I wish you to understand and practice the lessons you have already
received, or you cannot consistently look for more. And do not become
tired or discouraged if you cannot learn your lessons all at once, for
with diligent and close application you can learn how to live to all
eternity, which is the object of our being here. Be patient; do not
murmur at the dealings of Providence. The Lord rules in the heavens
and works his pleasure upon the earth. Can you comprehend the meaning
of the Prophet Amos in the question, "Shall there be evil in the city,
and the Lord hath not done it?" His providences are constantly ruling
and overruling, to a greater or less degree, in the affairs of the
children of men. Do all people discern and understand that his
providences are over the workmanship of his hands, and that he
controls all things? No, they do not. The lessons you have been taught
tend to instruct you upon these points.
Can this people understand that the Lord—that Being we call our
Father, as also the Gods and all heavenly beings, lives upon the
principles that pertain to eternity? Can the people comprehend that
there is not, has not been, and never can be any method, scheme, or
plan devised by any being in this world for intelligence to eternally
exist and obtain an exaltation, without knowing the good and the
evil—without tasting the bitter and the sweet? Can the people
understand that it is actually necessary for opposite principles to be
placed before them, or this state of being would be no probation, and
we should have no opportunity for exercising the agency given us? Can
they understand that we cannot obtain eternal life unless we actually
know and comprehend by our experience the principle of good and the
principle of evil, the light and the darkness, truth, virtue, and
holiness—also vice, wickedness, and corruption? We must discern and
acknowledge that the providences of the Lord are over all the works of his hands—that when he produces intelligent beings he watches
over them for their good. He has given human beings an intelligence
designed to become eternal, self-existent, independent, and as Godlike
as any being in the heavens.
To answer such design, we are given our agency—the control of our
belief, and must know the darkness from the light and the light from
the darkness, and must taste the bitter as well as the sweet.
You need exhorting rather than teaching. You have been taught doctrine
in abundance, and I have sometimes thought it a pity the Lord has
revealed quite as much as he has. And I can truly say that I believe,
if I am guilty in any one point in my walk before this people, it is
in telling them things they are not worthy of—that I have given unto
them things that they could not receive. For this reason I deem it
mainly needful to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.
Brother Spencer referred to the carelessness and forgetfulness of the
people, and to how prone we are to get out of the way, to depart from
the love, enjoyment, peace, and light that the Spirit of the Lord and
of our religion gives unto us. We should live so as to possess that
Spirit daily, hourly, and every moment. That is a blessing to us,
which makes the path of life easy. For a man to undertake to live a
Saint and walk in darkness is one of the hardest tasks that he can
undertake. You cannot imagine a position that will sink a person more
deeply in perplexity and trouble than to try to be a Saint without
living as a Saint should—without enjoying the spirit of his religion.
It is our privilege to so live as to enjoy the spirit of our religion.
That is designed to restore us to the presence of the Gods. Gods
exist, and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them.
The people wish to know what to do to do right. When those who live
their religion meet to speak to each other—to mutually strengthen
their faith and encourage one another in good principles, in good,
wholesome, loving lives—in morality, tradition causes some to say that
they mean to do better—to alter their lives and live better than they
have, when, if it was to save the world, they could not live any
better unless they knew more. Have we not made mistakes? Yes, a great
many. If we had known better, we could have done that which would have
resulted in greater good. But, considering their knowledge, those who
are striving to do right cannot conduct themselves any better than
they do. I know a great many that I have that opinion about. Do they
err? Yes. Do they knowingly do wickedly? They do not; but they do as
well as people can. And I do not believe that brother Spencer, the
President of this Stake, could, with the same knowledge, better his
life in past years; and I have the same feeling in regard to many with
whom I am acquainted. I know this by my own experience, which is a
most excellent schoolmaster when we do the best we can.
