Brigham Young 1861-1866.

       DUTIES OF THE SAINTS--ORGANIZATION OF ELEMENT--ECONOMY, ETC.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, January 20, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

		It is a great blessing to be able to understand things aright;
and how precious the gift of communication!  How delightful it is to a
person, whose mind is stored with rich ideas, to have power to communicate
them to his fellows--to his family, friends, and acquaintances with whom
he associates.  I really think we do not fully appreciate this blessing
and gift as we should.  If I can communicate to the audience what I wish
to, so that they can understand it perfectly, I shall be very glad--it
will satisfy me.

	Before me is a sea of faces, and, with but few exceptions, all are
professedly Latter-day Saints belonging to the kingdom of God, and are
numbered with the family of heaven.  They are heirs of God, and are
expecting to become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.  Were I to ask these
Latter-day Saints what they are willing to do to build up the kingdom of
God, bear it off to the nations, gather the house of Israel and the honest
in heart among the Gentiles, and redeem the Zion of our God, what would be
their answer?  "Anything we can do we are willing to do--any thing we are
counselled to do."  Would not every heart respond in this manner?  It
would.  You are frequently told that the Latter-day Saints are as free to
confess with the mouth as any people that ever was upon the earth.  You
are further told that they are willing to sacrifice everything for their
religion, and to travel the earth around without purse or scrip; but will
they do one thing that is essentially necessary?  Yes, a great many will. 
Will they do one necessary duty that is devolving upon them, which is the
starting-point--the gate or way to all other duties; that is, seek unto
the Lord their God with all their hearts?  All are not willing to do this.

	This people must be pure in heart.  The necessity for this rests upon
me day by day, week in and week out, year after year.  This people must be
sanctified, or they will not be prepared to meet their Lord and Master. 
This is first of all.  It is taught us in all the revelations that we have
received in various ways, according to the understanding and gift of
communication in those who have communicated this principle to us.  But
the greatest and most important of all requirements of our Father in
heaven and of his Son Jesus Christ, is, to his brethren or disciples, to
believe in Jesus Christ, confess him, seek to him, cling to him, make
friends with him.  Take a course to open and keep open a communication
with your Elder Brother or file-leader--our Saviour.  Were I to draw a
distinction in all the duties that are required of the children of men,
from first to last, I would place first and foremost the duty of seeking
unto the Lord our God until we open the path of communication from heaven
to earth--from God to our own souls.  Keep every avenue of your hearts
clean and pure before him.  You may inquire whether we would do away with
the ordinances of the house of God.  This leads you to them, and it is the
only thing that can lead the people to a true knowledge of the reality of
facts as they exist.

	We are aware that the Christian world cling to this one item, passing
by every one of the ordinances of the house of the Lord, treating every
commandment with lightness.  They will pick up perhaps one or two of the
ordinances and a few of the commandments; but they are opposed to the
residue, and look upon them as a thing of naught.  Through the kingdom of
God and all the attributes he has dispensed to the children of men are
ours, (he has placed them upon our heads by ordinances,) yet if I should
rise up here and tell you that I would rather have these than all the
ordinances, the statement would need explanation.  First of all, have the
mind of Christ within you, and know that we are governed and controlled by
his Spirit--by the Comforter, the Holy Ghost--by the influence of heaven;
and this leads us to every one of the ordinances of the house of God;
wherefore we by no means do them away.

	Some of you may ask, "Is there a single ordinance to be dispensed
with?  Is there one of the commandments that God has enjoined upon the
people, that he will excuse them from obeying?"  Not one, no matter how
trifling or small in our own estimation.  No matter if we esteem them
non-essential, or least or last of all the commandments of the house of
God, we are under obligation to observe them.  Nothing will lead us to
them, short of the mind of Christ within us to lead us understandingly to
observe them to our own benefit.  This is what I want of the people, so
that we may be prepared, each and all of us, for the things that are
coming upon the earth.

	We might mention a great many circumstances that are transpiring.  We
might refer to the prophecies and their fulfillment in these our own
times; but this does not bear with so much weight upon my mind to tell the
people what the Lord is doing and what his is going to do, as it does to
urge the Latter-day Saints to faithfulness, to strict obedience, to every
requirement of the Gospel of the Son of God, that we may be prepared for
every event as it transpires, no matter whether the prophecies are
fulfilled under our eyes or on the other side of the earth.  No matter
whether we live to see them fulfilled or fall to sleep before they are
fulfilled, we must live prepared for the events that will take place
preparatory to the coming of the Son of man.

	I ask the people what they are willing to do?  "All we want to know
is what we should do."  My mind is continually exercised to urge the
people to faithfulness, that they may have the Spirit of Christ; and being
in possession of this mind, everything comes to us naturally.  We
understand these things we call natural.  There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body.  All things are natural, and all are spiritual. 
Every duty of life, no matter what it is, every requirement necessary to
sustain and exalt man, is incorporated in the kingdom of God and in the
ordinances of his house--in the duties God requires of his children.  It
is all in the Church and kingdom of our God.  "What!  our labour?"  Yes. 
I sometimes take the liberty of preaching upon economy to this people. 
Perhaps some are inclined to think that in so doing I transcend my own
duties and obligations.  I do not.  I instruct the husbandman how to till
his farm, because I know and understand the nature of the elements that
produce grain better than he does.  I know how he should prepare the
elements for the seed to produce the increase which he desires in the
things necessary to sustain himself and family.  It is my duty to instruct
my brethren, if I understand any branch of business better than they do. 
If I understand how to make myself comfortable--if I understand better
than others do the organization of the elements God has given us ability
to operate with for our benefit, it is my duty to instruct them.  Here are
the elements.  They are not made in vain, but are made for the benefit,
comfort, convenience, and happiness of God's children.

	There is an infinitude of elements; and if you know more than I do
with regard to bringing them together and organizing them for the comfort
and happiness of man, it is your duty to impart that knowledge to others. 
This may appear to some of the Saints as though it was out of the pale of
our duty, not strictly incorporated in the ministry; and I want to inform
all such that there is not a labour performed under the sun but what we
have to render an account of it to our Father and God. There is not an act
of man, in any case, in any circumstance, but what is by the gift of God. 
Every power, ability, capacity, and gift that man possesses is the gift of
God; and man must render an account to him for the improvement he makes,
no matter what the labour is.  No element that we see, no part of the
earth, no part or portion of the starry heavens, or of the deep above or
below, but what is God's creation.  He organized it.  Do we realize this,
that every element that now is in existence, that we have any knowledge
of, that we can conceive of, is organized by our Father in heaven, and is
his property?  It is his in time and in eternity.  The earth and its
fulness are his, and the heavens are his; the height, the depth, the
length, and the breadth, all are his.  Every capacity that the children of
men possess is the gift of God.

	Many might ask whether God is the author of sin and iniquity.  I have
told you many a time that everything is good, is perfect; everything is
right, is lovely to look upon, to enjoy; for we received it from our
Father and our God.  Properly use it, and there is no gift, no blessing,
no enjoyment, no happiness in the heavens or on the earth, but what
belongs to our Father in heaven; and he is willing to bestow these
blessings upon his children.  But whence comes evil?  It comes when we
make an evil of a good.  Speaking of the elements and the creation of God,
in their nature they are as pure as the heavens.  When we see the vanity
that is around us, the magnanimity of the Deity, and contemplate the
extent of his knowledge, we can enjoy him as supreme in every act, in
every path of life, in every portion of life that belongs to the children
of men, if we can understand things as they are.  Was there ever a spear
of grass, or a single grain upon this earth, or in any other kingdom, but
what was produced by that beneficent Being?  Not one.  Behold the vanity
and extent of his knowledge in the creation of the elements!  Every
element is His.  The gold?  Yes.  "He organized and made it" is a common
term used.  The silver?  Yes.  He made it.  The diamond?  Yes.  And every
other precious stone?  Yes.  The rude rock?  Yes.  The land and all are
his.  The earth that we walk upon, the air we breathe, and the water we
drink are his creation.  He organized them and placed them here for our
good.  Take all the elements that God has created, and do you think we use
them, and not abuse them?

	What do we see?  All the elements that we have any knowledge of are
the handiwork of our Father in heaven, and then you see poor,
pusillanimous man rise up--a worm of the dust, whose breath is in his
nostrils; and if God should say the word and withdraw his supporting hand,
he is no more,--and says, "This is mine."  He has a purse obtained through
the blessings of God, and says, "This is mine."  He has a sack of silver,
and says, "This is mine."  He builds a house, and calls it his house.  He
makes a farm, and says, "This is mine."  This poor, weak man does, who is
not capable of making a spear of grass.  He cannot sustain his own
existence one moment with being dependent on God for the next breath, and
yet he says, "These possessions are mine," and he clings to them with the
tenacity of death.  This you see in mankind; they hold to the earth as
though it was their all.  You see this every day of your lives.

	When I carefully scan the subject, we cannot, neither in this time
nor in the spirit-world, possess the least particle of element or our own
beings, and call them ours, until we pass the ordeals the Gods have
passed, and are crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal
lives.  And when we pass through the spirit-world and hear the trump of
Gabriel sound, and our bodies rise from the dust and again clothe our
spirits, even then we are not our own.  We have not passed through all the
ordeals until the Father crowns a son and says, "You have passed so far in
the progression of perfection that you can now become independent, and I
will give you power to control and organize and govern and dictate the
elements of eternities.  There is a vast eternity stretched out before
you; now organize as you will."  Not until then shall we possess one
particle that is really our own, and yet we see people clinging to the
earth.

	I am going to reduce my remarks to practical life, and perhaps I
shall introduce ideas that some would naturally take exceptions to.  I, in
the providence of God, am here before you again, and I wish to instruct
this people.  They say they are willing to do anything for salvation, to
buildup the kingdom of God on the earth. They are willing to forego
everything they can, and undergo all that is possible, to save themselves
and the children of men, and bring the day of peace and righteousness upon
the earth.  Then let all learn that the earth is not ours.  Let us learn
that these elements are put into our possession to work with and improve,
and to determine whether we know how to improve upon them.  We wish to see
Zion built up--the earth beautified and prepared for the coming of the Son
of Man.  We are looking forth to the day when Zion will spring into
existence and stand forth like a bride prepared to meet her husband, with
all the beauty and glory that belong to the kingdom of God on the earth. 
We shall then see Zion in its beauty.  We are looking for this. We look
forward to the day when the Lord will prepare for the building of the New
Jerusalem, preparatory to the city of Enoch's going to be joined with it
when it is built upon this earth.  We are anticipating to enjoy that day,
whether we sleep in death previous to that, or not.  We look forward, with
all the anticipation and confidence that children can possess in a parent,
that we shall be there when Jesus comes; and if we are not there, we will
come with him:  in either case we shall be there when he comes.

	To think of all this, and then think of the course the Latter-day
Saints are taking--the life they live!  How do the brethren feel?  Is
there a feeling that "This is mine, and that is mine?"  Yes; it is as
natural for them to say so as to breathe.  They are of the earth, earthy. 
Can we school our own feelings and judgments, our hearts and dispositions,
really to be the children of God, and ask our Father whether this is ours,
or not, which he puts into our possession?  Do we ask him what we shall do
with the abundance he has put into our possession?  I am in possession of
houses and lands--I have legally obtained them by my economy.  The earth
is here, and there is no end to the elements we are using day by day.  We
look to the right and to the left, and see poverty and distress, though
there is less in this community than in any other upon the earth.  We all
see more or less a lack of wisdom and judgment in providing for the wants
of the body; yet there is not that family in this community but what would
feed a brother or sister that was hungry, and do so from day to day, so
long as might be necessary.  With all the lack of wisdom manifested by the
people, and their covetousness, there is no community in the world that
suffers so little as this.

	In distress among a people caused by the want of element?  No.  It is
through want of ability to bring the elements home to our use and benefit. 
There is a great scarcity of gold, and you hear some brethren, throughout
this Territory, complain of taxation.  Really I want to say to all the
brethren here, with the Bishops and representatives from different parts
of this Territory, and to all the people, that your legislators are very
easy--their hand is very light upon you, in the matter of taxation. 
"Well," say some of the brethren, "I thought they were hard, rigid,
extravagant in establishing a territorial tax of five mills on a dollar." 
There must be in the neighbourhood of eighty or ninety thousand persons in
this Territory, and there are probably more than fifteen thousand men who
are subject to taxation.  How much tax money do you get?  Shall I tell you
how much coin was received in taxes last year?  Less than twelve hundred
dollars from some fifteen thousand men.  Do you call this paying a heavy
tax?  Was this all they were taxed?  No; the tax amounted to some twenty
odd thousand dollars, and some complain and feel that they are hardly
dealt with.

	Some complain and say that the tithing is too hard on the people,
while at the same time some of our legislators rise up and say,
"Considering that we pay such a tax in tithing, we think the Church should
make all our public improvements."  The whole amount of coin paid in on
taxes last year was in the neighbourhood of twelve hundred dollars.  In
what was the residue of the taxes paid?  In wheat, chickens, eggs, butter,
city scrip, county and territorial scrip, auditor's warrants, labour, &c.,
&c.  Is this hard on the people?  No.  Is there any lack of gold or silver
here?  These are matters I wish you to understand.  How can you understand
them in the kingdom of God?  You cannot, only through the light of
revelation, just as you see anything else in truth and with the Spirit of
truth, by which means only can you discern truth from error.  I want you
to learn by the Spirit of truth.  There are a good many legislators here,
and I want them to go home with these instructions, and put in practice
some things they already understand.  They are active men, men of wisdom,
men of ability and good judgment, men of strong minds; and yet in some
thing they are more ignorant than children ought to be.  The gold is not
yours, nor the sliver, not the cattle that roam over these hills and
plains; neither are they mine.  They are put in our possession, but they
belong to Him who owns the whole of them.  All we want is the ability to
convert them to our own benefit.  There is no lack.  Has there been a lack
of money here?  Some of the legislators have been opposed to taxation.  I
have a right to talk about these things, though I am not Governor, and do
not sign nor veto bills passed by the Assembly.  I ask again, Is there any
lack of money?  I will propound one other question--"Will five hundred
thousand dollars cover the amount that has been paid by this people to the
merchants during last year?"  I presume not, though if you had the
statistics before you, you would probably find this sum to be not far from
the amount.  Since 1849, we have probably paid to them at the rate of
nearly a million of dollars each year.  Is there any scarcity of money? 
No.  Are you fearful that one man is going to get all the gold in the
world and sift it to the four winds, so that it never can be gathered? 
You need have no such fear, for it cannot be destroyed.  Are you fearful
that all the silver is going to be destroyed, so that we cannot have it? 
Such fears are groundless, for you cannot destroy a particle of it.  What
is the difficulty?  A want of judgment--a want of true knowledge
pertaining to the earth and to the heavens, to the elements and their
organization--a want of the power to master the elements, to handle them
advantageously and make them useful, and devote them to our own comfort
and happiness.

	I frequently take the liberty to teach economy to the people.  This
is natural to me; it agrees with my feelings, experience, and faith.  I do
not know that, during thirty years past, I have worn a coat, hat, or
garment of any kind, or owned a horse, carriage, &c., but what I asked the
Lord whether I deserved it or not--Shall I use this?  Is it mine to use,
or not?  If I had my will satisfied, I would not use a farthing's worth of
anything without its being put to the best use my judgment could dictate,
increasing and multiplying it, and bringing forth those things that make
men comfortable and happy, using my means in the fear of the Lord for the
building up of his kingdom and glory upon the earth.  My experience is
that this people have too great a tenacity for the goods of this world,
and the Enemy thinks he can get the advantage over them in this respect,
and he is improving the time.

	It is different with us now from what it was three years ago.  Then
it was, "What is the news from Bridger?  from Echo kanyon?  from the
Plains?"  We are not destroyed; but are the Latter-day Saints preparing
themselves for the calamities that are coming upon the earth?  or are they
covetous?  There is no trait in the character of man but what the Devil,
the opposer of all good, understands.  Our common foe is an ingenious
workman; he is a master at his business.  Bunyan speaks of a city that was
perfectly given up to idolatry, and needed only one devil to watch the
whole of it; but one Saint, a poor old man walking through the streets,
required a score of devils to watch him.  The city was already in
possession of the Evil One, and it needed no care or watching.  There are
scores of evil spirits here--spirits of the old Gadianton robbers, some of
whom inhabited these mountains, and used to go into the South and afflict
the Nephites.  There are millions of those spirits in the mountains, and
they are ready to make us covetous, if they can; they are ready to lead
astray every man and woman that wishes to be a Latter-day Saint. This may
seem strange to some of you, but you will see them.  As soon as your
spirits are unlocked from these tabernacles, you are in the spirit-world,
and you will there have to contend against evil spirits as we here have to
contend against wicked persons.

	This people lie down in carnal security, and complain of this and of
that.  You know that apostates, who rise up and deny their religion,
complain of being oppressed, and find fault with this, that, and the
other, and call this imperfect, and that imperfect, and the other
imperfect.  How many have complained of taxation?  Go to Nebraska,
Washington, and New Mexico.  Is there a Territory that has as light taxes
as this?  Not one, so far as I know.  A great many complain of the taxes
in this city; but go to Chicago, St. Louis, or New York, or any other city
in the States, and you will find the taxes greater, I think, without
exception, than they are here.  I know that taxation is complained of in
those cities, and that too justly in many instances.  In many places the
people are taxed to that degree that they never can rise out of their
poverty.  In London, a watchmaker said to me, "When I earn ten pounds and
receive it, eight pounds of it has to go for taxes, which leaves me only
two pounds with which to pay my house-rent, buy fuel, and feed and clothe
my family."  They there complain of taxation, and it is right they should. 
What do they do with the revenue?  In too many instances feed a horde of
lazy officers, though I cannot accuse England of this so much as I can
some other countries, so far as I know them.  The taxation more or less
goes in many countries to feed cut-throats, loafers, gamblers, blacklegs,
&c.  Many of the people who have immigrated to this Territory come from
countries where they have been ground down by taxation.  We are more
lightly taxed than are the people in any other country, so far as I know.

	But what I dislike most is, that when the officer requests the taxes,
some will lie from morning until night to escape paying them.  If any man
ought of right to be exempted from paying his taxes, let him refer his
case to the Country Court and have his taxes remitted.  There is a
provision in the law for this. I tell you what I say to tax-gatherers:  I
would sell every improvement, every ox, cow, mule, horse, sheep, hog, &c.,
but what I would have the taxes in the kinds prescribed by law.  You may
call that hard; but what would the cash portion be, compared to the money
that is paid to these merchants?  This is what I do not like.  Go to a
man, and he will declare that he cannot pay his taxes; then go into his
house, and he has taught his family to lie; but begin to sell his cow,
&c., and it will be, "Stop, Sally; go and bring out that old stocking."  I
have proved this.  That is what I do not like.  I can put up with poverty. 
If I have only a little buttermilk and salt to my potatoes, I can be
satisfied; but a liar I cannot be satisfied with.

	Sell every house and every particle of property there is in the
Territory, but what you have the proportion in gold and silver, and you
will find that there is plenty of money; and it may far better go to do
good than to go for nonsense.  Much money is spent for paper shoes.  Have
you any?  Yes; and I presume that more than one score of women in this
congregation have on that kind of shoes.  A large amount of money is paid
for ribbons, ruffles, fringes, gewgaws, and baubles in general.  These are
unnecessary expenses, as they are not incurred particularly for the body's
comfort.  I find no fault with them.  I like to see women prettily
dressed, as well as anybody; but save a portion of the money that is laid
out for useless articles, and pay your taxes.

	What I am saying is for the benefit of the community.  Some of our
legislators would vote down every particle of tax, if they had the power. 
Are they conscientious in this?  Yes.  But are they wise?  No.  They have
no wisdom on this subject; they do not understand national affairs.

	Some complain and say that they are taxed by tithing.  We ask no
tithing of any man.  In this we are as independent as the Lord is.  I say,
Do not pay another dollar in tithing unless you want to.  And to those who
say that tithing should defray all classes of public expenditure, I will
pay every dollar of expenses for territorial, county, and city purposes. 
But do I, as Trustee-in-Trust, receive one-fiftieth, or one-hundredth? 
No.  I do not get the tithing on the tithing that is due, and which it is
my province to dictate.  Are you afraid that I will make a bad use of it? 
I have plenty of money for my private use.  You may wish to know how I get
it. I believe I will tell you how I get some of it.  A great many of these
Elders of Israel, soon after courting these young ladies, and old ladies,
and middle-aged ladies, and having them sealed to them, want to have a
bill of divorce.  I have told them, from the beginning, that sealing men
and women for time and all eternity is one of the ordinances of the house
of God, and that I never wanted a farthing for sealing them, nor for
officiating in any of the ordinances of God's house; but when you ask for
a bill of divorce, I intend that you shall pay for it.  That keeps me in
spending money, besides enabling me to give hundreds of dollars to the
poor, and buy butter, eggs, and little notions for women and children, and
otherwise use it where it does good.

	You may think this is a singular feature in the Gospel, but I cannot
exactly say that it is in the Gospel.  Hear it, O ye Elders of Israel; and
ye sisters, hear it:  There is no ecclesiastical law that you know
anything about, to free a wife from a man to whom she has been sealed, if
he honours his Priesthood.  I do not want you to run after bills of
divorce.  I would rather be without the money you pay for them.  I know
where there is plenty of gold.  The earth is full of it, and the heavens
are full of every good thing; and the heavens and the earth are created
for us:  therefore be prudent and not covetous; do not cling to property
because it is in your possession.  Do I own a house?  No.  I am in
possession of houses.  I left a good many houses that were in my
possession in Nauvoo.  I left a number in like manner in Kirtland.  I did
not leave many houses in Missouri, but I left a number of pieces of land,
and there they remain.  I received nothing for them, neither do I want
anything.  Why?  Because the Lord has blest me with ability to bring forth
the elements and organize them for my own convenience; and if I was
stripped and kicked out now, I would be richer in ten years than I ever
was.  When the gold or silver dollar goes into my pocket, it is not mine: 
the Lord in his providence places it there, and it is for Him to say what
I shall do with it.  Do you practise this course?  If you do, you do not
complain.  If our legislators understood this, they would never complain
for the people.  You ask why I take up this subject.  That you may be
instructed--that a legislator may not be so unwise as to introduce a bill
that taxes be paid in anything that cannot be sold for money.

	The people are not as they used to be in regard to tithing. In the
days of Joseph, when a horse was brought in for tithing, he was pretty
sure to be hipped, or ringboned, or have the pole-evil, or perhaps had
passed the routine of horse-diseases until he had become used up.  The
question would be, "What do you want for him?"  "Thirty dollars in tithing
and thirty in cash."  What was he really worth?  Five dollars, perhaps. 
They would perhaps bring in a cow after the wolves had eaten off three of
her teats, and she had not had a calf for six years past; and if she had a
calf, and you ventured to milk her, she would kick a quid of tobacco out
of your mouth. These are specimens of the kind of tithing we used to get. 
If you give anything for the building up of the kingdom of God, give the
best you have.  What is the best thing you have to devote to the kingdom
of God?  It is the talents God has given you.  How many?  Every one of
them.  What beautiful talents!  What a beautiful gift!  It is more
precious than fine gold that I can stand here and give you my ideas, and
you can rise up and tell  me what you think and feel, and thus exchange
our ideas.  It is one of the precious gifts bestowed upon human beings. 
Let us devote every qualification we are in possession of to the building
up of God's kingdom, and you will accomplish the whole of it.

	A few Sabbaths ago, brother Wells was strenuously talking to you in
regard to temperance.  No man has a right on the earth, and certainly not
in this kingdom, to spend his means and time in drunkenness.  Every moment
of time belongs to the Lord, and the people demand it.  Here are young men
stepping on to the stage of action, of whom you have never heard an evil. 
And every little while one begins to come into note, and it seems as
though he had dropped from unfathomable space.  "Who is he?"  "Such a
brother's son."  "I never heard of him."  What are my calculations?  That
he is a good man--that he is not a rowdy in the streets.  A host are
growing up in this way:  they spring up like lovely plants, trees, or
flowers.  Now, young brothers and sisters, is there anything against your
characters?  Not anything.  If you were in possession of all the wealth in
the world, it is not worth so much to you as your good characters. 
Preserve them.  If you have a happy influence with your brethren and
sisters, preserve it, for it is more choice than fine gold.  How many
times have I told the Elders, "When you go on missions, be careful to
preserve your Godlike dignity and integrity."  I have an experience that
is probably equal to that of any man in this kingdom, and no person can
say, man nor woman, but that in the dark hour my angelic character has
been preserved; and it is more precious to me than all the riches of the
earth.  The name of king or emperor has always sunk into insignificance
when I contrasted it with the character of a man of God--of a person who
holds the destinies of men in his hands, and the issues of life and death,
and can dispense them to the people.  Such a man should preserve himself
like a God, or an angel of God.

	Hear it, men and women, young and old.  Preserve yourselves, and be
ready to do what is required at your hands.  And Elders of Israel, when
you say you are ready and willing to dedicate all to God, never be
covetous and selfish; never shrink back at anything you are called to do;
but by the help of God become sons of God and joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ.  If you revolt in your feelings against the ordinances and
commandments of God, and against the counsel given you by his servants,
and continue to do so, you may become angels to the Devil, and it will be
through your own conduct.  But by the help of God you can be prepared to
dwell in the presence of the Father and the Son, and be crowned with him
with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives.

	I have given you some of my views in regard to tithing, taxation, and
yielding willingly to every requirement for building up the kingdom and
for the salvation of the people.  May God help everyone of us to live up
to our profession, that we may be saved in the kingdom.  Amen.


                 HUMAN INTELLIGENCE AND FREEDOM--NATIONAL
                      ADMINISTRATIVE MOVEMENTS, &c.
         Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 10, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have no doubt with regard to the good work of the Lord, referred to
by those who have spoken, and it will continue among the nations of the
earth.  The Lord will bring out the results to his own honour and glory;
but are we ready?

	The Lord has bestowed great knowledge and wisdom upon the inhabitants
of the earth--much truth and knowledge in the arts and sciences.  Those
nations that deny their God and Saviour will have those principles of
intelligence taken from them.  Are the Latter-day Saints prepared to
receive them, enjoy them, or will those principles have to go to some
other kingdom?  There is great wisdom in the world; their knowledge in
mechanism and the exact sciences is very great.  This wisdom will be taken
from the wicked.  Who will receive it?  Is there a people upon the earth
prepared to receive this knowledge and this wisdom?  There should be.  Is
it reasonable to suppose that the wisdom God has bestowed upon the nations
of the earth should continue upon it?  Or should it be taken from the
inhabitants of the earth and carried back from whence it came?  May faith
and my desire are that there should be a people upon the earth prepared to
receive this wisdom.  It should not be so forfeited as to be taken from
the earth, for I question whether it would return again.  There should be
a people prepared to improve upon their knowledge and wisdom, for all
knowledge and wisdom come from God.  All true intelligence is the gift of
God.  He is the true fountain of all knowledge and wisdom.

	The query arises in the minds of many with regard to their
capability.  Is there a principle inherent in the man that loves liquor to
let it alone?  Or is he compelled to follow his appetite?  Is there
ability in the man or woman that is inclined to handle that which is not
their own, to resist that temptation and learn to be honest and
honourable?  Is this inherent in the people, or not?  I have my own belief
about it--my own views.  I conceive that man is framed, formed, created,
made, fashioned, after the image of his God, with a germ in him of that
independence that belongs to the Gods; and that independence is to be
acted upon, to prepare every person that is exalted to enjoy the society
of the sanctified, by a strict obedience to the principles of right.  And
each and every individual has the ability, the power, to overcome every
passion within him, subdue every evil, and ride triumphantly over those
passions.

	"But," says the man that is addicted to evil, "If I refrain for a
day, the temptation haunts me; if I refrain for a week, I yet am inclined
to sip at the poisonous cup.  I could hardly endure to see my neighbour
drinking the poison draught without joining with him:  it is almost
impossible for me to resist it."  This is folly in the extreme, for you
deny your own senses.  There is not a man on the earth but what denies his
own judgment when he reasons with himself in this way.  I can take or
refuse, partake or reject, at my own will and pleasure.  That power is
inherent in every man and woman upon the earth, to a greater or less
degree.  In proportion to the intelligence people are endowed with, so do
they possess are the qualification for bettering their condition by
improving their lives and receiving truth for error, light for darkness. 
And if they continue to overcome every temptation and every evil appetite,
they will become masters of them, and will conquer at last, and be counted
worthy to be crowned; otherwise they will miss the glory they anticipate.

	Cannot people refrain from taking that which is not their own? 
Speaking of moral religion alone, they can.  Cannot an individual, who is
in the habit of taking the name of God in vain, resist that temptation. 
He can, if he chooses.  If he cannot easily do so, let him do as a boy who
came to this country with me said that he did.  He was addicted to
swearing, and got a piece of India-rubber to chew when tempted to swear. 
That person, I think, has not been heard to swear for years.  No boy, in
his youth, was more addicted to that habit than he was.  He did not beat
his brains out, but he acts as though he has more brains in his head than
he used to have.  I was brought up as strictly as any child ever ought to
be, with regard to morality; yet, when I went into the world, I was
addicted to swearing, through hearing others.  I gave way to it, but it
was easily overcome when my judgment and will decided to overcome it.

	Now, brethren, are you prepared to receive the wisdom that God has
bestowed upon the nations?  You recollect that this forenoon, we had a few
remarks from brother Simms, in which he stated that the greater portion of
the inhabitants of the earth were inclined to do right.  That is true. 
There is a monitor in every person that would reign there triumphantly, if
permitted so to do, and lead to truth and virtue.

	There is not a man living upon the earth but when he hears the truth, 
is earth but when he hears the truth, is inclined to believe it and reject
error.  What prompts them to receive the evil?  They yield to the
temptation of that Evil One that lies in wait to deceive.  The pride of
the earth is in wickedness--in the abominations and corruptions of
mankind.  They delight themselves in their proneness to wonder from their
God and from the path of rectitude, and pride themselves in their iniquity
of every kind.  It has become the fashion of the nations of the earth to
do evil.

	Where is there a nation that acknowledges the Supreme God to be their
President and their King?  The best form of man-made government upon the
earth is that of a nation now breaking to pieces.  Have they ever
acknowledged God?  No.  They spurned from their presence the man who would
acknowledge that God should reign King of nations as well as King of
Saints.  Have we proof of this before us?  We have.  When Joseph Smith
rose in the majesty of his calling before God, he saw what we are now
hearing of through despatches received from week to week.  The nation is
ruined, and will crumble to pieces.  They will destroy themselves.  Joseph
rose up and said--"I will save them, if they will let me."  He stepped
forth like a man and proffered his services to save the nation that is now
breaking; and he would have saved it, if they had permitted him.  What did
they bestow upon him in return? They made a martyr of him--I would not
like to say a saviour, although he is our benefactor.  He is the man
through whom God has spoken and revealed some of the most glorious
principles that every were revealed to the children of men; yet I would
not like to call him a saviour, though in a certain capacity he was a God
to us, and is to the nations of the earth, and will continue to be.  He
was not the Only-Begotten of the Father, who died for the sins of the
world; but he was the Prophet of the lord, through whom God spoke to the
nations and dictated laws by which they were to be governed to secure to
themselves eternal life.  And when he would have saved the people of the
nation, they crowned him a martyr of Jesus.  They performed an act that
secures to him crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives.  They
succeeded in shedding his blood and that of the Patriarch Hyrum.  They
shed the blood of the innocent, and that nation said amen to it.  Were
they aware of it at the seat of Government?  I have no doubt they as well
knew of the plans for destroying the Prophet as did those in Carthage or
in Warsaw, Illinois.  It was planned by some of the leading men of the
nation.  I have said here once before, to the astonishment of many of our
own countrymen, that there was a delegate from each State in the nation
when Joseph was killed.  These delegates held their council.  What were
they afraid of?  You and me?  No.  They were afraid of those eternal
principles God has revealed from the heavens; they trembled and quaked at
the sound of them.  Joseph would have saved the nation from ruin.

	Some have inquired, "Will they patch up the old garment?"  let them
apply their new cloth, if they please.  Mr. Crittenden has reported a
patch to put on the old garment.  Let them put it on, and the rent will be
made worse.  Let them remain as they are, and the garment is worn out.  Is
the form of the Government ruined?  Has its form become evil?  No; but the
administrators of the Government are evil.  As we have said many times, it
is the best form of human government man ever lived under; but it has as
corrupt a set to administer it as God ever permitted to disgrace his
footstool.  There is the evil.  Can they better the condition of our
country?  No; they will make it worse every time they attempt to do so. 
What is the difficulty?  Brother Carrington says there is no noble-minded
master-spirit to lead out--one whom the rest will follow.  They are all
master-spirits!  They are all smart men!  This is the difficulty.  They
used to have men whom they looked up to, though but very seldom.  I can
recollect almost every President of the United States.  There never was a
wise man that was much looked up to or revered until after his death: 
then the people could revere him--a Jefferson, a Monroe, an Adams, &c. The
administration of Andrew Jackson was as good as that of any one that ever
occupied the presidential chair, and he had a great many enemies.  What do
you think of that, you gentlemen who are acquainted with the United, or
rather the once United States--you who have age and experience?  You
remember the struggle at the election of Andrew Jackson, and so do I.  I
repeat that his administration was as good as that of any man that ever
administered the government.  Some of his opponents did not like him very
well for some of his political moves.  I like his moves, only he did not
go far enough in removing the deposits and spoiling the United States
Bank.  But the administration of King James Buchanan, what an
administration! Brother Carrington alluded to William H. Seward of New
York.  He is considered by many as one of the smartest men that ever was
in this Government.  Were it not that he had the advantages of the
learning and wisdom of one of the best men in the Government--had he been
a mechanic or farmer, I doubt whether he would have possessed an extra
amount of knowledge.  "What of his natural abilities?"  I do not consider
him a man of great ability.  He came to Auburn, N. Y., to study the law
with a gentleman I well knew.  That gentleman took him into his office and
house a boy, and made a man of him.  He was one of the most influential
and best men in the country; he was a man of brain and heart, and he took
all the pains possible to make something of the boy.  After Mr. Seward had
been with the Judge a few years, he began to be looked upon as one
possessed of a considerable degree of smartness.  What would he be, if he
was the President?  Judging from his late speech, as received in a
despatch, I would suppose that he hardly knew enough to find his way
across the little city of Washington.  The prospect of his lofty position
appears to have nearly ruined his brain.

	What is the difficulty with King James?  His high position and
exalted opinion of himself so addled and bewildered him, that he said, "I
am the greatest man in the nation!  I am the Chief Magistrate!!

	What shall we do with such men?  Perhaps we may call them honourable
men in the earth, in order not to hurt the feelings of some by speaking
lightly of such talent in our nation.  They are so wonderfully smart! 
That is the difficulty.  Every man in Congress is so smart that he is
looking to the presidential chair.  The boys of West Point and the boys
studying law in the nation have their eyes on the presidential chair.  The
general feeling is--"I am intending to sit there."  They are all looking
to the presidential chair, and have been for years--the boy, the
middle-aged Congressman, and the grey-headed Senator.  The boys says--"I
am the best council I can get.  I am at West Point, and I shall soon
graduate.  Generals Washington, Taylor, and Jackson reached the chair of
state, and I shall soon be there."  Could he be counselled by anybody? 
No.  Every man is his own counsellor, his own general, and his own
governor.  We used to say, when we were boys--"Hurrah!  Every man for
himself, and the Devil for us all!"  and they will find it to be so.

	They are too wise.  They will prove, by their conduct, whether they
are capable of forming and sustaining a government for the Southern States
that have seceded.  There is no more a United States.  Can they amalgamate
and form a government?  No.  Will they have ability to form a government
and continue it?  No, they will not.  Hear it, Jew and Gentile.  Suppose
there is a division between the North and South, and the fifteen slave
States try to form a permanent government, can they do it?  I tell you
they cannot. They are too smart.  South Carolina is taking the lead, and
says she--"We will sit as kings and queens, or revolt from you."  Says
Georgia--"We have as smart men in our State as you have, and we will have
a President for our State."  "But you cannot," says South Carolina.  How
long will it be before some other State, perhaps New York, forms a
separate government?  And if a State has a right to secede, so has a
Territory, and so has a county from a State or Territory, and a town from
a county, and a family from a neighbourhood, and you will have perfect
anarchy. King James is not so prompt now as he was three years ago, when
he sent troops to Utah.  South Carolina comes out and boldly declares her
secession from the compact of States, and takes possession of all the
public property within her borders, except Fort Sumter.  There is no
Latter-day Saint engaged in this act.  One of the most contemptible of
characters we ever had here could swear falsely in Washington, and the
Government could receive his oath, and make it a basis, with other lies,
of sending an army here.  William Drummond went to Washington and swore
that we were treasoners, and to many palpable falsehoods; and King James
could act upon that and send an army here at an expense of, probably,
fifty million dollars.  Says King James--"Those lies are true."  "What! 
receive a lie?"  Yes, go and swear to a lie, and the Government can hear
that and act upon it.  But when South Carolina takes possession of the
public funds, of the custom-house, of the arms, arsenal, dock-yards,
forts, cannon, &c.,--"You must not coerce.  Do not infringe upon them: 
they have the right to do this."  What a reign is the reign of King James! 
It is enough to astound and throw into the shade the wisdom of all nations
upon the earth!

	What will King Abraham do?  I do not know, neither do I care.  It is
no difference what he does or what any of them do.   Why?  God will
accomplish his own purposes, and they may do or not do; they may take the
road that leads to the right, or they may take the road that leads to the
left; and whichever road they do take,they will wish they had taken the
other.  King James pledged himself, at Cincinnati, that on his election to
the presidential chair he would take the Island of Cuba, annex a portion
of Mexica, [sic] and so obliterate the "Mormons," that "Mormonism" should
not be known at the end of his reign.  These three things he pledged
himself to his party to do.  Some gentleman may say that I am mistaken.  I
am not mistaken; I am telling the truth, and you may believe it or not.

	Did he take Cuba?  He did not.  Did he annex Mexico, or any portion
of it?  He did not.  Did he destroy "Mormonism?"  He did not.  What has he
done?  Ruined the nation, at [sic] far as he had influence to do so.  He
began at the wrong end of the race:  the course was marked out for him,
but he ran the wrong way.  He ought to have begun by taking Cuba, then
annexed Mexico, or such portion of it as he wanted; and then he might have
considered a little about "Mormonism."  If he had just reflected for a
moment, he knew Joseph Smith.  If he had reflected upon the career of
Joseph and the career of this people, he would have seen at once that
every time the enemies of this kingdom undertook to trample it under their
feet and obliterate it from the earth, the more they spread it abroad and
brought it into note and character.  But he began at the wrong end, and he
has wished, every step he has taken and everything he has done, that he
had taken some other step and done something else.  One reason of this is,
that his will is such that he will ride over his friends and tread them in
the dust, and not make the first apology to them.  I attribute this to his
ignorance.  This is not wisdom; it is not greatness, nobility, or
magnanimity; but it is sheer ignorance, wilful ignorance, know-nothing
ignorance; and that is the difficulty.

	What will Abraham do?  King James says that if Mr. Lincoln takes the
oath of office, and enters into the administration of the Government with
as great pleasure as he resigns his official duties, he will be a happy
man. If I could advise King James, and have him take my counsel, it would
be to resign tomorrow morning, and let Mr. Breckenridge be crowned king
for three weeks, that another king might come before King Abraham to see
what the administration of that king would be.  I do not know of anything
better that I could advise him.

	"Mormonism" will live, and God will promote it; but shall we be
prepared to be promoted with it?  That is the question with me. It is in
my thoughts by day and by night, Shall I be prepared for the things that
are coming upon the earth?  I will try to be; and if I have an evil
appetite, I will overcome it.  If I have a disposition to do that which is
morally wrong, I will reject that disposition; I will subdue and overcome
it.  Will you?  Then you who drink, lie, steal, or do anything that is
morally wrong, or break the commandments of God in any way, or injure your
fellow-men, cease to do that evil and learn to do well.

	I exhort the brethren not to boast over our enemies' downfall.  Boast
not, brethren.  God has come out of his hiding-place, and has commenced to
vex the nation that has rejected us, and he will vex it with a sore
vexation.  It will not be patched up--it never can come together
again--but it will be sifted with a sieve of vanity, and in a short time
it will be like water spilled on the ground, and like chaff upon the
summer threshing-floor, until those wicked stewards are cut off.  If our
present happy form of government is sustained, which I believe it will be,
it will be done by the people I am now looking upon, in connection with
their brethren and their offspring.  The present Constitution, with a few
alteration of a trifling nature, is just as good as we want; and if it is
sustained on this land of Joseph, it will be done by us and our posterity. 
Our national brethren do not know how to do it.  They are capable of
controlling their own passions, to say nothing of ruling a nation.  What
is the reign of a king who cannot control his passions?  Will not his
subjects sorrow?  Yes, they will feel the weight of his wrath, and their
backs will ache, and their heads will ache, and they will receive the lash
from a heavy hand.

	We are serving a King who can control his passions; and who, as
brother George Simms remarked in the forenoon, can be touched with the
feelings of the infirmities of the weak.  Who can be thus touched,except
those who have suffered in like manner?  None.  And no being knows how to
control or govern on earth, unless he has been a subject on an earth.  No
being is fit to rule,govern, and dictate, until he has been controlled,
governed, and dictated,--has yielded obedience to law, and proved himself
worthy, by magnifying the law that was over him,to be master of that law. 
We are serving a King who wisely controls himself and his subjects.  If we
are permitted to rule, govern, and control, in the first place we must
control, in the first place we must control our passions until they are in
perfect subjection to us.  When we have controlled one and got in
perfectly mastered, we shall be prepared to control two; and if we can
properly rule over two, we can reign over two thousand or over millions as
well as two.  If you can control one, you are then prepared to control
your family; and if you are prepared to control a family, then you are
able to control a city; and if a city, then a nation, upon the same
principle.  That is the way that God hath obtained his power, and that is
the way that we shall obtain power.

	A large share of the ingenuity of the world is taxed to invent
weapons of war.  What a set of fools!  I wonder if they think that they
will never die, unless they kill one another.  Is there any danger of
their living here forever?  Not a bit of it.  Let the people alone, and
they will die of themselves, without killing them.  But much of the skill,
ingenuity, and ability of the Christian nations are now devoted to
manufacturing instruments of death.  May we be saved from the effects of
them!  As I often tell you, if we are faithful, the Lord will fight our
battles much better than we can ourselves.  We should be apt to get
nervous in fighting battles, and sometimes get into corners where we might
almost have to take a little gunpowder to encourage us--to nerve up our
energy--or have to burn some under our noses to become a little used to
it.  When the Lord fights the battles of the Saints, he does it so
effectually that nobody gets nervous but the enemy.  We might become
nervous, and perhaps give way to passion.

	We are never going to destroy the enemies of God by the evil passions
that are in us--never, no never.  When those who profess to be Saints
contend against the enemies of God through passion or selfwill, it is then
man against man, evil against evil, the powers of darkness against the
powers of darkness.  But when men who are sanctified, purified, do
anything, they will do it with a coolness as if conversing at their
firesides with each other; they will do it with the power of the living
God.  If they are ever called to wipe out their enemies, they will do it
without excitement; they have to do it without excitement; they have to do
it by the power of Gods, or not at all.  They are not going to do it with
wicked hands.  Are we prepared to receive the blessings, and let the
fighting alone?  I do not believe much in fighting, and my faith is to
escape such a calamity as to war and fight with either friends or enemies. 
I want to so have power with God, that he will govern and control and
guide and direct the steps of our enemies, until they drive into the
ditch.  How easy it is for the Almighty to direct the steps of our
enemies, until they fall off the precipice and are dashed in pieces,
without the efforts of his servants.

	Let us be faithful, live our religion, govern our passions, and boast
not against our enemies because we live to see the commencement of the
fulfilment of this prophecy in our day.  The prophecies must be fulfilled. 
Boast not, then, over your enemies.  One might say, "Is it not a delight
for us to speak to the Saints; but do not boast to the wicked and ungodly
that the Lord is coming out his hidingplace to vex the nation.  They will
learn that soon enough.  I have heard Joseph say, "You will see the
sorrows and misery that will be upon this land, until you will turn away
and pray that your eyes may not be obliged to look upon it."  Said he,
"There are men in this Council that will live to see the affliction that
will come upon this nation, until their hearts sink within them."  He did
not live here to see it, though he will see it.  Can you endure the sight
of it?  No.  Boast not over the misery of your fellow-men.  god will
fulfil his purposes.

	Be ready at all times and in all places to do your duty, and be the
friends of God.  Cease to mingle with the wicked.  Many of our Elders seem
to believe that Christ and Baal can yet be made friends.  How many times
Elders of Israel try to make me fellowship the Devil, or his imps, or his
servants; also try to make you fellowship your enemies, to amalgamate the
feelings of the Saints and the ungodly!  It cannot be done; it never was
done, and never can be accomplished.  Christ and Baal never can be
friends.  One or the other must reign triumphantly on the earth, and I say
that Jesus Christ shall reign, and I will help him; and Baal shall not
reign here much longer--the Devil shall not have power much longer upon
the land of Joseph.  I will be the friend of God and hi Son Jesus, my
Saviour.  Let the Elders of Israel and all the Saints be the friends of
Jesus and our Father in heaven, and cling to them.  Now, take one side or
the other.  Either be for God, or else walk out and show that you are re
for the Devil and believe that he will come off conqueror, and that you
are going to stick by him.  Here are the two powers on the earth--the evil
and the good, not to speak of the ten thousand paths they make through the
earth, and the various spirits that go to-and-fro.  It is the good and the
evil.  Will you have the good and refuse the evil?  Then be moral
Christians, as we frequently say, and was alluded to this morning.  There
are moral Christians among the heathen, among the Hindoos, and among all
nations.  God has laid a plan to save all such.  His name be praised!

	Can you learn a little, and treasure it up in good and honest hearts? 
Be honest before God and with yourselves, and let that monitor that God
has placed within you take the preeminence; and when persons say they are
inclined more to evil than good, tell them it is a falsehood.  Until they
sin away the day of grace, there is something in all persons that would
delight to rise up and reject the evil and embrace the truth.  There is
not a person on the earth so vile but, when he looks into his own heart,
honours the man of God and the woman of God--the virtuous and holy--and
despises his comrades in iniquity who are like himself.  There is not a
man upon the earth, this side of saving grace, unless he has sinned so far
that the Spirit of the Lord has ceased to strive with him and enlighten
his mind, but delights in the good, in the truth, but delights in the
good, in the truth, and in the virtuous, and despises his own comrades
that are with him day by day.  Look into the world and into the hearts of
the people, and see what they see in their secret reflections, and they
will manifest to you that they delight in and reverence that character
that lives a virtuous and holy life.  "What do you think of your comrades
that drink, curse, swear, carouse, and follow all manner of abominations?" 
"My heart loaths them," will be the reply, though they will not tell this
only a whisper in the ears of their fellow-beings.  But you speak into
their hearts, and there it is; and every time they have the privilege of
thinking and holding converse with themselves, there is the good that
leads to happiness:  the evil and misery you all know.

	Let truth bear sway, and true integrity shed a charm around your
whole being.  Rise up for the right in the strength of your won ability. 
God has bestowed upon you the power to reject the evil and receive that
truth; the good, the light, and the virtuous.  Cleave to God with all your
hearts, that we may be ready for the day that is fast approaching.

	May the Lord bless us!  Amen.

       VARIETIES OF MIND AND CHARACTER--CHASTISEMENT--FREEDOM, &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt City, February 17, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I wish to address myself particularly to the Elders of Israel, for
their instruction, edification, and learning, that they may be profitable
to themselves and others.  I will appeal to the experience of every
individual, when we do as well as we know how, honour our God, honour our
calling, honour our Priesthood, honour our tabernacles, our being upon the
earth, whether it is not the feeling of every heart to wish all persons to
be just like ourselves--to wish the ideas and acts of our brethren to be
precisely like ours; and yet we should not look upon ourselves as an
infallible standard for others.  It is no more natural for your lungs to
expand and contract in breathing than it is for you to wish others to be
like yourselves.

	I wish the Elders of Israel to understand mankind as they are--to go
to the people and take them as they are.  Let an Elder go into the world
to preach the Gospel of salvation, and he will find some individuals
possessed of a great deal more ability than others.  Stop with a family,
when you are invited to tarry over night, and you find them in great
ignorance; their minds are low and grovelling, as were the minds of their
fathers before them; they have not been taught to cultivate the mental
faculty that is within them, and they are dull and stupid.  Step into
another house, and you will discern that the minds of every member of that
family are cultivated to the best of their ability and circumstances.  You
will find some portions of a community diligently studying the sciences of
the day, others cultivating the arts, &c., each according to their tastes,
means, or circumstances, while others seem to be under no cultivation of
the mind:  yet in all the various classes each wants his neighbour to be
precisely like himself.

	You see some persons who appear at meetings on the Sabbath and on
other public occasions with their hair uncombed and their faces, hands,
and clothing uncleanly.  Have they no combs nor soap?  They have, or can
get them.  How happens it that we behold such conduct?  Probably the
parents of those persons taught them that it was pride that prompted
people to appear clean and decent.  Perhaps their mothers taught them in
their infancy that if they washed their faces, and combed and anointed
their hair, and dressed themselves in comely apparel to appear before
their fellow-men, "Oh, you are full of pride!"  Sisters, were not some of
you taught in your youth that if you wore a silk dress, you did so purely
through pride?  Many of you were.  I knew one sister in this Church who
burned up several dresses when she became a Methodist, because she thought
it not right for her to wear rich and costly clothing; that pride prompted
costly dress, and in it she could not come before the Lord in humility. 
She also thought that if she gave her rich dresses away, others would
commit the same sin that she would commit in wearing them; so she
destroyed them.

