When I came into this Church, I started right out as a missionary, and
took a text, and began to travel on a circuit. Truth is my text, the
Gospel of salvation my subject, and the world my circuit. I presume I
shall not soon go all over it, but I am still preaching and traveling
occasionally. I expect to be here about every other Sabbath, as I have
been for a few weeks or months past, except when I was in the south.
While I am here with you, I want to talk to the Saints. I like to look
at them; I like to instruct them, and to be instructed. We pray
continually for the redemption of Zion, for the Lord to hasten the
time when we can return and establish the Center Stake of Zion, and
build up the great temple of the Lord upon which his glory will rest
as a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. We pray that we may
be sanctified, that we may be made pure in heart; and we pray that the
Lord will teach us his will continually, and reveal unto us precisely
his mind, so that we may have the mind of Christ, and know precisely
what to do.
When will Zion be redeemed? When will the Savior make his appearance
in the midst of his people? When will the veil be taken away, that we
may behold the glory of God? Can any of you answer these questions?
Yes, readily, when I tell you. The redemption of Zion is the first
step preparatory to the two last-named events. Just as soon as the
Latter-day Saints are ready and prepared to return to Independence,
Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, North America, just so soon
will the voice of the Lord be heard, "Arise now, Israel, and make your
way to the Center Stake of Zion." Do you think there is any danger of
our being ready before the Lord prepares the other end of the route?
Do you believe that we, as Latter-day Saints, are preparing our own
hearts, our own lives, to return to take possession of the Center
Stake of Zion, as fast as the Lord is preparing to cleanse the land
from those ungodly persons who dwell there? You can read, reflect, and
make your own calculations. If we are not very careful, the earth will
be cleansed from wickedness before we are prepared to take possession
of it. We must be pure to be prepared to build up Zion. To all
appearance, the Lord is preparing that end of the route faster than we
are preparing ourselves to go there.
His grace is here, his judgments are here, his wisdom and Spirit are
here, and every qualification that Saints can require is here ready to
be poured out upon the people, if they are prepared to receive them.
Are we prepared to receive those qualifications? Are we prepared to
march back and take possession of the Center Stake of Zion, build up
the great Temple of the Lord, and gather in the nations of the earth?
There are hundreds and thousands coming here this season. We are
gathering the people as fast as we can. We are gathering them
to make Saints of them and of ourselves. Probably many of them will
apostatize, though some will not apostatize until you give them their
endowments; and then, if you do not speak out of the right corner of
your mouth, they will apostatize; and if you do not laugh out of the
right corner of your mouth, they will go. We are gathering a few that
will be faithful in the midst of this people, and prepare themselves
to be crowned kings and priests unto God. By-and-by you will see the
Saints flock together. Will they come merely by one or two shiploads?
No; it will require many more ships than we have heretofore employed
to bring home the gathering thousands to Zion. Millions of people that
now sit in darkness—that are now, to all appearance, in the region and
shadow of death, will come to Zion.
When Joseph first revealed the land where the Saints should gather, a
woman in Canada asked if we thought that Jackson County would be large
enough to gather all the people that would want to go to Zion. I will
answer the question really as it is. Zion will extend, eventually, all
over this earth. There will be no nook or corner upon the earth but
what will be in Zion. It will all be Zion. I remember that the lady
was answered by asking her whether she thought the ark was large
enough to hold those that were to go into it in the days of Noah?
"Yes," was the reply. Then of course Zion will be just large enough to
receive all that will be prepared to possess it, as the ark was.
We are going to gather as many as we can, bless them, give them their
endowments, etc., preach to them the truth, lay the principles of
eternal life before them, inform their minds all we have power to do,
and lead them into the path of truth and righteousness; and those who
will not abide the truth will apostatize. A few will remain, and a
good share of them will cleave to the promises of the Lord, will be
true in every respect, and will be accounted worthy to enter in at the
strait gate. Strait is the gate and narrow is the path that leadeth to
life, and few there be that find it. Millions will come and live in
Zion when the laws of Zion reign predominant over creation; but will
all be prepared to be crowned kings and priests unto God? No. You
cannot imagine anything that will not be in Zion, except sin and
iniquity, and reviling against God and against his kingdom. All
classes of people will come to Zion. Will there be Methodists there?