We will seek unto the Lord for more knowledge; we will get wisdom and
forget it not, but treasure it up in our hearts, and treasure up every
holy principle as fast as our ability will permit us to do so. And if
our minds are strong enough, and we are so constituted as to comprehend
and retain, let us strive to receive every principle that pertains to
life and salvation, and treasure them up in our hearts against the
time of need. Walk humbly before our God, and learn correct principles
as fast as you can; and then, when you discover you have missed it
here and there, where you imagine that you could have done better,
never find fault with the know ledge God has given you, nor
with your own faith, virtue, and works; for you have done the best you
could.
This people are familiar with very many principles pertaining to
eternal life; and I will ask you what principle that will endure—what
that is valuable in life is there, so far as you have learned, and
what is there in life which you know, have known, can learn, or that
exists, that "Mormonism" has not given to you? "Mormonism,"
or, in
other words, the Gospel of salvation, embraces the whole. It
incorporates every true principle there is in heaven and on earth. If
a person learns a truth, he learns so much of the Gospel of salvation.
And when he learns that, he wants to understand the bearings of the
great plan. He wants to understand—I will not say the extent of it,
because he cannot do so, but as much thereof as his ability can
comprehend, and to discern that the Gospel of salvation, the eternal
Priesthood of the Son of God, is the life that is, that was, and that
is to come—eternal life. Those principles are given to the children
of men to practice upon, that in so doing they may come up and inherit
eternal life. This is for us to learn, treasure up in our hearts, and
practice. Do not seek for that which you cannot magnify, but practice
upon that which you have in your possession.
I know very well that, whether we are active or not, the invisible
spirits are active. And every person who desires and strives to be a
Saint is closely watched by fallen spirits that came here when Lucifer
fell, and by the spirits of wicked persons who have been here in
tabernacles and departed from them, but who are still under the
control of the prince of the power of the air. Those spirits are never
idle; they are watching every person who wishes to do right, and are
con tinually prompting them to do wrong. This makes it necessary for us
to be continually on our guard—makes this probation a continual
warfare. We do not expect to be idle. The individual that obtains a
celestial kingdom will never be idle in the flesh. It is a spiritual
warfare. He contends against the spirits of darkness and against the
workers of iniquity, and wars all the day long against his own
passions that pertain to fallen man. It is therefore necessary that
the people speak often one with another, encourage each other in every
good word and work, sustain every one in every good act, operate
against every evil act, and continue so to do through life.
Some, who understand more or less of the principles of the Gospel,
appear to be a trifle discouraged. Such do not think more of the life
to come than they do of the present life. When the breath leaves the
body, your life has not become extinct; your life is still in
existence. And when you are in the spirit world, everything there will
appear as natural as things now do. Spirits will be familiar with
spirits in the spirit world—will converse, behold, and exercise every
variety of communication one with another as familiarly and naturally
as while here in tabernacles. There, as here, all things will be
natural, and you will understand them as you now understand natural
things. You will there see that those spirits we are speaking of are
active: they sleep not. And you will learn that they are striving with
all their might—laboring and toiling diligently as any individual
would to accomplish an act in this world—to destroy the children of
men.
Pertaining to the present state of the world, you know what evil
spirits are doing. They are visiting the human family with various
manifestations. I told the people, years and years ago, that the Lord
wished them to believe in revelation; and that if they did not
believe what he had revealed, he would let the Devil make them believe
in revelation. Do you not think that the Devil is making them believe
in revelation? What is called spirit-rapping, spirit-knocking, and so
forth, is produced by the spirits that the Lord has suffered to
communicate to people on the earth, and make them believe in
revelation. There are many who do not believe this; but I believe it,
and have from the beginning.
If true principles are revealed from heaven to men, and if there are
angels, and there is a possibility of their communicating to the human
family, always look for an opposite power, an evil power, to give
manifestations also: look out for the counterfeit.
There is evil in the world, and there is also good. Was there ever a
counterfeit without a true coin? No. Is there communication from God?