	To return to the Elders of Israel.  An Elder visits a Branch, and,
unless he is on his guard, he will begin to complain that the Presiding
Elder of the Branch is not as he is, does not understand as he does, and
does not conceive of the Gospel as he does.  He will find himself saying
to the members of the Branch--"You are in the dark; you need teaching; you
ought to have a smart Elder here--a man of understanding--to teach you." 
"Well, brother, will you stay and teach us?"  Perhaps, through persuasion,
he will stop, and what will he do?  Break that Branch to pieces, and
destroy their faith, if possible.  Why?  "You are not as I am!"  Elders,
look to this, and think of it.  We wish you to reap some benefit from your
experience.

	When I rise here and tell you things that pertain to other nations
and generations, and when others teach you things that pertain to other
people, it does not profit you as much as it does for us to understand
ourselves.  Wherever we go, wherever our lot is cast, whoever we associate
with, let the Elders have the principles of truth within them to prompt
heavenly and holy desires to do good.  Is it wisdom for each Elder to
strive to mould and fashion all others precisely according to himself in
all the views and notions he possesses?  Is this the way?  No, it is not. 
It is wisdom for the Elders of Israel to know how to treat others
according to the ability they possess, and to treat their families
according to the ability they possess.  In visiting neighbourhoods, you
will find persons intelligent upon some points, and upon other points they
may be ignorant.  They may be very well informed upon certain principles
pertaining to divinity, and upon others be ignorant.  Their dispositions
are also different from yours and others you associate with.  What will
you make of them?  Good people--Saints, so far as in your power.

	We are very apt through our traditions, former associations, and
notion of things and ideas, to attribute every act of man and every
manifestation of mankind to an invisible source--the good or the evil. 
God is the author of all good; and yet, if you rightly understood
yourselves, you would not directly attribute every good act you perform to
our Father in heaven, nor to his Son Jesus Christ, nor to the Holy Ghost;
neither would you attribute every evil act of a man or woman to the Devil
or his spirits or influences; for man is organized by his Creator to act
perfectly independently of all influences there are above or beneath. 
Those influences are always attending him, and are ready to dictate and
direct--to lead him into truth or to lead him to destruction.  But is he
always guided by those influences in every act?  He is not.  It is
ordained of God that we should act independently in and of ourselves, and
the good is present when we need it.  If we will ask for it, it is with
us.  If we yield to temptation, the evil is present, and nigh enough to
lead every son and daughter of Adam to destruction, if they give way to
it.  But it is the design of the Almighty that we should act
independently.  Then, when you see a person endowed by the Holy Ghost, you
need not expect him to look and act precisely as you do.  Their religious
sentiments will be alike, for the Holy Ghost does not introduce foolish
traditions and the varied unwise notions that the inhabitants of the earth
have.

	A man will say, "If I believed that such a man or woman was a Saint,
I should despair of all good."  Why? "Because their acts and lives are so
different from mine."  Now, if you will reflect upon the traditions of the
world, with which we are more or less encumbered, you will see manifest
the trait I have referred to.  If I am washed and made clean, if I am
attired in comely garments, or there is anything extra upon me to
beautify, it is considered by some as the height of folly and pride; it is
looked upon as a sin of the deepest dye; and the feeling arises, "If I
could believe such a gentleman or lady to be a Christian, I should despair
of the good that is with me."  Why?  "Because I have been taught that all
this is pride."  I have known people who have lived in this Church, whom I
should suppose had concluded it to be an unpardonable sin for them to go
to meeting with clean faces and hands.  What are the notions of most of
the Christian world in regard to a Prophet?  They would wish to see a man
with his hair to his waist.  Combed?  No.  He must never appear to use
that frivolous, sinful article, a comb.  That would be folly in the
extreme.  It would be sin, therefore, if he appears with his hair long,
bushy, snarled, dirty, and hanging carelessly about his shoulders.  Are
his hands washed?  No.  His finer nails trimmed and clean?  No; they are
like dirty bird's claws.  Is he cheerful?  No; for he must wear a long
face, never suffer a smile to pass over his countenance, but go mourning
all the day long; and it is, "O Lord, have mercy upon the people." 
Present a Prophet to suit the notions of many of the sectarian world, and
you have such a man as this.  Will he have on a decent suit of clothes? 
No; he must have a sheep-skin about his loins, and must wear a girdle as
dirty and filthy as the rags upon our natives.

	Others are trained and traditionated to appear with clean faces and
dressed in decent attire--are taught to appear comely and beautiful.  All
of these classes act according to their faith and traditions, and each one
of them says, "If you are not as I am, you are not right."  This is just
as natural as it is to breathe vital air.  I wish this trait in the Saints
to be done away.  I want the Elders of Israel to learn to take people as
they are.  How many do you see who have no influence over certain spirits
in this Church?  Do you know how to approach a man that is full of
subtlety and self-will--with an idea that every man on earth is wrong but
himself?  Do you know how to operate to gain his affections and goodwill? 
Do you know how to attract that spirit and make it follow you?  If you do
not, you do not fully understand your duty, calling, and Priesthood.  I
wish the people to learn to have influence over themselves, and then learn
to have influence with your fellow-beings, that you may be able to attract
the spirits in the intelligent beings around you, so that these spirits
will follow you to be taught of you, and learn of you [sic] doctrine to
lead them to life everlasting.

	There is a certain trait in the Elders of Israel that I really want
them to get rid of, for they are better off without than with it.  Not
that they are so very much to blame, or that I would condemn them; but,
according to their traditions and nature, they think everybody ought to be
like themselves.  And when they chasten faulty brethren, they often
chasten them, perhaps, beyond bounds.  With some spirits a certain amount
of chastisement is sufficient; and if you go beyond that, you may drive
them to distraction--you may destroy them.  You must learn to know when
you have chastised enough.

	Do you know how to chastise your children?  When they do wrong, catch
them in the act of doing wrong, if possible, and then switch them nicely,
and tell them you have a good mind to whip them; tell them you will
chasten them, if they do not stop such conduct.  Do not let them know that
they were whipped; but when you correct them, do it so that they will
remember it more than twenty-four hours; and tell them that if they do not
mind you, you will have to chasten them and whip them.  Tell the brethren
and sisters, "If you do not behave yourselves, I will chasten you
by-and-by."  Never try to destroy a man.  It is our mission to save the
people, not to destroy them.  The least, the most inferior spirit now upon
the earth, in our capacity, is worth worlds.

	When Oliver Cowdery felt to complain, and wanted a little more
influence in the Church than Joseph, the Lord spoke to him through Joseph,
and said to his servant Oliver, Suppose you should labour all your
lifetime faithfully, and be the means of saving one soul, how great would
be your joy in heaven over that soul that you were the means of saving! 
If to all eternity you could praise God, through being the means of saving
one soul,--I may say the least or most inferior intelligence upon the
earth, pertaining to the human family,--if you could be the means of
saving one such person, how great would be your joy in the heavens!  Then
let us save many, and our joy will be great in proportion to the number of
souls we save.  Let us destroy none.

	I asked some brethren, a few evenings ago, while in council, if they
would not do themselves the kindness from that time forth to live such
lives that, when the books are opened, there is one source of gratitude to
them to know that their debits do not overbalance their credits.  I then
asked them why not live so that when the books are opened there are no
debits against them.  It will be a pleasure to know that we have saved all
the Father gave into our power.  Jesus said that he lost none except the
sons of perdition.  He will lose none of his brethren, except sons of
perdition.  Let us save all the Father puts in our power.  And when you
are called to preside as Bishop, or to preach the Gospel on foreign
missions, are called to travel through our settlements to regulate the
affairs of the Saints, take a course to save every person.  There is no
man or woman within the pale of saving grace but that is worth saving. 
There is no intelligent being, except those who have sinned against the
Holy Ghost, but that is worth, I may say, all the life of an Elder to save
in the kingdom of God.  Then let us take a course to understand men as
they are, and not endeavour to make them precisely as we are, for this you
cannot do.  I am myself; you are yourselves.  Let us learn how to approach
each other, and how to get an influence over that intelligent portion that
is within.

	I am not going to drive a man or a woman to heaven.  A great many
think that they will be able to flog people into heaven, but this can
never be done, for the intelligence in us is as independent as the Gods.
People are not to be driven, and you can put into a gnat's eye all the
souls of the children of men that are driven into heaven by preaching
hell-fire.  So learn wisdom, that when you behold your brethren in the
depths of poverty, but striving to do right, they are as beloved as they
would be if they were dressed in purple and fine linen.  Take that
intelligent course, and learn to instruct people until they increase in
knowledge and understanding, until their traditions pass away, and they
will become of one heart and mind in the principles of godliness.

	If you are ever called upon to chasten a person, never chasten beyond
the balm you have within you to bind up.  I might call some of you to
witness that I chasten you, but there is not a soul that I chasten but
what I feel as though I could take them and put them in my bosom and carry
them with me day by day.  They deserve chastisement, but God forbid that I
should chasten beyond the healing balm I have to save them and make better
men of them.  It is not my daily study to know what a Prophet meant in
relation to things that occurred before the flood, or will occur after the
millennium, how Adam set out his currant bushes, and in what part of the
garden Eve was when she partook of the forbidden fruit; but I want to know
how to lead you with that intelligence to enable you to live to an
everlasting life, that you may be saved in the kingdom of God.  I say
again, Do not chasten beyond the balm you have within you.  If you have
the saving influence within you, it is well.  When you have the chastening
rod in your hands, ask God to give you wisdom to use it, that you may not
use it to the destruction of an individual, but to his salvation.  Can you
save all?  Yes, you can save all that will be saved.  If people are not
saved, it is because they are not disposed to be saved.  They act for
themselves, and act from choice.

	Would I compel a person to be saved in the kingdom of God that chose
to go to hell?  No.  If I had all the power of the Gods in the eternities,
I would not save one soul in the kingdom of God that chose to stay out,
neither will the Gods.  All who wish to be saved and desire good I wish to
be saved, and Jesus will lose none except the sons of perdition.  I may be
instrumental, in the providences of our God, of saving thousands and
millions in the celestial kingdom that otherwise perhaps would not get
there.  We are to be like the good physician; and if we see the
sick--those afflicted with pain and distress in the head, eyes, teeth, or
in any of the limbs or other portion of the body, it is our duty to have
the medicine--the remedy to administer to that pain, to heal, to cure, to
rebuke the disease and save the sick like a good physician, and not kill
them by dosing down the medicine as do some of our doctors.  Administer
the medicine in all mildness, and with good judgment and discretion.  Seek
until you learn the medicine to administer to each patient, and how much
to give to each.  There is just as much difference in the spiritual
organization as you see in the temporal organization.  You can see that
eternal variety in both.  You may go to a man taken with a fever, and if
you treat him as you did a similar case last week, you may consign him to
the grave.  You ought to know better.

	I could preach a sermon on doctoring the body, we have so many that
do not understand it among those who profess to; but it is of no use.  I
would rather have the sisters wait upon me in sickness than many of those
who profess to be physicians.

	Elders of Israel, learn to be spiritual physicians.  Carry the
medicine with you to deal out to every patient as he needs it.  If a
patient has chills and fever in his spirit, you must carry the medicine to
cure it; also for the erysipelas, or the dumb ague, or the rheumatism in
the spirit, you must carry the medicine to heal.  Thus learn, when you
have chastened enough, to cease; and be sure you never chasten beyond the
balm you carry in your portmanteau.

	I will bring our forenoon meeting to a close.  May God bless you! 
Amen.



     SELF-KNOWLEDGE--FUTILITY OF ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY "MORMONISM," &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 17, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Brother Joseph W. Young, in his remarks, alluded to the intelligence
to be dispensed to the intelligence to be dispensed to the people
here--that which they do not get elsewhere.  The brethren come here from
the States and from the old countries:  they gather from different parts
of the world, expecting to learn the great mysteries--the secret things of
our God.  What do you learn, brothers and sisters?  If you are good
scholars, you learn to treat your neighbours as they should be treated,
and to have the same affections for a person from Ireland or England as
you do for one from your own native land.  You come here to learn to drive
oxen into a kanyon, and return without sinning.  You come here to learn
that every person you see is a little different from you.

	Brother Kimball most beautifully compared this people to a tree,
remarking that we all receive nourishment from the same fountain.  A tree
shoots forth; it soon begins to have branches; but you cannot find two
limbs precisely alike.  A branch puts forth to bear fruit; the tree
continues its course upwards; another branch starts out; and if it is a
little different from the first branch, should it find fault and complain
of the tree because of that difference in shape and capacity?  You cannot
find two twigs alike.  You may examine any tree of the forest and see
whether you can find any two leaves that are precisely alike.  You cannot. 
Then you may go to a meadow, and see whether you can find two spears of
grass just alike in shape and form.  There are no two precisely alike. 
Examples of that endless variety are now before me.

	The greatest lesson you can learn is to learn yourselves. When we
learn ourselves, we learn our neighbours.  When we know precisely how to
deal with ourselves, we know how to deal with our neighbours.  You have
come here to learn this.  You cannot learn it immediately, neither can all
the philosophy of the age teach it to you:  you have to come here to get a
practical experience and to learn yourselves.  You will then begin to
learn more perfectly the things of God.  No being can thoroughly learn
himself, without understanding more or less of the things of God: neither
can any being learn and understand the things of God, without learning
himself:  he must learn himself, or he never can learn God.  This is a
lesson to us; and you cannot learn that abroad which you can learn here.

	How simple it appears, how trifling at the first thought, to the
noble mind of man that is reaching after eternity and eternal things, to
come here to learn to drive oxen, to learn to build houses, to learn to
mingle his feelings with his neighbour and treat that he must not expect
every person around him to be precisely like himself; for we see that
endless variety renders it impossible.  Let every man learn to properly
treat his fellow-man for this we come together to learn.

	There are a great many other things that it is important to learn,
and one in particular is to learn to live and operate on the principle
brother Kimball spoke of, that "The earth is is [sic] the Lord's and the
fulness thereof."  I am a witness to what brother Kimball said.  When I
asked him to build a house in Nauvoo, he had not five dollars to begin
with.  Do you want to know how poor he was?  I might tell you that he was
as rich as I was, except, perhaps, in his feelings:  in that respect I do
not thing that he was quite so rich as I was there, for I felt like asking
no odds of anybody.  He had not a farthing when he returned to Nauvoo from
England.  Upon our return, we found our families comparatively naked and
barefoot as we had left them.  Who was ready to step forth and help to
administer to the comfort and relief of brother Kimball?  A certain
Apostle managed to take the fleece of the flock that we had raised.  Would
he let brother Kimball have a dress pattern for his wife Vilate?  No. 
Sister Kimball had not a second dress, and yet brother Kimball could not
get a dress pattern from his brother Apostle.  He began to build a house,
and when it was finished he owed no one.  Suppose he had sat down and
counted the cost.

	There are words said to have been spoken by the Saviour--"For which
of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth
the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it?"  No matter whether he
said this or not:  it is only a question asked:  he did not give it as his
counsel or advice.  I have built a great many houses, and never counted
the cost before I built them.  I never wanted to know anything about it. 
What is to be done?  I want some rock.  Go and get it.  I want a mason:  I
hire him, and pay him to lay up the walls.  I hire my carpenters and
painters, and pay them.  I want something to put on the walls.  Get it and
put it on:  if it is a frame building, get the timber and put it up.  In
short, when I want a house, I go to work and put it up, and do not stop
until it is done, and never count the cost.  "The earth is the Lord's,"
with all its fulness.

	When I hear of the brethren and sisters going after gold--the riches
and wealth of the earth--I think that if they had it in the spirit-world
they could not do anything with it there.  There are no merchants there
with their merchandise--no grog-shops there in which to spend money. 
Those who possess wealth must leave it here for the Saints, and the Saints
will become heirs of it; and we wish the people to be ready to receive
these and all blessings the Lord has in store for them.  Be ready.  We
were ready when King James Buchanan sent his friends here to initiate us
into Christianity.  If we had not been ready, your heads and mine might
have been cold ere to-day.  We were ready, and we said, "Stop--stay your
sad career, until you think."

	Did Thomas H. Benton aid in gathering the Saints?  Yes, he was the
mainspring and action of governments in driving us into these mountains. 
He obtained orders from President Polk to summon the militia of Missouri,
and destroy every "Mormon" man, woman, and child, unless they turned out
five hundred men to fight the battles of the United States in Mexico.  He
said that we were aliens to the Government, and to prove it he said--"Mr.
President, make a requisition on that camp for five hundred men, and I
will prove to you that they are traitors to our Government."  We turned
out the men, and many of them are before me to-day; among whom is father
Pettigrew--a man that ought to have been asked into the Cabinet to give
the President counsel; but they asked him to travel on foot across the
Plains to fight our country's battles against Mexico.  We turned out the
men, and Mr. Benton was disappointed.  He went to his grave in disgrace,
and shame covered him.  Was he a man of influence in his last days--in the
latter portion of his career in public life?  When he could not be
President, nor be returned again to the Senate, after much exertion he
succeeded in being elected a member of the House of Representatives, and
at the close of his public career, because the hands of the clock in the
Representatives Hall were turned back, and the hands of his watch did not
agree with it when at twelve o'clock, said he, "Mr. Speaker, I am not a
member of this legislative body."  The Speaker said, "Sergeant-at-Arms,
show that gentleman to the door," and there was scarcely a man in the
House that so much as turned his eyes to look. The ground he walked on was
disgraced by step, and his acquaintances shunned him:  and so it will be
with others.

	Brother Kimball says that King James will have to pay the debt he has
contracted.  He has more on his hands that he will settle for many
generations.  you will see the old man go down to the grave in disgrace. 
He has cast off his political friends, and they will all cast him off as a
thing of naught, and he will become a hiss and a by-word, and has already.

	The London Times speaks of the old man's being incapable of
magnifying the office bestowed upon him.  They complain of him now; but,
when he was minister from our Government to England, did they not in
secret council induce him to pledge himself to destroy the "Mormons," if
they would assist in electing him President?  Did they not connive with
Buchanan to destroy the "Mormons" from the earth?  Did they not send their
armies to the north to head us in our retreat, provided King James
succeeded in routing us from our homes?  I spoke of this to Captain Van
Vleit, when he was here.  I merely ask these questions, that those who are
acquainted with political moves may draw their conclusions upon the
workings of governments.  But the Lord has given his people power to elude
the grasp of our enemies; for he led them in a way they knew not, turned
them hither and thither, diverted the blow aimed at our heads, and brought
disgrace and ruin on those who sought to bring ruin and destruction upon
us.  It will take them a great while to pay the debt they have contracted. 
That Government known as the United States' has become like water spilled
on the ground, and other governments will follow.

	"Kings become nursing fathers," indeed?  Not King James:  no.  Queens
become nursing mothers?"  Will Queen Victoria become a nursing mother to
the Saints?  I have not one word of fault to find with her as an
individual; but the Government holds here; she is fettered.  She is a good
woman, but she will never nurse the Saints.  Will the Queen of Spain? 
Never.  But the kings and queens I am looking upon to-day will belong to
that class; they will be the fathers and mothers to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel.  There are many sheep on the earth that we have not yet
found.  We consider ourselves the flock of God--the kingdom of God; and
when you travel upon the islands of the sea and among the nations who will
learn that there are thousands and millions of the sheep that have not
heard the voice of the Good Shepherd.  They are to be entered into the
fold, and we have it to do.

	Remember that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." 
And I can say to the Bishops and brethren of this city, that, in rating
teams to send to Florence, they have answered our expectations and more. 
We shall send and bring up the poor, and shall build, and continue to
increase in our ability.  Every time we put forth our ability.  Every time
we put forth our ability to do good and build up the kingdom of God,
according to the means the Lord bestows upon us, our means and ability
will be doubled and trebled.  Yes, we shall receive tenfold, and, as
Joseph said, an hundredfold.  Have we witnesses of this?  Yes, plenty of
witnesses. I will mention one little circumstance.  When we were finishing
the Temple in Nauvoo, the last year of our stay there, I rented a portion
of ground in what was called the Church farm, which we afterwards deeded
to sister Emma.  Brother George D. Grant worked for me then, and planted
the corn, sowed the oats, and said this, that, and the other must be
attended to. They called for teams to haul for the Temple, and could not
get them.  Said I, Put my team on the Temple,if there is not a kernel of
grain raised.  I said I would trust in God for the increase, and I had a
good corn as there was on the farm, though it was not touched from the
time we put the seed in to the time of gathering.  I proved the fact.  I
had faith.

	The poor miserable apostates there prophesied, and the Gentiles
prophesied, and all creation of wickedness seemed to agree that that
Temple should not be finished; and I said that it should, and the house of
Israel said that it should, and the angels and God said, "We will help
you."  Many of you remember my setting my foot on the capstone and
addressing the people.  We completed the Temple, used it a short time, and
were done with it.  On the 5th or 6th of February, 1846, we committed the
building into the hands of the Lord, and left it; and when we heard that
it was burned, we were glad of it.

	How many circumstances could I relate to the brethren that God does
hold the purse-strings of the world!  Brother Kimball has slightly alluded
to a circumstance, without mentioning the particulars.  When brother Heber
C. Kimball and I were on the way to England, and were left in a little
place called Pleasant Garden, I know, as I know I live, that we had no
more than thirteen dollars and fifty cents.  This was all we had, that we
knew anything about.  In the course of the journey, we paid out just about
eighty-six dollars, as near as I can recollect, for conveyance, food, and
lodging, always finding just money enough in my trunk to pay each bill;
and when we arrived at Kirtland Corners, we had just the York shilling
left.

	I might stand here and relate to the brethren incidents, until you
would be tired of hearing.  I merely wish to impress upon you the feeling
that God holds your purse-strings.  You may hoard up your gold, keep your
cattle on the ranges for the Indians to steal or the winters to destroy,
and tie up your hearts as tight as you please; the Lord will let the
Indians steal your cattle and thieves your purses--will let calamity come
upon you, or permit you to roll in wealth until you go to your own place.

	It has been told you that we want to bring the brethren here and give
them their endowments, and then let them apostatize if they will, and have
done with them.  Those who are stedfast and faithful, we will teach to
work in the adobie yard, in the quarry, &c.; and learn them to be cleanly
and prudent, and teach them what their organization is, that they may
understand the things of God.

	May God bless you!  Amen.

       ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD--GATHERING THE POOR, &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, March 3, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	There are a number of subjects I wish to say a few words upon, and I
will first make a few remarks pertaining to the kingdom of God on the
earth.

	It is told us that the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 
It is also told us that ere long the Lord will possess the earth. 
Christians are exhorted to be faithful, for eventually Jesus will crown
his brethren as kings and priests,--not only the Twelve Apostles that
brother Broderick referred to this morning, but also all that keep his
commands and live faithfully to the requirements of the holy Gospel.  We
are exhorted to be stedfast and immovable, always abounding in good works. 
This is our tradition; it is the doctrine we have heard from our youth. 
Many of you are acquainted with the various doctrines of the Christian
world.  Some believe, "Once in grace, always in grace." Others, "A Saint
to day,a sinner to-morrow, and next day again a Saint," &c., &c.  "The
kingdom of God on earth?  "Has not this kingdom been established long and
long ago?"  "Why does not the Lord Jesus come to take possession of the
earth, as it is his?"  These are questions that arise, especially in the
minds of critics--of those who are inclined to be infidel in regard to
revealed religion; and they inquire of the Christian, "Why does not your
God do thus and so?  Why does he delay?  Why does he permit the enemy to
hold possession of the dominion of the Saviour?"  with many other
inquiries that rest in the minds of the people.  Perhaps some of you have
satisfactorily answered these questions to yourselves, and perhaps you
have heard them satisfactorily answered to your minds and understanding by
the Elders of Israel.

	There is a reason for all this.  I have not time this afternoon, and
do not wish to confine myself, to say all that my mind would be led to say
on the subject.  I can say at once, If Jesus had taken the kingdom in the
days when he was upon the earth, he would have spoiled the whole plan--he
would have ruined the object for which he came into the world.  If he had
established his kingdom directly after the flood and reigned triumphantly
on the earth, the earth could never have answered the ends of its
creation--the inhabitants of the earth could not have been accountable. 
If he had to take possession of the earth at this present time, he would
ruin his own scheme--thwart his own plans.  It may be a mystery--it is
with the many--why the Lord permits this and that, and dictates thus and
so.  This is for want of intelligence in the intelligent beings that are
upon the earth.  If they understood the object of the creation of this
earth and the inhabitants upon it, these matters would be an easy and
pleasing theme to their understandings; they would become natural
principles to them, easy to be understood.  They would comprehend the
design of the Almighty in the formation of these intelligent beings, in
the direction of them, the object of the creation of the earth, and the
final issue in the end, when all that has been designed of this earth and
all consigned to this earth have come upon it, and the work is
completed--the winding-up scene has come, when Jesus shall have finished
his work pertaining to man and his agency,--you will then see that the
kingdom will be taken possession of, and that very quickly.

	Every mortal being must stand up as an intelligent, organized
capacity, and choose or refuse the good, and thus act for himself.  All
must have that opportunity, no matter if all go into the depths of
wickedness.  Whether they sustain the kingdom of God and promote the
Gospel of salvation, or not, the earth must remain in the hands of men,
liable to be acted upon continually by a superior power and authority. 
Man's independence must be held inviolate; it must be reserved to each and
every individual:  all must have the privilege of acting upon it.  Until
the last spirit that has been designed to come here and take a tabernacle
has come upon the earth, the winding-up scene cannot come.  I have not
time to say what I would like to upon this subject, but will leave it to
your own reflection.

	Marvel not that the kingdom of God is not in its fulness.  Marvel not
that you see every man and woman subject to the passions that belong to
fallen nature.  There never was a Prophet on the earth but what was
subject to passions, as we are. Every son and daughter of Adam that has
come into this world has been subject to sin, and prone to wander.  They
must have their times and seasons; and when the day has come in which all
things are to be gathered in one, the Lord will gather those things.  When
the day comes in which Jesus will take possession of the earth, (he will
take possession of it when the time comes that Satan will be ejected from
the inheritance of the children--of the legal heirs,) you will find that
ejectment will be served, and it will be effectual.  It will be effectual
upon every tenant or occupant upon the premises of the Almighty, and they
will be forthwith removed.  But the time is not yet come--the work is not
yet finished.  Be patient--be co-workers with our Saviour and Master until
this work is accomplished, and we shall be blessed in our deeds.

	I wish to make a few remarks to the brethren in this city in regard
to reaching forth their hands and means to assist in gathering the poor
Saints.  At first, some deemed it inexpedient to call upon the people in
this city to assist in sending teams for the Saints; but we have otherwise
concluded.  We expect that we have more power here than they have in any
other place in all the Branches and associations of the Church of Jesus
Christ upon the whole earth.  We here see for the whole of them, we speak
for the whole, and, comparatively speaking, we have more power than is
possessed in any other part of the body.  If we wish to have a great thing
performed, we must take the lead.  And when we feel that we are weak and
feeble, incapable of doing this or that, with poverty staring us in the
face, and the want of means is felt, let every person rise up and consider
his calling and standing, and the design of the Almighty.

	I will present a comparison from our mechanics.  You will find
mechanics here who can go to work and build a beautiful house, but they
must have all the necessary tools and materials.  Another can build a
carriage, but he must have the necessary tools and materials.  You can
find a man who can build a steam-engine, but he must have the tools and
materials.  But you find the mechanics that can go to with an old
three-cornered file, a jack-knife, a spike-gimlet, and an inch augur, and
build a waggon in a workmanlike manner, and you would say that he is a
superior workman.  As the fisherman says, "It is no trick to catch fish,
if you have the tools and know how it is done."  It is no development of
skill for us to preach the Gospel to the nations, if we have our pockets
full of money, and Bible societies and tract societies and missionary
societies gathering it for us to pay our expenses--scraping up for us the
filthy lucre.  I suppose that in such cases we should feel as others do. 
You know how some of those feel who can go from one side of the earth to
the other, and have the privilege of gathering means to go with.  The way
they feel is shown forth very forcibly in an anecdote of a priest, after a
collection had been made.  He gathered up the money, and while putting it
in his pocket gave out the hymn--"This is the God that I adore."

	You see Elders who start from here without purse or scrip, and cross
the Plains with handcarts, and they have ingenuity enough to go from city
to city, from country to country, from nation to nation, and circumscribe
the earth.  In that there is certain skill, talent, and ability, great
zeal, or excellent good luck:  you must attribute it to something.  It
would be no great affair for us to gather the Saints, if we had plenty of
gold.  How many times I have thought I would like a handy place to go to
for gold with which to gather the Saints; but where would be our glory and
reward, to go from here to Europe, and travel East to China and home
again, having been preaching several years, with our pockets full of gold? 
Where, then, is your great ability?  In your pockets--in the god so much
adored.  But take the men that can travel the earth over, preach the
Gospel without purse or scrip, and then go to and lay their plans to
gather the Saints.  That looks like the work of angels.  Does it not look
like the work of beings superior to the common people?  Do you know that
we are called to this work?

	If the Lord had called upon some great man, some rich man, some one
of the prominent Bishops in the Roman Catholic Church or in the Church of
England, or the Pope, to dig the plates out of the earth, and translate
them, and publish the Book of Mormon, and then have furnished them with
plenty of gold and other means to distribute to the disciples--plenty of
wealth, honour, fame, and good name in the midst of the people--would
there have any particular manifestation of a superior being in all this? 
There would not. The Lord chose Joseph Smith, called upon him at fourteen
years of age, gave him visions, and led him along, guided and directed him
in his obscurity until he brought forth the plates and translated them,
and Martin Harris was prevailed upon to sustain the printing of the Book
of Mormon.  All this was done in the depths of poverty, obscurity, and
weakness.  The Book has been translated, printed, and handed to the world;
and every time that a man of letters, rhetoric, or profound worldly
learning, comes into this Church and undertakes to preach the Gospel,
relying upon his worldly wisdom, that man will fail.  No matter where upon
the earth he undertakes to start this kingdom according to the customs,
feelings, fashions, and pride of the world, it will sink as sure as he
undertakes it.

	I recollect one remark that brother Joseph used to make frequently,
when talking to the Elders.  No matter what he set them to do, whether he
wanted them to go to a foreign land on a mission, or to go into business,
he would say, "When you commence, go in at the little end of the horn; for
if you do not, but enter at the big end, you will either have to turn
round and come out at the end you went in at, or go out at the small end
and be squeezed nigh unto death."  Let an Elder hire the best halls in
large cities to begin with, and go to lecturing, and it will take him a
long time to raise a Branch of this Church.  But let him begin among the
poor of the earth--those who live in the cellars, and garrets, and back
streets; "for," says the Almighty, "I am going to take the weak things of
the earth, and with them confound the wisdom of the wise."  You will see
that trait in every step of "Mormonism."  God has chosen the obscure and
weak, to bring them up and exalt them.  Is not that the work of a God, the
performance of this work without money and without price?  The Gospel is
sent to all the inhabitants of the earth--to the high and the low, the
noble and the ignoble, the young and the old.  "Here is the Gospel; you
are welcome to it."  "Don't you ask anything for it?"  Not a farthing.  It
has to go to the world without money and price."  Now, compare this with
carrying the Gospel with your pockets full of money; and in the latter
case where is your glory and honour?

	As an instance, we have men who quarry rock out of the mountains; and
we would say to those men, Can you go and quarry rock without the suitable
instruments?  Says one, "I must have so many picks and wedges, and I must
have so many drills of different sizes, and so many sledges and hammers." 
Another man says, "I am going to make the tools; I have the ability, and I
will make the instruments from the ore in the mountain."  You remember
what Nephi did. When he came to the sea, and prepared to build his barge,
the Lord showed him the ore, and Nephi made the tools with which he formed
his barge.  He did not have to go back to Jerusalem to get tools.  I would
like to see a little more of that skill displayed here than I do at the
present time.  I am using this comparison to show that we, in our poverty,
have this work to do.

	As was observed this morning, in a wholesome, lovely, excellent
discourse, we will have to go to work and get the gold out of the
mountains to lay down, if we ever walk in streets paved with gold.  The
angels that now walk in their golden streets, and they have the tree of
life within their paradise, had to obtain that gold and put it there. 
When we have streets paved with gold, we will have placed it there
ourselves.  When we enjoy a Zion in its beauty and glory, it will be when
we have built it.  If we enjoy the Zion that we now anticipate, it will be
after we redeem and prepare it. If we live in the city of the New
Jerusalem, it will be because we lay the foundation and build it.  If we
do not as individuals complete that work, we shall lay the foundation for
our children and our children's children, as Adam has.  If we are to be
saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will be because we build
it.  If the Gospel is preached to the nations, it is because the Elders of
Israel go in their poverty, without purse or scrip, to preach the Gospel
to the uttermost parts of the earth.

	If the Elders of Israel could see the true track and thread of faith,
they never would say they could not do this or that, but would see at once
that we are the head, the law-giving department.  We are the eyes, the
ears, the mouth; we dictate, and it is for us to lead out in every good
work.  If we build a Temple here, it will be because we need one; and if
we really need one, go to work and build it.  Will we count the cost?  No. 
If I am going to build a temple, I am not going to sit down and count the
cost.  I care not what it will cost.  So long as we are occupied in doing
a good work, it keeps us out of mischief and unrighteousness, and at the
same time enhances the value of our whole property, and beautifies our
cities.

	If we wish to send for the poor, gather up teams.  "But," say you, "I
have not got any."  Then prepare yourselves to go as teamsters, to do
anything and everything.  As I have not time to make many remarks upon
this, let me say to the Elders of Israel, and also the sisters, One-third
or one-fourth of the time that is spent to procure a living would be
sufficient, if your labour were rightly directed.  People think they are
going to get rich by hard work--by working sixteen hours out of the
twenty-four; but it is not so. A great many of our brethren can hardly
spend time to go to meeting.  Six days is more time than we need to
labour.  Sixteen hours out of twenty-four is more time than we need to
labour, or even ten hours, if that labour is rightly directed.  If we
labour, let us labour to advantage, so as to accomplish what we design.

	I wish to say to the brethren and Bishops here, When we concluded
that we would call upon this city for help, we got all we asked for, and
more.  I say, Credit is due to them.  Let me say to you, brethren, I am
satisfied; the Spirit that is within me is satisfied. And one thing in
particular let me say to you, In all your transactions in these public
matters, do not do, unless you want to.  As we say to the Saints, Do not
pay Tithing, unless you want to; do not help to build up this Temple
unless you want to; do not put forth your hands to one day's work, unless
you want to; do not help to build up this Temple unless you want to; do
not put forth your hands to one day's work, unless you want to; do not put
forth your hands to help build the Seventies' Hall, unless you want to. 
If you grudgingly put forth your means to help to gather the Saints, it
will be a curse to you; it will mildew, and every effort you make will
wither in your possession.  If you do not wish to help, let it alone; but
if you really want to help to gather the Saints, turn out with your teams,
as you agree to.  If you wish this Temple built, go to work and do all you
can this season.  Some say, "I do not like to do it, for we never began to
build a Temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring."  I want to
hear them ring again.  All the tribes of hell will be on the move, if we
uncover the walls of this Temple.  But what do you think it will amount
to?  You have all the time seen what it has amounted to.

	I can say, for my comfort and consolation, and for yours too, that we
did build two temples, and commenced another.  We completed a temple in
Kirtland and in Nauvoo; and did not the bells of hell toll all the time we
were building them?  They did, every week and every day.  For our
consolation I will say, We are here and not there.  You cannot ride from
here to Carthage, in Hancock County, Illinois, before breakfast, if you
try; and everyone that now tries to come from Warsaw or Carthage to the
headquarters of "Mormonism" will have to put more crackers in their
pockets than they used to.  What did they accomplish?  They magnified the
work of the Lord in the eyes of the nations.  They are more afraid of our
union than of any other power.  They are afraid of the God that is within
us.  If that union and the power of God is with ten men, they fear that in
them more than they fear a hundred thousand men that are not united.  We
are here, and I am satisfied.

	In regard to the acts of this city in turning out teams, we shall
send them this season to bring the poor across the Plains; and what will
we do another season?  Send a great many more.  Will the way be hedged up
by the wars and distress of nations?  I neither know nor care.  I am
looking for the words of Joseph to be fulfilled.  The time will come when
men and women will be glad to catch what they can, roll up in a small
bundle, and start for the mountains, without team or waggon.  That day
will shortly come.  Hundreds of people in this house are my witnesses, who
heard Joseph say, when asked whether we should ever have to leave Nauvoo,
"The Saints will leave Nauvoo.  I do not say they will be driven, as they
were from Jackson County, Missouri, and from that State; but they will
leave here and go to the mountains.  And the next time the Saints remove,
or are caused to remove, they will be turned out of the frying-pan, not
into the fire, but into the middle of the floor."  If this is not the
middle of the floor, I do not know where you will find it.  When we left
Missouri, we were turned out of the frying-pan into the fire; and the next
time our enemies succeeded in their warring against us, they cast us into
the middle of the floor.  I think this is the middle of the floor.  Can we
look to the back side of it, or to the front side of it?  I can look to
the south and to the north, and it is a great way to the bed or to the
table.  I think we are in the middle of the floor.  We are here, and not
there.  "Do you think there will be war, so that we cannot gather the
Saints?"  I do not know, nor do I care.  They must come.

	I want to say a few words to those of my brethren who are apt to
prophesy evil.  Some of the brethren are all the time foreseeing evil that
the Saints are going to suffer, and saying that we are going to see harder
times than ever before, and that the armies of the Un---hold on--the
armies of the nations will  they gather against us.  Let them gather:  the
Lord will perform this work.  "But don't you think we shall be afflicted
again?"  What if we are?  I am not sorry that the army came here.  "What
are you sorry for?"  I am sorry to see so many foolish persons in our
midst.  If I possessed the influence over this people that it is my right
to possess in the midst of the Latter-day Saints, I would have made our
enemies pay well for what they bought.  But to see the sisters run with
butter, eggs, and chickens, and the brethren with their flour and wheat,
to their enemies who came here to cut their throats, or else make them
renounce their religion, is what pains my heart.  Our enemies are ruined,
the gold is spent, and we are here where we can procure more.  Who has
made the money in what is called the "Utah War?"  Mr. Floyd, Secretary of
War, expected to make a large amount.  When he started his crusade, I
considered that he would make some five millions of dollars.  He has
probably done so, and he will lose the whole of it, and will become a
stink and a by-word among his friends, and will rot; and very many of you
will see it come to pass.  This will also come to pass upon every one of
those that came here to destroy "Mormonism," as very many of you will see. 
The likeliest class that did come here were the gamblers, and they were
most of them broke; and all who engaged in the crusade will be broken. 
When they undertook the job, they did not count the cost.

	It is seldom I think of them; but when I get to talking about them,
the times we have passed through come up, which were good times.  I felt
remarkably well through them all.  "You, Brigham Young, are a Mormon; you
believe in Joseph Smith, and you are not fit to live on the earth."  "You,
John, Peter, and Paul, ought to be killed, because you believe in Jesus
Christ."  How do you think I feel towards them?  One of our sisters lay
sick in bed in Far West; and when the mob came in there, one of them took
a pitchfork and threatened to stab her with it.  She said, "Stick it into
me as quick as you please, for you will not do any great things in killing
an old woman like me--one who is not able to get off from her bed."  When
they hunted us into this desolate wilderness, if you will permit me to use
a vulgar figure, I had to put on scores of old-fashioned Pennsylvania
breechings; I had to keep putting on another, and another, to hold them
within bounds.  The Lord said, "Hold on."  He can fight our battles far
better than we can.  Anger towards them is a poor, miserable feeling; and
I am trying to get rid of it.  But to reflect on what they have done! 
Hundreds and hundreds of fathers, mothers, and children have been wasted
by the wayside, through their hellish persecutions!  I feel that I want to
live until I see the earth emptied of such characters.  Are all thus mean? 
No, only those that feel to persecute and destroy the kingdom of God from
the earth.

	I will tell you another prophecy of Joseph's, of which both Jews and
Gentiles are my witnesses.  Joseph said that the bones of hundreds of the
Missouri and Illinois mobocrats, who drove the Saints from those States,
should bleach on the plains, and their flesh should be meat for wolves. 
Are you witnesses to that, in coming over the Plains?  Yes, hundreds and
hundreds of those characters that started to go to the gold mines, their
flesh was meat for the wolves, and their bones are there bleaching to-day,
so far as they have not been buried, or entirely rotted away.  That is
another prophecy of Joseph's.  I do not say that all who differ with us in
matters of religion are mobocrats.  No:  there are as honest men in other
churches as there are in ours.

	Go into the world among the infidels and the Universalists:  they are
two good classes of men.  Then visit the members of the Church of England,
and the Roman Catholic Church, the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Quakers, Shakers, &c.; and millions of them are as honest as we are. 
Shall I call them mobocrats?  Who are the evil doers?  Those who have had
the light presented to them, and rejected it.  I do not feel as I have
represented towards all the children of men, only towards those who have
hunted our lives from the beginning--who have hunted the life of every
Saint from the beginning.  But they have not the power, neither will they
have it, to divide this kingdom.  This Church will prosper and increase. 
You understand that, when I talk about those men, I talk about those who
have been active, in what?  In trying to bring destruction upon us.  Have
we injured them?  No, we have not; at least, I have not, and I hope you
have not.  Have they any great reason for their usage to us?  They have
not.  I will leave them in the hands of God; and when the time comes, as I
have told you, for the present occupants and tenants to be disinherited,
the writ of ejectment will be served, and they will be forthwith hoisted
from their position, and Jesus will take possession.  And, as has been
observed this morning, though a terrific thought for all men to be under
the control of one, that man will never live on the earth that will not
control the inhabitants of the earth, until he can do it with justice and
mercy.  Do not be afraid:  the enemies of God and his Christ will be
divided and subdivided all the time, and Jesus will come to reign and
rule.  You say, "We all like the reign of Christ."  The wicked will not
like the Saviour half so well as you like me.  He would tell them to go to
their own place.  I honour no other being in heaven and earth more than
him; and no man can rule triumphantly until he rules in righteousness. 
Wherefore have no fears in the least.  I will leave this subject.

	We want to build this Temple.  Now, brethren, shall we do so?  Yes;
and we will do all that is necessary.  The Bishops talked over the matter,
and thought sending teams from this city would prevent out putting forth
our strength upon the walls of the Temple.  But let me tell you that we
can do far more on the Temple this year, if we touch it at all, than we
could if we did not send our cattle and waggons East.  Perhaps some of us
cannot understand this, but I trust you will so live that you will see the
time when you will understand that God rules in heaven, and does his
pleasure upon the earth; and that the cattle upon a thousand hills are
his; and that he will control all matters to your benefit, if we are
co-workers with him, with a pure heart, and an eye single to the building
up of his kingdom, and do what is wanted to be done; and that the more we
do the more means we shall have.  Let the wicked continue to fight and
quarrel, and the Lord will open the path for us, and we can gather the
poor Saints for a good while yet.  No matter what is done among the
States, the earth is the Lord's, and He will dictate, govern, and control
where he pleases; and by-and-by he will take possession of the whole
farm--of the whole earth.

	It is now time for us to wake up to business.  We have had a pleasant
winter, and have enjoyed ourselves in the dance, in concerts, and parties. 
I want to say to the Bishops, Now wind up these amusements, and let us go
to work.  You have often been told that all the amusement Latter-day
Saints enjoy, or will enjoy, we have to make.  One of the most useful
amusements we could have would be for the Seventies and High Priests to
meet here, instead of in their small halls, and lecture.  Which is the
most delightful, to satisfy the wants of the natural body, or those of the
intelligent part within us?  Which is the most precious?  Both.

	Little boys play with their waggons, tops, marbles, &c.; little girls
with their dolls, cradles, and skipping ropes.  They are in the height of
their enjoyment, while there sits the mother, whose mind comprehends all
the children can enjoy, and then she can see enjoyment far beyond what
they are then capable of enjoying.  Perhaps her vision is open to see
forward into the eternity before her, and that she will be able to
preserve her identity in the future existence.  Do you not see how easy it
is for her to circumscribe all those little children can enjoy?  Her
feeling is, "I am delighted:  it is a great satisfaction to see my
children enjoy themselves."  But how would she like to engage in their
plays?  "It is my joy to see them enjoy themselves."  Do you like to get
together in your parties?  How are you looked upon by beings in the
eternal worlds?  Precisely as a mother looks upon her children when they
are enjoying themselves and passing their time so kindly with each other. 
Says the mother, "I do delight in seeing my children enjoy themselves."  I
also delight in enjoying myself with the brethren and sisters, and giving
to my natural organization the food that the natural body requires.  The
body requires food, and the immortal spirit requires food;  the whole
organization requires something to feast upon, and we get up amusements to
satisfy it.  I say to the Bishops, Now wind up the dancing parties.  What
do you think, brother Woolley?  What do you think, brother Hoagland? 
["Yes."]  I presume all the rest feel the same.

	I think we will stop dancing parties for a time.  Now make your
parties around your ploughs; see that your teams are where you can get
them, and that your fences are in order, and have your teams and waggons
ready to go East.  And when you wish to enjoy yourselves with your
brethren, you are welcome to this room, to lecture in and present any
public business requisite to be done.  We have much public work laid out
to be done this season.  We intend to make some improvements on this
Tabernacle, and do something at the Temple, and build the Seventies' Hall,
besides lecture rooms, assembly rooms, &c., in this city; and if we are
let alone, in thirty years we shall make quite a city of this place.  We
also expect to build a theatre this season, as a place of amusement for
the brethren and sisters.  I am not going to have the devils make fun for
me:  they have fun that will keep them pretty busily occupied.  I will
never go to hell for fun; and if I have any fun, I wish my brethren and
sisters to make it.  God bless you!  Amen.

                            REBUKING EVIL, &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, March 17, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I wish to present to the people a saying of Solomon's--"Open rebuke
is better than secret love.  Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the
kisses of an enemy are deceitful."  I want to say a few words upon the
principle contained in this scripture.  It is a matter that concerns all
people, and is one of the most delicate points in the dispositions of the
human family.  The inhabitants of the earth are sensitive--their feelings
are acute.  Infringe upon their judgment, interrupt their tastes, and you
disturb the equilibrium of the whole system.  To receive a rebuke, to be
chastised, to be interrupted in our course, is not pleasant to our
feelings.  Though we may have ten thousand wrongs that we understand, you
know perfectly well that we do not like to have any one tell us of them. 
It is one of the worst whirlpools, I may say, for the inhabitants of the
earth to get into, and leads directly to destruction--casting down thrones
and kingdoms--the very abhorrence we have to be rebuked.  No matter what
the king does, we as his subjects must say that the king does right and
cannot do wrong.  That you know very well to be the feelings and teachings
of the nations of the earth.  The king cannot do wrong, and of course he
is not to be rebuked.  And when he sends his princes, his ministers, his
messengers, to perform duties for him, they say to the people to whom they
go--"The king can do no wrong; his agents can do no wrong."  Observe, and
you will now see this trait among the nations of the earth.

	Who are willing to acknowledge that they are wrong?  The feeling of
the inhabitants of the earth has been and is--"I will receive no rebuke
from you:  my judgment, my will, my discretion, my wishes, my passions
must reign supreme."  I do not much care what Solomon did in his day--how
many individuals he rebuked; but I wish the inhabitants of the kingdom of
God to learn, when they are rebuked kindly, and kiss the rod, and
reverence the hand that administers it,--to learn that the rebuke of a
friend is for our good.  This principle is not practised in other parts of
the earth, though I will confine this remark to the civilized nations,
more than to the barbarous.  In the world the principle of rebuking is
walked under foot.  No matter what the character of a king is--no matter
what the character of a President is--no matter what are the characters of
rulers, governors, and other officers,--"They can do no wrong," and they
wish to have it so understood.  These are the feelings and these the
teachings and belief, and not only the belief, but the practice.  It is
not so in this kingdom; it must not be so; it cannot be so; it has not
been so; and I presume many a man has gone out of this Church, because he
has been rebuked in his evil course.  All such will have the supreme
satisfaction, as brother George A. Smith remarked, last Sabbath, when they
lift up their eyes of hell, of reflecting  upon their former connection
with this people, and saying, "We are abused."  What a comfort!  What a
satisfaction!

	We wish the Elders of Israel to understand that when evil is
presented, that evil must be rebuked.  Could we attribute all the mistakes
or evils that we see in men to total depravity, and conclude that there is
nothing good within them?  Not by any means.  If we see one of our
brethren out of the way in word or in deed, learn, in the first place,
whether that person designs a wrong, or whether he has a desire to do
good.  Learn whether the spark of the Spirit of God is left within him;
and when there is one particle of the light of God within him, and he
wishes to do right, do not attribute that wrong word or deed to total
depravity.  It is a weakness--it is a fault--it is a want of better
judgment--it is the want of a correct understanding of things.  Attribute
it to his weakness; tell him of it kindly, fatherly, brotherly; take him
by the hand and tell him the evil he must leave.

