I feel it a privilege to bear testimony before the Saints to the
exhortations we have heard this morning from brothers Richards and
Wells. We have had good teachings, good counsel, and good doctrine
taught us. And I presume I feel in a measure like the rest of my
brethren when I rise to speak to this people in the Tabernacle, where
such large congregations of Saints assemble; I have a desire that what
I say may do the people good, may edify them. My brethren also have
the same desire.
We realize that the minds of this people need feeding continually, and
we all have to depend upon the Holy Spirit and the Lord to feed our
minds from that inexhaustible fountain of intelligence which comes
from God, for we cannot obtain food from any other source to feed the
immortal mind of man. Here are a large assembly of minds who are
reaching forth to receive light and truth before the Lord.
I realize that we have a great many lessons to learn in the school we
are in, and myself as a teacher in connection with my brethren have
also a great deal to learn. I feel that I am yet in my alphabet, and
feel sometimes that I am incapable of teaching this people, when I
realize they are in the road which leads to celestial glory—to
eternal life and eternal exaltation. I know I am dependent as I know
my brethren are upon God, upon the Holy Ghost for all the light,
truth, and intelligence which we have to impart unto you.
The words which brother Wells quoted, and which brother Samuel
Richards referred to, furnish as strong a proof as can be furnished as
to the true principle of prosperity, touching things temporal and
things spiritual. I refer to the words of Jesus Christ which he spoke
to his followers: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness; and all other things shall be added unto you." I will
tell you, brethren and sisters, we may try it all the days of our
lives, we may try every path and every principle in this world, and we
as Saints cannot prosper upon any other mode of proceeding than by
first seeking the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness; when we do
this there is no blessing, there is no good, no exaltation, gift,
grace, desire, or anything that a good man can wish that is
profitable, and good for time and for eternity, but will be given unto
us.
A great many people have tried to seek for happiness independent of
first seeking the kingdom of heaven, &c., but they have always found
it an uphill business, and so shall we if we try it.
We as a people should have learned by this time, after having the
experience we have gained, to make up our minds to take hold and build
up the kingdom of God, and it should be the first thing before
us, for if we build up the kingdom of God we build up ourselves, and
if we do not we never shall be built up. This is the truth. There
seems to be something connected with the kingdom of God and that is
righteousness; we are exhorted to seek the righteousness that belongs
to it as well as the kingdom itself.
The kingdom of God is a righteous kingdom, all its laws are righteous,
its government is a righteous government, and the king who governs and
controls it does so upon righteous and eternal principles, and we must
act upon the same principles of righteousness. Who cannot see that if
a man seeks first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness that he
will become righteous and hence he will be blessed and justified in
all of his acts?
With regard to the feelings of the people that brothers Wells and
Richards have referred to, touching the consecration of their property
and dedicating themselves to God, I will say, if we build up the
kingdom of God we should be in that kingdom, and all we have should be
in it, and we should have faith enough in the Lord to know it is in a
safe place.
I am a good deal of the opinion of old Captain Russell, who was an
extensive ship-builder, and paid thousands of dollars yearly to the
Gentiles as insurance fees. After he embraced "Mormonism," he began to
reflect, "here am I paying thousands of dollars yearly to the Gentiles
to insure my ships, and I have to trust to the God of heaven after all
to save my ships from sinking, and to prosper me in all my
undertakings; this is not right." So he went to Liverpool, where the
insurance office was, to settle his insurance bills and close up his
business with the firm.
The gentlemen of the firm asked him when he had got through, saying,
"Have we not treated you well, Mr. Russell?" "Yes, I have no fault
to
find with you." "What, then, is your object in pursuing this course?
We have done business with you a good many years; we want to know if
you are going to change your insurance office?" "I am." "Will
you tell
us where you are going to have your business done in the future?"
"Yes, I am going to have it done in heaven, for the insurance offices
do not control the winds, the elements are not obedient to them, and I
have been paying ten thousand dollars a year for insuring a few ships,
and I have to trust in the Lord anyhow, so in the future I shall pay
my insurance fee into the Lord's treasury."
The gentlemen of the office thought he was cracked or beside himself,
for I tell you trusting in the Lord in these days is an unpopular
business with the world. But the Saints have to trust in the Lord, and
we might as well begin and seek this kingdom and the interest of it,
and the righteousness of it, and build it up first as last. I believe
the people are reforming in this thing; I believe they are increasing
in their faith, and have manifested it here in the city this winter,
and I am glad to see it.
The exhortation we have had this morning is proper and seasonable, as
we have been sowing the seed of the word this winter among the people,
and we should watch and see that the seed is sown in good ground, and
try to cultivate the principles we hear, that the fruits of
righteousness may appear in abundance. In doing this we will be saved.
