It is a great privilege to enjoy the society of the Saints. We are in
possession of great blessings and privileges, if we can but realize
it. No person can realize the blessings, or understand the providences
of God, unless he has the light of the Spirit of God. Without that
Spirit, a person is dissatisfied, though he be constantly privileged
with the society of the Saints, and all his transactions and
associations are with them. With that Spirit, a person placed in the
society of the wicked, unless duty requires it, is sorrowful, uneasy,
and unhappy: he is not filled with the joy and peace he delights in.
He desires to see the face of a Saint, to hear the voice of a Saint,
and to be associated with those who love God.
How many are there here who do not like to pass by a camp of
emigrants, but much prefer, if they could do so with impunity in
regard to the feelings of their brethren, to go into the camp, sit
down and chat, apparently with a filial feeling towards those who
regard not the things of God—who treat lightly everything that is
sacred? The name and character of the Being we worship they hold in
derision; and yet how many of this community delight in such society?
They do not realize the blessings conferred upon them. How many desire
to mingle with the ungodly?
It may be asked, and with pro priety, "Is it not reasonable, right, and
our duty to associate with the wicked?" Yes, when duty requires it. I
presume that Jesus had no hesitancy in his feelings or in his faith,
when the time came, to fill his mission to the dark and benighted
spirits in prison. But do you think that he visited those spirits
because he delighted in their society? Every person will at once
answer, "No." He did not visit those spirits, nor have a desire to
preach to them, until his body lay in the grave. That was the
appointed time, and he refused not, but said, "Not my will, but thine,
O God, be done: now is the time for me to preach to the spirits in
prison."
But you can see persons who call themselves Latter-day Saints
composedly listening, and that, too, with apparent delight, to those
who are blaspheming the name of God. How do you feel about such
conduct? Take this community, as they are, and place them in heaven,
and do you think they would be satisfied to stay there? They would be
in complete misery; and yet we are called Saints. It is easy to see
that this people are not yet prepared to enter into the fulness of the
glory, power, exaltation, and excellency of the knowledge, wisdom,
light, and intelligence of heavenly things that they expect to enjoy
when Jesus will be revealed from heaven. A father says, "I
cannot part with my son," when the son is a miserable, drunken,
swearing thief; and a son, who has a beastly, low, and debauched
father, says, "I must have my father with me." Do you not see, at a
glance, that if the Savior was now here, those persons would prefer
to walk hand in hand, and then must join hands with some others of
like character, and they must join with a crowd worse still, and they
with another still worse, until they muster in the hosts of hell, and
march with them; they will not part from each other. Do you not, then,
see the situation of many in this community?
Who among you realizes the blessings we are privileged with? Glory,
immortality, eternal wisdom, and eternal existence are on one hand;
darkness, night, death, pain, damnation, and hell are on the other;
and some would like to join those opposing principles, and are
striving to do so.
The Elders exhort you to refrain from every evil, to be careful,
prudent, faithful, and wise, and to learn how to sustain your mortal
career—how to preserve your bodies. Will you give heed? Not all of
you. The Elders of Israel may preach themselves to death, and still
fools will sell their last kernel of grain for whiskey, or for a song,
and, so far as they are concerned, let their families die of want. I
greatly desire to see you all so live that you can understand the
blessings God bestows on us, the organization of the spirit and the
body, and the germ of eternal intelligence that is planted within us
to increase. I would like to have all understand that the Lord has
sent forth the plan of salvation expressly to enable mankind to
overcome the sin sown in the flesh, and exalt themselves with the
faithful who have gone before to dwell with angels and Gods.