	How many I have seen, when you tell them of a few of their faults,
and say, Why, brother, you are so and so:  do you see how you have missed
it here and there?  Can you perceive that you have wanted better judgment? 
What a wrong you have committed in this or that!"  who will be at once
cast down in their feelings, and will say, "I believe I am good for
nothing; I really think I am not worthy of a name in the kingdom of God." 
You will hear wise men make this expression. Tell them that they have
reported that which is false, not designedly; tell them that they have
said thus and so to their friends, or that they have committed this or
that act that is unwise, foolish, sinful in its nature; and you will see a
wise man, perhaps, rise up and say, "If I am guilty of this, I am not
worthy of a name in the kingdom of God."  That is a most unwise
expression.  Do you expect you are perfect?  No.  Do you expect to see
people that are perfect?  No, not for a great while.  Do you expect that
every trait of your character is perfect?  I do not.  You may expect this,
that if I see a wrong in you, I shall tell you of it.  I shall rebuke that
wrong, and do it with all kind feelings.  What do you say, High
Counsellors, Bishops, High Priests, and all the officers of the kingdom of
God on the earth,--will you rebuke a wrong?  Yes, most of the Elders of
Israel will, and too many will do so in the spirit of malice and personal
enmity.  When this Elder, and that Elder, an another Elder sees a man do
wrong, but his wrong is with his neighbours, a little outside the Elder's
immediate path, (the Elder says, "It does not directly infringe upon me,
though he is doing wrong with his neighbours,") will he rebuke him?  No;
he waits until he infringes upon him, and then the Elder rises up in the
malice of his heart, and rebukes him in the spirit of anger.  That will do
hurt:  it is not the rebuke of a friend; it is the rebuke of one that has
become an enemy.

	When you see a person out of the way, no matter whom the injury is
inflicted up, rebuke the individual who commits the evil.  Will this do
good?  Yes, if you rebuke in the spirit of the Gospel--in the spirit of
meekness.  Rebuke as a father should reprove his children, not as a tyrant
rules his servants or slaves.  Take this course with your brethren, and
you will learn that "Open rebuke is better than secret love," and that the
wounds you make are better than the deceitful kisses of an enemy.  This is
a principle I have thought much upon.  I have talked some about it, and
have tried to comprehend the principle, and I have sought to have the
people comprehend it.  If your neighbour commits an evil upon another of
your neighbours, you are under obligations to see that the person who has
committed the evil be suitably chastised, as much so as though the wrong
had been committed upon you.  Now this is hard to believe; but if you wish
to correct people, and lead them to life and salvation, what difference is
it where the evil is committed, or upon whom?  Is it not the duty of a
minister of God to correct evil and take it from an individual or from the
people, and place them upon saving ground, whenever an opportunity
presents itself?  It is the duty of every individual.

	You need not wait until somebody infringes upon you--until he comes
and intrudes upon your premises.  If you see your neighbour John turn his
horse into the wheat-field of your neighbour William, you pass along. 
That, I may say, is the road that too many of the Elders of Israel travel
in, as well as the great majority of the world.  "Oh, it is not my wheat;
it is William's:  it is no matter of mine."  When you know that John has
turned his horse into William's wheat, or in any way disturbed his
property, or berated his character, or done him an evil, will you wait
until he commits an evil upon you?  If you do, you are as sure to meet
evil with evil as you are to breathe; you will meet wrong in a wrong
spirit.  But if you will meet evil when it does not personally concern you
as an individual, but only as a member of community, you will feel all
that fatherly kindness to John that an earthly parent does for his son,
and will go to him and point out the wrong, and show him the correct path
to walk in, and give him a suitable chastisement.  But if you wait until
he takes one of your poles from your fence--till he turns a horse or an ox
into your wheat--until he picks up a stick of wood from your wood-pile,
and burns it, and you then meet him, you meet him in a spirit of wrath. 
You are indignant at such conduct, and you say that you will not put up
with it.  Is this true?  I do not wish to say much about the matter, but I
wish to have you understand that the principle of correcting the
people--taking their wrongs from them, giving them true principles,
instead of their imbibing wrong principles--errors, and practising them in
their lives, is the way for us to be purified and set right.

	I have seen Elders covenant to sustain each other at all hazards,
under all circumstances, and in all places.  Now, what will this amount
to?  You make the covenant to sustain each other without any reservation
whatever, and the first you know, one of the number has done wrong.  You
meet him, and he says, "You covenanted to sustain me, and that too with an
uplifted hand; you promised, in the name of Israel's God, to sustain me;
and now do it.  I will hold you to your covenant."  Another does wrong,
and you wish to have him rebuked before your Quorum.  Says he, "No; you
have made a solemn vow that you will sustain me:  now do it, or break your
covenant."  It amounts to just this, and you will lead from step to step
in evil.

	I have observed, many and many a time, a feeling among the people
that "I will not receive this rebuke from you."  I have had quite a number
of the brethren tell me--"Brother Brigham, I will not bear this rebuke
from you."  My reply is, What are you going to do about it?  I will
chasten you until I am satisfied.  Ibelieve that I have proved to every
person that my chastisements have not been in anger, malice, or wrath, but
in the spirit of a father; and I believe that all good men I have
chastened are satisfied of this fact. I do not know but that some have
apostatized whom I have chastened, but they are very few.  Once in a while
you will find a person, that must have a severe chastisement, leave the
kingdom of God; but this is very seldom.

	True, there are degrees of feeling and degrees of chastisement, and
you  are led to chastise one man differently to what you do another.  You
may, figuratively speaking, pound one Elder over the head with a club, and
he does not know but what you have handed him a straw dipped in molasses
to suck.  There are others, if you speak a word to them, or take up a
straw and chasten them, whose hearts are broken; they are as tender in
their feelings as an infant, and you will melt like wax before the flame. 
You must not chasten them severely; you must chasten according to the
spirit that is in the person.  Some you may talk to all day long, and they
do not know what you are talking about.  There is a great variety.  Treat
people as they are.

	When you consider that you are not worthy to belong to the kingdom of
God, wait a moment.  Would you like to be a Saint?  "Yes; I would give
anything in the world--yea, my life, to be a true Latter-day Saint." 
What, and then say you are not worthy to have a name in the kingdom of
God?  That is the most unwise expression you have uttered.  We are making
Saints of just such characters.  I expect to be made a Saint myself,
though I have many weaknesses about me.  I am going to get rid of them as
fast I can.  Have I not a desire to do right?  Yes; and the Gospel is
designed to make us better and bring us to understanding.  When you are
rebuked by each other--when brethren meet you and say, "This is wrong in
you," you should receive it kindly,and express your thanks for the
reproof, and acknowledge the wrong frankly, and admit that you may
frequently do wrong when you do not know it, and say, "I wish you to
enlighten my mind, to take me by the hand, and let me go along
hand-in-hand, and strengthen and sustain each other."  What, in your
weaknesses?  Yes.  Do you expect to see a perfect man?  Not while you stay
here.

	To the capacity you are now in, as mortal beings, a certain degree of
perfection belongs.  Many attain to this, and they have as good desires to
be Saints as ever the angel Gabriel had.  Then, will you cast a person off
for his weaknesses?  No.  Rebuke him for his weaknesses, and convince him
of them, and point out the right path, and see whether he will not walk in
it.  This is the way I wish the Elders to treat each other.  Do not be
afraid, nor hesitate, if you can possess the Spirit of Christ, to meet
your brother, or your wife, or child, and reprove a wrong in the spirit of
meekness.  Never be afraid to testify against evil, and you will remove
the wrong and do good.  But when you have the spirit of envy, and feel,
"Such an individual has trampled upon my toes--he has sought to injure my
character by speaking evil of me," you are more or less out of the way.  I
wish all the Elders thought as I do about character; then they would never
trouble, themselves about what others said of it.  But if you rightly gain
influence, preserve that.  And if you have been wrong, and that wrong is
taken from you, it will create influence for you, and give you favour
before God and with the Saints; but if you cling to the evil, it will
deprive you of gaining that influence you desire.

	I do not know but that kings of the earth would give half their
kingdoms, if they could have the affections of their subjects:  they know
they have them not.  No President of the late United States ever had the
affections and sympathies of half his constituents.  Rulers in the nations
would give worlds, if they could have the influence of the people they
preside over that I have in the midst of this people.  They have not got
it.  And the man that is now inaugurated President of a part of the States
of America would give half of his power, if he could have the influence
among his constituents that I have in the midst of the kingdom of God.  He
cannot get it.  Rebuke him, and he will resent it in a moment.  Let one of
his cabinet--I would not care if it was William H. Seward--go to the
President and tell him that he is wrong, and he will at once resent it. 
He would say, "I think I know as well as you."  And perhaps he does know
more than Mr. Seward, upon all points of sound intelligence.  James
Buchanan would resent it; and even as good a man as Washington was would
resent it.  He would believe that his dignity was infringed upon, if he
had been told that he was in fault.

	If you gain a righteous influence, preserve that as you would the
apple of your eye.  As for your good name before the people, if your
brother tells you of your wrongs and shows your your [sic] faults, what
are you going to do about it?  Your best plan will be, if you have done
wrong, to repent and refrain from that wrong, and ask forgiveness of your
brethren and of God, and do wrong no more, and you will regain your
influence.  If you have done wrong, though all creation says you have not,
what does that amount to?  Nothing; for they would all be wrong on that
point.

	Do not throw away a man or a woman, old or young.  If they commit an
evil to-day, and another to-morrow, but wish to be Saints and to be
forgiven, do you forgive them, not only seven times, but seventy times
seven in a day, if their hearts are fully set to do right.  Let us make it
a point to pass over their weaknesses and say, "God bless you in trying to
be better in time to come," and act as wise stewards in the kingdom of
God.

	I have spoken longer than I expected to, and wish brother Kimball to
address you.

	God bless you!  Amen.

        TRUE TESTIMONY--PREPARATION FOR COMING EVENTS--CORRUPTION
                         OF THE GOVERNMENT, ETC.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	We have always had larger congregations on such occasions as this
than we have had buildings to accommodate; and had it not been that I
requested the brethren of the city to tarry at home, so as to give room to
those who should come from a distance, the house would have been crowded
to overflowing, and there would have been a large congregation outside.  I
do not know that, this side of the day of rest that we are looking for, we
shall ever have a building large enough to accommodate our congregations. 
When we have overcome the enemy to righteousness and have a thousand years
to work unmolested, I think that we then can build a room that will
contain as many people as can hear the speaker's voice.  We have the
privilege, it is true, of assembling in the open air, where most of our
Conferences have been held.

	We now enjoy the anniversary of our General Conference.  The Church
is thirty-one years old to-day.  It seems but a short time--but a few
days, since there were only six members in this Church.  It seems but a
short time since I desired most fervently to see some one who was a
foreigner baptized into this Church.  I well remember how anxious I was
that an English preacher belonging to the Independents, and with whom I
was acquainted, should come into the Church, and he could go to his native
land and preach the Gospel there.  What were the feelings of the few,
thirty-one years ago to-day?

	Brother Kimball observed in his remarks, that he could recollect the
history of this Church from its beginning, and understood the persecutions
against this people.  The Book of Mormon was translated near where we then
resided, as we might say, in our own neighbourhood.  It was translated
about as far from where brother Kimball then lived as it is from here to
Little Cottonwood; and where Joseph first discovered the plates was about
as far from where I then lived as it is from here to Provo.  Here we would
have considered the discoverer of those plates and the translator of the
Book of Mormon as one of our neighbours.  We are in the habit here of
travelling more frequently and further than we were there.  From the time
that Joseph had his first revelation, in the neighbourhood where brother
Kimball and I then lived, appears but a few days.  Since then this people
have passed through, experienced, and learned a great deal.

	If there is a person in the midst of the Latter-day Saints--one who
has named the name of Christ as a Latter-day Saint, that can ask for any
more literal testimony than we have, I do not know what he would ask.  He
might wish to see some person that had power to bring fire down from
heaven.  Should such a person appear, the exercise of that power would by
no means prove that he was a messenger of salvation.  Or suppose that I
should see a man capable of raising the dead every hour in a day, could I
merely for that believe he was sent of God?  No.  Some may think it
strange, but should I see a man come along here and cast his cane on the
floor, and it became a serpent and ran out of the door, would I any more
believe that man to be sent of God?  No, I would not.  Were I to see a
person fill the air with living creatures, turn the dust into life, or the
river Jordan into blood, do you suppose I would any more for that consider
that man sent of God?  Not in the least.  There is but one witness--one
testimony, pertaining to the evidence of the Gospel of the Son of God, and
that is the Spirit that he diffused among his disciples.  Do his will, and
we shall know whether he speaks by the authority of the Father or of
himself.  Do as he commands us to do, and we shall know of the doctrine,
whether it is of God or not.  It is only by the revelations of the Spirit
that we can know the things of God.

	Suppose that we should see a man capable of raising the dead and he
should say, "Consequently I ought to be the leader of the Church--the
legitimate heir that God has appointed to perform his work in the last
days," would I for that believe him?  No.  I have never seen the day,
since I arrived at the years of discretion, when it would have made any
difference in my feelings.  Almost one of the first things I read in the
Bible was that Saul in his darkness and unbelief called on the Witch of
Endor for a revelation, and she had power to raise Samuel from the dead. 
What proof was that that she was a Saint of God?  If the people want any
more witness than they have, I do not know what they would call for.  Seek
for the Spirit of Truth, and that will bring all things to your
remembrance that Jesus spake and performed,--all that has been, is, and
that which is to come, so far as may be necessary.  That is the Spirit by
which Joseph spoke.

	I am thankful that we live to see this day, and have the privilege of
assembling ourselves in these valleys.  We are not now mingling in the
turmoils of strife, warring, and contention, that we would have been
obliged to have mingled in, had not the Lord suffered us to have been
driven to these mountains--one of the greatest blessings that could have
been visited upon us.  It has been designed for many generations to hide
up the Saints in the last days until the indignation of the Almighty be
over.  His wrath will be poured out upon the nations of the earth.  We see
the nations steadily driving along to the precipice.  The lord has spoken
from the heavens, and he is about to fulfil the prophecies of his ancient
and modern Prophets.  He will bring the nations into judgment, and deal
with them and make a full end of them.  Do you wish to see it done to-day? 
Are you prepared for the crisis that will eventually come?  No.

	I have frequently thought upon the preparation that is necessary. 
Suppose the word should come, "Return and build up the centre Stake of
Zion," are we ready for it?  No.  I have often alluded to our mechanics. 
We have not a mechanic that would know how to lay the first stone for the
foundation of the wall around the New Jerusalem, to say nothing about the
temples of our God.  Are you prepared for the day of vengeance to come,
when the Lord will consume the wicked by the brightness of his coming? 
No.  Then do not be too anxious for the Lord to hasten his work.  Let our
anxiety be centred upon this one thing, the sanctification of our own
hearts, the purifying of our own affections, the preparing of ourselves
for the approach of the events that are hastening upon us.  This should be
our concern, this should be our study, this should be our daily prayer,
and not to be in a hurry to see the overthrow of the wicked.  Be careful;
for if they were all to be overthrown at once, how many would there be
left that are called Saints?  Not as many as I would have remain.  We are
prepared for the day that is approaching:  let us then prepare ourselves
for the presence of our Master--for the coming of the Son of Man.  The
wicked and the ungodly are preparing for their own utter overthrow, and
the nation in which we live is doing so as fast as the wheels of time can
roll, and ere long sudden destruction will come upon them.  Seek not to
hasten it, but be satisfied to let the Lord have his own time and way, and
be patient.  Seek to have the Spirit of Christ, that we may wait patiently
the time of the Lord, and prepare ourselves for the times that are coming. 
This is our duty.

	We are blessed in these mountains.  This is the best place on the
earth for the Latter-day Saints.  Search the history of all the nations,
and every geographical position on the face of the earth, and you cannot
find another situation so well adapted for the Saints as are these
mountains.  Here is the place in which the Lord designed to hide his
people.  Be thankful for it; be true to your covenants; be faithful, each
and every one.  How frequently we hear from each other, "Be ready to
receive the truth.  If it is contrary to our feelings--let it be ever so
opposite to our own feelings or affections--receive the words of counsel
from those who are appointed to lead us."  How my heart longs to see the
brethren and sisters in a condition that when the words of truth and
virtue--righteous words of counsel--are poured upon them, they will meet
like drops of water meeting each other.  How I long to see the brethren,
when they hear the words of truth poured upon them, ready to receive those
words because they are perfectly congenial to their feelings, and every
soul exclaim, "Those words savour of the Spirit that is in me; they are my
delight, my meat, and my drink; they are the streams of eternal life.  How
congenial they are, instead of their being contrary to my feelings."

	If I or any other man give counsel that meets with opposition, that
intrudes upon the affections, meditations, and feelings of the people, and
is harsh to their ears, bitter to their souls, it is either not the words
of truth, or they have not the fountain of life within them, one of the
two.  If the Lord speaks from the heavens, reveals his will, and it comes
in contact with our feelings and notions of things, or with our judgments,
we are destitute of that fountain of truth which we should possess.  If
our hearts are filled with the Spirit of truth, with the Spirit of the
Lord, no matter what the true words from heaven are, when God speaks, all
his subjects shout "Hallelujah!  praise God!  We are ready to receive
those words, for they are true."

	Much has been said in regard to the Government in which we live.  We
say that it is the best form of human government upon the earth.  The laws
and institutions are good, but how can a republican government stand?  Did
you ever ask yourselves this question?  I wonder whether our great men of
the nation have ever asked themselves this question.  The heads of
different departments--governors, judges, cabinet officers, senators,
representatives, presidents,--I wonder whether they ever ask themselves
the question, "How can a republican government stand?"  There is only one
way for it to stand.  It can endure; but how?  It can endure, as the
government of heaven endures, upon the eternal rock of truth and virtue;
and that is the only basis upon which any government can endure.  Let the
people become corrupt, let them begin to deceive each other, and they will
all deceive themselves, as our Government has.  When we made application
to the General Government for a restoration of our property and rights in
Missouri, if Martin Van Buren had said, "Yes, I will restore your lands to
you, and will defend you in the possession of your rights, if I have
power; and if I have not, my name shall not remain as President of the
United States," he could have reinstated us in our rights.  A few words
from the General Government to the Government of Missouri would have
restored to us our lands and stayed the operations of the mob.  If Van
Buren had said, "Be still, or I will chasten you and keep sacred the oath
of my office," we should not have been mobbed, and the nation would not
have been as it is to-day.

	Our present President, what is his strength?  It is like a rope of
sand, or like a rope made of water.  He is as weak as water.  What can he
do?  Very little.  Has he power to execute the laws?  No.  I am an
American-born citizen--born under the Green Mountains in Vermont, from
whose summits you can look down upon the Atlantic States; and I feel
chagrined and mortified when I reflect upon the condition of my nation. 
Of late, at times, I have almost wished that I had been born in a foreign
nation.  I feel disgraced in having been born under a government that has
so little power, disposition, and influence for truth and right; but I
cannot help it.  What is the cause of their weakness and imbecility?  They
have left the paths of truth and virtue, they have joined themselves to
falsehood, they have made lies their refuge, they have turned aside the
innocent from their rights, and justified the iniquitous doers.  They have
justified thieving and lying and every species of debauchery; they have
fostered those who have purloined money out of the public treasury--those
who have plundered the coffers of the people, and have said, "Let it be
so; you secrete my faults, you assist me to plunder and deceive, and I am
with you to cover up your iniquity."  Shame, shame on the rulers of the
nation!  I feel myself disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen, though
I think I shall live through it.  I will endure it as well as I can; but
the corruption, the iniquity, and the deception of men in high places no
man can tell.

	I have previously related one little circumstance, which occurred not
long ago, illustrative of the mode in which payment of claims against the
Government is sometimes secured.  A certain gentleman had attended many
sessions of Congress, trying to get payment of a claim due to widows and
orphans; but could not.  In a short time, the claim was adjusted.  Brother
George A. Smith, when in Washington, saw a gentleman who had been years in
endeavouring to get a claim allowed and paid; one thousand dollars more to
grease the wheels, and through it went--the claim was paid.  We have long
been trying to get our claims paid for expenditures in quelling Indian
disturbances in 1853.  When the appropriation had reached the last move to
be made, it could not go.  "What is the matter?"  "Somebody is throwing
sand on the axletree, and the wheel is stuck."  "What must be done/" 
"Thirteen hundred dollars must grease it."  It then moved through--the
appropriation was made.  It is so all the time--every day.  These
instances are comparatively of little moment, and I merely allude to them
to show how minutely corruption prevails where justice should exist.

	These corruptions flow very naturally from the indebtedness
contracted to attain power.  In elections, the successful become indebted
to their friends, and they promise them the patronage of the President,
that they shall be sent as a minister to such or such a country, or be
appointed a judge here or there, or a governor yonder.  They cannot obtain
their election without paying largely for it, both in promises and money;
and to recover the means, they must either become thieves or repudiate
their debts.  "Such a one owes me so much for contributing to his
election, and he will not pay me."  It often happens that he cannot,
unless he steals it.

	The whole Government is gone; it is as weak as water.  I heard Joseph
Smith say, nearly thirty years ago, "They shall have mobbing to their
heart's content, if they do not redress the wrongs of the Latter-day
Saints."  Mobs will not decrease, but will increase until the whole
Government becomes a mob, and eventually it will be State against State,
city against city, neighbourhood against neighbourhood, Methodists against
Methodists, and so on.  Probably you remember reading, not a week ago, an
account of a Conference being held in Baltimore, in the course of which
they seceded from their fellow churches in the free States.  It will be
the same with other denominations of professing Christians, and it will be
Christian against Christian, and man against man; and those who will not
take up the sword against their neighbours must flee to Zion.

	Where is Zion?  Let us be prepared to receive the honourable men of
the earth--those who are good.  Are there any good people among them? 
Yes, hundreds and thousands and thousands right in our Government, rotten
as it is; but they are so priest-ridden that they have not mind of their
own--they have not strength and fortitude.  And I ask you, and I can
appeal to your own experience, place any of us back in the midst of our
old neighbours, would it not be hard to break out and say, "We are
Latter-day Saints and followers of Joseph Smith; we believe `Mormonism': 
good bye?"  There are hundreds and thousands in this situation in the
States, who desire to see truth, righteousness, and right prevail; but
they have not strength and power of mind to break loose and say, "We will
be for God and none else."  They follow the customs of their fathers, and
more or less cling to the faith and religion of their fathers.  They are
bound down with priestcraft.  I look forward to the day when their bands
will be broken.  I pray this people to do right.  Purify yourselves,
sanctify yourselves, and prepare to receive those persons into everlasting
habitations. It is time to close our forenoon meeting.  This afternoon,
probably, we will take up the business of the Conference, and continue our
meeting; and when we are through and wish to adjourn, we will do so.  We
all feel like praying for the prosperity of the kingdom.  The whole body
is continally [sic] seeking the welfare of each individual part.  The eye
wishes the foot well, the foot wishes the head well, and will walk to get
food for the head and stomach, and they are united, and we shall become
more and more united.  And I pray that the Lord will pour out his grace on
his sons and daughters, and I pray the Saints to improve upon it until we
are sanctified.  God bless you!  Amen.


                            HOME MANUFACTURES.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have no objections to the tenor of the remarks we have just heard
pertaining to our temporal affairs, though they are rather more
appropriate, according to custom, in such a meeting as we had last evening
with the Bishops, High Priests, &c.  I wish to say a few words on the
subject last spoken of by brother Kimball.  I think he will be very
successful in obtaining oil from flax or linseed.  For a beginning, and
for persons that never saw oil made before, which is the case with the
workmen who are making it--they knew nothing about making oil--I think
they have done extraordinary well.  If I remember correctly, in the States
five quarts of oil from a bushel of seed was considered a good yield. 
There I was some little acquainted with making oil, and very much
acquainted with using it.

	Brother Kimball spoke of the oil that is imported to this country.  I
am doubtful whether there has ever been a gallon of pure linseed oil
imported into this Territory; and the person that told brother Kimball
that he could reduce his oil so that the adulteration could not be
detected, is mistaken, for I could detect it by rubbing it between my
fingers.  Before I knew anything of "Mormonism," I knew how to adulterate
oil.  Brother Kimball says that alkali is often mixed with linseed oil. 
In my young days I had to quit the business of painting purely because I
had either to be dishonest or quit; and I quit.  I will venture to say
that, let me have the oil that is made at brother Kimball's mill, and have
pure white lead of our own manufacture, and I will put a coat of paint on
to the outside woodwork of buildings that will last twenty years, better
than the materials we import and now use for painting will last two years. 
When you buy the oil that is imported and make putty with it and what is
commonly called Spanish white,--if you set glass in windows with that
putty, in a year or two the glass will be falling out; but when you use
the pure oil, in two years you could scarcely get the glass out without
the use of a knife or chisel to first cut out the putty.  Let it stand ten
years, and probably you would have to cut the sash to pieces to let the
glass out.  The oil we get from the East is worth but little, only for
present show.  That which we make here will last in this climate.

	Our painters tell us that it is the climate that destroys the paint. 
I do not think there is a painter in this Territory that knows what pure
linseed oil is.  They tell us that the climate destroys the paint.  That
is a mistake; the paint is not good.  Can you tell whether there is alkali
mixed with the linseed oil?  I can.  I can also tell whether there is
Spanish white in the paint.  Plaster of Paris (by some called Paris white)
is also mixed with white lead, and our houses are painted with it.  Other
paints are adulterated.  I pay from thirty to fifty dollars to have a
carriage painted, and in three months it needs painting again.  Let it
stand six months, and you would hardly suppose that it had been painted in
sixteen years.

	We ought to have spoken last night in regard to raising flax in this
Territory, and I will now say to the brethren that we wish them to return
the flax seed they have borrowed at the Tithing Office.  We also wish you
to raise flax and make linen cloth.  We have as good workmen at this
business as there are in the world.  The American brethren do not
generally know how to raise flax for making fine linen, but they can
easily learn.  Instead of sowing five pecks to the acre, sow five or more
bushels, and you will raise flax as soft as silk; from such flax fibres
can be hatcheled as fine as spinster's webs.  Most of the linen we import
is more than half cotton.  The flax is put into machines and cut and torn
to pieces; it then goes through another rotting process, is then mixed
with cotton, carded, spun, and called linen.  I once in a while see a
genuine piece of linen, which will as well last six years as the most we
buy will last six months, if it is not washed to death.  This you know, if
you have been accustomed to using tow cloth.  In clearing out brush,
cutting down trees, logging, and all kinds of rough work, one or two pairs
of genuine tow trousers and a couple of tow frocks will last through a
summer; but put on that heavy so-called linen you buy in the stores, and
do nothing but come into a pulpit, and before you have had it three months
it is cut to picees [sic] and entirely done.  But I will not detain you
longer upon this point.

	Brother Kimball mentioned about some of the brethren's sending to the
States for nails.  Send to the States, go to the stores, buy where you
please, and do you think that you can get better nails than you can get at
our nail factory?  I know what nails are; I have driven a great many. 
There is not a better nail made at Boston or in Germany than there is at
this factory.  I never saw a better nail, nor better nail machinery than
that which we have running.

	We should now make our own iron.  We have already spent about one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars to make iron here, but we have failed,
not for want of ore or for want of skill.  Where is the difficulty?  There
has not been union enough in the men who engaged in that work.  After we
had spent about one hundred thousand dollars, an ingenious man, named
Peter Shirts, would have brought out the iron as good as ever was made,
and that, too, by means of a small furnace of trifling cost; but they ran
him out of the county.  The citizens pronounced him a nuisance,
confiscated his property, and drove him out.  Every man said--"I will have
the name and honour of making the first iron made in this Territory, or I
will destroy the work."  That is the difficulty.  We have the best of iron
ore, and we have coal close by it; and some man will go to work,
by-and-by, who is not worth fifty dollars, and make iron.  Go into
Vermont, and you will there see a farmer, when he has a little leisure,
take his waggon, get the ore, smelt it, hammer it out, and make two or
three hundred pounds of iron in a day.  He takes care of it, and by-and-by
some one comes along and buys it of him.  Travel through that country, and
you will find hundreds of such little iron forges.  Men who do not pretend
even to be blacksmiths get some person to teach them how to use a trip
hammer to draw out the iron after they have put on their blast and run out
some two or three hundred pounds.  On a rainy day a farmer has his ore
ready and makes iron when he cannot work in the field.  We have shown you
that we can make nails.  I cannot do everything.  Who has brought carding
machines and other machinery here?  Who has entered into every kind of
mechanism that has been started in this Territory?  Twelve thousand
dollars we have spent to get the manufacture of pottery under weigh. 
By-and-by some man will come along, not worth fifty dollars, and take the
felspar [sic], which enters so largely into our granite rock, and make the
best of chinaware.

	We want glass.  Some man will come along, by-and-by, and take the
quartz rock, rig up a little furnace, and make glass.

     THE GIFTS OF GOD--HOME MANUFACTURES--WORD OF WISDOM--HAPPINESS.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, 
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I wish to speak upon what pertains to our temporal affairs, which I
would very well have liked to have been brought before the Bishops'
meeting without detaining a congregation like this on such matters.  I
wish to urge upon the people the necessity of providing for themselves,
and not being dependent entirely upon others.

	The Lord has given us ability to do a great many things.  What a
blessing this is!  Do you ever think of it?  A man has ability to take the
raw materials and build a good, comfortable habitation for the
accommodation of himself, his wives, and children.  The wife can spread a
table with wholesome food, and in a manner pleasant to the eye, while the
food is gratifying to the palate.  They have the ability to provide, if
they choose, downy beds upon which to rest their weary bodies.  Do you
ever think of this?  I presume the greater part of the inhabitants of the
earth have lived and died without reflecting much upon whence they derived
this ability, to whom they were indebted for the ingenuity they possess,
or the capability that is organized within them to gather around them the
comforts of life.  Do you, brethren, think of it?

	We have ability to cultivate the earth; we know how to raise stock,
how to make clothing, and are not obliged to go naked like the Indians. 
We are not obliged to lie down in the open air with perhaps a few sage
brush around us, as do many of the natives.  We have ability to make
ourselves comfortable as to the physical wants of this life.  Where did we
get that ability?  Are your hearts lifted to the Donor of those blessings? 
Do you remember from whence your ability came?  Who organised these
tabernacles?  Who put into them these thinking powers?  Who has placed the
spirit in the body, and organised them together, and made us capable of
reflecting?  Where did you get this ability?  A well-read historian and
geographical scholar can contemplate his antipodes, and in his mind see
what they are doing.  He can also behold the various exhibitions of human
skill in different nations, both in their social and political capacity;
for they are in the vision of his mind.  Who gave the ability to reflect
and to behold the earth and the inhabitants thereof?  Is not this a
blessing?  How cheering, how comforting, how consoling, how exalting!  I
would be glad if we could realise the blessings we possess.

	The Lord has placed in our possession the elements pertaining to this
earth.  As I told the people, when we first came into this Valley in 1847,
there is plenty of silk in the elements here, as much so as in any other
part of the earth.  Here is also the fine linen.  Were there any sheep
here when we came first here?  No.  Were there any silk raisers then here? 
No.  Were there any flax raisers here?  No; neither was there a stalk of
flax growing, except what was growing wild.  The elements are here.  Bring
the seeds, the eggs of the silkworm, raise the trees for feeding the
worms, and let us see if we cannot produce silk here.  It is in the
elements.  We have the elements to produce as good wheat as grows.  The
elements here will produce the apple, the peach, the pear, the plum, the
apricot, the cherry, the currant, and every kind of fruit in abundance,
and every variety of plant and vegetable we desire.  Have you the ability
to bring any of these things forth from the native element?  Yes; here are
men who know how to raise fruit, and here are the women who know how to
dry and cook it.  Here are the men who know how to raise sheep, and how to
take their fleeces and deliver them into the hands of their families to be
manufactured.  Here are women who know how to spin, weave, and make the
finest of cloth.  So with the flax, and so with every material calculated
to make us comfortable.  Where did we get this ability?  We got it from
our Father who is in heaven.  Be thankful for these precious gifts.  As
brother Kimball justly said, "Remember, first of all, the Giver;" worship
and adore the Giver.  Some will lose a great deal by neglecting the Giver
and by worshipping the gift.  Such will find that they will meet with
losses.

	I look forward to no distant period when this people, called
Latter-day Saints, will be obliged to sustain themselves.  We must prepare
to gather around us every necessary of life, to make every implement we
may wish to use, and to produce from the earth every grain, vegetable, and
fruit that we need, and not go to any other place to buy.  Produce every
article of clothing that we need, and stop this importation that we are
now encumbered with.  We must produce all we can enjoy.  I expect that I
soon shall do so.

	I will now make a request of the sisters--one which I wish them to
hear, remember, and put in practice.  Carefully save all cast-off linen
and cotton articles of dress, all old shirts, waggon-covers, sheets, and
every article of cotton and linen fabric, instead of letting them go to
waste in your door-yards or in the streets; for we want those rags to
supply the paper mill we are now putting up.  We have as good machinery
for making paper as there is in the United States or in the world.  We
have brought it here at a heavy expense--it has cost us some twenty or
twenty-five thousand dollars.  We are now putting it up, and we want the
sisters to save rags, and we want the brethren to raise hemp, flax, &c. 
We want to make our own paper.  The inquiry is, "Will it pay cost?"  How
much paper do we want to use?  There is annually imported into and used in
this Territory some thirty thousand dollars' worth of paper.  Were we
making our own paper, much more would be used, for we could then fill the
Territory with school-books printed here, and could supply all the paper
required throughout the Territory, thereby saving a great many thousand
dollars now paid for transportation.  We are not able to print a book for
want of paper.  Now we are prepared to go to work and make our own paper. 
As I have remarked, we have most excellent machinery; we also have good
paper-makers; and what hinders our making the best of paper, and all the
paper we want to use?  Then we can print, in book form, the History of
Joseph Smith, and do it in a respectable manner.  Then we can print the
Church History for ourselves and for the world, and every book we need. 
To aid in accomplishing so laudable an object, I want the sisters to
gather the rags and hand them over to the Bishops, and we will pay for
them with paper.  We also want hemp, flax, and every material suitable for
making good paper.

	There are a great many things we wish to talk about; and I do not
wish, if we could well avoid it, to bring such things before the
Conference, especially on the Sabbath.  The sacrament is being
administered, and we would like to talk about the spiritual welfare of the
people; but if we cannot save ourselves temporally, we may despair of
saving ourselves or the people spiritually.  The first thing is to save
our natural lives and devote them to building up the kingdom of God on the
earth.

	Place ourselves back ten centuries, read the prophecies, and behold
by prophetic vision what the Lord was going to do in the latter days. 
"The time is coming when the Saints are to be called, and they will
assemble themselves together."  "Can it be possible?"  "Yes; for the
Prophets have foretold it."  "The time is coming when the Lord will speak
from the heavens and send his angel to administer to men on earth, when
the Priesthood will be restored and bestowed upon the children of men. 
Look forth in vision and behold these events."  They would appear far more
beautiful than they appear to the natural man while acting in them.  I
sometimes think that we are far beneath our privileges in a spiritual
point of view.  The Prophets and other ancient holy men saw our day.  They
did not look at the human family now upon the stage of action in all their
weaknesses; they did not see every little trifling affair, every little
quarrel that more or less embitters life; they did not see our darkness
and contentions, sorrow, pain, anguish, grief, and strife.  No; they
beheld the glory of God resting upon the people, as we now enjoy it.

	Many sects and societies of people have at different times tried to
assemble themselves together, because it was in the prophecies that the
Saints should be assembled in the latter days--that the Lord God would
gather his people.  They have tried to gather their societies, but what
have they effected?  Comparatively nothing.  If the Lord had spoken from
heaven to them and revealed only this one privilege, and no more, that
Christians might assemble themselves together, and live, walk, talk, and
commune with each other uninterruptedly, without being obliged to mingle
with the world, they would have esteemed it one of the greatest blessings
that could have been bestowed upon them.

	I shall repeat my request to these my sisters.  We wish you to save
every article about your house that will make paper, instead of throwing
it away.  Put the rags in a way that they will get to the paper mill,
which is four miles from here.  We have taken the Sugar House and
converted it into a paper mill, and we will try to make paper, if we did
not make sugar.  And I urge it upon the brethren to raise sheep, save the
wool, and put it in the hands of their wives and daughters.  And I enjoin
it upon the sisters, old and young, to make clothing for their husbands,
brothers, children, and themselves, and stop running after imported goods.

	In regard to the quality and utility of calico, by some called
prints, I can speak from actual knowledge.  Take a good seamstress who has
four children, and let her sew from Monday morning until Saturday night,
and she can scarcely make up the calicos as fast as those four children
will wear it out; and let her do her washing to please her, and she will
want help in the house, or the children will have to go dirty and ragged. 
What are these imported rags good for?  They are hardly worth making up. 
There is not half the calico that comes here that is worth making up, if
you give it to the people free of charge, if they could do better.  Now we
can do better.

	Raise flax, brethren.  There is no place in the world where flax and
hemp will grow better than they will here, though they will not do well in
every locality.  Hunt out places and soil most suitable for flax and hemp,
and there let them be grown:  also raise and take care of sheep.  It is
thought by some that this country is unhealthy for sheep, but it is not. 
There is not a climate or soil better adapted to sheep raising than are
these mountains.  Some may think that other countries are better, but they
are not, so far as I am acquainted. But keep hundreds and hundreds of
sheep in a small pen, shut them in there nights, with hardly room to lie
down, and let them remain there until ten or eleven o'clock in the day,
before they are turned out to grass, as has been done here more or less,
and it would kill every sheep in England or Scotland.  Let them have
plenty of room by day and by night, and they will not become diseased. 
Give them well-ventilated pens, proper exercise, and proper food, and you
will not see them diseased.  The disease that is among our sheep is not
natural to the climate; it was brought here, and has been fostered by bad
management.

	When you find the soil that will produce the best and greatest amount
of sugar--that best adapted to raising cane, let the cane be raised there,
and there let the molasses and sugar be made.  Just now we want our
quarter-of-an-acre of cane, our quarter-of-an-acre of flax and hemp, our
proportion of wheat, corn, and everything else; but by-and-by our labours
will be systematized, and we will find the place where we can raise the
best cane, and let that place be devoted to raising it, and make sugar,
and stop importing it.  The English brethren and the brethren from the
Eastern and Northern and Western States and from the Canadas know nothing
about making sugar from the cane; and when they see newly-made cane sugar,
they say it is not good.  I have never seen a purer article of sugar made
than is made here.  Eat the new cane sugar that is made in the Southern
States, and it has a very unpleasant taste.  Take our sugar and cleanse it
as they do, and let it stand until it is ripe for the market, and you will
find as good an article of cane sugar as ever was made.  The Chinese sugar
cane is a better plant to produce sweet than is the cane they raise in the
South and on the West India Islands.  We can make our own sugar.  We send
out a large amount of money to buy sugar, and we want this practice
stopped.  Now, farmers, raise what sugar you want:  you can do it as well
as not.  Go into the business systematically.

	You know that we all profess to believe the "Word of Wisdom."  There
has been a great deal said about it, more in former than in latter years. 
We, as Latter-day Saints, care but little about tobacco; but, as
"Mormons," we use a vast quantity of it.  As Saints, we use but little; as
"Mormons," we use a great deal.  How much do you suppose goes annually
from this Territory, and has for ten or twelve years past, in gold and
silver, to supply the people with tobacco?  I will say $60,000.  Brother
William H. Hooper, our Delegate in Congress, came here in 1849, and during
about eight years he was selling goods his sales for tobacco alone
amounted to over $28,000 a year.  At the same time there were other stores
that sold their share and drew their share of the money expended yearly,
besides what has been brought in by the keg and by the half keg.  The
traders and passing emigration have sold tons of tobacco, besides what is
sold here regularly.  I say that $60,000 annually is the smallest figure I
can estimate the sales at.  Tobacco can be raised here as well as it can
be raised in any other place.  It wants attention and care.  If we use it,
let us raise it here.  I recommend for some man to go to raising tobacco. 
One man, who came here last fall, is going to do so; and if he is
diligent, he will raise quite a quantity.  I want to see some man go to
and make a business of raising tobacco and stop sending money out of the
Territory for that article.

	Some of the brethren are very strenuous upon the "Word of Wisdom,"
and would like to have me preach upon it, and urge it upon the brethren,
and make it a test of fellowship.  I do not think that I shall do so.  I
have never done so.  We annually expend only $60,000 to break the "Word of
Wisdom," and we can save the money and still break it, if we will break
it.  Some would ask brother Brigham whether he keeps the "Word of Wisdom." 
No:  and I can say still further, as I told one of the teachers in Nauvoo,
I come as near doing so as any man in this generation.  It is not using
tobacco that particularly breaks the "Word of Wisdom," nor is that the
only bad practice it corrects; but it is profitable in every path of life. 
If our young persons were manly enough to govern their appetites a little,
they would not contract these bad habits; but they must have some
weaknesses; they must not be perfect and exactly right in everything.  It
is a loathsome practice to use tobacco in any way.  A doctor told an old
lady in New York, when she insisted upon his telling her whether snuff
would injure her brain, "It will not hurt the brain:  there is no fear of
snuff's hurting the brain of anyone, for no person that has brains will
take snuff."  I will say that the most filthy way of using tobacco is to
smoke it.  "What is the neat way?  If you are going to direct any course
for the people to use tobacco, let us know what it is.  Cannot you who
have used it for years point out a neat, modest, judicious way of using
it?" The "Word of Wisdom" says that tobacco is good for sick cattle; and
when you want another chew, down with it as you would a pill.  It may make
you vomit a little, but that is soon over, and it is good for sick cattle. 
That is the neatest way you can use tobacco.

	I will now speak a little in regard to people's making themselves
happy.  We heard something upon that subject to-day and yesterday; and we
frequently hear people preaching about heaven, paradise, and Zion; and if
there is a comfort, a felicity, and good feeling, I want to say a few
words about them; and I shall begin upon the doctrine so much beloved by
Saint and sinner, and that is the plurality of women.  The Saints like a
plurality of wives, and the sinners like a plurality of men and women.  I
will say to the sisters and I have heard but very few women, and not a
great many men, ever talk sensibly upon the plurality of wives.  When they
begin to talk about it, they exhibit almost without an exception, passion
instead of principle.  Were we to appeal to passions of the people, we
should promote the doctrine of a plurality of men and of women.  But when
we address ourselves to the Saints of the Most High God, it is very
different and in a different light.  It is for my sisters to be mothers of
holy men and holy women--to receive and conceive in the name and by the
power of the Holy Ghost--to bring forth their fruits to the praise and
honour of the God of heaven.  But what are the people doing here?  "I want
another wife," and almost universally passion is exhibited instead of
principle.

	If the plurality of wives is to pander to the low passions of men and
women, the sooner it is abolished the better.  "How far would you go in
abolishing it?"  I would say, if the Lord should reveal that it is his
will to go so far as to become a Shaking Quaker, Amen to it, and let the
sexes have no connection.  If so far as for a men to have but one wife,
let it be so.  The word and will of the Lord is what I want--the will and
mind of God.  He has revealed his mind and will.  The time is coming when
the Lord is going to raise up a holy nation.  He will bring up a royal
Priesthood upon the earth, and he has introduced a plurality of wives for
that express purpose, and not to gratify lustful passion in the least.  I
would rather take my valise in my hand to-day, and never see a wife or a
child again, and preach the Gospel until I go into the grave, than to live
as I do, unless God commands it.  I never entered into the order of
plurality of wives to gratify passion.  And were I now asked whether I
desired and wanted another wife, my reply would be, It should be one by
whom the Spirit will bring forth noble children.  I am almost sixty years
old; and if I now live for passion, I pray the Lord Almighty to take my
life from the earth.

	I know the weaknesses of humanity, and I understand the passions of
men and women.  I am sorry for them.  I wish they had grace according to
their day, creating such fortitude in them that they would determine to
suffer unto death rather than violate a holy command of the Almighty, or
transgress the bounds God has set.  "Is that the way you have lived?"  It
is.  It is the example I have set before my family from the day the Lord
opened my mind to see the Gospel.  Ask these sisters (many of them have
known me for years,) what my life has been in private and in public.  It
has been like the angel Gabriel's, if he had visited you; and I can live
so still.  But how are we to be made happy?  There is one course--love the
Giver more than the gift; love Him that has placed passion in me more than
my passions.  Let passion lie at the feet of judgment, and let every
attribute that God has bestowed on me be devoted to the righteous cause he
has commenced upon the earth.  This, and this alone, produces happiness. 
He has brought us forth, and we live and see this day that Prophets,
kings, and millions of great and good men have prayed to see, but died
without the sight.  When they looked at it in vision, it cast a halo,
around which was like the dawning of heaven to their souls, and they
shouted, "Hallelujah!: beholding the spirit and glory of these times that
we now live in.  And we yield to passion?  I say, Shame on the individual
that says passion has anything to do with his life.  It is crucified.  It
lies, as it were, at the foot of the cross.  That is my faith, and it has
been my life.

	How will you be happy?  Love the Giver more than the gift.  Delight
yourselves in your duties, mothers.  Here are the middle-aged and the
young.  I am now almost daily sealing young girls to men of age and
experience.  Love your duties, sisters.  Are you sealed to a good man? 
Yes, to a man of God.  It is for you to bear fruit and bring forth, to the
praise of God, the spirits that are born in yonder heavens and are to take
tabernacles on the earth.  You have the privilege of forming tabernacles
for those spirits, instead of their being brought in to this wicked world,
that God may have a royal Priesthood, a royal people, on the earth.  That
is what plurality of wives is for, and not 
to gratify lustful desires.  Sisters, do you wish to make yourselves
happy?  Then what is your duty?  It is for you to bear children, in the
name of the Lord, that are full of faith and the power of God,--to
receive, conceive, bear, and bring forth in the name of Israel's God, that
you may have the honour of being the mothers of great and good men--of
kings, princes, and potentates that shall yet live on the earth and govern
and control the nations.  Do you look forward to that? or are you
tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you?  I
would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out,
like one of old, in the joy of my heart, "I have got a man from the Lord!" 
"Hallelujah!  I am a mother--I have borne an image of God, and that
continually, that he will overshadow the child by the power of the Holy
Ghost before and after its birth--that the Holy Ghost may attend it
continually.  The mother should inquire what her duty is.  It is to teach
her children holiness, prayer to God, and to trust in Him.  Teach them the
holy religion and the commandments that are calculated to sanctify the
people and bring them into the presence of our Father and God.  But no;
too often it is passion.  If my passion is served, I am in heaven.  The
fire will have to burn them up.  We must live by principle; and if we do,
we shall attain to perfection--to being crowned with crowns of glory,
immortality, and eternal lives.  I would rather be purified here than to
live ten thousand years to attain the same point in another existence. 
The man that enters into this order by the prompting of passion, and not
with a view to honour God and carry out his purposes, the curse of God
will rest upon him, and that which he seems to have will be taken from him
and given to those that act according to principle.  Remember it.

	The world cries out against this obnoxious doctrine, that I should
have more wives than one.  And what would they do?  Destroy the virtue of
every woman in this community if they had the power.  What do they care
about virtue?  With comparatively few exceptions, no more than do the
devils in hell.  Most of the officers who have been sent here would have
defiled every bed in this Territory, had they have had the power.  Tell
about this doctrine's being obnoxious to their delicate feelings!  Yes, it
is, in one sense.  It keeps them at bay; it is hell to them; it is burning
them up; and I say they may burn up, and they will.

	Elders of Israel, have you entered into the doctrine that has been
revealed, through passion?  If you have, you will find that that course
will take that which you seem to have, and the Lord will say--"Let this
man, that man, or the other man go, for he has acted on passion, and not
on principle.  Take that which he seems to have, and give it to him that
has been faithful with the five, the two, the three, or the one talent." 
That is the way it will be, by-and-by.

	Sisters, do not ask whether you can make yourselves happy, but
whether you can do you husband's will, if he is a good man.  Teach your
children; for you are their guardians, to act as father and mother to them
until they are out of your care.  The teachings and examples of our
mothers have formed, to a great extent, our characters and directed our
lives.  This is their right, when they act by the power of the Priesthood,
to direct the child until it is of a proper age, and then hand it over to
the husband and father, and into the hands of God, with such faith and
such love of virtue and truth, and with such love of God and its parents,
that that child can never suppose that it is out of the hand and from
under the control of the parent.  Do not call it "mine."  Let your maxim
be, "This is not mine," whether you have one child or a dozen.  "It is not
mine, but the Lord has seen fit to let me bear the souls of the children
of men.  It is from my Father and God, and I will do my duty and hand it
over to him," and have that faith that the child can never wring itself
out of the hands of a good father and mother--can never stray away,--no,
never.  That is the privilege of mothers.  It is you who guide the
affections and feelings of the child.  It is the mothers, after all, that
rule the nations of the earth.  They form, dictate, and direct the minds
of statesmen, and the feelings, course, life, notions, and sentiments of
the great and the small, of kings, rulers, governors, and of the people in
general.

	Now, mothers, act upon principle, and see whether you can do anything
to promote happiness in your families; see whether you can guide the minds
of your children, teach them their letters, &c.  I thought to speak upon
the last-named point, but I will omit it.  You can, at least, teach your
children faith, and pay attention to knitting their stockings, making
their clothing, &c.; see that the chickens are taken care of, that the
milk is cleanly milked from the cow, and that the children are made
comfortable.  And if your husband is here or there, do not fret
yourselves, whether he leaves you or not.  If he is a good man, he can
take care of himself, and will safely return to you again.  The mother
that takes this course will be a happy mother--a happy woman.  But where
you find women jealous of each other, and "I am watching my husband," I
would ask, Where are your children?  They are nearly all the time in the
mud, or in some mischief.  And what are you doing, mother?  You are
"watching that man."  "Who is he?"  "He is my husband."  I used to tell
the sisters in Nauvoo that they did not care where their children were, if
they could only keep in sight of their husbands. A traveller in the
Eastern country overtook an old gentleman walking towards a town, and
asked him, "Who is the great man of that little town?  Who is your leading
man?  Who is the governor and controlling spirit of that little place?" 
The old gentleman replied, "I am the king of that little town."  "Really,"
says the traveller, "are you the leading man?"  "Yes, sir, I am king in
that place, and reign as king."  "How do you make this to appear?  Are you
in affluent circumstances?"  "No, I am poor; but in that little village
there are so many children.  All those children go to my school; I rule
the children, and they rule their parents, and that makes me king."  I
frequently think of this.  Let the children rule the mother, and the
mother the father, and that makes the children kings.  How frequently you
find this.  How is it, my brethren?  When you call your families together
for prayers, where are your children?  Were this question asked me, I
should say, "I do not know."  Mothers, where are your children?  "We do
not know; it is as much as we can do to be here."  Why do you not have
your children together?  It is your duty to look after them; they should
not be running at random in the streets.  Some mothers will put a
ten-dollar frock on a child and let it go straight into the mud, while
they are watching the father and trying to keep him in bounds.  Take care
of your children, clothe them comfortably, and avoid all extravagance.

	I am ashamed, not only in my own family, but others, to see the
gewgaws that are so often put upon children, when an antelope skin or a
piece of blue factory would make much more suitable clothing for them. 
Dress them in strong, durable cloth, and that, too, made by your own
hands.  But no; the finest fabrics must be put upon them to play in. 
Some, if they could get it, would put fifty dollars' worth on a child, and
send him into the street to ride upon rails, climb trees, &c.  And when
prayer-time comes, the husband inquires, "Where are your children?"  "I
don't know."  It is your duty, mothers, to look after them; and when you
have your children in the prayer-room, tell them that their father is
coming to pray with them.  Also, let it be your delight that your children
do not waste bread and other food.  If you have bread to spare, give it to
the poor, and see that your children do not destroy it.  Do not let them
destroy valuable clothing, but put strong, durable cloth upon them, and
save where you can, and give it to gathering the poor.  I do not rule my
family with an iron hand, as many do, but in kindness and with pleasant
words; and if soft words would teach them, they would know as much as any
family on this earth.  See that your children are taught every principle
of goodness and virtue, and do not let them run uncontrolled in the
streets, with expensive food in their hands to waste and expensive
clothing upon their backs to tear and destroy.  If you get a frock worth
three dollars when a two-dollar one will answer, and maybe last longer,
you might have saved a dollar to give for gathering the poor.  Treat your
children like children.

	Some mothers try to make father believe that a child five years old
knows as much as the father.  Another great cause of dissatisfaction is
that so many women are such noble women, and know so much more than their
husbands.  They say, "This man is not capable of leading me."  That is a
positive proof to me that that man does not know his ability and calling. 
I will acknowledge that many women are smarter than their husbands.  But
when people are married, instead of trying to get rid of each other,
reflect that you have made your choice, and strive to honour and keep it. 
Do not manifest that you have acted unwisely, and say that you have made a
bad choice, nor let anybody know that you think you have.  You made your
choice; stick to it, and strive to comfort and assist each other.

	There are other things that I would like to speak about, but I will
now stop speaking.  God bless you!  Amen.

                               PRIESTHOOD.
        Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Mill Creek Ward,
                               May 7, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	In order to come to a proper understanding--to see eye to eye--it is
necessary that we be instructed, that we may be workmen that need not be
ashamed before God and his holy angels.  I pray for you continually, that
the wisdom of God may rest upon you and upon all his Saints.  I am happy
for the privilege of meeting with you, and can say, according to the best
of my knowledge, that there is a great improvement in the midst of the
Saints:  they are increasing in understanding.  The little apparent
difficulty you seem to have here is no difficulty at all.  In the rise of
this Church, and for years afterwards, if four men had been appointed to
live in the capacity of a neighbourhood, there would have been more real
difficulty in one month than there has been in this Ward since brother
Miller has been its Bishop.  This proves that the people are learning to
let things alone that they do not know to be right, and wait until they
know what right is.  This is a great lesson to learn.  It is also a
precious gift, that some people seem to be possessed of, to have knowledge
enough not to talk until they can say something to advantage and benefit
to themselves, or others, or both.

	The instructions some of you need here I presume would be good for
all.  It is not always an easy matter for persons to understand the true
position they really hold before God and before their brethren.  People do
not seem to understand fully their position and the duties they are called
upon to perform; but when a person comes to understanding, he will not go
amiss.  There are so many traits in the lives of the people possessing the
Priesthood, that, touch it where you will, you cannot touch it amiss; and
if you know and understand it, it is to you a source of great
satisfaction, while those who do not understand are still left in the
dark.

	When brother Miller was at the Seventies' meeting in the city, a week
ago last Saturday, I made some remarks on the items of doctrine before us,
and the clerk wrote down a few of them.  I took, I think, the purport of
these remarks, and published them in the last week's News.  I then and
there stated that a Bishop, and his Bishopric, cannot try any individual
for error in doctrine.  In reflecting upon this, let me ask, how do we
understand doctrine?  By revelation.  What are the privileges of a Bishop? 
Has he the privilege of the administration of angels?  Yes; this belongs
to the lesser Priesthood.  Has he the privilege of using the Urim and
Thummim?  Yes.  The breastplate of Aaron that you read of in the
Scriptures was a Urim and Thummim, fixed in bows similar to the one Joseph
Smith found.  Aaron wore this Urim and Thummim on his breast, and looked
into it like looking on a mirror, and the information he needed was there
obtained.  This earth, when it becomes purified and sanctified, or
celestialized, will become like a sea of glass; and a person, by looking
into it, can know things past, present, and to come; though none but
celestialized beings can enjoy this privilege.  They will look into the
earth, and the things they desire to know will be exhibited to them, the
same as the face is seen by looking into a mirror.

	The office of a Bishop belongs to the lesser Priesthood.  He is the
highest officer in the Aaronic Priesthood, and has the privilege of using
the Urim and Thummim--has the administration of angels, if he has faith,
and lives so that he can receive and enjoy all the blessings Aaron
enjoyed.  At the same time, could Aaron rise up and say, "I have as much
power and authority as you, Moses?"  No; for Moses held the keys and
authority above all the rest upon the earth.  He holds the keys of the
Priesthood of Melchisedek, which is the Priesthood of the Son of God,
which holds the keys of all these Priesthoods, dispensing the blessings
and privileges of both Priesthoods to to [sic] the people, as he did in
the days of the children of Israel when he led them out of Egypt.  This
Priesthood has been on the earth at various times.  Adam had it, Seth had
it, Enoch had it, Noah had it, Abraham and Lot had it, and it was handed
down to the days of the Prophets, long after the days of the ancients. 
But the people would not receive the Prophets, but persecuted them, stoned
them and thrust them out of their cities, and they had to wander in the
wilderness and make dens and caves their homes.  The children of Israel
never received the Melchisedek Priesthood; they went into bondage to enjoy
it in part, but all its privileges and blessings they never would receive
in full, until Jesus came, and then but a few of them would receive it. 
This High Priesthood rules, directs, governs, and controls all the
Priesthoods, because it is the highest of all.

	What ordination should a man receive to possess all the keys and
powers of the Holy Priesthood that were delivered to the sons of Adam?  He
should be ordained an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  That office puts him in
possession of every key, every power, every authority, communication,
benefit, blessing, glory, and kingdom that was ever revealed to man.  That
pertains to the office of an Apostle of Jesus Christ.  In the last week's
News I published a portion of a revelation, showing the authority of the
First Presidency of the Church, composed at first of Joseph Smith, Sidney
Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams.  When this revelation was given, the
two last-named brethren were Joseph Smith's counsellors, and this First
Presidency possessed the power and authority of building up the kingdom of
God upon all the earth, and of setting the Church in order in its
perfection.  You read in the revelation alluded to that when the Twelve
were called and ordained, they possessed the same power and authority as
the three First Presidents; and in reading further you find that there
must needs be appendages and helps growing out of this Priesthood.  The
Seventies possess the same power and authority; they hold the keys of
establishing, building up, regulating, ordaining, and setting in order the
kingdom of God in all its perfections upon the earth.  We have a Quorum of
High Priests, and there are a great many of them.  They are a local
body--they tarry at home; but the Seventies travel and preach; so also do
the High Priests, when they are called upon.  They possess precisely the
same Priesthood that the Seventies and the Twelve and the First Presidency
possess; but are they ordained to officiate in all the authority, powers,
and keys of this Priesthood?  No, they are not.  Still they are High
Priests of God; and if they magnify their Priesthood, they will receive at
some time all the authority and power that it is possible for man to
receive.

	Suppose that Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams had been taken
away or had apostatized, as one of them did soon after the revelation I
have referred to was given, and there had been only Joseph Smith left of
the First Presidency, would he alone have had authority to set in order
the kingdom of God on the earth?  Yes.  Again:  Suppose that eleven of the
Twelve had been taken away by the power of the Adversary, that one Apostle
has the same power that Joseph had, and could preach, baptize, and set in
order the whole kingdom of God upon the earth, as much so as the Twelve,
were they all together.  Again:  If in the providence of God he should
permit the Enemy to destroy these two first Quorums, and then destroy the
Quorum of Seventy, all but one man, what is his power?  It would be to go
and preach, baptize, confirm, lay on hands, ordain, set in order, build
up, and establish the whole kingdom of God as it is now.  Can we go any
further?  Yes; and I think you will see the reason of it, and how easy it
is to be understood, and see the propriety of it.  I really believe, and
it is my doctrine, that if I speak to the brethren by the power of the
Spirit of my calling, the evidences are commended to those who hear, and
the reasons they see in the spirit of the remarks I make.  Suppose the
Enemy had power to destroy all but one of the High Priests from the face
of the earth, what would that one possess in the power of his Priesthood? 
He would have power and authority to go and preach, baptize, confirm,
ordain, and set in order the kingdom of God in all its perfection on the
earth.  Could he do this without revelation?  No.  Could the Seventies? 
No.  Could the twelve?  No.  And we ask, Could Joseph Smith or the First
Presidency do this without revelation?  No; not one of them could do such
a work without revelation direct from God.  I can go still further. 
Whoever is ordained to the office of an Elder to a certain degree
possesses the keys of the Melchisedek Priesthood; and suppose only one
Elder should be left on the earth, could he go and set in order the
kingdom of God?  Yes, by revelation.

	How came these Apostles, these Seventies, these High Priests, and all
this organization we now enjoy?  It came by revelation.  Father Cahoon,
who lately died in your neighbourhood, was one of the first men ordained
to the office of High Priest in this kingdom.  In the year 1831, the
Prophet Joseph went to Ohio.  He left the State of New York on the last of
April, if my memory serves me, and arrived in Kirtland sometime in May. 
They held a General Conference, which was the first General Conference
ever called or held in Ohio.  Joseph then received a revelation, and
ordained High Priests.  You read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants how
he received the Priesthood in the first place.  It is there stated how
Joseph received the Aaronic Priesthood.  John the Baptist came to Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery.  When a person passes behind the vail, he can
only officiate in the spirit-world; but when he is resurrected he
officiates as a resurrected being, and not as a mortal being.  You read in
the revelation that Joseph was ordained, as it is written.  When he
received the Melchisedek Priesthood, he had another revelation.  Peter,
James, and John came to him.  You can read the revelation at your leisure. 
When he received this revelation in Kirtland, the Lord revealed to him
that he should begin and ordain High Priests; and he then ordained quite a
number, all whose names I do not now recollect; but Lyman Wight was one;
Fathers Cahoon and Morley, John Murdock, Sidney Rigdon, and others were
also then ordained.  These were the first that were ordained to this
office in the Church.  I relate this to show you how Joseph proceeded step
by step in organizing the Church.  At that time there were no Seventies
nor twelve Apostles.

	Twenty-seven years ago, on the 5th of this month, in the year 1834, a
company started for Kirtland to redeem the land of Zion.  Brother Heber C.
Kimball and my brother Joseph were in that camp.  There had not then been
ordained any Twelve Apostles, nor any Seventies, although there was a
revelation pertaining to the Apostles and Seventies.  There were High
Priests, but no High Priests' Quorum.  I am relating this as a little
matter of history that will no doubt be interesting to those who were not
there.

	After we returned from Missouri, my brother Joseph Young and myself
had been singing after preaching in a meeting; and when the meeting was
dismissed, brother Joseph Smith said, "Come, go down to my house with me." 
We went and sung to him a long time, and talked with him.  He then opened
the subject of the Twelve and Seventies for the first time I ever thought
of it.  He said, "Brethren, I am going to call out Twelve Apostles.  I
think we will get together, by-and-by, and select Twelve Apostles, and
select a Quorum of Seventies from those who have been up to Zion, out of
the camp boys."  In 1835, the last of January or in February, or about
that time, we held our meetings from day to day, and brother Joseph called
out Twelve Apostles at that time.  He had a revelation when we were
singing to him.  Those who were acquainted with him knew when the Spirit
of revelation was upon him, for his countenance wore an expression
peculiar to himself while under that influence.  He preached by the Spirit
of revelation, and taught in his council by it, and those who were
acquainted with him could discover it at once, for at such times there was
a peculiar clearness and transparency in his face.  He followed up that
revelation until he organized the Church, and so along until the baptism
of the dead was revealed.

	I relate these circumstances to show you that a person who is
ordained to the office of an Elder in this kingdom has the same priesthood
that the high Priests, that the Twelve Apostles, that the Seventies, and
that the First Presidency hold; but all are not called to be one of the
Twelve Apostles, nor are all called to be one of the First Presidency, nor
to be one of the First Presidents of all the Seventies, nor to be one of
the Presidents of a Quorum of Seventies, nor to preside over the High
Priests' Quorum; but every man in his order and place, possessing a
portion of the same Priesthood, according to the gifts and callings to
each.  Does not this clear up the subject?  [Voices:  "It does."]  This
will explain it to you so that you can understand it.  When we find where
our callings and positions are in the midst of the people of God, and
every person willing to act in the discharge of his duty, there is enough
for us all to do.  All persons can have all they desire to do to promote
the kingdom of God on the earth;  they can exercise themselves in all that
God has granted to them to prove themselves worthy before God and the
people.

	I will again refer to the office of a Bishop.  If you will look over
the revelations and search the Scriptures, you will find that the office
of Bishop was bestowed upon Aaron, Moses' half-brother, for certain
services he had performed, which Priesthood was to continue with Aaron's
posterity.  We have not the literal descendants of Aaron in the Church to
fill the Bishopric, but the Church is mostly composed of the literal
descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are entitled to the
Melchizedek Priesthood, that holds the keys of all the Priesthoods ever
delivered to the children of men.  But we want Bishops in the Church. 
Here are brethren settling in different neighbourhoods, and we learn that
the office of a Bishop is to attend to the temporal affairs of the
Church--to see that the poor are taken care of--to see that the brethren
judiciously and wisely conduct themselves in the capacity of a community. 
The President of the Church cannot attend to these temporal affairs in all
the different settlements, and the Twelve Apostles are away preaching, and
the Seventies are away preaching, and the High Priests are scattered here
and there in their local capacity; and we want men who are literal
descendants of Aaron to act in the Aaronic Priesthood, to which pertains
the Bishopric; but we have not got them.  Under these circumstances, we
take a High Priest and ordain him to the office of a Bishop, to which he
is not entitled by lineage; but in his calling he possesses the keys and
power of the holy Priesthood of the Son of God on the earth, and this
qualifies him to officiate in all the lesser offices.  We take this man
and set him apart to be a Bishop.  "What! ordain a High Priest to the
lesser Priesthood?"  No; we call it ordaining a Bishop; and though we say,
"We ordain you to be a Bishop, with our hands upon your head," it really
and virtually means, "We set you apart to officiate as a Bishop in the
midst of the people of God, by virtue of your holy Priesthood, which is
after the order of Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of
God.  We set you apart to officiate in this office of the Aaronic
Priesthood, blessing you with all the keys and authority of the same." 
This Bishop can call two men to be his Counsellors, but it would not be so
if we had a literal descendant of Aaron.  When we find such a man, and he
is ordained to act or is set apart to act in his lineal Priesthood, he is
to all intents and purposes a Bishop, and needs no Counsellors.  This
seems to be a great curiosity.  A man who is a Priest, and cannot hold any
higher office, can preside as a Bishop over a community of people where he
is appointed to preside, and dictate the temporal affairs of the people of
God, and that too without a Counsellor from among his brethren; but a High
Priest cannot act in this office without two Counsellors.  Is not this a
novel thing--a strange peculiarity?  It requires three High Priests to
perform the duties, fill the office, and attend to the callings of a
literal descendant of Aaron, who cannot hold a higher Priesthood.  That is
the order, and what Joseph did is according to the revelation he received.

	When we take a High priest and set him apart to officiate in the
office of a Priest as a Priest or as a Bishop, while he is acting in this
calling do we expect him to officiate as a High Priest?  When Bishop
Miller finds that the Seventies in his Ward are teaching doctrine that he
does not believe in, he has nothing to do with the matter while acting in
the capacity of a Bishop.  He would say, "I stand here as your Bishop, and
I have nothing to do with the doctrines you teach.  I cannot control the
higher Priesthood, while in my present calling.  I cannot officiate here
as an Apostle, as a Revelator, as one who has authority to say `Thus saith
the Lord' to the people concerning spiritual things."  The Doctrine and
Covenants teaches us whom they are to be decided by.  Though brother
Miller, as a Bishop, should say nothing on controverted points of
doctrine, yet he can meet with his brethren of the High Priesthood who may
be in his neighbourhood.  Three High Priests for a Quorum; five form a
Quorum; seven form a Quorum; twelve form a Quorum.  Let a Quorum of High
Priests go into an upper room, and there appear before the Lord in the
garments of the holy Priesthood, and offer up before the Father, in the
name of Jesus, the signs of the holy Priesthood, and then ask God to give
a revelation concerning that doctrine, and they have a right to receive
it.  If you cannot get the information in any other way, suppose you were
upon the islands of the sea, far away from the main body of the Church,
you are entitled to the administration of angels who administer in the
terrestrial kingdom; and they have right to receive administrations from
the celestial.  In this capacity you could ask for revelations pertaining
to doctrine.

	In the capacity of a Bishop, has any person a right to direct the
spiritual affairs of the kingdom of God?  No.  In that capacity his right
is restricted to affairs in a temporal and moral point of view.  He has a
right to deal with the transgressor.  I do not care what office a
transgressor bears in the Church and kingdom of God, if he should be one
of the Twelve Apostles, and come into a Bishop's neighbourhood, and
purloin his neighbour's goods, defile his neighbour's bed, or commit any
breach of the moral law, the Bishop has a right to take that man before
himself and his council, and there hold him to answer for the crime he has
been guilty of, and deal with him for his membership in the Church, and
cut him off from the Church to all intents and purposes, to all time and
eternity, if he will not make restitution and sincerely repent.  "What!
one of the Seventies?"  Yes.  "One of the High Priests?"  Yes.  "One of
the Twelve Apostles?"  Yes, anybody that happens to come into his
neighbourhood and transgresses the moral law.  On the other hand, can the
Seventies try a Bishop?  No.  Can the High Priests try him?  No, unless
they call twelve High Priests in the capacity of a High Council; and then
you must have the Presidency of the Melchisedek Priesthood to preside over
the council, and there you can try a Bishop.  How curiously it is all
woven together to make the fabric so strong that no one man or set of men
can rend it asunder!  The Lord has so effectually woven it for the
salvation of the people, that it takes tremendous power to destroy it from
the earth.  All this is designed to guard against evil.  A Bishop can try
a man for a breach of moral conduct, but he cannot sit in judgment on
controverted points of doctrine, for they are to be referred to those who
hold the keys of the higher Priesthood, and their decision is the end of
all strife.

	In trying all matters of doctrine, to make a decision valid, it is
necessary to obtain a unanimous voice, faith, and decision.  In the
capacity of a Quorum, the three First Presidents must be one in their
voice--the Twelve Apostles must be unanimous in their voice, to obtain a
righteous decision upon any matter that may come before them, as you may
read in the Doctrine and Covenants.  The Seventies may decide upon the
same principle.  Whenever you see these Quorums unanimous in their
declaration, you may set it down as true.  Let the Elders get together,
being faithful and true; and when they agree upon any point, you may know
that it is true.

	I will now say a few words upon the callings of men in a
neighbourhood or Ward capacity.  Some of the High Priests may be ordained
to officiate in callings pertaining to the Church in Ward capacities.  Now
I will ask the Bishop of this Ward if he has a right to neglect this Ward
to meet with the High Priests' Quorum in their meetings.  He has no such
right--he has no right to neglect this Ward one minute for the sake of
such meeting.  That is not his right and calling when his services are
required here as Bishop.  There is a poor widow, a sick family, business
is going at random here and there, and he has no right to believe that he
has the privilege of leaving all his Ward to look out for themselves, and
say, "If you do well, it is well:  and if you do ill, I cannot help it, I
am going to my Quorum meeting."  It is his duty to devote his time, from
new Year's morning to New Year's morning again, for the benefit of his
ward.  He is placed to preside over it, and he will dictate all in his
Ward.  If he sees a Seventy or a High Priest squandering his property, or
if he sees any getting drunk, gambling, or loafing about, wasting their
time, he has a perfect right to call them to account.

	We have mass Quorums of Seventies in most of the settlements in the
Territory; and I have frequently thought, if the brethren did not improve
pretty fast, the title would have to be altered a little; but as they have
improved, we do not see any necessity for making the application and
calling them muss Quorums.  Joseph Smith never would permit the Seventies
to get together and believe themselves a separate body from the rest of
the Church.  I never cared much about this, for I was not a particle
afraid that they would get any power that truly does not belong to them;
for, if they did, I was always satisfied that it would be blown to the
four winds.  I want to inform the Seventies living in Bishop Miller's
Ward, (and what I now say applies to all the other Wards and Bishops,) if
he calls on them to act as Teachers, it is their imperative duty to act as
Teachers, seeking to benefit and bless the people by enlarging their
understandings, that they may prove themselves before God and one another. 
There is a world of intelligence to impart, and the Priesthood (in its
various callings, appointments, helps, and governments,) is the means,
through its ministers, of imparting it to the people.  It is not the duty
of a Seventy or High Priest, who is appointed a Teacher or a Bishop, to
neglect the duties of those callings to attend a Seventies' or High
Priests' meeting.  Attend to the wishes of your Bishop, and never ask who
has the most power.  The man who has the most power with God will wield
it, and earth and hell cannot hinder it.  Talk about power, and "I want
you to give me influence!"  There are but few things that offend me more
than to have men come to me and say, "Brother Brigham, give me influence,
for I am a great man in this kingdom."  And what would he do with it?  He
would take himself and all who would follow him to the Devil. Every man
who has true influence has obtained it before God through faithfulness,
and in all such cases there is not the least danger but what he will have
it before the Saints.  It is the man who converses with the heavens, who
delights in doing so, and knows for himself that this is the kingdom of
God, who has true influence.

	As I said last Sabbath, the greatest proof and the least to prove
that this is the kingdom of God, consists in its embracing every truth and
rejecting every error, and that embraces God and heaven and all holy
beings.  Who, then, has the greatest power?  Those who best do the will of
God.  When a Bishop calls upon a man to officiate as an assistant to him,
he does not call upon him as a Seventy or as a High Priest, but as one of
his own family--as a member of his Ward.  You know what the Spirit of the
Lord teaches me, to see that the widows go not hungry, that the orphans
are clothed, and every able-bodied man is judiciously and profitably
employed, and that every man is doing his duty,--to see that the cattle
and waggons are got together when they are wanted; and it is as much the
duty of the Seventies to look after these matters as it is the duty of any
of their brethren.  When the Bishops say, "Go and drive that team, do
this, or do that," "Oh yes," says a Seventy, "with all my heart." 
"Bishop, we thought we would meet once a week as Seventies or High
Priests; can we have your permission?"  "Yes; go to the school-house and
sound life eternal to the people."

	Told by their President to have a muss Quorum meeting here!  No; no
such power is vested in the Seventies anywhere.  No man gets power from
God to raise disturbance in any Branch of the Church.  Such power is
obtained from an evil source.

	Now, High Priests and Apostles, go to with your might and assist your
Bishops in providing for the widows and fatherless.

	If Bishop Miller is not responsible for this Ward, to dictate all
this Ward, who is?  He is the man that is appointed here to preside, and
as a High Priest he has a right to meet with his brethren of that Quorum,
and to baptize, confirm, bless children, administer to the sick, and
perform all other duties pertaining to the office and calling of a High
Priest.  His being a Bishop does not take away any of his Priesthood or
power.

	May God bless you!  Amen.

         GATHERING OF THE SAINTS--HONOURING THE PRIESTHOOD, ETC.
         Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Bowery,
                   Great Salt Lake City, July 28, 1861.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	When I came into this Church, I started right out as a missionary,
and took a text, and began to travel on a circuit.  Truth is my text, the
Gospel of salvation my subject, and the world my circuit.  I presume I
shall not soon go all over it, but I am still preaching and travelling
occasionally.  I expect to be here about every other Sabbath, as I have
been for a few weeks or months past, except when I was in the south.

	While I am here with you, I want to talk to the Saints.  I like to
look at them; I like to instruct them, and to be instructed.  We pray
continually for the redemption of Zion, for the Lord to hasten the time
when we can return and establish the centre Stake of Zion, and build up
the great temple of the Lord upon which his glory will rest as a cloud by
day, and a pillar of fire by night.  We pray that we may be sanctified,
that we may be made pure in heart; and we pray that the Lord will teach us
his will continually, and reveal unto us precisely his mind, so that we
may have the mind of Christ, and know precisely what to do.

	When will Zion be redeemed?  When will the Saviour make his
appearance in the midst of his people?  When will the vail be taken away,
that we may behold the glory of God?  Can any of you answer these
questions?  Yes, readily, when I tell you.  The redemption of Zion is the
first step preparatory to the two last-named events.  Just as soon as the
Latter-day Saints are ready and prepared to return to Independence,
Jackson County, in the State of Missouri, North America, just so soon will
the voice of the Lord be heard, "Arise now, Israel, and make your way to
the centre Stake of Zion."  Do you think there is any danger of our being
ready before the Lord prepares the other end of the route?  Do you believe
that we, as Latter-day Saints, are preparing our own hearts, our own
lives, to return to take possession of the centre Stake of Zion, as fast
as the Lord is preparing to cleanse the land from those ungodly persons
who dwell there?  You can read, reflect, and make your own calculations. 
If we are not very careful, the earth will be cleansed from wickedness
before we are prepared to take possession of it.  We must be pure to be
prepared to build up Zion.  To all appearance, the Lord is preparing that
end of the route faster than we are preparing ourselves to go there.

	His grace is here, his judgments are here, his wisdom and Spirit are
here, and every qualification that Saints can require is here ready to be
poured out upon the people, if they are prepared to receive them.  Are we
prepared to receive those qualifications?  Are we prepared to march back
and take possession of the centre Stake of Zion, build up the great Temple
of the Lord, and gather in the nations of the earth?

	There are hundreds and thousands coming here this season.  We are
gathering the people as fast as we can.  We are gathering them to make
Saints of them and of ourselves.  Probably many of them will apostatize,
though some will not apostatize until you give them their endowments; and
then, if you do not speak out of the right corner of your mouth, they will
apostatize; and if you do not laugh out of the right corner of your mouth,
they will go.  We are gathering a few that will be faithful in the midst
of this people, and prepare themselves to be crowned kings and priests
unto God.  By-and-by you will see the Saints flock together.  Will they
come merely by one or two shiploads?  No; it will require many more ships
than we have heretofore employed to bring home the gathering thousands to
Zion.  Millions of people that now sit in darkness--that are now, to all
appearance, in the region and shadow of death, will come to Zion.

	When Joseph first revealed the land where the Saints should gather, a
woman in Canada asked if we thought that Jackson County would be large
enough to gather all the people that would want to go to Zion.  I will
answer the question really as it is.  Zion will extend, eventually, all
over this earth.  There will be no nook or corner upon the earth but what
will be in Zion.  It will all be Zion.  I remember that the lady was
answered by asking her whether she thought the ark was large enough to
hold those that were to go into it in the days of Noah?  "Yes," was the
reply.  Then of course Zion will be just large enough to receive all that
will be prepared to possess it, as the ark was.

	We are going to gather as many as we can, bless them, give them their
endowments, etc., preach to them the truth, lay the principles of eternal
life before them, inform their minds all we have power to do, and lead
them into the path of truth and righteousness; and those who will not
abide the truth will apostatize.  A few will remain, and a good share of
them will cleave to the promises of the Lord, will be true in every
respect, and will be accounted worthy to enter in at the strait gate. 
Strait is the gate and narrow is the path that leadeth to life, and few
there be that find it.  Millions will come and live in Zion when the laws
of Zion reign predominant over creation; but will all be prepared to be
crowned kings and priests unto God?  No.  You cannot imagine anything that
will not be in Zion, except sin and iniquity, and reviling against God and
against his kingdom.  All classes of people will come to Zion.  Will there
be Methodists there?  Yes; and they will have the privilege to worship a
God without body, parts, and passions, just as they do now, if they choose
to.  Every person and every community will receive according to the extent
of their capacity and ability.  Every person then will be blessed, will be
filled with joy, will be filled with peace, with light, and intelligence
according to the endowments with which they are endowed.  Will all become
kings and priests?  No; not even all that will embrace the fulness of the
Gospel.

	There are only a few shiploads of Saints coming this season.  They
will come thicker and faster, by-and-by, and will begin to inquire after
the wisdom that is in Zion.  The Lord is coming out of his hidingplace,
and is beginning to scourge this nation with a sore scourging, and vex it
with a sore vexation.  He is coming forth, and the sound of the report of
what is coming on the earth and the power of God that is made manifest
will vex the wicked and the ungodly, and will bring great joy and
rejoicing to the Saints.  There are millions of people, both among the
Christian and heathen nations, that are still in darkness, and exclaiming,
"Oh, how glad we would be to have some knowledge of the Gospel of
salvation!"  By-and-by, when the Lord sends forth his servants and his
angels to gather them, they will be brought home to Zion and be taught the
peaceable things of the kingdom; and those that abide a celestial law will
receive a celestial glory, and those that can abide the next law in order
can abide the glory pertaining to it, and so on.  Were I to enumerate
thousands of different degrees of glory and kingdoms, I probably should
over-enumerate the kingdoms God has prepared and will prepare for the
people according to their capacities, endowments, and what they can
receive and arrive to.

	We ought to be careful and not lay down our Priesthood.  The brethren
and sisters ought to hold fast to their covenants, and walk in that way,
in that path, which is pointed out by the Gospel.  Shall we love the
world?  In one sense, we should.  Should we love it with a divine love? 
Not yet.  Should we love the world and the things of the world according
to the nature of the world?  We should.  We are commanded in this Bible
not to love the world and the things of the world; and then you read a
little further in the same book, and you are commanded to love the world
and the things of the world.  How shall we understand these things?  With
the divinity that is within us we should love divine things.  Our spirits
are born of our Parents in heaven, divine, heavenly, angelic.  Shall these
spirits condescend to love an earthly object, to worship it?  If they do,
they become inferior to their calling and station before God.  The body is
framed for the tabernacle or house in which the spirit has to dwell.  This
tabernacle is formed expressly to hold its spirit and shield it.  Should
we love this tabernacle?  Yes, enough to nourish it, cherish it, and treat
it kindly, and foster and nourish and cherish it by the power of the
spirit, and make this body divine.  The spirit must overcome the body in
the flesh, and the flesh become subject to the spirit in all things; then
we will love the world as it ought to be loved,--not with a divine love,
but with a human love, a moral love, loving all things according to their
worth and capacity.

	We love our wives and children--we love that which is calculated to
make us happy and comfortable; but the divine spirit is to overcome the
body and continue so to do, looking forth until the body also becomes
divine; and then, when all has become divine, we may love all with a
divine affection, but not till then.  After the body and spirit are
separated by death, what, pertaining to this earth, shall we receive
first?  The body; that is the first object of a divine affection beyond
the grave.  We first come in possession of the body.  The spirit has
overcome the body, and the body is made subject in every respect to that
divine principle God has planted in the person.  The spirit within is pure
and holy, and goes back pure and holy to God, dwells in the spirit-world
pure and holy, and, by-and-by, will have the privilege of coming and
taking the body again.  Some person holding the keys of the resurrection,
having previously passed through that ordeal, will be delegated to
resurrect our bodies, and our spirits will be there and prepared to enter
into their bodies.  Then, when we are prepared to receive our bodies, they
are the first earthly objects that bear divinity personified in the
capacity of the man.  Only the body dies; the spirit is looking forth, as
you read in the Bible concerning the souls or spirits of those who lay
under the altar, as John saw on the Isle of Patmos, and they were crying
to God to know how long it would be before they would again have their
bodies.  Were we turned out-of-doors, and not permitted to go into a house
for six months or a year, we would look forward to the time when we could
build a house, and reflect, "I wish I had a good house wherein I could be
free from the inclemency of the weather, as I once had."

	When the body comes forth again, it will be divine, Godlike,
according to the capacity and ordinations of the Lord.  Some are
foreordained to one station, and some to another.  We want a house, and
when we get it and our spirits enter into it, then we can begin to look
forth, for what?  For our friends.  We want them resurrected.  Here is
this friend and that friend, until by-and-by all are resurrected.  And the
earth is resurrected?  Yes, and every living thing on the earth that has
abided the law by which it was made.  Then that which you and I respect,
are fond of, and love with an earthly love, will become divine, and we can
then love it with that affection which it is not now worthy of.

	Here is matter we see organized in ourselves.  We look upon each
other, and we are matter organized.  Look upon the brute creation, the
vegetable creation, and both are matter organized.  Who knows how much of
this is going to abide the law of its creation and the law by which it is
made?  Man is the only object you can find upon the face of the earth that
will not abide the law by which he is made.  When he abides this law, he
is prepared for a glorious resurrection.  Are my wives and friends going
to be prepared to receive this resurrection?  Are my children going to be
prepared to receive this resurrection?  They all have the power of choice,
the same as I have; the same power of divinity is in them that is in me
and you.  I cannot love them with that sacred, divine love, until they
become immortal and prove themselves worthy of such a supreme affection. 
I do not suffer myself to love a wife or a child with that divinity that
is within me, until they, with myself, are immortalized and glorified, and
they are given to me as my own in that future state.  I am fond of them; I
will nourish, cherish, and guide them, and do all I can for them, so that
they can prove themselves worthy to receive their bodies in a glorious
resurrected state, and be prepare [sic] to enter into the joy of their
Lord with me:  then they are worthy of my supreme love, and not before.

	When I tell the truth, that is enough, and I care not whether those
who hear it believe it or not, for that is their business.  If you had
lived in the days of Jesus, Peter, John, etc., and had seen men called to
be Apostles of the Lord Jesus; every time they taught the people, every
time they preached, every time they prayed, and every time they
administered in the house of God, if they did not do it by the Spirit of
revelation and by the power of God, they did not magnify their calling. 
There are not many who know this.  If we do not speak to you by the Spirit
of revelation and the power of God, we do not magnify our calling.  I
think that I tell you every time I rise here to speak to you.  I may
blunder in the use of the English language; but suppose I should use
language that would grate on the ears of some of the learned, what of
that?  God can understand it, and so could you, if you had the Spirit of
the Lord.

	I had brother Kimball ask me if his mode of communication pleased me. 
Yes; for I know what he means.  I read his spirit when he preaches; and if
he preaches by the power of God, I can understand it, if he speaks it back
end forward, as well as if he spoke it straightforward and in picked and
choice language.  The Spirit of revelation is the best grammar you ever
studied.  As I was telling you this morning, let the power of God come
upon this congregation and open the vision of your minds, and an angel of
God appear here, and you would be in the light of eternity and in vision
in a moment, without a word being spoken, and volumes would be revealed to
this people.  What do we care about words?  Chiefly to speak and to hear
others speak so as to be understood.  We have our language; but if a man
speaks by the power of God, it is little matter to me what his words are,
or the language he uses.  If I understand the spirit of it, that is the
way I find "Mormonism" to be true.  The brethren who came to preach the
Gospel to me, I could easily out-talk them, though I had never preached;
but their testimony was like fire in my bones; I understood the spirit of
their preaching; I received that spirit; it was light, intelligence,
power, and truth, and it bore witness to my spirit, and that was enough
for me.  I have received it, and I have tried to improve upon it.

	If I do not speak here by the power of God, if it is not revelation
to you every time I speak to you here, I do not magnify my calling.  What
do you think about it?  I neither know nor care.  If I do not magnify my
calling, I shall be removed from the place I occupy.  God does not suffer
you to be deceived.  Here are my brethren and sisters pouring out their
souls to God, and their prayers and faith are like one solid cloud
ascending to the heavens.  They want to be led right; they want the truth;
they want to know how to serve God and prepare for a celestial kingdom. 
Do you think the Lord will allow you to be fooled and led astray?  No.

	Brother Kimball said, to-day, when he was speaking, if you suffer
yourselves to find fault with your Bishop, you condescend to the spirit of
apostacy.  Do any of you do this?  If you do, you do not realize that you
expose yourself to the power of the Enemy.  What should your faith and
position be before God?  Such that, if a Bishop does not do right, the
Lord will remove him out of your Ward.  You are not to find fault.  As
brother Wells has said, speak not lightly of the anointed of the Lord. 
But you say they are out of the way.  Who has made any of my brethren a
judge over their Bishop?  You read in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants,
in a revelation to Joseph Smith, (brother Kimball and myself were
present,) that it takes twelve High Priests to sit in council upon the
head of a Bishop.  Can they judge him?  No; for they must then have the
Presidency of the High Priesthood to sit at their head and preside over
them.  Yet many rise up and condemn their Bishop.  Perhaps that Bishop has
been appointed expressly to try those persons and cause them to
apostatize.  A great many will not apostatize until they arrive here; and
who knows but what the Lord has prompted a Bishop to do so-and-so to cause
somebody to apostatize.  One of the first steps to apostacy is to find
fault with your Bishop; and when that is done, unless repented of, a
second step is soon taken, and by-and-by the person is cut off from the
Church, and that is the end of it.  Will you allow yourselves to find
fault with your Bishop?  No; but come to me, go to the High Council, or to
the President of the Stake, and ascertain whether your Bishop is doing
wrong, before you find fault and suffer yourselves to speak against a
	The responsibility is upon the men, and they will be used up, for
they go to war, and will fall in battle by hundreds and thousands, until
the earth is emptied.  You men, prepare yourselves; for a greater
responsibility will come upon you than you have ever dreamed of.  Millions
will seek to you for salvation.  Are you prepared for this?  No, you are
not.  There are but very few men, old or young, that are capable of taking
proper charge of themselves, to say nothing of a Ward, a community, or a
nation.

	It is said that woman is the weaker vessel, and that an Irishman
whipped his wife because she carried too much sail.  The nations have been
led by the weaker vessel; but by-and-by it will not be so.  It is
impossible to guide ships that carry too much sail, and have too little
ballast in proportion to their hulls.  I should trim off some of the
spankers.  You sisters who have crossed the sea know what I mean.  You
must also cut off part of the jib, and then you can guide the vessel a
little easier.  When you come to the mainsail, reef it, tie it up, and not
have it quite so large.  You can scarcely find a man that knows how to
properly treat himself, directing others.  You will see the time when
thousands will seek salvation at the hands of this people, and say, "Guide
us in the way of life; the earth is emptied of wickedness, and it has come
to an end."  The Lord knows whether or not the Elders of this Church will
be ready to step forward and take upon themselves these great
responsibilities.

	Let these remarks remain with you; take them home with you, and wait
and see what the result will be.  The Lord is building up Zion, and is
emptying the earth of wickedness, gathering his people, bringing again
Zion, redeeming his Israel, sending forth his work, withdrawing his Spirit
from the wicked world, and commencing to build up his kingdom.  Can this
be done without revelation?  No.  You will not make a move, or do
anything--plant corn, build a hall or a temple, make a farm, or go to the
States,--no, not a thing towards building up Zion, without the power of
revelation.

                   ETERNAL PUNISHMENT--"MORMONISM," &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, January 12, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	In the early history of this Church, our public speakers, through
their traditions, did not like to have their errors in doctrine corrected. 
It hurt their feelings to be instructed and enlightened for the
furtherance of knowledge and wisdom.  I am happy to say that now the
Elders, almost universally, are willing to be instructed in the truth.  It
is their delight to receive intelligence and knowledge that pertain to the
heavens and the earth--the plan of salvation.

	Many of the Elders say that they are timid and embarrassed when they
attempt to speak before the congregated people, and are unable to express
the rich ideas and glorious principles suggested to their minds.  I
frequently feel anxious to help them, and tell for them what they would
communicate.  When they are at work in their shops or in their fields, or
when going up the kanyons for wood, (if their cattle behave well,) in
their reflections, they preach many excellent sermons; but when they try
to make their secret thoughts audible before a congregation, their
thoughts desert them and they are left a blank.

	Brother Jackman's mind led him to praise and thank the Lord Almighty
for one principle he revealed through Joseph the Prophet, different from
that generally believed and taught among religionists.  They, you
understand, condemn all who differ from their views to hell, there to
remain in a state of the most acute consciousness of the most extreme
suffering throughout endless eternities, without one single ray of hope
that will ever be delivered.  Brother Jackman wished to speak on this
point, but his heart failed him.  The Lord says, through Joseph Smith,
"Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than
other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of
men, altogether for my name's glory; wherefore I will explain unto you
this mystery, for it is mete unto you to know even as mine Apostles.  I
speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may
enter into my rest; for, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is
it? for, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my
hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name; wherefore--

		Eternal punishment is God's punishment;

		Endless punishment is God's punishment."

	The punishment of God is Godlike.  It endures forever, because there
never will be a time when people ought not to be damned, and there must
always be a hell to send them to.  How long the damned remain in hell, I
know not, nor what degree of suffering they endure.  If we could by any
means compute how much wickedness they are guilty of, it might be possible
to ascertain the amount of suffering they will receive. They will receive
according as their deeds have been while in the body.  God's punishment is
eternal, but that does not prove that a wicked person will remain
eternally in a state of punishment.  All the doctrines of life and
salvation are as plain to the understanding as the geographical lines of a
correctly executed map.  This doctrine, revealed in these latter times, is
worthy the attention of all men.  It gives the positive situation in which
they will stand before the Heavens when they have finished their earthly
career.  Generation after generation is constantly coming and passing
away.  They all possess more or less intelligence, which forms the
foundation within them for the reception of an eternal increase of
intelligence.  The endowments that human beings have received from their
Great Creator are to them inestimable blessings.  How wonderful and how
excellent they are!  What priceless blessings and exquisite enjoyments
they secure to man, if by truth and righteousness they are made honourable
in the sight of God.  By the means of his wonderful and Godlike
endowments, man can drink at the fountain of eternal wisdom and bask in
everlasting felicity.

	But hundreds of millions of human beings have been born, lived out
their short earthly span, and passed away, ignorant alike of themselves
and of the plan of salvation provided for them.  It gives great
consolation, however, to know that this glorious plan devised by Heaven
follows them into the next existence, offering for their acceptance
eternal life and exaltation to thrones, dominions, principalities, and
powers in the presence of their Father and God, through Jesus Christ his
Son.  How glorious--how ample is the Gospel plan in its saving properties
and merciful designs.  This one revelation, containing this principle, is
worth worlds on worlds to mankind.  It is worth forsaking fathers and
mothers, sisters and brothers, wives and children, houses and lands, for
the knowledge it reveals; and this is but one item in the great plan of
human redemption.

	I will notice another idea.  We frequently say "Mormonism," as it is
called, must be true because there are so many evidences in its favour. 
We say we do positively know it is true (using the words of brother
Jackman,) "in fair weather; but when it is foul weather and the storms
beat upon our frail bark, some may conclude it is not true."  I wish you
all to understand "Mormonism" as it is.  We embraced it in different parts
of the world, because we considered it the best religion we could find. 
Can we tell how much better "Mormonism" is than other religions and isms
of the present day?  More or less truth may be found in them all, both in
civilized and barbarous nations.  How has it transpired that theological
truth is thus so widely disseminated?  It is because God was once known on
the earth among his children of mankind, as we know one another.  Adam was
as conversant with his Father who placed him upon this earth as we are
conversant with our earthly parents.  The Father frequently came to visit
his son Adam, and talked and walked with him; and the children of Adam
were more or less acquainted with their Grandfather, and their children
were more or less acquainted with their Great-Grandfather; and the things
that pertain to God and to heaven were as familiar among mankind, in the
first ages of their existence on the earth, as these mountains are to our
mountain boys, as our gardens are to our wives and children, or as the
road to the Western Ocean is to the experienced traveller.  From this
source mankind have received their religious traditions. I will tell you
in a few words what I understand "Mormonism" to be.  Our religion is
called "Mormonism" because the ancient records revealed to Joseph Smith
were entitled the Book of Mormon, according to the instructions given to
him by the Lord; but I will call it the plan of salvation devised in the
heavens for the redemption of mankind from sin, and their restoration to
the presence of God.  It is contained in the new Testament, Book of
Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in all the revelations that
God has hitherto given and will give in the future.

	It embraces every fact there is in the heavens and in the heaven of
heavens--every fact there is upon the surface of the earth, in the bowels
of the earth, and in the starry heavens; in fine, it embraces all truth
there is in all the eternities of the Gods.  How, then, can we deny it? 
We cannot.  Were we arraigned face to face with the terrors of death, and
called upon to deny our religion or die, we might speak a lie and say
"Mormonism" is untrue, and might continue the same testimony all the time
we were in hell; but that would make no difference with the truth.  The
devils and damned spirits in hell cannot deny the truth of "Mormonism" and
speak the truth.  I wish all those who profess to believe it did as much
as the devils in hell do.

	"Mormonism" embraces all truth that is revealed and that is
unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical.

	No matter how many deny their God and their religion, God is the
same, his holy religion is the same, and all the truth is the same.  There
is no plan, no device, no possible way in which we can get rid of
"Mormonism," only by taking the downward road which leads to hell, until
spiritually and temporally the whole organized being is dissolved and the
particles thereof have returned again to native elements.  We read in the
Scriptures of the second death not having power over certain ones.  The
first death is the separation of the spirit from the body; the second
death is, as I have stated, the dissolution of the organized particles
which compose the spirit, and their return to their native element.  The
wicked spirit will have to endure the wrath of the Almighty, until it has
paid the uttermost farthing where the "worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched."  Every debt that has been contracted by it must be cancelled.

	I will say a few words in regard to your belief in being led, guided,
and directed by one man.  Brother Jackman has said that our enemies hate
the fact of our being led by one man.  Thousands of times my soul has been
lifted to God the Father, in the name of Jesus, to make that verily true
in every sense of the word, that we may be led by the man Jesus Christ,
through Joseph Smith the Prophet.  You may inquire how we are to know that
we are so led.  I refer you to the exhortation you have heard so
frequently from me.  Do not be deceived, any of you; if you are deceived,
it is because you deceive yourselves.  You may know whether you are led
right or wrong, as well as you know the way home; for every principle God
has revealed carries its own convictions of its truth to the human mind,
and there is no calling of God to man on earth but what brings with it the
evidences of its authenticity.  Let us take a course that leads to the
perpetuity of the natural life which God has given us, and honour it. 
Should we pursue this course faithfully, and never bestow one thought for
the life that is to come, we are just as sure of that immortal life as we
are of the life we now possess.  This, in fact, is the only way in which
we can be prepared to inherit that more glorious life.

	What a pity it would be if we were led by one man to utter
destruction!  Are you afraid of this?  I am more afraid that this people
have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for
themselves of God whether they are led by Him.  I am fearful they settle
down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in
the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would
thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence
they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the
revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way.  Let every man
and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves,
whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. 
This has been my exhortation continually.

	Brother Joseph W. Young remarked this morning that he wished the
people to receive the word of the Lord through his servants, be dictated
by them, and have no will of their own.  I would express it in this wise: 
God has placed within us a will, and we should be satisfied to have it
controlled by the will of the Almighty.  Let the human will be indomitable
for right.  It has been the custom of parents to break the will until it
is weakened, and the noble, Godlike powers of the child are reduced to a
comparative state of imbecility and cowardice.  Let that heaven-born
property of human agents be properly tempered and wisely directed, instead
of pursuing the opposite course, and it will conquer in the cause of
right.  Break not the spirit of any person, but guide it to feel that it
is its greatest delight and highest ambition to be controlled by the
revelations of Jesus Christ; then the will of man becomes Godlike in
overcoming the evil that is sown in the flesh, until God shall reign
within us to will and do his good pleasure.

	Let all persons be fervent in prayer, until they know the things of
God for themselves and become certain that they are walking in the path
that leads to everlasting life; then will envy, the child of ignorance,
vanish, and there will be no disposition in any man to place himself above
another; for such a feeling meets no countenance in the order of heaven. 
Jesus Christ never wanted to be different from his father:  they were and
are one.  If a people are led by the revelations of Jesus Christ, and they
are cognizant of the fact through their faithfulness, there is no fear but
they will be one in Christ Jesus, and see eye to eye.

	We shall not be entirely free from sin for some time yet; but so long
as it is in a state of perfect subjection, we are so far sanctified to
keep up this warfare against the power of sin until we have obtained a
perfect mastery over the evil that is within our organisms, and are able
to control it constantly until death shall end the struggle:  then shall
we be prepared for a glorious resurrection.  Amen.

                      EVIL DEEDS AND EVIL DOERS, &c.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, January 19, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I was sorry for an expression made by one of our officials in
relation to the late killing of three thieves.  He considered that they
were dealt with by mob violence.  Our officers of the law are provided
with means to defend themselves against those who would slay them.  The
three persons that were lately killed were notorious thieves, and resisted
the officers in the discharge of their duty.  I thank God that our
officers will not suffer themselves to be shot down by notorious
scoundrels.  [The congregation said "Amen."]  If there are any who
sympathize with thieves, I want to know who they are, and let them be cut
off from the Church.  There has been enough said to such characters, and
they must quit such practices.  I say, If they will not reform, I wish
they would resist the officers, and then there is an end of them and of
their depredations upon the honest citizens of Utah.

