I am pleased to have the opportunity of meeting with the Latter-day
Saints this morning in Ogden, and of listening to the reports which
have been made by the brethren respecting the Sunday Schools, and the
Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations. These institutions
furnish an index to the growth and development of the people, and the
future character of those who are now and who will be members of the
Church in years to come. I think a very fair estimate can be formed of
what our people will be by closely observing the condition of the
Sunday Schools and the Mutual Improvement Associations; because those
children and those young men and young women who are now members of
these schools and associations will in a very few years take their
place as active members in the community, and the character of the
community be largely dependent upon their characters and upon the
development which they have made in the directions that these
institutions seek to form them. I look upon it myself as exceedingly
important that our schools should be properly conducted, and that our
associations should receive that attention from those who have
influence and knowledge that will make a proper impression upon the
minds of those who are members. In whatever capacity I might be acting
in the Priesthood, with the proper feeling of anxiety about the growth and development of the people, I could not fail to take
interest in all these associations, and to see that they were properly
conducted as far as my influence would extend. I do feel this
interest. I have for many years felt it. It has been one of the great
delights, I may say, of my life for many years, to see the growth and
development of our Sunday School interest.
For many years, while laboring in the ministry abroad I saw how small
was the amount of fruit resulting from the labors of myself and other
Elders in the world; that we labored sometimes for years and were only
able to bring into the Church a comparative few, and then, out of
those that were converted and brought into the Church, there was a
large percentage who did not remain, but who lost the faith and fell
away. I became convinced in my mind that more satisfactory results and
a larger amount of fruit could be obtained by devoting attention to
the cultivation of our children, and for years before I had the
opportunity, I had resolved in my own mind that if I were ever
permitted to remain at home long enough I would devote attention to
the cultivation of the young. I think that which has been done in this
direction has amply rewarded every man and woman who have taken
interest in this cause. You can better tell, probably, than I can—or
at least some of you can—what the effect upon our community is—the
effect of the Sunday School, and of the teachings of the Sunday
Schools. You are familiar with the children. You can contrast their
present condition with the condition of children a few years ago, and
by making this contrast you can estimate, at pretty near its true
value, that which is and has been done. So far as my observation is
concerned I am satisfied that a great amount of good has been
accomplished. I have been on missions when Elders have come from the
valley—young men—and I have been very much ashamed to see their
ignorance in regard to the doctrines of the Church, and of the history
of the Church, and their ignorance of the Scriptures. I have felt that
it was almost a shame that young men brought up in Zion should go as
missionaries and be so ignorant concerning the most vital points
connected with our religion. I am happy to believe that that has
passed away to a very great extent, and that those who now go out in
the capacity of missionaries do so with a more thorough understanding
respecting the history of the Church, the doctrines of the Church, and
a wider intelligence concerning everything connected with the Church
than was formerly manifested. In our Sunday Schools I have listened to
children being catechized, and their answers upon points of history of
the Church, and other matters, have been given with a correctness that
could not be excelled, if equaled by many of the Elders of mature
years if they were interrogated upon the same points. Everyone who
has visited Sunday Schools must be convinced of this. Therefore, when
we hear, as we do today, that in some of your settlements nearly all
the children are enrolled in the Sunday Schools, it speaks well for
the future of the children. If these schools are properly conducted
the effect must be immense in lifting them up from ignorance and
giving them correct knowledge concerning the doctrines and history of
the Church, and indoctrinating them in the principles which we view as
so important for men and women to understand. It is therefore very gratifying to hear such reports, and that which we have heard
today respecting the schools in Weber Stake is a very fair sample of
the reports which are made in other Stakes.
We have today, so far as statistics inform us, nearly 50,000 children
in Sunday Schools. These 50,000 children will in a very few years be
men and women, taking their place in society, probably married, and
their influence will be felt upon the future families of the people,
and if they are properly taught in the principles of the Gospel and
are fortified against sin, and are taught the evil effects that will
result from the practice of everything that is wrong, we can imagine
what an effect this will have on the entire body of the people! It is
therefore very encouraging to all those who take an interest in the
growth of Zion, in the development of the work of God, to know that
our children, in Primary Associations, in Sunday Schools, and in Young
Men and Young Women's Mutual Improvement Associations, are receiving
the instruction that is best adapted for their future good and
happiness.