Yes; and they will have the privilege to worship a God without body,
parts, and passions, just as they do now, if they choose to. Every
person and every community will receive according to the extent of
their capacity and ability. Every person then will be blessed, will be
filled with joy, will be filled with peace, with light, and
intelligence according to the endowments with which they are endowed.
Will all become kings and priests? No; not even all that will embrace
the fulness of the Gospel.
There are only a few shiploads of Saints coming this season. They will
come thicker and faster, by-and-by, and will begin to inquire after
the wisdom that is in Zion. The Lord is coming out of his
hiding place, and is beginning to scourge this nation with a sore
scourging, and vex it with a sore vexation. He is coming forth, and
the sound of the report of what is coming on the earth and the power
of God that is made manifest will vex the wicked and the ungodly, and
will bring great joy and rejoicing to the Saints. There are millions
of people, both among the Christian and heathen nations, that are still in darkness, and exclaiming, "Oh, how glad we would be to
have some knowledge of the Gospel of salvation!" By-and-by, when the
Lord sends forth his servants and his angels to gather them, they will
be brought home to Zion and be taught the peaceable things of the
kingdom; and those that abide a celestial law will receive a celestial
glory, and those that can abide the next law in order can abide the
glory pertaining to it, and so on. Were I to enumerate thousands of
different degrees of glory and kingdoms, I probably should
overenumerate the kingdoms God has prepared and will prepare for the
people according to their capacities, endowments, and what they can
receive and arrive to.
We ought to be careful and not lay down our Priesthood. The brethren
and sisters ought to hold fast to their covenants, and walk in that
way, in that path, which is pointed out by the Gospel. Shall we love
the world? In one sense, we should. Should we love it with a divine
love? Not yet. Should we love the world and the things of the world
according to the nature of the world? We should. We are commanded in
this Bible not to love the world and the things of the world; and then
you read a little further in the same book, and you are commanded to
love the world and the things of the world. How shall we understand
these things? With the divinity that is within us we should love
divine things. Our spirits are born of our Parents in heaven, divine,
heavenly, angelic. Shall these spirits condescend to love an earthly
object, to worship it? If they do, they become inferior to their
calling and station before God. The body is framed for the tabernacle
or house in which the spirit has to dwell. This tabernacle is formed
expressly to hold its spirit and shield it. Should we love this
tabernacle? Yes, enough to nourish it, cherish it, and treat it
kindly, and foster and nourish and cherish it by the power of the
spirit, and make this body divine. The spirit must overcome the body
in the flesh, and the flesh become subject to the spirit in all
things; then we will love the world as it ought to be loved—not with
a divine love, but with a human love, a moral love, loving all things
according to their worth and capacity.
We love our wives and children—we love that which is calculated to
make us happy and comfortable; but the divine spirit is to overcome
the body and continue so to do, looking forth until the body also
becomes divine; and then, when all has become divine, we may love all
with a divine affection, but not till then. After the body and spirit
are separated by death, what, pertaining to this earth, shall we
receive first? The body; that is the first object of a divine
affection beyond the grave. We first come in possession of the body.
The spirit has overcome the body, and the body is made subject in
every respect to that divine principle God has planted in the person.
The spirit within is pure and holy, and goes back pure and holy to
God, dwells in the spirit world pure and holy, and, by-and-by, will
have the privilege of coming and taking the body again. Some person
holding the keys of the resurrection, having previously passed through
that ordeal, will be delegated to resurrect our bodies, and our
spirits will be there and prepared to enter into their bodies. Then,
when we are prepared to receive our bodies, they are the first earthly
objects that bear divinity personified in the capacity of the man.
