We have some few missionaries returned very recently, and I wish to
notify them to meet with us on Tuesday evening in the Seventies'
Council Hall; and we want all the Bishops in the city, and the
missionaries who have been appointed to labor here, to meet at the
same place, on the same evening.
I attended the High Priests' meeting last evening, in company with
brothers F. D. Richards and Lorenzo Snow, and I want to say to all the
High Priests in this city, I want them to meet with their quorum; and
we are going to meet with you; the Twelve will meet with you and with
the Seventies, and I want every man who is a president of Seventies to
meet with his quorum at the time appointed. There was not more than
half the High Priests out last evening.
We are called upon to wake up and reform, and it makes me feel curious
when I go into the High Priests' meeting, and see not one half of them
there when a meeting is held to prepare them to wake up the people.
I want this people to listen to what they have heard today. I feel
thankful to see brother Kimball again come into this stand. I
expressed my feelings when I saw the sacrament removed from the table;
I felt that it was a loud sermon to this people; I said I knew not
what would come next; I thought likely the Presidency would be removed
next from us, not that I expected they would die; brother Grant,
however, is gone; the load he undertook to draw killed him, the same
load that was pressing the President of this Church to the earth, when
Jedediah rose up to bear it off; his spirit was strong enough, but as
brother Kimball said, his mortal body was not strong enough to bear
its weight. The First Presidency have not addressed this people but a
little time since the sacrament was removed, therefore I was glad to
see and hear brother Kimball today.
Although Jedediah has been taken from us, that load, which in a
measure has been removed from the Presidency of this Church, has not
returned unto them, and I pray it never may. When Jedediah M. Grant
went forth among the people through the north country and this city to
carry out the views of President Young, and lifted up his voice like
the trump of the angel of God, and called upon the people to awake out
of their deep sleep and repent of their sins and turn unto God, the
people were so sound asleep that they did not realize the importance
of his mission; many felt that his labors and reproofs were
unnecessary and uncalled for, the people did not know what he was
doing. Had the vision of their minds been open as was brother Grant's,
and those who sent him, they would have seen and felt the importance
of that mission.
I tell you the people have been asleep, and they are not yet half
awake, they have not more than one eye open, and not that quite; when
we hear such things as we have to day, this people have got to
wake up to righteousness. I have lived twenty-three years in the
Church, and I have been acquainted with Prophets and have heard them
prophesy, and I have not yet seen their words fall to the ground
unfulfilled; and when they speak Israel should hear and obey.
We have been called upon, some of us, as missionaries to the people of
this city, to wake them up. We shall be among you, brethren, and we do
not intend to let you sleep. Brother Orson Hyde is with us today; he
has had a dream which refers to the wheat and the thrashing floor. I
am glad brother Hyde is with us, and I want to say to you, brother
Hyde, in the name of the Lord, wake up and rise up in the midst of
your brethren the Twelve, and lead them forth into the field of labor,
and we will stand by you; if you will lead the Twelve, brother Hyde,
in the spirit and power of your calling as an Apostle of Jesus Christ,
you will see your brethren by your side; we will back you up, and step
forth and help to bear that mighty load which has rested upon the
Presidency of the Church like a mountain, and nearly crushed them to
the ground. As a Quorum we have got to more fully obtain the spirit
and power of our Apostleship and take more upon ourselves the care and
burden of the Church and Kingdom of God than we have done.
The Twelve Apostles have got to rise up and magnify their calling, or
they will be removed out of their place. The High Priests, the
Seventies, the Bishops, and every other Quorum of the Church and
Kingdom of God have got to do the same, or they also will be removed;
we cannot sleep any longer with the Priesthood of Almighty God resting
upon us, and the work that is required at our hands. WE CANNOT SLEEP.
I do not wonder that calling on the people to wake up has killed one
man, and it will kill more if we do not respond to the call; mortality
cannot endure the visions of eternity that rests on them when they
look on the Priesthood and see the position they are in; it has nearly
laid brother Young in the grave; he felt he could not live until some
man rose up and started the work of reformation.