There are a few points that I have always deemed as of the utmost
importance that our children should be taught; the more so because
such teaching guards them against some of the growing evils of the age
in which we live. It has seemed to me sometimes that if the Lord had
not established this Church at the time He did, the future of our race
would be in some respects very dark and hopeless to contemplate. The
growth of intemperance, the spirit of infidelity concerning God and
concerning everything pertaining to God and to righteousness, the
wonderful spread of corruption, the low value placed upon virtue, and
the increase of the evils that result from the absence of virtue, are
of such a nature that, if you look outside this Church, the picture is
a most discouraging one. God has established this Church and He has
told us from the very beginning that the chief corner stone, it may be
said, of this great edifice that He has reared and is rearing, is
virtue. Early in the history of the Church the Prophet Joseph received
revelations to this effect: that he who looked upon a woman to lust
after her should deny the faith, and unless he repented, he should be
cast out. What an amount of purity is embodied in this statement of
the Lord to us in this revelation! A man must not only refrain from
doing that which is wrong with the opposite sex; he must not only
refrain from carrying his lust into the actual commission of crime,
but he must be so pure in heart that he shall not look upon the other
sex with a lustful eye and a lustful desire. If he does so, we are
told by the Almighty that he shall deny the faith. Now, I cannot
imagine how the Lord can make more plain to us than He has done in
these revelations—for it is repeated more than once in the revelations
that we have received—the importance of virtue, the importance of
purity, purity in thought as well as purity in action. The frequent
apostasies from this Church, the many who have left the Church, denied
the faith, lost the Spirit of God, the most of them, no doubt, are
traceable to the commission of this sin. It is, as I have said, the
crying sin of the age. Outside of this Church virtue is not fostered
as it should be. Of course there are exceptions. I do not mean to say
that all people are corrupt; I would not be so sweeping; but in
society generally there is not that value placed upon virtue
that should be, and in many circles the virtue of man is derided. A
man who claims to be virtuous, or who desires or seeks to be virtuous,
finds himself alone, as it were, among his fellows. Therefore, it is
of the utmost importance that we, in training our children, should lay
deep and solid in their minds the importance of virtue. They should be
taught that their whole lives as Latter-day Saints depend upon the
cultivation and preservation of this principle; and that if they are
guilty of wrong in this direction, unless there is sincere and
heartfelt repentance before the Lord, He will undoubtedly withdraw
His Holy Spirit from them and leave them to themselves to become a
prey to those wicked influences that are seeking constantly to take
possession of the hearts of the Saints of God.
Now, we can best do this in childhood; we can teach our children in
childhood and in youth, and as they grow to manhood and to womanhood
we can fortify them against those evils. It has been necessary,
apparently—for the Spirit has seemed to indicate the necessity of
this—that there should be greater strictness enforced among our
people. There has been a growth of wrongdoing in many quarters that
has been most painful to all those who have the welfare of the Saints
of God at heart, and who desire the prosperity of Zion. Many cases
have come to the knowledge of the First Presidency and of the Twelve
and of other leading men wherein people have been compelled, in order
to conceal their wrongdoing, to marry, and even then have failed to
cover it up. Now, such a condition of things, if permitted to continue
in our midst, unchecked, would be productive of the most terrible
consequences. The Spirit of God would undoubt edly be so grieved that
it would forsake not only those who are guilty of these acts, but it
would withdraw itself from those who would suffer them to be done in
our midst unchecked and unrebuked; and from the President of the
Church down, throughout the entire ranks of the Priesthood, there
would be a loss of the Spirit of God, a withdrawal of His gifts and
blessing and His power, because of their not taking the proper
measures to check and to expose their iniquity.
My brethren and sisters: I suppose you must be impressed, as I am,
with this truth, that our only source of strength is, that we shall
live so that the spirit and power and gifts of our religion and the
favor of our God shall be extended unto us and be in our possession.
There never was a more critical period in many respects in the history
of the Church of Jesus Christ than that which we now witness. I never,
in my recollection, or in reading the history of the Church have seen
a time nor heard of a time when the adversary of God's Kingdom was
more determined, apparently, to destroy the work of God than he is at
the present time. On every hand there are the most persistent efforts
made to check the growth of the Kingdom of God, and not only that, but
to destroy this religion, the religion of Jesus Christ, and to throw
obstacles in the pathway of its progress; and to actually deprive
members of this Church of every right that men and women value—every
political right, every civil right—to place us in bondage, and to make
it odious in the eyes of mankind to be Latter-day Saints, or to have
any faith in the religion that God has revealed to us, and of which we
are so proud, and for which we are, as a rule, so thankful.
