Excerpts as taken from the
Journal of Discourses
Compiled by
OGDEN KRAUT
I am in my element when I am among this people and speaking to them; and my prayer is, by night and day, that I may be as simple as a child in my communications, and speak the truth, As for my praying that God will make me eloquent, as the world call it, I never want it, but that He may make me eloquent in the truth, to speak it in its plainness and simplicity.
(Heber C. Kimball, J.D. 4:340)
[1] Chapter 1
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
I was born in Vermont, and brought up very poor, and when nine years old I laid in my bed and in a vision saw those things that I have since passed through. Soon after I was baptized, brother Orson Pratt came to my house. I was standing in the door yard when he came in, and at the time I felt much of the holy Spirit upon me. I was then a potter at my wheel. While brother Pratt was talking with me a voice spake to him and said “Orson, my son, that man will one day become one of my apostles.” I did not know this till afterwards. (12:190)
The night the plates were given to Joseph Smith from their bed in the summit of the hill Cumorah, I saw, in the firmament above my head, hosts of men in platoons of twelve; and I saw them march until they reached the western horizon, as far as I could see them. After looking upon them for hours with my natural eyes, I never observed a variation of a hair’s breadth in their step, or the least disorder or confusion in their ranks I think of this sight, and then look at this people: they do not compare in this respect with things in heaven. (6:326)
Have I not worked as hard as any of you for my living? Who ever saw me indolent, or idling away my time around street corners, or about the Council House? No one, either of the living or dead. I am always busy in [2] striving to adorn my plantation, and my works show it all the time. I am not preaching anything but what I practise. (3:228)
In my younger days I have seen the time when, for two weeks together, we were under the necessity of eating boiled milk-weeds, and that too without having to salt them. Have any of you come to that yet? (3:251)
I have been many a time in houses where people were sick nigh unto death, with small-pox, and with other complaints, and they were healed by the power of God; I have taken them to the water, when they have been on the verge of the grave, and baptized them, and they have been healed. “What, of the small-pox?” Yes; and there are numbers of people here that were sick nigh unto death, and brother Orson Hyde is a witness that they were just ready to die, and they are now here in a robust state of health. (Orson Hyde, “It is true.”) (2:233)
About two weeks previous to the death of brother Jedediah M. Grant, I dreamed that we were travelling, and we came to a beautiful stream of water. I thought I was going to cross it with him, and with the expectation and understanding that he would guard me across. He crossed the stream unobserved by me, and then I saw him running up the hill as fast as he could, and he got away from me and passed out of my sight. The stream kept rising and becoming more boisterous and apparently more dangerous; and so it continued till I awoke. (8:88)
When the Church was first organized in Manchester, in the State of New York, the people rose up against us, and were determined that we should not stay there, [3] and consequently we went to Kirtland, in the State of Ohio, where we had peace for a little season. And then we went to Jackson county, Missouri; but the brethren found we could not stay there, and hence we had to move over into Clay County. We stayed there a short time, and afterwards went into Caldwell County. We remained in those counties but a short time before the spirit of mobocracy raged to such a degree that the people considered we were not fit to live upon the earth. Fourteen thousand troops were called out, and took a few of us prisoners, and made us sign a deed transferring all our property to our persecutors in the State of Missouri, to pay the expense of our persecutors. They commenced their cruelties, and perpetrated the most diabolical outrages upon our people that were ever known among civilized nations: men, women, and children were indiscriminately despoiled of all they possessed; they were mobbed and whipped; some were tarred and feathered, and those who could not readily escape, were massacred, irrespective of age or sex; and if the Almighty had not interfered, they would have killed us all. We then went into Illinois, and had not been there long before they began to serve us in like manner. They gave us a city charter, and then took it from us again, and that too without any just cause. They gave us a charter for a Masonic Lodge, and then went to work and killed some of the men to whom the charter was given. The rage and ferocity of our enemies did not cease there, but it soon manifested itself in mobs assembling by thousands, who finally succeeded in driving us out of that State also, leaving us in the wilderness to perish. But the Lord assisted us; his protecting hand was over us for good, and by his power we were preserved.
[4]After all these hardships and trials we started for this country, and what did the Government then require of us? Five hundred men were called to go and take part in the Mexican war, and that too at a time when we were all living in our waggons: many were sick, and some were dying; and in fact hundreds and thousands have died in consequence of the hardships and privations brought upon them by our ruthless persecutors. Joseph Smith lost his life by the hands of assassins, and he was one of the best men that ever trod the footstool of the Almighty. He was the man called to open up this last dispensation, but the world at large would not receive him.
We have passed through many grievous trials; but I do not feel that I want to say much about out sufferings this morning, but simply to remind you of some of the prominent acts of our enemies, that you may know that we have nothing to expect from them in the future but persecution and misrepresentation. Many of you are strangers to these things, both members and Elders, because you were not baptized into the Church until afterwards; but still you can see what the world have done to us; and everything in the shape of persecution or affliction which the world have brought upon us, will come back upon their own heads ten-fold, and this nation in particular will reap what they have sown, and their troubles have already commenced; but I shall live to see them broken to pieces a great deal worse than they are now, and so will thousands of you. (9:180-181)
How do you think we went to work when we were building the Temple in Kirtland? I could enter into the particulars, but let it suffice for me to say that the Lord gave a revelation, calling upon all the strength of his house to go up to Missouri to redeem Zion and reinstate [5] our brethren upon their own lands. To use a plain expression, we raked the United States from one end to the other wherever there was a man that belonged to the Church, and we gathered up all the strength of the Lord’s house, and every one of us went, except perhaps a dozen old gentlemen who were not able to travel, and there were a few went up that were over sixty, and I do not know but a few that were over seventy. [President B. Young: I think there was one or two of the brethren seventy years of age.] While we were absent on that Mission, the sisters went to work and made stockings, pantaloons and jackets, and when we came back they put in those various articles of clothing for the benefit of the men that went to work on the Temple, and this was a universal thing with the sisters. Now, what have you done that you should be released from care and from putting forth your dollars, your pairs of socks, your shirts, or any other kinds of wearing apparel or bedding that are required for those men who are called to work upon the Temple? Are you excused from these things, ladies and gentlemen? No, you are not; we went forth and did our duty, both male and female, and the same is required of you.
We went and performed that journey, travelled two thousand miles in a little over three months. We walked forty miles per day when we were not hindered, we walked the entire journey there and back. Such as were designated by the Lord were permitted to return home to their families, but the single men were told by the Prophet to go and preach the Gospel in the country round about. When we arrived in Kirtland, Joseph said, “Come, brethren, let us go into the stone-quarry and work for the Lord.” And the Prophet went himself, in his tow frock and tow breeches, and worked at quarrying stone like the rest of us. Then, every Saturday we [6] brought out every team to draw stone to the Temple, and so we continued until that house was finished; and our wives were all the time knitting, spinning and sewing, and, in fact, I may say doing all kinds of work; they were just as busy as any of us, and I say that those women have borne the heat and burden of those early and trying days and God will bless them for evermore. And besides all this, they have stepped forward and done the works of Sarah, and the first men of this Church have done the works of Abraham, and they will inherit the earth with them when it is redeemed and cleansed from sin. I feel to bless all such men and women, and pray my Heavenly Father to bless them in all things that will be for their good and for the honor and glory of his holy name. (10:165-166)
Now, there is no necessity for such a display of his power, neither will there be, until we are brought into the midst of certain trials, as Joseph Smith and his brethren were, about twenty-two years ago. I refer to the time when he and some of his brethren went up to Missouri; and those who went up then believed “Mormonism” in their hearts. There were two hundred and five who volunteered to go and redeem their brethren. And how was it in those days, when we were in that strait? Hosts of the people in Missouri were up in arms against us, both behind and before us, on our right and on our left. How did God defend us then? He sent a hailstorm fierce enough to stop their progress. The hailstones were so large that they cut their horses’ bridles, broke their gun-stocks, and cut holes in their hats: the storm had such an effect upon them that they would not any longer pursue us. The waters of the river rose forty feet in one night, and the whole region was flooded. In that way the Lord defended us, when we were a small company, and when he knew that we should be over-[7]come, if he did not stretch forth his hand for our benefit. (5:204)
I travelled and associated with Joseph Smith, the Prophet, almost from the beginning. This work first began in the State of New York, and shortly afterwards the few Saints who had received the Gospel moved to Kirtland, Ohio, at which place I first visited the Prophet Joseph. I went with the first mission to England, and when I returned and settled with the Saints in Missouri, I had not much rest, for I had not been there long before our enemies requested us to leave. I went there as a gentleman, and I came away as one, and I have so remained. I went with the Saints to Nauvoo, and from thence I went to England again, and from England back to Nauvoo. Then I had not been there long before they requested us to leave the State of Illinois. Well, we came along to Winter Quarters; and we found very good quarters: and from there we came to this Territory, and his Satanic Majesty has requested us to leave here: but we shan’t do it, and you may tell the whole world so, if you please, gentlemen. The old gentleman has requested us too many times to leave our homes. Heretofore we obeyed, because we were obliged to; but that day has gone by. (8:276)
I felt pretty well in Nauvoo, at the time brother Brigham was speaking of; though I did regret–perhaps I did wrong–but I did regret that peace was proclaimed so quick; for I tell you there were about one or two score of men I wanted to see under the sod; then I was willing to make peace: but I had to, as it was. (5:334)
We travelled with the Prophet Joseph when we were poor and penniless many times, and when we were [8] sick, and we wept like children; but we called upon our Father and our God to strengthen us, and he did so by the power of his Spirit. Some men laid down and died on the way, and brother Taylor almost died once or twice in the ordeals through which he had to pass. I might also refer to the trials consequent upon the introduction of the doctrine of plurality of wives, but the time is about expired, and, therefore, I will defer it till some other time. When we have passed through trials and privations of this life, we shall be exalted to enjoy that happiness which is promised to the people of God; and when that time comes many of you that have had such easy times will be sorry that you have not passed through more. (10:169)
I have seen the time in Nauvoo, the last time I went to England, when I could sit down with my family and eat all we had in the house, and then not have half enough. I never was so poor in my life as I was then, and I was sickly and afflicted. Was I happy? Yes, just as happy as I am now, and just as comfortable in my feelings. (3:252)
Here are hundreds in this Territory who have seen me in England as happy as an angel, preaching and baptizing for the remission of sins all those who believed and repented before God, and they saw me laying hands on the people for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and every good man will bear me witness that the Spirit of the Lord was with me. (10:168)
I have often told you that all my lazy hairs were gone; and I have often told the young Elders, to encourage them, that the first mission I took, after I was ordained one of the Twelve, was through New England and into Nova Scotia, 1500 miles travel on foot with my [9] valise on my back. Soon after I started I found that I was rather unlearned, though I knew that before, but I knew it better after I started.
I began to study the Scriptures, as brother McArthur did, and I had so little knowledge that the exercise of study began to swell my head and open my pores insomuch that the hairs dropped out; and if you will let your minds expand as mine did you will have no hair on your heads. (4:107)
I could relate scores of circumstances, while I was on missions, of men swearing that if I went to their houses they would blow my brains out, or do me some violent bodily injury. I would go, but instead of putting their threats into execution, nothing would be too good for me, and they would say, “Come back, Mr. Kimball, for I never had such a good time in my life.” I held them by my faith, and that is the way in which the devil will be bound; but as long as a person will give him a privilege of coming into his tabernacle, he will remain, for his object is to get a body. (3:22)
This makes me think of brother Amasa and brother McGinn: the mob took them and rode them on a cannon. Well, this is easier than it is to ride on a rail. They asked them to preach; so brother McGinn preached to them, showing the reverence of the animal creation towards their God, and said, “The hen put down her head and took a drink of water, and then lifted up her head in thanks and adoration to her God. Well, you see, there is a good deal of thankfulness and reverence in a hen.” “Amen,” says brother Amasa: “Lord, make us all hens.” That was about the winding-up of the discourse; and by preaching these things they gained the affections of those mobbers, so that they let them go. (5:249)
[10]We went and preached the Gospel in London–that is, President Young and myself; we established the Work there, and we never asked the people for a penny. We paid off debts amounting to some two hundred pounds and we emigrated hundreds of people out of our own funds, circulating the Book of Mormon among the people and did many other things that were necessary for the advancement of the kingdom of God. (10:168)
Nearly twenty years ago, I was in a place in England in which I felt very curious; but I did not know at the time what it meant. I went through a town called Chadburn, beyond Clithero. Before I went there, some persons told me that there was no use in my going, and asked me what I wanted to go to Chadburn for, saying it was the worst place in the country; for the sectarian priests had preached there faithfully thirty years without making any impression. Notwithstanding that, I went, and preached once, and baptized twenty-five persons, where the priests had not been able to do a thing.
I went through the streets of that town feeling as I never before felt in my life. My hair would rise on my head as I walked through the streets, and I did not then know what was the matter with me. I pulled off my hat, and felt that I wanted to pull off my shoes, and I did not know what to think of it.
When I returned, I mentioned the circumstance to brother Joseph, who said, “Did you not understand it? That is a place where some of the old Prophets travelled and dedicated that land, and their blessing fell upon you.” (5:22)
I recollect being in England, in the town of Chadburn, Lancashire; and while there I felt as if my whole system was alive; I felt quickened by some [11] unseen power. Brother Hyde was with me, and he knows that it is true; and I felt to pull of my shoes. We pulled off our hats, for we felt such a sacred and holy feeling. I told brother Joseph about it when I came home; and said he, “Brother Heber, that place was dedicated by one of the old Prophets, and it will always be filled with the spirit of life.” Does not that prove that we can bless the earth? Yes, it does, and we can; and you may call me crazy if you like; and I will say, Bang away, but that does not make me crazy. You may call me visionary, if you please; and I wish to God you were all visionary as those holy men were who dedicated those places in the days of Jesus and the Apostles. They are holy places, and they will be held sacred even as Jackson County; and there is no a man living there but at this day has the spirit of fear upon him and expects that he will have to march some day; and, to this day, no man has ventured to cultivate or build upon the Temple Block. Joseph the Prophet dedicated that land, and they feel the effects of that dedication; and the blessing will remain there, and all hell cannot get it off, and I shall yet see the day that I will go back there, with brother Brigham and with thousands and millions of others, and we will go precisely according to the dedication of the Prophet of the living God. (6:190)
How much would you give for even a cane that Father Abraham had used? or a coat or ring that the Saviour had worn? The rough oak boxes in which the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum were brought from Carthage, were made into canes and other articles. I have a cane made from the plank of one of those boxes, so has brother Brigham and a great many others, and we prize them highly, and esteem them a great blessing. I want to carefully preserve my cane, and when I am done with it here, I shall hand it down to my heir, with [12] instructions to him to do the same. And the day will come when there will be multitudes who will be healed and blessed through the instrumentality of those canes, and the devil cannot overcome those who have them, in consequence of their faith and confidence in the virtues connected with them. (4:294)
When we started to come here, we had no more provisions with us than those emigrants started with, to whom we have sent flour this season. We had only one hundred-weight a-piece, and came here with nothing but what was in our wagons, only as we hunted and killed game. When we got to the upper ferry of Platte river, half of our company had not a mouthful of bread. That would look a little harder to you than the cricket time, still there was no grunting, nor murmuring, for it was beyond the grunting point; it would not do any good to find fault; it would not provide bread, buffalo, antelope, deer, nor elk. (2:223)
If your heart is right you cannot speak without speaking what is right. The Spirit of Prophecy foresees future events. God does not bring to pass a thing because you say it shall be so, but because He designed it should be so, and it is the future purposes of the Almighty that the Prophet foresees. That is the way I prophesy; but I have predicted things I did not foresee, and did not believe anybody else did, but I have said it, and it came to pass even more abundantly than I predicted; and that was with regard to the future situation of the people who first came into this valley. Nearly every man was dressed in skins, and we were all poor, destitute, and distressed, yet we all felt well. I said, “it will be but a little while, brethren, before you shall have food and raiment in abundance, and shall buy it cheaper than can be bought in the cities of the United States.” [13] I did not know there were any Gentiles coming here, I never thought of such a thing; but after I spoke it I thought I must be mistaken this time. Brother Rich remarked at the time, “I do not believe a word of it.” And neither did I; but, to the astonishment and joy of the Saints, it came to pass just as I had spoken it, only more abundantly. The Lord led me right but I did not know it. (3:111)
They consented to the death of Joseph, Hyrum, David, Parley, and lots of men, women, and children. The ground is planted with men, women, and children, from Nauvoo to this place; and the world have consented to it, and they say it is just.
The Government, the President, the heads of the military departments and of all the governmental affairs have consented to these things.
When we were poor, and lived on cow-hides and cattle, skunks and thistle roots, brother Brigham and his brethren paddled this way and that way, and sought out his place.
While we were in Winter Quarters, 500 men were demanded. They travelled over the Plains and gained a part of Mexico, which is this land. Then came grasshoppers and crickets, and eat up our crops; and our enemies have all the time been saying that it is just–they deserve it.
Now, brethren, if you can comprehend what I have said, they shall suffer all that we have, and it shall be doubled upon them, and then it shall be pressed down. (5:253)
The civil officers were sent here to be our servants; but did they serve us? Yes, some of them served us like the Devil would. (8:276)
[14]Mr. Buchanan and his coadjutors are striving to oppress Utah and deprive us of our constitutional rights. They have taken the Eastern mail from us, and they will endeavour to take away everything they have given us, and will make their heaviest efforts to destroy this people. But if this community will entirely cease to do any evil and will unitedly live their religion, God Almighty will so confound their enemies that they cannot bring an army into this country. (5:277)
I never saw such things in the country I came from, and I did not know that there was so much sin and corruption as I now see in the world. I was honest, and I thought everybody else was honest. I am honest now, and virtuous and upright, and always have been; and this is what makes me bold.
I do not fear the face of man, or anything that lives on the earth. I only fear to do anything that would grieve my heavenly Father, as a child should fear to disobey his earthly parents. (7:235)
What are my cares? I said sometime since, that my immediate family consisted of seventy-nine persons, which I feed, clothe, and shelter, and I furnish thirteen fires all the time. (3:251)
Instead of becoming dark in my mind and growing stereotyped in my ways, I have expanded with the increase of my experience. I feel more acutely, I see more clearly, and I comprehend more perfectly the principles that pertain to life. The older I grow in the Church, the riper I become in my mind, and the more I discover of the beauty and excellency of the plan of salvation. (8:327 & 9:126)
[15]I have said a thousand times, if I was to die now, to-day, I could not do better than I have done, still I have my weaknesses. (3:230)
I rejoice exceedingly before God, that I am a Latter-day Saint, that I am a “Mormon” Elder in Israel, for what I know, and for what I have seen and passed through; it is worth more to me than gold and silver, or precious stones; what I have passed through has given me an experience, and I praise the Lord God that I am a member of the house of Israel, and one of the elect of God; and I shall dwell with you in eternity, and I know it. (1:247)
There are many here to-day who, unless they repent, will never see my face again after my eyes are closed in death. (12:190)
[16] Chapter 2
JOSEPH SMITH
Joseph the Prophet–Ancient Prophets–Book of Mormon
JOSEPH, THE PROPHET
Joseph had a high lip, and he was a beautiful men–one of the most lovely men I ever saw, especially when the Spirit of God was in him; and his countenance was as white as the whitest thing you ever saw. (6:35)
Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the living God, for the Lord Almighty revealed it to me more than twenty-eight years ago; and I have never had a doubt upon my mind of the truth of my religion from that day to this. That man was sent to set up this kingdom, to organize it, and to give you a law, not for his benefit only, but for yours; and God spake through him. (8:274)
We are the servants of God; we have been called of God through the ministry of that holy Prophet Joseph Smith, who received his authority through the ministry of holy angels. Now he was just as true a Prophet as Moses was, or as any Prophet that has ever been upon the earth; and we are just as much the authorized servants of God, as the Apostles and disciples in the days of Jesus Christ were, and I know it. And I bear testimony of it to the United States, and to the nations of the world. (2:106)
[17]We are certainly blessed above all other people on the earth, although there are but a few that realize it as they ought to; but such as have been driven from their homes and stripped of all they possessed from two to six times, as I have, they can appreciate the blessings of peace and prosperity that attend the Saints in these valleys. I have seen the Latter-day Saints scattered by the ruthless hand of mobocracy to the four winds; driven from Missouri and from Illinois by their enemies in the dead of winter and exposed to the severity of the season. For what? All because they believed in God and acknowledge Joseph Smith to be his Prophet. (10:236)
There are quite a number of this congregation who knew Joseph Smith the Prophet, and he used to say in Nauvoo that when he came before the people he felt as though he were enclosed in an iron case, his mind was closed by the influences that were thrown around him; he was curtailed in his wishes and desires to do good; there was no room for him to expand, hence he could not make use of the revelations of God as he would have done; there was no room in the hearts of the people to receive the glorious truths of the Gospel that God revealed to him. (10:234)
To refer again to what I know, what I have seen and experienced in my travels and my associations with the Prophet of the living God, I will remark that you have here with you a few of us that have travelled with him from the beginning, and we know his trials and sufferings, and we know that the greatest torment he had and the greatest mental suffering was because this people would not live up to their privileges. There were many things he desired to reveal that we have not learned yet, [18] but he could not do it. He said sometimes that he felt pressed upon and as though he were pent up in an acorn shell, and all because the people did not and would not prepare themselves to receive the rich treasures of wisdom and knowledge that he had to impart. He could have revealed a great many things that we could not receive because we lacked that diligence and faithfulness that were necessary to entitle us to those choice things of the kingdom. He revealed the doctrine of celestial marriage, and the abuse of this holy principle caused many to stumble and fall away from the Church of the living God, but that was their own fault and they have nobody else to blame. (10:167)
I never knew an instance in the days of Joseph, when he confided in those poor devils, but what they turned traitor to him, and were the very men that took his life, aided by the apostates that left this Church; and I know it, and so do you.
Joseph never trusted in one of them but what they betrayed him; and I wish to God I had taken some of their lives when I had a chance: they were blacklegs, whoremongers, murderers, liars, sorcerers, and rascals; and you may take many of the leading men of the United States Government, and they are not one whit better. (5:178)
I have seen the day when it was as much as our lives were worth to sustain Joseph Smith–the apostates were so thick around us, and persecution was so great. (6:64)
That was the trouble with Emma Smith. Joseph stood for the truth and maintained it; she struck against [19] it: and where is she? She is where she is, and she will not escape until Joseph Smith opens the door and lets her out. She declared that she would leave him, if he would not sustain her instead of sustaining brother Brigham, and Heber, and the rest of the Twelve Apostles of God. That is as true as that the sun shines. She had her choice, but Joseph would not follow her. (5:29)
Joseph Smith could tell the plans that were laid for his destruction, many times when he could not prove it by any natural means. (9:42)
Joseph would many times ostensibly hold men up to see whether this people would worship them, to see whether they had discernment enough to know the difference between a righteous man and a wicked one, and if we preferred the society of a blackleg, or of a whoremaster, or of any other abominable character, he was perfectly willing that we should have the opportunity to prove ourselves. (3:124)
The ungodly killed Joseph and Hyrum, but in so doing they furthered the work of God more than tenfold. Joseph laid the foundation, and left us to build the building, and when we are gone we will leave others, for it must be done. (2:357)
When Jesus lived on the earth, he ordained and organized a Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and said to them, “I have laid the foundation, and you must build the house.” Joseph Smith did the same; he made choice of Twelve Apostles, and ordained them, and said, “I have laid the foundation, and you may build upon it, you may rear the house;” and these very persons are the ones who will lead you through into the celestial world, and [20] they will be at your head all the time. It will be a very good thing if you take care of these men and nourish and cherish them, that when you get into difficulty, into snarly hard knots that you do not know how to untie, they may be on hand to render you assistance. (3:20)
He [Joseph Smith] has past behind the veil, but there never will a person in this dispensation enter into the celestial glory without his approbation. (4:119)
ANCIENT PROPHETS
You believe that Joseph was a Prophet, but many could not believe even this when he was alive, but now that he is dead they can believe it. Jesus was a Prophet, though few believed so when he was upon the earth, but when he left them, nearly all could believe his divine mission.
This has always been the case in regard to all the Prophets, for the sons of those who killed the Prophets living in their day adorned the sepulchres of those whom their fathers had put to death, and crucified the Son of God. (3:57)
Now, I will refer to brother Brigham, brother Heber, brother Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Bishop N. K. Whitney, and lots of other men. Brother Joseph actually saw those men in vision; he saw us in a day when we were all together. We have been separated by marriage and thrown apart; but he saw the day when we all came out of one stock, and that was out of the aristocracy. Yes, we came directly down through the Prophets, and not only us, but lots of others–the whole Smith race. I could remember probably twenty or thirty that Joseph mentioned came down through that channel.
[21]There is another thing that brother Joseph said–viz., that we were positively heirs of the Priesthood; for he had seen us as such in his vision; yes, just as much so as my children are that have been born since I received my endowment. Our fathers were heirs to that Priesthood, which was handed down from father to son, and we came through that lineage. (5:216)
I know that Joseph, Hyrum, Willard, and Jedediah, and all other good men who have died in the faith, live and associate with those who held the Priesthood before they did. And they are with brother Brigham and with us, and will be with us forever, for we never will be separated, and I know it. I know that, brother Brigham, just as well as I know that I see this people to-day; and I shall be with you, and we will have a happy time when we meet Joseph and Hyrum and Willard and Jedediah and father Smith! Will not the old gentleman be jolly! Yes, for he always was; and he will be more so in proportion to the greater light and knowledge he has. Those are the men we are going to meet with; also with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, three of the old polygamists.
Do you suppose that Joseph and Hyrum and all those good men would associate with those ancient worthies, if they had not been engaged in the same practices? They had to do the works of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in order to be admitted where they are;–they had to be polygamists in order to be received into their society. God knows that I am not ashamed of those good men now, and how much more I shall prize my associate polygamists, when I am further advanced in knowledge, I do not know. I am talking in earnest, and from the experience I have had. (4:224)
[22]To return to the subject of the garments of the Holy Priesthood, I will say that the one which Jesus had on when he appeared to the Prophet Joseph was neat and clean, and Peter had on the same kind, and he also had a key in his hand. John also came and administered unto Joseph Smith, and remember that Peter, James and John hold the keys pertaining to their dispensation and pertaining to this, and they came and conferred their Priesthood and authority upon Joseph the Seer, which is for the gathering together of all who seek the way of life. (9:376)
You need not ask who administer to brother Brigham; for I will tell you: They are Moses and Aaron, Elijah, Jesus, Peter, James, and John, brother Joseph, Michael the Archangel, and the hosts of the righteous behind the vail: they are all engaged in this great work. (5:205)
God Almighty bless you, brethren and sisters! and I bless you, and I bless the air, the earth, the mountains, and everything that is in these regions. I bless the elements in these mountains; and my prayer is that the fathers of these Lamanites–the old prophets and old patriarchs–will visit them by night and by day; and they will do it when the proper time comes, and they will visit this people when they are worthy and when it is necessary. God Almighty will arouse every tribe and every nation that exists in the East, West, North, and South, and they will be on hand for our relief. (5:278)
[23] BOOK OF MORMON
Thirty years ago the whole Church was under condemnation because they had neglected the new and everlasting covenant, even the Book of Mormon and other revelations God had given to them, and they were driven by their enemies, for they were under condemnation at that early day of our history. How is it with us now? There are scores of this people who never look at those books. The Book of Mormon is the ensign which God has lifted up to the nations in the last days, and we are not justified when we in our feelings neglect or forsake it. I take much comfort in reading those books which the Lord has given us through Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon was written by the Spirit and power of God; the man that will read it faithfully will be filled with light and with truth. (11:147)
How does it compare with the vision that Joseph and others had, when they went into a cave in the hill Cumorah, and saw more records than ten men could carry? There were books piled up on tables, book upon book. Those records this people will yet have, if they accept of the Book of Mormon and observe its precepts, and keep the commandments. (4:105)
You know that the world has made a great deal of fuss, and told many lies about the devil pitching on to Joseph Smith when he went to get the plates, but they will get to a place where the devils will handle them worse than they did Joseph when he got the plates; if they do not embrace the Gospel it will be so. (3:230)
[24] Chapter 3
THE FAMILY
Family–Children–Marriage–Quarrels–Divorce–Plural Marriage
THE FAMILY
I belong to the humble and meek, and they will inherit the earth. I am an heir to it with them. (5:181)
We are the sons and daughters of God; we have proceeded from him through the laws of generation, the same as my children have proceeded from me. God is the great father of our race, and as a man is not perfect without the woman, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord; they depend upon each other, and are necessary to each other for the propagation of our species. (11:81)
I want to do everything by the power of God and the inspiration of his Spirit. When I get a new wife, I always dedicate her to God, and this is the way I have done for years. I also make a practice of dedicating my children to the Lord, that they may grow up in his wisdom and increase in his power. (6:190)
I prophesy this. A man is a fool that will not prophesy good concerning Israel and concerning his own father’s house. (3:111)
[25]No man on the earth loves women better than I do. I love a good woman, one that has a good spirit; I love that woman that will strive to make me happy, and I love that son that seeks to please his father and mother; for he will make a good husband. I love that daughter that seeks to please her father and mother, because she will make a good wife. (5:136)
But the first place to begin to make a heaven, is to make it at home, and then we will club together, and conclude to have it all over. (1:357)
The Lord designs that I shall be the head and leader of my family, to guide them into His presence; and he will take away every prop in order to place everything where it should be. That remark is just as good for every other family as it is for mine. The Lord will take away every prop that I put my trust in outside of himself. When I was baptized into Him I put Him on, and should live in him, and should not rely upon any other but him; I should cleave unto him, and my family should cleave unto me, that we may be all one in Him. (10:371)
Mothers, I wish you would wake up and act in your office and calling, as well as the brethren. It is their calling to go and preach the Gospel, build up the kingdom of God, and establish righteousness, and it is for you to be stewards at home, and attend to the things that they leave behind, and to get wisdom and knowledge in all these things pertaining to your duty. (1:205)
You have come to me, and I have given you counsel, and then you have gone to brother Brigham, and he has given you the same counsel; and when you have asked [26] counsel of him, and then come to me, you say, “That is just as brother Brigham said to me.” Do you suppose I could give any counsel contrary to his mind? Well, then, let that Spirit and power be in our families, and I want to know what difference there will be? (5:135)
If our wives would remember and keep faithfully the covenant they have made, they would observe the laws of their husbands, and teach their children to honor every law of God, and to love, honor, and obey their earthly father. (11:211)
CHILDREN
Our children are heirs to our rights and privileges, and when an earth is organized for us we will take our children there as God our Father brought His children here when He came. (12:191)
Neither a father nor a mother, from this time forth, should correct a child, except they are willing to be corrected in their faults. Do you see it? You will see mothers who will correct their children when they get angry, and that is almost the only time they will correct a child. (5:159)
Many times we do not appreciate our children, and take a right course with them when living, and when they are dead, we mourn and think of their lovely behavior, but never think of their misdeeds. Let us tray to think as much of the living as of the dead. That which is dead will take care of itself, while that which is living wants somebody to care for it. (3:198)
[27]Can a child enjoy the Spirit of God who refuses to obey his father, who is a man of God? No. He partakes of the spirit of apostacy, which is the spirit of death. I will ask you women of good understanding. Did you ever disobey your husband and live in rebellion to him, but what you felt like the Devil? I have heard you say you never did. My wives acknowledge they cannot enjoy the enlivening Spirit of God when they rebel against my counsel; but their minds are as dark as Egypt. (6:124)
Your wives are given to you as a stewardship to improve upon in building up and establishing the kingdom of God, and your children are given to you as a stewardship. Where did their spirits come from? Did they come from you? No; they came from God. Who is the Father of those spirits? God, and He will require them of you, and those spirits have also got to give an account to their Father from whom they came; they have got to render up an account. Thus you see, that you have to render an account of your wives and children, of your substance, and everything that pertains to this earth, and you cannot avoid it, without suffering a loss. (4:252)
I can recollect a circumstance of seeing a man and woman who had a very fine son: the father took the son in his arms and wanted to embrace him and carry him around and show him, he delighted so much in his son, and thought everybody else delighted in him. Because he did this, the mother stepped forward and pulled the child out of the arms of his father. I said, God my Father will take that child from your arms quicker than you took him from mine, and not more than ten days afterwards it was in its grave. (9:26)
[28]There is a little army of my children gone before me, and will be there to welcome me when I go hence; and then look at the train that will follow after me! I believe that children behind the vail, have more sympathy, care and interest in the welfare of their friends in mortality than when they are here; and do they pray for father? Yes; just as much as I do. Can they approach the Lord more near than I can? Yes, and they no doubt pray, “O Lord God, I ask thee in the name of Jesus, to remember my good father, and my good brothers and sisters, who are still in mortality.”
Nineteen of my children are in the spirit world, and the parting with them has not given me as much sorrow, nor brought as many white hairs on my head, as those have done who now live. I have experienced this; others have experienced it, and will experience it in time to come; for they must have an experience in this as well as brother Heber. (10:371)
If our sons could fully and clearly see the propriety of living their religion, they would from this day cease to mingle with wicked persons; and our daughters, too, if they understood the consequences, would never be found giving themselves in marriage to wicked men. (11:85)
What I have been saying to-day, my little boys, will apply to you as much as it will to your fathers. I wish you to be obedient to your fathers and to your mothers; but if your mothers tell you not to do that which your fathers tell you to do, you go right away and do as your father has told you, for he is the head. (12:190)
[29] MARRIAGE
I can tell you there are not one-half of the women that are fit for wives when they are married. They have not been instructed in home manufacture, and some of them have scarcely learned to wash the dishes properly or to take care of things about the house; and the young men are just as bad. (6:188)
A great many women are more nice than wise. If they can get a man with a pretty face, they think it is all there is about it. Some men think if they can get a woman that has a handsome face, that is all there is of it. But it is that woman that has a head and sensibility,–I do not care if her head is three feet long,–it has nothing to do with the character that lives in the body. It is the character that is in the man’s house, the spirit that is in the man; it is the spirit that is in the woman and in the house that makes the woman and that makes the man. (5:92)
Why should I love a woman more than a man? They are no more to me than good men. (8:87)
Ye mothers in Israel, cleave unto your husbands; love them more than your lives. If you have a kind, benevolent feeling, bestow it on them; and then, if the brethren have any kind, benevolent, sweet, compassionate feelings, confer them upon your wives, and appreciate your Father and God, who gave you both, more than all the rest. (9:26)
Am I responsible for the acts of my wife or wives? Only on condition that they are subject to my counsels. [30] You can readily understand that their disobedience releases me from responsibility for their conduct. (5:202)
I want to know if God will love and respect and send His angels to one of my wives, though she were fifty, sixty, or a hundred years of age, if she is disobedient to me when I am as merciful, generous, and kind a man to her as ever lived? If she disobeys me, persists in taking a course contrary to my will and the will of God all the time, saying, “I will do as I please, and the angels will come and visit me?” Neither God nor His Son Jesus Christ will send the holy angels to minister to such a woman, and she need not tell about their coming to visit her, nor about receiving revelations from heaven concerning brother Brigham, and about what brother Brigham and brother Heber should do. Damn such fixings, they are not of God; they never saw Him, nor never will, unless they repent of such foolishness. I discard such things, and so does our God, and so do angels. Get revelations for the Prophet of God to be subject to your requests!!! Get out, you stinking things, and your swamp angels too. I am as independent of you as God upon His throne, and of all such creatures and so is any man of God that is valiant in the latter days. (4:226)
The world say that we have things in common stock. There is no such thing. We throw our interest together, but my wives are wives that are given to me by the Almighty God through the proper source; and it is so with every other man. There is no man in this Valley that is a Saint that meddles with my wives, nor I with his. Those things are not carried on here. (5:89)
I am opposed to corruption; I wish every man to keep himself pure, whether he is Jew, or Gentile, or [31] Latter-day Saint; keep yourselves pure. I do not allow my women to fondle with other men, or to sit in their laps, and they must not suffer other men to kiss or hug them, if they do, I will cast them off. Let my wives alone, and let my daughters alone, except you have my permission to pay them attention, and do as you wish to be done by. (3:363)
Some of you are living in adultery or in the spirit of adultery. And some have wives that do not bear children. Why don’t you let them alone? Why don’t you take a course to regenerate, and not to degenerate? (4:278)
Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them, and she should say, “You cannot be exalted without me,” and suppose they all should say so, what of that? The never will affect my salvation one particle. Whose salvation will they affect? Their own. They have got to live their religion, serve their God, and do right, as well as myself. Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spirit world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favour with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute there? No, the Lord says there are more there than there are here. (4:209)
QUARRELING
There are many kinds of sin, among which is the sin of confusion; and I tell you there is plenty of confusion in a family where each one wants to be head. Just look at it, what a heaven that is? We all have to make our heaven, or do without one. (4:82)
[32]I can accomplish more work with one man that is amenable to me, and will do as I tell him, than I can with twenty who are disobedient; so I can with one woman. I had rather have one woman that is humble, than twenty that are not; and she is more honor and glory, and happiness and heaven to a man, than twenty disobedient ones.
You that have but one wife know this pretty well, but we who have scores, know it better; we are further advanced in the experience of this life. (4:122)
Then let every man’s wife strengthen the cable that connects her with her husband; for, if she does not do so, she will go to hell, and you cannot help it. Women are to be led. If I should undertake to drive a woman, I should have to drive her before me; and then she becomes my leader the moment I do that. I should lead her; and she should be led by me, if I am a good man; and if I am not a good man, I have no just right in this Church to a wife or wives, or to the power to propagate my species. What, then, should be done with me? Make a eunuch of me, and stop my propagation. (5:29)
Stop, stop this extravagance, and in the name of Israel’s God go to work, accumulate, and build up the kingdom. Tell about building up the kingdom of God, while you take a course to make slaves of your husbands through your love of finery!! Your husbands must be observed and listened to. If you want to offend your God, offend His servants. And how can you love God whom you have not seen, and hate your brethren whom you have seen? Do not talk to me such nonsense any more. (5:33)
[33]Let all these domestic broils and family difficulties cease, ye Elders of Israel; and if you have got things that will not sleep and will not rest, live your religion, and I would take my johnny-cake and go into the mountains and spend my days defending the house of Israel, before I would stay at home and quarrel one moment. (6:35)
If there is a good woman that has not got a good man, she can be a good woman as she is; and if there is a good man that has not got a good woman, he can be a good man without one. Before I would live in a quarrel, I would take my johnny-cake and go into the woods! (5:277)
“Do you not quarrel, brother Heber?” says one. No, I do not. But when a woman begins to dispute me, about nine times out of ten I get up and say, “Go it,” and then go off about my business; and if ever I am so foolish as to quarrel with a woman, I ought to be whipped; for you may always calculate that they will have the last word. (5:277)
I have one or two women that I cannot control, and never did; and I would as soon try to control a rebellious mule as to control them. I have not given them a word of counsel for the last eight years but what they have murmured or rebelled against and called me a hard man. I have not told you who they are; but I know them.
Is it wrong to speak of these things? I have one or two women that I cannot control, and never did. “Do you support them?” says one. Yes, as well as the best women I have. And if you want to know why I do it, it is because I want to get along with it as well as I can in this [34] life. But I can tell you that if the time comes when I am obliged to desert and lay waste my habitation, I will then lug them no more. (5:277)
I know that there are some quarrelsome individuals, but I do not want any such spirits about me. (5:277)
And we are going to dig a cache, or take some natural one, and put all the whining men and women into it, and let them whine. We want to be released from such poor hellions, and we will be; we won’t have a murmurer or complainer in the House of Israel. (5:135)
I heard my leader say, the other day, that he could manage the affairs of this people and of the United States and of Europe with more ease to his mind than he can listen to the little, peevish, trifling complaints that women bring to him. (5:276)
DIVORCE
I will say a few words about divorces, do they prove that you are loving men and women, having your prayers ascend to God? No, but they prove that you are contending with each other. However, I presume that such cases will occur, that people will keep apostatizing until the Savior comes, and he says that even then they of the kingdom will be like ten virgins, five wise and five foolish. (3:232)
Stop all wickedness, all your quarrelling, and all unholy divorces. Some women will marry a man one day, and call for a divorce the next. They are playing with the things of God, and are sealing their own [35] damnation. Some women get married and then run after other men; and some men get married and run after other women. What are such persons doing? They are sealing their own damnation. On the other hand, every man and woman that will not yield to passion, nor to any evil practice or principle, will become filled with the Spirit of God, and it will pass from one to another. (4:277)
I am a branch of the vine that came out of the root that Jesus dwells in; and when my son or my daughter turns away from me, they turn away from God; and if they do not turn away from God, they will not turn away from me; and when my wife turns away from me, if I am a righteous man, she turns from the tree she is connected to; and if she has done it unrighteously, she turns from God–she transcends her bounds, and the Spirit of the Almighty will not dwell with her; and all you sympathetic persons will fall in with that spirit and condemn me. (9:25)
If a wife cannot be obedient to me, will she be obedient to anybody else? I don’t think she will; but I think, if you place anybody else in my situation, she will disobey him, and she will disobey every other one that she may go with, and there is no end to her disobedience. (5:272)
PLURAL MARRIAGE
The revelations which Joseph Smith has given to this people were given to him by Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world; and this people cannot be blessed if they lightly esteem any of them, but they will lose the Spirit, and sorrow and vexation will come into their [36] families. The Lord designs that we shall be separate and distinct from every other people, and wishes to make us His peculiar people, and to raise up for himself a pure seed who will keep His law and walk in His statutes. For this purpose did He give the revelation on plurality of wives, as sacred a revelation as was ever given to any people, and fraught with greater blessings to us than we can possibly conceive of, if we do not abuse our privileges and commit sin. This doctrine is a holy and pure principle, in which the power of God for the regeneration of mankind is made manifest; but while it offers immense blessings, and is a source of immense power to God’s people, it will bring sure and certain damnation to those who seek through its means to defile themselves with the daughters of Eve. All those who take wives from any other motive than to subserve the great purpose which God had in view in commanding his servants to take unto themselves many wives, will not be able to retain them. (11:210)
I speak of plurality of wives as one of the most holy principles that God ever revealed to man, and all those who exercise an influence against it, unto whom it is taught, man or woman will be damned, and they and all who will be influenced by them, will suffer the buffetings of Satan in the flesh; for the curse of God will be upon them, and poverty, and distress, and vexation of spirit will be their portion; while those who honor this and every sacred institution of heaven will shine forth as the stars in the firmament of heaven, and of the increase of their kingdom and glory there shall be no end. This will equally apply to Jew, Gentile, and Mormon, male and female, old and young. (11:211)
[37]Some quietly listen to those who speak against the Lord’s servants, against his anointed, against the plurality of wives, and against almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny “Mormonism,” and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose that doctrine, and the whole of them would be damned. What are you opposing it for? It is a principle that God has revealed for the salvation of the human family. (5:203)
Dr. Bernhisel has just remarked, that he thought the cat was let out of the bag, when plurality was preached, but I suppose that he did not happen to think that the cat might have kittens, and the kittens grow to be cats, and thus increase to a vast number. Revelations of principles, of one truth after another, will come forth until the work of God is accomplished on the earth. (3:263)
There are hundreds and thousands of men in this Church today who have a plurality of wives which will be taken from them and they cannot help themselves, because they do not keep the celestial law. (12:190)
I would not be afraid to promise a man who is sixty years of age, if he will take the counsel of brother Brigham and his brethren, that he will renew his age. I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young, and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honours His work and word. (5:22)
[38]Now, in the doctrine and practice of plurality, one woman will sometimes think that she is queen, and that the others have no right to speak or to do anything without her consent. If I had a case of that kind to adjudicate, I should be very apt to say to the woman, “Serve her faithfully, bear with her patiently, and the day will come when you will sit above her, no matter where she is now.” And so it is with the Elders of Israel, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The Lord will rule that which is righteous, and if he does not give you your rights in all things in time he will in eternity. (9:375)
When a wife is obedient to her husband there is union, there is heaven, that is, there is one heaven, though it is a little one; and a righteous union is what will make a heaven. (4:82)
[39] Chapter 4
SALVATION
God–Pre-Existence–Creation of the Earth–The Gospel of Jesus Christ
GOD
The more light and knowledge a man has the more he sees he is nothing without God. (8:245)
I am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured Being. Why? Because I am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good-natured when I have his Spirit. That is one reason why I know; and another is–the Lord said, through Joseph Smith, “I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.” That arises from the perfection of His attributes: He is a jovial, lively person, and a beautiful man. (4:222)
Brethren and sisters, we are heirs with him to the estate of his Father, just as much as two sons and one daughter and their faithful children are legal heirs to a father’s estate. When a father dies and makes his will, he wills that property to them that are faithful to him; and so it is with us; and it is natural. (5:251)
I am aware that we are protected and shielded by the Almighty; he baffles the world, wards off the storms and tempests for the sake of the righteousness that dwells in the midst of this people. (9:335)
[40] The Father waited until the meridian of time–that is, till the time was half up, before he came on the earth and begat in the flesh the Son of God, who was to be our Saviour. Was every woman qualified to raise that child? No. You will find that Mary was of the Royal Priesthood, which is after the order of God; and he was particular who raised that child, that it might be trained according to his dictation. (6:125)
PRE-EXISTENCE
We grow peaches here, and they are created, and we send them to Sanpete. Don’t they grow before they are sent? Yes, and everything that is upon this earth grew before it came here; it was transported from heaven to earth. (5:137)
Do I fear my God? No; but I love him, and I fear to offend him. He is my Father, and I sprang out of his loins, just as my son William Kimball’s children sprang out of his loins; and every man and woman that has been upon this earth was once in our Father’s loins, just as much as my children ever were in mine; and Jesus was the first born, and we are heirs of our Father and our God, and we will gain the prize through much tribulation. (5:254)
Let me tell you that ten years will not pass away before God will play with this nation as he did with Pharaoh, only worse. (5:254)
A spirit of compassion seizes me the moment I see a repenting child; so it is with our heavenly Father. But the most of parents, when they tell their children to do a thing, and happen to give them a little slap on the ear [41] for disobedience, the next moment they are saying, “O my dear child, I am sorry, let me give you a piece of bread and butter.” Our Father in heaven does not do so, until he sees contrition of heart in His children, for their wrongs. (2:108)
I will refer to brother Morley’s words. He says, “The mind makes the man.” That is true. What is the mind? It is that character that was made and fashioned after the image of God before these bodies were made,–that is, our spirits. What is the mind? It is the spirit that was made before this body. Do you know it? Well, now let me tell you, it is that spirit that makes the man. I care not how humble he is–if his nose is three feet long and all his body was disfigured–I will tell you, if there is a good spirit in that man, and that spirit cultivates wholesome doctrine and lives to God, you love him. (6:31)
I will tell you that some of the most noble spirits are waiting with the Father to this day to come forth through the right channel and the right kind of men and women. That is what has to be yet; for there are thousands and millions of spirits waiting to obtain bodies upon this earth. (5:92)
CREATION OF THE EARTH
Do you suppose this earth was organized and created without labour? No, no more than a piece of crockery-ware is made without hands. We know that that pitcher was made by some being like unto us, and so it was with this earth. (8:243)
Did God produce us? He did, and every son and daughter of Adam upon the face of this earth; and He [42] produced us upon the same principle that we produce one another. And so it is with the fruit of creation. (6:101)
Some say the earth exists without spirit; I do not believe any such thing; it has a spirit as much as any body has a spirit. How can anything live, except it has a living spirit? How can the earth produce vegetation, fruits, trees, and every kind of production, if there is no life in it? It could not, any more than a woman could produce children when she is dead: she must be alive to produce life, to manifest it, and show it to the world. (5:172)
All beings that pertain to this earth, whether visible or invisible, draw their sustenance from it. The heavens and the earth associate together and minister one to the other. If the earthly is separated from the heavenly, or the temporal from the spiritual, then is the earthly or the temporal dead; the one is necessary to the other for a fulness of joy and an endless duration. The earth abideth the law by which we were made, then we forfeit our title to exaltation and eternal lives. The earth is the mother of us all, and from its bosom we are fed, and receive our growth and strength as an infant receives its nourishment from the maternal breast. I want us to obtain power to dedicate and consecrate the earth unto God, that his Spirit may continue upon it for ever; that by this means the earthly may partake of the attributes of the heavenly, and become sanctified and prepared to enter the presence of God. (10:101)
[43]Did you find the seed? No, you did not, the Lord found it; when He came here He brought it with Him, and He told His sons to sow it, and let it increase. (2:160)
Father Adam was instructed to multiply and replenish the earth, to make it beautiful and glorious, to make it short, like unto the garden from which the seeds were brought to plant the garden of Eden. I might say much more upon this subject, but I will ask, has it not been imitated before you in your holy endowments so that you might understand how things were in the beginning of creation and cultivation of this earth? (10:235)
The religion of Jesus Christ, of angels, of Brigham, and of all good men is to take a care of and improve and adorn the earth as Adam did. When he planted the garden, he planted it with seeds he brought with him; and he also brought the animals from the earth he lived upon, where his Father dwelt. (8:244)
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
This is the Gospel of Christ that we preach, and it is going to all the nations of the earth; and it will never stop till every ear shall have heard the sound, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Lord. (8:211)
This is the Gospel that was taught you by the first Elders who bore the joyful message to foreign nations; and the moment the Holy Spirit rested upon you in your first introduction into this Church, you actually felt the Spirit of prophecy and revelation. (7:16)
[44]We are acting in the same capacity that the Apostles and Prophets of former dispensations have acted, and our word will have the same effect upon this generation that theirs had upon the generations in which they lived. We have the same God to worship; the same Jesus lives to save, and he has spoken and renewed this covenant to us and for us, and to remain with us forever and forever. (9:130)
You know it is written that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. I can tell you something in connection with this: you may believe what you please–it will do you no good unless you practise it. (8:327 and 9:126)
The gospel is the power of God unto all that obey, not unto all the believe, for the devils believe. (12:188)
We know the Gospel is true, and so did Lucifer know it; but did that save him? No, it did not; but it was the power of God unto damnation. (8:212)
We know that this work is true, and if you don’t know how to take a course that will bind you to it, plead with and ask God until you do get knowledge for yourselves, until you can bear the same testimony as we do. When you can do that, you will have favor with God, He will prosper you here and multiply His blessings upon us, until we are redeemed and prepared to enter into His glory, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Joseph.
You know the revelation says that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob entered into their glory and exaltation, and they have done this; you can sit down with them by taking the same course that they did. (2:356)
[45]Compared with the hosts upon the earth, only now and then one will receive the Gospel, and after that, only now and then one of those who do receive the truth will be saved by it, and obtain celestial glory. (3:269)
The truth is the same when preached by one man as another. If an idolator should come here and present the truth, its being delivered by him would not make it any less true. (8:244)
By observing strictly the precepts of the Gospel, we can learn how to live forever, and how to receive our tabernacles again in the morning of the first resurrection, to dwell on this earth for ever. To attain the possession of these blessings, we must live worthy of them. (10:101)
We cannot live too long, if we live our religion, worship the Lord our God in the way that pleases him, and continue to be his friends. (7:346)
The Gospel and plan of salvation that I have embraced, is music to me; it is sweet to my body, and congenial to my spirit; and it is more lovely than any thing else I have ever seen since I have been in the world. (2:105)
“Mormonism” is meat and drink to us, it is sweeter than the honey comb; it is life to us, and to the world it is poison. (3:163)
So far as the world are concerned, I care no more about them than I do about the snow that is upon the ground, except they repent and obey the Gospel. They cannot effect anything one way or the other. (8:257)
[46]That man that has engaged and is working for the accomplishment of such a great design as this is, to prepare a place that will be fit and suitable for the Almighty to dwell in for a short time when he comes to visit his servants, ought to feel highly honored and favored of the Almighty. (10:166)
Take upon you the yoke of Christ, and wear it, for it is easy, and the path of the righteous is plain. (8:91)
We shall be the saviors of men sooner or later if we are faithful, and shall have power to redeem and save mankind through the atonement made by Jesus Christ. (10:101)
You have the privilege of saving men temporally and spiritually. Into your hands is committed the power to become saviours of men. We have to save ourselves and others temporally, and then spiritually. (9:136)
If we cannot save a person temporally, it is a very hard case to save him spiritually. (10:102)
Self-preservation is the first great law of nature. It is true, whether it be applied to temporal or spiritual salvation. If a man does not try to save himself through the means which are provided in the Gospel, he cannot be saved. (11:208)
A man will give all he has to save his natural existence for the time being; at the same time he can neglect with perfect impunity the things that pertain to his eternal existence and interests. (7:348)
[47]I am aware that a great many of this people do not realize their responsibilities; many of them do not seem to know that they have anything to do, any further than to take care of themselves, and in many instances that is done very poorly. The people are too careless, and, consequently, never think that there is anything for them to do; but it is just as much the duty of each one of you, whether Elders or members, to put forth your hands, to use your means and your influence for the building up of the kingdom of God, as it is mine or President Young’s, or any other member there is in the Church. (10:164)
[48] Chapter 5
RELIGION
The Church–Zion–First Principles–Faith–Baptism–Holy Ghost–Worthiness
THE CHURCH
Supposing we compare this Church to a tree, and suppose that one-fourth of the limbs are dead, what use are they to the tree? They are lifeless, and consequently the sooner they are taken away the better for the health of the tree. Is there anything lost by lopping off those lifeless limbs? No; for the power and strength that was formerly in the whole tree will enter into that part which is left. Do you not go and clip off the small sprouts, and sometimes some of the bunches of grapes from your vines, in order to make the rest of the vine and the fruit grow larger and stronger? (9:128)
When you undertake to prune a diseased tree, you commence your operations at the root of the evil, and continue to trim it out to the top of the tree, or as far as it extends, and throw the diseased branches into the brush-heap and burn them, as I used to do when I was logging, and then take the ashes and make potash and soap with them, and then cleanse away filthiness with it. This is what I call sanctification. (7:18)
[49]Ye Elders, Apostles, Seventies, High Priests, Bishops, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, never be guilty of that which you have been guilty of once before. If it were not for your ignorance, you would have been cut off from the earth; but, in consequence of your ignorance, I feel as though God would forgive you, if you will never do it again. But if you do it again, your time for repentance is past, and you do not again get pardon. (6:126)
You may take away almost any member from the body, and the head can live, though it may not accomplish the same amount of good as it could if all the members were healthy and in active usefulness. The head is the mainspring of the body, the centre of light and intelligence. Take away the head, and the natural body ceases to live and to be intelligent. If the man who leads us was destroyed, it would very materially affect the body. (7:350)
You will find in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants that these commandments have been renewed unto us. The Lord says in one place, All old covenants have I caused to be done away, and this is a new and an everlasting covenant: it is even that which was in the beginning; it is that covenant which was made in the days of Jesus. It is that same covenant which the Almighty revealed to Father Adam in the garden of Eden; but it has been renewed in these last days, and hence it is a new and an everlasting covenant. If you would only think of it for a little while, you would remember that we imitate many of those things that were done in former dispensations. (9:129)
[50] ZION
Let us go to work and build up Zion as well as build up ourselves, for when we build up Zion we build up ourselves, when we enrich Zion we enrich ourselves. (2:160)
The Zion’s ship that was spoken of to-day, which runs in Snag harbour, has prospered from the first day it was launched, and every man and woman who stick firmly to that ship will prosper from this time henceforth and for ever. That I know, for I have been on board that ship, and am now sailing upon it.
The first time I went to England, I was on board of Zion’s ship, and Joseph came to me while I was sailing, and put into my hand a rod; and I presume, if I have dreamed once of being aboard of that ship, I have dreamed it a hundred times. I have been in it in the midst of dangers and in the most dangerous places. I have seen trees and stumps, mountains and rocks, and everything else that could be placed in her course thrown before her to stop her in her course; but she can sail through a mountain or on dry land as well as upon the water. I have this in dreams; and I will say to the brethren, Just so long as you keep aboard of that ship you will prosper. (7:39)
FIRST PRINCIPLES
The more I do for this cause, the more God will love me–the more he will bless me, and he will give me power over the Devil and over all his imps. Can I do too much for God and his cause? (5:204)
[51]Every word I have heard to-day is salvation and the very quintessence of righteousness, and I assure you that I have enjoyed myself more under what I have heard to-day, than I ever did in the best party that I ever attended. (3:123)
That man who lives his religion will, despite his enemies, receive nourishment from God, and eventually triumph over every foe. (9:42)
Let us be Saints, and keep the commandments of God, and mind our own business. That is my religion. (2:224)
Then, shall I say, leaving all these principles, go on unto perfection? No. They are the fundamental principles of our religion, the same as the 26 letters of the English alphabet are the roots of the written and printed form of our language. Are these principles the celestial law? I know no other. (6:122)
A man has got to have the saving principles of life within him continually. If they do not dwell in him, he is not in a saveable condition, for there is no way to save a man only to plan within him the principles of life; for in the absence of those principles, he is like salt that has lost its saving power, and thenceforth is good for nothing.
You know that salt will not save meat when it has lost its saving principles, and it is just so with us: when a man sins to that degree that he rejects the truth and the principles of righteousness, he is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. (6:185)
[52]Has there been any change in the first principles of the doctrine of Christ as revealed by Jesus himself? No: that doctrine stands good, and will forever remain so. Some suppose that the ten commandments given through Moses have been done away; but I can inform you that they are still in force. (8:329 and 9:128)
FAITH
Will good works produce faith? Yes; there is very little faith without works; and then again, there never was but very little works without faith. (5:172)
Some say that they have not faith, that they cannot believe. What is faith? It is confidence. What is confidence? It is faith. Some people are striving and striving to get faith, when saving faith is simply confidence in God, flowing from walking in obedience to His commandments. When you have confidence in yourself, in any man, woman, or child, you have faith; and when you have not confidence, you have not faith. I believe they are co-partners, and the principle of faith and confidence is synonymous to me. (4:248)
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see, then, how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. (9:76)
[53]I care not for a man’s faith unaccompanied by works, and his works must correspond with his faith. He must be virtuous, and enjoy the Holy Ghost, and the revelations of God, that when a man speaks, you may know it is by the same Spirit, and you will be edified; then you never will be deceived. (7:21)
If you wish to manifest your faith, go and prove that you have faith by your works; for I would not give a dime for all the faith there is without works. (7:171)
The Lord is not bound to feed us, except we take care and do our part. Do you imagine that the Lord will go and raise you a crop of wheat, without your first going and ploughing the ground? (8:252)
The virtue is not altogether in taking a fiddle and playing the tune, but it is something of a job to dance to the tune. (5:275)
BAPTISM
Now let me ask, can we walk with Jesus in the regeneration that is spoken of? But before I proceed further, let me ask, what is the regeneration? I should call it an improvement, or an advancement in the things of God. By some it is said to be the change and renovation of the soul by the Spirit and grace of God. Then, again, it is called the new birth. Titus is somewhat more explicit upon the subject. He says, “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, but the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus [54] Christ our Savior; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” And our Savior speaking to Nicodemus, says, “Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In another place Jesus says:–“Verily I say unto you, that ye which followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. 19:28)
Many other passages might be quoted to show how the doctrine of regeneration was taught by Christ and his Apostles, but these will be sufficient for my purpose at the present. I know that we, the Elders of Israel, are walking with Jesus in the regeneration, and we are becoming regenerated in Christ Jesus, and the blessings of the kingdom are being multiplied unto us day by day, and we shall continue to be enriched for ever and for ever. (10:77)
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: that is only one principle. Baptism alone will not save a man, but the fruits of righteousness will. (8:245)
Being baptized into Christ we put him on and become one with Him, as he was baptized into His Father and became one with His Father; and thus we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are made one with the Father and the Son by observing His word, His law and His ordinances. (11:144)
One would say, I want to be sprinkled; another, I want to have the water poured upon me; and another, I want to be plunged. All right, says the minister, either of these is just as necessary as the other, for none of [55] them are essential to salvation; we only attend to them to satisfy the candidate. Suppose the laws of the United States were made upon this principle, just to suit everybody’s fancy and notions, making laws for every one to do just as he pleased–what kind of laws would they be? What would you think of such a law-making department? (1:35)
I speak of this, that you may understand that your re-baptisms must be agreeable to the order laid down. It is not simply a man’s saying, “Having been commissioned by Jesus Christ, I baptise you for the renewal of your covenant and remission of your sins,” but you must be subject to your brethren and fulfil the law of God. (5:203)
HOLY GHOST
Now, if these are your feelings, for heaven’s sake do not ask the Holy Ghost to dwell with you, when you do not pursue a course to cleanse the body, not only internally, but externally, from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet. You know this is what I believe to be sanctification. (7:17)
The religion which you and I believe in requires us to live by its precepts–to be Saints in very deed. It is life, joy, and peace to those who practise it, and condemnation to those who despise it. (8:256)
We should appreciate our blessings and the gifts that God has conferred upon us, and our affections should be stronger for the Giver of the gifts than they are for the gift.
Where people would think more of the gift than the Giver, I have known hundreds of times of those gifts be-[56]ing taken from them because they did not appreciate the Giver. (9:24)
If you do not take a course to treasure up truth, you never will be prophets and prophetesses; for it is in treasuring up truth, and life, and light. If these principles be in you, and they abound, you will be like a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (6:28)
Every righteous thing that we do in this mortality is a rudimental lesson in the celestial law of our God. Let us go to with our might mind, and strength to abide the celestial law, as it shall be revealed to us from time to time, until we can abide its fulness, that we may ultimately be introduced into the presence of our heavenly Father to dwell with him for ever more. (11:146)
These are some of my views: you are welcome to them, and I charge you nothing for them. I received them from God, and they cost me nothing. And, as far as they are correct, receive them in your hearts, and they shall be unto you as a well of water springing up into everlasting life; and every man, woman, and child will grow and increase by observing them. (6:69)
As for the gift to tongues, I do not speak in tongues often. Can I speak in tongues? Yes, I can speak in a good, beautiful language to this people at any time. Why? Because God gave me the gift, and He does not give gifts to men and then take them away again, so long as those men are doing their duty. They are gifts, and God gives them to men and women; and so long as they improve upon them they do not forfeit them. If they do not improve upon them, the devil takes the advantage and will make it appear like the gifts of God [57] which they have possessed, as nearly as possible, and thus they go overboard.
Can I interpret tongues? Yes, because that gift is in me, and I have not forfeited it. Is it in brother Brigham? Yes, and so is every gift that God ever gave to His ancient Apostles. God has given them to brother Brigham, and He will never take them away from him. He has the Spirit in him, and so have his Counsellors, that can discern your spirits and gifts, whether they are of God or of the devil. When any of you get up to speak in tongues, whether you do so by the power of God or of the devil, I can tell you which source that tongue came from, and if it is from the Lord I can interpret it. (4:170)
WORTHINESS
The more we grow in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, the more are we inclined to extend the blessings of our God to all men, women and children who love Him. We are called to a very exceeding high calling, namely, to be messengers of life and salvation, holding the Priesthood of the Son of God for the redemption of the world. What manner of men ought we to be? Of all men upon the earth our morality should be the best, and our light should not be hid under a bushel but should be on the top of a bushel to be seen of all, that our good works may be known, and that by our good example we may influence others to do good and to trust in and serve God. Every man can exercise an influence for good or for evil in his sphere, and in the circle wherein he moves. (11:143)
Inasmuch as you have come into this Church, and made a covenant to forsake the world, and cleave unto the Lord, and keep His commandments, the Lord will [58] compel you to do it, if it should be in ten thousand years from this time. These are my views, and I know it will be so. (2:151)
Some of you think you have passed through awful tribulations in leaving your mothers and friends. I was glad when I got away from mine, because they persecuted me, and lied about me, and persecuted my brethren; so I was glad to get away from them. But they will see the day when they will be glad to come to brother Heber, and say, “Let me black your boots, clean your horse, or drive your carriage,” &c.
All this enjoyment of the good things of heaven and earth will come by a separation of the righteous and the wicked. There was a time when an eruption took place in heaven, and Michael and his armies arose, and cast out the rebellious portion of the angels from heaven. Don’t you think they got tired of contention, and broils, and tumults? Yes, so they universally agreed to cast it out. We will get tired of it too, in these last days, and we will make a separation between Saint and Sinner. (2:111)
I do not come here with velvet lips, nor with silver lips; my lips are not fixed for silver, nor for gold. I tell you the truth as to what those who will not live their religion may expect, and they cannot expect anything else. As to those who do live their religion, God will make a way for our escape and we will go free. Then I will tell you there will be many a scape goat that we shall always be pleased about, for that will sift this people and cleanse them, and the power of God Almighty will rest on those who remain true and faithful. (4:139)
[59]The faithful love the truth, though it may be told in the most simple manner; it is sweeter to them than honey or the honey comb; they are no more afraid of it than they would be afraid of eating a piece of good honey. And to the same extent that they love the truth plainly and simply told, do they hate a lie, and the more so when it is dressed up in the garb of truth to deceive the unwary. Truth is the sanctifier of those who love it and are guided by it, and will exalt them to the presence of God; while falsehood corrupts and destroys, or, to use a common scriptural figure, it lays the axe at the root of the tree. As the axe cuts down and destroys the fruitless trees that cumber the ground, so do wicked acts destroy and overthrow all who persist in them. (11:209)
Let us love according to the order of God, according to the principles of righteousness and truth. It is not the tabernacle that I love, but the spirit that dwells in it,–not the tenement, but the tenant. Why should I love the poor, sickly, frail body that is daily going back to the dust? Let us place our affections upon spiritual and heavenly things, that endure for ever, and not upon things that are earthly and perish with the using; but let us regard them in the light for which they were created by the Great Creator and Ruler of the universe. (7:350)
If I seek to build up the kingdom of God, from the time I first came into this Church until I lay down my body in the grave, still my spirit is as capable in another state to continue the work in this world. I have come here and received my body to accomplish that which I could not accomplish in spirit; and now I [60] have got to leave this tabernacle to go again into the spirit world to perform a work I cannot do in the flesh, that I may be prepared to receive my body again and enter into the celestial world with the Gods; and if I am faithful, all things are mine, because I have been faithful in my Father’s business. (6:325)
Let us be one in principle, one in righteousness, one in heart and action, seeking in all the pursuits of our lives the chief interest of the kingdom of God; and in doing this we seek the individual interest of the whole, doing unto one another as we would wish others to do unto us under like circumstances; for upon this practice hang the law and the Prophets. Prophets and righteous men and women of all ages have clung to these principles as perfectly as they could in the flesh. That we may attain to the salvation they have gained, it is necessary we should pursue the same course they pursued to gain it. (7:239)
[61] Chapter 6
PREACHING THE GOSPEL
Missionary Work–Public Speaking
MISSIONARY WORK
When I first went forth to preach to the world I suffered a great deal in my feelings, probably as much as any man that ever attempted to preach. When I reflected upon my own inexperience I felt like a child, and I do to-day. For this reason I think much about those young men who have gone forth to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will feel the need of being assisted by the Almighty when they are travelling through the European countries. Part of them are under twenty years of age, and they will realize their dependence upon God more than ever they have done before. (10:239)
When He commands us to go forth and preach His word, and declare His Gospel–faith, and repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, with the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. He says it is the same as though it were spoken by His own voice, and the same condemnation will rest upon the world, and upon those people who hear it and do not abide it, and keep it, and walk in it. This is my testimony, and this is the testimony that God has revealed to us as a people. (2:221)
[62]If the Elders will be faithful, the power of God will attend them in their administrations; but if the people to whom they administer have not repented, they will not receive the remission of their sins, nor the gift of the Holy Ghost; for that Spirit will not dwell with that person who does not honour his calling, and who is not sincere and truly penitent before the Almighty. You may go to meeting and sit from one day’s end to another, and it will not profit you anything, if you do not perform the works of righteousness required by the law of heaven. (9:77)
Now, in all the missions of President Young and myself, there was never a circumstance occurred where men wanted to argue and hold discussion with us, because we presented the plain truth. But when men reason upon things they know nothing about, they get into trouble. It is the duty of the Elders to simplify everything as they can, go down to the roots, and do not take hold of the biggest roots but the small ones, and show them gradually every principle that pertains to eternal life. (8:211)
If this Gospel of the kingdom had been preached in its simplicity by all the Elders, there would have been a thousand in the Church now where there is one. But the Elders preach everything to the world but what they are sent to preach. Instead of going down to the root of the matter, and coming up to the trunk and limbs, they begin at the top and cram it down; yes, they make them swallow the tree top foremost. (8:211)
We are going to call upon young men that have no families this time, and we want them to go and preach by the power of God. We want them to learn to be men, [63] to put away their boyish actions and trust in the living God whom we serve. They will not do this while they stay here to that extent that they will if we send them abroad. We want to send them out into the world among strangers–to place them, as it were, in the midst of a strange ocean where there is no bottom, and you all know there is little danger of a ship that is out at sea when it gets beyond the rocks, but when in the channels and near to the shore there is great danger, and it is with our sons; and, therefore, in order to depend upon the Lord and upon the guidance of his Spirit, we send them into the world to preach the Gospel. Is it not better for your sons to be placed in circumstances where they will have to call upon the Almighty, than it is to allow them to remain here where they are under the droppings of the sanctuary and are continually receiving the counsel of their earthly fathers? You could not confer a greater blessing upon them than to send them into the vineyard of the Lord. It would delight my soul to see my sons and the sons of my brethren following in the footsteps of their fathers. I will also say that it is the greatest blessing that can be conferred upon the mothers in Israel to have their daughters connected to men of this kind. Such mothers will bring forth sons and daughters that will be a crown of glory to their parents for ever. (10:167)
There are many enemies of ours that look upon us as the outcasts of all creation, because of our religion. I expect to see the day when they will have to come and be our servants, and they cannot avoid this. (9:78)
In Tithebarn I stood upon a barrel and preached, and a woman came and took hole of my coat; I said, “What is wanted, lady?” “I want to be baptized.” I [64] jumped from the barrel and baptized twenty-five persons, some of whom are here. That was nineteen years ago, when “Mormonism” was introduced into that nation; I went over about the time when the Church was broken up in Kirtland, and when there were not twenty persons on the earth that would declare that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. (4:108)
I went and performed the mission according to the words of the Prophet of the living God, and was gone eleven months and two days from Kirtland, being on that land eight months and two days, in which time there were about two thousand souls added to the Church and kingdom of God, with the help of Elders Willard Richards, Orson Hyde, and Joseph Fielding.
I was poor and weak, and did not know but a little in regard to this work in the latter days. My knowledge was in proportion to my experience. At the same time, I knew enough, by the help of the Holy Ghost, to confound the wise and to bring to naught the foolish things of this world. God has taken just such weak instruments as myself to bring to pass his great purposes. And you need not find fault with them: if you do, you find fault with God, who sent them. (6:65)
I say to those who are elected to go on missions, Go, if you never return; and commit what you have into the hands of God–your wives, your children, your brethren, and your property. Let truth and righteousness be your motto; and do not go into the world for anything else but to preach the Gospel, build up the kingdom of God, and gather the sheep into the fold. (6:256)
When my son William returns, I want to have another one ready to send; and when he returns, [65] another; and when he returns, another; and when he returns, I want a dozen there. My children I raise to the Lord, and they shall be devoted to his service, or thy cannot prosper. (6:326)
We want to feed the wives and children of those that are gone on missions, as well as to assist those that are now going. We want pork, beef, eggs and butter and all kinds of clothing, and do not forget to bring on your wood and everything that is necessary to make families comfortable. Now, do you not see, by complying with this instruction, you are helping to preach the Gospel as well as those that go abroad for that express purpose? And how blessed are the women that step forth to help to build the Temple of our God! I can see women in this congregation to-day that would have sold all they had to help to build the Temple in Kirtland, and for this they are and will be blest, for the Lord loves a willing heart and an obedient spirit. (10:168)
If we are the elect of God, we should be among that number who will assist to gather the Saints in the last days. It won’t be done again by angels that are said to have wings, but it will be accomplished by those that have hands and feet, and who travel about upon this earth. It is for us who are chosen to administer in the flesh, and men behind the vail minister to us. (9:152)
Now we who hold the same Priesthood that Christ and his Apostles held, who follow him in the regeneration, will also become the saviours of men on earth and in the spirit world; therefore, the thousands slain in the present war are not without hope. It is our calling to preach life and salvation to them even in another existence; and it is our duty so to live that we honour our [66] high calling in this world to be prepared to labour for the souls of men in the next. (9:327)
PUBLIC SPEAKING
When a minister of the truth arises to address a congregation it aids him much when the people give their undivided attention to him; but when their attention is drawn off by some trifling interference that may occur in the house, their minds are closed to the effects of truth, and the spirit of the preacher is grieved, and so is the Spirit of the Lord. (11:209)
You should properly appreciate every thing you hear from every man that speaks from this stand; but memories are often treacherous, and comparatively but few can assemble here to hear for themselves, but when those sayings are printed, you can read, ponder, and reflect upon them at your leisure, and again and again, as your memories may require; and your sons and your daughters will acquire a taste for reading and treasuring up useful knowledge. (4:293)
Let me tell you, gentlemen and ladies, Brigham’s words, and Heber’s words, and Jedediah’s words, and Daniel’s words have been to many of you like the sound of a bell: it is a pretty sound in your ears, but as soon as the sound is gone, it has lost its charms. You have come here and heard the sound, and you know no more about the sound when you have gone away, than though you had never heard it, as good as the people are. (5:180)
I have not the least disposition to talk to you if you do not wish me to, and if you say you do not want me, I will say good morning and go home. It is no pleasure to [67] talk to a people who will not receive what you say. (12:188)
During the short time that I may address you, I wish you to be as still as possible; do not let your minds and eyes go out after the vain things of this world, but concentrate them upon the things of God; be still, calm, composed and full of faith, prayer and good desires, then, if such a spirit prevails, I am perfectly satisfied that before this Conference closes you will feel yourselves very much blessed of the Lord. (10:233)
It is some time since I spoke to this congregation, and it is with me as it probably is with many others, the longer I sit, and the less I say, the more I am troubled with fear. Is it the fear of God? No. It is a kind of a fear of the world–a fear of man. Now there is scarcely a person but what has more or less of these feelings, at times. I recollect often hearing brother Joseph Smith say that many times his legs trembled like Belshazzar’s when he got up to speak before the world, and before the Saints. (2:220)
It is a great deal harder to speak to the people in the afternoon than it is in the forenoon, because they generally come together after partaking of a hearty dinner; and that, in connection with the word they receive in the forenoon, fills them up, and they are somewhat like a barn that is nearly full of hay; for you know it is a great deal harder to put in the last load of hay than it is the first. (5:7)
I can live my religion, whether at home or abroad, whether I sit here, preach to the people, or do anything else that pertains to my calling and position. If it is [68] necessary for me to preach, I rejoice in doing it, or in the performance of any other duty. (9:77)
My feelings are that I may be like clay in the hands of the potter, or like a fiddle in the hands of the performer. I am not going to dictate God, but I feel to say, Father play through me in a manner that shall be for the salvation of this people. These are my feelings all the time and my prayer, and that should be the prayer of every man, and not get up here, as almost every man does, and say, “I am no preacher, I am not an eloquent man, I have not got silver lips,” and this and that. We know all this, and what do you want to tell of it here for? It is like a fiddle’s getting up here to make an excuse for the fiddler. I would knock a fiddle into a cocked up hat, if it should undertake to dictate me, would not you, brother Smithies? Brother Smithies is our chorister and is a very modest man, but he would not permit the fiddle to dictate him. I do not like to hear the Twelve, the High Priests, the Seventies, the Bishops, nor any member in this Church and Kingdom who has got the Priesthood, get up here to make apologies. (4:225)
Do you ever hear me get up here and say, “I am no preacher and you must not expect anything from me?” I am in the hands of God, and it is for Him to speak through me, or in other words play a tune on me to this people according to His own fancy. I am in the hands of the potter; and if I continue faithful, he will make me a vessel unto honor.
I wish you Elders to apply this illustration to yourselves–if you have anything to say, say it; and if you have not, be as quiet as the musical instrument without the performer. (3:113)
[69]When I arise to speak, I have never a premeditated subject; I let God, by the Holy Ghost, dictate me and control me, just as a musician would his violin. It is the player on the instrument that plays the tune; the instrument does not dictate the player. (5:172)
You know I am called simple. Well, I wish I was simpler and could convey things with greater simplicity that I do. Why? Because I have not a spirit within me to wish to talk one word to you except good sense, and light, and information, and instruction to the child that sits before me to-day. (6:29)
If you will visit a stone quarry, you will find they use the simplest instruments to crack and remove the largest rocks; so the Lord uses the simplest of His servants to accomplish some of His greatest purposes. (3:113)
[70] Chapter 7
ISRAEL
The House of Israel–Latter-day Saints–The Gathering of Israel–Oneness and Unity of Saints
THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL
If we will take this course and be one, we shall rule the house of Israel, and everything on the earth will be subject to us. This is the doctrine that has been taught us all the time. (6:102)
That man that has engaged and is working for the accomplishment of such a great design as this is, to prepare a place that will be fit and suitable for the Almighty to dwell in for a short time when he comes to visit his servants, ought to feel highly honored and favored of the Almighty. (10:166)
As members of the body of Christ we are called upon to labor and to do our part towards building up his kingdom, and should all have equal interest in that kingdom. We manifest our attachment to the principles of progress and improvement, both of which are intimately connected with the building up of Zion, when we plant orchards and vineyards, and when we make good gardens, good farms, and when we build good houses; in doing all of which we get a liberal reward as we go [71] along. Then let us stretch forth our hands and build up the towns and cities of Zion. (10:235)
The day is not far distant when you will see us as free as the air we breathe, and we will be ruled by those men whom God Almighty appoints. (9:7)
Let us be more diligent than ever in building and improving, in cultivating the earth, and raising from it wheat, corn, flax, cotton, fruit,–everything necessary for our comfort and the sustenance of life–sheep, and cattle, and horses, and all kinds of useful animals. Cease to cultivate the earth, and it is impossible for us to exist in life. It supplies us food and clothing, silver and gold, and precious stones; yea, everything to comfort and bless our mortal existence–everything to adorn, beautify, and embellish. Let us, then, by a diligent and judicious cultivation of Mother Earth, and by a careful husbanding of her products, work our way into permanent independence as a people. Industry and true economy are the elements of the independence of any people. If every man in this kingdom would pursue this wise and profitable course, there would not exist among us much more trouble. (7:347)
Am I afraid that we shall be overcome? No, I am not. I never have, to my knowledge, had a feeling in my heart, from the day that I came into this Church unto the present time, that this kingdom would be overcome; neither have I now. But there are people here; and a people will grow out of this people that will stand forever. (6:102)
There is no man upon the face of the earth that will be favorable towards Zion and towards this people, but [72] what he will prosper temporally as well as spiritually. (2:156)
That is the blessing of a Patriarch, to bless the house of Israel. I bless you as a people–not only this people here today, but I bless all that are in the east, west, north, or south. God bless our head and every member that is attached to it! Bless the house of Israel, with the head of the vine, and with every wine and every branch that pertains to it, with every particle of fruit, that it may be choice in the house of God in these mountains. (6:38)
If the day has come for there to be a collision between us and the United States and the world, they will come, you may depend upon it, because God will stir them up; but if the time has not come, they do not come here; so you may set your hearts at rest. (5:174)
I am aware that a great many of this people do not realize their responsibilities; many of them do not seem to know that they have anything to do, any further than to take care of themselves, and in many instances that is done very poorly. The people are too careless, and, consequently, never think that there is anything for them to do; but it is just as much the duty of each one of you, whether Elders or members, to put forth your hands, to use your means and your influence for the building up of the kingdom of God, as it is mine or President Young’s, or any other member there is in the Church. (10:164)
If we are in the vine of Christ, we shall bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and our works will be performed daily according to the requirements of the [73] law of God. Except we live daily in the line of our duty, and keep the platter clean inside as well as out, we cannot obtain the blessings promises. If we take this course, we shall live and prosper, and bear off the kingdom independent of those that do evil, for God will nourish and cherish those who do right. (8:329)
LATTER-DAY SAINTS
The Lord has led us up stairs until we have entered into the chamber; and, for heaven’s sake, let us not pollute it, for fear we should be led down stairs again. (7:19)
Though, doubtless, there are men who profess to be Latter-day Saints that are thieves. And as I said the other day to a person while talking on this matter, if a man will steal from a Gentile, he will steal from me, and vice versa. An honest man will be honest with all men. (11:96)
Will a good apple tree produce a thorn or a thistle? No, it never will. But notwithstanding this, I believe there are a great many thistles that call themselves apples; yes, many that are briars, thistles, and other useless things they ought not to be. (8:250)
If we exercise upon the gifts we possess in simplicity as little children, striving to do good to one another, and to build up the kingdom of God upon the earth, then we shall be entitled to greater gifts and greater blessings. (11:209)
Why bless you, this people will live and look better without bread than the wicked can with it. (3:263)
[74]If you all live your religion and are faithful to the end of your days, that proves that you were chosen as were Jesus and John, who were prophesied of many hundred years before they came, as were many others. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was raised up to bear the Saviour. Elizabeth was ordained and set apart to come along near the meridian of time, and so we were ordained to come along near the end of time. (5:34)
This people are a good people, and they are the pride of my heart; and God knows I love to see you do right, and be faithful, and work, and exert yourselves, and do good, and work righteousness all the day long, and not impose upon the Church and upon your brethren, and want them to carry you on their shoulders, and expect them to pity you and coax you and flatter you. (6:325)
There are thousands of men in the house of Israel, and among the Elders of Israel, that are now considered to be small men, and not of much account, that will supersede, eventually, thousands of men who may now think that they are the smartest.
I am going to talk to you as I would to little children; for there are a great many of you that need to be taught. Go into your gardens and take a cucumber vine, and do you not know that in the latter part of the season you will find the largest and longest at the most extended part of the vine?
Does not that prove, that you who seem to be small now, can become great and mighty men in the kingdom of God,–yes, even Prophets? Does it not prove that you can become great and mighty men, as well as those that are now more intimately connected to the vine? Of course it does. (5:214)
[75]There is not a day passes over my head that I do not bow before the Lord once, twice, or thrice; that is the way I have got to live, in order to be a good man, and retain the light of the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth; and the same faithfulness is required of you, because you are members of the same body and of the same Priesthood. (11:81)
There are thousands of good men in the earth who can act in the same capacity we do, after we have passed through the veil of death. God can qualify whom He pleases, and put in them the spirit of Joseph, and Brigham, and Heber. (3:113)
If this people should consent to dispossess brother Brigham Young as our Governor, they are just as sure to go to hell as they live, and I know it; for God would forsake them and leave them to themselves, and they would be in worse bondage than the children of Israel ever were. (5:161)
If we sin, and do not repent, God will chastise us until we do repent of and forsake all sin; but He never will scourge us so long as we do right. I have said a hundred times that we never shall want for bread, meat, and the comforts of life, worlds without end, if we will only do right. That is my prophecy, and always was; and it is true. (5:20)
I realize that I am a poor man–a worm of creation; but I just know that when I dwell in the truth–in Jesus Christ,–when I dwell in his light and partake of his Spirit, I am right. I would give more for one hundred men of this character than I would give for this whole people, if they were not of that character. Can they whip [76] the world? Yes; men of that character will whip everything that can be put on that road, from this place to Dan, and from there to Beersheba. (5:255)
I know, as well as I know my name is Heber C. Kimball, that a spirit of kindness in a man will beget the same in his animal, in his child, or in persons over whom he exercises control. The Holy Ghost in the people of God will control not only our domestic animals, our families, our servants, and our handmaids, but it will control the armies of men that are in the world, the mountains, seas, streams of water, tempests, famines, and pestilence, and every destructive power, that they come not nigh unto us, just as much as we can keep sickness from us by the power of faith and prayer and good works. (7:330)
Don’t you suppose that the Lord will send his angels to sustain this people? Yes, he will; and if he has to knock these mountains, by which we are surrounded, into ten thousand pieces, in order to accomplish his purposes, he will do it. (8:332)
Let us be one; let us try and live so that all will be as one man, or one drop of water, and thus partake of each other’s principles and attributes, and of the attributes of God, that angels may be our associates by night and by day.