We have had one of the most interesting seasons this winter that we
have ever enjoyed since the Church and kingdom of God has been
organized in the last days. We have had new lessons opened unto us by
the servants of the Lord, and among those things the mercy of the Lord
has been manifested in a great degree towards this people. I have
reflected on His mercy and I feel we should be faithful and
humble, and prove true unto the Lord our God because of this mercy
which has been manifested unto us, and we should be very careful
hereafter, as President Young exhorted us the last time he spoke
concerning this people continuing to commit sin. He plainly laid
before us the consequences of this course; we should let the past
suffice wherein we have done anything in which we cannot be justified.
I am satisfied that the people in these valleys will never hear the
same proclamation which we have heard this winter.
If this people with the light they have, the teachings they have, and
the examples they have had set before them intermingled with
chastisement—if they still will go on and be neglectful of their
duties, with regard to their salvation they will have to pay the debt,
for the sinner in Zion will be cut off from the Church of God, and
will have to pay the penalty whether it be small or great. It is of
the utmost importance that we should guard ourselves against sin as
the tree of life is guarded. We have no time to throw away in the
service of sin, in committing iniquity and grieving the Holy Spirit of
God.
I tell you when you look around and see the state of the world on the
one hand, and what we have to perform on the other, and what the
kingdom of God has got to arrive at in order to fulfil its destiny and
the revelations of Jesus Christ, our chief object should be to build
up the kingdom of God and roll it on.
As I remarked last evening in the High Priests' Quorum, we have been
rolling this kingdom uphill, up a mountain; we have been toiling
against a mighty current all the day long from its first organization,
but the day will soon come, if this people will do their duty and take
hold of the kingdom of God as they should do, it will soon get on the
top of the mountain, and then it will begin to roll down from the
mountains, and it will gather both strength and speed as it goes, and
then instead of singing "Get out of the way, the handcarts rolling,"
it will be "Get out of the way, the kingdom's coming," and it will not
stop until it has filled the whole earth. The Lord has proclaimed this
in all the revelations He has given on the subject.
This kingdom has got to stand, spread itself abroad, and gather unto
itself strength. The Lord is going to work with this kingdom, and with
this people. The Lord says in the parable of the vineyard, "My
servants labored with their mights, and the Lord labored with them,
and they prevailed, and brought forth the fruits of the kingdom, and
the bitter branches were broken off, and the tame olive brought forth
good fruit, and the vineyard was no more corrupt." This should be
uppermost in our minds, we should look for the building up of the
kingdom, and secure not only blessings for ourselves, but seek to
become saviors of men on Mount Zion, and try to do all the good we
can, laboring to promote the cause and interest of Zion in every
department thereof where we are all called to act.
By pursuing this course we shall be prospered, and have continual
peace in our minds, and as the Lord has said, nothing will be withheld
from any man that seeks for the righteousness and blessings of the
kingdom of God. Salvation should be the uppermost thing with us, and
you will find if ever we seek to do something else besides carrying
out the dictates of the Holy Spirit, we will get into the fog and into
darkness and trouble, and we shall be ignorant of the way we are
pursuing. Every day that we live we need the power of the Lord—the
power of His Holy Spirit and the strength of the Priesthood to
be with us that we may know what to do. And if we will so live
before the Lord, the Spirit will reveal to us every day what our
duties are; I do not care what it is we are engaged in, we should
first find out the will of the Lord and then do it, and then our work
will be well done and acceptable before the Lord, but if we take a
course against light and against the Spirit of God, we will find it an
unprofitable road to travel.
I feel as though the Lord is going to do a great work in the midst of
this people. There are a great many things at our door, a great many
changes to take place in the earth, and the kingdom is growing; and I
would here exhort all the Latter-day Saints who hear me this day to
study well the position you are in, and search your hearts and see if
we are in the favor of the Lord our God, and then let us increase
continually in faith, in hope, in righteousness, and in every virtuous
principle which is necessary for us to have to sustain us in every
trial through which we may be called to pass, in order to prove us as
the friends of God, whether we will abide in the covenant or not; we
will be tried from this time, until the coming of the Messiah or while
we live on the earth.
If we could open the vision of our minds, and let it extend into the
future and see this kingdom, and what it is bound to accomplish, and
what we have to do, the warfare we have to pass through, we would
certainly see that we have a great work on hand. We have not only to
fight the powers of darkness, the invisible forces that surround us,
but we have to war with a great many outward circumstances and to
contend with a great many difficulties that we must of necessity meet,
and the more of this we have to meet the more we should be stimulated
to action, and to labor with all our power before the Lord for the
establishment of righteousness and truth and the building up of the
work of God, and to see that His name is honored upon the earth.