Now, we do not have wealth with which to combat the designs of our
enemies; we do not have numbers; we do not have influence; there is no
strength that we have that men value and that men seek for in a
contest such as that in which we are engaged. We possess no advantage,
none whatever, that men place value upon. But we possess advantages
that we understand, and which we as Latter-day Saints highly value,
and they are the best advantages, however much they may be disliked by
the world. However little importance they may attach to the advantages
that we possess, we know that in a contest such as this in which we
are now engaged they are of the utmost importance.
To begin with we must, as I have said, be a virtuous people. We must
love virtue better than we love our lives. We must be so pure, not
only in our actions, but in our thoughts, that God's favor will be
with us, and His Spirit rest down upon us, and we must live the lives
of Latter-day Saints, carrying out in our lives the principles that
God has revealed. This is our only strength. Let us be deprived of
this and we are weak, because, as I have said, we possess no other
advantage. If we prevail, as undoubtedly we shall, it must be because
of God's help; it must be because He is at our right and at our left,
and His power is round about us and near unto us. Looking at our
position from a human standpoint everything looks dark. Men today are
calculating on the destruction of this people. They think that we
shall at least be compelled to abandon some features our religion. In
some places and with some people it is Church and State they complain
of. In other places it is that we practice plural marriage. In other
places there are other reasons assigned for their dislike to us—we are
too united; we do not divide into parties, wherever we go we cling
together, and do not assimilate with the rest of our fellowcitizens,
but are a party of ourselves, and are dangerous because of this. And
various accusations are made as justification for the treatment that
is extended to us. Men whose lives are so vile that they would not
bear the least examination, much less exposure, make the charge
against us that we practice plural marriage, and therefore that we
should be dealt with in the harshest and most severe manner. On the
other hand, men who are constantly seeking for political influence,
who do not scruple to use that influence in the most reprehensible
manner, and to the utmost extent possible, and frequently preachers,
too, charge that we unite Church and State. They would gladly use the
influence that we have if they had it, and use it in a manner so
obnoxious to individual liberty, that it would bear no comparison to
the manner influence is used among the Latter-day Saints. That would
be all right if they used it, but it is all wrong if we use it. And so
it is with everything else. If they could unite a people together as
we are united that would be perfectly justifiable; but because
Latter-day Saints unite together, that is exceedingly wrong,
especially when they do so as a religious community.
For myself I want to do that which God directs. That is the wish of my
heart. I want to honor my God if I know how to do it. I believe this
entire people have the same feeling. They desire to do the will of
God, if they can find out what that will is, and if He will
communicate it to us, as I know He does, I am satisfied that the great
majority of the Latter-day Saints will do that will regardless
of consequences. It is the attempt to do that, that has brought us
into disrepute.
God, in building up His Kingdom, does not take pattern from men. He
does not ask counsel from men as to how that Kingdom shall be built
up, and the methods that shall be employed to establish it. He is
going to build His Kingdom up in His own way, and if it does not suit
men or the nations of the earth, why, I suppose they will have to be,
as they have been and as they are sometimes at present, angry with
those who strive to do that which He requires. I know this that many
things that men admire are an abomination in the sight of God; many
things that they think most admirable God holds as an abomination.
Therefore, in building up His Church and His Kingdom He is going to
take His own plan of doing it, and for one, so far as I can I feel
willing to allow Him to dictate how it shall be done, and then leave
the consequences to Him. I know that He will bring off those who put
their trust in Him victorious, and He will ask no odds of the nations
of the earth. He delights in a people who are courageous and valiant,
who are not afraid. He delights in people of this kind. The greatest
blessing almost that we read of that was ever given to a man in the
flesh was given to a man possessed of this courage. You will remember
him, doubtless, when I mention His name. His name was Nephi. He was
the son of Helaman, and had a brother named Lehi. He was the
grandfather of Nephi, who was the President of the Twelve whom Jesus
chose on this continent. Read the life of that man, and observe the
blessings that God bestowed upon him. God gave him great power because
of his valor and fearlessness in His cause, and it is so with every
Prophet and with every man of God of whom we have any record, and it
is so with every people and generation who put their trust in the
Lord, and are valiant for His cause. He will give them great blessings
and power, and He will bring them off victorious. He has done so in
the past. He is doing so now, and He will do so in the future; and
whenever you find a man or a people weakened and limber-backed,
nervous, their hands shaking and their hearts trembling, you will find
a people that have not very much of the strength and power of God with
them; but when they are full of courage, zeal and determination, God
is with them, He strengthens them, and gives them victory. He will do
it every time, with every individual. You read the history of Elijah,
and see how valiant he was, and how God blessed him, and I might go on
and enumerate a great many more men who have been distinguished in the
world's history because of their valor. God stood by them always, and
will stand by us if we are valiant. Look at the men who have been most
valiant in this Church in defending, advocating and practicing the
principles which God has revealed, and doing this, too, in the face of
mankind who have been determined that we shall not do these things,
and see how God has blessed and sustained them in so doing.
