of God to impart this
authority to others who were suitable, on the same principle that
Moses imparted the authority to Aaron, "being called of God as was
Aaron." And they went forth and called upon the people to believe in
Jesus and to repent of their sins, and to be baptized for the
remission of them, and they promised them that if they would believe
in Jesus Christ, repent of their sins and be baptized in His name for
a remission of them, they should receive the Holy Ghost, and it should
produce the same effects upon them in these days that it did upon
those who received it anciently. Now, here was a promise that no man
that we know anything about was authorized to give aside from him. In
all the churches of which we have any knowledge, there has yet to be
heard the promise made by one of its ministers to the humble believer
who submits to its ordinances, that he shall receive the Holy Ghost as
they did in ancient days, with its accompanying gifts and blessings
and powers. But Joseph Smith made this promise. The world have the
opportunity of testing it. If people did not receive the Holy Ghost,
then he was an impostor. If they did receive it, then his ministry was
sealed by the power of God, and it was indisputable. The best possible
means was given to the human family of testing his claims and his
statements. He was either an impostor, trying to deceive the people,
or he was a man of God, for it cannot be supposed that heaven would
lend itself to an imposture, or that heaven would aid in any manner in
fostering a deception. But wherever the Elders of this Church have
gone preaching this Gospel, declaring unto the people these tidings,
there have been men and women who have come forward and submitted to
the ordinances which they administered, and who testify, in the name
of Jesus Christ, that they did receive the promised blessings; and
they have gathered out from the various nations of Europe, some from
Asia, some from far-off Africa and the islands of the sea, and every
state in the United States; they have gathered out, until now they are
numbered by thousands and tens of thousands throughout these valleys,
and wherever you mingle with the people and talk to them, either in
their own habitations, by their firesides, in the streets, in the
public gatherings, or wherever they may be, the universal testimony of
these people called Latter-day Saints is that they, in obedience to
the requirements which were communicated unto them by the servants of
God, received the promised blessings, and the Holy Spirit has been
poured out upon them, and the gifts thereof have rested down upon
them. And as an evidence of this we see this union that I have spoken
of. We witness this love. We see the gathering of the people
together. We see such a love as is unexam pled anywhere upon
the face of the earth—the love that exists in the midst of the
Latter-day Saints in these mountains. You may traverse the wide earth
and go to every religious denomination, and even to those of Pagan
belief, and nowhere else will you see such an exhibition as this I
have spoken of, as you witness here. And yet these people are
illiterate. These people are unlearned. These people are weak. These
people have come from various nations of the earth. These people have
been brought up in different creeds, belonging to different churches,
speaking different languages, they have been trained in different
habits; not of one nation, not of one form of thought, not gathered
together from one township, or from one neighborhood, but from various
nations and neighborhoods with this diversity of belief—that is, of
former belief and education and training. Now, what would this
principle accomplish amongst a more homogeneous people than ours?—a
people more united than ours originally, more one in thought and
training—what, I say, would this principle accomplish among such a
people as this that I allude to? Why, we can imagine what it will be
in years to come, as the rising generations of this people grow to
manhood and womanhood under the influence of this principle—we can
imagine what the results will be a people banded together as no other
people upon the face of the earth are by the bonds of the new and
everlasting covenant, by the bonds of the Holy Priesthood that God has
restored to the earth, and by the administration of those divine
ordinances which constituted the power of the Church of Christ when it
was upon the earth. It is the old Gospel restored again. You cannot
point to a single feature that characterized the Gospel of Jesus as it
was administered by His Apostles that is not to be witnessed among the
Latter-day Saints—not a single feature. I defy the world to point to a
single one. Every characteristic that made it great, that made it a
power in the earth, that made it divine, belongs to this Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Were the ancient Saints persecuted?
