Brigham Young

“ You cannot go into any other community on the earth, and find that peace and union and those principles of honour, of justice, and of right between man and man, that you find in this community. You cannot find the same amount of good works, faith, virtue, kindness, gentleness, and peace that you find here: there is hardly enough of these good qualities among the world to enable me to establish a comparison. The whole world is in a turmoil, in a terror, and every man's hand seems to be against his neighbour, nation against nation, party against party, people against people. ”

“ One generation passes away, and another succeeds. Mankind are continually changing. Kingdoms and thrones arise, and are gone like a vapour that passeth away. The glory of man is but for a moment. Are the nations that have arisen, flourished, and passed away prepared to dwell in eternal life in another state of existence? We are blessed with the words and way of life, through the Gospel, by One who has deigned to call us brethren—not by adoption, in the strict sense of the word, but is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone,—One who has redeemed us. ”

“ The infidel looks abroad and sees the works of nature, in all their diversity—the mountain piercing the clouds with its snowy peaks, the mighty river, fertilizing, in its course to the sea, the valleys and plains in every direction, the sun in his glory at mid-day, the moon in her silvery splendor, and the myriad organizations from man to the minutest form of insect life, all giving the most irrefutable evidence of a Designer and Creator of infinite wisdom, skill and power, and yet he says there is no Deity, no Supreme Ruler, but all is the result of blind chance. ”

“ Who is the enemy of mankind? He who wishes to change truth for error and light for darkness; he who wishes to take peace from a family, city, state or nation and give the sword in return. He is my enemy, he is your enemy and the enemy of mankind. Who is the friend of mankind? He who makes peace between those who are at enmity, who brings together those who, perhaps, through some misunderstanding, have been at variance with and lost friendship and fellowship for each other, and shows them that their ill-will is without foundation and existed simply because they did not understand each other. ”

“ I live in it, delight in it, and expect to die in it, and live to all eternity in it. The spirit and power of justice, mercy, long-suffering, patience, kindness, and good acts to all around, filling up the measure of my life here and to all eternity in doing good, is what I delight in. That is the kingdom I love—the kingdom I am in; and I pray that God may roll on his work, and that iniquity may be swept from our midst, until we overcome, gather the honest in heart from all the earth, and fill it with righteousness. ”

“ What shall we say, will not Jesus reign and subdue the world? Is he not the Saviour of the world, and the only-begotten Son of the Father,. and will he not accomplish the work he came to accomplish? Is not the earth the Lord's, the wheat, the fine flour, the gold, the silver, the earth and all its fulness? Can you imagine to yourselves anything that pertains to this earth that does not belong to its Redeemer? He is my master, my elder brother. He is the character I look to, and the one I try to serve to the best of my ability. Should I not be proud of my religion? ”

“ Have they been caressed and kindly treated by their parents, sent to school, and when at home taught to read good books, taught to pray themselves, and to hear their parents pray? Have they been accustomed to live and breathe in a peaceful, quiet, heavenly influence when at home? No. Then can you wonder that your children are wild, reckless and ungovernable? They care not for a name, or standing in society, Every noble aspiration is blunted; for they are made to go here or there, like mere machines, at the beck and call of tyrant parents, and are uncultivated and uncivilized. ”

“ This company are controllable, like the ship by the rudder, in a gentle breeze, that can be turned hither and thither at the will and pleasure of him who commands; so with all here present; at the sound of the voice, all is hushed, and every heart throbs in unison in response to the words of praise and thanksgiving to our Father and our God. This proves that the majority, at least, are right; and I have no reason to believe that there is a heart in this house, but chimes in with my own. Every countenance is cheerful; every face is lit up with a lively glow of joy, peace, and tranquillity. ”

“ When a person receives the Holy Ghost by legal authority, he is like a child in its mother's lap; all is harmony, praise to God, and good will to the children of men on the earth. He is full of peace, comfort, and salvation, and feels like crying hallelujah all the time. He is perfectly humble and passive, and the Lord can do with him as He pleases. Will this state of feeling always remain? Will passion ever rise again? Yes; for you then commence a warfare, though the Comforter fills your heart, making you rejoice in God your Saviour, with the atmosphere of your existence clear and unclouded ”

“ Buy flour, you who can; and you, sisters, and children too, when harvest comes, glean the wheat fields. I would as soon see my wives and children gleaning wheat, as anybody's. And then, when the people come here by thousands, you will be able to feed them. What will be your feelings, when the women and children begin to cry in your ears, with not a man to protect them? You can believe it or not, but the time is coming when a good man will be more precious than fine gold.
It is distressing to see the condition our nation is in, but I cannot help it. ”

