It affords me pleasure to meet again with the Saints in Zion, and to
have the privilege of mingling with the people of God in a general
conference. It is sometime since I had this privilege, and I can
assure you that I appreciate it very much. I do not think it is
possible for me to express in proper language my feelings in regard to
my mountain home. I never learned but one verse of poetry in my life,
and that one I have repeated many times, and I do not know but what it
would be well for me to repeat it this morning. The verse to which I
allude says:
"There is a magical tie in the land of my home,
That the heart cannot break, though the footsteps may roam,
Be that land where it may, at the line or the pole,
It still holds the magnet that draws back my soul."
Such is the case this morning in arising to address you for a short
time. What the Lord may have for me to say to you I cannot imagine.
For a few months past I have not addressed any congregations; I have
been visiting; I have been reasoning with my friends upon the
principles of the Gospel, and seeking to enlighten them in regard to
my position. Having accepted the Gospel, and dedicated my life to the
preaching of the same, I was desirous that my kindred should hear it.
I have not been idle, but have been laboring with zeal to impress upon
them the nature of the latter-day work. I did not go there expecting
to make converts but to relieve my friends of prejudice. I have found,
so to speak, that my utterances have fallen on stony ground outside of
my kindred and that while I was re ceived with kindness, and
trust that good may in time come from my labors in certain directions,
yet I cannot say, as many have said, that I have accomplished much
good, and that I have removed a world of prejudice. I trust, however,
that I may have done some good during the past few weeks among my
kindred in the Eastern States.
As you are aware, in 1882 I was sent by my brethren to preside for a
season over the European mission. I proceeded to my field of labor
with some dubiety in regard to my own self. My former experience upon
the island of Great Britain had been such that I was really fearful in
regard to my health. For five years after my first mission to the
British Isles, I had never passed a night in sound and perfect sleep.
I suffered from a cold contracted on that mission. On my departure in
1882, however, my brethren promised me I should go in peace; that I
should enjoy good health; that the blessings of the Lord should be
around me; and that I should be enabled to accomplish the object for
which I was sent forth. And while I went with some foreboding with
regard to myself, still it appears I had to return to Great Britain,
to lose that which had seized upon me on a former mission.
I found upon my arrival in that land a corps of very excellent Elders.
The mission was in a very good condition, with an earnest and
determined lot of missionaries who were willing to do anything that
might be required at their hands for the furtherance of the purposes
of the Lord. I found, however, upon investigation and mingling with my
brethren, that the road seemed to be hedged up in a manner so that
they could not accomplish that which their hearts desired. After
visiting various conferences, and giving the brethren such
instructions and counsel as the spirit suggested as to the best method
to reach the people, getting their views and the result of their
experience in the field, some of them having been there for a year or
two—it was decided, on the suggestion of several, that an effort be
made to distribute more of the written word than had heretofore been
done. Communications were addressed to the Presidency of the Church,
and by their consent a system of tract distribution was inaugurated
and has been followed systematically from that day to this. What the
result may be in the future we cannot say. Nevertheless, we have done
the best we could in our ministrations among the people, and have
striven with the power that the Lord has given us to warn our
fellow men of the reestablishment of the Kingdom of God. The Elders
that have been sent to labor under my watchcare and counsel, have
been men of worth. It is a matter of pride to me that those who have
been sent to labor under my direction have been good and humble men.
Many of them have been young men, reared in these mountains—that were
taken from the farm, from the stock range, from the store, and from
the work bench. They had received comparatively little training in the
ministry; but a few weeks time has developed them, and they have gone
forward in faith; the Lord has blessed them in their administrations.
I have had much joy and satisfaction in laboring with them, and in all
my ministrations and counsels to them I believe they have listened to
them and sought to the best of their ability to carry out these
counsels, and labor for the advancement of the work of the
Lord.
Since I returned home there has nothing afforded me greater pleasure
than during this conference to take into my arms and press to my
breast the men that have been laboring in the same cause as myself;
for I respect and honor them as I would my own brother. These
sentiments are from the heart in regard to them, and I trust that
their experience with me and our acquaintance, and the friendship that
springs up amid adversity and trials, may be as lasting as life
itself.
