I rejoice in the privilege of speaking to you this morning, and hope I
shall have your prayers and faith, in connection with my own, that my
remarks may be beneficial to those who hear.
Brother Spencer, in his remarks, indicated that there are some
faultfinders here—some who take exceptions to the acts and doings of
the Saints, especially to those of their leaders. Some of these
persons profess to be Saints, some have been cut off from the Church,
and some have never been in the Church.
I have no part with such men, neither have I any contention or
argument with them. I am sent to preach the Gospel of life and
salvation. If men are not pleased with my ways, they have as good a
right to dislike them as I have to dislike theirs. If they do not
believe in my advice, teachings, and counsel, they are at perfect
liberty to disbelieve them, and I will not find one word of fault with
them for so doing. They have full liberty to think and say what they
please with regard to my acts; but, as I have often said, they must
keep their "hands off." The slander and lying of tongues set in motion
by wicked hearts I have always met, and they do not affect my
character before my God, nor in the eyes of just men.
Take the evildoers, in this commu nity, those who have once tasted of
the good word of God, who have received the Spirit of truth, and then
turned again to the allurements of the enemy, have forsaken their God
in their feelings, and connected themselves with those who are not in
the Church; they know my character, and have much more confidence in
me than I have in them. They believe what I say to be the truth; but
they deceive, and I know it. I tell the truth; and, so far as I have
power, I always act the truth; but they are disposed to refuse and
neglect the truth, and to prefer error and falsehood instead.
I have very little to say to men who are dissatisfied with my course,
or with the course of my brethren. Some have wished me to explain why
we built an adobe wall around this city. Are there any Saints who
stumble at such things? Oh, slow of heart to understand and believe. I
build walls, dig ditches, make bridges, and do a great amount and
variety of labor that is of but little consequence only to provide
ways and means for sustaining and preserving the destitute. I annually
expend hundreds and thousands of dollars almost solely to furnish
employment to those in want of labor. Why? I have potatoes, flour,
beef, and other articles of food, which I wish my brethren to have;
and it is better for them to labor for those articles, so far
as they are able and have opportunity, than to have them given to
them. They work, and I deal out provisions, often when the work does
not profit me.
I say to all grunters, grumblers, whiners, hypocrites, and sycophants,
who snivel, crouch, and crawl around the most contemptible of all
creatures for a slight favor, Should it enter my mind to dig down the
Twin Peaks, and I set men to work to do so, it is none of your
business, neither is it the business of all earth and hell, provided I
pay the laborers their wages. I am not to be called in question as to
what I do with my funds, whether I build high walls or low walls,
garden walls or city walls; and if I please, it is my right to pull
down my walls tomorrow. If anyone wishes to apostatize upon such
grounds, the quicker he does so the better; and if he wishes to leave
the Territory, but is too poor to do so, I will assist him to go. We
are much better off without such characters.
I preach to the people and reason with them with regard to the
dealings of God with the children of men. Many have apostatized
because we were driven by our enemies from Missouri, notwithstanding
they were taught that we never should be driven, if the people would
sanctify themselves and be prepared for the blessings in store for
them. But no, they did not sanctify themselves, and all the subsequent
schooling was necessary to prepare the Latter-day Saints to receive
the blessings of the Almighty. We are not prepared to receive his
choicest gifts, unless we also have experience to know what to do with
them. How many years have the Saints been taught upon these
principles, to give them an understanding of the dealings of the Lord
with the children of men?
When a man begins to find fault, inquiring in regard to this, that, and
the other, saying, "Does this or that look as though the Lord dictated
it?" you may know that that person has more or less of the spirit of
apostasy. Every man in this kingdom, or upon the face of the earth,
who is seeking with all his heart to save himself, has as much to do
as he can conveniently attend to, without calling in question that
which does not belong to him. If he succeeds in saving himself, it has
well occupied his time and attention. See to it that you are right
yourselves; see that sins and folly do not manifest themselves with
the rising sun. I repeat that it is as much as anyone can well do to
take care of himself by performing every duty that pertains to his
temporal and eternal welfare.
Suppose that in this community there are ten beggars who beg from door
to door for something to eat, and that nine of them are impostors who
beg to escape work, and with an evil heart practice imposition upon
the generous and sympathetic, and that only one of the ten who visit
your doors is worthy of your bounty; which is best, to give food to
the ten, to make sure of helping the truly needy one, or to repulse
the ten because you do not know which is the worthy one? You will all
say, Administer charitable gifts to the ten, rather than turn away the
only truly worthy and truly needy person among them. If you do this,
it will make no difference in your blessings, whether you administer
to worthy or unworthy persons, inasmuch as you give alms with a single
eye to assist the truly needy.