Therefore, having had this experience in these matters, it is for us
to be valiant in the cause of God, to show our faith by our works, and
not be Latter-day Saints with our lips alone, but be Latter-day Saints
in all the acts of our lives, in all our words, and in everything
there is connected with us. Let us not imagine that God has
established His work to take pattern in its methods of procedure and
management after the corrupt nations of the earth. He has not done so.
We live under a Government, the best that ever was formed by man upon
this earth—a Government in which every human being can live without
interfering with the rights of others in the practice of the
principles which God reveals. God has purposely arranged this. He
raised up wise men to lay the foundation of this Government, and He
defended them against the mother country, and enabled them to achieve
victory over the greatest power there was upon the face of the
earth—the power of Great Britain. He gave them power to form a
Constitution under which every man and woman can dwell in perfect
freedom—that is, if they wanted to do right. This land has been
dedicated to liberty, dedicated by the Lord our God, and by men who
have lived upon this land, to liberty, and as long as this land shall
be a land of liberty it will be a blessed land to the inhabitants
thereof; but when it ceases to be a land of liberty, then as sure as
God has spoken, this Government will go down—that is, any Government
will, that will war against the principles of liberty—and the men who
are now engaged in their assaults upon us because of our religion, are
traitors to this Government, and they are the most deadly enemies to
the Government of the United States that can be found anywhere upon
the face of the earth. They are laying the axe at the root of the
tree, and are taking measures to destroy this Government, because it
can only, as I have said, be preserved by maintaining the principles
of liberty that are contained in the Constitution which God gave to
the land, or which He inspired men to frame for the land. But in our
contention for liberty—for we today are the defenders of the
Constitution, and we shall have Constitutional principles to maintain
and defend in the courts of the nation, we are being forced into this
duty and position—God will bless us and preserve us, and carry us off
triumphantly, and the words of Joseph, which were inspired by the
Almighty, will be fulfilled to the very letter, namely, that the
Elders of this Church will be the men who will uphold and maintain the
Constitution of the United States, when others are seeking to trample
it in the dust, and to destroy it. We are a free people—let others
seek to bring us into bondage as they may—we are a free people, with
the perfect right to worship our God and to carry into effect the
principles that He has revealed. And if the whole world array
themselves against us, and the combined power of the nation pits
itself against this work, they must go down in the struggle, because
they are occupying a false position. If fifty hundred millions of
people were to say the contrary, no matter, the principle still
remains true, that under the Constitution in this land, a man has a
perfect right to do that which God requires at his hands as long as he
does not intrude upon the rights of his neighbor.
If one man stood alone in this position, and millions of men were to
say it is not so, that lone man would still be right. We have that
right. God has given it to us under the Constitution of the land in
which we dwell, and if men enact laws and pile one law upon another
until they reach to the sky, it would not change this. It is an
eternal principle, and it will stand—this principle of
liberty, the liberty that God has given unto every human being—the
right to do that which seemeth good in his own sight, to follow the
dictates of his own conscience, as long as, in so doing, he does not
trespass upon the rights of his fellow man. We stand by that
fearlessly, and stand by it for ourselves, and for our children after
us. I would not abate one iota, not a hair's breadth, myself, in this
feeling. I would feel that I was a traitor to myself and to my
posterity if I were to yield in the least upon this. We must maintain
our rights, not aggressively, not in any quarrelsome spirit, but in a
spirit of quiet firmness, quiet determination to maintain our rights,
to contend for them, and to never yield one hair's breadth in
maintaining them. This is our duty as individuals and as a people, and
in thus determining, we band ourselves together more closely.
