April 1869
Cannon, George Q. "The Order of Enoch—Socialistic Experiments—The Social Problem." Journal of Discourses. Volume 13. April 6, 1862: pg. 95-103.
Smith, George A. "Contributions for Emigrating the Saints—Word of Wisdom." Journal of Discourses. Volume 13. April 6, 1862: pg. 20-21. The Deseret News. "Fortieth Annual Conference." April 14, 1869: pg. 115-116. Wells, Daniel H. "Cooperation—Merchandising and Productive Businesses—Doing the Lord's Will." Journal of Discourses. Volume 13. April 8, 1862: pg. 22-29. Young, Brigham. "Remarks." Deseret News, June 9, 1869: pg. 20-21. Young, Brigham. "Cooperation." Journal of Discourses. Volume 12. April 6, 1862: pg. 372-376. Young, Brigham. "Responsibility for Teachings—The Word of Wisdom—Cooperation, Etc.." Journal of Discourses. Volume 13. April 7, 1862: pg. 1-4. Young, Brigham. "Gathering the Saints—Continuous Faithfulness—Women and Fashions." Journal of Discourses. Volume 13. April 8, 1862: pg. 29-37. FORTIETH ANNUAL CONFERENCE President George A. Smith Contributions for Emigrating the Saints—Word of Wisdom Elder George Q. Cannon The Order of Enoch—Socialistic Experiments—The Social Problem Elder Ezra T. Benson April 6, 2 p. m. Elder Franklin D. Richards Reports President Brigham Young Cooperation Wednesday, April 7, 10 a.m. Elder Erastus Snow President Daniel H. Wells Cooperation—Merchandising and Productive Businesses—Doing the Lord's Will Mission Calls 2 p.m., April 7 Elder Orson Pratt Elder Wilford Woodruff President Brigham Young Responsibility for Teachings—The Word of Wisdom—Cooperation, Etc. Thursday Morning, April 8th, 1869 President Brigham Young Gathering the Saints—Continuous Faithfulness—Women and Fashions Donation Pledge President George A. Smith Elder George Q. Cannon Thursday, 2 p.m. Sustaining of the General Authorities President Brigham Young Remarks |
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FORTIETH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Fortieth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the New Tabernacle at ten o'clock this morning. The weather being very beautiful, the Saints who live in the country settlements came to the Conference in large numbers.
On and around the stand we noticed President Brigham Young, President Geo. A. Smith and President Daniel H. Wells, of the First Presidency.
Apostles: Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Junr., and Joseph F. Smith.
Patriarch: John Smith.
John Young, Edwin D. Woolley and Samuel W. Richards, the Presidency of the High Priests' Quorum.
George B. Wallace and John T. Caine, of the Presidency of this Stake of Zion.
Joseph Young, Albert P. Rockwood, Horace S. Eldredge and John Van Cott, of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies.
Edward Hunter, Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little, the Presidency of the Bishopric.
There were also Bishops, Elders and leading men from every settlement in the Territory.
The congregation sang the hymn on page 257, "Come all ye Sons of Zion."
President Geo. A. Smith opened the Conference with prayer.
The hymn on page 268 was sung, commencing, "The Spirit of God like a fire is burning."
The Fortieth Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the New Tabernacle at ten o'clock this morning. The weather being very beautiful, the Saints who live in the country settlements came to the Conference in large numbers.
On and around the stand we noticed President Brigham Young, President Geo. A. Smith and President Daniel H. Wells, of the First Presidency.
Apostles: Orson Pratt, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Junr., and Joseph F. Smith.
Patriarch: John Smith.
John Young, Edwin D. Woolley and Samuel W. Richards, the Presidency of the High Priests' Quorum.
George B. Wallace and John T. Caine, of the Presidency of this Stake of Zion.
Joseph Young, Albert P. Rockwood, Horace S. Eldredge and John Van Cott, of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies.
Edward Hunter, Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little, the Presidency of the Bishopric.
There were also Bishops, Elders and leading men from every settlement in the Territory.
The congregation sang the hymn on page 257, "Come all ye Sons of Zion."
President Geo. A. Smith opened the Conference with prayer.
The hymn on page 268 was sung, commencing, "The Spirit of God like a fire is burning."
President George A. Smith
first addressed the Conference. He said the last six months had been remarkable with the Latter-day Saints on account of the great progress they had made during that time. They were beginning to understand the proper course to pursue in relation to business and other matters. This was the result of the principle mentioned and acted upon by Joseph Smith. The people were taught true principles and were learning to govern themselves. An effort had been made last year to gather the poor from the nations. The result of this effort had been a pretty large emigration. Another effort to accomplish this laudable object would be made during this Conference. The Saints should not forget their friends in the old countries, especially those who have befriended them. In relation to his late visit to the southern settlements, President Smith said he never in his life had seen such good feelings manifested by the people as he had seen evinced by the saints in those places he had visited. The majority of the people in the "Cotton Country" were filled with energy and zeal for the work of God.
first addressed the Conference. He said the last six months had been remarkable with the Latter-day Saints on account of the great progress they had made during that time. They were beginning to understand the proper course to pursue in relation to business and other matters. This was the result of the principle mentioned and acted upon by Joseph Smith. The people were taught true principles and were learning to govern themselves. An effort had been made last year to gather the poor from the nations. The result of this effort had been a pretty large emigration. Another effort to accomplish this laudable object would be made during this Conference. The Saints should not forget their friends in the old countries, especially those who have befriended them. In relation to his late visit to the southern settlements, President Smith said he never in his life had seen such good feelings manifested by the people as he had seen evinced by the saints in those places he had visited. The majority of the people in the "Cotton Country" were filled with energy and zeal for the work of God.
Contributions for Emigrating the Saints—Word of Wisdom
Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I am glad, my brethren and sisters, of meeting with you again in General Conference. Our Conferences form a peculiar feature in our history, and the people in all parts of the Territory look forward to these occasions with far more than ordinary interest, and make calculations to participate therein.
The past six months have been a period of remarkable interest. There has been a marked advancement in the progress of the work of the Lord and a great increase and improvement in the knowledge, sentiments, and feelings of the Saints since our last Conference, perhaps more so than in the same space of time at any period in the history of the Church since its organization. The Saints are becoming more united in their business relations, and in all their associations for the purpose of accomplishing the work that is before them, and if the old adage, “Union is strength,” be true, we are certainly growing stronger.
The teachings during this Conference will, as a matter of course, have a tendency to increase this union, to enlarge the understandings and judgments of the Saints, and to banish certain antiquated ideas which, more or less, have been woven into our being, and have formed part of our existence, enable us to free ourselves from the shackles of tradition and ignorance and to move forward more effectually in the discharge of those duties devolving upon us in connection with the great and glorious work which God has entrusted to our charge. It will also be necessary for us to take into consideration the different points pertaining to the progress of that work.
It was a saying of Joseph Smith, that he taught the people correct principles and they governed themselves. A feeling has been engendered and sent abroad that the Latter-day Saints are subject to bondage; but instead of this being so, they are controlled wholly on the principle to which I have just referred, as having been enunciated by Joseph—they are taught correct principles and then govern themselves. When the elders of Israel have succeeded in informing the minds of the Saints in relation to any topic pertaining to the work of God in the last days, they have accomplished a great work, and that work is followed by a feeling of willingness and obedience to carry out that principle on the part of the great mass of the Saints.
Last year, we made an effort to bring home the Saints from the Old World, and a pretty strong emigration was the result. It will be remembered that when the matter was first agitated, it seemed as if there was but a small amount of means to be obtained. Many of the brethren in the wards felt that they could do but little, but they went to work and brought home some five thousand Saints. This same work is still before us, and appeals to our sympathy, and we still have occasion to call the attention of each other to the importance of the work of bringing home to Zion our brethren and sisters in foreign lands who are deprived of the privileges that we enjoy because of their inability to gather. An appeal is to be made from this Conference to the Saints generally throughout the Territory, to contribute again of their substance to bring home the Saints from foreign lands.
The facilities for gathering the Saints are far greater than they have been heretofore. We wish to say to any of those who are already gathered, who may be indebted to those who are left behind, that they should remember and discharge their obligations. We also advise the Saints to write to their friends abroad and inform them how things are progressing here. I am aware that when the people land here there are many inconveniences with which they have to contend, and they have to struggle for a time before they can again make a start in the world; but they should not, on that account, forget the brethren and sisters they have left behind, and especially those who may have advanced means to aid them in emigrating. One of our first great duties should be to square our accounts and to stand honorably with our fellow beings.
Although a great advance has been made within the last two years in the observance of the “'Word of Wisdom,” there is yet room to talk on that subject. We find that the tobacco trade is still very considerable in this Territory, and we cannot yet lose sight of the fact that we are compelled to pay a tribute to the Emperor of China for tea, and to the Emperor of Brazil for coffee; and there are still men in Israel who do not seem to realize the importance of observing the “Word of Wisdom.” It is, therefore, necessary to preach, teach, and exhort, and to enforce upon the Saints the importance of its observance, for it is preparatory to great blessings which God has in store for the faithful. The elders will instruct us in relation to these matters as the Spirit of the Lord may dictate.
It has been my privilege this last month to visit most of the branches in the southern part of the Territory. At a large portion of those branches I have attended meetings, and have seen many of the brethren and sisters, and I feel to testify that in all my travels in Zion, I have not found a better spirit, a more united determination, or a warmer feeling with regard to the work of the Lord, and to build up His kingdom, than I found on this visit. I felt thankful to learn that our brethren in the cotton country were filled with the spirit and were zealous for the accomplishment of their work, and that they were progressing very satisfactorily in the accomplishment of their mission, or at any rate that portion of them who have taken hold of it with the zeal which becomes men who are honored with the privilege of laboring in any department for the building up of Zion. The testimony of the work of the Lord in the hearts of the Saints is a living and abiding testimony. While the work is progressing we must be alive to the fact, and we must not get behind, we must be faithful, live humble before the Lord, observe His counsels and laws, not even forgetting the principles contained in the “Word of Wisdom.” If we take this course the blessings of life and peace will continue to abide with us, which may God grant in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Remarks by President George A. Smith, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I am glad, my brethren and sisters, of meeting with you again in General Conference. Our Conferences form a peculiar feature in our history, and the people in all parts of the Territory look forward to these occasions with far more than ordinary interest, and make calculations to participate therein.
The past six months have been a period of remarkable interest. There has been a marked advancement in the progress of the work of the Lord and a great increase and improvement in the knowledge, sentiments, and feelings of the Saints since our last Conference, perhaps more so than in the same space of time at any period in the history of the Church since its organization. The Saints are becoming more united in their business relations, and in all their associations for the purpose of accomplishing the work that is before them, and if the old adage, “Union is strength,” be true, we are certainly growing stronger.
The teachings during this Conference will, as a matter of course, have a tendency to increase this union, to enlarge the understandings and judgments of the Saints, and to banish certain antiquated ideas which, more or less, have been woven into our being, and have formed part of our existence, enable us to free ourselves from the shackles of tradition and ignorance and to move forward more effectually in the discharge of those duties devolving upon us in connection with the great and glorious work which God has entrusted to our charge. It will also be necessary for us to take into consideration the different points pertaining to the progress of that work.
It was a saying of Joseph Smith, that he taught the people correct principles and they governed themselves. A feeling has been engendered and sent abroad that the Latter-day Saints are subject to bondage; but instead of this being so, they are controlled wholly on the principle to which I have just referred, as having been enunciated by Joseph—they are taught correct principles and then govern themselves. When the elders of Israel have succeeded in informing the minds of the Saints in relation to any topic pertaining to the work of God in the last days, they have accomplished a great work, and that work is followed by a feeling of willingness and obedience to carry out that principle on the part of the great mass of the Saints.
Last year, we made an effort to bring home the Saints from the Old World, and a pretty strong emigration was the result. It will be remembered that when the matter was first agitated, it seemed as if there was but a small amount of means to be obtained. Many of the brethren in the wards felt that they could do but little, but they went to work and brought home some five thousand Saints. This same work is still before us, and appeals to our sympathy, and we still have occasion to call the attention of each other to the importance of the work of bringing home to Zion our brethren and sisters in foreign lands who are deprived of the privileges that we enjoy because of their inability to gather. An appeal is to be made from this Conference to the Saints generally throughout the Territory, to contribute again of their substance to bring home the Saints from foreign lands.
The facilities for gathering the Saints are far greater than they have been heretofore. We wish to say to any of those who are already gathered, who may be indebted to those who are left behind, that they should remember and discharge their obligations. We also advise the Saints to write to their friends abroad and inform them how things are progressing here. I am aware that when the people land here there are many inconveniences with which they have to contend, and they have to struggle for a time before they can again make a start in the world; but they should not, on that account, forget the brethren and sisters they have left behind, and especially those who may have advanced means to aid them in emigrating. One of our first great duties should be to square our accounts and to stand honorably with our fellow beings.
Although a great advance has been made within the last two years in the observance of the “'Word of Wisdom,” there is yet room to talk on that subject. We find that the tobacco trade is still very considerable in this Territory, and we cannot yet lose sight of the fact that we are compelled to pay a tribute to the Emperor of China for tea, and to the Emperor of Brazil for coffee; and there are still men in Israel who do not seem to realize the importance of observing the “Word of Wisdom.” It is, therefore, necessary to preach, teach, and exhort, and to enforce upon the Saints the importance of its observance, for it is preparatory to great blessings which God has in store for the faithful. The elders will instruct us in relation to these matters as the Spirit of the Lord may dictate.
It has been my privilege this last month to visit most of the branches in the southern part of the Territory. At a large portion of those branches I have attended meetings, and have seen many of the brethren and sisters, and I feel to testify that in all my travels in Zion, I have not found a better spirit, a more united determination, or a warmer feeling with regard to the work of the Lord, and to build up His kingdom, than I found on this visit. I felt thankful to learn that our brethren in the cotton country were filled with the spirit and were zealous for the accomplishment of their work, and that they were progressing very satisfactorily in the accomplishment of their mission, or at any rate that portion of them who have taken hold of it with the zeal which becomes men who are honored with the privilege of laboring in any department for the building up of Zion. The testimony of the work of the Lord in the hearts of the Saints is a living and abiding testimony. While the work is progressing we must be alive to the fact, and we must not get behind, we must be faithful, live humble before the Lord, observe His counsels and laws, not even forgetting the principles contained in the “Word of Wisdom.” If we take this course the blessings of life and peace will continue to abide with us, which may God grant in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Elder George Q. Cannon
next spoke. He thought that this was the most important Conference that had ever been held by the Latter-day Saints. We are entering upon a revolution. Revelations were given from the Lord to Joseph Smith which inculcated the Order of Enoch. The principles were simple, and although they were new to this generation, yet they were old as eternity. Those principles were called the Order of Enoch, because the people of Enoch had practised them. When this order was revealed to Joseph Smith, the people were not prepared to receive it. The Latter-day Saints, like all other people were more advanced in theory than in practice. Yet the Saints are far ahead of any other people in practising the theories they advance. The principles of the Order of Enoch have been, thus far, except in a few instances, a dead letter. But those principles have never been lost sight of from the time they were revealed thirty-six years ago. Unless we can agree with and practise those principles in our lives we are told unqualifiedly that we cannot be permitted to go back to build up the centre stake and accomplish the redemption of Zion.
Evils are existing in the world that have existed to a greater or lesser extent in all ages. They are to be seen in our own country. When the foundation of this great Republic was laid, it was expected to become the glory of the world. The evils of the old countries, however, have been transplanted and become common in this land. An aristocracy of wealth is steadily arising whilst another class are steeped in misery and squalid poverty. Attempts have been made to stay the progress of these evils. The attempt of the Icarians to establish a system of communism at Nauvoo, from which the Saints had been driven, was an instance of this kind. This attempt proved a failure, so have all other attempts of men of themselves, to attain this object. It required the Lord to accomplish the uniting of mankind together in one common bond. As soon as the Almighty commenced His work, unity was manifested and love diffused among those who obeyed His revelations. The Lord has said that unless we are equal in temporal things, we cannot be equal in spiritual things. This does not mean that we shall wear the same clothes, have hair of the same color, etc., but to have an equal claim on the treasury of the Lord, on the blessings of God and His Holy Spirit. The object of the introduction of the Order of Enoch among this people was to introduce on earth a state of things that would be a pattern of what existed in the heavens, and thus make preparations for the coming of the Savior. Elder Cannon then read extracts from several revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants on the Order of Enoch.
It was not the intention of the Lord to allow the same evils to find place in His church that prevail in the world. Some have thought that should the Order of Enoch be introduced, it would encourage the indolent. None need fear this. Those stewards who do not increase upon their talents will not receive the same blessings as those who are diligent. This is one of the greatest principles to check grasping dishonesty and other evils. Here is the solution of one of the great problems of the age.
next spoke. He thought that this was the most important Conference that had ever been held by the Latter-day Saints. We are entering upon a revolution. Revelations were given from the Lord to Joseph Smith which inculcated the Order of Enoch. The principles were simple, and although they were new to this generation, yet they were old as eternity. Those principles were called the Order of Enoch, because the people of Enoch had practised them. When this order was revealed to Joseph Smith, the people were not prepared to receive it. The Latter-day Saints, like all other people were more advanced in theory than in practice. Yet the Saints are far ahead of any other people in practising the theories they advance. The principles of the Order of Enoch have been, thus far, except in a few instances, a dead letter. But those principles have never been lost sight of from the time they were revealed thirty-six years ago. Unless we can agree with and practise those principles in our lives we are told unqualifiedly that we cannot be permitted to go back to build up the centre stake and accomplish the redemption of Zion.
Evils are existing in the world that have existed to a greater or lesser extent in all ages. They are to be seen in our own country. When the foundation of this great Republic was laid, it was expected to become the glory of the world. The evils of the old countries, however, have been transplanted and become common in this land. An aristocracy of wealth is steadily arising whilst another class are steeped in misery and squalid poverty. Attempts have been made to stay the progress of these evils. The attempt of the Icarians to establish a system of communism at Nauvoo, from which the Saints had been driven, was an instance of this kind. This attempt proved a failure, so have all other attempts of men of themselves, to attain this object. It required the Lord to accomplish the uniting of mankind together in one common bond. As soon as the Almighty commenced His work, unity was manifested and love diffused among those who obeyed His revelations. The Lord has said that unless we are equal in temporal things, we cannot be equal in spiritual things. This does not mean that we shall wear the same clothes, have hair of the same color, etc., but to have an equal claim on the treasury of the Lord, on the blessings of God and His Holy Spirit. The object of the introduction of the Order of Enoch among this people was to introduce on earth a state of things that would be a pattern of what existed in the heavens, and thus make preparations for the coming of the Savior. Elder Cannon then read extracts from several revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants on the Order of Enoch.
It was not the intention of the Lord to allow the same evils to find place in His church that prevail in the world. Some have thought that should the Order of Enoch be introduced, it would encourage the indolent. None need fear this. Those stewards who do not increase upon their talents will not receive the same blessings as those who are diligent. This is one of the greatest principles to check grasping dishonesty and other evils. Here is the solution of one of the great problems of the age.
The Order of Enoch—Socialistic Experiments—The Social Problem
Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by John Grimshaw.
I look upon this Conference as one of the most important, in many respects, that we have ever had the privilege of participating in, for, to my view, there are more interesting and important events connected with the work of God at the present time than have ever been developed before in our history. We are undergoing a great change, a great revolution is in progress in our midst—a revolution foreshadowed by the predictions of both the ancient and modern prophets, but which we, as yet, have scarcely been prepared for.
Nearly 37 years ago the Prophet Joseph, or rather the Lord, through him, gave revelations upon the Order of Enoch. Those revelations were taught to the people in plainness so far as they went. They were simple and easily understood; but they embodied within themselves what might have been termed new principles, and indicated a new course of action and a new organization of society. I say new, because they were new so far as this generation is concerned. The principles taught by those revelations were as old as eternity; and the Order sought to be introduced by their means was called the “Order of Enoch,” in consequence of its having been revealed to and practiced by Enoch; and through its practice he and his people were prepared for translation and, as we read in the Scriptures, were taken from the earth.
The Lord inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith to once more communicate these principles unto the children of men; but, as I have remarked, the people were not prepared to carry them out. They, to some extent, could see and understand their beauty and consistency, but in the practical part they were deficient. As a people the Latter-day Saints are like their fellows in many respects. We are very progressive in theory, but our theories are far ahead of our practice. The teachings of the elders are of that character that years of practice on the part of the people is required before they come up to them in their everyday life. It is so with mankind generally. They can comprehend the theory and realize the importance of practically observing certain principles long before they are sufficiently advanced to carry them out in everyday life. But we may say, without boasting, that as a people we excel the world in carrying out in our lives the principles that we teach.
Those principles to which I have been referring were received and admired by the people, but it required faith, knowledge and experience to enable them to carry them out. For years they have remained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants to be read by the curious or by those who had a desire to search after the principles of life and salvation; but, not being a part of our practice in our lives, they have been practically a dead letter.
I speak, now, generally; of course, there have been exceptions in regard to this, as there have been with regard to the “Word of Wisdom.” There have been men and women who have endeavored to carry out the latter strictly and truthfully so far as their knowledge extended. And so with the principles contained in the revelations touching the “Order of Enoch”—there have, doubtless, been men in the Church who have lived in accordance with them so far as it was practicable under the circumstances; but the entire people have not carried them out. But though thirty-six or thirty-seven years have elapsed since these principles were first revealed, they have never been lost sight of by the President and those associated with him. It has been their aim from the day they were given until today, the 6th of April, 1869, to bring the Latter-day Saints to such a, condition of union, faith and knowledge that they would receive these principles and carry them out in their lives.
The labors of the elders to accomplish this have been incessant; they have ever felt to impress them upon the minds of the Saints, but more particularly within the last four or five years. It is essentially necessary that we should receive them now, for upon the reception and proper carrying out of this Order hinges the prosperity, development and triumph of the kingdom of God on the earth; and unless we as a people arrive at such a standard of faith and perfection as to practically carry them out, we are assured, on the best of authority, that we cannot be permitted to go back and build up the Center Stake and fully accomplish the redemption of Zion. The consequences involved in not being able to accomplish that are familiar to the minds of those who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, especially if they are old members. One of the greatest calamities that could be thought of by us as a congregation, or a Church, today, would be to learn from the Lord through His servants that we should not be permitted to go back to build up the Center Stake of Zion. The edict pronounced by the prophet Moses when he told Israel that not one who had arrived at the age of twenty-one years should ever enter the “Promised Land,” had not a greater effect upon Israel than the prohibition I have just referred to would have upon the Latter-day Saints. We can realize then, the importance of adopting and carrying out the principles that will prepare us for that great work.
It is not to be expected that we shall attain to perfection in the carrying out of such principles at once. That is not the way we have progressed in the past; our progress has been gradual. It has been from principle to principle, from knowledge to knowledge, one step after another until we have reached the point for which we have aimed. And so it will be with the principles pertaining to the “Order of Enoch”—we shall take step after step, progressing from one point to another until we have reached the point that God, our Heavenly Father, has designed us to attain to.
When we look abroad among the nations of the earth we see a great many evils in existence—evils that have existed for many centuries; in fact, they have existed from the earliest ages of which we have any account until the present time, in every nation and among all people. Our own nation is a case in point. When the foundations of the Government were laid, and liberty proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the land, it was anticipated that this nation would grow to a pitch of glory and attain to a greatness and power that no other nation on the face of the earth had ever attained. Everything was favorable to this: a free Government had been established; a continent of almost illimitable extent spread itself before the people, and all that was necessary to develop its boundless resources was population, and industry on the part of that population. But little over ninety years have elapsed since the foundations of our Government were laid, and in that time we have grown to be a great people; but that which has been enacted in other nations has been reenacted here. The evils that have flourished so long in what is called the Old World have been transplanted to this land. If Western men travel through the Eastern States they are struck with the great distinction of classes that exist there. There is an aristocracy of wealth fast growing up there; and at the same time there is another class in degradation and poverty, utterly unable to obtain the blessings and comforts of life. This is owing to various causes, the chief of which is the incorrect organization of society. It is so in Europe and in Asia, and, in fact, wherever wealth abounds.
Many men have risen from time to time, who have seen and deplored these evils, and they have sought with all the wisdom and knowledge they possessed to correct them. Doubtless many of the Latter-day Saints recollect an instance of this kind at Nauvoo. After the Saints evacuated that place, a community of Socialists, called Icarians, whose leader was Mr. Cabet, came to Nauvoo and settled there. There were the houses, gardens, farms and orchards of the Latter-day Saints; the country was a healthy one when compared with what it was when first settled by the Saints. Many philanthropic men in France were interested in this experiment, and were anxious to have it succeed. They forwarded their means with considerable liberality to sustain the settlement; but, despite their efforts and exertions, it fell to pieces. Yet the object they had in view was a good one, and the means they used were effective, so far as they went. But there was a lack of cohesive power in the system; there was a lack of union, and a lack of wisdom in the management of the affair. They sought to ameliorate the condition of mankind and to diffuse the blessings of life equally among the people, so that hunger, poverty and wretchedness and the dreadful consequences which follow in their train might be removed from the midst of mankind and a better order of things established. But with all the advantages of which I have spoken, their attempt was a signal failure: the society was broken up and today has no existence.
This is a case in point with which many of you are familiar. Similar experiments, having the same ends in view, have been tried at other places at various times, but like results have attended them.
It has been seen by thinking men that there is something radically wrong in the organization of society in this respect, but they have not known how to remedy the evils. It is so in the religious world. Religionists have to mourn and deplore the divisions that exist among the so-called followers of Christ; and reformers have risen one after another endeavoring to bring about greater union and to develop a greater amount of love, but with what success let the history of the various sects of Christendom answer. They are split up into innumerable parties, and the effort of every reformer has only resulted in the increase of religious sects. He has been unable, and his inability has been confessed by himself, to unite the Christian world and bring about that oneness which characterized the followers of Christ in the early days of Christianity. It required the Lord our God to stretch forth His arm to bring this to pass. It required the revelation of the Gospel in its purity from the heavens; it required the restoration of the holy Priesthood to the earth in the plentitude of its power to bring it about; and as soon as the Priesthood was restored, as soon as the Gospel was given again in purity to man, and the Church of Christ was again organized, then the object for which these reformers labored in vain began to be accomplished—oneness began to prevail, union began to manifest itself, love was diffused, the Holy Ghost was bestowed, its gifts were enjoyed, and men and women from various nations and from the midst of various churches were gathered together in one as we are here today. It required the wisdom, power and Spirit of the Almighty to restore this condition of things for which many men had so long labored in vain.
And so it is in relation to the social organization of society. It requires the wisdom of Almighty God to correct the evils under which mankind groan. Men may labor and devise schemes, expend means and do all that is possible for human beings, not directed by the Spirit and power of God, to do, and after they have done it all they are compelled to confess that they are weak and fallible, and incapable of accomplishing that which they have aimed at. But with God to aid them, with His wisdom to guide and His Spirit to direct, and His blessings to smile upon them they can accomplish all that is necessary to redeem and save the human family, both in a physical and spiritual point of view. God has chosen His people, the Latter-day Saints, to solve these knotty problems that have troubled the brains and affected the children of men for so many centuries.
The Lord has said that, “if ye are not equal in earthly things, ye cannot be in obtaining heavenly things.” He has revealed a plan by which this equality can be brought about. Yet, He does not design to make us of equal height; He does not design that we should all have the same colored hair or eyes, or that we should dress exactly alike. This is not the meaning of the word “equality,” as it is used in the revelation; but it means to have an equal claim on the blessings of our Heavenly Father—on the properties of the Lord's treasury, and the influences and gifts of His Holy Spirit. This is the equality meant in the revelations, and until we attain to this equality we cannot be equal in spiritual things, and the blessings of God cannot be bestowed upon us until we attain to this as they otherwise would. As a people we are expecting the day to come when Jesus will descend in the clouds of Heaven; but before this day comes we must be prepared to receive him. The organization of society that exists in the heavens must exist on the earth; the same condition of society, so far as it is applicable to mortal beings, must exist here. And for this purpose God has revealed this Order; for this purpose He is bringing us into our present condition.
A great many of the Latter-day Saints scarcely understand the persistency with which the Presidency of the Church has labored to bring about the oneness of the people in temporal things; and this cooperative movement is an important step in this direction and is designed to prepare them for the ushering in of this Order to which I have been alluding. It has already produced greater union, and it will produce still greater union than anything that has been witnessed among us; and if we carry it out in the spirit in which it has been taught to us it will produce immense results. The Lord will bless us; He will increase our means and pour into the laps of this people everything necessary for their greatness in the earth. For be it known unto you and to all people than God designs to make of the Latter-day Saints the head; He intends to place in their hands and keeping the wealth of the world. But before blessings of this description can be poured upon us we must be prepared to receive and use them aright. Suppose these things were to be poured upon us in our present condition, what would be the result? Everyone can answer this question for himself. Each one knows his or her own heart, and the feelings by which it is animated. We know that if the whole people were to be made rich it would be an exceedingly difficult matter to control them; even with the little means we have today it is one of the most difficult things to control the people in regard to the disposition and correct use of that means.
In a revelation given on this subject in the year 1834, the Lord says--
“I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low. For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.”
In another revelation on the same subject given in 1832, the Lord says--
“For Zion must increase in beauty, and holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments. Therefore, I give unto you this commandment, that ye bind yourselves by this covenant, and it shall be done according to the laws of the Lord. Behold, here is wisdom also in me for your good. And you are to be equal, or in other words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just—And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord's storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.
“This order I have appointed to be an everlasting order unto you, and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not. And the soul that sins against this covenant, and hardeneth his heart against it, shall be dealt with according to the laws of my church, and shall be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption.”
While I am reading I will read another extract, that you may get the idea more fully in your mind. After speaking of the treasury that shall be appointed, in which shall be preserved the sacred things in the treasury for sacred and holy purposes, which shall be called the treasury of the Lord, the Lord continues--
“And again, there shall be another treasury prepared, and a treasurer appointed to keep the treasury, and a seal shall be placed upon it; And all moneys that you receive in your stewardships, by improving upon the properties which I have appointed unto you, in houses, or in lands, or in cattle, or in all things save it be the holy and sacred writings, which I have reserved unto myself for holy and sacred purposes, shall be cast into the treasury as fast as you receive the moneys, by hundreds, or by fifties, or by twenties, or by tens, or by fives. Or in other words, if any man among you obtain five dollars let him cast them into the treasury; or if he obtain ten, or twenty, or fifty or an hundred, let him do likewise; And let not any among you say that it is his own; for it shall not be called his, nor any part of it. And there shall not any part of it be used, or taken out of the treasury, only by the voice and common consent of the order. And this shall be the voice and common consent of the order—that any man among you say unto the treasurer: I have need of this to help me in my stewardship—If it be five dollars, or if it be ten dollars, or twenty, or fifty, or an hundred, the treasurer shall give unto him the sum which he requires, to help him in his stewardship—Until he be found a transgressor, and it is manifest before the council of the order plainly that he is an unfaithful and an unwise steward. But so long as he is in full fellowship, and is faithful and wise in his stewardship, this shall be his token unto the treasurer that the treasurer shall not withhold.”
From these extracts which I have read in your hearing you can form an idea of the Order which God, our Heavenly Father, intends to establish among us as soon as we are willing to enter upon it. It is not the design of God that we should fall a prey to the evils that have existed and that have worked out such misery and ruin among other people. It is God's design to save and redeem us from the evils that others have endured. It has been frequently remarked to me by men out of our faith, when conversing upon our principles and the success which has attended their proclamation: “Mr. Cannon, as long as the Latter-day Saints are poor you will do very well; as long as you are persecuted you will stand; but you will be like other people when wealth increases in your midst—when you grow up into classes and some are wealthy and some are poor, and your Church becomes popular, you will be very likely to fall into the same evils and errors that have characterized other churches.” If God did not preside over this Church, such expectations and predictions would doubtless be fulfilled. But God presides; it is His Church, and He has provided remedies for every one of these evils, by which the Church can be preserved, and by which wealth can be increased in the midst of the Latter-day Saints and yet not work out the injurious results that we see elsewhere where it abounds. God has provided a way to prevent this, and that way is to be found in the revelations that were given unto us upwards of thirty-six years ago, and we can read and understand them.
“Well,” says one, “if such an Order as this you speak of be established, will not the careless and indolent enjoy a share in the blessings of those who are industrious? And will it not weaken the hands of the energetic?” Not in the least. The man who is energetic and faithful will receive the reward of his faithfulness. If he has a large surplus of means he has more to put into the Treasury to help to forward that kingdom he loves, and he is credited with it. In the day of the Lord Jesus we are told He will say to him, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many,” and such individuals will receive a reward in proportion to their faithfulness. But if they hide up their talent in a napkin and bury it in the ground, that which was given to them will be taken from them. They who use their talents righteously and faithfully will have them increased, but the unfaithful will be deprived of that which he seems to have.
This Order will not have the effect that some anticipate, but it will be a blessing to all who are engaged in it. There will not be any temptation to seek for wealth for the sake of aggrandizing one's self or to place one's heart upon riches, as there is now. This temptation will be removed. I shall be able to love my neighbor. Why? Because if I make off him in a trade I know that whatever I make goes into the treasury and becomes the property of the whole Church, therefore what inducement would there be to soil my soul and bring a blot on my character by taking advantage of my neighbor when it is not going to specially benefit me?
I look upon this principle as one of the greatest principles to save people from avaricious and sordid feelings that God has ever revealed. It will have a tendency to check dishonesty and remove want. It will have a tendency to stop stealing and to cure the evils under which mankind have groaned from the beginning until now. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is a remedy for every evil that exists among men. Here is the “social problem,” that troubles the minds of all nations today. The cities of Christendom are crowded with prostitutes; their young men are destroyed in the dawn of their days by the terrible crime of prostitution. How shall these fearful evils be cured? Has there been sufficient wisdom found among men to do it? No; they have confessed their utter inability to cope with it. It is overwhelming them and sweeping them off like a flood throughout the length and breadth of the land, until physicians say that half the diseases that prevail among mankind in Christendom are directly traceable to this devouring evil. What is to correct it? I answer, the Lord, through His people—the Latter-day Saints—is revealing the remedy. You travel throughout the Territory of Utah, from Bear Lake in the north to St. George in the south, and what do you see? You see a people free from secret diseases, you see a people free from the dreadful curse of prostitution. Our young men and maidens grow up in all the vigor of health and there is nothing to sap that vigor and lead them to a premature grave. Then what is to correct these evils in the world? The plan which God has revealed. It will bring about a pure condition of things. If it were universally adopted the “social evil” would be removed, and prostitution would soon cease to exist on the face of the earth.
Will this plan—this glorious Order which God has revealed—correct the other evils with which the world is afflicted? Yes, when that Order is universally established there will no longer be any temptation to steal, defraud one's neighbor or to commit any wrongs of this kind, for it is said, and truly, that the love of money is the root of all evil. The Order of which I speak will correct these evils because there will be a treasury in the midst of the people, from which those who are worthy can get that which they need to sustain them in their stewardship, and into which all who have a surplus will pour their wealth until it will become the common property of the church; and the church under this organization which God has revealed will become a great and mighty power in the midst of the earth.
We have great power now, though not numerically strong; we are not a very great people so far as numbers are concerned, but we are strong because we are united. The more wealth we have the greater is our power, because the President of this Church can control this people, therefore the people have power, and when our wealth shall be controlled by the President of this Church, we shall have greater power in the earth than we have today. But will that power be used for hurtful purposes? No; it will be used for beneficial ends, for the amelioration of the condition of the human family, for the practical inauguration of these great and glorious principles which God has revealed; and it is to bring you to this condition that the elders are laboring as they are; it is to bring you to this oneness that they labor as they do continually—that they travel and preach to and exhort the Saints all the day long to listen to the counsels of God.
Although it has been deferred a good while it will yet be accomplished and fulfilled and the people brought to a condition that is desired.
Much more might be said on this subject; but I am intruding on your time. May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and prepare us, as a people, to receive the revelations of His will, which are true and perfect and intended to elevate and exalt us, and to bring us back into His presence, there to be crowned with glory and immortality: which I pray may be the case with us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Discourse by Elder George Q. Cannon, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by John Grimshaw.
I look upon this Conference as one of the most important, in many respects, that we have ever had the privilege of participating in, for, to my view, there are more interesting and important events connected with the work of God at the present time than have ever been developed before in our history. We are undergoing a great change, a great revolution is in progress in our midst—a revolution foreshadowed by the predictions of both the ancient and modern prophets, but which we, as yet, have scarcely been prepared for.
Nearly 37 years ago the Prophet Joseph, or rather the Lord, through him, gave revelations upon the Order of Enoch. Those revelations were taught to the people in plainness so far as they went. They were simple and easily understood; but they embodied within themselves what might have been termed new principles, and indicated a new course of action and a new organization of society. I say new, because they were new so far as this generation is concerned. The principles taught by those revelations were as old as eternity; and the Order sought to be introduced by their means was called the “Order of Enoch,” in consequence of its having been revealed to and practiced by Enoch; and through its practice he and his people were prepared for translation and, as we read in the Scriptures, were taken from the earth.
The Lord inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith to once more communicate these principles unto the children of men; but, as I have remarked, the people were not prepared to carry them out. They, to some extent, could see and understand their beauty and consistency, but in the practical part they were deficient. As a people the Latter-day Saints are like their fellows in many respects. We are very progressive in theory, but our theories are far ahead of our practice. The teachings of the elders are of that character that years of practice on the part of the people is required before they come up to them in their everyday life. It is so with mankind generally. They can comprehend the theory and realize the importance of practically observing certain principles long before they are sufficiently advanced to carry them out in everyday life. But we may say, without boasting, that as a people we excel the world in carrying out in our lives the principles that we teach.
Those principles to which I have been referring were received and admired by the people, but it required faith, knowledge and experience to enable them to carry them out. For years they have remained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants to be read by the curious or by those who had a desire to search after the principles of life and salvation; but, not being a part of our practice in our lives, they have been practically a dead letter.
I speak, now, generally; of course, there have been exceptions in regard to this, as there have been with regard to the “Word of Wisdom.” There have been men and women who have endeavored to carry out the latter strictly and truthfully so far as their knowledge extended. And so with the principles contained in the revelations touching the “Order of Enoch”—there have, doubtless, been men in the Church who have lived in accordance with them so far as it was practicable under the circumstances; but the entire people have not carried them out. But though thirty-six or thirty-seven years have elapsed since these principles were first revealed, they have never been lost sight of by the President and those associated with him. It has been their aim from the day they were given until today, the 6th of April, 1869, to bring the Latter-day Saints to such a, condition of union, faith and knowledge that they would receive these principles and carry them out in their lives.
The labors of the elders to accomplish this have been incessant; they have ever felt to impress them upon the minds of the Saints, but more particularly within the last four or five years. It is essentially necessary that we should receive them now, for upon the reception and proper carrying out of this Order hinges the prosperity, development and triumph of the kingdom of God on the earth; and unless we as a people arrive at such a standard of faith and perfection as to practically carry them out, we are assured, on the best of authority, that we cannot be permitted to go back and build up the Center Stake and fully accomplish the redemption of Zion. The consequences involved in not being able to accomplish that are familiar to the minds of those who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, especially if they are old members. One of the greatest calamities that could be thought of by us as a congregation, or a Church, today, would be to learn from the Lord through His servants that we should not be permitted to go back to build up the Center Stake of Zion. The edict pronounced by the prophet Moses when he told Israel that not one who had arrived at the age of twenty-one years should ever enter the “Promised Land,” had not a greater effect upon Israel than the prohibition I have just referred to would have upon the Latter-day Saints. We can realize then, the importance of adopting and carrying out the principles that will prepare us for that great work.
It is not to be expected that we shall attain to perfection in the carrying out of such principles at once. That is not the way we have progressed in the past; our progress has been gradual. It has been from principle to principle, from knowledge to knowledge, one step after another until we have reached the point for which we have aimed. And so it will be with the principles pertaining to the “Order of Enoch”—we shall take step after step, progressing from one point to another until we have reached the point that God, our Heavenly Father, has designed us to attain to.
When we look abroad among the nations of the earth we see a great many evils in existence—evils that have existed for many centuries; in fact, they have existed from the earliest ages of which we have any account until the present time, in every nation and among all people. Our own nation is a case in point. When the foundations of the Government were laid, and liberty proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the land, it was anticipated that this nation would grow to a pitch of glory and attain to a greatness and power that no other nation on the face of the earth had ever attained. Everything was favorable to this: a free Government had been established; a continent of almost illimitable extent spread itself before the people, and all that was necessary to develop its boundless resources was population, and industry on the part of that population. But little over ninety years have elapsed since the foundations of our Government were laid, and in that time we have grown to be a great people; but that which has been enacted in other nations has been reenacted here. The evils that have flourished so long in what is called the Old World have been transplanted to this land. If Western men travel through the Eastern States they are struck with the great distinction of classes that exist there. There is an aristocracy of wealth fast growing up there; and at the same time there is another class in degradation and poverty, utterly unable to obtain the blessings and comforts of life. This is owing to various causes, the chief of which is the incorrect organization of society. It is so in Europe and in Asia, and, in fact, wherever wealth abounds.
Many men have risen from time to time, who have seen and deplored these evils, and they have sought with all the wisdom and knowledge they possessed to correct them. Doubtless many of the Latter-day Saints recollect an instance of this kind at Nauvoo. After the Saints evacuated that place, a community of Socialists, called Icarians, whose leader was Mr. Cabet, came to Nauvoo and settled there. There were the houses, gardens, farms and orchards of the Latter-day Saints; the country was a healthy one when compared with what it was when first settled by the Saints. Many philanthropic men in France were interested in this experiment, and were anxious to have it succeed. They forwarded their means with considerable liberality to sustain the settlement; but, despite their efforts and exertions, it fell to pieces. Yet the object they had in view was a good one, and the means they used were effective, so far as they went. But there was a lack of cohesive power in the system; there was a lack of union, and a lack of wisdom in the management of the affair. They sought to ameliorate the condition of mankind and to diffuse the blessings of life equally among the people, so that hunger, poverty and wretchedness and the dreadful consequences which follow in their train might be removed from the midst of mankind and a better order of things established. But with all the advantages of which I have spoken, their attempt was a signal failure: the society was broken up and today has no existence.
This is a case in point with which many of you are familiar. Similar experiments, having the same ends in view, have been tried at other places at various times, but like results have attended them.
It has been seen by thinking men that there is something radically wrong in the organization of society in this respect, but they have not known how to remedy the evils. It is so in the religious world. Religionists have to mourn and deplore the divisions that exist among the so-called followers of Christ; and reformers have risen one after another endeavoring to bring about greater union and to develop a greater amount of love, but with what success let the history of the various sects of Christendom answer. They are split up into innumerable parties, and the effort of every reformer has only resulted in the increase of religious sects. He has been unable, and his inability has been confessed by himself, to unite the Christian world and bring about that oneness which characterized the followers of Christ in the early days of Christianity. It required the Lord our God to stretch forth His arm to bring this to pass. It required the revelation of the Gospel in its purity from the heavens; it required the restoration of the holy Priesthood to the earth in the plentitude of its power to bring it about; and as soon as the Priesthood was restored, as soon as the Gospel was given again in purity to man, and the Church of Christ was again organized, then the object for which these reformers labored in vain began to be accomplished—oneness began to prevail, union began to manifest itself, love was diffused, the Holy Ghost was bestowed, its gifts were enjoyed, and men and women from various nations and from the midst of various churches were gathered together in one as we are here today. It required the wisdom, power and Spirit of the Almighty to restore this condition of things for which many men had so long labored in vain.
And so it is in relation to the social organization of society. It requires the wisdom of Almighty God to correct the evils under which mankind groan. Men may labor and devise schemes, expend means and do all that is possible for human beings, not directed by the Spirit and power of God, to do, and after they have done it all they are compelled to confess that they are weak and fallible, and incapable of accomplishing that which they have aimed at. But with God to aid them, with His wisdom to guide and His Spirit to direct, and His blessings to smile upon them they can accomplish all that is necessary to redeem and save the human family, both in a physical and spiritual point of view. God has chosen His people, the Latter-day Saints, to solve these knotty problems that have troubled the brains and affected the children of men for so many centuries.
The Lord has said that, “if ye are not equal in earthly things, ye cannot be in obtaining heavenly things.” He has revealed a plan by which this equality can be brought about. Yet, He does not design to make us of equal height; He does not design that we should all have the same colored hair or eyes, or that we should dress exactly alike. This is not the meaning of the word “equality,” as it is used in the revelation; but it means to have an equal claim on the blessings of our Heavenly Father—on the properties of the Lord's treasury, and the influences and gifts of His Holy Spirit. This is the equality meant in the revelations, and until we attain to this equality we cannot be equal in spiritual things, and the blessings of God cannot be bestowed upon us until we attain to this as they otherwise would. As a people we are expecting the day to come when Jesus will descend in the clouds of Heaven; but before this day comes we must be prepared to receive him. The organization of society that exists in the heavens must exist on the earth; the same condition of society, so far as it is applicable to mortal beings, must exist here. And for this purpose God has revealed this Order; for this purpose He is bringing us into our present condition.
A great many of the Latter-day Saints scarcely understand the persistency with which the Presidency of the Church has labored to bring about the oneness of the people in temporal things; and this cooperative movement is an important step in this direction and is designed to prepare them for the ushering in of this Order to which I have been alluding. It has already produced greater union, and it will produce still greater union than anything that has been witnessed among us; and if we carry it out in the spirit in which it has been taught to us it will produce immense results. The Lord will bless us; He will increase our means and pour into the laps of this people everything necessary for their greatness in the earth. For be it known unto you and to all people than God designs to make of the Latter-day Saints the head; He intends to place in their hands and keeping the wealth of the world. But before blessings of this description can be poured upon us we must be prepared to receive and use them aright. Suppose these things were to be poured upon us in our present condition, what would be the result? Everyone can answer this question for himself. Each one knows his or her own heart, and the feelings by which it is animated. We know that if the whole people were to be made rich it would be an exceedingly difficult matter to control them; even with the little means we have today it is one of the most difficult things to control the people in regard to the disposition and correct use of that means.
In a revelation given on this subject in the year 1834, the Lord says--
“I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low. For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.”
In another revelation on the same subject given in 1832, the Lord says--
“For Zion must increase in beauty, and holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments. Therefore, I give unto you this commandment, that ye bind yourselves by this covenant, and it shall be done according to the laws of the Lord. Behold, here is wisdom also in me for your good. And you are to be equal, or in other words, you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just—And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord's storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.
“This order I have appointed to be an everlasting order unto you, and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not. And the soul that sins against this covenant, and hardeneth his heart against it, shall be dealt with according to the laws of my church, and shall be delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption.”
While I am reading I will read another extract, that you may get the idea more fully in your mind. After speaking of the treasury that shall be appointed, in which shall be preserved the sacred things in the treasury for sacred and holy purposes, which shall be called the treasury of the Lord, the Lord continues--
“And again, there shall be another treasury prepared, and a treasurer appointed to keep the treasury, and a seal shall be placed upon it; And all moneys that you receive in your stewardships, by improving upon the properties which I have appointed unto you, in houses, or in lands, or in cattle, or in all things save it be the holy and sacred writings, which I have reserved unto myself for holy and sacred purposes, shall be cast into the treasury as fast as you receive the moneys, by hundreds, or by fifties, or by twenties, or by tens, or by fives. Or in other words, if any man among you obtain five dollars let him cast them into the treasury; or if he obtain ten, or twenty, or fifty or an hundred, let him do likewise; And let not any among you say that it is his own; for it shall not be called his, nor any part of it. And there shall not any part of it be used, or taken out of the treasury, only by the voice and common consent of the order. And this shall be the voice and common consent of the order—that any man among you say unto the treasurer: I have need of this to help me in my stewardship—If it be five dollars, or if it be ten dollars, or twenty, or fifty, or an hundred, the treasurer shall give unto him the sum which he requires, to help him in his stewardship—Until he be found a transgressor, and it is manifest before the council of the order plainly that he is an unfaithful and an unwise steward. But so long as he is in full fellowship, and is faithful and wise in his stewardship, this shall be his token unto the treasurer that the treasurer shall not withhold.”
From these extracts which I have read in your hearing you can form an idea of the Order which God, our Heavenly Father, intends to establish among us as soon as we are willing to enter upon it. It is not the design of God that we should fall a prey to the evils that have existed and that have worked out such misery and ruin among other people. It is God's design to save and redeem us from the evils that others have endured. It has been frequently remarked to me by men out of our faith, when conversing upon our principles and the success which has attended their proclamation: “Mr. Cannon, as long as the Latter-day Saints are poor you will do very well; as long as you are persecuted you will stand; but you will be like other people when wealth increases in your midst—when you grow up into classes and some are wealthy and some are poor, and your Church becomes popular, you will be very likely to fall into the same evils and errors that have characterized other churches.” If God did not preside over this Church, such expectations and predictions would doubtless be fulfilled. But God presides; it is His Church, and He has provided remedies for every one of these evils, by which the Church can be preserved, and by which wealth can be increased in the midst of the Latter-day Saints and yet not work out the injurious results that we see elsewhere where it abounds. God has provided a way to prevent this, and that way is to be found in the revelations that were given unto us upwards of thirty-six years ago, and we can read and understand them.
“Well,” says one, “if such an Order as this you speak of be established, will not the careless and indolent enjoy a share in the blessings of those who are industrious? And will it not weaken the hands of the energetic?” Not in the least. The man who is energetic and faithful will receive the reward of his faithfulness. If he has a large surplus of means he has more to put into the Treasury to help to forward that kingdom he loves, and he is credited with it. In the day of the Lord Jesus we are told He will say to him, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many,” and such individuals will receive a reward in proportion to their faithfulness. But if they hide up their talent in a napkin and bury it in the ground, that which was given to them will be taken from them. They who use their talents righteously and faithfully will have them increased, but the unfaithful will be deprived of that which he seems to have.
This Order will not have the effect that some anticipate, but it will be a blessing to all who are engaged in it. There will not be any temptation to seek for wealth for the sake of aggrandizing one's self or to place one's heart upon riches, as there is now. This temptation will be removed. I shall be able to love my neighbor. Why? Because if I make off him in a trade I know that whatever I make goes into the treasury and becomes the property of the whole Church, therefore what inducement would there be to soil my soul and bring a blot on my character by taking advantage of my neighbor when it is not going to specially benefit me?
I look upon this principle as one of the greatest principles to save people from avaricious and sordid feelings that God has ever revealed. It will have a tendency to check dishonesty and remove want. It will have a tendency to stop stealing and to cure the evils under which mankind have groaned from the beginning until now. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there is a remedy for every evil that exists among men. Here is the “social problem,” that troubles the minds of all nations today. The cities of Christendom are crowded with prostitutes; their young men are destroyed in the dawn of their days by the terrible crime of prostitution. How shall these fearful evils be cured? Has there been sufficient wisdom found among men to do it? No; they have confessed their utter inability to cope with it. It is overwhelming them and sweeping them off like a flood throughout the length and breadth of the land, until physicians say that half the diseases that prevail among mankind in Christendom are directly traceable to this devouring evil. What is to correct it? I answer, the Lord, through His people—the Latter-day Saints—is revealing the remedy. You travel throughout the Territory of Utah, from Bear Lake in the north to St. George in the south, and what do you see? You see a people free from secret diseases, you see a people free from the dreadful curse of prostitution. Our young men and maidens grow up in all the vigor of health and there is nothing to sap that vigor and lead them to a premature grave. Then what is to correct these evils in the world? The plan which God has revealed. It will bring about a pure condition of things. If it were universally adopted the “social evil” would be removed, and prostitution would soon cease to exist on the face of the earth.
Will this plan—this glorious Order which God has revealed—correct the other evils with which the world is afflicted? Yes, when that Order is universally established there will no longer be any temptation to steal, defraud one's neighbor or to commit any wrongs of this kind, for it is said, and truly, that the love of money is the root of all evil. The Order of which I speak will correct these evils because there will be a treasury in the midst of the people, from which those who are worthy can get that which they need to sustain them in their stewardship, and into which all who have a surplus will pour their wealth until it will become the common property of the church; and the church under this organization which God has revealed will become a great and mighty power in the midst of the earth.
We have great power now, though not numerically strong; we are not a very great people so far as numbers are concerned, but we are strong because we are united. The more wealth we have the greater is our power, because the President of this Church can control this people, therefore the people have power, and when our wealth shall be controlled by the President of this Church, we shall have greater power in the earth than we have today. But will that power be used for hurtful purposes? No; it will be used for beneficial ends, for the amelioration of the condition of the human family, for the practical inauguration of these great and glorious principles which God has revealed; and it is to bring you to this condition that the elders are laboring as they are; it is to bring you to this oneness that they labor as they do continually—that they travel and preach to and exhort the Saints all the day long to listen to the counsels of God.
Although it has been deferred a good while it will yet be accomplished and fulfilled and the people brought to a condition that is desired.
Much more might be said on this subject; but I am intruding on your time. May God bless you, my brethren and sisters, and prepare us, as a people, to receive the revelations of His will, which are true and perfect and intended to elevate and exalt us, and to bring us back into His presence, there to be crowned with glory and immortality: which I pray may be the case with us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Elder Ezra T. Benson
was the next speaker. He said, we are here to learn and obey the Order of Enoch. All the property we may appear to possess belonged to the Lord, and was only loaned to us to build up His kingdom to gather the poor and accomplish His work. We have no legal excuse for neglecting to obey the counsels of the servants of God. The co-operative movement was one of vast importance. The laws of Utah and its condition are beginning to be respected by what is called the outside world. Many express the opinion that President B. Young is the greatest financier in the world, else the united condition of the Latter-day Saints could never have been brought about. We might have arrived at a greater degree of perfection, as Elders in Israel if we had laid aside all petty jealousies which sometimes beset us. Although we might have bettered our condition in many things, yet his heart was filled with joy and thanksgiving and praise to God that our condition is as favorable as it is. Let President Young rule, and we shall be blessed. Whether he desires us to raise silk, enter into co-operation, or do anything else, let us do it, and it will result in the prosperity of Israel. Let us co-operate in every good thing, for the Lord is operating among this people.
The congregation sang the hymn on page 29, "Arise, O Glorious Zion."
Conference adjourned till 2 o'clock p. m.
President D. H. Wells dismissed the meeting.
was the next speaker. He said, we are here to learn and obey the Order of Enoch. All the property we may appear to possess belonged to the Lord, and was only loaned to us to build up His kingdom to gather the poor and accomplish His work. We have no legal excuse for neglecting to obey the counsels of the servants of God. The co-operative movement was one of vast importance. The laws of Utah and its condition are beginning to be respected by what is called the outside world. Many express the opinion that President B. Young is the greatest financier in the world, else the united condition of the Latter-day Saints could never have been brought about. We might have arrived at a greater degree of perfection, as Elders in Israel if we had laid aside all petty jealousies which sometimes beset us. Although we might have bettered our condition in many things, yet his heart was filled with joy and thanksgiving and praise to God that our condition is as favorable as it is. Let President Young rule, and we shall be blessed. Whether he desires us to raise silk, enter into co-operation, or do anything else, let us do it, and it will result in the prosperity of Israel. Let us co-operate in every good thing, for the Lord is operating among this people.
The congregation sang the hymn on page 29, "Arise, O Glorious Zion."
Conference adjourned till 2 o'clock p. m.
President D. H. Wells dismissed the meeting.
April 6, 2 p. m.
The congregation this afternoon was much larger than in the morning, the large Tabernacle being nearly filled. The congregation was called to order by President Brigham Young.
The Tabernacle Choir, led by Bro. Sands, sang the first hymn, commencing "The morning breaks, the shadows flee."
Prayer was offered up by Elder Joseph F. Smith.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 263, beginning "Know this that every soul is free."
The congregation this afternoon was much larger than in the morning, the large Tabernacle being nearly filled. The congregation was called to order by President Brigham Young.
The Tabernacle Choir, led by Bro. Sands, sang the first hymn, commencing "The morning breaks, the shadows flee."
Prayer was offered up by Elder Joseph F. Smith.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 263, beginning "Know this that every soul is free."
Elder Franklin D. Richards
addressed the congregation. The Saints come together to be strengthened that they may be able to dispel whatever darkness may beset their path. When we first heard the principles of faith, baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, those principles were as staggering to us as those advanced principles that are now taught in relation to temporal things. It was at first difficult for us to understand those beautiful principles that are necessary to be attended to for the salvation of our dead. Since that time the Saints have advanced. By obeying the counsels of the servants of God in relation to our temporal affairs we shall become, to the world, as great a subject for astonishment in regard to our temporal condition as we are in spiritual matters. We should become a pattern for them to follow after. The true order of government is that which is after the Patriarchal order. That order alone will bring about an assimilation of interests and consequent harmony and good will. We have not yet attained to a very great degree of unity in relation to temporal matters, but we are advancing in that direction. It was the design of the Almighty to make the interests of one portion of his family the interests of the other portion that the whole human family may become one. Some, doubtless, think that they are too wise to be taught by the servants of the Lord. This was comparable with instances where children would not be taught by their parents. If the parents would inform themselves in regard to all necessary matters, they would be able to teach their children and increase their knowledge. So it is with the servants of God in respect to the Saints. It is the privilege of those who hold the Holy priesthood to teach and instruct us. All this that we do ought to be done in the name of our Lord and Master Jesus. Whether we take possession of farms, or build factories we should do it in his name. In the changes that are taking place in our temporal affairs we are going through another conversion. We are like a child who is making its first attempt to walk: Our faith in those matters will increase until the order of Enoch could be introduced and the interest of the entire people become identified with each other.
addressed the congregation. The Saints come together to be strengthened that they may be able to dispel whatever darkness may beset their path. When we first heard the principles of faith, baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, those principles were as staggering to us as those advanced principles that are now taught in relation to temporal things. It was at first difficult for us to understand those beautiful principles that are necessary to be attended to for the salvation of our dead. Since that time the Saints have advanced. By obeying the counsels of the servants of God in relation to our temporal affairs we shall become, to the world, as great a subject for astonishment in regard to our temporal condition as we are in spiritual matters. We should become a pattern for them to follow after. The true order of government is that which is after the Patriarchal order. That order alone will bring about an assimilation of interests and consequent harmony and good will. We have not yet attained to a very great degree of unity in relation to temporal matters, but we are advancing in that direction. It was the design of the Almighty to make the interests of one portion of his family the interests of the other portion that the whole human family may become one. Some, doubtless, think that they are too wise to be taught by the servants of the Lord. This was comparable with instances where children would not be taught by their parents. If the parents would inform themselves in regard to all necessary matters, they would be able to teach their children and increase their knowledge. So it is with the servants of God in respect to the Saints. It is the privilege of those who hold the Holy priesthood to teach and instruct us. All this that we do ought to be done in the name of our Lord and Master Jesus. Whether we take possession of farms, or build factories we should do it in his name. In the changes that are taking place in our temporal affairs we are going through another conversion. We are like a child who is making its first attempt to walk: Our faith in those matters will increase until the order of Enoch could be introduced and the interest of the entire people become identified with each other.
Elder George Q. Cannon
read a report of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, showing the progress that had been made in this great movement by the various branches of the Institution. He also read a report of the Female Relief Societies.
read a report of Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution, showing the progress that had been made in this great movement by the various branches of the Institution. He also read a report of the Female Relief Societies.
President Brigham Young
delivered an interesting and instructive discourse upon the subject of co-operation and other temporal matters. His remarks were reported in full and will shortly be published.
delivered an interesting and instructive discourse upon the subject of co-operation and other temporal matters. His remarks were reported in full and will shortly be published.
Cooperation
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I have it in my mind to say a few words upon cooperation. I will quote a saying of one, whose partial history is given to us in the New Testament. The saying is this, “my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” The knowledge I have gained in my private experience proves to me that there is not a man or woman, community or family, but what, if they will hearken to the council that God gives them, can do better in everything, spiritual or temporal, than they can if they take their own way.
Taking up the system of our cooperative method of merchandising, it gives to the people ease and money. They are not obliged to run a mile or two through the mud to buy a yard of ribbon, they have it in their own Ward, and they can purchase it twenty or thirty percent cheaper than they ever could before. I know it is frequently said by our Elders when any new system is introduced to the people, “put down your names, hand over your money, and if you are required to pay two dollars for that which is worth only one, do it and ask no questions.” I have never requested my brethren and sisters to act in any such way. I want their eyes opened and their understandings enlightened; I wish them to know and understand their business transactions and everything they do just as perfectly as a woman knows how to wash dishes, sweep a room, make a bed or bake a cake. I want it to be just as familiar to the brethren as to make a pair of shoes, to sow and gather their grain or any other portion of their ordinary labor. I do not ask any of you to go blindfolded into any matters or any system of business whatever; instead of that I prefer that you should know and understand all about it. I wish to enlighten your minds a little with regard to the system of merchandising which has heretofore prevailed in this Territory.
There is quite a number of the community who were acquainted with the first merchants who came here. It is true that a few of our own brethren brought a few goods; but the first merchants who came here were Livingston and Kinkead. They, to my certain knowledge, commenced by selling the goods they brought at from two to five hundred percent above cost. There were a few articles, with the real value of which everybody was acquainted, that they did not put quite so high; but just as quick as they came to a piece of goods, the value of which everybody did not understand, the people might look out for the five hundred percent. They continued their operations here until they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not think I ever heard a person, professing to be a Latter-day Saint, complain of those merchants. Others followed them. They came here, commenced their trade and made money, in fact we poured it into their laps. I recollect once going into the store of Livingston and Kinkead, and there being a press of people in the store, I passed behind one of the counters. I saw several brass kettles under it, full of gold pieces—sovereigns, eagles, half eagles, etc. One of the men shouted, “Bring another brass kettle.” They did so, and set it down, and the gold was thrown into it, “chink,” “chink,” “chink,” until, in a short time it was filled. I saw this; the whole drift of the people was to get rid of their money. I have heard more complaints the last few weeks about the cooperative movement than I ever heard before about merchandising.
Now, I will tell you the facts about this movement. We started the cooperative system here when we thought we would wait no longer; we opened the Wholesale Cooperative Store, and since that, retail stores have been established, although some of the latter were opened before the Wholesale store was opened. I know this, that as soon as this movement was commenced the price of goods came down from twenty to thirty percent. I recollect very well, after our vote last October Conference, that it was soon buzzed around, “Why you can get calico down street at eighteen, and seventeen cents a yard;” and it came down to sixteen. But when it came down to sixteen cents, who had a chance to buy any? Why nobody, unless it was just a few yards that were sold to them as a favor. But when it came to the Wholesale Cooperative Store the price was put at sixteen cents, and retail stores are selling it today at seventeen and a half or eighteen cents a yard. I will tell you that which I expect will hurt the feelings of many of you: Among this people, called Latter-day Saints, when the devil has got the crowns, sovereigns, guineas and the twenty dollar pieces, it has been all right; but let the Lord get a sixpence and there is an eternal grunt about it.
I will relate a little circumstance in relation to cooperation at Lehi. Five months after they had commenced their retail store on this cooperative system there, they struck a dividend to see what they had made; and they found that every man who had paid in twenty-five dollars—the price of a share, had a few cents over twenty-eight dollars handed back or credited to him. Is not this cruel? Is not this a shame? It is ridiculous to think that they are making money so fast. Did they sell their goods cheaper than the people of Lehi could buy them before? Yes. Did they fetch the goods to them? O, yes, and yet they made money. A few weeks ago I was in the Wholesale Store in this city, and I was asking a brother from American Fork how cooperation worked there; and I learned that three months after commencing every man who had put in five dollars, or twenty-five dollars had that amount handed back to him and still had his capital stock in the Institution; and still they had sold their goods cheaper than anybody else had ever sold them there.
The question may arise with some how can this be? I will tell you how it is: our own merchants make a calculation of charging you just fifty percent on their staple goods, and from one hundred to five hundred on their fancy goods. Now these Cooperative Stores sell their goods for twenty percent less than they can be bought from the merchants; and although they sell at a lower rate, the reason is they recruit their stock of goods every week if necessary, while our merchants, up till very recently, did it only about once a year. These little stores at American Fork, Lehi, Provo, and other wards and places around, can drive their teams here in a day and replenish their stocks of goods, and that enables them to turn over their money quickly; and if they put on six or eight percent instead of fifty, by turning their money over every week, in about twelve weeks they make a dollar double itself. That comes the nearest keeping the cake and eating it of anything I know. I have heard people say you cannot do that, but those who are investing their little means in these stores are actually doing it.
I know that many of our traders in this city are feeling very bad and sore over this. They say, “you are taking the bread out of our mouths.” We wish to do it, for they have made themselves rich. Take my community, three-eighths of whom are living on the labor of the remaining five-eighths, and you will find the few are living on the many. Take the whole world, and comparatively few of its inhabitants are producers. If the members of this community wish to get rich and to enjoy the fruits of the earth they must be producers as well as consumers.
As to these little traders, we are going to shut them off. We feel a little sorry for them. Some of them have but just commenced their trading operations, and they want to keep them up. They have made, perhaps, a few hundred dollars, and they would like to continue so as to make a few thousands; and then they would want scores of thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Instead of trading we want them to go into some other branches of business. Do you say, what business? Why, some of them may go to raising broom corn to supply the Territory with brooms, instead of bringing them from the States. Others may go to raising sugar cane, and thus supply the Territory with a good sweet; we have to send to the States for our sugar now. We will get some more of them to gathering up hides and making them into leather, and manufacturing that leather into boots and shoes; this will be far more profitable than letting hundreds and thousands of hides go to waste as they have done. Others may go and make baskets; we do not care what they go at, provided they produce that which will prove of general benefit. Those who are able can erect woolen factories, get a few spindles, raise sheep and manufacture the wool. Others may raise flax and manufacture that into linen cloth, that we may not be under the necessity of sending abroad for it. If we go on in this way, we shall turn these little traders into producers, which will help to enrich the entire people.
Another thing I will say with regard to our trading. Our Female Relief Societies are doing immense good now, but they can take hold and do all the trading for these wards just as well as to keep a big loafer to do it. It is always disgusting to me to see a big, fat, lubberly fellow handing out calicoes and measuring ribbon; I would rather see the ladies do it. The ladies can learn to keep books as well as the men; we have some few, already, who are just as good accountants as any of our brethren. Why not teach more to keep books and sell goods, and let them do this business, and let the men go to raising sheep, wheat, or cattle, or go and do something or other to beautify the earth and help to make it like the Garden of Eden, instead of spending their time in a lazy, loafing manner?
Now, if you think this is speculation, brethren and sisters, just enter into it for it is the best speculation that has been got up for a great while. I recollect the people used to say we were speculating when we were preaching the Gospel. They accused “Joe Smith,” as they called him, of being a speculator and a money digger.” I acknowledged then, and I acknowledge now, that I am engaged in the greatest speculation a man can be engaged in. The best business to pursue that was ever introduced on the face of the earth is to follow the path of eternal life. Why, it gives us fathers, mothers, wives, friends, houses and lands. Jesus said they who followed Him would have to forsake these things. I reckon some of us have done it already; and all who will live faithful, may have the privilege of so doing. Many of this people have sacrificed all they possessed on this earth, over and over again, for the truth's sake; and if Jesus gave us the truth in relation to this, we shall be entitled to fathers, mothers, wives, children, gold and silver, houses, lands and possessions a hundred fold. But we do not want the spirit of the world with all this. What is the advantage of following the path of life? It makes good neighbors, and fills everybody with peace, joy and contentment. Is there contention in a family that follows in the path of eternal life? Not the least. Is there quarrelling among neighbors where this course is followed? No. Any going to law one with another? Such a thing is unknown. I say praise to the Latter-day Saints, as far as these things are concerned.
What I have in my mind with regard to this cooperative business is this—There are very few people who cannot get twenty-five dollars to put into one of these cooperative stores. There are hundreds and thousands of women who, by prudence and industry, can obtain this sum. And we say to you put your capital into one of these stores. What for? To bring you interest for your money. Put your time and talents to usury. We have the parable before us. If we have one, two, three or five talents, of what advantage will they be if we wrap them in a napkin and lay them away? None at all. Put them out to usury. These cooperative stores are instituted to give the poor a little advantage as well as the rich. I have said to my brethren, in starting these stores in different places, “If you want help I will find means to put in to give the thing a start;” but I have only found two places in the Territory in which they were willing to sell me stock—Provo, where they wanted a wholesale store, and the wholesale store in this city. Go to this ward or the other and the answer is invariably, “we want no more means, we can get all we need.” They did not think they could before starting. I recollect the Tenth Ward in this city had but seven hundred dollars to start with; in two or three weeks after they commenced I asked some of the brethren how they were prospering, and was told they had a thousand dollars' worth of goods on the shelves and money in the drawer and owed nothing. This is considered one of the poorest wards in the city, but it is not so.
Now take upon you this yoke; it is a great deal easier than to pay so much more for goods as you have been doing. I say the “yoke is easy and the burden is light” and we can bear it. If we will work unitedly, we can work ourselves into wealth, health, prosperity and power, and
this is required of us. It is the duty of a Saint of God to gain all the influence he can on this earth, and to use every particle of that influence to do good. If this is not his duty, I do not understand what the duty of man is. I thank you for your attention, brethren and sisters. God bless you. Amen.
The hymn on page 166, commencing "We thank Thee O God for a Prophet," was sung.
Conference adjourned till to-morrow at 10 a. m.
Benediction by Elder Erastus Snow.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 6, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I have it in my mind to say a few words upon cooperation. I will quote a saying of one, whose partial history is given to us in the New Testament. The saying is this, “my yoke is easy, my burden is light.” The knowledge I have gained in my private experience proves to me that there is not a man or woman, community or family, but what, if they will hearken to the council that God gives them, can do better in everything, spiritual or temporal, than they can if they take their own way.
Taking up the system of our cooperative method of merchandising, it gives to the people ease and money. They are not obliged to run a mile or two through the mud to buy a yard of ribbon, they have it in their own Ward, and they can purchase it twenty or thirty percent cheaper than they ever could before. I know it is frequently said by our Elders when any new system is introduced to the people, “put down your names, hand over your money, and if you are required to pay two dollars for that which is worth only one, do it and ask no questions.” I have never requested my brethren and sisters to act in any such way. I want their eyes opened and their understandings enlightened; I wish them to know and understand their business transactions and everything they do just as perfectly as a woman knows how to wash dishes, sweep a room, make a bed or bake a cake. I want it to be just as familiar to the brethren as to make a pair of shoes, to sow and gather their grain or any other portion of their ordinary labor. I do not ask any of you to go blindfolded into any matters or any system of business whatever; instead of that I prefer that you should know and understand all about it. I wish to enlighten your minds a little with regard to the system of merchandising which has heretofore prevailed in this Territory.
There is quite a number of the community who were acquainted with the first merchants who came here. It is true that a few of our own brethren brought a few goods; but the first merchants who came here were Livingston and Kinkead. They, to my certain knowledge, commenced by selling the goods they brought at from two to five hundred percent above cost. There were a few articles, with the real value of which everybody was acquainted, that they did not put quite so high; but just as quick as they came to a piece of goods, the value of which everybody did not understand, the people might look out for the five hundred percent. They continued their operations here until they made hundreds of thousands of dollars. I do not think I ever heard a person, professing to be a Latter-day Saint, complain of those merchants. Others followed them. They came here, commenced their trade and made money, in fact we poured it into their laps. I recollect once going into the store of Livingston and Kinkead, and there being a press of people in the store, I passed behind one of the counters. I saw several brass kettles under it, full of gold pieces—sovereigns, eagles, half eagles, etc. One of the men shouted, “Bring another brass kettle.” They did so, and set it down, and the gold was thrown into it, “chink,” “chink,” “chink,” until, in a short time it was filled. I saw this; the whole drift of the people was to get rid of their money. I have heard more complaints the last few weeks about the cooperative movement than I ever heard before about merchandising.
Now, I will tell you the facts about this movement. We started the cooperative system here when we thought we would wait no longer; we opened the Wholesale Cooperative Store, and since that, retail stores have been established, although some of the latter were opened before the Wholesale store was opened. I know this, that as soon as this movement was commenced the price of goods came down from twenty to thirty percent. I recollect very well, after our vote last October Conference, that it was soon buzzed around, “Why you can get calico down street at eighteen, and seventeen cents a yard;” and it came down to sixteen. But when it came down to sixteen cents, who had a chance to buy any? Why nobody, unless it was just a few yards that were sold to them as a favor. But when it came to the Wholesale Cooperative Store the price was put at sixteen cents, and retail stores are selling it today at seventeen and a half or eighteen cents a yard. I will tell you that which I expect will hurt the feelings of many of you: Among this people, called Latter-day Saints, when the devil has got the crowns, sovereigns, guineas and the twenty dollar pieces, it has been all right; but let the Lord get a sixpence and there is an eternal grunt about it.
I will relate a little circumstance in relation to cooperation at Lehi. Five months after they had commenced their retail store on this cooperative system there, they struck a dividend to see what they had made; and they found that every man who had paid in twenty-five dollars—the price of a share, had a few cents over twenty-eight dollars handed back or credited to him. Is not this cruel? Is not this a shame? It is ridiculous to think that they are making money so fast. Did they sell their goods cheaper than the people of Lehi could buy them before? Yes. Did they fetch the goods to them? O, yes, and yet they made money. A few weeks ago I was in the Wholesale Store in this city, and I was asking a brother from American Fork how cooperation worked there; and I learned that three months after commencing every man who had put in five dollars, or twenty-five dollars had that amount handed back to him and still had his capital stock in the Institution; and still they had sold their goods cheaper than anybody else had ever sold them there.
The question may arise with some how can this be? I will tell you how it is: our own merchants make a calculation of charging you just fifty percent on their staple goods, and from one hundred to five hundred on their fancy goods. Now these Cooperative Stores sell their goods for twenty percent less than they can be bought from the merchants; and although they sell at a lower rate, the reason is they recruit their stock of goods every week if necessary, while our merchants, up till very recently, did it only about once a year. These little stores at American Fork, Lehi, Provo, and other wards and places around, can drive their teams here in a day and replenish their stocks of goods, and that enables them to turn over their money quickly; and if they put on six or eight percent instead of fifty, by turning their money over every week, in about twelve weeks they make a dollar double itself. That comes the nearest keeping the cake and eating it of anything I know. I have heard people say you cannot do that, but those who are investing their little means in these stores are actually doing it.
I know that many of our traders in this city are feeling very bad and sore over this. They say, “you are taking the bread out of our mouths.” We wish to do it, for they have made themselves rich. Take my community, three-eighths of whom are living on the labor of the remaining five-eighths, and you will find the few are living on the many. Take the whole world, and comparatively few of its inhabitants are producers. If the members of this community wish to get rich and to enjoy the fruits of the earth they must be producers as well as consumers.
As to these little traders, we are going to shut them off. We feel a little sorry for them. Some of them have but just commenced their trading operations, and they want to keep them up. They have made, perhaps, a few hundred dollars, and they would like to continue so as to make a few thousands; and then they would want scores of thousands and then hundreds of thousands. Instead of trading we want them to go into some other branches of business. Do you say, what business? Why, some of them may go to raising broom corn to supply the Territory with brooms, instead of bringing them from the States. Others may go to raising sugar cane, and thus supply the Territory with a good sweet; we have to send to the States for our sugar now. We will get some more of them to gathering up hides and making them into leather, and manufacturing that leather into boots and shoes; this will be far more profitable than letting hundreds and thousands of hides go to waste as they have done. Others may go and make baskets; we do not care what they go at, provided they produce that which will prove of general benefit. Those who are able can erect woolen factories, get a few spindles, raise sheep and manufacture the wool. Others may raise flax and manufacture that into linen cloth, that we may not be under the necessity of sending abroad for it. If we go on in this way, we shall turn these little traders into producers, which will help to enrich the entire people.
Another thing I will say with regard to our trading. Our Female Relief Societies are doing immense good now, but they can take hold and do all the trading for these wards just as well as to keep a big loafer to do it. It is always disgusting to me to see a big, fat, lubberly fellow handing out calicoes and measuring ribbon; I would rather see the ladies do it. The ladies can learn to keep books as well as the men; we have some few, already, who are just as good accountants as any of our brethren. Why not teach more to keep books and sell goods, and let them do this business, and let the men go to raising sheep, wheat, or cattle, or go and do something or other to beautify the earth and help to make it like the Garden of Eden, instead of spending their time in a lazy, loafing manner?
Now, if you think this is speculation, brethren and sisters, just enter into it for it is the best speculation that has been got up for a great while. I recollect the people used to say we were speculating when we were preaching the Gospel. They accused “Joe Smith,” as they called him, of being a speculator and a money digger.” I acknowledged then, and I acknowledge now, that I am engaged in the greatest speculation a man can be engaged in. The best business to pursue that was ever introduced on the face of the earth is to follow the path of eternal life. Why, it gives us fathers, mothers, wives, friends, houses and lands. Jesus said they who followed Him would have to forsake these things. I reckon some of us have done it already; and all who will live faithful, may have the privilege of so doing. Many of this people have sacrificed all they possessed on this earth, over and over again, for the truth's sake; and if Jesus gave us the truth in relation to this, we shall be entitled to fathers, mothers, wives, children, gold and silver, houses, lands and possessions a hundred fold. But we do not want the spirit of the world with all this. What is the advantage of following the path of life? It makes good neighbors, and fills everybody with peace, joy and contentment. Is there contention in a family that follows in the path of eternal life? Not the least. Is there quarrelling among neighbors where this course is followed? No. Any going to law one with another? Such a thing is unknown. I say praise to the Latter-day Saints, as far as these things are concerned.
What I have in my mind with regard to this cooperative business is this—There are very few people who cannot get twenty-five dollars to put into one of these cooperative stores. There are hundreds and thousands of women who, by prudence and industry, can obtain this sum. And we say to you put your capital into one of these stores. What for? To bring you interest for your money. Put your time and talents to usury. We have the parable before us. If we have one, two, three or five talents, of what advantage will they be if we wrap them in a napkin and lay them away? None at all. Put them out to usury. These cooperative stores are instituted to give the poor a little advantage as well as the rich. I have said to my brethren, in starting these stores in different places, “If you want help I will find means to put in to give the thing a start;” but I have only found two places in the Territory in which they were willing to sell me stock—Provo, where they wanted a wholesale store, and the wholesale store in this city. Go to this ward or the other and the answer is invariably, “we want no more means, we can get all we need.” They did not think they could before starting. I recollect the Tenth Ward in this city had but seven hundred dollars to start with; in two or three weeks after they commenced I asked some of the brethren how they were prospering, and was told they had a thousand dollars' worth of goods on the shelves and money in the drawer and owed nothing. This is considered one of the poorest wards in the city, but it is not so.
Now take upon you this yoke; it is a great deal easier than to pay so much more for goods as you have been doing. I say the “yoke is easy and the burden is light” and we can bear it. If we will work unitedly, we can work ourselves into wealth, health, prosperity and power, and
this is required of us. It is the duty of a Saint of God to gain all the influence he can on this earth, and to use every particle of that influence to do good. If this is not his duty, I do not understand what the duty of man is. I thank you for your attention, brethren and sisters. God bless you. Amen.
The hymn on page 166, commencing "We thank Thee O God for a Prophet," was sung.
Conference adjourned till to-morrow at 10 a. m.
Benediction by Elder Erastus Snow.
Wednesday, April 7, 10 a.m.
The Conference was called to order by Elder Geo. Q. Cannon.
The Tabernacle Choir sang, "Praise ye the Lord."
Elder Wilford Woodruff prayed.
The Tabernacle Choir sang the hymn on the last page.
The Conference was called to order by Elder Geo. Q. Cannon.
The Tabernacle Choir sang, "Praise ye the Lord."
Elder Wilford Woodruff prayed.
The Tabernacle Choir sang the hymn on the last page.
Elder Erastus Snow
addressed the Conference. We come together as Bishops, Elders, Priests, Teachers, etc., to receive the bread of life from the lips of the servants of God, that we may all become one. We are a wonder to the nations of the earth. If they had eyes to see and hearts to understand, they would know that, to bring a people like this from all parts of the world, and form as complete and united an organization as exists among us, is as great a miracle as to raise the dead. The Lord Jesus has said, "except ye are one, ye are not mine." He prayed that His disciples might be one. This oneness is not meant in a physical sense. We differ in stature and proportion. It is a unity or oneness of faith, purpose and interest that is desirable we should arrive at. Classes and aristocracies of wealth should be abolished. The Constitution framed and established by the Fathers on this continent was the best government on the earth. Yet there is great disproportion betwixt classes in this country. The struggle between capital and labor is very great. The laboring classes are under the necessity of combining to resist the encroachments of capital. The Quakers are, to some extent, an exception to this rule. By economy and frugality they have become almost universally rich and are a class of themselves. Among the Saints there are instances where parents allow their children to stay at home rather than go to Sunday School, and the parents themselves will not attend meetings, because, probably, they cannot appear so well dressed as others. These things are not pleasing in the sight of God. The co-operative movement, which has been recently inaugurated by our President, will correct many evils such as these. It would be well for the Saints to read the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants in relation to the Order of Enoch. According to that order, the means placed in our hands could not be used for self-aggrandizement, but would be the common property of the Kingdom of God, to be used for the benefit of the whole. Thirty-seven years ago the Saints were not prepared to build up the Centre Stake of Zion. We have come to these barren wastes to redeem the land and gain an experience to prepare us for that great work. There is a tendency among men to take honor and glory to themselves. The Lord is willing we should all have our due, but He reserves to Himself the privilege of awarding it. May God bless us all. Amen.
addressed the Conference. We come together as Bishops, Elders, Priests, Teachers, etc., to receive the bread of life from the lips of the servants of God, that we may all become one. We are a wonder to the nations of the earth. If they had eyes to see and hearts to understand, they would know that, to bring a people like this from all parts of the world, and form as complete and united an organization as exists among us, is as great a miracle as to raise the dead. The Lord Jesus has said, "except ye are one, ye are not mine." He prayed that His disciples might be one. This oneness is not meant in a physical sense. We differ in stature and proportion. It is a unity or oneness of faith, purpose and interest that is desirable we should arrive at. Classes and aristocracies of wealth should be abolished. The Constitution framed and established by the Fathers on this continent was the best government on the earth. Yet there is great disproportion betwixt classes in this country. The struggle between capital and labor is very great. The laboring classes are under the necessity of combining to resist the encroachments of capital. The Quakers are, to some extent, an exception to this rule. By economy and frugality they have become almost universally rich and are a class of themselves. Among the Saints there are instances where parents allow their children to stay at home rather than go to Sunday School, and the parents themselves will not attend meetings, because, probably, they cannot appear so well dressed as others. These things are not pleasing in the sight of God. The co-operative movement, which has been recently inaugurated by our President, will correct many evils such as these. It would be well for the Saints to read the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants in relation to the Order of Enoch. According to that order, the means placed in our hands could not be used for self-aggrandizement, but would be the common property of the Kingdom of God, to be used for the benefit of the whole. Thirty-seven years ago the Saints were not prepared to build up the Centre Stake of Zion. We have come to these barren wastes to redeem the land and gain an experience to prepare us for that great work. There is a tendency among men to take honor and glory to themselves. The Lord is willing we should all have our due, but He reserves to Himself the privilege of awarding it. May God bless us all. Amen.
President Daniel H. Wells
next spoke. We are here to take into consideration those things that will conduce to our best interests. There is a propensity in the human heart to walk according to its own imagination instead of obeying the voice of God. We need instruction continually. If we are not instructed, we shall never learn more than a child can learn to read and write who is never taught. This is the first moment in the existence of this people that the principle of co-operation could be established, and even now many are included to grumble at its introduction. Those who have lost their trade by this means need not despair. In a new country like this, there are many things to which such may turn their attention. They can become producers instead of merely consumers. They can cultivate the soil. Many articles of produce are sold at prices one half of which would be remunerative to the producer. Here then is a direction into which honest industry may turn. No person should be above learning some useful occupation or trade. Thousands of articles are imported to this Territory that might just as well be produced here. This would make the community rich and independent. Every one of our young men should apply themselves to learning some useful trade and accustom themselves to habits of industry, and not number themselves with that class who seek to get their living by their wits. To whatever plan legitimate labor calls us the elders in Israel should wrap themselves, as it were in a mantle. If men who go to work on the railroad have to some extent to mix with the wicked, it is not necessary that they should indulge in the evil practices of the wicked. All should eradicate from their own bosoms the besetments of sin. Some are not willing to be controlled by their Bishops and Presidents in their temporal concerns. Say they, "We know as much as the Bishop or the President," or whoever it may be, but the sequel will show that they are wrong. Those who cannot understand that co-operation is right cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven in it. This is the cause of the prejudice that some have concerning it, but the Kingdom of God is in it. There is no power on earth that can stem the current of vice that is flooding the world but the power that is in the Kingdom of God.
The Latter-day Saints have cause to rejoice above all other people, because they have seen the Kingdom of God. Those who build upon that rock, which is the principles of the Kingdom of God, will stand for ever. If we attain to an exaltation we shall have to conform to the terms proposed by the Almighty Himself. We can never bring the Lord to our terms. The Scriptures are good, the Bible and Book of Mormon are filled with sparkling gems on every page, yet the living oracles are worth more to us; they teach us how to save ourselves to-day. The Scriptures were the living oracles to those unto whom they were delivered. May we pursue that course that will enable us to obtain the blessings promised to the faithful.
next spoke. We are here to take into consideration those things that will conduce to our best interests. There is a propensity in the human heart to walk according to its own imagination instead of obeying the voice of God. We need instruction continually. If we are not instructed, we shall never learn more than a child can learn to read and write who is never taught. This is the first moment in the existence of this people that the principle of co-operation could be established, and even now many are included to grumble at its introduction. Those who have lost their trade by this means need not despair. In a new country like this, there are many things to which such may turn their attention. They can become producers instead of merely consumers. They can cultivate the soil. Many articles of produce are sold at prices one half of which would be remunerative to the producer. Here then is a direction into which honest industry may turn. No person should be above learning some useful occupation or trade. Thousands of articles are imported to this Territory that might just as well be produced here. This would make the community rich and independent. Every one of our young men should apply themselves to learning some useful trade and accustom themselves to habits of industry, and not number themselves with that class who seek to get their living by their wits. To whatever plan legitimate labor calls us the elders in Israel should wrap themselves, as it were in a mantle. If men who go to work on the railroad have to some extent to mix with the wicked, it is not necessary that they should indulge in the evil practices of the wicked. All should eradicate from their own bosoms the besetments of sin. Some are not willing to be controlled by their Bishops and Presidents in their temporal concerns. Say they, "We know as much as the Bishop or the President," or whoever it may be, but the sequel will show that they are wrong. Those who cannot understand that co-operation is right cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven in it. This is the cause of the prejudice that some have concerning it, but the Kingdom of God is in it. There is no power on earth that can stem the current of vice that is flooding the world but the power that is in the Kingdom of God.
The Latter-day Saints have cause to rejoice above all other people, because they have seen the Kingdom of God. Those who build upon that rock, which is the principles of the Kingdom of God, will stand for ever. If we attain to an exaltation we shall have to conform to the terms proposed by the Almighty Himself. We can never bring the Lord to our terms. The Scriptures are good, the Bible and Book of Mormon are filled with sparkling gems on every page, yet the living oracles are worth more to us; they teach us how to save ourselves to-day. The Scriptures were the living oracles to those unto whom they were delivered. May we pursue that course that will enable us to obtain the blessings promised to the faithful.
Cooperation—Merchandising and Productive Businesses—Doing the Lord's Will
Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
After our usual custom we have met in a general council of the church to receive instruction in those things which are necessary for the government and well-being of the people, and to be instructed in that which is calculated to promote our best interests. At our Conferences a general interchange of thought and feeling in the midst of Israel takes place. At these meetings we receive great blessings; rich treasures of knowledge and understanding are opened up, and made known to the people throughout the valleys of the mountains. We come here to be instructed; we gather from the nations of the earth that we may be taught in the ways of the Lord and that we may learn to walk in His paths.
We can see a glorious future before us; we can dwell upon the words of the holy prophets and picture to ourselves great things in time to come concerning the beauty and glory of Zion, when she shall be built up. We can talk of exaltations in the Kingdom of God, of thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, but how are we going to attain to these things? It seems as though, when we receive the Gospel and our hearts are lit up with the spirit of truth, we expect, without any particular effort on our part, at some time in the future, to attain to these great excellencies and glories. We are a good deal like children. We tell them of reading and writing, but they will never be able to do either, unless they take the trouble to learn. We often hear it said that if we wish to have a heaven we shall have to create it for ourselves. There is considerable truth in this. In the days of Joseph could he have accomplished with this people what can now be accomplished in the days of Brigham? No; it would have been impossible. I remember hearing him talk, and seeing his endeavors to establish merchandising on a similar footing to that which has been recently introduced among the Saints; but there were difficulties in the way.
In those days there was a tendency of feeling that each should share alike in everything, so much so that it was impossible for any man to do business in the mercantile line. A good brother who was needy would think it was selfish if he could not go to a store and get what he wanted without paying the money for it. It was a good deal so when we first came here. Let a brother commence the mercantile business, and the first thing he knew his whole capital stock was credited out to the brethren. He could not refuse to credit a brother. O, no! If he did it was said at once that he was selfish and was no friend to the poor. I have never seen the time when cooperation could have been established in the midst of the people until the present. Some will doubtless find fault with it now; but we do not expect to be clear of faultfinders. We have to be instructed; and the Lord has been merciful and kind. He has sought all the day long to train us in the way we should go. We never can learn the principles pertaining to the building up of the Kingdom of God while scattered abroad; hence, the necessity of gathering together that we may be instructed in the ways of the Lord.
There is a great tendency among the people to go into the business of trading, and to shun the more laborious pursuits and avocations of life. A great many seem to think that trading or merchandising is more genteel, and that it is more gentlemanly not to learn some profitable trade or business. A considerable number who have been engaged in mercantile pursuits, owing to this change in our system of business, will no doubt be thrown out of employment; they will have to seek other avocations. Some persons who possess capital will have to seek other avenues in which to invest that capital. In a new country like this there is a variety of ways open to them for its safe and profitable investment.
A man may invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in goods and put them on his shelves, and in his warehouses, and dispose of them again to other parties; but what does such a man produce or create with his means that is beneficial to his fellow creatures? Nothing; it is merely an interchange. It is useful and necessary in its way and place, and it is all well enough; but sufficient should be done and no more than sufficient. Trading is overdone; there are too many employed in this kind of business; they should seek employment in some other way, and find other channels for investing their capital that are better calculated to produce something from the earth, and bring forth from the elements that which is necessary for the comfort and well-being of man and beast. Just think how many things could be raised and manufactured here, that, if we had them today, would fetch very remunerative prices. Butter, for instance, that at the present time is selling for a dollar and a quarter a pound, in a country like this should not bring more than twenty-five cents. Cheese the same. These two articles are imported twelve or fifteen hundred miles, and then the Territory is not near supplied. Wool and flax, too, might be raised profitably; not near enough of these is raised; and in these articles our surplus means might be safely and profitably invested. There is not near enough grain raised in the Territory. Wheat is selling today at four dollars a bushel, when it should not be more than half that price, and even then would well remunerate the producer. It is so with every other article of our own consumption and that is required for the sustenance of our animals; and the same may be said of the animals themselves. Stock raising offers a profitable avenue for the investment of means. Here are many avenues in which they, who have been overturned in their mercantile pursuits, can invest their means, which will pay larger profits, and which are far less liable to fluctuation, because mercantile pursuits are often subject to great depression through being overdone, or through scarcity of money and other causes. If a person has a farm his produce will keep until he can obtain remunerative prices, and he is more free and independent than the merchant; for the earth being his banker, he is not called upon to meet his bills and obligations by any particular and specified time, as the merchant is. By turning our attention in these directions our capital may be safely and profitably invested, and many who are now but little better than idlers in Israel might be remuneratively employed.
I should say let every young man, and woman too, learn some way to procure their own subsistence, and to promote their own independence; this is incumbent upon all. No person should be above learning some useful occupation, trade, or business that is calculated to produce something for his own and the general benefit. Hundreds and thousands of articles are imported here that might just as well be made in our midst, and if they were made here it would render us, as a people, a great deal more independent and comfortable than we are now. That man only is truly rich who knows how to provide for himself and his household. I do not care how much means he has in his possession, he only is independent who has the means of subsistence within himself, who has the capability of going forth, and, by his own industry, drawing from the elements those things which are necessary for his own subsistence.
I remember reading an anecdote of Stephen Girard and of a young man he had had in his employment a long time, who had received some encouragement, and had large expectations from him, that when he had attained his majority he would set him up in business. When that time arrived, instead of giving the young man a draft for a certain amount of money, he told him to go and serve an apprenticeship to some useful trade, by which, in case of a reverse of fortune, he would be enabled to earn his own subsistence. The young man went and bound himself to a cooper and learned that trade. In a year's time he went back to his patron with a barrel of his own make. The old gentleman examined the barrel, and asked the price he could afford them at, and was told “a dollar each.” Mr. Girard said it was a good article, and worth the money, and if he could make as good barrels as that for that price, he had insured to himself a living in any event that might happen. For his obedience in going and learning a trade as the old gentleman had directed him, he was rewarded with a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to set him up in business.
In case of any reverse of fortune this man had something to fall back upon. I have always thought this was a very good principle to act upon. I would like to see all of our young men learn some useful trade or occupation which would produce for them an honorable living by their own industry; and if they acquire this in early life, habits of industry and order become natural.
By industry we thrive; industry, in the mechanical and agricultural pursuits, is the foundation of our independence, and they who obtain a livelihood by habits of industry are far more honorable members of society than they who live by their wits.
I heard recently of a city that the outsiders are endeavoring to start, called Corinne, which it is said is to be the great city of the interior West. Who are going there to expend their labor? Can cities be built without labor? I think not. I have no idea that a great city will be built in the location designated, unless a different class of people go there than is to be found in such places generally. I have no doubt that the soil is rich, and that by industry the elements necessary for the building up of a great city could be developed. But any person who expects that a large city is going to be reared without industry and hard labor reckons without his host. There may be a rush there, for a short time, of speculators, loafers, and rowdies; but if these are the only classes of people who go there—as there is good reason to believe—this great city that is to be, like others of the same class, will soon die out, and the people be scattered to some other places.
Can men be industrious and follow the various avocations and pursuits of life and still be servants of God? Yes, such things are conducive to good morals. It is said that an idle brain is the workshop of the devil, and it is far more likely to be so than the brain of a person who is occupied with some useful employment. Can a person work on the railroad, for instance, and be associated with the wicked without being contaminated by them? O yes, if he is so disposed. An elder of Israel should wrap himself as with a mantle, from sin, whether he goes to preach the Gospel to a wicked world, or whether he goes to labor among the wicked. Such a man will lose nothing, but he will gain the esteem even of the wicked themselves, by being faithful and true to his calling, keeping the commandments of God, and observing the Word of Wisdom; and no matter what society he may be in he will be respected, and will be far more likely to be so for the strict observance of the principles of the religion he professes than he will be if he does not observe them. I do not know that it is any excuse for a man to smoke, chew, drink whiskey, take the name of God in vain, swear, or drink tea or coffee because he mingles with those who do such things. Do you think your associates would respect you the more for it? No, not a whit; but they would respect you more for not doing such things. They would have greater confidence in you, and if they had money they wished to entrust to the care of anyone, they would sooner entrust it to the care of a man who was faithful to the principles of his religion than to their associates who get drunk, gamble, swear, and commit every abomination.
This people have been awakened to a sense of their duty in keeping the Word of Wisdom, yet many of them think it a sufficient excuse for them to use hot drinks, if they happen to be where others use them; in this way they are falling back to the use of tobacco, and are smoking their pipes or cigars, and are drinking tea and coffee or a little whiskey now and again, and are letting those old habits grow on them again. This is wrong; they should not do it. I mention this in order to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. We should not forget that we have entered into covenant not to do so. Latter-day Saints should remember that there is not a day, hour, or moment in which they can afford to lay aside the armor of righteousness; there is no time but what the adversary is at their elbows ready to enter in, take hold, and lead them into forbidden paths. It is and ever has been a struggle with this people to trample the wickedness of the world under their feet. It rises before us continually and we are never without it. We do not expect to be without it in our midst if this is the kingdom of God. I suppose Jesus had as good an idea of what constituted the kingdom of God as any of us, and he said it was like a net cast into the sea which brought forth all kinds both good and bad; therefore let no one say this cannot be the kingdom of God because there are some who are not righteous in our midst. Because the wicked and unrighteous are in the world, must we be partakers of their wickedness? By no means; it is not at all necessary that it should be so. Let us endeavor to eradicate from our own bosoms all sin. It is not a matter of enthusiasm, to last for an hour, a day or a week and then die out; it is in this way that people forget God and do wickedly. You know that the Scriptures inform us that they who do wickedly, and all the nations who forget God, shall be turned into hell. The paths of virtue and truth are the paths of peace. The paths of union, that the leaders of this people are striving incessantly to introduce among us, are calculated to create excellence, greatness and power in our midst. By pursuing these paths we shall grow in every virtue and excellence until we shall attain to those great glories that are for the faithful, about which we sing and pray, and the contemplation of which always lights up our minds with so much joy and bliss. By faithfully observing the counsels given to us we shall actually come into possession of these things as naturally as a child, by constant instruction, comes to attainments in learning. It will be done by gaining item by item, by living our holy religion day by day, hour by hour, and all the time.
Blessed is that person, man and woman, who can retain, from youth up, a good, holy and righteous influence; who have never committed an overt act, preserving themselves righteously before the Lord in all good faith and conscience all the days of their lives. I say blessed are such persons. Persons are liable to be overtaken in liquor; but in Zion we should be free from these practices to a far greater extent than in the world. It is to overcome the evils that exist in the world that the Lord is gathering His Saints together. Why, if every man and woman who gathers to Zion were determined to follow their own ways, the state of things that exists in the world would soon be established here, and the object of the Lord, in gathering His people together, would be frustrated. Yet there are many people here who cannot see this; and they feel themselves infringed upon. Why, such persons are greater than the Savior of the world in their own estimation! He came here to do his Father's will, and in his greatest agony he prayed that the cup might be taken from him, if it were possible, “Nevertheless,” he said, “not my will, but Thine be done.” His own will was swallowed up in the will of his Father; and yet we, poor, miserable mortals can stick up our noses and say, “We will do as we please,” if anything is brought forth by the inspiration of the Almighty that seems to cut our corners. Are we a band of brethren, standing shoulder to shoulder under the banner of Emanuel --him who said, “Let not my will, but, Thine be done?” If we are, we shall walk in the path marked out for us by the Captain of our salvation. “Oh!” says one, “I think I understand, comprehend, and know better than anyone else; I am not going to do as such a one tells me--my Bishop, President, or someone else in authority over me; he does not know as much as I do.” Perhaps not, the sequel will show who know most.
If we have a proper conception of the counsels given to us, we shall never utter such sentiments, or let them have place in our hearts. It is difficult sometimes to get into our ears and hearts what is required of us, hence the amount of instruction that has to be given to the people. It was years and years before we got the people to take hold of the Word of Wisdom. There have been such things as reformations in the midst of the people of God, I suppose because of the proneness of the people to relapse into the ways of the world. Hence, it becomes necessary every once in a while to arouse Israel to a sense of their duties, that they may sustain the Kingdom of God.
There are a great many people who cannot see the Kingdom of God, although the events, long since foretold, which should transpire in connection with that Kingdom are actually transpiring before their eyes. The people of the world are blind, they cannot see the Kingdom; and a great many Saints, and pretty good at that, who should see the Kingdom of Heaven in the introduction of a new principle, oftentimes fail to do so. Is the Word of Wisdom of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is cooperation of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is union in the midst of this people of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is the one-man power, with which the world find so much fault, and talk about so much, of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes, if God is our Father and is at the head of it, it is. Then why should there be so much dread and fear of the Lord establishing His government in the world? Did it ever do anybody any harm? O, no. Did it ever do anybody any good, or is it calculated in its nature to do anybody any good? Yes, the greatest good. Then why so much dread and fear of it? Because the people cannot see the Kingdom of God in it. But is it not very far from them; God is not very far from them, nor from any of us, and His work is established and is transpiring right before our face and eyes. The government of God is being established on the earth, and the world does not know it; yet it is like a city set on a hill for everybody to gaze upon and investigate. Yet they treat it as if it were of no moment to them. Time will show that it is of the utmost importance to them. Let no person pass it by as an idle tale, for time will disclose that it is of the utmost importance to every son and daughter of Adam. They had better, at least, give it a passing notice and investigate it with honesty of purpose. Our hopes for the present and future, our happiness and prosperity, and even existence itself, are bound up in the Kingdom and government of God. What else is there now upon the face of the earth but what has a tendency to destruction? Look at the stream of vice and corruption that is flowing on, bearing its votaries to the gulf of despair. Who can stem the torrent? People can see it, but can they stop it? No, it bears them along on its surface, and they are lost forever. Is it not time that some standard should be erected on the earth, around which those who are disposed to do right, may rally, where they will be safe from this great gulf-stream of destruction? I think it is time, because the Lord has thought so, and He has commenced His work; He has erected His standard, and is calling to the people and pointing the way to safety. Not that He or anyone else expects this stream to be checked or stopped in its mad career; it will bear its onward course until, finally, it finds its depths. But we may save one here and another there, and so the Lord may get to Himself a people. It is like being snatched as brands from the burning. He will bring them to a place where they can be instructed. This has been the case with us. The Lord has brought us together and He is seeking to instruct us, that we and our children after us may escape those great evils which are so prevalent in the world. I need not mention them, they are patent to the eyes of all. The people have forgotten God; they do not know His ways, although there are many well-intentioned people who are seeking to do their duty and are living in the hope of a blessed reward hereafter. They will obtain it. They are trying to stem the torrent of evil as far as it is in their power; but they do not know “the only true and wise God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” “whom to know is eternal life;” and another evil is, they do not try to know Him, or they would investigate and try to find out God and His Kingdom.
The Lord is not responsible for all the evil of which I have been speaking, neither for all the diversities of religion in the world. He created man upright, but man has sought out many inventions. If the people would seek after the Lord and be content to walk in His ways, do you think the diversities in regard to religion that now exist would be known? By no means; we should all come, then, to a unity of the faith.
The Latter-day Saints have great cause to rejoice, because they are blessed above all other people. They are learning the ways of the Lord; and more blessed are they still, if they follow in them. They are laying a foundation that will stand forever. There is no principle of virtue, truth, holiness and righteousness but what is calculated to exalt man in time and forever and ever. Those who build not on these principles are building on sand, and their superstructure will be washed away when the tempest comes; while they who build on the rock of truth will be able to withstand all opposition, and they will eventually obtain that glory and exaltation that the Saints now talk about.
These principles are true and can be depended upon. God is their author; He is at the helm. He is our Father and we may come to exaltation in His presence if we will live for it; and in this earthly probation we can be co-workers with Him in the establishment of His kingdom on the earth if we will serve Him and keep His commandments. We may come to Him on His own platform, on His own terms, but not on our own. That is the trouble with Christendom, and the world at large. They are trying to make the Lord's ways correspond with theirs. Why, they would tear Him to pieces if they could have their wishes carried out; they would dethrone Jehovah and overturn His power and kingdom. Could He exist if the world could have their own way? A great many called Latter-day Saints feel a little the same way; perhaps they do not know it, but it amounts to no less. I have known people come for counsel when they had their own minds made up about the course they intended to pursue. All they wanted was to receive counsel that corresponded with their notions. If they received that, all right; otherwise it would not do. All the world is after is to try to make the Lord come to their terms; He cannot do it.
It would be well for us, sometimes, if we could see a few of our own inconsistencies, and what we require of the Lord. The plan of salvation is amply sufficient to save to the uttermost. How? In our own way? No, in the way that the Lord has devised. If we are saved in His Kingdom we shall have to bow to His laws; we cannot be saved without. He has a right to dictate; He has done so, and it is for us to do His bidding.
We are blessed in having the living oracles in our midst, and in having a standard erected around which we can rally. The Bible is good, and we believe in it more than any other people. The Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants are the word of God, and they contain many precious gems; every line is full of knowledge, intelligence, and truth, and is calculated to be a benefit to us; but yet, above and far beyond all, we have the living oracles in our midst to tell us what to do today. A great portion of the Scripture we have was the living oracles to the people in the day in which it was given, and it has become Scripture because it was given by the inspiration of the Almighty. It was applicable to the day in which it was given. We have the living oracles in our midst to give us that which is applicable to our day. Let us make our ways correspond to the Lord's, for we read that “as high as the heavens are above the earth so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts.” We are blessed in having His ways made known to us, because He knows best. He has more knowledge and understanding and greater ability, and can perform and accomplish more than any other power that exists; and that people only may be said to be blessed who walk in His ways and do His bidding.
I feel sometimes as though I had never lived, in reality, until I became acquainted with the principles of the Gospel; I feel as though my whole existence had been a waste. In one sense it has. I did not know how to serve God acceptably in His sight. I did not comprehend righteousness, neither did I know how to sanctify myself before Him. We are taught that obedience is better than sacrifice, therefore let us go to, brethren and sisters, with our mights to serve God and keep His commandments, so shall we come, finally, to inherit those blessings which are promised to the faithful, which I pray we may ultimately attain for Christ's sake, Amen.
Remarks by President Daniel H. Wells, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
After our usual custom we have met in a general council of the church to receive instruction in those things which are necessary for the government and well-being of the people, and to be instructed in that which is calculated to promote our best interests. At our Conferences a general interchange of thought and feeling in the midst of Israel takes place. At these meetings we receive great blessings; rich treasures of knowledge and understanding are opened up, and made known to the people throughout the valleys of the mountains. We come here to be instructed; we gather from the nations of the earth that we may be taught in the ways of the Lord and that we may learn to walk in His paths.
We can see a glorious future before us; we can dwell upon the words of the holy prophets and picture to ourselves great things in time to come concerning the beauty and glory of Zion, when she shall be built up. We can talk of exaltations in the Kingdom of God, of thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, but how are we going to attain to these things? It seems as though, when we receive the Gospel and our hearts are lit up with the spirit of truth, we expect, without any particular effort on our part, at some time in the future, to attain to these great excellencies and glories. We are a good deal like children. We tell them of reading and writing, but they will never be able to do either, unless they take the trouble to learn. We often hear it said that if we wish to have a heaven we shall have to create it for ourselves. There is considerable truth in this. In the days of Joseph could he have accomplished with this people what can now be accomplished in the days of Brigham? No; it would have been impossible. I remember hearing him talk, and seeing his endeavors to establish merchandising on a similar footing to that which has been recently introduced among the Saints; but there were difficulties in the way.
In those days there was a tendency of feeling that each should share alike in everything, so much so that it was impossible for any man to do business in the mercantile line. A good brother who was needy would think it was selfish if he could not go to a store and get what he wanted without paying the money for it. It was a good deal so when we first came here. Let a brother commence the mercantile business, and the first thing he knew his whole capital stock was credited out to the brethren. He could not refuse to credit a brother. O, no! If he did it was said at once that he was selfish and was no friend to the poor. I have never seen the time when cooperation could have been established in the midst of the people until the present. Some will doubtless find fault with it now; but we do not expect to be clear of faultfinders. We have to be instructed; and the Lord has been merciful and kind. He has sought all the day long to train us in the way we should go. We never can learn the principles pertaining to the building up of the Kingdom of God while scattered abroad; hence, the necessity of gathering together that we may be instructed in the ways of the Lord.
There is a great tendency among the people to go into the business of trading, and to shun the more laborious pursuits and avocations of life. A great many seem to think that trading or merchandising is more genteel, and that it is more gentlemanly not to learn some profitable trade or business. A considerable number who have been engaged in mercantile pursuits, owing to this change in our system of business, will no doubt be thrown out of employment; they will have to seek other avocations. Some persons who possess capital will have to seek other avenues in which to invest that capital. In a new country like this there is a variety of ways open to them for its safe and profitable investment.
A man may invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in goods and put them on his shelves, and in his warehouses, and dispose of them again to other parties; but what does such a man produce or create with his means that is beneficial to his fellow creatures? Nothing; it is merely an interchange. It is useful and necessary in its way and place, and it is all well enough; but sufficient should be done and no more than sufficient. Trading is overdone; there are too many employed in this kind of business; they should seek employment in some other way, and find other channels for investing their capital that are better calculated to produce something from the earth, and bring forth from the elements that which is necessary for the comfort and well-being of man and beast. Just think how many things could be raised and manufactured here, that, if we had them today, would fetch very remunerative prices. Butter, for instance, that at the present time is selling for a dollar and a quarter a pound, in a country like this should not bring more than twenty-five cents. Cheese the same. These two articles are imported twelve or fifteen hundred miles, and then the Territory is not near supplied. Wool and flax, too, might be raised profitably; not near enough of these is raised; and in these articles our surplus means might be safely and profitably invested. There is not near enough grain raised in the Territory. Wheat is selling today at four dollars a bushel, when it should not be more than half that price, and even then would well remunerate the producer. It is so with every other article of our own consumption and that is required for the sustenance of our animals; and the same may be said of the animals themselves. Stock raising offers a profitable avenue for the investment of means. Here are many avenues in which they, who have been overturned in their mercantile pursuits, can invest their means, which will pay larger profits, and which are far less liable to fluctuation, because mercantile pursuits are often subject to great depression through being overdone, or through scarcity of money and other causes. If a person has a farm his produce will keep until he can obtain remunerative prices, and he is more free and independent than the merchant; for the earth being his banker, he is not called upon to meet his bills and obligations by any particular and specified time, as the merchant is. By turning our attention in these directions our capital may be safely and profitably invested, and many who are now but little better than idlers in Israel might be remuneratively employed.
I should say let every young man, and woman too, learn some way to procure their own subsistence, and to promote their own independence; this is incumbent upon all. No person should be above learning some useful occupation, trade, or business that is calculated to produce something for his own and the general benefit. Hundreds and thousands of articles are imported here that might just as well be made in our midst, and if they were made here it would render us, as a people, a great deal more independent and comfortable than we are now. That man only is truly rich who knows how to provide for himself and his household. I do not care how much means he has in his possession, he only is independent who has the means of subsistence within himself, who has the capability of going forth, and, by his own industry, drawing from the elements those things which are necessary for his own subsistence.
I remember reading an anecdote of Stephen Girard and of a young man he had had in his employment a long time, who had received some encouragement, and had large expectations from him, that when he had attained his majority he would set him up in business. When that time arrived, instead of giving the young man a draft for a certain amount of money, he told him to go and serve an apprenticeship to some useful trade, by which, in case of a reverse of fortune, he would be enabled to earn his own subsistence. The young man went and bound himself to a cooper and learned that trade. In a year's time he went back to his patron with a barrel of his own make. The old gentleman examined the barrel, and asked the price he could afford them at, and was told “a dollar each.” Mr. Girard said it was a good article, and worth the money, and if he could make as good barrels as that for that price, he had insured to himself a living in any event that might happen. For his obedience in going and learning a trade as the old gentleman had directed him, he was rewarded with a check for twenty-five thousand dollars to set him up in business.
In case of any reverse of fortune this man had something to fall back upon. I have always thought this was a very good principle to act upon. I would like to see all of our young men learn some useful trade or occupation which would produce for them an honorable living by their own industry; and if they acquire this in early life, habits of industry and order become natural.
By industry we thrive; industry, in the mechanical and agricultural pursuits, is the foundation of our independence, and they who obtain a livelihood by habits of industry are far more honorable members of society than they who live by their wits.
I heard recently of a city that the outsiders are endeavoring to start, called Corinne, which it is said is to be the great city of the interior West. Who are going there to expend their labor? Can cities be built without labor? I think not. I have no idea that a great city will be built in the location designated, unless a different class of people go there than is to be found in such places generally. I have no doubt that the soil is rich, and that by industry the elements necessary for the building up of a great city could be developed. But any person who expects that a large city is going to be reared without industry and hard labor reckons without his host. There may be a rush there, for a short time, of speculators, loafers, and rowdies; but if these are the only classes of people who go there—as there is good reason to believe—this great city that is to be, like others of the same class, will soon die out, and the people be scattered to some other places.
Can men be industrious and follow the various avocations and pursuits of life and still be servants of God? Yes, such things are conducive to good morals. It is said that an idle brain is the workshop of the devil, and it is far more likely to be so than the brain of a person who is occupied with some useful employment. Can a person work on the railroad, for instance, and be associated with the wicked without being contaminated by them? O yes, if he is so disposed. An elder of Israel should wrap himself as with a mantle, from sin, whether he goes to preach the Gospel to a wicked world, or whether he goes to labor among the wicked. Such a man will lose nothing, but he will gain the esteem even of the wicked themselves, by being faithful and true to his calling, keeping the commandments of God, and observing the Word of Wisdom; and no matter what society he may be in he will be respected, and will be far more likely to be so for the strict observance of the principles of the religion he professes than he will be if he does not observe them. I do not know that it is any excuse for a man to smoke, chew, drink whiskey, take the name of God in vain, swear, or drink tea or coffee because he mingles with those who do such things. Do you think your associates would respect you the more for it? No, not a whit; but they would respect you more for not doing such things. They would have greater confidence in you, and if they had money they wished to entrust to the care of anyone, they would sooner entrust it to the care of a man who was faithful to the principles of his religion than to their associates who get drunk, gamble, swear, and commit every abomination.
This people have been awakened to a sense of their duty in keeping the Word of Wisdom, yet many of them think it a sufficient excuse for them to use hot drinks, if they happen to be where others use them; in this way they are falling back to the use of tobacco, and are smoking their pipes or cigars, and are drinking tea and coffee or a little whiskey now and again, and are letting those old habits grow on them again. This is wrong; they should not do it. I mention this in order to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. We should not forget that we have entered into covenant not to do so. Latter-day Saints should remember that there is not a day, hour, or moment in which they can afford to lay aside the armor of righteousness; there is no time but what the adversary is at their elbows ready to enter in, take hold, and lead them into forbidden paths. It is and ever has been a struggle with this people to trample the wickedness of the world under their feet. It rises before us continually and we are never without it. We do not expect to be without it in our midst if this is the kingdom of God. I suppose Jesus had as good an idea of what constituted the kingdom of God as any of us, and he said it was like a net cast into the sea which brought forth all kinds both good and bad; therefore let no one say this cannot be the kingdom of God because there are some who are not righteous in our midst. Because the wicked and unrighteous are in the world, must we be partakers of their wickedness? By no means; it is not at all necessary that it should be so. Let us endeavor to eradicate from our own bosoms all sin. It is not a matter of enthusiasm, to last for an hour, a day or a week and then die out; it is in this way that people forget God and do wickedly. You know that the Scriptures inform us that they who do wickedly, and all the nations who forget God, shall be turned into hell. The paths of virtue and truth are the paths of peace. The paths of union, that the leaders of this people are striving incessantly to introduce among us, are calculated to create excellence, greatness and power in our midst. By pursuing these paths we shall grow in every virtue and excellence until we shall attain to those great glories that are for the faithful, about which we sing and pray, and the contemplation of which always lights up our minds with so much joy and bliss. By faithfully observing the counsels given to us we shall actually come into possession of these things as naturally as a child, by constant instruction, comes to attainments in learning. It will be done by gaining item by item, by living our holy religion day by day, hour by hour, and all the time.
Blessed is that person, man and woman, who can retain, from youth up, a good, holy and righteous influence; who have never committed an overt act, preserving themselves righteously before the Lord in all good faith and conscience all the days of their lives. I say blessed are such persons. Persons are liable to be overtaken in liquor; but in Zion we should be free from these practices to a far greater extent than in the world. It is to overcome the evils that exist in the world that the Lord is gathering His Saints together. Why, if every man and woman who gathers to Zion were determined to follow their own ways, the state of things that exists in the world would soon be established here, and the object of the Lord, in gathering His people together, would be frustrated. Yet there are many people here who cannot see this; and they feel themselves infringed upon. Why, such persons are greater than the Savior of the world in their own estimation! He came here to do his Father's will, and in his greatest agony he prayed that the cup might be taken from him, if it were possible, “Nevertheless,” he said, “not my will, but Thine be done.” His own will was swallowed up in the will of his Father; and yet we, poor, miserable mortals can stick up our noses and say, “We will do as we please,” if anything is brought forth by the inspiration of the Almighty that seems to cut our corners. Are we a band of brethren, standing shoulder to shoulder under the banner of Emanuel --him who said, “Let not my will, but, Thine be done?” If we are, we shall walk in the path marked out for us by the Captain of our salvation. “Oh!” says one, “I think I understand, comprehend, and know better than anyone else; I am not going to do as such a one tells me--my Bishop, President, or someone else in authority over me; he does not know as much as I do.” Perhaps not, the sequel will show who know most.
If we have a proper conception of the counsels given to us, we shall never utter such sentiments, or let them have place in our hearts. It is difficult sometimes to get into our ears and hearts what is required of us, hence the amount of instruction that has to be given to the people. It was years and years before we got the people to take hold of the Word of Wisdom. There have been such things as reformations in the midst of the people of God, I suppose because of the proneness of the people to relapse into the ways of the world. Hence, it becomes necessary every once in a while to arouse Israel to a sense of their duties, that they may sustain the Kingdom of God.
There are a great many people who cannot see the Kingdom of God, although the events, long since foretold, which should transpire in connection with that Kingdom are actually transpiring before their eyes. The people of the world are blind, they cannot see the Kingdom; and a great many Saints, and pretty good at that, who should see the Kingdom of Heaven in the introduction of a new principle, oftentimes fail to do so. Is the Word of Wisdom of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is cooperation of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is union in the midst of this people of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes. Is the one-man power, with which the world find so much fault, and talk about so much, of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes, if God is our Father and is at the head of it, it is. Then why should there be so much dread and fear of the Lord establishing His government in the world? Did it ever do anybody any harm? O, no. Did it ever do anybody any good, or is it calculated in its nature to do anybody any good? Yes, the greatest good. Then why so much dread and fear of it? Because the people cannot see the Kingdom of God in it. But is it not very far from them; God is not very far from them, nor from any of us, and His work is established and is transpiring right before our face and eyes. The government of God is being established on the earth, and the world does not know it; yet it is like a city set on a hill for everybody to gaze upon and investigate. Yet they treat it as if it were of no moment to them. Time will show that it is of the utmost importance to them. Let no person pass it by as an idle tale, for time will disclose that it is of the utmost importance to every son and daughter of Adam. They had better, at least, give it a passing notice and investigate it with honesty of purpose. Our hopes for the present and future, our happiness and prosperity, and even existence itself, are bound up in the Kingdom and government of God. What else is there now upon the face of the earth but what has a tendency to destruction? Look at the stream of vice and corruption that is flowing on, bearing its votaries to the gulf of despair. Who can stem the torrent? People can see it, but can they stop it? No, it bears them along on its surface, and they are lost forever. Is it not time that some standard should be erected on the earth, around which those who are disposed to do right, may rally, where they will be safe from this great gulf-stream of destruction? I think it is time, because the Lord has thought so, and He has commenced His work; He has erected His standard, and is calling to the people and pointing the way to safety. Not that He or anyone else expects this stream to be checked or stopped in its mad career; it will bear its onward course until, finally, it finds its depths. But we may save one here and another there, and so the Lord may get to Himself a people. It is like being snatched as brands from the burning. He will bring them to a place where they can be instructed. This has been the case with us. The Lord has brought us together and He is seeking to instruct us, that we and our children after us may escape those great evils which are so prevalent in the world. I need not mention them, they are patent to the eyes of all. The people have forgotten God; they do not know His ways, although there are many well-intentioned people who are seeking to do their duty and are living in the hope of a blessed reward hereafter. They will obtain it. They are trying to stem the torrent of evil as far as it is in their power; but they do not know “the only true and wise God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,” “whom to know is eternal life;” and another evil is, they do not try to know Him, or they would investigate and try to find out God and His Kingdom.
The Lord is not responsible for all the evil of which I have been speaking, neither for all the diversities of religion in the world. He created man upright, but man has sought out many inventions. If the people would seek after the Lord and be content to walk in His ways, do you think the diversities in regard to religion that now exist would be known? By no means; we should all come, then, to a unity of the faith.
The Latter-day Saints have great cause to rejoice, because they are blessed above all other people. They are learning the ways of the Lord; and more blessed are they still, if they follow in them. They are laying a foundation that will stand forever. There is no principle of virtue, truth, holiness and righteousness but what is calculated to exalt man in time and forever and ever. Those who build not on these principles are building on sand, and their superstructure will be washed away when the tempest comes; while they who build on the rock of truth will be able to withstand all opposition, and they will eventually obtain that glory and exaltation that the Saints now talk about.
These principles are true and can be depended upon. God is their author; He is at the helm. He is our Father and we may come to exaltation in His presence if we will live for it; and in this earthly probation we can be co-workers with Him in the establishment of His kingdom on the earth if we will serve Him and keep His commandments. We may come to Him on His own platform, on His own terms, but not on our own. That is the trouble with Christendom, and the world at large. They are trying to make the Lord's ways correspond with theirs. Why, they would tear Him to pieces if they could have their wishes carried out; they would dethrone Jehovah and overturn His power and kingdom. Could He exist if the world could have their own way? A great many called Latter-day Saints feel a little the same way; perhaps they do not know it, but it amounts to no less. I have known people come for counsel when they had their own minds made up about the course they intended to pursue. All they wanted was to receive counsel that corresponded with their notions. If they received that, all right; otherwise it would not do. All the world is after is to try to make the Lord come to their terms; He cannot do it.
It would be well for us, sometimes, if we could see a few of our own inconsistencies, and what we require of the Lord. The plan of salvation is amply sufficient to save to the uttermost. How? In our own way? No, in the way that the Lord has devised. If we are saved in His Kingdom we shall have to bow to His laws; we cannot be saved without. He has a right to dictate; He has done so, and it is for us to do His bidding.
We are blessed in having the living oracles in our midst, and in having a standard erected around which we can rally. The Bible is good, and we believe in it more than any other people. The Book of Mormon and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants are the word of God, and they contain many precious gems; every line is full of knowledge, intelligence, and truth, and is calculated to be a benefit to us; but yet, above and far beyond all, we have the living oracles in our midst to tell us what to do today. A great portion of the Scripture we have was the living oracles to the people in the day in which it was given, and it has become Scripture because it was given by the inspiration of the Almighty. It was applicable to the day in which it was given. We have the living oracles in our midst to give us that which is applicable to our day. Let us make our ways correspond to the Lord's, for we read that “as high as the heavens are above the earth so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts.” We are blessed in having His ways made known to us, because He knows best. He has more knowledge and understanding and greater ability, and can perform and accomplish more than any other power that exists; and that people only may be said to be blessed who walk in His ways and do His bidding.
I feel sometimes as though I had never lived, in reality, until I became acquainted with the principles of the Gospel; I feel as though my whole existence had been a waste. In one sense it has. I did not know how to serve God acceptably in His sight. I did not comprehend righteousness, neither did I know how to sanctify myself before Him. We are taught that obedience is better than sacrifice, therefore let us go to, brethren and sisters, with our mights to serve God and keep His commandments, so shall we come, finally, to inherit those blessings which are promised to the faithful, which I pray we may ultimately attain for Christ's sake, Amen.
Elder George Q. Cannon
then read the names of the brethren who are called to go on Missions.
The congregation sang "Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning."
Conference adjourned till two o'clock p. m.
Elder Brigham Young, Jun., dismissed the Conference.
then read the names of the brethren who are called to go on Missions.
The congregation sang "Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning."
Conference adjourned till two o'clock p. m.
Elder Brigham Young, Jun., dismissed the Conference.
2 p.m., April 7.
Conference was called to order by President George A. Smith.
The Tabernacle Choir sang "Great God attend while Zion sings."
Elder Lorenzo Snow prayed.
The Tabernacle Choir sang the anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord."
Conference was called to order by President George A. Smith.
The Tabernacle Choir sang "Great God attend while Zion sings."
Elder Lorenzo Snow prayed.
The Tabernacle Choir sang the anthem, "Rejoice in the Lord."
Elder Orson Pratt
addressed the Conference. Thirty-nine years ago yesterday, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. Although we have been driven and persecuted so many times, yet by the providences of God we have been always permitted to commemorate the anniversary of that great event. Our journeyings to this place have, heretofore, been slow and laborious. The Lord has put it into the hearts of the people of this continent to construct a great highway, so that what heretofore was a journey of months is now reduced to one of a few days. Notwithstanding the facilities for gathering Israel are greatly increased, the poor cannot be brought here without great expense.
Many of the Saints who are yet in the world are looking with longing eyes to this people for assistance to enable them to gather. When many of the latter left their relatives and friends in the lands of their birth, they felt in their hearts that if the Lord would bless them temporally they would assist those friends and relatives to come to Zion. Those Saints have come here and have been prospered. Then they should not forget those whom they have left behind when they have means to use for their deliverance. We have made sacred and holy covenants before God. Those covenants will have to be answered upon our heads before the Great Judge of all. The covenants we make by silently lifting our hands to Heaven, are as binding upon us as though they had been spoken, or entered into in writing. Many make covenants and then break them in a few days after they are made. Such give themselves up to fault-finding, grumbling and the powers of darkness. We often make covenants at our conferences. If we have made a covenant to keep what is called "the Word of Wisdom," and have broken that covenant, shall we not come under condemnation? None can plead ignorance in relation to this matter, for it has been taught to the people in every part of this Territory. Have we not arrived at a point in our history, as the people of God, when we can attend to these simple matters? If the people were more faithful, the Destroyer would have less power. The Lord has promised that the destroying angel should pass by those who comply with his word. In some instances the people do not conform to the teachings and examples of the highest authorities of the Church. Another cause is the physical weakness we have inherited from our fathers.
Money is said to be the root of all evil. When the love of money is allowed to be implanted in our hearts, we have within us a fruitful source of many of the evils that exist in the world.
This love of money has been sown in the hearts of the human family, and is very difficult to eradicate. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that the Saints should consecrate all property that they did not need for the support of their families, and throw it into the treasury of the Lord's House. The Order of Enoch comprehended not only spiritual, but temporal things. This consecrated property was to be used for a variety of purposes. For the support of widows and orphans and the building up of the New Jerusalem. Since we came here, what have many been doing? Building up our enemies with our means, yet the servants of the Lord have been pleading with this people in relation to our property concerns. The co-operative movement is but one step towards that great order of things that has been revealed by the Lord. Until the people are prepared to carry out the revealed laws in relation to property, Zion cannot be redeemed. We have made one step in the right direction, but we will not stop here. The draining of thousands of dollars from this people into the hands of our enemies, who would use the means thus obtained to destroy us, has been stayed. The outsiders who have filled their pockets with the means of this people do not like this movement. Yet, as our President has said, sensible men will say "this is a wise move of you, 'Mormons.'" The surest mode for the enrichment of the people is to manufacture everything needed to supply our own necessities. As our President has sometimes said, our wants are many, but our real necessities are few.
addressed the Conference. Thirty-nine years ago yesterday, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. Although we have been driven and persecuted so many times, yet by the providences of God we have been always permitted to commemorate the anniversary of that great event. Our journeyings to this place have, heretofore, been slow and laborious. The Lord has put it into the hearts of the people of this continent to construct a great highway, so that what heretofore was a journey of months is now reduced to one of a few days. Notwithstanding the facilities for gathering Israel are greatly increased, the poor cannot be brought here without great expense.
Many of the Saints who are yet in the world are looking with longing eyes to this people for assistance to enable them to gather. When many of the latter left their relatives and friends in the lands of their birth, they felt in their hearts that if the Lord would bless them temporally they would assist those friends and relatives to come to Zion. Those Saints have come here and have been prospered. Then they should not forget those whom they have left behind when they have means to use for their deliverance. We have made sacred and holy covenants before God. Those covenants will have to be answered upon our heads before the Great Judge of all. The covenants we make by silently lifting our hands to Heaven, are as binding upon us as though they had been spoken, or entered into in writing. Many make covenants and then break them in a few days after they are made. Such give themselves up to fault-finding, grumbling and the powers of darkness. We often make covenants at our conferences. If we have made a covenant to keep what is called "the Word of Wisdom," and have broken that covenant, shall we not come under condemnation? None can plead ignorance in relation to this matter, for it has been taught to the people in every part of this Territory. Have we not arrived at a point in our history, as the people of God, when we can attend to these simple matters? If the people were more faithful, the Destroyer would have less power. The Lord has promised that the destroying angel should pass by those who comply with his word. In some instances the people do not conform to the teachings and examples of the highest authorities of the Church. Another cause is the physical weakness we have inherited from our fathers.
Money is said to be the root of all evil. When the love of money is allowed to be implanted in our hearts, we have within us a fruitful source of many of the evils that exist in the world.
This love of money has been sown in the hearts of the human family, and is very difficult to eradicate. The Lord revealed to Joseph Smith that the Saints should consecrate all property that they did not need for the support of their families, and throw it into the treasury of the Lord's House. The Order of Enoch comprehended not only spiritual, but temporal things. This consecrated property was to be used for a variety of purposes. For the support of widows and orphans and the building up of the New Jerusalem. Since we came here, what have many been doing? Building up our enemies with our means, yet the servants of the Lord have been pleading with this people in relation to our property concerns. The co-operative movement is but one step towards that great order of things that has been revealed by the Lord. Until the people are prepared to carry out the revealed laws in relation to property, Zion cannot be redeemed. We have made one step in the right direction, but we will not stop here. The draining of thousands of dollars from this people into the hands of our enemies, who would use the means thus obtained to destroy us, has been stayed. The outsiders who have filled their pockets with the means of this people do not like this movement. Yet, as our President has said, sensible men will say "this is a wise move of you, 'Mormons.'" The surest mode for the enrichment of the people is to manufacture everything needed to supply our own necessities. As our President has sometimes said, our wants are many, but our real necessities are few.
Elder Wilford Woodruff
next spoke: Joseph Smith laid the foundation of a great work that was to be accomplished by those who should follow after. The day has come when the saints will have to take hold of temporal matters in a proper manner. It has been said that the introduction of the true order of temporal things will prove an antidote to grasping dishonesty. This is true. We have been enriching many who would willingly have sold every member of the Church and Kingdom of God for a dollar each, and thought they had made a good bargain. This should cease. We are living in a momentous period, a time when God will bring about His great purposes. Joseph Smith was commissioned by the Almighty to inaugurate His great work. His mantle has fallen upon President Young to carry that work forward. In the vision of my mind I can see a mighty people; I can see the Jews setting their faces Eastward for the Holy land. May the Lord so bless us that we may understand our position. I pray that I may see the Order of Enoch introduced. I pray that God may bless President Young, that he may live to see the accomplishment of that for which he has labored so many years.
next spoke: Joseph Smith laid the foundation of a great work that was to be accomplished by those who should follow after. The day has come when the saints will have to take hold of temporal matters in a proper manner. It has been said that the introduction of the true order of temporal things will prove an antidote to grasping dishonesty. This is true. We have been enriching many who would willingly have sold every member of the Church and Kingdom of God for a dollar each, and thought they had made a good bargain. This should cease. We are living in a momentous period, a time when God will bring about His great purposes. Joseph Smith was commissioned by the Almighty to inaugurate His great work. His mantle has fallen upon President Young to carry that work forward. In the vision of my mind I can see a mighty people; I can see the Jews setting their faces Eastward for the Holy land. May the Lord so bless us that we may understand our position. I pray that I may see the Order of Enoch introduced. I pray that God may bless President Young, that he may live to see the accomplishment of that for which he has labored so many years.
President Brigham Young
delivered a short, but powerful discourse, which was replete with good counsel in relation to the Word of Wisdom, home manufacture, the Order of Enoch, &c. His remarks will shortly be published verbatim.
delivered a short, but powerful discourse, which was replete with good counsel in relation to the Word of Wisdom, home manufacture, the Order of Enoch, &c. His remarks will shortly be published verbatim.
Responsibility for Teachings—The Word of Wisdom—Cooperation, Etc.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I think I shall not be under the necessity of talking long, as there has been a great deal said to the people this afternoon. I will commence by saying to the Latter-day Saints and to all the inhabitants of the earth that I am responsible for the doctrine I teach; but I am not responsible for the obedience of the people to that doctrine. My position in the presence of God, before the Angels and upon the face of the earth, is that it is easier and more delightful to serve God than to serve ourselves and the devil.
There has been considerable said this afternoon with regard to redeeming and building up Zion, the Order of Enoch, &c. I see men and women in this congregation—only a few of them—who were driven from the central stake of Zion. Ask them if they had any sorrow or trouble; then let them look at the beautiful land that the Lord would have given them if all had been faithful in keeping His commandments, and had walked before Him as they should; and then ask them with regard to the blessings they would have received. If they tell you the sentiments of their minds, they will tell you that the yoke of Jesus would have been easy and his burden would have been light, and that it would have been a delightful task to have walked in obedience to his commands and to have been of one heart and one mind; but through the selfishness of some, which is idolatry, through their covetousness, which is the same, and the lustful desire of their minds, they were cast out and driven from their homes. We have been driven many times; but each time, if they who professed to be the servants of God had served Him with an undivided heart, they would have had the privilege of living in their houses, possessing their lands, attending to their meetings, and spreading abroad on the right and the left, lengthening the cords of Zion, and strengthening her stakes until the land had been dedicated to the Gospel of the Son of God. Well, I have been with the rest and I expect I have been covetous like them, and probably I am now; but if I am, I wish somebody would tell me wherein.
Brother Pratt, in his discourse, had considerable to say with regard to the property of the Saints. I would like very much if the time was now when the Lord would say, “Lay down your substance at the feet of the bishops,” and find out who in this Church would be willing to give up all. This cooperative movement is only a stepping stone to what is called the Order of Enoch, but which is in reality the Order of Heaven. It was revealed to Enoch when he built up his city and gathered the people together and sanctified them, so that they became so holy and pure that they could not live among the rest of the people and the Lord took them away.
Ask any Christian in the world if he thinks the Lord rules and reigns supreme in heaven, and he will tell you, “Yes.” Is it right for the Lord to reign? “Certainly it is.” Ask him if he would delight to live in a place where one character rules and reigns supreme, and he will answer, “Yes, if I could go to heaven.” Why? “Why, the Lord reigns there.” Just ask the Christian if he knows the Lord, and he will tell you, “No.” Did you ever see him? “No.” Can you tell me anything of His character? “No, only He is something without body, parts, and passions.” One of the apostles says that “God is love, and they who dwell in God, dwell in love.” Ask the Christian world if they know anything about God, and they will tell you they do not. Ask if He has eyes, and they will say, “No—yes, He is all eyes.” Has he a head? “Yes, He is all head.” Has he ears? “Yes, He is all ears, He is all mouth, He is all body, and all limbs;” and still without body, parts, or passions. Why what do they make of Him? A monster, if He is anything; that is what they make of Him. Would you like to go to heaven? “O, yes,” says the Christian, “the Lord reigns there.” How do you know you would like the place and the order when you get there? Do you think you will have your farm and your substance by yourself, and live in the gratification of your selfish propensities as you now do? “O, no, we expect to be made pure and holy.” Where will you begin to be pure and holy? If you do not begin here, I do not know where you will begin. “O,” says the Christian, “if we are going to heaven, where God and angels dwell, and live where one-man power prevails, we should all be satisfied, I expect.” We, Latter-day Saints, say so, too. We like to see that power manifested by those whom God calls to lead the people in righteousness, purity, and holiness. This opens up a subject that I am not going to talk about.
Brother Orson has spoken on the Word of Wisdom. The people have done pretty well in keeping it for the last year or two. But are they going to continue, or will they return to their old habits like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow that is washed, to her wallowing in the mire? The sale of tobacco, tea, and coffee is increasing in the midst of this people at the present time. What does this prove? It proves that, stealthily or openly, the people are eating and drinking that which is not good for them. Hot drinks, tobacco, and spirits are not good for them. Will the people continue to keep the Word of Wisdom, or will they become like the brutes in the parable, or, like fools, return to that which will injure and destroy them? The elders of Israel have talked a great deal to the people upon the principles of life and about the course they should pursue to lay a foundation for health. Let a mother stimulate her system with tobacco, tea, coffee, or liquor, or suffer herself to hanker after such things at certain times, and she lays the foundation for the destruction of her offspring. Do they realize this? No, and in very many instances they care nothing about it. With all the teachings given to this people, I think they are very much like the rest of the world, or like the dumb brute beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed. And it almost seems that the last comparison is the most appropriate, for intelligence is given us to preserve ourselves, to preserve our health and prolong our natural lives, preserve our posterity, preserve and beautify the earth and make it like the Garden of Eden. But what is the disposition of the people? It is true we are in advance of the world, but we are only just commencing to learn the things of God. I know that some say the revelations upon these points are not given by way of commandment. Very well, but we are commanded to observe every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
I cannot say that my family is clear in this respect. They want a little of this and a little of that that it is not wise to use, and I suppose it is the same in other families. Every man, I expect, indulges his wife and children and allows them to take this or that when he knows it is not the best for them. But we, in and of ourselves, ought to be independent; every son and daughter in Israel should say, we will keep the “Word of Wisdom” independent of father, mother, or any elder in the church; we know what is right and we will do it. By so doing, this people will increase health in their systems, and the destroying angel, when he comes along, will pass them by. Will you take this course? I, as the leader and dictator of this people, feel disgraced when I think they are becoming slothful and negligent and are returning to their former foolish and useless habits; and, refusing to hearken to the least counsel, are turning away to the counsel of the Evil One and doing that which leads to death.
I want to say a few words still further to the people with regard to their faith in temporal things. If the people called Latter-day Saints do not become one in temporal things as they are in spiritual things, they will not redeem and build up the Zion of God upon the earth. This cooperative movement is a stepping stone. We say to the people, take advantage of it, it is your privilege. Instead of giving it into the hands of a few individuals to make their hundreds and thousands, let the people, generally, enjoy the benefit arising from the sale of merchandise. I have already told you that this will stop the operations of many little traders, but it will make them producers as well as consumers. You will find that if the people unitedly hearken to the counsel that is given them, it will not be long before the hats, caps, bonnets, boots and shoes, pants, coats, vests and underclothing of this entire community will all be made in our midst. What next? Shall we have to run to London, Paris, or New York for the fashions? When I see the disposition among the Latter-day Saints to follow the fashions and customs of the world, I think, why do you stay here? You had better go back again. I am tired of this everlasting ding-dong about fashions. If I happen to have a coat on that is not what is called fashionable, some of my wives will be sure to say, “Husband, or Mr. President, may I give this away;” or, “I wish it was out of sight, it is not fashionable.” If I were to tell the truth I should say, who cares for the fashions of the world? I do not; if I get anything that is comfortable and sits well, and suits my system, it is all I ask. I do not care who wears a bonnet that is six feet above the head behind, twelve feet in front, or that sits close to the crown of her head, or whether it is three straws thrown over the head with ribbons to them. But to see a people who say, “We are the teachers of life and salvation,” and yet are anxious to follow the nasty, pernicious fashions of the day, I say it is too insipid to talk or think about. It is beneath the character of the Latter-day Saints that they should have no more independence of mind or feeling than to follow after the groveling customs and fashions of a poor, miserable, wicked world. All who do not want to sustain cooperation and fall into the ranks of improvement, and endeavor to improve themselves by every good book and then by every principle that has been received from heaven, had better go back to England, Ireland, France, Scandinavia, or the Eastern States; we do not care where you go, if you will only go.
I will take up my text again—I am responsible for the doctrine I teach. I will say to this people, as I have said ever since I commenced to lift up my voice to the inhabitants of the earth, I will read to them out of the Book of Life. If they will hear it, well; if they will not, I am clear of their blood. I read to the Latter-day Saints out of the Book of Life, and I can give them lessons that will lead them back to the presence of God in the celestial kingdom. But oh, the slothfulness, negligence, and the low, groveling feelings in the midst of this people are a disgrace to them. Will we improve? Yes, let us try and redeem the time and commence anew.
Yesterday, we explained a little with regard to cooperation; we can explain just as far as the people wish to hear and know. Those who rise up against this or any other measure, do it because darkness and the spirit of the Evil One reign within them. There is not a man and woman in this Church and Kingdom, who is in possession of the Holy Ghost, but what will lift up their hands to heaven and say, “Blessed be God, there is somebody to lead and improve the people,” when they contemplate this movement and the results it will work out; and they who fight against it and feel to murmur are actuated by a spirit from beneath.
I frequently think of the difference between the power of God and the power of the devil. To illustrate, here is a structure in which we can be seated comfortably, protected from the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Now, it required labor, mechanical skill and ingenuity and faithfulness and diligence to erect this building, but any poor, miserable fool or devil can set fire to it and destroy it. That is just what the devil can do, but he never can build anything. The difference between God and the devil is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the devil is to destroy. Everyone that follows the evil inclinations of his own natural evil heart, is going to destruction, and sooner or later he will be no more. I pray you Latter-day Saints to live your religion. Amen.
The congregation sang "O ye Mountains high."
Conference adjourned till to-morrow at 10 o'clock a. m.
Elder Orson Pratt dismissed.
There was a much larger attendance at the Conference to-day than yesterday. For over an hour before each meeting a living stream poured into the huge Tabernacle. This afternoon, the building was densely filled in every part. A view from the stand of the sea of upturned faces was well calculated to inspire the looker-on with peculiar feelings. To behold the spectacle of such a multitude of people, representing almost every nationality on the face of the globe, who have willingly left the homes of their birth and the friends of their youth and come with one common object to the place designated by the Almighty as the gathering place of His people, and who had met on this occasion to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, was a sight not soon to be forgotten.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I think I shall not be under the necessity of talking long, as there has been a great deal said to the people this afternoon. I will commence by saying to the Latter-day Saints and to all the inhabitants of the earth that I am responsible for the doctrine I teach; but I am not responsible for the obedience of the people to that doctrine. My position in the presence of God, before the Angels and upon the face of the earth, is that it is easier and more delightful to serve God than to serve ourselves and the devil.
There has been considerable said this afternoon with regard to redeeming and building up Zion, the Order of Enoch, &c. I see men and women in this congregation—only a few of them—who were driven from the central stake of Zion. Ask them if they had any sorrow or trouble; then let them look at the beautiful land that the Lord would have given them if all had been faithful in keeping His commandments, and had walked before Him as they should; and then ask them with regard to the blessings they would have received. If they tell you the sentiments of their minds, they will tell you that the yoke of Jesus would have been easy and his burden would have been light, and that it would have been a delightful task to have walked in obedience to his commands and to have been of one heart and one mind; but through the selfishness of some, which is idolatry, through their covetousness, which is the same, and the lustful desire of their minds, they were cast out and driven from their homes. We have been driven many times; but each time, if they who professed to be the servants of God had served Him with an undivided heart, they would have had the privilege of living in their houses, possessing their lands, attending to their meetings, and spreading abroad on the right and the left, lengthening the cords of Zion, and strengthening her stakes until the land had been dedicated to the Gospel of the Son of God. Well, I have been with the rest and I expect I have been covetous like them, and probably I am now; but if I am, I wish somebody would tell me wherein.
Brother Pratt, in his discourse, had considerable to say with regard to the property of the Saints. I would like very much if the time was now when the Lord would say, “Lay down your substance at the feet of the bishops,” and find out who in this Church would be willing to give up all. This cooperative movement is only a stepping stone to what is called the Order of Enoch, but which is in reality the Order of Heaven. It was revealed to Enoch when he built up his city and gathered the people together and sanctified them, so that they became so holy and pure that they could not live among the rest of the people and the Lord took them away.
Ask any Christian in the world if he thinks the Lord rules and reigns supreme in heaven, and he will tell you, “Yes.” Is it right for the Lord to reign? “Certainly it is.” Ask him if he would delight to live in a place where one character rules and reigns supreme, and he will answer, “Yes, if I could go to heaven.” Why? “Why, the Lord reigns there.” Just ask the Christian if he knows the Lord, and he will tell you, “No.” Did you ever see him? “No.” Can you tell me anything of His character? “No, only He is something without body, parts, and passions.” One of the apostles says that “God is love, and they who dwell in God, dwell in love.” Ask the Christian world if they know anything about God, and they will tell you they do not. Ask if He has eyes, and they will say, “No—yes, He is all eyes.” Has he a head? “Yes, He is all head.” Has he ears? “Yes, He is all ears, He is all mouth, He is all body, and all limbs;” and still without body, parts, or passions. Why what do they make of Him? A monster, if He is anything; that is what they make of Him. Would you like to go to heaven? “O, yes,” says the Christian, “the Lord reigns there.” How do you know you would like the place and the order when you get there? Do you think you will have your farm and your substance by yourself, and live in the gratification of your selfish propensities as you now do? “O, no, we expect to be made pure and holy.” Where will you begin to be pure and holy? If you do not begin here, I do not know where you will begin. “O,” says the Christian, “if we are going to heaven, where God and angels dwell, and live where one-man power prevails, we should all be satisfied, I expect.” We, Latter-day Saints, say so, too. We like to see that power manifested by those whom God calls to lead the people in righteousness, purity, and holiness. This opens up a subject that I am not going to talk about.
Brother Orson has spoken on the Word of Wisdom. The people have done pretty well in keeping it for the last year or two. But are they going to continue, or will they return to their old habits like the dog to his vomit, or like the sow that is washed, to her wallowing in the mire? The sale of tobacco, tea, and coffee is increasing in the midst of this people at the present time. What does this prove? It proves that, stealthily or openly, the people are eating and drinking that which is not good for them. Hot drinks, tobacco, and spirits are not good for them. Will the people continue to keep the Word of Wisdom, or will they become like the brutes in the parable, or, like fools, return to that which will injure and destroy them? The elders of Israel have talked a great deal to the people upon the principles of life and about the course they should pursue to lay a foundation for health. Let a mother stimulate her system with tobacco, tea, coffee, or liquor, or suffer herself to hanker after such things at certain times, and she lays the foundation for the destruction of her offspring. Do they realize this? No, and in very many instances they care nothing about it. With all the teachings given to this people, I think they are very much like the rest of the world, or like the dumb brute beasts that are made to be taken and destroyed. And it almost seems that the last comparison is the most appropriate, for intelligence is given us to preserve ourselves, to preserve our health and prolong our natural lives, preserve our posterity, preserve and beautify the earth and make it like the Garden of Eden. But what is the disposition of the people? It is true we are in advance of the world, but we are only just commencing to learn the things of God. I know that some say the revelations upon these points are not given by way of commandment. Very well, but we are commanded to observe every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
I cannot say that my family is clear in this respect. They want a little of this and a little of that that it is not wise to use, and I suppose it is the same in other families. Every man, I expect, indulges his wife and children and allows them to take this or that when he knows it is not the best for them. But we, in and of ourselves, ought to be independent; every son and daughter in Israel should say, we will keep the “Word of Wisdom” independent of father, mother, or any elder in the church; we know what is right and we will do it. By so doing, this people will increase health in their systems, and the destroying angel, when he comes along, will pass them by. Will you take this course? I, as the leader and dictator of this people, feel disgraced when I think they are becoming slothful and negligent and are returning to their former foolish and useless habits; and, refusing to hearken to the least counsel, are turning away to the counsel of the Evil One and doing that which leads to death.
I want to say a few words still further to the people with regard to their faith in temporal things. If the people called Latter-day Saints do not become one in temporal things as they are in spiritual things, they will not redeem and build up the Zion of God upon the earth. This cooperative movement is a stepping stone. We say to the people, take advantage of it, it is your privilege. Instead of giving it into the hands of a few individuals to make their hundreds and thousands, let the people, generally, enjoy the benefit arising from the sale of merchandise. I have already told you that this will stop the operations of many little traders, but it will make them producers as well as consumers. You will find that if the people unitedly hearken to the counsel that is given them, it will not be long before the hats, caps, bonnets, boots and shoes, pants, coats, vests and underclothing of this entire community will all be made in our midst. What next? Shall we have to run to London, Paris, or New York for the fashions? When I see the disposition among the Latter-day Saints to follow the fashions and customs of the world, I think, why do you stay here? You had better go back again. I am tired of this everlasting ding-dong about fashions. If I happen to have a coat on that is not what is called fashionable, some of my wives will be sure to say, “Husband, or Mr. President, may I give this away;” or, “I wish it was out of sight, it is not fashionable.” If I were to tell the truth I should say, who cares for the fashions of the world? I do not; if I get anything that is comfortable and sits well, and suits my system, it is all I ask. I do not care who wears a bonnet that is six feet above the head behind, twelve feet in front, or that sits close to the crown of her head, or whether it is three straws thrown over the head with ribbons to them. But to see a people who say, “We are the teachers of life and salvation,” and yet are anxious to follow the nasty, pernicious fashions of the day, I say it is too insipid to talk or think about. It is beneath the character of the Latter-day Saints that they should have no more independence of mind or feeling than to follow after the groveling customs and fashions of a poor, miserable, wicked world. All who do not want to sustain cooperation and fall into the ranks of improvement, and endeavor to improve themselves by every good book and then by every principle that has been received from heaven, had better go back to England, Ireland, France, Scandinavia, or the Eastern States; we do not care where you go, if you will only go.
I will take up my text again—I am responsible for the doctrine I teach. I will say to this people, as I have said ever since I commenced to lift up my voice to the inhabitants of the earth, I will read to them out of the Book of Life. If they will hear it, well; if they will not, I am clear of their blood. I read to the Latter-day Saints out of the Book of Life, and I can give them lessons that will lead them back to the presence of God in the celestial kingdom. But oh, the slothfulness, negligence, and the low, groveling feelings in the midst of this people are a disgrace to them. Will we improve? Yes, let us try and redeem the time and commence anew.
Yesterday, we explained a little with regard to cooperation; we can explain just as far as the people wish to hear and know. Those who rise up against this or any other measure, do it because darkness and the spirit of the Evil One reign within them. There is not a man and woman in this Church and Kingdom, who is in possession of the Holy Ghost, but what will lift up their hands to heaven and say, “Blessed be God, there is somebody to lead and improve the people,” when they contemplate this movement and the results it will work out; and they who fight against it and feel to murmur are actuated by a spirit from beneath.
I frequently think of the difference between the power of God and the power of the devil. To illustrate, here is a structure in which we can be seated comfortably, protected from the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Now, it required labor, mechanical skill and ingenuity and faithfulness and diligence to erect this building, but any poor, miserable fool or devil can set fire to it and destroy it. That is just what the devil can do, but he never can build anything. The difference between God and the devil is that God creates and organizes, while the whole study of the devil is to destroy. Everyone that follows the evil inclinations of his own natural evil heart, is going to destruction, and sooner or later he will be no more. I pray you Latter-day Saints to live your religion. Amen.
The congregation sang "O ye Mountains high."
Conference adjourned till to-morrow at 10 o'clock a. m.
Elder Orson Pratt dismissed.
There was a much larger attendance at the Conference to-day than yesterday. For over an hour before each meeting a living stream poured into the huge Tabernacle. This afternoon, the building was densely filled in every part. A view from the stand of the sea of upturned faces was well calculated to inspire the looker-on with peculiar feelings. To behold the spectacle of such a multitude of people, representing almost every nationality on the face of the globe, who have willingly left the homes of their birth and the friends of their youth and come with one common object to the place designated by the Almighty as the gathering place of His people, and who had met on this occasion to be instructed in the ways of the Lord, was a sight not soon to be forgotten.
Thursday Morning, April 8th, 1869.
Conference was called to order by President Brigham Young.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 292, commencing "I saw a mighty Angel fly."
Elder Geo. Q. Cannon prayed.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 293, "Go ye Messengers of Glory," &c.
Conference was called to order by President Brigham Young.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 292, commencing "I saw a mighty Angel fly."
Elder Geo. Q. Cannon prayed.
Tabernacle choir sang the hymn on page 293, "Go ye Messengers of Glory," &c.
President Brigham Young
addressed the Conference. He understood that many of the Saints had borrowed money from their friends in the old countries to assist them to come here and have not paid it back. Even Elders in Israel had obtained money and had not returned it. Such excused themselves by saying they received it as a gift. He wished all such to pay such monies back with interest, that the gift may go around. If any should refuse to refund what they had borrowed, the Bishops should cut such off from the Church. We wish the Saints to make liberal donations for the gathering of their brethren and sisters this year. I should like to propose a condition as to whom we shall gather. We see many after they come here indulge in evil practices and depart from the faith. Would it not be well to have all whom we shall gather, before they leave the old countries, make a solemn covenant that they will keep the Word of Wisdom and otherwise live in accordance with their religion when they get here? This people should cease entirely and forever to trade with those who would destroy us. Many think they have a perfect right to trade where they please; such have not the light of the gospel in them. They are filled with darkness. It was said by one of the brethren that it would be easier to raise the dead than it is to govern and control the people. This is true. It would be easy for the Lord to resuscitate a body that the breath had left, but He cannot control and govern this people but by His laws and His persuasions. It is not a miracle for the Lord to raise the dead. There is no such thing as a miracle only to those who are ignorant of the laws by which such things are performed. We see the effects to-day of the people being so far controlled in relation to trading with their enemies. The number of merchants, clerks, &c., of those who are not of us, such as would use their influence and means against us, has been greatly reduced. I have been driven from my home five times. I do not wish to see those scenes re-enacted. In relation to the Female Relief Societies, they have been instrumental in doing a large amount of good. The names of those sisters who have been diligent in doing good will be handed down through all eternity. The sisters should take the lead in abolishing the tendency of the mothers and daughters in Israel to follow after the foolish fashions of the world. This matter lies principally with sisters and but few of the brethren care anything about fashion. Let every ward and settlement have a Female Relief Society and also a store that they may do their own trading. Some wanted to know whether it was right to send east for goods or trade at the parent store. At Lehi, the Co-operative store at the end of five months was able to pay a dividend of about $28.00 on each share of $25.00 which was the result of replenishing their stock often instead of once or twice a year from the east. At other places they had done even better than this. I do not want the men of capital to buy out all the shares in these stores. The poor should have a chance. Let the men of capital build factories, raise and purchase wool, flax &c., manufacture cloth, linen and other fabrics. Let the people observe every word of God which leads to life, happiness and glory.
addressed the Conference. He understood that many of the Saints had borrowed money from their friends in the old countries to assist them to come here and have not paid it back. Even Elders in Israel had obtained money and had not returned it. Such excused themselves by saying they received it as a gift. He wished all such to pay such monies back with interest, that the gift may go around. If any should refuse to refund what they had borrowed, the Bishops should cut such off from the Church. We wish the Saints to make liberal donations for the gathering of their brethren and sisters this year. I should like to propose a condition as to whom we shall gather. We see many after they come here indulge in evil practices and depart from the faith. Would it not be well to have all whom we shall gather, before they leave the old countries, make a solemn covenant that they will keep the Word of Wisdom and otherwise live in accordance with their religion when they get here? This people should cease entirely and forever to trade with those who would destroy us. Many think they have a perfect right to trade where they please; such have not the light of the gospel in them. They are filled with darkness. It was said by one of the brethren that it would be easier to raise the dead than it is to govern and control the people. This is true. It would be easy for the Lord to resuscitate a body that the breath had left, but He cannot control and govern this people but by His laws and His persuasions. It is not a miracle for the Lord to raise the dead. There is no such thing as a miracle only to those who are ignorant of the laws by which such things are performed. We see the effects to-day of the people being so far controlled in relation to trading with their enemies. The number of merchants, clerks, &c., of those who are not of us, such as would use their influence and means against us, has been greatly reduced. I have been driven from my home five times. I do not wish to see those scenes re-enacted. In relation to the Female Relief Societies, they have been instrumental in doing a large amount of good. The names of those sisters who have been diligent in doing good will be handed down through all eternity. The sisters should take the lead in abolishing the tendency of the mothers and daughters in Israel to follow after the foolish fashions of the world. This matter lies principally with sisters and but few of the brethren care anything about fashion. Let every ward and settlement have a Female Relief Society and also a store that they may do their own trading. Some wanted to know whether it was right to send east for goods or trade at the parent store. At Lehi, the Co-operative store at the end of five months was able to pay a dividend of about $28.00 on each share of $25.00 which was the result of replenishing their stock often instead of once or twice a year from the east. At other places they had done even better than this. I do not want the men of capital to buy out all the shares in these stores. The poor should have a chance. Let the men of capital build factories, raise and purchase wool, flax &c., manufacture cloth, linen and other fabrics. Let the people observe every word of God which leads to life, happiness and glory.
Gathering the Saints—Continuous Faithfulness—Women and Fashions
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 8, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I understand that many of the brethren and sisters in the old country lent money to their friends now here to assist them to emigrate; quite a number of letters have been sent, stating that those friends covenanted before leaving that they would repay that means with the first money they earned after arriving here, and that they would also send more than they had borrowed, in order to assist those who had previously assisted them.
A number of our elders who have been from here on missions to England and other countries, have been in the habit of borrowing money, or of getting it in some way. Some of these elders, when asked to refund what they had borrowed, have said, “We did not borrow it, it was a gift to us.” I wish to say to such elders, return the money with interest. If it was a gift, return the gift, that it may go back and help many instead of one.
I do not wish to spend much time on this subject, I wish to give instruction, and to tell you my mind with regard to those elders who have borrowed money from the Saints in Europe. They may pretend to say that it was given to them to excuse themselves for not repaying it, but if they do not refund it, they are unworthy of the fellowship of the Saints, and I ask their bishops to cut every one of them from the Church, without favor or affection. If the bishops do this, they will be doing their duty. Disfellowship them, they are not worthy of a standing in the Church and Kingdom of God.
I wish to ask my brethren, the elders of Israel, to give liberally to help home our brethren and sisters who are now in bondage in the old countries. We have not said anything to the people for a long time with regard to donations. A year ago last fall we commenced a subscription to bring home the Saints. By the following February the amount reached, I think, some nine thousand dollars. Our agent left here about the 27th of February, and about ten days before he started we gave notice that he was going, and between that time and the time he left, the nine thousand had swelled to about thirty thousand; and in the course of three months from then the amount had increased to seventy-six or seventy-seven thousand dollars. With this amount a great many were helped here who could only raise part means, some were brought all the way. The brethren and sisters continued to give through the summer, and if I recollect rightly, we have now over thirty thousand dollars in money to help home the poor. Most of this has been sent to Liverpool, but we have some in this city. Now we wish the charity of the brethren and sisters to be extended to bring home the poor Saints, and perhaps it would be as well for me to commence the list. I will say to our clerk he may put down two thousand dollars for Brother Brigham; also one thousand for William H. Hooper, our delegate in Congress, who told me before he went away that he would give another thousand. Now we are ready to receive your thousands or your hundreds, and we will not refuse a five-dollar bill. We got a great many of them from the sisters last fall, more than the people would imagine; if the list were read of the sisters who put in five dollars, ten dollars, and some twenty-five, it would astonish you. This is a short sermon on this subject. The brethren here from the settlements throughout the Territory can carry it home, and it will become generally known.
I have thought of proposing certain conditions in relation to those who are helped here from abroad; but whether it would be prudent and consistent to do so, I leave the Latter-day Saints to judge. The cogitations of my mind on the subject of bringing home the Saints are somewhat strict. I have thought it would be as well, before helping the poor to emigrate, to have them covenant that after arriving here they would be Saints in every sense of the word. Now, to particularize, I will say that we gather a family here, consisting of father, mother, four, eight, or twelve children, as the case may be. They are Latter-day Saints; they wish to gather to Zion and to enjoy all the blessings of Zion; they are anxiously waiting for every gift and blessing God has in store for the faithful, and to be numbered with the Church of the Firstborn; but when they reach here, if we go into their houses, we shall very often find, if they have the means to do it, that they will perfectly soak their systems with tea and coffee, and are perhaps chewing tobacco and doing a little tippling, a little swearing, and so on. This is the way with some who were gathered last year. Now, whether it is better to leave such people to die in the faith in their native lands, or to bring them here to apostatize and deny their Lord and Master, is a question. I think, if I had the knowledge and the power, I would never gather another member of the Church who would apostatize; but I have not this knowledge. I cannot say to a man, you stop and let your family come to Zion. I cannot say to a woman, you stop where you are, you are in the faith now, but if you gather you will apostatize; but your husband and family can gather, they will stick to the faith. I cannot say this, I have not the power, and hence we see many after they arrive here turn away from the holy commandments. I do not know but what it would be perfectly reasonable to make every man and woman, before leaving their native lands, covenant before God to observe the Word of Wisdom, let liquor alone, use no language unbecoming a Saint, and, in a word, live their religion after arriving here. Whether it would be reasonable and consistent to lay such injunctions on the people before assisting them to gather I do not know. If we were to say to them, before leaving their homes, “Now if we gather you home, will you live your religion?” they would jump up, clap their hands together, shout “hallelujah,” and say, “Yes, we will do anything you require if you will only gather us to Zion.”
Do you not see that I am perfectly tied up? and so are all the elders of Israel in this respect. We may lay all these injunctions on the Saints, and some would break them all. All these things are turned over in my mind, and I look at every side of the question, sound every principle and behold the people as they are. Well, what is to be done? I do not know any better way, perhaps, than to gather the Saints and try to sanctify them after they are gathered together, for when they are baptized they virtually covenant to observe all these rules. When we see the course that the Saints, or those professing to be such, have taken in feeding, clothing and making our enemies rich here in our midst, it makes me feel that it is time to cease gathering those who will not be Saints indeed. I know, as well as I know that I am a living being, that there is not one professing to be a Latter-day Saint, who has the spirit of his calling, who would not cease this course as quick as he would draw his hands out of the fire, if he thoroughly knew and understood that it tends to the overthrow of the Kingdom of God; and the fact that he helped to sustain the enemies of the Kingdom of God must be attributed to his ignorance. The people have eyes, but they see not; they have hearts, but they do not understand. I will ensure that there are scores, and perhaps hundreds, looking at me while I am speaking, who think, “Brother Brigham, you are a fool; we have as good a right to trade with one man as another; and we will go to what store we please, and do what we please with our means, and we will trade with those who will do the best by us.” Yet there are hundreds who, and in fact the most of the people, understand the folly of this course, as the experience of the past six months has proved. During that period we have done wonders in guiding the minds and the movements of the Latter-day Saints. Still there are some who seem to have no understanding. I will venture to say they are the foolish virgins. I was going to say they are like the foolish virgins; but they are the foolish virgins, and by and by they will find they have no oil in their vessels, and nothing to prepare them to go and meet the bridegroom, and they will be found wanting. But so it is, and we must cultivate the wheat with the tares; the sheep and the goats have to run together. Here I am thinking of exacting a covenant from men and women before they are gathered, that they will be Saints indeed afterwards; but while I have such feelings the question stares me in the face, how do you know whether they will be or not? You see, men and women here who have been in the Church thirty years, and the most trifling, frivolous, foolish little circumstance imaginable will throw them off the track, and they will go to the devil. It is astonishing, it is marvelous! When I think of these things it recalls a saying that I have sometimes made, that I do my swearing in the pulpit, for they make me think that we have those in our midst who profess to be Latter-day Saints, but who are damned fools. You may say that is swearing; but they are damned, and the wrath of God is upon them, just as much as it was in the days of the old apostles. Men and women would take a very different course if they could see and understand things as they are. But I will take back the expression “if they could see and understand.” I say they can see and understand, if they have a mind to cast out of their hearts the love of the world, the love of riches, and the little frivolous traits of character they so often manifest. The love of fashion, for instance, which darkens, beclouds, and casts a shade over the spirits of our sisters. They cannot have this, and they do not like that, and the next thing anger creeps into their hearts and they feel revengeful, and “I wish I could do somebody an injury; I wish I could come up with my husband; I wish I could do something or other to mar his peace, inasmuch as mine is marred, because I cannot follow somebody else's fashion.” Such little, trifling, contemptible, frivolous, things cast a dark shade over their feelings, and the first thing they know they give way to a revengeful, vindictive, wicked spirit, which leads them to destruction.
Now, I will go back again to my text—whether we should exact the injunctions I have named of the Saints before gathering, or whether we should not? I leave it to the people, for I do not care much about it, for the simple reason that I do not know enough to decide, and yet I know as much as anybody else. I might pick up this man and that woman, and this family and that family, and leave others because I might not think them worthy, when those who are left behind would probably stick to the faith, while those who are gathered might apostatize. I do not know how to do any better than we are doing, unless the Lord reveals it. I will say to the brethren and sisters, we are ready to receive your donations. Open your hearts and your purse strings. I leave this matter now for your action.
I spoke a little here yesterday and the day before; but I have not really said what I wish, and whether I shall be able to answer my own feelings with regard to our success in our cooperative system of merchandising I do not know. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints we have wrought wonders. It was observed here by one of the brethren that to guide the minds of the people and to govern and control them is a greater miracle than to raise the dead. That is very true. The Lord Almighty could resuscitate a corpse lying before us a thousand times easier than He could control the congregation in this house. He has the material on hand, and He knows every process, and He could give life to a lifeless being, with ease, by the elements He would operate upon and with. This is a great miracle in our estimation; but it would be no miracle at all to the Lord, because He knows precisely how to do it. There is no miracle to any being in the heavens or on the earth, only to the ignorant. To a man who understands the philosophy of all the phenomena that transpire, there is no such thing as a miracle. A great many think there are results without causes; there is no such thing in existence; there is a cause for every result that ever was or ever will be, and they are all in the providences and in the work of the Lord. It would be no particular miracle for the Lord to resuscitate a person whose breath had left the body. By bringing the elements to bear on the system, He could make that system breathe again and live, but to control this people can only be done by persuasion. We have the privilege of choosing, refusing, acting, rising up, sitting down, doing this or not doing; we are just as independent in our sphere as the Gods are in theirs, and our agency is our own, and we can do as we please. We can govern and control ourselves, and when we do this by the law of truth it produces life within us and leads to eternal life; but when we take the opposite course and yield to principles that tend downward the result is death and destruction. Now I will make the application, that you and I have done just as we please. We have traded with whom we please. We shall do so as far as we can. We cannot all do just as we please, because a great many times we want to and cannot, and that is what produces misery, which is called hell. We have done as we please with regard to trading. We requested the people last Conference in this room to cease trading with their enemies. Do you see the effects of this? Yes, they are apparent to every inhabitant of this Territory; they are apparent to the passer-by, to the transient person and to the world; and the commercial world has said, “This is the first thing we have ever seen in the character of you Latter-day Saints, that manifested that you knew enough to take care of yourselves.” It tells also upon our enemies. Suppose we had not checked this trading with outsiders, and had not turned the stream into another channel, you would have seen, perhaps, one hundred merchants in this city now more than last year. They would have brought their clerks and friends and a great number who would have operated against us. Not but what there are many here now, and have been, who have been very gentlemanly and kind; but where is their friendship? Is there a man who does not belong to this church who would not vote for a man out of the church for mayor of the city, and for men who do not belong to the church for aldermen and councilors? No, there is not one amongst them but what would do this. And what would they not do? They would not do right and righteously, that is what they would not do. But anything on the face of this earth to remove power and influence from the Latter-day Saints, and to remove them from their homes, many of them would do. We have been able to check this, and it is for our advantage. Many of us have suffered the loss of all things several times. I have been broken up five times and left a handsome property, and have taken the spoiling of my goods just as patiently as I could. I do not want to see these things enacted again. I know how to avert them. If the people will hearken to the counsel which God gives through His servants, they will never experience any such thing again; but if they will not, they will, perhaps, suffer just as they have heretofore—the good with the bad, the righteous through the evil deeds of those who profess to be righteous and are not; the simple, the honest and the good will have to suffer with the hypocrite and the wicked. I am thankful to God that the ears of the Latter-day Saints have been open to hear and their hearts open to receive and act upon good counsel as far as they have been.
The sisters in our Female Relief Societies have done great good. Can you tell the amount of good that the mothers and daughters in Israel are capable of doing? No, it is impossible. And the good they do will follow them to all eternity. If we get the sisters on our side with regard to trading in stores, with regard to donations, or with regard to improvement, we have gained all that we can ask. What do men care about fashion? You will not find one man in a thousand that cares anything about it. Men have their business before them, and their care and attention is occupied with that. You will find that the farmer, the blacksmith, the carpenter and even the merchant, were it not that he is compelled to appear decently in society, care nothing about fashion. They want the dollars and the dimes. The lawyer cares nothing about fashion, only to gain the feelings of the people and have influence over them, that he can bring them one against another, so that he may get their dimes; that is all he cares about fashion. The doctor cares nothing about fashion. If he can make the people believe that he knows it all, and that they know nothing, he would as soon wear a hat with a brim six inches wide, and the crown an inch and a half high, as he would wear one with the crown six inches high and the brim an inch and a half wide. He cares no more for fashion than that, if he can only get the purses of the people, that is all he cares for. I speak now in general terms, for there are exceptions in every class. It is the ladies who care for fashion. They are looking continually to see how this and that lady are dressed. But if we can enlist their feelings and interests in business matters, then victory is sure. The mothers and daughters in Israel have better judgment, and they do know more than females in the world. They do understand the true principles of comfort, and how to adorn their persons so that they may present an attractive appearance to their husbands, families, friends and neighbors; and if we can make them believe this, I reckon that, by and by, they will begin and make fashions to suit themselves, and will not be under the necessity of sending to Paris or to the East to find out the fashions or to find out whether they shall make their Grecian bends one-half, two-thirds or one-third as large as in New York; or whether they shall cut a frock so as to show their garters every step or to drag yards on the ground behind them. I think that, after a while, they will consider that they know a little of something as well as other people, and if we can enlist their sympathies and judgments, tastes and abilities with regard to trading, fashion, etc., the battle is won.
The sisters have already done much good, and I wish them to continue and go ahead. Have a Female Relief Society in every ward in the mountains; and have a Cooperative store in every ward, and let the people do their own trading. There are some of the brethren around who have asked me whether they shall trade at the Parent Store or whether they shall send East for their goods. They cannot see and understand things; after a while they will. You take the Lehi Cooperative Store, for instance: Bishop Evans started it there last summer. Suppose he had sent East for his goods in July; if he had had the same luck that others have had, they would have been landed about this time, and some of them by and by, and when they had been operating three months what would they have made? Nothing. But they came down here and bought their goods and took them home, only a thirty miles' drive, and put them on the shelves, and they were soon bought up. They sent to Salt Lake City about once a week to replenish their store, and when five months had passed away they struck a balance sheet and every man that had put in twenty-five dollars—the amount of a share—had, in addition to that amount, a little over twenty-eight dollars to his credit. Have any of our city merchants who have traded from here to New York, made money like this? Not one, and yet the people here have paid one-third more for their goods than the people had to pay in the Cooperative Stores. I understand the brethren in Cache Valley are going to send East for their goods. Well, send for them, and you will get a little knowledge; but you will buy it; however bought wit is pretty good, if you do not pay too dear for it.
Recollect that in trading there is great advantage in turning over your capital often. Suppose the Cooperative Stores were to send to New York for their goods, they might turn over their capital once a year; then instead of making anything they would run under.
I want to impress one thing on the minds of the people, which will be for their advantage if they will hear it. When you start your Cooperative Store in a ward, you will find the men of capital stepping forward, and one says, “I will put in ten thousand dollars;” another says, “I will put in five thousand.” But I say to you, bishops, do not let these men take five thousand, or one thousand, but call on the brethren and sisters who are poor and tell them to put in their five dollars or their twenty-five, and let those who have capital stand back and give the poor the advantage of this quick trading. This is what I am after and have been all the time. I have capital, and have offered some to every ward in the country when I have had a chance. I would take shares in such institutions. I am not at all afraid; but nobody would let me take any, except in Provo and in the wholesale store here. I will say to Bishop Woolley, in the 13th ward, do not let these men with capital take all the shares, but let the poor have them. I say the same to the 14th ward and to every ward in the city; and you bishops, tell the man who has five thousand or two thousand to put in, to stand back, he cannot have it. If your capital is doubled every three months, it would make him rich too fast, and he cannot have the privilege; we want the poor brethren and sisters to have the advantage of it. Do you understand this, bishops and people?
The capitalists may say, “What are we to do with our means?” Go and build factories and have one, two, or three thousand spindles going. Send for fifty, a hundred, or a thousand sheep and raise wool. Some of you go to raising flax and build a factory to manufacture it, and do not take every advantage and pocket every dollar that is to be made. You are rich, and I want to turn the stream so as to do good to the whole community.
I am delighted every time I hear a company say, “We do not want your capital, we have plenty.” I know what to do with mine. I have been the means, in the hands of God, of starting every woollen and cotton factory there is in the Territory, and almost every carding machine. We are going to build a large factory at Provo. Some say we have not wool to carry on the business. Yes, we have, and we have plenty of capital. Suppose we send to the States and buy a hundred thousand or five hundred thousand pounds of wool; we are as well able to do it as others; or suppose we send to California or Oregon and buy fifty thousand pounds of wool, and ship it on the railroad and work it up. Will the people wear it? Yes, just as quick as we get the women to tell their husbands to wear homemade instead of broadcloth, they will do it. I would not even wear out the cloth that has been given to me were it not that my wives and daughters want me. If they were to say, “Brother Brigham, wear your homemade, we like to see you in it,” I would give away my broadcloth, but to please the dear creatures I wear almost anything. Only let us get the sisters into this mind, and homemade clothing will soon become the fashion throughout the Territory. I had a present sent me the other day of some homemade linen for a coat, and I calculate to wear it this summer. I wear my homemade a great deal, but I have not got it on today; if I could only get my wives to say, “Brother Brigham, your homemade is very nice, and we should like to see you wear it,” I should certainly wear it.
When the first merchants came here I foresaw all that we have passed through. I knew the foundation was laid for the destruction of this people if they were fostered here, and I know so today. We have turned the current, and we are controlling it, and the sisters are helping us. Now, sisters, if you will continue to help us, and will trade with none but Latter-day Saints, just hold up your hands. [The vote was unanimous.] Now, I will tell you why we bother you women, though I acknowledge that if we did not go to see the women they would come and see us; but we are so anxious to see you that we follow you up. But the reason why we are so anxious to have you sisters on our side in regard to these trading matters, is because we know if you will only say whom you will trade with and with whom you will not trade, that we shall follow you.
What I have been saying with regard to these ward cooperative stores doubling their capital once in three months, is for the encouragement of the poor, and to induce them to invest their little means and do something for themselves. Here is the 10th and the 5th and 6th wards, which are looked upon as the poorest wards in the city, though I believe the bishop of the 3rd ward feels that his ward is the poorest in the city; but I will venture to say that if these wards will each establish a store and concentrate their influence, they will double their capital every three months. I know that the 10th ward, which started with 700 dollars, three weeks afterwards had a thousand dollars worth of goods paid for and considerable money in the drawer. Think of that, in that poor little ward, though I will give it the praise of being one of the best wards in the city. It has one of the finest bands of music in the city, and they make one of the best turnouts when they exhibit themselves.
I have talked long enough. I will turn again to my starting point. Let us have your money to bring home the poor Saints. I feel also to urge upon my brethren and sisters to observe every word that the Lord speaks. Observe the counsel that leads to life, peace, glory and happiness, but do not observe that which leads to contention, ruin and destruction. Amen.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 8, 1869.
Reported by David W. Evans.
I understand that many of the brethren and sisters in the old country lent money to their friends now here to assist them to emigrate; quite a number of letters have been sent, stating that those friends covenanted before leaving that they would repay that means with the first money they earned after arriving here, and that they would also send more than they had borrowed, in order to assist those who had previously assisted them.
A number of our elders who have been from here on missions to England and other countries, have been in the habit of borrowing money, or of getting it in some way. Some of these elders, when asked to refund what they had borrowed, have said, “We did not borrow it, it was a gift to us.” I wish to say to such elders, return the money with interest. If it was a gift, return the gift, that it may go back and help many instead of one.
I do not wish to spend much time on this subject, I wish to give instruction, and to tell you my mind with regard to those elders who have borrowed money from the Saints in Europe. They may pretend to say that it was given to them to excuse themselves for not repaying it, but if they do not refund it, they are unworthy of the fellowship of the Saints, and I ask their bishops to cut every one of them from the Church, without favor or affection. If the bishops do this, they will be doing their duty. Disfellowship them, they are not worthy of a standing in the Church and Kingdom of God.
I wish to ask my brethren, the elders of Israel, to give liberally to help home our brethren and sisters who are now in bondage in the old countries. We have not said anything to the people for a long time with regard to donations. A year ago last fall we commenced a subscription to bring home the Saints. By the following February the amount reached, I think, some nine thousand dollars. Our agent left here about the 27th of February, and about ten days before he started we gave notice that he was going, and between that time and the time he left, the nine thousand had swelled to about thirty thousand; and in the course of three months from then the amount had increased to seventy-six or seventy-seven thousand dollars. With this amount a great many were helped here who could only raise part means, some were brought all the way. The brethren and sisters continued to give through the summer, and if I recollect rightly, we have now over thirty thousand dollars in money to help home the poor. Most of this has been sent to Liverpool, but we have some in this city. Now we wish the charity of the brethren and sisters to be extended to bring home the poor Saints, and perhaps it would be as well for me to commence the list. I will say to our clerk he may put down two thousand dollars for Brother Brigham; also one thousand for William H. Hooper, our delegate in Congress, who told me before he went away that he would give another thousand. Now we are ready to receive your thousands or your hundreds, and we will not refuse a five-dollar bill. We got a great many of them from the sisters last fall, more than the people would imagine; if the list were read of the sisters who put in five dollars, ten dollars, and some twenty-five, it would astonish you. This is a short sermon on this subject. The brethren here from the settlements throughout the Territory can carry it home, and it will become generally known.
I have thought of proposing certain conditions in relation to those who are helped here from abroad; but whether it would be prudent and consistent to do so, I leave the Latter-day Saints to judge. The cogitations of my mind on the subject of bringing home the Saints are somewhat strict. I have thought it would be as well, before helping the poor to emigrate, to have them covenant that after arriving here they would be Saints in every sense of the word. Now, to particularize, I will say that we gather a family here, consisting of father, mother, four, eight, or twelve children, as the case may be. They are Latter-day Saints; they wish to gather to Zion and to enjoy all the blessings of Zion; they are anxiously waiting for every gift and blessing God has in store for the faithful, and to be numbered with the Church of the Firstborn; but when they reach here, if we go into their houses, we shall very often find, if they have the means to do it, that they will perfectly soak their systems with tea and coffee, and are perhaps chewing tobacco and doing a little tippling, a little swearing, and so on. This is the way with some who were gathered last year. Now, whether it is better to leave such people to die in the faith in their native lands, or to bring them here to apostatize and deny their Lord and Master, is a question. I think, if I had the knowledge and the power, I would never gather another member of the Church who would apostatize; but I have not this knowledge. I cannot say to a man, you stop and let your family come to Zion. I cannot say to a woman, you stop where you are, you are in the faith now, but if you gather you will apostatize; but your husband and family can gather, they will stick to the faith. I cannot say this, I have not the power, and hence we see many after they arrive here turn away from the holy commandments. I do not know but what it would be perfectly reasonable to make every man and woman, before leaving their native lands, covenant before God to observe the Word of Wisdom, let liquor alone, use no language unbecoming a Saint, and, in a word, live their religion after arriving here. Whether it would be reasonable and consistent to lay such injunctions on the people before assisting them to gather I do not know. If we were to say to them, before leaving their homes, “Now if we gather you home, will you live your religion?” they would jump up, clap their hands together, shout “hallelujah,” and say, “Yes, we will do anything you require if you will only gather us to Zion.”
Do you not see that I am perfectly tied up? and so are all the elders of Israel in this respect. We may lay all these injunctions on the Saints, and some would break them all. All these things are turned over in my mind, and I look at every side of the question, sound every principle and behold the people as they are. Well, what is to be done? I do not know any better way, perhaps, than to gather the Saints and try to sanctify them after they are gathered together, for when they are baptized they virtually covenant to observe all these rules. When we see the course that the Saints, or those professing to be such, have taken in feeding, clothing and making our enemies rich here in our midst, it makes me feel that it is time to cease gathering those who will not be Saints indeed. I know, as well as I know that I am a living being, that there is not one professing to be a Latter-day Saint, who has the spirit of his calling, who would not cease this course as quick as he would draw his hands out of the fire, if he thoroughly knew and understood that it tends to the overthrow of the Kingdom of God; and the fact that he helped to sustain the enemies of the Kingdom of God must be attributed to his ignorance. The people have eyes, but they see not; they have hearts, but they do not understand. I will ensure that there are scores, and perhaps hundreds, looking at me while I am speaking, who think, “Brother Brigham, you are a fool; we have as good a right to trade with one man as another; and we will go to what store we please, and do what we please with our means, and we will trade with those who will do the best by us.” Yet there are hundreds who, and in fact the most of the people, understand the folly of this course, as the experience of the past six months has proved. During that period we have done wonders in guiding the minds and the movements of the Latter-day Saints. Still there are some who seem to have no understanding. I will venture to say they are the foolish virgins. I was going to say they are like the foolish virgins; but they are the foolish virgins, and by and by they will find they have no oil in their vessels, and nothing to prepare them to go and meet the bridegroom, and they will be found wanting. But so it is, and we must cultivate the wheat with the tares; the sheep and the goats have to run together. Here I am thinking of exacting a covenant from men and women before they are gathered, that they will be Saints indeed afterwards; but while I have such feelings the question stares me in the face, how do you know whether they will be or not? You see, men and women here who have been in the Church thirty years, and the most trifling, frivolous, foolish little circumstance imaginable will throw them off the track, and they will go to the devil. It is astonishing, it is marvelous! When I think of these things it recalls a saying that I have sometimes made, that I do my swearing in the pulpit, for they make me think that we have those in our midst who profess to be Latter-day Saints, but who are damned fools. You may say that is swearing; but they are damned, and the wrath of God is upon them, just as much as it was in the days of the old apostles. Men and women would take a very different course if they could see and understand things as they are. But I will take back the expression “if they could see and understand.” I say they can see and understand, if they have a mind to cast out of their hearts the love of the world, the love of riches, and the little frivolous traits of character they so often manifest. The love of fashion, for instance, which darkens, beclouds, and casts a shade over the spirits of our sisters. They cannot have this, and they do not like that, and the next thing anger creeps into their hearts and they feel revengeful, and “I wish I could do somebody an injury; I wish I could come up with my husband; I wish I could do something or other to mar his peace, inasmuch as mine is marred, because I cannot follow somebody else's fashion.” Such little, trifling, contemptible, frivolous, things cast a dark shade over their feelings, and the first thing they know they give way to a revengeful, vindictive, wicked spirit, which leads them to destruction.
Now, I will go back again to my text—whether we should exact the injunctions I have named of the Saints before gathering, or whether we should not? I leave it to the people, for I do not care much about it, for the simple reason that I do not know enough to decide, and yet I know as much as anybody else. I might pick up this man and that woman, and this family and that family, and leave others because I might not think them worthy, when those who are left behind would probably stick to the faith, while those who are gathered might apostatize. I do not know how to do any better than we are doing, unless the Lord reveals it. I will say to the brethren and sisters, we are ready to receive your donations. Open your hearts and your purse strings. I leave this matter now for your action.
I spoke a little here yesterday and the day before; but I have not really said what I wish, and whether I shall be able to answer my own feelings with regard to our success in our cooperative system of merchandising I do not know. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints we have wrought wonders. It was observed here by one of the brethren that to guide the minds of the people and to govern and control them is a greater miracle than to raise the dead. That is very true. The Lord Almighty could resuscitate a corpse lying before us a thousand times easier than He could control the congregation in this house. He has the material on hand, and He knows every process, and He could give life to a lifeless being, with ease, by the elements He would operate upon and with. This is a great miracle in our estimation; but it would be no miracle at all to the Lord, because He knows precisely how to do it. There is no miracle to any being in the heavens or on the earth, only to the ignorant. To a man who understands the philosophy of all the phenomena that transpire, there is no such thing as a miracle. A great many think there are results without causes; there is no such thing in existence; there is a cause for every result that ever was or ever will be, and they are all in the providences and in the work of the Lord. It would be no particular miracle for the Lord to resuscitate a person whose breath had left the body. By bringing the elements to bear on the system, He could make that system breathe again and live, but to control this people can only be done by persuasion. We have the privilege of choosing, refusing, acting, rising up, sitting down, doing this or not doing; we are just as independent in our sphere as the Gods are in theirs, and our agency is our own, and we can do as we please. We can govern and control ourselves, and when we do this by the law of truth it produces life within us and leads to eternal life; but when we take the opposite course and yield to principles that tend downward the result is death and destruction. Now I will make the application, that you and I have done just as we please. We have traded with whom we please. We shall do so as far as we can. We cannot all do just as we please, because a great many times we want to and cannot, and that is what produces misery, which is called hell. We have done as we please with regard to trading. We requested the people last Conference in this room to cease trading with their enemies. Do you see the effects of this? Yes, they are apparent to every inhabitant of this Territory; they are apparent to the passer-by, to the transient person and to the world; and the commercial world has said, “This is the first thing we have ever seen in the character of you Latter-day Saints, that manifested that you knew enough to take care of yourselves.” It tells also upon our enemies. Suppose we had not checked this trading with outsiders, and had not turned the stream into another channel, you would have seen, perhaps, one hundred merchants in this city now more than last year. They would have brought their clerks and friends and a great number who would have operated against us. Not but what there are many here now, and have been, who have been very gentlemanly and kind; but where is their friendship? Is there a man who does not belong to this church who would not vote for a man out of the church for mayor of the city, and for men who do not belong to the church for aldermen and councilors? No, there is not one amongst them but what would do this. And what would they not do? They would not do right and righteously, that is what they would not do. But anything on the face of this earth to remove power and influence from the Latter-day Saints, and to remove them from their homes, many of them would do. We have been able to check this, and it is for our advantage. Many of us have suffered the loss of all things several times. I have been broken up five times and left a handsome property, and have taken the spoiling of my goods just as patiently as I could. I do not want to see these things enacted again. I know how to avert them. If the people will hearken to the counsel which God gives through His servants, they will never experience any such thing again; but if they will not, they will, perhaps, suffer just as they have heretofore—the good with the bad, the righteous through the evil deeds of those who profess to be righteous and are not; the simple, the honest and the good will have to suffer with the hypocrite and the wicked. I am thankful to God that the ears of the Latter-day Saints have been open to hear and their hearts open to receive and act upon good counsel as far as they have been.
The sisters in our Female Relief Societies have done great good. Can you tell the amount of good that the mothers and daughters in Israel are capable of doing? No, it is impossible. And the good they do will follow them to all eternity. If we get the sisters on our side with regard to trading in stores, with regard to donations, or with regard to improvement, we have gained all that we can ask. What do men care about fashion? You will not find one man in a thousand that cares anything about it. Men have their business before them, and their care and attention is occupied with that. You will find that the farmer, the blacksmith, the carpenter and even the merchant, were it not that he is compelled to appear decently in society, care nothing about fashion. They want the dollars and the dimes. The lawyer cares nothing about fashion, only to gain the feelings of the people and have influence over them, that he can bring them one against another, so that he may get their dimes; that is all he cares about fashion. The doctor cares nothing about fashion. If he can make the people believe that he knows it all, and that they know nothing, he would as soon wear a hat with a brim six inches wide, and the crown an inch and a half high, as he would wear one with the crown six inches high and the brim an inch and a half wide. He cares no more for fashion than that, if he can only get the purses of the people, that is all he cares for. I speak now in general terms, for there are exceptions in every class. It is the ladies who care for fashion. They are looking continually to see how this and that lady are dressed. But if we can enlist their feelings and interests in business matters, then victory is sure. The mothers and daughters in Israel have better judgment, and they do know more than females in the world. They do understand the true principles of comfort, and how to adorn their persons so that they may present an attractive appearance to their husbands, families, friends and neighbors; and if we can make them believe this, I reckon that, by and by, they will begin and make fashions to suit themselves, and will not be under the necessity of sending to Paris or to the East to find out the fashions or to find out whether they shall make their Grecian bends one-half, two-thirds or one-third as large as in New York; or whether they shall cut a frock so as to show their garters every step or to drag yards on the ground behind them. I think that, after a while, they will consider that they know a little of something as well as other people, and if we can enlist their sympathies and judgments, tastes and abilities with regard to trading, fashion, etc., the battle is won.
The sisters have already done much good, and I wish them to continue and go ahead. Have a Female Relief Society in every ward in the mountains; and have a Cooperative store in every ward, and let the people do their own trading. There are some of the brethren around who have asked me whether they shall trade at the Parent Store or whether they shall send East for their goods. They cannot see and understand things; after a while they will. You take the Lehi Cooperative Store, for instance: Bishop Evans started it there last summer. Suppose he had sent East for his goods in July; if he had had the same luck that others have had, they would have been landed about this time, and some of them by and by, and when they had been operating three months what would they have made? Nothing. But they came down here and bought their goods and took them home, only a thirty miles' drive, and put them on the shelves, and they were soon bought up. They sent to Salt Lake City about once a week to replenish their store, and when five months had passed away they struck a balance sheet and every man that had put in twenty-five dollars—the amount of a share—had, in addition to that amount, a little over twenty-eight dollars to his credit. Have any of our city merchants who have traded from here to New York, made money like this? Not one, and yet the people here have paid one-third more for their goods than the people had to pay in the Cooperative Stores. I understand the brethren in Cache Valley are going to send East for their goods. Well, send for them, and you will get a little knowledge; but you will buy it; however bought wit is pretty good, if you do not pay too dear for it.
Recollect that in trading there is great advantage in turning over your capital often. Suppose the Cooperative Stores were to send to New York for their goods, they might turn over their capital once a year; then instead of making anything they would run under.
I want to impress one thing on the minds of the people, which will be for their advantage if they will hear it. When you start your Cooperative Store in a ward, you will find the men of capital stepping forward, and one says, “I will put in ten thousand dollars;” another says, “I will put in five thousand.” But I say to you, bishops, do not let these men take five thousand, or one thousand, but call on the brethren and sisters who are poor and tell them to put in their five dollars or their twenty-five, and let those who have capital stand back and give the poor the advantage of this quick trading. This is what I am after and have been all the time. I have capital, and have offered some to every ward in the country when I have had a chance. I would take shares in such institutions. I am not at all afraid; but nobody would let me take any, except in Provo and in the wholesale store here. I will say to Bishop Woolley, in the 13th ward, do not let these men with capital take all the shares, but let the poor have them. I say the same to the 14th ward and to every ward in the city; and you bishops, tell the man who has five thousand or two thousand to put in, to stand back, he cannot have it. If your capital is doubled every three months, it would make him rich too fast, and he cannot have the privilege; we want the poor brethren and sisters to have the advantage of it. Do you understand this, bishops and people?
The capitalists may say, “What are we to do with our means?” Go and build factories and have one, two, or three thousand spindles going. Send for fifty, a hundred, or a thousand sheep and raise wool. Some of you go to raising flax and build a factory to manufacture it, and do not take every advantage and pocket every dollar that is to be made. You are rich, and I want to turn the stream so as to do good to the whole community.
I am delighted every time I hear a company say, “We do not want your capital, we have plenty.” I know what to do with mine. I have been the means, in the hands of God, of starting every woollen and cotton factory there is in the Territory, and almost every carding machine. We are going to build a large factory at Provo. Some say we have not wool to carry on the business. Yes, we have, and we have plenty of capital. Suppose we send to the States and buy a hundred thousand or five hundred thousand pounds of wool; we are as well able to do it as others; or suppose we send to California or Oregon and buy fifty thousand pounds of wool, and ship it on the railroad and work it up. Will the people wear it? Yes, just as quick as we get the women to tell their husbands to wear homemade instead of broadcloth, they will do it. I would not even wear out the cloth that has been given to me were it not that my wives and daughters want me. If they were to say, “Brother Brigham, wear your homemade, we like to see you in it,” I would give away my broadcloth, but to please the dear creatures I wear almost anything. Only let us get the sisters into this mind, and homemade clothing will soon become the fashion throughout the Territory. I had a present sent me the other day of some homemade linen for a coat, and I calculate to wear it this summer. I wear my homemade a great deal, but I have not got it on today; if I could only get my wives to say, “Brother Brigham, your homemade is very nice, and we should like to see you wear it,” I should certainly wear it.
When the first merchants came here I foresaw all that we have passed through. I knew the foundation was laid for the destruction of this people if they were fostered here, and I know so today. We have turned the current, and we are controlling it, and the sisters are helping us. Now, sisters, if you will continue to help us, and will trade with none but Latter-day Saints, just hold up your hands. [The vote was unanimous.] Now, I will tell you why we bother you women, though I acknowledge that if we did not go to see the women they would come and see us; but we are so anxious to see you that we follow you up. But the reason why we are so anxious to have you sisters on our side in regard to these trading matters, is because we know if you will only say whom you will trade with and with whom you will not trade, that we shall follow you.
What I have been saying with regard to these ward cooperative stores doubling their capital once in three months, is for the encouragement of the poor, and to induce them to invest their little means and do something for themselves. Here is the 10th and the 5th and 6th wards, which are looked upon as the poorest wards in the city, though I believe the bishop of the 3rd ward feels that his ward is the poorest in the city; but I will venture to say that if these wards will each establish a store and concentrate their influence, they will double their capital every three months. I know that the 10th ward, which started with 700 dollars, three weeks afterwards had a thousand dollars worth of goods paid for and considerable money in the drawer. Think of that, in that poor little ward, though I will give it the praise of being one of the best wards in the city. It has one of the finest bands of music in the city, and they make one of the best turnouts when they exhibit themselves.
I have talked long enough. I will turn again to my starting point. Let us have your money to bring home the poor Saints. I feel also to urge upon my brethren and sisters to observe every word that the Lord speaks. Observe the counsel that leads to life, peace, glory and happiness, but do not observe that which leads to contention, ruin and destruction. Amen.
President Young
headed a subscription list to gather the poor with a donation of $2,000.
headed a subscription list to gather the poor with a donation of $2,000.
President G. A. Smith
next spoke. Any who manifest a spirit that would prevent our consolidation in business and other matters are led towards apostacy. The manuscript of the Book of Mormon is in the Deseret alphabet, and is now ready for publication. It is designed to publish an edition of ten thousand copies, suitable for the use of schools. Its publication will involve considerable expense.
Complaints have been made that men without character or reputation, have been engaged to teach in schools. This has been, measurably, on account of the brethren being diffident in taking schools. A department has been instituted in the University of Deseret to prepare young men and women to take charge of schools.
It is advisable that parents should send their children to the University, that they may be qualified as teachers. Every man who has not done so should take the earliest opportunity of declaring his intentions of citizenship. It was necessary for our wellbeing and protection. Congress, last season, concluded to give the people some rights in regard to the land they had cultivated.
A number have been called to go South to strengthen the settlements there. Some have not gone on account or their being engaged in building the railroad. Those who are now free from their engagements on the railroad are expected to fulfill their mission, unless they have been called to go on other missions.
The inhabitants of this Territory should strictly observe the militia laws that we may be able to protect ourselves. Let us have our arms in order and never let our ammunition grow scarce. Above all things, let us sustain and build up Zion.
President George A. Smith's discourse consisted of a number of texts which he wished the people to elaborate in their own minds.
next spoke. Any who manifest a spirit that would prevent our consolidation in business and other matters are led towards apostacy. The manuscript of the Book of Mormon is in the Deseret alphabet, and is now ready for publication. It is designed to publish an edition of ten thousand copies, suitable for the use of schools. Its publication will involve considerable expense.
Complaints have been made that men without character or reputation, have been engaged to teach in schools. This has been, measurably, on account of the brethren being diffident in taking schools. A department has been instituted in the University of Deseret to prepare young men and women to take charge of schools.
It is advisable that parents should send their children to the University, that they may be qualified as teachers. Every man who has not done so should take the earliest opportunity of declaring his intentions of citizenship. It was necessary for our wellbeing and protection. Congress, last season, concluded to give the people some rights in regard to the land they had cultivated.
A number have been called to go South to strengthen the settlements there. Some have not gone on account or their being engaged in building the railroad. Those who are now free from their engagements on the railroad are expected to fulfill their mission, unless they have been called to go on other missions.
The inhabitants of this Territory should strictly observe the militia laws that we may be able to protect ourselves. Let us have our arms in order and never let our ammunition grow scarce. Above all things, let us sustain and build up Zion.
President George A. Smith's discourse consisted of a number of texts which he wished the people to elaborate in their own minds.
Elder George Q. Cannon.
--One point has been advanced which is very striking, namely, that Zion can never be redeemed until this people are prepared to enter into what is called the Order of Enoch. The interest in regard to building up the centre stake of Zion should never flag. Our individual work is to prepare ourselves to enter upon this Order. Although this is a beautiful city yet it is very far from being what we expect the New Jerusalem to be. The servants of God have been much trouble in preventing many from selling out their homes here. Until we become imbued with the feeling that all we have belongs to the Lord we can never go to Jackson County, there to re-build up Zion. Here is an individual question to ask ourselves: Are we ready to lay all we possess at the feet of the Bishop, and take our stewardship from him, be it much or little, and turn all our surplus property into the treasury of the Lord? What is the Celestial law? It is being revealed, but probably will not be revealed in its fullness until we enter the Celestial kingdom.
Elder McAllister sang the hymn on page 71, "O, say what is Truth."
Conference adjourned till two p.m.
Elder Brigham Young, Jr., dismissed.
The authorities of the Church were sustained this afternoon. The particulars will be published, with the Minutes, to-morrow.
--One point has been advanced which is very striking, namely, that Zion can never be redeemed until this people are prepared to enter into what is called the Order of Enoch. The interest in regard to building up the centre stake of Zion should never flag. Our individual work is to prepare ourselves to enter upon this Order. Although this is a beautiful city yet it is very far from being what we expect the New Jerusalem to be. The servants of God have been much trouble in preventing many from selling out their homes here. Until we become imbued with the feeling that all we have belongs to the Lord we can never go to Jackson County, there to re-build up Zion. Here is an individual question to ask ourselves: Are we ready to lay all we possess at the feet of the Bishop, and take our stewardship from him, be it much or little, and turn all our surplus property into the treasury of the Lord? What is the Celestial law? It is being revealed, but probably will not be revealed in its fullness until we enter the Celestial kingdom.
Elder McAllister sang the hymn on page 71, "O, say what is Truth."
Conference adjourned till two p.m.
Elder Brigham Young, Jr., dismissed.
The authorities of the Church were sustained this afternoon. The particulars will be published, with the Minutes, to-morrow.
Thursday, 2 p.m.
Conference was called to order by President Brigham Young.
Tabernacle choir sang, "The Glorious Day is rolling on."
Prayer by Elder E. T. Benson.
"Ye ransomed of the Lord," was sung by the Tabernacle choir.
Conference was called to order by President Brigham Young.
Tabernacle choir sang, "The Glorious Day is rolling on."
Prayer by Elder E. T. Benson.
"Ye ransomed of the Lord," was sung by the Tabernacle choir.
Elder George Q. Cannon presented the Authorities of the Church for the approval or disapproval of the Saints, as follows:
Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, George A. Smith his first and Daniel H. Wells his second counselor.
Orson Hyde, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Orson Pratt, Sen., John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jun., and Joseph F. Smith members of said Quorum.
John Smith, Patriarch of the Church.
John W. Young, President of the Stake of Zion, and George B. Wallace and John T. Caine his counselors.
William Eddington, John L. Blythe, Howard O. Spencer, Claudius V. Spencer, John Squires, Wm. H. Folsom, Emanuel M. Murphy, Thomas E. Jeremy, George W. Thatcher, Charles S. Kimball, Joseph L. Barfoot, Samuel W. Richards, Nathaniel H. Felt, John H. Rumell, Miner G. Atwood, Hampden S. Beatie, Wm. Thorn, Dimick B. Huntington and Theodore McKean, members of the High Council.
John Young, President of the High Priests' Quorum, Edwin D. Wooley and Samuel W. Richards his counselors.
Joseph Young, President of the first seven Presidents of the Seventies, and Levi W. Hancock, Henry Harriman, Albert P. Rockwood, Horace S. Eldredge, Jacob Gates, and John Van Cott, members of the first seven Presidents of the Seventies.
Edward Hunter, Presiding Bishop, Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little, his counselors.
Benjamin L. Peart, President of the Elders' Quorum; Milton H. Davis and Abinadi Pratt, his counselors.
Samuel G. Ladd, President of the Priests' Quorum; Robert Price and Wm. McLaughlin his counsellors.
Adam Spiers, President of the Teachers' Quorum; Henry I. Doremus and Martin Lenzi his counsellors.
James Leach, President of the Deacon's Quorum; Peter Johnson and Chas. S. Cram his counsellors.
Brigham Young, Trustee in Trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Truman O. Angell, Architect for the Church.
Brigham Young, President of the Perpetual Emigration Fund to gather the poor; George A. Smith, Daniel H. Wells, and Edward Hunter his assistants for said fund.
George A. Smith, Historian and General Church Recorder, and Wilford Woodruff, his assistant.
The votes in favor of sustaining the Authorities were unanimous.
Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, George A. Smith his first and Daniel H. Wells his second counselor.
Orson Hyde, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Orson Pratt, Sen., John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson, Charles C. Rich, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jun., and Joseph F. Smith members of said Quorum.
John Smith, Patriarch of the Church.
John W. Young, President of the Stake of Zion, and George B. Wallace and John T. Caine his counselors.
William Eddington, John L. Blythe, Howard O. Spencer, Claudius V. Spencer, John Squires, Wm. H. Folsom, Emanuel M. Murphy, Thomas E. Jeremy, George W. Thatcher, Charles S. Kimball, Joseph L. Barfoot, Samuel W. Richards, Nathaniel H. Felt, John H. Rumell, Miner G. Atwood, Hampden S. Beatie, Wm. Thorn, Dimick B. Huntington and Theodore McKean, members of the High Council.
John Young, President of the High Priests' Quorum, Edwin D. Wooley and Samuel W. Richards his counselors.
Joseph Young, President of the first seven Presidents of the Seventies, and Levi W. Hancock, Henry Harriman, Albert P. Rockwood, Horace S. Eldredge, Jacob Gates, and John Van Cott, members of the first seven Presidents of the Seventies.
Edward Hunter, Presiding Bishop, Leonard W. Hardy and Jesse C. Little, his counselors.
Benjamin L. Peart, President of the Elders' Quorum; Milton H. Davis and Abinadi Pratt, his counselors.
Samuel G. Ladd, President of the Priests' Quorum; Robert Price and Wm. McLaughlin his counsellors.
Adam Spiers, President of the Teachers' Quorum; Henry I. Doremus and Martin Lenzi his counsellors.
James Leach, President of the Deacon's Quorum; Peter Johnson and Chas. S. Cram his counsellors.
Brigham Young, Trustee in Trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Truman O. Angell, Architect for the Church.
Brigham Young, President of the Perpetual Emigration Fund to gather the poor; George A. Smith, Daniel H. Wells, and Edward Hunter his assistants for said fund.
George A. Smith, Historian and General Church Recorder, and Wilford Woodruff, his assistant.
The votes in favor of sustaining the Authorities were unanimous.
President Brigham Young
delivered a powerful and eloquent discourse, of which it would be impossible to give a correct idea in a short synopsis. His remarks will, in a short time, be published entire.
delivered a powerful and eloquent discourse, of which it would be impossible to give a correct idea in a short synopsis. His remarks will, in a short time, be published entire.
Remarks
By President Brigham Young
We will now look to the Bishops to collect the means in their several wards for gathering the Saints; and, when it shall be collected, they must forward it to my office. I feel disposed to say to the Latter-day Saints and to all people, that as far as we have collected means to bring home the Saints from the Old World to the land of Zion, we have never yet suffered any to use one dollar of it, or to divert it in the least from the purpose for which it was intended. There is a large amount due the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company; how much I do not know. The last report I had there were between nine and ten hundred thousand dollars due to this Fund, from parties who had been emigrated by it; but how much there is now I do not know. When the brethren and sisters put anything into that Fund, no matter how much or how little, they may put it down for a fact in their own minds, that this money is never diverted from the channel for which it is intended. It is spent to bring the people here; but after their arrival many of them neglect to pay it back, although we gather some little means; but had it not been for donations, the gathering of the poor from the nations would have stopped years ago. We attend to this business, buy and keep the books, and all who are engaged in doing this business are sustained without infringing upon this means. We should be glad if the feeling was more general among those who are indebted to the P. E. Fund to pay their indebtedness; it would be very satisfactory, as the money could then be returned directly to our friends in the old country to bring them here; but as this is not done, we have to depend on donations. We want the Bishops to collect what they can, and as soon as they can, so that we may send for the Saints who are scattered abroad. There are a great many of them who can come part of the way with their own means, and with a little help they can come through. Some have to be brought all the way by the Fund, but most of the means donated goes to assist those who are able to help themselves a little. We wish the bishops to hearken to this, and when they reach their homes from this Conference, pay attention to this business.
We are building up the kingdom of God, and we have something to do besides sitting and singing ourselves away to everlasting bliss. This work entails upon the Saints manual labor and a variety of business transactions; it is a national affair; it is a kingdom, it is the kingdom of God. He has set up this kingdom; He has blessed those who sustain it. He has poured out His Spirit upon the people, so that many have received the truth and gathered within the pale of the church; and a percentage of those who have received the truth still cling to the faith. But I will say to the Latter-day Saints that not fifty per cent of those who have received the truth are now in the church, and I suppose not over thirty per cent; but a great many are still in the faith. It is a matter of wonder sometimes what has become of those who have bowed in obedience to the gospel. They are scattered all over the country. I doubt whether you can find a county or even a city on the continent of North America that does not contain apostate "Mormons." California and Oregon were started and built up by apostate "Mormons." What is now called Washington Territory received a percentage from this church in its early settlement and development. St. Louis was partly built up by apostate "Mormons," and it is still sustained by them; and in the whole western country foundations have been laid for settlements by the "Mormons" and those who have left the church. The "Mormons" started the first printing press west of the Mississippi river, with the exception of one at the seat of government in the State of Missouri. The first wheat sown in the western country was sown by the "Mormons;" they planted the first fruit trees, built the first mills, taught the first schools and made the first improvements, with very few exceptions. And on the Pacific slope who first brought civilization? I mean true civilization, not that we see following the railroad. Why, the "Mormons." Who brought the first library? The Latter-day Saints. Who made the first bricks, built the first houses and started the first city? The Latter-day Saints. It is marvellous, but it is true. We have been the pioneers from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean.