	The best people in the world are in this Territory, and yet there is
not another community, according to our numbers, so infested by thieves as
we are.  Their depredations are perpetrated with such impunity and
barefaced effrontery that it is almost impossible for me to keep a decent
handkerchief.  Some women, when they come into my house to work, if they
can steal a few handkerchiefs or pillow-cases, or this or that, and make
up a small bundle, they sack it and go.  If you should leave an axe, a
waggon-wheel, a spade, or anything of that kind in the kanyon, when you go
for it, it has been stolen. I have no fellowship for a man that will bail
out a thief, for he will go to stealing as soon as he is out.  Talk about
a thief's keeping company with a girl!  If there is a woman in this
Territory that would keep company with such an infernal scoundrel, I hope
she will speedily make her exit to some other country.

	Let the people in this Territory be righteous, and we are safe from
all the powers of Satan and from all the evil power of this earth.  But
for thieves, cut-throats, liars, adulterers, and every foul and wicked
person that can be brought out to mingle with this community, I am sick
and tired of it.  It is time to cleanse the inside of the platter; and if
a United States' official says it is mob law, let him say so until he is
tired.  We will teach men not to resist the officers in this Territory
while they are in the discharge of their duty; and let me here say to the
Presiding Bishop, If he knows of any Bishop who sympathizes with those
thieves who have infested our community, report him, and we will remove
him.  And I say to the Bishops, If you find any in your Wards who
sympathize with a person who has been guilty of highway robbery, and has
fallen by the hand of justice, try them for their fellowship.

	I mourn not that a thief is killed, but that any human being would so
far debase himself as to become a mean, low, degraded thief.  No matter if
it is your husband, your father, your brother, your child,--if he should
fall by the hand of justice for stealing and resisting the officers of the
law to persist in wickedness, have no sympathy for the evil-doer.  If any
of my family should be guilty of stealing, I shall request them to leave
my house, never to enter it again.  I would not cover over their iniquity,
but I would expose it and deal with the sympathizer, should they by the
strong arm of justice be levelled to the dust.  I would disown them.  If a
child or relative of mine forsakes the Gospel, the holy Priesthood, his
God, and the kingdom of God, farewell to that child or relative, whether
near or distant.  I own none as relatives, only those who love and serve
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  All that belong to my Father's house I
own.  I love them, I delight in their society, no matter whether they are
poor or rich, learned or unlearned, if they observe the laws of the
kingdom of God and live according to it.

	As brother Cox observed this morning, let us be sure to build up the
kingdom of God, for in doing this we build up ourselves.  In the early
history of this Church, Joseph Smith was accused of being a speculator. 
So far as I am concerned, I never denied being a speculator; for, in one
sense of the word, it is one of the greatest speculations ever entered
into by man.  In building up the kingdom of God, I am decidedly for self,
and so are you.  If you wish to obtain wealth, power, glory, excellency,
and exaltation of every kind, be for God and truth, and he will give to
you more than your hearts can conceive of.  We are not going to be
satisfied with a few paltry picayunes.  We are not going to be satisfied
with a mere pre-emption right on the soil in this Territory.  Should the
Government grant to every head of a family six hundred and forty acres of
land, and to each wife and child their portion, as was done in Oregon
Territory, that would give to me and to my sons and daughters quite a
scope of country, and the whole people would swallow up all the land in
this Territory.  But shall we be satisfied with that?  I am going to have
a larger pre-emption than the Territory of Utah.  In a few years this
Territory will not contain my own posterity. In twenty years from now this
spacious hall will not hold them, and in twenty years more they will more
than fill this Territory.  I cannot put up with this small possession.

	I have always said to the thieves, Wait until I tell you to steal. 
The first thing I mean to take is the State of Missouri, and then I shall
not be satisfied.  Next, I shall want the State of Illinois.  All this
Territory, Missouri, and Illinois are not going to be sufficient territory
for Heber and me, to say nothing of brothers Wells, Taylor, Woodruff, and
all the faithful brethren.  "For thy waste and thy desolate places and the
land of thy destruction shall even now be too narrow, by reason of the
inhabitants; and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.  And the
children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say
again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me:  give place to me
that I may dwell.  Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch
forth thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for
thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed
shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." 
In fine, I am not going to be satisfied until the Saints possess the whole
earth to the glory of God.  There is no way to glorify our God and Father
but to glorify ourselves; and there is no way to happify and glorify
ourselves, only by keeping his commandments.  Let us be one with the
Father, with the Son, and with one another, being of one heart and of one
mind.

	Do not steal a horse, for it costs more to hide it than it is worth. 
Do not steal Governor Dawson's blankets and beaver robe.  I understand
that the officers have found the stolen blankets and robe.  Those thieves
also stole some eight hundred dollars in money from a hard-working man.  I
hope the officers will also find that.  The officers have been diligent in
arresting the marauders and in recovering the stolen property; but I wish
it distinctly understood that this has been done solely to magnify the law
in the preservation of rights.

	One of our friends tells us that he is afraid we shall have trouble. 
I told him that we were not afraid of it in the least, so long as we serve
God and keep his commandments.  The Lord has already once overruled the
great power and supreme excellency of the military skill of those who were
enemies, and caused them to waste their strength in walking up and down
Ham's Fork, and to eat mule meat to sustain their lives, and placed them
in a constat state of fear and dread.  They saw a few men in the mountains
cutting fence poles, or firewood, and they dared not send out a company to
guard in the money that was sent to pay them.  "Come in," cried the
officer, "for God's sake; for the Mormons are around."

	It is said that one of the members of Congress, confident of the
great military ability of the officers and the bravery of the army they
commanded at Bull's Run, rode out in his buggy, expecting to shout with
the rest in the exultations of victory.  According to report, this member
of Congress was a brave man, tied his horse at a respectable distance, and
repaired to an eminence to see the fight.  When the "Booby Run" commenced,
he made for his buggy, but, to his consternation, found it appropriated. 
Now this member of Congress was not only brave, but fleet on foot; for it
is said that he arrived in the city of Washington an hour and thirty
minutes before his horse and buggy.  He won laurels at what I call the
"Booby Run."

	I cannot be intimidated by saying that there is trouble ahead for us
from the Government of the United States, so long as righteousness shall
prevail among the people of God, even if they should be so unwise as to
again attempt to oppress us.

	Let every man in this Territory be a vigilant officer, and, when a
thief is found in the act of stealing, take him, dead or alive.  There is
one trait in our officers that I delight in, and that is, they will not
stand to be shot down by a set of scoundrels.  Let every man be vigilant
to frown down iniquity wherever it shows itself, and suffer it not to gain
a foothold in our country.

	We are about to constitutionally organize a State Government, and to
again petition for admission into the family of States, to secure to
ourselves the inalienable rights of American citizens.  This we do to
please ourselves and our God.  If we can please our Heavenly Father, our
Elder Brother Jesus Christ, and the holy angels, and the Saints that have
lived and died, and please ourselves in righteousness, we then ask no odds
of all hell and their abettors.  And if armies are again sent here, they
will find the road up Jordan a hard road to travel.  As for us, we will
honour and preserve inviolate the Constitution of our country, as we ever
have.

	I was lately looking over the Constitution we framed for a State
Government six years ago.  It is very near as we want it now.  We wish a
Constitution that is Republican.  In it treason is stated to be one of the
highest crimes in any government, and to consist in levying war on this
State.  Who has done this?  James Buchanan has, and so have those who
associated with him, in sending an army here; and the very great majority
of the priests and people said Amen.  They are as much treasoners as ever
lived on this earth, and the day will come when justice will be meted out
to them.  They made war on the loyal citizens of this Territory; and if
they again make war upon us, I know not what the Lord may do.  We will try
to do what the Lord wants us to do.

	I am for scourging out the ungodly and all who work iniquity among
this people.  If our laws are not stringent enough to do this, we will put
a little bayberry into the composition, or a little oak-root bark, to make
it a little more stringent.  Those who are against the kingdom of God must
suffer.  Those who give way to unhallowed practices would destroy the
kingdom of God from the earth, and I disown all such, whether they are of
my family or not; and I will declare, by-and-by, that I never knew them,
as Jesus will also say.  They do not belong to me; they are not of my
blood and kin.  "But, father, do you not remember that we were born at
such a time and in such a place?"  No matter; you belong to another
kingdom; you cannot come here:  we do not wish your society.

	I can tell all the world that we mean to sustain the Constitution of
the United States and all righteous laws.  We are not by any mens
treasoners, secessionists, or abolitionists.  We are neither negro-drivers
nor negro-worshippers.  We belong to the family of heaven, and we intend
to walk over every unrighteous and unholy principle, and view everybody
and everything as it is before God, and put everything in it place.

	A good housewife, whether she possesses much or little, will have a
place for everything she has in the house, and make her house orderly and
comfortable, and everything when wanted can be found in its place.  So we
will adjust ourselves according to the lawful doings of the nation, and
will not secede from our Government; neither will we be traitors to Jesus
Christ, through ungodly rulers, but will take the privilege to chasten
them and guide them into the path of right, if they will be led therein. 
This we will do fearlessly and perfectly regardless of consequences; for,
if God is for us, it matters little who are against us.

	It seems that the people ought to see that the Lord dictates, guides,
and directs; that if a people are blessed, they are blessed of the Lord;
and that if we exalt him and his kingdom, love him, serve him, and build
up Zion upon the earth, we are sure to be exalted and possess the thing we
desire, if our affections are centred in God and truth.  "Therefore let no
man glory in man, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollo, or
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to
come; all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

	God bless the humble and the righteous, and may he have compassion
upon us because of the weakness that is in our nature.  And considering
the great weakness and ignorance of mortals, let us have mercy upon each
other.  How it would rejoice my heart to see the most froward, young and
old, in this community, forsake their evil doings and seek to do right! 
But if they will not do this, I cannot fellowship them.  My constant
prayer is for the Lord to increase the righteous and righteousness in the
land, and waste away the ungodly, that the power of the government may
pass into the hands of the just.  May God soon grant this sight to our
eyes.  Amen.

        NECESSITY OF PAYING DUE ATTENTION TO TEMPORAL DUTIES, &c.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, January 26, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I do not know that I have ever spoken to the Saints upon any
principle of the Gospel of salvation when I could do more than offer a few
opening remarks, there is so much to learn.  The oldest and most
experienced persons in this Church are satisfied that they have by no
means learned all that is to be learned concerning things that pertain to
this world.  To even thoroughly learn all the different branches of
mechanism is more than one man can do in this mortal life.  The object of
this existence is to learn, which we can only do a little at a time. 
"Whom shall he teach knowledge?  And whom shall he make to understand
doctrine?  Those that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. 
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line,
line upon line; here a little and there a little."

	How gladly would we understand every principle pertaining to science
and art, and become thoroughly acquainted with every intricate operation
of nature, and with all the chemical changes that are constantly going on
around us!  How delightful this would be, and what a boundless field of
truth and power is open for us to explore!  We are only just approaching
the shores of the vast ocean of information that pertains to this physical
world, to say nothing of that which pertains to the heavens, to angels and
celestial beings, to the place of their habitation, to the manner of their
life, and their progress to still higher degrees of perfection.

	We hear many glorious truths in the discourses delivered by our
Elders here and in other places, but we return to our homes and to-morrow
we are about as we were yesterday.  It is our privilege to improve each
day of our lives, but can we improve fast enough to even gain all the
knowledge that pertains to this world in the life we now possess?  No; but
we can gain knowledge faster than we now do, by exercising still greater
diligence.

	When we meet in a worshipping capacity, we are apt to feel anxious to
hear something new concerning the Deity or the place of his habitation. 
How delightful it is to hear a man expound the prophecies--to hear the
revelations of God and things which pertain to the celestial kingdom of
God delineated!  How joyful, how pleasing, how glorious this is to both
male and female, old and young, who seem to know all about these matters,
but who at home do not know enough to make a hoe-handle so that you could
tell whether it was designed for an ox-bow, plough-handle, or hoe-handle. 
And the sister that rejoices so much in the glories of the upper world,
when she is at home, very likely, does not know enough to pursue her daily
avocations as she ought. Can she teach her little girls so much as to knit
a stocking tie?  No; but when there is plenty of wool and yarn in the
house, she calls upon her husband to buy garters, suspenders, &c., from
the store, while her children are running in the streets with their heels
and toes naked; she cannot even mend a stocking decently.  Can she cut her
little boy a pair of pantaloons?  No; a tailor must do it.  Can she make
him a cap out of some old cloth that has been worn in a coat, but is good
enough for that purpose, and thereby save a few dollars?  No; she must
plague her husband to spend means at the store, when perhaps he cannot
well spare it.  Can she make little shoes for her infant?  No, pa, buys
all the shoes.  She seems of no manner of earthly use as an helpmeet to
her husband; yet it is her greatest delight to know how the Gods live and
how the heavens and all things are sustained, but at the same time is not
willing to move a finger to sustain herself.

	When Adam found himself in a state of nudity, he hid himself; and
when he heard the footsteps of the Lord in the garden, he quaked and
trembled with fear.  The Lord could do nothing more for him than take some
fig-leaves and probably some grass to stitch them together for an apron to
cover Adam's nakedness.  The Lord could not in a few minutes teach Adam
how to make a broadcloth and a pair of pantaloons, &c.; for he had
forgotten all he formerly knew, and had to gain knowledge by degrees.  Can
we learn in a day how to make broadcloth or satin and clothing or dresses? 
No; for it is as much as some persons can do to learn in one day how to
knit so much as a stocking tie or a pair of suspenders.

	The people are striving with all their might to learn the things of
God; but if I could only get them to understand the work and the worth of
their present life, I should feel well satisfied.  We talk and think a
great deal about the life that is to come, and the life-labour of the
Christian part of the world is to prepare for that.  The time we now
occupy is in eternity; it is a portion of eternity.  Our present life is
just as much a life in eternity as the life of any being can possibly be. 
Could we all live so as to honour the life that we now possess, I should
not have one anxious thought with regard to being fully prepared for the
life which is to come.  I wish to urge upon the people the necessity of
knowing what to do with their present life, which pertains more
particularly to temporalities.  The very object of our existence here is
to handle the temporal elements of this world and subdue the earth,
multiplying those organisms of plants and animals God has designed shall
dwell upon it.  When we have learned to live according to the full value
of the life we now possess, we are prepared for further advancement in the
scale of eternal progression--for a more glorious and exalted sphere.

	One of the speakers this morning exhorted us to take care of that
which we produce.  All the energies of a farmer appear to be drawn out to
raise wheat; but when it is matured, he seems to retire in satisfaction
that he has accomplished what he sought; his energies flag and the crop is
not cared for, but is left to return again to the earth; or, if he gathers
it, he either has not the ability to properly save and husband it, or he
cares not to exert himself to do so.  It is the same in his stock raising;
he values his calves and lambs--labours hard to raise them; but when they
have attained to that stage of existence to do good to himself or the
community, he suffers them to die by starvation in the winter, or to be
destroyed by the Indians or by somebody else who gets his living by
stealing cattle on the ranges.  The wheat wasted this year, for want of
proper care, would feed this whole community for a considerable length of
time.  Farmers do not seem to think that every kernel of grain should be
gathered and saved as far as possible.  The atmosphere that presses upon
the face of our fields imparts nourishment to the soil, and the rains from
the heavens and the waters that come dancing from the mountains and are
led over our fields are laden with plant food, so that we can gather from
this bench-land--from this gravelly soil--thirty bushels of wheat to the
acre, which does not answer the end in the economy of nature for which it
is created, if it is suffered again to return to the ground unappropriated
in the way designed by the Almighty.  If it is distributed in another
shape than that designed, the wheat element may be entirely removed to
another portion of the earth; and after a few years you may not be able to
raise wheat in this country.  If a single constituent part of any plant be
exhausted from the soil, the plant cannot be produced until the wanting
element is restored.

	Our Father in heaven wishes us to preserve that which he gives to us. 
If we are prodigal and wasteful of his blessings, it will be said--"Take
from them that which they seem to have and give it to another people."  We
wish to gain all that is to be gained; we wish to enrich ourselves; but,
as a people, in a great many instances, we take a course to make ourselves
poor.  If we could only learn enough to be self-preserving and
self-sustaining, we should then have learned what the Gods have learned
before us, and what we must eventually learn before we can be exalted. 
Trace the history of the favoured people of God in any age of the world
and on any portion of the earth, and you will find that the Lord has
poured out great abundance upon them, he has blessed them as individuals,
as communities, and as nations.  We have also been greatly blessed, but we
have treated lightly our blessings in neglecting to properly and frugally
use them.

	That individual, neighbourhood, people, or nation that will not
acknowledge the hand of God in all things, but will squander their
blessings, and thus pour contempt upon his kind favours, will become
desolate and be wasted away.  So long as any people live up to the best
light they have, the Almighty will multiply blessings upon them by
blessing the earth and causing it to bring forth in its strength to fill
their storehouses with plenty; but if they become fat, and are lofty, and
kick against the Lord, and trample his blessings under their feet in
reckless wastefulness, he will cause them to inherit barrenness, and he
will give them "cleanness of teeth in all their cities, and want of bread
in all their places."  The Lord needs only to say to his angel, "Pass over
the land and take away the elements of wheat," and that crop ceases to be
produced.  This very thing has transpired in the lands from whence we have
been driven, and their fruit is blasted; in fact, nothing grows there in
the same abundance and perfection that it once did.  Desolation is in the
path of the wicked.  It would have been so with us, if we had remained in
our former homes, and had not lived to honour the life God has given us. 
In consequence of the hatred, malice, and disposition in the hearts of the
wicked to persecute his people, God has so cursed the land and blasted the
elements that they are not fruitful.

	I do not think that I ever beheld anything in my life more painful to
my heart and more distressing to my feelings than I saw manifested in the
spirit and actions of this community in the years 1849, 50, 51, and 52, in
the way they trampled upon the blessings of God so bountifully bestowed
upon them.  Wheat was suffered to go to waste in a shameful manner.  It
was fed to horses, thrown to hogs, and trampled in the mud.  I told them
they would want bread, and they did.  If it had not been for the kind hand
of God in his merciful providences to us, we should have suffered much
more than we did; our sufferings would have been extreme.  The Lord has
poured out his blessings on the atmosphere, on the water, and on the soil
of this country.  No other people but the people of the Saints could have
sustained themselves here.  If we abuse these choice blessings, the Lord
will blast the fertilizing elements with his withering touch, and leave us
desolate.  Let us be thankful for what we have in possession, and use it
exclusively for building up the kingdom of God, the establishment of Zion,
and the triumph of righteousness and truth.  Let every penny, every
dollar, every sum of money, large or small, be devoted to this
all-absorbing interest, as also every moment of time.  These are matters
with which we are all acquainted; they are not mysteries that are far
beyond our comprehension.

	Twenty-five, twenty-eight, and thirty years ago, our influence and
national character were but small indeed.  The image which now presents
itself is still small, we admit; nevertheless it presents a bold front to
the nations, and has become worthy of their notice.  We are trying to be
the image of those who live in heaven; we are trying to pattern after
them, to look like them, to walk and talk like them, to deal like them,
and build up the kingdom of heaven as they have done.  I think that after
awhile we shall attain to the very image and likeness of the children of
God who have lived before us.  This image will increase, and grow, and
spread abroad, and still expand in its proportions, stretching to the
right hand and to the left, struggling for room on all sides, in
proportion as we are faithful and learn to appreciate the blessings we
have already received.

	Do we appreciate the blessings of this our mountain home, far removed
from the war, blood, carnage, and death that are laying low in the dust
thousands of our fellow-creatures in the very streets where we have walked
and in the cities and towns where we have lived?  If we constantly live
under a proper sense of the greatness of our blessings, the stone in the
mountains will soon begin to attain colossal proportions and roll with
crushing weight upon the toes of the "great image."

	We have often heard it said by our Elders that all the heaven we
shall ever have is the one we make for ourselves.  How vast the meaning of
this simple sentence!  This one saying is a text worthy for all the holy
beings in heaven and on earth to preach upon; it embraces a subject vast
as eternity.  We are exhorted to make our own heaven, our own paradise,
our own Zion.  How is this to be done?  By hearkening diligently to the
voice of the Spirit of the Lord that entices to righteousness, applauds
truth, and exults continually in goodness.  This Spirit is the companion
of every faithful person!  Listen to its whisperings, and pursue with
alacrity the path it points out.  In this way we may all grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the truth, and by so doing we shall honour the life we
now possess, while by pursuing an opposite course we disgrace it.  This
life is worth as much to us as any life in the eternities of the Gods.  In
that helpless infant upon its mother's breast we see a man, an Apostle, a
Saint,--yea generations of men with kingdoms, thrones, and dominions. 
Then the life of that little frail mortal is fraught with great and mighty
results, and its value is inestimable.

	If this be true of an infant, what may we expect to grow out of this
infant kingdom?  We may look forward to all that belongs to greatness and
goodness, to might and power, to dominion and glory.  Then how jealously
we ought to guard the rights of this infant power!  How zealous and
constant we should be in maintaining its interests and supporting its laws
and sacred institutions!  No less vigilant should we be in preserving the
lives of our children, for they are of the kingdom of heaven.  No pains
should be spared, no care omitted, in guarding the tender infant through
the perilous hours of childhood to maturer years.  Through the inattention
and ignorance of parents, death makes many victims among our children, and
they are deprived of magnifying their mortal life according to the designs
of the All-wise Creator.  Numbers of our children are carried off by
death, though want of sufficient promptitude in battling the destroyer
when its insidious approaches are first discovered.  We have power in a
great measure to prevent disease; and when it fastens upon the vitals of
our little ones, we have power, faith, and means at hand, if promptly
applied to restore our children to life and health, to boyhood, then to
manhood, and to honour and power in Israel.  Yet we neglect our children,
and let them run out in the cold and wet.  They are sick at night; nothing
is done for them; but they are sent to bed to lie all night with a burning
fever, and so they are suffered to linger on day after day, while the
Destroyer is busily at work consuming their lives.  At length the parents
become alarmed and send for a doctor, who is just as apt to destroy the
life of the child as to restore it again to good health.  We mourn over
the little fragile remains as we lay them in the tomb, and comfort
ourselves by saying, "Thy will be done, O Lord; thou givest and thou
takest away at they pleasure," &c., when by our ignorance and carelessness
we have destroyed the life God gave to us for a kingdom of glory and
power, which can only be obtained through our posterity.  From this one
child, this Isaac, could his life have been preserved, nations would have
sprung into existence, until the multitudes of people through him would
have become as the sands upon the sea shore for number.  But he is gone,
and his spirit has returned back to God, and that is the end of his life
upon the earth; your posterity is cut off, and from whence will you
receive your kingdom and glory?

	It is to our advantage to take good care of the blessings God bestows
upon us; if we pursue the opposite course, we cut off the power and glory
God designs we should inherit.  It is through our own carefulness,
frugality, and judgment which God has given us, that we are enabled to
preserve our grain, our flocks and herds, wives and children, houses and
lands, and increase them around us, continually gaining power and
influence for ourselves as individuals and for the kingdom of God as a
whole.  People lose their property.  Why?  Because they do not take care
of it.  Once in a while we hear of property being destroyed by fire,
though this does not often occur among this people.  What did you do with
the fire when you retired to rest?  All such occurrences happen through
carelessness, want of judgment, or ignorance.  For instance, on a very
dry, windy day, with a foul chimney, a wife wishes to prepare a chicken
for supper, and she must burn off the pin feathers; she gathers up an
armful of shavings, sets fire to them, and the flame that is singeing off
the pin feathers is also firing the chimney; from that it spreads to the
roof, and from the roof to the stackyard.  A thousand dollars' worthy of
property is destroyed by carelessly singeing the pin feathers off a
chicken.  Our wives are not apt to think of this, any more than they do
when they suffer their little children to get cold, and the croup, and
then death.

	This people, in their notions concerning life, are similar to the
whole world.  We have brought our traditions from the world, but we wish
to learn better, and get rid of every false notion and practice.  As I
told you the other day, it is impossible to believe a truth that is not
embraced in "Mormonism," whether it is found in the mental education or
physical pursuits of mortals, in the spiritual refinements of the Gods, or
in culling immortal fruits from trees that grown in the Elysian fields of
Paradise.  "The life that now is" more immediately demands our attention,
and I am fearful that many spend their lives for naught.  There are
persons in this community who, if they could have their own will gratified
and be possessed of plenty of means, would not do another day's work in
their lives, unless they were urged to it.  Such persons are told that
they should devote their lifetime they now have to usefulness; but they
have sufficient, they say, and have no need to be useful in performing any
kind of labour.  This is a mistake.  Though I possessed millions of money
and property, that does not excuse me from performing the labour that it
is my calling to perform, so far as I have strength and ability, any more
than the poorest man in the community is excused.  The more we are blessed
with means, the more we are blessed with responsibility; the more we are
blessed with wisdom and ability, the more we are placed under the
necessity of using that wisdom and ability in the spread of righteousness,
the subjugation of sin and misery, and the amelioration of the condition
of mankind.  The man that has only one talent and the man that has five
talents have responsibility accordingly.  If we have a world of means, we
have a world of responsibility.  If we have an eternity of knowledge, we
shall have an eternity of business to transact and to occupy every
particle of the knowledge bestowed upon us.

	Then, instead of searching after what the Lord is going to do for us,
let us inquire what we can do for ourselves, and the answer will be, We
can make our own hats, bonnets, shoes, and clothing, and we can make our
own heaven here below; and if there is anything that we cannot make now,
we will wear what we have until we can make more.  I have a word of praise
for our sisters.  I have seen the handsomest home-made plaid in this city
that I ever saw in any country.  I would like to see them wear it when
they go to parties, instead of donning silks and satins.  Their home-made
plaid will look better to me than all the silk and satin they can put on. 
But when sister Susan gets a fine dress, then Betsy will not go to the
party unless she has as good a frock as Susan's; and Sarah must have as
good a one as either of the others, or a little better.  Perhaps she wants
a little more gimp, a little extra braid, some insertion, or something to
make a better dress than has either of her sisters; and so we waste for a
thing of naught the blessings we should otherwise improve.

	Be careful of the clothing you have.  Do not let your children's
clothing lie underfoot when you undress them at night, but teach your boys
and girls, when they come into the house, to find a place for their hats,
cloaks, and bonnets, that, when they want them, they can put their hands
upon them in a moment.  When they take off their boots and shoes, let them
be deposited where they can be found in the dark, that, if the children
are obliged to get up at night, perhaps in case of fire, they can find
their clothing, and not be under the necessity of being turned out naked. 
If a person can put his hand on his clothing, he can dress in the dark.  I
coupled the necessity with the convenience.  I hope we shall never be
under the necessity of fleeing from under a burning roof, either in the
night or day.  Let there be "a place for every thing, and every thing in
its place."

	I believe in indulging children, in a reasonable way.  If the little
girls want dolls, shall they have them?  Yes.  But must they be taken to
the dressmaker's to be dressed?  No.  Let the girls learn to cut and sew
the clothing for their dolls, and in a few years they will know how to
make a dress for themselves and others.  Let the little boys have tools,
and let them make their sleds, little waggons, &c.; and when they grow up,
they are acquainted with the use of tools and can build a carriage, a
house, or anything else.  When we see the boys or girls inclined in this
direction, let us encourage them and use every means in our power to
direct their minds in the right direction to the most useful result.

	Novel reading--is it profitable?  I would rather that persons read
novels than read nothing.  There are women in our community, twenty,
thirty, forty, fifty, and sixty years of age, who would rather read a
trifling, lying novel than read history, the Book of Mormon, or any other
useful print.  Such women are not worth their room.  It would do no good
for me to say, Don't read them; read on, and get the spirit of lying in
which they are written, and then lie on until you find yourselves in hell. 
If it would do any good, I would advise you to read books that are worth
reading; read reliable history, and search wisdom out of the best books
you can procure.  How I would be delighted if our young men would do this,
instead of continually studying nonsense.  And in addition to this, let
the boys from ten to twenty years of age get up schools to learn sword
exercise, musket and rifle exercise, and, in short, every art of war. 
Shall we need this knowledge?  No matter; it is good to be acquainted with
this kind of exercise.  Let a few schools be started by those who are
capable of teaching the sciences.  The science of architecture, for
instance, is worthy the attention of every student.  It yields a great
amount of real pleasure to be able to understand the grand architectural
designs of those magnificent structures that are scattered over Europe and
other countries.

	Learn all you can.  Learn how to raise calves, chickens, lambs, and
all kinds of useful fowls and animals; learn how to till the ground to the
best advantage for raising all useful products of the soil; and learn how
to manufacture molasses and sugar from the sugar-cane.  Raise flax,
husbands, and let your wives learn to manufacture fine linen.  In the war
of 1812, cotton raised in price from five to eleven cents per pound; it is
now from thirty-five to sixty-three cents a pound in New York City.  What
are we going to do for our factory cloth?  We have got to make it.  I am
selling cotton cloth to those who work for me for the same price they are
now selling it in St. Louis and New York.  What will be the price
by-and-by, as circumstances are now shaping themselves in the nation?

	If what I have now said about temporal things is faithfully carried
out, it will lead to our independence as a people, and to our comfort and
happiness as individuals.

May God bless you!  Amen.

          CALL FOR TEAMS TO GO TO THE FRONTIERS.--ENCOURAGEMENT
                          OF HOME MANUFACTURES.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 2, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have a few items of business that I wish to lay before you this
morning, and the first is a call upon the brethren for teams to haul the
granite blocks from Little Cottonwood to the Temple Block.  The road
became so muddy that the teams were sent home, but we understand that the
road is now very good.  This county, Davis, Tooele, and the northern part
of Utah counties can forward teams in a day or two, and if the road again
becomes bad, they are not so far from their homes but what they can easily
return.  I wish to have all the teams that can be gathered from this city
and the adjoining neighbourhoods and Wards go to work immediately, so that
our stone-cutters may have constant work.  Some of them are from a
distance, and we do not like to have them out of work through want of
rough blocks.  It requires a large quantity of rocks for the first story
of the Temple, and we would like to complete the walls of that story, and
as much more as possible during the present season.

	I have another call to make upon the people now, which I wish to go
out from this place.  You will recollect that a year ago this coming
spring we sent some two hundred teams to the Frontiers to bring the Saints
to this Territory.  We wish to send three hundred this year, and they are
as few as will answer to accomplish the purpose.  Last season I think
there were rising of sixty teams went from this city.  I shall propose
that we make the dividend as we did last year, and let this city take the
lead; and if we are not over one quarter in number, we ought to be in
faith and good works.  We know that the people in this city and in the
regions round about are wealthy in cattle, and you know very well that it
is against my doctrine and feelings for men to scrape together the wealth
of the world and let it waste and do no good.  We have more stock than we
well take care of.  We want to send some twelve hundred yoke of cattle to
the States for freight and people, and we want to send some cattle to see
and purchase things that are needed for families when crossing the Plains,
for we wish to bring all the poor that can get to the Frontiers in time to
come on this season.

	Now I have a particular request to make of all our capitalists, and
that is, for them to send and procure machinery to aid in supplying all
our reasonable wants in manufactured articles, that we may have everything
within ourselves for houses, for goods, for chattels, for chariots, for
ribbons, and for ruffles, yes, everything that we require to clothe
ourselves with from the stockings on our feet to the articles worn on our
heads.  You who have money and other available means, send and get such
machinery as is really necessary for manufacturing those things that we
require to make us comfortable.  It is our duty to do this, and it is not
your duty neither is it mine to send and get ten thousand dollars worth of
ribbons.

	It may be asked, "Does not brother Brigham buy as many store goods
for his wives and children as any man in the Territory of Utah?"  I buy
more.  Probably I bestow more, according to the number I have to sustain,
than any other man.  "Why do you do so?"  Shall I say, to keep peace out
of the family, or to keep peace in the family?  Which is it?  I will leave
that for you to answer.  Such buying is no part of the duty of any man in
this community; neither is it the duty of any man to be a merchant in this
community, in the manner that many are and have been.  I frequently tell
the people that is no part of my religion or duty to dance, but it is as
much a part of my religious duty to dance as it is to buy ribbons and
other useless articles of clothing.  We are permitted to do such things
because of our ignorance, and the sin that is in the world; because of the
want of the knowledge possessed by heavenly beings; the want of true
knowledge concerning the earth and the inhabitants thereon.  Were it not
for this ignorance and darkness we should not be pardoned as we are now. 
When we become weaned from the love of the world, become humble, penitent,
contrite in spirit, and begin to love the Lord a little, it almost
distracts us--some almost go crazy.

	At no distant period merchandizing in imported goods will cease in
this Territory, and the fabrics we wear will be manufactured by
ourselves--imported fabrics will not be here.  The inquiry may arise,
"What will be done with the money that will accumulate?" for we have paid
merchants here during eleven to twelve years past not less than from six
to ten hundred thousand dollars annually.  If any should be fearful that
they will be cumbered with surplus means, I will promise them to provide a
way in which they may expend their means for the up-building of the
kingdom of God.  I do not feel to find fault, complain, or cast
reflections upon myself, upon my family, or upon my brethren and sisters
for what we have hitherto done and still are doing in the capacity of
merchants, or purchasers, or consumers.  I look forward to the time when
this people will possess what is called the wealth of the earth, that is,
those articles which are accounted very valuable, but many of which are in
reality  of very little worth.  The diamond is considered of the most
value, still its intrinsic value is but trifling; by heat it can be burned
like other coal; I esteem gold as more valuable, for it cannot be consumed
by fire.  We would like to have a little of this metal, for how much
better would it be to drink out of a gold cup than out of an old rusty tin
basin.  We expect to have earthen ware, it is true, when we get men here
that know how to put the material together to make it, but if you
accidentally let a piece of fine expensive earthenware drop, it breaks and
that is the end of it; should a child or a grown person make a misstep and
fall, when carrying a gold or silver cup or vessel, it cannot be broken. 
But this will be hereafter, it is not yet.  When we see the time that the
people will possess the true riches of the earth and the heavens, we can
preserve that which we have, it will not be stolen by thieves.

	Apparently the merchandizing interest in this community is coming to
a close, and I feel like urging upon the people the necessity of preparing
to grow and manufacture that which they consume.  It is my indispensable
duty to urge this important item upon them and to warn them of coming evil
to themselves, unless they attend to it.  We want, in view of this, a
liberal turn out of teams to bring machinery from the East this coming
summer.  It may be asked what we need here.  Why are your wives unable to
card a little wool into rolls to spin and knit you and your children some
stockings?  Because they have no cards.  Suppose there was not a carding
machine in this Territory or a single pair of hand cards, and they were
not to be had, how could we make ourselves comfortable without them?  We
might possibly manage to make cloth in a rude way, but the demand would be
far beyond the supply--it could not possibly keep pace with the wants of
our growing community.  We need a card-making machine here, one that will
draw the wire, perforate the leather, and cut, bend, and insert the teeth. 
We could make one here, but it would cost much more than to import one.  I
want some of the brethren to send and get one or more machines of this
kind, for we do not need many; but when we come to cotton and wollen [sic]
fabrics that we need to wear every day, and without which we can not be so
comfortable as we now are, we need much machinery to manufacture them.  We
now need twenty times more carding machines in this Territory than we
have.  Wool now lies in the mill month after month before it can be
carded, which injures it.  Will our capitalists send and bring in carding
machines and other machinery?  I want to see fifty or one hundred cotton
spinning-jennies, introduced into the country, they will cost about one
hundred dollars each, and with one of them a child twelve or fifteen years
old can in a day gin, card, and spin cotton enough to make twelve yards of
cloth.

	These are matters that pertain to our present life, to us at this
time and in our present circumstances.  I am anxious that the people
should fully understand the vital importance of maintaining their present
lives to make them useful, hence I speak much in this strain.  There is
great credit due the female portion of our community for the things they
try to teach their children; still I would like to see a closer
application in giving their daughters a good sound practical moral
education.  I feel gratified when I look around upon the congregation and
see many of the mothers wearing dresses they have made themselves of wool
grown in this Territory; and I have not seen in any new country a better
article of cloth than our sisters make here; it will bear the inspection
of the most fastidious votaries of pride and fashion; in that class of
goods it cannot be excelled.  Great credit is due to this people for the
progress they have made.  We have not in our society an aristocratic
circle.  Whether a brother wears a coon skin cap of a fine beaver hat is
all the same to us.  If a person is a faithful servant of God we do not
object to his coming to meeting, though he has only but a piece of buffalo
skin to wear on his head.  We partake of the sacrament with him, hail him
in the street as a brother and a friend, ride with him, converse with him,
meet with him in social parties, and greet him as an equal.  I also see
brethren walk into meeting with overcoats on which their wives and
daughters have made, but suppose you had not the means for getting your
wool carded, nor the means for carding it yourselves, could you have
produced the excellent cloth you now wear?  You could not.

	I delight to see the mother learn her daugthers [sic] to be
housekeepers; to be particular, clean, and neat; to sew, spin, and weave;
to make butter and cheese; and I have no objection to their learning to
cultivate flowers, herbs, and useful shrubs in the gardens.  It is good
for their health to rise early in the morning and work in the soil an hour
or two before breakfast; this practice is especially beneficial to those
who have weak lungs.  And while you delight in raising flowers, &c., do
not neglect to learn how to take care of the cream, and how to make of it
good wholesome butter, and of the milk good healthy nutritious cheese,
neither forget your sewing, spinning, and weaving; and I would not have
them neglect to learn music and would encourage them to read history and
the Scriptures, to take up a newspaper, geography, and other publications,
and make themselves acquainted with the manners and customs of distant
kingdoms and nations, with their laws, religion, geographical location on
the face of the world, their climate, natural productions, the extent of
their commerce, and the nature of their political organization; in fine,
let our boys and girls be thoroughly instructed in every useful branch of
physical and mental education.  Let this education begin early.  Teach
little children the principles of order; the little girl to put the broom
in its right place, to arrange the stove furniture in the neatest possible
way, and everything in its own place.  Teach them to lay away their
clothing neatly, and where it can be found; and when they tear their
frocks and aprons teach them how to mend the rent so neatly that the place
cannot be seen at a short distance; and instead of asking your husbands to
buy them ribbons and frills, learn them to make them of the material we
can produce.  Teach the little boys to lay away the garden hoe, the spade,
&c., where they will not be destroyed by rust; and let them have access to
tools that they may learn their use, and develop their mechanical skill
while young; and see that they gather up the tools when they have done
with them, and deposit them in the proper place.  Let both males and
females encourage within them mechanical ingenuity, and seek constantly to
understand the world they are in, and what use to make of their existence.

	It is unnecessary to send to England, to France, to the East Indies,
to China, or to any other country for a little crockery ware, silk,
calico, muslin, &c., for we can make those article here.  We need the
machinery; let us unite and get it.  Last fall brother A. R. Wright
brought in an excellent piece of machinery for manufacturing flax; it now
belongs to brother Pyper.  I would like to see some man manifest interest
enough to take that machinery and put it to work.  Thousands of pounds of
flax could be worked up by it this coming fall and next winter.  Who will
do this?  I know not.

	This people are dilatory in some things.  What are many of them
thinking about?  The kingdom of God, sometimes.  They want to pray and
have faith just sufficient to keep in the path of the angel that is going
round to gather up the righteous, and the rest of the time their minds are
upon a gold mine, or upon going to the States to buy goods, and they see
themselves behind a counter, "Ah," think they, "Won't I look a gentlemanly
looking man when I am dealing out the calico?"  I never could, the poorest
day I ever saw in my life, descend so low as to stand behind a counter. 
Taking that class of men as a whole, I think they are of extremely small
calibre.

	Women and children can deal out pins, and needles, and ribbons; this
is too trifling a business for men.  Their business is to organize the
elements and draw from them the raw material in abundance, and then
manufacture it into those things which are calculated to make comfortable,
beautiful, lovely, healthy, and happy God's people.  Our brethren
calculate on the increase of their stock, and are keen to gather around
them the riches of this life, but they do not make judicious calculations
how to dispose of those riches to the best advantage.  They will fill the
whole country with stock of every kind, but can see no way how it should
be put to proper use.  The merchant calculates that he will make fifty or
a hundred thousand dollars in so many years, but if you ask him what he is
going to do with it he is astonished at the question, for he never thought
of that.  All he thought of was piling up the riches.  Did you ever think
it was your privilege to place those riches out to usury in building up
the kingdom of God?  Do you not belong to the Church of God?  Do you not
pray?  What do you pray for?  One says, "I pray the Lord to keep and
preserve me, to sanctify me and prepare me for his kingdom and glory; I
just want to slip inside the gate, I am not very ambitious."  Do you think
anything about preparing for it here?  "Only in heart, or in spirit."

	My doctrine is, to put every dollar to usury for building up the
kingdom of God, whether it be much or little.  I want the brethren to man
out their teams, and send down three hundred this season, and four or five
hundred when required.  And then I want to see the brethren join together
their teams and money and send for machinery, besides sending teams for
the poor; and thus we will fill the Territory with the necessary articles
of machinery for a self-sustaining people.  It is necessary for us to
sustain ourselves, or we will be left in poverty, nakedness, and distress,
as a consequence of war and the breaking up of the general government.  We
now meet men who seemingly have very little clothing--they wear patch upon
patch.  I would not by this remark have it understood that clothing ought
not to be neatly and somewhat extensively mended, but I have seen men wear
pantaloons so patched that it would puzzle you to place your finer upon a
piece of the original.  They have wives and daughthers [sic], but they do
not spin.  In Exodus we read, "And all the women that were wise-hearted
did spin with their hands."  If, instead of our wives and daughters
passing their hours in idleness, folding their hands, and rocking
themselves in their easy chairs, they would spin a little wool, and a
little cotton from our Dixie, or that grown in their own gardens and
fields, and make some good warm clothing for the men and boys, and some
linsey frocks for the women and girls, they could with propriety be called
wise women in Israel.  If you happen to be in a party where I am and
wearing dresses made with your own hands, I shall take pleasure in dancing
with you in preference to the lady dressed in silks and satins.  We can do
this, but we need to be taught day after day, month after month, and year
after year.

	Human beings are expected by their Creator to be actively employed in
doing good every day of their lives, either in improving their own mental
and physical condition or that of their neighbours.  But there are
thousands whose days, months, and years are nothing more than a blank;
there is not a single trace upon their life's pages that might be
construed as useful to the cause of humanity.  This people have embraced
the philosophy of eternal lives, and in view of this we should cease to be
children and become philosophers, understanding our own existence, its
purpose and ultimate design, then our days will not become a blank through
ignorance, but every day will bring with it its useful and profitable
employment.  God has placed us here, given us the ability we possess, and
supplied the means upon which we can operate to produce social, national,
and eternal happiness.

	Seeing we are so wonderfully endowed with priceless gifts by our
Heavenly Father, will he not require usury at our hands?  He will.  But he
has made us agents to ourselves, which makes us responsible for the way in
which we use the talents he has given us, for the manner we expend the
gold and silver, the wheat and fine flour, the cattle upon a thousand
hills, and the wine and oil, for they all belong to Him; and we too belong
to Him, but he has created man after His own image, and endowed him with a
germ of independence that will crown him a God through his faithfulness. 
He requires us to devote these godlike powers to our own advantage, life,
wealth, beauty, comfort, and exaltation by giving to His cause--the cause
of righteousness--universal triumph over sin.  Then do not hoard up your
gold; if you do, it will canker, but put out every dollar to usury. 
Instead of your souls being bound up in your cattle and other property,
put it all where it should be placed for the benefit of the kingdom of God
on earth and for his glory.

	I have merely touched this subject.  I wish the Elders, and we have
many talented Elders, to verbally follow out this subject in the
afternoon, and then physically follow it out by rightly using your cattle
and waggons, your silver and gold, and your time and talents, then God
will bless us.  Amen.

          ROBBING THE DEAD.--DANCING, NOT A PART OF THE SAINTS'
       RELIGION.--KINDNESS IN GOVERNMENT.--MORE TELEGRAPHIC WIRES.
        Remarks by President Brigham Young made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 9, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have four sermons that I wish to preach this morning, and I wish
about thirty-five minutes in which to preach them.

	The first subject I shall notice this morning is robbing the dead. 
Many have desired me to express myself in public relative to what has
transpired in our grave yard during four or five years past.  Robbing the
dead is not a new thing.  Robbing dead people of their jewelry and
clothing is customary in the cities of Europe; and it has been and is
customary in many places to steal the body for the purpose of dissection. 
I have, in the course of my life, been under the necessity of watching
graves to keep them from being robbed.

	It appears that a man named John Baptiste has practised robbing the
dead of their clothing in our grave yard during some five years past.  If
you wish to know what I think about it, I answer, I am unable to think so
low as to fully get at such a mean, contemptible, damnable trick.  To hang
a man for such a deed would not begin to satisfy my feelings.  What shall
we do with him?  Shoot him?  No, that would do no good to anybody but
himself.  Would you imprison him during life?  That would do nobody any
good.  What I would do with him came to me quickly, after I heard of the
circumstance; this I will mention, before I make other remarks.  If it was
left to me, I would make him a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth. 
This would be my sentence, but probably the people will not want this
done.

	Many are anxious to know what effect it will have upon their dead who
have been robbed.  I have three sisters in the grave yard in this city,
and two wives, and several children, besides other connections and near
relatives.  I have not been to open any of their graves to see whether
they were robbed, and do not mean to do so.  I gave them as good a burial
as I could; and in burying our dead, we all have made everything as
agreeable and as comfortable as we could to the eye and taste of the
people in their various capacities, according to the best of our
judgments; we have done our duty in this particular, and I for one am
satisfied.  I will defy any thief there is on the earth or in hell to rob
a Saint of one blessing.  A thief may dig up dead bodies and sell them for
the dissecting knife, or may take their raiment from them, but when the
resurrection takes place, the Saints will come forth with all the glory,
beauty, and excellency of resurrected Saints clothed as they were when
they were laid away.

	Some may inquire whether it is necessary to put fresh linen into the
coffins of those who have been robbed of their clothing.  As to this you
can pursue the course that will give you the most contentment and
satisfaction; but if the dead are laid away as well as they can be, I will
promise you that they will be well clothed in the resurrection, for the
earth and the elements around it are full of these things.  All that is
needed is power to bring forth those things necessary, as Jesus did when
he fed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes, perhaps no more than
would on ordinary occasions feed six men; he organized the elements
around, and fed five thousand.  In the resurrection everything that is
necessary will be brought from the elements to clothe and to beautify the
resurrected Saints, who will receive their reward.  I do not trouble
myself about my dead.  If they are stripped of their clothing, I do not
want to know it.

	Some, I have been informed, can now remember having had singular
dreams, and others have heard rappings on the floor, on the bedstead, on
the door, on the table, &c., and have imagined that they might have
proceeded from the spirits of the dead calling on their friends to give
them clothing, for they were naked.  My dead friends have not been to me
to tell me that they were naked, cold, &c.; and if any such rappings
should come to me, I should tell them to go to their own place.  I have
little faith in those rappings.  If I felt that I ought to pay attention
to such things, I would not, so to speak, let my right hand know what my
left did; and it would require a greater power than John Baptiste to make
me believe either a truth or a lie.

	I thought the remark made by a lad to a group of weeping women was
very appropriate, though I do not blame them for weeping when they saw the
clothing they had put upon their departed darlings; said he, "supposing
the linen was all burnt up and the ashes scattered to the four winds,
could not the angel Gabriel call those particles together as easily as he
could call together the particles of the body?"  The elements are all
here, and they will be called forth in their proper time and place.  Let
the minds of the people be at rest upon this matter.  What has been done
they cannot help.  If any wish to open the graves of their dead and put
clothing in the coffins to satisfy their feelings, all right; I am
satisfied.  I am also satisfied that had we been brought up and
traditionated to burn a wife upon the funeral pile, we should not be
satisfied unless this practice was followed out; we would have the same
grief and sorrow that we now have when we find that our dead have been
robbed of their clothing.  Or if we had been brought up as our natives
are, when a chief died if we did not kill a wife or two, a few horses, or
a few prisoners, &c., as soon as the darkness of night set in we very
likely should fancy ourselves haunted with the spirits of the dead,
dissatisfied at our not giving them proper burial rites, and company to
pass with them through the dark shadows of the grave to the good land
where there are better hunting grounds.  The power and influence of
tradition has a great deal to do with the way we feel about this matter of
our dead being robbed.

	We are here in circumstances to bury our dead according to the order
of the Priestood [sic].  But some of our brethren die upon the ocean; they
cannot be buried in a burying ground, but they are sewed up in canvas and
cast into the sea, and perhaps in two minutes after they are in the bowels
of the shark, yet those persons will come forth in the resurrection, and
receive all the glory of which they are worthy, and be clothed upon with
all the beauty of resurrected Saints, as much so as if they had been laid
away in a gold or silver coffin, and in a place expressly for burying the
dead.  If you think opposite to this your thoughts are in vain.  "And I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life:  and the
dead were judged out of these things which were written in the books,
according to their works.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it;
and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were
judged every man according to their works."  If the particles of which the
body is composed are distributed to the four quarters of the earth, at the
sound of the trumpet, when the dead are to come forth the dust that
composed their bodies, that portion which is suffered to endure, will come
from the ends of the earth, mote by mote, particle by particle, atom to
atom, bone to bone, sinew to sinew, and flesh will cover them, and the
same body will come forth in the resurrection, as much so as the body of
Jesus came forth from the tomb.

	Do as you please with regard to taking up your friends.  If I should
undertake to do anything of the kind, I should clothe them completely and
then lay them away again.  And if you are afraid of their being robbed
again, put them into your gardens, where you can watch them by day and
night until you are pretty sure that the clothing is rotted, and then lay
them away in the burying ground.  I would let my friends lay and sleep in
peace.  I am aware of the excited state of the feelings of the community;
I have little to say about the cause of it; The meanness of the act is so
far beneath my comprehension that I have not ventured to think much about
it.

	I will now proceed to my next text.  I have lately preached a short
sermon to the Bishops, in a Bishops' meeting, and I now wish to present
the subject of those remarks to this congregation; they were in relation
to the Bishops building dancing-rooms for their school-houses and ward
meetings.  In my heart, soul, affections, feeling, and judgment, I am
opposed to making a cotillion hall a place of worship.  All men have their
agency, and should be permitted to act as freely as consistent, that they
may manifest by their acts whether they are controlled by the pure
principle of righteousness.  Many of you remember that at first we
assembled in a bowery on the south-east corner of this block, where we met
for some time under its shade, and held preaching meetings, sacrament
meetings, political meetings, and every kind of public gathering, because
it was the only place that would then accommodate the people.  Soon after
that we built this Tabernacle.  We probably had not the first stick of
timber on the ground before I was besought to build it for dancing in and
for theatrical purposes.  I said no, to every one that requested me to do
that.  I told them that dancing and theatrical performances were no part
of our religion; we are merely permitted to occupy a portion of the time
in those amusements, being very careful not to grieve the Spirit of the
Lord.  More or less amusement of that kind suits our organization, but
when we come to the things of God, I had rather not have them mixed up
with amusement like a dish of sucotash.

	I like to dance, but do I want to sin?  No; rather than sin I would
wish never to dance or hear a fiddle again while I live.  Let that which I
would sin in be taken from me, and let me be kept from it from this time
henceforth and for ever, no matter what it is.  I like my pastimes and
enjoy myself as you do, in amusements wherein we do not sin.  Brother E.
D. Woolley and myself had some conversation on this subject, and he
thought that he would build a house to accommodate social gatherings but
could not at that time very well do it, so I built the hall which is
called the Social Hall.  In it are combined a dancing-room and a small
stage for theatrical performances.  That is our fun hall, and not a place
in which to administer the sacrament.  We dedicated it to the purpose for
which it was built, and from the day we first met there until now, I would
rather see it laid in ashes in a moment that to see it possessed by the
wicked.  We prayed that the Lord would preserve it to the Saints; and if
it could not thus be preserved, let it be destroyed and not be occupied by
the wicked.  You know what spirit attends that room.  There we have had
governors, judges, doctors, lawyers, merchants, passers-by, &c., who did
not belong to our Church, and what has been the universal declaration of
each and every one?  "I never felt so well before in all my life at any
party as I do here;" and the Saints do not feel as well in any other place
of amusement.  We have a beautiful assembly room in the 13th Ward, but you
cannot feel as well in a party there as you can in the hall that was built
and dedicated to that purpose.  Every thing in its time, and every thing
in its place.

	In the year 1849, I think it was, I was called upon to give a draft
for a school-house, that would be commodious and suitable for each ward. 
I gave that draft, and I do not think that I could now alter it for the
better.  Has there been a school-house built according to the draft? 
There have been a few wings built, and the main body of the building I
drafted was not intended for a dancing-hall.  By referring to the plan I
gave, you can see my idea of a Ward school-house, but it has not been
carried out.  It is now whispered around that we are opposed to dancing in
the 14th Ward School-room.  This is not so.  I have been there several
times, and enjoyed myself well, as also in the 13th Ward house, which is
called the Assembly-Rooms, though I would call it a cotillion hall.  I am
opposed to making the youth of our land believe that dancing and
frolicking are a part of our religion, when in truth they are not any part
of it, though I hear from every quarter that the Gentiles say, "I like
this part of your religion, for I understand that this is one branch of
your religion, and I like this dancing very much."  It is no part of our
religion, and I am opposed to devoting to a cotillion room, a house set
apart for the worship of God.  I am opposed to having cotillions or
theatrical performances in this Tabernacle.  I am opposed to making this a
fun hall, I do not mean for wickedness, I mean for the recuperation of our
spirits and bodies.  I shall not be opposed to the brethren's building a
meeting-house somewhere else, and keeping their cotillions halls for
parties, but I am not willing that they should convert the house that has
been set apart for religious meetings into a dancing hall.

	I will now pass to my third text.  I can say with confidence, that
there is no people on the face of this earth that pay more respect to
females than do this people.  I know of no community where females enjoy
the privileges they do here.  If any one of them is old and withered and
so dried up that you have to put weights on her skirts to keep her from
blowing away, she is so privileged that she is in everybody's dish or
platter--her nose is everywhere present--and still she will go home and
tell her husband that she is slighted.  Here we see the marked effect of
the curse that was in the beginning placed upon woman, their desire is to
their husbands all the time.  It is also written, "and he shall rule over
you."  Now put the two together.  Nobody else must be spoken to, no other
body must be danced with, no other lady must sit at the head of the table
with her husband.

	A few years ago one of my wives, when talking about wives leaving
their husbands said, "I wish my husband's wives would leave him, every
soul of them except myself."  That is the way they all feel, more or less,
at times, both old and young.  The ladies of seventy, seventy-five,
eighty, and eighty-five years of age are greeted here with the same
cheerfulness as are the rest.  All are greeted with kindness, respect, and
gentleness, no matter whether they wear linsey or silks and satin, they
are all alike respected and beloved according to their behaviour; at least
they are so far as I am concerned.

	It may be all well enough if a woman can attain faith to throw off
the curse, but there is one thing she cannot away with, at least not so
far as I am concerned, and that is, "and he shall rule over thee."  I can
do that by causing my women to do as they have a mind to, and at the same
time they do not know what is going on.  When I say rule, I do not mean
with an iron hand, but merely to take the lead--to lead them in the path I
wish them to walk in.  They may be determined not to answer my will, but
they are doing it all the time without knowing it.  Kindness, love, and
affection are the best rod to use upon the refractory.  Solomon is said to
have been the wisest man that ever lived, and he is said to have
recommended another kind of rod.  I have tried both kinds on children.  I
can pick out scores of men in this congregation who have driven their
children from them by using the wooden rod.  Where there is severity there
is no affection or filial feeling in the hearts of either party; the
children would rather be away from father than be with him.

	In some families the children are afraid to see father--they will run
and hide as from a tyrant.  My children are not afraid of my footfall;
except in the case of their having done something wrong they are not
afraid to approach me.  I could break the wills of my little children, and
whip them to this, that, and the other, but this I do not do.  Let the
child have a mild training until it has judgment and sense to guide it.  I
differ with Solomon's recorded saying as to spoiling the child by sparing
the rod.  True it is written in the New Testament that "whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth."  It is necessary to try the faith of children as
well as of grown people, but there are ways of doing so besides taking a
club and knocking them down with it.  "If you love me keep my
commandments."  "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls.  For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light."  There is nothing consistent in abusing your
wives and children.  There is quite a portion of the Elders of Israel who
do not know how to use one wife well.  I love my wives, respect them, and
honour them, but to make a queen of one and peasants of the rest I have no
such disposition, neither do I expect to do it.

	I will now pass to my fourth text, and the sermon will be quite
brief.  It is well known that we now receive news from the west and east
by the telegraphic wire that is stretched across the Continent.  Last
night we read a manuscript telegram, containing yesterday's news from New
York City and Chicago.  There are a great many in this Territory, who want
that news while it is fresh, but it goes into our printing-office, and
there remains from two to five days before the people can get it.  I want
a company raised to stretch a wire through our settlements in this
Territory, that information may be communicated to all parts with
lightning speed.

	I am now constantly annoyed with "What is the news?  Have you
received it?"  Yes, we have received it.  "When"  Three or four days ago,
but it is not yet set up; when, at the same time, if there is a particle
of manuscript telegram in my office, they never rest until they get it;
and when they have got it they seem to care no more about it.

	I wish some kind of arrangements entered into whereby we can have the
news before us in some reasonable time.  We have been put off with
printers' excuses until I am tired.  We send down to the printing-office,
and inquire if the extra is out.  Answer--"It will be out in a few
minutes."  We wait until morning and send again.  "It will be out in a few
minutes; we are now working at it; when, perhaps, it has never been
touched.  This I do not like.  Thus endeth my fourth and last sermon.

     CLOSING OF AMUSEMENTS.--INDULGING IN SIN BRINGS MENTAL DARKNESS.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 16, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have only a few remarks that I wish to make this morning, and they
will chiefly relate to our practical and immediate duties.

	We amuse and enjoy ourselves a great deal in this Territory, in
dancing and in other amusements.  I am as fond of amusement as any person,
and love to see others enjoy rational amusement in its season.  I have
this to comfort me; in all our assemblies for amusement this winter, I
have not seen or heard anything that has seriously annoyed my feelings. 
The people have been very civil, and have conducted themselves discreetly
and as Saints, as far as I know.

	I have now a request to make of the people, through their Bishops,
that during the coming week we bring our dancing parties to a close and
prepare to attend to matters of greater importance, as the winter is
drawing to a close, and the season for business is approaching.  In a few
weeks from now, we intend to give the people a few evenings entertainment
in our new theatre, which will not be entirely finished; after which, as
the spring opens, we shall attend to preparing material for building our
Temple, to gathering the poor, to farming and gardening, to building and
fencing, &c.

	The exhortation we have heard this morning is good, just, and true. 
We can gather much from it, touching the evidences of the Gospel.  Upon
this point the people, in many instances, do not understand themselves,
they forsake the Gospel, turn away from the holy commandments, and turn to
fables.  It is very remarkable, though true, that some persons who profess
to be intelligent beings are never easy unless they are in pain, nor happy
unless they are miserable.  When they are comfortable, well fed, and
clothed, have good health, and the society of the just, comparatively
speaking they must pinch themselves, or stick pins and needles into
themselves, in order to feel happier when the pain has ceased.  This is
marvellous to me.

	It is disgraceful for a member of this community to turn away from
the truth.  When a person receives the truth, has a knowledge of the
things of God, is instructed with regard to his position relative to the
heavens, he knows a great deal; and it is astonishing to me that there is
power enough among the wicked on earth and among Devils in hell to turn
such a soul away from righteousness.  A few in our community seem to be in
their glory when they are doing wrong, though this portion is
comparatively very small.  We do not see in our community quite so much
drunkenness as heretofore, nor so many gambling shops, but how long this
improved state of things will remain I know not.  For a few weeks we have
also had a respite from marauding thieves.

	Are the people righteous and pure enough in heart not to turn to
fables when they are presented to them? not to commit iniquity when they
are tempted? not to join hands with the ungodly when the ungodly are here
to take them by the hand?  If we have attained to that power, that Satan
and all his forces will fail to turn us away from the holy commandments of
the Lord Jesus, we never again will be afflicted through the power of the
wicked.  When we are tried by afflictions we are apt to forsake the faith
of Christ, and then the wicked are permitted to bear rule over us; then
unrighteousness surrounds us, and the influence of Satan and of hell
prevails in our midst.

	Have we yet to endure affliction as we have at the hands of our
enemies the ungodly Gentiles?  Have we again to see armies here? and again
be driven from our homes?  Have we to be visited with pestilence, famine,
and earthquake?  Is all this necessary?  If our hearts are pure we shall
never see any of those afflictions poured out upon this people, from this
time henceforth; on the contrary, the Lord delights to bless such a people
until there is not room to receive more.  Still in our afflictions we will
not complain, for the Lord has his own way of training his people.  How
joyful my heart would be if the people would receive the Gospel, if they
would understand it as they understand their daily avocations.

	Yet, when I realize that God dwells in the midst of eternal burnings,
that everything must be pure and holy that comes into his presence; that
he has marked out in the Gospel the path for the believer to walk in to
attain to holiness, and that no man or woman can receive the Gospel
without humbling themselves before the Lord, forsaking their sins, and
receiving the Holy Spirit, it is a matter of joy to me that unholy beings
are thereby prohibited from entering into his presence.  No unhallowed or
unclean thing can enter the heavenly abode of the righteous; and it is
beyond the capacity of man to make a safer place than that which God has
prepared for the righteous.  Jesus, in consideration of this, said, "Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through and steal."  Let us bind to heaven
all that is near and dear unto us, and if our treasures are there, there
also will our affections be.

	It is thirty years the 15th day of next April (though it has
accidentally been recorded and printed the fourteenth) since I was
baptized into this Church, and in that time I have gained quite an
experience.  I will tell you a little of it, though I will first make a
few remarks touching ourselves as a people.  We are prone to do wrong, or,
as the preacher has recorded:--"Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is
full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after
that they go to the dead."  We are merchants, speculators, traders, and
love the best end of a bargain.  We delight to talk about our neighbours. 
"Oh, how I delight to go over to such a house to see that sister, she is
so sociable, so full of chit-chat, and knows everything that is going on." 
And thus they meet to bereave the characters of their neighbours, and
there is not an evil that can be imagined but what will be told.  After
they have finished their chatting, backbiting, and slandering, they
conclude it all by apologizing:--"Really, sister, I do not know, but I
have said more than I ought, but let us pass it over, you know we are all
brethren and sisters."  Again, says one brother in the Church to another,
"Well, we had a good time last evening, we enjoyed ourselves pretty well. 
It is true we got drunk, and it is not quite right to get drunk.  My head
ached this morning, and I feel a little sorry that we indulged so far." 
Another has indulged too much in making liquor, and in putting the deadly
draught to his neighbour's lips.  Another has indulged too much in
swearing.  Another is troubled because he has indulged in taking the
advantage of his neighbour in a trade, and, to make a cent, has cheated
the simple and good-hearted who trusted in him.  Another has stolen a
little, or done this and that wrong; and all are apt to excuse themselves
under the plea of the weaknesses of human nature.

	Now, I come to my own experience and say--there is not an individual
here but what has power, and God has given it to him, to drink whisky or
let it alone, to swear or not swear, to lie or not lie, deceive or not
deceive, cheat and take advantage of a neighbour or not do so, slander and
backbite a brother or a sister or not.  This power is our own individual
property, and we shall be brought into judgment for the manner in which we
use it, and for all our actions in the flesh.  Thirty year's experience
has taught me that every moment of my life must be holiness to the Lord,
resulting from equity, justice, mercy, and uprightness in all my actions,
which is the only course by which I can preserve the Spirit of the
Almighty to myself.  What is your experience?  It is the same as my own. 
You cannot constantly be sinning a little and repenting, and retain the
Spirit of the Lord as your constant companion.  My experience up to this
time, has been to do as I would that others should do unto me, under like
circumstances; and, if I understand myself, there is not a man or woman on
the face of this earth that I have dealt with contrary to this rule, and
this practice I have continued each day.

	When Monday morning breaks upon the eyes of the people, they must be
as faithful to God and righteousness as they are here when partaking of
the sacrament, or lose the Spirit of the Lord, [sic-punc]  We have no
permission to sin for one moment.  You may ask me if I ever do wrong.  I
answer--yes, like everybody else, owing to the weakness of the flesh; but
if I do wrong knowingly, then I sin.  When this people can live and never
do a wrong knowingly, if they should sin in their ignorance, God will
freely forgive that sin, if they are ready to repent when it is made known
to them and refrain from it in the future.  Let us live in this way and
the kingdom is ours.  It is the kingdom of God with us, or nothing.  It is
in our possession, and God will have a people that will preserve it
inviolate.  There may be some in our midst who do not honour the character
of our religion, yet the Lord will preserve his kingdom.

	There are some who wish to regain the Spirit of the Lord they have
lost, and others desire to go on a Mission to get that Spirit.  My advice
to all such persons is--so live daily that all the light of God's Spirit
given to you will be preserved in you and increase from day to day, until
you become perfect in your sphere as our Father in heaven is perfect. 
This is my experience.  We cannot believe any truth that exists in all the
eternities of the Gods that is not embraced in our holy religion, commonly
called "Mormonism."  It incorporates every truth that has been known, is
known, and will be known, in all the eternities past, and in all the
eternities to come; in short, it is eternal truth upon which the throne of
God is founded and cannot be moved.  May the Lord help us to be faithful.

	Again, in all the duties and labours pertaining to our mortal
existence, let us remember that Paul may plant and Apollos may water, but
it is God alone who gives the increase.  And how long will it be before we
shall learn to take good care of the increase God gives us?  Our labour is
our wealth; it is the best capital that any nation can possess.  We have
an immense capital that will bring us a large interest, if it is expended
judiciously and with that wisdom which cometh from Heaven.  Every man and
woman capable of labour have their stock of capital on hand; dispose of it
wisely; let everything be put to good use in the best possibe [sic] manner
to build up the kingdom of God, and to make ourselves comfortable and
happy on this earth, and the Lord will preserve us and give us all we ask
for.  The kingdom is ours.  Amen.

             BUILDING UP AND ADORNMENT OF ZION BY THE SAINTS.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 23, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Those who are capable of contemplating upon and realizing the
relationship of mankind to the Heavens, the object of their existence
here, the common salvation that is provided for all who have lived, now
live, and will live upon the earth, and the power that is given to each
person to preserve his identity to an endless duration, must be aware that
there is a great deal to be said and done by those to whom are committed
the Priesthood of the Son of God and the management of his work upon the
earth in the last days.

	It is written, "Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice
together shall they sing:  for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord
shall bring again Zion."  Again, "Whereas thou hast been forsaken and
hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal
excellency, a joy of many generations."  Again, "For, behold, I say unto
you that Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her,
and she shall be an ensign unto the people, and there shall come unto her
out of every nation under heaven."  And, again, "Zion shall flourish upon
the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together
unto the place which I have appointed," &c.  We talk and read about Zion,
we contemplate upon it, and in our imaginations we reach forth to grasp
something that is transcendant in heavenly beauty, excellency and glory. 
But while contemplating the future greatness of Zion, do we realize that
we are the pioneers of that future greatness and glory?  Do we realize
that if we enjoy a Zion in time or in eternity, we must make it for
ourselves?  That all who have a Zion in the eternities of the gods
organized, framed, consolidated, and perfected it themselves, and
consequently are entitled to enjoy it.

	Were we to send a hundred families of Saints into a valley not yet
inhabited, being acquainted with its climate, soil, and general
capabilities for productiveness, in the vision of our minds we could see
in the future comfortable and commodious houses for the people to dwell
in, buildings for religious worship and education; temples, tabernacles,
and academies; also houses for amusement and State purposes, barns, and
stables, yards, for the accommodation of animals, well-fenced farms,
granaries filled with grain, orchards and gardens, wine, fruit, meat,
silk, woollen, and cotton fabrics, and the people clothed and beautified
with the productions of the works of their own hands, and entirely
sustained by their industry and the blessings of God through their
righteousness.  The Lord brings forth all those temporal blessings
precisely in the same way in which he will build up Zion.  He will build
our houses, tabernacles, and temples, make our farms, raise our wheat,
meat, and fruit, make our spinning-wheels and looms, and weave our cloth,
while we remain in a state of complete inactivity, just as much as he will
bring again Zion without our co-operation.  The Lord has done his share of
the work; he has surrounded us with the elements containing wheat, meat,
flax, wool, silk, fruit, and everything with which to build up, beautify
and glorify the Zion of the last days, and it is our business to mould
these elements to our wants and necessities, according to the knowledge we
now have and the wisdom we can obtain from the Heavens through our
faithfulness.  In this way will the Lord bring again Zion upon the earth,
and in no other.

	If we wish to make linen, we must prepare the soil that is suitable
for raising flax, cast the seed into the ground, cultivate it, gather it,
and prepare it to be spun and wove into linen.  The Lord will not do this
for us.  We must also raise our bread by sowing grain, after the ground is
prepared, then cultivating and watching it until it is ripened, then
passing it through all the different processes until it is made into
bread.  The Lord will not do this for us any more than he will bring again
Zion without our co-operation.  He has placed within our reach everything
necessary for food, raiment, houses, and possessions, and for beauty,
goodness, excellency, exaltation, life, glory, and bliss.  The Lord would
clothe these naked Indians, for they are of the house of Israel, if he
would clothe us.  He will build up Zion upon the same principle that he
raises grain, flax, silk, wool fruit, &c., &c.  There is not one thing
wanting in all the work of God's hands to make a Zion upon the earth when
the people conclude to make it.  We can make a Zion of God on earth at our
pleasure, upon the same principle that we can raise a field of wheat, or
build and inhabit.  There has been no time when the material has not been
here from which to produce corn, wheat, &c.; and by the judicious
management and arrangement of this ever-existing material a Zion of God
can always be built on the earth.

	Man is the offspring of God.  Who can fully realize this?  Our
Heavenly Father orders all things that pertain to this earth and to
multitudes of worlds of which we are ignorant.  We are as much the
children of this great Being as we are the children of our mortal
progenitors.  We are flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, and the same
fluid that circulates in our bodies, called blood, once circulated in his
veins as it does in ours.  As the seeds of grains, vegetables and fruits
produce their kind, so man is in the image of God.  We hope to be exalted. 
We hope that God our Father will make us noble and good, but he will only
direct and aid us in making ourselves righteous.  He has formed us, and in
his providences brought us forth upon this earth, but he without our
efforts will not make anything of us.  What we shall be, depends upon
ourselves.  We can improve this organization and bring it back to its
original purity and goodness, by faithfulness to the will of Heaven, and
by daily adding to the intelligence we now possess until we are prepared
to stand in the presence of our Creator.

	When we conclude to make a Zion we will make it, and this work
commences in the heart of each person.  When the father of a family wishes
to make a Zion in his own house, he must take the lead in this good work,
which it is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the
Spirit of Zion.  Before he can produce the work of sactification [sic] in
his family, he must sanctify himself, and by this means God can help him
to sanctify his family.  There are many families in this community that
have constantly with them the Spirit of Zion.  Visit them when you will,
and you find them dwelling in peace; a heavenly influence constantly
broods over them and over everything they possess.  But are they perfect? 
No.  It would not do for them to be perfect, because we have still to
associate more or less with that which is evil.

	We have all the material we need to build up Zion, and I wish the
Spirit of Zion to extend from heart to heart, and from house to house. 
This good work must commence in each person; there must be instituted a
watchful care over the passions to bring them under control, that an angry
feeling may not arise, that an evil passion may not gain the mastery to
the overthrow of wisdom and good sound judgment, until the power of the
enemy that is sown within us is entirely subdued to the will of Christ,
for the purpose of the enemy of all righteousness is to destroy the human
family, and make them what they were not intended to be.

	I do not wish you to carry away a wrong impression of our true
situation before the heavens relative to perfection.  For you to be
perfect, in one sense of the word, is to be prepared to inherit eternal
glory in the presence of the Father and the Son.  Should any mortal attain
to this state of perfection, he could not longer remain among his fellow
mortals.  I do not want you so very perfect, but I am anxious that we
should commence the growth of Zion in ourselves, and when we do this, we
shall cease to willingly hold fellowship with that which is evil.  But so
long as we willingly hold fellowship with that which tends to death and
destruction, we cannot progress as we should in the work of perfection in
ourselves, nor in building up and beautifying Zion.

	The work of building up Zion is in every sense a practical work; it
is not a mere theory.  A theoretical religion amounts to very little real
good or advantage to any person.  To possess an inheritance in Zion or in
Jerusalem only in theory--only in imagination--would be the same as having
no inheritance at all.  It is necessary to get a deed of it, to make an
inheritance, practical, substantial and profitable.  Then let us not rest
contented with a mere theoretical religion, but let it be practical,
self-purifying, and self-sustaining, keeping the love of God within us,
walking by every precept, by every law, and by every word that is given to
lead us to truth, to God, and to life eternal.

	I have Zion in my view constantly.  We are not going to wait for
angels, or for Enoch and his company to come and build up Zion, but we are
going to build it.  We will raise our wheat, build our houses, fence our
farms, plant our vineyards and orchards, and produce everything that will
make our bodies comfortable and happy, and in this manner we intend to
build up Zion on the earth and purify it and cleanse it from all polutions
[sic].  Let there be an hallowed influence go from us over all things over
which we have any power; over the soil we cultivate, over the houses we
build, and over everything we possess; and if we cease to hold fellowship
with that which is corrupt and establish the Zion of God in our hearts, in
our own houses, in our cities, and throughout our country, we shall
ultimately overcome the earth, for we are the lords of the earth; and,
instead of thorns and thistles, every useful plant that is good for the
food of man and to beautify and adorn will spring from its bosom.

	We have certain laws to observe in order to obtain wheat.  We do not
sow wheat on a bare rock, for we have learned by experience that it will
not grow there.  We do not sow onion and carrot seed in the middle of the
street and expect to reap a bountiful crop, for our experience teaches us
differently.  Instead of doing this, we observe the laws in nature which
govern the productions of the earth, as our fathers before us have done,
and prepare the ground properly, subduing and enriching and cleansing from
it every obnoxious weed.  Then if we wish to raise Toas wheat, we sow the
seed that will produce it, and proceed in like manner with whatever we
desire to produce from the ground, for every seed will produce its kind,
and with care and watchfulness the husbandman will reap an abundant
increase.  Thus it is plainly manifest that we have the laws of nature and
of God by which we can build up Zion.  Let us then take advantage of the
laws and of the blessings which God is willing to pour upon us, and
cultivate and subdue the ground, sow the good seed, fence it in that the
enemy cannot come and sow tares, and bar up the gates and keep the
watchman there to watch day and night.

	Those who are sent to sow the good seed are faithfully waiting for
the ground to be prepared.  Cultivate the seed well, and it will bring
forth its kind, that which pertains to the earth and that which pertains
to the grace of God and the principles of eternity.  Plant and cultivate
in your hearts and bring forth the fruits of Zion.  Let us prepare our
hearts, as we prepare our fields, to receive the good word of God, and
never let anything mar our peace, or step in between us and our God and
our holy religion, remembering that whatsoever a man soweth that also
shall he reap; and as your acts in life are, so you may expect to be
judged.  The elements are here to produce as good a Zion as was ever made
in all the eternities of the Gods.  Here are the elements to produce grain
which is good for the food of man, as also the fruit of the vine, and that
which yieldeth fruit whether in the ground or above the ground. 
Nevertheless, wheat for man, corn for the ox, oats for the horse, and rye
(not for whisky) for fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field,
and barley for all useful animals and for mild drinks, as also other
grain.

	It is for us, as children of our heavenly Father, to arise and assume
the right the law of the Holy Priesthood gives us, and organize the
elements for a Zion, and bring it forth, no matter where we are.  I would
not give much for a religion that is not thus practical.  Some Elders have
in a manner to convey the idea that the practical part of our religion is
only manifest here.  We should be sorry if this were the case, and a
little reflection will show them their mistake.  Did you ever have sore
feet and aching limbs, while travelling abroad preaching the Gospel? 
"Yes." was that practical, or was it only spiritual?  After walking
twenty-five miles to fill an appointment, and, before eating a mouthful of
food, preaching an hour or two, for nobody had thought you wanted anything
to eat, and then baptising, and then wading through the mud for miles in
wet clothes before you could get a dry sock, was that practical?  I
thought preaching the Gospel was as nigh manual labour as anything I could
work at.

	We have the material here to build up Zion.  Will we build it up? 
What do you say?  (Voices, "Yes.")  Yes, we will establish it on the
earth, no more to be thrown down or removed for ever.  Amen.

     TRUE CHARACTER OF GOD.--ERRONEOUS IDEAS ENTERTAINED TOWARDS HIM.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                 Great Salt Lake City, February 23, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	We certainly should be extremely knowing, did we know everything;
but, as we do not, we will be satisfied with what we do know and can still
learn.  This people know much.  Their experience and their knowledge,
coupled with that which has been revealed to them from the Fountain of all
knowledge, are far beyond the capacities of those who have not heard and
received the Gospel.

	I have a few words to say touching our present existence, and in
reference to the remarks made to-day by brother Kimball pertaining to the
body.  Our mortal bodies are all important to us; without them we never
can be glorified in the eternities that will be.  We are in this state of
being for the express purpose of obtaining habitations for our spirits to
dwell in, that they may become personages of tabernacle.  Our former
religious traditions has taught us that our Father in heaven has no
tabernacle, that his centre is everywhere and his circumference nowhere. 
Yet we read that "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran." 
"Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his
feet."  "And the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like the pure wool."  "Hast thou an arm like God? 
Or can'st thou thunder with a voice like him?"  "And I will take away mine
hand and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face thou shalt not see." 
"The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to
their cry."  The idea that the Lord our God is not a personage of
tabernacle is entirely a mistaken notion.  He was once a man.

	Brother Kimball quoted a saying of Joseph the Prophet, that he would
not worship a God who had not a Father; and I do not know that he would if
he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other.  If he had a
Father, he was made in his likeness.  And if he is our Father we are made
after his image and likeness.  He once possessed a body, as we now do; and
our bodies are as much to us, as his body to him.  Every iota of this
organization is necessary to secure for us an exaltation with the Gods. 
Our mortal tabernacles decline.  The spirit is inseparably connected with
the body until death, and it is so designed; but when we get through with
our worship in this Tabernacle or building for worship, we dispense with
it until we wish to meet again.  We are not inseparably connected with it;
it may be consumed by the element of fire and pass away for ever.  But it
is not so with our bodies; if we wilfully loose these, we loose everything
that God has provided for the faithful.

	This is an item I wished to explain, though we do not know
everything. When brother Kimball speaks, I am so well acquainted with his
views and style that I easily understand his meaning; but he does not
always fully explain his views to the understanding of the people.  This
is a point of doctrine that is all and in all to us, consequently it is
essentially necessary that we should understand it as it is, and not carry
away the idea, from what has been said by brother Kimball, that this is a
spiritual kingdom and the body is nothing.  Brother Kimball understands
this doctrine as I do, but he has his method of expressing his ideas and I
have mine; and I am extremely anxious to so convey my ideas to the people
that they will understand them as I do.  Our language is deficient, and I
do not possess in this particular the natural endowment that some men
enjoy.  I am a man of few words, and unlearned in the learning of this
generation.  The reason why brother Kimball has not language as perfectly
and fully as some other men is not in consequence of a lack in his spirit,
for he never has preached when I have heard him, that I did not know what
he was about, if he knew himself.  I know that his ideas are as clear as
the sun that is now shining, and I care not what the words are that he
uses to express them.

	We have foolish Elders, and I have had to contend, time after time,
against their foolish doctrines.  One of our most intelligent Apostles in
one of his discourses left the people entirely in the dark with regard to
Jacob and Esau, and he never understood the difference between
fore-knowledge and fore-ordination.  Fore-knowledge and fore-ordination
are two distinct principles.  And again, I have had to contend against
what is called the "baby resurrection" doctrine, which, as has been taught
and indulged by some, is one of the most absurd doctrines that can be
thought of.  Having had these foolish doctrines to combat, I am not
willing that the idea should possess your minds that the body is neither
here nor there, and that the work of salvation is entirely spiritual.  We
have received these bodies for an exaltation, to be crowned with those who
have been crowned with crowns of glory and eternal life.  Yes, Joseph
Smith said, the Lord whispers to the spirit in the tabernacle the same as
though it were out of it.  That is correct and true.

	What you understand with regard to this doctrine and religion, and
with regard to the things of God generally, you understand in the Spirit. 
Take the spirit from the body, and the body is lifeless; but in the
resurrection the component parts of our bodies will again be called
together, expressly for a glorious resurrection to immortality.  Our
bodies, which are now subject to death, will return to mother earth for a
time, to be refined from that which pertains to the fall of man, which has
particularly affected the body but not the spirit.  When the spirit enters
the body, it is pure and holy from the heavens; and could it reign
predominently [sic] in the tabernacle, ruling, dictating, and directing
its actions without an opposing force, man never would commit a sin; but
the tabernacle has to suffer the effects of the fall, of that sin which
Satan has introduced into the world and hence the spirit does not bear
rule all the time.

	When we receive the Gospel, a warfare commences immediately; Paul
says, "for I delight in the law of God, after the inward man," but I see
another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."  We have to
fight continually, as it were, sword in hand to make the spirit master of
the tabernacle, or the flesh subject to the law of the spirit.  If this
warfare is not diligently prosecuted, then the law of sin prevails, and in
consequence of this some apostatize from the truth when crossing the
plains, learn to swear instead of to pray, become high-minded and high
tempered instead of learning to be patient and humble, and when they
arrive in these vallies they feel so self-sufficient that they consider
themselves the only ones that are really right; they are filled with
darkness, the authority of the Spirit is not listened to, and the law of
sin and death is the ruling power in their tabernacles.  They could once
testify, by the revelations of Jesus Christ to them that Mormonism, or the
Gospel is true; then the Spirit triumphed over the flesh, they walked in
the light of God, and great was their joy, and brilliant their hope of
immortality and eternal life.  The rule of the flesh brings darkness and
death, while, on the other hand, the rule of the Spirit brings light and
life.  When through the Gospel, the Spirit in man has so subdued the flesh
that he can live without wilful transgression, the Spirit of God unites
with his spirit, they become congenial companions, and the mind and will
of the Creator is thus transmitted to the creature.  Did their spirits
have their choice there is not a son or daughter of Adam and Eve on the
earth but what would be obedient to the Gospel of salvation, and redeem
their bodies to exaltation and glory.  But there is a constant warfare
between them, still they must remain together, be saved and exalted
together, or neither of them will be saved and exalted with the salvation
and the exaltation which the Gospel offers.

	Our bodies are all important to us, though they may be old and
withered, emaciated with toil, pain, and sickness, and our limbs bent with
rheumatism, all uniting to hasten dissolution, for death is sown in our
mortal bodies.  The food and drink we partake of are contaminated with the
seeds of death, yet we partake of them to extend our lives until our
allotted work is finished, when our tabernacles, in a state of ripeness,
are sown in the earth to produce immortal fruit.  Yet, if we live our holy
religion and let the Spirit reign, it will not become dull and stupid, but
as the body approaches dissolution the spirit takes a firmer hold on that
enduring substance behind the vail, drawing from the depths of that
eternal Fountain of Light sparkling gems of intelligence which surround
the frail and sinking tabernacle with a halo of immortal wisdom.

	I shall soon be sixty-one years of age, and my spirit is more
vigorous and powerful to-day than it has been in any day I ever saw; it is
more quick to comprehend, more ready to discern, the understanding is more
matured, more correct in judgment, the memory more vivid and enduring and
discretion more circumspect, and when I have attained eighty years I shall
be better than I am to-day, God being my helper.  I am better now than I
was twenty years ago.  Write it down and read it twenty years hence, and
see whether my spirit is not better and brighter than it is to-day.  Need
we in spirit bow down to this poor, miserable, decaying body?  We will
not.  Brother Kimball's side has been broken by a fall from a wagon, but
he will be mended up, and his life will not be shortened on that account;
and we are going to live until we are satisfied.

	The Elders of Israel, though the great majority of them are moral
men, and as clear of spot and blemish as men well can be, live beneath
their privilege; they live continually without enjoying the power of God. 
I want to see men and women breathe the Holy Ghost in every breath of
their lives, living constantly in the light of God's countenance.  Brother
Kimball says you must keep alive, and give nourishment and vitality to the
body, comparing the Church to a tree; that you must help your Prophet and
Revelator and keep that portion of the tree alive.  God keeps that alive,
brethren and sisters.  I thank you for your prayers, your integrity, &c.,
but I feel to-day as I did in Nauvoo, when Sidney Rigdon and others
intended to ride the Church into hell.  I told them that I would take my
hat and the few that would go with me and build up the kingdom of God,
asking no odds of them.  If you support me, you support yourselves; if you
do not choose to do this you will dry up, blow away and be damned.

	A tree or plant of any kind that sends its roots into the ground does
not gain strength and vitality from the ground alone, but the atmosphere
contributes to its support as well as the ground, and it will live longer
out of the ground with air than in the ground without it.  From the
atmosphere and the rays of the sun it gathers elements that we do not see,
which operate upon the sap sent up through the roots under the bark into
the branches and leaves where it is prepared to make wood and fruit, and
give strength and growth to the trunk, roots, and the whole tree.  Then
you may cut off all the limbs and roots of some trees, and the atmosphere
will make more in great profusion.

	I do not expect to preach a lengthy sermon this afternoon, but there
is a great deal to be said and done.  The Lord Almighty leads this Church,
and he will never suffer you to be led astray if you are found doing your
duty.  You may go home and sleep as sweetly as a babe in its mother's
arms, as to any danger of your leaders leading you astray, for if they
should try to do so the Lord would quickly sweep them from the earth. 
Your leaders are trying to live their religion as far as I am capable of
doing so?  Yes, I do.  The power of God is with me continually, and I
never mean to live an hour without it.

	I am satisfied that we do not realize to the fullest extent our moral
and intellectual growth as a people, but let us be straightened up and a
fountain of knowledge is opened, a rich mine of intellectual wealth is
revealed, and in time we shall find that heaven and earth have come
together, for the earth will be celestialized and brought back to the
presence of God, who dwells in eternal burnings in the midst of
perfection.  Then we should be prepared to enjoy the fullness of the
blessings and glory God has in store for us.  If we live in these bodies
as we should we shall be prepared to receive all the glory he has for the
faithful.  Let us continue the warfare, fight the good fight of faith,
sanctify our hearts before the Lord, and day by day perform the labour he
has for us to do, and we shall be accounted worthy to receive our
exaltation.

	May God bless you.  Amen.



               NECESSITY OF TEMPORAL LABOUR, PREPARATORY TO
                            BUILDING A TEMPLE.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, March 2, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	All things were created firstly spiritual; then it seems that
secondly, all things were created temporal.  The laws and principles that
tie together spiritual and temporal things are so complicated, are so
interwoven with each other, so inseparably connected, and yet in the minds
of the people they appear so distinct one from the other, that we
evidently need a great deal of experience and reflection to make this
subject clear to our understandings.  I shall only make a few remarks, and
leave the subject I shall now introduce for others to speak upon.

	This building is set apart expressly for the worship of the Lord our
God, and to many it may seem to infringe upon the rights of our religion
to talk about temporal matters here.  In the beginning things were created
first spiritual, then temporal; but now it is first temporal and then
spiritual.  We cannot attend to any one of the ordinances of the Holy
Priesthood without a temporal act.  We must perform a temporal labour--a
manual labour--in order to arrive at the condition which fits us to
receive the full benefit of the spiritual.  At present the few remarks I
shall make will be upon the matter of obtaining rock for our contemplated
temple, which we intend to build upon this block.  The canal that we
started from Big Cottonwood creek to this city was for the purpose of
transporting material for building the Temple.  We have learned some
things in regard to the nature of the soil in which the bed of the canal
is made that we did not know before.  We pretty much completed the canal,
or, in other words, we hewed out the cistern, but, behold, it would not
hold water.  We have not the time now to make that canal carry water, so
we will continue to haul rock with cattle; and when an opportunity
presents, we will finish the canal.  We now contemplate repairing the
State road, so that we can haul heavy blocks of granite.  We were not very
sucessful [sic] the last winter in hauling rock, for the road was so
soaked with water that it was almost impassible; but we will now repair
that road, and continue our hauling.

	We cannot even enter the Temple when it is built, and perform those
ordinances which lead to spiritual blessings, without performing a
temporal labour.  Temporal ordinances must be performed to secure the
spiritual blessings the Great Supreme has in store for his faithful
children.  Every act is first a temporal act.  The Apostle says, faith
comes by hearing.  What should be heard to produce faith?  The preaching
of the Word.  For that we must have a preacher; and he is not an invisible
Spirit, but a temporal, ordinary man like ourselves, and subject to the
same regulations and rules of life.  To preach the Gospel is a temporal
labour, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is the result of a
temporal labour.  To be baptized is a temporal labour, both to the person
administered to and the administrator.  I am a living witness to the truth
of this statement, for I have made my feet sore many a time, and tired
myself out travelling and preaching, that by hearing the Gospel the people
might have faith.  The blessings we so earnestly desire will come to us by
performing the manual labour required, and thus preparing all things
necessary to receive the invisible blessings Jehovah has for his children.

	Do we need a Temple?  We do, to prepare us to enter in through the
gate into the city where the Saints are at rest.  Ordinances necessary to
this have not yet been performed and cannot be in the absence of a
suitable place.  We wish a Temple, not for the public congregation, but
for the Priesthood, wherein to arrange and organize fully the Priesthood
in its order and degrees, to administer the ordinance of the Priesthood to
the Saints for their exaltations.  The first thing to be done is a
temporal labour with the pick and the spade, to prepare a good solid road
upon which to haul the rock; then we call upon the quarrymen to get the
rock out of the mountains and split them into sizes convenient for putting
upon waggons.  Now all this work is not done by faith alone, but nerve,
bone, and muscle are exceedingly essential with faith, also, in this cas},
the strength of the ox.  When the rock is on the ground, it must then be
hewn and prepared for the walls.  While this work is progressing on a
still morning, you may hear a hundred chisels at work, and we want to hear
two or three hundred at work.  Thus we will rear the Temple of the Lord,
and when it is completed we can enter therein and receive the ordinances
of the Holy Priesthood, and our spiritual blessings; but we first have to
perform our manual labour, and we wish the people to fully understand
this.  I will now call upon Bishop Hunter to make some remarks.

                                 --------

	I wish to preach another discourse.

	At a Bishops' meeting, on Thursday evening last, it was concluded to
cut a large ditch on the upper side of the State road, from here to
Gardner's mill, to carry off the water from the surface of the road, which
would then soon be in good order for travel.  This matter I wish to have
laid before the people, to receive an expression from them whether they
will sustain their Bishops in this labour, and this is the reason why we
speak of it this morning.  If the work is properly taken hold of and in
good earnest, with strong hands and willing hearts, it will soon be
accomplished.  The Bishops are willing to have the ground divided among
them, which Bishop Hunter will attend to.

	We want to build this Temple as speedily as possible, through the
blessings and kind providences of the Almighty in whom we will trust,
doing the labour our hands find to do, asking no questions as to what we
are going to receive when the Temple is done, or how long we shall be in
building it, but we will build it as fast as possible.  Some care nothing
about building a Temple, for, say they, as sure as we commence we shall
have to fight the enemy.  If we have an enemy to encounter the quicker we
do so the better, for we are able to do whatever the Lord requires.  Union
is strength, and this terrifies our enemies.  Who can resist the power
possessed by the Latter-day Saints in their union?  And the stronger our
union, the more mighty are the bands of our strength; while disunion is
weakening our enemies, and splitting them asunder; they will be left in
weakness, while we shall grow in strength in our union, and in confidence
in God and each other.  And let us take a course to create confidence in
ourselves as well as in our neighbours, and we will constantly grow
strong.

	We can all help a little in repairing the road I have mentioned, so I
will ask the brethren and the sisters too, will you sustain your Bishops
in making a good road upon which to haul rock for the Temple?  [The vote
was unanimous in favour.]  Let Bishop Hunter and other Bishops, as far
south as Fort Union, proportion to each ward its share of the labour to be
done on the road.

	I thought well of the discourse this morning; I like a great deal of
it.  Were I to speak what is now in my mind, I should say that succotash
is the best dish I ever partook of; you get that, when I talk to you, and
you had it from Bishop Hunter this morning, a little of this, and a little
of that.

	The kingdom of God is before us; we have it to build up, and to
establish the Zion of our God upon this land.  And if I am right in my
views and feelings, the Latter-day Saints cannot labour too fast nor too
dilligently to accomplish the work they are called to do.  Then let us go
to with our might, and labour faithfully to establish that kingdom which
is all and in all to us.  May the Lord help us.  Amen.

            PROPRIETY OF THEATRICAL AMUSEMENTS.--INSTRUCTIONS
                       RELATIVE TO CONDUCTING THEM.
 Remarks by President Brigham Young, at the Dedication of the New Theatre
                 at Great Salt Lake City, March 6, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Man is organized and brought forth as the king of the earth, to
understand, to criticise, examine, improve, manufacture, arrange, and
organize the crude matter, and honour and glorify the works of God's
hands.  This is a wide field for the operation of man, that reaches into
eternity; and it is good for mortals to search out the things of this
earth.

	The elements are to be brought into shape and operation for the
benefit, happiness, beauty, excellency, glory, and exaltation of the
children of men that dwell upon the earth; though we cannot produce that
which has not already been produced.  Are we capable, by our most critical
researches, of finding that which has not already been found?  We are not. 
We are capable of improving upon the crude elements, until we understand
the organization of this earth, and the power by which it is sustained,
for what purpose man was created, and the immortality that will crown his
existence.  All this is what others have learned before us.

	Were we capable of scanning the eternities of the Gods, we should
find works and exhibitions of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and power,
by whom?  By those who were as we are.  It is the privilege of man to
search out the wisdom of God pertaining to the earth and the heavens.

	Professing Christians generally would not consider this a fit
position for those who profess the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ to
occupy.  These Saints of the Most High appear here in the capacity of an
assembly to exercise and amuse the mind of the natural man.  This idea
brings at once to my mind a thousand reflections.  What is nature? 
Everything that pertains to the heavens and the earth.  "My son," says the
Christian father, "you should not attend a theatre, for there the wicked
assemble; nor a ball-room, for there the wicked assemble; you should not
be found playing a ball, for the sinner does that."  Hundreds of like
admonitions are thus given, and so we have been thus traditioned; but it
is our privilege and our duty to scan all the works of man from the days
of Adam until now, and thereby learn what man was made for, what he is
capable of performing, and how far his wisdom can reach into the heavens,
and to know the evil and the good.

	It is written in the Scriptures, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city, and the people not be afraid?  Shall there be evil in a city, and
the Lord hath not done it?"  Is there an evil thing upon the earth that he
does not fully understand?  There is not.  The Psalmist very beautifully
illustrates this idea--"Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art
acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but
lo, O Lord, though knowest it altogether.  Whether shall I go from thy
spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the
sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." 
The Lord understands the evil and the good; why should we not likewise
understand them?  We should.  Why?  To know how to choose the good and
refuse the evil; which we cannot do, unless we understand the evil as well
as the good.  I do not wish to convey the idea that it is necessary to
commit evil in order to obtain this knowledge.

	Upon the stage of a theatre can be represented in character, evil and
its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and
the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. 
The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a
community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of
the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences.  The path of sin
with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how
to shun it.

	The Lord knows all things; man should know all things pertaining to
this life, and to obtain this knowledge it is right that he should use
every feasible means; and I do not hesitate to say that the stage can, in
a great degree, be made to subserve this end.  It is written, "Prove all
things, hold fast that which is good."  Refuse evil, choose good, hate
iniquity, love truth.  All this our fathers have done before us; I do not
particularly mean father Adam, or his Father; I do not particularly mean
Abraham, or Moses, the Prophets, or Apostles, but I mean our fathers who
have been exalted for millions of years previous to Adam's time.  They
have all passed through the same ordeals we are now passing through, and
have searched all things, even to the depths of hell.

	Is there evil in the theatre? in the ball-room? in the place of
worship? in the dwelling? in the world?  Yes, when men are inclined to do
evil in any of those places.  There is evil in persons meeting simply for
a chit-chat, if they will allow themselves to commit evil while thus
engaged.  Can we not sift out every particle of wheat from the vast body
of chaff we find in books on science and religion? that we find in
governmental constitutions and judicial rulings? in learned commentaries
and on law and order? and in the rudiments and advanced branches of
education?  Can we not even make the stage of a theatre the platform upon
which to exhibit truth in all its simple beauty? and sift out from the
theatrical lore of ages the chaff and folly that has encumbered it? and
preserve and profit by that which is truly good and great?  This, however,
is not the work of a day or a year; but, as the chaff is protective to
wheat in a pile, so the true lore of ages is concealed and preserved in
the chaff pile of folly and nonsense, until the Saints of the Most High
cause a separation.

	We shall endeavour to make our theatrical performances a source of
good, and not of evil.  Rather than the latter, and rather than it should
pass into the hands of the ungodly, I ask the Lord to let the whole fabric
return to its native elements.  it is our privilege and our duty to search
all things upon the face of the earth, and learn what there is for man to
enjoy, what God has ordained for the benefit and happiness of mankind, and
then make use of it without sinning against him.

	Our eyes are delighted in seeing, our ears in hearing.  We behold the
faces of our friends, we see the gems of intelligence sparkling through
those outward windows of the soul; and what a blessing it is to see the
countenances of our friends radiant with delight.  Our senses, if properly
educated, are channels of endless felicity to us, but we can devote them
to evil or to good.  Let us devote all to the glory of God and the
building up of his kingdom, for in this there is lasting joy.

	Man is of the earth, earthy; but the Spirit is pure from heaven. 
This mortal existence must be prolonged by the use of food.  Food that is
good for the use of man is abundant in the elements, and God has endowed
us with the ability to combine the elements, through the means of useful
plants and animals, to supply ourselves with all we need.  Should we
refuse to avail ourselves of this means, hunger and nakedness must be our
portion.  Heaven will not perform the labour that it has designed us to
perform.  We must sow, reap, clean, and grind into flour our wheat, and
make it into bread.  Were we not to do this, we should go without bread
until doomsday, and without clothing, if we wait for the Lord to make
clothes for us.  It is for us to search out the elements, learn how to
combine them to make silk, wool, linen, cotton, and every other textile
material that can be made into cloth, for the comfort and convenience of
man.

	When man is industrious and righteous, then is he happy.  Sin blights
all true happiness, and throws a deep gloom over man's whole existence. 
Let us be righteous, and then learn to make ourselves comfortable and
joyful in the possession of creature comforts.  Man is always happy when
he is righteous.  The Lord will not build our houses and temples, after he
has given us the elements and taught us how to build comfortable houses,
magnificent temples, and commodious places of worship.  Everything that is
joyful, beautiful, glorious, comforting, consoling, lovely, pleasing to
the eye, good to the taste, pleasant to the smell, and happifying in every
respect is for the Saints.

	Tight-laced religious professors of the present generation have a
horror at the sound of a fiddle.  There is no music in hell, for all good
music belongs to heaven.  Sweet harmonious sounds give exquisite joy to
human beings capable of appreciating music.  I delight in hearing
harmonious tones made by the human voice, by musical instruments, and by
both combined.  Every sweet musical sound that can be made belongs to the
Saints and is for the Saints.  Every flower, shrub, and tree to beautify,
and to gratify the taste and smell, and every sensation that gives to man
joy and felicity are for the Saints who receive them from the Most High.