Again: Suppose that you are required to do ten pieces of work, but of
the ten only one is necessary for the promotion of the kingdom of God;
which had you better do—perform the ten pieces of labor, to be sure
of doing the right piece, or neglect the whole ten because you do not
know which the right one is? Had you not better do the whole
ten pieces, that you may be sure of performing that which the Lord
does really require at your hands?
First, believe in the Lord God Almighty, in his Son Jesus Christ, and
in his Prophets that he sent in days of old; then believe in Joseph
Smith, and do the works of the Father, before you question what I
dictate to this people.
The Lord says, by one of the ancient prophets, "Wherefore the Lord
said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with
their lips do honor me, but have removed their hearts far from me,
and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men; Therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even
a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. From
the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning
shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation
only to understand the report."
The sound of the Gospel of life and salvation, to gather the house of
Israel and redeem the children of men, is a terror to all nations. The
fulfillment of this prophecy is plainly manifest, as is also that of
revelations given in our day in connection with the great latter-day
work; and yet all modern Christian communities disbelieve in new
revelation. Are they hunted and cast out? No: they are received in the
first society of the land as gentlemen. They are associates for
Presidents and governors—for the chief rulers of the nation, who
receive them with all the courtesy and generous kindness of which they
are capable. But let men come, as Peter, James, and John, with words
of eternal truth in their mouths, and they are despised and looked
upon with withering scorn, as I and others of my brethren have been,
and as Joseph Smith was, who was slain by the hands of wicked men.
Why do men hate me? Why do they hate you? Why did they hate Joseph
Smith, Jesus Christ, and his ancient Apostles? Jesus they nailed to a
cross, and Peter they crucified with his head downwards. John the
Evangelist they banished to one of the islands of the Mediterranean,
to be a slave in the lead mines, and tried to destroy him by putting
him into a cauldron of boiling oil. Had he declared that Jesus and
Moses were impostors, and that revelations from heaven were a humbug,
would they have treated him as they did? They would not, but would
have hailed him as one of their bosom friends. Hatred and persecution
have been the lot of every man that ever lived upon the earth holding
the oracles of the kingdom of heaven to deliver to the children of
men. Wicked men, Satan, and all the powers of hell hate and are at war
with every holy principle that God wishes to place in the possession
of his children. That is the true reason of the hatred and persecution
meted out to us.
If people will believe the Gospel, and live by the principles thereof,
they will be saved. They will not be faultfinders, they will not be
discontented, they will not be workers of iniquity, they will not seek
to falsify and change the truth into a lie, nor a lie into the truth;
they will not seek to make white black, and black white. The Spirit of
God has no place in persons who do such things. What have I to do with
them? I am willing to preach the Gospel to all, and to seek the
eternal good of all people. I have examined myself very closely; I
have been trying to learn myself, to govern myself, and purify my own
heart. The worst evil I can imagine or wish to come upon the
enemies of truth is, that they be obliged to live by holy principles,
and to deal by their fellow creatures as they would wish to be dealt
by. This is the worst wish I can possibly wish upon my worst enemies
who thirst for my life. There is no question but what this would be a
great punishment to them. I would not wish them to be punished any
more, nor to suffer any more. But I also could wish them to forsake
the evil influence within them, which they constantly yield to, and
partake of good and holy influences, that they may rejoice in the
truth.
I shall see the day when every son and daughter of Adam will bow the
knee, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, the Savior of the world—that to him we owe our lives, and that
we are indebted to him, and through him to the Father, for every
blessing we enjoy. They will acknowledge his right to rule and govern,
King of nations, as he does King of Saints. This they must do,
notwithstanding all their hatred. Can people receive this? Yes, every
son and daughter of Adam can; though I once in a while meet with an
individual who says that he cannot believe in religion of any kind. I
will venture to say that there are men in this Church who would tell
you so, were you to converse with them privately. They will tell you
that they cannot in the least degree comprehend angels, spirits, God,
and the kingdoms and thrones of the eternal worlds, nor anything of
that character.
What do I say to such persons? Live that moral religion you believe
in; for they believe in the same moral religion that you and I do. Let
them deal justly with their fellow men, be truthful, honest, and
charitable, full of good works to the day of their death, and I will
insure them that the kingdom of God is theirs. And when their spirits
leave their bodies, their eyes will be opened to see those heavenly
and eternal realities which they could not comprehend while in the
flesh. Now, I do not admit that good, active, bright, intelligent
hearts and brains, or, in other words, good spirits put in mortal
tabernacles are quite so ignorant as some imagine, although they may
feel that they are, and may think that they cannot conceive of
anything but what they hear with their ears, see with their eyes, &c.
