While brother Liljinquist has been addressing the congregation, I
thought of the saying in the Scriptures—With men of other tongues and
other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will
they not hear me, saith the Lord." This was spoken in reference to
ancient Israel. It would seem that anciently as well as in modern
times, the word of the Lord that went out from Israel to the
surrounding nations came back to them. And even Israel themselves
refused to hear the testimony of men of other tongues and other lips
the Lord sent to them in the days of Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
I remember having read in the Book of Mormon instances of a similar
kind among the ancient Nephites, when the spirit of apostasy was
creeping over them. The Lord raised up Prophets and righteous men from
among the Lamanites, and sent them to reprove the Nephites, to
prophesy unto them, and to warn them of impending destruction, if they
did not repent. Alma says, "For I am persuaded that the Lord
deals out his word unto all the nations of the earth according as he
will, and raises up men to bear witness of him, and to carry his word
unto all people as they are capable of receiving."
The way and manner the Lord has sent forth laborers with his Gospel
among the nations in the latter days has made me often think of these
words of Alma. Even among the remnants of Israel who are roaming
through the continent of America—the Indians, the Lord manifests
himself in various ways as they are capable of receiving those
impressions he wishes to impart to them. It has pleased our Heavenly
Father that the great work of the latter days which has been spoken of
by all the holy Prophets, the establishing of his kingdom upon the
earth, setting to his hand the second time to restore the house of
Israel, should commence on the land of America, and under the auspices
of the Government of the United States. This work he has commenced by
the hand of his servant Joseph Smith, and those whom he called to be
his associates and fellow laborers.
The land of America was a promised land to the pilgrim fathers, and an
asylum for the oppressed of all nations. To this land people from all
nations flocked, and the Lord inspired them to establish a free
government preparatory to the establishment of his kingdom in the
latter days. It was in this land he sought out and raised up his
servants in their weakness to be the messengers of eternal life to the
children of men, that it might go from this land to other nations.
I believe it fell to my lot to be among the first who went to nations
of other tongues. Elder Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and others who
accompanied them, opened the door of the Gospel of salvation first to
the nation of Great Britain. But, if my memory serves me, at the time
Elder Taylor went to France, Elder L. Snow to Italy, myself and Elder
Hanson to Denmark, and divers Elders to different nations, it was the
first mission of Elders to people of other tongues. This is about ten
years ago.
It was after we located in the valleys of these mountains, and this
city had become a resting place for the Saints who had been scattered
from Nauvoo. On our journey from this place, in the fall of 1849, to
visit the nations of Europe, we met large emigrating companies of our
brethren and sisters who had been scattered and driven from their
possessions in the East. It is marvelous to see the working of our
God among the nations of the earth, in gathering out his elect from
time to time from those nations. It is marvelous in the eyes of those
who understand not the Gospel. They have striven all the day long in
their blind zeal to hedge up the way of the servants of God and hinder
the spread of his Gospel. Still they perceive it steadily progressing,
and the Saints gathering home like doves to their windows. Every
effort they make to destroy the people of God, to scatter, divide, and
weaken them, seems only to advance their progress and consolidate them
in one. We have explained to them why it is they cannot hinder it; but
they cannot comprehend. They think it is all accomplished by the
talent, ability, ingenuity, and wisdom alone of those who direct the
affairs of this Church. They speak of Brigham Young and his
Counselors, and other leading Elders of "Mormonism," as being smart,
cunning, shrewd men, who deceive, cajole, blind, and lead the people
astray. So far from this being the truth, it is in reality the
reverse, to all intents and purposes.
Let any man undertake to dictate, govern, control, lead, and
gather together this people by his own wisdom alone, and the result
will be like what we have seen within the last two years in this
Territory in regard to the endeavors of our enemies to break us up
and scatter us to the four winds. Their union is like a rope of sand,
and every plan they devise comes to naught, until they are discouraged
and say, "Damn it, let us quit and go home."
Judge Black says, in his explanation in reference to the officials
sent to this Territory, that the Government sought the whole country
over and sent the best men they could find to administer the
principles of equity, justice, and truth to this people. But, in
addition to these, let them send special missionaries, the most gifted
and talented there are on the earth, to draw off and lead this people
by their own cunning, shrewdness, and wisdom, and would they produce
the results we now see every day? Would they see a people that move
and act in almost perfect harmony and oneness? Let them try it. Let
the smartest Elder that can be found in this Church try it.
In bygone days Elders have imagined in their hearts that their wisdom,
talent, and ability had something to do with it—that the kingdom of
God could not move unless their shoulder was at the wheel—that if
they held back in the breeching, they would stop the onward motion of
the car. But the Lord left them covered with their own shame and
folly, after he had suffered them to try the experiment; and the great
car of truth still rolled steadily forward.