We cannot alter our position, only as we live for such change as we
desire, and prevail upon our friends to follow our example. Here are
thousands of the brethren who are anxious to preach the Gospel to the
world, declare what they understand pertaining to eternal life, and
gather their scores and thousands, with what result? The saving of a
portion of the whole number, while the rest will be prepared for
eternal destruction. Is it not grievous? How many there are who have
been taken like infants, as it were, from foreign countries and from
the States, and been helped, fed, clothed, and nourished, and yet have
turned round and become our greatest enemies! Is not such folly
sickening to the soul, and an abhorrence to every feeling? Mankind
have the privilege of eternal life—the privilege to prepare themselves
to dwell in the presence of the Father and Son—to dwell in eternal
burnings, where all is pure and holy. No sin—no corruption can dwell
there. Sin came through the fall, and death by sin; and they are
warring against our spirits now in tabernacles, which warfare
continues from childhood to death; and who will overcome?
A propensity to evil seems to be sown more strongly in the natures of
some than it is in others. One seems to love strong drink better than
he loves his life; it is sweeter to him than is the cooling stream,
and he is overcome through the weakness of the flesh. Who has the
greatest reason to be thankful to his God—the man that has no strong
passion or evil appetite to overcome, or the one that tries day by day
to overcome, and yet is overtaken in fault? The power of his strength,
faith, and judgment is overcome, and he is found in fault through his
evil propensities, though he is striving, day after day, and night
after night, to overcome. Who has reason to be the most thankful? The
being that has comparatively no strong passion to overcome
ought constantly to walk in the vale of humility, rather than boast of
his righteousness over his brother. We are under obligation, through
the filial feeling and ties of humanity, to more or less fellowship
those who do evil. We must endure this until the Lord shall see fit to
separate the wheat from the chaff—until the righteous are gathered
out, and the wicked are bound in bundles prepared for the
burning—until the sheep are separated from the goats. Those who have
not strong passions to contend with, day by day, and year by year,
should walk in the vale of humiliation; and if brethren and sisters
are overtaken in fault, your hearts should be filled with
kindness—with brotherly, angelic feeling—to overlook their faults as
far as possible.
Where persons wish to go to the States, to California, or elsewhere,
to gather riches and return, they still have a desire to drink of the
bitter cup and mingle with the ungodly that will give them sorrow. If
understood, to associate with the Saints is one of the greatest
blessings we can enjoy upon the earth. I should be much pleased, and
so would you, were we to never again hear the name of God taken in
vain. And I have thought, for years and years, that if the Lord had
plenty of labor for me to do in the midst of the Saints, I would be
well satisfied to never again place my eyes upon a human being who
hates God and righteousness. Why not live perfectly satisfied to look
only upon the Saints—upon our brethren and sisters—the old, the young,
the middle-aged, and the children, whose faces smile and glow with
that heavenly expression through which the Spirit of the Lord is
beaming? I would be well satisfied not to be required to ever again
see the face of a devil. Why not so live in time, and through eternity?
A certain class would refrain from mingling with the wicked, while
others delight to mingle with them: they long to know what is in the
world, and present plausible arguments for their desire. Our children
plausibly state, "We know nothing of the world; we know nobody but
'Mormons.'" It is sufficient to mingle with the wicked when duty
requires.
The providences of God are over all the works of his hands, and it is
our privilege to so live that we can understand those providences, and
understand his design in the creation of all things. His watchcare is
over all his work, and he turns, overturns, and changes at his
pleasure. It is our privilege to understand this; and if we do, and
practice in accordance therewith, we are the best people upon the face
of the earth. We enjoy privileges that no other people on earth enjoy;
and the greatest of all is to enjoy communion with our Father and his
Son Jesus Christ. There is no blessing equal to that, whether it is
enjoyed in palaces or in prisons, in wandering in the mountains, or
passing our time pleasurably in great cities. Whoever the Lord
Almighty enlightens and fills with the joy of the upper world is
happy: the Spirit, the joy, the peace, and the comfort are within
them.
We are to learn how to enjoy the things of life—how to pass our mortal
existence here. There is no enjoyment, no comfort, no pleasure,
nothing that the human heart can imagine, with all the spirit of
revelation we can get, that tends to beautify, happify, make
comfortable and peaceful, and exalt the feelings of mortals, but what
the Lord has in store for his people. He never objected to their
taking comfort. He never revealed any doctrine, that I have any
knowledge of, but what in its nature is calculated to fill with peace
and glory, and lift every sentiment and impulse of the heart
above every low, sad, deathly, false, and groveling feeling. The Lord
wishes us to live that we may enjoy the fulness of the glory that
pertains to the upper world, and bid farewell to all that gloomy,
dark, deathly feeling that is spread over the inhabitants of the
earth.