Complaints are made of us that we are so exclusive. Why, in the very
nature of things we should be fools to be otherwise than exclusive. We
cannot help it. We are driven into exclusiveness by the acts of our
enemies, and by the pressure that is brought to bear upon us. A flock
of sheep when attacked by dogs or wolves, huddle together, and seek to
protect themselves by getting into a cluster. So it is with us. It is
the law of preservation, that we should get close together when we are
assaulted as we have been. We cannot put trust in others who are not
of us to any extent. There are, however, many honorable men, hundreds
and thousands of them. If there were not, we would not send
missionaries out as we do. We believe they are just as honest as we
are, just as sincere as we are, and desire as much to do right as we
do. I believe there are millions of them in the earth, men and women,
whose desires are as good as the best Latter-day Saints. They desire
to do the will of God, and to keep His commandments as much as any of
us do, and are as sincere in it; but many people are ignorant and do
things through ignorance which are wrong. But, as I say,
self-preservation demands that we should cling together; that we
should be united; that we should sink all personal differences; that
we should have no preference that we would not be willing to forego
for the sake of the Kingdom of God. It is an important time with us.
We have enemies all around us. A determination is made manifest to
destroy every one of our liberties, if possible, and to bring us into
bondage. That is the design, if it can be accomplished. But it will
not be accomplished. You will see it will fail, it will signally fail,
and God will preserve us in our liberties, and especially will He do
this if we keep His commandments, and do that which He requires at our
hands.
A great many people seem to think, and some who are among us act upon
the thought, that because a man holds the Priesthood, and is a
religious man, and practices religion, that he should not have any
voice in matters that belong to civil government. In Washington the
charge has been frequently made that all the leading offices of the
Territory of Utah were held by Mormon Elders, Mormon Bishops and
others. I have frequently said, in answer to this, before committees
of the Senate and House, that if we did not take Mormon Elders we
would have no officers, for the reasons that, as a rule, every
reputable man in Utah Territory, when he attains the age of majority,
holds the office of an Elder, or some other office in the
Priesthood. This explanation gave a very different view to men who did
not understand our organization, and whose ignorance was taken
advantage of. In the world there are a few men in religious societies,
who hold leading positions, hold what we would call, if in our Church,
the Priesthood, and the rest are debarred, and are mere laymen. But it
is not so with us. The bulk of the Mormon people hold the Priesthood,
and every man of repute of any age is an officer in the Church. It is
said that the members of our Legislature are men who are prominent in
the Priesthood. How could it be otherwise? If a man is energetic and
has any talent he of course holds some position in the Priesthood, and
he is very apt to hold some prominent place. But does this prevent him
from acting in a civil office, and from dealing justly and wisely for
the good of the people? No, we have proved to our entire satisfaction,
that this is not the case.
When we look at Utah Territory today, and compare it with other
Territories it will be conceded by everybody who is impartial that the
position of affairs here is equal to, if not much better than the
position of affairs in any other Territory and in many of the States.
Has that been because there has been a union of Church and State. No,
it is not due to that; for that has never existed here. Has it been
because there has been one man dictating everything—has it been due to
that entirely? No; for no one man has done this. But it has been
because the men who have acted in these capacities have been men of
wisdom, and the people have had confidence in them. Wherever we go as
a people, we carry with us our religion. You cannot dissever our
religion from our lives. It is a part of our lives, and, of course,
because of this, we are exposed to those charges that are made
against us. Yet at the same time, I do not believe there is a people
to be found within the confines of the Republic who draw the line more
strictly between religious and civil affairs, and between Church and
State, than do the Latter-day Saints.
We are living in peculiar times. I think the youth of this
community—those who are growing up now—should closely observe that
which is being done. It is an important epoch. Events are taking place
now that are worthy of our remembrance, and we are being put in a
position to be tested thoroughly. The contest seems to be narrowed
down to this point—whether we shall be able to live as a people and
enjoy our rights as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, or not. Formerly, the question was soon solved. A
mob would form itself against us, and by force of superior numbers,
and backed by a public opinion that was too strong for us to contend
with, we had to vacate our homes and flee. The alternative was
presented to us of flight, or the abandonment of our religion. This is
not quite the alternative now presented before us. The question is,
will you abandon your religion? Will you renounce those principles
that God has revealed to you, and which He has declared are essential
to salvation and exaltation in His Kingdom—will you renounce them?
