I rejoice in the privilege of making a few remarks this morning, by
way of explanation and exhortation.
If the Latter-day Saints assemble to worship merely because our
fathers did, or because we have been so taught by our schoolmasters,
we have not a correct view of the subject. The Being who organized us
did so upon principles which pleased him, and can please us only
through obedience to his laws. That Being placed within us a principle
that has been among all the nations of men from the beginning—the
principle of reverence, of worship, of seeking after something
superior to what we possess. Every person possesses more or less of
this principle; we all acknowledge it more or less, and all are
seeking something not in our possession.
We are on this earth for an express purpose. The body is organized,
the spirit takes possession of it, and here we are as finite beings in
a world of sin, of darkness, and of the thralldom of iniquity; and
that, too, for an ex press purpose that cannot be accomplished upon any other principle or plan.
Eternal existence depends solely upon adopting and carrying out in our
lives the principles couched in the term "holy Priesthood," which
alone tend to life and eternal duration and exaltation. We are seeking
for something that we are not now in possession of; and every
individual wishes to understand those true principles which will put
him in possession of the right plan by which to obtain what we are
seeking.
Mankind are prone to seeking after perishable things, though we in
reality, if we did but realize it, are by no means doing so
exclusively. The spirit and intelligence that God has placed within us
prompt us to seek more or less after imperishable things. Had we
worlds to command and dictate in our finite state, with the authority
and power we now possess, it would not satisfy the mind.
The holy Priesthood is a system of laws and government that is pure
and holy; and if it is adhered to by intelligent man, whom God has
created a little lower than angels, it is calculated to preserve our
tabernacles in eternal being; otherwise they will be resolved into
native element. Nothing is calculated to satisfy the mind of an
intelligent being, only to obtain principles that will preserve him in
his identity, to enable him to increase in wisdom, power, knowledge,
and perfection. And when we meet to worship, we do or should meet to
speak of those principles and to strengthen our faith. But should it
please the Almighty to place us in circumstances that would preclude
our assembling to worship, if we understand these principles, they are
as dear to us in our closets, in our homes, and when we are laboring
in our fields, our shops, or in the canyons, as when we are in this
Tabernacle.
We are searching for these prin ciples, and we are laboring
continually to obtain—What? You see mankind running to and fro, like
ants upon an anthill—now forward, now wheeling and taking the back
track; then to the right and to the left, seemingly in a perfect state
of excitement and confusion. They are seeking they know not what. They
possess the foundation for eternal intelligence, and they do not know
how to obtain that which will satisfy their minds. Nothing can
satisfy, except being perfectly subject to the law that will preserve
them in their identity to all eternity, and that is the holy
Priesthood.
And yet, so long as we have lived, and as much as the wisest of us
have seen and learned, we are still comparatively as infants. It is by
the law of the Priesthood that men are, and by that law they may
maintain their eternal identity. A strict observance of those laws
will secure an inheritance in that kingdom where death never enters,
and all else will sooner or later pass away as a night vision.
When we undertake to worship the Lord, it is eternal principles that
we desire to learn. They are taught here from Sabbath to Sabbath, a
little here and a little there, pertaining to the doctrines of
salvation, like explaining the civil laws of the land. Lawyers are
called upon to explain the civil law, and we must be lawyers in the
law of the Priesthood, to read, comprehend, and correctly teach the
writings of Moses, of the Psalmist, of the Prophets and Apostles, or
to tell the truth as it comes fresh from heaven, independent of
reading from any book.
No one can correctly dispute that mankind are possessed of
intelligence. Reflect upon the intelligence they possess in mechanism,
in astronomy, &c. Did they produce that? No. I obtained the principles
of intelligence that I am in possession of from the same
source that they obtained theirs, and which I attribute to the Author
of our existence. But they cannot tell from whence those principles
came. They are searching and researching with an inherent principle
that never can be satisfied without true knowledge; and that true
knowledge flows through the Priesthood, to enable us to know how to
order our lives, to overcome every principle that tends to the death,
and to embrace every principle that tends to the life, that we may
preserve our identity to all eternity, which is the greatest blessing
bestowed upon man, and which we now have the privilege to place
ourselves in the way to secure.
The laws given by the Almighty to the children of men, by which we can
preserve our spirits and our bodies to all eternity, are what the
world call "Mormonism." Those laws are what this people believe and
are in possession of. And are we obliged to falter here and falter
there? If I am presented with unwholesome food, or with poison that
would destroy my life, am I obliged to eat it? No, though I may be
obliged to have it presented to me. If a man hands you a dose of
arsenic, saying that you need it and that it will do you good, are you
obliged to swallow it? Or if those who prefer sin, and roll it under
their tongues as a sweet morsel, present to you principles that tend
to the death, are you obliged to receive them—to join in and commit
sin? Some who profess to be Latter-day Saints do so, and continue to
do so.