If this people will take this course, and live their religion in all things, I can prophesy in the name of Israel’s god that you will never have to fire a gun, for the Lord will send his angels to do the work of destruction among the wicked. The Almighty will lead the wicked as a man leads a horse, at pleasure. (8:257)
[77]If we are faithful, the victory will be ours; and all the combined powers of the wicked nations of the earth, aided by all the devils from the infernal regions, cannot remove this people out of their present location, neither can they stay the progress of the work in which we are engaged; but it is the wickedness that will rise up in the Church that will cause us trouble. It is now as it was in the days of Jesus and the Prophets. (8:258)
Brethren, be of good cheer, lift up your heads and your hearts in purity before God, and rejoice in the strength of the Holy One of Israel, for the wicked shall not overcome, but we will ride off victoriously and sing songs of praise and triumph. (8:258)
Brethren, our enemies never will inhabit these valleys if we do just as we are told from this time forth; and we will inhabit these valleys and will have power and victory over our enemies from this time henceforth and for ever. (5:334)
And if this people do right, you will live for ever and prosper and aggrandize these valleys. Well, now, will you stop increasing? When you stop increasing, that is the end of you; when you stop multiplying, that is the end of you; when you stop improving, that is the end of your improvements. (5:335)
Brethren, do keep the commandments of God and live your profession; and remember if you were as godly and as holy as the angels, the world would speak against you and seek your destruction. (3:113)
They did not know what we were; they, no doubt, thought we had horns on our heads: they had no idea we [78] had eyes and legs like human beings; but they supposed we were some kind of nondescript animal. (7:20)
If the Lord tells us to do anything and our enemies hinder us, the Lord will require it at their hands and they must pay that debt, and fully satisfy the demands of justice. (10:102)
But every man and woman who shall raise a weapon against this people, or devise evil against them, my prayer is, that they may be cursed; and they certainly will be cursed, and God will frustrate all their designs, and he will lead his people on from victory to victory until they triumph over all their enemies. (7:19)
I never had a bloodthirsty spirit; for I never fought in my life, but I always yielded before I would have any difficulty with any man. But let the Spirit of God Almighty rest upon me, and see if I do not walk up to the battle’s front. (7:21)
Let every person be filled with a desire to excel in every good word and work, and strive to become foremost in making good improvements, laying aside everything that is unnecessary, and cleaving to that which is useful and necessary to give us power and independence among the nations of the world, and favour with God and angels who will bear us off victoriously. (9:328)
Brethren and sisters, God bless you! May the Lord God Almighty bless you, every one; and you may consider the blessing just the same as though I had my hands upon your heads; for every one of you shall be blessed who will do right and uphold his servants. (5:278)
[79] GATHERING OF ISRAEL
Now when I went to England the first time I did not say anything about the gathering. About ten days after I had baptized brother George D. Watt, he came to me, his face shining like that of an angel, and, said he, just as sure as the Lord lives the Saints will gather to America. I told him to prophecy on, for I knew it was of God. I name this circumstance to show that the Spirit make manifest to individuals many things which they have never before heard. (10:245)
You Elders of Israel are the very men that will have to bring the sons and daughters of Israel from afar, and nurse them at your side; and you mothers will have to be those very queens that will have to take care of them when they are gathered, if you will honour your calling. (9:28)
As it was anciently, so it is in this age, the Saints must come to the mountains, the depot of the kingdom of God to get their blessings and prepare them for the future glory of Zion. (10:78)
This land is blessed above all other lands: it was foreordained to be the gathering-place of the Saints, where the Lord would hide up his people until his indignation should pass over the nations of the earth. You have heard us say that all the world and hell combined cannot get us out from these mountains, and I say the same to-day. (9:52)
[80]We are here at home in the tops of the mountains; and there was joy in heaven when we embraced the truth and were gathered into this safe fold. The sheep that are still scattered need our aid and pity. (10:101)
God has set to his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which are of the house of Israel, and to gather his elect from the four quarters of the earth. That kingdom is established with its authorities and powers agreeably to the will of God, and they are in the mountains, and all the combines powers of earth and hell can never get them out. They will never leave this land until the Lord God Almighty commands them to go, and then they will go where He directs them. (8:273)
I know that this is the place of gathering, and I know that thousands, and tens of thousands, and millions will flock to this land, for wherever the carcass is, they will come with their budgets under their arms, I know that. (4:207)
Two companies have come through safe and sound. Is this the end of it? No; there will be millions on millions that will come much in the same way, only they will not have hand carts, for they will take their bundles under their arms, and their children on their backs, and under their arms, and flee; and Zion’s people will have to send out relief to them, for they will come when the judgments come on the nations. (4:106)
If we try to gather the poor, the Lord and his angels will help us and open the way before us, and as we return with the poor Saints to this land he will shut up the way behind us. (10:102)
[81]It is our duty to feel for those that are scattered abroad in the world, and that are poor, but who desire to gather to the promised land. We used to pray, O Lord, put it into the hearts of thy people to do unto us as we want to have them do. Now it is our turn; we are gathered home to Zion, and we are able to assist our poor brethren that are poor and unable to bring themselves. (9:373)
Some say it is rather discouraging to gather this people, because so many of them apostatize and deny the faith, but we should remember that Jesus says:–“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50.
Now, supposing I should be at the expense of gathering ten persons and bringing them home to Zion, and by so doing I save one righteous man, will not that secure me a reward hereafter? I say it will. (9:372)
Again, if those who go forth to preach the Gospel could speedily gather every one of the Saints from Europe, Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea, and from wherever they are scattered, there would be twenty thousand, yes, fifty thousand, converted, where there now are not ten. The lingerers are right in the gate, like a dog in a manger; they will neither eat themselves nor let anybody else eat; and they are an offence in the eyes of the world, and they block up the work from rolling on. I wish they were gathered into a brush heap and [82] burned, that is those who ought to be burned, and the rest gathered with us; for the Lord, in the very first start of this Church, said, “All those who have entered into covenant with me, and come into my Church, let them gather themselves together into one place.” Still, do you not see how desirous people are to scatter here and there, and not go as they are told; but they are for getting off by themselves, to partake of the spirit of the world, and the spirit of selfishness; and they want to own everything there is, that no person or being can get within miles of them. (2:159)
Yes, I feel many times to weep and am sorrowful, and I can hardly sleep at night; and if I had Gabriel’s trump, I would speak to the Saints of all nations, and I would say, Gather! gather! and do not wait even for a handcart to be made. I feel this in my soul. Do the world believe it? Do the Latter-day Saints believe it? No. Many of them are lifeless, and have no energy at all. (7:168)
ONENESS AND UNITY OF SAINTS
Let this people pray for the same Spirit of the Father that rested upon the Patriarchs and Prophets, Jesus and his Apostles, upon Joseph and Brigham, and his brethren; for you never can become one unless you obtain that Spirit of oneness.
You have heard brother Brigham preach it here time and time again, and other men, that a scattering spirit was not the Spirit of God; and I know it is not. A spirit in a man’s family that don’t gather with him and act with him–is that the same kind of a spirit he possesses? No; it is the spirit of evil, and one that will lead a man or woman to death and destruction; and they cannot prosper who encourage it. (4:362)
[83]I have a right to throw in my property in connection with brother Brigham’s, and he with me, and then occupy it for ever, and let the avails thereof increase our riches; and if every other man would take the same course, it would be far better for us. If we cannot be one in temporal things, how can we be one in spiritual things? (5:89)
What do you say to our being one, and clinging together? I speak to the brethren; I do not expect any woman will stick to me only my wives; if the women of every man stick to him, as the men stick to me, then we shall all be stuck together, and live together, and reign together, and get rich together, and increase together, and build up together, and be as one man in all things. Would we not be a happy company? It is that alone that will make you truly happy; and to be perfectly limber in the hands of the potter like clay. (2:154)
As long as we are one, and every man doing his duty before God we have no cause to fear anything the world can do against us; but if we are divided, it will be with us as it was with the people of God of old, he suffered their enemies to come upon them and overthrow them because of their sins. (9:298)
If you are not one, you are not mine. For instance, suppose I come into this stand and offer up a prayer, it is the duty of all present to join with me not only in the sentiments, but to actually allow the very words to pass silently through their minds. In this way we become one; our faith is united, and we answer the requirement of the law of God. (8:329)
[84]Many wish for the time when President Brigham Young and his brethren will be relieved from attending to temporal matters, and attend to spiritual matters altogether. You will have to wait for this until we get into the spiritual world and have to deal with spirits. (7:21)
My brethren and myself have often reflected and remarked upon the happiness we should enjoy when we could fully separate ourselves from the world, from wicked men, wicked women, and wicked practices. (7:18)
The spirits of the Saints will be gathered in one, that is, of all who are worthy; and those who are not just will be left where they will be scourged, tormented, and afflicted, until they can bring their spirits into subjection and be like clay in the hands of the potter, that the potter may have power to mould and fashion them into any kind of vessel, as he is directed by the Master Potter. (3:161)
One half of the people we gather may not be true Saints, but that makes no difference, for if there is not more than one Saint to ten who profess to be Saints, the Almighty will preserve the ten unworthy persons for the sake of the one good Saint. For the sake of a few true-hearted Saints travelling in a large company, the Lord will preserve their ships, the cars they travel on, and their teams; this I know from actual experience from the first day I entered into this Church to this day. (10:102)
My feelings are for us to wake up as a people, every one of us; and, instead of taking a course to throw away our substance, let us gather together; for, so sure as this people will do this, they will be blessed, and God will [85] hold the nations by the bit, as you hold a horse. If we are faithful, He will do it,–mark my words. God will hold the world by the bit, and they cannot help themselves. If we will do right from this time henceforth they never can move or take a step against us, but what they will fail in it; and I know it. (4:329)
[86] Chapter 8
REVELATION
The Spirit of God–Communication between God and Man–Prophecy–Angels
THE SPIRIT OF GOD
The Spirit of the Lord giveth line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little for the comfort of the Saints. These are given to you to improve upon. (8:253)
A single man can accomplish more with the power of the Spirit of God, than this whole people can, if they will not do right. (2:110)
It is a great consolation to me to have that degree of the Spirit of the Lord to discern all things and be able to tell what is true and what is untrue. (6:323)
There is brother Pratt, in England, and the brethren that preside there: let those men do as the Spirit of God dictates them without being carried off by some other spirit, and they will never go astray–no, never, although they are nine thousand miles from here. (5:135)
It gives me a great deal of satisfaction when I hear a man tell the mind of the Lord, and I can have a [87] testimony to myself that it is the mind and will of God, I then know that I have got a similar spirit to the one that revealed it. (6:322)
I know that I am a stronger man when the Spirit of God is resting upon me than I am at ordinary times; and I know, when I get angry, that it makes me weak–it takes away my strength.
This is the way you feel; for that Spirit makes you mighty and powerful, and fear leaves you. Fear has torment, and torment makes a person weak, and vexes him, and perplexes him, because it is the principle of death. (6:105)
When the Holy Ghost dwells in us it will enable us to discern between right and wrong, will show us things to come, and bring things to our remembrance, and will make every one of this people prophets and prophetesses of God. (4:119)
This is the religion of Jesus Christ as taught in these books–the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and it is in accordance with that which is in my breast, and which is a better book, for it is life in Christ; and that living being that receives light and intelligence from the heavens through the revelations of the Holy Ghost is a living oracle. It is the living Oracle that is within us that will guide us in the way of life. (8:86)
Now, if I have got the Holy Ghost in me, I am dictated by the Father, and by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost; and everything is clean and right between me and the Father. Then what is there to hinder me asking the Father, in the name of Jesus, and receiving, if all is [88] right and there is no obstruction?
If there is an obstruction, that obstruction is not in the Father, it is not in Jesus, neither is it in the Holy Ghost; but if there is an obstruction, it is in me. (5:248)
No man can please the Lord God, only as he is dictated by the Holy Ghost; and he will not stay with you unless you keep in view the Father and the Son. (6:122)
Now, I know that, when the Holy Ghost is upon me, all things look natural to me, and as if I had been familiar with them before. (9:134)
The Spirit that is on me this morning is the Spirit of the Lord; it is the Holy Ghost, although some of you may not think that the Holy Ghost is ever cheerful. Well, let me tell you, the Holy Ghost is a man; he is one of the sons of our Father and our God; and he is that man that stood next to Jesus Christ, just as I stand by brother Brigham. (5:179)
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN
Bless my soul, look at the unbelieving world, that is a great many of them, they now believe in spiritual knockings, spiritual communications, and spiritual rappings, and they will ask the same spirit for this, and for that; to know this, that, and the other; and, “Won’t you cause that table to kick up its legs, and that chair to dance, and cause a knocking here, and a knocking there?” They believe all this, still they do not believe that God can communicate. And at the same time those that they communicate with are corrupt spirits, and [89] they might know it, and still they say they can speak from the heavens, and communicate this, that, and the other, and tell them where their friends are. If wicked spirits can do this, I want to know, on the same principle, if the righteous have not power to communicate to the children of men? And has not God power to do it? He has.
The whole world is now enthusiastic in these things.
I never heard a knocking, or saw a table dance, only as I kicked it myself. I do not want them knocking and dancing around me. (2:222)
My prayer is that our hearts may become pregnant with the word of God and with the power of God, showing our connection with God, with Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Ghost, with the angels, and with the prophets and apostles that dwell in heaven. (10:103)
When a man backslides and loses the spirit of the Gospel, it is a hard case for that man to redeem himself and gain that communion with his God, with angels, and with the Holy Ghost, which he had in the beginning. (11:96)
There is not a day passes over my head but I bow before my Heavenly Father in secret, and plead with him to bless you, to bless the Saints and the Elders, abroad among the nations, to give his angels charge concerning them, that they may have power over every evil and over all the enemies of Christ. This is my prayer. I am pleading continually for the work of our Father to be carried on, and for his will to be done upon the earth as it is done in heaven. (8:87)
[90]In Salt Lake City there are a few who have been waked up to diligence, and the result is that they have got a nice variety of apricots, peaches, plums, apples, strawberries, currents, gooseberries, and some have got cherries and pears. Now I want to see you do these things here that you may make yourselves happy and comfortable, and also that you may place yourselves in a situation that our Father and God can send his angels to visit and to bless you. Don’t you think that angels would like to see a garden around your houses if they were to come and visit you? (10:237)
We cannot live the religion of Jesus and not pray. I have had an experience in this Church of some thirty-two years. I commenced to pray before I heard of the Work of the last days, and I have prayed every day from that day until the present time. I have never been in a circumstance or place wherein I could not pray, if I was disposed to do so. As faith without works is dead, being alone, so our religion is of no benefit to us without prayer. (11:81)
Has the Lord spoken to me? He has. I have heard His voice and so have you; and when you hear my voice, and it is dictated by the Holy Ghost, you hear the voice of God through me, but you do not believe it. (12:190)
The people of the world do not believe in revelation from God, and they believe that Joseph Smith was a fool to pretend to have revelation direct from heaven, but still they are all engaged in this matter, in getting revelations from evil, corrupt, and comparatively ignorant spirits, and wicked men. Some became spiritual writers by a spirit taking their hand, and writing without their consent. I do not thank any person to take my hand and [91] write without my consent; we do not like such proceedings. (2:223)
Brother Brigham has said that the living oracles or the revelations of the Holy Ghost should dwell in every man, and in every woman.
It is necessary that every person should possess the Spirit of revelation, in order to understand and properly appreciate the teachings and instructions given to them by the living oracles of God on earth. (9:298)
Brethren and sisters, I exhort you above all things to hold fast to your integrity, seek for righteousness and cleave unto it, and if you see anything that is contrary to these holy principles among this people, you may know that it is not good. There is no person in this Church who can increase in the knowledge of God, in the spirit of revelation, in the gift of prophecy, in visions or in dreams, unless they cleave unto God with full purpose of heart, but by being faithful these gifts will be multiplied unto the Saints. (10:245)
How can you find out whether brother Brigham is called of God, except you have a revelation from God? And then some are not fully satisfied, but will doubt the revelation that God has given them.
You think you would not. I have known many who have. Oliver Cowdery received revelations and wrote them; so did David Whitmer, and so did Thomas B. Marsh. About the time he was preparing to leave this Church, he received a revelation in the Printing Office. He retired to himself, and prayed, and was humble, and God gave him a revelation, and he wrote it. There were from three to five pages of it. There were from three to five pages of it; and when he came out, he read it to brother Brigham and me. In it God told him [92] what to do, and that was to sustain brother Joseph and to believe that what brother Joseph had said was true. But no; he took a course to sustain his wife and oppose the Prophet of God, and she led him away. (5:28)
Prophets! There is not a man or woman in this congregation, if they live their religion and have the Holy Ghost upon them, but what are prophets, every one of them. I feel as Moses said to a certain class that had the sweeny; they were superstitious, and could not bear to hear any men and women prophecy but themselves: they complained to Moses of a certain person prophesying; and said he, “I wish to God they were all prophets.” I wish to God you, brethren and sisters, were all prophets and prophetesses; you may be, if you live your religion; you cannot help yourselves. (5:88)
PROPHECY
All those who possess this Spirit cannot help becoming Prophets, and it would be as much in their nature to prophecy, as it is in the nature of the fountain of City Creek to give out its constant supply of water; and that fountain depends upon another for its supplies. So the Holy Ghost taketh of the things of the Father, and revealeth them unto us. (7:346)
By the Spirit of prophecy you can become acquainted with things to come, and declare them to the Saints by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. When men prophesy with this Spirit upon them, they will come to pass, for the Holy Ghost cannot lie. (9:134)
When I place myself passively, like a violin in the hands of a performer, and let the Almighty lay His bow [93] upon me, can He play a good tune upon a rusty fiddle? I have seen and heard a good musician produce some of the best music on an old rusty instrument. It does not matter if you hold out till your hair is as thin as mine, you will have to acknowledge that it is God who gives us wisdom and furnishes us unto good works. (3:56)
Now, supposing that I had not the spirit of prophecy upon me, then I had better sit down. If a man gets up here and lets the Spirit of God dictate him, he cannot help prophesying, for the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of prophecy, and he will foretell future events, and you cannot help it. (4:338)
I have heard Joseph say many times, that he was much tempted about the revelations the Lord gave through him–it seemed to be so impossible for them to be fulfilled. I do not profess to be a Prophet; but I know that every man and woman can be, if they live for it. To enjoy this blessing they must walk in the channel of the Priesthood, being subject to the order and government of heaven; then they are all revelation and they cannot predict anything that will not come to pass. All that hinders you from enjoying this blessing is because you are not obedient. (3:112)
ANGELS
Now, I assuredly know it to be true that angels are ministering spirits to minister to men who are heirs of salvation.
Now, God says, in another part of his word, that he will reason with us. But how will he do this, unless we are submissive like clay in the hands of the potter? He says he will do it before the world, the philosophers, the [94] kings, and the nobles. He says he will do it before all these, if we will be subject to him. We have all been to see a theatrical performance; but you don’t see it, except you look. Well, a prompter is there; for sometimes the performers forget their pieces: then the prompter is ready to help them out, as he stands behinds the vail. Just so it is with angels. They are not in sight; we do not see them; but in the very hour that we need them they are here as the ministers of the covenant to inspire and guide us aright. (7:167)
It is written that where the Holy Ghost takes up its abode the Father and Son will come and abide. That is the God whom I serve, one who has millions of angels at His command. Do you suppose that there are any angels here to-day? I would not wonder if there were ten times more angels here than people. We do not see them, but they are here watching us, and are anxious for our salvation. (3:230)
We read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants that when Peter and James desired to depart, John desired to tarry, that he might accomplish a greater work. “Well,” says the Lord, “you may have your wishes, and, as John wants to tarry to do a greater work, I will authorize you, James and Peter, to assist my servant John to perform a good work while he shall tarry.” Now, if John has angels to administer to him, why not other men who are servants of the living God? It is just as reasonable that they should. (2:157)
Men are made a little lower than the angles for the suffering of death, but when men are clothed with the holy priesthood and sent forth to minister the word of life, the comparison between them and the angels is [95] somewhat different. “And of his angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” While in the act of ministering the Gospel, the servants of God may be considered angels. “Be not forgetful to entertain angels unawares.” The servants of God are angels in one sense, sent forth to gather the house of Israel from the four corners of the earth; and the Elders of this Church in their labors have fulfilled, partly, the sayings of the Savior, when they have found two working in the field, one has received the Gospel and been gathered, and the other left; two working in a mill, one has been taken and the other left; two lying in a bed, the one has been taken and the other left. But no doubt these sayings will have their final and complete fulfilment about the time of the second coming of the Savior. (10:103)
Let us endeavour to live up to our privileges; then the world have nothing more to do with us than they have with the angel of God whom they never saw. Know ye not, brethren and sisters, that you are angels to the present generation as well as those behind the vail? (9:152)
What a joy it would be to me if my family were in such a state of mind that an angel would come and tell me, “On such a day I will meet with you, and your wives, and your children, if you will sanctify yourselves.” Would not that be a joy and a consolation to me? Do I disbelieve such visitations? No, no more than I disbelieve that an angel came to Joseph and Oliver, to Abraham of old, and to many others. (5:204)
The Lord sent three angels to watch over Abraham and Lot anciently. They stayed with Abraham, and [96] Sarah baked a cake a-piece for them; Abraham killed a calf, and supplied butter and milk to refresh them, after they had washed their feet. Jacob, on one occasion, wrestled with an angel all night long, but could not throw him. Jacob had hold of a being full of spring and power like unto a man, and he did not know the difference; he was a man and an angel. (10:103)
Who have you now in your midst? Have you Abraham and Isaac, and the Apostles Peter, James and John? Yes, you have them right in your midst–they are talking to you all the time. Do you believe it? More or less of you say you do. But do you know it? (3:109)
Who are angels? They are sanctified men who once lived upon this earth and held the Priesthood just as we do now, and who are co-workers with us. (10:237)
Who are His angels? They are men who stood fast through tribulation; they are prophets and apostles and patriarchs who once lived upon the earth, and bore testimony of the truth of the Gospel of the Son of God, the same Gospel that we preach. (10:102)
Let us take a course that will be pleasing to our Father, and lay aside our follies and our sins, and obtain favour with our God, that his angels may come and associate with us. They would do so now, if you would believe and practice that which is laid before you day by day. (5:204)
I would like to see every soul of you doing right and carrying with you a holy influence. I feel as honourable, and yet as humble, as if I were in the presence of God and his holy angels.
[97]There are some of our people who do not believe that angels have anything to do with us; but I can tell you that angels are here to-day. Who are they? They are men who hold the same Priesthood as President Young and his brethren. they are engaged in this work individually and collectively. They are the characters who watch over you Seventies and Elders: they want to save you and bear you off victoriously. I know this, for they have been with me and administered to me. (8:258)
[98] Chapter 9
THE PRIESTHOOD
Power of the Priesthood–Priestcraft–Blessings and cursings–Ordinances–Covenants
POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD
We have the Priesthood of the living God in our midst, that Priesthood which is after the order of Melchizedek; it is the authority which God instituted in the beginning, and there is no salvation nor exaltation without it. If the present generation wish an exaltation in the kingdom of God, and desire the benefits and blessings of the Priesthood of the Most High, they must bow in obedience to the mandates of Heaven. Through this Priesthood the law of God has been revealed to man in this generation, to let mankind know that he still lives, and that he still has a care for his children and watches over them with paternal affection. (10:242)
The same principles, the same order, the same Priesthood, the same gifts, and the same powers are instituted, established and organized in our day as they were in the days of Jesus, and all the reason that people do not see it is because of their traditions; the veil of darkness is over their minds, and they cannot see it. (4:120)
[99]Truth has sprung from the earth, and righteousness has looked down from heaven, and they have met and have kissed each other–they are one. It should be just so with those who possess the holy Priesthood of the Son of God; it never will lead one man to contend against another, and the angels of God never will cause any person to contend about any of the follies of this world, for all the glory of this world is perfectly worthless without God. (11:86)
We are Saints, and we should all live in that manner that would insure us all the blessings that are promised to the faithful Saints. Every man that has received the Priesthood, whether an Apostle, Prophet, High Priest, Elder, Bishop, Priest, or Teacher,–all should live as one man–be of one heart and one mind. (8:107)
I contend that every man that holds the Priesthood ought to be a saviour temporally as well as spiritually, for we are in duty bound to try to save our natural lives. (8:109)
If I obtain all the blessings of the Priesthood, all the endowments, all the blessings that God has to confer upon us in this probation, and keep those things sacred while I live, I am then as pure and holy as it is possible for a man to be while in the flesh. (5:18)
We all have a Priesthood to honor, which it is impossible for us to do unless we honor ourselves; and all who hold the Priesthood and honor themselves, are worthy of honor; and it is impossible to honor the Priesthood in that man and not honor the vessel that holds it. (11:80)
[100] The Priesthood is a gift from the Almighty, and He has placed a portion of it upon me to honor, and if I honor that calling, that Priesthood will honor me, it will magnify me before God, and before the world. (2:157)
I know, as well as I know that I am here, that the Priesthood will be taken from those who dishonour it; for they have no power to hold the oracles of God who do wickedly. They may not all be cut off from the tree, but they are dead, and the Spirit of God does not dwell with them, and therefore there is no life in them. (8:334)
We will say there are a thousand limbs forming the top of a tree, and all have sprung out of one, or out of the body of the tree. From the main stock we will say that the twelve limbs shoot out, and from them a thousand, which are dependent on the twelve limbs for their nourishment, as the twelve limbs are dependent upon the stock and roots for theirs. Should any of the twelve limbs be rotten in the pith or marrow, all the limbs receiving their sap and nourishment therefrom must be affected, more or less, with the same disorder, and they also affect the root. (6:123)
There are thousands and millions of men that will have to become eunuchs, to obtain the kingdom of God, and God will cut off their posterity, so that when they come up in the resurrection they will find their houses left unto them desolate. God will not have their names perpetuated on the earth, because they have forfeited their Priesthood. (4:143)
There are thousands of men and women among the nations of the earth that it will be more tolerable for, in the day of judgment, than it will for you, if you violate [101] your calling and do not honour your priesthood. You know that it was declared that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the children of God who had received the priesthood, and heard the voice of a prophet, and disobeyed it. (5:30)
If we make a bad use of that Priesthood, do you not see that the day will come when God will reckon with us, and he will take it from us and give it to those who will make better use of it. (6:125)
PRIESTCRAFT
The inhabitants of the whole earth are coated over, as it were, with false traditions; which form an almost impenetrable barrier to the shafts of truth. (3:105)
A man who raises up his puny arm against the priesthood of God on the earth, is measuring arms with the Almighty. (10:104)
I do not suppose there are any of the clergy of the present day, though there may be a few score, but what rejoiced the moment they heard that Joseph Smith’s blood was shed. “Thank God,” said they, “that we are liberated from that impostor, Joe Smith, who has caused us so much trouble and alarm.” Thank God, I say, that we are delivered from that Christian nation. Deliver me from their Christianity and from them. (6:130)
Brother Joseph made me think of one thing this morning when he was talking, that we are the very characters that will have to save the poor curses that are trying to kill us. They are trying to destroy that Priesthood that pertains to them as much as it does to [102] me. We have got to save them and they have got to come to us. It is degrading to their feelings; but, as degrading as it is, they will come bending to us. (5:92)
BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS
What an almighty influence our Father and our God will have when He has gathered all His children! Will they control the remaining portion of the human family? They will. As I said that day, and as brother Joseph has said to-day, we hold the keys–that is, brother Brigham and his brethren–they hold the keys of the living and the dead. What! of those that do not belong to this Church? Yes, just as much as those that do; and they cannot get salvation upon any other principle. (5:87)
Do not you suppose that the Lord will send his angels to sustain this people? Yes, he will; and if he has to knock these mountains by which we are surrounded into ten thousand pieces, in order to accomplish his purposes, he will do it. (9:131)
I bless you, and I wish I could make the blessings of God cleave to you like a plaster, that they would never leave you until you become righteous men and women. I bless the earth that we occupy, and the hills and mountains; and I bless every good thing there is; and I curse the ungodly and everything that is attached to them and that will stick to them. (5:34)
I do not fear the world, nor do I fear anything that is in it, for where there is union and concentration with that man whom God has appointed, there is a power that this earth cannot handle. Now the world do not [103] know this, but still they are fearful; there is something out of sight which they fear. (2:158)
I know that this is the work of God, and that we shall triumph. I am going to prophesy good pertaining to Israel, that is, to those that are Israel, for there are a great many who call themselves Israel that are not, and those that are not shall have the opposite. I will prophesy evil upon our enemies, upon those who hate God and kill His servants; may the curse of God be on them. (4:212)
Will the President that sits in the chair of state be tipped from his seat? Yes, he will die an untimely death, and God Almighty will curse him; and He will also curse his successor, if he takes the same stand; and he will curse all those that are his coadjutors, and all who sustain him. What for? For coming here to destroy the kingdom of God, and the Prophets, and Apostles, and inspired men and women; and God Almighty will curse them, and I curse them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to my calling; and if there is any virtue in my calling, they shall be cursed, every man that lifts his heel against us from this day forth. (5:133)
As for the devil and the world, with its combined powers, if they are all arraigned against us, we have power with God to overcome them all.