Brother Wells has said, why the world is troubled about us is because
we are united. This is true; the world and the devil are afraid of it,
and he has labored all his life to divide everything where
righteousness dwelt, or at least ever since he was cast out from the
presence of God, what he did before that I cannot say any further than
what is revealed. We have got to be one and labor together to build
up this kingdom because we cannot establish it upon any other
principle.
We should be careful to know that we are right and then go ahead, and
we will find it to our advantage, and we shall be satisfied with our
reward if we pursue that course which is according to the commandments
of God. When we come into the presence of our Father in heaven we
shall meet with His approbation, this alone will reward us for our
labors.
If we go to work and build up the kingdom of God instead of ourselves,
it is no matter in what shape we do it, whether it is in building a
canal, or in building a temple, preaching the Gospel, cultivating the
earth, or anything else, let us take that and make it a business, and
we will find the Lord will help, sustain, and nerve us with His power,
and will assist us in everything we have to do, and if we are called
to lay down our lives in the defense of God and eternal truth, then
all right, and if we live, all right, and when we come into the
presence of the Lord we shall be satisfied with our reward and
blessings.
The Lord has said He would prove us whether we would abide in His
covenant even unto death; indeed we have been tried from the commence ment of this great work, but there has been an invisible hand
at work for our defense all the time; the wicked have not seen the
power that has sustained us, they cannot see the inside machinery that
is at work in this kingdom, the nations of the earth cannot understand
it, and they never can comprehend it, but the Latter-day Saints
understand it, and they know that it is the power of God and the word
of God, for the Lord has made proclamations and decrees, and covenants
concerning Israel in the last days, and all the Prophets, from
righteous Abel to Brigham Young, have proclaimed it to the nations of
the earth, as with the voice of thunder, and we know they will be
fulfilled; we know the Gospel has to be offered to the Gentiles first,
we have offered it to them for the space of twenty five years, that we
may be prepared to go to the house of Israel.
The Gentiles in a great measure, have rejected it; we have borne a
faithful testimony to the nations of the earth, and they prefer to
take their own course, and act on their own agency; they would rather
build themselves up than the kingdom of God. The consequence is, it
will soon be taken from the Gentile nations, and it will not be long
before the judgments of God are abroad among them, and those bitter
branches will be taken off the tree.
Now there is no personage, or subject, or work upon the face of the
whole earth, but what is more popular than the Lord, and His Gospel,
and kingdom; His name is dishonored and blasphemed, with impunity by
nearly all the inhabitants of the earth and in the midst of every
nation under heaven, but the day is nigh at hand when He will make
bare His arm of power, and show the world that there is a God in
Israel, who will no longer bear the blasphemies of the wicked without
bringing them to judg ment, but He will send forth those angels, those
messengers who dwell in the presence of God, who are waiting with
their sharp sickles in their hands to reap down the earth; but this
will not be until the Gospel has been fully offered to the Gentiles;
then the bitter branches will be broken off.
This kingdom will go forward, for the Lord God has decreed it, and
Zion will arise and be adorned with beauty and power, and true
refinement, in light and knowledge, and in every good gift that will
prepare the minds of men for the Society of their Heavenly Father and
of celestial beings. These lessons have got to be given, and we have
got to learn them, and we have got to bring ourselves to the celestial
law of God; we have to be quickened by the Spirit and power of the
kingdom of God and its righteousness, that we may be prepared to carry
out the purposes of the Lord; then this kingdom will be borne to the
house of Israel, and they will receive it.
The door has already been unlocked to the Lamanites in these
mountains, and they will begin to embrace the Gospel and the records
of their fathers, and their chiefs will be filled with the Spirit and
power of God, and they will rise up in their strength, and a nation
will be born in a day, because they are of the seed of Abraham, and
God has promised to bless the descendants of Abraham, and they will be
saved with the house of Israel, for the Lord has spoken it, and made
those promises unto them through their fathers.
Again, here are the ten tribes of Israel, we know nothing about them
only what the Lord has said by His Prophets. There are Prophets among
them, and by and by they will come along, and they will smite the
rocks, and the mountains of ice will flow down at their presence, and
a high way will be cast up before them, and they will come to
Zion, receive their endowments, and be crowned under the hands of the
children of Ephraim, and there are persons before me in this assembly
today, who will assist to give them their endowments. They will
receive their blessings and endowments, from under the children of
Ephraim, who are the firstfruits of the kingdom of God in this
dispensation, and the men will have to be ordained and receive their
Priesthood and endowments in the land of Zion, according to the
revelations of God.