This is a mistake: they can see and understand more, but they do not
know how to classify it. Let this be as it may, as I have said
already, all who will correctly live an external religion are entitled
to a degree of salvation.
Man is a mystery to himself. You see some who at once believe the
truth when they hear the Gospel of salvation declared by the servants
of God. Truth fastens upon their understandings, they yield to it at
once and openly acknowledge it, and yet they live for years and years
without receiving a love of that truth. Is not this a great mystery?
It partially is. In their outward faith and lives they believe the
Gospel of salvation as much as any person can; and, after all,
darkness will come upon them; they will forget the love and communion
they had with the Spirit of the Lord, and turn away from the holy
commandments, and tell you that they never knew that the Gospel was
true. How many are there of this class, year by year, who will say,
"We never knew the truth of 'Mormonism?'" I will relate an
incident by
way of illustration. A brother now here and working for us had a
brother in Nauvoo, in the days of Joseph, who was sent to England on a
mission. He went and preached to his brother that is now here, and
bore testimony to him that he knew Joseph Smith to be a Prophet of
God, that the New Testament is true, that the Book of Mormon is
true, that the Book of Doctrine and Covenants contains true
revelations from God, that God had sent an angel from heaven revealing
the everlasting Priesthood, and had bestowed the Holy Ghost upon his
servants, which he would give to all who believed in their words. Thus
he preached to his brother and to the people, and returned to his
house in Nauvoo. In a few years his brother came to Nauvoo, and the
brother previously there began to tell him that "Mormonism" was not
true, and that if Joseph Smith was ever a Prophet, he must have been a
fallen Prophet. His brother then asked about the Book of Mormon.
"Why," said he, "I do not think it is true, though I do not really
know." "How about the Bible?" "I do not know much about it;
but I
think you had better stop here: here are houses and lands unoccupied,
for the Mormons have gone west, and left their gardens, farms, and the
furniture in their houses, and you can make money here." "But is not
'Mormonism' true?" "I do not think it is, for the Mormons are
now
clearing out to go into the wilderness." "But," said his brother,
"That has nothing to do with it. It is no matter where they go. Is the
doctrine you preached to me in England true?" "Well, I do not hardly
think it is." Finally he said, "It is not true," "Well," said
the
young man, "I will ask you a single question: Did you tell the truth
when you came to England to preach the Gospel? Or did you lie then,
and now tell the truth? You either lied then or now, and I want you to
tell me which time you lied." He did not reply. "Now brother, I have a
few words to say to you: You came to England and preached the Gospel,
and told me not to trust in man, but to seek unto the Lord my God, in
the name of Jesus Christ, and receive a witness for myself and know
for myself that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God, that the Book of
Mormon is true, and that God has set to his hand to gather the house
of Israel and build up Zion. You said, Do not rely upon my word; for
if you believe and embrace the Gospel, you have the promise of
receiving the Holy Ghost. Now, I have to say to you that I did not
merely take your word, for I did not consider I was under any
obligation to believe and embrace what you called the Gospel, unless
the Lord revealed it to me. You were to me a fingerboard to point the
right way: I walked in it, and received a testimony that Joseph Smith
is a true Prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this work
is the work of the Almighty. You have apostatized. I am going to the
camp of the Saints, and you may go where you please." He left his
brother, and is here in good standing with us. That illustrates a
principle I wished to have you understand.
I recollect that while on my way to Ohio, to see brother Joseph the
first time, I took dinner with a Mr. Gillmore—I think a Methodist
priest. He began to tell me the character of Joseph Smith, what he had
been guilty of, how long he had been a money digger, how long a
horse jockey, and how many horses he had stolen; and his statement
made Joseph to be some seventy or eighty years of age. I said to him,
"Joseph Smith I never saw." He says that he has received revelations
from God, and declared that an angel visited him. He has declared that
he found plates, and other witnesses have seen and handled them, from
which the Book of Mormon was translated. I know nothing about these
witnesses, neither do I care. I went to my Father in heaven and asked
him with regard to the truth of the doctrines taught by Joseph Smith,
and I know they will save all that will hearken to them, and
that those who do not will miss salvation in the celestial kingdom of
God; and though Joseph Smith should steal horses every day, or gamble
every night, or deny his Savior from the crowing of the cock in the
morning until sunset in the evening, I know that the doctrine he
preaches is the power of God to my salvation, if I live it. I did not
make him a revelator; I have no business to dictate him. I never
called him in question, even in my feelings, for an act of his, except
once. I did not like his policy in a matter, and a feeling came into
my heart that would have led me to complain; but it was much shorter
lived than Jonah's gourd, for it did not last half a minute.