I am pleased to report that in Great Britain we continue to do some
baptizing. During my administration in that land a little new ground,
or rather ground that had been worked years ago and been abandoned,
has been opened up in various places. We have gained a foothold in
Finland, and a few have been baptized in that land. Brother Fjelsted
sent some native Elders into that section of country. Some men that
were inspired with zeal, and who were humble, and who were ready to
meet any trial and difficulty that might come in their way, succeeded
in opening a little door. Seed has been sown. Away north on the
borders of Prussia and Russia, an opening has been made through a
native who had been ordained by Brother J. A. Smith, of Cache Valley,
and there is a prospect of the Gospel being introduced in that
country. We have also made a little effort to introduce the Gospel in
Austria. Brother Beisinger has been there and labored some time.
Brother Hammer was there also, but was run off by the authorities.
Brother Beisinger and Brother Jennings are now, I suppose, in Austria,
probably in Bohemia. I felt while in Switzerland, in December, that it
would be impossible for me to return home without another effort being
made to open up the Gospel to Austria, although the brethren had
already suffered considerable in that land. The authorities there do
not treat our Elders as they should; but I trust that by wisdom and
prudence, the Gospel may be preached, and that the inhabitants
thereof—a fine race of people—may sense their position and embrace the
truth. We have also made an effort to establish ourselves in Turkey,
and I trust that a work will be opened up there. A few baptisms have
already been made.
The brethren throughout the British Isles have been making efforts to
introduce the Gospel in every corner and place where opportunity
presented itself. I would say, however, that the England of a few
years ago is not the England of today. While the same spirit of
liberty—the love of the rights of man—may exist among the English
people, still that spirit of hospitality that characterized them years
and years ago, seems to be on the wane. Many people are out of
employment, the numbers that are wandering around begging their bread,
closes, in a measure the hearts of the people, and they feel that they
cannot carry the loads that they have been carrying. Still, among the
Latter-day Saints, the same hospitality is to be found. Their hearts
are as warm today as they ever were.
We have made recently—through the labors of Brothers Wilson and
Marshall, two Irish brethren—an opening in the north of Ireland, and
we trust that with care much good will result in that neighborhood.
Some very fine people have embraced the Gospel there, people in good
circumstances, and who, inspired with zeal, desire to spread
the principles of the Gospel. And thus little by little we accomplish
the object of our mission, and the world is being warned. When I left
England there were three valley Elders in Ireland, and I hope others
may be added to their number before long, so that the work may spread
at least in the protestant portion of that country. I am inclined to
believe that there are hundreds and thousands of people in Ireland who
will receive the Gospel. My prejudices in regard to the Irish people
have been wiped away in mingling among them. I find them among the
purest of the stocks upon the earth. Virtue is held at a high premium
among them. The statistics of Great Britain show this fact; that
illegitimate births in Ireland constitute 3 percent. In England six,
in Scotland nine. I say this speaks volumes for Ireland, and I trust
that the Gospel may spread in that land and that thousands may receive
its truths.
I have visited nearly all parts of the mission—at least where there
are any Saints, and some portions where there are none. I went to
Italy in the hope that I might see some chance of making an opening in
that country. I came very near having two of the Elders starved by
staying there. I was determined, however, to try and introduce the
Gospel. There are some sections of the country that are Protestant,
and I trust there may be a time come when the Gospel will spread among
that people. But I regard Italy as in such a condition that there are
but few chances at the present time for any opening to be made. The
Italians are bound up in the religious faith that they have been
reared in, or they are infidel almost entirely. I noticed in my
attendance at the churches, that they are usually well filled with
priests and beggars, and that few, comparatively speaking, of the
well-to-do classes, or the middle classes, or the better informed
classes, were paying any attention whatever to religious observance.
I have also during my administration in the British mission, sought to
have the Gospel preached among the French people. Brother Bunot and
Brother West made an effort on the Island of Jersey. Brother Bunot was
sent to France, and he stayed there just as long as he could possibly
live, using his own means, and striving by every means in his power to
open some door to his countrymen. Brother Bunot is a man who was
educated for the Catholic ministry, a man of intelligence and
learning, and a humble man who did everything in his power to warn his
countrymen. He was not successful in accomplishing the desires of his
heart. On the borders of Switzerland and France a number of the Elders
have labored, and while we have not reaped as we could have wished to
have done, still there has been satisfaction in the labors we have
performed; for we realize that it is not only a day of gleaning and
gathering the people, but it is also a day of warning.