So are we. Did they die for the truth of their principles? So have
many of our people. Did they have to flee from their homes? Were they
driven by their enemies because of their religion? So have we had to
flee from our homes in this nineteenth century, in this land of
boasted liberty, the proudest nation and the freest nation upon the
face of the globe—we have had to flee to these mountains and take
refuge here because we believed in those ancient principles, and
because we contended for the restoration of this ancient power. And
now even in these mountains our homes are envied and men would destroy
us; not because we are vile; not because we do injury to our fellows;
not because our land is a land of wickedness, because it is not; not
because we are full of strife and war upon our neighbors and seek to
destroy them; not because of any of these things is our destruction
sought; but because we believe that God has spoken from the heavens;
because we believe in a Church that has Prophets and Apostles, and has
the Holy Ghost and its gifts in it; because we believe in living
together in love and not fighting each other, and are not pitted
against each other in parties; and because of this we are considered
dangerous, and our existence is considered a menace to our neighbors.
Hear and think of it! That a people with the virtues that I
declare we possess, are looked upon as a menace to our neighbors, and
that our destruction is a desirable thing.
Now, while we do not profess to have the faith that we should have—we
could all do with more—yet it is the aim, it is the object of the
teachings of the Elders of this Church to endeavor to instill into the
minds of the people faith in God, to have them contend earnestly, as
the Scriptures say, "for the faith which was once delivered to the
Saints." While this is the aim and the object of the teachings of the
Elders—and we are well aware of the weakness of the people—yet we do
testify, in the most solemn manner, that God has restored the ancient
gifts that were in the Church. The sick are healed. There are hundreds
of families in this Territory, thousands of them who never think of
anything else but sending for the Elders, as the Apostle James said
they should do, in cases of sickness. "Is any sick among you? let him
call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of
faith shall save the sick," said the Apostle. Now, among the people
called Latter-day Saints, this is an almost universal practice, and we
solemnly testify that—while we are far from being what we should be,
far from having that faith we should have—there are numerous instances
of the sick being healed by the laying on of hands. You know this, my
brethren and sisters. Not only have the sick been healed, but the
blind have been restored to sight, the deaf have been made to hear,
and the power of God has been manifested in accordance with the
promises he has made. And it is the outpouring of the Spirit in this
manner, the confirmation of God's promises upon the people, that makes
the Latter-day Saints so united. It is not the strength of imposture.
It is not the delusion of shrewd men. It is not because wicked men
have deceived this people. It would be impossible to hold them
together under such conditions. To do so would be a greater miracle
than that which we now behold in the existence of the people. To see a
people united together and scattered as they are over this extent of
territory held together by a few impostors—no, such a thing is
abhorrent to reason. No man with reason can believe such a statement,
and accept that as the solution of this organization—that is, of the
problem connected with it. No man can think it. There is something
more than this. There is some power beyond this; for, as I have said,
if it were not so, we should have some exhibition on the part of good
men in establishing such a system as we now behold. One would think
they would show their power in organizing. But it is the outpouring of
the Spirit of God. Men and women and children, throughout all the
congregations of the Latter-day Saints in all these settlements, if
they had the opportunity, would bear solemn testimony, in the name of
Jesus Christ, that they did receive those promised blessings, that
that was the cause of their continuing their association with the
people of God, and that that was the reason of their gathering with
them to this land or of their coming here.
Now, I know that in talking in this strain it may sound strange to
many who have no knowledge of these things. They may think it a very
strange thing that men should testify in our day concerning the
existence of these things. But let me ask you: Where is the
man of God of whom we have any account in this book, from Genesis to
Revelation, that did not have communication with God? Where is there
one? Not one. You have no account of a single individual who was a
servant of God from the days of Adam, our father, to John the
Revelator, who did not have communication from our Father in Heaven.
God communicated with the people always when they were faithful.
"But," says one, "we have none now, and we have not had, and therefore
God has ceased to communicate His mind and His will to His children."
Do not deceive yourselves. This is the cry of men who themselves are
destitute of this power and of this knowledge, and who take this means
of accounting for it, and of making people believe that the present
condition of things is the condition that should exist and that God
designed to exist.