Yes. From holy angels? Yes; and we have been proclaiming these facts
during nearly thirty years. Are there any communications from evil
spirits? Yes; and the Devil is making the people believe very strongly
in revelations from the spirit world. This is called spiritualism, and
it is said that thousands of spirits declare that "Mormonism" is true;
but what do that class of spirits know more than mortals? Perhaps a
little more in some particulars than is known here, but it is only a
little more. They are subject in the spirit world to the same powers
they were subject to here.
If we live faithful to the doctrine and faith of the holy Gospel we
have embraced, we shall understand the real benefit and advantage that
we will have over those who are not in possession of the true
principles of salvation or the Priesthood. If we are faithful to our
religion, when we go into the spirit world, the fallen spirits—Lucifer
and the third part of the heavenly hosts that came with him, and the
spirits of wicked men who have dwelt upon this earth, the whole of
them combined will have no influence over our spirits. Is not that an
advantage? Yes. All the rest of the children of men are more or less
subject to them, and they are subject to them as they were while here
in the flesh.
If we conquer here and overcome in the Gospel, in the spirit world our
spirits will be above the power of evil spirits. Not that we can so
overcome, while here, as to be free from death; for though Jesus
overcame, yet his body was slain.
Every person possessing the principle of eternal life should look upon
his body as of the earth earthy. Our bodies must return to their
mother earth. True, to most people it is a wretched thought that our
spirits must, for a longer or shorter period, be separated from our
bodies, and thousands and millions have been subject to this
affliction throughout their lives. If they understood the design of
this probation and the true principles of eternal life, it is but a
small matter for the body to suffer and die.
When death is past, the power of Satan has no more influence over a
faithful individual: that spirit is free, and can command the power of
Satan. The penalty demanded by the fall has been fully paid; all is
accomplished pertaining to it, when the tabernacle of a faithful
person is returned to the earth. All that was lost is passed away, and
that person will again receive his body. When he is in the spirit
world, he is free from those contaminating and condemning influences
of Satan that we are now subject to. Here our bodies are subject to
being killed by our enemies—our names to being cast out as
evil. We are persecuted, hated, not beloved; though I presume that we
are as much beloved here as the spirits of the Saints are in the
spirit world by those spirits who hate righteousness. It is the same
warfare, but we will have power over them. Those who have passed
through the veil have power over the evil spirits to command, and they
must obey.
You require to be stirred up to reflection, to examine your
religion—the faith of the holy Gospel—the Priesthood; for it is worthy
of your notice, lest perhaps a little gold becomes too precious in
your thoughts. The individual who builds all his hopes upon property,
upon gold and silver, and the possessions of this world, making these
treasures his idol, has never yet seen, by vision, the glory of the
celestial world—has not had a foretaste of it. He has little or none
of that knowledge which God designs to give to the faithful. When that
is possessed, what is the world to Saints? It is subject to them, and
it is not in the power of Satan to blot out or destroy that heavenly
knowledge.
You see men eagerly striving for gold, riches, wealth, and mourning
and fretting—"We wish we had done so-and-so, for then we should have
made a few more dimes. And now we wish to go and obtain piles of gold,
and to do this and that—to heap up wealth and gain power." As Lorin W.
Babbitt said, who used to belong to this Church, but went to
California, "I am going to sell my house and go away. I have labored
eighteen years for the Lord, and now I am going to work for Lorin W.
Babbitt." What an expression! As though he could control the elements!
If he possessed a mountain of gold and gambled it away in one night,
it would still be in the world, whether in his possession or out of
it. Suppose that I, through covetousness and dishonesty, had
accumulated millions of dollars, and then should lose it all in an
hour, in neither case is it out of the world, and there is as much
property in the one case as in the other: it has merely changed hands.
Solomon, when speaking of these things, says, The race is not to the
swift, nor riches to men of wisdom. Do not fret, nor be so anxious
about property, nor think that when you have gathered treasures, they
alone will produce joy and comfort; for it is not so.