I will say here, that about the time our brethren in the southern
States were murdered in cold blood, a wave of hatred seemed to have
been engendered in the minds of the people in every direction. The
press of Europe teemed with the most horrid stories that can be
imagined. Everything that had ever been thought of everything that had
ever been manufactured for partisan purposes in our own land was
scattered broadcast throughout Europe, and the masses of the people
were warned in every direction in regard to us. And not only
were they warned through the newspapers, but lecturers began to take
the field in every direction, and incite the people not to avoid our
meetings, but on the contrary to follow us up and to mob us, giving us
no chance to explain to them the principles of the Gospel, or
represent ourselves as we should. This feeling has been growing in
power from that time until the time I left that land. But as
heretofore a cool wave will by and by come along and as a result of
the heated condition of the people over the Mormon problem, and the
efforts that have been made to impede the Lord's work, people will
begin to inquire, thoughtful people will look into the truth, and the
work will continue to grow in the future as it has done in the past.
It is true that people do not come by hundreds and thousands to hear
the good word of life and salvation; but the eyes of the world are
directed to this our mountain home. They recognize the force of the
utterance of Henry Ward Beecher, when he said: "Gentlemen, say what
you will, but yonder in the Rocky Mountains is the phenomenon of the
nineteenth century." It is a living fact that people in every land and
clime are turning their eyes towards this region of country, and
wondering what will be the upshot of the problem that is being worked
out by the Latter-day Saints in their western home. Men of
intelligence are traveling; they are mingling among our people; they
see their industry; they recognize the perseverance they have
manifested; they see the obstacles they have overcome; they recognize
in them a growing race that knows no failure, that meets no rebuff,
that cannot understand nor sense what defeat means; and they see in
the Latter-day Saints the growth and development of a power that will
accomplish its object in the earth, and that object Deity has designed
it should accomplish—the gathering in of the honest in heart, the
establishment of righteousness, the combating of wickedness, the
driving back of the forces of evil as they cluster around the hearts
of men and that are leading men step by step to inevitable shame and
destruction.
It affords me pleasure, my brethren and sisters, to again put my feet
on the soil of America. I recognize in it the home of a free man.
There may be those who desire to pervert this freedom, who may seek to
engender strife and drive us from the soil upon which we live; there
may be those who seek to trample upon the rights and liberties of man;
but I believe from the bottom of my heart that Deity has stamped it
upon this soil, that He has written it throughout the universe, that
in this land His work should prosper. That it should go forward and
increase until its great destiny shall be accomplished; that this is
the spot chosen, that here it will be nourished, here it will grow,
here it will go forward, and the nations of the earth will look upon
it and recognize it as the great force that will conquer the earth and
bring subject to it the powers that exist thereon; and all this will
be brought about by the law of righteousness, the law of truth, the
law of God given to mankind for their guidance and control, and they
will accept it and live in accordance with its principles. You and I
may tread a thorny path; it may be strewn with rugged places; we may
break the flesh upon our hands, and be bruised in our forward
movement; but the work will advance and progress. Deity is our friend, our guide, our protector. All we need do as a people is to
keep our eye upon the mark of divine truth; move forward without fear,
and ask no favors so far as mankind is concerned; only seek to do
right by our fellow creatures. Hate no one. I dare not hate any man
upon the face of the earth. No matter how vile, how wicked, how
corrupt he may be, if I find him in want of a friend I would extend to
him the hand of friendship; I would give him bread if he was hungry;
water if he was thirsty; clothing if he was naked; for I would
recognize in him the fact that he was a creation of my Father, and I
would not dare to hate him, no matter how vile he might be. I might
hate the principles he had espoused; the wicked acts of which he was
guilty; but I would recognize in him something that I should seek to
benefit, bless and save, and I would use all the powers God had
bestowed upon me in that direction.