I do not wish to reflect upon any other body of people or upon any
sect; I believe there are thousands of excellent people in the
world—people as good as any that are numbered in the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints—scattered through all the sects and in the
Pagan world and in the infidel world. I do not confine my feelings of
admiration to those who believe even in Jesus, the Son of God, whom I
view as my Redeemer and my Savior. I believe that there are thousands,
and it may be said millions of well-meaning, good people, whom God
loves, that are numbered among the Pagans and that are numbered among
the infidels to Christianity. But at the same time while I thus
believe, I know that God has revealed His everlasting Gospel to be
preached to the inhabitants of the earth, and when light comes, if men
reject it, condemnation follows. And this is the condemnation of our
present generation. A great prophet has arisen in their midst. They do
not believe it. They do not believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of
God. They basely and cowardly slew him. Yet he was a Prophet of God,
just as much as Elijah, or as Isaiah was, or as any of the ancient
Prophets were, and he has founded a system that will grow, that will
increase, that will yet be the dominating power in the earth, because
the promises of God are to this effect. And this is the sin of this
generation. This man came in their midst bringing to them gifts from
God, bringing to them a message of love and salvation, and they
cruelly and basely slew him in the most abominable manner. But like
all the Prophets, his blood has not been avenged. Who ever heard of
people being punished for killing a Prophet? Who ever heard of the
people turning round and punishing his murderers? Such a case is not
known in the history of the world. And it is true concerning Joseph
Smith. His blood stains the soil of one of the sovereign States of the
nation. He was slain under the pledged honor of that State that he
should be protected, and yet his murderers have never been punished.
And as I say, this is the sin of this generation. A church was
organized by the command of God, and members of that church have been
cruelly treated. They have been driven from their homes. Their pathway
has been marked by the graves of those who have died in consequence of
their suffering. Our track can be traced, or could be traced from
Illinois by the graves of our people— men, women and
children—who died of suffering, because they chose to worship God
according to the dictates of their own consciences. And who is there
that has raised his voice and said one word against this? A few men
have done so—a few honorable men—have protested against it; but the
great body of the people have assented to it, and have not only
assented to it, but they have endeavored to follow us to our retired
homes here and destroy us. They are not content we should live in this
wilderness land which we found so dreadful, in many respects, and so
hard to conquer. We have come here. We have conquered. We have subdued
the land by continuous, persistent, and unlimited toil, and we will
not cease our exertions to make this a beautiful land, and to extend
hospitality to all who visit us. But we have been envied our little
possessions—the fruits of our toil, the hard earnings of the last 35
years; we have been envied these; and there are those who think that
the best thing that could be done with us is to extirpate us from the
face of the earth, blot us out of existence. Now, I say that this is
the sin of this generation. God has sent a mighty Prophet who
predicted, among other things, the civil war that took place in 1861.
It is on record in this book (the Book of Doctrine and Covenants).
Joseph Smith warned this nation of it—twenty-eight years before it
occurred. He told them the cause of it, and the consequences that
would follow. This great Prophet has been in their midst, and they
have slain him, and have de stroyed as far as possible those who
believe in his doctrine. God will hold this generation to a strict
accountability for these acts, just as sure as He did the generation
who slew the Apostles and those who lived contemporaneous with the
Apostles. We may be a feeble people, but we are God's people; no more
than our fellow men in some respects, only so far as we obey His laws
more than they do; but nevertheless we are God's people, and God will
not allow His children to be slain without cause, nor be cruelly
treated. He reigns in the heavens. I thank God that He has revealed
himself, and that we know Him. He reigns. His justice never sleeps. We
will be protected and preserved, and His anger will be poured out upon
those who have merited it by their transgression. We therefore call
upon them in the name of Jesus, to repent of their sins, to turn away
from wickedness and return to righteousness. And if they desire to
know whether we tell the truth, let them go to God in the name of
Jesus and ask Him, and we will be satisfied with the answer. That is
what our Elders tell everybody wherever they go. They tell them to ask
God in the name of Jesus, whether the testimony they bear be true or
false. Is not this fair? Certainly it is.
May God help you, my brethren and sisters and friends, to receive the
truth and to cling to it all your lives, to love it more than life
itself, that in the end you may be saved and exalted in the Kingdom of
God. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon