October 1884
Cannon, George Q. "The Fulfillment of Ancient and Modern Prophecy—God the Friend of the Saints—Persons Guilty of Adultery Having Had Their Endowments Cannot Again Be Baptized." Journal of Discourses. Volume 25. October 5, 1884: pg. 318-328.
Richards, Franklin D. "Remarks." Journal of Discourses. Volume 25. October 5, 1884: pg. 371-376.
Richards, Franklin D. "Blessings Follow Certain Ordinances." Journal of Discourses. Volume 26. October 5, 1884: pg. 1-3.
Taylor, John. "Design of God in Relation to the Earth and Its Inhabitants—Power of Satan—The Two Zions—What is Required of the Saints—A Priesthood in the Heavens, As Well As on the Earth—Duties of the Priesthood—Would-Be Advisers—Celestial Marriage—Distinction Between Polygamy and Prostitution—Government Officers Discriminating in Favor of the Latter—Unchastity Not to Be Tolerated in the Church—Charity Advised—Class of People Who Accuse the Saints of Crime—Criminal Statistics—Horrifying Statements of Crime in the Eastern States—Warning to the Saints." Journal of Discourses. Volume 25. October 6, 1884: pg. 303-317.
The Deseret News. "Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference." October 8, 1884: pg. 596-597.
The Deseret News. "Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference." October 15, 1884: pg. 614-615.
FIFTY-FOURTH SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
President John Taylor
Apostle Wilford Woodruff
Afternoon session
Apostle Lorenzo Snow
Apostle Erastus Snow
Sunday, October 5th, 10 a. m.
Apostle Franklin D. Richards
Remarks
Blessings Follow Certain Ordinances
Prest. George Q. Cannon
The Fulfillment of Ancient and Modern Prophecy
Afternoon session. 2 o’clock
Sustaining of the General Authorities
Apostle Brigham Young, Jr.
Apostle Moses Thatcher
Apostle Albert Carrington
Monday, Oct. 6th
Report
Apostle F. M. Lyman
Apostle George Teasdale
Afternoon Session, October 6th, 2 p.m.
Report
President John Taylor
Design of God in Relation to the Earth and Its Inhabitants
Monday, Oct. 7th, 10 a. m.
Missionaries Called
President John Taylor
Apostle Heber J. Grant
Apostle John W. Taylor
*Please note that in more than one place in the Conference Report, the date was listed as April. This is from the original document. However, the placement of the discourses adjacent to those in October as well as other sources listing the dates as October leads to the conclusion that the month of April in the original document was a mistake and that these discourses belong to the October Conference.
Richards, Franklin D. "Remarks." Journal of Discourses. Volume 25. October 5, 1884: pg. 371-376.
Richards, Franklin D. "Blessings Follow Certain Ordinances." Journal of Discourses. Volume 26. October 5, 1884: pg. 1-3.
Taylor, John. "Design of God in Relation to the Earth and Its Inhabitants—Power of Satan—The Two Zions—What is Required of the Saints—A Priesthood in the Heavens, As Well As on the Earth—Duties of the Priesthood—Would-Be Advisers—Celestial Marriage—Distinction Between Polygamy and Prostitution—Government Officers Discriminating in Favor of the Latter—Unchastity Not to Be Tolerated in the Church—Charity Advised—Class of People Who Accuse the Saints of Crime—Criminal Statistics—Horrifying Statements of Crime in the Eastern States—Warning to the Saints." Journal of Discourses. Volume 25. October 6, 1884: pg. 303-317.
The Deseret News. "Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference." October 8, 1884: pg. 596-597.
The Deseret News. "Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference." October 15, 1884: pg. 614-615.
FIFTY-FOURTH SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
President John Taylor
Apostle Wilford Woodruff
Afternoon session
Apostle Lorenzo Snow
Apostle Erastus Snow
Sunday, October 5th, 10 a. m.
Apostle Franklin D. Richards
Remarks
Blessings Follow Certain Ordinances
Prest. George Q. Cannon
The Fulfillment of Ancient and Modern Prophecy
Afternoon session. 2 o’clock
Sustaining of the General Authorities
Apostle Brigham Young, Jr.
Apostle Moses Thatcher
Apostle Albert Carrington
Monday, Oct. 6th
Report
Apostle F. M. Lyman
Apostle George Teasdale
Afternoon Session, October 6th, 2 p.m.
Report
President John Taylor
Design of God in Relation to the Earth and Its Inhabitants
Monday, Oct. 7th, 10 a. m.
Missionaries Called
President John Taylor
Apostle Heber J. Grant
Apostle John W. Taylor
*Please note that in more than one place in the Conference Report, the date was listed as April. This is from the original document. However, the placement of the discourses adjacent to those in October as well as other sources listing the dates as October leads to the conclusion that the month of April in the original document was a mistake and that these discourses belong to the October Conference.
FIFTY-FOURTH SEMI-ANNUAL CONFERENCE
The Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the large Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 4th, 1884.
Present on the stand:--Of the First Presidency, John Taylor, George Q. Cannon.
Of the Twelve Apostles, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Albert Carrington, Moses Thatcher, Francis Marion Lyman, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant and John W. Taylor.
Counselor to the Twelve, Daniel H. Wells.
Patriarch of the Church, John Smith.
Of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies, Horace S. Eldredge, Abram H. Cannon and Seymour B. Young.
Of the Presiding Bishopric, William B. Preston and Robert T. Burton.
Also a number of Presidents of Stakes, Bishops and Elders from various parts of Utah and surrounding States and Territories.
Conference was called to order by President John Taylor.
The choir sang:--Hail to the brightness of Zion’s glad morning! Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain!
Opening prayer by Apostle Franklin D. Richards.
Softly beams the sacred dawning Of the great Millennial morn. Was sung by the choir.
The Fifty-Fourth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints convened in the large Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Oct. 4th, 1884.
Present on the stand:--Of the First Presidency, John Taylor, George Q. Cannon.
Of the Twelve Apostles, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Albert Carrington, Moses Thatcher, Francis Marion Lyman, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant and John W. Taylor.
Counselor to the Twelve, Daniel H. Wells.
Patriarch of the Church, John Smith.
Of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies, Horace S. Eldredge, Abram H. Cannon and Seymour B. Young.
Of the Presiding Bishopric, William B. Preston and Robert T. Burton.
Also a number of Presidents of Stakes, Bishops and Elders from various parts of Utah and surrounding States and Territories.
Conference was called to order by President John Taylor.
The choir sang:--Hail to the brightness of Zion’s glad morning! Joy to the lands that in darkness have lain!
Opening prayer by Apostle Franklin D. Richards.
Softly beams the sacred dawning Of the great Millennial morn. Was sung by the choir.
President John Taylor
said we are met this morning to attend our Semi-Annual Conference, and to attend to the various kinds of business that may be presented to us, associated with the interests of the kingdom of God on the earth. We have met for this purpose for a great many years, and have enjoyed ourselves generally very much on such occasions. Being gathered to hear and to speak, and to present doctrines, principles and business, it is proper for us to thank God the Eternal Father and seek for his guidance and blessings in all things we may engage in. We occupy a peculiar position among the nations, and associated with this nation. It is proper for us to seek to comprehend our relationship to our Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant and heavenly intelligences, and the relationship we sustain to each other, and the kingdom of God on the earth, and understand the various duties devolving upon us in connection with the Church, this nation and all other nations, to whom we have a message to deliver. We must also seek to understand all the duties of life. People are gathered here from all the Stakes. The representatives of the people should always be present on these occasions, especially the Presidents of Stakes, Bishops and Counselors, High Counselors and the officers of the Church generally, that they, and through them the people of Zion, may be instructed in regard to all the leading principles developed on these occasions.
On account of the weather being inclement not many are present. The old people, however, are well represented, and it is to be presumed the younger ones are stopping at home to take care of themselves. When they get older they will probably learn better. We are living in peculiar times and the positions of the Latter-day Saints is a singular one. This is the dispensation of the fulness of times, when all things in heaven and on earth are to be gathered together in one. The principles of salvation in this dispensation are and will continue to be more clearly taught in this than in any former dispensation. The Lord has initiated it by opening the heavens. He is gathering to Himself a people, to whom He has revealed things that have been hidden from the beginning. All His promises will be fulfilled both in regard to the living and the dead. Our duties embrace all conditions connected with human life past, present and future. God has greatly blessed us in our settlements, and continues to increase us year after year, and we feel to rejoice in the God of Israel.
There is in the world and this nation strong hatred to us as a people, and we have to endure persecution, reproach and falsehood set on foot to injure us. Yet these things make but little difference to us. We know in whom we believe and that God has set his hand to accomplish his purposes in the last days; no power can stay His work. As regards other people and their ideas it matters but little to us. Although they show a disposition to break the Constitution and bring us into vassalage, God has maintained our freedom, and if we do right He will continue to do so. We are commanded to preach the Gospel. This has been done and thousands inspired by the fear of God have gathered here in consequence. And the Lord has blessed us in our gathering together; in our houses, orchards, gardens, fields, flocks and the labor of our hands. Although we have some settlements which have suffered from floods the crops throughout are generally good and the granaries are full to running over. God’s mercy has been manifested unto us. There is generally manifested among the people a desire to act as becomes Saints of the Most High God. We feel grateful unto the God of heaven for his mercy. There is occasionally a complaint that the brethren have a large amount of grain and it fetches a low price, and embarrassments arise from this situation. But we may have worse things than plenty of wheat, cattle, sheep and other substances. There are thousands of happy homes and families, with as good prospects as are before any other people in existence. Jesus said his disciples are known by the love they bear each other. It applies to the Saints now. While contentions exist elsewhere we do not have them, for the Lord is teaching us a better way. There have been times when we did not have much substance to trouble us to take care of. A visit paid by the speaker and others to the northern settlements, on which occasion a distance of a thousand miles was traversed, and a most satisfactory condition found to exist. A similar report comes from the south. It is desired that the people preserve themselves in all purity, and that all may operate together in the building up of Zion, teaching our children the principles of life, continuing our labors until the will of God is done on the earth as it is done in heaven. President Taylor concluded by expressing his pleasure at meeting with the people, and desiring the blessing of God upon the Conference.
said we are met this morning to attend our Semi-Annual Conference, and to attend to the various kinds of business that may be presented to us, associated with the interests of the kingdom of God on the earth. We have met for this purpose for a great many years, and have enjoyed ourselves generally very much on such occasions. Being gathered to hear and to speak, and to present doctrines, principles and business, it is proper for us to thank God the Eternal Father and seek for his guidance and blessings in all things we may engage in. We occupy a peculiar position among the nations, and associated with this nation. It is proper for us to seek to comprehend our relationship to our Heavenly Father and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant and heavenly intelligences, and the relationship we sustain to each other, and the kingdom of God on the earth, and understand the various duties devolving upon us in connection with the Church, this nation and all other nations, to whom we have a message to deliver. We must also seek to understand all the duties of life. People are gathered here from all the Stakes. The representatives of the people should always be present on these occasions, especially the Presidents of Stakes, Bishops and Counselors, High Counselors and the officers of the Church generally, that they, and through them the people of Zion, may be instructed in regard to all the leading principles developed on these occasions.
On account of the weather being inclement not many are present. The old people, however, are well represented, and it is to be presumed the younger ones are stopping at home to take care of themselves. When they get older they will probably learn better. We are living in peculiar times and the positions of the Latter-day Saints is a singular one. This is the dispensation of the fulness of times, when all things in heaven and on earth are to be gathered together in one. The principles of salvation in this dispensation are and will continue to be more clearly taught in this than in any former dispensation. The Lord has initiated it by opening the heavens. He is gathering to Himself a people, to whom He has revealed things that have been hidden from the beginning. All His promises will be fulfilled both in regard to the living and the dead. Our duties embrace all conditions connected with human life past, present and future. God has greatly blessed us in our settlements, and continues to increase us year after year, and we feel to rejoice in the God of Israel.
There is in the world and this nation strong hatred to us as a people, and we have to endure persecution, reproach and falsehood set on foot to injure us. Yet these things make but little difference to us. We know in whom we believe and that God has set his hand to accomplish his purposes in the last days; no power can stay His work. As regards other people and their ideas it matters but little to us. Although they show a disposition to break the Constitution and bring us into vassalage, God has maintained our freedom, and if we do right He will continue to do so. We are commanded to preach the Gospel. This has been done and thousands inspired by the fear of God have gathered here in consequence. And the Lord has blessed us in our gathering together; in our houses, orchards, gardens, fields, flocks and the labor of our hands. Although we have some settlements which have suffered from floods the crops throughout are generally good and the granaries are full to running over. God’s mercy has been manifested unto us. There is generally manifested among the people a desire to act as becomes Saints of the Most High God. We feel grateful unto the God of heaven for his mercy. There is occasionally a complaint that the brethren have a large amount of grain and it fetches a low price, and embarrassments arise from this situation. But we may have worse things than plenty of wheat, cattle, sheep and other substances. There are thousands of happy homes and families, with as good prospects as are before any other people in existence. Jesus said his disciples are known by the love they bear each other. It applies to the Saints now. While contentions exist elsewhere we do not have them, for the Lord is teaching us a better way. There have been times when we did not have much substance to trouble us to take care of. A visit paid by the speaker and others to the northern settlements, on which occasion a distance of a thousand miles was traversed, and a most satisfactory condition found to exist. A similar report comes from the south. It is desired that the people preserve themselves in all purity, and that all may operate together in the building up of Zion, teaching our children the principles of life, continuing our labors until the will of God is done on the earth as it is done in heaven. President Taylor concluded by expressing his pleasure at meeting with the people, and desiring the blessing of God upon the Conference.
Apostle Wilford Woodruff
said it is a consolation to know that we are engaged in the work of God; to live in this day when the eternal Priesthood has been committed to men, and when there is an organized Church of Christ on the earth. We should be thankful for the privileges we enjoy in this connection. But few people comparatively of any age have been ready to receive the testimony of Jesus Christ and receive His Gospel. It is a narrow path to walk in. As we have learned, no man can live Godly in Christ Jesus without suffering persecution. There has never been a more unpopular doctrine among humanity than that incorporated in the Gospel. Almost eighteen hundred years elapsed subsequent to the days of the ancient church established by Christ without any one having the privilege of beholding the face of a directly authorized servant of God. His authority has been again restored, however, and the command has been given to go forth and prune his vineyard for the last time. We occupy a different position from that of any people to whom a dispensation was ever committed. Each formerly has been dispelled—driven from the earth—because of the hold Satan has had over the hearts of men, but this dispensation cannot be removed. A promise has been given that it shall remain until the purposes of the Most High in relation to the earth and its inhabitants have been consummated.
We have been ordained of God to build temples, go therein and redeem our dead. This appears to be a special feature of this work, so far at least as its extent is concerned. We have had considerable experience in the organization of the Priesthood in its various ramifications. We have the various quorums in their order, and in the several organizations the brethren should meet often together and instruct each other in the duties of their callings. All men in their several capacities should improve their time and talents, that the power of God may be increased. The Word of Wisdom should be obeyed. The Spirit of God will not dwell in unholy temples. We are held responsible for the declaration of the Gospel to the Gentiles first and then to the House of Israel. We have gone to nearly every nation where openings could be made for the introduction of the Gospel, and our efforts must not be slackened. There are the Lamanites, who are a fallen and degraded people. God has given us a knowledge of the history of their fore fathers. We have endeavored to teach them to reform from shedding the blood of their fellowmen, and those instructions have had a salutary effect upon them. It is our duty to teach them both by precept and example. After the Gentiles entirely turn from the Gospel it will be taken to the Jews. How long it will be before that will take place does not appear. God has, as stated by President Taylor, greatly blessed us, and we should dedicate our entire substance to the Lord. We are all on this earth on missions, and we have no other legitimate business than to build up the Kingdom of God, concerning the glorious future of which we have no doubt, as it will prevail and stand forever, in accordance with the predictions of the prophets. The speaker continued to speak for some time upon the free agency of man and the promises of God to the faithful.
Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation. No longer as strangers on earth need we roam.
Adjourned till 2 p. m.
Benediction by Apostle Lorenzo Snow.
said it is a consolation to know that we are engaged in the work of God; to live in this day when the eternal Priesthood has been committed to men, and when there is an organized Church of Christ on the earth. We should be thankful for the privileges we enjoy in this connection. But few people comparatively of any age have been ready to receive the testimony of Jesus Christ and receive His Gospel. It is a narrow path to walk in. As we have learned, no man can live Godly in Christ Jesus without suffering persecution. There has never been a more unpopular doctrine among humanity than that incorporated in the Gospel. Almost eighteen hundred years elapsed subsequent to the days of the ancient church established by Christ without any one having the privilege of beholding the face of a directly authorized servant of God. His authority has been again restored, however, and the command has been given to go forth and prune his vineyard for the last time. We occupy a different position from that of any people to whom a dispensation was ever committed. Each formerly has been dispelled—driven from the earth—because of the hold Satan has had over the hearts of men, but this dispensation cannot be removed. A promise has been given that it shall remain until the purposes of the Most High in relation to the earth and its inhabitants have been consummated.
We have been ordained of God to build temples, go therein and redeem our dead. This appears to be a special feature of this work, so far at least as its extent is concerned. We have had considerable experience in the organization of the Priesthood in its various ramifications. We have the various quorums in their order, and in the several organizations the brethren should meet often together and instruct each other in the duties of their callings. All men in their several capacities should improve their time and talents, that the power of God may be increased. The Word of Wisdom should be obeyed. The Spirit of God will not dwell in unholy temples. We are held responsible for the declaration of the Gospel to the Gentiles first and then to the House of Israel. We have gone to nearly every nation where openings could be made for the introduction of the Gospel, and our efforts must not be slackened. There are the Lamanites, who are a fallen and degraded people. God has given us a knowledge of the history of their fore fathers. We have endeavored to teach them to reform from shedding the blood of their fellowmen, and those instructions have had a salutary effect upon them. It is our duty to teach them both by precept and example. After the Gentiles entirely turn from the Gospel it will be taken to the Jews. How long it will be before that will take place does not appear. God has, as stated by President Taylor, greatly blessed us, and we should dedicate our entire substance to the Lord. We are all on this earth on missions, and we have no other legitimate business than to build up the Kingdom of God, concerning the glorious future of which we have no doubt, as it will prevail and stand forever, in accordance with the predictions of the prophets. The speaker continued to speak for some time upon the free agency of man and the promises of God to the faithful.
Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation. No longer as strangers on earth need we roam.
Adjourned till 2 p. m.
Benediction by Apostle Lorenzo Snow.
Afternoon session.
O, awake! my slumb’ring minstrel, Let my harp forget its spell, was sung by the choir.
Prayer by Apostle Brigham Young.
The choir sang: We’re not ashamed to own our Lord, And worship Him on earth.
O, awake! my slumb’ring minstrel, Let my harp forget its spell, was sung by the choir.
Prayer by Apostle Brigham Young.
The choir sang: We’re not ashamed to own our Lord, And worship Him on earth.
Apostle Lorenzo Snow
addressed the Conference. He read a passage in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, beginning on page 224, in which fasting and prayer or rejoicing and prayer are spoken of and certain blessings of the fulness of the earth promised to the Saints on condition of their obedience. He also read a passage beginning on page 189, which predicts that eventually all who do not take their sword against their neighbor among the wicked, will have to flee to Zion for safety; and described the gathering to it of people from every nation under heaven. He next quoted from the hymn beginning: “Hushed, be the accents of sorrow and mourning, Zion in triumph begins her glad reign,” and proceeded to speak in substance as follows: We may be profited this afternoon, as on all similar occasions, it is necessary to place our minds in a condition of faith and prayer, that we may have the Spirit that takes of the things of God and makes them clearly manifest. The quotations made were suggested by the discourse delivered by President Taylor this morning. In each dispensation blessings he designed to bestow upon the particular people to whom the revelations were given. All that was necessary to bring about the reception of those blessings was compliance with the conditions upon which their bestowal rested. Opposition would not prevent the giving of promised blessings; neither would any other condition, except a failure to obey the laws upon which they are predicated, on the part of the people to whom the promises were made. The experience of the children of Israel in Egypt was an illustration of this truth. The Lord promised them deliverance, and notwithstanding all the forces brought to bear against the accomplishment of the work of freeing them, the Lord so arranged matters that it was attained. It was so also in the days of the Savior when He set up the Church. He gave certain directions to his disciples, the carrying out of which, according to the promise, was to bring certain peculiar blessings. There were all kinds of opposition to cause the promises of God to be of no effect, but the blessings flowed whenever the requisite conditions were complied with. Gamaliel in that day counseled the people not to oppose the disciples lest they be found fighting against God; that if the work were not of divine origin it would be brought to naught, whereas if otherwise it could not be prevailed against. This was excellent advice and incorporated a true principle.
The time has been in the history of the Latter-day Saints when it appeared as if nothing but starvation stared them in the face, yet the promises incorporated in the quotations made were before them, and the promises of the Almighty never failed. Many of the Saints in Europe have been in the most distressing and unpromising circumstances, and with no earthly prospects of deliverance, but the promises of the Lord were that He would gather them to Zion where they would be prospered, and how wonderfully these things have been fulfilled. All this has been done by the power of the Almighty. It could not have been done by the unaided power of man. This is not the most important point God has accomplished. Before we were reached by the servants of God we were in spiritual bondage, we knew not our relationship to the Almighty nor the nature of our earthly mission. Our minds have been illuminated in relation to heavenly things. We received the Holy Ghost through obedience, and this gave us an assurance of the divine character of the message we had received. We felt that there had been a divine recognition of the administration of the ordinances which we received at the hands of the Elders. We were established upon the rock of revelation, every man and woman knowing of the doctrine for him or herself. The nation and nations may make an effort to destroy the Church; and a Gamaliel might arise and with good ground give the same advice as was tendered by him of olden time. We see that God has fulfilled His promises He has made to us, and our faith extends into the eternities, embodying the assurance of a glorious and everlasting reunion of the closest associations formed in this life.
There is no need of cultivating a feeling of fear in regard to our future, but it would be well for the nations to take heed how they oppose this work. Every attempt in that direction thus far has failed. An attempt has been made to stop the immigration from abroad, which signally failed. An effort has also been made to stop the increase of the Latter-day Saints in other ways, but no power on earth can accomplish this, and the flocks of intelligent children will continue to grace our homes and assemblages.
addressed the Conference. He read a passage in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, beginning on page 224, in which fasting and prayer or rejoicing and prayer are spoken of and certain blessings of the fulness of the earth promised to the Saints on condition of their obedience. He also read a passage beginning on page 189, which predicts that eventually all who do not take their sword against their neighbor among the wicked, will have to flee to Zion for safety; and described the gathering to it of people from every nation under heaven. He next quoted from the hymn beginning: “Hushed, be the accents of sorrow and mourning, Zion in triumph begins her glad reign,” and proceeded to speak in substance as follows: We may be profited this afternoon, as on all similar occasions, it is necessary to place our minds in a condition of faith and prayer, that we may have the Spirit that takes of the things of God and makes them clearly manifest. The quotations made were suggested by the discourse delivered by President Taylor this morning. In each dispensation blessings he designed to bestow upon the particular people to whom the revelations were given. All that was necessary to bring about the reception of those blessings was compliance with the conditions upon which their bestowal rested. Opposition would not prevent the giving of promised blessings; neither would any other condition, except a failure to obey the laws upon which they are predicated, on the part of the people to whom the promises were made. The experience of the children of Israel in Egypt was an illustration of this truth. The Lord promised them deliverance, and notwithstanding all the forces brought to bear against the accomplishment of the work of freeing them, the Lord so arranged matters that it was attained. It was so also in the days of the Savior when He set up the Church. He gave certain directions to his disciples, the carrying out of which, according to the promise, was to bring certain peculiar blessings. There were all kinds of opposition to cause the promises of God to be of no effect, but the blessings flowed whenever the requisite conditions were complied with. Gamaliel in that day counseled the people not to oppose the disciples lest they be found fighting against God; that if the work were not of divine origin it would be brought to naught, whereas if otherwise it could not be prevailed against. This was excellent advice and incorporated a true principle.
The time has been in the history of the Latter-day Saints when it appeared as if nothing but starvation stared them in the face, yet the promises incorporated in the quotations made were before them, and the promises of the Almighty never failed. Many of the Saints in Europe have been in the most distressing and unpromising circumstances, and with no earthly prospects of deliverance, but the promises of the Lord were that He would gather them to Zion where they would be prospered, and how wonderfully these things have been fulfilled. All this has been done by the power of the Almighty. It could not have been done by the unaided power of man. This is not the most important point God has accomplished. Before we were reached by the servants of God we were in spiritual bondage, we knew not our relationship to the Almighty nor the nature of our earthly mission. Our minds have been illuminated in relation to heavenly things. We received the Holy Ghost through obedience, and this gave us an assurance of the divine character of the message we had received. We felt that there had been a divine recognition of the administration of the ordinances which we received at the hands of the Elders. We were established upon the rock of revelation, every man and woman knowing of the doctrine for him or herself. The nation and nations may make an effort to destroy the Church; and a Gamaliel might arise and with good ground give the same advice as was tendered by him of olden time. We see that God has fulfilled His promises He has made to us, and our faith extends into the eternities, embodying the assurance of a glorious and everlasting reunion of the closest associations formed in this life.
There is no need of cultivating a feeling of fear in regard to our future, but it would be well for the nations to take heed how they oppose this work. Every attempt in that direction thus far has failed. An attempt has been made to stop the immigration from abroad, which signally failed. An effort has also been made to stop the increase of the Latter-day Saints in other ways, but no power on earth can accomplish this, and the flocks of intelligent children will continue to grace our homes and assemblages.
Apostle Erastus Snow
was the next speaker. He said in substance: For about five weeks passed he had been visiting the Saints in the Stakes in Utah, Colorado and Arizona. The people are generally in a peaceful, healthful and prosperous condition, dwelling together in unity and love, without anything to mar their peace except some destruction from floods in the San Juan country and some persecution from unprincipled persons in Apache County, Arizona. It has been instituted for political purposes. It will have the effect probably of establishing the righteous more firmly in the faith of the Gospel and weeding out the unfaithful. Many improvements have been made in the South, and the climate has apparently modified. Openings are plentiful for new settlers and land can be obtained on easy terms. Grain, vegetables and fruit of excellent quality are raised in abundance. At Woodruff especially more help is needed. The climate is unsurpassed by any other. At St. Joseph the United Order is conducted successfully according to stewardships.
The speaker continued to give interesting details about the country occupied by the Saints in the outlying settlements, and as a synopsis would not give an adequate, idea of that portion of his discourse, the account is left for a verbatim report which will appear in due time.
Taking up another line of remarks he spoke of the opposition with which the Saints have to contend. It is remarkable that one class of the human family prey upon another as wolves prey upon lambs. The spirit of the Gospel causes men to be gentle, in accordance with the symbol by which the Holy Ghost was manifested when bestowed upon the Savior, being in the form of a dove. Christ was called the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the World. He exhibited the spirit of submission in his course on the earth, yet, as He said to His disciples, He had the power to call twelve legions of angels to his aid. But he knew that this would not be according to the Father’s will. So has He commanded the Latter-day Saints to have faith in the overruling providence of God. The highest type of humility and patience is exhibited by the Saints, and the greatest extremes of ferocity and hate are manifested by their enemies, and all these things are necessary for the carrying out of the purposes of the Almighty and the purifying of His people; also that those who choose evil rather than good may be eventually consigned to their place. We can afford to take persecution joyfully seeing that we have come to an understanding of the object of our earthly existence. We should take to heart the injunction of Christ, not to lay up treasures on earth, but prefer to seek heavenly riches. This does not imply that the people should be restrained from attending to the wants of the body, but the entire attention should not be absorbed by those things that pertain merely to temporalities. It is necessary to cultivate that love that looks charitably upon the acts of others, and seeks to do good and no evil, exemplifying the characteristics of the dove and the lamb.
The speaker continued to dwell for some time upon the necessity of industry, administering a settling rebuke to those inclined to idleness. He spoke of the increase of the children of the Saints, and said the people might have to pass through trying ordeals on account of the wickedness of those who sought their destruction, but if so the result would be ultimate salvation and glory to those who endured to the end and maintained their integrity to the truth.
The choir sang: O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky Arches over the vales of the free.
Adjourned till Sunday, Oct. 5th.
Benediction by Apostle Albert Carrington.
was the next speaker. He said in substance: For about five weeks passed he had been visiting the Saints in the Stakes in Utah, Colorado and Arizona. The people are generally in a peaceful, healthful and prosperous condition, dwelling together in unity and love, without anything to mar their peace except some destruction from floods in the San Juan country and some persecution from unprincipled persons in Apache County, Arizona. It has been instituted for political purposes. It will have the effect probably of establishing the righteous more firmly in the faith of the Gospel and weeding out the unfaithful. Many improvements have been made in the South, and the climate has apparently modified. Openings are plentiful for new settlers and land can be obtained on easy terms. Grain, vegetables and fruit of excellent quality are raised in abundance. At Woodruff especially more help is needed. The climate is unsurpassed by any other. At St. Joseph the United Order is conducted successfully according to stewardships.
The speaker continued to give interesting details about the country occupied by the Saints in the outlying settlements, and as a synopsis would not give an adequate, idea of that portion of his discourse, the account is left for a verbatim report which will appear in due time.
Taking up another line of remarks he spoke of the opposition with which the Saints have to contend. It is remarkable that one class of the human family prey upon another as wolves prey upon lambs. The spirit of the Gospel causes men to be gentle, in accordance with the symbol by which the Holy Ghost was manifested when bestowed upon the Savior, being in the form of a dove. Christ was called the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the World. He exhibited the spirit of submission in his course on the earth, yet, as He said to His disciples, He had the power to call twelve legions of angels to his aid. But he knew that this would not be according to the Father’s will. So has He commanded the Latter-day Saints to have faith in the overruling providence of God. The highest type of humility and patience is exhibited by the Saints, and the greatest extremes of ferocity and hate are manifested by their enemies, and all these things are necessary for the carrying out of the purposes of the Almighty and the purifying of His people; also that those who choose evil rather than good may be eventually consigned to their place. We can afford to take persecution joyfully seeing that we have come to an understanding of the object of our earthly existence. We should take to heart the injunction of Christ, not to lay up treasures on earth, but prefer to seek heavenly riches. This does not imply that the people should be restrained from attending to the wants of the body, but the entire attention should not be absorbed by those things that pertain merely to temporalities. It is necessary to cultivate that love that looks charitably upon the acts of others, and seeks to do good and no evil, exemplifying the characteristics of the dove and the lamb.
The speaker continued to dwell for some time upon the necessity of industry, administering a settling rebuke to those inclined to idleness. He spoke of the increase of the children of the Saints, and said the people might have to pass through trying ordeals on account of the wickedness of those who sought their destruction, but if so the result would be ultimate salvation and glory to those who endured to the end and maintained their integrity to the truth.
The choir sang: O ye mountains high, where the clear blue sky Arches over the vales of the free.
Adjourned till Sunday, Oct. 5th.
Benediction by Apostle Albert Carrington.
SECOND DAY.
Sunday, April 5th, 10 a. m.
See how the morning sun Pursues his shining way. Was sung by the choir.
“Come, follow me,” the Savior said; Then let us in His footsteps tread.
Sunday, April 5th, 10 a. m.
See how the morning sun Pursues his shining way. Was sung by the choir.
“Come, follow me,” the Savior said; Then let us in His footsteps tread.
Apostle Franklin D. Richards.
He quoted from the book of Doctrine and Covenants, beginning at verse 25, on page 250, and ending at verse 33, showing the mind of the Lord regarding the responsibility of parents in instructing their children, the keeping of the Sabbath, and the law in relation to idlers in Zion.
He also read from the same book, Section 29, from verse 46 to 48, inclusive, concerning the unconditional redemption of little children who die before reaching the years of accountability, and their sinlessness and freedom from the temptation of Satan until they arrive at that condition.
He then proceeded with his discourse, which was substantially as follows:
Referring to our little children, who are becoming a mighty host, I will make a few remarks. In early days our increase was largely made up by our immigration from distant parts of the world. That sort of addition has somewhat decreased of late years, and it now depends to a greater extent upon the children who are multiplied to the people of God. We should benefit by our experiences. There is a feeling in the world to treat children with indifference, but this is decreasing among the Saints. Our Savior said, when it was evinced that some considered children of lesser importance than grown people, “suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Those who have attended our Sabbath schools and heard the little ones recite have rejoiced to witness the early germinations of intelligence exhibited by them. The same can be said in relation to the juvenile exercises at the meetings of the primary associations. Jesus said “their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” They are unblemished by sin. When Christ visited the Nephites on this continent, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, he caused the power of God to be made manifest through the children and they spoke wonderful words of wisdom. Our children will, many of them, yet be prophets, seers and revelators, and judges in Israel. As has been said, children are not susceptible to temptation by Satan, until the reach the years of accountability. We cannot begin to instruct them at a too early stage of their lives, and they should be duly prepared by instruction to receive intelligently the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the laying on of the hands by the Elders for the reception of the Holy Ghost. They should be taught to venerate the principles of the Gospel in early childhood, so that when the time of responsibility is reached they may take hold of them heartily. It should be a leading effort to preserve people in purity throughout their lives, and this can be the more closely reached by laying a proper foundation in the early portion of human existence. It is recorded that little children who depart this life before reaching the years of accountability are taken into the presence of God, and that they will inherit a celestial glory. The Prophet Joseph even taught that some of them are so precious and holy that the Father takes them hence rather than allow them to remain to come under the many adverse conditions to be met with in this life. In view of these truths, is it not extraordinary that parents will turn over their children to people who are opposed to the principles of salvation to be taught in such a way as to wean them from the path of eternal life? Those teachers find that members of the Church who are matured in the truth cannot be turned away from it, and they admit that their only hope lies in winning the children to their views.
In relation to the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel, the Elders go abroad and preach, people believe and are baptized, for the remission of sins and have hands laid upon them that they may secure the Holy Ghost, and through those ordinances the power of God is made manifest. There is one ordinance, however, that has been generally neglected. The Lord had commanded that when a house, town, county or other place is visited by the Elders and they are received their peace should be pronounced, and if they are rejected they should go privately, wash their feet and witness to their Father in Heaven that they have delivered their message and borne testimony concerning the Gospel. It is not necessary that the Elders should enter into contentions with people opposed to them, neither should they expose themselves to destruction at the hands of the wicked, but do as the Lord has commanded in such a course would doubtless cause bitterness and hate to be increased toward them among the ungodly.
The speaker made some clear and instructive remarks in relation to finding work for the unemployed and the carrying of the Gospel to the nations of the earth. He showed clearly how those who were too aged or otherwise disabled from going out into the world and preaching, could render themselves specially useful in one important department—looking after the interests of the immigrants who come here by helping them to establish themselves in accordance with the customs and conditions of the country.
He quoted from the book of Doctrine and Covenants, beginning at verse 25, on page 250, and ending at verse 33, showing the mind of the Lord regarding the responsibility of parents in instructing their children, the keeping of the Sabbath, and the law in relation to idlers in Zion.
He also read from the same book, Section 29, from verse 46 to 48, inclusive, concerning the unconditional redemption of little children who die before reaching the years of accountability, and their sinlessness and freedom from the temptation of Satan until they arrive at that condition.
He then proceeded with his discourse, which was substantially as follows:
Referring to our little children, who are becoming a mighty host, I will make a few remarks. In early days our increase was largely made up by our immigration from distant parts of the world. That sort of addition has somewhat decreased of late years, and it now depends to a greater extent upon the children who are multiplied to the people of God. We should benefit by our experiences. There is a feeling in the world to treat children with indifference, but this is decreasing among the Saints. Our Savior said, when it was evinced that some considered children of lesser importance than grown people, “suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Those who have attended our Sabbath schools and heard the little ones recite have rejoiced to witness the early germinations of intelligence exhibited by them. The same can be said in relation to the juvenile exercises at the meetings of the primary associations. Jesus said “their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” They are unblemished by sin. When Christ visited the Nephites on this continent, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, he caused the power of God to be made manifest through the children and they spoke wonderful words of wisdom. Our children will, many of them, yet be prophets, seers and revelators, and judges in Israel. As has been said, children are not susceptible to temptation by Satan, until the reach the years of accountability. We cannot begin to instruct them at a too early stage of their lives, and they should be duly prepared by instruction to receive intelligently the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the laying on of the hands by the Elders for the reception of the Holy Ghost. They should be taught to venerate the principles of the Gospel in early childhood, so that when the time of responsibility is reached they may take hold of them heartily. It should be a leading effort to preserve people in purity throughout their lives, and this can be the more closely reached by laying a proper foundation in the early portion of human existence. It is recorded that little children who depart this life before reaching the years of accountability are taken into the presence of God, and that they will inherit a celestial glory. The Prophet Joseph even taught that some of them are so precious and holy that the Father takes them hence rather than allow them to remain to come under the many adverse conditions to be met with in this life. In view of these truths, is it not extraordinary that parents will turn over their children to people who are opposed to the principles of salvation to be taught in such a way as to wean them from the path of eternal life? Those teachers find that members of the Church who are matured in the truth cannot be turned away from it, and they admit that their only hope lies in winning the children to their views.
In relation to the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel, the Elders go abroad and preach, people believe and are baptized, for the remission of sins and have hands laid upon them that they may secure the Holy Ghost, and through those ordinances the power of God is made manifest. There is one ordinance, however, that has been generally neglected. The Lord had commanded that when a house, town, county or other place is visited by the Elders and they are received their peace should be pronounced, and if they are rejected they should go privately, wash their feet and witness to their Father in Heaven that they have delivered their message and borne testimony concerning the Gospel. It is not necessary that the Elders should enter into contentions with people opposed to them, neither should they expose themselves to destruction at the hands of the wicked, but do as the Lord has commanded in such a course would doubtless cause bitterness and hate to be increased toward them among the ungodly.
The speaker made some clear and instructive remarks in relation to finding work for the unemployed and the carrying of the Gospel to the nations of the earth. He showed clearly how those who were too aged or otherwise disabled from going out into the world and preaching, could render themselves specially useful in one important department—looking after the interests of the immigrants who come here by helping them to establish themselves in accordance with the customs and conditions of the country.
Remarks
Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
I will read a few verses contained in the 68th section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, a book of revelation and commandment, which the Lord has given unto us in this last dispensation, for our guidance:
“And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.
“For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized.
“And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of hands.
“And they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord.
“And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
“And the inhabitants of Zion also shall remember their labors, inasmuch as they are appointed to labor, in all faithfulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord.
“Now, I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness.”
I will also read from the 29th section of the same book:
“But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten;
“Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to be accountable before me;
“For it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers.”
Referring to our little children, who are becoming, numerically, a mighty host among us, I wish to make a few remarks this morning, the subject seeming to impress itself on my mind somewhat. A consideration of the associations of our young men and young women, reminds us that before they become young men and young women, in the common acceptation of the term, they are younger men and younger women; and while infant children are in a dependent and somewhat helpless condition. As the tall oaks from little acorns grow, and as mighty rivers are made up from small streamlets and springs that come from hidden sources in the mountains, so is the increase of God's people by reason of their little children that are growing—increasing in number and multiplying continually in the land. In early days our increase used to be made up, in a great measure, by emigrants from foreign nations. The past few years our emigration has attained to some three or four thousand, annually, from the various countries in which missions are established, while it has increased many times that number from the great and glorious presence of God our Father, who sends the spirits to this world to dwell. Hence it becomes the great source of our supply, of our increase, and I am sure you will join with me, many of you, this morning in realizing that we have not, in many instances, given a sufficient and proper consideration for our little children that have been committed unto us, when we realize the importance, the eternal consequences that are made to flow from the beginning of their tuition and education here in this mortal life.
Many of this people, who have lived faithful to their professions, know more today of God and His purposes, than they did fifty years ago. We learn by experience as well as by precept, from the Lord, and as in the light of our experience we have obtained observation and got knowledge, we should not only profit by it ourselves, but as Elders in Israel we should endeavor to benefit and improve each other by our experiences, so that we may increase in understanding before the Lord in all our relations to Him and to each other.
Now, concerning little children, there is too much of an inclination with many—particularly in the world, but this feeling is growing much less among the Saints—to treat their children with indifference, to put them off, and to think that a very little of anything will do them very well. Children are apt to be waited on even at the table after the feasted and friends are all served.
I will not stop to dilate upon this particular feature of my subject, but will turn to a more pleasing one. Our Savior while here in the flesh, perceiving the people thought that children were of less importance than grown persons, was much displeased and said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Who, I ask, among my hearers this morning has been attending the Sunday School and listened to their recitations that has not felt their hearts warmed within them at hearing the early germinations of intelligence made manifest and apparent while they have been reciting the Scriptures, the revelations and maxims from the cards that are now in use in the Sabbath Schools? Who has listened to their songs, so sweet and melodious, without feeling that the very blessing of the Lord was there, that it was delightful and lovely to be in their midst? Who has gone into the little associations of the Primaries, now held so regularly, among us, and heard them answer their questions, from perhaps the youngest that were able to speak distinctly and articulate so as to be heard—heard them answer the questions put by their teachers concerning the kind of knowledge they are expected to obtain and are obtaining—who among us have attended these associations and listened to those little ones, without feeling the fragrance of heaven shed abroad upon their souls and being sensible that there is to be found in them a beauty of innocence, of sweetness and purity that we cannot expect in the hearts of a concourse of grown people? Jesus said of them: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” He might also have said, “their angels, their spirits had always dwelt in the presence of God, or before the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Learn this, mothers, when you sorrowfully lay away your little ones—learn this: their spirits do always dwell before the face of their Father who is in heaven, and let your hearts be comforted, no sin has contaminated their souls, no spot of contamination has tarnished their young and tender consciences. There is purity, the purity of the pure here on earth. What has the Lord said, “That little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me; For it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers.”
When He was here upon this continent, our risen Redeemer taught the Nephites, and blessed their children in multitudes.
So powerfully was the Holy Ghost poured out upon them that they spake with tongues. Infants that had no learning at all, declared forth His praise in such glorious, exalted terms, that the brethren present could not write them. Such was the blessing and favor of heaven, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, shed abroad upon the innocent portion of humanity that was permitted to stand in His presence.
Then, seeing that the heavens are so pleased with them, ought not we to understand and entertain a higher estimate of their value, of their heavenly worth, and of their eternal importance, especially when we consider that from these small children that mothers are nursing upon their laps will by and by have grown up Prophets, Seers and Revelators, Judges in Israel, men of God standing forth upon the earth declaring His counsels, building up His Kingdom in all righteousness, and in the power of God. Remember then, that as the twig is bent the tree will be inclined.
Let me call your attention to a particular feature in the matter of children and their early condition. In the revelation which I have read to you, the Lord says: “Power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.” Did you notice this when I read it? Let me ask how many of those present have taken this great truth into serious consideration, to consciously sense this great heavenly indemnity of a few years' growth to each of our infant children in which Satan has no power to tempt their innocent souls; that whatsoever the examples placed before them, whatsoever their early inclinations by reason of erroneous teachings, yet until they are made accountable Satan has no power to tempt them, and they are still innocent before the Lord, until they come to the years of accountability when they should be instructed and prepared to be baptized into the Church, and become members of it.
People of other religious denominations tell us that if we will give them the education of our children for a certain number of years, they will wrest them from us, turn them loose upon the world, cause them to depart from the faith of their fathers and despise their parentage, seeing this is the design of our enemies, and they are conscious of being able and are endeavoring to do this with our children, ought we not to sense more deeply the value of that same consideration—yes, but in a thousandfold greater degree—we ought to see to it that the faith of our children is preserved sound, healthy, and kept growing in their bosoms. How important, then, that we teach and educate our children during the first eight years of their lives, so that when they attain to that age they may be admitted into the Church by baptism, and receive the laying on of the hands of the Elders for the reception of the Holy Ghost, then they will have the aid of that heavenly monitor that will assist the formation of their growing judgments.
Let us consider this matter more carefully than we have done. Let us see that while there is a suspension of the wrath—if we may so say—of Satan, that he has not power to tempt our children who have been born under the covenant—let us see that we attend to them, and let us give an assiduity to the business of teaching and preparing their young and tender minds, that we have never given before.
What is the great object and purpose of this life while we are here upon the earth? What one thing, if possible, is more important than another? It is this: that as our children come to us innocent—for the revelation tells us that all men are innocent when they are born into the world, and have these early years of indemnity from the power of the tempter to tempt them to sin—let us go to and make a better use than we have done of the opportunities we enjoy. Let us instill faith into the tender hearts of our children, faith towards God, obedience to their parents, obedience to the authorities of the Church, that when they come to years of accountability, they may take hold for themselves, with a hearty, strong and loving relish for the principles of the Gospel of divine truth. Let us endeavor to realize the importance of this matter. And what is that other thing we want to preserve to them? It is this: as they come to this life innocent, if men and women can be taken through this life innocent, and sin not before the Lord, and receive of His Spirit and walk in the light of it, so that while passing through this state of probation they shall have maintained a condition of innocence through the blessing of the everlasting Gospel, they will have accomplished a wonderful thing—the great object and purpose of their mortal lives. This is the great thing to be sought for—to preserve that innocence with which our children are born, and in which they are permitted to live a few years, at any rate, free from the power of Satan. It seems to me that if we contemplate this matter in the light of revelation, we ought to see its importance. The Lord has given to us the privilege of being united in the holy marriage covenant for time and eternity. We look forward to inheriting the blessings of the kingdom of God with our children, and that to their increase there shall be no end. This was the Gospel that was preached to Father Abraham—that he and his children and his generation should become as the stars in the heavens for multitude, and like the sands on the seashore that cannot be counted. We look for blessing, dominion, exaltation and glory in the eternal worlds, through similar means.
Now, then, my brethren and sisters, I wish to ask a question at this stage of my discourse. Realizing something of the value which the heavens set upon the children; remembering that the Prophet Joseph Smith himself taught and left on record in his history that little children who depart this life before they come to the years of accountability go back to the presence of God; that many children were of so excellent a spirit that God, in His grace and mercy, took them away from the adverse conditions of this life, that they might not be required to suffer as many others had to; this being their position before the heavens, what are we to think of parents, who, having these principles before them, turn their children over to our avowed enemies to be educated, knowing that their policy is to break down “Mormonism,” especially the authority of the Priesthood to counsel, direct and govern the people. I say, what are we to think of such parents? How can those people do such things and be justified in the sight of God? It seems to me they must be consummately ignorant or consummately wicked to do such a thing. I should think it right that such be refused certain privileges of the Gospel, until they had a better idea in regard to these things. I do not see how they can themselves feel that they have a right to open up to further intelligence, or to have further blessings bestowed upon them. If people are so insensible to and so ungrateful for blessings already conferred, how can they expect more? Oh, that such people would turn round and understand the foolishness and sinfulness of their course, for if they do not repent, their action will bring sorrow and affliction, until their gray hairs will come with sorrow to their graves.
It appears in contemplating this subject—more especially since the great work of the Sunday schools has been going on in our midst, since the vast labor of the mutual improvement associations has been inaugurated among our young men and young women—that there is a stupendous work before us, that our children, while they are on our laps, and while prattling in and about our homes, developing the first germinations of intelligence—that then is the time to instill the first ideas of faith towards God and His work, into their young and tender minds. The wicked world are endeavoring to wean away our children by their arts, their publications, and by the blandishments of falsely so-called “superior civilization.” They would like to draw away the young and rising generation of Israel. They have learned that we, their parents, have the principles of the Gospel established in us, and that we are not easily moved, unless we fall into transgression. They find that their purpose of building up their churches by conversions from amongst our people is futile and hopeless. They find that the Gospel of eternal truth is established in the hearts of this people; that we have received something which satisfies the human mind, a something which they have not got to offer. They find that they cannot furnish the human mind with the satisfying influence and effects which are afforded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Great and abundant are the blessings that are promised unto those who seek unto the Lord in the days of their youth. They who seek Him early shall find Him, and from such He will not turn away. It was anciently a divine injunction with promise to the youth of Israel, that they were to reverence and obey their fathers and their mothers, that their days might be long in the land which the Lord their God gave to them; and this promise—renewed to our children with the same conditions now—should be esteemed and regarded with equal or greater deference to that anciently bestowed. * * * *
Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
I will read a few verses contained in the 68th section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, a book of revelation and commandment, which the Lord has given unto us in this last dispensation, for our guidance:
“And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.
“For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized.
“And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of hands.
“And they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord.
“And the inhabitants of Zion shall also observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
“And the inhabitants of Zion also shall remember their labors, inasmuch as they are appointed to labor, in all faithfulness; for the idler shall be had in remembrance before the Lord.
“Now, I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness.”
I will also read from the 29th section of the same book:
“But behold, I say unto you, that little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten;
“Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to be accountable before me;
“For it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers.”
Referring to our little children, who are becoming, numerically, a mighty host among us, I wish to make a few remarks this morning, the subject seeming to impress itself on my mind somewhat. A consideration of the associations of our young men and young women, reminds us that before they become young men and young women, in the common acceptation of the term, they are younger men and younger women; and while infant children are in a dependent and somewhat helpless condition. As the tall oaks from little acorns grow, and as mighty rivers are made up from small streamlets and springs that come from hidden sources in the mountains, so is the increase of God's people by reason of their little children that are growing—increasing in number and multiplying continually in the land. In early days our increase used to be made up, in a great measure, by emigrants from foreign nations. The past few years our emigration has attained to some three or four thousand, annually, from the various countries in which missions are established, while it has increased many times that number from the great and glorious presence of God our Father, who sends the spirits to this world to dwell. Hence it becomes the great source of our supply, of our increase, and I am sure you will join with me, many of you, this morning in realizing that we have not, in many instances, given a sufficient and proper consideration for our little children that have been committed unto us, when we realize the importance, the eternal consequences that are made to flow from the beginning of their tuition and education here in this mortal life.
Many of this people, who have lived faithful to their professions, know more today of God and His purposes, than they did fifty years ago. We learn by experience as well as by precept, from the Lord, and as in the light of our experience we have obtained observation and got knowledge, we should not only profit by it ourselves, but as Elders in Israel we should endeavor to benefit and improve each other by our experiences, so that we may increase in understanding before the Lord in all our relations to Him and to each other.
Now, concerning little children, there is too much of an inclination with many—particularly in the world, but this feeling is growing much less among the Saints—to treat their children with indifference, to put them off, and to think that a very little of anything will do them very well. Children are apt to be waited on even at the table after the feasted and friends are all served.
I will not stop to dilate upon this particular feature of my subject, but will turn to a more pleasing one. Our Savior while here in the flesh, perceiving the people thought that children were of less importance than grown persons, was much displeased and said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Who, I ask, among my hearers this morning has been attending the Sunday School and listened to their recitations that has not felt their hearts warmed within them at hearing the early germinations of intelligence made manifest and apparent while they have been reciting the Scriptures, the revelations and maxims from the cards that are now in use in the Sabbath Schools? Who has listened to their songs, so sweet and melodious, without feeling that the very blessing of the Lord was there, that it was delightful and lovely to be in their midst? Who has gone into the little associations of the Primaries, now held so regularly, among us, and heard them answer their questions, from perhaps the youngest that were able to speak distinctly and articulate so as to be heard—heard them answer the questions put by their teachers concerning the kind of knowledge they are expected to obtain and are obtaining—who among us have attended these associations and listened to those little ones, without feeling the fragrance of heaven shed abroad upon their souls and being sensible that there is to be found in them a beauty of innocence, of sweetness and purity that we cannot expect in the hearts of a concourse of grown people? Jesus said of them: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” He might also have said, “their angels, their spirits had always dwelt in the presence of God, or before the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Learn this, mothers, when you sorrowfully lay away your little ones—learn this: their spirits do always dwell before the face of their Father who is in heaven, and let your hearts be comforted, no sin has contaminated their souls, no spot of contamination has tarnished their young and tender consciences. There is purity, the purity of the pure here on earth. What has the Lord said, “That little children are redeemed from the foundation of the world through mine Only Begotten; Wherefore, they cannot sin, for power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me; For it is given unto them even as I will, according to mine own pleasure, that great things may be required at the hand of their fathers.”
When He was here upon this continent, our risen Redeemer taught the Nephites, and blessed their children in multitudes.
So powerfully was the Holy Ghost poured out upon them that they spake with tongues. Infants that had no learning at all, declared forth His praise in such glorious, exalted terms, that the brethren present could not write them. Such was the blessing and favor of heaven, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, shed abroad upon the innocent portion of humanity that was permitted to stand in His presence.
Then, seeing that the heavens are so pleased with them, ought not we to understand and entertain a higher estimate of their value, of their heavenly worth, and of their eternal importance, especially when we consider that from these small children that mothers are nursing upon their laps will by and by have grown up Prophets, Seers and Revelators, Judges in Israel, men of God standing forth upon the earth declaring His counsels, building up His Kingdom in all righteousness, and in the power of God. Remember then, that as the twig is bent the tree will be inclined.
Let me call your attention to a particular feature in the matter of children and their early condition. In the revelation which I have read to you, the Lord says: “Power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable before me.” Did you notice this when I read it? Let me ask how many of those present have taken this great truth into serious consideration, to consciously sense this great heavenly indemnity of a few years' growth to each of our infant children in which Satan has no power to tempt their innocent souls; that whatsoever the examples placed before them, whatsoever their early inclinations by reason of erroneous teachings, yet until they are made accountable Satan has no power to tempt them, and they are still innocent before the Lord, until they come to the years of accountability when they should be instructed and prepared to be baptized into the Church, and become members of it.
People of other religious denominations tell us that if we will give them the education of our children for a certain number of years, they will wrest them from us, turn them loose upon the world, cause them to depart from the faith of their fathers and despise their parentage, seeing this is the design of our enemies, and they are conscious of being able and are endeavoring to do this with our children, ought we not to sense more deeply the value of that same consideration—yes, but in a thousandfold greater degree—we ought to see to it that the faith of our children is preserved sound, healthy, and kept growing in their bosoms. How important, then, that we teach and educate our children during the first eight years of their lives, so that when they attain to that age they may be admitted into the Church by baptism, and receive the laying on of the hands of the Elders for the reception of the Holy Ghost, then they will have the aid of that heavenly monitor that will assist the formation of their growing judgments.
Let us consider this matter more carefully than we have done. Let us see that while there is a suspension of the wrath—if we may so say—of Satan, that he has not power to tempt our children who have been born under the covenant—let us see that we attend to them, and let us give an assiduity to the business of teaching and preparing their young and tender minds, that we have never given before.
What is the great object and purpose of this life while we are here upon the earth? What one thing, if possible, is more important than another? It is this: that as our children come to us innocent—for the revelation tells us that all men are innocent when they are born into the world, and have these early years of indemnity from the power of the tempter to tempt them to sin—let us go to and make a better use than we have done of the opportunities we enjoy. Let us instill faith into the tender hearts of our children, faith towards God, obedience to their parents, obedience to the authorities of the Church, that when they come to years of accountability, they may take hold for themselves, with a hearty, strong and loving relish for the principles of the Gospel of divine truth. Let us endeavor to realize the importance of this matter. And what is that other thing we want to preserve to them? It is this: as they come to this life innocent, if men and women can be taken through this life innocent, and sin not before the Lord, and receive of His Spirit and walk in the light of it, so that while passing through this state of probation they shall have maintained a condition of innocence through the blessing of the everlasting Gospel, they will have accomplished a wonderful thing—the great object and purpose of their mortal lives. This is the great thing to be sought for—to preserve that innocence with which our children are born, and in which they are permitted to live a few years, at any rate, free from the power of Satan. It seems to me that if we contemplate this matter in the light of revelation, we ought to see its importance. The Lord has given to us the privilege of being united in the holy marriage covenant for time and eternity. We look forward to inheriting the blessings of the kingdom of God with our children, and that to their increase there shall be no end. This was the Gospel that was preached to Father Abraham—that he and his children and his generation should become as the stars in the heavens for multitude, and like the sands on the seashore that cannot be counted. We look for blessing, dominion, exaltation and glory in the eternal worlds, through similar means.
Now, then, my brethren and sisters, I wish to ask a question at this stage of my discourse. Realizing something of the value which the heavens set upon the children; remembering that the Prophet Joseph Smith himself taught and left on record in his history that little children who depart this life before they come to the years of accountability go back to the presence of God; that many children were of so excellent a spirit that God, in His grace and mercy, took them away from the adverse conditions of this life, that they might not be required to suffer as many others had to; this being their position before the heavens, what are we to think of parents, who, having these principles before them, turn their children over to our avowed enemies to be educated, knowing that their policy is to break down “Mormonism,” especially the authority of the Priesthood to counsel, direct and govern the people. I say, what are we to think of such parents? How can those people do such things and be justified in the sight of God? It seems to me they must be consummately ignorant or consummately wicked to do such a thing. I should think it right that such be refused certain privileges of the Gospel, until they had a better idea in regard to these things. I do not see how they can themselves feel that they have a right to open up to further intelligence, or to have further blessings bestowed upon them. If people are so insensible to and so ungrateful for blessings already conferred, how can they expect more? Oh, that such people would turn round and understand the foolishness and sinfulness of their course, for if they do not repent, their action will bring sorrow and affliction, until their gray hairs will come with sorrow to their graves.
It appears in contemplating this subject—more especially since the great work of the Sunday schools has been going on in our midst, since the vast labor of the mutual improvement associations has been inaugurated among our young men and young women—that there is a stupendous work before us, that our children, while they are on our laps, and while prattling in and about our homes, developing the first germinations of intelligence—that then is the time to instill the first ideas of faith towards God and His work, into their young and tender minds. The wicked world are endeavoring to wean away our children by their arts, their publications, and by the blandishments of falsely so-called “superior civilization.” They would like to draw away the young and rising generation of Israel. They have learned that we, their parents, have the principles of the Gospel established in us, and that we are not easily moved, unless we fall into transgression. They find that their purpose of building up their churches by conversions from amongst our people is futile and hopeless. They find that the Gospel of eternal truth is established in the hearts of this people; that we have received something which satisfies the human mind, a something which they have not got to offer. They find that they cannot furnish the human mind with the satisfying influence and effects which are afforded by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Great and abundant are the blessings that are promised unto those who seek unto the Lord in the days of their youth. They who seek Him early shall find Him, and from such He will not turn away. It was anciently a divine injunction with promise to the youth of Israel, that they were to reverence and obey their fathers and their mothers, that their days might be long in the land which the Lord their God gave to them; and this promise—renewed to our children with the same conditions now—should be esteemed and regarded with equal or greater deference to that anciently bestowed. * * * *
Blessings Follow Certain Ordinances
Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
[Being the portion omitted in last volume.]
The whole tenor of God's dealings and instructions to His people have been enriched and adorned with affectionate remembrance, instruction and illustration of the youth of His people. They are the redeemed of Christ from before the foundation of the world. Jesus said their angels or spirits do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. He has promised that they shall come forth in the first resurrection, that they “shall grow up until they become old,” and when he would demonstrate who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven—He took a little child and placed him in their midst, saying, “Except ye repent and become as this little child, ye can in no wise enter therein; but whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven; and whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”
In relation to all these matters, there is a great deal of importance attached to them, not only in the matter of our children—which seems to be of primary importance to us—but in the preaching of the Gospel. We that have ministered in the Gospel have learned of the truth of that Gospel, and are able to comprehend by the Spirit in some degree the revelations and commandments which have been given for the guidance of the Church. It is by virtue of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins that men's sins are remitted. It is by attending to certain ordinances that the blessings of eternity are sealed upon us, and by which in the plain language of the Scriptures, our calling and election are made sure. But we must obey those ordinances in faith or their efficacy will not avail. Our Elders go abroad and preach to the world, and their hearts are filled with charity and loving kindness towards their fellow creatures. They administer to the sick among the Saints, and they are often called upon to administer to those who do not belong to the Church, to whom they administer according to their faith, and thus the power of faith through the ordinance of God is made manifest among the children of men.
But there is one ordinance that the Elders may have perhaps neglected and I do not know but I have myself—and that is, that if we enter a house and the people thereof receive us, there our peace should abide. This was the instruction of the Savior in His day; and if we enter a house and the people receive us not, then we should go away and return not again to that house, and wash our feet with pure water, as a testimony against them in the day of judgment, and thus bear witness unto the Lord that we have offered them salvation, that we have sought to preach to them the principles of everlasting life, that we have offered to them the Gospel of peace and desired to administer unto them a blessing. The same is applicable to a town, village or city that rejects you. In this way you do your duty and leave them in the hands of the Lord. You are not called upon to contend with anybody in public congregations, or to do anything that would stir up wrath and indignation. The Savior simply told his disciples to wash their feet as a testimony against such people. But the generous, charitable feeling of our Elders prompts them not to do a thing against anybody; they would rather pour out a blessing upon the whole people. Consequently, it is a very rare thing that this ordinance is attended to by the Elders of this last dispensation—speaking from my own experience, and conversation had with the brethren. But when it comes to this, that we are persecuted and our lives taken, it would seem as if this was a duty depending upon those Elders who are thrust out, and warned away from their fields of labor. These things have happened of late, and it seems a duty devolving upon the Elders to do that which the law requires and leave the responsibility of its reception or rejection with the people and their God. We have no quarrel with anybody. We simply preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. If they receive it, well and good; if they will not, then it is a matter between them and their God; but the Lord requires this duty at the hands of his servants.
Again, we go abroad and gather in many people to this place, and they desire to find work. One of the brethren has referred to this matter and likened it unto a man going into a field and working diligently to plow the field, sow the grain, harrow it in, harvest it, and then leave it to waste. It is too much so in bringing home our brethren and our sisters to this country and not furnishing them labor. It is a very pleasing thought that occasionally companies of 400 or 500 people, or even 1,000, are delivered here from abroad. Why is it pleasing? Because it shows the work of God is progressing; it shows that God is gathering home His Saints, and soon after their arrival, the newcomers are taken home by their friends and relatives, and provided for, made comfortable until another spring, or until they look around and find or make a home. And it is a blessed thought that, notwithstanding hundreds and thousands of people are brought here yearly and cared for, so great a proportion of them live in their own homes, raise their own cows, pigs, chickens, etc.
Frequently when we go to the Seventies and ask some of them if they are willing to go on a mission to preach the Gospel, one replies: “I am no preacher at all; I could not preach a sermon if I were to try:” and wind up by saying: “If I can't go out myself and preach, I am willing to help support the families of missionaries while they are gone.” Many have said this, and many more of them have thought it.
The Seventies are a numerous concourse of men who are called in connection with the Twelve to see that the Gospel is carried to the nations of the earth. Many of them are aged—some having been in the Church almost from the days of its first organization in Ohio, and many since the days of Nauvoo—too aged to be called to go upon missions—yet they could help their brethren coming in to find employment, and as do the Twelve after having labored in the vineyard to help gather the harvest, labor together in the threshing floor to help garner the wheat, clean it, and assist to make it fit for the Master's use. The younger men, after having secured homes for their families, feel free to go on missions, knowing that their interests at home are not being neglected.
If the aged Seventies and all men of experience would interest themselves in the different parts of the Territory, and find or make work for the newcomers, they might do a vast deal of good. They might help their brethren who come in from the old country so obtain a living. When we first came here every man had to be a farmer, had to cultivate the land in order to obtain a living. Today many of the brethren who come from the old country have no idea of farming, and have never, perhaps raised a chicken, a pig or a cow. The brethren should take hold, therefore, and assist each other in these things. Let us help to build each other up more earnestly and more extensively than we have done. Let us not cultivate feelings of covetousness to the crowding out of those ennobling and generous sentiments which should fill the bosom of every Latter-day Saint.
My brethren, you are Elders in Israel, and the blessing and power of the Priesthood are upon you. Therefore we should do all the good we can, that those of our brethren who are constantly coming in here may obtain work, that they may not be led away, through idleness, into sin, and their hearts be turned away from the Gospel which they have embraced.
Praying always that the understanding of the Lord may be given unto us that we may know and do His Holy will, in the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.
Discourse by Apostle F. D. Richards, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
[Being the portion omitted in last volume.]
The whole tenor of God's dealings and instructions to His people have been enriched and adorned with affectionate remembrance, instruction and illustration of the youth of His people. They are the redeemed of Christ from before the foundation of the world. Jesus said their angels or spirits do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. He has promised that they shall come forth in the first resurrection, that they “shall grow up until they become old,” and when he would demonstrate who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven—He took a little child and placed him in their midst, saying, “Except ye repent and become as this little child, ye can in no wise enter therein; but whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven; and whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”
In relation to all these matters, there is a great deal of importance attached to them, not only in the matter of our children—which seems to be of primary importance to us—but in the preaching of the Gospel. We that have ministered in the Gospel have learned of the truth of that Gospel, and are able to comprehend by the Spirit in some degree the revelations and commandments which have been given for the guidance of the Church. It is by virtue of repentance and baptism for the remission of sins that men's sins are remitted. It is by attending to certain ordinances that the blessings of eternity are sealed upon us, and by which in the plain language of the Scriptures, our calling and election are made sure. But we must obey those ordinances in faith or their efficacy will not avail. Our Elders go abroad and preach to the world, and their hearts are filled with charity and loving kindness towards their fellow creatures. They administer to the sick among the Saints, and they are often called upon to administer to those who do not belong to the Church, to whom they administer according to their faith, and thus the power of faith through the ordinance of God is made manifest among the children of men.
But there is one ordinance that the Elders may have perhaps neglected and I do not know but I have myself—and that is, that if we enter a house and the people thereof receive us, there our peace should abide. This was the instruction of the Savior in His day; and if we enter a house and the people receive us not, then we should go away and return not again to that house, and wash our feet with pure water, as a testimony against them in the day of judgment, and thus bear witness unto the Lord that we have offered them salvation, that we have sought to preach to them the principles of everlasting life, that we have offered to them the Gospel of peace and desired to administer unto them a blessing. The same is applicable to a town, village or city that rejects you. In this way you do your duty and leave them in the hands of the Lord. You are not called upon to contend with anybody in public congregations, or to do anything that would stir up wrath and indignation. The Savior simply told his disciples to wash their feet as a testimony against such people. But the generous, charitable feeling of our Elders prompts them not to do a thing against anybody; they would rather pour out a blessing upon the whole people. Consequently, it is a very rare thing that this ordinance is attended to by the Elders of this last dispensation—speaking from my own experience, and conversation had with the brethren. But when it comes to this, that we are persecuted and our lives taken, it would seem as if this was a duty depending upon those Elders who are thrust out, and warned away from their fields of labor. These things have happened of late, and it seems a duty devolving upon the Elders to do that which the law requires and leave the responsibility of its reception or rejection with the people and their God. We have no quarrel with anybody. We simply preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth. If they receive it, well and good; if they will not, then it is a matter between them and their God; but the Lord requires this duty at the hands of his servants.
Again, we go abroad and gather in many people to this place, and they desire to find work. One of the brethren has referred to this matter and likened it unto a man going into a field and working diligently to plow the field, sow the grain, harrow it in, harvest it, and then leave it to waste. It is too much so in bringing home our brethren and our sisters to this country and not furnishing them labor. It is a very pleasing thought that occasionally companies of 400 or 500 people, or even 1,000, are delivered here from abroad. Why is it pleasing? Because it shows the work of God is progressing; it shows that God is gathering home His Saints, and soon after their arrival, the newcomers are taken home by their friends and relatives, and provided for, made comfortable until another spring, or until they look around and find or make a home. And it is a blessed thought that, notwithstanding hundreds and thousands of people are brought here yearly and cared for, so great a proportion of them live in their own homes, raise their own cows, pigs, chickens, etc.
Frequently when we go to the Seventies and ask some of them if they are willing to go on a mission to preach the Gospel, one replies: “I am no preacher at all; I could not preach a sermon if I were to try:” and wind up by saying: “If I can't go out myself and preach, I am willing to help support the families of missionaries while they are gone.” Many have said this, and many more of them have thought it.
The Seventies are a numerous concourse of men who are called in connection with the Twelve to see that the Gospel is carried to the nations of the earth. Many of them are aged—some having been in the Church almost from the days of its first organization in Ohio, and many since the days of Nauvoo—too aged to be called to go upon missions—yet they could help their brethren coming in to find employment, and as do the Twelve after having labored in the vineyard to help gather the harvest, labor together in the threshing floor to help garner the wheat, clean it, and assist to make it fit for the Master's use. The younger men, after having secured homes for their families, feel free to go on missions, knowing that their interests at home are not being neglected.
If the aged Seventies and all men of experience would interest themselves in the different parts of the Territory, and find or make work for the newcomers, they might do a vast deal of good. They might help their brethren who come in from the old country so obtain a living. When we first came here every man had to be a farmer, had to cultivate the land in order to obtain a living. Today many of the brethren who come from the old country have no idea of farming, and have never, perhaps raised a chicken, a pig or a cow. The brethren should take hold, therefore, and assist each other in these things. Let us help to build each other up more earnestly and more extensively than we have done. Let us not cultivate feelings of covetousness to the crowding out of those ennobling and generous sentiments which should fill the bosom of every Latter-day Saint.
My brethren, you are Elders in Israel, and the blessing and power of the Priesthood are upon you. Therefore we should do all the good we can, that those of our brethren who are constantly coming in here may obtain work, that they may not be led away, through idleness, into sin, and their hearts be turned away from the Gospel which they have embraced.
Praying always that the understanding of the Lord may be given unto us that we may know and do His Holy will, in the name of Christ our Lord, Amen.
Prest. George Q. Cannon
read a portion of the 29th Chapter of Isaiah, and continuing said: This work which God predicted by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon and its being presented to a learned and an unlearned man, and the causing of the wisdom of the wise men to come to naught, have all been remarkably fulfilled before our eyes, and this is not less the case respecting the confusion of those who should fight against Mount Zion. As that which has been predicted and has been fulfilled in the past are facts well known to us, we can believe that that which is predicted but not yet fulfilled also assuredly will be. The work was commenced in obscurity and was born according to the will of God, with no special demonstration which should attract the attention of the world. Our own commencement as human beings on the earth was of a similar type, yet a puny, helpless infant may become a God in the eternities of our Father. The commencement of the Church was obscure and insignificant, and it required faith in those who were its early members to believe that it would ever attain that position and strength which were predicted for it. The Prophet Joseph, however, and his associates saw by vision that which we now behold and participate in, and much more which we, if we behold it at all, must see by the Spirit. Scarcely a step or a circumstance has taken place in the Church that was not known to and spoken of by Joseph Smith. Yet men doubt his divine calling as a prophet and hold up his name to scorn and ridicule, still it is not too much to say that before many years have passed away, he will be recognized as one of the mightiest prophets that ever trod the footstool of God. His life and character have not been understood in the past, but they will be more fully in the future. In the very beginning he told of the hatred with which the church would be met. He told of events that should occur as clearly as if he were reading the account of events which had already taken place. As the influence and extent of the work increased, opposition increased proportionately. The hatred of a township became that of a county, and then of a State, and then of neighboring states, the work having all the time to contend against as much as it could well bear up under. The protection and watchcare of our God have nevertheless been wonderfully made manifest in our behalf. If the power of Satan had not been restrained in the beginning it would have been easy to wipe out the work in blood. This could have been done when the soil of Illinois drank the blood of our prophet and patriarch, and present President. But the Lord restrained the adversary, never allowing more to come upon us than we were able to bear. And then as the keys of the Priesthood and the power of God were made more manifest, the exertions and power of the wicked increased. It has seemed that one power has kept pace with the other, and in this we can see the wisdom of our Father. It is necessary that we be tested by the rude ordeals of persecution to which we have been, still are, and will be subjected, in order to develop our strength.
Men say if we will only lay aside polygamy, will correct our marital relations, the opposition will be deprived of their war-cry and persecution will cease. This is a vain thought, indulged only by those who judge of this work by their own human knowledge, the effects of this work and that which it is to accomplish, cannot be measured by any standard known to man. Since the disappearance of the priesthood from the earth after the death of the Savior, there has been no such power in the earth. It is known to us that opposition was proportionately stronger before than it has been since the introduction of plural marriage. So we who are familiar with these matters know that the giving up of our marriage system would not have the effect that our friends would bespeak for it. To-day we are confronted by the fact that the United States have pitted themselves in their governmental capacity against us, exactly as we have been taught to expect. Shall we now falter or give way, become weak in the knees, or tremble in the heart when we see this attitude in the heart when we see this attitude so clearly defined? God forbid. The whole world may know that years ago these things which we now behold were expected to be met, contended with and overcome. But is this to be the end? Certainly not; as the Church shall increase, so will opposition increase, until leaping beyond the bounds of our own nation all the empires of the earth shall array themselves against the work of God, as the township, the county, the State have done and the United States are now doing. Then will the puny infant born on the 6th of April, 1830, rise in its sublimity, a stalwart man. People wonder at our hardihood and temerity in daring to remain firm against such circumstances, and it is only a few days since read in the newspapers that a friend appealed to us to have a revelation doing away with polygamy, else war would ensue. This is no new threat to us however: the burden of the Lord has been upon us, and we have rested secure in the promise that the work of God surely shall triumph, no matter what the result to us as individuals may be. The work of God has thus proven itself indeed a marvelous work and a wonder, and to-day human wisdom is as much at fault respecting it as it ever was. We can see, if we enjoy the spirit of God, the wonderful way in which God has provided for His people and shaped their destinies. Our mountain home, our training in the past, give us the clearest evidence of this. No other land could be so well adapted for us as this, and on the other hand, no other people are so well fitted to hold and develop the land as we. Our people have been brought to these valleys, and hold them now by every right. Shall we be uprooted, or shall we be prevented in our growth or increase? They may tell us the answer depends whether we will give up our peculiar features of religion and conform to their ideas. On the other hand, the speaker declared, that it does not depend upon this, but does depend entirely upon the Latter-day Saints themselves whether they will continue to occupy these lands and maintain their position here. Looking at it naturally, it would seem a bold and audacious thing to say that we can stand against such odds of combined opposition. And it is perhaps true that if God would allow the whole world to launch its thunderbolts against us and unite for our destruction there could scarcely by any question as to the result. But this is the work of the great God, and he controls all the doings and the results of the children of men. He will not forget His promises and upon these we must rely. We must on our part live so that we can enjoy the fulfillment of them. If we do this there is no power which can retard the progress and final triumph of our cause from this time forward until the final consummation is achieved. If the Saints will cleanse themselves and live free from sin, there is no doubt as to the result of this work, No power can uproot us and from this time we will go on improving and enlarging until there is no limit to that which we should obtain. We poor weak mortals should render the deepest gratitude to God for the privilege of being connected with this work and having part in these promises. But those who reign with Christ must suffer with Him. Whether we will be permitted to live and triumph with the work of God depends upon us, and it should be our constant prayer that our fidelity may never falter. We may wade through sorrow, we may have to endure imprisonment, and bonds, or meet death as our predecessors have been compelled to do. Each one will have to be tried to the uttermost before he can enter his exaltation. We have all promises made to us, and precious blessings have been confirmed upon our heads by the Priesthood. Let us make ourselves worthy of them. Since the day that the first temple was completed and Joseph sealed the keys of the Priesthood upon his brethren the work has gone on in majesty and power, but stirring up the very depths of hell to do all in their power to obliterate the work. God permits the opposite party to exert themselves, and if the contest be sharp and bitter it will be over so much the sooner. God will remember Zion, whose name is written on the palms of His hands. He sees the willingness of His people, their devotion is not unknown to Him. Who shall enter the Temples which we are erecting to our Lord? A time is here when a higher standard of purity is required from those who enter holy places. The adulterers, whoremongers, blasphemers, dishonest men have need to tremble, for the blessings of God will be withdrawn from them, for the day is to come when the sinner in Zion will tremble and fear will come upon the hypocrite. The sins of the unworthy among the people will be found upon the skirts of the Bishops and the Presidents of Stakes who do not clear iniquity out of their Wards or Stakes or who recommend them to the privilege of the Temple. A higher law has been given regarding adultery, that those who have had their endowments and then commit themselves in this manner cannot be re-baptized into the Church. Let this be known in all the congregations of the Saints that those who may feel tempted may consider that if they fall they do so at the price of their salvation. This will not be a land of Zion to the adulterer, the hypocrite, the Sabbath-breaker, the man who does not pay his tithing. Let us be warned in time, that we may be found worthy of an exaltation in the presence of our Father and God.
read a portion of the 29th Chapter of Isaiah, and continuing said: This work which God predicted by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon and its being presented to a learned and an unlearned man, and the causing of the wisdom of the wise men to come to naught, have all been remarkably fulfilled before our eyes, and this is not less the case respecting the confusion of those who should fight against Mount Zion. As that which has been predicted and has been fulfilled in the past are facts well known to us, we can believe that that which is predicted but not yet fulfilled also assuredly will be. The work was commenced in obscurity and was born according to the will of God, with no special demonstration which should attract the attention of the world. Our own commencement as human beings on the earth was of a similar type, yet a puny, helpless infant may become a God in the eternities of our Father. The commencement of the Church was obscure and insignificant, and it required faith in those who were its early members to believe that it would ever attain that position and strength which were predicted for it. The Prophet Joseph, however, and his associates saw by vision that which we now behold and participate in, and much more which we, if we behold it at all, must see by the Spirit. Scarcely a step or a circumstance has taken place in the Church that was not known to and spoken of by Joseph Smith. Yet men doubt his divine calling as a prophet and hold up his name to scorn and ridicule, still it is not too much to say that before many years have passed away, he will be recognized as one of the mightiest prophets that ever trod the footstool of God. His life and character have not been understood in the past, but they will be more fully in the future. In the very beginning he told of the hatred with which the church would be met. He told of events that should occur as clearly as if he were reading the account of events which had already taken place. As the influence and extent of the work increased, opposition increased proportionately. The hatred of a township became that of a county, and then of a State, and then of neighboring states, the work having all the time to contend against as much as it could well bear up under. The protection and watchcare of our God have nevertheless been wonderfully made manifest in our behalf. If the power of Satan had not been restrained in the beginning it would have been easy to wipe out the work in blood. This could have been done when the soil of Illinois drank the blood of our prophet and patriarch, and present President. But the Lord restrained the adversary, never allowing more to come upon us than we were able to bear. And then as the keys of the Priesthood and the power of God were made more manifest, the exertions and power of the wicked increased. It has seemed that one power has kept pace with the other, and in this we can see the wisdom of our Father. It is necessary that we be tested by the rude ordeals of persecution to which we have been, still are, and will be subjected, in order to develop our strength.
Men say if we will only lay aside polygamy, will correct our marital relations, the opposition will be deprived of their war-cry and persecution will cease. This is a vain thought, indulged only by those who judge of this work by their own human knowledge, the effects of this work and that which it is to accomplish, cannot be measured by any standard known to man. Since the disappearance of the priesthood from the earth after the death of the Savior, there has been no such power in the earth. It is known to us that opposition was proportionately stronger before than it has been since the introduction of plural marriage. So we who are familiar with these matters know that the giving up of our marriage system would not have the effect that our friends would bespeak for it. To-day we are confronted by the fact that the United States have pitted themselves in their governmental capacity against us, exactly as we have been taught to expect. Shall we now falter or give way, become weak in the knees, or tremble in the heart when we see this attitude in the heart when we see this attitude so clearly defined? God forbid. The whole world may know that years ago these things which we now behold were expected to be met, contended with and overcome. But is this to be the end? Certainly not; as the Church shall increase, so will opposition increase, until leaping beyond the bounds of our own nation all the empires of the earth shall array themselves against the work of God, as the township, the county, the State have done and the United States are now doing. Then will the puny infant born on the 6th of April, 1830, rise in its sublimity, a stalwart man. People wonder at our hardihood and temerity in daring to remain firm against such circumstances, and it is only a few days since read in the newspapers that a friend appealed to us to have a revelation doing away with polygamy, else war would ensue. This is no new threat to us however: the burden of the Lord has been upon us, and we have rested secure in the promise that the work of God surely shall triumph, no matter what the result to us as individuals may be. The work of God has thus proven itself indeed a marvelous work and a wonder, and to-day human wisdom is as much at fault respecting it as it ever was. We can see, if we enjoy the spirit of God, the wonderful way in which God has provided for His people and shaped their destinies. Our mountain home, our training in the past, give us the clearest evidence of this. No other land could be so well adapted for us as this, and on the other hand, no other people are so well fitted to hold and develop the land as we. Our people have been brought to these valleys, and hold them now by every right. Shall we be uprooted, or shall we be prevented in our growth or increase? They may tell us the answer depends whether we will give up our peculiar features of religion and conform to their ideas. On the other hand, the speaker declared, that it does not depend upon this, but does depend entirely upon the Latter-day Saints themselves whether they will continue to occupy these lands and maintain their position here. Looking at it naturally, it would seem a bold and audacious thing to say that we can stand against such odds of combined opposition. And it is perhaps true that if God would allow the whole world to launch its thunderbolts against us and unite for our destruction there could scarcely by any question as to the result. But this is the work of the great God, and he controls all the doings and the results of the children of men. He will not forget His promises and upon these we must rely. We must on our part live so that we can enjoy the fulfillment of them. If we do this there is no power which can retard the progress and final triumph of our cause from this time forward until the final consummation is achieved. If the Saints will cleanse themselves and live free from sin, there is no doubt as to the result of this work, No power can uproot us and from this time we will go on improving and enlarging until there is no limit to that which we should obtain. We poor weak mortals should render the deepest gratitude to God for the privilege of being connected with this work and having part in these promises. But those who reign with Christ must suffer with Him. Whether we will be permitted to live and triumph with the work of God depends upon us, and it should be our constant prayer that our fidelity may never falter. We may wade through sorrow, we may have to endure imprisonment, and bonds, or meet death as our predecessors have been compelled to do. Each one will have to be tried to the uttermost before he can enter his exaltation. We have all promises made to us, and precious blessings have been confirmed upon our heads by the Priesthood. Let us make ourselves worthy of them. Since the day that the first temple was completed and Joseph sealed the keys of the Priesthood upon his brethren the work has gone on in majesty and power, but stirring up the very depths of hell to do all in their power to obliterate the work. God permits the opposite party to exert themselves, and if the contest be sharp and bitter it will be over so much the sooner. God will remember Zion, whose name is written on the palms of His hands. He sees the willingness of His people, their devotion is not unknown to Him. Who shall enter the Temples which we are erecting to our Lord? A time is here when a higher standard of purity is required from those who enter holy places. The adulterers, whoremongers, blasphemers, dishonest men have need to tremble, for the blessings of God will be withdrawn from them, for the day is to come when the sinner in Zion will tremble and fear will come upon the hypocrite. The sins of the unworthy among the people will be found upon the skirts of the Bishops and the Presidents of Stakes who do not clear iniquity out of their Wards or Stakes or who recommend them to the privilege of the Temple. A higher law has been given regarding adultery, that those who have had their endowments and then commit themselves in this manner cannot be re-baptized into the Church. Let this be known in all the congregations of the Saints that those who may feel tempted may consider that if they fall they do so at the price of their salvation. This will not be a land of Zion to the adulterer, the hypocrite, the Sabbath-breaker, the man who does not pay his tithing. Let us be warned in time, that we may be found worthy of an exaltation in the presence of our Father and God.
The Fulfillment of Ancient and Modern Prophecy—God the Friend of the Saints—Persons Guilty of Adultery Having Had Their Endowments Cannot Again Be Baptized
Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, (Semi-Annual Conference) 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
I will read a portion of the 29th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, commencing at the 7th verse:
“And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
“It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
“Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
“For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
“And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
“And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
There is much more in this chapter which I will not read, but which all can read at their leisure. In sitting and looking at the congregation these words have come to my mind:
“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
Truly have these words been fulfilled in our eyes and in our hearing. God our Eternal Father predicted by the mouth of His Prophet Isaiah, concerning the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the manner in which it should be received; and we today are living witnesses of the fulfillment of these things. God our Eternal Father has done and is doing a marvelous work and a wonder in the midst of the inhabitants of the earth. He is causing the wisdom of the wise to perish—He has caused it—and He is bringing to naught the understanding of the prudent, especially those who fight against Mount Zion, or against the covenant people of God. The manner in which our Father and our God has spoken concerning the great work of the last days with which we are identified, is very remarkable. When we examine the prediction of the holy prophets, it is wonderful how plainly everything connected with this work, so far, has been fulfilled; and as we have been told this morning—and we are told whenever the Spirit of God rests down upon the Elders of this Church to speak concerning the future—we have the strongest assurance that can be given by God to any people that as that which has been predicted in the past has been completely fulfilled up to the present time, so all the predictions which have been made connected with this work, or concerning it, will also be fulfilled to the very letter; not one word will fail, not one iota of the word of God concerning Zion will fall to the ground unfulfilled.
This work commenced, as we know, in obscurity, in weakness, with no particular demonstration in the sight of the world. A few individuals only knew concerning it. There were no remarkable manifestations for the world to gaze upon, for the world to wonder at, connected with its birth. It was born according to the will of God. The Church started out a good deal like we have started out—helpless. What is there more helpless, weak, puny, insignificant, it may be said, in many respects, than a human being when it is born into the world. Yet that being if nurtured properly, if trained as it should be, has before it a career of never-ending glory. That little puling infant may become, in the eternity of our God, a God, to sway power and dominion in the eternal worlds, to be the father of unnumbered millions. Yet at its birth who would anticipate such a future for it. So it was with the Church of our God. Born in weakness, cradled in obscurity, it came forth according to the command of God; not attended, as I have said, by any great demonstration that the world could gaze and wonder at, but attended by the blessing, the power and the promises of our Eternal Father concerning its future. It required faith on the part of those who then received it to believe that such a glorious career as was predicted concerning it, awaited it. No human being unenlightened and uninspired by the Spirit of God, could have anticipated such a future for this great work; and yet in these early days, when it was in this condition which I have attempted to describe, the Prophet Joseph and those who received revelations with him, looked forward to its future, and saw that which we behold today in actual reality; they saw in vision that which we participate in today, and far more than anything that we have yet seen. I have often been struck with the remarkable character of the predictions which Joseph, inspired of God, gave utterance to concerning this work. As I have said, scarcely a step in its advancement was hidden from him; scarcely a step but what was foreshadowed by him through the Spirit of God, which rested down upon him. Men doubt the divinity of this work. Men question the spirit of prophecy, or the divine mission of Joseph Smith. His life is maligned and misrepresented; his character derided and held up to contempt and scorn; yet it is not much to say, it is not much to anticipate, that before many years pass away, he will be recognized by the children of men as one of the mightiest Prophets that ever trod the footstool of God our Eternal Father. It is because his life has not been understood; it is because the work which he was the means in the hands of God of founding, is not comprehended; it is because his life has not been understood; it is because the work which he was the means in the hands of God of founding is not comprehended; it is because everything connected with this Church is beclouded by misrepresentation and falsehood that men assume the attitude they do towards this the great work of our God. In the very beginning of this work Joseph told the Saints, left on record the statement, as to how it would be received by the children of men—the hatred with which it would be met, the violence that would be manifested towards it, the various troubles through which it would have to pass. All these things he told, by his prophetic voice, as though their history had been written, as though they had taken place. Most graphically he has described to the Saints the results that should attend the increase of the work. At the first he said it should excite the animosity and hatred of a township. It did this. God in his mercy did not permit persecution to become so strong in the inception of the work, in the days of its weakness, that it could be overwhelmed. He restrained the power of the wicked, so that the growth and strength of the work would be commensurate with the opposition it had to contend with. As its circle enlarged, as its influence extended, opposition grew proportionately. From townships it extended to cities. As the work grew and outspread these limits, it excited the opposition of counties. As its influence continued to grow, from one county it extended to adjacent counties all the time growing, all the time increasing, all the time meeting with as much opposition as it could well bear up under. Wonderfully has the providence of our God been exhibited in the care exercised over His growing Church and His increasing people! Had it not been for this care, my brethren and sisters, we should not have the happy privilege that we enjoy this day of meeting together in peace in this Tabernacle. Had Satan been permitted to wreak his vengeance upon the Church in the commencement, it could easily have been extinguished in blood. Had the same power that was exercised against the Church in the days of Nauvoo, when the blood of our Prophet and Patriarch, and our present President, drenched the soil of Illinois—had that same spirit been permitted to have wreaked its vengeance upon the Church in the early days, it could, with no more excitement than was then raised, have completely extirpated the Priesthood from the face of the earth. But God, as I have said, in His wonderful providence, restrained the wrath of the wicked in the early days of the Church. Brother Franklin D. Richards has told us this morning, that for eight years after the birth of a child it is free from the power of temptation and Satan. God restrains the power of Satan—forbids him to exercise it over the tender child. And so in like manner did He restrain the power of Satan in the early days of this Church, so that there was a limit to its exercise over the Church in its weak condition. But as power increased, as the gifts of God were manifested, as the keys of the Priesthood were revealed unto the children of men, so did the wrath of the wicked, so did the violence of mobs, so did the combinations that were formed with the object of destroying the work of God increase in their strength and in their numbers. As the work progressed, so did the spirit of opposition progress, one keeping pace, apparently, with the other, and there is a wise purpose in this when we contemplate the great destiny that awaits this people. We can see the wisdom and the purpose of our God in permitting persecution to keep pace with the growth and the advancement of the work. It is just as necessary that we should be developed in our strength; it is just as necessary that we should be developed in our faith, as anything else connected with the work of our God. If it were not for this, we could not become the people that God designs; we could not fulfill the destiny that He has in store for us if it were not for these terrible ordeals to which this Church and this people have been subjected in the past, and to which they are now exposed, and which, doubtless, will continue to increase as the Church increases, until the day comes when the Kingdom of God will triumph over every obstacle and be fully established upon the earth.
But as I have remarked, as the Kingdom has grown and spread, so have the words of our beloved Prophet been literally fulfilled. Men say, “Oh, if you will only get a revelation concerning polygamy, if you will only lay polygamy aside, you will no longer have any opposition to contend with; if you will only conform to modern ideas concerning your domestic institutions, we shall have nothing to say against you. The opposition that finds now such strong support will be deprived of its war-cry and of the sympathy of thousands which sustain it at the present time—they will be deprived of this and you will go along like the rest of the churches, without having to suffer from the opposition and the hatred that are now manifested against you.”
Vain thought!—a thought that is only expressed by those who know nothing of the character of this work, who are not familiar with the history of this dispensation, and who judge of the effects of such movements by their human knowledge and the experience that they have with other systems. This system which God has established, this great work of our God, cannot be measured by human thoughts; the effects of this work and that which it is accomplishing on the earth, that which it will accomplish on the earth, cannot be estimated by anything that is known among men. It is entirely unique, unlike anything else that has ever been upon the earth since our Savior laid the foundation of that dispensation—there has never been anything like it among men, and therefore every calculation concerning it, every prognostication and every suggestion is at fault in regard to this work of our God. For, be it understood, as we well understand it as a people, that before the public revelation of plural marriage the opposition to this work was stronger, according to the strength of the people, than it has been since. Therefore, those who understand this work, know very well that anything of this kind—unless indeed the people should apostatize—would have no such effect as our friends in many instances think it would have.
As I have remarked opposition has continued to grow and increase until today, as we have been told and led to expect, upwards of half a century ago. Not only has it been a township, not only has it been a county, not only has it been a state that has arrayed itself against the work of God, and instituted measures for its overthrow and entire destruction, but today this great fact stares us in the face, it presses itself upon our attention, we cannot shut our eyes to it—this great fact, that today the United States in its governmental capacity, has pitted itself against the work of our God, and has passed measures for its complete overthrow and destruction. Most wonderfully has God thus far fulfilled every word that has been spoken by the mouth of His inspired Prophet! And shall we who witness the remarkable fulfillment of this prophecy—shall we today shrink from the issue that is presented to us? Shall we in view of all that God has said to us concerning the past, and all which he has predicted concerning the future? Shall we falter? Shall we tremble or grow weak in our knees? Shall we become palsied in our efforts and let go of that great work of our God which is entrusted to us? God forbid that there should be any weakening, that there should be any faltering, that there should be any lowering of the flag, or any weakening of the flag, or any weakening of the knees, or any trembling of the heart, in view of all that presents itself before us, however appalling the vision may be to mortal sight. God forbid that there should be anything of this kind in the hearts or in the actions of any man or woman who calls himself or herself a Latter-day Saint. For be it known unto you, my brethren and sisters, be it known unto all the earth everywhere, that God, years and years ago, told us by the mouth of His inspired Prophet, that these things, the fulfillment of which we now behold, would actually take place, and that we should have these things to meet and to contend with and to overcome.
What shall be the future result? Is this to be the termination, is this to be the end? No. As the Church increases, so will the opposition to it increase, until it will extend itself beyond the confines of our own nation to other lands and to other nations, until, in fact, the whole earth that has not received, or will not receive the Gospel of the Son of God, the message of salvation, of which we are the unworthy bearers, until, I say, all the nations of the earth will array themselves against the work of our God, and exert their power to destroy it, as a township did, as a county did, as a state did, or as the United States are now doing, and then the work of our God will rise in its sublimity, in its strength, in its Godlike power and assume its place, its rightful position among the nations of the earth. The puny infant, born on the 6th day of April, 1830, will become a stalwart man, full of power, full of the gifts of God, full of the excellencies that belong to perfect manhood in the sight of God, and will assume its fit and proper place designed by God for it among the nations of the earth. This we may look forward to, this we may expect, and if we do not make calculations on these things we fail to comprehend the character of the work which He, our God, has established on the earth. Men wonder at our temerity—men wonder at the hardihood we have. They are surprised that we should dare think as we do. Only a few days ago we saw the statement of a friend in the Deseret News, appealing to us to get a revelation to do away with plural marriage; because if we did not, war and bloodshed would be the result. Have we not been threatened with this from the beginning? Yes, we have. We have had this ordeal to meet; we have had war threatened; we have suffered from bloodshed; but the burden of the Lord has been upon us, the hand of God has been over us. Though our pathway has been beset by all these difficulties, nevertheless the burden of the Lord has been upon us to carry forward this Gospel and to establish this work, let the consequences be what they may to us individually. We have the promise of God, that so far as the work is concerned it will stand, it will increase, until it fills the whole earth. We know not what the consequences may be to us individually. Each man must do his duty, and do his part faithfully, courageously, manfully, in the sight of God, being willing to endure all the consequences, with a full knowledge that God will save, redeem and exalt him if he will only be true to the holy Priesthood which he has revealed.
Then is not this a marvelous work and a wonder? Has not the wisdom of the wise in connection with it, perished? Has not the understanding of the prudent been brought to naught? Has it not baffled all the calculations of human wisdom? Has it not overcome all the obstacles that have been put in its pathway by human strength and by all the ingenuity which human beings have been able to devise or employ or command? Certainly it has; and today human wisdom and human prudence are as much at fault as they ever were, and it will continue to be the case until all that God has predicted concerning this work will be literally fulfilled.
My brethren and sisters, when we look at this work by the light of the Holy Spirit, when God enables us to comprehend some of His designs and purposes, we can see how wonderfully He has wrought in our behalf, how wonderfully he has preserved this people. We today are a great people, it may be said. In some respects we are. We are few in numbers, it is true; but God in His wonderful providence has prepared this land, this glorious land, this mountain region, it seems as though He had prepared it beforehand for the ingathering of His people, and as a dwelling place for them. A better habitat cannot be found on the face of the earth, for the Latter-day Saints than this mountain region. A better or more admirably adapted people for these mountains cannot be found. The training we have had in the past admirably fits us for the labor of establishing cities, towns, villages and hamlets, opening farms, and developing all the resources of these mountain valleys. No other people are so well qualified for this labor as we are. No other land is so well adapted for such a people as this land that we now inhabit. The people and the land have been found. The people and the land have come together. The land is here. The people have found the land which is so surprisingly fitted for their habitation. And there is no people that I know anything of, who can compete with us in these mountain valleys. They are ours by right of possession to begin with, by right of settlement, and they are ours by right of our capacity to inhabit and hold them, and they are ours by right of the blessing and the favor of God our Eternal Father, bestowed upon us and upon the land itself. And, as President Taylor suggests, they are ours by purchase as well as by those other rights.
Shall we be uprooted from this land? Shall we be extirpated? This is a question that presents itself very often, doubtless, to our mind. In the providence of our God, will we be permitted to maintain our foothold here, and to continue to increase and to spread? We have the answer to these questions in our own possession. It depends upon ourselves.
“Oh,” says one, “It don't depend upon you, it depends upon another power. It depends upon this: whether you will abandon your peculiar practices; whether you will lay aside your peculiarities of doctrine and of religion, and conform to the views, to the institutions, and the practices that prevail in the nation of which you form a part.”
These are the comments of those who are not of us respecting this question or questions, which I have asked. They think it depends upon our abandonment of those peculiar features which make us a distinct people from the rest of the nation. On the other hand I state here in the presence of heaven, in the presence of the Great God, our Eternal Father, that it does not depend upon this. It depends—I affirm it, and I am willing to stake my reputation upon it as a servant of God—it depends entirely, without question, without qualification; upon the Latter-day Saints themselves, whether they will continue to live in this land and to occupy it, and to enjoy the valleys and the peace which God has vouchsafed unto all who dwell here. I know that looking at matters naturally, we are in danger of being overwhelmed, extinguished. A people feeble as we are, a people possessing no greater resources than we have; a people of no greater numbers, of no greater wealth, of no greater influence in the earth—why, it would seem a bold and rash thing to say that we can withstand all opposition that may be brought against us. If God were to permit the world to launch its thunderbolts against this work; if God were to permit the world to unite against this work, to combine and to put in operation its forces against this work, I am willing to admit that there would be great danger of our complete overthrow and destruction, in fact it might be said there would be scarcely a question concerning it. But remember, my brethren and sisters, that this is the work of God. This is not the work of man. It has not been the wisdom of man that has guided this work. It has not been the wisdom of man that has sustained it. It has not been the wisdom of man which has defeated the plans of our enemies. It has been the wisdom and power of the Great God, our Eternal Father. He has chosen his instruments. But, then, how weak they are! How feeble they are! How insufficient their efforts and their words would be if He did not supplement them by the bestowal of His power, and by that overruling providence which controls all the affairs of the children of men, controls all the results according to His own good pleasure. But God our Eternal Father, will not forget His people. He will not forget the promises which He has made, and it is upon these that we must rely. It is for these that we must live. We must live—live, brethren and sisters—let it sink deep into your hearts. We must live ourselves so that we shall have the fulfillment of the promises of God granted unto us. If we so live, there is no power on earth that will be permitted to combine itself, or to array itself, or to exert its force against this work to its injury, or to retard its onward progress. Hear it all ye Latter-day Saints! Hear it! If I could speak so that the whole world would hear the utterance I would like to sound it in the ears of all mortal men—that there is no power that will ever be permitted to array itself, or to combine itself against this work of our God, to retard its onward progress from this time forward until the full consummation will be achieved—that is, if the Latter-day Saints themselves are faithful to God, if they will keep the commandments of God, if they will sanctify themselves and cleanse themselves from sin, and live pure and holy lives. If they will do this, then the success and the triumph and the continued growth and advancement of this kingdom and the continued maintenance of these valleys and these mountains are assured unto us as a people. There is no doubt of it. I say in the name of Jesus Christ, that it will be so. I promise it in His name, and in the authority which I have received from Him—that if we will comply with these requirements and conditions, there is no power upon earth nor in hell that can disturb this people, that can uproot us, that can unsettle us in these valleys and in these mountains; for God has given unto us this land, and from this time forward, we will go on increasing and spreading and enlarging until all that God has said shall be literally fulfilled concerning this work that He has established upon the earth. He will do a marvelous work and a wonder. He will cause the wisdom of the wise to perish; He will bring the understanding of the prudent to naught in all their calculations against this work which He is establishing on the earth, and with which we are connected. Glory to God in the highest for the privilege He has granted unto us, poor, weak mortal creatures, to be identified with His great work and have such glorious immutable promises given unto us! Oh! how our hearts should swell with gratitude to our God! How profoundly grateful we should be and how thanksgiving and joy should well up in our hearts unto our God for having given unto us the privilege of being connected with this great work.
Now, will those connected with it not have their trials? Oh yes. Those who would reign with Christ must suffer with Him. Those who would reign with the Prophets; those who would gain the glory that God has in store for the righteous must suffer with the Prophets and Apostles.
I have spoken in my remarks concerning the great work of our God. I have not yet alluded to individual cases connected with it. What will be the fate of individual members of the Church of God? That depends upon ourselves. But whether we remain connected with the work or not, this I know:
I know that this work will roll forth in the manner in which I have, in my humble and weak way, attempted to describe to you. I know that. But whether I will be faithful depends upon myself. I beseech Him in the name of Jesus, that I may be faithful; that whatever may come in my pathway I may never, no never flinch, never weaken in my fidelity, in my courage and in my zeal for this glorious work of our God. I would rather die this instant in your presence, than ever falter in regard to this work. I love it. It is God's work. I dedicated myself in my childhood to the cause of God, and I have endeavored through my life to be faithful to Him. If we will be faithful to our God He will redeem us, no matter what the circumstances may be through which we may be called to pass. We may wade through sorrow. We may have to endure persecution. We may have to meet with death. We may have to endure imprisonment and many other things that our predecessors had to endure. God may test us in this manner. Every human being that is connected with this work will have to be tested before he can enter into the Celestial Kingdom of our God. He will try us to the uttermost. If we have any spot more tender than another, He will feel after it. He will test all in some way or other. But like the promises that have been made in regard to the work as a work, so are the promises made to us as individual members of the Church. We have had certain promises made to us. We have had blessings sealed upon us. God has acknowledged them in the heavens when they have been sealed upon our heads by the authority of the Priesthood which He has restored. And you may notice it that as the work of our God has increased we have also increased in the power of the Priesthood. When Joseph Smith committed the keys of the Priesthood unto his brethren, and rolled the burden upon their shoulders of carrying forward this work—in his urgent haste to build the Temple of Nauvoo, in his urgent haste to commit to his fellow servants all that God had committed to him—from that day the Kingdom of our God has grown in majesty and in strength, and at the same time has called forth opposition such as it never met with before. Every Temple that we build excites additional hatred, increases the volume of opposition, the volume of hostility, and the threatenings of the wicked. Every Temple that we have thus far completed—and every Temple of which we lay the foundation—has been another testimony in favor of God, and has brought strength to the people of God, in enlisting the hosts in the eternal world upon our side; but at the same time there has been stirred up, from the very depths of hell, all the damned, Satan and his legions, to unite with their agents upon the earth in an endeavor to destroy this work, and to do everything in their power to obliterate it from the face of the earth: for hell is engaged at the work we are doing: hell is stirred up at that which we are accomplishing. Satan sees that which he dreads. He sees a people guided by the holy Priesthood. He sees a people gathered together according to the promise of God, filled with the power of God, led by His everlasting Priesthood, and seeing this, he is determined to exert every power, every influence that he can muster for the purpose of preventing the spread and growth of this work. He is determined to do this, and we can see it. But his power and influence are restrained; because, were it not so, the strength of the people of the Church of God is not such as to withstand the power of the evil one without succumbing to it. God, therefore, permits the opposition power to grow in proportion to the strength of the Saints, and if the contest be a sharp one, a keen one, a violent one, the sooner it will be ended. Because there is a termination to all this. There is a time coming when this opposition must cease and when God will stretch forth His arm, as He has already done, to accomplish His great work on the earth. As the nations of the earth reject the Gospel, He will pour out the judgments that are set to follow the preaching of the Gospel. God will fight for Zion. God will remember Zion. Her name is written on the palms of His hands. He never can forget Zion. A woman may forget her nursing child—and that is a very difficult thing to do—but our God will never forget Zion, never forget the promises made to His people. He looks down from His holy habitation, and sees the humble efforts of His people. He sees their devotion to His cause. He sees their willingness to lay down their lives for the truth. Our God is not ignorant of this. His eye is upon this people, and His blessing will be with us. There is no power that can prevent the outpouring of His Spirit upon us; no power whatever.
We are rearing, as I have said, temples. And who shall enter into the temples of our God? Shall the drunkard, the whoremonger, the blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker? Shall the man who does not train his family as he should do, who is not living a godly life? I tell you, my brethren and sisters, the time has come when a higher standard of purity must be observed by us as a people than has been in the past. We must live worthy of these blessings which God has bestowed upon us. If we do not God will withdraw His Spirit; God would condemn His servant who stands at the head of this Church, were he to permit wickedness to enter into these holy places. Therefore, the servants of God are strictly charged concerning these things. O, you adulterers! O, you whoremongers! O, you drunkards! O you Sabbath-breakers! O you dishonest men, and you hypocrites who have a place and a name among the Latter-day Saints! I say, woe! unto you unless you repent of your sins, unless you forsake everything that is evil and humble yourselves before God, and ask forgiveness from Him; for I tell you the Spirit of God will be withdrawn from you, and you will be left to yourselves and become as withered branches only fit for burning, unless you heartily, sincerely, profoundly, from the bottom of your hearts, repent of all your sins and put them far from you. God will not bear with you any longer. The sinner in Zion will tremble. That day will come. Fear will come upon the hypocrite. Therefore, repent of your sins before it is too late. And if you do you may enter into the holy places which God has provided. But O ye Presidents of Stakes and ye Bishops, you must be on the watchtower about these things, for God will hold you accountable. The sins of the people will be found upon your garments in the day of the Lord Jesus, if you do not cleanse impurity from the midst of your wards. If you recommend men who are unworthy, through tenderness of heart and through sympathy, when they are wicked, I say to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that the condemnation of God will rest upon you, and He will hold you to a strict accountability. For God has not chosen men to preside without laying upon them responsibility of a very grave and weighty character. He holds us accountable for these things. When a man has a relative and he condones the offense of that relative, through sympathy, he will not be free from responsibility. Now let it be known throughout all Israel, as the word of the Lord to us for the present, through His servant who stands at the head, that a man who commits adultery, a man who has had his endowments, cannot be baptized again into the Church. Let it be known throughout all Israel, as the word of God through His servant, who stands at the head, that a man who has had his endowments and commits whoredom, cannot now be received into the Church again. These must be cut off; because the law that was given in the early days of the Church concerning a man committing adultery once and being received back into the Church does not apply today. There has been a higher law since then, namely, the endowments, and men have taken upon themselves, and women also, sacred obligations in holy places. Therefore, hear it and understand it. Let it be given out in all the congregations of the Saints; let it be known everywhere throughout the land of Zion, so that if a man is tempted to do that deed, or a woman, that they will pause in view of the terrible consequences which await its commission—that they will pause and ask themselves the question—can I do this at the expense of my salvation and my exaltation in the presence of God? God has labored with us for fifty-four years and six months. He has revealed unto us His laws in plainness and power, so that all can understand, and if there be any now that do not understand, it is because they have not availed themselves of their privileges and opportunities. My brethren and sisters, this land must be a land of Zion to us. It will be a land of Zion to all who keep the commandments of God. It will not be a land of Zion to the adulterer, the seducer, the blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker, the man who does not pay his tithing, to any who do not keep the commandments of God; but to those who do keep the commandments of God, and who keep themselves pure, it will be a land of peace, a land wherein they and their children after them can dwell in peace and righteousness. But let us be warned in this the day of our probation. Let us walk humbly before our God. Let us live so as to have his revelations constantly within us; let us live so that His Spirit shall burn in our hearts and in our bosoms and in our bones like a very fire, that in the end we may be saved and exalted in His Celestial Kingdom, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The choir sang “song of the Redeemed.”
Benediction by Apostle Moses Thatcher.
Discourse by President George Q. Cannon, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, October 5th, (Semi-Annual Conference) 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
I will read a portion of the 29th chapter of the Book of Isaiah, commencing at the 7th verse:
“And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
“It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
“Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
“For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
“And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
“And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
There is much more in this chapter which I will not read, but which all can read at their leisure. In sitting and looking at the congregation these words have come to my mind:
“Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
Truly have these words been fulfilled in our eyes and in our hearing. God our Eternal Father predicted by the mouth of His Prophet Isaiah, concerning the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the manner in which it should be received; and we today are living witnesses of the fulfillment of these things. God our Eternal Father has done and is doing a marvelous work and a wonder in the midst of the inhabitants of the earth. He is causing the wisdom of the wise to perish—He has caused it—and He is bringing to naught the understanding of the prudent, especially those who fight against Mount Zion, or against the covenant people of God. The manner in which our Father and our God has spoken concerning the great work of the last days with which we are identified, is very remarkable. When we examine the prediction of the holy prophets, it is wonderful how plainly everything connected with this work, so far, has been fulfilled; and as we have been told this morning—and we are told whenever the Spirit of God rests down upon the Elders of this Church to speak concerning the future—we have the strongest assurance that can be given by God to any people that as that which has been predicted in the past has been completely fulfilled up to the present time, so all the predictions which have been made connected with this work, or concerning it, will also be fulfilled to the very letter; not one word will fail, not one iota of the word of God concerning Zion will fall to the ground unfulfilled.
This work commenced, as we know, in obscurity, in weakness, with no particular demonstration in the sight of the world. A few individuals only knew concerning it. There were no remarkable manifestations for the world to gaze upon, for the world to wonder at, connected with its birth. It was born according to the will of God. The Church started out a good deal like we have started out—helpless. What is there more helpless, weak, puny, insignificant, it may be said, in many respects, than a human being when it is born into the world. Yet that being if nurtured properly, if trained as it should be, has before it a career of never-ending glory. That little puling infant may become, in the eternity of our God, a God, to sway power and dominion in the eternal worlds, to be the father of unnumbered millions. Yet at its birth who would anticipate such a future for it. So it was with the Church of our God. Born in weakness, cradled in obscurity, it came forth according to the command of God; not attended, as I have said, by any great demonstration that the world could gaze and wonder at, but attended by the blessing, the power and the promises of our Eternal Father concerning its future. It required faith on the part of those who then received it to believe that such a glorious career as was predicted concerning it, awaited it. No human being unenlightened and uninspired by the Spirit of God, could have anticipated such a future for this great work; and yet in these early days, when it was in this condition which I have attempted to describe, the Prophet Joseph and those who received revelations with him, looked forward to its future, and saw that which we behold today in actual reality; they saw in vision that which we participate in today, and far more than anything that we have yet seen. I have often been struck with the remarkable character of the predictions which Joseph, inspired of God, gave utterance to concerning this work. As I have said, scarcely a step in its advancement was hidden from him; scarcely a step but what was foreshadowed by him through the Spirit of God, which rested down upon him. Men doubt the divinity of this work. Men question the spirit of prophecy, or the divine mission of Joseph Smith. His life is maligned and misrepresented; his character derided and held up to contempt and scorn; yet it is not much to say, it is not much to anticipate, that before many years pass away, he will be recognized by the children of men as one of the mightiest Prophets that ever trod the footstool of God our Eternal Father. It is because his life has not been understood; it is because the work which he was the means in the hands of God of founding, is not comprehended; it is because his life has not been understood; it is because the work which he was the means in the hands of God of founding is not comprehended; it is because everything connected with this Church is beclouded by misrepresentation and falsehood that men assume the attitude they do towards this the great work of our God. In the very beginning of this work Joseph told the Saints, left on record the statement, as to how it would be received by the children of men—the hatred with which it would be met, the violence that would be manifested towards it, the various troubles through which it would have to pass. All these things he told, by his prophetic voice, as though their history had been written, as though they had taken place. Most graphically he has described to the Saints the results that should attend the increase of the work. At the first he said it should excite the animosity and hatred of a township. It did this. God in his mercy did not permit persecution to become so strong in the inception of the work, in the days of its weakness, that it could be overwhelmed. He restrained the power of the wicked, so that the growth and strength of the work would be commensurate with the opposition it had to contend with. As its circle enlarged, as its influence extended, opposition grew proportionately. From townships it extended to cities. As the work grew and outspread these limits, it excited the opposition of counties. As its influence continued to grow, from one county it extended to adjacent counties all the time growing, all the time increasing, all the time meeting with as much opposition as it could well bear up under. Wonderfully has the providence of our God been exhibited in the care exercised over His growing Church and His increasing people! Had it not been for this care, my brethren and sisters, we should not have the happy privilege that we enjoy this day of meeting together in peace in this Tabernacle. Had Satan been permitted to wreak his vengeance upon the Church in the commencement, it could easily have been extinguished in blood. Had the same power that was exercised against the Church in the days of Nauvoo, when the blood of our Prophet and Patriarch, and our present President, drenched the soil of Illinois—had that same spirit been permitted to have wreaked its vengeance upon the Church in the early days, it could, with no more excitement than was then raised, have completely extirpated the Priesthood from the face of the earth. But God, as I have said, in His wonderful providence, restrained the wrath of the wicked in the early days of the Church. Brother Franklin D. Richards has told us this morning, that for eight years after the birth of a child it is free from the power of temptation and Satan. God restrains the power of Satan—forbids him to exercise it over the tender child. And so in like manner did He restrain the power of Satan in the early days of this Church, so that there was a limit to its exercise over the Church in its weak condition. But as power increased, as the gifts of God were manifested, as the keys of the Priesthood were revealed unto the children of men, so did the wrath of the wicked, so did the violence of mobs, so did the combinations that were formed with the object of destroying the work of God increase in their strength and in their numbers. As the work progressed, so did the spirit of opposition progress, one keeping pace, apparently, with the other, and there is a wise purpose in this when we contemplate the great destiny that awaits this people. We can see the wisdom and the purpose of our God in permitting persecution to keep pace with the growth and the advancement of the work. It is just as necessary that we should be developed in our strength; it is just as necessary that we should be developed in our faith, as anything else connected with the work of our God. If it were not for this, we could not become the people that God designs; we could not fulfill the destiny that He has in store for us if it were not for these terrible ordeals to which this Church and this people have been subjected in the past, and to which they are now exposed, and which, doubtless, will continue to increase as the Church increases, until the day comes when the Kingdom of God will triumph over every obstacle and be fully established upon the earth.
But as I have remarked, as the Kingdom has grown and spread, so have the words of our beloved Prophet been literally fulfilled. Men say, “Oh, if you will only get a revelation concerning polygamy, if you will only lay polygamy aside, you will no longer have any opposition to contend with; if you will only conform to modern ideas concerning your domestic institutions, we shall have nothing to say against you. The opposition that finds now such strong support will be deprived of its war-cry and of the sympathy of thousands which sustain it at the present time—they will be deprived of this and you will go along like the rest of the churches, without having to suffer from the opposition and the hatred that are now manifested against you.”
Vain thought!—a thought that is only expressed by those who know nothing of the character of this work, who are not familiar with the history of this dispensation, and who judge of the effects of such movements by their human knowledge and the experience that they have with other systems. This system which God has established, this great work of our God, cannot be measured by human thoughts; the effects of this work and that which it is accomplishing on the earth, that which it will accomplish on the earth, cannot be estimated by anything that is known among men. It is entirely unique, unlike anything else that has ever been upon the earth since our Savior laid the foundation of that dispensation—there has never been anything like it among men, and therefore every calculation concerning it, every prognostication and every suggestion is at fault in regard to this work of our God. For, be it understood, as we well understand it as a people, that before the public revelation of plural marriage the opposition to this work was stronger, according to the strength of the people, than it has been since. Therefore, those who understand this work, know very well that anything of this kind—unless indeed the people should apostatize—would have no such effect as our friends in many instances think it would have.
As I have remarked opposition has continued to grow and increase until today, as we have been told and led to expect, upwards of half a century ago. Not only has it been a township, not only has it been a county, not only has it been a state that has arrayed itself against the work of God, and instituted measures for its overthrow and entire destruction, but today this great fact stares us in the face, it presses itself upon our attention, we cannot shut our eyes to it—this great fact, that today the United States in its governmental capacity, has pitted itself against the work of our God, and has passed measures for its complete overthrow and destruction. Most wonderfully has God thus far fulfilled every word that has been spoken by the mouth of His inspired Prophet! And shall we who witness the remarkable fulfillment of this prophecy—shall we today shrink from the issue that is presented to us? Shall we in view of all that God has said to us concerning the past, and all which he has predicted concerning the future? Shall we falter? Shall we tremble or grow weak in our knees? Shall we become palsied in our efforts and let go of that great work of our God which is entrusted to us? God forbid that there should be any weakening, that there should be any faltering, that there should be any lowering of the flag, or any weakening of the flag, or any weakening of the knees, or any trembling of the heart, in view of all that presents itself before us, however appalling the vision may be to mortal sight. God forbid that there should be anything of this kind in the hearts or in the actions of any man or woman who calls himself or herself a Latter-day Saint. For be it known unto you, my brethren and sisters, be it known unto all the earth everywhere, that God, years and years ago, told us by the mouth of His inspired Prophet, that these things, the fulfillment of which we now behold, would actually take place, and that we should have these things to meet and to contend with and to overcome.
What shall be the future result? Is this to be the termination, is this to be the end? No. As the Church increases, so will the opposition to it increase, until it will extend itself beyond the confines of our own nation to other lands and to other nations, until, in fact, the whole earth that has not received, or will not receive the Gospel of the Son of God, the message of salvation, of which we are the unworthy bearers, until, I say, all the nations of the earth will array themselves against the work of our God, and exert their power to destroy it, as a township did, as a county did, as a state did, or as the United States are now doing, and then the work of our God will rise in its sublimity, in its strength, in its Godlike power and assume its place, its rightful position among the nations of the earth. The puny infant, born on the 6th day of April, 1830, will become a stalwart man, full of power, full of the gifts of God, full of the excellencies that belong to perfect manhood in the sight of God, and will assume its fit and proper place designed by God for it among the nations of the earth. This we may look forward to, this we may expect, and if we do not make calculations on these things we fail to comprehend the character of the work which He, our God, has established on the earth. Men wonder at our temerity—men wonder at the hardihood we have. They are surprised that we should dare think as we do. Only a few days ago we saw the statement of a friend in the Deseret News, appealing to us to get a revelation to do away with plural marriage; because if we did not, war and bloodshed would be the result. Have we not been threatened with this from the beginning? Yes, we have. We have had this ordeal to meet; we have had war threatened; we have suffered from bloodshed; but the burden of the Lord has been upon us, the hand of God has been over us. Though our pathway has been beset by all these difficulties, nevertheless the burden of the Lord has been upon us to carry forward this Gospel and to establish this work, let the consequences be what they may to us individually. We have the promise of God, that so far as the work is concerned it will stand, it will increase, until it fills the whole earth. We know not what the consequences may be to us individually. Each man must do his duty, and do his part faithfully, courageously, manfully, in the sight of God, being willing to endure all the consequences, with a full knowledge that God will save, redeem and exalt him if he will only be true to the holy Priesthood which he has revealed.
Then is not this a marvelous work and a wonder? Has not the wisdom of the wise in connection with it, perished? Has not the understanding of the prudent been brought to naught? Has it not baffled all the calculations of human wisdom? Has it not overcome all the obstacles that have been put in its pathway by human strength and by all the ingenuity which human beings have been able to devise or employ or command? Certainly it has; and today human wisdom and human prudence are as much at fault as they ever were, and it will continue to be the case until all that God has predicted concerning this work will be literally fulfilled.
My brethren and sisters, when we look at this work by the light of the Holy Spirit, when God enables us to comprehend some of His designs and purposes, we can see how wonderfully He has wrought in our behalf, how wonderfully he has preserved this people. We today are a great people, it may be said. In some respects we are. We are few in numbers, it is true; but God in His wonderful providence has prepared this land, this glorious land, this mountain region, it seems as though He had prepared it beforehand for the ingathering of His people, and as a dwelling place for them. A better habitat cannot be found on the face of the earth, for the Latter-day Saints than this mountain region. A better or more admirably adapted people for these mountains cannot be found. The training we have had in the past admirably fits us for the labor of establishing cities, towns, villages and hamlets, opening farms, and developing all the resources of these mountain valleys. No other people are so well qualified for this labor as we are. No other land is so well adapted for such a people as this land that we now inhabit. The people and the land have been found. The people and the land have come together. The land is here. The people have found the land which is so surprisingly fitted for their habitation. And there is no people that I know anything of, who can compete with us in these mountain valleys. They are ours by right of possession to begin with, by right of settlement, and they are ours by right of our capacity to inhabit and hold them, and they are ours by right of the blessing and the favor of God our Eternal Father, bestowed upon us and upon the land itself. And, as President Taylor suggests, they are ours by purchase as well as by those other rights.
Shall we be uprooted from this land? Shall we be extirpated? This is a question that presents itself very often, doubtless, to our mind. In the providence of our God, will we be permitted to maintain our foothold here, and to continue to increase and to spread? We have the answer to these questions in our own possession. It depends upon ourselves.
“Oh,” says one, “It don't depend upon you, it depends upon another power. It depends upon this: whether you will abandon your peculiar practices; whether you will lay aside your peculiarities of doctrine and of religion, and conform to the views, to the institutions, and the practices that prevail in the nation of which you form a part.”
These are the comments of those who are not of us respecting this question or questions, which I have asked. They think it depends upon our abandonment of those peculiar features which make us a distinct people from the rest of the nation. On the other hand I state here in the presence of heaven, in the presence of the Great God, our Eternal Father, that it does not depend upon this. It depends—I affirm it, and I am willing to stake my reputation upon it as a servant of God—it depends entirely, without question, without qualification; upon the Latter-day Saints themselves, whether they will continue to live in this land and to occupy it, and to enjoy the valleys and the peace which God has vouchsafed unto all who dwell here. I know that looking at matters naturally, we are in danger of being overwhelmed, extinguished. A people feeble as we are, a people possessing no greater resources than we have; a people of no greater numbers, of no greater wealth, of no greater influence in the earth—why, it would seem a bold and rash thing to say that we can withstand all opposition that may be brought against us. If God were to permit the world to launch its thunderbolts against this work; if God were to permit the world to unite against this work, to combine and to put in operation its forces against this work, I am willing to admit that there would be great danger of our complete overthrow and destruction, in fact it might be said there would be scarcely a question concerning it. But remember, my brethren and sisters, that this is the work of God. This is not the work of man. It has not been the wisdom of man that has guided this work. It has not been the wisdom of man that has sustained it. It has not been the wisdom of man which has defeated the plans of our enemies. It has been the wisdom and power of the Great God, our Eternal Father. He has chosen his instruments. But, then, how weak they are! How feeble they are! How insufficient their efforts and their words would be if He did not supplement them by the bestowal of His power, and by that overruling providence which controls all the affairs of the children of men, controls all the results according to His own good pleasure. But God our Eternal Father, will not forget His people. He will not forget the promises which He has made, and it is upon these that we must rely. It is for these that we must live. We must live—live, brethren and sisters—let it sink deep into your hearts. We must live ourselves so that we shall have the fulfillment of the promises of God granted unto us. If we so live, there is no power on earth that will be permitted to combine itself, or to array itself, or to exert its force against this work to its injury, or to retard its onward progress. Hear it all ye Latter-day Saints! Hear it! If I could speak so that the whole world would hear the utterance I would like to sound it in the ears of all mortal men—that there is no power that will ever be permitted to array itself, or to combine itself against this work of our God, to retard its onward progress from this time forward until the full consummation will be achieved—that is, if the Latter-day Saints themselves are faithful to God, if they will keep the commandments of God, if they will sanctify themselves and cleanse themselves from sin, and live pure and holy lives. If they will do this, then the success and the triumph and the continued growth and advancement of this kingdom and the continued maintenance of these valleys and these mountains are assured unto us as a people. There is no doubt of it. I say in the name of Jesus Christ, that it will be so. I promise it in His name, and in the authority which I have received from Him—that if we will comply with these requirements and conditions, there is no power upon earth nor in hell that can disturb this people, that can uproot us, that can unsettle us in these valleys and in these mountains; for God has given unto us this land, and from this time forward, we will go on increasing and spreading and enlarging until all that God has said shall be literally fulfilled concerning this work that He has established upon the earth. He will do a marvelous work and a wonder. He will cause the wisdom of the wise to perish; He will bring the understanding of the prudent to naught in all their calculations against this work which He is establishing on the earth, and with which we are connected. Glory to God in the highest for the privilege He has granted unto us, poor, weak mortal creatures, to be identified with His great work and have such glorious immutable promises given unto us! Oh! how our hearts should swell with gratitude to our God! How profoundly grateful we should be and how thanksgiving and joy should well up in our hearts unto our God for having given unto us the privilege of being connected with this great work.
Now, will those connected with it not have their trials? Oh yes. Those who would reign with Christ must suffer with Him. Those who would reign with the Prophets; those who would gain the glory that God has in store for the righteous must suffer with the Prophets and Apostles.
I have spoken in my remarks concerning the great work of our God. I have not yet alluded to individual cases connected with it. What will be the fate of individual members of the Church of God? That depends upon ourselves. But whether we remain connected with the work or not, this I know:
I know that this work will roll forth in the manner in which I have, in my humble and weak way, attempted to describe to you. I know that. But whether I will be faithful depends upon myself. I beseech Him in the name of Jesus, that I may be faithful; that whatever may come in my pathway I may never, no never flinch, never weaken in my fidelity, in my courage and in my zeal for this glorious work of our God. I would rather die this instant in your presence, than ever falter in regard to this work. I love it. It is God's work. I dedicated myself in my childhood to the cause of God, and I have endeavored through my life to be faithful to Him. If we will be faithful to our God He will redeem us, no matter what the circumstances may be through which we may be called to pass. We may wade through sorrow. We may have to endure persecution. We may have to meet with death. We may have to endure imprisonment and many other things that our predecessors had to endure. God may test us in this manner. Every human being that is connected with this work will have to be tested before he can enter into the Celestial Kingdom of our God. He will try us to the uttermost. If we have any spot more tender than another, He will feel after it. He will test all in some way or other. But like the promises that have been made in regard to the work as a work, so are the promises made to us as individual members of the Church. We have had certain promises made to us. We have had blessings sealed upon us. God has acknowledged them in the heavens when they have been sealed upon our heads by the authority of the Priesthood which He has restored. And you may notice it that as the work of our God has increased we have also increased in the power of the Priesthood. When Joseph Smith committed the keys of the Priesthood unto his brethren, and rolled the burden upon their shoulders of carrying forward this work—in his urgent haste to build the Temple of Nauvoo, in his urgent haste to commit to his fellow servants all that God had committed to him—from that day the Kingdom of our God has grown in majesty and in strength, and at the same time has called forth opposition such as it never met with before. Every Temple that we build excites additional hatred, increases the volume of opposition, the volume of hostility, and the threatenings of the wicked. Every Temple that we have thus far completed—and every Temple of which we lay the foundation—has been another testimony in favor of God, and has brought strength to the people of God, in enlisting the hosts in the eternal world upon our side; but at the same time there has been stirred up, from the very depths of hell, all the damned, Satan and his legions, to unite with their agents upon the earth in an endeavor to destroy this work, and to do everything in their power to obliterate it from the face of the earth: for hell is engaged at the work we are doing: hell is stirred up at that which we are accomplishing. Satan sees that which he dreads. He sees a people guided by the holy Priesthood. He sees a people gathered together according to the promise of God, filled with the power of God, led by His everlasting Priesthood, and seeing this, he is determined to exert every power, every influence that he can muster for the purpose of preventing the spread and growth of this work. He is determined to do this, and we can see it. But his power and influence are restrained; because, were it not so, the strength of the people of the Church of God is not such as to withstand the power of the evil one without succumbing to it. God, therefore, permits the opposition power to grow in proportion to the strength of the Saints, and if the contest be a sharp one, a keen one, a violent one, the sooner it will be ended. Because there is a termination to all this. There is a time coming when this opposition must cease and when God will stretch forth His arm, as He has already done, to accomplish His great work on the earth. As the nations of the earth reject the Gospel, He will pour out the judgments that are set to follow the preaching of the Gospel. God will fight for Zion. God will remember Zion. Her name is written on the palms of His hands. He never can forget Zion. A woman may forget her nursing child—and that is a very difficult thing to do—but our God will never forget Zion, never forget the promises made to His people. He looks down from His holy habitation, and sees the humble efforts of His people. He sees their devotion to His cause. He sees their willingness to lay down their lives for the truth. Our God is not ignorant of this. His eye is upon this people, and His blessing will be with us. There is no power that can prevent the outpouring of His Spirit upon us; no power whatever.
We are rearing, as I have said, temples. And who shall enter into the temples of our God? Shall the drunkard, the whoremonger, the blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker? Shall the man who does not train his family as he should do, who is not living a godly life? I tell you, my brethren and sisters, the time has come when a higher standard of purity must be observed by us as a people than has been in the past. We must live worthy of these blessings which God has bestowed upon us. If we do not God will withdraw His Spirit; God would condemn His servant who stands at the head of this Church, were he to permit wickedness to enter into these holy places. Therefore, the servants of God are strictly charged concerning these things. O, you adulterers! O, you whoremongers! O, you drunkards! O you Sabbath-breakers! O you dishonest men, and you hypocrites who have a place and a name among the Latter-day Saints! I say, woe! unto you unless you repent of your sins, unless you forsake everything that is evil and humble yourselves before God, and ask forgiveness from Him; for I tell you the Spirit of God will be withdrawn from you, and you will be left to yourselves and become as withered branches only fit for burning, unless you heartily, sincerely, profoundly, from the bottom of your hearts, repent of all your sins and put them far from you. God will not bear with you any longer. The sinner in Zion will tremble. That day will come. Fear will come upon the hypocrite. Therefore, repent of your sins before it is too late. And if you do you may enter into the holy places which God has provided. But O ye Presidents of Stakes and ye Bishops, you must be on the watchtower about these things, for God will hold you accountable. The sins of the people will be found upon your garments in the day of the Lord Jesus, if you do not cleanse impurity from the midst of your wards. If you recommend men who are unworthy, through tenderness of heart and through sympathy, when they are wicked, I say to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that the condemnation of God will rest upon you, and He will hold you to a strict accountability. For God has not chosen men to preside without laying upon them responsibility of a very grave and weighty character. He holds us accountable for these things. When a man has a relative and he condones the offense of that relative, through sympathy, he will not be free from responsibility. Now let it be known throughout all Israel, as the word of the Lord to us for the present, through His servant who stands at the head, that a man who commits adultery, a man who has had his endowments, cannot be baptized again into the Church. Let it be known throughout all Israel, as the word of God through His servant, who stands at the head, that a man who has had his endowments and commits whoredom, cannot now be received into the Church again. These must be cut off; because the law that was given in the early days of the Church concerning a man committing adultery once and being received back into the Church does not apply today. There has been a higher law since then, namely, the endowments, and men have taken upon themselves, and women also, sacred obligations in holy places. Therefore, hear it and understand it. Let it be given out in all the congregations of the Saints; let it be known everywhere throughout the land of Zion, so that if a man is tempted to do that deed, or a woman, that they will pause in view of the terrible consequences which await its commission—that they will pause and ask themselves the question—can I do this at the expense of my salvation and my exaltation in the presence of God? God has labored with us for fifty-four years and six months. He has revealed unto us His laws in plainness and power, so that all can understand, and if there be any now that do not understand, it is because they have not availed themselves of their privileges and opportunities. My brethren and sisters, this land must be a land of Zion to us. It will be a land of Zion to all who keep the commandments of God. It will not be a land of Zion to the adulterer, the seducer, the blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker, the man who does not pay his tithing, to any who do not keep the commandments of God; but to those who do keep the commandments of God, and who keep themselves pure, it will be a land of peace, a land wherein they and their children after them can dwell in peace and righteousness. But let us be warned in this the day of our probation. Let us walk humbly before our God. Let us live so as to have his revelations constantly within us; let us live so that His Spirit shall burn in our hearts and in our bosoms and in our bones like a very fire, that in the end we may be saved and exalted in His Celestial Kingdom, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
The choir sang “song of the Redeemed.”
Benediction by Apostle Moses Thatcher.
Afternoon session. 2 o’clock.
The choir sang: Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, But with joy, wend your way.
Prayer by Apostle F. M. Lyman.
How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! was sung by the choir.
The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was administered, the Bishopric of the First Ward officiating in the blessing of the emblems.
The choir sang: Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear, But with joy, wend your way.
Prayer by Apostle F. M. Lyman.
How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! was sung by the choir.
The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was administered, the Bishopric of the First Ward officiating in the blessing of the emblems.
President George Q. Cannon submitted the General Authorities of the Church to the Conference, to be voted upon as follows:
John Taylor, Prophet, Seer and Revelator to, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world.
George Q. Cannon as First and Joseph F. Smith as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Wilford Woodruff, President of the Twelve Apostles.
Members of the Council of the Apostles—Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Albert Carrington, Moses Thatcher, Francis Marion Lyman, John Henry Smith, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant and John W. Taylor.
Counselors to the Twelve Apostles—John W. Young and Daniel H. Wells.
Patriarch of the Church—John Smith.
The First Seven Presidents of Seventies—Henry Herriman, Horace S. Eldredge, Jacob Gates, Abram H. Cannon, Seymour B. Young, Christian D. Fjeldsted and John Morgan.
The Elder last named being called upon to state whether he was willing to accept of the position to which he had been called, expressed his determination, with the help of God, to do whatever was required of him.
William B. Preston as Presiding Bishop, with Robert T. Burton as his First and John Q. Cannon as his Second Counselor.
The Elder last named, in response to a request as to his willingness to perform the duties of Second Counselor to the Presiding Bishop, stated that, while feeling sensible of his own inability unaided by the Almighty, with His help he would endeavor to do what ever was necessary in pursuance of the duties of his calling.
John Taylor as Trustee-in-Trust for the body of religious worshippers known as recognized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to hold the legal title to its property and contract for it.
The Counselors to the President—The Twelve Apostles, their Counselors, and Bishop Wm. B. Preston as Counselors to the Trustee-in-Trust.
Wilford Woodruff as Historian for the Church, and General Church Recorder, and F. D. Richards as his assistant.
Albert Carrington as President of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Co. for the Gathering of the Poor, and F. D. Richards, F. M. Lyman, H. S. Eldredge, Joseph F. Smith, Angus M. Cannon, Moses Thatcher, Wm. Jennings, John R. Winder, Henry Dinwoodey, Robert T. Burton, A. O. Smoot and H. B. Clawson, as his assistants.
Truman O. Angel as General Architect of the Church, and T. O. Angel, Jr., and W. H. Folsom as his assistants.
As Auditing Committee—Wilford Woodruff, E. Snow, F. D. Richards, J. F. Smith, W. Jennings.
John Nicholson as Clerk of the Conference.
John Irvine and George F. Gibbs as Church Reports.
Every vote taken was unanimous.
John Taylor, Prophet, Seer and Revelator to, and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in all the world.
George Q. Cannon as First and Joseph F. Smith as Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
Wilford Woodruff, President of the Twelve Apostles.
Members of the Council of the Apostles—Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Brigham Young, Albert Carrington, Moses Thatcher, Francis Marion Lyman, John Henry Smith, George Teasdale, Heber J. Grant and John W. Taylor.
Counselors to the Twelve Apostles—John W. Young and Daniel H. Wells.
Patriarch of the Church—John Smith.
The First Seven Presidents of Seventies—Henry Herriman, Horace S. Eldredge, Jacob Gates, Abram H. Cannon, Seymour B. Young, Christian D. Fjeldsted and John Morgan.
The Elder last named being called upon to state whether he was willing to accept of the position to which he had been called, expressed his determination, with the help of God, to do whatever was required of him.
William B. Preston as Presiding Bishop, with Robert T. Burton as his First and John Q. Cannon as his Second Counselor.
The Elder last named, in response to a request as to his willingness to perform the duties of Second Counselor to the Presiding Bishop, stated that, while feeling sensible of his own inability unaided by the Almighty, with His help he would endeavor to do what ever was necessary in pursuance of the duties of his calling.
John Taylor as Trustee-in-Trust for the body of religious worshippers known as recognized as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to hold the legal title to its property and contract for it.
The Counselors to the President—The Twelve Apostles, their Counselors, and Bishop Wm. B. Preston as Counselors to the Trustee-in-Trust.
Wilford Woodruff as Historian for the Church, and General Church Recorder, and F. D. Richards as his assistant.
Albert Carrington as President of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Co. for the Gathering of the Poor, and F. D. Richards, F. M. Lyman, H. S. Eldredge, Joseph F. Smith, Angus M. Cannon, Moses Thatcher, Wm. Jennings, John R. Winder, Henry Dinwoodey, Robert T. Burton, A. O. Smoot and H. B. Clawson, as his assistants.
Truman O. Angel as General Architect of the Church, and T. O. Angel, Jr., and W. H. Folsom as his assistants.
As Auditing Committee—Wilford Woodruff, E. Snow, F. D. Richards, J. F. Smith, W. Jennings.
John Nicholson as Clerk of the Conference.
John Irvine and George F. Gibbs as Church Reports.
Every vote taken was unanimous.
Apostle Brigham Young said, in effect:
Principles that are dear to the hearts of the Saints have been touched upon by the speakers during this Conference. The Lord has inspired His servants and enabled them to speak to the edification of the people. One of the most important matters demanding our consideration is the training of our children. They are sometimes not instructed as they should be. Some of the young people violate the sanctity of the Sabbath and visit places that are demoralizing. It is a good thing to attend meetings and engage in religious exercises. It is also good for us to know where our children are and what they are doing on the Sabbath and every other day. Our children are numerous and their proper instruction is or should be first consideration. If they are properly trained when young and their minds easily diverted into proper channels, like the small streams that flow from the mountains, they will be likely to remain in profitable courses. If they are allowed to grow up without correct instruction until they mature, they, like the swollen river, are not easily controlled. It is not only a duty that we owe to the children themselves in this regard, but to untold millions of humanity not yet born. In traveling throughout the country, in the settlements of the Saints, some peculiar conditions are found. Some parents will say to their children—“live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Yet they will show them a deplorable example by expending their substance in purchasing goods manufactured abroad and making millionaires of men who would destroy the Church, while they let home manufacturers languish. It is our privilege to say that we will sustain the kingdom of God to a greater degree in future than ever before. If this is done men will not get rich and use the substance obtained from the Saints in trying to bring about the destruction of the latter. We should clothe ourselves in productions of our home manufactories, and thus build up local industries. He concluded by praying that the blessing of God might rest upon the righteous.
Principles that are dear to the hearts of the Saints have been touched upon by the speakers during this Conference. The Lord has inspired His servants and enabled them to speak to the edification of the people. One of the most important matters demanding our consideration is the training of our children. They are sometimes not instructed as they should be. Some of the young people violate the sanctity of the Sabbath and visit places that are demoralizing. It is a good thing to attend meetings and engage in religious exercises. It is also good for us to know where our children are and what they are doing on the Sabbath and every other day. Our children are numerous and their proper instruction is or should be first consideration. If they are properly trained when young and their minds easily diverted into proper channels, like the small streams that flow from the mountains, they will be likely to remain in profitable courses. If they are allowed to grow up without correct instruction until they mature, they, like the swollen river, are not easily controlled. It is not only a duty that we owe to the children themselves in this regard, but to untold millions of humanity not yet born. In traveling throughout the country, in the settlements of the Saints, some peculiar conditions are found. Some parents will say to their children—“live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Yet they will show them a deplorable example by expending their substance in purchasing goods manufactured abroad and making millionaires of men who would destroy the Church, while they let home manufacturers languish. It is our privilege to say that we will sustain the kingdom of God to a greater degree in future than ever before. If this is done men will not get rich and use the substance obtained from the Saints in trying to bring about the destruction of the latter. We should clothe ourselves in productions of our home manufactories, and thus build up local industries. He concluded by praying that the blessing of God might rest upon the righteous.
Apostle Moses Thatcher
felt to add a few remarks to that which had been said by Apostle Richards this morning and desired, if so led by the Spirit, to confine his remarks to matters which might be called temporal. It is an important question what we shall do with those who come into our midst from abroad. We send our Elders out to all parts of the civilized world bearing the truth to those who will receive it. Such as do receive it are baptized, have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, are organized into branches and conferences. We try to teach them economy and prudence, and when they have saved enough means themselves or are helped by others, they come to this or one of the surrounding Territories, and it has sometimes seemed that we feel when we get them here to think our obligations to them have ended, and they are too often left to earn their bread among strangers as best they may. It has frequently occurred that many who are able and willing to work have been left for months without employment. The speaker did not approve of extending indiscriminate charity to those who were able to help themselves. For under certain circumstances charity was almost an evil. There is no question that there are many unemployed laborers in this city and the other larger settlements of the Territory. What can we do to prevent this condition of affairs? We can do much to remedy it by recognizing the great question of the day-labor and capital. We do not need to cross the seas to see what the combination of wealth can do. We have the influence of rich capitalists in our own land: and when we realize that 200,000,000 acres of public land have been given to these corporations who do not pay their proportions of the burdens of the government, we can see the gravity of the case. These capitalists do not bear any of the burdens of taxation, and these fall upon those who earn their bread by the seat of their brow, who are not able to conceal their property. This condition of things has called into being the Nihilists of Russia, the Socialists of Germany, the Fenians and dynamiters of England, Scotland and Ireland, and in our own country trades unions and brotherhoods. And this is the coming question of the age—the rock upon which many nations will be wrecked. To-day the result is contraction, the placing of capital in safety in the vaults of banks. We are gathered here to be God’s people, and if we cannot feel every man to trust and deal justly with another, we should at least feel that we have not come here to establish grades of distinction, but to love God with all our might, mind and strength, which no man can do unless he loves his neighbor as himself. It was a source of gratification to hear in the report of Z. C. M. I. that the sales had fallen off $700,000 in the last year; and the speaker hoped that so far as the sale of imported merchandise was concerned an equal falling off would be reported; offset however by an increase of a million dollars in home manufactured articles. The report referred to had shown that ten per cent were of home production and ninety percent of outside manufacture. If in the next ten years we can reverse this statement it will be a creditable showing and no man will be able to say that the people of Utah are paying half a million dollars interest a year to the world, which is the case to-day, and which is not an evidence of good financiering. We have been unwise and extravagant in the past, and have bought much we could have done without. The speaker referred to several instances which had come under his own observation where an absurd and in some cases ridiculous course had been taken, in caring for property, for which the owners had to involve themselves to become the possessors of. The remedy for the condition of things which is confronting us lies in ascertaining how many are out of work and then in furnishing it to them. Our own youth are growing up in idleness, and it is of the highest importance to furnish them some kind of employment, and this can be done by making the 90 per cent of our merchandise sales of home manufacture. It cannot be denied that the substance of this people has been drained out of our country and poured into the coffers of the outsiders. If we continue this course in the future as we have done in the past we will continue to live from hand to mouth. There is no reason why we should not be the richest people of the earth, and if we had done as our leaders have counseled us, we would be. He could not regret hearing of the failure of such merchants as had dealt exclusively in outside manufactures and had brought the people into this sort of bondage; but he rejoiced in hearing of the prosperity and success of every man or company engaged in home manufacture of in seeking to add to the wealth and power of our communities.
felt to add a few remarks to that which had been said by Apostle Richards this morning and desired, if so led by the Spirit, to confine his remarks to matters which might be called temporal. It is an important question what we shall do with those who come into our midst from abroad. We send our Elders out to all parts of the civilized world bearing the truth to those who will receive it. Such as do receive it are baptized, have hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, are organized into branches and conferences. We try to teach them economy and prudence, and when they have saved enough means themselves or are helped by others, they come to this or one of the surrounding Territories, and it has sometimes seemed that we feel when we get them here to think our obligations to them have ended, and they are too often left to earn their bread among strangers as best they may. It has frequently occurred that many who are able and willing to work have been left for months without employment. The speaker did not approve of extending indiscriminate charity to those who were able to help themselves. For under certain circumstances charity was almost an evil. There is no question that there are many unemployed laborers in this city and the other larger settlements of the Territory. What can we do to prevent this condition of affairs? We can do much to remedy it by recognizing the great question of the day-labor and capital. We do not need to cross the seas to see what the combination of wealth can do. We have the influence of rich capitalists in our own land: and when we realize that 200,000,000 acres of public land have been given to these corporations who do not pay their proportions of the burdens of the government, we can see the gravity of the case. These capitalists do not bear any of the burdens of taxation, and these fall upon those who earn their bread by the seat of their brow, who are not able to conceal their property. This condition of things has called into being the Nihilists of Russia, the Socialists of Germany, the Fenians and dynamiters of England, Scotland and Ireland, and in our own country trades unions and brotherhoods. And this is the coming question of the age—the rock upon which many nations will be wrecked. To-day the result is contraction, the placing of capital in safety in the vaults of banks. We are gathered here to be God’s people, and if we cannot feel every man to trust and deal justly with another, we should at least feel that we have not come here to establish grades of distinction, but to love God with all our might, mind and strength, which no man can do unless he loves his neighbor as himself. It was a source of gratification to hear in the report of Z. C. M. I. that the sales had fallen off $700,000 in the last year; and the speaker hoped that so far as the sale of imported merchandise was concerned an equal falling off would be reported; offset however by an increase of a million dollars in home manufactured articles. The report referred to had shown that ten per cent were of home production and ninety percent of outside manufacture. If in the next ten years we can reverse this statement it will be a creditable showing and no man will be able to say that the people of Utah are paying half a million dollars interest a year to the world, which is the case to-day, and which is not an evidence of good financiering. We have been unwise and extravagant in the past, and have bought much we could have done without. The speaker referred to several instances which had come under his own observation where an absurd and in some cases ridiculous course had been taken, in caring for property, for which the owners had to involve themselves to become the possessors of. The remedy for the condition of things which is confronting us lies in ascertaining how many are out of work and then in furnishing it to them. Our own youth are growing up in idleness, and it is of the highest importance to furnish them some kind of employment, and this can be done by making the 90 per cent of our merchandise sales of home manufacture. It cannot be denied that the substance of this people has been drained out of our country and poured into the coffers of the outsiders. If we continue this course in the future as we have done in the past we will continue to live from hand to mouth. There is no reason why we should not be the richest people of the earth, and if we had done as our leaders have counseled us, we would be. He could not regret hearing of the failure of such merchants as had dealt exclusively in outside manufactures and had brought the people into this sort of bondage; but he rejoiced in hearing of the prosperity and success of every man or company engaged in home manufacture of in seeking to add to the wealth and power of our communities.
Apostle Albert Carrington
addressed the Conference. He had been interested for many years in the building up of home enterprises. In the pioneer days, when Utah was first settled, all had to work for a living or go without. Many had since become rich. Greed of gain is an abomination in the sight of God and the quintessence of selfishness. No person impregnated with this feeling can live acceptably in the sight of Jehovah. It is our duty to build each other up not only spiritually, but also financially. If all were doing that our course would be much more acceptable to God than it now is. We should live, let live and help to live. How many of us are taking this course? We all should be thus engaged. It is a source of thankfulness that we are improving in that direction. All should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and attain to that unity that is desirable. We have been in this school—a few of us—over fifty years. We have made much more advancement in sustaining each other than has been made in the world, but we are slow to move in that direction. We are not all apt scholars in the school of experience; Babylon with her institutions and ways has crept into the community. Especially is this the case in the larger towns—notably in Salt Lake City. Those who cling to Babylon will fall with her, for how can it be otherwise? These influences, however, are presented to our children, and they exercise their agency in choosing the evil and the good as they elect. The time has not yet come when sin can be banished entirely. The speaker continued to exhort the Saints to throw off every selfish sentiment and seek to work and operate not only for individual benefit, but the general good, that the interests of the entire community may be subserved.
The choir sang the anthem “Daughter of Zion.
Adjourned till 10 a.m. to-morrow.
Benediction by Apostle George Teasdale.
addressed the Conference. He had been interested for many years in the building up of home enterprises. In the pioneer days, when Utah was first settled, all had to work for a living or go without. Many had since become rich. Greed of gain is an abomination in the sight of God and the quintessence of selfishness. No person impregnated with this feeling can live acceptably in the sight of Jehovah. It is our duty to build each other up not only spiritually, but also financially. If all were doing that our course would be much more acceptable to God than it now is. We should live, let live and help to live. How many of us are taking this course? We all should be thus engaged. It is a source of thankfulness that we are improving in that direction. All should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and attain to that unity that is desirable. We have been in this school—a few of us—over fifty years. We have made much more advancement in sustaining each other than has been made in the world, but we are slow to move in that direction. We are not all apt scholars in the school of experience; Babylon with her institutions and ways has crept into the community. Especially is this the case in the larger towns—notably in Salt Lake City. Those who cling to Babylon will fall with her, for how can it be otherwise? These influences, however, are presented to our children, and they exercise their agency in choosing the evil and the good as they elect. The time has not yet come when sin can be banished entirely. The speaker continued to exhort the Saints to throw off every selfish sentiment and seek to work and operate not only for individual benefit, but the general good, that the interests of the entire community may be subserved.
The choir sang the anthem “Daughter of Zion.
Adjourned till 10 a.m. to-morrow.
Benediction by Apostle George Teasdale.
THIRD DAY.
Monday, Oct. 6th.
Singing by the choir: Great is the Lord! ‘tis good to praise, His High and Holy name.
Prayer by Apostle George Teasdale.
Though deep’ning trials throng your way, Press on, press on, ye Saints of God. was sung by the choir.
Monday, Oct. 6th.
Singing by the choir: Great is the Lord! ‘tis good to praise, His High and Holy name.
Prayer by Apostle George Teasdale.
Though deep’ning trials throng your way, Press on, press on, ye Saints of God. was sung by the choir.
President George Q. Cannon
Presented to the Conference reports of the several Stakes of Zion; and of the Primary Associations, Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Associations, and Ladies Relief Societies.
Presented to the Conference reports of the several Stakes of Zion; and of the Primary Associations, Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Associations, and Ladies Relief Societies.
Apostle F. M. Lyman
addressed the Conference: Our Conference thus far has been most satisfactory. The Spirit of the Lord has been manifested, and an enjoyable time has been the result. The subject treated upon by Brother F. D. Richards—the responsibility resting upon parents in instructing their children when they are young is of great importance. If this duty is not performed the sins of the children not properly trained will rest upon the parents. The Lord is solicitous that those choice spirits which had been reserved to come forth and take part in rolling forth His work should be properly prepared for the important duties lying before them in that connection. Religious teachers of the world understand the importance of bending the mental twig when it is young and tender, and they consequently establish their schools and missions here to win our children from the religion of their fathers. Satan desires that they should thus be seduced from the truth that he may add to the one-third of the sons of God whom he led into rebellion in the eternal world. There are other missions and missionaries besides those already referred to. There appear to be government officials who have missions, or imagine they have. Their purpose is to turn the Saints away from that which God has established. They are as much missionaries in their special lines as the Elders are in theirs who go into the nations to preach the Gospel. Seeing we have had the plan of salvation confided to us, we should be well established in the truth. If the Saints had been a wicked people it would not have been necessary for us to expend large sums of money to gather to this country, as the facilities for the pursuit of corruption are more than ample abroad in the countries from whence we came. We are commanded by the Lord, as a requirement of the Gospel, to baptize those who believe our message and repent, by immersion for the remission of their sins. It would be just as consistent to prevent us from administering that ordinance as any other principle or part of our faith. Yet attempts are made to prevent us enjoying in the exercise of our religious views. The laws of the Church are strict in relation to personal party. The commission of adultery involves the expulsion from the body-religious of those who are guilty of this crime, which is regarded among the Saints as next in enormity to murder. The charges of corruption against the Saints are without foundation. The speaker bore a strong testimony to the divine authenticity of the Church.
addressed the Conference: Our Conference thus far has been most satisfactory. The Spirit of the Lord has been manifested, and an enjoyable time has been the result. The subject treated upon by Brother F. D. Richards—the responsibility resting upon parents in instructing their children when they are young is of great importance. If this duty is not performed the sins of the children not properly trained will rest upon the parents. The Lord is solicitous that those choice spirits which had been reserved to come forth and take part in rolling forth His work should be properly prepared for the important duties lying before them in that connection. Religious teachers of the world understand the importance of bending the mental twig when it is young and tender, and they consequently establish their schools and missions here to win our children from the religion of their fathers. Satan desires that they should thus be seduced from the truth that he may add to the one-third of the sons of God whom he led into rebellion in the eternal world. There are other missions and missionaries besides those already referred to. There appear to be government officials who have missions, or imagine they have. Their purpose is to turn the Saints away from that which God has established. They are as much missionaries in their special lines as the Elders are in theirs who go into the nations to preach the Gospel. Seeing we have had the plan of salvation confided to us, we should be well established in the truth. If the Saints had been a wicked people it would not have been necessary for us to expend large sums of money to gather to this country, as the facilities for the pursuit of corruption are more than ample abroad in the countries from whence we came. We are commanded by the Lord, as a requirement of the Gospel, to baptize those who believe our message and repent, by immersion for the remission of their sins. It would be just as consistent to prevent us from administering that ordinance as any other principle or part of our faith. Yet attempts are made to prevent us enjoying in the exercise of our religious views. The laws of the Church are strict in relation to personal party. The commission of adultery involves the expulsion from the body-religious of those who are guilty of this crime, which is regarded among the Saints as next in enormity to murder. The charges of corruption against the Saints are without foundation. The speaker bore a strong testimony to the divine authenticity of the Church.
Apostle George Teasdale
was the next speaker: I can bear a testimony that God has spoken from the heavens, and sent forth Apostles to confer authority to preach the Gospel and warn the people of coming judgments. The Lord is fulfilling the purposes which He has pre-determined, and the Gospel is being proclaimed as a witness before the second advent of our Lord. Men have not taken this authority upon themselves. It has been conferred upon them by direction of the Almighty. If it was necessary for Christ to be sent of God, so it is also that all who administer in the things of God should be similarly authorized. The responsibility connected with this message is great and the natural man shrinks from it. Joseph Smith had a vision of the Father and the Son, and it was made known that the authority of heaven should be conferred upon man. Thus could the prophet say he knew that God lived because he had seen Him. Heavenly messengers subsequently appeared to Joseph Smith and instructed him, and the Prophet received and published the record of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, which was an authentic and inspired book. Joseph Smith also received at the hands of John the Baptist the Aaronic Priesthood, and from Peter, James and John the Higher Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. It was necessary to restore this authority and Priesthood, because it had been, in the days of the primitive Church driven from the earth, those who held it having been slain because of their testimony of the Redeemer. The preaching of the Gospel and the gathering of its recipients in this dispensation has been accomplished by the Almighty through His authority which He had sent to earth. Some of the people professing to be Saints so far forgot their sacred duty to their children as to hand them over to the tender mercies of those who are opposed to the kingdom of God, to be taught by them. He prayed that the blessing of God might rest upon the people, and concluded by stating that those who are unworthy should not be permitted to enter holy places and officiate vicariously for the dead.
The choir sang the anthem: Great is the Lord.
Adjourned to 2 p.m.
Benediction by Apostle John W. Taylor.
was the next speaker: I can bear a testimony that God has spoken from the heavens, and sent forth Apostles to confer authority to preach the Gospel and warn the people of coming judgments. The Lord is fulfilling the purposes which He has pre-determined, and the Gospel is being proclaimed as a witness before the second advent of our Lord. Men have not taken this authority upon themselves. It has been conferred upon them by direction of the Almighty. If it was necessary for Christ to be sent of God, so it is also that all who administer in the things of God should be similarly authorized. The responsibility connected with this message is great and the natural man shrinks from it. Joseph Smith had a vision of the Father and the Son, and it was made known that the authority of heaven should be conferred upon man. Thus could the prophet say he knew that God lived because he had seen Him. Heavenly messengers subsequently appeared to Joseph Smith and instructed him, and the Prophet received and published the record of the ancient inhabitants of this continent, which was an authentic and inspired book. Joseph Smith also received at the hands of John the Baptist the Aaronic Priesthood, and from Peter, James and John the Higher Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. It was necessary to restore this authority and Priesthood, because it had been, in the days of the primitive Church driven from the earth, those who held it having been slain because of their testimony of the Redeemer. The preaching of the Gospel and the gathering of its recipients in this dispensation has been accomplished by the Almighty through His authority which He had sent to earth. Some of the people professing to be Saints so far forgot their sacred duty to their children as to hand them over to the tender mercies of those who are opposed to the kingdom of God, to be taught by them. He prayed that the blessing of God might rest upon the people, and concluded by stating that those who are unworthy should not be permitted to enter holy places and officiate vicariously for the dead.
The choir sang the anthem: Great is the Lord.
Adjourned to 2 p.m.
Benediction by Apostle John W. Taylor.
Afternoon Session, April 6th, 2 p.m.
Singing by the choir; Earth with her ten thousand flowers, Air with all its beams and showers.
Prayer by Apostle Heber J. Grant.
Arise! arise! with joy survey The glory of the latter day. Was sung by the choir.
Singing by the choir; Earth with her ten thousand flowers, Air with all its beams and showers.
Prayer by Apostle Heber J. Grant.
Arise! arise! with joy survey The glory of the latter day. Was sung by the choir.
President George Q. Cannon
submitted a report showing the amount of donations to the Manti Temple.
A report of the auditing committee to the effect that they had examined the accounts of the Trustee-in-Trust was submitted. On motion it was accepted and ordered placed on file.
A list of missionaries called to various parts of the world was read, the vote to sustain the brethren selected for this labor being unanimous.
submitted a report showing the amount of donations to the Manti Temple.
A report of the auditing committee to the effect that they had examined the accounts of the Trustee-in-Trust was submitted. On motion it was accepted and ordered placed on file.
A list of missionaries called to various parts of the world was read, the vote to sustain the brethren selected for this labor being unanimous.
President John Taylor
addressed the assemblage. He delivered an elaborate and comprehensive discourse, taking up the thread of his remarks given at the Priesthood meeting last evening. He dwelt upon the designs and purposes of the Most High in the redemption of the earth and the human family. The sentiments and principles he enunciated were of a lofty and exalted character, and as an adequate idea of the nature of the discourse could not well be conveyed in a brief synopsis, we prefer not to present one, but to await its publication in full, in which form it will be presented in due time. A subsequent part of President Taylor’s remarks was devoted to a detail description of the order and organization of the Church of Christ, and the duties, rights and privileges of the Priesthood, whose operations must be in accord with the principles of righteousness; otherwise the Heavens withdraw themselves and the authority and force of those who deviate from the line of uprightness depart. He also spoke upon other topics of vital importance to the Latter-day Saints and incidentally to the world at large.
addressed the assemblage. He delivered an elaborate and comprehensive discourse, taking up the thread of his remarks given at the Priesthood meeting last evening. He dwelt upon the designs and purposes of the Most High in the redemption of the earth and the human family. The sentiments and principles he enunciated were of a lofty and exalted character, and as an adequate idea of the nature of the discourse could not well be conveyed in a brief synopsis, we prefer not to present one, but to await its publication in full, in which form it will be presented in due time. A subsequent part of President Taylor’s remarks was devoted to a detail description of the order and organization of the Church of Christ, and the duties, rights and privileges of the Priesthood, whose operations must be in accord with the principles of righteousness; otherwise the Heavens withdraw themselves and the authority and force of those who deviate from the line of uprightness depart. He also spoke upon other topics of vital importance to the Latter-day Saints and incidentally to the world at large.
Design of God in Relation to the Earth and Its Inhabitants—Power of Satan—The Two Zions—What is Required of the Saints—A Priesthood in the Heavens, As Well As on the Earth—Duties of the Priesthood—Would-Be Advisers—Celestial Marriage—Distinction Between Polygamy and Prostitution—Government Officers Discriminating in Favor of the Latter—Unchastity Not to Be Tolerated in the Church—Charity Advised—Class of People Who Accuse the Saints of Crime—Criminal Statistics—Horrifying Statements of Crime in the Eastern States—Warning to the Saints
Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday and Tuesday (Semi-Annual Conference), October 6 and 7, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
If the congregation will endeavor to preserve as much order as possible, and prevent the crying and disturbance of children, I will try and address you for a short time. Last evening I made quite a lengthy address in this hall; but we had very good order. There was no whispering, no talking, nor disturbance of any kind. It requires, in a large congregation like this, quite an exertion to speak so as to make the people hear. I am told that the people could not hear half of what was said by several of the brethren yesterday. It is wrong for us to have disorder in the house of God, a place where we meet for instruction.
Last evening I talked of some matters of considerable importance to the Priesthood, of which there was an immense number present; they nearly filled this hall. I wish to continue some of these remarks; for it is necessary that all of us should be instructed in the great principles which God has revealed for the guidance, salvation and exaltation of the Saints of God, and also for the benefit of the world wherein we live. There were very many promises made to eminent men in generations long since past; but these generally had reference more particularly to the benefit of the world of mankind than to individuals.
There were certain great principles involved in the organization of this earth, and one was that there might be a place provided whereon the children of our Heavenly Father could live and propagate their species, and have bodies formed for the spirits to inhabit who were the children of God; for we are told that He is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. It was requisite, therefore, that an earth should be organized; it was requisite that man should be placed upon it; it was requisite that bodies should be prepared for those spirits to inhabit, in order that the purposes of God pertaining to His progeny might be accomplished, and that those spirits might be enabled, through the medium of the everlasting Gospel, to return unto the presence of their Heavenly Father, as Gods among the Gods.
There have been different agencies at work throughout this world's history. Lucifer has been and is one of these agencies. There was a garden planted, and Adam and Eve were placed in it, and there they had communion with God. There was another being whose name was Lucifer, who is called in some places, “the son of the morning.” Job speaks of a time at the creation of this earth when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” (Job xxxviii, 7). As it was necessary that there should be a God, a man, an earth and a heaven, it was also necessary that there should be a devil, that man might be tried, and by trial be instructed. Indeed, in the economy of God, it was not only necessary that man, but the Savior also should be perfected by suffering. It is written: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Hebrews, ii, 10.) It was further necessary that there should be a Redeemer according to the plan which was devised from before the foundation of the world, and also that man might be a free agent to act and operate for himself, to receive the good and reject the evil, or reject the good and be governed by the evil. And there were certain rewards promised to those who would obey the laws of God, and keep his commandments, and certain punishments inflicted upon those who would not. Satan has made very great ravages among the human family in trying to accomplish his purposes; for he has been the enemy of God, and the enemy of man, and in ages past he wrought upon mankind until after a certain period he had contrived to get the great majority of them on his side. Nevertheless, they had the Priesthood among them in those early days as we have among us today. After Adam there were Seth, Enos, Mahalaleel, Methuselah, Lamech, and a great many others until we arrive at Enoch and Noah, who operated especially in behalf of the interest of the human family. They preached the Gospel as we preach it, and taught the same principles that we teach. They gathered the people to a Zion as we gather them, and when they had been gathered together, they had enemies as we have, who arrayed themselves against them. But Enoch was clothed upon with the power of God. He walked with God for 365 years, and we are told, “he was not; for God took him.” That is about all that is said about him in the Bible; but we have other information. Many others walked with God, and there was a city that the people were gathered to—a Zion. They walked with God and they were instructed of the Lord; but it took at any rate, 365 years to accomplish this object.
Furthermore, in the latter days there is to be a Zion built up: but in these days we are told that the Lord will cut His work short in righteousness. Enoch, in his day, had his messengers go forth among the people, and when they gathered, it induced the rage of man, and great armies assembled against the Saints, but Enoch prophesied by the power of God, and the earth shook and the mountains trembled, and the enemies of the Saints in fear fled afar off. By and by when the time came for the accomplishment of the purposes of God, and before the destruction of the wicked, Enoch was caught up to heaven and his Zion with him. And we are told in latter revelation in relation to these matters that a Zion will be built up in our day; that great trouble will overtake the inhabitants of the earth; and that when the time arrives, the Zion that was caught up will descend, and the Zion that will be organized here will ascend, both possessed of the same spirit, their peoples having been preserved by the power of God according to His purposes and as His children, to take part in the events of the latter days. We are told that when the people of these two Zions meet, they will fall on each others' necks, and embrace and kiss each other.
As they in that day were placed under the guidance of the Almighty, so are we. As they had a work to perform associated with the welfare of the human family, so have we. As they had the Gospel to preach, so have we. As they had a Zion to build up, so have we. As they needed the support of the Great Jehovah, so do we. As they were dependent upon Him in all their movements, whether in relation to earth or heaven, so are we. The work in which we are engaged is one that has been introduced by the Great Eloheim, the God and Father of the human family, in the interests of His children. And wherever and whenever these principles have existed, this same being that was in the garden with our first parents still goes forth and has gone forth as a raging lion, seeking whom he may deceive, seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he may lead down to death. And in these latter days God has introduced these same principles with the same object in view. He has revealed the same principles of heaven, and as heretofore, in the interest of humanity. Who was Enoch? Was he a man of God? Yes. Who were the Elders with him, were they men of God? Yes; and they received their instructions in that Zion that was then built up, and more or less directly from God; for Enoch walked with God. Whom was Enoch operating for? For God his heavenly Father. He was there, as Jesus was on the earth in his time, as he said, not to do His own will, but the will of his Father who sent him. And whom did those people operate for? They operated for the welfare of the human family who would receive the truth and be governed by it. And whom did Jesus and His Apostles in their day operate for? For the benefit of all the world. Jesus Himself appeared as the Redeemer of the world, and He commissioned His Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature, saying: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.” What is this salvation and condemnation? That would take a long time to tell. Suffice it to say that there are bodies celestial, bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial; one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; but strait was the gate and narrow was the way that led unto the lives, and few there were at that time and few there have always been who have gone in thereat. And what was it that they sought? It was the Celestial Kingdom of our God, that they might come forth in the first resurrection and be one with the Father and one with Jesus, and belong to the Church of the Firstborn whose names are written in heaven, and become Gods among the Gods, and participate in all the glory of the Celestial Kingdom. But few there were who found the narrow path. It is so today. Were the Apostles of Jesus commanded to preach the Gospel? Yes. Are we commanded as they were? Yes. What was the position of the Apostles? They were simply messengers of life and salvation to a fallen world. What are the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Priests, the Seventies, and the Elders today? What are they? Bearers of life and salvation to a fallen world, the messengers of God to men, the legates of the skies commissioned by the Great Jehovah to introduce the principles of eternal life, and gather in his elect from the four quarters of the earth, and to prepare them for an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. And what becomes of those who choose the other path? They are still God's children, and He feels interested in them. What will He do with them? They will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and according to the light and intelligence which God communicates to them. Then there is another glory, a telestial glory. Those who enter into that glory will also be judged according to their deeds and be rewarded according to their acts. We are told of others who will suffer the wrath of God, and in the revelations given to us we learn that eternal punishment is God's punishment, that everlasting punishment is God's punishment, for He is eternal, and He is everlasting. We are informed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. We are told, too, that the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who were destroyed because of their wickedness, were shut up in prison and they remained there for a long, long time. How long? We read that Jesus, who was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, went and preached to the spirits in prison which were sometime disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah. How long had these people been there? At a rough guess about 2,400 years. It was quite a painful ordeal to go through. It is one that none of us would like very much. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God—a fearful thing to violate His laws. We have gathered here that we may learn those laws, the laws of God, the laws of life, and prepare ourselves under His guidance for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God. But are all the Latter-day Saints going into that kingdom? No. How is that? It is just as Jesus declared. “It is not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, that will enter into the Kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of the Father who is in heaven.” Did Jesus come to do the will of His Father in heaven? He did, and He expects all who aim at Celestial glory to do the same, and if they do not they will not get there. He says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And He will say unto them, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not, you have not lived as becometh Saints.” Oh, say some, that don't mean the Saints. No, it don't, but it means many who profess to be Saints. Do the world profess to cast out devils, to heal the sick and to do many mighty works? They do not. Do the world prophesy in His name? No. Do the world preach in the name of God? They preach in His name, many of them, without having the authority, as we have heard at this conference; but they do not propose to do many mighty works in His name, but many of our Elders do—Elders who magnify their calling and honor their God. On the other hand there are Elders who are careless, wayward and rebellious against God and His laws—who seek to trample under foot the principles that He has revealed—who seek to set themselves up to guide, direct, and manipulate the affairs of the Church and Kingdom of God, and yet these same persons know nothing but what they know naturally, as do the brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed; and we none of us know anything only as God instructs us. We are indebted to Him for the introduction of this work, and for all the information pertaining thereto. It has been from no man nor set of men, nor organizations of a professed spiritual or temporal nature, that we have received intelligence pertaining to the things of God, the Church of God, or the Kingdom of God. It has come directly from the Lord, through the Gospel of the Son of God, which brings life and immortality to light; and if men think—and we every once in a while meet with such characters—they know better than the Lord how to manipulate affairs they will find out their mistake. The Lord will say to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you: for it is not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the Kingdom of God; but He that doeth the will of our Father in Heaven.”
Hence there is a great work for us to do. There is something comprehensive in it. It is indeed the dispensation of the fullness of times spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world was. It relates to the interests of men that now live: it relates to the interests of men who have lived, and it relates to things that are yet in the future. It is a thing in which the Gods in the eternal worlds are interested, and all the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets that have lived upon the earth are all interested in the work in which we are engaged. There is a Priesthood in the heavens, and we have the same Priesthood on the earth, but there should be a closer communion between the Priesthood on the earth and the Priesthood in the heavens; it is desirable that we should be brought into closer proximity, we want to be advancing as Enoch advanced. After the appearance of Jesus upon the earth, there was to be a certain power who would make war with the Saints and prevail against them; and it is said, “they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time:” (Daniel vii, 25) but in this day we are told that “the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever,” (verse 18). You and I may violate our covenants; you and I may trample upon the principles of the Gospel, and violate the order of the Priesthood and the commands of God; but among the hosts of Israel there will be thousands and tens of thousands who will be true to the principles of truth, and God in the heavens, the holy angels and the ancient Priesthood that now live where God lives are all united together, for the accomplishment of this purpose. The Lord will roll forth His purposes in His own way and is His own time. And having thus organized, as I before stated, it is not for us to act as we may think individually, but as God shall dictate. We have a regular order in the Church. You brethren, who hold the holy Priesthood, understand these things. Has God not given to every man a portion of His Spirit to profit withal? Yes. Has He not done more than this to the saints who are true and faithful? Has He not given to them the gift of the Holy Ghost? He has, and they know it and realize it. They are brought into communion with each other, and into communion with God and the heavenly hosts. But having this Spirit do we need others to guide us? Yes, all the time. Why? Because of the powers of darkness, the influence of Satan and the weakness of human nature. We need watchmen upon the towers of Zion, who are on the alert to look after the interests of Israel, and see that God's people do not go astray. Hence it becomes the duty of the Teachers to look after the people, to see that there is no hard feeling, no covetousness, no fraud, no adultery, no iniquity of any kind; but that purity, holiness and righteousness prevail among those that they preside over. And how far does this extend? To every place where there is a ward or a portion of a ward—to the utmost extremity. It may be compared unto the body—from the head to the feet, from the toes to the fingers, and to every other part. All the officers necessary for the work of the ministry are to be found in the Church, and everything has been organized according to the order of God. Are any of these men who are called to presiding positions autocrats—men who exercise undue authority over the feelings and associations of their fellow man? No. Have any of them the right to disregard the feelings of their brethren, trample them under foot, and act as tyrants? No. Have the Apostles, or High Priests, or Seventies, or Elders, any such right? No. Brother Cannon will read an extract from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, on this question.
President George Q. Cannon then read as follows from Section 121, of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants--
“Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
“Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson--
“That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principle of righteousness.
“That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
“Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.
“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
“Hence many are called, but few are chosen.
“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
“By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--
“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
“That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.
“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”
President Taylor continuing his remarks said: We have many specimens of the characters referred to in this revelation read by Brother Cannon. These things continue to exist more or less. Some people are very desirous sometimes to instruct me about how I ought to manipulate and manage affairs. Well, if they were set as my instructors I should be much pleased to get all the information I could from them, and I would be pleased to get information from the humblest person in existence—if it was information. Among other things I find that a good many begin to think that we are very much persecuted and proscribed in our marital relations, according to the revelations which God has given us, and there is sometimes a little trembling in the knees. I am pleased there is not much of it, but there is a little once in a while. Sometimes I get advice from outsiders, from the newspapers, etc., and sometimes from some of our brethren (but from very few of our brethren), in relation to these matters.
God has given us a revelation in regard to celestial marriage. I did not make it. He has told us certain things pertaining to this matter, and they would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do; nor can we interfere with any of the commands of God to meet the persuasions or behests of men. I cannot do it, and will not do it.
I find some men try to twist round the principle in any way and every way they can. They want to sneak out of it in some way. Now God don't want any kind of sycophancy like that. He expects that we will be true to Him, and to the principles He has developed, and to feel as Job did—“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Though other folks would slay us, yet we will trust in the living God and be true to our covenants and to our God. These are my feelings in relation to that matter. We have also been told that “it is not mete that men who will not abide my law shall preside over my Priesthood,” and yet some people would like very much to do it. Well, they cannot do it; because if we are here, as I said before, to do the will of our Father who sent us, and He has told us what to do, we will do it, in the name of Israel's God—and all who sanction it say Amen—[the vast congregation responded with a loud “Amen.“]—and those that don't may say what they please. [Laughter.] If God has introduced something for our glory and exaltation, we are not going to have that kicked over by any improper influence, either inside or outside of the Church of the living God. We will stand by the principles of eternal truth; living we will proclaim them, and dying we will be true to them, and after death will live again in their enjoyment in the eternal worlds. That is my feeling; so I don't feel very trembly in the knees, and I do not think you do, generally. I see sometimes a disposition to try to ignore some of the laws which God has introduced, and this is one of them. People want to slip round a corner, or creep out in some way. There is something very creepy about it. There was a man in former times we are told, came to Jesus by night. His name was Nicodemus. He was one of those persons who did not like the daylight. I have known some people who would want to be baptized in the evening, or get into some corner that they might not be seen. Well, there is not much to such folks. Jesus was very unpopular, quite as unpopular as we are, in His day. Nicodemus was a prominent man among the Jews, and he thought it might injure his reputation if he was seen visiting that Nazarene, to get instruction from Him, so he crawled in at night. Jesus talked quite plainly to him, as you can read for yourselves; but we find some folks of a similar kind now creeping around. They have not the manhood to stand true to their colors and to their God. Some folks think that we polygamists are very much indebted to our brethren who are monogamists to help to steady the ark (God save the mark!)—(Laughter.)—to help to save us, and that we need such men in the Legislature, etc., and to fill our various offices. Well, I won't tell you all I think about some of these things, but I do think we are all of us dependent upon God our Heavenly Father, and if He don't take care of us we shall not be taken care of; if His arm is not extended in our behalf we shall have a poor showing; but if God is with us, we ask no odds of the world, for He governs the destinies of the human family. He puts down one man and exalts another. He dethrones one king or president as the case may be, and sets up another, and He rules as He pleases among the nations of the earth and all the children of men, although they don't know it. We live in Him, we move in Him, we have our being from Him. We are not dependent very much upon the monogamists about any of these things. You need not plume yourselves very much in these matters; and I will tell you, if you want to get along smoothly, you had better find among your various neighbors, when you have some matter of difficulty to settle, some of these polygamists and ask a little counsel at their hands. They will be able to advise you about many things, especially if they are men of God, humble men, living their religion and keeping the commandments of God.
There are some few things I have been reflecting about, and have noted them down, and I think I shall read them now.
The distinction being made between Polygamy and Prostitution:
1st. Congress made a law which would affect both; and cohabitation with more than one woman was made a crime whether in polygamy or out of polygamy.
2nd. The Governor turned legislator, added to this law, and inserted in a test oath to officials, the following words regarding cohabitation, “in the marriage relation;” thus plainly and definitely sanctioning prostitution, without any law of the United States, or any authority.
3rd. The United States Commissioners, also, without legislation, adopted the action of the Governor, and still insisted on this interpolation, in the test oath in election matters, and placed all polygamists under this unconstitutional oath, and released prostitutes and their paramours from the obligations placed upon others.
4th. The Prosecuting Attorney has sanctioned these things, and pursued a similar course; and while he has asked all the “Mormon” jurors certain questions pertaining to their religious faith in the doctrines of the “Mormon” Church, and challenged them if they answered affirmatively as to their belief in polygamy, he has declined to ask other jurors whether they believed in prostitution, or whether they believed in cohabiting with more than one woman or not.
5th. Chief Justice Zane when appealed to on this question refused to interfere, or give any other ruling, and thus aided in packing the jury.
Thus a law was first passed by Congress, which has been perverted by the administration, by all its officers who have officiated in this Territory, and made to subserve the interests of a party who have placed in their political platform an Anti-Mormon plank; and have clearly proven that there is a combination in all the officers of State, officiating in this Territory, to back up this political intrigue in the interest of party, and at the sacrifice of law, equity, jurisprudence and all the safeguards that are provided by the Constitution for the protection of human rights.
These (continued President Taylor) are some points that are of considerable importance. Similar things have been exhibited in former times—an animus, a united operation against justice, equity and law, and, in our case, against the Constitution of the United States, and the rights and privileges and immunities of the Latter-day Saints. A law was framed professedly in the interest of purity and virtue. When it got here it was perverted and made to subserve the interest of prostitution and prostitutes; and the lowest class of men, who violate their marital relations, and trample under foot all principles of virtue and integrity, can go on our juries, can vote at the polls, through the intrigues of corrupt men; and they thus try to shackle a free people, bring them into bondage, and make slaves of them, unless they will bow to their infernal behests, and in the name of Israel's God we will not do it. [The congregation responded with a loud “Amen.“] We are not going to elevate prostitutes and men who violate their marital relations above men and women who are virtuous, honorable and upright. These are my feelings, and I am not afraid to proclaim them to the world. So much for these things.
Do we want a class of men along with us that will submit to these kind of things, and are we to share in this hypocrisy, this infamy and degradation? What mean these dens in our city that are introduced by our Christian friends—dens of infamy, dens of prostitution, gambling holes, houses of assignation, dramshops, etc.? They are to cater to the virtuous (?) feelings of these honorable, high-minded, pure reformers that have come among us—(Laughter)—or what are they for? They are sanctioned, I am ashamed to say by the officers of government, and protected in their libidinous and degrading pursuits. How was it some time ago when the Edmunds law was first introduced? A son of Mayor Little was one of the election registrars. His father some years ago had had two wives—I am sorry to say he has not got them now, they are dead—and because some years before any law of this kind was in operation in the United States he had practiced plural marriage, his son was obliged to tell his father that he could not register. Shortly afterwards a notorious courtesan known as Kate Flint, with some of the inmates of her bagnio, drove up and requested to be registered. “Why, of course.” And this same gentleman that could not register his honorable father, who had never violated any law of the United States, had to endure the mortification of taking the names of these others and placing them on the list as respectable voters in our midst! About this time another non-Mormon came along to one of the other registration officers, and on partly reading the oath—this test oath that had been prescribed—said, “I am afraid I can't take that!” “Why can't you take it?” Well, he was an honest man among the Gentiles; he did not like to foreswear himself; so he said, “I have a wife, and then I keep a mistress.” “Oh, well,” says the man, “read on a little further.” He read on until he came to the words, “in the marriage relation.” “Oh, well, yes, I can take that,” he said, and registered. These are facts that are stuck before our noses here in the City of Salt Lake by the officials sent among us, and who are instructed particularly to look after our morals.
So much, then, for such affairs. Now, do we want affiliation or association with such practices and principles as these? God forbid. And we want no falterers in our ranks. What shall we do? Live our religion, be true to our covenants, and keep the commandments of God.
What shall the Presidents of Stakes do? Look after our Stakes, and if you find adulterers or adulteresses among you, don't permit them to go into the temples of God; for we won't have such people; they cannot be sanctioned by us, nor have our fellowship. We will not have them; the world may take the strumpets; they may wallow in their filth, but we will not have our holy places polluted by people calling themselves Latter-day Saints, who indulge in these abominable practices; we will not have them; and anybody who permits them to go into these holy places will have to be responsible for it. Many Bishops do it, they will be held responsible. Therefore, be careful, you Presidents of Stakes and you Bishops, how you act, and look well after your people, for be it understood that before our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, “Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.” (Psalms lxxxv, 13.) We are preparing ourselves to build up a Zion of God, and these people, whoremasters and whores, liars and hypocrites, will never get into the city of the living God, they will be found outside the gates.
Now, have I any ill feelings towards these people that persecute and proscribe us? No. I would do them good for evil, give blessings for curses; I would treat them well, treat them honorably. Let us be men of truth, honor and integrity; men that will swear to our own hurt and change not; men whose word will be our everlasting bond. If you see men hungry, feed them, no matter who they are: white, black, or red, Jew, Gentile or Mormon, or anybody else—feed them. If you see men naked, clothe them. If you see men sick, administer to them, and learn to be kind to all men; but partake not of their evil practices. “O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united.” We are trying to raise up a people that shall be men of God, men of truth, men of integrity, men of virtue, men who will be fit to associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds.
We are accused of being corrupt, degraded, low and debauched. Who by? By people, as I will show who are ten times as degraded, ten times as debauched, ten times as low and guilty of ten-fold more crime than we are. These are our professed reformers. I speak of these things therefore in our defense, and were we not accused by men void of honor and principle, I never would broach such a subject; for, I do not delight to dwell on the infamies, the corruptions and abominations of the world. I would rather speak of their good qualities and honorable principles, and I am thankful to say that there are thousands and tens of thousands and millions in these United States and in other nations who look with contempt upon all the chicanery, deception and fraud, whether of a moral, social, political, legislative, or judicial character; thousands and millions of men; I see many of them, very many of them, who pass through here, men of note, of position in society from the United States, and from the different nations who call upon me from time to time, and express their sentiments pertaining to these matters. In order to sustain what I say, I will have Brother Cannon read over some statistics in regard to crime. We are, as I have said, represented as a very bad people, and I want to show a comparison between us and our reformers, or those that profess to be our reformers in relation to these matters.
President Cannon then read the following, being the criminal statistics for the year 1883.
“The population of Utah may be estimated at 160,000 in 1883.
“Of these say 130,000 were Mormons, and 30,000 Gentiles, a very liberal estimate of the latter.
“In this year there were 46 persons sent to the Penitentiary convicted of crime. Of these 33 were non-Mormons, and 13 reputed Mormons.
“At the above estimate of population the ratio or percentage would be one prisoner to every 10,000 Mormons, or one hundredth of one per cent, and of the Gentiles one convict in every 909, or about one ninth of one percent. So that the actual proportion of criminals is more than ten times greater among the Gentiles of Utah, with the above very liberal estimate, than among the Mormons.
“It is urged that these non-Mormon prisoners are not a fair representation of the average of crime throughout the country, but are the result of the flow of the desperate classes westward to the borders of civilization; with greater truth we reply that the Mormon prisoners are not representatives of Mormonism, nor the results of Mormonism, but of the consequences of a departure from Mormon principles; and of the 13 prisoners classed as “Mormons,” the greater portion were only so by family connection or association:
Arrests in Salt Lake City, 1883: Mormons, 150 Non-Mormons, 1,559 or more than ten times the number of Mormon arrests.
“Again, it is estimated that there are 6,000 non-Mormons, and 19,000 Mormons in Salt Lake City, which shows of Mormons one arrest in 126 2/3.
“Non-Mormons one arrest in a fraction less than every four, or rather more than twenty-five percent.”
As I have said before (continued President Taylor), if we were not on the defensive in this case, I would say nothing about these things; but it ill becomes men who have got ten criminals to our one to come here as our reformers, and try to disfranchise men who are ten times as good as they are. These are facts that are not of my getting up.
They come from the public records and can be verified by the prison and other statistics. And the question is, how much of that rule do we want here?
The questionable honor is reserved to these advocates of “advanced high moral ideas” to trample upon all judicial precedents. It was not enough that an insignificant minority should have more than an equal showing with the majority, being equal in numbers in the drawing to make up a venire. It was not enough that every Mormon was questioned as to his religious faith, and that no Gentile was. It was not enough that all “Mormons” were excluded from this so-called “impartial grand jury,” and that their avowed enemies were to be their judges. It is not enough that our people must be tried by men whose average record shows them to be ten times their inferiors as law abiding citizens; but not having enough men to pack this “impartial grand jury” according to the provisions of law, under the guise of virtue, and in the name of morality and justice, edicts are issued to the officers to go into the purlieus of the city and gather up ad libitum from among the guttersnipes creatures to form “a jury of the peers” of the accused with which to persecute and prosecute honorable men and women.
These are things we object to, and I wish our brethren and sisters to be informed in regard to these matters, that they may have a correct estimate of the position that we occupy pertaining thereto. We cannot respect and esteem such operations, and while we are desirous to place ourselves in conformity with all law, all order and all correct principle, yet we despise in our hearts this chicanery, hypocrisy, fraud and deception. But do we expect to see such things? Yes. Are we surprised at it? No. Why? Because we have been told over and over again, and the Elders have preached over and over again, and the Prophets have prophesied of it over and over again, that the world will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Who is it that embarks in these things? It is the corrupt, the ungodly, the debauchee, the adulterer, the liar, the men who violate every principle of honor, truth and integrity, and who are enemies to this nation, and the same class of people are enemies to any nation. They are laying the axe at the root of the tree of liberty, and trying to overturn the freedom of man, and to place free men in bondage, a thing no honorable man would condescend to for a moment. And there are many in this city who despise these things as they do the gates of hell, who are not associated with us in a religious capacity, many honorable men who have feelings of this kind, and then there are tens of thousands in the United States who possess the same feelings and the same abhorrence of this corruption, degradation and infamy that is sought to be palmed upon us. But while we can estimate these things at their worth, we can also estimate the actions of honorable men who are not of us at their true worth. Because a man is not a believer in our doctrines, that is no reason why he should not be an honorable man, for there are thousands and millions of them: it would be a pity if they were in the same condition as the others. But we as a people have to defend ourselves against the aggressions of an unscrupulous enemy who is instigated by the power of the adversary to overturn and destroy the truth today as he has done in other ages, in other nations and among other peoples. Therefore it becomes us to look well after our affairs, and protect ourselves as best we may from the calumnies, the reproach, and the infamies that are sought to be foisted upon us by an ungodly, hypocritical and corrupt people.
Now, having got through with this, I want to refer to something else. It has been stated that the reason why we have so many of these criminals is because that the scum of society from the eastern States floats out here, and that therefore a rough, uncouth, lawless class finds its way into this community. Now, I want something read to you about some of these so called virtuous people in the east.
President Cannon again read as follows:
Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, has declared in a paper read before a late meeting of the American Social Science Association, that “nowhere in the history of the world was the practice of abortion so common as in this country; and he gave expression to the opinion that, in New England alone, many thousands of abortions are procured annually.”
Dr. Reamy, of the Ohio State Medical Society, says: “From a very large verbal and written correspondence in this and other States, together with personal investigation and facts accumulated * * that we have become a nation of murderers.”
The Rev. Dr. Eddy writes to the Christian Advocate regarding one little village of 1,000 inhabitants: “Yet here, and elsewhere, 15 per cent of wives have the criminal hardihood to practice this black art, there is a still large and additional percent who endorse and defend it. * * Among married persons, so extensive has this practice become, that people of high repute not only commit this crime, but do not shun to speak boastingly among their intimates of the deed and the means of accomplishing it.”
Dr. Allen further states: “Examining the number of deaths, we find that there are absolutely more deaths than births among the strictly American children, so that aside from immigration and births of children of foreign parentage, the population of Massachusetts is rapidly decreasing. * * The birth rate in the State of New York, shows the same fact, that American families do not increase at all, and inspection of the registration in other States shows the same remark applies to all.”
Bishop Coxe, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of New York, in a pastoral letter to his people, writes: “I have heretofore warned my flock against the blood guiltiness of antenatal infanticide. If any doubts existed heretofore as to the propriety of my warnings on this subject, they must now disappear before the fact that the world itself is beginning to be horrified by the practical results of the sacrifices to Moloch which defile our land. Again I warn you that they who do such things cannot inherit eternal life. If there be a special damnation for those who shed innocent blood, what must be the portion of those who have no mercy upon their own flesh.”
Dr. Cowan, M. D., writing on what he styles “the Murder of the Unborn,” says: “That this crime is not only widespread on this great continent, but is rapidly on the increase, we have the testimony of physicians, whose investigations have been thorough, and whose social standing and sincerity cannot be questioned.”
President Taylor continuing said: These are the people that are coming here to reform us, and are so disgusted with our corruptions. Yet I am pleased to find that there are, once in a while, men who have the courage to speak against these damning evils. Bishop Coxe, of the Episcopal Church, is one of these men, and I honor such men whenever I hear of them, and should be glad at all times to extend to them all courtesies possible. Dr. Allen and Dr. Reamy are inspired, it seems, by the same detestation of these hellish, these fiendish, these outrageous acts. Yet from these people come our reformers, who are so horrified at the evils they see in Utah. But fortunately, the bed is too short, they cannot stretch themselves on it; and the covering is too narrow and too contracted, it will not cover them, and their evils and abominations crop out on every side, and they become their own accusers.
It is their own statements that I have had read to you this morning. I am sorry to know that these things are as they are; but these are facts, and we do not feel very much honored with the association of such people. We do feel honored always to associate with honorable men and women; but with the seducer, with harlots, with thieves, with murderers of the innocents, no! never! no never! We want no association with them. As it is stated here by one of these reverend gentlemen in the East, speaking of these things, no murderer hath eternal life in him, nor no murderesses have eternal life in them.
I have had these things read to you for two reasons: First, to show the corruption that exists among these so-called virtuous people, honorable people, pure people, who are so shocked at the atrocities that take place in Utah. Another reason is that I want to warn our brethren and sisters against these infamies, and against permitting these filthy wretches to come into their houses. They are too low, too debased, too corrupt; and I speak of it because I know what I am talking about; there are some of these people crawling around us like so many vipers, and insinuating their hellish, murderous practices into the families of some who call themselves Latter-day Saints. Woe! to such Saints. You cannot have a place among us. No woman murderer, no man murderer can have a place among the Latter-day Saints, and I speak of it that the Presidents of Stakes and the Bishops may be apprised of these things. And some of these people would try to pass by the Bishops, and then by the Presidents of Stakes, and then by the President of the Church, and crawl with all their slime and damnable hypocrisy into the Temples of the living God. They may pass by these, but they will have to pass by the angels and the Gods, before they get through, and they will never inherit the Kingdom of God. Hear it you sisters! Hear it you brethren! Hear it you Bishops, and you Presidents of Stakes! Watch well and know well what you are doing, when you sign recommends for doubtful characters to go into these holy places. We do not want them there. It is not their place, and you will have to account for your acts if you permit these things knowingly. It is necessary that you should be particular about these matters, for you will have to answer for your doings as I have for mine. We cannot, because of relationship, because somebody is a cousin, or an uncle, or an aunt, or a brother, or a sister, or a son or a daughter, or a father or a mother—we cannot admit and will not admit them to any of these holy places unless they are worthy. I call upon you if you know of adulterers or adulteresses, or people that practice these unnatural infamies, to sever them from the Church; they shall not have a place in the Church and Kingdom of God. Mr. Murray here, and others, may make laws and test oaths, with provisions in them to screen the adulterer, the whoremonger, and the seducer; but we will tear that away from our people, and all such shall have no place with Israel, and all who are in favor of it, signify it by saying “Aye.” [The congregation responded with a loud “Aye.“] These are our feelings, and it is some of these things which has led me to talk as plainly as I have done in regard to some of these other matters. I wanted to present the contrast so plainly before you that he that runneth might read. Enough of this, however, for the present: Handle it carefully. Deal with it gently, Speak of it tenderly, Poor Justice is blind.
The choir sang, the congregation joining: The Spirit of God like a fire is burning.
Adjourned till 10 a.m. to-morrow.
Benediction by L. John Nuttall.
Discourse by President John Taylor, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Monday and Tuesday (Semi-Annual Conference), October 6 and 7, 1884.
Reported by John Irvine.
If the congregation will endeavor to preserve as much order as possible, and prevent the crying and disturbance of children, I will try and address you for a short time. Last evening I made quite a lengthy address in this hall; but we had very good order. There was no whispering, no talking, nor disturbance of any kind. It requires, in a large congregation like this, quite an exertion to speak so as to make the people hear. I am told that the people could not hear half of what was said by several of the brethren yesterday. It is wrong for us to have disorder in the house of God, a place where we meet for instruction.
Last evening I talked of some matters of considerable importance to the Priesthood, of which there was an immense number present; they nearly filled this hall. I wish to continue some of these remarks; for it is necessary that all of us should be instructed in the great principles which God has revealed for the guidance, salvation and exaltation of the Saints of God, and also for the benefit of the world wherein we live. There were very many promises made to eminent men in generations long since past; but these generally had reference more particularly to the benefit of the world of mankind than to individuals.
There were certain great principles involved in the organization of this earth, and one was that there might be a place provided whereon the children of our Heavenly Father could live and propagate their species, and have bodies formed for the spirits to inhabit who were the children of God; for we are told that He is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh. It was requisite, therefore, that an earth should be organized; it was requisite that man should be placed upon it; it was requisite that bodies should be prepared for those spirits to inhabit, in order that the purposes of God pertaining to His progeny might be accomplished, and that those spirits might be enabled, through the medium of the everlasting Gospel, to return unto the presence of their Heavenly Father, as Gods among the Gods.
There have been different agencies at work throughout this world's history. Lucifer has been and is one of these agencies. There was a garden planted, and Adam and Eve were placed in it, and there they had communion with God. There was another being whose name was Lucifer, who is called in some places, “the son of the morning.” Job speaks of a time at the creation of this earth when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,” (Job xxxviii, 7). As it was necessary that there should be a God, a man, an earth and a heaven, it was also necessary that there should be a devil, that man might be tried, and by trial be instructed. Indeed, in the economy of God, it was not only necessary that man, but the Savior also should be perfected by suffering. It is written: “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Hebrews, ii, 10.) It was further necessary that there should be a Redeemer according to the plan which was devised from before the foundation of the world, and also that man might be a free agent to act and operate for himself, to receive the good and reject the evil, or reject the good and be governed by the evil. And there were certain rewards promised to those who would obey the laws of God, and keep his commandments, and certain punishments inflicted upon those who would not. Satan has made very great ravages among the human family in trying to accomplish his purposes; for he has been the enemy of God, and the enemy of man, and in ages past he wrought upon mankind until after a certain period he had contrived to get the great majority of them on his side. Nevertheless, they had the Priesthood among them in those early days as we have among us today. After Adam there were Seth, Enos, Mahalaleel, Methuselah, Lamech, and a great many others until we arrive at Enoch and Noah, who operated especially in behalf of the interest of the human family. They preached the Gospel as we preach it, and taught the same principles that we teach. They gathered the people to a Zion as we gather them, and when they had been gathered together, they had enemies as we have, who arrayed themselves against them. But Enoch was clothed upon with the power of God. He walked with God for 365 years, and we are told, “he was not; for God took him.” That is about all that is said about him in the Bible; but we have other information. Many others walked with God, and there was a city that the people were gathered to—a Zion. They walked with God and they were instructed of the Lord; but it took at any rate, 365 years to accomplish this object.
Furthermore, in the latter days there is to be a Zion built up: but in these days we are told that the Lord will cut His work short in righteousness. Enoch, in his day, had his messengers go forth among the people, and when they gathered, it induced the rage of man, and great armies assembled against the Saints, but Enoch prophesied by the power of God, and the earth shook and the mountains trembled, and the enemies of the Saints in fear fled afar off. By and by when the time came for the accomplishment of the purposes of God, and before the destruction of the wicked, Enoch was caught up to heaven and his Zion with him. And we are told in latter revelation in relation to these matters that a Zion will be built up in our day; that great trouble will overtake the inhabitants of the earth; and that when the time arrives, the Zion that was caught up will descend, and the Zion that will be organized here will ascend, both possessed of the same spirit, their peoples having been preserved by the power of God according to His purposes and as His children, to take part in the events of the latter days. We are told that when the people of these two Zions meet, they will fall on each others' necks, and embrace and kiss each other.
As they in that day were placed under the guidance of the Almighty, so are we. As they had a work to perform associated with the welfare of the human family, so have we. As they had the Gospel to preach, so have we. As they had a Zion to build up, so have we. As they needed the support of the Great Jehovah, so do we. As they were dependent upon Him in all their movements, whether in relation to earth or heaven, so are we. The work in which we are engaged is one that has been introduced by the Great Eloheim, the God and Father of the human family, in the interests of His children. And wherever and whenever these principles have existed, this same being that was in the garden with our first parents still goes forth and has gone forth as a raging lion, seeking whom he may deceive, seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he may lead down to death. And in these latter days God has introduced these same principles with the same object in view. He has revealed the same principles of heaven, and as heretofore, in the interest of humanity. Who was Enoch? Was he a man of God? Yes. Who were the Elders with him, were they men of God? Yes; and they received their instructions in that Zion that was then built up, and more or less directly from God; for Enoch walked with God. Whom was Enoch operating for? For God his heavenly Father. He was there, as Jesus was on the earth in his time, as he said, not to do His own will, but the will of his Father who sent him. And whom did those people operate for? They operated for the welfare of the human family who would receive the truth and be governed by it. And whom did Jesus and His Apostles in their day operate for? For the benefit of all the world. Jesus Himself appeared as the Redeemer of the world, and He commissioned His Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature, saying: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned.” What is this salvation and condemnation? That would take a long time to tell. Suffice it to say that there are bodies celestial, bodies terrestrial, and bodies telestial; one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; but strait was the gate and narrow was the way that led unto the lives, and few there were at that time and few there have always been who have gone in thereat. And what was it that they sought? It was the Celestial Kingdom of our God, that they might come forth in the first resurrection and be one with the Father and one with Jesus, and belong to the Church of the Firstborn whose names are written in heaven, and become Gods among the Gods, and participate in all the glory of the Celestial Kingdom. But few there were who found the narrow path. It is so today. Were the Apostles of Jesus commanded to preach the Gospel? Yes. Are we commanded as they were? Yes. What was the position of the Apostles? They were simply messengers of life and salvation to a fallen world. What are the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Priests, the Seventies, and the Elders today? What are they? Bearers of life and salvation to a fallen world, the messengers of God to men, the legates of the skies commissioned by the Great Jehovah to introduce the principles of eternal life, and gather in his elect from the four quarters of the earth, and to prepare them for an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. And what becomes of those who choose the other path? They are still God's children, and He feels interested in them. What will He do with them? They will be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and according to the light and intelligence which God communicates to them. Then there is another glory, a telestial glory. Those who enter into that glory will also be judged according to their deeds and be rewarded according to their acts. We are told of others who will suffer the wrath of God, and in the revelations given to us we learn that eternal punishment is God's punishment, that everlasting punishment is God's punishment, for He is eternal, and He is everlasting. We are informed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah suffered the vengeance of eternal fire. We are told, too, that the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, who were destroyed because of their wickedness, were shut up in prison and they remained there for a long, long time. How long? We read that Jesus, who was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, went and preached to the spirits in prison which were sometime disobedient when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah. How long had these people been there? At a rough guess about 2,400 years. It was quite a painful ordeal to go through. It is one that none of us would like very much. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God—a fearful thing to violate His laws. We have gathered here that we may learn those laws, the laws of God, the laws of life, and prepare ourselves under His guidance for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God. But are all the Latter-day Saints going into that kingdom? No. How is that? It is just as Jesus declared. “It is not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, that will enter into the Kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of the Father who is in heaven.” Did Jesus come to do the will of His Father in heaven? He did, and He expects all who aim at Celestial glory to do the same, and if they do not they will not get there. He says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And He will say unto them, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not, you have not lived as becometh Saints.” Oh, say some, that don't mean the Saints. No, it don't, but it means many who profess to be Saints. Do the world profess to cast out devils, to heal the sick and to do many mighty works? They do not. Do the world prophesy in His name? No. Do the world preach in the name of God? They preach in His name, many of them, without having the authority, as we have heard at this conference; but they do not propose to do many mighty works in His name, but many of our Elders do—Elders who magnify their calling and honor their God. On the other hand there are Elders who are careless, wayward and rebellious against God and His laws—who seek to trample under foot the principles that He has revealed—who seek to set themselves up to guide, direct, and manipulate the affairs of the Church and Kingdom of God, and yet these same persons know nothing but what they know naturally, as do the brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed; and we none of us know anything only as God instructs us. We are indebted to Him for the introduction of this work, and for all the information pertaining thereto. It has been from no man nor set of men, nor organizations of a professed spiritual or temporal nature, that we have received intelligence pertaining to the things of God, the Church of God, or the Kingdom of God. It has come directly from the Lord, through the Gospel of the Son of God, which brings life and immortality to light; and if men think—and we every once in a while meet with such characters—they know better than the Lord how to manipulate affairs they will find out their mistake. The Lord will say to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you: for it is not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the Kingdom of God; but He that doeth the will of our Father in Heaven.”
Hence there is a great work for us to do. There is something comprehensive in it. It is indeed the dispensation of the fullness of times spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world was. It relates to the interests of men that now live: it relates to the interests of men who have lived, and it relates to things that are yet in the future. It is a thing in which the Gods in the eternal worlds are interested, and all the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets that have lived upon the earth are all interested in the work in which we are engaged. There is a Priesthood in the heavens, and we have the same Priesthood on the earth, but there should be a closer communion between the Priesthood on the earth and the Priesthood in the heavens; it is desirable that we should be brought into closer proximity, we want to be advancing as Enoch advanced. After the appearance of Jesus upon the earth, there was to be a certain power who would make war with the Saints and prevail against them; and it is said, “they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time:” (Daniel vii, 25) but in this day we are told that “the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever,” (verse 18). You and I may violate our covenants; you and I may trample upon the principles of the Gospel, and violate the order of the Priesthood and the commands of God; but among the hosts of Israel there will be thousands and tens of thousands who will be true to the principles of truth, and God in the heavens, the holy angels and the ancient Priesthood that now live where God lives are all united together, for the accomplishment of this purpose. The Lord will roll forth His purposes in His own way and is His own time. And having thus organized, as I before stated, it is not for us to act as we may think individually, but as God shall dictate. We have a regular order in the Church. You brethren, who hold the holy Priesthood, understand these things. Has God not given to every man a portion of His Spirit to profit withal? Yes. Has He not done more than this to the saints who are true and faithful? Has He not given to them the gift of the Holy Ghost? He has, and they know it and realize it. They are brought into communion with each other, and into communion with God and the heavenly hosts. But having this Spirit do we need others to guide us? Yes, all the time. Why? Because of the powers of darkness, the influence of Satan and the weakness of human nature. We need watchmen upon the towers of Zion, who are on the alert to look after the interests of Israel, and see that God's people do not go astray. Hence it becomes the duty of the Teachers to look after the people, to see that there is no hard feeling, no covetousness, no fraud, no adultery, no iniquity of any kind; but that purity, holiness and righteousness prevail among those that they preside over. And how far does this extend? To every place where there is a ward or a portion of a ward—to the utmost extremity. It may be compared unto the body—from the head to the feet, from the toes to the fingers, and to every other part. All the officers necessary for the work of the ministry are to be found in the Church, and everything has been organized according to the order of God. Are any of these men who are called to presiding positions autocrats—men who exercise undue authority over the feelings and associations of their fellow man? No. Have any of them the right to disregard the feelings of their brethren, trample them under foot, and act as tyrants? No. Have the Apostles, or High Priests, or Seventies, or Elders, any such right? No. Brother Cannon will read an extract from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, on this question.
President George Q. Cannon then read as follows from Section 121, of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants--
“Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
“Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson--
“That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principle of righteousness.
“That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
“Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.
“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
“Hence many are called, but few are chosen.
“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
“By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--
“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
“That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.
“Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.”
President Taylor continuing his remarks said: We have many specimens of the characters referred to in this revelation read by Brother Cannon. These things continue to exist more or less. Some people are very desirous sometimes to instruct me about how I ought to manipulate and manage affairs. Well, if they were set as my instructors I should be much pleased to get all the information I could from them, and I would be pleased to get information from the humblest person in existence—if it was information. Among other things I find that a good many begin to think that we are very much persecuted and proscribed in our marital relations, according to the revelations which God has given us, and there is sometimes a little trembling in the knees. I am pleased there is not much of it, but there is a little once in a while. Sometimes I get advice from outsiders, from the newspapers, etc., and sometimes from some of our brethren (but from very few of our brethren), in relation to these matters.
God has given us a revelation in regard to celestial marriage. I did not make it. He has told us certain things pertaining to this matter, and they would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do; nor can we interfere with any of the commands of God to meet the persuasions or behests of men. I cannot do it, and will not do it.
I find some men try to twist round the principle in any way and every way they can. They want to sneak out of it in some way. Now God don't want any kind of sycophancy like that. He expects that we will be true to Him, and to the principles He has developed, and to feel as Job did—“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Though other folks would slay us, yet we will trust in the living God and be true to our covenants and to our God. These are my feelings in relation to that matter. We have also been told that “it is not mete that men who will not abide my law shall preside over my Priesthood,” and yet some people would like very much to do it. Well, they cannot do it; because if we are here, as I said before, to do the will of our Father who sent us, and He has told us what to do, we will do it, in the name of Israel's God—and all who sanction it say Amen—[the vast congregation responded with a loud “Amen.“]—and those that don't may say what they please. [Laughter.] If God has introduced something for our glory and exaltation, we are not going to have that kicked over by any improper influence, either inside or outside of the Church of the living God. We will stand by the principles of eternal truth; living we will proclaim them, and dying we will be true to them, and after death will live again in their enjoyment in the eternal worlds. That is my feeling; so I don't feel very trembly in the knees, and I do not think you do, generally. I see sometimes a disposition to try to ignore some of the laws which God has introduced, and this is one of them. People want to slip round a corner, or creep out in some way. There is something very creepy about it. There was a man in former times we are told, came to Jesus by night. His name was Nicodemus. He was one of those persons who did not like the daylight. I have known some people who would want to be baptized in the evening, or get into some corner that they might not be seen. Well, there is not much to such folks. Jesus was very unpopular, quite as unpopular as we are, in His day. Nicodemus was a prominent man among the Jews, and he thought it might injure his reputation if he was seen visiting that Nazarene, to get instruction from Him, so he crawled in at night. Jesus talked quite plainly to him, as you can read for yourselves; but we find some folks of a similar kind now creeping around. They have not the manhood to stand true to their colors and to their God. Some folks think that we polygamists are very much indebted to our brethren who are monogamists to help to steady the ark (God save the mark!)—(Laughter.)—to help to save us, and that we need such men in the Legislature, etc., and to fill our various offices. Well, I won't tell you all I think about some of these things, but I do think we are all of us dependent upon God our Heavenly Father, and if He don't take care of us we shall not be taken care of; if His arm is not extended in our behalf we shall have a poor showing; but if God is with us, we ask no odds of the world, for He governs the destinies of the human family. He puts down one man and exalts another. He dethrones one king or president as the case may be, and sets up another, and He rules as He pleases among the nations of the earth and all the children of men, although they don't know it. We live in Him, we move in Him, we have our being from Him. We are not dependent very much upon the monogamists about any of these things. You need not plume yourselves very much in these matters; and I will tell you, if you want to get along smoothly, you had better find among your various neighbors, when you have some matter of difficulty to settle, some of these polygamists and ask a little counsel at their hands. They will be able to advise you about many things, especially if they are men of God, humble men, living their religion and keeping the commandments of God.
There are some few things I have been reflecting about, and have noted them down, and I think I shall read them now.
The distinction being made between Polygamy and Prostitution:
1st. Congress made a law which would affect both; and cohabitation with more than one woman was made a crime whether in polygamy or out of polygamy.
2nd. The Governor turned legislator, added to this law, and inserted in a test oath to officials, the following words regarding cohabitation, “in the marriage relation;” thus plainly and definitely sanctioning prostitution, without any law of the United States, or any authority.
3rd. The United States Commissioners, also, without legislation, adopted the action of the Governor, and still insisted on this interpolation, in the test oath in election matters, and placed all polygamists under this unconstitutional oath, and released prostitutes and their paramours from the obligations placed upon others.
4th. The Prosecuting Attorney has sanctioned these things, and pursued a similar course; and while he has asked all the “Mormon” jurors certain questions pertaining to their religious faith in the doctrines of the “Mormon” Church, and challenged them if they answered affirmatively as to their belief in polygamy, he has declined to ask other jurors whether they believed in prostitution, or whether they believed in cohabiting with more than one woman or not.
5th. Chief Justice Zane when appealed to on this question refused to interfere, or give any other ruling, and thus aided in packing the jury.
Thus a law was first passed by Congress, which has been perverted by the administration, by all its officers who have officiated in this Territory, and made to subserve the interests of a party who have placed in their political platform an Anti-Mormon plank; and have clearly proven that there is a combination in all the officers of State, officiating in this Territory, to back up this political intrigue in the interest of party, and at the sacrifice of law, equity, jurisprudence and all the safeguards that are provided by the Constitution for the protection of human rights.
These (continued President Taylor) are some points that are of considerable importance. Similar things have been exhibited in former times—an animus, a united operation against justice, equity and law, and, in our case, against the Constitution of the United States, and the rights and privileges and immunities of the Latter-day Saints. A law was framed professedly in the interest of purity and virtue. When it got here it was perverted and made to subserve the interest of prostitution and prostitutes; and the lowest class of men, who violate their marital relations, and trample under foot all principles of virtue and integrity, can go on our juries, can vote at the polls, through the intrigues of corrupt men; and they thus try to shackle a free people, bring them into bondage, and make slaves of them, unless they will bow to their infernal behests, and in the name of Israel's God we will not do it. [The congregation responded with a loud “Amen.“] We are not going to elevate prostitutes and men who violate their marital relations above men and women who are virtuous, honorable and upright. These are my feelings, and I am not afraid to proclaim them to the world. So much for these things.
Do we want a class of men along with us that will submit to these kind of things, and are we to share in this hypocrisy, this infamy and degradation? What mean these dens in our city that are introduced by our Christian friends—dens of infamy, dens of prostitution, gambling holes, houses of assignation, dramshops, etc.? They are to cater to the virtuous (?) feelings of these honorable, high-minded, pure reformers that have come among us—(Laughter)—or what are they for? They are sanctioned, I am ashamed to say by the officers of government, and protected in their libidinous and degrading pursuits. How was it some time ago when the Edmunds law was first introduced? A son of Mayor Little was one of the election registrars. His father some years ago had had two wives—I am sorry to say he has not got them now, they are dead—and because some years before any law of this kind was in operation in the United States he had practiced plural marriage, his son was obliged to tell his father that he could not register. Shortly afterwards a notorious courtesan known as Kate Flint, with some of the inmates of her bagnio, drove up and requested to be registered. “Why, of course.” And this same gentleman that could not register his honorable father, who had never violated any law of the United States, had to endure the mortification of taking the names of these others and placing them on the list as respectable voters in our midst! About this time another non-Mormon came along to one of the other registration officers, and on partly reading the oath—this test oath that had been prescribed—said, “I am afraid I can't take that!” “Why can't you take it?” Well, he was an honest man among the Gentiles; he did not like to foreswear himself; so he said, “I have a wife, and then I keep a mistress.” “Oh, well,” says the man, “read on a little further.” He read on until he came to the words, “in the marriage relation.” “Oh, well, yes, I can take that,” he said, and registered. These are facts that are stuck before our noses here in the City of Salt Lake by the officials sent among us, and who are instructed particularly to look after our morals.
So much, then, for such affairs. Now, do we want affiliation or association with such practices and principles as these? God forbid. And we want no falterers in our ranks. What shall we do? Live our religion, be true to our covenants, and keep the commandments of God.
What shall the Presidents of Stakes do? Look after our Stakes, and if you find adulterers or adulteresses among you, don't permit them to go into the temples of God; for we won't have such people; they cannot be sanctioned by us, nor have our fellowship. We will not have them; the world may take the strumpets; they may wallow in their filth, but we will not have our holy places polluted by people calling themselves Latter-day Saints, who indulge in these abominable practices; we will not have them; and anybody who permits them to go into these holy places will have to be responsible for it. Many Bishops do it, they will be held responsible. Therefore, be careful, you Presidents of Stakes and you Bishops, how you act, and look well after your people, for be it understood that before our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, “Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.” (Psalms lxxxv, 13.) We are preparing ourselves to build up a Zion of God, and these people, whoremasters and whores, liars and hypocrites, will never get into the city of the living God, they will be found outside the gates.
Now, have I any ill feelings towards these people that persecute and proscribe us? No. I would do them good for evil, give blessings for curses; I would treat them well, treat them honorably. Let us be men of truth, honor and integrity; men that will swear to our own hurt and change not; men whose word will be our everlasting bond. If you see men hungry, feed them, no matter who they are: white, black, or red, Jew, Gentile or Mormon, or anybody else—feed them. If you see men naked, clothe them. If you see men sick, administer to them, and learn to be kind to all men; but partake not of their evil practices. “O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united.” We are trying to raise up a people that shall be men of God, men of truth, men of integrity, men of virtue, men who will be fit to associate with the Gods in the eternal worlds.
We are accused of being corrupt, degraded, low and debauched. Who by? By people, as I will show who are ten times as degraded, ten times as debauched, ten times as low and guilty of ten-fold more crime than we are. These are our professed reformers. I speak of these things therefore in our defense, and were we not accused by men void of honor and principle, I never would broach such a subject; for, I do not delight to dwell on the infamies, the corruptions and abominations of the world. I would rather speak of their good qualities and honorable principles, and I am thankful to say that there are thousands and tens of thousands and millions in these United States and in other nations who look with contempt upon all the chicanery, deception and fraud, whether of a moral, social, political, legislative, or judicial character; thousands and millions of men; I see many of them, very many of them, who pass through here, men of note, of position in society from the United States, and from the different nations who call upon me from time to time, and express their sentiments pertaining to these matters. In order to sustain what I say, I will have Brother Cannon read over some statistics in regard to crime. We are, as I have said, represented as a very bad people, and I want to show a comparison between us and our reformers, or those that profess to be our reformers in relation to these matters.
President Cannon then read the following, being the criminal statistics for the year 1883.
“The population of Utah may be estimated at 160,000 in 1883.
“Of these say 130,000 were Mormons, and 30,000 Gentiles, a very liberal estimate of the latter.
“In this year there were 46 persons sent to the Penitentiary convicted of crime. Of these 33 were non-Mormons, and 13 reputed Mormons.
“At the above estimate of population the ratio or percentage would be one prisoner to every 10,000 Mormons, or one hundredth of one per cent, and of the Gentiles one convict in every 909, or about one ninth of one percent. So that the actual proportion of criminals is more than ten times greater among the Gentiles of Utah, with the above very liberal estimate, than among the Mormons.
“It is urged that these non-Mormon prisoners are not a fair representation of the average of crime throughout the country, but are the result of the flow of the desperate classes westward to the borders of civilization; with greater truth we reply that the Mormon prisoners are not representatives of Mormonism, nor the results of Mormonism, but of the consequences of a departure from Mormon principles; and of the 13 prisoners classed as “Mormons,” the greater portion were only so by family connection or association:
Arrests in Salt Lake City, 1883: Mormons, 150 Non-Mormons, 1,559 or more than ten times the number of Mormon arrests.
“Again, it is estimated that there are 6,000 non-Mormons, and 19,000 Mormons in Salt Lake City, which shows of Mormons one arrest in 126 2/3.
“Non-Mormons one arrest in a fraction less than every four, or rather more than twenty-five percent.”
As I have said before (continued President Taylor), if we were not on the defensive in this case, I would say nothing about these things; but it ill becomes men who have got ten criminals to our one to come here as our reformers, and try to disfranchise men who are ten times as good as they are. These are facts that are not of my getting up.
They come from the public records and can be verified by the prison and other statistics. And the question is, how much of that rule do we want here?
The questionable honor is reserved to these advocates of “advanced high moral ideas” to trample upon all judicial precedents. It was not enough that an insignificant minority should have more than an equal showing with the majority, being equal in numbers in the drawing to make up a venire. It was not enough that every Mormon was questioned as to his religious faith, and that no Gentile was. It was not enough that all “Mormons” were excluded from this so-called “impartial grand jury,” and that their avowed enemies were to be their judges. It is not enough that our people must be tried by men whose average record shows them to be ten times their inferiors as law abiding citizens; but not having enough men to pack this “impartial grand jury” according to the provisions of law, under the guise of virtue, and in the name of morality and justice, edicts are issued to the officers to go into the purlieus of the city and gather up ad libitum from among the guttersnipes creatures to form “a jury of the peers” of the accused with which to persecute and prosecute honorable men and women.
These are things we object to, and I wish our brethren and sisters to be informed in regard to these matters, that they may have a correct estimate of the position that we occupy pertaining thereto. We cannot respect and esteem such operations, and while we are desirous to place ourselves in conformity with all law, all order and all correct principle, yet we despise in our hearts this chicanery, hypocrisy, fraud and deception. But do we expect to see such things? Yes. Are we surprised at it? No. Why? Because we have been told over and over again, and the Elders have preached over and over again, and the Prophets have prophesied of it over and over again, that the world will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Who is it that embarks in these things? It is the corrupt, the ungodly, the debauchee, the adulterer, the liar, the men who violate every principle of honor, truth and integrity, and who are enemies to this nation, and the same class of people are enemies to any nation. They are laying the axe at the root of the tree of liberty, and trying to overturn the freedom of man, and to place free men in bondage, a thing no honorable man would condescend to for a moment. And there are many in this city who despise these things as they do the gates of hell, who are not associated with us in a religious capacity, many honorable men who have feelings of this kind, and then there are tens of thousands in the United States who possess the same feelings and the same abhorrence of this corruption, degradation and infamy that is sought to be palmed upon us. But while we can estimate these things at their worth, we can also estimate the actions of honorable men who are not of us at their true worth. Because a man is not a believer in our doctrines, that is no reason why he should not be an honorable man, for there are thousands and millions of them: it would be a pity if they were in the same condition as the others. But we as a people have to defend ourselves against the aggressions of an unscrupulous enemy who is instigated by the power of the adversary to overturn and destroy the truth today as he has done in other ages, in other nations and among other peoples. Therefore it becomes us to look well after our affairs, and protect ourselves as best we may from the calumnies, the reproach, and the infamies that are sought to be foisted upon us by an ungodly, hypocritical and corrupt people.
Now, having got through with this, I want to refer to something else. It has been stated that the reason why we have so many of these criminals is because that the scum of society from the eastern States floats out here, and that therefore a rough, uncouth, lawless class finds its way into this community. Now, I want something read to you about some of these so called virtuous people in the east.
President Cannon again read as follows:
Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, has declared in a paper read before a late meeting of the American Social Science Association, that “nowhere in the history of the world was the practice of abortion so common as in this country; and he gave expression to the opinion that, in New England alone, many thousands of abortions are procured annually.”
Dr. Reamy, of the Ohio State Medical Society, says: “From a very large verbal and written correspondence in this and other States, together with personal investigation and facts accumulated * * that we have become a nation of murderers.”
The Rev. Dr. Eddy writes to the Christian Advocate regarding one little village of 1,000 inhabitants: “Yet here, and elsewhere, 15 per cent of wives have the criminal hardihood to practice this black art, there is a still large and additional percent who endorse and defend it. * * Among married persons, so extensive has this practice become, that people of high repute not only commit this crime, but do not shun to speak boastingly among their intimates of the deed and the means of accomplishing it.”
Dr. Allen further states: “Examining the number of deaths, we find that there are absolutely more deaths than births among the strictly American children, so that aside from immigration and births of children of foreign parentage, the population of Massachusetts is rapidly decreasing. * * The birth rate in the State of New York, shows the same fact, that American families do not increase at all, and inspection of the registration in other States shows the same remark applies to all.”
Bishop Coxe, of the Protestant Episcopal Church of New York, in a pastoral letter to his people, writes: “I have heretofore warned my flock against the blood guiltiness of antenatal infanticide. If any doubts existed heretofore as to the propriety of my warnings on this subject, they must now disappear before the fact that the world itself is beginning to be horrified by the practical results of the sacrifices to Moloch which defile our land. Again I warn you that they who do such things cannot inherit eternal life. If there be a special damnation for those who shed innocent blood, what must be the portion of those who have no mercy upon their own flesh.”
Dr. Cowan, M. D., writing on what he styles “the Murder of the Unborn,” says: “That this crime is not only widespread on this great continent, but is rapidly on the increase, we have the testimony of physicians, whose investigations have been thorough, and whose social standing and sincerity cannot be questioned.”
President Taylor continuing said: These are the people that are coming here to reform us, and are so disgusted with our corruptions. Yet I am pleased to find that there are, once in a while, men who have the courage to speak against these damning evils. Bishop Coxe, of the Episcopal Church, is one of these men, and I honor such men whenever I hear of them, and should be glad at all times to extend to them all courtesies possible. Dr. Allen and Dr. Reamy are inspired, it seems, by the same detestation of these hellish, these fiendish, these outrageous acts. Yet from these people come our reformers, who are so horrified at the evils they see in Utah. But fortunately, the bed is too short, they cannot stretch themselves on it; and the covering is too narrow and too contracted, it will not cover them, and their evils and abominations crop out on every side, and they become their own accusers.
It is their own statements that I have had read to you this morning. I am sorry to know that these things are as they are; but these are facts, and we do not feel very much honored with the association of such people. We do feel honored always to associate with honorable men and women; but with the seducer, with harlots, with thieves, with murderers of the innocents, no! never! no never! We want no association with them. As it is stated here by one of these reverend gentlemen in the East, speaking of these things, no murderer hath eternal life in him, nor no murderesses have eternal life in them.
I have had these things read to you for two reasons: First, to show the corruption that exists among these so-called virtuous people, honorable people, pure people, who are so shocked at the atrocities that take place in Utah. Another reason is that I want to warn our brethren and sisters against these infamies, and against permitting these filthy wretches to come into their houses. They are too low, too debased, too corrupt; and I speak of it because I know what I am talking about; there are some of these people crawling around us like so many vipers, and insinuating their hellish, murderous practices into the families of some who call themselves Latter-day Saints. Woe! to such Saints. You cannot have a place among us. No woman murderer, no man murderer can have a place among the Latter-day Saints, and I speak of it that the Presidents of Stakes and the Bishops may be apprised of these things. And some of these people would try to pass by the Bishops, and then by the Presidents of Stakes, and then by the President of the Church, and crawl with all their slime and damnable hypocrisy into the Temples of the living God. They may pass by these, but they will have to pass by the angels and the Gods, before they get through, and they will never inherit the Kingdom of God. Hear it you sisters! Hear it you brethren! Hear it you Bishops, and you Presidents of Stakes! Watch well and know well what you are doing, when you sign recommends for doubtful characters to go into these holy places. We do not want them there. It is not their place, and you will have to account for your acts if you permit these things knowingly. It is necessary that you should be particular about these matters, for you will have to answer for your doings as I have for mine. We cannot, because of relationship, because somebody is a cousin, or an uncle, or an aunt, or a brother, or a sister, or a son or a daughter, or a father or a mother—we cannot admit and will not admit them to any of these holy places unless they are worthy. I call upon you if you know of adulterers or adulteresses, or people that practice these unnatural infamies, to sever them from the Church; they shall not have a place in the Church and Kingdom of God. Mr. Murray here, and others, may make laws and test oaths, with provisions in them to screen the adulterer, the whoremonger, and the seducer; but we will tear that away from our people, and all such shall have no place with Israel, and all who are in favor of it, signify it by saying “Aye.” [The congregation responded with a loud “Aye.“] These are our feelings, and it is some of these things which has led me to talk as plainly as I have done in regard to some of these other matters. I wanted to present the contrast so plainly before you that he that runneth might read. Enough of this, however, for the present: Handle it carefully. Deal with it gently, Speak of it tenderly, Poor Justice is blind.
The choir sang, the congregation joining: The Spirit of God like a fire is burning.
Adjourned till 10 a.m. to-morrow.
Benediction by L. John Nuttall.
FOURTH DAY.
Monday, Oct. 7th, 10 a. m.
O say what is truth! ‘Tis the fairest gem, That the riches of worlds can produce. was sung by the choir.
Prayer by President John D. T. McAllister.
The choir sang, Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah. Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
Monday, Oct. 7th, 10 a. m.
O say what is truth! ‘Tis the fairest gem, That the riches of worlds can produce. was sung by the choir.
Prayer by President John D. T. McAllister.
The choir sang, Praise to the Man who communed with Jehovah. Jesus anointed that Prophet and Seer.
President George Q. Cannon
Read the names of missionaries in addition to those called yesterday, the vote to sustain them brethren selected being unanimous.
Following is the full list of MISSIONARIES Whose names have been presented during the Conference.
Names of missionaries who have been called since the April Conference, 1884, and now in their fields of labor and whose names are now submitted:
GREAT BRITAIN.
Reuben Carter, Sr., Fountain Green,
Robert Marshall, Toquerville.
Heber Sutton Goddard, 13th Ward.
Joseph Spendlove, Littleton.
SCANDINAVIA.
Hans Christensen, Richfield.
UNITED STATES.
Samuel Witwer, Santa Clara.
Richard Rawle Fry, Morgan.
John Zimmerman, Lehi.
SOUTHERN STATES.
Samuel Chandler Parkinson, Franklin.
NEW ZEALAND.
William Gardner, Pine Valley.
HINDOOSTAN.
William Willes, 20 Ward.
Milson R. Pratt, 16th Ward.
Henry F. McCune, Nephi.
George Booth, Calcutta.
Names of Missionaries, October 6th, 1884:
GREAT BRITAIN.
George Osmond, Bloomington.
Peter Winward Payson.
Thos. Butterfield, Herriman.
Joseph H. S. Bodell, Herriman.
Jesse B. Martin, Jr., Scipio.
Willmer D. Thompson, Scipio.
William Horsley, Brigham.
George Gidney, Brigham.
George H. Fowers, Hooper.
L. L. Hatch, Franklin.
John Rowley, Nephi.
William Rex, Randolph.
Thomas Slight, Paris.
Robert W. Sloan, 18th Ward.
SWISS AND GERMAN MISSION.
Gustave Henroid, Nephi.
Godfrey G. Fuhrman, Providence.
Conrad Faterlouse, Paris.
Joon Kunz, Jr., Bern.
David Kunz, Bern.
Arnold Henry Schulthess, 1st Ward.
SCANDINAVIA.
Jeppa Jeppsen, Brigham.
Niels Hansen, Manti.
Rasmus Borgquist, 10th Ward.
S. A. Wannberg, 20th Ward.
Christian Nielsen Lundsteen, Levan.
Matts S. Mattson, St. Charles.
Thomas C. Petersen, Ovid.
Niels C. Christensen, Levan.
Thomas R. Schroder, Nephi.
Mads Peter Madsen, Ephraim.
Andrew C. Anderson, Redmund.
Christian Anderson, Ogden.
Nephi Anderson, Petersen.
Johan Peter Mortensen, 8th Ward.
August K. Anderson, Grantsville.
Chas. J. Stromberg, Grantsville.
Peter M. Anderson, Grantsville.
John Alfred Eliason, Grantsville.
Anders Gustaf Sandberg, Grantsville.
Erasmus P. Marquerdson, Elsinore.
N. P. Peterson, Pleasant Grove.
Carl G. Anderson, 19th Ward.
John J. Johnsen, Logan.
Andras Olsen, Gunnison.
Lars Foolson, Smithfield.
Peter W. Peterson, Smithfield.
UNITED STATES.
John D. Chase, Nephi.
Joseph Shipley, American Fork.
SOUTHERN STATES.
Wm. P. Camp, Samaria.
Thomas E. Harper, Call’s Fort.
James W. Quayle, Logan.
Richard Thorne, Three Mile Creek, Box Elder Co.
William M. Daines, Hyde Park.
W. M. Webster, Franklin.
Wm. H. Gibbs, West Portage.
Elisha D. Clapp, Chester.
Frederick Rich Lyman, Oak Creek.
NEW ZEALAND.
George S. Taylor, Fourteenth Ward.
James A. Slater, Slaterville.
Edwin L. Davis, South Cottonwood.
Ezra F. Richards, Farmington.
Franklin Hill, Fayette.
William C. Mellor, Fayette.
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Robert B. T. Taylor, Sixteenth Ward.
Hyrum S. Harris, Provo.
Enoch Farr, Ogden.
Alberto J. Merrill, Smithfield.
MEXICO.
Isaac J. Stewart, Draper.
Alvin Vickery Robison, Fillmore.
Read the names of missionaries in addition to those called yesterday, the vote to sustain them brethren selected being unanimous.
Following is the full list of MISSIONARIES Whose names have been presented during the Conference.
Names of missionaries who have been called since the April Conference, 1884, and now in their fields of labor and whose names are now submitted:
GREAT BRITAIN.
Reuben Carter, Sr., Fountain Green,
Robert Marshall, Toquerville.
Heber Sutton Goddard, 13th Ward.
Joseph Spendlove, Littleton.
SCANDINAVIA.
Hans Christensen, Richfield.
UNITED STATES.
Samuel Witwer, Santa Clara.
Richard Rawle Fry, Morgan.
John Zimmerman, Lehi.
SOUTHERN STATES.
Samuel Chandler Parkinson, Franklin.
NEW ZEALAND.
William Gardner, Pine Valley.
HINDOOSTAN.
William Willes, 20 Ward.
Milson R. Pratt, 16th Ward.
Henry F. McCune, Nephi.
George Booth, Calcutta.
Names of Missionaries, October 6th, 1884:
GREAT BRITAIN.
George Osmond, Bloomington.
Peter Winward Payson.
Thos. Butterfield, Herriman.
Joseph H. S. Bodell, Herriman.
Jesse B. Martin, Jr., Scipio.
Willmer D. Thompson, Scipio.
William Horsley, Brigham.
George Gidney, Brigham.
George H. Fowers, Hooper.
L. L. Hatch, Franklin.
John Rowley, Nephi.
William Rex, Randolph.
Thomas Slight, Paris.
Robert W. Sloan, 18th Ward.
SWISS AND GERMAN MISSION.
Gustave Henroid, Nephi.
Godfrey G. Fuhrman, Providence.
Conrad Faterlouse, Paris.
Joon Kunz, Jr., Bern.
David Kunz, Bern.
Arnold Henry Schulthess, 1st Ward.
SCANDINAVIA.
Jeppa Jeppsen, Brigham.
Niels Hansen, Manti.
Rasmus Borgquist, 10th Ward.
S. A. Wannberg, 20th Ward.
Christian Nielsen Lundsteen, Levan.
Matts S. Mattson, St. Charles.
Thomas C. Petersen, Ovid.
Niels C. Christensen, Levan.
Thomas R. Schroder, Nephi.
Mads Peter Madsen, Ephraim.
Andrew C. Anderson, Redmund.
Christian Anderson, Ogden.
Nephi Anderson, Petersen.
Johan Peter Mortensen, 8th Ward.
August K. Anderson, Grantsville.
Chas. J. Stromberg, Grantsville.
Peter M. Anderson, Grantsville.
John Alfred Eliason, Grantsville.
Anders Gustaf Sandberg, Grantsville.
Erasmus P. Marquerdson, Elsinore.
N. P. Peterson, Pleasant Grove.
Carl G. Anderson, 19th Ward.
John J. Johnsen, Logan.
Andras Olsen, Gunnison.
Lars Foolson, Smithfield.
Peter W. Peterson, Smithfield.
UNITED STATES.
John D. Chase, Nephi.
Joseph Shipley, American Fork.
SOUTHERN STATES.
Wm. P. Camp, Samaria.
Thomas E. Harper, Call’s Fort.
James W. Quayle, Logan.
Richard Thorne, Three Mile Creek, Box Elder Co.
William M. Daines, Hyde Park.
W. M. Webster, Franklin.
Wm. H. Gibbs, West Portage.
Elisha D. Clapp, Chester.
Frederick Rich Lyman, Oak Creek.
NEW ZEALAND.
George S. Taylor, Fourteenth Ward.
James A. Slater, Slaterville.
Edwin L. Davis, South Cottonwood.
Ezra F. Richards, Farmington.
Franklin Hill, Fayette.
William C. Mellor, Fayette.
SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Robert B. T. Taylor, Sixteenth Ward.
Hyrum S. Harris, Provo.
Enoch Farr, Ogden.
Alberto J. Merrill, Smithfield.
MEXICO.
Isaac J. Stewart, Draper.
Alvin Vickery Robison, Fillmore.
President John Taylor
addressed the Conference in relation to the accusations made against the Latter-day Saints by their traducers, to the effect that they are immoral and corrupt. He stated that he would not dwell upon the crimes of the accusers of the Saints if we were not on the defensive, but they made it imperative that they should be exposed. At the President’s request President Geo. Q. Cannon read criminal statistics of Utah, taken from the official records, showing that over ten times the amount of crime is committed in the Territory proportionately by non-“Mormons” than by people professing to be “Mormons.” He continued to speak for some time upon the corruptions, chicanery and perfidy practised upon the Latter-day Saints by designing schemers. He asserted that great numbers of honorable people despised these outrageous doings as much as we do.
President Cannon, at the request of the speaker then read statistics from papers published by notable Eastern authorities, showing the horribly immoral condition of society in the New England States.
Resuming, President Taylor said these people described by the statements read are those who are so horrified at the immoral situation in Utah, and from them come our would-be reformers. He was gratified that men could be found who are ready to denounce such abominable practices. His purpose in having those statements read in relation to infanticide and other crimes was two-fold. One was to exhibit the true character of those who perpetrated them, and the other was to warn the Saints against such characters, some of whom were endeavoring to insinuate themselves into the society and houses of the people of God. No such persons could have any lot or place among the Saints, and on no consideration could they be permitted to enjoy the privileges of the Gospel. He warned the officers of the Church against giving recommends to adulterers murderers, or either men or women who are guilty of the unnatural crimes which had been defined in the extracts which had been presented. He directed that those guilty of such practices be cut off the Church, and requested that all who favored this view should say aye. The response was a shout of ayes that seemed almost to make the building tremble.
President Taylor then changed the tenor of his discourse, branching from the temporal affairs of the Saints. He gave an interesting review of the experiences of the Saints in this connection in the past. There had been a depression of late in monetary affairs, and improvements in the shape of new buildings had not been so numerous recently as some time ago. He described a visit by himself and associates in the Priesthood to what are now known as the Bannock and Oneida Stakes, where the land and other facilities are good and settlements are growing up. More people are wanted to help develop those portions of the country, and a similar situation exists in the south. Those who are out of employment are wanted to go to such places, where there is plenty of room. There are room and opportunities for all kinds of mechanics, especially in the building lines, as well as other branches of business in Bannock and other outlying Stakes, and those who had no work in the older settled parts should make their way to the more sparsely populated portions of the country. The speaker had advised, in the newly formed settlements, that when the people build houses, they should construct them according to a comely and intelligent plan, that beautiful homes may be reared. Those who wished to adopt this advice about going into the country should call upon Bishop Preston, that the method of getting to those places may be decided upon.
In answer to questions put by President Taylor to President Ricks of Bannock and President Hendricks of Oneida Stake as to whether they could employ a number of new settlers acquainted with the various branches of industry, they responded in the affirmative.
The next topic touched upon was the situation of Z. C. M. I., which was established for the purpose of furthering the interests of co-operation in mercantile and manufacturing directions. It is in a solid and flourishing condition, notwithstanding the general stringency of the times. There is not a better nor safer institution in this Territory. There are a number of Mormon and non-Mormon stores and Z. C. M. I. does more in relation to home manufactures than all these put together. The speaker then read a concise statement in regard to what the institution had done in that line. He also stated that arrangements had been made to conduct the industry of manufacturing clothing, and for the furtherance of this branch it had agreed with the Provo Woolen factory for the purchase of its entire product of cloth.
In the same connection of home enterprises, the Deseret News Company had erected a paper mill with a capacity for manufacturing all the paper of various qualities needed in the Territory, and altogether a good deal of progress was being made. The Board of Trade should bestir themselves and help to accelerate these industries, that we may gradually become self-supporting.
President Taylor expressed regret at the carelessness that had been exhibited by many people indebted to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Four years ago $800,000 of the amount due that fund had been forgiven to those owing it. About the same amount as that named still remained upon the books, and since then but $25,000 of that sum had been refunded by individual obligated. This was a lamentable showing, and if the law of God were applied to those who had been so negligent in relation to paying their just debts, and thus robbed the poor of their rights, some of them would have to be severed from the church.
addressed the Conference in relation to the accusations made against the Latter-day Saints by their traducers, to the effect that they are immoral and corrupt. He stated that he would not dwell upon the crimes of the accusers of the Saints if we were not on the defensive, but they made it imperative that they should be exposed. At the President’s request President Geo. Q. Cannon read criminal statistics of Utah, taken from the official records, showing that over ten times the amount of crime is committed in the Territory proportionately by non-“Mormons” than by people professing to be “Mormons.” He continued to speak for some time upon the corruptions, chicanery and perfidy practised upon the Latter-day Saints by designing schemers. He asserted that great numbers of honorable people despised these outrageous doings as much as we do.
President Cannon, at the request of the speaker then read statistics from papers published by notable Eastern authorities, showing the horribly immoral condition of society in the New England States.
Resuming, President Taylor said these people described by the statements read are those who are so horrified at the immoral situation in Utah, and from them come our would-be reformers. He was gratified that men could be found who are ready to denounce such abominable practices. His purpose in having those statements read in relation to infanticide and other crimes was two-fold. One was to exhibit the true character of those who perpetrated them, and the other was to warn the Saints against such characters, some of whom were endeavoring to insinuate themselves into the society and houses of the people of God. No such persons could have any lot or place among the Saints, and on no consideration could they be permitted to enjoy the privileges of the Gospel. He warned the officers of the Church against giving recommends to adulterers murderers, or either men or women who are guilty of the unnatural crimes which had been defined in the extracts which had been presented. He directed that those guilty of such practices be cut off the Church, and requested that all who favored this view should say aye. The response was a shout of ayes that seemed almost to make the building tremble.
President Taylor then changed the tenor of his discourse, branching from the temporal affairs of the Saints. He gave an interesting review of the experiences of the Saints in this connection in the past. There had been a depression of late in monetary affairs, and improvements in the shape of new buildings had not been so numerous recently as some time ago. He described a visit by himself and associates in the Priesthood to what are now known as the Bannock and Oneida Stakes, where the land and other facilities are good and settlements are growing up. More people are wanted to help develop those portions of the country, and a similar situation exists in the south. Those who are out of employment are wanted to go to such places, where there is plenty of room. There are room and opportunities for all kinds of mechanics, especially in the building lines, as well as other branches of business in Bannock and other outlying Stakes, and those who had no work in the older settled parts should make their way to the more sparsely populated portions of the country. The speaker had advised, in the newly formed settlements, that when the people build houses, they should construct them according to a comely and intelligent plan, that beautiful homes may be reared. Those who wished to adopt this advice about going into the country should call upon Bishop Preston, that the method of getting to those places may be decided upon.
In answer to questions put by President Taylor to President Ricks of Bannock and President Hendricks of Oneida Stake as to whether they could employ a number of new settlers acquainted with the various branches of industry, they responded in the affirmative.
The next topic touched upon was the situation of Z. C. M. I., which was established for the purpose of furthering the interests of co-operation in mercantile and manufacturing directions. It is in a solid and flourishing condition, notwithstanding the general stringency of the times. There is not a better nor safer institution in this Territory. There are a number of Mormon and non-Mormon stores and Z. C. M. I. does more in relation to home manufactures than all these put together. The speaker then read a concise statement in regard to what the institution had done in that line. He also stated that arrangements had been made to conduct the industry of manufacturing clothing, and for the furtherance of this branch it had agreed with the Provo Woolen factory for the purchase of its entire product of cloth.
In the same connection of home enterprises, the Deseret News Company had erected a paper mill with a capacity for manufacturing all the paper of various qualities needed in the Territory, and altogether a good deal of progress was being made. The Board of Trade should bestir themselves and help to accelerate these industries, that we may gradually become self-supporting.
President Taylor expressed regret at the carelessness that had been exhibited by many people indebted to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. Four years ago $800,000 of the amount due that fund had been forgiven to those owing it. About the same amount as that named still remained upon the books, and since then but $25,000 of that sum had been refunded by individual obligated. This was a lamentable showing, and if the law of God were applied to those who had been so negligent in relation to paying their just debts, and thus robbed the poor of their rights, some of them would have to be severed from the church.
Apostle Heber J. Grant
hoped that he might enjoy a portion of the same spirit which had prompted the utterances of all the speakers at the Conference. He could well understand that to live our religion requires a constant exertion on our part. In brief the whole of this religion is to live lives of righteousness. Many believed that if they are barely able to hold a standing in the Church they are still living their religion. The fallacy of such an idea—that simple faith or belief without works was sufficient was briefly touched upon: and the speaker declared it his belief that no person who does nothing toward building the houses of God had a right to enter those houses and take part in the blessings and privileges therein conferred. Referring to our position in the world, he said, honest, upright men not of us recognize the merits of the Saints and their honesty of dealing, while it is only by those who are not themselves above reproach that the calumnies against us are set in circulation. He regretted the growing tendency among the Saints to run into debt and urged farmers in the purchase of machinery to use more wisdom, and the people generally to adopt a more healthy method of financeering. Sufficient instruction had been given at the conference to enable the Saints, if they would observe it, to make a great improvement on their past record, and he prayed that they might be enabled to do so.
hoped that he might enjoy a portion of the same spirit which had prompted the utterances of all the speakers at the Conference. He could well understand that to live our religion requires a constant exertion on our part. In brief the whole of this religion is to live lives of righteousness. Many believed that if they are barely able to hold a standing in the Church they are still living their religion. The fallacy of such an idea—that simple faith or belief without works was sufficient was briefly touched upon: and the speaker declared it his belief that no person who does nothing toward building the houses of God had a right to enter those houses and take part in the blessings and privileges therein conferred. Referring to our position in the world, he said, honest, upright men not of us recognize the merits of the Saints and their honesty of dealing, while it is only by those who are not themselves above reproach that the calumnies against us are set in circulation. He regretted the growing tendency among the Saints to run into debt and urged farmers in the purchase of machinery to use more wisdom, and the people generally to adopt a more healthy method of financeering. Sufficient instruction had been given at the conference to enable the Saints, if they would observe it, to make a great improvement on their past record, and he prayed that they might be enabled to do so.
Apostle John W. Taylor
had been reminded on hearing the remarks and statements of President Taylor, of the admonition of the Savior of those who could discern the signs of the sky but were not able to discern the signs of the times. John the Revelator had been moved to cry out concerning the judgments that would come upon the earth, and it was to escape these and to fulfill many other predictions of the ancient prophets, that the Saints had gathered out of all nations. He prayed that our strongest desire, now that we are gathered here, might be to remain remain firm, and devote all our strength to the building up and establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth.
Conference adjourned till April, 1885, in the Large Tabernacle.
The choir sang: Where the voice of friendship’s heard, Sounding like a sweet-toned bird.
Benediction by Patriarch John Smith.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.
had been reminded on hearing the remarks and statements of President Taylor, of the admonition of the Savior of those who could discern the signs of the sky but were not able to discern the signs of the times. John the Revelator had been moved to cry out concerning the judgments that would come upon the earth, and it was to escape these and to fulfill many other predictions of the ancient prophets, that the Saints had gathered out of all nations. He prayed that our strongest desire, now that we are gathered here, might be to remain remain firm, and devote all our strength to the building up and establishment of the kingdom of God upon the earth.
Conference adjourned till April, 1885, in the Large Tabernacle.
The choir sang: Where the voice of friendship’s heard, Sounding like a sweet-toned bird.
Benediction by Patriarch John Smith.
John Nicholson,
Clerk of Conference.