Much of Joseph's policy in temporal things was different from my ideas
of the way to manage them. He did the best he could, and I do the best
I can. Joseph's hands were continually tied. Who dared to trust him
with their money? Very few. He had to defend lawsuit upon lawsuit. He
passed through forty-seven lawsuits, and in the most of them I was
with him. He was obliged to employ lawyers, and devise ways and means
to shield himself from oppression. He had to struggle through poverty
and distress, being driven from pillar to post. I wondered many a time
that he could endure what he did. The Lord gave him strength in all
these afflictions.
I do not employ lawyers, unless they are my brethren; and I seldom
have occasion for employing them. Lawyers would come to Joseph,
professing to have been his friends, and palaver around him, to get a
fee. I could see through them and read their evil intentions.
The worst wish I have for such characters is that they had been
obliged to tell Joseph Smith the truth when they came to him. Then
they would have said, "Joseph, we have been laying our plans to get
you into a lawsuit, and we want you to employ us, that we may receive
a fat fee from you for defending your case." Or, "there is an election
coming off, and we take this course to turn your vote." Bennett told
the truth once when he said, "There is not much to be made in
political traffic with the 'Mormons.'" It never did any of them any
good. We are not to be bought or sold.
I will now make a few more remarks upon belief and disbelief,
understanding and not understanding. I am satisfied that persons are
sometimes not so ignorant as they think they are. Faith is an eternal
principle; belief is an admission of the fact. Faith, to us, is the
gift of God; belief is inherent in the children of men, and is the
foundation for the reception of faith. The principle of love within us
is an attribute of the Deity, and it is placed within us to be
dispensed independently according to our own will. Hatred is another
attribute inherent in our organization. These and other inherent
principles were planted in man when he was organized in the spirit,
and when the spirit took the body they were not destroyed. Belief and
unbelief are independent in man, the same as other attributes. Men can
acknowledge or reject, turn to the right or to the left, rise up or
remain seated: you can say that the Lord and his Gospel are not worthy
of your notice, or you can bow to them. When the Elders went into your
neighborhoods to preach the Gospel, you had the privilege of
believing or disbelieving. You believed it; your neighbors disbelieve
it. It is free and at your own option to dispose of at your pleasure.
Could not your neighbors have believed the truth as well as you? Yes.
Now, follow out this idea to the last days in which we live,
the time spoken of by the Prophets, and by the Savior, and his
ancient Apostles, when the unbelief and hardness of the hearts of the
children of men would cause them to be overcome by the power of Satan,
to yield themselves to be servants to that wicked one. God has borne
and foreborne with them, until he has begun to send them strong
delusions, as he long foretold that he would, that they might believe
a lie and be damned, for they have pleasure in unrighteousness, and
have no pleasure in truthfulness, nor in the salvation of the Lord
Jesus. They have pleasure in rioting, fighting, warring, killing,
contentions, and every crime that can be enumerated. What will become
of their belief? Will it not perish? Yes. When you believe the
principles of the Gospel and attain unto faith, which is a gift of
God, he adds more faith, adding faith to faith. He bestows faith upon
his creatures as a gift; but his creatures inherently possess the
privilege of believing the Gospel to be true or false. Is the belief
they possess, to believe a lie expressly that they may be damned,
faith? No. You may say it is a portion of faith. It is immaterial to
me what you call it. It is the belief, the ability, the power that God
has organized in the organization of man, and which he can do with as
he pleases. If he uses it to believe a lie that he may be damned, both
himself and his belief will perish and fall, to rise no more, while
God will bestow faith on those who believe the truth.
Forsake the Spirit of the Lord—the Holy Ghost—the influence that comes
from above, and partake of an earthly, dark, unbelieving influence or
spirit, and your faith is gone; you have no faith. Is there a person
who can possess faith without belief? No. Can men possess belief
without faith? Yes, every son and daughter of Adam. Belief is an
inherent principle in the organism of man to lay the foundation for
faith.
I will sum it up again: Faith is an eternal principle—one of the
attributes of the Deity by which the worlds are and were created.
Belief is the admission of either truth or falsehood.