Some are inclined to find fault with the Latter-day Saints because of
the murder, rapine, theft, adultery, and abominations that are
practiced in Salt Lake City and in Utah Territory. Are the Latter-day
Saints to blame for this? No. The Latter-day Saints have better
business to engage themselves in, which is serving the Lord, working
righteousness, doing good to themselves and to all people who will
receive good at their hands. Nobody has anything to do with this
shooting and killing one another, stealing, breaking into houses,
whoredom, running off horses and mules and cattle, and all such sort
of abominations—getting drunk and screaming in the streets, but just
such as love it. They are not Latter-day Saints who do such things;
but, on the contrary, they are those who are striving to destroy
"Mormonism," and they are destroying themselves in answer to the
prayers of all the faithful Latter-day Saints.
The Latter-day Saints pray, if the wicked must kill somebody, they may
kill those that ought to be killed. You may perhaps think it is wrong
to pray that they may kill anybody. We would rather pray that they may
be saved. There are various ways of saving men, simply because they
will not all be saved in the same way, as there are various ways of
making men happy.
There is a class of men who are always miserable only when they are
making everybody else so, and their happiness consists in doing all
the mischief they can, and injuring everybody around them.
We teach them the principles of the Gospel. Can they hear it? They
hear with the ear, but they hear not; they have eyes, but they see
not; hearts have they, but they understand not; and they go backward,
and fall and perish. When the truth is told to them, they will not
believe it; but hand them out a pack of infernal lies, and they will
gulp them down as a thirsty ox drinks water. How can such persons
learn and understand the truth? As Jesus said to the Scribes and
Pharisees anciently, "How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only."
How can your Judges judge in righteousness and shut their ears to the
voice of truth and to the testimony of innocence, and look around in
all directions to find some mean scoundrel to come up and testify
lies? How can any people be instructed in the things of God and
receive light, while they are laboring diligently to shut out every
particle of light from their tabernacles?
If you wish to know why the simple testimony of the humble servants of
God gathers together this people from the nations of the earth, it is
because there was place found in their hearts for the word.
When I went to Denmark, I could not speak the first word of their
language, or know the first letter of their alphabet. I was to all
intents and purposes a barbarian to them, and they were barbarians to
me. I went there because I was sent, with an intention to do the best
I knew how, as the Spirit of the Lord might direct me. You may ask if
I received the gift of tongues, that I could begin and speak to them
in their own language by the power of the Holy Ghost without studying.
I answer, Yes, when it pleased the Lord to give it to me; and when it
did not, I remained silent. I did not have any special anxiety to
preach to them in their own tongue anymore than the Lord wanted to
have me do.
I did not do a great deal of preaching in that country, but I did
whatever the Lord put into my heart to do as near as I knew how; and
I learned the language as fast as the Spirit of the Lord enabled me to
do so, that I might bear my testimony to them in their own tongue,
and that I might understand what they said to me when they asked me
questions and required explanations; and when they wished to
correspond with me, that I might be able to write an answer. I had to
learn to read and write, and talk to them in their own language. Did
the Spirit of the Lord assist me? Yes. I learned their language, and
became so familiar with it as to write and speak with them in six
months' time.
The Holy Ghost was with me to assist me. In twenty-one months I
published the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and
the Hymn Book, and eight or ten pamphlets.
A gentleman upon the vessel, on my return home, having been informed
in how short a time I had learned the language, declared it was
impossible for any mortal man to become acquainted with the Danish
language and use it as I did in so short a time; and pronounced me an
impostor to some of the Saints on board who were traveling in company
with me to this place, for palming upon them some miraculous thing;
and expressed himself as having no doubt that I familiarized myself
with the language in college in some other country by years of study.
I was there comparatively alone, and the harvest great and the
laborers few, and the Spirit bore testimony that the Lord had much
people there. I saw, if they were all to be sought out and gathered
home by the labors of men sent from America, and after traveling so
long a journey to learn their language, that it was a great work; and
the words of Alma came forcibly to my mind, that the Lord raises up
men among all the nations of the earth, to give them that portion of
his word which they are capable of receiving. And I cried unto the
Lord, saying, "O Lord, raise up laborers and send them into this
harvest—men of their own tongue, who have been raised among them and
are familiar with the spirits of the people." He has done it. Before I
left, there was quite a little army of Elders and Priests,
Teachers and Deacons, laboring in the vineyard; and thousands have
rejoiced in the testimony of the Gospel borne to them by their
fellow countrymen.
Do any of you ask how this came to pass that so many thousands have
gathered from that land, and are now in these valleys of the
mountains; and why thousands more are longing to come here who are
rejoicing in the testimony of the Gospel in Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, &c.? I answer—It was not done by the wisdom and learning of
man, or by any influence that man himself could exert over that
distant people. If any person thinks so for a moment, he thinks so
because he knows no better. It is a mystery to them; and they would
not believe, if it were unfolded to them.
We testify and bear witness that it is not of man, but of God—that it
is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that it is the gift and
influence of the Holy Ghost that bears witness to the hearts of this
people. When in the simplicity of my heart I could speak but little
unto them with stammering lips, I said more with my eyes and fingers
than with my tongue. The power of the Holy Ghost rested upon the
people; and when I asked them if they understood me, "Yes," said they,
"we understood it all." It was not because I spoke it fully with my
tongue, but God made them understand me. If I asked them if they
believed it, "Yes," would be the reply; "we have the testimony of the
Holy Ghost bearing witness within us that it is true."