Do you think the devil will give us one inch of ground that we do not gain and retain by our own power, or rather by the strength which God bestows upon us? No, not an inch; neither will the inhabitants of the earth if they can help it. Would they let us live any more than they did in Missouri or Illinois if they had the power to remove us? I think not. But the Lord Almighty is a bulwark around this people, and will be as long as they trust in Him. Were it not for the fortresses of the Almighty, we should have been driven from our homes long before this. What will the world do for us? What will our Government do for us? Why, after settling this country for twenty years, they have at last deigned to extend to Utah the benefit of the land laws,--pre-emption rights, homestead advantages. Whom have they sent here as our officers. As a general thing, such men as Drake and his associates. How did they love the "Mormons?" They make me think of a man named Bell in the eastern country, who used to say if he did not love a man he would damn him, and would damn the man that would not walk ten miles over hetchell teeth to damn him. It was so with this man Drake; he would damn the "Mormons" and he would damn the man who would not get up at midnight and walk bare-footed ten miles over hetchell teeth to damn them. I think hereafter that we will take such men up gently and carry them out of the Territory, and tell them not to come back again. But we have gentlemen here as officers, men whom we respect and who respect us. But in some instances they have sent us thieves, liars, whoremongers, adulterers and swindlers. You may think this is hard talk. I do not like to be under the necessity of using such language; but it is nevertheless true; yet it is not often these things are mentioned. What would the Government do for us? Judging from the past, if we were to ask them for bread, they would give us a stone, for a fish they would give us a serpent; ask for an egg and they would send us a scorpion. This has been too much the case. The government is just as good as ever existed; but the administrators of the government, have, in many instances, been the most contemptible men that ever disgraced God's footstool. Some may say this is coming out against the Government. No, it is not; it is against wicked administrators. Now I will come back again. This kingdom is a kingdom of labor, a kingdom of people, a kingdom of territory, a kingdom that God will own, bless and sustain, and we will fight the devils until we gain the victory and turn the earth upside down and devote it to God.
Now, Bishops, when you go home do not sit down and be lazy. I like to see the Bishops active. As for myself it does not appear that I am going to have the privilege of rusting out; I have enough around me to keep me bright. Go home and organize your Relief Societies and Co-operative stores, and let the poor people take stock in these stores that they may have a chance to make a little. Gather the means due to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. If a man refuses to pay when he is able to do so, cut him off from the Church. He is not fit to be called a Latter-day Saint who will foster and hoard up his money here and let his brethren and sisters starve and suffer to death in the old country.
Excuse me for my hard sayings. I scold the Latter-day Saints and talk just as I have a mind to, and any person, "outsider" or "insider," who thinks this people are held together by flattery and smooth words, is greatly mistaken. We ask no odds of the Latter-day Saints or anybody else on earth. If we can have God for our friend and be dictated by Him, we can build up His Kingdom. Do not be scared at anything I have said. I have talked no worse about "outsiders" than I have about "insiders." I use my liberty and chasten both Saints and "outsiders."
Do you think we will sustain ourselves? Yes; if we do right. Do you think we shall be able to maintain our foothold here in these mountains? Yes; if we do right. I never had but one fear with regard to the work of God since I have been in this Kingdom, that is, that the people will not do right. But let the people live their religion and serve God and I defy all the powers of earth and hell; I ask no odds of them. They tried their best when we were in their midst and they killed our Prophet and Patriarch and a great many men and women who belonged to the Church; but the Church is not obliterated. It spreads and prospers although we have the whole world to carry on our backs. Do you think the world loves us? If it did, I should say "farewell to the Kingdom of God." The world does not love us. Do we hate them? No; we hate their actions. Do we love them? If they will repent of their sins and turn to God we will love them; but we will not love their sins, neither will God. He despises those who operate against Him. He is angry every day of His life with the wicked. Does He love their souls and delight in their welfare? Yes, and so do the Latter-day Saints, but they do not love wickedness.
It is for the Latter-day Saints to build up the Kingdom. Go forward; hold fast to the "iron rod" and to everything that is good! Hold fast to the truth which God has revealed and you will learn this one fact,--that if you will serve God with an undivided heart, it is a thousand times easier to live on this earth than it is to live in the spirit of rebellion and apostacy to God and His providences. Be reconciled to God and take the counsels given, for they lead to life. In all our counsels and business transactions we never ask the people to go blindfolded into this, that, or the other measure. Hearken to reason, good counsel, true principle and you will know that the ways of the Lord are just, pure, right, righteous and that the ways of the Lord are the easiest to walk in that can be found.
It is said the railroad was built expressly to overthrow the Latter-day Saints and the work of God on the earth; but it will promote His work. It is put into our hands, we thank Him for it, and we say "God bless those who built it; and God bless every good man and everyone who speaks well of Zion. But what will be done with them that fight against Zion? We know how they are. Now is the very time spoken of by the prophet, when he says they shall say: "Let her [Zion] be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion," but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel. They have said, "Zion, we look upon you and we say you shall be defiled." But they know not that the Lord rules in hearts of the children of men, that He turns them as the rivers of water are turned, and governs and controls them at His pleasure. He sets up one here and another there, and pulls down at His pleasure. Kingdoms, thrones and empires come into existence by His word and will, and they pass away whenever He says the word.
It is for you and me to serve God. We need have but one fear, and that is that we shall not do right. If we do right, God will be for us, and who then can be against us? We neither know nor care. We know that the devil and all who will serve him will be against Christ; and we know that the two powers will remain on the earth until one overcomes the other. Which do you think will overcome? If we are living in the last times, wherein God has set His hand to gather Israel and restore the kingdom to His people on the earth, which do you think will conquer, Jesus or the devil? I say the Lord Jesus. I hold up my hands for Him, I shall open my mouth for Him, I shall fight and contend for His cause on the earth until it overcomes sin and iniquity.
I want to say, again, to you Latter-day Saints, if you live your religion you will prove the truth of those words said to have been uttered by Jesus,--namely, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." But let no man or men, woman or women imagine that the religion of Jesus Christ is a phantom, a scheme devised to work upon the feelings and fears of the children of men, and a system that is incapable of demonstration; if any person imagines any such thing he is entirely mistaken. As I observed here to-day with regard to miracles, "there is no miracle except to the ignorant." There is always a cause for every effect. There is no such thing in existence as an effect without a cause. There are many effects, the causes of which we do not understand. The religion which God has instituted for the salvation of His children is calculated in its very nature, and upon strictly philosophical and natural principles, to reach the condition, and to save every son and daughter of Adam and Eve, who can be saved. Now go to, rationally, sensibly and understandingly and take hold of the religion of Jesus Christ and live according to its precepts wherever you go.
I know that some of our elders, when they come from their missions think their work is through and they have nothing more to do and they can turn to the spirit of the world; but it is not so. You will find, when you have finished your labors here on this earth and your bodies fall asleep, that your works will follow you. You will enter then upon a higher state of labor and intelligence, and there you will operate and officiate and do and deal as you are ordered and directed by your superiors until you finish your work in that sphere. And when your body is resurrected and united to your spirit again, your work will not be done even then.
In reference to the resurrection, the Latter-day Saints should understand that the man whom the Lord called in this generation and dispensation, and to whom He delivered the keys of the holy priesthood, will be the first one that will be resurrected. He will be the first one belonging to this dispensation who will come forth from the tomb; and then the keys of the resurrection will be given to him, and he will go forth "from conquering to conquer," and he will resurrect his brethren and commit to them the keys of the resurrection, and they will continue the work with Jesus until the whole earth is subdued, renovated and brought back into its paradisiac state and sanctified; and then until it is glorified and the Lord moves it right back into His presence where it was when it was created. The work will continue through the Millennium. Will the work of God be finished then? No, it will not. There is an eternity of matter to operate upon, and when those who have proven themselves worthy, are crowned Gods, even the sons of God: they will enter upon their work in a more glorious sphere and will create, people and redeem worlds until they are brought back into the presence of God. Do you think your work will ever cease? No, never. We shall never reach that point where we shall have nought to do but to "sit and sing ourselves away to everlasting bliss," our work is without beginning or end. The whole plan of creation and redemption is systematized most perfectly. But we, here upon the earth, are very ignorant of the work of God; in comparison, we know little more than the brutes. If you want a comparison, I will say we are something like the horse that the boy goes to the field or pasture to catch. To accomplish this he takes along a measure of oats, and the horse, seeing there is something to eat in the measure, is caught and managed; but he never thinks anything about where the oats came from. It is a good deal so with us. We find ourselves here, but the causes of our being here we seldom think about or try to find out.
My brethren and sisters, there is a work before us, and it will never end. Jesus will continue His work, the brethren and sisters assisting Him, until every person who can be saved is brought into a kingdom and into a glory that is fitted to their capacity. If it is not like the sun, it may be like the moon; if not like the moon, it may be like the stars; and if not like those bright, full and glorious stars we see in the firmament, it may be like an inferior one. All will receive glory according to the deeds done in the body.
We are about to adjourn this conference, although there are still a great many things we should like to talk about. We have not said anything about silk. We want the brethren and sisters to pay attention to silk raising. We have one of the finest countries in the world for this business. Pay attention to it! Get your mulberry trees, and when they are large enough get some worms and make your sewing silk, and silken fabrics to wear. There are a thousand things before us to which we wish to pay attention. We are not going to stop and sit down and say we are as far as we can go, we can go no further. No, we shall progress in spiritual and temporal things. But until this people progress in temporal matters better than they have done hitherto the spiritual things of God will be withheld from them.
I have thought a great many times, I would like to ask the sisters a question upon another subject entirely,--that subject they are always thinking about,--namely, plurality of wives. I have thought a thousand times I would ask the female portion of our community whether, if it were left to their option, they would retain the practice of this principle in our midst, or whether they would have it obliterated. I want to tell them a little about it,--namely, it is a principle that always has existed and that always will. Have we any reasons to assign for this? There are many that might be given. If from the days of Adam until now every man that has lived on the earth had been a righteous man, he would have fulfilled the first commandment, and have got him a wife and have done his part towards replenishing the earth, and subduing and making it like the Garden of Eden; and he would have planted the standard of righteousness in his habitation. If this had been the case, the millions and millions that have been killed in battle could have taken the fair daughters of Eve to wife. But men have not been righteous, they have been just about as they are now. They are the lords of the earth, and they will do evil and gratify the lusts of the flesh, and they will not serve God. But provided it had been otherwise we would not have had the wars that have been, and all the fine young men that have died through them might have had families, and there would not have been much reason for any man to have had more than one wife.
Another argument used by men and women against plurality of wives is that there are about as many men as there are women. Suppose that to be so! Acknowledge that proposition to be true, and say that there are no more women than men and that every man should have a wife. What of it? Men will not be righteous, and women are left to desolation and destruction. Read the statistics of such matters in our eastern cities. In New York, for instance, from eleven to fourteen thousand young women, from sixteen to twenty-one years of age, perish annually in the gutters, on the sidewalks, on the door steps or in the hovels around. This is no worse than it is in other places where prostitution prevails. Many would like to prostitute the women of Utah, but I pray they may never be able to do it. So far as the mere number of wives is concerned, I do not care whether I have one, a dozen, or forty. A great many ask me how many wives I have, but to tell the honest truth I never thought enough about it to stop and think. But I will get up the facts in the case and tell everybody so that they may stop asking me these questions. I suppose I have a dozen or fifteen that I am taking care of, perhaps a few more, I do not know, and I care nothing about it. I try to do good and try to save the people, and I say do not let a lady come to destruction. It is grievous to me to think that, right in this city, there should be any necessity for ladies to marry wicked men, which they would not do, if the "Mormon" elders would do their duty. It looks as if our young men are indolent and slothful and do not understand the principles of life. As an excuse, however, they will say "My dear friend and Brother Brigham, I cannot get married; why, if I get me a wife she wants a carriage to ride in, a hired girl to wait upon her, and a piano in the parlor to thump upon when she pleases, and I cannot sustain it." I am sorry to say there is too much truth in this. Now, you young women, tell the young men you will work and help them to live; tell them so that they may marry you. There are a great many single men in our midst who ought to have wives, and a great many young women who ought to have husbands. There is a radical wrong somewhere.
Young man, go and get you a partner; get you a little house, then plant out your shade trees and fruit trees. Land is plenty here, and you can get it "without money and without price." You have the privilege now, if you are a citizen of the United States, of taking up 160 acres, and it will only cost you ten or fifteen dollars. Cannot you get a home? Yes, you can, right here in the midst of the Saints. Then go and do it, and do not neglect the first commandment given to Adam and Eve,--to replenish, subdue and beautify the earth.
Now, sisters, what shall we do? Shall we take more wives than one, or shall we not? If we do not, it will not help the case with those who do not take any; they will not get any because we have only one; and we should see hundreds and thousands of our females with no home, nobody to protect them, nobody that they can call husband, and they would wander off. Shall we do this or not? If the men will be righteous, all will be right.
They have said a great deal in Washington with regard to our having more wives than one. I have said in public and have written, that if they will cease their whoredoms, and each one get a wife and be true to her and strictly virtuous, and then will cause the nation to take the same course, we will submit to their wishes and will have but one wife. Here is a bargain,--if you will have no more than one woman, we will not. But the thing is here,--they want women but no wives. We take many women but we make wives and mothers of them and they are not cast off; and their children have the privilege of bearing the names of their fathers instead of being cast off. As I saw an advertisement, not long since, of a young man, hailing from the West, who claimed to be a son of a certain gentleman in Congress; but the gentleman advertised that he had no son of that name in the West. No, he cast him off, rejected and refused to own him. I say God will damn the man and the nation that will act so; God will damn the nation in which women, with no arm to shield and protect them, are seduced and left to mourn over their lost, fallen and degraded condition. God bless you. Amen.
Conference adjourned until the 6th day of next October.
Elder McAllister and the congregation sang the hymn on page 165, beginning "Do what is right, the day dawn is breaking."
Benediction by President Geo. A. Smith.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.
By President Brigham Young
We will now look to the Bishops to collect the means in their several wards for gathering the Saints; and, when it shall be collected, they must forward it to my office. I feel disposed to say to the Latter-day Saints and to all people, that as far as we have collected means to bring home the Saints from the Old World to the land of Zion, we have never yet suffered any to use one dollar of it, or to divert it in the least from the purpose for which it was intended. There is a large amount due the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company; how much I do not know. The last report I had there were between nine and ten hundred thousand dollars due to this Fund, from parties who had been emigrated by it; but how much there is now I do not know. When the brethren and sisters put anything into that Fund, no matter how much or how little, they may put it down for a fact in their own minds, that this money is never diverted from the channel for which it is intended. It is spent to bring the people here; but after their arrival many of them neglect to pay it back, although we gather some little means; but had it not been for donations, the gathering of the poor from the nations would have stopped years ago. We attend to this business, buy and keep the books, and all who are engaged in doing this business are sustained without infringing upon this means. We should be glad if the feeling was more general among those who are indebted to the P. E. Fund to pay their indebtedness; it would be very satisfactory, as the money could then be returned directly to our friends in the old country to bring them here; but as this is not done, we have to depend on donations. We want the Bishops to collect what they can, and as soon as they can, so that we may send for the Saints who are scattered abroad. There are a great many of them who can come part of the way with their own means, and with a little help they can come through. Some have to be brought all the way by the Fund, but most of the means donated goes to assist those who are able to help themselves a little. We wish the bishops to hearken to this, and when they reach their homes from this Conference, pay attention to this business.
We are building up the kingdom of God, and we have something to do besides sitting and singing ourselves away to everlasting bliss. This work entails upon the Saints manual labor and a variety of business transactions; it is a national affair; it is a kingdom, it is the kingdom of God. He has set up this kingdom; He has blessed those who sustain it. He has poured out His Spirit upon the people, so that many have received the truth and gathered within the pale of the church; and a percentage of those who have received the truth still cling to the faith. But I will say to the Latter-day Saints that not fifty per cent of those who have received the truth are now in the church, and I suppose not over thirty per cent; but a great many are still in the faith. It is a matter of wonder sometimes what has become of those who have bowed in obedience to the gospel. They are scattered all over the country. I doubt whether you can find a county or even a city on the continent of North America that does not contain apostate "Mormons." California and Oregon were started and built up by apostate "Mormons." What is now called Washington Territory received a percentage from this church in its early settlement and development. St. Louis was partly built up by apostate "Mormons," and it is still sustained by them; and in the whole western country foundations have been laid for settlements by the "Mormons" and those who have left the church. The "Mormons" started the first printing press west of the Mississippi river, with the exception of one at the seat of government in the State of Missouri. The first wheat sown in the western country was sown by the "Mormons;" they planted the first fruit trees, built the first mills, taught the first schools and made the first improvements, with very few exceptions. And on the Pacific slope who first brought civilization? I mean true civilization, not that we see following the railroad. Why, the "Mormons." Who brought the first library? The Latter-day Saints. Who made the first bricks, built the first houses and started the first city? The Latter-day Saints. It is marvellous, but it is true. We have been the pioneers from the Mississippi to the Pacific ocean.
Do you think the devil will give us one inch of ground that we do not gain and retain by our own power, or rather by the strength which God bestows upon us? No, not an inch; neither will the inhabitants of the earth if they can help it. Would they let us live any more than they did in Missouri or Illinois if they had the power to remove us? I think not. But the Lord Almighty is a bulwark around this people, and will be as long as they trust in Him. Were it not for the fortresses of the Almighty, we should have been driven from our homes long before this. What will the world do for us? What will our Government do for us? Why, after settling this country for twenty years, they have at last deigned to extend to Utah the benefit of the land laws,--pre-emption rights, homestead advantages. Whom have they sent here as our officers. As a general thing, such men as Drake and his associates. How did they love the "Mormons?" They make me think of a man named Bell in the eastern country, who used to say if he did not love a man he would damn him, and would damn the man that would not walk ten miles over hetchell teeth to damn him. It was so with this man Drake; he would damn the "Mormons" and he would damn the man who would not get up at midnight and walk bare-footed ten miles over hetchell teeth to damn them. I think hereafter that we will take such men up gently and carry them out of the Territory, and tell them not to come back again. But we have gentlemen here as officers, men whom we respect and who respect us. But in some instances they have sent us thieves, liars, whoremongers, adulterers and swindlers. You may think this is hard talk. I do not like to be under the necessity of using such language; but it is nevertheless true; yet it is not often these things are mentioned. What would the Government do for us? Judging from the past, if we were to ask them for bread, they would give us a stone, for a fish they would give us a serpent; ask for an egg and they would send us a scorpion. This has been too much the case. The government is just as good as ever existed; but the administrators of the government, have, in many instances, been the most contemptible men that ever disgraced God's footstool. Some may say this is coming out against the Government. No, it is not; it is against wicked administrators. Now I will come back again. This kingdom is a kingdom of labor, a kingdom of people, a kingdom of territory, a kingdom that God will own, bless and sustain, and we will fight the devils until we gain the victory and turn the earth upside down and devote it to God.
Now, Bishops, when you go home do not sit down and be lazy. I like to see the Bishops active. As for myself it does not appear that I am going to have the privilege of rusting out; I have enough around me to keep me bright. Go home and organize your Relief Societies and Co-operative stores, and let the poor people take stock in these stores that they may have a chance to make a little. Gather the means due to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. If a man refuses to pay when he is able to do so, cut him off from the Church. He is not fit to be called a Latter-day Saint who will foster and hoard up his money here and let his brethren and sisters starve and suffer to death in the old country.
Excuse me for my hard sayings. I scold the Latter-day Saints and talk just as I have a mind to, and any person, "outsider" or "insider," who thinks this people are held together by flattery and smooth words, is greatly mistaken. We ask no odds of the Latter-day Saints or anybody else on earth. If we can have God for our friend and be dictated by Him, we can build up His Kingdom. Do not be scared at anything I have said. I have talked no worse about "outsiders" than I have about "insiders." I use my liberty and chasten both Saints and "outsiders."
Do you think we will sustain ourselves? Yes; if we do right. Do you think we shall be able to maintain our foothold here in these mountains? Yes; if we do right. I never had but one fear with regard to the work of God since I have been in this Kingdom, that is, that the people will not do right. But let the people live their religion and serve God and I defy all the powers of earth and hell; I ask no odds of them. They tried their best when we were in their midst and they killed our Prophet and Patriarch and a great many men and women who belonged to the Church; but the Church is not obliterated. It spreads and prospers although we have the whole world to carry on our backs. Do you think the world loves us? If it did, I should say "farewell to the Kingdom of God." The world does not love us. Do we hate them? No; we hate their actions. Do we love them? If they will repent of their sins and turn to God we will love them; but we will not love their sins, neither will God. He despises those who operate against Him. He is angry every day of His life with the wicked. Does He love their souls and delight in their welfare? Yes, and so do the Latter-day Saints, but they do not love wickedness.
It is for the Latter-day Saints to build up the Kingdom. Go forward; hold fast to the "iron rod" and to everything that is good! Hold fast to the truth which God has revealed and you will learn this one fact,--that if you will serve God with an undivided heart, it is a thousand times easier to live on this earth than it is to live in the spirit of rebellion and apostacy to God and His providences. Be reconciled to God and take the counsels given, for they lead to life. In all our counsels and business transactions we never ask the people to go blindfolded into this, that, or the other measure. Hearken to reason, good counsel, true principle and you will know that the ways of the Lord are just, pure, right, righteous and that the ways of the Lord are the easiest to walk in that can be found.
It is said the railroad was built expressly to overthrow the Latter-day Saints and the work of God on the earth; but it will promote His work. It is put into our hands, we thank Him for it, and we say "God bless those who built it; and God bless every good man and everyone who speaks well of Zion. But what will be done with them that fight against Zion? We know how they are. Now is the very time spoken of by the prophet, when he says they shall say: "Let her [Zion] be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion," but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel. They have said, "Zion, we look upon you and we say you shall be defiled." But they know not that the Lord rules in hearts of the children of men, that He turns them as the rivers of water are turned, and governs and controls them at His pleasure. He sets up one here and another there, and pulls down at His pleasure. Kingdoms, thrones and empires come into existence by His word and will, and they pass away whenever He says the word.
It is for you and me to serve God. We need have but one fear, and that is that we shall not do right. If we do right, God will be for us, and who then can be against us? We neither know nor care. We know that the devil and all who will serve him will be against Christ; and we know that the two powers will remain on the earth until one overcomes the other. Which do you think will overcome? If we are living in the last times, wherein God has set His hand to gather Israel and restore the kingdom to His people on the earth, which do you think will conquer, Jesus or the devil? I say the Lord Jesus. I hold up my hands for Him, I shall open my mouth for Him, I shall fight and contend for His cause on the earth until it overcomes sin and iniquity.
I want to say, again, to you Latter-day Saints, if you live your religion you will prove the truth of those words said to have been uttered by Jesus,--namely, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." But let no man or men, woman or women imagine that the religion of Jesus Christ is a phantom, a scheme devised to work upon the feelings and fears of the children of men, and a system that is incapable of demonstration; if any person imagines any such thing he is entirely mistaken. As I observed here to-day with regard to miracles, "there is no miracle except to the ignorant." There is always a cause for every effect. There is no such thing in existence as an effect without a cause. There are many effects, the causes of which we do not understand. The religion which God has instituted for the salvation of His children is calculated in its very nature, and upon strictly philosophical and natural principles, to reach the condition, and to save every son and daughter of Adam and Eve, who can be saved. Now go to, rationally, sensibly and understandingly and take hold of the religion of Jesus Christ and live according to its precepts wherever you go.
I know that some of our elders, when they come from their missions think their work is through and they have nothing more to do and they can turn to the spirit of the world; but it is not so. You will find, when you have finished your labors here on this earth and your bodies fall asleep, that your works will follow you. You will enter then upon a higher state of labor and intelligence, and there you will operate and officiate and do and deal as you are ordered and directed by your superiors until you finish your work in that sphere. And when your body is resurrected and united to your spirit again, your work will not be done even then.
In reference to the resurrection, the Latter-day Saints should understand that the man whom the Lord called in this generation and dispensation, and to whom He delivered the keys of the holy priesthood, will be the first one that will be resurrected. He will be the first one belonging to this dispensation who will come forth from the tomb; and then the keys of the resurrection will be given to him, and he will go forth "from conquering to conquer," and he will resurrect his brethren and commit to them the keys of the resurrection, and they will continue the work with Jesus until the whole earth is subdued, renovated and brought back into its paradisiac state and sanctified; and then until it is glorified and the Lord moves it right back into His presence where it was when it was created. The work will continue through the Millennium. Will the work of God be finished then? No, it will not. There is an eternity of matter to operate upon, and when those who have proven themselves worthy, are crowned Gods, even the sons of God: they will enter upon their work in a more glorious sphere and will create, people and redeem worlds until they are brought back into the presence of God. Do you think your work will ever cease? No, never. We shall never reach that point where we shall have nought to do but to "sit and sing ourselves away to everlasting bliss," our work is without beginning or end. The whole plan of creation and redemption is systematized most perfectly. But we, here upon the earth, are very ignorant of the work of God; in comparison, we know little more than the brutes. If you want a comparison, I will say we are something like the horse that the boy goes to the field or pasture to catch. To accomplish this he takes along a measure of oats, and the horse, seeing there is something to eat in the measure, is caught and managed; but he never thinks anything about where the oats came from. It is a good deal so with us. We find ourselves here, but the causes of our being here we seldom think about or try to find out.
My brethren and sisters, there is a work before us, and it will never end. Jesus will continue His work, the brethren and sisters assisting Him, until every person who can be saved is brought into a kingdom and into a glory that is fitted to their capacity. If it is not like the sun, it may be like the moon; if not like the moon, it may be like the stars; and if not like those bright, full and glorious stars we see in the firmament, it may be like an inferior one. All will receive glory according to the deeds done in the body.
We are about to adjourn this conference, although there are still a great many things we should like to talk about. We have not said anything about silk. We want the brethren and sisters to pay attention to silk raising. We have one of the finest countries in the world for this business. Pay attention to it! Get your mulberry trees, and when they are large enough get some worms and make your sewing silk, and silken fabrics to wear. There are a thousand things before us to which we wish to pay attention. We are not going to stop and sit down and say we are as far as we can go, we can go no further. No, we shall progress in spiritual and temporal things. But until this people progress in temporal matters better than they have done hitherto the spiritual things of God will be withheld from them.
I have thought a great many times, I would like to ask the sisters a question upon another subject entirely,--that subject they are always thinking about,--namely, plurality of wives. I have thought a thousand times I would ask the female portion of our community whether, if it were left to their option, they would retain the practice of this principle in our midst, or whether they would have it obliterated. I want to tell them a little about it,--namely, it is a principle that always has existed and that always will. Have we any reasons to assign for this? There are many that might be given. If from the days of Adam until now every man that has lived on the earth had been a righteous man, he would have fulfilled the first commandment, and have got him a wife and have done his part towards replenishing the earth, and subduing and making it like the Garden of Eden; and he would have planted the standard of righteousness in his habitation. If this had been the case, the millions and millions that have been killed in battle could have taken the fair daughters of Eve to wife. But men have not been righteous, they have been just about as they are now. They are the lords of the earth, and they will do evil and gratify the lusts of the flesh, and they will not serve God. But provided it had been otherwise we would not have had the wars that have been, and all the fine young men that have died through them might have had families, and there would not have been much reason for any man to have had more than one wife.
Another argument used by men and women against plurality of wives is that there are about as many men as there are women. Suppose that to be so! Acknowledge that proposition to be true, and say that there are no more women than men and that every man should have a wife. What of it? Men will not be righteous, and women are left to desolation and destruction. Read the statistics of such matters in our eastern cities. In New York, for instance, from eleven to fourteen thousand young women, from sixteen to twenty-one years of age, perish annually in the gutters, on the sidewalks, on the door steps or in the hovels around. This is no worse than it is in other places where prostitution prevails. Many would like to prostitute the women of Utah, but I pray they may never be able to do it. So far as the mere number of wives is concerned, I do not care whether I have one, a dozen, or forty. A great many ask me how many wives I have, but to tell the honest truth I never thought enough about it to stop and think. But I will get up the facts in the case and tell everybody so that they may stop asking me these questions. I suppose I have a dozen or fifteen that I am taking care of, perhaps a few more, I do not know, and I care nothing about it. I try to do good and try to save the people, and I say do not let a lady come to destruction. It is grievous to me to think that, right in this city, there should be any necessity for ladies to marry wicked men, which they would not do, if the "Mormon" elders would do their duty. It looks as if our young men are indolent and slothful and do not understand the principles of life. As an excuse, however, they will say "My dear friend and Brother Brigham, I cannot get married; why, if I get me a wife she wants a carriage to ride in, a hired girl to wait upon her, and a piano in the parlor to thump upon when she pleases, and I cannot sustain it." I am sorry to say there is too much truth in this. Now, you young women, tell the young men you will work and help them to live; tell them so that they may marry you. There are a great many single men in our midst who ought to have wives, and a great many young women who ought to have husbands. There is a radical wrong somewhere.
Young man, go and get you a partner; get you a little house, then plant out your shade trees and fruit trees. Land is plenty here, and you can get it "without money and without price." You have the privilege now, if you are a citizen of the United States, of taking up 160 acres, and it will only cost you ten or fifteen dollars. Cannot you get a home? Yes, you can, right here in the midst of the Saints. Then go and do it, and do not neglect the first commandment given to Adam and Eve,--to replenish, subdue and beautify the earth.
Now, sisters, what shall we do? Shall we take more wives than one, or shall we not? If we do not, it will not help the case with those who do not take any; they will not get any because we have only one; and we should see hundreds and thousands of our females with no home, nobody to protect them, nobody that they can call husband, and they would wander off. Shall we do this or not? If the men will be righteous, all will be right.
They have said a great deal in Washington with regard to our having more wives than one. I have said in public and have written, that if they will cease their whoredoms, and each one get a wife and be true to her and strictly virtuous, and then will cause the nation to take the same course, we will submit to their wishes and will have but one wife. Here is a bargain,--if you will have no more than one woman, we will not. But the thing is here,--they want women but no wives. We take many women but we make wives and mothers of them and they are not cast off; and their children have the privilege of bearing the names of their fathers instead of being cast off. As I saw an advertisement, not long since, of a young man, hailing from the West, who claimed to be a son of a certain gentleman in Congress; but the gentleman advertised that he had no son of that name in the West. No, he cast him off, rejected and refused to own him. I say God will damn the man and the nation that will act so; God will damn the nation in which women, with no arm to shield and protect them, are seduced and left to mourn over their lost, fallen and degraded condition. God bless you. Amen.
Conference adjourned until the 6th day of next October.
Elder McAllister and the congregation sang the hymn on page 165, beginning "Do what is right, the day dawn is breaking."
Benediction by President Geo. A. Smith.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.