Again, here is Judah, which is the tribe of Israel, from whom Jesus
sprang; how many times have I seen them among the nations of the
earth, standing in their synagogues, even greyhaired rabbis, with
their faces to the east, calling on the great Eloheim to open the door
for them to go back to Jerusalem, the land of their fathers, and to
send their Shiloh, their king of deliverance. When I have seen this my
soul has been filled with a desire to proclaim unto them the word of
God unto eternal life, but I knew I could not do this, the time had
not come, I could not preach to them. I might have stood in their
midst for a month and preached unto them Jesus Christ or their Shiloh
and king, but I should have failed to establish one particle of faith
in their minds that he was the true Messiah.
They do not believe in Jesus Christ; there is an unbelief resting upon
them, and will until they go home and rebuild Jerusalem and their
temple more glorious than at the beginning, and then by and by, after
this Church and kingdom has arisen up in its glory, the Savior will
come to them and show the wounds in his hands and side, and they will
say to him, "Where did you get those wounds?" and he will answer, "In
the house of my friends," and then their eyes will begin to open, and
they will repent and mourn, they and their wives apart, and there will
be a fountain opened for uncleanness to the house of Judah, and they
will for the first time receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, they
will begin to comprehend where they have been wandering for the space
of two thousand years.
You cannot convert a Jew, you may as well try to convert this house of
solid walls as to convert them into the faith of Christ. They are set
in their feelings, and they will be until the time of their
redemption. They are looking forward to the time when they will go
home and rebuild Jerusalem; they have looked for it many hundreds of
years, they are looking for the coming of their king, and they do not
suppose for a moment that he has already come, but they are looking
for him to come as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, not as a lamb led
to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is dumb before his shearers;
they are looking for him to come with power and great glory.
I thank God that the day is at hand when the Jews will be restored. I
have felt to pray for them; I feel interested in their behalf, for
they are of the seed of Abraham and a branch of the house of Israel,
and the promises of God still remain with them. It is true they fell
through unbelief, and the kingdom was taken from them and given to the
Gentiles, and when it came from them, it came clothed with all its
gifts, powers, and glory, Priesthood and ordinances which were
necessary for the salvation of men, and to prepare them to dwell in
the presence of the Gods; and when the kingdom was given to the
Gentiles, they for a while brought forth the natural fruits of the
kingdom. But they, like the Jews, have fallen through the same example
of unbelief, and now, in the last days, the kingdom of God has to be
taken from the Gentiles, and restored back to every branch and
tribe of the house of Israel; and when it is restored to them, it must
go back with all its gifts, and blessings, and Priesthood which it
possessed when it was taken from them. But the Lord has said that in
restoring these blessings to the children of Abraham, that He would be
inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. But from what
branch or part of the house of Israel will the Lord look for this
petition or request to issue, if not from the Latter-day Saints, for
we are out of the tribe of Joseph through the loins of Ephraim, who
have been as a mixed cake among the Gentiles, and are the firstfruits
of the kingdom, and the Lord has given unto us the kingdom and
Priesthood and keys thereof. Hence the Lord will require us to ask for
those blessings which are promised unto Israel, and to labor for
their salvation.
These things will be required at our hands; a great work is before us,
a work worthy of intelligent beings—worthy of the most noble of
spirits that ever existed around the throne of God in time or in
eternity, in heaven or on the earth. Then, if we would feel right
about this important subject, and look upon it as it is, we will go to
work and labor with all our mights to build up the kingdom of our
God, to carry out the purposes of the Lord, in the building up of
Zion, the establishment of his kingdom, and restoration, and salvation
of the house of Israel; we should listen strictly to those men who are
the word of the Lord to us.
The Prophet Jeremiah saw this kingdom established, and saw that
Ephraim was the firstborn, and in gathering the children of Jacob and
establishing Zion in the last days, their nobles should be of
themselves, and their governor should proceed from the midst of them.
I have looked forward for years by faith to that time when the
children of Zion would have the privilege of having their rulers, and
a governor of their own choice of the house of Israel, to rule over
them and counsel and lead them.
We have had a governor since we have been a Territory, who is actually
of the loins of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Jeremiah saw this, spake of
it, and it has been fulfilled. There has been a great exertion to make
this prophecy fail. It hurt the feelings of the Gentiles to think this
prophecy should have its fulfilment in these days. It has been
fulfilled so far, and I feel thankful today that all the prophecies
which have not been fulfilled will be; hence I have hope and
confidence in looking forward to the fulfilment of the blessings that
are promised to us.
Let us be faithful and seek diligently to build up the kingdom of God
in righteousness and do our duty, and try to save ourselves, our
wives, and children, our kindred and our friends, and the house of
Israel, and also the Gentiles as far as they will be saved, and then
we will be satisfied with our reward which we shall obtain in this
life and in the world to come. I pray the Lord to bless us all, and
save us in His kingdom, for Christ's sake. Amen.