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches
to men of wisdom. The Lord gives the increase: he makes rich whom he
pleases. You may inquire, "Why not make us rich?" Perhaps, because we
would not know what to do with riches. You remember that a while past,
nine wagons went through this city on their way to California,
accompanied by some soldiers as an escort and guard. One of our
missionaries, returning home, met them on the northern route, and
asked one of them what caused him to apostatize? The man replied—"To
tell you the truth, I was used so well at Great Salt Lake City that I
could not endure it. I came there with a handcart company, and had
not a mouthful of anything to eat, no clothing, nor anything to make
me comfortable. As soon as I arrived in the city, Heber C. Kimball,
having learned my name, met me and said, 'Brother, there is a house;
there are flour, meal, and fuel: you have had a hard time; go there
with your family, and make yourselves comfortable, and eat and drink,
and get rested; and when you wish to go to work, I will give you
employment and pay you for your labor.' From that day my heart was in
me to do evil. I have been trying to apostatize ever since and have
finally made out to do so; and I cannot attribute it to anything in the world, only that I was used so well."
This exhibits the spirit that is in many. They are faithful while they
are extremely poor; but give them wealth, and they are thrown off
their guard, forget their sacred vows and solemn covenants, and the
property they have around them occupies their whole attention and
affections; their minds become wholly engrossed in their possessions.
Doubtless there are some instances opposite to this; but probably, in
nineteen cases out of twenty, poverty and hardship will tend to make
people humble and faithful.
Oppression, persecution, afflictions, and other trials and privations
are necessary as a test to all professing to be Saints, that they may
have an opportunity to witness the workings of the power which is
opposed to truth and holiness. Go into East Temple street (now
commonly called "Whiskey Street" ), and you will see all the wickedness
you can reasonably wish to. You can there see it, smell it, taste it,
and learn enough about it, without going anywhere else. It is all
necessary, that we may have the privilege of proving whether we prefer
good or evil. There are robbery, theft, drunkenness, lying, deceiving,
gambling, whoring, and murder; and what evil is there lacking? Scan
the civilized world and ask what evil they have that we have not; and
if there is one lacking, it will come, for every variety is necessary
to prove whether we will preserve our integrity before God.
You will know that the evil done here is laid to me. Let them pursue
that course until they are tired of it. I defy them, from the gate of
the celestial kingdom to the bottom of the bottomless pit, to
truthfully substantiate a single accusation against me. They may
continue to lie, and hire others to lie, and trump up false
accusations against me; for I am accustomed to that kind of treatment
from the wicked, and I am fully able, God being my helper, to endure
it: it does not hurt me one particle. If the Devil and his servants
loved me, and wrote and spoke well of me, I should be jealous of
myself. But if I keep the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, I shall also
have the fellowship of Saints and angels. Then let the wicked howl and
foam; it is all right.
I wish to know whether I can stand the power of temptation and
preserve my integrity. I know not but what I may be thrown into
circumstances that will be pretty hard, but feel tolerably well
assured that I shall not apostatize.
Evil temptations and abuse are necessary to prove our faith, to
determine whether we will sacrifice our carnal appetites and desires,
or forsake the knowledge of God and godliness. If we are not willing
to make sacrifices for the truth and the Gospel's sake, we are not
worthy of celestial glory. What is there of an earthly nature, even
though dear to us, that we cannot live without, so we have that which
will sustain nature and enable us to perform the duties and labors
resting upon us? With the exception named, I do not know of anything.
I can let you all go, so far as I may be required. I do not know that
I ever thought enough of tobacco, tea, snuff, or anything else of that
description, to alter the natural traits of my character. My passions
must be in subjection to my spirit. Perhaps I am not possessed of such
ungovernable passions as many are. But let our passions be as they
may, the whole man must be the servant of that Being who gives us
life. We need to talk with each other, pray with each other, and
encourage each other, until our spirits have overcome all
propensities to evil. Do you understand, what I have often taught you
as plainly as my language will permit me, the warfare pertaining to
the spirits of the children of men while in the flesh? The spirit is
pure and holy upon its entrance into the tabernacle, and God, by the
power of his Spirit, operates upon it; but the flesh, and no more, is
unholy; and here are the holy and the unholy united. Which shall be
the master? Let the spirit that comes from the eternal world, which at
the outset is pure and holy, with the influence God gives to it,
master all the passions of the body, and bring it under subjection to
the will of Christ. That course makes us Saints.