In the days of Israel, we read that one chased a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight. The Lord would send an influence, perhaps a spirit rapping would get into their midst, and they would go to work and slay one another. Cannot the Lord do the same now? Cannot He turn over mountains, if we were followed up by enemies, and heap them upon them just as easy as I can turn over an apple? (2:357)
[104] Let us go to work and cultivate the earth, and go into the fields, and bless the land, and dedicate and consecrate it to God; and then dedicate the seed, the implements, and the horses, and oxen. Do you suppose that that will have any effect? I know that it will. (5:22)
Then try it, and see if it will not leave a blessing for us to dedicate our lands. If you think that it will not, never bring another bottle of oil and ask us to dedicate and consecrate it for the benefit of the sick. I know that we can bless the land, and that through our blessing it will be filled with the Spirit and power of God, and that, too, in great profusion, especially if we are filled with that Spirit ourselves. (5:22)
He [Joseph Kimball] now lives in the spirit; and I have joy in all these things. I stood near him until he breathed his last; but I could not prevail. This proved to me that I was a poor, weak, frail creature, that I was nothing more than the grass, or as a flower of the field; for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. I have not one particle of power on this earth, only as God gives it to me. (10:372)
ORDINANCES
When our temple is completed, it will be used for the administering of the holy ordinances of God; it will be for the use of the Priesthood to give endowments to the people. It is just as requisite that that temple should be built as it is that we build houses for our wives and children to dwell in, because the service of our God is not so acceptable of Him in a temporary place of worship when His people can make a permanent one after the pattern which is pleasing to Him. (11:144)
[105] It is for the purpose of instructing the Saints that we need the Temple and Tabernacle erected; and thanks be to God that he acknowledges our labors in the small house we are now using for the purpose of giving endowments; and those who keep their covenants made in that house will reap the blessings promised to them; while those who look upon their endowments as a light thing, and trifle with the things of God, will meet with desolation which they cannot avoid; but in doing so they are deceiving themselves and will bring upon themselves sorrow and wretchedness, and finally destruction. (11:145)
Can you change these ordinances? No. They are eternal; they always were and always will be; and no man or woman upon earth can be saved without them. You may get a Methodist priest to pour water on you, or sprinkle it on you, and baptize you face foremost, or lay you down the other way, and whatever mode you please, and you will be damned with your priest. There is but one way, and that is to be buried in water, buried with Christ by baptizing in water, that your sins may be blotted out by one having authority, or else it will do you no good. (5:90)
We are now partaking of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper; when we partake of the bread, let us pray the Father that strength may be given to our bodies that they may not wither, but be strengthened to reach a good old age; when we partake of the wine–or water, which is emblematic of his blood, let us ask the Father that our blood may never be spilled unless it is necessary for the advancement of his Kingdom and the glory of God. (10:102)
[106] We dedicate and consecrate the wine or water that we partake of in the sacrament, and we also dedicate the bread to the Lord; and it should be just so with everything: it should all be dedicated to the Lord; and upon all that we do and put our hands unto, we should ask his blessings. We should never meddle with anything on this earth that we cannot lay our hands upon and bless and dedicate and consecrate to the Lord, that it may be for the accomplishment of what it is designed, and produce the very effects that we desire. (6:187)
When we went on that journey, Joseph told us there was an endowment laid up for us; for what? Because we had done just as we were told; and I can bear testimony that we received that endowment. Have we got through with our endowments? No, we have not; we have only just commenced, merely received the initiative ordinances, and we are only children in these things yet, but if we are faithful, we shall receive all that our hearts can desire, for the Almighty will withhold no good things from them that love him and keep his commandments. (10:76)
Every blessing conferred upon me tends to benefit my posterity. Those blessings are for every righteous man; and the blessings that are conferred upon faithful men and women in their holy anointings and sealings will rest upon their posterity after them for ever and for ever, through their faithfulness; and there is no end to it. (5:18)
Have you not had your endowments, sisters, and been sealed to your husbands? Yes, many of you have, and now let me ask if there is anything more than what you have received, any further ordinances to be re-[107]ceived? Yes, lots of them. There were but a hundred and thirty who received a part in advance of the ordinances of endowment that were revealed by the Prophet Joseph. Bless you, it will be one endowment after another till we pass through the vail into the other world, and until we have passed all the ordeals requisite to prepare us to enter into celestial glory and exaltation. (10:166)
Some will come with great zeal and anxiety, saying, “I want my endowments; I want my washings and anointings; I want my blessings; I wish to be sealed up to eternal lives; I wish to have my wife sealed and my children sealed to me;” in short, “I desire this and I wish that.” What good would all this do you, if you do not live up to your profession and practise your religion? Not as much good as for me to take a bag of sand and baptize it, lay hands upon it for the gift of the Holy Ghost, wash it and anoint, and then seal it up to eternal lives, for the sand will be saved, having filled the measure of its creation, but you will not, except through faith and obedience. (3:124)
COVENANTS
I want you to understand that you make covenants with God, and not with us. We were present and committed those covenants to you, and you made them with God, and we were witnesses. (6:127)
After becoming members of this Church it becomes our duty to set a good example before all men, to pursue a course that will be acceptable in the sight of God and worthy of imitation, and let me encourage every one to be faithful to their covenants, and live pure and holy lives before God. (10:244)
[108] Supposing I had a dozen men employed–men who were devoted to the truth and to my interest, I would say, Boys, attend to your business; do what I have told you, and I will attend to our enemies; I will see to these chaps and flog them to it; I will teach them to attend to their duties, or stand aside. This is the character of our Father: he will defend his own, he will defend his people, he will defend our wives and children, these mountains, and all that cleave unto righteousness. This is the way I view the subject, and I presume that all Israel will say Amen. (9:52)
If you do not overcome your passions here, you have got to do it there. You are not going to step right into the presence of God when you leave this state of mortality; you have got to make many covenants and fulfil them to the very letter. (3:22)
After you have received your endowments, a wicked course will more seriously affect you, it will, therefore, be requisite for you to be much more careful how you trifle with holy principles, and transgress your covenants. (3:271)
There never should be a limb upon a fruit tree that is not bearing fruit. But you will see a great many members in this Church who are not bearing much fruit. Where is there an Elder, High Priest, Seventy, Apostle, or Prophet that is not required to bring forth the fruits of Christ, and those that will redound to his glory? (9:131)
Have not the majority of this congregation made the most solemn covenants and vows that they will listen to, obey, and be subject to the Priesthood? Have [109] not the sisters made the same solemn covenants and vows before God and angels, that they would be subject to their husbands? Are you faithful to your vows? If you are, you will have dreams, and visions, and revelations from the world of light, and you will be comforted by night and by day. But if you do not fulfil your covenants you cannot enjoy these blessings. (3:112)
Arm your boys and arm yourselves universally, and that, too, with the weapons of war; for we may be brought to the test, to see if we will stand up to the line. I never knew it to fail, when men made covenants, but they were brought to the test, to see if they would live up to them. (5:162)
I do feel bad to think that men will enter into the new and everlasting covenant of our God, and then defile themselves with uncleanness. Is there a woman in this city that could have committed the sin of debauchery, if there had been no person to debauch her? No. Who is guilty? The man, who should have the saving principles of God Almighty in him; and he is the man who must pay the debt.
Again: If the woman would never consent, the man could not accomplish his vile purpose. You have been taught different all the day long. You have been taught from your mother’s womb that these things are wrong. Would the Devil have power to make you tell a lie, if you did not yield to him? No. When you consent to it, the Devil then has seduced you, debauched you, just as much as a man goes to work and debauches a woman after she has consented to him. We are agents to refuse or to accept. Who is the most to blame? The man holding the Priesthood of God. (6:126)
[110] Jesus said to his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth; and if the salt loses its saving principle, it is then good for nothing but to be cast out.” Instead of reading it just as it is, almost all of you read it just as it is not. Jesus meant to say, “If you have lost the saving principles, you Twelve Apostles, and you that believe in my servants the Twelve, you shall be like unto the salt that has lost its saving principles: it is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.” Judas lost that saving principle, and they took him and killed him. It is said in the Bible that his bowels gushed out; but they actually kicked him until his bowels came out.
“I will suffer my bowels to be taken out before I will forfeit the covenant I have made with Him and my brethren.” Do you understand me? Judas was like salt that had lost its saving principles–good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. It is just so with you men and women, if you do not honour your callings and cultivate the principles you have received. It is so with you, ye Elders of Israel, when you forfeit your covenants. (6:126)
No man or woman can receive a full salvation upon any other principle than by continuing in the new and Everlasting Covenant. When a person violates his covenant he loses all he ever obtained in the Priesthood; whether it is wives, children, or possessions; they all go out of his hands. (3:111)
[111] Chapter 10
THE RIGHTEOUS
Righteousness–Obedience–Self Control–Thrift–Wealth–Poverty–Misery–Happiness
RIGHTEOUSNESS
I do respect and love good men and women. It has been natural to me all the days of my life to do this; and the more of the Good Spirit that dwells in a man, the more that love of those that are good accumulates in him. (9:6)
It is not wisdom for us to be as the old Quaker, who, when he was insulted, pulled off his coat and said “Lay there, religion, till I flog this man!” Now my doctrine is, that if I cannot flog a man and be just as religious as I am in this pulpit, I had better let him alone. But, unlike the old Quaker, I never had an occasion to put my religion to the test in this way; in fact, I never had much difficulty with any man in my life. I have had more difficulty with myself than with anybody else. I will not do as some have done, whip a man because I have the power and the strength. Let men act unjustly with me, and I will endure it until that spirit which I enjoy says, You have borne enough; and then if I have to administer chastisement unto that man, I will do it by the power of God. Then such a man had better be out of my way and out of my hands. (9:52)
[112] When you do right you feel well, you feel satisfied, and as though you had a conscience void of offence before God and man, and before one another. (3:20)
Let us do right when we are behind the house, in front of it, or in the inside; when we are down in the cellar, up stairs, in the meadow, or in the field; and whatever we do, let us do it in the name of the Lord our God. When we sow our wheat, our beans, peas, and potatoes, let us bow down and ask God to bless the seed and the earth, and warm it, that it may bring forth in abundance, that we may reap the best crops we ever reaped in our lives. (3:21)
I cannot keep a decent horse, neither can brother Brigham, or any other man; for the boys will kill them. Let them rest: they are as good as we are in their sphere of action; they honour their calling, and we do not, when we abuse them: they have the same life in them that you have, and we should not hurt them. It hurts them to whip them, as bad as it does you; and when they are drawing as though their daylights would fly out of them, you must whip, whip, whip. Is there religion in that? No; it is an abuse of God’s creation that he has created for us. (5:137)
It is goodness that makes about all the difference between one man and another. You find one man a little better than another, and one woman a little better than her neighbour. What is it that makes us better? It is the righteous acts that we perform, and that we work out before God. (9:371)
When any of you receive a rebuke or a correction, acknowledge it at once, and say to the one who [113] administers it, Thank you, brother; God bless you! and may the Almighty give me power to do good! I have heard men say that it was one of the greatest things in a man’s favour, when the truth was told to him, to acknowledge it; and I consider it to be a strong proof of a man’s honesty and of his desire to do right. I have heard men say a great many times that it was the hardest thing they ever experienced, to have to acknowledge the truth of a correction that was given to them by a servant of God. In regard to that, I will say that those who will not do it will have that light taken away from them that was previously given. The Lord will take from him that hath not that which he seemeth to have, and he will give it to him that is more worthy and more desirous to improve upon it. (9:41)
I know that men and women have consciences that want to screw this way, and twist that way, and every way under God’s heavens, before they can come to the right thing. If you want to grow and thrive, and want to have the Spirit of the Lord, and the Holy Ghost to be with you, and have dreams and visions, and gold and silver, and herds and flocks, wives and children, and every other good thing, go a-head in every duty, and never falter one moment, and tell the devil to kiss your foot. (7:41)
We are not sufficiently patient; I am not so patient as I wish to be. I wish I was so patient that when a person abused me I could pass away from him and never notice him; but sometimes I turn round and fight a little; when they shoot, I shoot too. (3:21)
Brethren and sisters, do not be the aggressors, always act on the defensive. (4:180)
[114] I would rather be in the place of the oppressed a hundred times than in that of the oppressor, “For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” These are the words of Jesus, and although uttered many years ago they are still in full force, and I know it; and that saying will be fulfilled to the very letter, I have seen it in a thousand instances, and I know it will always be fulfilled. (9:375)
Then armies, merchants, gamblers, the scum of the Eastern States followed upon our trail; but this is no excuse for me to do wrong and be unrighteous. If the strangers who are passing through to California wish to trade with me, I will deal as righteously with them as with my brethren. (11:96)
The righteous have no reason to fear, though all the combined powers of the wicked, visible and invisible, be arrayed against them; faithfulness will preserve them. (10:78)
It is not always the outward appearance that shows the true man. That man who has a good heart is very apt to manifest outwardly good fruits. There are thousands in this place who are nearly as good as they can be at the present time, though the next minute it is possible for them to be better. (7:348)
Some say they are too old to improve, but there is no person too old to be damned for their sins. A man of sixty years of age, if he has improved himself, is brighter than he was at twenty; he is filled with more power, energy and life; he is like a ripe ear of corn that is filled with the elements of life more than a green ear; the old man will come up quicker than a young one. There is [115] brightness in old men and in old women who live and honour God and their own existence. (9:328)
Yes; it is better for you to die according to your covenants a thousand times than to turn to wickedness and then lead away the righteous. But I doubt very much if you can lead away a people that are inclined to righteousness. You cannot lead away the elect; “For they will hear my voice, and strangers they will not follow.” (6:69)
OBEDIENCE
What would you give for a plow that had no point to it, or for a pair of glasses that you could not see through? and again, what account would you be if no dependance could be placed in you? (12:190)
When you are called upon to do a thing, do it with all your heart, and God will add a hundredfold to your glory and exaltation. (9:27)
There was Daniel, a servant of God, one who kept His commandments; he was valiant, and his friends said to him, “Daniel, put down the window, or they will see you praying.” “I will pray with it open,” he replied; and he opened his window and prayed, and told them all that he asked no odds of them. “I will pray to my Father and God, who can preserve me in a den of lions, or in boiling hot oil, or in anything else, and He will sustain me while He will send you to hell, you poor devils.” He had such confidence in his God. (5:132)
When the blacksmith is making a horse-shoe, does it dictate its maker who is making it and fashioning it [116] to a useful purpose? Does the plowshare, the scythe, the ax, or the chisel rise up and dictate the mechanic, saying, “Why do you not form me thus?” Some of these tools have to pass through various shades of temper–sometimes too low, and sometimes too high, before it is just right; and it requires an expert mechanic to hit the proper temper, for they are made to come in contact with all kinds of timber. So we are tools made to come in contact with all kinds of dispositions, and very few tools will stand and keep a good edge coming in contact with every kind of timber, and stone, and the devil.
If you do not learn to temper yourselves properly, you will not be of much use at last. (3:114)
There is nothing in this world that makes me feel worse or more sorrowful than to see my children taking an unwise course. I feel these things very sensitively, and I shall continue to feel so; for my soul and body and all that I possess delight in God and in his work, and to see you doing right. It is all the pride I have when I can see the Latter-day Saints doing their duty. (8:87)
It is not right for a man to neglect his duty, whether that duty consists in mechanical work or common labor, for it is the business of every man and woman to do all they can to advance this great Work. It is for the advantage of the people individually as well as collectively. (10:165)
God does not want to shed blood without it is necessary, any more than He wants us to go and slaughter a beast when we have no need of it. But when we have need of meat, and are driven to it by necessity, then it is all right. If it is necessary that we should shed blood, then it is right. All things are right that are done according to the will and pleasure of God. (4:335)
[117] I care not how the Lord saves me. I am willing to pass through anything under the heavens that He requires me to pass through, that I may do His will and keep His commandments, and have favor in His eyes, through accomplishing the work He has given me to do.
What does it matter where I am? I am as ready to go and preach the Gospel as to dwell here, if it is the will of the Lord and my brethren. (3:111) I will speak of brother Joseph Young. I often speak of him; he is one of the most sensitive men that ever walked on the earth, and that is in proportion to the light he has, and if the Lord had not laid His hands on him and said, “My servant Joseph, be thou sick and go to thy bed and rest, he would have been in his grave long ago. His late sickness saved his life. That may be a curiosity to you, but the best days I ever had with regard to the happiness of my spirit, have been when I was prostrate on my bed, and in reality could not help myself. People will say, “O how I pity such and such brethren and sisters, because they are unwell.” If persons would appreciate their blessings when they are on beds of sickness, and say, “Father, thy will be done, and not mine,” there would be no room for that pity. When necessary in God’s providences towards me, I would as soon lay on a bed of sickness as to do anything else, for we have got to learn that lesson. (4:247)
You have heard tell of people having the blues; it is not good for men to be blue, nor for women either, but it is for them to have confidence in God by doing right. (3:22)
[118] SELF CONTROL
What is regeneration? It is a cleansing, purifying process, by which persons are enabled to advance in the knowledge of God and grow stronger in the principles of eternal life, to become better, more truthful, more worthy of a benefactor’s blessing. Then, we may ask, what is degeneration? It is departing from the good old way, imbibing evil, becoming impregnated with falsehood and all other evils that are calculated to produce a deterioration in both the body and spirit of man. (9:372)
I never regret a good deed that I have done in my life. If I regret anything, it is that I have not the ability to do more good. Let us do all the good we can. (1:246)
You may go to the Patriarchs, to the Prophets, and Apostles, and even get all the men in Israel to lay their hands on you and bless you, and though they bless you from this time to all eternity, yet, unless you continue steadfast in well doing, you may go to hell after all. What would it avail to receive blessings, if you do not live for them and merit them by doing as God says? If I live to God and keep His commandments, I shall have so many blessings that I shall not have room for them, and you all have the same privilege. (3:254)
Do you suppose the Lord will divide his inheritance to the children of men, unless they have earned a right and title to it? (I speak with regard to this earth.) No, no more than I would leave my inheritance to all my children when half of them had turned away from me and never tried to build up me and my estate. (6:324)
[119] I desire to do right and to bring about that which is good. I have no other desire in my heart than to make all the acts of my life praise God. (11:146)
THRIFT AND INDUSTRY
We should cultivate the earth that it may yield of its increase, that we may have an abundance of wheat, corn, potatoes, apples, peaches and every other variety of grain, fruit and vegetable. We should always look forward to a future increase, striving to make everything multiply in its sphere and thus fulfill the measure of its creation. If we sow a kernel of wheat it will produce, probably a thousand fold, then you sow that which has been produced from the one kernel and it will increase in proportion to the first. This is the principle of increase in nature, and each of us should endeavour to carry out nature’s laws. (9:336)
Now, you go to work, brethren and sisters, and get out something of home manufacture, and be as faithful as President Young and his counsel have been in this matter, and then you shall be blessed more than you are. (9:328)
Let us improve our homes, our city and our country, and do all in our power to become a self-sustaining people by making at home everything we need. (9:328)
I calculate to have my garments of fine wool next fall. I am aware that some of you have got it into your heads that wool won’t do to make into garments. Will those of you who entertain that idea have the kindness to look at the condition the Savior was in at the time of his crucifixion. We read that when they had crucified [120] him “They parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.” The Savior’s under garment was knitted, and Joseph Smith always wore that kind, and therefore I think we have no occasion to be ashamed of homemade garments. (10:237)
I would sooner walk on a rag carpet made by my own family, than upon an imported Brussels carpet made in one of the best manufactories in the world. (3:22)
How do you think it looks for man to lie down and be an idle speculator, while he makes his neighbour a slave? I believe in all of us being industrious from day to day and from year to year, and also to improve and teach others to improve in all that is good. I have never undertaken to do anything of an important nature, but I have called upon the Almighty to assist me, realizing that I required his aid and favour and he has invariably prospered me in what I have commenced. (9:337)
A man who will be an eye-servant to his God will be to his brother; and that man who will be an eye-servant to his brother will be to his God, and he never will work only as you stand and watch him. I see men, work on the public works–one hundred, or perhaps one hundred and fifty in a gang, and I have watched them work, and not over twenty men out of the one hundred and fifty will be at work at the same time, while the rest are standing still. I supposed they had agreed to work by turns, so that they would not become wearied before night. Is this doing as you would be done by? (6:324)
[121] WEALTH
In our deal with each other, it is better to give a man a dollar than to take a cent from him; by wronging a man of a dollar or a few cents, you may thereby cause a division between yourself and one of your best friends. What for? For a poor, miserable dollar. (11:83)
This people will never improve in their minds or advance in spiritual intelligence until they improve and advance their temporal interests. Public and individual improvements always advance and help forward the intellectual. (10:234)
For years I heard Joseph tell the people to put in their means to help, and he, under the direction of the Almighty, would push forward the work and make the people rich. But Joseph could not do it, for the people were not filled with the Spirit of revelation, but if the people would partake of the same attributes as the man who stands at their head, which they can do by living the religion of Jesus Christ, they will prosper abundantly. (9:266)
Now, I can tell you all candidly that unless you advance in these temporal improvements you never will increase in spiritual knowledge; the one cannot thrive without the other. You may think it strange that you cannot enjoy religion and the Spirit of God in a little, miserable log cabin, but you must remember that the temporal and spiritual go hand in hand, they are inseparably connected, and you may rest assured that the one cannot advance far along the path of progression [122] without the other. This has been one of my principles ever since I came to a knowledge of the truth. (10:234)
I have never seen a time since I entered this Church when there was greater necessity for this people living faithfully than now. It is a very prosperous time, and we are gaining property fast; and many, I fear, are losing sight of everything else but the riches of this world; and, were you to warn them of it, they are so blinded by the deceitfulness of riches, that they would not believe a word you say. (11:82)
I am an enemy to the devil and all his imps, and to all who come here to make merchandise of the Saints of God. I know that men come here and act on a principle of policy to get trade, but with us dollars and dimes are not objects of worship, for we love to deal with the true principles of righteousness. (3:231)
Some will say, I wish you would not talk about wheat any more; for if we have more bread than we want, we have to sell it and buy clothing. I wish to say to all such, Go and get some sheep and make some clothes for yourselves, and be independent of those that come here to sell goods. Some of the merchants have been here from nine to ten years and although we have made them rich, yet when all hell was boiling over against us, they would not say a word in our favour; and you need not go down Whisky Street more than twenty rods to find them. I will see them in heaven, or in that other place, which they say has no bottom in it, before I will patronize such men any more. (8:213)
[123] POVERTY
I have seen the time when my hat full of gold would not buy a barrel of flour, and then again I have seen the time when it could be got for almost nothing. (8:109)
It is far easier to contract a debt than it is to pay it. (3:250)
I have been as poor as the poorest of you. I have been so poor that I have seen many times when I had not a change of shirts. I have also been with brother Brigham when we were both very poor; and when you talk about going through troubles and trials, I think of what I have passed through for the Gospel’s sake, in connection with my brethren; but in the midst of those trials I have always been the happiest. (8:110)
Is it any crime to be poor? No, it is not; I have seen the day when I was just as poor as I could possibly be as regards the comforts of this life, and I honestly consider that it would be a pretty hard case for a man to be poorer than I have been. Some people when they come here think it rather shameful to speak of how poor the people are over in the old country. Bless you if you had not been poor and oppressed–down in the depths of poverty, you would not have heard us at all when we went to proclaim the Gospel. (9:374)
But if you were not all poor when the Gospel found you, I will guarantee that you have been since. I never knew a man who came into this Church rich but who had to become poor, that he might rise up with the rich and be exalted in the kingdom of God. (9:374)
[124] Why do we take a course to leave our wives and children comparatively destitute of the comforts of life? We have the privilege of becoming an independent people, and there is no necessity of living poor. (10:237)
MISERY
I have often had my feelings hurt when I have seen men grunt and grumble at every little trial, and then to see their wives, and many in fact that are not wives, murmur and find fault with their circumstances. (9:376)
When a person is miserable, wretched, and unhappy in himself, put him in what circumstances you please, and he is wretched still. If a person is poor, and composes his mind, and calmly submits to the providences of God, he will feel cheerful and happy in all circumstances, if he continues to keep the commandments of God. But you may fill the house of a dissatisfied person with everything the world can produce, and he will be miserable with all. (2:154)
You neglect the voice and word of God, and it will fall upon you in a way that you never expected, and you do not expect it now. But there is yet a chance for us to redeem ourselves; and there is a great deal more necessity for us to redeem ourselves, than there is for us to redeem the dead, for the dead they are dead, and you cannot help it; but we are living and can help ourselves, and I suppose God helps those who help themselves. (4:46)
[125] HAPPINESS
Take a person that practices evil, and you will see that person uneasy: such individuals are never easy a minute. But you take a person who has got the Spirit of God, who is humble, meek, and of a child-like spirit, that is the man: I do not care if he is in a mud-hole, neither do I care if he has forty mobocrats after him, or if he is a-straddle of a cannon, he is happy. (5:249)
Now, brethren and sisters, and remember that those who have embraced the Gospel and do not make it their study to promote the interests of the kingdom of God, neglect their duty to that kingdom of which they are subjects. It is the duty of every one to labor day by day to promote each other’s happiness, and also to study the well-being of mankind. When we take a course opposite to this, we become uneasy, unhappy and discontented; we are not satisfied with anything that is around us; our food, our raiment, our habitations and all that we possess becomes an annoyance to us; now what is the cause of this? It certainly does not originate with the Spirit of God, for that will never render any one unhappy. (10:240)
I have told you the truth, every word I have spoken. You think our Father and our God is not a lively, sociable, and cheerful man. He is one of the most lively men that ever lived; and when we have that sociability and cheerfulness, it is the Spirit of the Lord.
God delights in a glad heart and cheerful countenance. Some people carry faces as long as my leg, and [126] that is about three feet long; and they are just the biggest hypocrites we have got in this city. (5:180)
Whatever transpires, if we are faithful in this kingdom, will all tend to the happiness, pleasure and exaltation of this people. We ought to be the happiest people on the face of the earth, for we are blessed with a knowledge of the gospel, with an understanding of the ordinances which pertain to eternal life, and we are blessed with peace while our neighbors are afflicted with a desolating war. (10:245)
The feelings I enjoy, yield me pleasures that far exceed those derived from the mere luxuries of the world, and that is, to have dwelling in me the power of the Holy Ghost, to be honest, and as pure as a babe, as a lamb, or as an angel.
If you enjoy that condition, brethren and sisters, never be troubled about anything, about food, raiment, houses, lands, the devil, or any wicked person, and we will gain the victory, and become Kings and Priests to our God and to His Christ. (2:256)
A person asked me this morning how it was that the enjoyments of this world, in which he used to take great pleasure, had sunk so much in his estimation? He said the theatrical performances and other amusements, used to give him much satisfaction and comfort. Then the real and substantial pleasure and happiness which he now enjoys in heavenly realities, was not in his possession; he therefore took comfort in artificial; but when the real rose, blushing in the midst of its own heavenly perfume, attracted his notice, the gum flowers lost their charms. (3:107)
[127] Do I feel comfortable? Gentlemen and ladies, I never saw the day that I felt any better. I become weary with toil, but I feel well in regard to this work. But there is a spirit of calmness, of peace, that I am jealous of. (5:163)
I always felt as thankful when I had not anything as when I had plenty; I feel as thankful with a little as I do with ever so much. (3:252)
I feel very cheerful and happy today. I do not feel any of that contractedness of mind that makes men selfish, penurious, cold-hearted, and of a sad countenance. I find that the more that I have of the Spirit of God, the more cheerful I am; and it is so with all men of God. I know that those Prophets who have lived in my day loved to tell stories and be cheerful: they delighted in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance. (8:351)
[128] Chapter 11
FREEDOM
Man’s Free Agency–Independence–Education and Knowledge
MAN’S FREE AGENCY
I thank God for the things that are going to take place, to give every man a fair chance to prove himself to be a Saint or to be a Devil. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and they will follow me, and a stranger they will not follow.” (6:323)
If I were to commit an impropriety, another person would not be justified in doing the same thing. If I violate the law of God I shall be condemned and will not escape upon the plea that somebody else did the same. Every man must answer for his own sin. (11:144)
These are my feelings, and they are good, are they not? You would feel just so, if you would get the same Spirit, which is the Spirit of God, and there is no bondage in the Spirit of God; it is freedom, it is glory, it is happiness, it is heaven when you go out and when you come in, and there is nothing impure or oppressive about it. (4:212)
There are many vessels that are destroyed after they have been moulded and shaped. Why? Because [129] they are not contented with the shape the potter has given them, but straightway put themselves into a shape to please themselves; therefore they are beyond understanding what God designs, and they destroy themselves by the power of their own agency, for this is given to every man and woman, to do just as they please. (2:152)
To be a Saint is an individual work, and it is out of the power of God, angels, or men to make a Saint of a man who is determined to be a sinner. If a man will revolt against God and his authority on the earth, he has a right to do so, as much so as Lucifer had a right to turn away from his Father and God. Men are damned or saved by acting upon their agency, in receiving or rejecting the revealed truths of heaven. (11:145)
Joseph, when he was in Nauvoo, on the house top, drew his sword from the sheath and said it never should be sheathed again. Brother Brigham has said the same, and brother Heber will back him in it, and so will every officer in the kingdom of God. What say you, brethren, will we go it? If so, raise your right hands and say Aye.
(One loud “AYE” rang through the congregation.)
We are not going to bow down to the wicked any more. I had rather die as I am and fight my way than ever to go into their hands again. (6:37)
The brethren talk about our freedom. Why, we are just as free as the old veterans of the revolution were before they got their independence.