My brother Joseph, before "Mormonism" came to us, was a man of a sad
heart, seeking to find in the Bible the principles of eternal life. He
once said to me, "Brother Brigham, there are no Bible Christians upon
the face of the earth, and I do not see any possible escape for the
human family. According to the writings of the Old and New Testaments,
all must go to perdition." I do not suppose that he had a smile on his
countenance for years. I said to him, "You and I believe in God and in
the Bible. We suppose the Bible to be true, or at least the most of
it. I admit it to be true, and admit that there is a God. We have
always been taught so, and that we have a just God, if we have any. I
believe in a just, holy, equitable Being; and if the Gospel is not on
the earth, my feelings are to do about the best I can; and when I am
through, I shall be in the hands of the same God in whose hands I have
been all the time, and I will risk it. I did not produce myself—I did
not cause my existence. A being superior to me has done this; and if I
do as well as I know how, I will then risk all in his hands, and be
perfectly contented and satisfied. I shall go with a cheerful
countenance, and shall pass through the world as cheerfully as I can,
making the best of it." But there was more or less of a gloom over my
feelings from the earliest days of my childhood that I have in any
recollection, until I heard the everlasting Gospel declared by the
servants of God—until I heard men testify, by the power of the Holy
Ghost, that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a true
Prophet of the Lord, who had revealed the holy Priesthood from heaven,
had established his Church, was going to gather Israel, and was coming
to judgment. Under that preaching the gloom vanished, and has not
since troubled me for a moment.
The dark shade of the valley of death is over the nations of the
earth; the veil of the covering is over them; they are hid from the
presence of the Lord. They do not behold his glory—they do not
understand his providences; the fear of death is over them, and it is
a dark shadow. That was over me, and I made the best of it. But
"Mormonism" has opened up light. Removing the curtain from the broad
sunshine, it has lighted up the souls of hundreds of thousands, and
they have been made to rejoice in the light of truth. Continue to be
faithful to your calling. It is your privilege and duty to so live as
to be able to understand the things of God. There are the Old and New
Testaments, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants, which Joseph has given us, and they are of great worth to a
person wandering in darkness. They are like a lighthouse in the ocean,
or a fingerpost which points out the road we should travel. Where do
they point? To the fountain of light. Joseph has gone to the
spirit world: he is on his way to his glory and exaltation, and all
his sayings, from first to last, lead us to the fountain of light,
where we can understand for ourselves and walk in the light. That is
what these books are for. They are of God; they are valuable and
necessary: by them we can establish the doctrine of Christ. I never
asked for any book when I was preaching to the world, but the Old and
New Testaments to establish everything I preached, and to
prove all that was then necessary—that it was the duty of the people
to throw off their sins, cast evil from them, return to the Lord their
God, embrace the fulness of the Gospel, be baptized for the remission
of sins, receive the Holy Ghost, and then go forward in all the
commandments and requirements of heaven, walking in the light of
eternal truth.
Our duty is to make the best of our present position. We have the
Gospel of life and salvation, to make bad men good and good men
better. We are to preach, exhort, expound, continue in our duty, be
fervent in spirit, bearing and forbearing with our brethren, being
filled with love and kindness; and we will yet, perhaps, get some of
our froward connections into heaven. Jesus said, when the woman caught
in adultery was brought to him, "He that is without sin among you, let
him first cast a stone at her." We are all sinners, and it is our duty
to cast sin from us when we learn what it is. If we are a little good,
become a little better; if we have a little light, get a little more;
if we have a little faith, add to it; and by-and-by we shall be
prepared to build up and beautify Zion, and to be exalted to reign in
immortality and be crowned with the Gods.
God bless you! Amen.