	There are many of our aged brethren and sisters, who, through the
traditions of their fathers and the requirements of a false religion, were
never inside a ball-room or a theatre until they became latter-day Saints,
and now they seem more anxious for this kind of amusement than are our
children.  This arises from the fact they have been starved for many years
for that amusement which is designed to buoy up their spirits and make
their bodies vigorous and strong, and tens of thousands have sunk into
untimely graves for want of such exercises to the body and the mind.  They
require mutual nourishment to make them sound and healthy.  Every faculty
and power of both body and mind is a gift from God.  Never say that means
used to create and continue healthy action of body and mind are from hell. 
Such means never originated there.  Hell is a great distance from us, and
we can never arrive there, unless we change our path, for the way we are
now pursuing leads to heaven and happiness.

	When the Saints come into this building, and look on this stage, to
see our brethren and sisters perform to satisfy the sight, to satisfy the
ear, and the desires and mind of the people, I want you to pray for them
that the Lord Almighty may preserve them from ever having one wicked
thought in their bosoms, that our actors may be just as virtuous,
truthful, and humble before God and each other as though they were on a
Mission to preach the Gospel.

	I say to those who perform, if anything is discovered contrary to the
strictest virtue and decorum, the offenders must leave this building.  I
intend this remark to apply also to the musicians.  I wish the dramatic
company to seek dilligently and in all kindness to promote the happiness
of all concerned.

	Unless by my order I do not wish a drop of intoxicating liquor
brought into this house; I want the actors behind the curtain, the
musicians in the orchestra, and the audience to hear and observe this.

	When this house is finished, there will be places in the passages
where cakes, pies, fruits, &c., can be bought; but no intoxicating liquor
will be allowed in these saloons.  No drunken person will be permitted to
enter this house; I will not have it polluted and disgraced by the
presence of the drunken, nor my brethren and sisters, who strive
continually to do right, annoyed by the filthy breath of a poor,
miserable, filthy loafer.

	We intend to preserve the strictest order here; we do expect the
people to come to this house praying, and their whole souls devoted to
God, and to their religion.

	Tragedy is favoured by the outside world; I am not in favour of it. 
I do not wish murder and all its horrors and the villany leading to it
portrayed before our women and children; I want no child to carry home
with it the fear of the fagot, the sword, the pistol, or the dagger, and
suffer in the night from frightful dreams.  I want such plays performed as
will make the spectators feel well; and I wish those who perform to select
a class of plays that will improve the public mind, and exalt the literary
taste of the community.

	If we wish to hold a Conference in this hall, we shall do so, and
shall use it for all purposes that will satisfy our feelings in doing
right, and no evil.

	May God bless you.  Amen.

              CONSTITUTIONAL POWERS OF THE CONGRESS OF THE 
              UNITED STATES.--GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, March 9, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I am very much gratified with what I have heard from our brethren
today.  I think they have spoken well.  I have been interested and
instructed.

	As I have often told you, I am unable to draw the dividing line
between the spiritual and the temporal.  We set apart one day in the week
for the purpose of meeting together to administer the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, and to speak upon things which pertain to building up the
kingdom of God on the earth.  This is our business--this labor is upon
us--and I do not know that we have anything else to do, for it comprehends
the whole existence of man.  Thus far we have been successful in this
great work; in it we have been blessed, and in it we delight to be
blessed.

	Every person is seeking after happiness, and all persons pursue a
course that seems to them to lead to the possession of happiness; when
they pursue an opposite course to that they are fully aware of it.  The
most profligate and wicked person is always ready to acknowledge, when
willing to tell the truth, that he knows that he does wrong and is not
happy in doing so; and that, if he ever enjoys happiness, he must cease to
do evil and learn to do well.  We wish to obtain happiness; we wish to
obtain our rights.

	In regard to our political rights, I will ask, have we ever seen a
day, since Joseph found the plates from which was taken the Book of Mormon
until this day, in which the Christian, the moral and the political world,
or any other portion of the inhabitants of the earth, ever gave to Joseph
Smith and his brethren one blessing that they could possibly keep from
them?  They have withheld every favor, every blessing, every accommodation
that was possible for them to hold from the Latter-day Saints.  Yet every
move they have made has actually tended to sustain, build up, strengthen
and increase the very power they were trying to destroy.  They have tried
to destroy the truth, to hinder the increase of the Latter-day Saints, to
lessen their numbers, rob them of their location and homes, and last of
all drive them from what is called civilization.  But the results of all
these acts, instead of accomplishing what they desired, have given the
Latter-day Saints territory and comparative independence.  All the evil
they have sought to bring upon us the Lord, through his inscrutable
providence, has converted into blessings for his people.

	We are infinitely more blessed by the persecutions and injustice we
have suffered, than we could have been if we had remained in our
habitations from which we have been driven--than if we had been suffered
to occupy our farms, gardens, stores, mills, machinery and everything we
had in our former possessions.  Had we not been persecuted, we would now
be in the midst of the wars and bloodshed that are desolating the nation,
instead of where we are, comfortably located in our peaceful dwellings in
these silent, far off mountains and valleys.  Instead of seeing my
brethren comfortably seated around me to-day, many of them would be found
in the front ranks on the battle field.  I realize the blessings of God in
our present safety.  We are greatly blessed, greatly favored and greatly
exalted, while our enemies, who sought to destroy us, are being humbled.

	We want our political rights, and they are here within our reach; we
need not go to California, Oregon, Washington Territory, Nebraska,
Missouri, nor New York to obtain them.  The people are here, and they
possess rights.  We have a right to labor, to accumulate food and
clothing, to gather the various products of the earth, to cut the timber
and saw it into boards, to make adobies and quarry rock and build
habitations, and then we have a right to inhabit them.  We have a right to
drink of the water that flows from the mountains, and we have a right to
get up in the morning when we are sufficiently rested.  We have a right to
go to the kanyons after wood, or to harness our teams and go on a visit to
Davis, Utah, or any other county.  We have also a right to assemble, as we
did a short time ago, in the capacity of a mass meeting, and we have a
right to say that we will have laws, rules and regulations for the public
good, and officers and adjudicators of the laws.  It is our right to frame
our own laws, and to elect our own officers to administer them.

	We were told this morning, that some brethren prayed but did not
believe they would receive an answer.  I do not find fault with them for
this, but I say, pray on until you can make yourselves believe that your
prayers will be fully answered according to that which is best for you to
receive.  Self-argument is the most effectual argument that can be used. 
Let each person argue himself into the belief that God will grant to him
his request in righteousness.  Some people are naturally of a doubtful
mind, and have to contend continually against unbelief.

	The enemies of God and truth do not love us any better this year than
they did last year, nor will their love for us increase in the year that
is to come.  They would dethrone the Almighty, and would have destroyed
Joseph Smith, when he had not three men to stand by him, had they the
power to do so; and they would blot out every vestige of this kingdom if
they could.  The body may be destroyed, but the spirit still lives.

	According to the Constitution of our Government, we have rights in
common with our fellow-countrymen.  We have a right to settle in any
unoccupied and unclaimed part of the public domain owned by our
Government, where the machinery of the Government has not extended, and
there govern and control ourselves according to republican principles; and
the Congress of the United States is not authorized in the least, by the
Constitution that governs it, to make laws for that new settlement, and
appoint adjudicators and administrators of the law for it, any more than
we have a right to make laws and appoint administrators of the law for
California, Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri.  This, however, is done by the
Congress of the United States; but it is an assumption of power not within
the Constitution of the American Republic.  When Congress, or the
President of the United States, appoints a governor for a territory, that
appointment is not according to the Constitution, though it is according
to laws enacted by Congress.  In "Amendments to the Constitution of the
United States," articles nine and ten, it is definitely stated that "The
enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny or disparage others retained by the people."  "The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

	We were told this morning that we shall not always be driven.  Were
we driven in 1857 and 1858?  No.  And they might have travelled up and
down Ham's Fork to this day, and we still would have remained here
enjoying our safe retreat.  They had no power, and did not exercise any.

	I say to the enemies of truth that I can tell them the words that are
spoken in their private counsels.  The very thoughts of their hearts are
made known to me.  They lay their plans to accomplish such and such a work
in so long a time, and then plan a movement to destroy the "Mormons." 
That is what they talk about and what is in their hearts, but they will be
disappointed in it all.  Every time they make a movement against this
kingdom they will sink still lower in the scale of national power, while
the kingdom of God will rise more and more in influence and importance in
the eyes of all people.

	If any of you are afraid, think not that you can escape danger by
fleeing to the States east, or west to California, "For it shall come to
pass that he who fleeth from the noise of fear shall fall into the pit;
and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the
snare."  Again, "The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his
trust in the Lord shall be safe."

	The valleys of Utah are the safest places in the world.  There is not
another place upon this globe where a people can with more safety assert
their rights before the heavens and in the face of all men.  Look at those
ranges of rocky peaks with which we are surrounded, for "He that walketh
righteously and speaketh uprightly--he that despiseth the gain of
oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he
shall dwell on high:  his place of defence shall be the munitions of
rocks:  bread shall be given him:  his waters shall be sure."  "And it
shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it."  "The noise of a
multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise
of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth
the host of the battle."  Therefore, O Israel, fear not.  If any are
afraid, search out among the caves of the impregnable rocks safe places to
store up grain and other nutritious substances, and when trouble comes you
can retire and crawl into your hiding places, while the more courageous of
your brethren shall fight your battles, and we will whip your enemies
soundly, God being our helper.

	When I think of the weakness and littleness of men, and the folly of
their trying to thwart the purposes of the Almighty, it makes me feel like
the Prophet Elijah:--"For it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them
and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god:  either he is talking, or he is
pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be
awaked."  I laugh at their folly; God laughs at their folly.  So long as
the Latter-day Saints will live their religion, they shall never be
confounded, worlds without end.  Never be afraid; your hearts are brave,
your arms are strong, and God is our defence.  There are those among us
who are timid, and are apt to flee from under the protecting care of our
heavenly Father, and be caught weak and unprotected by the very enemy they
are trying to escape from.

	We will cling to the Constitution of our country, and to the
Government that reveres that sacred charter of freemen's rights; and, if
necessary, pour out our best blood for the defence of every good and
righteous principle.

	I heard a gentleman say, not long ago, that he was going to stick to
the Union.  When the Southern revolt transpired, it was asked of him,
"Where is the Union now?  There are now two Governments, instead of one." 
His reply was, that he should stick to the Government that protected him
in the possession of freemen's rights.  The spirit and letter of our
Constitution and laws will always give us our rights, and under them we
could have served God in Missouri and Illinois as well as in the courts of
high heaven.  But the administrators of the law trampled it under their
feet, and wilfully and openly desecrated the holy principles held forth in
the Constitution of our country.

	The kingdom of God has sustained me a good while, and I mean to stick
to it.  We shall form a State Government, and you need not fear any
consequences that may arise from such a course.  You may tell your
neighbors that in this step we do not violate any law, nor in the least
transcend the bounds of our rights.  If we do not do this, we are living
beneath those rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the
privileges granted to us in the Constitution of the United States which
our fathers bought so dearly for us.  Let us unfurl the stars and
stripes--the flag of our country; let us sustain the Constitution that our
fathers have bequeathed to us in letters of blood; and those who violate
it will have to meet the crushing and damning penalties that will bury
them in the mire of everlasting disgrace.  If we sustain it, it will be
sustained; otherwise it will not.

	Let us so live that the spirit and power of our religion will be
constantly with us; that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion,
opening for us an unobstructed intercourse with our heavenly Father and
his Son Jesus Christ, and all is right--there is no danger then.  Our own
evils make for us danger; and if chastisement comes upon us, it is the
result of our own unrighteous acts.  But if we live our religion, honor
our God and his Priesthood, then we shall honor every wholesome government
and law there is upon the earth, and become aliens to all unrighteous,
unjust and unlawful administrators, wherever they may be found.  In the
various nations, kingdoms and governments of the world are to be found
laws, ordinances and statutes as good as can be made for mortal man.

	We have forsaken the kingdom of darkness have come out in open
rebellion to the power of the Devil on this earth, and I for one will
fight him, so help me God, as long as there is breath in my body, and do
all in my power to overthrow his government and rule.  And if he complains
that I am infringing upon his ground, I shall very politely ask him to go
to his own place, where he belongs.  If any among this community want to
sustain the Government of the Devil, in preference to the kingdom of God,
I wish them to go where they belong.  I want to sustain the government of
Heaven, and shall stick fast to it, by the help of God.  If we sustain it,
it will build us up and crown us with victory and eternal life.  

	There is not a man upon the earth who can magnify even an earthly
office, without the power and wisdom of God to aid him.  When Mr. Fillmore
appointed me Governor of Utah, I proclaimed openly that my Priesthood
should govern and control that office.  I am of the same mind today.  We
have not yet received our election returns; but, should I be elected
Governor of the State of Deseret, that office shall be sustained and
controlled by the power of the eternal Priesthood of the Son of God, or I
will walk the office under my feet.  Hear it, both Saint and sinner, and
send it to the uttermost parts of the earth, that whatever office I hold
from any Government on this earth shall honor the Government of heaven, or
I will not hold it.

	There was a notice read to-day for the High Council to meet next
Thursday.  I would like to see the High Council and Bishops and all Judges
filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, that when a person comes before
them they can read and understand that person, and be able to decide a
case quickly and justly.  When men have a just appreciation of right and
wrong, their decision can be made as well the first minute after hearing a
statement of the case, as to waste hours and days to make it.  I would
like the Bishops and other officers to have sufficient power and wisdom
from God to make them fully aware of the true nature of every case that
may come before them.  But there are some of our great men who are so
ignorant that a personal favor will so bias their minds that they will
twist the truth and sustain a person in evil.  This principle is to be
found, more or less, in the old, middle-aged and youth.  Some, with a
trifling consideration, can so prejudice the mind of a High Councillor, a
High Priest, a Bishop, or an Apostle, that he will lean to the individual
instead of the truth.  I despise a  man that would offer me money to buy
me to his favor.  Goodness will always find stout supporters in the good,
and need not to buy favor.  The man who triest to buy the influence of
another to cover up his iniquity, will go to hell.

	The kingdom of God is indebted to no man; though a man should give to
it all he possesses, he has only given that which the Lord put in his
possession, and is not excusable in sin on that account, for in giving his
all to the kingdom of God he has done no more than his duty.  I hate to
see a man bought.  I hate to see High Councillors bought.  It is good to
hold on to an old friend; and, no matter how many new friends I have, I
always hold fast to the old ones and never let them go, unless their
wicked conduct breaks the thread of fellowship between us.  But with all
the friends I have, I hope in God never to see the day, while I live, that
I cannot decide a case as the Almighty would, whether it goes against
friend or foe.  What my friends have done for me, and the deep affection I
bear them, are not taken into account into the consideration of right and
wrong.  Let me judge in righteousness before God, if it cuts off every
friend I have.

	May the Lord bless you.  Amen.



                      POWER GIVEN TO MAN TO CREATE.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, March 16, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	It is often remarked that we do not understand things alike, but I am
of the opinion that the inhabitants of the earth understand in the spirit,
or, in other words, in the intelligent portion of their organisms, nearer
alike than they have power to communicate.

	We believe we are entitled to the gift of the Holy Ghost in extent
according to the discretion and wisdom of God and our faithfulness; which
gift brings all things to our remembrance, past, present, and to come,
that are necessary for us to know, and as far as our minds are prepared to
receive the knowledge of God revealed by that all-wise Agent.  The Holy
Ghost is God's minister, and is delegated to visit the sons and daughters
of men.  All intelligent beings pertaining to this earth are instructed
from the same source.

	In the New Testament and Book of Mormon, we learn that when the
Gospel is preached the people are taught to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, to repent of their sins, be baptized for the remission of sin, and
receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; the Holy Ghost is then
the special gift of the Father, and is his minister.  He also gives
intelligence by angels, as well as by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
and by opening the minds of the Saints to behold in vision things as they
are in eternity.  When true doctrines are advanced, though they may be new
to the hearers, yet the principles contained in them are perfectly natural
and easy to be understood, so much so that the hearers often imagine that
they had always known them.  This arises from the influence of the Spirit
of Truth upon the spirit of intelligence that is within each person.  The
influence that comes from heaven is all the time teaching the children of
men.  "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty
giveth them understanding."  Again, "the spirit of man is the candle of
the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly."  Again, "How oft
is the candle of the wicked put out."  We have nothing independent of the
Almighty.  We preach, we hear, and we are instructed.  We try to so live
as to gain more information, more light, more command over ourselves, and
more influence and power to increase the good and discourage the evil,
until we can comprehend the great principles of existence and eternal
progression.

	We should be more happy, if we could more successfully carry into
effect the knowledge we now have.  The Lord said, "let there be light, and
there was light."  The Council in heaven said let there be an earth, and
let there be a firmament above and beneath it, and it was so.  They said
let there be heat and cold, and it wa so.  They said let there be spring
and summer, autumn and winter, and it was so.  We can say let the people
be clothed, and they are clothed; let them be warmed, and they are warmed;
let them be housed, and they are housed.  If we put forth the ability God
has given us, we can bring forth the very things we say shall come.  If we
say let there be wool, or let there be flax, they will come; if we say let
there be iron, steel, brass, or any other metal we need, it will come.  If
we say let there be cotton and woollen yarn and let them be made into
cloth, it will be done.  The Lord said let there be an earth, let there be
light to light it, let there be seas and dry land, air, rocks, trees,
fruits, and shrubs of all kinds, grasses and flowers, and vines that yield
fruit above the ground and in the ground, for the use of man and beast,
and it was so; but all these productions come according to natural
principles.  Man is surrounded by those productive principles, and is
endowed with power to act upon them; and according to the amount of
intelligence he possesses and the labour he expends are the productive
results.

	This people are increasing in the wisdom which cometh from God, and
their power to organize the crude elements around them into the
necessaries of life is in ratio to their increase of intelligence and
application of labour.  In this way we ought to understand these great
principles.  We need not seek for a revelation to know how to make cloth,
when the mode is plainly marked before our eyes.  Sheep produce a textile
material, and how to make it into cloth has been known time out of mind;
we can raise sheep in abundance.  I do not look for power from the heavens
that will produce for us wool, cloth, iron, food, or anything we need,
without being made with hands.  We should understand what is required of
us to sustain ourselves.

	It was observed this morning, that the teachings the people are
constantly receiving are of a temporal character, and I should think that,
if such teachings were carried into practice by them, spiritual blessings
would be attained through temporal means.  It is all of God.  "The earth
is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the world and they that dwell
therein."  "Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the work of thy hands."  The mountains, valleys, and plains,
all the wealth of precious metals hid in their bosoms, all the teeming
fulness of vegetable productions, and all animal existences in their
endless variety are the Lord's.  All that can be produced from the soil by
the ingenuity and industry of man is the Lord's.  The Lord has given the
earth to the children of men, that by the union of mind and matter,
inspired and directed by the power of the eternal Priesthood, all may be
made subject to the Great Supreme of the universe.  It is our duty
individually as well as our privilege, to learn how to dispose of the
earthly wealth we may possess, to the glory of him who has permitted us to
hold it, for in temporal blessings honestly obtained and wisely placed to
their legitimate use are concealed mines of spiritual and eternal wealth. 
If we magnify and make honourable this temporal existence, by the practice
of every good and righteous principle that comes within our knowledge, we
honour and magnify that spiritual existence, and that heavenly
intelligence, which the Father of all has placed within us.  This is the
way to increase in temporal and spiritual wealth.  If we pursue
dilligently this path, there is not the least danger of any persons being
lost, but they will be prepared to inherit after death a more glorious and
heavenly sphere than they now dwell in.

	I know that the great majority of mankind, who are created for a
noble and glorious purpose, are ignorant of these heavenly principles; and
they cleave to their ignorance, and love darkness rather than light.  They
will not be taught by an authorised minister of heaven, but they hire men
who are as blind and as ignorant as themselves to guide them in the way
they choose to walk in.  From the days of the creation until now, I do not
think there is one man out of a million who has made so much as a scratch
upon the world's history, to show that he was entirely devoted to God and
truth; but the generations of mankind have sprung up and decayed like the
grass of the field.

	When the Spirit of revelation from God inspires a man, his mind is
opened to behold the beauty, order, and glory of the creation of this
earth and its inhabitants, the object of its creation, and the purpose of
its creator in peopling it with his children.  He can then clearly
understand that our existence here is for the sole purpose of exaltation
and restoration to the presence of our Father and God, where we may
progress endlessly in the power of godliness.  After the mind has thus
been illuminated, the ignorance and blindness of the great mass of mankind
are more apparent.  Yet there is no son or daughter of Adam and Eve but
what has incorporated in their organization the priceless gem of endless
life, for the endless duration and endless lives which they are
approaching.

	Are the people glorifying their Father who is in heaven?  Do they
take every step possible to do the will of God on earth, and magnify their
calling?  Is every act of their lives made to increase their intelligence,
to add to their faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge,
temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and
to godliness, brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness, charity, and
to improve upon every gift and grace which God has bestowed on them
through the Gospel?  I fear not.  There is yet to be seen a wilful and
covetous disposition in some few of our brethren and sisters.  "I want a
ribbon," says a sister, "and I will have it whatever the consequence may
be."  "And," says a brother, "I want a horse, and I will have it, if I
steal it, and run the risk of being damned for it."  I am sorry to say
that some few of the Elders of Israel have such feelings and desires.  One
of the brethren this morning was complaining of sins rising in the heart,
and of the self-will of fallen man, and the evil which the Devil had power
to engender in the hearts of our parents, who have entailed it on their
children.  How shall we overcome this inclination to evil?  Let the will
of God predominate over the will of the creature.  Let the husband and
father learn to bend his will to the will of his God, and then instruct
his wives and children in this lesson of self-government by his example as
well as by precept, and his neighbours also, showing them how to be brave
and steadfast, in subduing this rebellious and sinful disposition.  Such a
course as this will eventually subdue that unhallowed influence which
works upon the human heart.

	We are all endowed with the resolution, more or less, to deal with
ourselves as we would deal with a child or with a neighbour.  In case a
child will not be controlled by his parents, but is disobedient and
refractory to a hopeless degree, what would his parents be apt to do?  I
can answer for myself:  I presume I should say to such a child--leave me. 
But I have no such children; and it is hard to say what I might do, were I
tried.  If a child of mine, who has come to years of discretion, should
say to me, "I will do this, and I will not do what you require of me," I
should use the rod of correction sufficiently to teach that child better. 
Why not in the same way, institute a proper and salutary correction over
the rebellious spirit that at times arises in the human breast?  Why not
govern and control the appetite, that it may be subject to the law of
Christ?  But how is it?  Why, "I must have some tobacco, if I am damned
for it."  Or, "I must have a cup of tea, if I am damned for it."  Or, "I
must have this or that, if I should have to go to hell for it."  It is
like saying to our Heavenly Father, "I will not mind you, I will not obey
your commandments, but I will have my own way and follow the bent of my
own inclination; my appetite shall be nursed and pampered, though it be at
the expense of your displeasure."  Instead of pursuing this course, listen
to that Spirit God has given to all, which teaches the right and how to
avoid the wrong, and say to appetite, to disposition, to temper, to the
whole man, you must do as I command you; I am an officer, a general in the
army of Christ and I will be obeyed.

	Every man and woman is called to the same office; let us magnify it,
and exert a mighty influence over this organization, and rise up in the
strength of the great I Am, and by the power of his eternal Priesthood,
command every power, every pulse of our natures to be subject to the law
of God and truth, and not suffer this low, sinful, groveling, dark,
benighted, cursed spirit we have received from the fall to bear rule in
us.  All persons who suffer themselves thus to be ruled, disgrace
themselves and do not honour the being God has given them.  If men are
ruled by the power, principles and righteousness of the Holy Priesthood,
they will find themselves in possession of all the wisdom they need to
meet every emergency of this changing existence, and all they require to
conquer the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

	How very far the inhabitants of the earth live short of their
privileges!  How far they live beneath the blessings the Lord has in store
for them!  Is it not more or less so with us as individuals and as a
community, who profess to be the friends of God?  We live far short of the
blessings the Lord has in store for us.  When the visions of our minds are
opened, we can then more fully realize this truth.  And again, when the
vision is closed up we are found, as a general thing, doing the best we
know how, and we may be considered pretty good men and women.  This is
true, yet there is an eternity of knowledge before us to learn.

	It is as much as I can do with all the power I have with the heavens
and with the Latter-day Saints to say, let there be a carding machine in
this Territory, and it is done; to say, let there be a nail factory in
this Territory, and it is here.  Again, all that has been said, and all
the praying that has been done, and all the faith that has been exercised,
and all the combination and union of effort among the Saints have not
brought to pass one say of the President's in regard to iron; he said, let
there be iron, but there is no iron yet.  Brother Wells has told you the
reason, this morning.  A man says, "I am going to make iron, and I will
have the credit of making the first iron in the Territory.  I will have
the credit of knowing how to flux the ore that is found in these regions,
and bringing out the metal in abundance, or no other man shall."  Now, the
beauty and glory of this kind of proceeding is the blackest of darkness,
and it is comeliness as deformity.

	We have said, let there be a carding machine, and it is here.  Let
there be sheep, and there are sheep; wool, and it is here; and now who
will say let there be flax and then produce it?  Let there be linen cloth,
and then produce it by means of the power and ability we possess?  We know
how to perform this labour, and how to produce this material.  There are
brethren before me who know how to make as good linen cloth as was ever
manufactured in any country.  It is so with other things.  By-and-bye,
somebody will say, let there be silk, and silk will be produced here.  All
we have to do is to grow the mulberry tree, import the eggs of the
silkworm, and apply the skill that is already in our possession, and we
can produce an abundance of sewing silk, silk dress patterns, silk
vesting, and anything we need in the shape of silk drapery.  Silk is in
the elements around us, and not only silk, but all things which pertain to
the earth; and again, all things which pertain to the heavens; all things
which pertain to time, and all things which pertain to eternity, which is
the same with God to-day, yesterday, and for ever.  I am extremely anxious
that this people should understand the value of their existence here, and
the great worth of that immortal spirit which is clothed upon with an
earthly house, preparatory to an eternal exaltation and eternal lives. 
Honour this earthly house, for in it are concealed the rudiments of all
knowledge, the root and foundation of science that we have any knowledge
of.  Mankind are capable of collecting and retaining an immense amount of
knowledge, if they will dilligently apply the ability God has given them;
in fact, they are made to travel on through an endless progression of
improvement.  I have only time to give a few hints on this subject, though
it might prove very interesting to you, were I to classify these great
truths and dwell upon them, item by item through a course of lectures.

	Do you know, mother, the worth of that child in your lap?  There is
not a mother here, I presume, that knows the real value of her offspring. 
We say, "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," &c., when our children
die.  The truth is, the Lord has given and we do not know the value of the
gift we have received, and it is taken from us; not because the Lord wants
the child, for there are myriads of spirits in heaven, and more coming all
the the [sic] time.  They do not want the spirit back again--they do not
need it in the spirit world.  It should remain here, and we should know
the worth of it sufficiently to take care of it and preserve it on earth,
until it has fulfilled the measure of its creation--brought forth all the
fruits of its existence, and become ripe to go home to a higher state of
glory to rest for a season, until it is time again to unite the body with
the spirit.

	A thousand glorious principles open up to my mind, that I cannot now
dwell upon; but there is one subject pertaining to our temporal existence
that I wish to present; the news we receive from the east and from the
west is of wars and floods, trouble and sorrow.  Our southern settlements
have suffered by floods; they have lost their farms, gardens, and
orchards.  The water has risen twenty-five feet higher than it has ever
been known to rise before in San Barnardino [sic] and other parts of
California.  I wish to warn this people, that they be not caught
unprepared when spring opens.  Make the best provisions in your power to
ward off destruction by high water into City Creek and other mountain
streams running through our settlements.  Particularly, let the brethren
who are living on the Cottonwood bottoms, take care, or we may hear of
their passing down Jordan.  The earth is now saturated with rain and
melted snow, and if the snow in City Creek goes away with a warm spring
rain, the first we know, some of the people may be washed down into the
river.

	May the Lord bless us.  Amen.

               SALVATION THE RESULT OF INDIVIDUAL EXERTION.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, March 23, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I am now looking upon the best people on the earth, that we have any
knowledge of.  There is not another community that presents the same
amount of honesty, purity of heart and life, and integrity to God and to
one another; yet much can be said upon our weaknesses, shortsightedness,
and proneness to wander from right and do evil.  I do not know that I
should do right in giving full vent to some of my views and feelings
concerning this people.

	While conversing with some brethren the other day upon the conduct of
this people as viewed by the intelligence of Heaven, I said, that it was a
wonder to me that God had not destroyed us all.  His mercy and
long-suffering are truly marvellous.  Again, when I realize the object of
our creation, the day of our trial we are now passing through, the
weaknesses the Lord has ordained to come upon the children of men, and the
steps to be taken for the exaltation of the human family my heart is
filled with gratitude to God, it exults in his great beneficence.  I
glorify his name that he has spoken from the heavens, and noticed us
mortals.  I am exceedingly rejoiced that we have the privilege of living
in the day when the Lord has spoken to the children of men, and revealed
the Priesthood and placed it upon men, giving them the privilege of
attaining to glory, immortality, and eternal lives.  In the midst of our
great weaknesses and manifold failings, we have abundant cause for
exceeding great joy in the Gospel of our salvation.  Are these great
weaknesses to be found in the birds of the air, in the fishes of the sea,
or in the beasts of the field?  No.  The animal, vegetable, and mineral
kingdoms abide the law of their Creator; the whole earth and all things
pertaining to it, except man, abide the law of their creation.

	I now see before me beings who are in the image of those heavenly
personages who are enthroned in glory and crowned with eternal lives, in
the very image of those beings who organized the earth and its fulness,
and who constitute the Godhead--still here is the evil, and we are the
ones who are accountable; for we are the "lords of creation."  We hold in
subjection the creation; we avail ourselves of the great truths found in
the arts and sciences, we navigate the seas, we survey the land, we convey
intelligence with lightning speed, we harness steam and make it our
servant, we tame the animals and make them do our drudgery and administer
to our wants in many ways, yet man alone is not tamed--he is not subject
to his Great Creator.  Our ignorant animals are faithful to us, and will
do our bidding as long as they have any strength; yet man who is the
offspring of the Gods, will not become subject to the most reasonable and
self-exalting principles. How often have we witnessed a faithful animal
conveying his master home so drunk that he could not see his way or sit
up; yet his faithful animal will plod through mud, shun stumps, trees, and
bad places, and land him safely at home.

	Are we even obedient to our better judgments and to truth that is
self-evident?  Many of us have been taught the doctrine of total
depravity--that man is not naturally inclined to do good.  I am satisfied
that he is more inclined to do right than to do wrong.  There is a greater
power within him to shun evil and perform good, than to do the opposite. 
We have the powers of darkness, or the influences opposite to good, to
contend with, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."  There are two
classes of influences, one tends to good and the other to evil; one to
truth and life, the other to falsehood and death.  Evil is sown in our
nature, but there is not a person who is not prompted to do good and
forsake evil, though there are but few who, from their own volition, will
subject themselves to be perfectly obedient to the law of Christ, yet
there are dispositions that will be subject to the truth through cruel
mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonment.  Truth is for us, right
is for us, life is ours.

	Our enemies accuse the leaders of this Church of having too much
influence over the people.  How much influence have I, or any other man
that ever lived in this kingdom, over an apostate?  It is now as it was in
the days of Joseph.  While people retained the spirit of their religion,
they looked upon him as one of the best men on the earth; but when they
gave way to the spirit of apostacy, then he was the worst of men.  This
has been so in all ages with every Prophet, Apostle, and righteous man and
woman; they have had the warmest friends, and the bitterest enemies.  No
man has friends like those who are righteous; their friendship is even
unto death, and then it reaches throughout all eternity.  The friendship
of the wicked must fade away, sooner or later; while the friendship of the
righteous will last for ever and ever.  When we understand the truth let
us abide by it, and boast not in our own strength, but glory in the
strength of the Almighty.

	The Elders often tell how many they have converted, and how many
churches they have built up in different parts of the world.  When persons
apostatize from the path of right, I think some of them are man-made
converts; as a Methodist preacher remarked to a drunken man lying by the
way side, who hailed him with delight saying, "You are my father in
Christ, you converted me."  "I should think so," said the preacher, "for
it is very clear that you are not one of the Lord's converts."  We cannot
make Latter-day Saints of anybody on this earth but ourselves; we have not
even power to make a Saint of a wife, or a child, a brother, or sister, in
the least degree, unless they will hearken to counsel and obey the
principles of righteousness, which I contend they are naturally inclined
to do, were it not for the awful apostacy there is in the world.  All
persons must possess their intelligence free and independent before God.

	I preach the Gospel to the Latter-day Saints; and if a person comes
into our community and wishes to know further with regard to life and
salvation, I will tell him as freely as ever I breathed the mountain air;
but you cannot find one person that I ever crowed my religion upon either
in or out of the Church.  I have my reasons for taking this course.  I
never preach such sermons as, "Well, Mr. C., or D., have you heard any of
our Elders preach?  Do you know anything about Mormonism?"  "No."  "Why,
our Gospel is the Gospel of life and salvation, it is the only true plan
of salvation for the people; and you must be a `Mormon;' if you are not a
`Mormon,' you must expect to be damned."  If a person wishes to know my
religion, I am willing that he should know the whole of it.  There is
nothing secret or hidden in it; the whole plan of salvation is for the
human family, and is as free as the waters that flow from our mountains
into the valleys.  If you thirst, drink until you are satisfied, for you
are truly welcome.  This is the nature of the Gospel, and the character of
Him who has sent it.  It is free for all.  But I am not disposed to compel
any person to partake of that which they dislike, or have an aversion for.

	This may not be right in every case.  Why it is right with me is,
that, if a person urges upon me that which I am not disposed to receive,
it creates in me an alienation of feeling toward that person.  I am
naturally opposed to being crowded, and am opposed to any person who
undertakes to force me to do this, or not do that.  In my youth I was
supposed to be an infidel, and perhaps in one respect I was, though I
would have freely given all the gold and silver I ever could possess, to
have met with one individual who could show me anything about God, heaven,
or the plan of salvation, so that I could pursue the path that leads to
the kingdom of heaven; but I did not want to be urged, and I am so
inclined to this day.  Yet I cam convinced that it would not do for every
man to pursue this course in every circumstance.  We can guide, direct,
and prune a tender sprout, and it inclines to our direction, if it is
wisely and skillfuly applied.  So, if we surround a child with healthy and
salutary influences, give him suitable instructions, and store his mind
with truthful traditions, may be that will direct his feet in the way of
life.

	There are persons of twenty, forty, and sixty years of age, who never
saw a day in which they knew their own minds.  They seem to be undecided
in all their actions, like a child a few years old, and need some person
to direct them.  I am somewhat different from this class of persons. 
Should I be told that it is time to wash my face and eat my breakfast, I
should be strongly inclined to notify my informant that I knew that as
well as he did.  So some of our Elders who preach in the world, will go
into this or that house, begin to converse with the members of the family,
and tell them they must be baptized or be damned.  This will turn some
persons against them and the truth, simply because they will not be
compelled to do anything; while there are others in the world who would
not embrace the truth, unless they were ordered to do it; probably they
are those who will be compelled to come in.

	There is a class of people that will not move to do themselves good,
only as they are urged and commanded.  There is a wide difference in
people in this respect.  There are instances in this community that if a
wife does not urge her husband to pray in his family, he would never do
so.  And again, there are men in this city and throughout the settlements
as good men as need be, who are driven from this duty by the teazing of a
wife.  "Now, pa, come, do let us have prayers; I have got all the children
here and the Bible, and I do want to have prayers."  He cannot bow to that
kind of compulsion, to save him; and if he should be damned he will not be
made to pray in such a manner, for when he prays he means to do it for his
God, and not because a woman teases him to do it.  If a wife of mine
should undertake to direct me in such a manner, I should give her to
understand that I would tell her and the children when to come to prayers,
when to go to parties, and how to reverence the Holy Priesthood and their
God; I should never pray in creation, if I could not do it independent of
the dictation of a woman.

	I know that the people need more or less teaching and urging all the
time, Sunday after Sunday, to keep them in the path of safety.  How easy
we get out of patience!  We get a little hasty, and do a little wrong,
because we do not train ourselves--do not conquer ourselves, and subject
ourselves to the law of Christ.  Sisters speak evil of sisters, they hear
of it, and straightway return the compliment in a spirit of
vindictiveness.  Elders have contention with Elders; they do not
understand alike, and are not disposed to in their deal.  Elders are
agreed on the way and manner necessary to obtain celestial glory, but they
quarrel about a dollar.  When principles of eternal life are brought
before them--God and the things pertaining to God and godliness--they
apparently care not half so much about them as they do about five cents. 
"We want the dollars."  What are they good for?  Dollars will do good, if
you can keep them until they will do good, using them in the right way. 
Men will scramble over each other to get gold and silver, and when they
have it they waste it; it passes from them, and they know not how, doing
them no good.

	You can go into many houses in this Territory and find, for cooking
utensils, an old skillet in which they cook their meat, heat their
dishwater, wash their dishes, mix up pig feed, &c.; and when they set
their table it is in keeping with the old skillet; you find little to eat,
and that is half burnt and half cooked, unpalatable and unhealthy.  The
wife and children have scarcely a decent dress, and all around, in the
house and out of it, is a picture of misery.  Yet if you ask the owner of
the house whether he has any cattle on the range, "Oh, yes."  How many? 
"I do not know; I had fifty head the other day, but I am not sure how many
oxen and cows I have."  How many calves have you?  "I think I have fifteen
or twenty."  Do you have any butter for breakfast?  "No;" and when they
have any, it is about the size of a walnut and as white as cheese curd. 
They do not know how to make butter and cheese, yarn and cloth, nor do
they try to learn.  The wool is wasting; the flax, if any is grown, is
left to rot; indolence, dirt, and scarcity reign where cleanliness,
beauty, order, and plenty could be produced by the hand of industry,
economy, frugality, and care.  There is a wonderful amount of ignorance
with regard to our temporal life, to say nothing of our spiritual life.

	A misunderstanding of five dollars in a settlement will sometimes set
some of our Elders to quarrelling and contending, and spending the time of
the High Council and Bishop Courts, and making a cost of a hundred
dollars.  You cannot bring up anything that relates to Priesthood, God,
heaven, or heavenly things, that will move them in the direction of a
quarrel, and yet they will contend about a little filthy lucre which they
cannot hold; they pass by the things of God as naught compared with it,
living year after year, learning little but would rake earth and hell to
secure a few cents.  Money is not wealth; neither can you subsist upon it,
in the absence of the common aliments of life.  It is the love of money
that is a mischief--that is the root of all evil.  Love not gold, nor
silver, nor anything of the kind, but gather around you that which will
make you "healthy, wealthy, and wise;" then all will be right, and real
wealth will increase around you, and wisdom from God will illuminate your
course through life.

	We pray for wisdom, but God will as soon put bread and meat in our
cupboards without any endeavour of ours, as he will give us wisdom without
our trying to get it.  If a man wants a farm, let him make it; if he
wishes an orchard he plants it; if he wants a house for his family to live
in, he must gather the materials and build it.  The Lord instructed the
people in primitive times how to smelt the ores and work in the different
metals, how to hew stone, how to build houses and temples.  He will give
us wisdom in these things, but he will not come down to do the manual
labour.

	As we prepare materials to build a house or temple, so man can
prepare himself for the reception of eternal wisdom.  We go where the
materials for a house are, and prepare them to answer our purpose; so we
may go to where eternal wisdom dwells, and there dilligently seek to
possess it, for its price is above rubies.  I have frequently said that
the greatest endowment God ever gave to man is good, sound, solid sense to
know how to govern ourselves, how to choose the good and refuse the evil,
to know how to sever the right from the wrong, the light from the
darkness, and gather to ourselves that wisdom which comes from God, and
reject that which comes from beneath.  Let all be brought into subjection
to the will of God, and then there would be no contention about a trifle,
but every man would contend lawfully for the things of God, and more
earnestly than for silver and gold.

	May the Lord bless the good and fill the earth with the righteous. 
Amen.

      GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.--IMPARTIALITY IN JUDGMENT.--SEALING.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Instead of giving a text to be dwelt upon by those who may address us
during this Conference, as I have done on some occasions, I say to the
Elders, speak upon such subjects as may be in your minds.  Open your
mouths, and have faith that God will fill them with useful and instructive
information, that all who hear may be blessed and built up in the strength
of God.  If we meet as we should, conduct ourselves as we should while we
are assembled, and live as we should when we are separated, our meetings
will certainly advance the kingdom of God on the earth.

	As formerly, I present myself before you this morning in the capacity
Providence has lead me to occupy, acknowledged and sustained by you as the
dictator, counsellor, and adviser of the people of God.  Hundreds and
thousands of the Latter-day Saints exercise faith for me, and pray for me
and my Counsellors, and for the Twelve Apostles and others who are leaders
and dictators in this Church and kingdom, but neglect to pray for
themselves.  They apparently have more faith for me than they have for
themselves.  Apparently, they will be more fervent in spirit while in
prayer before God for the leaders of this people, than they will be for
themselves.  They wish their leaders to be far more holy, to be filled
with more light, more intelligence, more faith, more compassion, more
charity, more love, more humility than they themselves are.  They wish
their leaders to be filled with the patience of Job and the integrity of
the angels, while they themselves neglect to attain to all this fulness. 
They do not sufficiently control themselves; they give way too much to
passion and the idle follies of life.

	I seek as dilligently as you do that the leaders of this people may
be and do precisely as God wishes them to.  I pray as fervently as you do
that the will of God may be done on the earth as it is in heaven, and that
we may be moulded and fashioned in all goodness, after the image of
Christ.  I have the same faith that you have for the leaders of this
people, and I have all the fervency of desire I am capable of, that God
will make the people just as pure as they want their leaders to be.

	This is a great and good people.  I am well acquainted with their
inmost wishes and desires, for what they pray, and what they labour and
toil to accomplish.  Is their labour fully effectual, and their toil
altogether calculated to bring them that which they desire?  No matter
what our exercises may be before the Lord for the advancement of truth and
the power of the kingdom of God upon the earth, if our every day life does
not accord with our profession, our religious exercises are all in vain. 
We may have all faith so as to remove mountains, to pluck up trees by the
roots and plant them in the sea, and be enabled to perform greater wonders
than have ever been performed by man in the name of Jesus Christ with his
Priesthood upon us, yet if we are not pure in our affections, true and
fervent in our love for God, and holy in our spirits, all this will avail
us but little.  Our spirits should reign supreme in our bodies, to bring
the flesh into subjection to the will and law of Christ, until the carnal,
devilish spirit that fills the heart with anger, malice, wrath, strife,
contention, bickering, fault-finding, bearing false-witness, and with
every evil that afflicts men, is entirely subdued.  If this evil power is
not vanquished by the power and love of God, the whole course of nature
will be set on fire with the fire of hell, until the whole body and spirit
are consumed.  This is the way I read the order of God, the will of God,
the law of God and his holy Priesthood, the love of God, and all that
pertains to his kindom [sic] on the earth.

	The Apostle Paul says we are nothing without charity, whatever else
we may possess.  Using my own language I should say, without the pure
principle of the love of God in the heart to subdue, control, over-rule,
and utterly consume every vestige of the consequences of the fall, the
fire that is kindled within the nature of every person by the fall will
consume the whole in an utter and irretrievable destruction.

	We meet to be instructed; and at the termination of our Conference we
should be a little farther advanced toward the holy kingdom of our Father
and God, and be better prepared to build up his kingdom on the earth, than
we were at its commencement.

	In speaking of the tongue the Apostle says, "But the tongue can no
man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison."  If the tongue
cannot be tamed, it can be bridled.  "If any man among you seem to be
religious, and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this
man's religion is vain.  If any man offend not in word, the same is a
perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."  If this unruly
member is not held in subjection it will work our ruin, for "The tongue is
a fire, a world of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members, and it
defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it
is set on fire of hell."  If the tongue is unbridled and uncontrolled, it
sets in motion all the elements of the devilish disposition engendered in
man through the fall.  The Apostle has represented it well, in comparing
its influence to the fire of hell which will eventually consume the whole
man.

	We are met in this Conference, expressly for the purpose of enlarging
our views upon the importance of our Priesthood and duties; that our love
for God, truth and the household of faith may be increased; that our
sensibilities may be sharpened to a keen relish for goodness and a just
sense of right; that our judgments may become more impartial and discreet
in all their conclusions, so that when we go from this Conference whether
as Bishops, Elders, High Priests, High Counsellors, or as members of the
Church and kingdom of God in the last days, we may find ourselves sensibly
improved, our aspirations more elevated, our natures more divested of low
selfishness, and in every way better prepared to judge in Israel, and to
lead the sheep of the fold of Christ in a manner more acceptable to the
Great Shepherd.

	It would be a matter of great satisfaction to me if all the Bishops
were perfectly impartial when sitting in judgment on their brethren, and
completely invulnerable to the influence of bribes and selfish leanings to
the dictates of prejudices formed in favour of this or that person.  I may
not be entirely free from such prejudices, but, if I am required to sit in
judgment upon an individual against whom I have entertained a prejudice,
it has ever been my manner to inform that person of it upon the first
opportunity that presented itself.  Will you do this Bishops, and frankly
acknowledge that you are unqualified to sit in judgment upon any person
against whom you are strongly prejudiced?

	So far as I have power, and with all the understanding God has given
me, I seek to base all my conclusions upon facts when I am judging my
brethren.  When they are penurious, covetous, and for a trifling gain of
some kind will overlook right, frown upon the majesty of truth, disregard
justice and in all their actions manifest a strong preference for the god
and glory of this world, I am prejudiced against their unrighteous
preferences, but not against them as individuals; for if all the good and
the evil, the strength and the weakness of which they are capable will
range within the limits of a few square inches, as individuals they
require my sympathy, while I abominate their sins.

	I am not ignorant of the weaknesses of mankind; and in many instances
when they would do a good act, the Devil, by some means, takes the
advantage of them and leads them to commit an evil; as the Apostle says,
"when I would do good, evil is present with me."  There is a number of
people in this Church, who, when they would correct their lives, and
conclude to perform the greatest good in their power, do that which brings
disgrace upon them--the very thing they did not want to do.  This weakness
we should struggle bravely to overcome.  We hold them in full fellowship
in the Church of Christ because they design in their hearts to do right,
but do not at all times manage to perform it.  All men are not equally
afflicted with these weaknesses.  We have Bishops, Presidents, men of
standing and experience in the kingdom of God, who, according to my
judgment, do very wrong in many instances, but they may be blinded through
selfishness.

	I will here refer to a principle that has not been named by me for
years.  With the introduction of the Priesthood upon the earth was also
introduced the sealing ordinance, that the chain of the Priesthood from
Adam to the latest generation might be united in one unbroken continuance. 
It is the same power and the same keys that Elijah held, and was to
exercise in the last days.  "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:  and he shall
turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." 
By this power men will be sealed to men back to Adam, completing and
making perfect the chain of the Priesthood from his day to the winding up
scene.  I have known men that I positively think would fellowship the
Devil, if he would agree to be sealed to them.  "Oh, be sealed to me,
brother; I care not what you do, you may lie and steal, or anything else,
I can put up with all your meanness, if you will only be sealed to me." 
Now this is not so much weakness as it is selfishness.  It is a great and
glorious doctrine, but the reason I have not preached it in the midst of
this people, is, I could not do it without turning so many of them to the
Devil.  Some would go to hell for the sake of getting the Devil sealed to
them.

	I have had visions and revelations instructing me how to organize
this people so that they can live like the family of heaven, but I cannot
do it while so much selfishness and wickedness reign in the Elders of
Israel.  Many would make of the greatest blessings a curse to them, as
they do now the plurality of wives--the abuse of that principle will send
thousands to hell.  There are many great and glorious privileges for the
people, which they are not prepared to receive.  How long it will be
before they are prepared to enjoy the blessings God has in store for them,
I know not--it has not been revealed to me.  I know the Lord wants to pour
blessings upon this people, but where [sic] he to do so in their present
ignorance, they would not know what to do with them.  They can receive
only a very little and that must be administered to them with great care.

	A portion of this community will not improve, will not plant out a
fruit tree nor a shade tree, expecting to be driven from their homes. 
Such neglect of duty is the very way to bring the power of the Devil upon
us.  Let every man go to with his might and build a good house for his
family to live in, and make them comfortable and happy, and gather around
them an abundance of the blessings and comforts of life, and do it by the
power of God and the Spirit of the Holy One, in all dilligence and
faithfulness, and let us preach the Gospel, send the Elders to gather the
poor and the meek of the earth, each one doing all the time all he can to
accumulate means to accelerate this great and glorious work in the name of
Israel's God, being full of faith, humility, and charity; then we have
done our duty, and all we can do to further the kingdom of God.

	When we are doing the work of the Lord with all our might, and the
evil within us is subdued by the power of God, and the light of Christ so
shines within us that we can see clearly the things of God and men truly
as they are, and all is judged by a righteous judgment, then we may look
at and talk about the faults of each other without in the least disturbing
our peace.  When we do this, working faithfully for the building up of
God's kingdom, we are ready to acknowledge all things we possess to be the
Lord's, holding them for him in time, not knowing what he will do with
them in the future.  Let us teach our families the principles of
righteousness by our conduct, which will go further than mere words.  Let
our private life be worthy the imitation of the best on earth, for it
preaches a more lasting sermon than the tongue can preach.  If we pursue
this course the Lord will never suffer us to be driven from our homes.  "I
always thought," said one, "that you were driven from Jackson county for
your wickedness?"  Yes, and I always, acknowledge it; it was to bring us
to our senses.