I know it is my duty to wake up and enter into the labors of my
calling, and it is the duty of Elder Hyde, and the duty of every other
man in Israel that bears this Priesthood to do the same; it is our
duty to bear off that burden and labor which has been resting like a
mountain upon the leaders of this Church. I know they have groaned
under the load than has rested on them, when they have seen all Israel
going to sleep.
Let the Twelve Apostles, and the Seventy Apostles, and High Priest
Apostles, and all other Apostles rise up and keep pace with the work
of the Lord God, for we have no time to sleep. What is man's life good
for, or his words or work good for when he stands in the way of men's
salvation, exaltation, and glory? They are of no use at all.
As an individual I am determined to wake up and do my duty, God being
my helper. I want to see brother Hyde, who is the President of the
Twelve, walk into all these Quorums and attend their meetings, and we
will back him up; I want him to lift up his voice like a trumpet and
go to winnowing the wheat; it is for the Twelve to rise up and carry
off the load. The Seventies have got to walk up in their place and do
their duty. I know God requires this at our hands. The law of God, the
holy Priesthood, and the holy anointing and washing, and everything
else that is holy requires it at our hands. I know this.
It is necessary to reform. The question may be asked, what is the
matter? Why, we are asleep; if the eyes of any man or woman
is opened as they should be, they could see the things of God as they
are in one moment; they would see there is a necessity of waking up
and doing something. Here is a great and mighty dispensation committed
into the hands of this people for the living and the dead; the candle
of the Lord God is placed in these mountains like a city that is set
on a hill that cannot be hid; the work is on your shoulders, ye
Priests of the Most High God!—on you rests the salvation of this
generation, and the Lord will require this stewardship at your hands.
The Lord has given you the keys of the Priesthood with all the
blessings pertaining to it—as great and as mighty a work as ever was
committed to any man on the earth, and that too in the midst of the
last dispensation and fulness of times. The Lord requires us to
prepare this generation, both Jew and Gentile, either for salvation or
damnation through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
the administering of the ordinances of the House of God, and we go to
sleep! The Apostles go to sleep—the Seventies go to sleep—the Elders
of Israel close their eyes to slumber, and we the only people God has
on the earth, upon whose shoulders He has laid the responsibility of
performing this great and mighty work!
Do you wonder that Prophets get up here and chastise, and draw the
sword of justice and hold it over our heads? I do not. I wonder that
our children at the fireside do not rise up and prophesy, with a voice
like thunder and in flames of fire, unto their fathers and mothers,
and unto the people of Israel. I know that the counsels we have had
here through the mouths of the Prophets of God are just and true. I
know that the warning voice that has been heard in this Stand, and the
call that has been made on this floor is necessary; and I do hope and
pray God that we, as missionaries, will listen to it. I want my
brother missionaries in the first place to wake up, and get aroused
with the mantle of salvation and Spirit of God ourselves, and get our
own armor bright. It has been justly remarked here that we have got to
labor ourselves until we get the Spirit of God, and then we can walk
out among the people and correct them; but if we as Seventies, as High
Priests, and Apostles, and Elders bearing the Priesthood, if we are
resolved to set our hearts upon things of this earth, without being
engaged in the interest of the kingdom of God, what can we expect of
the people? Not anything. I desire that we may all wake up, and listen
to the counsel of these men who lead us from day to day.
We have no time to lose to prepare ourselves for the things that are
coming on the earth; and who wants to lose his crown, his glory, and
hope of eternal lives that he has had in days past and gone by
receiving the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No man that has any portion of
the Spirit of God. Let us rise up and magnify our calling, and labor
before God until we can get the Holy Spirit, and until our prayers
rend the veil of eternity and enter into the ears of the God of
Sabbaoth and be answered in blessings upon our heads.
When shall the fire be kindled in Zion? I do not mean wildfire—there
is a true fire, and that is the fire we need to get, that is necessary
to kindle; and if we live up to our privileges, do our duty, walk up
to the word of the Lord God, and magnify our calling, we do know that
the blessings of God will attend us, and the sinners in Zion will
tremble and fearfulness will surprise the hypocrite; and let what will
come, all will be right with the Latter-day Saints.
