Let the congregation be as still as possible.
I wish to occupy a short time in speaking to you, and I am not able to
talk with the ease that I could wish, for my health has for some time
obliged me to confine myself pretty closely to my rooms. This is the
first time that I have walked so far as to come to this Tabernacle
since the burial of Jedediah M. Grant. My bodily afflictions would not
permit me to walk much, and they also still hinder my efforts in
speaking or exercising. I have been troubled this winter as are many
in this high altitude, with a rising of the blood to the head; that is
what is troubling me this morning, insomuch that I hardly felt able to
get here.
Aided by the faith and prayers of the Saints, I will endeavor to
speak so that you can hear me, and to edify you according to the best
of my ability.
I have a great desire to teach people the way of life and salvation; I
have been occupied in that labor for many years. It has been my chief
business to instruct the inhabitants of the earth how they can secure
unto themselves eternal life. The more I become acquainted with the
principles pertaining to salvation, and the more strictly I adhere to
them, the more importance I attach to them.
If I do not always view people as they really are, yet I see them
par tially as they are, perhaps, as looking through a glass darkly, and
in the vision of my mind, looking at this people called Latter-day
Saints, and leaving out the residue of the inhabitants of the earth,
to give vent to my understanding, I could cry aloud and weep before
the Lord. It appears to me that very many, in their understandings,
according to the past conduct of the people, leaving out the present,
are too much like brute beasts, or like the door on its hinges, which
opens and shuts as it is acted upon, and is insensible. This appears
to be the situation of some of the people.
Sometimes this seems strange and inconsistent, knowing that mankind
are organized to receive and continue to receive, and that receiving
one fact in the understanding does not deprive them in the least of
receiving another. There is no heathen nation but what expects their
posterity to improve in all the knowledge they possess, and that is
required by the parents. But the Christian nations with whom we have
been associated, boast of their intelligence, suppose that they are
exhibiting great knowledge, and that it towers to the heavens, and
expect their children to improve in all the arts and sciences in their
possession.
When people have the privilege of securing to themselves eternal
exaltation, when the words of eternal life are given to them,
what a pity it is that they do not understand, how liable they are to
fall out by the way, and that this is necessary in this state of
probation. Place before some persons that which their appetites crave
and require, and they will forsake every other thing, even their best
friends. They will contend against their best friends and benefactors,
in order to glut their appetites. When I look at this people, to say
nothing about any people but the Latter-day Saints, if I have a
correct understanding, some few of them look to me to be much like
what we call brute beasts. The people are instructed, from their
youth, that there is no end to their learning. They are taught by
their parents and by their teachers that they can continue to learn,
that they can store up knowledge, treasure up the wisdom of the world,
and never see the time, although they shall live to the age of
Methuselah or older, but what they can add to their store of knowledge.
When I apply these principles to the Latter-day Saints, it would seem
that when they are once filled, when they are once fed upon the words
of eternal life until their souls are satisfied, they conclude that
that meal will last forever. They think they will never require any
more, and so they become empty, faint, wearied, dull, stupid, and
before they are aware of it, they need a spirit of reformation; they
need a fresh manifestation of the power of God to stir them up and
waken them out of their sleep, to remove the scales from their eyes,
to arouse them from their lethargy. And when again awakened, they
begin to see that they have been without food; then they can realize
that they have neglected the more weighty matters. I ask the
Latter-day Saints, is such the case? Is it true that any of the Elders
of Israel, with their wives and children, neglect the things of God,
and turn to the paltry, corruptible things of earth, and let their
affections and feelings be attracted from holy principles, and placed
on objects of no moment? You can answer this question at your leisure.
You that see and understand things as they are, you who can obtain the
visions of eternity, whose minds soar aloft to things beyond this veil
of tears, how does it appear to you? Do you feel as though you can
weep over the people? Whether you do or not, that is my feeling. To
observe for what trifling things men and women will turn away from the
spirit of the holy Gospel, after traveling a few hundred miles with,
perhaps, a few little trials to pass through, such as being perplexed
with wild cattle in their teams, with misfortunes and losses; and they
thirst, thirst greedily for the vain and foolish things of the world,
and neglect the Spirit and principles of the holy Gospel. It has
killed them spiritually to pass through those sorrows, privations, and
trials.
You may ponder these ideas in your hearts, at your leisure. Such
conduct is one of the most astonishing things to me that ever I have
experienced or beheld; yet I have reasons for thinking that I
understand the natural causes why the people are as they are.