	The Lord wants us to live up to the spirit of the times, and in the
ratio the wicked nations are going down, he wants his people to rise in
intelligence and importance as statesmen, noblemen, and rulers; first
learning to govern and control themselves.

	I will recur again to the sealing power I have already glanced at. 
If men are sealed to me, it is because they want to be; and if they will
be good, and hearken to my counsel and live a righteous life, I will agree
to dictate and counsel them; but when men want to be sealed to me to have
me feed and clothe them, and then act like the Devil, I have no more
feeling and affection for them than I have for the greatest stranger in
the world.  Because a man is sealed to me, do you suppose that he can
escape being judged according to his works?  No.  Were he sealed to the
Saviour, it would make no difference; he would be judged like other men. 
Let us do what we do from a pure and holy principle, desiring only to
promote the kingdom of God and be as nigh right as possible, that when we
judge, we may judge in righteousness.

	One great blessing the Lord wishes to pour upon this people is that
they may return to Jackson county Missouri, and establish the centre-stake
of Zion.  If our enemies do not cease their oppression upon this people,
as sure as the Lord lives it will not be many days before we will occupy
that land and there build up a Temple to the Lord.  If they would keep us
from accomplishing this work very soon, they had better let us alone.  "I
will purge the land," saith the Lord, "cut off the evil doer, and prepare
a way for the return of my people to their inheritance."  We pray for
this, but are we preparing ourselves, to live according to the laws of
Zion?  This I will say, to the praise of the Latter-day Saints, there are
hundreds and thousands of them who have been in the Church, some longer
and some shorter, who, when you inquire about them, are paying attention
to their own business; this proves that they live in peace with their God
and their neighbours, doing as well as they know how.  But when we speak
of the officers of this Church, a great deal is required of them by the
Lord and the people.

	I wish to endure, and live the doctrine I preach to the people; to
live with them, and with them fight the Devil until we kick the last one
off from the earth. If a Bishop does not want drunkenness in his Ward, let
him be a sober man.  If he does not want gambling, he must not be a
gambler.  If he wishes the truth always spoken, he he [sic] should not
lie.  If he wishes the rights of the people respected in the holding of
property, he should not steal.  We wish to see the kingdom of God advance,
that we may be prepared for the blessings the Lord is anxious to give to
us.

	May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

     HOME MANUFACTURES.--CERTAIN DESTRUCTION OF THE ENEMIES OF TRUTH.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 6, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	When we first came to these valleys, we urged the brethren to believe
that they could raise grain here, for but few of them believed it; and
raising peaches was supposed by nearly all to be entirely out of the
question.  It is now proved beyond a doubt that we can raise in these
mountains, not only the best of grain, but the finest of fruit.

	If the Elders of Israel had taken the counsel which has been given
them for eight years past, we would have had gold enough on hand to buy
one quarter of the State of Missouri; which we might have owned as well as
not, and lived in it when we pleased.  There is one practice among this
people that I am at war with, and I pray God to give me strength and
ability, with the faith of the righteous, to root it out from our midst,
and that is, they would seemingly rather be damned than not give their
money to their enemies.  Will they raise flax, cotton and fruit?  No; but
they will put fortunes in the pockets of strangers, to import from a
distance what we can produce at home.  If this people had followed the
counsel given to them, there is not a man in Israel would have raised a
bushel of wheat for our enemies who came here to cut our throats, without
making them pay from five to ten dollars a bushel for it.  I do not wish
to scold, but still I do most cordially dislike the conduct of certain men
with whom we are obliged to associate in a Church capacity.  It is
impossible for me to speak pleasantly of their conduct while they, in
their feelings and affections, lean toward the wicked who will take the
name of God in vain and curse the chosen of God.  Even now, many of our
brethren are running after them begging for a little job of hauling, for a
little employment here and there, and apparently would lick the dust of
their feet for five cents. While brother Erastus Snow was speaking upon
our being under the necessity of importing various articles from abroad, I
tried to think what there is that we cannot make here.  There is as good
material in this Territory for making hats as there is in any part of the
world, and we have the mechanics who can put it together.  We have an
excellent button machine, one capable of producing as good buttons as
these I now wear in the bosom of my shirt.  There are tons of bones and
horns bleaching upon the prairie, which can be manufactured into as good
buttons as any man need to wear, if some of our button-makers would take
hold of the machine and work it.  We also have men here who can make
pressed buttons which will do very well.

	I see here, to-day, many who are dressed in homespun, and they look
comfortable and comparatively independent.  Some of the sisters I see,
wear home-made shawls, and to me, they appear far more appropriate than do
the gaudy trappings of foreign make.  I cannot see why we should send to
buy from strangers that which we can manufacture ourselves, if it is not
to satisfy a disposition to please and pamper that power which is opposed
to the kingdom of God on the earth.

	When the Lord cuts off every resource from this people, only that
which is immediately around them, they can then live as well if not better
than they do now, and attain to a state of self sustenance much sooner
than if he should continue to plead with them to rise up in their strength
and do as they ought toward becoming independent before all foreign
temporal facilities are entirely cut off.  Enoch was three hundred and
sixty-five years in getting a people ready to receive the blessings the
Lord had to bestow upon them, but in the latter days his work will be cut
short in righteousness.  Were the Lord to be as indulgent with us as many
want him to be, and continue to bear with the sins of the wicked, I
presume it would take him fully as long to prepare the people in his day,
but he will not wait so long.  The Lord can oblige this people to come to
the standard he wishes them to reach, but I have very little faith that
many will attain to it in the flesh.

	If we could not buy imported hats, we would make them of the material
we have here.  If we could not buy a yard of cotton cloth, we would raise
cotton and make it.  We can make spinning wheels and jennies; but brother
Erastus inquires where are we going to get the spindles, if we do not
import them.  That we have need to import spindles is not correct.  We
have plenty of men here who know how to make iron, and steel, and
spindles.  Brother N. V. Jones has produced specimens of iron from
magnetic ore.  He has not made cast iron from that ore, but the best of
wrought iron can be made from it.  Do our brethren make it?  No.  They
want to go to California after gold, or they wish to freight for this man
or that man who has nothing in common with the interests of the kingdom of
God.  In the same proportion that men operate to encourage the importation
of foreign productions, so far, according to their influence and means,
they operate against the advancement of the kingdom of God on the earth. 
Many may not believe this statement, though to me it has become an
established fact.  Any man of this Church and kingdom who exerts his
influence, strength, and means to promote any community, or to build up
any city, except the people and cities of Zion, is exerting his strength
and means against the kingdom of God.

	Our speaker this afternoon commiserated our friends in the east who
are now destroying each other, but who were once united in taking from us
our homes and possessions, and winked at the shedding of the blood of our
best men, and who have taken the lives of our brethren and sisters, of our
fathers and mothers, of our wives and children.  The tottering gray haired
sire excited no commiseration in their breasts, neither did the aged
grandmother whom they deprived of her children--her last prop and stay,
except her God, and left her to fall into the grave without a relation to
speak an encouraging word in her dying moments.  Our history records
hundreds of such cases in consequence of the persecutions, mobbings, and
drivings to which this people have been exposed.  Infants, the youth, and
the middle-aged have dropped into untimely graves by hundreds.  They have
taken our lives from the earth and swallowed up our substance, and
forsooth we feel very much to pity them in their present condition.  I
will inform sympathisers, that if the fountain of pity and commiseration
keeps pace with the increasing calamities that will come upon our enemies,
where they only have yielded drops, rivers will flow, for the press is
only just beginning to come down upon the ungodly--they can only just
begin to feel its pressure; but there is a weight hanging over them that
is ponderous in its crushing and desolating force.  Would I lift it off
from them, if I had the power?  No, but I would let it crush the guilty,
ungodly wretches--the priest in the pulpit, the judge on the bench, the
governor, and the rulers, and would let the common people go free.

	After a long struggle we expect to be able to redeem Zion, to
establish the centre stake thereof, and from thence spread abroad in the
vastness of our increasing numbers, and in the greatness of our power and
infinitude of our wealth, build hundreds and thousands of cities and
magnificent temples to the name and honour of our God; and we will enter
those temples and officiate for our forefathers and our relatives who have
died without a knowledge of the Gospel, and for those ignorant thousands
who are paid for killing each other in the present war, and we will give
them a salvation--All who have not sinned against the Holy Ghost, or shed
innocent blood or consented thereto.  The priests have rivetted their
fetters and chains around the millions, and they more or less influence
every political man in our Government, to ridicule and fight against God
and every holy principle that comes from heaven.  If these fetters were
broken asunder, and every man and every family permitted to judge for
themselves, hundreds of thousands would embrace the Gospel as soon as they
could have the privilege of hearing it, receive their ordinations and
endowments, and be ready to go forth and hasten the work of building
Temples wherein to officiate for those who had not in their lives the
privilege of going into a Temple to receive their washings and anointings. 
Were it not for priestcraft and political-craft, I am satisfied that
scores of thousands on this continent would now embrace the Gospel.

	I would like to see the footsteps of the Almighty (and they are now
beginning to be visible) in his going forth to cut off the bitter
branches; and by-and-bye the stone cut out of the mountain will begin to
roll, and if it does not soon crush some of the toes of the great image, I
am mistaken.  From present appearances I think the toes will be pretty
well mutilated before the stone reaches them.  I pray for this constantly,
for I would be glad to see the inhabitants of the earth have the privilege
of believing the Gospel for themselves, and not any more be bound by the
blighting influences of priestcraft.  In this country and in the old
countries politicians and wealthy men, who have any influence whatever
over their neighbours, or over a family, or district, exert that influence
to keep the people from embracing the Gospel the Lord has restored again
to the world, by threatening to injure them, to stop their wages, turn
them out of employment, or out of their houses, if they embrace
"Mormonism," and thus the masses are bound down.

	Will we still continue to build up and foster our enemies, and give
them our life's blood?  If we intend to cease doing so, we will cease
trading with them in the way and manner we have done and are doing.  You
may enquire what we are going to do, I will tell you what I have not done;
I have not sent to the States this season for any factory cloth, nor for
any calico, and I shall say to my family you must make your own clothing
or go without.  "What are we going to do for pins and needles?"  Do
without them, or use thorns.  When we cease importing them, necessity may
become the mother of invention in this as well as in many other cases.  I
have often wished there was not such a thing as a pin or a needle when I
have found them sticking in garments, in my shirt, on my pillow, in the
chairs, on the door rugs, strewed over the floors and passages, and in the
streets.  I will venture to say that the quantity of pins and needles that
has been brought into this Territory has not done one-tenth part of the
service they would, if they had been properly taken care of and not
wasted.  People will hardly stoop down to pick up a needle or a pin, but
they will go to the stores and buy them.  Ladies will take a dollar ivory
comb, put it in water, and then comb a child's hair with it; it is never
dry, the ivory softens, and the comb is used up in a very short time, when
a good comb of that description ought to last five years in a common
family.  Mothers have not learned that water will spoil an ivory comb. 
There are some combs made of gutta percha, that comb the hair better than
horn, but they are brittle and require to be used with care; but the first
you know, one is on the floor and the rocker of the rocking-chair has
passed over it and rendered it useless.

	Where do you keep your needles?  On the floor, in the cradle, on the
bed, up stairs and down stairs, in every nook and corner of the house. 
Where are the pins?  All over; you can pick up one wherever you are.  Do
we answer the end of our creation in thus wasting, with a prodigal hand,
the good things which our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us?  The
people are ignorant and careless touching these matters, and in them do
not answer the end of their creation, and will not without prudently
making the best possible use of that which God gives us.

	We can make everything we want; and that is not all, we can, if we
are disposed to, cease to want that which we cannot make.  The moment we
do this, and are satisfied with our productions, we are an independent
people.

               AUTHORITY OF BISHOPS--BRANCH ORGANIZATIONS.
               ASSISTING THE MAIL AND TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	This is the place to give items of instruction to the people.  I am
satisfied that it is my duty to improve this opportunity, and should be
very happy if I could speak with ease; if I could do so I should talk a
great deal more than I do.

	Ask a Bishop by what authority he is acting as a Bishop;  "I suppose
I am a Bishop according to the Priesthood."  By what Priesthood do you act
as a Bishop?  "I really cannot answer that question."  Are you a High
Priest?  "Yes."  Why do you so officiate?  "Because I have been ordained
to so officiate; the First Presidency ordered Bishop Hunter to ordain me a
High Priest, and set me apart to be a Bishop in this district."  After a
person is ordained a High Priest he then has authority to act in all the
duties of the lesser Priesthood, when called upon by the proper authority
so to do.  Some of the Bishops understand their true position and some do
not, for which reason a few remarks in addition to those I made this
forenoon will, perhaps, not be amiss.

	There is no retrograde movement in ordaining a High Priest to the
office of a Bishop, for, properly speaking, he is set apart to act in that
office.  When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch of the Church as a
Bishop, he does so according to the best of his knowledge; and now and
then one believes that he has a right, when ordained as a Bishop, to
officiate and preside over every temporal and spiritual interest in his
district by virtue of his Bishopric; he believes that he ought to go into
a Seventies' Council in his Ward and preside because he is a Bishop:  and
under this impression he dictates, guides and directs all things in his
district; he baptizes, confirms and administers the sacrament as a Bishop,
performing, under this impression, every spiritual and temporal duty. 
Were we to inquire of the Bishops of this Church what duties are assigned
to the Aaronic Priesthood they hold, and what are assigned to the
Melchisedek, those who could answer correctly are in the minority.  I am
satisfied of this, for I have been placed in positions that made it
necessary to propound questions to some of our most intelligent Bishops
relating to misunderstandings and difficulties that have occurred in their
districts touching their authority, when their answers convinced me that
they knew little about it; perhaps from not having an opportunity of
finding out, or, in a word, they have not so loved that the heavens have
been opened to them to teach them so fully and effectually their duties
that they need no man to teach them.  The duties and powers of a Bishop
cease the very moment he steps over the Aaronic Priesthood, which is to
officiate in temporal things; when he passes this he immediately begins to
officiate by the authority and power of the Melchisedek Priesthood, though
he may not know it.

	We have scores of branches of this Church in different parts of this
country, and had we better now place officers, helps and governments in
these branches, or wait till the people come to understanding, and learn
to appreciate and honor such appointments?  It is chiefly because of the
ignorance of the people that we often concentrate in one man these
different offices and callings, but when the people are sufficiently
informed and have advanced further in the knowledge of the truth, it will
not be so, but every branch will have its full quota of officers--a
Patriarch, President, Bishop, High Council, and all officers that are
necessary for the work of the Ministry, and the edifying of the body of
Christ.  Until the people can receive and honor these helps and
governments, and be benefited by them, the different offices will be
concentrated in as few men as possible, for men will contend for power,
and as to which shall be the greatest, until they are better informed.

	If the people fully understand and would observe the relationship
these offices have to each other, there would never be a word of
altercation.  In this city we have no altercation about authorities.  We
but seldom get up a trouble for a High Council case.  When the people come
to sufficient understanding, we shall not put the onerous task upon one
man to act both as President and Bishop, but we will give you a full
organization of helps, governments, &c.; but at present we shall take a
course to confine the offices of the Church in such a manner as to give
the least cause for contention and trouble.  There are men who have a
contentious disposition; they will contend against a Bishop, a Magistrate,
a Judge, or any man holding an office; in short, they wish to destroy
every power in Heaven and on earth that they do not hold themselves.  This
is the spirit of Satan that was made so visibly manifest in Heaven and
which proved his overthrow, and he now afflicts this people with it; he
wants to dictate and rule every principle and power that leads to
exaltation and eternal life, and those whom he influences wish to walk
underfoot every person who stands in authority over them.

	I now wish to say a few words about assisting the mail and telegraph
companies.  It has been asked, "Shall we assist these companies?  Shall
they be supplied with grain and that help which is necessary to facilitate
the expeditious and safe carrying of the mail?"  I say, ye.  Shall the
telegraph company receive favors at our hands?  Yes.  I do not know of two
greater temporal blessings of the kind that can be bestowed upon this
people.  If we happen to lay in bed a little later than usual, by the aid
of the telegraph wires we can read the news of the morning from Washington
and New York; and by-and-by we may be favored with the news of yesterday
from London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, and all the principal cities in
the old world.  We are among the people of this world; our bodies are of
the earth, and our spirits are like the spirits of other people and from
the same source, only we are trying to establish the kingdom of God on
earth, to introduce righteousness, and prepare the people for the reign of
Jesus Christ on the earth.  One man says, "I have agreed to do thus and
so."  Then go and do it.  Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your
word.

	What should be the course of this people in these matters?  Let them
act by the counsel of the men who understand such things better than they
do.  When I say supply so much labor, or so much grain, or do so much
hauling, you will be justified, otherwise you will not.  If I might
dictate this matter and get my pay for it, I would fill this whole mail
route with "Mormon" boys who would labor faithfully, conduct honorably,
and see that the mails were carried safely and promptly.  If it were left
to me, I would fill this whole route, as we would have done a few years
ago if the contract had not been unjustly taken from us, with a line of
conveyances, wherein men might sleep by day or by night in perfect safety
as tot their persons and property; and if a pocket book dropped out of a
pocket it would be as safe as though it were under lock and key, so far as
its being stolen is concerned.  How is it now?

	If A, B and C say they will begin to sell whisky, then if it is right
for them to sell whisky in the streets of this city, it is right for me. 
Whisky is useful in making vinegar, and we need it for cutting camphor
gum, for medicine, washings, &c., but is it necessary to keep a whisky
shop?  No.  And if it is right for one man to keep a whisky shop, it is
right for another, until all become whisky peddlers and whisky drinkers,
and all go to the devil together.  It does not require much illumination
of mind to comprehend that unless the selling of spirituous liqours [sic]
is managed by proper persons, it will result in the ruination of many of
the community.  So with the selling and disposing our produce to outside
interests; for those who expend their means and labor in a way that does
not enrich and build up Zion will apostatize and go out of this kingdom,
sooner or later.  When you are appointed to haul grain here or there, you
will feel justified.  Or, if you wish to drive a train, or to go as a
guard on the mail route, or to attend to this or that, and the counsel is
yes, go, and be honest and upright before God and man and deal justly with
everybody, and if you do not so conduct, you will be brought home and
dealt with, then, if you go in this way, you will be justified.  Whatever
is done let it be done by counsel and common consent; then we can be paid
for our labor and our produce; wealth will increase around us, which we
can put to use in gathering home the poor Saints from all nations by
hundreds and by thousands.  In the course the people have taken they will
make themselves poor, while might be rich.  I feel very friendly towards
Mr. Street and many others connected with the telegraph line.  They have
treated this community as gentlemen will.  I have rendered them some
assistance, and am ready to render them more; and they have been very
accommodating to us.  The Overland Mail company brings our letters, books,
magazines, &c., and is as great an accommodation as can well be until we
have a railroad through here, which I hope we shall have ere long, if it
is right.  They should be assisted, and that by the Counsel of the Kingdom
of God in these mountains; and let it be done by common consent, or no
longer say that we are one with the main branch; if you are not thus one,
you will be severed from the vine and will wither and die.

	May the Lord bless the Latter-day Saints, is my prayer all the time. 
Amen.



      DUTIES CONNECTED WITH THE AARONIC AND MELCHISEDEK PRIESTHOOD.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 7, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Without revelation direct from heaven, it is impossible for any
person to fully understand the plan of salvation.  We often hear it said
that the living oracles must be in the Church, in order that the kingdom
of God may be established and prosper on the earth.  I will give another
version of this sentiment.  I say that the living oracles of God, or the
Spirit of revelation must be in each and every individual, to know the
plan of salvation and keep in the path that leads them to the presence of
God.

	How true is the text that brother George A. Smith has quoted.  There
are thousands of our Elders who ought now to be teachers, and to know
enough to commence the kingdom of God on the earth, and establish it, and
continue to lead, guide, and direct it, leading the people directly
through the gate into the celestial kingdom of our Father and God, and yet
they need to be taught like children.

	From what has been remarked it appears that, in some instances, the
President and the Bishop of a Branch infringe upon the rights of each
other, perhaps honestly; and they think that they possess this power and
that authority, and thereby contention arises in the midst of this people,
creating alienation of feeling and apostacy.  What a pity it is that such
circumstances should exist; they create sincere regret in the soul of
every person who desires to see the kingdom of God prosper on the earth.

	The spiritual and the temporal cannot be separated, and, in the
economy of the Framer of the Universe, are not designed to be.  For
example, were we a congregation who had not heard the plan of salvation
and knew nothing of the kingdom of God upon earth, and were listening
patiently to a stranger opening the plan of salvation to us, our hearts
would be touched by the fire in the speaker, they eyes of our
understandings would be opened, and we would begin to comprehend, admire,
and rejoice in the truth.  This is a spiritual work, an internal work, a
work upon the heart and affections.  This is what we call spiritual
impressions.  The speaker has portrayed before our minds the beauties of
the kingdom of God on earth so rationally, and in a manner so congenial to
the feelings of all honest persons, that they are all influenced to
believe the Gospel.  What is the next step?  You next ask the preacher to
baptize you, and here you commence a temporal labour with both body and
spirit.  The preacher has been labouring with his body, exercising his
lungs, and his whole spiritual and temporal system, and this labour
produces a spiritual and temporal benefit on those who believe and
practice his teachings.  It is so extremely nice a point to draw the line
of demarcation between the temporal and spiritual acts of man, that it is
impossible to separate the two.  There is a class of men who do not
believe anything in religion to be temporal; they are baptized in their
hearts, partake of the sacrament in their hearts, preach in their hearts,
and worship the Lord in their hearts, while their bodies are constantly
scrambling after the dimes.  To be baptized, change your wet clothes for
dry ones, go to meeting to worship the Lord, and to bring the body into
subjection to the will of Christ, is all a temporal labour aided by the
Divine Spirit.

	I will say a few words with regard to a Bishop.  Except we find a
literal descendant of Aaron, a man has to be ordained to the High
Priesthood to administer as did Aaron and his sons.  Suppose we then place
the same man also as a President in a Branch, how are we going to divide
his duties and labours?  I said a few words in this subject last year, and
can say more about it.  Can the Bishop baptize the people, according to
his Bishopric?  He can.  When the people he has baptized assemble for
confirmation, can he confirm them?  He cannot, under the power of his
Bishopric; but as he has been ordained to the office of a High Priest,
after the order of Melchisedek, to prepare him to act in the office of a
Bishop in the Priesthood of Aaron, when he has baptized the people under
the authority of his Bishopric, he has a right as a High Priest to confirm
them into the Church by the laying on of hands.  Bishops begin a
contention in their Branch, where they operate in their calling, when they
amalgamate with their Bishop's office the office of the High Priesthood,
when they try to bring the authority of the High Priesthood in the kingdom
of God down to the capacity of the Priesthood that belongs to the office
of an acting Bishop; here they make a grave mistake, and fall into
perplexing errors.

	What are the duties of a President and a Bishop?  We will first
notice a duty that belongs to a President.  For instance, he wishes a
comfortable place prepared for the people to meet in, and he calls on the
Bishop to marshal his forces to gather the material to build a house, and
the house is prepared for the comfort and accommodation of all.  In this
instance you observe the duty and office of a Bishop is attended to.  In
his capacity the Bishop knows nobody only as a member of the kingdom of
God, and in the performance of this duty he calls upon the President and
everyone else to aid in accomplishing the wishes of the President, to go
to the kanyon to get out timber, to quarry rock, make adobies, &c., &c.,
for everybody is entitled to pay Tithing.  When the house is put up
according to the President's direction, then the President calls on the
Bishop to see that it is well seated, lighted and warmed, for the
convenience and comfort of the congregation.  Then in like manner he sees
that the sacrament is prepared and administered, for it is the right, and
privilege, and duty of the President to baptize, and confirm, and
administer the sacrament, and do all things for the spiritual building up
of the kingdom of God; and also it is the right of the Bishop to preach,
baptize, and administer the sacrament.

	On Monday morning the Bishop calls upon the President and everybody
it concerns, to send their Tithing to the General Tithing Office.  The
President, who officiates as presiding officer on Sunday, is as subject to
the Bishop on Monday as anybody else.  My Bishop has just as good a right
to come to my house and demand of me my Tithing, as he has to demand it of
any other person in his ward, also to inquire into the state of my family,
whether I attend to my prayers, whether I have contention with my
neighbours, &c., in his capacity as a Bishop.

	So these callings and Priesthoods are interwoven one with another,
for the convenience and furtherance of the kingdom of God, in the absence
of a literal descendant of Aaron.  A Bishop sometimes officiates as a High
Priest, and sometimes as a Bishop.  In his High Priesthood he can act,
when called upon so to do by the proper authority in every calling in the
Church, except that of an Apostle; there are still keys and powers that
can be conferred upon him; but when a man is ordained to the office of an
Apostle, he is ordained to the fullest extent a man can be on earth.

	May the Lord bless you.  Amen.

           FORMING A STATE CONSTITUTION.--RAISING AGRICULTURAL
                         PRODUCTS.--TRUE RICHES.
     Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, April 8, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I wish to inform all the inhabitants of the Territory of Utah, Jew
and Gentile, bond and free, male or female, black and white, red,
copper-colored and yellow, that, in organizing a State Government, we
shall not infringe in the least upon the Constitution of our country, upon
any principle contained in the Declaration of Independence, nor upon any
constitutional law that has been enacted by the Congress of the United
States.  Will this step bring upon us the disapprobation of the Government
of the United States?  That is not for me to say; it will be as God may
direct.

	As the kingdom of God rises and advances upon the earth, so will the
power of Satan increase to impede its progress until God shall purge that
power from the earth, and so give the Saints the victory, that they can
bear off his kingdom triumphantly in spite of the powers of Satan and
wicked men.  But so far as the power of Satan extends, just so far will be
seen his operations to overthrow all righteousness.  There is nothing that
would so soon weaken my hope and discourage me as to see this people in
full fellowship with the world, and receive no more persecution from them
because they are one with them.  In such an event, we might bid farewell
to the Holy Priesthood with all its blessings, privileges and aids to
exaltations, principalities and powers in the eternities of the Gods.

	I can say with confidence, if we will live so as to enjoy the
revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves day by day, overcoming
every passion, feeling and desire that has been sown in our nature through
the fall, overcoming all that is contrary to the law of Heaven and the
principles of salvation that is purchased by Jesus Christ for us, which is
the plan of God has devised to exalt the human family to immortality and
eternal lives, if we will let that Spirit and power of God reign within
us; we shall never be afflicted more than we can bear, and that is as far
as I can promise.

	We have seen the power and wisdom that have been displayed by our
enemies since we have been in these mountains, which has all amounted to
but little toward accomplishing what they desired.  No more will be
accomplished than has been.

	Brother Orson Pratt's remarks on the powers of the Congress of the
United States are strictly correct.  It is well known that the Congress of
the United States has no power granted in the Constitution to organize a
Territorial Government, and every power that is not named in the
Constitution for Congress to act upon is reserved to the people.  But
Congress assumes powers that does not belong to it, and if it continues to
do so, soon the last vestige of the free, independent, Republican and
Democratic Government we have enjoyed will be merged in a military
despotism, if there is anything left.

	Our Government is at present engaged in an expensive war.  It has
been supposed that the South would soon be subjugated, that they would
yield the point and submit.  They will not, and the war has scarcely
commenced.

	The slave States do not as yet appear to be whipped or conquered. 
Both North and South are in the hands of the Lord, and so are we.

	Let us from this time strive more diligently to overcome our own evil
passions. We may talk about Priesthood, about power and authority, about
blessings and exaltations, about the kingdom of God upon the earth, about
gathering the house of Israel, about redeeming Zion and enjoying its
fulness, about preparing for the coming of the Son of Man and enjoying
celestial glory with him, but all this is vain if we do not sanctify
ourselves before God, and sanctify the Lord our God in our hearts,  We
wish you fully to comprehend this; and when you go from this Conference,
we do not wish to hear of contentions.  And as soon as Elders have wisdom
sufficient to magnify their calling and Priesthood, we will give to every
Branch, no matter how small the Ward, both a Bishop and a President.

	It is our privilege and duty to sanctify our own hearts.  Perhaps I
have as much acknowledgment to make as anybody for sometimes suffering my
feelings to be a little ruffled.  I cannot say that I felt entirely free
from vexations at remarks made, by one of the speakers this morning, upon
the impurity of seeds in our Territory.  Notwithstanding so much has been
said upon that subject, there does not seem to be care enough in the heads
of Israel to provide even for themselves, to say nothing about setting a
proper example to the people.  If it were left to such men, there never
would be a grain of pure sugar cane seed in the country.  Where is your
care for Israel?  You will preach the spiritual things of the kingdom, and
let your bodies and the bodies of the people go into the grave.  Before
you preach to a starving man to arise and be baptized, first carry him
some bread and wine; first unlock his prison house and let him go free. 
Is there a Bishop in this Territory that knows whether there is a particle
of pure cabbage seed in the Territory, or in his Ward?  whether there is a
peck of clean, pure flaxseed, &c.  Bishops, how much flaxseed is going to
be sown in your respective Wards this season?  "Don't know."  How much
wheat, oats and barley?  "Don't know.  I have a little speculation on
hand, and I wish to provide for my own family, for the convenience and
comfort of my own household, for this I esteem to be my first duty."

	There was a Bishop in Far West, who, as Trustee-in-trust, held the
property of the Church; no other man had the means he had to help the poor
Saints.  I tried to get my voice to his ears for days, and could not.  At
last I accosted him and said:--"Bishop, what are you going to do toward
helping the poor Saints out of the State of Missouri, as we agreed?"  He
was irritated in a moment.  I supposed that he thought it was none of my
business, but I knew that it was, and calculated to attend to it.  He did
not speak good naturedly, although naturally a mild-tempered man.  At last
he said, "I am going to take my family and leave the State, and the people
may take care of themselves."  Many of our Bishops feel like that; they
will plant their potatoes, take care of their calves and themselves, and
the people may go to the devil for ought they care.

	I, perhaps, ought not to find fault about such things; but why not my
brethren of the Twelve take an interest in such matters, and not leave
everything of that kind for me and my Counsellors to attend to?

	I ask the Agricultural and Manufacturing Society of this Territory,
if they have one ounce of pure cabbage seed on hand, or know who has. It
is doubtful whether an affirmative answer could be given to this question. 
But if you have a few excellent peaches, or a basket of choice apples to
give them to eat, they will be as proud as a little boy with a new top,
and boast long and loud about what nice things we have in this Territory. 
I cannot complain of the vigilance of the tasting committee, but what do
they do for the benefit of the people?  To eat the people's fruit and
praise them for raising it, calling them "beloved brethren, and won't you
bring us in a little more next fall?" &c., may be well enough, but what
does this Society do?  What do the Twelve and the First Presidency do in
teaching this people to sustain themselves?  We all take care of
ourselves, do we not?  Is that all?  No.  There is not a thing my eye is
not upon, that will enhance the welfare of this people.  Who imported the
first carding-machine to this country, and the only good ones that have
been brought here?  Who imported the nail-machines, the paper-machine,
steam-engines and other valuable machinery?  I use everything I can rake
and scrape together for the interest of this people.  I only need a little
food and a small amount of clothing, and as for the rest the people are
welcome to it.

	I wish the other brethren to look after the welfare of the people, as
well as myself.  I do not wish to again hear any of the leaders of Israel
complain that there is not any pure sugar-cane seed, flaxseed, cotton
seed, &c., in the country, but I wish them to be fully informed as to
where pure seeds of all kinds can be had, and as to what is going on among
the people in every part of each Ward or district; and then I want to
inform the Bishops, and direct their tongues to speak and their hands to
act.  I wish this particularly to apply to those who preside where the
First Presidency do not go.

	The Agricultural Society ought to make arrangements to have and keep
on hand the best varieties of all kinds of garden seeds, the best
varieties of fruits, of grain, and every useful product of the soil, that
all may be able to procure the purest and best seeds, scions, fruit and
shade trees, shrubbery, &c.  Brother T. W. Ellerbeck and a few others have
done considerable in introducing several valuable varieties of fruits and
seeds.

	Brother Lorenzo Snow says, that the Lord will bless my brethren and
sisters.  He says that all the mules in the Territory can not haul away
the gold that is concealed in these mountains.  Riches do not consist of
gold and silver.  It may be said that with them we can buy all the
comforts we need for the body.  That may be so under certain
circumstances; still gold and silver are merely a convenient means of
exchange.  Earthly riches are concealed in the elements God has given to
man, and the essence of wealth is power to organize from these elements
every comfort and convenience of life for our sustenance here, and for
eternal existence hereafter.  The possession of all the gold and silver in
the world would not satisfy the cravings of the immortal soul of man.  The
gift of the Holy Spirit of the Lord alone can produce a good, wholesome,
contented mind.  Instead of looking for gold and silver, look to the
heavens and try to learn wisdom until you can organize the native elements
for your benefit; then, and not until then, will you begin to possess the
true riches.  All the riches, wealth, glory and happiness that we shall
ever possess in heaven will be possessed on and around this earth when it
is brought up into the presence of God in a sanctified and glorified
state; and the sanctified ones who enter through the gate and pass the
sentinel into the New Jerusalem, and into the presence of the Father and
the Son, are the ones who will inherit the new heavens and the new earth
in the presence of God, for here is the eternity, the glory and the power. 
When we possess all things, it will be when we possess power to organize
the native elements that fill the immensity of space, bringing forth and
organizing, bringing forth and organizing, again and again, dealing out
the providence of God, dictating, guiding and directing the kingdoms that
will be made for ever and for ever.  This is eternal riches--it is eternal
life.

	"What did Jesus mean, when he said, Lay up treasures in heaven, &c. 
What mortal ever went there to lay up treasures?  Is there an apartment, a
business house there, a Dr. and Cr. account, &c.?"  Ask the Lord
yourselves, what he meant by that expression, and if you have the Spirit
of Christ, you will find out the truth.  I think that the Savior referred
particularly to laying up in pure and sanctified bodies, holy principles
that belong to the heavens, until we are brought back into the presence of
the Father, and we, with the earth upon which we stand, are cleansed and
sanctified beyond the power of Satan.

	I will now say that we wish to go on with the Temple this year; we
shall also send out teams to bring home the poor, send Missionaries to the
nations, &c., &c.  If the hearts of this people are right, if they are
filled with faith in God; if they act with an eye single to his glory and
the building up of his kingdom on the earth, they will lock up their
teams, secure their seed grain and farming utensils, will look and live
for rain, for water in abundance to irrigate their lands, for sunshine,
for day and night and everything, that will give us a fruitful season this
coming summer.  What will you do with the increase of your fields?  Will
you strew it to strangers?  Some complain at the hand of Jehovah for
giving them wheat.  I have heard it said, "It is a curse to us; it annoys
me to see so much wheat."  There never has been a land, from the days of
Adam until now, that has been blessed more than this land has been blessed
by our Father in heaven; and it will still be blessed more and more, if we
are faithful and humble, and thankful to God for the wheat and the corn,
the oats, the fruit, the vegetables, the cattle and everything he bestows
upon us, and try to use them for building up of his kingdom on the earth.

	There will be no lack of teams for doing our work, if we will go to
with our mights to bring the poor Saints here and to build this Temple. 
There will be teams to bring us the rock from the quarries; and let the
young men come and learn to cut stone.  I wish to hurry the building of
the Temple, for I would like to have it completed before we are called to
more important duties.


	God bless the righteous.  Amen.



        CAUTION AGAINST VAIN LAUGHTER.--VALUE OF THE LIFE OF MAN.
       Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
                  Great Salt Lake City, April 27, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	I have been highly gratified at the few remarks I have heard this
morning from the brethren who are about to leave us to fulfil their
Missions.  They have a great deal of talk in them, and they will soon be
in their fields of labour where they can free their minds.

	Brother George Sims' remarks created considerable empty levity.  I
like to be pleased myself; I like to be filled with joy, but if I cannot
be filled with joy and gladness that is full of meat and marrow, or, in
other words, full of meaning and sense, I would rather retain my gravity.

	There is but one step between life and death, between faithfulness
and apostacy, between the sublime and the ridiculous.  We preach the
Gospel and gather the Saints, but are all Saints when they are gathered? 
No, we gather the goats with the sheep.  We gather people here, and then
the most trifling incidents that may occur in their lives, contrary to
their wishes, will turn them aside, and they will forsake their religion
and their God.  I am sorry for this.

	Never give way to vain laughter.  I have seldom laughed aloud for
twenty or thirty years without regretting it, and I always blush for those
who laugh aloud without meaning.

	I am often full of joy and gladness, and were I to give way to the
promptings of my nature at such times, it would lead to unreasonable
levity which would be a source of mortification and sorrow to me.  I
noticed that the brethren gave way to that laugh which I choose not to
hear.  I hope they will accept of this caution, and watch, govern, control
and subdue their passions.  I am satisfied that those persons who stamp,
clap hands, whistle, and make other noisy and boisterous demonstrations in
the theatres so untimed and uncalled for, have but little sense, and know
not the difference between a happy smile of satisfaction to cheer the
countenance of a friend, or a contemptuous sneer that brings the curses of
man upon man.

	I am rejoiced, my brethren, when I hear the Elders of Israel speak as
they did this morning.  I care little for a man's language, if his spirit
proves to me that he has the love of God within him.  Brother Erastus Snow
remarked that the time would come when the law of God would be written on
the hearts of the people.  A pharisee and a lawyer asked Jesus Christ a
question, tempting him, saying, "Master, which is the great commandment in
the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind.  This is the
first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neigbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets."  When we can keep these two commandments, do you not
think that the law of God will be written in our hearts?  Yes, and it will
never be erased.  When I have a manifestation, through the brethren that
speak, that the love of God is planted in their souls, that God rules and
reigns in their affections, I care not what language they make use of to
express their ideas, there is joy, peace, and solid satisfaction in
listening to the words of their mouths.

	Brother Erastus Snow has been preaching since he was fifteen years of
age, and has been a faithful Minister to preach the Gospel from that day
to this, and yet he is troubled with the same diffidence that others are
troubled with.  When we look upon the human face we look upon the image of
our Father and God; there is a divinity in each person male and female;
there is the heavenly, there is the divine and with this is amalgamated
the human, the earthly, the weaker portions of our nature, and it is the
human that shrinks in the presence of the divine, and this accounts for
our manfearing spirit, and it is all there is of it.  Many public
lecturers, by faithful application in their studies and constant practice
in public speaking, have overcome to a great degree what is usually called
a manfearing spirit.

	I am now looking upon beings who are expressly created to inhabit the
celestial kingdom of our Father and God.  They are the children of God,
the brethren and sisters of Jesus Christ, of the same family and descent. 
My best efforts are too feeble to portray before you the worth of the life
we now possess.  Probably there is not a single person upon the earth that
properly magnifies his life to the fullest extent, or, as it was designed
he should, to prepare him to dwell with God and holy angels.  Many
passages of Scripture can be produced showing how the ancients complained
of the folly and wickedness of mankind, but they never undervalued life. 
The first life must be magnified as a preparatory step to the enjoyment of
the second.  Those immortal and glorified beings that inherit higher
spheres understood this principle, have magnified their mortal existence
and passed on to immortality to possess exaltations in eternal life.  We
ought not to speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy, but so
dispose of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent in doing
good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful, in improving
our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the principle of
kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere, learning their
uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest possible amount of
good; learning to conduct ourselves towards our families and friends in a
way to win the love and confidence of the good, and overcome every
ungovernable passion by a constant practice of cool judgment and
deliberate thoughts.

	I feel continually to say God bless the people.  God bless the
brethren who go on Missions to preach the Gospel, and those who are
already in their fields of labour.  I desire to see righteousness prevail,
this is my whole delight; I have no other business on hand; I wish to have
no other.  I have no other joy or affection for anything only the
perfection of the kingdom of God, and to see righteousness reign
triumphantly.  I delight to see my brethren and sisters live in a way to
promote that life which will never end.  Instead of preparing to die,
prepare to live in the midst of all the exaltations of the Gods.  I do not
mean to leave this world, God being my helper, until sin and iniquity are
banished from it, and the reign of everlasting righteousness is
introduced, and Jesus Christ comes and reigns king of nations as he does
king of Saints, and the earth with all the Saints that dwell upon it are
brought into the presence of Father and Son, there to dwell for ever.

	God bless you.  Amen.

            ENDLESS VARIETY OF ORGANIZATIONS.--BLESSINGS THAT
                           AWAIT THE FAITHFUL.
           Remarks made by President Brigham Young, Tabernacle,
                   Great Salt Lake City, May 25, 1862.
                         Reported by G. D. Watt.

	Our mortal existence is a school of experience.  Could we improve
every hour of our time in the best possible way until we attain a ripe old
age, there will be still much to learn pertaining to this world,
pertaining to our natural lives, to the organization of our bodies and
spirits, to the object and design of our existence, and the will of Heaven
concerning us.

	Some of our speakers, in their public addresses, express themselves
as seeing great reason to be thankful for the improvements we are making
in self-government, and our rapid advancement towards the fountains of
knowledge.  Others have a long experience to relate of constant trials,
tribulations, difficulties, and disappointments which they have now to
pass through, and gloomy forebodings of more in the future; they dwell
upon how we are tried with each other, and become dissatisfied with each
other and with ourselves, &c.  Now, this is all good, and if properly
received is for our mutual edification and advancement, giving us much to
reflect upon, and lessons to learn from the experience of each other.  But
should our lives be extended to a thousand years, still we may live and
learn.  Every vicissitude we pass through is necessary for experience and
example, and for preparation to enjoy that reward which is for the
faithful.  Others consider it a lamentable fact that we have to send
abroad and preach the Gospel, and gather the people, and then they will
apostatize.  We only understand in part why we are required to pass
through those various incidents of life.  There is not a single condition
of life that is entirely unnecessary; there is not one hour's experience
but what is beneficial to all those who make it their study, and aim to
improve upon the experience they gain.  What becomes a trial to one person
is not noticed by another.  Among these two thousand persons I am now
addressing there cannot be found two that are organized alike, yet we all
belong to the one great human family, have sprung from one source, and are
organized to inherit eternal life.  There are no two faces alike, no two
persons tempered alike; we have come from different nations of the world,
and have been raised in different climates, educated and traditioned in
different and, in many instances, in opposite directions, hence we are
tried with each other, and large drafts are made upon our patience,
forbearance, charity, and good will--in short, upon all the higher and
godlike qualities of our nature--for we are required by our holy religion
to be one in our faith, feelings, and sentiments pertaining to things of
time and eternity, and in all our earthly pursuits and works to keep in
view the building up of the kingdom of God in the last days.  Our work is
to bring forth Zion, and produce the Kingdom of God in its perfection and
beauty upon the earth.

	The impulses of our different natures present an almost endless
variety of pursuit, manner, and expression, yet all this under a wise and
judicious direction will accomplish the great end of our existence and
calling as ministers of the Most High.  "Br. Brigham teaches that it is
essentially necessary to improve every moment of our time in some useful
and profitable labour, and by frugality and honest care obtain property by
cultivating the earth, raising useful animals, &c., and thus make
ourselves wealthy and independent, surrounding ourselves with everything
to please the eye, gratify the taste, and gladden the heart."  Now, both
you and I are aware that there are persons in our midst who do not
understand this kind of religion; but we hail them as good brethren.  When
they address us they are full of faith that the time will come when the
earth and its fulness will be given to the Saints of the Most High, yet,
should the Lord hand out a small portion of it now, they cannot endure it.

	We believe the earth is to be renovated, purified, glorified,
celestialized, and prepared for the habitation of the Saints, who will
possess not only the silver and gold now held by the wicked nations of the
world, but every good thing, for "The young lions do lack, and suffer
hunger:  but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."  This
"any good thing" will embrace horses, chariots, houses and lands, gardens
and orchards, promenades and places for recreation, and everything to
amuse and delight the heart of man.  We are now beginning to get these
things together and devote them to God, but, as I have remarked, some of
this people cannot endure this kind of blessings.  It is written, "The
earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that
dwell therein."  Again, "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy,
holy, is the Lord of hosts:  his glory is the fulness of the whole earth." 
He will give this fulness to the Saints.  But the actions of some of this
people speak in language like the following:  "If you give me any of this
riches and glory, Lord, I will apostatize; if you fill my lap with gold, I
will cease serving you, and go to the Devil."

	The revelation that Br. James Cummings read is true.  The people, at
the time that revelation was given, were slow to remember the Lord in the
day of their prosperity, and were covetous.  I was not there, but was
acquainted with many who were.  I knew them before they went there, and I
know they were covetous and filled with greediness.  I know, if the Lord
had blessed them with the good things of this earth, which he had prepared
for the Saints at that day, not any of them would have stood.  It would
have been as Joseph said to me in Kirtland, "Brother Brigham, if I was to
reveal to this people what the Lord has revealed to me, there is not a man
or a woman would stay with me."  In the day of prosperity now the people
are slow to follow the Lord.  If he were now to bless this people with
gold and silver, houses and lands, with everything to make them wealthy
and comfortable here in Deseret or Utah, a great many would turn away from
him to worship their idols.

	"But," says one, "this will not do for us; if we are the children of
God we must be poor, we must see sorrow and affliction, and pass through
much tribulation."  I have no fear but that every child of God will
receive all the suffering he can bear while passing to his exaltation. 
Those who have suffered from sore eyes, I am satisfied, are contented not
to suffer another moment with that dreadful malady, should they live on
the earth a thousand years.  The sisters who have been afflicted with sick
headache never want to suffer from it another moment.  Do you wish to have
any more toothache?  No, you think that you have suffered enough from that
ache, and never wish to have it again while you live.  So we may say of
fevers, pains, aches, and diseases of every kind to which the human body
is subject.  I might inquire of the Nauvoo Saints whether they ever want
to endure another chill and fever while they live.  I am satisfied there
is not one of them that would wish to pass through another day of their
Nauvoo experience in sickness.  Again, I ask the brethren who have come
from the different nations of the earth, who have there suffered hunger,
nakedness, cold, and oppression, are you satisfied with what you have
suffered, without passing through the same in this land?  I think you are. 
I have seen the time that I had not food to satisfy the craving of my
nature, and I have suffered enough in this line of suffering.  I know what
it is to be hungry, and need not suffer hunger again to give me that kind
of experience.  I know what it is to be in poverty, and to be destitute of
the raiment necessary to keep any body warm.  Many of you have also had
this kind of experience, and we do not wish to pass through it again. 
Many of us know what it is to be in the midst of false brethren, which is
the most hateful thing of all.  Are you satisfied with what you have
suffered from tattlers and busy bodies?  Yes.  Do you wish any person to
bear false witness against you, to take away your liberty, and turn you
out from your houses and possessions, and thirst for your life?  Do you
wish to see the Prophets and servants of God imprisoned, bound in chains,
and sacrificed in blood?  When you are brought face to face with
suffering, you see nothing in it that is desirable, then why cultivate a
morbid desire for suffering?  You will find all you can bear, though you
surround yourselves with all the comforts and conveniences of life, and
enjoy them as gifts from the Lord, acknowledging his hand, offering unto
him constantly the incense of a grateful heart.  Leave this kingdom, and I
will promise you more suffering than the tongue of man can utter, until
you are consumed soul and body--until you are wasted away--the body in the
death pronounced upon it, and the spirit in the awful sufferings and
torments attending the second death.  Then stick firmly to the kingdom,
and be satisfied with the pains, aches, and afflictions you have already
suffered.

	The time has come for us to begin to glorify our Father in Heaven
with the earth and its fulness, and let the gold and the silver, and the
fruits of the earth, and all precious things produced by the industry of
man praise God, and let all men acknowledge his name, honour his
character, bow to his divinity, glory in his supremacy, and admire the
wonders of his providence over the earth and its fulness.  The time has
come for us to put forth our best efforts to bring forth the Zion of God
and gather all things in one, even in Christ Jesus.
	There is a great variety of talent among this people, but as a people
they know but little as to the uses of the world in which they live, and
the design of God in its creation.  There is not one in a million of
mankind that is filled with that intelligence that an intelligent being
should be filled with, but they pass from this stage of action, are no
more, and are apparently forgotten.  This is decidedly the case with the
world outside, and very much so with many of this people who have been
gathered out from the world.  Here they have to think and do a little for
themselves, which gives them a course of useful experience.  This is not
so much so with the outside world, for the great masses of the people
neither think nor act for themselves, but are acted upon, and act
accordingly ; and think as they are thought for; it is, as with the Priest
so with the people.  I see too much of this gross ignorance among this
chosen people of God.

	I will now portray a little of the feelings and conduct of the
labouring classes.  When a man can only earn a dollar a-day, and has no
way of increasing his finances only by his labour, he is obliged to be
frugal, if he is honest, and he manages to keep a wife and a few children
comparatively comfortable.  By-and-bye the times improve and wages rise so
that he can earn ten dollars per week instead of six.  "Now, wife, we will
allow a little more for the bread, and more for the meat, and more for the
tea, the coffee, sugar, fruit, spices, &c.  We must buy our daughter a
pair of fine shoes, and our little boy must have a whistle, and the baby a
doll, and you shall have a new bonnet by-and-bye, and I must have a pair
of fine boots, and a new coat and other things in keeping, for you know,
wife, I am now getting ten dollars per week, and by-and-bye I may yet
double or treble that amount."  In this way they manage to live out all
their means.  This is a peculiarity in the majority of the old country
people, and you can see the same thing here.  You say you would rather
hear something else than this.  I would rather hear this.  I am as far
ahead in the Gospel and power of God as any of you, I know as much about
it as any man in the Church, yet I need to know more.  I think it is
necessary, however, that you should learn to live to-day, and to-morrow,
this year, and next year, and learn to honour your lives continually.  We
must prepare for that which is coming, and be ready to receive that whic