What a pity it is! How strange it is that mankind do not better
understand and conduct themselves! True, as is written, sin was
introduced to the human family by the transgression of our first
parents, and thereby the Adversary of all righteousness gained great
power over our bodies, as we can daily see exhibited—the flesh, as
the Apostle has written, warring against the spirit. So in a garden,
the weeds spring up spontaneously; and if you wish to produce certain
fruits and vegetables, you must carefully till the soil, because the
ground is cursed to produce thorns and thistles and obnoxious weeds.
The original transgression subjected the flesh to weakness and
infirmities, but not the spirit; which explains how much easier it is
for a person to sin than to work righteousness, by the power sin has
obtained over earthly tabernacles, notwithstanding the promptings to
do right, and that a person feels better in doing right than wrong.
We must have our day of trial—an opportunity to become acquainted with
the bitter and the sweet. We are so organized as to be able to choose
or to refuse. We can take the downward road that leads to destruction,
or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the
principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the
principles that pertain to life and salvation. This is a day of trial;
our faith and patience can now be tried: now is the time for your
fortitude and integrity to be tried. Let the trials come; for if we
should be so unspeakably happy as to obtain a crown of eternal life,
we shall be like gold tried seven times in the fire. Let the fiery
furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be
presented—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted
to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good
and refuse the evil.
According to our faith, we must strive to live our religion when in
the canyons getting wood and lumber, when laboring in our fields, and
wherever we may be. We have to learn and practice eternal principles,
to obtain eternal life; and they are the principles of the
holy Priesthood. God has given man an agency, and it behooves us to
understand and practice the principles of life—to live our religion
and walk humbly with our God, living according to the laws and
regulations of the holy Priesthood so far as it is revealed.
The principles of eternal life that are set before us are calculated
to exalt us to power and preserve us from decay. If we choose to take
the opposite course and to imbibe and practice the principles that
tend to death, the fault is with ourselves. If we fail to obtain the
salvation we are seeking for, we shall acknowledge that we have
secured to ourselves every reward that is due to us by our acts, and
that we have acted in accordance with the independent agency given us,
and we shall be judged out of our own mouths whether we are justified
or condemned.
When meditating upon matters as they are passing, I am happy and
rejoice that things are as they are. You do not often see me in this
building, neither do I often address you, neither do I wish at
present; but I want everything to be shaken that can be shaken, that
those who remain will be steadfastly determined to serve their God. As
I have often said, I would rather be associated with a dozen men who
would live their religion than to have the whole world for my
companions to bear off the kingdom to all nations. I would rather see
the people leave, until there are not ten men left in the mountains,
than to see what I see and hear what mine ears have to hear—the
blasphemy, corruption, wickedness, dishonesty one with another, and
running after the Devil, and ready to strike hands wherever they meet
him. I want to see those who will not live their religion sifted out.
Let them float off, and let the few who will live their religion—who
will live for God, remain until they are like the gold that is tried
in the furnace seven times.
I understand that some of the people are remiss in coming to meeting.
Do they stay at home to weigh themselves in the balance, to know
whether they are actually in possession of the religion that we
profess? Or are their eyes, like the fool's, in the ends of the earth,
looking for a good job here, and a bargain there, and a speculation
yonder? You will know, by-and-by, whether you possess the religion you
profess. The Lord will sift the people, and the time is not far
distant when he will sift the nations with a sieve of vanity, and the
time is at your doors when he will hold a controversy with the nations
and will plead with all flesh, and it will be known who is for God,
and who is not.
I often ask the Father to hasten his work—do you?—to hasten his Zion
upon the earth, and his work upon all nations. Have you any idea what
that work is? I am at times checked in my feelings, and make the
inquiry, Am I prepared, with this people, to receive what will come?
Every time that my mind stretches forth to discern what the Lord is
doing, to contemplate upon his goings forth among the nations, and
what he is bringing about, according to all the sayings of the
Prophets and the designs of his Son Jesus Christ, and to reflect upon
the nations of the earth as they now are and will be, I ask myself,
Am I prepared for all this? Are the people called Latter-day Saints
prepared for all this? I am checked in my feelings in a moment. Are
you? Or do you think that you are ready? Suppose that the Lord should
make his appearance in his glory, how many in this Tabernacle could
abide the day of his coming? Is there an individual in the valleys of
the mountains, or upon the face of the earth, that could abide
the appearance of the Son of Man in his glory—that could look upon
him?