Will you renounce obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God? If
you will I expect you can enjoy some sort of peace—a peace that would
be the peace of death. Who will accept it? Will any true Latter-day
Saint? No; no true Latter-day Saint will accept that. What
next? You cannot have your rights as citizens. You must be put under
bonds. You must have penalties affixed to your practice or to your
faith. If you continue to be Latter-day Saints you must be
discriminated against. That is another alternative presented to us.
Will we accept that? Yes. I believe that I speak your feelings. I
believe I give voice to them when I say that you are willing, all of
you, to take this choice and these consequences. What next? Will a mob
come and drive us from our homes? Not yet. You will see fun whenever
that occurs. That is not in the program as I view it at present. No
mobs. What then, shall we do? We shall have to contend in the courts;
we shall have to make this a legal fight. It is mobocracy in legal
form and in legal guise that now attacks us. It comes to us in a shape
that we can meet better than we could the old forms, when a mob banded
together and came in such overwhelming numbers that we could not
resist it. It may be just as wicked. The present mode of attack may be
just as cruel; the ultimate object may be just as bad in every sense
and in every respect; but it can be met in a different form and in a
different way. We have to contend now for our rights in the courts of
the land; we must see whether there is a willingness on the part of
those who hold authority as judges, to give us our rights, and in this
way we shall test the nation, our Government, and prove whether there
is a willingness on the part of those who administer the government to
give us those rights that belong to us as American citizens. If they
do not, who will be the sufferers! We shall suffer to some extent; but
our sufferings will be light compared with those that will fall upon
the men who shall prove untrue and recreant to the principles of
liberty and truth.
Now, I look forward myself with great pleasure to the future. Every
step of this kind that we take is an assurance of that which is to
come. We cannot press forward as a people; we cannot become the people
that God designs we shall be, and that He has predicted we shall be,
without having just such contests as these. They are the natural
consequences of the position that we occupy, and of the growth and
development of this people. But the same God that protected this
Church when it was but a small handful, a few individuals, still
reigns, and His promises are as much to be relied upon as they were
when the mob drove the Latter-day Saints out of Missouri; as much to
be relied upon as when, in that dark hour, the mob killed our Prophet
and our Patriarch, and afterwards compelled the Saints to flee from
their homes; as much to be relied upon as when we came to these
valleys; they are just as reliable today as they were then. It is for
us to so live that when we call upon Him that we do so with an
assurance that we have done our duty, that there is nothing lacking on
our part so far as human and mortal beings can do. We have our sins,
our frailties, our many weaknesses; but God looks down in mercy upon
them when we repent of them, and show a disposition to put them away
from us. When we are in this condition we can call upon Him and leave
ourselves to His mercy, with the full assurance that He has always
stood by His faithful people, His faithful servants and handmaidens,
and that He will not forsake them in any hour of extremity or of
peril. He will stand by them; He will hear their prayers; and
at the very time when it will seem the darkest, when it will be as
though there is no power to save, God's arm will be stretched out for
our deliverance, and we shall be rescued and be triumphant. He will so
control circumstances and arrange affairs, that, at the very moment
when the adversary will be glorying in triumph, and gloating over the
prospect before him, He will then be ready to extend His arm of
deliverance in our behalf, and rescue us from the power of those who
desire our destruction.
As I said in the beginning, if this work depended on us alone we would
soon go down. It depends upon God. He is at the head of it. He is
behind it. He is all around it. He established it. He has controlled
circumstances thus far in a most wonderful manner; and when I look at
that which has been done in this country, with all the efforts that
have been made by the wicked, one act after another, one act of wrong
piled on top of another, and see the meager results to show for their
base course, I feel to praise God with all my heart for His goodness
and mercy to us.
A Governor of this Territory perjured himself to do us a great wrong.
He gave the certificate of election to a man who was not elected,
thinking, in so doing, he was dealing Mormonism—or the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—a deadly blow. What has been the
result? Who is injured? Is anybody injured? I do not, myself, know of
anybody that is injured, except the man who did this perfidious act,
who perjured himself by violating his oath of office. I do not know of
anyone else. Certainly the people of Utah are not. Go back, and look
at Judge McKean's rulings and acts. We had a reign of judicial terror
in the Third Judicial District for about eight months, and no man knew
when he was to be pounced upon. Prominent men were indicted and put
under bonds, some for one thing and some for another. Who has been
injured by this? Has anyone been injured? We have not. We have ate,
and slept, and enjoyed ourselves, and been as happy as men could be. I
am sure President Young, when he was living, was a happy man. It did
not interfere with his happiness and enjoyment, and others who were
indicted in like manner, they enjoyed themselves, and the people have
not been injured. We have had a great deal of this kind of experience.