I flattered myself years ago, that whoever embraced the doctrine of
salvation would so live as to enter in at the straight gate, in this,
however, I have been mistaken. If we this day had congregated the vast
multitudes that have taken upon them the name of Christ, that have
entered into the new and everlasting covenant to serve the Lord our
God, those who have embraced the Gospel of salvation that has been
revealed through His Prophet and Seer in the last days, and then
selected out those who still stand firm in the faith, you would find
that but a small portion of the vast congregation had kept the
faith; far the greatest number would be on the left hand. If you were
to inquire of them individually, "after you heard the Gospel, believed
and embraced it, did you think you would ever leave the faith?" every
man and woman would reply, "No, no; I will believe and obey until
death; no power on earth shall deprive me of the blessings of the
Gospel that I have embraced; for it I have sacrificed my all."
Again, would not thousands that have forsaken their fathers, mothers,
children, or companions, for the sake of the Gospel, but are now
enveloped in the spirit of the world, when asked whether they know
this Gospel to be true, reply, "We believe it;" and when asked whether
Joseph Smith was a Prophet, reply, "We believe it?" Ask such persons
why they do not gather with the Saints, and the ten thousand obstacles
that would be presented would tower up like mountains and keep them
from gathering. Ask them why they do not pay their tithing, and they
have ten thousand excuses and reasons to render. Inquire why they do
not do something for the Gospel, and instruct them if they cannot pay
their tithing, nor gather with the Saints, to go and preach to their
neighbors, and they will say to you, "O, my neighbors are pretty
well off, they are good people; here are the Methodists, Baptists,
Presbyterians, &c., and they are good people, and I really do not feel
it my duty to preach to them." Where are such persons? They are in
darkness, they have apostatized. Another great class you will find
have come out in open rebellion to the faith, to those principles they
once testified they knew to be true, and that too by the power of the
Holy Ghost.
Now leave that vast multitude, and come to this place. Here is the
gathering of the people; here is the carcass, and the eagles gather to
this place; here they are by thousands and scores of thousands. Look
through this vast multitude before me, and through the inhabitants of
this Territory, and then go to the United States and to Europe, and
the Islands of the sea, and gather up all who profess to be Latter-day
Saints, and how many of them are there in the way to enter into the
straight gate? How many are going to be crowned with the Gods? You
will all admit that this is a hard question to answer. Do you think
one half of them will enter in at the straight gate, pass by the
angels and the Gods, and receive a celestial exaltation? I pray they
may, even if I do not believe so.
Is there any person deprived of this privilege? No, not one. Has the
Lord cast an obstacle in the way of any individual, to deprive him of
the privilege of being exalted? No, not one: but everything that
could be done has been done, every provision that could be made has
been made, every law that could be instituted to encourage and elevate
the people, to increase their faith, their knowledge, their
understanding, and to lead them to life and salvation, the Lord has
brought to this people. Then the Lord is not to blame. Are angels to
blame? Are they hindering the people? No. Are the spirits of the just
casting stumbling blocks before the people, or tying their hands, or
turning them away from the right path? No.
Do you think that one half of the people walk up to every known duty,
are so doing and laboring that they are in the straight and narrow
path that leads to the lives? Answer this question at your leisure.
Yet every person will acknowledge that everything the Lord could do
for our salvation has been done. All heaven is anxious that the
people should be saved. The heavens weep over the people, because of
their hard hearted ness, unbelief, and slowness to believe and
act.
You have been taught, all the day long, that you are in a world of
sin; you have been taught, all your lives, that the seeds of sin are
sown in your mortal bodies; you have been taught that the spirit
warreth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit; that the
spirit of every man and woman that gets into the celestial kingdom
must overcome the flesh, must war against the flesh until the seeds of
sin that are sown in the flesh are brought into subjection to the law
of Christ. This has been taught you, from your youth up. There is not
a society in Christendom but what has taught these principles, and you
have read them in your Bibles when you were children. Your mothers
taught you that we were in a world of sin, and that the enemy of
righteousness is all the time ready and watching to overcome every
individual. You reply at once, "We believe this doctrine," and yet,
from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, from year to
year, we go on as we have. Some will say, "I did give way to my evil
passion yesterday, and I will give way again today, and I will let
the flesh overcome the spirit. I will bring my spirit into subjection
to my evil passions and evil influences that the enemy of Christ has
sown in the human system. I will let the tongue speak just what it
pleases; I will rail out against my neighbor; when I get mad I will
blaspheme; I will deceive my brother, or my neighbor," and thus they
bring the spirit into subjection to the flesh, until the Lord Almighty
will withdraw the light of truth from those individuals, and they are
left, if not to apostatize, to deny Joseph as a Prophet, Jesus Christ
as the Savior, and to esteem Holy Writ and all the revelations from
God as a burlesque. They are left in the dark, to welter in sorrow in
the flesh, and in the spirit world they never can be exalted.