"Brother Smith," some may say, "don't you feel uneasy over the
condition of things that now exists in our Territory?" I have
sometimes wished that things were not as they are. As I have wandered
in the earth and stood up in the streets and parks and halls preaching
the Gospel, I have said to myself, I wish that my Father had not set
me to this work; I wish that these things were not required at my
hands. I have sometimes felt timid in being brought in contact with
the world, and the efforts that were being made against me and my
brethren. I have wished it could be otherwise, and yet when I stop and
reflect, when I look over the history of the past, when I read the
facts as history brings them to us, I see no other way, I see no other
road to travel. Every fiber of my being is convinced of the truth of
this Gospel. It is stamped upon every feature, upon every part of my
being. I regard it as dearer than life and everything else upon the
face of the earth. Why need I be fearful, why need I tremble, why need
I be wrought up at the prospect that is before us? No great system has
ever been established upon the face of the earth without much labor
and perseverance. Look at the inventions that have been brought out
and the efforts that have been directed against them, even in those
things that were to be utilized for our own clothing, for our own
movements from place to place, or for the comfort and convenience of
our homes. The men that have invented these things have met with
continual persecution. They have struggled against nature itself; and
why need we, who have had given to us the great plan of life and
salvation, that which will bring us back into the presence of God,
that which stamps upon our souls the prospect of eternal union with
our wives and our children, and of mingling with our friends and
relatives that have gone before—why need we fear the hand of our
enemies. Who cannot stand a few weeks of imprisonment, a few months of
torture, a few years of difficulty, that they may offer an offering in
righteousness to that God that called them forth? Not one of us.
Therefore, so far as I am concerned, my brethren and sisters as an
individual, I am perfectly happy, just as happy as I can possibly be
under the circumstances in which we are placed. I have no worry nor
concern. One of my uncles, whose home I left but a few weeks ago
warned me that certain things were inevitable; that it was impossible
for us to hope to fight longer these things our pronounced enemies
were seeking to bring upon us. All I said to him was, "Wait
and see." That is what I propose to do—wait and see, just wait and
see. I have been waiting from my childhood, and expect to continue to
wait. It is possible that a few men like myself maybe hustled within
the prison walls; it is possible that a few "Mormons" may be outraged
and banished from their native land; it is possible that men may
follow us to the death; but while men die, systems continue to live
and grow, and the powers of earth and hell can never check their
advancement and development. Such is the case in regard to the work we
have embraced. It is a living work. It is one of the active forces in
nature. It is backed by the powers of heaven, and ye are its
emissaries sent here at this time to aid in its advancement. The
Gospel must be preached; the nations of the earth must be warned, and
this nation, or any other nation, will fall beneath the judgment of an
enraged God if they reject the message of glad tidings, which our
Father has offered them for their exaltation in His kingdom. The work
of God must conquer every foe, it must overcome every opposing force,
and it will accomplish that destiny as sure as there is a God in
heaven. Write it upon the page of history; stamp it upon your souls;
for deity has designed that it should be the case.
I find in mingling among the people in the east, that the moving force
today against the Latter-day Saints is not the politicians of the
country. The politicians, so far as they are concerned would care
little about us, but there are behind them the people. There are first
the ministers of the Gospel. I do not desire to speak harshly of the
ministers that live among us, or make charges against them, for I have
been away for some time; but this fact is patent to every one—that the
fervor against the "Mormons" is worked up right from our own homes,
and largely by Christian ministers. Letters are written to the
ministers of the country; the ministers work upon their flocks. Go
among many of the peoples of the east—among the old Puritan stock, of
which my fathers are descendants—and you will find that the tales of
the horrors of Mormonism are of the most startling character. This I
discovered while visiting among my relatives in New England.
They were all more or less prejudiced against Mormonism; but I trust
that the little light I was able to throw upon the question may result
in good. The New Englanders as a rule, have but small families, and
the evil practices that are resorted to by many to prevent their
having children at all, will be the means of carrying them down to the
pit.