Only the body dies; the spirit is looking forth, as you read in the
Bible concerning the souls or spirits of those who lay under the
altar, as John saw on the Isle of Patmos, and they were crying
to God to know how long it would be before they would again have their
bodies. Were we turned out-of-doors, and not permitted to go into a
house for six months or a year, we would look forward to the time when
we could build a house, and reflect, "I wish I had a good house
wherein I could be free from the inclemency of the weather, as I once
had."
When the body comes forth again, it will be divine, Godlike,
according to the capacity and ordinations of the Lord. Some are
foreordained to one station, and some to another. We want a house, and
when we get it and our spirits enter into it, then we can begin to
look forth, for what? For our friends. We want them resurrected. Here
is this friend and that friend, until by-and-by all are resurrected.
And the earth is resurrected? Yes, and every living thing on the earth
that has abided the law by which it was made. Then that which you and
I respect, are fond of, and love with an earthly love, will become
divine, and we can then love it with that affection which it is not
now worthy of.
Here is matter we see organized in ourselves. We look upon each other,
and we are matter organized. Look upon the brute creation, the
vegetable creation, and both are matter organized. Who knows how much
of this is going to abide the law of its creation and the law by which
it is made? Man is the only object you can find upon the face of the
earth that will not abide the law by which he is made. When he abides
this law, he is prepared for a glorious resurrection. Are my wives and
friends going to be prepared to receive this resurrection? Are my
children going to be prepared to receive this resurrection? They all
have the power of choice, the same as I have; the same power of
divinity is in them that is in me and you. I cannot love them with
that sacred, divine love, until they become immortal and prove
themselves worthy of such a supreme affection. I do not suffer myself
to love a wife or a child with that divinity that is within me, until
they, with myself, are immortalized and glorified, and they are given
to me as my own in that future state. I am fond of them; I will
nourish, cherish, and guide them, and do all I can for them, so that
they can prove themselves worthy to receive their bodies in a glorious
resurrected state, and be prepared to enter into the joy of their
Lord with me: then they are worthy of my supreme love, and not before.
When I tell the truth, that is enough, and I care not whether those
who hear it believe it or not, for that is their business. If you had
lived in the days of Jesus, Peter, John, etc., and had seen men
called to be Apostles of the Lord Jesus, every time they taught the
people, every time they preached, every time they prayed, and every
time they administered in the house of God, if they did not do it by
the Spirit of revelation and by the power of God, they did not magnify
their calling. There are not many who know this. If we do not speak to
you by the Spirit of revelation and the power of God, we do not
magnify our calling. I think that I tell you the words of the Lord
Almighty every time I rise here to speak to you. I may blunder in the
use of the English language; but suppose I should use language that
would grate on the ears of some of the learned, what of that? God can
understand it, and so could you, if you had the Spirit of the Lord.
I had brother Kimball ask me if his mode of communication pleased me.
Yes; for I know what he means. I read his spirit when he preaches; and if he preaches by the power of God, I can understand it,
if he speaks it back end forward, as well as if he spoke it
straightforward and in picked and choice language. The Spirit of
revelation is the best grammar you ever studied. As I was telling you
this morning, let the power of God come upon this congregation and
open the vision of your minds, and an angel of God appear here, and you
would be in the light of eternity and in vision in a moment, without a
word being spoken, and volumes would be revealed to this people. What
do we care about words? Chiefly to speak and to hear others speak so
as to be understood. We have our language; but if a man speaks by the
power of God, it is little matter to me what his words are, or the
language he uses. If I understand the spirit of it, that is the way I
find "Mormonism" to be true. The brethren who came to preach the
Gospel to me, I could easily outtalk them, though I had never
preached; but their testimony was like fire in my bones; I understood
the spirit of their preaching; I received that spirit; it was light,
intelligence, power, and truth, and it bore witness to my spirit, and
that was enough for me. I have received it, and I have tried to
improve upon it.