Is it, then, any marvel, that those who dwell in the heavens should
weep over the people? Do you wonder, now, that the Prophets used to
weep over the people in ancient times? That Joseph used to weep over
the people in his day? If you do, I do not.
Here is a large number of the Latter-day Saints situated upon the
mountain tops, and right before each individual is eternal day or
eternal night; eternal light or eternal darkness; eternal love or
eternal hatred; eternal glory or eternal misery. This would want a
great deal of explaining, to bring it down to your capacities, so that
you can understand; but I use one class of these expressions to convey
an idea of the opposite of the glory prepared for the very people now
before me. The Lord has done everything He can do in justice and in
truth; in His mercy and in His long-suffering and kindness there is
nothing He has neglected, in order to put into the possession of this
people power to secure to themselves eternal day, eternal peace,
instead of eternal misery. Eternal glory, happiness, beauty, power,
exaltation, excellency, and every good thing are prepared for the
Elders that now sit before me to enter into the presence of the Father
and the Son, where they could be exalted, sit with the Gods, be
crowned with immortality and eternal lives; become the fathers, not
only of many nations, but of an endless posterity; be the framers, not
only of a kingdom, but of an endless chain of kingdoms. Nothing more
can be done, than what has been done.
How many of those now looking on me will order their lives so that
they will secure to themselves eternal happiness and exaltation? Do
you think that one half of this congregation will answer that
question? I pray that they may, whether I believe it or not.
Do you see people neglect their eternal welfare? A feeling prevails
with some that, "we do not know these things, we have not seen these
things, we do not understand that there is a kingdom prepared for the
faithful; we do not understand that there is a place prepared for
those that are unruly, those that disbelieve, those that neglect the
truth and the Gospel when put in their possession. We do not know
anything about these things." Is this so? What do you say, brethren
and sisters? Have you seen the Father and the Son? Do you know where
they live? "O, no." Have you seen the courts of glory, have they been
opened to your view? "O, no." What next? The spirit of unbelief takes
place in your hearts. The enemy, the evil that is in the world, that
has caused the trouble, sorrow, and perplexity, is with you, is your
constant companion, and is continually suggesting that you know
nothing about these things, consequently, without the utmost care and
exercise of faith, and close application in life of the requirements
of heaven, you are left to drink into the spirit of infidelity.
In this manner people are left in darkness, do not understand the
things of God, neglect their salvation, and go groveling and feeling
their way through this world, without a ray of light to shine on their
path; hoping that there is a God, and, if there is, that He will be
merciful to them; thinking that, if there is a heaven, they want to go
there; if there is such a character as a Savior, they hope his blood
will atone for their sins; and if there are any such beings as angels,
they hope they will pick them up, by and by. It resolves itself to
this, "If there is a God, O, be merciful to me." You do not know, do
you? "O, no, we cannot realize it."
Let me ask a question, before I proceed further. How did you feel when
the Spirit of the Gospel first entered into your hearts, when the
light of the Gospel first shone in your understanding? Had you any
such feelings then within you? Had you any doubts? How did you talk,
when you first rose to testify that the Book of Mormon was true, that
Joseph was a true Prophet, that this work was of God, that the Lord
Almighty has revealed Himself in these our days? Had you any doubts?
"No, I could not help bearing testimony to those things, I was so full
of light and peace." Did you hate anybody, at that time? "No. I was
filled with peace and union; I loved God and all the works of His
hands. There was no anger, malice, or wrath in me." Do you feel so
now? Many of you would tell me, "no." Have you abode in that Spirit
and feeling? You will answer, "no."