Now, brethren and sisters, whom have we wronged? Whom have we wronged
by peopling this desert land? Nobody. If there was anybody wronged it
was the red man, and he has not been wronged but blessed; for we have
tried to feed instead of fight him. The first principle of the Gospel
is faith. Whom have we hurt if we have faith? Then there is the
principle of repentance. Whom have we injured if we have repented? Is
anybody hurt? Is the government hurt? Does repentance beget hostility
to the government? If we make a covenant with God in the waters of
baptism that we will be pure, is anybody wronged? No! Have we plotted
for the overthrow and destruction of the government in which we live
because the hands of the servants of God have been laid upon
our heads and they have bestowed upon us the Holy Ghost, the witness
of the Spirit that shall guide us into all truth? No. Have you or I
made a contract with our God to wage antagonism to the institutions of
the country in which we live, or sign allegiance to any other
government upon the earth? I have not. I have sworn allegiance to the
government in which I live. My labors as a man are in the interests of
humanity—the freedom of man; that his conscience may not be chained
up; that his body may not be bowed down with the yoke of tyranny; but
that before God he may stand erect, fearless and strong, determined to
benefit and bless the human family. Need we be fearful in regard to
these things? I think not. There is one that will recompense at the
last day; and the man who denies the other his liberties, who binds
him in chains, who ties him to the rack, is the man who should tremble
when the reckoning of Deity is made with His sons and daughters. We
might go through all the principles of the faith we have espoused and
then ask who is wronged? We have made grass grow where it did not grow
before. If we have built homes, if we pay taxes for the sustenance and
government of the cities and towns that are to be found upon this once
sterile spot, and which was once the great American desert, who is
wronged? No one. Who has raised a standard against the government in
which we live? Not one of us. But you believe in the Priesthood. You
accept of a system of government that is most perfect on the face of
the earth. Who is wronged if we do? You have not changed it. It has
not changed you. It has not wronged you; and that which we have
accepted we have accepted of our own free will and choice, recognizing
the fact that Deity has required it at our hands. Who is injured if my
wife makes a sacrifice with me and takes into our home one of her
sisters and makes her my wife. If she makes the sacrifice; if I
shoulder the additional responsibility, and open the door that will
save one of Eve's fair daughters, who is wronged? Do I plot for the
overthrow of the government, the breaking in pieces of the powers that
be, because I desire that my sister or my daughter, my aunt or my
cousin may be preserved from the evils thrown around them by the
systems that man has created? No. God has laid upon every woman the
decree placed upon mother Eve—multiply and replenish the earth. In
sections of the land in which we live, thousands of women today must
become the play things of some vile wretch, if they answer the design
of their being. My whole being is convinced of the fact—that it is a
decree of God Himself that these women should have a chance to marry,
and that He Himself has opened the door. He Himself has established
the principle. I want my daughters married as I desired to marry
myself; I want them honored wives, whether plural ones or otherwise,
no matter who may seek to brand their offspring as infamous. I
know—for God has given me the witness, He has stamped it upon this
heart that they who come through that lineage are as much honored of
God and approved of Him, as any that have ever walked His footstool
from the day that this earth was peopled until the day in which we
live. This principle was given for a purpose, and that purpose is the
salvation of the female sex as well as the male sex. Go to Great Britain, and you will find a million more women than men moving
upon the streets of the great cities. Go up the Strand in London; Go
up Lime Street, in Liverpool; and the streets in Manchester; go into
any of the leading streets of the great cities of the world, and gaze
upon as fine specimens of womanhood as our Father ever put breath
into. What are their prospects in life? What is written across their
brow? Infamy, shame—going to their graves the victims of loathsome
disease. It is not one, it is not two or three; but it is millions of
them that are going this inevitable road. Who is responsible? Who
placed upon them the interdict, preventing them, from fulfilling the
object of their creation? Not God; for He made His law so liberal and
established principle so correct that there was no necessity for such
a thing. It is man that has introduced it; it is man that has
overturned the condition of society; it is man that has turned his
daughter into the street. I say again and again that the "Mormon"
people can wait the result of this thing without fear; they can afford
to suffer pains and penalties if that will but open the door by which
the fair daughters of Eve can be redeemed from the position in which
they are placed and be made honored and respected women of society.
The speaker concluded by reiterating his allegiance to the American
government, and exhorting the Saints to be faithful in keeping the
commandments of God in all things.
- John H. Smith