I have flattered myself, if I am as faithful as I know how to be to my
God, and my brethren, and to all my covenants, and faithful in the
discharge of my duty, when I have lived to be as old as was Moses when
the Lord appeared to him, that perhaps I then may hold communion with
the Lord, as did Moses. I am not now in that position, though I know
much more than I did twenty, ten, or five years ago. But have I yet
lived to the state of perfection that I can commune in person with the
Father and the Son at my will and pleasure? No—though I hold myself in
readiness that he can wield me at his will and pleasure. If I am
faithful until I am eighty years of age, perhaps the Lord will appear
to me and personally dictate me in the management of his Church and
people. A little over twenty years, and if I am faithful, perhaps I
will obtain that favor with my Father and God.
I am not to obtain this privilege at once or in a moment. True, Joseph
Smith in his youth had revelations from God. He saw and understood for
himself. Are you acquainted with his life? You can read the history of
it. I was acquainted with him during many years. He had heavenly
visions; angels administered to him. The vision of his mind was opened
to see and understand heavenly things. He revealed the will of the
Lord to the people, and yet but few were really acquainted with
brother Joseph. He had all the weaknesses a man could have when the
vision was not upon him, when he was left to himself. He was
constituted like other men, and would have required years and years
longer in the flesh to become a Moses in all things. For the length of
time he lived, he was as good a man as ever lived in the flesh, Jesus
excepted. It was so ordered that a man has to live and gain by his
experience that knowledge and wisdom, and that degree of stability in
his character that will present him favorably to the heavenly hosts
at all times and under all circumstances. Let us, then, resolve and
act upon the principle of constant improvement.
As to doing any better than I have done, I have to know more, and so
have you. You have done as well as you knew how. This is a matter of
rejoicing to me. And though we are still far from being perfect, the
Latter-day Saints are not far from a deep desire to be perfect. They
are far from being what they should be; but they are not far from an
abiding desire to be what they should be. But have you so trained
yourselves as to be able to say, for instance, that if the potatoes
you have planted yield, abundantly well; and if they do not, that is
just as well? Can you feel to say that in all sincerity? Can you say,
after you have prepared the ground, cast in the wheat, watered it, and
taken good care of it, and then found the crop destroyed by blight or
smut, Well, all right? Can you honestly say so? If you cannot, you
have not schooled your hearts to what you should have done—to learn
that it is God alone who gives the increase. We can plough, we
can plant, sow, water, and tend, because we are ordained to do these
things; but no man on the earth is ordained to give the increase.
It is for us to frame our acts. We shape our lives—we do this, that,
and the other agreeably with the best knowledge we have; but do we
produce the results of our acts? We do not. The Lord controls the
results of the acts of all nations under heaven. He casts down a
throne here, and sets up another yonder—brings forth a nation out of
obscurity, and causes the most powerful nations to crumble to dust. We
have this to learn, and to study and learn ourselves, and to control
our own dispositions and passions, so that when we see others out of
the way, we can have compassion on them, and say—"Thank the Lord, we
have not been suffered to go astray and give way to our passions." The
merciful man shall find mercy. When a man designedly does wrong, he
ought to be chastised for that wrong, receiving according to his
works. If a man does wrong through ignorance, and manifests sincere
sorrow for the wrong, he is the one whom we should forgive seventy
times in a day, if necessary, and not the one who has designedly done
wrong and repents not.
It is for us to so live that our lives will become sweet and more
precious than gold or silver. And our communion one with another, may
it increase in all the sublimity and heights and depths of consolation
known only to those who are truly united on the earth by interests and
bonds that are eternal.
May the Lord bless you for evermore! Amen.