You say within yourselves, "I believe the Gospel, I believe the Lord
has revealed the truth concerning Himself, concerning the Son,
concerning angels, salvation, eternal exaltation, &c.; I admit all
this to be true." Then you have to admit that we are organized to
inherit all glory, power, and excellency; to be filled with eternal
salvation and exaltation, and to become the sons of God, as the
Apostle says, to be "Gods, even the sons of God;" fathers who shall
endure, and whose posterity shall never end; though the Apostle turned
the point very quick, because the people were not prepared to receive
it. You admit the fact that we are organized expressly for the purpose
of being exalted with the Gods.
You have the words of eternal life in your possession. What next? Take
your own philosophy; if I am organized and capacitated to receive this
glory and this exaltation, I must be the friend of Him who has brought me forth and instituted this exaltation for me; I must not be
His enemy at any time. Again, you say, "we are organized to become
Gods, even sons of God; to act independently." You expect to see the
time when you will have at your control worlds on worlds, if your
existence endures. Take Abraham, for instance, you can read the
promise made to him, and again to Jesus. "Now," say you, "we are to
have kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, dominions, &c." Can
you read it in this book? This is the Old and New Testament, which you
and I were taught, from our youth, to believe is the word of God.
If I am to receive these blessings I will be an independent character,
like those who dwell in eternity. If this is the case, let me pause
for a moment and use my own natural philosophy. How can I prove
myself the friend of God, who has placed all this glory within my
reach, unless His influences are withdrawn from me, to see whether
or not I will be His friend? At the time when you receive the greatest
blessings by the manifestations of the power and Spirit of God,
immediately the Lord may leave you to yourselves, that you may prove
yourselves worthy of this exaltation. Multitudes, on the right hand and
on the left, when this Spirit and power are withdrawn from them, sink
into unbelief, and do not know whether there is a God, or not. Ask
them, "What did you realize and experience yesterday?" The reply is,
"I do not know anything about it. I can see this house, I can see the
sun, I can see men and women, but I can say no more." "Do you believe
what you believed yesterday?" "I do not know."
Can a man be exalted upon any other principle? When men are left to
themselves, it is then they manifest their integrity, by saying and
feeling, "I am the friend of God." Do all people realize that? If they
did, let me tell you, they would cling fast to their integrity. When
the mind of a righteous man is beclouded by darkness, when he does not
know the first thing about the religion he believes in, it is because
the veil is dropped so that he may act on the organization of his own
individual person, which is calculated to be as independent as the
Gods, in the end. When you are fully aware of this, then you are ready
to lay down your lives for the cause of God and for His people, if you
act on your own integrity and philosophy.
One of the greatest trials that ever came on the Son of God when he
was in the flesh, upon that man whom we hold as our Savior, was when
the mob had him in their possession. They spit on him, scourged him,
mocked him, and made a wreath of thorns and placed it upon his head
(and I will insure that it was so placed on his head as to cause the
blood to start), and said to him, "Here is your cross, you poor,
worthless scamp, take and carry it on to that hill, for there we are
going to nail you to it." How would you feel in such a time, and at
that very hour and moment when this tabernacle suffers, should the
Father then withdraw Himself and say, "Now, my son, I will see whether
you will prove yourself worthy or not?" Did he walk up the hill? He
did, and carried the cross until he fainted under it; then they took
it and went on, and he submitted patiently to the will of his Father.
Will you submit patiently to the will of your Father in the hour of
darkness? Will you say that you are the friends of God? O shame! Many
of you will not say so, in the hour of darkness. Take these Latter-day
Saints, the Elders of Israel, and let many of them pass where they can
hear the name of Jesus Christ and the name of their Father and God
blasphemed, and they will pass along as unconcerned, and will never
move a muscle nor a nerve of their systems. That is nothing to
them compared to what it would be to have their own dear name spoken
against in the least. Speak against William, John, or Thomas, and then
you will see the fire of resentment roused in that individual; while,
at the same time, they may be opposed to their Father and God, to their
Savior, to the Prophet, and to their holy religion. People may
scandalize these as much as the tongue of slander can, and not a word
said, nor a look of disapprobation given. But, my dear brethren, those
holy men and women (pardon me if I burlesque the idea a little), your
names are so dear to you that, let anyone speak a word against them,
you are at once for fight.
If you want to know what you should do, when you hear a man blaspheme
the name of God, and you feel that there are ten thousand million
devils around you to see whether you will be for your religion, knock
down the man that blasphemes, and say, "If I cannot pray, I can fight
for my religion and my God." When you are in darkness is the time for
you to exhibit your integrity, and to prove that you are the friends
of Him who has called you to this glory and eternal life.