We have declared our independence But, gentlemen and ladies, we have got to maintain that by the strength of Jehovah. (5:275)
[130] INDEPENDENCE
It is necessary for us to take a course, to put ourselves into a situation where we may be as independent in our sphere of action, as God is in His. (3:252)
Notwithstanding this sifting out of the unfaithful, the Lord has got a chosen people in these valleys of Utah, and He desires them to become self-sustaining, and fully able to control the trade and traffic of these mountains for their own profit and advancement. In view of this we wish our brethren to import their own merchandize, establish stores in their towns and cities, and trade with one another, and thus keep the wealth which we create among ourselves, making every effort in our power to bring about the redemption of Israel, and the great Work of our Father and God. (11:146)
Let me die an honourable man living my religion rather than to bow down to their cursed yoke again, as the Lord God liveth. (6:35)
Years ago, in the days of Joseph, the Lord gave a revelation instructing this people to produce what they wanted for their own use by their own labour; and you have been taught it from that day to the present time, and the Lord has brought us into these mountains to bring to pass these very things, that we may become a free and independent people. To produce these things ourselves is necessary for our temporal and spiritual salvation. (6:103)
[131] I will tell you the day of our separation has come, and we are a free and an independent people, isolated a thousand miles from the Christian nation; and thanks be to our God for ever. And we are the people of God, and this is the dwelling of King Emmanuel, in these mountains, and he will gather all nations unto us–those that will be gathered; and those who will not, he will compel them.
The day has come when the people have go to bow the knee to God and pay tribute to him, every man and woman on this earth. (6:132)
I care not whether it be men or women who live the religion of the everlasting Gospel, nor whether they be Americans, English, Scotch, Dutch, Danes, or inhabitants of any other nation, for all such persons have my blessing and my good feelings. I am not national nor sectional, and God forbid that I should be, for I have that Spirit that delighteth in the welfare and salvation of the human family. And when I have that Spirit about me, can I be national? You never knew that feeling to be in me, for I abhor it. I will not bow my head to that national spirit, nor to any spirit that is not of God. (4:278)
For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again?” What is now taking place with our enemies? They are suffering far more than we did, right in those very places from which we were expelled by mob force. Brother Henry Lawrence was telling me that quite a number of those counties and places formerly occupied by the Saints, are now left destitute; and in some of the settlements the people are left in a state of comparative nudity. These are the effects of this horrible war, and what kind of a condition do [132] you think we shall be in if we continue to depend upon the world for supplies?
I can tell you that if you depend upon our enemies you will be sadly mistaken, for they will not long be able to supply themselves.
To secure ourselves against these troublesome times, we must make the articles of clothing we need to wear and we must produce the food that we need and require to sustain these our decaying bodies. (10:236)
We came to this land because we were just obliged to do so; and I have been broken up and driven five times; but, as the Lord God liveth, I do not go again, nor any other man or women that will live their religion. Let us do right, as a people, and we never will go from this place until we please and God pleases to have us.
We were brought here for a purpose to secure us, and for us to stand to our rights and privileges as citizens of the United States, and claim protection. (6:38)
With you, mine Elders, my servants, I will rend the kingdoms of this world, and with you I will provide for my Saints in the last days.
That may be a new idea to many of you. Is he going to take the world and by them provide for his Saints? No; but he will take his Elders. The righteous have got to provide for the righteous in the latter days, as Joseph in Egypt provided for his father’s house and those that believed on him, like a good father providing for a good family, for good wives, and good children. (6:64)
EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE
Some will say, are you not too old to learn? I say no, for I consider if I am too old to improve, I am too old to [133] live. When a man has done learning, he had better leave and go hence. (10:76)
You never saw a learned man or a learned woman, who was a gentleman or a lady, that would ever ridicule a man or woman for not being better educated. (5:272)
When the flowers begin to bloom on the mountain sides, the ladies try to imitate them with artificial ones. Which would you rather possess in education–the real flower, or the artificial one? Would you not rather have true education, direct from heaven, than the artificial one of the world? The one educates the head and the heart, the other the head alone. (3:106)
But if it were possible for me to exchange my information for that of the most learned man upon the earth, I would not do it; it would be like exchanging a good substantial warm suit of clothing for a mess of filthy rags. (3:106)
I wish to God I was more simple than I am: I should be nearer to what I was in nature. I do not know how to use what they call big words. I never studies them. I have no taste particularly for them; and if I had, I should not know where to put them, and should be very apt to stick the head to the feet, and the feet to the head. I do not know where to apply them. Well, what are they? You may ask brother Taylor, and he will tell you they are conflabberation of all languages. Conflabberation! Well, that’s a good word, is it not? (6:32)
It would be a great satisfaction to me, and doubtless instructive to this congregation, if I could lay before them those things that are revolving in my mind; but [134] instructions to the Saints only appear to be given a word or two at a time, here a little and there a little, and I do not understand that the Lord will ever manifest his will in any other way. This is because of the weakness of humanity and the great variety in the minds of the Saints. (9:126)
You have received your endowments. What is it for? To learn you to hold your tongues, and keep what you get, and increase upon it. If you do not keep the word of life you receive–that which proceeds from God, your minds never will expand, and you will always be barren, like unto a barren woman. (5:133)
I recollect when we returned from our mission to Missouri, Joseph said, “Now, brethren, it is a good time to get property; now is the time for you to get rich.” Well, it was one of the most trying times the Church ever saw. Most of the Twelve went into speculation, and half of them turned away. I went to Joseph and asked what I had best do, and he replied that it was a good time to get an education, or, said he, you may go a preaching, just as you please, and God will bless you in either. I went out preaching, and also some others, and some went to speculating, and we have never seen them since, excepting one or two of them. It was so with the ancient Apostles. (10:77)
You may think that I am not correct; but I am in the habit of telling the truth when in fun as well as in earnest; and men that cannot are not worth much. (5:251)
Every word of truth that you gather into your bosoms is light and life; and the most inferior man or [135] woman can be regenerated through the word of the living God; for that word will be in you springing up unto everlasting life. (5:215)
Every man ought to receive the truth wherever he finds it. Some would rather receive the truth only from the First Presidency and the Twelve; but we should acknowledge it, let it come from what source it may. (11:143)
When I received the truth, I commenced a new life, and I have endeavoured to live it from that day to this. (8:245)
[136] Chapter 12
THE POWER OF EVIL
Worldiness and the Wicked–Sin and Transgression–Apostasy and Apostates
WORLDLINESS AND THE WICKED
Men will make lawsuits, brother go to law with brother. Does this agree with the word of God? Does this agree with the word of Jesus, or with the words of the Prophets? No, and it is a set of poor devils that will do so, and by so doing they have taken a course by which they have forfeited their right and title as members of this Church and kingdom. (3:231)
Do not, brethren, follow in the track of those who came against Jesus. He had no friends, but he had the power of God with him, and his enemies were struck dumb before him. This is the position we should be in; and then what are the nations of the wicked, or the armies of the United States, or of all the world? If we attend to our business and let other things alone, the Lord will sustain us in all circumstances of life. (9:52)
Jesus told the people in his day to seek to enter in at the narrow gate, or, as the New Testament calls it, the strait gate. He also told them to seek not to counsel God, but to walk in that path which leads to life; for narrow is the gate that leads to life, and few there be [137] that enter in thereat. And he further says that the wicked will come and say, We have prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many mighty works. And I will add to this that many of them will have to say, We have stolen hundreds of cattle from the Mormons, and driven them from their homes, because they preached a new religion. Still the Lord will say, I know you not. (9:129)
From the time I embraced the Gospel, I have been knocked about considerably; but I am now here in the mountains, and I am ten times better off than I ever was before; and I have not got the means out of your hands, neither Saints nor sinners. I have had things stolen, and have had men come and confess it to me; but they never brought anything back yet. I told every man that came to me that I would forgive him, but I never told any one that he could keep the article he had feloniously taken; and all such acts will stand against men, and I shall meet them at the bar of God, if I remain faithful. (7:235)
It is this union among those who are faithful “Mormons” that makes the world afraid of us; they fear us because we differ from the world. In the United States and in the old countries, they are divided into six or seven hundred different religious denominations, all disagreeing with each other; besides political and a thousand other kinds of divisions and differences, such as whiggery, democratism, socialism, which, in short, may all be summed up under the term, Devilism.
Jesus says, “Except ye are one, ye are not mine.” And yet the Christian world take a course to justify themselves in division, in strife, in animosity, in quarreling, in envy, in jealousy, in war and bloodshed. And yet they say they are one: I say they lie. (2:105)
[138] I am national in one respect: I am strongly in favour of the house of Israel, and of all good men and women of every nation, clime, and country, for they are of my kindred, and have sprung from the same Father and God that I have. But, as brother James W. Cummings said when speaking about them, do I love the wicked? Yes, I love them insomuch that I wish they were in hell, that is, a great many of them, for that is the best wish I can wish them. And those that killed Joseph and Hyrum, and David W. Patten, and other Patriarchs and Prophets, I wish they were in hell; though I need not wish that, for in one sense they are in hell all the time; and if they have not literally gone down into hell they will go there, as the Lord God lives, every one of them, and every man that consented to the acts those murderers performed. That is loving the wicked, to send them there to hell to be burnt out until they are purified. Yes, they shall go there and stay there and be burnt, like an old pipe that stinks with long usage and corruption, until they are burnt out, and then their spirits may be saved in the day of God Almighty. It is my feelings that they may be damned for their awful iniquity in shedding innocent blood, as also all who sanction their acts, both men and women, together with all who associate with them and partake of their spirit, for that spirit is opposite to God and His servants. (4:223)
You may take all such dresses and new fashions, and inquire into their origin, and you will find, as a general thing, they are produced by the whores of the great cities of the world–London, New York, and from Paris, and from all the Gentile cities. (6:191)
[139] The priests of the day in the whole world keep women, just the same as the gentlemen of the Legislatures do. The great men of the earth keep from two to three, and perhaps half-a-dozen private women. They are not acknowledged openly, but are kept merely to gratify their lusts; and if they get in the family way, they call for the doctors, and also upon females who practise under the garb of midwives, to kill the children, and thus they are depopulating their own species. (5:91)
Look at the animal creation, they were all created by law, and will fulfill that law by which they were created. But see the feeling and disposition that we have in our hearts to be cruel towards animals, and that same passion that we cultivate towards the brute creation, mankind by-and-bye will have towards one another. (9:336)
The United States have robbed the Indians, and now they are trying to afflict us; and they will go to hell with all the nations that forget God. (5:278)
By fighting, they become angry, they lost the Spirit of God, and they then take pleasure in killing and slaying each other; and when they become hot in this way, they will combine to serve us the same way.
And as we are growing in light and knowledge, the wicked are growing more wicked every day: they are becoming ferocious; they are full of death and destruction; they are becoming just as the Nephites of old.
When our enemies seek to kill us, they seek the destruction of their saviours. (9:135)
They have commenced the work of their own extermination, and who can help it? No one, except the [140] Almighty. They are now doing that upon each other which they had in their hearts to do to us; they have got the same hatred towards each other which they formerly had towards us, and the Lord will let them have their full share. (9:372)
Get out of my way, you poor stinking curses that would pursue a course contrary to the word of the living God! I am at war with such spirits. (6:67)
I want my brethren and sisters to understand that only those who are guilty are rebuked. Our rebukes do not touch the innocent, nor affect them one hair’s breadth. When you use the whip the lash will, perhaps, hit a person who sits in the outer edge of the congregation, and one in this, and another in that part of the room. It is intended for them, and not for those it does not hit. You will not hear any man or woman, enter a complaint, or find any fault with brother Brigham, or brother Heber, except that person who is hit.
When you load your musket with buckshot, or coarse shot, and fire into a flock of ducks or geese, you never will see any flutter except the wounded. When you see a person flutter, you may know that is the character who is hit, and is the one who ought to be hit. (3:161)
Those in the days of Joseph who were traitors to him and tampered with the mob are guilty of his death, and they will have to pay the debt some day. (9:25)
There are men now sitting close by this stand as wicked as hell, who associate with apostates, with whoremasters and with whores and gamblers; and there are men in our midst who would destroy every one of us in one moment, if they had the power. (4:140)
[141] These are my views, and the Lord knows that I believe in the principles of sanctification; and when I am guilty of seducing any man’s wife, or any woman in God’s world, I say sever my head from my body. These have ever been my feelings from the days of my youth. This is my character, and the character of President Brigham Young. It was the character of Joseph Smith and of Jesus Christ; and that is the character of the Apostles of Jesus, and that must be sustained by this people. (7:20)
Be Saints; live your religion; be upright and virtuous in all things. Do you think you will find sharks here? Yes, I tell you there are plenty of sharks, and lots of those sawfish; and then there are those that will try to fulfil the Saviour’s words respecting entertaining strangers, and they will take you in, and they will shave you of every dime you have in the world; and if they cannot shave you, they will steal from you. (8:212)
Some time ago I brought up a comparison about an apple tree, and although I did not know it then, I have got one tree that has probably got fifty limbs on it, and there is not one but is so full that I have had to pick apples off it twice, and every limb is weighed down with fruit. Well, I have tried it since then, and there is not one particle of difference in the fruit of all those limbs. Is it good fruit? No; the first limb is not worth a dime, and all the rest are just like it.
Can a pure tree bring forth impure fruit? The tree of which I have spoken is not impure in its appearance, but it is very smooth externally, and likely to look upon; but there is not a particle of goodness in it, or, at least, there is not in the fruit it produces. That is the case with many of you. (5:214)
[142] I do not say but that you are just as good men and women in this place as in any other place in the mountains; yea, I admit that the people are better in the country towns than in Great Salt Lake City, for the froth and scum of hell seem to concentrate there, and those who live in the City have to come in contact with it; and with persons who mingle with robbers, and liars, and thieves, and with whores and whore-masters, etc. (11:82)
There are poor, miserable curses in our midst; and there is not a thing spoken of but what there are men and women who will go and tell them every thing that is said, (thank God for that!) and tell more than what is true. There are men and women in this congregation of that stamp. I wish I had some stones; I want to pelt your cursed heads, for you lie like hell. Are you valiant to stand by the work of God, and by your brethren? If you are not, you had better put out, you poor curses. (5:32)
Drummond, and those miserable scoundrels, and some that are now in our midst–how do I feel towards them? Pray for them? Yes, I pray that God Almighty would send them to hell. Some say across lots; but I would like to have them take a round about road, and he as long as they can be in going there. (5:89)
There are many who will feed the ungodly sooner than the Saints, but I tell you I will feed the Saints first and the poor devils afterwards, if there is any to spare. But none of them should have food unless they worked for it. (3:230)
When the Adversary begins to tempt a person, he persuades him to do a little thing here and a little [143] wrong yonder, and persuades him to walk in that course that will cause the disposition to do wrong to increase upon him. The best way to do is to let alone that which is wrong. (9:130)
I know that I can refrain from evil, and I also know that any other person can who tries. It is quite a common thing with the world to commit sins, and then to argue that they cannot do any better, but this is a misunderstanding; any person who tries can refrain from evil. (10:243)
The devil can hurt no man, only when he gives way to his influence. When he offered Jesus the whole world if he would bow down to him, he had no power over him; says he, “I am the Son of God, mind your own business.” Then he took him upon the Temple, and said, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down.” But he told him to get out of his way. The devil had no power over him, any more than he can have power over you, if you resist his power. When the devil has power over persons, it is because they have done something wrong, which gives him power and influence over them. (3:22)
Drinking liquor is a habit you may easily become habituated to: drinking one dram creates an appetite for a second. It is just so with a man who commences telling lies: he commences with a little childish lie, believing that it will do no harm, and so he continues on until he becomes an habituated liar. These things become habits, and men bend their minds to them by degrees. The same may be said of stealing: persons addicted to stealing first began by stealing some trifling thing–perhaps a halfpenny or a penny; from that they get to a picayune, sixpence, and a dollar, and they then become habitual thieves. (8:256)
[144] If men by their organizations were compelled to steal, to murder, and do a thousand other evils, they could not be held accountable, and the agency of man would be destroyed. Satan tempts men to evil, and they have power to resist the temptation. The more sin is cultivated, the stronger it grows, until it binds down men with strong chains.
Satan whispers in the ears of those who list to obey him, “Lie a little, deceive a little, take the advantage of your neighbour a little, drink whisky a little: it will not harm you;”–leading them along, as it were, with silken cords, until he binds them with his strong chains, and readily leads them down to destruction. (7:349)
As we progress in the reform, as we confess our faults and make restitution to those we have wronged, asking pardon of those we have offended, the opposition of the devil will proportionally increase, and his power be manifested in a greater degree; and there is going to be a mighty time. (4:142)
As we relax our power and live our religion–do you not see, as we relax, that the Devil will gain power upon us? Suppose, now, I was to take a rough-and-tumble with a man and wrestle with him: I wrestle a spell pretty valiantly, and almost gain power over my antagonist; I have almost gained power over him, and I begin to slack up to get a little breath: do you not see that that antagonist is bound to put me down if I slack up? Well, if you slack up your religion, living faithfully, praying, exhorting, and living to God, do you not see our antagonist is gaining power over us? But let me tell you, gentlemen, we will take it just as God dictates; and if he says rough-and-tumble, let us take it rough-and-tumble, and pitch them headlong where they belong. (6:34)
[145] May the Lord comfort the righteous, and help them to overcome the little evils. It is the little frivolous disputing and contention in families that creates the greatest difficulties and troubles, and hinders us from merging into the blessings of God, and from that communion with the Holy Ghost we might enjoy. (7:351)
We live in a very peculiar time; it is a day of warning and not of many words. The Elders now have to labor a great deal harder to bring people into the Church than they did in the first rise of it. There is not now one man brought to the knowledge of the truth by receiving the Gospel to where there was a hundred thirty years ago. It seems as though the people are blinder now than they were thirty years ago, and ignorance prevails to a greater extent than it did at that time. (10:240)
It was a common saying among the good people where I lived, that it was impossible for a man to be honest and get a living. How did they get a living, think you, where they did not believe in being honest? By living in deceitfulness, by lying, by pilfering from their neighbours. That was the way they managed, and it is so managed at the present time. (9:372)
If I were in the position of some, instead of letting a week pass before I made an atonement to the satisfaction of those offended, I would go right off and do it at once. (5:252)
Men come here and get good impressions, the Spirit of the Lord resting with them, but they do not embrace the truth, and consequently the good influence leaves them and they turn against the cause of Christ, the [146] Devil gets power over them and they begin to operate against the kingdom of our God and to seek the lives of his servants and anointed ones. (9:336)
If you will be humble and faithful from this time forth, the Lamanites will never trouble you, but will come and humble themselves at your feet and do your chores. Why is it that they trouble you now? Because a portion of the same spirit which actuates them exists among some of you. Is not this the case? Tell it out, have you not some of the same feelings towards them which they evince towards you?
If you are not careful, wrong feelings will get power over you, and you will begin to murmur and grumble. (3:58)
I have had men work for me, who, if there was the least thing left after the job was done, would take it to themselves. This is done in the public works by some few individuals. I do not like such things. Brother Brigham has lost, from time to time, thousands of dollars’ worth of property in this valley. I have chastised men for taking things from him myself, when I have seen them do it,–men old enough to be my father, and men of middle age, and those sweet delicate females. How do I look upon you? You rob me of the most precious gem when you rob me of the confidence I have in you. (6:68)
A single man or woman in this kingdom may do a great deal of harm, if they are so inclined. If you put up a barrel of good, sweet meat and a little piece of tainted meat, not larger that a peach, in the center of it, it will not be three months before the whole barrel of meat will be spoiled, if you do not clean out the lump of bad meat [147] that has lost its saving principles. So wicked men and women in a Ward or in a Quorum can do much mischief. The inoculate death in the community.
Paul, in speaking of the tongue says, “It sets on fire the whole course of nature.” It inoculates hell into the people. A sister comes into your house, and you think she is almost an angel, she can smile so sweetly. Do you not know that the Devil can smile just as well as a Saint? You cannot know persons only as they are proved. (6:128)
Some people do not believe that there are any devils. There are thousands of evil spirits that are just as ugly as evil can make them. The wicked die, and their spirits remain not far from where their tabernacles are. When I was in England, twenty-eight years ago next June, I saw more devils than there are persons here to-day; they came upon me with an intention to destroy me; they are the spirits of wicked men who, while in the flesh, were opposed to God and his purposes. I saw them with what we call the spiritual eyes, but what is in reality the natural eye. The atmosphere of many parts of these mountains is doubtless the abode of the spirits of Gadianton robbers, whose spirits are as wicked as hell, and who would kill Jesus Christ and every Apostle and righteous person that ever lived if they had the power. (11:84)
We have to press forward under the banner of Christ, and the more faithful we are the sterner will be the warfare. When I related to brother Joseph the view I had of certain evil spirits in England, he said, that the closer we observe the celestial law, the more opposition we shall meet. (3:263)
[148] If those troops could have come in here, let me tell you, all the finest and smartest devils would have entered into the smartest bodies and come here to overturn us. You will not catch a mean, low, inferior, stupid devil in a smart man. I will tell you the Devil has his smart men. Says he, “You get into a smart body.” Smart spirits do not get into inferior bodies. Would you? No. Well, then, do you suppose they would do what we could not do under the same circumstances?
Was not Lucifer a pretty smart lad? Just look at it–son of the morning–when all heaven wept when he fell. He was a smart man. It takes a smart men–that is, one who thinks he is, to act the devil. (6:34)
The devil was a liar from the beginning. Truth has no place in him; but it being a principle of power associated with all goodness, he hates it, and so do all his faithful followers. (11:209)
Now, perhaps, they will try to draw back and say, “Let us give them a State Government and a few hundred thousand dollars, and see if we cannot pet them.” When you see a thing of that sort, look out for the Devil: he will be behind that curtain. When I see anything of that kind, I am suspicious. (6:37)
SIN AND TRANSGRESSION
If you permit that tabernacle to become polluted, and if your spirit suffers your body to be contaminated with sin and corruption, you will have to make an atonement for it before you can get your redemption worked out. (1:34)
[149] As Brother Brigham said here, if you sin against God, you have got to satisfy Him; and if you sin against Jesus Christ, you have got to make confession to Jesus, and He and the Father can forgive you; and if you sin against the Holy Ghost, you have got to satisfy the Holy Ghost, for neither the Father nor the Son can forgive that sin. Is not that good law? That is the law of Deseret, gentlemen. (1:356)
If I have offended brother Brigham in any way whatever–rebelled against him, lied about him, or sought to abuse him what is the use of my going to the water to renew my covenant, until I have made satisfaction to him? The proper way would be to go to him and say, “Brother Brigham, I lied against you wilfully, under the influence of an evil spirit;” or, “I have ill-treated and wronged you, and know that I must make satisfaction, and I am ready to do anything that you say.” Satisfaction must be made to the one injured, or baptism will be of no benefit: the Holy Ghost will not ratify that act until I have paid the debt. Then brother Brigham would say, “I forgive you, and pray my Father, in the name of Jesus, to forgive you also.” Then our Father in heaven would forgive you, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost would forgive you. And if you get pardon of those you have injured, and of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, you are free and ready to begin a new life.
You have heard brother Brigham say that if we sin against the Father, we must confess our sins to him, and get pardon from him; and if we sin against the Son, we must ask pardon of him, for he will not pardon you without you do ask him; and if you sin against the Holy Ghost you cannot get pardon, for that is a sin which cannot be forgiven. (5:203)
[150] Some people think that, because they have passed through a great many troubles, have been to the nations to preach the Gospel, and have been robbed and plucked up several times, that will make an atonement for their sins. What you have passed through has nothing to do with atonement for sins. If you have sinned you have got to make an atonement for that sin, and the trials you have passed through in doing your duty are not the atonement. Trials are to test you, to prove whether you will do those things that are right. Some try to make out that their trials will answer as an atonement, but I tell you that they will not. If you commit sin there must be an atonement to satisfy the demands of justice, and then mercy claims you and saves you. (4:120)
Is there any difference in the wickedness of the world now and thirty or forty years ago? I think there is. I do not now recollect of having then heard of a divorce in all the region where I lived, and as for a whore or a whoremonger there were few, if any, known in that locality, and if such were found, they were considered unfit for civilized society. But now look down and see what the world is! I have travelled over some of it; I have travelled through most of the enlightened portions of the United States, and much in England, and I have generally found that those who are called the most enlightened are the most corrupt. (3:270)
Deal honorably with your brethren, and if you have wronged any person, even of a pin, make proper restitution. If you will cultivate yourselves in this way, not even daring to take a pin or a needle which is not your own, you will have a spirit of doing right in all things. If a person will cheat you out of a pin, he will out of a darning needle, and then out of our dimes and dollars. (3:262)
[151] You never would complain of the sharpness of the word of God, if you were not under transgression. You say I allude to you: so I do; or, it is the Spirit of God alludes to you through me. You are the persons who are under censure–you are the birds that flutter, because it hits you. Why should a person find fault who is not under condemnation? That proves they are. (5:173)
It is the spirit in man which affects the conduct; it ain’t the body. I can stand here and let you go to work and defile this house. I have to answer for that sin. If my spirit is guilty in letting my body do a thing that is contrary to the will of God, it is my spirit that has got to pay the debt. It is my spirit that is to be judged in the day of eternity and is answerable for the sins that I suffer my body to do. (5:92)
Every murder that has been committed in this Territory has been done under the influence of liquor; and I will here remark that the most of them have been men who deserved to die; and, furthermore, I think it would be quite as well if there were a great many more on the same road. (8:257)
I look upon men who keep whisky shops, and vend it, in the same light as I do those who frequent such places, and get drunk, and swear, and wallow in the mire. (7:350)
APOSTASY AND APOSTATES
When there was a rebellion in heaven, they cast out the rebellious. I may not remain in this earthly house to see the day when the rebellious will all be cast out on earth as they were in heaven; but I shall obtain an [152] organized glorious body and see the day when, if there is an evil in Israel, it will be cast out, the same as it was cast out of heaven. (6:326)
Cleave now to the truth, and remember that a limb separated from a tree is not much, and so we are not much when separated from the truth. Therefore honor God and honor those you know; for if you do not honor those you know you will not honor God. If my children will not subject themselves to me they will not subject themselves to God; and so with our wives, they cannot honor God unless they honor us. (12:191)
When pigs are washed in soap-suds, they look clean, and you would think them almost nice enough to live in the house; but no sooner have you washed them that they will go into the nastiest mud-hole they can find and muddy themselves all over from head to foot. Now, do they not look worse than before they were washed? It is just so with you, when you turn from your righteousness; you are worse than before you entered into the Church of Christ. (6:52)
Both men and women have also covenanted that they will have no unlawful intercourse with each other. After all this, do any of you make a practice of speaking evil one of another, of cheating one another, of lying and deceiving? Yes, some who are under the covenants just named, actually indulge in those evil practices, and I say to all such, that if they do not repent of their follies and sins, their washings and anointings will prove a curse instead of a blessing, and will expedite their condemnation. (3:269)
[153] There are but few here who received the endowment that was given in the Temple at Kirtland; many of those who did receive it are dead, quite a number are turned away, for the apostacy was very great in those days considering the number of the people, hence there are but few now with us who partook of that endowment. (10:165)
Those circumstances were the; most trying circumstances that ever I was brought into. Joseph had to flee from that land to save his body from being slain, and so had brother Brigham and every other man who would sustain the Prophet, the apostasy was so great; and they were most hellish in their wickedness. (6:65)
I do not believe, of all the Branches of this church that were raised up twenty-five years ago, that there is one man out of twenty who now stands firm and is living. Of the two thousand whom I and my brethren baptised, when we first went to old England, I do not believe there are five hundred now in this Church. (5:274)
Thomas B. Marsh was once the President over the Quorum of the Twelve–over brother Brigham, me, and others; and God saw fit to give him a revelation to forewarn him of the course he would take; and still he took that course. We told him that if he would listen to that revelation he had received, he would be saved; but he listened to his wife, and away he went. His wife is now dead and damned. She led him some eighteen years; and as soon as she died he came to Winter Quarters–now Florence, and has written to us, pleading for mercy. We have extended it to him, and he will probably be here this season or the next. (5:29)
[154] When my son turns away from the truth and disregards my counsel, he turns away from God. Why is this so? It is because I am a branch of the vine. I am a limb that is attached to the great tree; and when my son disengages himself from the tree, he dishonours me; and by dishonouring me he dishonours the God whom I serve. It is a most excellent thing to find children listening to the admonitions of their parents, and especially if they are blest with good ones. (9:130)
When a man revolts against the work of God and against the counsels of his servants, and will not be subject to the Holy Ghost which dwells in him, he commits treason against God, and against his authority on the earth, and neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost will take up their abode with such a man, and he may bid farewell to the guidance of good angels. (11:145)
The moment a young man leaves the Church, he is then a traitor to the law of laws. You know the law of nations is that when a man becomes a traitor to the law of the land, all he has is confiscated, and he is punished accordingly; and so it is in the Church and kingdom of God. (8:213)
I have not a doubt but there will be hundreds who will leave us and go away to our enemies. I wish they would go this fall: it might relieve us from much trouble; for if men turn traitors to God and His servants, their blood will surely be shed, or else they will be damned, and that too according to their covenants. (4:375)
[155] I do not feel as I used to when I see a man going away from the society of the Church of God. I used to be filled with sympathy and plead with them hours and hours, importuning with them until my head would ache and my heart sicken; and I never had the satisfaction in even converting one such character in my life. (3:109)
If a Saint will corrupt himself with the wickedness of the world, it is very rare that correction and chastisement will do such an one any good. (9:40)
If you do not intend to be faithful, to do the will of God, and to keep His commandments, if I were in that situation I would at once withdraw. There are some few who are leaving, and I am heartily glad of it. (3:108)
I went up to my mill yesterday, and as I was coming back, I met several brethren on their way to California as fast as they could drive. I thought they were afraid of getting a mission, if they stayed here to attend the Conference.
