What to say in a short time, when so many ideas present themselves, is
somewhat difficult to decide.
The Gospel of salvation, which is an astonishment and a
stumblingblock to the world, is true. The journeyings of the
Latter-day Saints and their communications one with another and with
the world are astonishing to the people. They wonder what causes us to
gather into these valleys in the mountains, what causes us to become
one, to hearken to the voice of one man, to be controlled, dictated,
and governed by one individual. This is marvelous in the eyes of the
world; but is it marvelous in your eyes, brethren? Were there no other
proof than the oneness exhibited in the midst of this people, that
alone is enough to condemn the world. That oneness cannot be found
anywhere else; it is produced only in the hearts of the Latter-day
Saints, and is not manifested in any other community. No other people
will pick up such portions of their substance as they can, and travel
thousands and thousands of miles—fathers and mothers leaving their
children, husbands leaving their wives, wives leaving their husbands,
children leaving their parents, brothers and sisters leaving each
other—after this "strange delusion," as it is called, and, when they
are gathered, hearken to one man.
This circumstance creates the deepest regret in the hearts of our
enemies, more, seemingly, than all other acts of the Latter-day
Saints.
When I was in England did I, apart from the Priesthood, exercise an
influence over any of your minds to cause you to come here and locate
in Cache Valley? Was I the instrument that caused you to forsake your
friends in your native country, and gather with the Latter-day Saints?
Your enemies will tell you that it was the influence that I held over
you which prompted your movements; but that is not true. I have no
more influence over the Latter-day Saints, aside from the Priesthood,
than you have over each other. If the Spirit of truth does not speak
through me and dictate my words, they are no better than the words of
another man. If the Holy Ghost manifests to you, one thousand or ten
thousand miles from here, that this is the time the Lord has fixed for
building up his Zion—that this is the time spoken of by the Prophets
in which the Saints are commanded to gather out from the wicked, then
it is the Spirit of the Most High that has influenced and controlled
you, and not me nor any other man.
Are you satisfied with your location? Are you satisfied with
yourselves? Are you satisfied with the brethren? Are you satisfied
when your minds revert to your native lands, your former friends, and
the old homesteads where you spent your childhood? Are you satisfied
to make these sterile plains your adopted home, to live here
in the mountains, forming new associations with those who are entire
strangers to you—those, perhaps, of other countries and other tongues?
Are you satisfied with all this? If you are, it is evidence to you, so
far as it goes, that you are accepted of the Lord. It is evidence to
you that you have chosen the good part. It should be satisfactory
evidence that you are in the path of life, if you love God and your
brethren with all your hearts. You may see, or think you see, a
thousand faults in your brethren; yet they are organized as you are;
they are flesh of your flesh, bone of your bone; they are of your
Father who is in heaven: we are all his children, and should be
satisfied with each other as far as possible. The main difficulty in
the hearts of those who are dissatisfied is, they are not satisfied
with themselves.
How many have moved here this spring, I know not. Some have gone to
Carson Valley, and a great many have come here. And, as I told the
brethren last night, a part did not seem to care much, if at all,
which way they went, and had written on their wagons, "To Carson or
Cache Valley, we don't care a d—n which." Are such satisfied with
themselves? No, nor with anything nor anybody around them.
I will say to you, my brethren, those of you who are from the Eastern
States, and from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, or any other
part of the north of Europe, that you have a far better country here
than you had in your native land. You have a beautiful valley, though
some of you, perhaps, are discouraged. Perhaps some will not live here
because they have to irrigate the ground, or because they have to go
into the mountains after wood. There are many throughout the valleys
who were raised where it was much more difficult to get wood in winter
than it is here. I have known farmers obliged to cut down their
orchards for fuel, because they could not haul wood a mile, on account
of deep snow. The house in which I was born was so covered with snow,
one winter, before I was two years old, that there was no way to get
out only by cutting steps and beating a path to the surface. Almost
every year the snow would cover the ground from four to six feet deep;
and often, when a crust formed on the snow, stone walls and high
fences were no impediment to sleighing in any direction.
Some may feel a little discouraged because their cattle will not live
here without being fed more or less during winters. How many are there
in the mountains of Europe that would be thankful for a privilege to
go out to the sides of these mountains and make little gardens by
packing soil from the bottoms? Thousands in the old country obtain
their living in that way. My brethren and sisters from Italy, for
instance, are my witnesses that many in that country would be glad to
get a few square rods of rock on which to pack soil from the low lands
and make gardens, and to gather feed from the bottoms to keep a cow
through the winter.
Though many have moved here this spring with but limited supplies of
provision, how many do you think I could count in this congregation
who go hungry day by day? Do you think there is even one person who
has not as much as he can eat, at least as often as once a day? These
are temporal things, but over which the Devil causes many to stumble.
Go to your native lands in foreign countries, many of you, and ask men
there who are thirty years old, and probably women too, "How often in
your lives have you had all you wanted to eat?" "Never." You may find thousands who could tell you that they never saw a day in
which they had all they wanted to eat. Are there such times in Cache
Valley? No. Is there anything connected with this locality that should
discourage you? No. Reflect, and ask yourselves whether you have the
least cause for complaint in the exchange of your countries.