Do you want to know how to pray in your families? I have told you, a
great many times, how to do when you feel as though you have not a
particle of the Spirit of prayer with you. Get your wives and your
children together, lock the door so that none of them will get out,
and get down on your knees; and if you feel as though you want to
swear and fight, keep on your knees until they are pretty well
wearied, saying, "Here I am; I will not abuse my Creator nor my
religion, though I feel like hell inside, but I will stay on my knees
until I overcome these devils around me." That will prove to me that
you are the friend of God, that you are filled with integrity. This is
good for every person to practice in the hour of trial and darkness.
Say, "I am the friend of God, and if you abuse Him, I shall abuse
you." This is what Abraham used to do. He would take his servants and
go out, once in a while, and chastise the poor, miserable characters
that ridiculed the Priesthood that was on him.
Here are the people that say they are Latter-day Saints. Now, if you
can understand your own position, you will know, perhaps, better how
to deal with yourselves and control yourselves; how to bring into
subjection your own dispositions, your passions, appetites, and wills,
and let the Spirit of Truth the Lord has given you commence and
conquer and overcome, little by little, until you gain the mastery in
the spirit. This prepares the tabernacle for a resurrection and
eternal life. You cannot inherit eternal life, unless your appetites
are brought in subjection to the spirit that lives within you, that
spirit which our Father in heaven gave. I mean the Father of your
spirits, of those spirits which He has put into these tabernacles. The
tabernacle must be brought in subjection to the spirit perfectly, or
your bodies cannot be raised to inherit eternal life; if they do come
forth, they must dwell in a lower kingdom. Seek diligently, until you
bring all into subjection to the law of Christ.
As to the knowledge of the people, what do they know? They know many
things. What do they not know? Ten thousands of millions of times more
than they know, for, comparatively speaking, they know but little.
What knowledge we have, we have obtained by an experience. No man
could know that he could build a building, unless he was to go to work
and try. Were he to go to work and erect a building, he would then
know that he knew how to do it.
Some things you do know, and there are a great many things
that you do not know. "Can you mention anything that we do not know?"
Yes, we could enumerate a great many things, and then have mentioned
only a small portion of what is unknown to man. I will take that class
of this congregation that do not know anything about God, heaven,
earth, or hell, nor about anything else only as they sense with their
natural senses, and ask them, can you tell me your own origin? I would
be glad to see such a person, but he is not to be found. Take a man
who does not know anything about these things, and he cannot tell his
origin.
Again, with all the wisdom there is in the world, I can refer you to
another thing which you do not know; you do not know how to take the
native elements and organize a body like the ones you possess. You may
take the chemical apparatus of the most extensive laboratory, and go
into these mountains, and see whether you can, with all your knowledge
and appliances, make a human body that can breathe, to say nothing
about the spirit: you cannot do that; then you do not know how.
If we were to ask the question how we came here, we cannot answer it.
We know that we are here, and we know that we live. We know that we
see, hear, smell, &c., through the organization of our senses. We
know that when we have something good to eat, and plenty of it, that
we can satisfy our appetite, and we also know that we get hungry
again; we get sleepy, awake, and go about our business. The brute
beasts know all this, although their sensitive powers are not so
acute, nor possessed of so extensive a range as are those of the human
family; their attention more particularly belongs to the things of
this earth.
The Scriptures say that man is created but a little lower than the
angels, still the great majority do not know whether there is a God;
they do not even know whether it is of any use to pray to our Father
in heaven, nor whether they have got a Father there. We do not know
how to make a spear of grass grow on the earth, nor a tree, nor any
other kind of vegetation; all this is beyond our knowledge. They grow,
but we do not understand how. They are produced from the elements, but
undertake to organize the elements and make a cucumber grow, and we
fail; that is beyond our knowledge.
We do know, by observation, that this earth revolves on its axis, that
it has its circuit and performs its annual times. We know, by
observation, that the firmament is filled with small flickering
lights. The astronomer says he knows that many of those lights are
actually suns to solar systems, the same as our sun is to us. Does he
know that? Has he been there to see? "No." Then he may be deceived;
men's eyes are often deceived. They have had their eyes, ears, and all
the other sensitive organs brought to bear upon a person, and have
been positive that they were conversing with and looking upon him,
when at the same time that person was a hundred miles from them; they
were certain that they heard him speak with their natural ears, yet
they were deceived. So the astronomer may be deceived by his powerful
glasses. But all the argument in the world could not make you believe
that those stars, or lights, were not there; you see them. Suppose
that our optical powers have all been deceived, just as they are in
some instances. There is plenty of proof that the optic nerve has been
deceived, even through a glass, persons supposing that they saw things
which they, in reality, never did see.