Are you prepared for the distress that is coming upon the nations?
Many of you frequently think that your lot is very hard—that your
trials are numerous and severe, and imagine this and that; and there
is a great disposition with many of you, as well as with the rest of
the world, to pity yourselves. You had better continue to pity
yourselves, each and every one, lest we should not be right in all the
things of God as fast as he is rolling them along. I have been driven
from my home five times; I have left my houses and lands and
everything I had. Do I wish evil to come upon my enemies? Every time I
think of it, and when my mind is opened by the visions of the Lord to
see the weeping, the wailing, and distress of the nations, that many
who now live will see, there is not a person in this room that could
bear it. There are no eyes looking upon me that could bear to see the
awful distress that the nations are bringing upon themselves—to look
upon the judgments of the Almighty that they are bringing upon
themselves.
You think that you see distress. I have seen poverty; I have seen the
grayheaded father and mother bowed to their graves with starvation; I
have seen the middle-aged, the youth, and young children going to
their graves through starvation: but I have seen nothing to compare
with what I shall yet see, if I live. I shall see the distress that
will be upon the nations. Look a little further and reflect upon what
the Lord will do when he has revolutionized the nations and cleansed
and purged this earth with fire. Are we prepared to sit down with
Jesus when he comes? We had better be careful to know whether we are
prepared.
We think that we have great occasion for sorrow; but how should we
feel, after all our preparations, faith, labors, and looking forth
for the coming of the Son of Man, to be consumed by the brightness of
his appearance? We had better be purifying our hearts: that is the
best occupation I can recommend to the Saints. I would recommend such
a course, far beyond taking their neighbor's cattle, breaking down
their neighbor's fences, spending their Sabbaths in the canyons
getting wood, or doing anything that they should not do. Ask such
persons whether they pray. "No." A man in the Eleventh Ward said, "I
prayed daily over my crops last year, and my harvest was very light:
this year I have not prayed, and my crops look first-rate." Those who
think that they can succeed without praying, try it, and I will
promise them eternal destruction, if they persist in that course. Some
think that they can prosper by lying a little, breaking the Sabbath,
and doing almost everything that they ought not to do. In the end they
will learn that they have trod the path that leads to the first and
second death, which will have power over them; and the time will come
when they will be as though they had not been.
It is recorded that Job clung to the Lord and proved his integrity to
his Father and God. The Lord, to try him, suffered his crops to be
laid waste, his property to be plundered, his sons to be destroyed,
and sorely afflicted him in divers ways; and so it has been and will
be with thousands of other persons. And though their property,
families, and friends be taken from them, yet they should trust in
their God, even though he should slay them. And you will learn,
by-and-by, what reward he has prepared for them.
I am striving for the crown that awaits the end of the
faithful race—not alone for the potatoes and corn. Many come to me and
say, "Brother Brigham, are we going to have any potatoes this year?"
"I neither know nor care." "Have you planted any?" "Yes,
a great
many." "Have you looked to see whether there are any sets upon them?"
"No: but it is my business to keep out the weeds, to water and till,
and wait until the harvest." I have not power to make potatoes set. If
I should plant and hoe, and raise nothing, it is the same to me as
though I obtained a good crop. God gives or withholds the increase.
We are all organized to seek after something that will be durable—that
will not pass away like a dream. Then do not seek too much after that
which will perish. Such things belong to the world. They are to be
changed, and are not be relied upon. Seek for the principles that
pertain to eternal life—the principles of the holy Priesthood. Let us
prove ourselves to be friends of God, whether we raise potatoes or
not, whether our pigs and calves live or not, whether we are blessed
with much or little, or have nothing—trust in God and be his friends,
and by-and-by he will put us in possession of that which will be
perfectly satisfactory. Our spirits and bodies will be preserved
before the Lord, and we shall be prepared to see him in his glory—to
live with him in his kingdom—to associate with him. That is what we
are seeking, if we did but know it.
If any wish to apostatize, they have and always have had perfect
liberty to do so. Life and death are before you. You have had the
words of life sounded in your ears, year after year, in these valleys,
and we have been blessed with days of peace and pleasantness—days of
joy and days of comfort. Have all the people served God? No. Some have
been and are wicked, sinful, dishonest, and unfaithful; and the Lord
wants to prove us—to prepare the righteous for his glory, and the
wicked for their doom.
I exhort you all to reflect whether you are ready for what is coming,
and are prepared to receive what you anticipate. Amen.