I laid my hands upon the men that were raised up around about me, and
sent them to preach the Gospel; and they were just such men as the
Lord sent me; no matter if they were shoemakers, carpenters,
chimney sweepers, or any other kind of trade. I told them to go forth
and bear witness of what they had heard, and of what they knew; and
every time they opened their mouth, a stream of light would flow from
them to the people, who were melted before them. This is the
experience of every man of God upon all the earth.
You ask the people who are in these valleys who profess to be
Latter-day Saints why they are here, and they will tell you they could
not keep away; and many will say that if they could have kept away,
they would. Say they, "Mormonism is true: We know it." They feel like
Almon Babbitt: he said he would give ten thousand dollars if he could
only know "Mormonism" to be untrue.
It troubles those who do not exactly love it, because it interferes
with some of their favorite desires: it will not exactly allow them
to gratify every wish and desire of their hearts. It curtails them in
some of their wickedness, pride, selfishness, and idolatry; and
because of this, they do not like it, and they wish it were not true,
that they might escape an awful condemnation. Because they know it is
true, they cannot get off the hook, and must be drawn in. Ask them if
they were so influenced by the wisdom, learning, shrewdness, or
cunning of those who taught them the principles of life and salvation,
and they will answer you that they know better. There are but few
religions you can name, or preachers of any denomination, that have
not been heard by the chief bulk of the Latter-day Saints. But did
their eloquence, learning, cunning, intelligence, and experience
govern and control them, or influence them in any uncommon way? No.
But when the simple, naked truth was told to them in childlike
simplicity, if it came from a babe, they understood it: it went to
their hearts. This is the reason why they are here, and why they stay here. And those who go away are they who come flouncing all
the way like a fish caught by the gills, and they keep it up until the
gill breaks, when they return again to their native element. I have no
objections to this: it is all right.
If men want to fight, and drink whiskey, and roll in the mud, and spue
in the gutter, I have no objections. The only objection I have is,
that it hurts my feelings to find one of the Seventies, one of the
Elders, or one of the High Priests lying on my sidewalk or under my
fence in a state of intoxication, and I am obliged to pass by and call
him brother. I am obliged to have it thrown to me that I fellowship
him. I wish every person to understand that I do not fellowship any
such conduct. Still they will plead, and plead, and plead to be
forgiven and tried again. Yes, try him again until he reaches another
whiskey shop.
I think if those who keep the shop, who hang out the sign, who gather
the poison by the pailfull, and keep it to retail out by the dimes'
worth, want that occupation in time, they ought also to have it in
eternity, and sell it to Pharaoh and his hosts in hell. I am ashamed
of all such Elders. They excuse themselves by saying, "People will
have the liquor; and if I don't sell it, somebody else will; and I
might as well have the money as anybody else." They might as well say,
There is a herd of cattle, horses, or mules on the range that will be
stolen, and I might as well steal them as anybody else.
The principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do
not countenance such conduct. It is Gentilism—Devilism.
It may be asked, Why do not the "Mormons" put a stop to this cheating
of one another? I do all I can towards it. When they wish to quit
their wickedness, I will try to help them do it. I would not care to
see burned down that row of buildings where whiskey is kept and
drunkenness encouraged. I do not wish the buildings burned up, but I
say I never would occupy one of them. I would rather go and live on
the top of one of those mountains than have any of my family occupy
one of those cursed houses where all kinds of corruption is practiced.
In years gone by, it has been considered awful oppression here because
the Saints in the community did not feel to approve of these things,
and there were no army—no federal officers to hold out protection to
men when they violated every acknowledged rule of a well-regulated
society.
Now, let me say to all such characters—federal officers, the army,
Saint and sinner, Jew and Gentile—that instead of being protected in
wickedness, they will find the sword of justice that hangs over them
will soon fall heavily upon them, and when they least expect it. Do
you ask who will wield it? I answer, The Lord Almighty. He will not
always look on and see this land polluted by such curses. And those
who have professed the name of Jesus Christ, and have had the
testimony of Jesus, and depart from the way of the Lord, to pursue
covetousness and idolatry, will be the first to feel his wrath in the
day of the Lord, when he has borne with them sufficiently. Every man's
works will speak for him, and they will be weighed in the balance,
whether he be Jew or Gentile. Every man's works will make manifest
whether he is for law and order—for the principles of the Constitution
of the United States and the rights of man, or whether he is here to
ride over everybody that will not be influenced by him. The man that
does this will find himself in snag harbor, and he will run against
snags when and where he least expects it.
The Lord says the wicked shall slay the wicked, and he orders it so. I
pray God that he will preserve the righteous, and endue his people who
love the truth with grace, that they may let their light shine, and be
able to bear testimony of the Gospel to all nations. Amen.