Upon natural principles, leaving out the light of the Spirit,
the light of revelation, or saying that there is no God, and such
being the case, on the natural philosophy of the natural world, and
the natural belief, and ideas of those who imbibe deistical
principles, they do not know whether it is the sun or not that shines
upon us; they feel warm, they think they see the sun. But if your
optic nerve may deceive you, so the astronomer may be deceived. "No,"
says he, "I cannot be deceived," and this congregation says, "We
cannot be deceived; we know that we hear you preach today; we see you
in the stand today, and all the earth cannot make us believe to the
contrary." Maybe you are deceived. "But we cannot be mistaken in
this, we do know that it is certain." Suppose that you go home and
tonight sleep very soundly, and that perchance a stupor should come
over you, causing you to forget what has transpired today; I have
known such circumstances. Suppose you forget tomorrow what has
transpired today in this Tabernacle, and somebody should come along
and ask you whether you recollected what brother Brigham said
yesterday, you would answer, "I did not hear him say anything." It
would be said, "You were at the meeting, and I saw you." You would
ask, "What meeting? I was not at any meeting." "Don't you
recollect of
going to meeting yesterday?" "No, I do not." Did you ever know a
person so forgetful as this? Well, it is not more strange than much
other forgetfulness, not a particle more.
A child says, "Mother, where did you put those shears, or that
knitting? Or, what did you do with your pipe?" The reply is, "I laid
it up." "But you must have had it since." "Don't dispute
me, child,"
while all the time she had the pipe in her mouth. I bring up these
small things, to compare with greater things. Have you never laid
things carefully away and entirely forgotten them, and, when you have
accidentally found them, had all the circumstances opened to your
mind, and said, "O, I know all about them now, but I have never before
been able to bring them to mind, since the things were so carefully
laid by?" That is no more strange than it is that you should forget
what the Lord has done for you fifty years ago; that is no more
strange, than it is for you to forget when your spirits came into your
bodies, for you came here under a covenant to prove yourselves, in a
day of darkness, to be friends of God, and under a covenant that you
would forget everything that had past previous to your coming here.
What do you know? All that you know, aside from what God has taught
you, is not worth much to you; that I will say on my own
responsibility. You know that the sun shines; you can see the stars
shine in a clear night. You know that when you embraced the Gospel of
salvation in England, the State of New York, Vermont, &c., you felt
happy; that your hearts were full of joy and peace; that you felt as
though the heavens smiled upon you, and that all around was glory.
There was no malice, wrath, or root of bitterness in you, but since
then a cloud has come over you, the veil has been dropped over the
vision of your minds, and you have been left to act for yourselves.
You know all this.
What do you know on natural principles? I do not say natural
philosophy, because my religion is natural philosophy. You never heard
me preach a doctrine but what has a natural system to it, and, when
understood, is as easy to comprehend as that two and two equal four.
All the revelations of the Lord Almighty to the children of men, and
all revealed doctrines of salvation are upon natural principles, upon natural philosophy. When I use this term, I use it as
synonymous with the plan of salvation; natural philosophy is the plan
of salvation, and the plan of salvation is natural philosophy. I need
not say any more with regard to what you do not know.
I have shown you, by instancing small circumstances of common
occurrence, that people are apt to deny today what they knew
yesterday; and you know that you have disputed others with regard to
these little things which have transpired, after the circumstances
connected therewith had escaped your memory. It is just so with regard
to your religion. And when you come to the almighty philosophers,
those who think they know so much, they are in the same dilemma; their
optic nerves and their glasses may all deceive them. Unless a person
is taught by the principle of eternity, and is insured by those
principles that dwell with the Gods, he may be in doubt, because it is
a doubtful case. All is doubtful, except what comes from the Almighty
in His revelations to His people.
I will now say something about our immigration this season. In the
providences of God when understood, you will see that one thing has a
bearing upon another. The providences of God are natural principles,
when they are all understood, but you take a little here and a little
there, and you leave the people in mystery and doubt, and they will
say that wonderful things have taken place, when at the same time you
will find that they have all transpired upon natural principles.