If I do not speak here by the power of God, if it is not revelation to
you every time I speak to you here, I do not magnify my calling. What
do you think about it? I neither know nor care. If I do not magnify my
calling, I shall be removed from the place I occupy. God does not
suffer you to be deceived. Here are my brethren and sisters pouring
out their souls to God, and their prayers and faith are like one solid
cloud ascending to the heavens. They want to be led right; they want
the truth; they want to know how to serve God and prepare for a
celestial kingdom. Do you think the Lord will allow you to be fooled
and led astray? No.
Brother Kimball said, today, when he was speaking, if you suffer
yourselves to find fault with your Bishop, you condescend to the
spirit of apostasy. Do any of you do this? If you do, you do not
realize that you expose yourself to the power of the Enemy. What
should your faith and position be before God? Such that, if a Bishop
does not do right, the Lord will remove him out of your Ward. You are
not to find fault. As brother Wells has said, speak not lightly of the
anointed of the Lord. But you say they are out of the way. Who has
made any of my brethren a judge over their Bishop? You read in the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants, in a revelation to Joseph Smith
(brother Kimball and myself were present), that it takes twelve High
Priests to sit in council upon the head of a Bishop. Can they judge
him? No; for they must then have the Presidency of the High Priesthood
to sit at their head and preside over them. Yet many rise up and
condemn their Bishop. Perhaps that Bishop has been appointed expressly
to try those persons and cause them to apostatize. A great many will
not apostatize until they arrive here; and who knows but what the Lord
has prompted a Bishop to do so-and-so to cause somebody to apostatize.
One of the first steps to apostasy is to find fault with your Bishop;
and when that is done, unless repented of, a second step is soon
taken, and by-and-by the person is cut off from the Church, and that
is the end of it. Will you allow yourselves to find fault with your
Bishop? No; but come to me, go to the High Council, or to the
President of the Stake, and ascertain whether your Bishop is doing
wrong, before you find fault and suffer yourselves to speak against a
presiding officer. I want you to have faith enough concerning myself and my
Counselors for the Lord to remove us out of the way, if we do not
magnify our calling, and put men in our places that will do right. I
had the promise, years ago, that I never should apostatize and bring
an evil upon this people. God revealed that through Joseph, long
before he died; and if I am not doing right, you may calculate that
the Lord is going to take me home. He will not send me to hell, but he
will take me home to himself. "I will take you up here, Brigham, and
give you a few lessons." I am going where He is, for I have that
promise, and so have many others. I am telling you these things for
your comfort. In all this there are no new principles and doctrines,
though it is new to many of you. You must have faith in God that he
will lead his people right, in a way to preserve them from every evil.
You can read in the writings of the ancient Prophets that the Lord is
going to bring again Zion. The Prophet said that very quickly: it took
him not more than half a minute. Let me ask the Latter-day Saints, How
long will it take this people to fulfil that short sentence? How can
they, unless they live in the light of revelation, and God leads them
day by day? Then can they do it in a moment, in an hour, in a week, in
a month, or in a year? No. It will take years to perform that saying
of the Prophet that he wrote down so soon. And it will take more than
one Prophet or person; it will take hundreds and thousands of them to
fulfil that saying; and they cannot begin to fulfil one part of it
without the power of revelation.
You may read another text—"The Lord will empty the earth" —I
will not
say whether of wickedness or righteousness. How is this to be
understood, and how are the people going to fulfil this saying of the
Prophet? How is the Lord going to empty the earth? Will it be done in
a week or a year? No. He has begun to do it. President Lincoln called
out soldiers for three months, and was going to wipe the blot of
secession from the escutcheon of the American Republic. The three
months are gone, and the labor is scarcely begun. Now they are
beginning to enlist men for three years; soon they will want to enlist
during the war; and then, I was going to say, they will want them to
enlist during the duration of hell. Do they know what they are doing?
No; but they have begun to empty the earth, to cleanse the land, and
prepare the way for the return of the Latter-day Saints to the Center
Stake of Zion.
Have we inheritances there? When I left the State of Missouri, I had a
deed for five pieces of as good land as any in the State, and I expect
to go back to it. Do we own anything in Illinois? Yes. In Ohio? Yes.