You may inquire why this land has been so long held in reserve—the
design in this country's not being settled by white people until
recently. Until the Latter-day Saints came here, not a person among
all the mountaineers and those who had traveled here, so far as we
could learn, believed that an ear of corn would ripen in these
valleys. We know that corn and wheat produce abundantly here, and we
know that we have an excellent region wherein to raise cattle, horses,
and every other kind of domestic animal that we need. We also knew
this when we came here thirteen years ago this summer. Bridger said to
me, "Mr. Young, I would give a thousand dollars, if I knew that an ear
of corn could be ripened in these mountains. I have been here twenty
years, and have tried it in vain, over and over again." I told him if
he would wait a year or two we would show him what could be done. A
man named Wells, living with Miles Goodyear, where now is Ogden city,
had a few beans growing, and carried water from the river in a pail to
irrigate them.
Reflect upon these matters, read the writings of the Prophets, search
the world over, and can you learn of any location to which the words
of the Prophets can so justly apply, where the people of the Lord were
to be hid up, in the latter days, in the chambers of the mountains?
You cannot. No man here has any good reason to be discouraged—no good
reason to complain. And those who will so live that they are satisfied
with themselves will be satisfied with the country and with the
brethren. This is a splendid valley, and is better adapted to raising
Saints than any other article that can be raised here. Compare the
tombstones with the number of those living in any other city,
district, place, or country, for the same length of time, and you will
find here less graves of persons from one day to ten, fifteen, or
twenty years old, than in any other country you were ever acquainted
with. It is the best country in the world for raising Saints.
Many may inquire, "How long shall we stay here?" We shall stay here
just as long as we ought to. "Shall we be driven, when we go?" If we
will so live as to be satisfied with ourselves, and will not drive
ourselves from our homes, we shall never be driven from them. Seek for
the best wisdom you can obtain, learn how to apply your labor, build
good houses, make fine farms, set out apple, pear, and other fruit
trees that will flourish here, also the mountain currant and raspberry
bushes, plant strawberry beds, and build up and adorn a beautiful
city. The question now rises—"Do you think it best for us to live in
cities?" Lay out your cities, but not so large that you cannot readily
raise the whole city, should an enemy come upon you.
Your houses are now scattered, and you have not closed up your fort.
When new settlements are made where they are exposed to the Indians,
settle so that they cannot get the advantage of you. This has always
been my counsel. The settlements in this valley have been exposed to
Indian depredations; but now there are so many here that, if they
build in a prudent form, they are able to defend themselves. First
secure your lives, and then your property, against Indian
depredations. We do not wish to hear of any of you being
killed. When the Indians become cross, and you see in them a wish to
stir up difficulty, the brethren should immediately be on their guard;
and in going into the canyons, be careful that enough go to be able to
defend themselves, and have each one take his firearms with him.
There is peace now, and probably will be for some time; though we do
not know but that next week the marauding Indians about you may kill a
few men in the canyons. Take care of yourselves, and build up a safe
and beautiful city. Make good houses; learn how to build; become good
mechanics and businessmen, that you may know how to build a house, a
barn, or a storehouse, how to make a farm, and how to raise stock,
and take every care of it by providing proper shelter and every
suitable convenience for keeping it through the winter; and prove
yourselves worthy of the greater riches that will be committed to you
than this valley and what it can produce. Those who are slothful of
the things committed unto them in a temporal point of view—the
blessings pertaining to the world—how can they expect eternal riches
to be committed to their charge? On the other hand, the neighborhood
or community that adorns its city, farms, gardens, and supremely loves
and sets its affections upon these things, had better never have seen
or had anything to enjoy.
Learn to improve the earth, and to sustain and preserve yourselves
upon your inheritances, and then pray and exercise faith that the Lord
will make our feet fast here—that they shall never be removed until we
have the privilege of going to build up the Center Stake of Zion. Let
your faith bear a holy life. Enjoy the Spirit of the Lord, and you
have satisfactory enjoyment and solid consolation, and are ready to go
here or there, to do this or that, as the Lord shall require at your
hands. His Spirit is what has called you here. Live and enjoy it;
continue to enjoy it and its increase, and your hearts will be
comforted, and you will grow in grace and enjoy the truth.
We have come to pay you a visit, for we wanted again to see Cache
Valley and other places. We wished to see you, and to have you look at
us. Do you think we are "Mormons?" "Yes." Some of you saw
me and
others of the brethren in England. What do think of us today? Do we
talk to you as we did in other countries? "Is 'Mormonism' as good to
me as it was then?" Yes; and every year I am in it it is better,
because I learn and understand more of the dealings of the Lord with
his children on the earth—more of the design in the organization of
the earth, in its being peopled, and what the Lord intends concerning
its future. All these things are before us.
I will not detain you, for I purpose speaking but a short time, to
tell you that I feel as well as I ever have. My spirit is full of joy
and comfort, and I feel to bless you all the time, and to pray for you
continually, and day by day to bear you in my faith before my Father
in heaven. I long to see a people pure and holy, and to be so
myself—to see the day when sin and vile corruption will cease on the
earth—when man will cease to hunt his fellow man—when every man shall
try to assist his fellow, and add joy and comfort to his friends,
neighbors, and all around him. This is what I live for and intend to
live for, the Lord being my helper, and to pray and persevere.
Shall we, like the Presbyterians, Methodists, and others, simply
prepare to die, and then depart? No: I in tend to persevere in
fighting the Devil until he is driven from the face of the earth, and
it is turned into a paradise, and so prepared that angels and Jesus
will come and dwell here. May the Lord bless you. Amen.