Previous to the death of Joseph, he said that the time would come when
the Saints would be glad to take a bundle, if they could get one,
under their arms and start to the mountains, and that they would flee
there, and that if they could pick up a change of linen they would be
glad to start with that, and to go into the wilderness with anything,
in order to escape from the destruction that is coming on the
inhabitants of the earth. This we believed, or at least I did; though
it seemed to be pretty hard that people should be obliged to leave
their houses, farms, friends, and comforts that they had gathered
around them, and run from them all. I am going to take that as a
leading item for this season.
We have been experimenting. Five companies, I think, have come across
the Plains with handcarts, and they have come a great deal cheaper
and better than other companies. I believe that if a company was to
try it once with ox-teams and once with handcarts, every one of them
would decide in favor of the handcarts, unless they could ride more
and be more comfortable than people generally are with ox-teams.
I count the handcart operation a successful one, and there is a
lesson in it which the people have overlooked. What is it? Let me ask
the sisters and brethren here, what better off are you today, than as
though you had started with a bundle under your arm? You started with
an abundance, but have you any oxen, or wagons, or trunks of valuable
clothing, or money? "No." What have you got? A sister says, "I have
the underclothes I wore on the Plains, and a dress, and a handkerchief
which I pinned over my head in the absence of my sunbonnets which
were worn out, and I am here." Are you here? "Yes." Did you come
across the Plains? "Yes." Do you feel bad? "O, no; I feel pretty
well." Now reflect, what else do we want of you, and what else do you
want of yourselves? "Why," says one, "I want a dress and a pair of
shoes." Well, go to work, and earn them, and put them on and wear
them. "I want a bonnet." Go to work and earn it, and then wear
it as you used to do.
What do you want here but yourselves? Nothing, but yourselves and your
religion; that is all you want to bring here. If you come naked and
barefooted (I would not care if you had naught but a deerskin around
you when you arrive here), and bring your God and your religion, you
are a thousand times better than if you come with wagonloads of
silver and gold and left your God behind. If I want to take a wife
from among the sisters who came in with the handcart trains, I would
rather take one that had nothing, and say to her, I will throw a
buckskin around you for the present, come into my house, I have
plenty, or, if I have not, I can get plenty.
Some want to marry a woman because she has got property; some want a
rich wife; but I never saw the day when I would not rather have a poor
woman. I never saw the day that I wanted to be henpecked to death, for
I should have been, if I had married a rich wife. I asked one of my
family, when in conversation upon this very point, what did you bring,
when you came to me? "I brought a shirt, and a dress, and a pair of
slippers, and a sunbonnet," and she is as high a prize as ever I got
in my life, and a great deal higher than many would have been with
cartloads of silver and gold.
The people are what we want. Reflect about this; and let the Elders
when they go upon Missions, sound this in the ears of the Saints; and,
if you please, philosophize upon it, weigh the matter well, and see
what else there is that is in reality good for anything, but just the
Saint at the gathering place; let the Saint come, and we have all we
can get.
I want you to keep in mind what Joseph said, that the day would come
when the Saints would be glad to take a bundle under their arms and
run to the mountains. What else have they done this season? Men and
women started with their fine things, they had their gold and their
silver, their flocks and their herds, and their abundance, but they
have nearly all come here naked and barefooted, comparatively
speaking; thank God for that. What do I care, if not the first
particle of the property that is left behind is ever gathered up
again? You are situated precisely as we were when we left Nauvoo,
Kirtland, Missouri, &c. We started naked and bare. If I can only take
myself and my God, and my religion, it is all I want. The heavens are
full, the earth is the Lord's, and we have nothing to do but go to
work and organize the elements and get what we want.
This is the day in which we are to learn and to increase in our
knowledge. Have we got a good lesson this time? I think we have. What
is it? That the Saints, when they start from England, may stop buying
their silks and satins, their ribbons and finery. You cannot bring
them here, unless Providence provides different for you, than it did
for the immigration last season. If you have a fine silk mantilla, a
fine satin dress, fine kid shoes, a fine lace bonnet, and you say that
you want to carry them to Zion, do as they did last season. Here are
the poor we had to bring over. Now let me tell you that if you had
taken the money you paid to William Walker to bring out the baggage,
and used it for the gathering of the honest poor, it would have done
some good; but that property is spoiled, I understand, and I am glad
of it. Much of it was spoiled before it was taken from Iowa City, or,
if it was not then, it probably is now. And I expect that the goods
are all spoiled at the Devil's Gate. You will pardon me for my abruptness, but I will tell you what that operation made me
think of, that what you did not leave in hell's kitchen, you had to
leave at the Devil's Gate. If you only honor your God and your
religion, the silks and the satins, and the money you paid out for
them, may all go to hell with the balance. Live your religion, and the
promise I make you is that you shall have what you want in
righteousness. "Then," someone may say, "I will have a new dress
tomorrow, if that is it." But will you not wait, until your patience
is well tried? If you will not, I will make you, if I can. At the
proper time, you will have all the riches you need. If you had riches
now, they would do you no good.