There are great things awaiting us and the world—the Lord is
withdrawing His Spirit from the nations of the earth, His sword is
bathed in heaven and will fall upon Idumea or the world; the seals are
about to be opened and the judgments of God poured out upon the
wicked, for the cup of their wickedness and abominations is filled to
the brim and the indignation of the Lord will be poured out without
measure.
Let the Saints read the revelations of God, and they will see that
there are important events at our doors. Let us hearken and wake up,
and be doing the things required of us. Let the missionaries first get
their lamps trimmed and burning, and then go among the people, and go
with the Spirit of God and the salvation of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ; and let the other Quorums do the same; and when you do this
you will see a reform, and sin and iniquity cannot abide in our
habitations, in our wards, or in our city.
We have sin and sinners among us, and what are we going to do about
it? Why, we are going to try to live our religion, and when we do that
we shall do right. The business with me is to do right today, to live
my religion today, and leave the events with God; He holds the
destinies of the nations and of all men; they are in His hand; He made
the earth and controls the children of men upon it.
Then let events roll on—if we are only right, all is well. We have got
to be tried even unto death. The Lord says He will prove us, and see
if we abide in His covenants. There is where we have got to stand as a
people, not only our horses, and gold and silver, and land and houses,
but our lives have got to lie on the altar, and when anything comes to
test us, even at the stake of our lives, we should be in the
possession of the Holy Ghost not to flee from it, and such will be
crowned with the gift of eternal lives, exaltation and glory.
There is nothing to encourage a man to draw back; there is nothing
short of the most damnable principle that dwells in the spirit of
devils that would tempt any man to shed the blood of the Lord's
anointed, yet men will try to do it. There are men here today who
will possess that spirit; I believe it; they are in our city. If they
shed blood they have got the bill to pay. Let the wicked and the
ungodly, who will not repent, but fight against God, do their worst,
their time is short, and the day will come, and that soon when they
will be called to judgment.
I remember what Joseph said, a short time before he was slain in one
of the last sermons I ever heard him preach. Said he, "Men are here
today who are seeking my blood, and they are those who have held the
Priesthood and have received their washings and anointings; men who
have received their endowments." I saw the faces of those men at that
time, and they had a hand in slaying the Prophet. There are men who
now possess the same spirit and the same desire. There are men here,
too, that have faith, that have the Priesthood and the spirit of it,
and they will do their duty, and God will sustain them in it, and He
will sustain this Church and kingdom; let the trials of the Saints be
what they will, the kingdom of God is not to be torn down anymore at
all—it will not again be taken from the earth until it is prepared to
receive Christ at his coming.
Let us prepare ourselves and do our duty, and let the High Priests and
Seventies go to their meetings, and before you go there, go to work
and get the Spirit of God, that when you get there you may not freeze
to death. And I want to have the people, when they come here, to get
enough of the Spirit of God, that when the Presidency rise in
this Stand they may give us what is in their hearts. They are filled
with blessings for this people. All the trouble is our eyes have been
closed, we have been in a deep sleep; let us wake up and attend to our
duty, and make it the first business we do.
Those who lay their plans in secret chambers to seek the blood of the
Prophets, will have their case attended to by messengers on the other
side of the veil, ministers will be sent to them who will render unto
them a righteous judgment there. I do not want to preach to them here,
but to those who want to be saved.
Go to, and if you have not the Spirit of God, make it your first
busi ness to get it, that your minds may be opened to see the things of
God as they are; it is your privilege and mine, that we may be
prepared for what is to come.
That this people may repent of all their sins and wake up, and have
power to come before God that their prayers may be heard, be prepared
to defend the kingdom and never desert their covenants and their
brethren, or betray the Gospel, but overcome the world and be prepared
to become joint heirs with Christ to the fulness of the first
resurrection which is prepared for those who keep the commandments of
God, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.