I have learned one thing to a demonstration since I became a member of this Church, that if a man is determined to be damned, nothing can hinder it. (6:323)
If you oppose any of the works of God you will cultivate a spirit of apostacy. If you oppose what is called the “spiritual wife doctrine,” the Patriarchal Order, which is of God, that course will corrode you with a spirit of apostacy, and you will go overboard; still a great many do so, and strive to justify themselves in it, but they are not justified of God. When you take that course you put a knife to brother Brigham’s breast, and to the breasts of his associates; and more or less so when you oppose [156] anything which God has instituted for His glory and the exaltation of man. (3:125)
The righteous have no cause for fear. If I fear anything, it is that this people are becoming wealthy, becoming fanciful, and full of love for the vain fashions of the ungodly, which, if indulged in, will bring them trouble and sorrow. (9:328)
There are a great many people in the world that God ordained to give them their endowment, and they become vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction. (4:363)
I have not one word of reflection to make against you, yet you are living at a poor dying rate. Do you doubt it? (12:190)
[157] Testimony Concerning Brigham Young and H.C. Kimball
Of the Twelve Apostles chosen in Kirtland, and ordained under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and myself, there have been but two but what have lifted their heel against me–namely Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. (May 28, 1843.) D.H.C. 5:412.
[158] Chapter 13
TRIBULATIONS
Trials–Tests–Purging and Judgments
TRIALS
Supposing you lie, or steal, or commit adultery, and so on,–what you have suffered is not going to pay for this debt. Independently of these things, what are trials for? To prove our integrity–to try us, whether we will stand to God and to his kingdom. The Bible says that we are to come up through great tribulation; that is, the hardest kind of trials. You know, the harder you put on the robes to the wash-board, the better they are washed. (5:252)
Everyone that is not for God is bound for destruction; and if all our enemies combine and come against us with all their armies and munitions of war, they cannot hurt us, for God our Father will fight our battles, as he has done up to this day. He will sustain those who remember the originator of the great work of God in the last days. I am now telling what I know; I am telling what I have experienced. (9:24)
I would rather see my family go very poorly clad than to see them without bread and meat; for there is nothing in the world that will make a woman so cross as to go hungry. (8:85)
[159] When I have been poor and penniless, and could not raise five dollars, I have gone to work, by the counsel of my President, and built me a good house, and furnished it; and says brother Brigham, “you shall build that house, and you shall have your fit-out.” I did it according to his word, and it was clear of debt, and I had a good fit-out.
I have done the same here upon the same principle; and said the President, “Brother Kimball, take one load of rock, and a load of sand, and a load of clay, and say to the masons and joiners, Go a-head; for I never built a house yet, but I was better off when I had done it than when I began.” And brethren and sisters, that is the reason I keep on building. (7:40)
Those who were never without bread, and clothing, and good houses to dwell in, murmur the worst; and those who never had any troubles and trials since they have been in this Church, or since they have been on the earth, are the most ready to complain. This may appear strange doctrine to you, but you know it is true. (2:109)
I wish many of you had been through the scenes that brother Brigham and many others have. “What, do you want us to pass through the same that you have?” Yes, and more abundantly. Do you think I will cry about it? No; I will rejoice if you only stick to the faith, because it will be for your good–for your happiness; it will give you an experience that you have not got, and I do not know that you can have it until you have been tried. (2:159)
[160] TESTS
Why do you not rise up and purify your Quorums and bring such vile persons to justice? If they deserve severing from this Church, sever them; if you do not, you Elders will be severed.
Why pursue this course? To cleanse Israel and qualify and prepare them, for there is going to be a test, A TEST, A TEST; and if you do not forsake your wickedness you will see sorrow, as the children of Israel did in Jerusalem. Do you believe it? If you will cleanse your hearts and purify them, and call on your God, He will tell you that I speak the truth. (4:141)
There will also be a day when you will be brought to the test–when your very hearts and your inmost souls will melt within you because of the scenes that many of you will witness. Yes, you will be brought to that test, when you will feel as if every thing within you would dissolve. Then will be the time you will be tried whether you will stand the test or fall away. (4:375)
In this country we have got a thrashing machine that is fitted with three places; one for the chaff, another for the smut, and other foul articles, and a third to retain the wheat; hence they can go off south, in this way or that way, and some go after gold, and some after a better climate, for they do not like this climate, as they say the winters eat up the summers.
I am more than willing that all such should go, for if they all the time want to go there, let them go. (2:356)
[161] You never will see glory and happiness, angels, nor anything else, except the angels from beneath, if your works do not correspond with your faith and with what you are told to do. No man will ever enjoy the presence of Angels, Prophets, Apostles, Patriarchs, Jesus, and the Father, and the sanctified who have passed beyond the vail, that does not live up to these principles. (6:64)
The wicked and corrupt who have settled in our community are taking a course to lead away those who are willing to be led away from the truth–those who have turned away from God; and it will be for our good, as a community, if such persons will leave and never again return to our Territory, unless they can do so with a determination to serve God and keep his commandments. (11:83)
If I abuse Brother Brigham, it is my business to make satisfaction to that man. Well, I would not offend him nor any good man in this congregation; no, I would not. If I offend him, I do it ignorantly; and if I did, I would repent of it. I did offend him once or twice in my life, and I repented in tears and in sorrow; and I wish to God there had never such things existed since I was born. Well, I was ignorant, and I was a child. Well, if I have got to make those recantations, you have, too, when you offend or do wrong to each other. (5:254)
PURGING AND JUDGMENTS
The Lord and his angels are at work to measure to the inhabitants of the earth as they measured to his people. (8:245)
[162] If we are to have chastenings, I say Father let them come, and I will do my best to endure them and profit thereby. (3:263)
There are some of this people who have been kept as long as they have, only upon the principle of their being fondled and pampered. If they could not have the privilege of nursing at the breast and have a full supply, or the use of a sugar teat to keep them alive, they would dwindle and die; they must have something to suck, in order to keep them alive and in existence, for they are nothing but pets; pets they are, and pets they will go to hell, but will find no sugar teats there. (4:209)
I would not now step one step out of my way to head a man’s course that is determined to go to the Devil; but I will say, Go into the fire, that you may be burned out. He will be saved when he comes to himself; but he never will come to himself, until he is burned out like an old pipe that has become impregnated with filthiness. (6:323)
Last Sabbath I referred to the conduct of the ancient inhabitants on this continent, and the dealings of the Lord with them; and it is the only way in which those who profess to be the people of God are kept humble. When they prospered in riches they were lifted up, and God sent famine and pestilence among them, and sickness and death, until He pretty much destroyed the nation, until they humbled themselves; and I wish to apply that experience to this people, and they will feel it if they do not repent.
Your ears may hear my words, but do my words enter your hearts? Will you repent sincerely before God? If you will we never will be afflicted, no, never. I do not [163] know of any way for this people to appreciate their blessings, only by affliction and by being brought into sorrow. And if you do not repent, the little we saw night before last, when the hand-cart train came in, will be no comparison to the straitened circumstances you will be brought into; and people will look upon us and weep to see the suffering and affliction that we will be brought into. (4:108)
Man is an independent creature, as you were told this forenoon; but every man is accountable for his own acts. Every debt you contract you have got to pay. I shall never pay any of your debts, except I order you to contract them. If you will take counsel and do as you are told, you never will contract any debts that will affect you much. Every sin that I commit while in this tabernacle of flesh I have got to settle; and if any debt is not settled while I am in the flesh, I shall have to pay it hereafter. This will apply to you as well as me, and therefore you need not try to avoid it, for you will have to meet all your accounts. (8:348)
The Lord blesses those who bless His servants, and keep His commandments. If we all do this, we shall have good times, we shall be blessed, and will not be required to shed man’s blood, if we do right. Have I ever seen the day, when I felt like shedding blood? No never in my life; I always wished that I might not be called upon to do it. (3:263)
We read in the Bible that the Lord told Joshua to sanctify Israel; for, says he, “there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel.” And on the morrow they sanctified themselves by stoning to death Achan, the son of Carmi, who stole the wedge of gold and the [164] Babylonish garment. They also stoned to death his wife and his children, his oxen and his asses, and burnt them with fire, together with his tent, the silver, the gold, and the garment, in the valley of Achor.
Thus all Israel put to death the transgressor, and sanctified themselves before the Lord. Would it not be an excellent course to pursue with this people, to sanctify them to the fullest extent of the word? There are individuals in these valleys who profess to be Latter-day Saints; but do they by their works make their profession honourable? No; their works and their profession are very dissimilar indeed. I think it would be an excellent thing for this people to be sanctified from such persons, and have them cleansed from our midst, by making an atonement. (7:17)
If a man has shed innocent blood, he will have to pay the atonement, or he never can atone for his sin; therefore, at the day of judgment he will be judged according to men in the flesh, and condemned according to the law. (7:236)
Well, these are my feelings. God bless you, brethren; God bless you, sisters; God bless this earth, and these valleys, and every honest person that comes into these valleys! If their soldiers desert and come in here, may the Lord God bless them, that they may have the Spirit of God on them while they stay here! We live to let live, and we will treat them with kindness and gentility, if they stay here and behave themselves. But they cannot whore it here; for gentlemen, if there is anything of that kind, we will slay both men and women. We will do it, as the Lord liveth–we will slay such characters. Now, which would be the most worthy to be slain–the women that had had her endowments and [165] made certain covenants before God, or the man that knew nothing about it? The woman, of course. She must be guilty according to her knowledge. (6:38)
I have said often, you may go and write blessings for yourselves, and insert every good thing you can think of, that is in heaven or on the earth, and it will all come to pass on your heads, if you do right. (2:107)
[166] Chapter 14
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Worldly Governments–The Constitution–God’s Kingdom on Earth
WORLDLY GOVERNMENTS
I have said a good many times, when a man comes into my house, if he is a Catholic, a Pagan, a Quaker, a Baptist, a Methodist, a Soldier, a Captain, a Governor, or a President, he has got to subject himself to the order of my house; and when I bow down on my knees, I want him to bow down with me. That is my religion, let him bow down and pray with me; and then if I go into another man’s house, if he stands up to pray, I will stand up too and pray with him. That is good religion. Do as the Romans do when you are among them. A man can stand up, kneel down, or sit down, and not pray, and be as cross as he has a mind too, but let him be subject to the governor or the government of that house, and when he goes into another kingdom, let him be subject to that kingdom. (2:224)
We need good men that are capable of ruling us, and we have them in our midst. Take any man there is here, and I would rather have him come and rule me and this people than have any of those poor creatures that come here. What do they know? Nothing, only to come here and undertake to lead this people astray and [167] pollute them. They would pollute every one, if they had the power, or every one that would yield to them. (9:7)
I have pride to see this work roll forth, and turn over the kingdoms, and break in pieces the nations of the earth. I know that every man and woman, every nation and king that oppose it, will wither like a limb that is severed from a tree. (1:206)
I know that what I have said has informed many of your minds, and I choose to present my ideas by comparison. I have a right to say the Gentiles shall never rule over me, although this people might admit of their coming here. I have a right to say, also, that we shall never be ruled over by them from this day forth, while grass grows or water runs; never, no, never. (5:162)
But let me tell you that the best men in the United States are not among the rulers; they do not scramble and gamble for office. They have got the meanest curses for politicians, and the poorest curses for priests. (5:178)
They have afflicted us ever since the day that Joseph got the plates. They have driven us five times and broken us up, and here we are. Have they ever repented? No, they have not. Have they afflicted us as many as seventy times seven? They have, speaking of it individually. Well, they are not yet punished as they will be; but they are in punishment, are they not, Thomas? They are. Our government is God’s government on the earth, and he will see to the interests of his kingdom. He will know the designs of our enemies, and he will know at all times to take them when they do not think of it. (5:218)
[168] If you will do right–keep the commandments of God, I can say with all the propriety that any man, prophet, or apostle ever did, you shall never want for food, or raiment, or houses, or lands; and no power on the earth can injure you. There is no power that shall prevent our prosperity; for we shall increase, while every other power upon the earth that is opposed to this work and our God will go down. I just know it. (5:11)
And everything in the shape of persecution or affliction which the world have brought upon us, will come back upon their own heads ten-fold, and this nation in particular will reap what they have sown, and their troubles have already commenced; but I shall live to see them broken to pieces a great deal worse than they are now, and so will thousands of you. Our sons and daughters will live to see the complete overthrow of the nation, and they will avenge our wrongs. (9:181)
Brethren, I will tell you one thing, and you may be sure of it, as the Lord God lives, and as my soul lives, that nations that raise the weapons of war against this people shall perish by those weapons. Every nation, every tongue, and every people shall perish, and every man and woman that gives consent to it. (5:130)
The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. [Voice: “They will destroy themselves.”] They will destroy themselves, as the Lord liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. The Lord God will bring mildew on the nation that has afflicted us; for that nation shall take it first, and thence it shall go forth to every nation, kingdom, government, and state, and upon every town that shall lift their heels against God and this people. (5:138)
[169] The United States design to force those officers upon us by the point of the bayonet. Is not that a funny thing? You may think that I am cross, but I am laughing at their calamity, and I will “mock when their fear cometh.”
Now, gentlemen and ladies, you look at these things, and then right in this book, the Bible. It says, our nobles shall be of ourselves; that is, our Lords, our Judges, our Governors, our Marshals, and our everything shall be of ourselves. (5:160)
THE CONSTITUTION
Well, now, we have declared, in a legislative capacity, that we will not have poor, rotten-hearted curses come and rule over us, such as some they have been accustomed to send. We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice–as many as from five to eight men for each office–men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. We sent that number for the President of the United States to make a selection from, and asked him to give us men of our own choice, in accordance with the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all American citizens. We just told them right up and down, that if they sent any more such miserable curses as some they had sent were, we would send them home; and that is one reason why an army, or rather a mob, is on the way here, as reported. You did not know the reason before, did you? (5:160)
As for the condition of the nations that brother Wells has been speaking of, we shall never secede from the Constitution of the United States. (9:7)
[170] Uncle Sam–I won’t call him uncle–he is likely man, but his children have degenerated most awfully; and one of his sons who sits in the chair of state, Mr. Buchanan, is most awfully adulterated and sunk in degradation, that he would permit an army of 2,500 or 3,000 men to come here to enforce officers upon us contrary to the Constitution, and to enforce a Governor upon us, when we have got one of our own choosing. (5:173)
GOD’S KINGDOM ON EARTH
I have left the Devil’s kingdom and have enlisted in the kingdom of Jesus, and I never intend to turn away from it. (5:278)
I know that this is the kingdom of God. It is that kingdom which was shown to the Prophet Daniel, as recorded in the second chapter of his book. This is the kingdom that was set up in the days of Jesus, and it is the kingdom that our Father and God set up after he organized this earth; and he is the King: but there are and will be tens of thousands of kings this side of him, and will be a perpetual increase of kings and priests in the kingdoms of our Father. (8:247)
If you will observe the laws of the kingdom of God, you will become new in your minds, fresh in your imaginations, and powerful to do good; then God will bless you and prosper you in all your undertakings. he will guide you by his wisdom, that you may perform your duties acceptably. (9:42)
This is the kingdom of God. When they fight us, they fight God, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, [171] and they fight all the Prophets that have been from the creation down to the present time. (5:130)
If we had died when we were babes, we should have been heirs to the kingdom of heaven; but since we have attained maturity, we are subject to the law, liable to reproof and correction in the kingdom of God. (9:41)
I know there is a greater desire in this people for things that perish, for theatrical performances and dancings, than there is for the public interests of the Kingdom of God. Well, let us be Saints indeed, and show to the world that we are for God and for none else. (2:110)
I have got on the car; I am in the kingdom of God in the last days, which will continue and bring in the winding up scene of all things. Do you suppose it goes bumping along like an old, worn out, over-loaded conveyance, and every three or four feet somebody came along and put a block behind the wheel to keep it from rolling back? Get out with your nonsense. Brother Brigham, our leader, and myself, with every true Saint of God, have got on a car that moves swiftly along, and will never stop to need a block behind or before; and those that have not the spirit and power of this kingdom can never trammel it in its course–not one hair’s breadth. (4:361)
You must honour that tree with which you are connected; for, if you dishonour that tree, you dishonour yourselves, and I would not give a farthing for your authority.
These are some of my views upon the subject; and I feel to say that this work will roll forth with greater [172] power hereafter than it has done in times past; and my prayer to my Father in heaven is, Let thy work roll on, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (8:249)
We have received the Gospel, and we have received the Priesthood, and the keys and power pertaining thereto, and the Kingdom of God is restored, and it will never be overthrown again, but will overthrow all iniquity or power that undertakes to wrestle with it, I care not whether it is a nation or a kingdom. Do the world believe this? Who cares whether they do or not, God knows it will do it, and I know it, and that is enough. If there was not another man in heaven or on earth knew it, and I knew it, and was authorized, it would overthrow all other governments, and they could not help themselves. (2:234)
We are all required to be diligent and to labour faithfully for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God; we have all got an interest alike in the triumph of righteousness, and it should be our meat and drink to assist all we can in this great work of human redemption. (9:265)
I wish you to understand also that the United States will not overcome this kingdom, neither will Great Britain, nor all the powers of Europe combined, for it is that kingdom which is to stand for ever. The seed has taken root, and all the powers of the earth cannot root it out. (8:273)
We are blessed of the Lord now more than all the people upon the face of the earth, and we ought to be [173] faithful to His commandments every moment of our lives, for we owe all we have and are to His beneficent bounty, and all should be devoted to His interest, or in other words, to our own interests by devoting all to the building up of His kingdom. (11:146)
We have been telling you these things for years; but did you believe them? Yes, and so did the devils. The devils believe and tremble; but where is the practice, gentlemen? Where is your practice, ladies? Your practice has been chiefly exhibited on your heads, around your necks and shoulders, and all over you. Does this correspond with what is about to take place with us–when there is about to be a collision with us and the world–when we have got to maintain the kingdom of God? As brother Brigham says, it is the kingdom of God or nothing. (5:275)
Everything spoken of that has not been fulfilled will have to be fulfilled in this dispensation. The kingdom of God is set up in a degree: it is in embryo, and it will continue to receive strength. The child has proclaimed its liberty, although it has not got its full growth. The child is free; but he has got to whip out all the wicked and bring them into subjection to the kingdom of God, or to the kingdom of his Father. (5:276)
Talk about building up the kingdom of God on the earth, how can you do it except you go to work with your might to practice as well as preach, and labor and toil with all your might by day and by night, and by this means every man in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will become independent. (10:76)
[174] It is a good deal so with this kingdom, there are some who are all the time blocking the wheels of the kingdom in place of helping to roll it forward. (9:336)
Our property should not be dearer to us than salvation, and should freely be put to the best use for building up the kingdom of God. To illustrate my ideas, I will use a comparison. Here is my little finger, does not the blood go into that finger as freely and as fully, in proportion as it goes into my leg, or into my arm? Does it always stay there? Does that little finger become selfish–superstitious with the principle of idolatry–and never restore that blood to the fountain? No, for if it did, the fountain would be weakened, and the finger would wither, because of an interrupted communication. (4:249)
This people here are the people of God. Here, in the Territory of Deseret, is the kingdom of God, and here are all the officers pertaining to that kingdom; and here is an organization that is organized after the order of God, and it is organized after the order of the Church of the First Born.
Let me explain what the Church of the First Born is. It is the first Church that ever was raised up upon this earth; that is, the first born Church. That is what I mean; and when God our Father organized that Church, He organized it just as His Father organized the Church on the earth where He dwelt; and that same order is organized here in the City of Great Salt Lake; and it is that order that Joseph Smith the Prophet of God organized in the beginning in Kirtland, Ohio. Brother Brigham Young, myself, and others were present when that was done; and when those officers received their endowments, they were together in one place. They [175] were organized, and received their endowments and blessings, and those keys were placed upon them, and that kingdom will stand for ever. (5:129)
Righteous and holy men and their sons, all who honor their calling, will bear off the kingdom and become a royal Priesthood. (4:142)
Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is very easy to understand that a man can see very little of a kingdom unless he goes into it, and a man to see and understand the kingdom of God must first become a member of the Church of Christ, and then he progresses until he has an opportunity of looking into the kingdom, of becoming acquainted with its officers and laws, and hence it is that Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” When the kingdom of God is organized upon the earth, it is done to protect the Church of Christ in its rights and privileges, so that you see the Church makes a government to protect itself, but who knows what that government is? All those to whom it has been revealed, and no others. Let the Saints reflect upon these matters which I am laying before them. Think of your holy endowments and what you have been anointed to become, and reflect upon the blessings which have been placed upon you, for they are the same in part that were placed upon you, for they are the same in part that were placed upon Jesus; he was the one that inducted his Apostles into these ordinances; it was he who set up the kingdom of which we are subjects. This is the kingdom of which all the Prophets spake, and to which Daniel alluded when he said, “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other [176] people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” It is a blessing to have the privilege of entering into the kingdom of God and partaking of the privileges and blessings that are bestowed upon its members. (10:241)
This is the kingdom of God. You talk about building up the kingdom of God; but how can you build up the kingdom of God, except you build up the king and his officers? We are to become kings and priests unto our God, in accordance with the revelations given to the Apostle John. Our lives are a preparatory work to fit us to receive that authority and power; and when we have got that, we will raise up a kingdom. You cannot raise up a kingdom any greater than yourselves. (5:23)
I can tell you, my brethren and sisters, that it is the little things that lead to great ones in the kingdom of God. You know the old proverb says that it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. It takes but very little to injure the fibres and the small roots of a tree, and you all know by your own experience that small branches are necessary to the perfection of a tree; so also are small members necessary for the complete organization of the kingdom of God. (9:40)
Jesus took Peter, James and John into a high mountain, and there gave them their endowment, and placed upon them authority to lead the Church of God in all the world, to ordain men to the Priesthood, to set in order the Church and send forth the Elders of Israel to preach to a perishing world. For the same purpose has the Lord called us up into these high mountains, that we may become endowed with power from on high in the Church and kingdom of God, and become kings and [177] priests unto God, which we never can be lawfully until we are ordained and sealed to that power, for the kingdom of God is a kingdom of kings and priests, and will rise in mighty power in the last days. (9:327)
Let us take that course which will make us independent of all other people upon the earth; I know that this is the course for us to take all the time. Then we should put our minds together, and our mites also, to build up the kingdom of God; and if we will do this, being of one spirit, we shall prosper in all things. I know of no other way for us to become of one heart and one mind in regard to the things of the kingdom of God. By pursuing this course we shall increase in the knowledge of the truth, and ere long the angels will come to visit us, and Father will talk to us in relation to his purposes and the introduction of his government. Let us endeavor to attain these blessings, for they are ours through faithfulness and diligence in well-doing. (10:78)
Last Monday, the Congress of the United Stated commenced its session, and no doubt they will remember us. I want you should pray for them. Pray for the President of the United States; pray for the Senate and the House of Representatives; pray for the Speakers of each house, and pray for all men in authority, especially those who are opposed to Israel and who are planning for our destruction. I want you to pray good prayers for them, that they may fall into the dilemma they want to put us in. You need not pray anything more than that; for, I swear to you, they will get a bellyfull.
The members of the Legislature here will assemble to-morrow morning, at ten o’clock, with our Governor at our head. It is the best legislative body there is upon the [178] face of the earth, because they hold the Priesthood, and there is no person there only those who hold it–the leading men of Israel. Pray for that Assembly. There are forty-nine men of us–the representatives of this whole Territory, to make laws for the government and protection of the people. But when those men have made a law, our Governor can veto it in a moment. He is the head of the department to make laws to protect, sustain, and uphold the kingdom of God in all the world. (6:129)
It is going to be a difficult thing for the elect to be saved, according to the Scriptures, and there will not any of them be saved only by taking a course to do right and by honouring their calling and Priesthood, No man will become a king, only by honouring his calling, and by obtaining a crown by experience, and continuing in welldoing. There is no woman that will ever be a queen except she is a good woman and well attached to a good king. (9:25)
Here in Great Salt Lake City is the seat of government for the Church and Kingdom of God, pertaining to every person that has ever come into a probation on this earth, whether they are now in tabernacles upon this earth, or whether they are in the spirit world, or in hell. (5:27)
Perhaps you will now refer to the Bible to prove that the time is to come when the kings of the earth will gather the Saints together, and when they will bring the sons and daughters of God from afar, and when they will protect and sustain them,–when the queens of the earth will have them by their sides and become nursing mothers unto them. We shall not send queens from here to the nations of the earth to teach the people, but the [179] people have got to be brought here up to the heights of Zion; then the kings and queens will instruct them and nurse them, when we have them gathered together.
Now, a great many suppose that this applies to the kings and queens of the various nations; but I can tell you that the kings and queens of the Gentiles will never gather the Saints. (8:348)
And if we should wait for the rotten-hearted kings and queens of the wicked nations to gather us home, we shall have to wait a long time. Possibly some of them may come and look at the place, but they will never come to stay and assist in building up Zion. Many of them will yet drive the Saints from their lands and homes, just as the wicked have driven us from the United States into these mountains of Deseret.
Then who is to gather the people of God? You all say that we are to become a kingdom of kings and priests–of queens and priestesses; and the Bible supports this doctrine. Now, the truth is, you are the very kings and priests that have got to gather the Saints, and your wives have got to school them and nurse them. (8:349)
The day has come when the devil is coming with all his combined forces: he has laid a siege against the kingdom of God, and it never will cease till this kingdom triumphs. (5:250)
Wicked men and wicked spirits may bring into requisition all the wisdom and cunning they possess to devise plans to overthrow this kingdom, but all their deep-laid plots will fail. They cannot do a thing to hinder the progress of this Work, but everything they do will promote it and bring it more and more into notice, from this time henceforth and for ever. (11:95)
[180] When the United States have done their best, then other nations will tackle us, and so things will go on, until every nation is brought into subjection to the kingdom of God. Go and read it in the Bible. (5:275)
I heard Joseph say twice that brother Brigham and I should be in that council in Jerusalem, when there should be a uniting of the two divisions of God’s government. Now, you have got to live for it. What would you not do to attain to those blessings? You would give all you have in the world. (9:27)
[181] Chapter 15
HEAVEN
Death–The Spirit World–Resurrection–Heaven and Exaltation
DEATH
What is time? (striking the pulpit.) That is all there is about it. That little circumstance of my striking the pulpit is in eternity. It is eternity on the right and on the left, behind and before, and the time being, as it appears to us, is the centre of it. So we pass on from time to eternity every day we live. (7:348)
In regard to the lifeless body that now lies before us, let me tell you that mourning and making a great parade over it, is similar to what it would be for me to lament about a house which the occupants had forsaken. I left a house in Nauvoo, but do you suppose that I fret about it? I do not. And what is the use of gathering the bands together and the troops, and performing lengthy and pompous ceremonies over a tenement the spirit has left? I would not give a picayune for all your parade. (4:135)
Our spirits are entangled in these bodies–held captive as it were for a season. They are like the poor Saints, who are for a time obliged to dwell in miserable mud shanties that are mouldering away, and require [182] much patching and care to keep them from mingling with mother earth before the time. They feel miserable in these old decaying tabernacles, and long for the day when they can leave them to fall and take possession of a good new house. (3:108)
If we do not associate with the wicked world any more than is unavoidably necessary for the time being, do you think they will have anything in common with us in eternity, or we with them? No. (7:348)
If you are subject to rebellious spirits, or to a spirit of apostacy here, will you not have the same spirit beyond the vail that you had on this side? You will, and it will have power over you to lead you to do wrong, and it will control your spirits. If, then, you are opposed to the truth while you are here, you will be occupied in that opposition hereafter, for the spirit that is opposed to the work of God here, will be opposed to that work when beyond the vail. I do not guess at this, because I have been at the other side of the vail, in vision, and have seen a degree of its condition with the eyes that God gave me. I have seen it and have seen those that lived in the faith and had the privilege of seeing Jesus, Peter, James, and the rest of the ancient Apostles, and of hearing them preach the Gospel. I have also seen those who rebelled against them, and they still had a rebellious spirit, fighting against God and His servants. (4:274)
I have seen the time when I did not know the meaning of the phrase, “second death,” but I now comprehend it to my satisfaction. There will probably be thousands who will be brought forth, in the resurrection, in their sins, and their conduct in life will have rendered them worthy of the second death. (8:240)
[183] I believe in annihilation in one degree. Men will sin so that they will be damned spiritually and temporally. There will be a dissolution of the natural body and of the spirit, and they will go back into their native element, the same as the chemist can go to work and dissolve a five-dollar gold piece, and throw it into a liquid. Does not that show there can be a dissolution of the natural body and of the spirit? This is what is called the second death. (5:95)
Now, will the day come when this pitcher will return to its mother earth? It will; and it may be thrown into some part of the earth where it may be thousands and millions of years before that pitcher or the elements of which it is composed will be brought back again; and so it will be with thousands and millions of the people: they never will be brought back into the shape they were in once.