Now we are passing through a similar condition of affairs to some
extent. We shall come out of this just as we have come out of other
perils and trials and ordeals. We shall gain experience, and it will
increase our faith to see the power of God manifested, and to see how
wonderfully He controls the acts of men for His glory and for the
accomplishment of His purposes. Look at the hubbub that has been
raised in Congress. There has been a tremendous amount of pressure
brought to bear upon that body in regard to the Mormons. Delegation
after delegation has gone from Utah to Washington and appeared before
Committees, for the purpose of getting bills made into laws. It will
be most interesting reading in years to come, the various bills that
have been presented to Congress against Utah. Every sort of scheme has
been resorted to. You cannot think of anything, scarcely, that has not
been embodied as a feature in some of these bills. And with what
result? Have we slept any less? Have we been any more unhappy?
Have we had any less prosperity? Has the sun shone less upon us? Has
Heaven withdrawn its smile from us? Have our fields been less
fruitful? Have our children been less numerous? Has any blessing that
we value been withheld or withdrawn from us because of these things!
If they have I am not aware of it. I cannot think of any evil that has
come upon us as a people. I look over the past; I review the acts of
the wicked; I review their combinations; I review the many
conspiracies that have been formed, the many determinations that have
been reached to destroy us, to cripple us, to deprive us of our
rights, and I must confess to you this day, my brethren and sisters,
in the presence of our Father, that I cannot think of a single thing
that has been done that we could call injurious to us as a people; not
a single thing. With all the force that has been arrayed against us,
with all the threats that have been made about us, we have lived, we
have prospered, we have increased, we have been blessed of the Lord.
You know how blessed you have been in your families, in your homes.
You know how much peace has reigned there; how much you have had in
your hearts, and in your meetings, and in your associations. You know
how free you have been from fear and from trepidation. You have not
suffered in your feelings, for God has given unto you a peace that the
world cannot bestow, that the world cannot take away. The world has
not given unto us those blessings; the world cannot take them away
from us; they are ours, given unto us by God our Eternal Father. They
will still be given unto us. God's promises will be verified to the
very letter.
But you watch the men who have fought against this work. Watch the men
who have apostatized from this work. Ask yourselves what their fate
has been. Where are the men who have sought to oppress the people of
Utah? Where are they today? Who is there among them that has
prospered in this work of oppression? Go through the list of
Governors, Judges, and other officers. Go through the list of those
who have held any office, and who have sought the oppression of the
people and the destruction of their liberties, through their spirit of
antagonism to the work of God, and their desire to destroy it—go
through the list of them, and ask, who among them has had prosperity
and has been blessed, and to whom we can look and say, "Oh, how
successful that man has been; how he has prospered in fighting the
Mormons!" Is there any such man among them? You are familiar with the
names of apostates who have left this work through fear or some other
cause, corrupt in their lives or for some other reason? Can you recall
among the long list of men who have come out and pitted themselves
against this work of our God, any who have prospered and had happy
lives? Is there any of them with whom you, the humblest of you today,
the humblest, the poorest of you Latter-day Saints—is there one of
them with whom you would exchange places today? Not one. I am sure
that I can reply for the whole of you—that is, there is not one in
that long list of names of men who were once members of this church,
who have come out against it, with whom you would exchange places; not
one.
Why then, should we fear? Why should we tremble? Why should we be
afraid of that which is threatened? I tell you in the name of the Lord
He will stand by us, He will stand by all His people. There is
this peculiarity about our God. He is not like the devil. When the
devil gets a man in a tight place he leaves him there; he encircles
him in his net, he lets him get entangled in its meshes, and then
leaves him to himself. That is the devil's way. He deserts those who
follow him when they most need his help. But with God, in the time of
the greatest extremity, in the time when help is most needed, then He
is close to His faithful servants and His faithful children; then is
the time that He stands by them. In the deepest waters He is with
them; in the midst of the heaviest and sorest afflictions He is at
their right hand and at their left; He is around about to sustain and
carry them off victorious.
God help us to be true and faithful to the cause that He has
established, that in the end we may be permitted to sit down with him
and His Son in His Kingdom, is my prayer in the name of Jesus, Amen.
- George Q. Cannon