It has been stated that I teach the doctrine that the Gods continue to
increase in all their attributes to all eternity. Have you ever heard
me teach such a doctrine? I have taught doctrine; but have I called
in question any of the Gods? It has been stated that God our Father
comprehends eternity, from eternity to eternity, all there is, all
there was, all there ever can be about eternity, in and through it.
When a person undertakes to establish such a doctrine, what does he
do? He gives bounds to that eternity which he at the same time admits
to be boundless. Admit such doctrine, and eternity flees away like the
shadow of morning; and that is as much as I ever teach about it. Do I
say that heavenly beings improve? I am not yet there; I do not know.
Understand eternity? There is not and never was a man in finite flesh
who understands it. Enoch has been referred to in this matter. How
many of the Gods and kingdoms he saw when the vision of his mind was
opened, matters not. If he had seen more than he could have enumerated
throughout his long life, and more than all the men on earth could
multiply from the time his vision opened until now, he would not have
attained to the comprehension of eternity. How much Enoch saw, how
many worlds he saw, has nothing to do with the case. This is a matter
that wise men know nothing about. I do not know, though I know as much
about it as any man in this house or in this generation. I can
comprehend, by the words of eternal life, that there is an
eternity before me. Has it bounds? Whether it has or not, neither we
nor any other finite beings can comprehend it.
I will leave this subject, because I am not capable of understanding
it. You leave it, and do not contend about things that are beyond our
reach—that are too great for you to know at present. And when you go
into the spirit world you will not understand it; and when you have
lived in the spirit world until you again receive your bodies, you
still cannot understand it; but you can continue to learn more and
more about it, in the same manner as we learn here. I can teach many
things about the future existence of man; but it is more directly our
business to pay attention to those duties that more immediately
concern us while we are here.
Brother Spencer says that we can tell a little about God the Father by
his handiwork. It is very little. What does the world know? A wicked
man may pray from this time to all eternity, and he will not be able
to discern the print of his footsteps. It takes a spiritually-minded
wise man to discern the hand of God in all things, and to be ready to
acknowledge it, to discern that he rules among the armies of heaven,
and that he is dictating, ruling, managing, and turning the hearts of
the people on the earth to the right and to the left. He grants this
and takes away that at his pleasure, but the people do not know it;
they cannot discern it. One may here say, "What am I to do? If God
dictates and guides the hearts of the people, they cease then to be
responsible?" He gives to all men their agency to act, reserving to
himself the right to control the results of their acts. The Lord does
not dictate to do wrong; but when men are disposed to do wrong, he
brings out the results in accordance with his own pleasure. You may
plant and water, but can you make a kernel of grain or a spear of
grass? This is not in the power of man to do; but God in his
providences produces this. Let the Lord send an angel through this
valley to cause certain properties in the air and water to depart, and
your grain crops fall, or your fruit is cut off. He says to you, "Go
and do a piece of work." You do it, and by means of this he causes
your enemies to stumble. Say that you are tilling the soil, and the
Lord says to an angel, Do thus and so. What do you receive for your
labor? Perhaps fifty, sixty, or a hundred bushels of wheat to an
acre, when another year, perhaps, in the same place and with like
labor, you do not receive more than five, ten, or fifteen bushels. Do
you know the cause of this? No. No man can know, unless he enjoys the
revelations of the Almighty. I make these remarks that you may
understand that our Father controls the results of our acts at his own
pleasure, and we cannot prevent it. Man can produce and control his
own acts, but he has no control over their results. God causes even
the wrath of man to praise him, to resound to his glory and the
salvation of his children.
Israel were slaves in Egypt four hundred years; they were treated
harshly and cruelly, and their children were slain. Then the Lord took
them out from Egypt to wander in the wilderness forty years,
traveling about as far as from here to Nauvoo—a distance that we can
travel and back again in a season. This was to produce a result. They
could not understand why they wandered thus in the wilderness; but God
knew. They could not understand why he said to Jacob that they should
wander in a strange land four hundred years; but the result was for
the salvation of the children of men. God had promised to save that
seed; but their wicked ness would not let him save them without
giving them the punishment they received. God took them into the
spirit world and raised up their children to do a better work. If the
Lord has promised to save a son of a man or woman that is full of
faith—has promised that he shall come into his kingdom, though that
son be froward and disposed to be wicked, yet he will receive his
punishment in the flesh. Now, on the other hand, do not become
Universalists and say that every man and woman receives punishment
only in this world, for that is not true.
There are a number of other things that I might speak about; but I
have spoken long enough.
God bless you! Amen.