Some men enquire, “Why?” Simply because they have dishonoured the spirit and bodies that God gave them; therefore God will make a desolation of those bodies and spirits, and he will throw them back into the earth; that is, that portion that belongs to the earth will go back there. And so it will be with our spirits: they will go back into the elements or space that they once occupied before they came here.
Now, you may believe what you have a mind to about it; it is just as easy to conceive of a dissolution as to conceive of anything else. Chemists take elements and dissolve them and separate them, and can it not be done with our bodies? I answer yes, and with our spirits too, just as easy as a chemist can take a five-dollars piece and dissolve it into an element that is like water. Can that be restored again? It can: it can be dissolved, [184] and it can be brought back again. And upon the same principle can our bodies be dissolved and restored again. (5:271)
There are thousands here that have never seen a potter’s house. But if I was in one, I could take a lump of clay and show you; and perhaps, being out of practice, it would mar in my hands: then I would throw it back into the mill and grind it, and afterwards I would take it up again and make a vessel unto honour. And thus the Lord said to Jeremiah, “As you see that clay mar in the hands of the potter, so shall it be with the house of Israel. They shall go and be in prison till I bring them out and make them vessels unto honour.” That is to be done in the latter days, when the Lord is to say to the dry bones, “Come forth,” and so on. Go and read the Bible, and you will learn about it. It will be just so with thousands and tens of thousands who will embrace “Mormonism:” they will go back into the mill again, through disobedience. (5:274)
At the same time, a great many persons think more of the testimony of a dead Apostle than they do of a living one, and think more of dead Prophets than they do of living ones who are here in their midst. It is generally the case that men do not fully appreciate their blessings in life; often when their wives are dead they think more of them than they did when they were living, and it is just so with some wives in regard to their former husbands. We do not always appreciate the blessings we have in our possession until they are taken from us; then we begin to appreciate them; so when good men have left us we cease thinking of their faults, but begin to cherish the memory of their good deeds. (3:197)
[185] SPIRIT WORLD
Have I not told you often that the separation of body and spirit makes no difference in the moral and intellectual condition of the spirit? When a person, who has always been good and faithful to his God, lays down his body in the dust, his spirit will remain the same in the spirit world. (3:108)
If men and women do not qualify themselves and become sanctified and purified in this life, they will go into a world of spirits where they will have a greater contest with the devils than ever you had with them here. (3:230)
I expect I shall have to go and preach to the spirits in prison where they live, in London, in Germany, and other places. What! after I am dead? Yes. You. You may call us wild for believing such things. (5:90)
The spirits of the wicked, who have died for thousands of years past, are at war with the Saints of God upon the earth. (3:229)
I never had a view of the righteous assembling in the spirit-world, but I have had a view of the hosts of hell, and have seen them as plainly as I see you to-day. The righteous spirits gather together to prepare and qualify themselves for a future day, and evil spirits have no power over them, though they are constantly striving for the mastery. I have seen evil spirits attempt to overcome those holding the Priesthood, and I know how they act. (4:136)
[186] As for my going into the immediate presence of God when I die, I do not expect it, but I expect to go into the world of spirits and associate with my brethren, and preach the Gospel in the spiritual world, and prepare myself in every necessary way to receive my body again, and then enter through the wall into the celestial world. (3:112)
Either side of the vail they are active to see that your words are fulfilled. If they are not, they are not with us, nor we with them. (6:33)
You talk of angels and ministering spirits, and let me tell you that they are ready to abundantly minister to all who are faithful in their different callings. And if brother Hyde, who is the President of the Twelve, and if the President of the High Priests, the Presidents of the Seventies, the Patriarchs, the Bishops and all the officers of this Church will honor and magnify their respective callings, the spirit and power of those who have previously filled those stations with honour, but who are now behind the vail, will rest mightily upon them, and they will become a terror to evil doers. (4:141)
Perhaps my father may not receive the Gospel. If he don’t, my baptism will not do him any good. He is in the spirit-world; he has to believe and embrace the Gospel in his heart and affections, and then I receive knowledge from him through a proper authority, and I am administered to for him. You might as well go and be baptized for a devil as for a man who will not receive the Gospel in the spirit-world. (5:90)
In the spirit world there is an increase of males and females, there are millions of them, and if I am faithful all the time, and continue right along with brother [187] Brigham, we will go to brother Joseph and say, “Here we are brother Joseph; we are here ourselves are we not, with none of the property we possessed in our probationary state, not even the rings on our fingers?” He will say to us, “Come along, my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?” “They are back yonder; they would not follow us.” “Never mind,” says Joseph, “here are thousands, have all you want.” Perhaps some do not believe that, but I am just simple enough to believe it. (4:209)
Let us pursue that course of life that will make us the friends of our Father and God, friends of his servants Joseph, Hyrum, Peter, Paul, Jesus, and all the Apostles of Christ, and let our friendship extend back to those who are in the spirit-world. (8:332 and 9:131)
RESURRECTION
So far as we are concerned, we were taken from the earth, and we may expect to return to it again; and that portion of me which is pure, after the dross of this mortality is separated from it, I expect will be Brother Heber. (3:107)
Still, I believe the greater part of the inhabitants of the earth will be redeemed; yea, all will be finally redeemed, except those who have sinned against the Holy Ghost or shed innocent blood; and they never can be redeemed until that debt is paid. And I do not know any way for them to pay it, unless they are brought back again to a mortal existence, and pay the debt where they contracted it.
God will make every man pay off the debt he contracts; for a restoration must take place, which has been [188] spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began.
When a man breaks a law of God, he must pay that debt, unless God forgives him; and he has a right to do that, the same as I have. Still, my forgiving him does not pay the debt; for if he has stolen ten dollars from me, and he comes to me and asks my pardon for stealing the ten dollars, I forgive him. But does that restore the ten dollars of stolen money? (6:67)
I never shall come into the presence of my Father and God until I have received my resurrected body, neither will any other person; and I doubt whether all those who profess to be Saints will ever be gathered with the spirits of the just in the spiritual world; but they will be left where they attain to. The righteous are gathered to the spirit world to prepare for the resurrection of their bodies. (3:113)
Now, mark it, gentlemen, I am not dead yet; I live, and shall live to see our enemies, God’s enemies, and the enemies of Joseph, Brigham, and Heber overthrown by the power of God. Supposing I do not continue to live in this house, why I will get into another, and I will have a sharper sickle than I have now. (8:274)
The spirit and the body are the soul of man, and one is not perfect without the other, any more than we can be perfect in the immortal state without those who have gone before us, or they without us. There will be a restitution of all things in heaven and on earth to make things perfect. That which we call this present life, in reality, has no end; that which we call time is in reality eternity. We say the dead have departed this life as though they had departed to some other life. This, how-[189]ever, is not so; dying is like going from one room to another, or from one part of the earth to another, the life still exists though the body decays, but the life which dwelt in it is indestructible. (10:100)
After my body is laid in the grave, and after the Prophet Joseph has received his resurrected body, he probably will not suffer my body to remain long in the ground, but will be apt to say, “Come and let us go and help brother Heber to again take his body.” Do you suppose that if brother Brigham were to die to-morrow, and if Joseph is resurrected, which he will be so soon as his mission is filled in the spirit world, that Joseph will permit brother Brigham’s body to remain longer in the grave than may be requisite? No, for he then will have need of the assistance of his faithful resurrected brethren, as he now has of faithful spirits. (4:294)
HEAVEN AND EXALTATION
The day will come when he who prove faithful will dwell on this earth in a Holy City, and it will be walled in, and there will be fine buildings of every description in it; we have not a house here that will compare with the most inferior that will be in that city. (2:162)
We are labouring for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of our God; we are learning to live for ever; and I am going to stick and hang to the good old ship, Zion, for ever and ever, God helping me. (9:337)
Joseph the Prophet said that our heavenly Father went on from one degree of knowledge to another until he obtained the knowledge that made him God. So also will it be with us, we shall have to advance from one [190] degree of faith to another until we get that knowledge that will prepare us for exaltation in our Father’s kingdom. But we must first prove ourselves in this state of probation, then we rise from step to step till we reach that position that is promised to the people of God. (9:371)
When the kingdom triumphs, every man will be rewarded according to his works, and will receive that which is designed for him, and in all things be blessed according to his merits. By merit I mean that which a man earns, and you will see the day when you will get nothing but what you earn by your works and your integrity to God and your brethren. (10:77)
We must become like the limbs of one tree, filled with the fragrance and nourishment that arise from the roots; then we shall be clothed with power and authority–then we shall have care one for the other. If we do not unite our efforts in this direction, we shall never pass through the strait gate that is spoken of in the Scriptures, or what I will call the narrow gate. It is the gate that will only admit one man at a time. We are not going in all in confusion, as the sectarians suppose.
This brings to my mind the vision that Joseph Smith had, when he saw Adam open the gate of the Celestial City and admit the people one by one. He then saw Father Adam conduct them to the throne one by one, when they were crowned Kings and Priests of God. (9:41)
I will now say that all those that rejoiced in the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith partook of the spirit of their murderers. And further, the people between here and Nauvoo, who have mocked at us, will be [191] brought into subjection, and be made to bow the knee to God and to this kingdom, and repent of their sins in the flesh, or they will meet them in another place. When I lay down this body I shall take a new one, and I shall be where they won’t like to see me. (8:276)
Act in your places and in your callings, and by so doing the Lord will lead you through into the celestial world, by the assistance of His servants, for as to the Lord our God’s coming here in person and leading us into the celestial world, He never will do it, but He will authorize His servants to do it. (3:20)
Joseph always told us that we would have to pass by sentinels that are placed between us and our Father and God. Then, of course, we are conducted along from this probation to other probations, or from one dispensation to another, by those who conducted those dispensations. (6:63)
Now, when you are brought to judgement and you know that Jesus is there, that Joseph is there, that Brigham is there, that Willard and myself are there, and you are asked what have you been guilty of, you will have to give in your own testimony, and you can not get around it. (12:190)
As for any man’s going into the celestial glory, or entering through the straight gate into the celestial world, there never will a man or woman go there, except they obey the celestial law which gives them that privilege. (3:56)
When you go into heaven, into the celestial world, you will see the Church organized just as it is here, and [192] you will find all the officers down to the Deacon. Our Church organization is a manifestation of things as they are in heaven, and you are all the time praying that the Church here may be brought into union and set in order as it is in heaven. (4:82)
When I go to my Father and God, and to Joseph, he will say, Come in here, sit down with us, and enjoy yourself. Would not this be a happy time? Yes. And what would you not give to be in the society of Joseph and Hyrum and his brethren? You would all give everything you possess in the world. Then see that you live for this day by day. (9:136)
You can see the stars; they are as thick as the hairs on my head. What are they? They are worlds like this, and redeemed worlds, as this will be some time; and we are the boys that will help to redeem it. (5:88)
[193] Chapter 16
THE LAST DAYS
A Chosen People–The Fate of Nations–Wars–Famine and Food Storage–Jackson County and Zion
A CHOSEN PEOPLE
The majority of the members of this Church are the very elect of our God. There are some that are not so good, who care not for God, for His servant Brigham, for Heber, nor for the Twelve Apostles. But the day will come when the Lord will choose a people out of this people, upon whom he will bestow his choicest blessings. (11:145)
Jesus had that power, so had Moses. When the Lord commanded Moses to tell Aaron to smite the waters of Egypt with his rod, he did so, and the waters were turned into blood; and when by the order of Moses, Aaron smote the dust with his rod, “the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt;” and many mighty miracles did Moses and Aaron perform in the sight of Pharaoh, by smiting with the rod. Are we in a day more mighty than that? Yes, and we will see more mighty works in the latter days, than were the wonders performed in Egypt. The power and manifestation that was in every dispensation will be manifested in this kingdom. (4:212)
[194] There are enough of us; for the Lord is going to manifest his power and to play with our enemies as he did with Pharaoh and all his host. Now, mark it, and see if it does not come so, or something similar. All these things are in this dispensation, and why? Because this is the fulness of times: it is the time fixed for all to make a sacrifice before God. (5:220)
The day is to come when one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight. When that day comes, the Lord will make the enemies of His people flee as if there were thousands after them, when there is only one; and that is the way that God will deal with our enemies. The day of God Almighty is at hand, when He will show forth His power, and when He will deliver His people from all their enemies. (4:375)
I know the day is right at hand when men will forfeit their Priesthood and turn against us and against the covenants they have made, and they will be destroyed as Judas was. (6:126)
There will not many calamities come upon the nations of the earth, until this people first feel their effects, and when hard times commence they will begin at the house of God, and if there is any house of God on the earth, where is it? It is here, is it not? It is where the people have assembled together according to the commandments of the Almighty. (3:227)
If judgments must need begin at the house of God, and if the righteous scarcely are saved, how will it be with the wicked? Am I looking for famines? Yes, the most terrible and severe that have ever come upon the nations of the earth. These things are right before us, [195] and some of this people are not thinking anything about them; they do not enter their hearts. (5:21)
It is often said here that this people are blessed above all other people; this is truly so. We are in the mountains; we did not come here of our own accord, but we came by the will of the Father. We are in the tops of the mountains where the prophet said the people of God would be in the last days. (10:101)
We are here in the tops of the mountains, and here is where we shall stay, and all hell cannot get us out until the Lord God says, “Come out!” Now you may set your hearts at rest. (7:169)
Was there any revelation that we should come to the mountains? Yes, and there were predictions in the old Bible that we should come here, and now we are here we are comfortable and blessed above all other people upon the face of the earth, I do not care where you look. You may look to the east, to the west, to the north and to the south, and in all nations you will find them ready to go to war with each other. And you may calculate that there will be war upon war, and that things will gradually grow worse; therefore we should always endeavour to do right. (9:374)
The day will come when the Lord our God will empty the earth of all her wicked inhabitants, for he is going to cleanse this earth from wickedness and prepare it for the abode of the righteous; and you may rest assured that it will take a tremendous shaking and an unprecedented great fire to purify this earth ready for the Saints of light. (8:258)
[196] We are all in the hands of God, and he will lead us by his Spirit in the way of life, and he will lead our enemies in that way that will subserve the interests of the kingdom of God; and all those who have had their minds open for the last two years can see that the Almighty has done this. (8:275)
As for our enemies, they never can injure us; but they will make their heaviest strides against us. And it will not be long before the world will turn over the riches of the world to us, and I know it. (5:278)
If you are looking forward for peace and thinking that peace will soon be made, you are mistaken. The Lord is permitting things to be prolonged as they are, for the purpose of getting his people out from Babylon, just as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains that were round about them; for he kept back the destruction till he got Lot out, and so it is now in these days. (9:372)
We live in a day and age of the would which we have talked about a thousand times, but do we fully realize it? We live in a day that the Apostles in the days of Jesus, and the Patriarchs, and thousands of holy men actually saw–they beheld the day we now live in, and anxiously desired to enjoy it in the flesh, but they died without that privilege. Are we not privileged with that day? Do we not live in the days of the Prophets and Apostles, in the days of Patriarchs and holy men? We do. (2:354)
THE FATE OF NATIONS
They have now got Masonic institutions against Masonic institutions, and Presbyterians operate against Presbyterians, and Episcopalians against Episcopalians, [197] and finally, it will be every man against his neighbour. But while they are being divided one against another, this people are raising the standard of King Emmanuel, and we will sustain the Constitution of the United States, and also all good and wholesome laws. You may tell it to the nations, for as God lives this people will do it, and I say, Amen. (9:182)
We have invited the nations to receive the truth, but they will not, nor let us go to them; and now God is going to compel them to come in by famine, war, and every kind of desolation; and they will come faster than we can provide for them. Then let us awake, and not lie down and sleep, and go home and act as though we had not heard anything. (6:66)
The nation of the United States have got to reap that which they have sown, and to receive that measure which they meted out to us, pressed down and running over; and as they designed to wipe us out of existence “with the flower of the army” which they sent here, that destruction shall come upon themselves. I am perfectly willing that they should know what I think of them. That army was sent here by James Buchanan to wipe us out, but they might as well try to move the sun out of his place; still we know that that was their design, and brother Brigham declared it at the time. Yet, although you know that those poor creatures came here for the purpose of cutting our throats, you will feed them at their own price, instead of making them pay handsomely for all they get. (9:181)
Then wake up ye Saints of Latter Days, and cleanse your platters inside and out, and God Almighty will rescue us from our enemies. He will slay them; He will [198] hurl kings from their thrones and unrighteous rulers from their places of authority, and they will drop faster than you saw the stars drop from heaven, at the time that the Saints were driven out of Jackson county Missouri. I am talking of what I know, and not of what I merely believe; and may the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, rest upon you, my brethren and sisters, and upon our families and every good person. (4:138)
The nations are already convulsed. Not only the United States, but many of the European nations are feeling the effect of the judgments of the Almighty; and they will continue to be afflicted more and more, until the above revelations are fulfilled. There is no evading the judgments of the Almighty; their only escape is in obedience to the Gospel we have to preach. But do they believe what we have said? No, they do not believe a word of it; and therefore there is but little hope in their case. (8:333)
Brother Grant was speaking about the work of God, in the laying waste of nations by sea and by land. I believe it is all the work of God, and it is all right. Will He sweep them from the earth in order to destroy their power and influence? He will. And when kings, and princes, and captains, and great men, according to the greatness of the world, go into the world of spirits, they will not have as much power as they had here upon the earth. (2:150)
We generally proclaim what is about to take place, and we tell them that sore judgments are about to fall upon the nations of the earth, but they will not believe us. If you believe us, you will be able to escape. (3:263)
[199] Now, we want to obey the laws of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and get the Spirit of God; and because of this they are our enemies. It is the same as it was with the family of Jacob, and he was the friend of God; and because Joseph was in favour with God and with his father, his brethren hated him. It was particularly so with Joseph. His own brothers hated him; but the Lord honoured him, and he lived to see his father and brethren bow down to him; and the king of Egypt honoured him, and bowed to his wisdom. And so the nations will bow to this kingdom, sooner or later, and all hell cannot help it. (7:1)
Whenever a man of God undertakes to do anything, he does it by the power of faith and works. Upon this principle the Lord brings about his purposes, and there never was anything of any moment accomplished upon any other principle. The Almighty has said that in the latter days he will send forth his angels to inflict punishment upon the wicked, and that a certain angel shall blow his trumpet, proclaiming that time shall be no more. An angel will also be sent forth to destroy the wicked, or, as the Scriptures say, to reap down the earth.” (9:76)
Although many may fall away from the truth, and others may embrace it, yet the destruction of this nation is sealed, except they repent, which is not very probable. (9:181)
WARS
The Saints are receiving their endowment, and preparing for that which is in the future; to dwell in the heavens, and sit upon thrones, and reign over kingdoms [200] and dominions, principalities and powers; and as this work progresses, the works of Satan will increase, and he will continue to present one thing after another, following up the work of God, and increasing means of deception, to lead astray such men and women, and take them captive. As the work of God increases in power and extent upon the earth, so will the works of Satan increase. (2:150)
This Church and kingdom will reign triumphant; and when the United States take a course to bring us into collision, they will strive to take away everything from us that they have given us. What of it? We will make them the aggressors: they shall be the first men that shall rebel against God and against this people; and if we are not the aggressors, and we stand on the defensive, and they come upon us, and they fall into our hands, the Lord says, if they repent and we forgive them, our blessings shall be doubled unto us; so also for the second time: but if he comes upon you the third time, thine enemy is in thine hands; thou mayest do with him as seemeth thee good: but if he repent, and you forgive him the third time, then I will reward unto you a hundredfold. (5:134)
Will the United States send troops here? Yes. And when they have done, the other inhabitants of the earth will send them. But, remember, the Prophets have said that the riches of the Gentile world shall be consecrated to God and to His people. I think we will have a little of it along occasionally. (5:180)
When the United States muster their forces, and the devil combines his forces against us, then God will combine his forces against them. (6:188)
[201] And do you hear it, O Israel? and have you seen it, and felt the pangs of war, when they have sent their army to this Territory, intending to drive us from our homes? As they commenced it upon the House of God, it must go forth upon themselves; for as they measured out to us, it must be measured unto them fourfold. (9:132)
FAMINE AND FOOD STORAGE
Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the United States.
You will also see the day that you will wish you had laid up your grain, if you do not do it now; for you will see the day, if you do not take care of the blessings God has given to you, that you will become servants, the same as the world will. (5:10)
Let us go to work, every man and woman of us, and lay up our stores, and build good store-houses, and increase. If we will do this, brethren, we will have some of the finest seasons you ever saw. Our grain will increase, and we will lay a foundation for the world and the ungodly, and we will buy them for our servants. They will be glad to come and work for us for bread, and each one of us will be like Joseph in Egypt was to his father’s house. They will come to us and buy grain and the good things of this world; for I know that we are the people who have got to do that thing. Will you be slack, brethren, and let the evil come upon us, when we forewarn you of the future events that are coming? (4:338)
[202] I will prove to you that I will put my faith with my works and lay up stores for my family and for my friends that are in the United States, and I will be to them as Joseph was to the people in the land of Egypt. Every man and woman will be a saviour if they will do as I say. (5:10)
Follow the example if you think it is a good one, and lay up stores of grain, against the time of need, for you will see the time when there will not be a kernel raised, and when thousands and millions will come to this people for bread. (3:252)
I will not say much more about grain: you can do as you please. I might just as well say nothing about it, for I know none will listen to it but good Saints, men of God, and men that have an experience, and can see things as they are: they are the men that will save this people. If one to fifty proves a saviour in the end, I shall think that things are much better than I expected to find them. (8:246)
Joseph warned the people of a famine that was coming on the land, and laid up corn; so Brigham and Heber have taught you that we are going to see a day similar to that, but more terrible–more awful. (5:174)
As I have said, I know that we will see those things of which I have spoken–such famines as this world never beheld. Yes, we have got to see those scenes; but if we will keep our vows and covenants, the Lord will hold them off until we can prepare ourselves; and if you will wake up and do as you are told, you will escape. (5:21)
[203] Then go to work and build up this kingdom, establish righteousness, and prepare yourselves for the famines that are coming upon the earth; for I tell you that they are coming.
Do you suppose that God would give revelations and tell us to warn the inhabitants of the earth of things which were coming speedily upon them, if He did not intend that those things should come? He said that they should feel them, and I know that they are bound to feel them; for they will not repent. Let us go to work and prepare for the thousands upon thousands who will come unto us. (5:23)
What shall we lay up that grain for? Shall we lay it up to feed the wicked? No, we shall lay it up to feed the Saints who gather here from all the nations of the earth, and for the millions of lovers of good and wholesome laws who will come from the old countries and from the United States, fleeing to this place for their bread, and I know it. (3:228)
When a man has no bread, and his neighbours have none, he must have horrible feelings. The day will come when millions of people will flock to us for bread, and thousands of them will be honest; they will be the elect of God: they will come to us for salvation, either to this place or to Jackson County. (8:89)
The time has come for us to lay up our stores. Will the world follow our example? No, they will not; and if we do our duty, who cares whether they do or not. They will come with their bonnets, their fine clothing, and their jewellery, and be glad to work for us to get their bread. (5:10)
[204] Let me say to all of you, Learn to be true and faithful; and, instead of laying out your means for fine bonnets and fine shoes, and for coffee and tea, my advice to you is, if you can five or ten dollars, go and buy a good blanket, a gun, or a sword. And we want you, ladies, to provide yourselves with weapons, and with all that is necessary, and be ready to defend yourselves; for you won’t always have your husbands to defend you. (4:376)
The day will be, and it will not be many years either: it will be about the time the United States want to send a sufficient force here. About the time they will get unto the hottest times will be about that time. They will persecute us all the time the same as Joseph’s brethren did Joseph in Egypt. They whipped him and threw him into a pit, and then they thought of killing him; but Judah prevailed and saved him, and then they took him and sold him as a slave, and he obtained favour in the eyes of the King, and finally held dominion over that whole kingdom, and reared the kingdom, and raised grain previous to the famine, and saved and redeemed his whole father’s house and millions of others; and everything had to bow down to the power of Joseph.
As true as that thing is true, so true it will be that our enemies will have to bow down to us; and we may do the best we can to store up stores; and it is all we can do before they will come bending unto us. And the President of the United States will bow to us and come to consult the authorities of this Church to know what he had best to do for his people.
You don’t believe this. Wait and see; and just about the time they think they have got us, the Lord has got them fast. (5:93)
[205] I will tell you a dream which brother Kesler had lately. He dreamed that there was a sack of gold and a cat placed before him, and that he had the privilege of taking which he pleased, whereupon he took the cat, and walked off with her. Why did he take the cat in preference to the gold? Because he could eat the cat, but could not eat the gold. (3:262)
But the day will be, and it is right at our doors, when thousands and millions in the United States and in the old countries will come to us and render to us all the rich things that this earth affords, in exchange for food. (5:255)
Every man who has a farm needs a storehouse–one made of rock and lime, that will guard your grain against the mice, rats, and all other four-legged vermin; also against the two-legged ones. I have more fears of the two-legged ones than I have of the four-legged ones. (5:20)
When we have stored away our grain we are safe, independent of the world, in case of famine, are we not? Yes, we are; for, in that case we will have the means for subsistence in our own hands. When the famines begin upon the earth, we shall be very apt to feel them first. (5:20)
Perhaps many feel a little sober because our bread is cut off, but I am glad of it, because it will be a warning to us, and tech us to lay it up in future, as we have been told. How many times have you been told to store up your wheat against the hard times that are coming upon the nations of the earth? When we first came into these valleys our President told us to lay up stores of all [206] kinds of grain, that the earth might rest once in seven years. The earth is determined to rest, and it is right that it should. It only requires a few grasshoppers to make the earth rest, they can soon clear it. This is the seventh year, did you ever think of it? (3:57)
In future build yourselves good store-houses and save your grain for a time of famine, and sickness, and death upon the nations of the wicked, to get rid of the evil doers. (3:227)
We have done first rate; but we can wake up more, and keep waking up, and attend to the things you have been told to attend to; and one of them is, to lay up stores of corn, wheat, oats, peas, beans, buck wheat, and every thing else that can be preserved; for you will see a day when you will want it; and it will be when we shall feel the effects of famine, and when the United States have not any food. And inasmuch as we are wise and prudent in this matter, we shall have power over them, and they cannot help themselves. (4:330)
Where is the wheat we boasted about having. The army down at Camp Floyd have got three years’ provisions on hand; and in case of famine, they would have to feed us. But don’t you see they have got the power in their own hands? And we have placed that power in their possession. What do we find in the Bible upon this subject? “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” They make preparation for that which is to come, more so than many of this people do. (8:109)
[207] JACKSON COUNTY AND ZION
Now, look at the United States Government. Did they not send an army here to kill and waste away this people? Yes. Almost every priest in the pulpit and every politician in the land had fanned the flame of persecution against us; but the Lord caused them to stay out in the mountains till they got the chills instead of the fever, and then he led them as a man leadeth a horse with a bridle. Now, what will be next? Why, you will find the judgment of God coming upon those who blasphemed his name, and the United States will suffer, for they will be afflicted with wars and with trouble at home. While this is going on, the man who lives his religion and honours his calling will be prospered and go back to Jackson county, Missouri, with the faithful Elders, where they will receive their inheritances. They will then have to fulfil their covenants which they have made with the Lord their God, for these things will be required at our hands. None will be permitted to dwell there who will not observe the laws of the kingdom of God. And re member, there is no other way to go to Jackson Country but through Great Salt Lake City. (9:42)
You will be blessed, and you will see the day when Presidents Young, Kimball, and Wells, and Twelve Apostles will be in Jackson county, Missouri, laying out your inheritances. In the flesh? Of course. We should look well without being in the flesh! We shall be there in the flesh, and all our enemies cannot prevent it. Brother Wells, you may write that. You will be there, and Willard will be there, and also Jedediah, and Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and David, and Parley; and the day will be when I will see those men in the general [208] assembly of the Church of the First-Born, in the great council of God in Jerusalem, too. (9:27)
In regard to this work, I know that it will roll on, and the kingdom will be built up, the elect gathered, and the chosen ones go back to the centre stake of Zion. There are a great many that are remaining in the States till we go back, but I can tell them they will have to come here, for this is the only way there is for the true Saints to get to Jackson County, and they will find it out to be so in due time. (10:78)