Recollect the text, which is that the time will come when the Saints
will be glad to catch a bundle under their arms and run to the
mountains. The time has been when they undertook to come with an
abundance, but they got here with nothing. Take the money that was
laid out for those articles which you expected to put on when you came
into this Tabernacle, and it would have more than made a comfortable
fit-out for the companies from the States. If those articles had been
left in the stores, and you had taken your sovereigns and
half-sovereigns, and shillings, and pence, you would have had enough
to have brought all the companies over those Plains. This is something
that I want you Elders to think of; and I want you to thunder it among
the people, long and loud, like the thunders of Mount Sinai.
Take the money heretofore spent for useless articles, and pick up your
poor neighbors who have not the first shilling; make your way to
Liverpool, pay your passage across the ocean to the United States, and
then take a handcart, or a good hickory stick between two, and put
your luggage on it, and let the handcart go, and walk to Zion.
When you get here, we want nothing but yourselves, if you have your
God and your religion with you; but if you have not them, stay back. We
have already got enough half-hearted Christians here; we have enough
poor devils here now, and half-hearted hypocrites, and we do not want
anymore of them to come here. All hell is boiling over to fill this
place with such poor, miserable characters.
If you bring yourselves, it is all we want. Take the money that bought
the goods which have been left on the way, and it would have brought
every soul that came in last season, without the assistance of the P.
E. Fund Company; and, instead of our paying out fifty or sixty
thousand dollars, that sum would have been saved. That money would
have made your fit-out across the Plains, to say nothing about what
has been done for you at this end of the route.
Again, we could have taken every soul that has come in this season
with the wagon trains, by the P. E. Fund, &c., and brought them from
Liverpool cheaper than we brought them out of the snow at this end of
the journey, to say nothing of the hardship and suffering. Do you not
see that there has been a great outlay that we must save hereafter?
I will say to the Saints abroad, if you can get some good hickory
cloth, or some buckskins, and let the sisters make dresses and
garments that cannot be easily torn, and that will last till you get
here, and come and bring yourselves, that is all we want. And for the
time to come, let the P. E. Fund money alone, and let your silks and
satins alone, and take the means you have, and bring yourselves to
this place.
The Lord, in His providence, has shown you and me, and the community
in this Territory, and will show to the people in the old
countries, if the Elders are faithful, that they may bid farewell to
bringing their millions' worth of goods here. If they bring anything,
let them bring their sovereigns here; the gold will do them more good
here than anything else. Do not peddle it out in the world. Get the
Lord to send an angel with you; get His Holy Spirit to travel with you
to this place, and leave all trash behind.
If the companies are composed solely of young females, they may come
by tens of thousands, if they like, for I have never yet seen anything
in this market that can equal the handcart girls.
I want to see men and women come as I have suggested; and I think just
as much of them, if they come and bring their religion with them, as
though they came with cartloads of gold, silver and merchandise.
I wish you to contemplate upon these things! And I want you to listen
to my exhortation in spiritual things. Here is a people before me that
say they are in a reformation; I believe it. There is a good spirit
they have now in their possession, which some have not had for some
time.
I believe that the brethren and sisters are trying to do right, to
make satisfaction, and to order their lives better before God and each
other. And let me tell you that, when you have lived a whole
lifetime, you will find that you have never righteously had a single hour
to spend for anything except reformation, for an increase of faith,
for a growth in the knowledge of the truth. You have no time to
backslide, nor to spare for the world. It is God and His kingdom; all
things else will be secondary considerations.
I am happy for the privilege of speaking to you today, and I trust
that I shall see you here many times. I pray for you continually, and
I know that you pray for me. I do not ask this people to pray for me,
for I have the witness that there is not an honest heart in this
kingdom but what is praying for me continually. You are before me
always, and my whole desire is for your welfare, and the welfare of
the kingdom of God on the earth. May God bless you. Amen.