The Lord will call back the Latter-day Saints, although it is written
in the revelations, speaking of the Saints being driven from Jackson
County, that they should be driven from State to State, from city to
city, and but few would remain to receive their inheritance. I did
not receive any inheritance in Jackson County, Missouri. I never was
there, and I do not think of anyone present who was there, except
Judge Phelps. There are also a few others in the Territory who
received theirs. A few will remain and receive their inheritance. Will
we return and receive an inheritance there? Many of the Saints will
return to Missouri, and there receive an inheritance. This is not
worded exactly as is the revelation, but it is according to the nature
of things. The earth will also be emptied upon natural principles: it
cannot be done otherwise.
The South say, "We could not bear the insults and the
affliction heaped upon us by the North. We cannot help revolting from
the rank Abolitionists that would destroy us and our negroes; we will
not hold fellowship with the North any longer, but we will come out
from them and be separate." The Abolitionists would set free the
negroes at the expense of the lives of their masters; they would let
the negroes loose to massacre every white person: that is the spirit
of many of the Abolitionists that I have conversed with. Proslavery
men are determined to hold their negroes, and the North reply—"It is
false language to say that we are in a free and independent government
that holds four millions of persons in abject slavery: we do not
believe in it, and they shall be free." How natural it is for the two
parties to come to the sword, to the cannon's mouth, and fight. "We of
the North are fighting to emancipate four millions of people that are
in bondage," and "we of the South are fighting for our liberties;" and
the right will continue until the earth is empty. Will it be over in
six months or in three years? No; it will take years and years, and
will never cease until the work is accomplished. There may be seasons
that the fire will appear to be extinguished, and the first you know
it will break out in another portion, and all is on fire again, and it
will spread and continue until the land is emptied. Will they all be
killed? No.
I shall see the day when thousands will seek succor at the hands of
this people. If you say, "Husband, I shall leave you, if you take
another wife," you had better leave now when you may stand a chance of
getting another husband. You cannot read in the Bible that women take
the lead—that the responsibility is upon the women, for it is not so.
What was the saying of Jesus, when the woman caught in sin was brought
before him? That publicans and harlots should enter into the kingdom
of heaven before the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees. I do not
like to associate with such characters, but that Scripture will be
fulfilled.
The responsibility is upon the men, and they will be used up, for they
go to war, and will fall in battle by hundreds and thousands, until
the earth is emptied. Young men, prepare yourselves; for a greater
responsibility will come upon you than you have ever dreamed of.
Millions will seek to you for salvation. Are you prepared for this?
No, you are not. There are but very few men, old or young, that are
capable of taking proper charge of themselves, to say nothing of a
Ward, a community, or a nation.
It is said that woman is the weaker vessel, and that an Irishman
whipped his wife because she carried too much sail. The nations have
been led by the weaker vessel; but, by-and-by it will not be so. It is
impossible to guide ships that carry too much sail, and have too
little ballast in proportion to their hulls. I should trim off some of
the spankers. You sisters who have crossed the sea know what I mean.
You must also cut off part of the jib, and then you can guide the
vessel a little easier. When you come to the mainsail, reef it, tie it
up, and not have it quite so large.
You can scarcely find a man that knows how to properly treat himself,
and it is worse when you come to his directing others. You will see
the time when thousands will seek salvation at the hands of this
people, and say, "Guide us in the way of life; the earth is emptied of
wickedness, and it has come to an end." The Lord knows whether or not
the Elders of this Church will be ready to step forward and take upon
themselves these great responsibilities.
Let these remarks remain with you; take them home with you,
and wait and see what the result will be. The Lord is building up
Zion, and is emptying the earth of wickedness, gathering his people,
bringing again Zion, redeeming his Israel, sending forth his work,
withdrawing his Spirit from the wicked world, and commencing to build
up his kingdom. Can this be done without revelation? No. You will not
make a move, or do anything—plant corn, build a hall or a temple, make
a farm, or go to the States—no, not a thing towards building up Zion,
without the power of revelation.
May the Lord bless you, brethren and sisters. Amen.