“ But we are not the Almighty. I am glad of it. I am happy in the reflection that I have not the power, and I hope and pray I may never possess it until I can use it like a God, until I can wield it as our Father in heaven wields it, with all that eternity of majesty, glory, charity, with his judgment, discretion, and with every faculty of compassion. I am happy in the reflection that I do not possess the power. I am glad you elders do not, I am really glad you do not. Will he ever grant power to his Saints on the earth? Yes, they will take the kingdom, and possess it for ever and ever ”

“ But to say that we love our religion, and delight to live it and talk about it, is, in comparison, like a person's telling those who are fond of it how sweet and delicious honey is—how much better they like it than they do mud! Or, to use another comparison, it is like a person's telling how much pleasanter it is to prosecute a long journey over mountains, deserts, and streams, with his eyes open, than it is to grope his way blindfolded! That is about the comparison, when we speak concerning the principles of eternal life and those principles that tend to death. ”

“ I know what the sorrow of the world is. It works death, and I have long ago bid good-bye to it. If I am sorry for anything, I try to have a godly sorrow to benefit me. My heart is cheerful; I am happy and thankful all the day long; and I believe that I am in the light. I have not asked for a lantern, only from the Almighty; and I know that the whole people are daily progressing, ascending, and increasing in good works and in faith and knowledge, even the knowledge of God; and we are doing the works he desires at our hands. ”

“ I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs to our doctrine. We believe it; it is ours; we claim it. Is that right? If you find an error here, I ask you to leave it, pass it by, let it alone; do not embrace it in your faith, do not practice it in your lives. I say to all, to my brethren and sisters and to strangers, if we teach anything that is good, receive it, I beseech you. ”

“ We are in our weakness and imperfection—we are in darkness; they are in light—they are in glory. We are in mortal flesh, subject to sickness, disease, pain, deformity, and death. The heavenly hosts are beings like these my brethren, only in greater perfection, having passed through the same ordeals we are now passing through. They have been made subject to vanity, as we now are; they have had to taste of the bitter cup as we have; they have had the privilege of the light and of the darkness, of the truth and of the error, which privilege we now enjoy. ”

“ If you live your religion, it is as dear to you when you are out of this Tabernacle as when you are here. Live your religion, walk humbly before your God, and secure to yourselves eternal life. That is what I desire; it is what I pray for.
The kingdom of God will roll, and no power can stop the work that the Almighty has commenced. Kings, rulers, governors, presidents, peoples, and all the armies of hell joined with them will never be able to impede the steady, onward, accelerated progress of this glorious latter-day work. ”

“ How far back shall we have to search before we find a people that attained to the longevity for which the body of man is framed? If we could meet here Sabbath after Sabbath for a hundred years to come, would it not be a glorious privilege? What parent would not rejoice in seeing his children and his children's children grow up to manhood, while he still lived on the earth to direct their minds and mark out the path for them to walk in, and lead out before them in righteousness and holiness, inspiring them to continually pursue the way of obedience to the will of their God? ”

“ My heart becomes more tender, the oftener it is wrung with sorrow and grief, for the loss of my children; and if I am getting used to it at all, it is in that way. Every child that I bury seems to be the best child I have got; but, when I think of it, I have concluded that, if it had been any other child but the one that is taken, I should have thought the same of that one. We are very apt not to appreciate the good in the living, and to magnify their faults; but, when dead, we forget their faults, and their virtue and goodness alone stand prominent. ”

“ Let every man and woman worship their God with all their heart. Let them pay their devotions and sacrifices to him, the Supreme, and the Author of their existence. Do all the good you can to your fellow-creatures. You are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. God has created of one blood all the nations and kingdoms of men that dwell upon all the face of the earth: black, white, copper-coloured, or whatever their colour, customs, or religion, they have all sprung from the same origin; the blood of all is from the same element. ”

“ The practical part of our religion is that which more particularly interests me. Still my mind reflects upon life, death, eternity, knowledge, wisdom, the expansion of the soul, and the knowledge of the Gods that are, that have been, and that are to be. What shall we say? We are lost in the depth of our own thoughts. Suppose we say there was once a beginning to all things, then we must conclude there will undoubtedly be an end. Can eternity be circumscribed? If it can, there is an end of all wisdom, knowledge, power, and glory—all will sink into eternal annihilation. ”

“ Light, intelligence, good, that which is of God, creates, fashions, forms, builds up, brings into existence, beautifies, makes excellent, glorifies, extends and increases; while on the other hand that which is not of God burns, destroys, cuts down, ruins and produces darkness and unbelief in the minds of the people. Light and intelligence lead people to the fountain of truth; while the opposite principle says, "Don't believe a word, don't do a thing; burn up and destroy." Well now, when you leave the truth you have nothing but unbelief. ”

“ I will take the Lord Jesus every time. Why? Because his doctrine is so pure and holy. I love it, because in it there is life; because it will endure; while all error, falsehood, lies and liars will be cast into hell; and when they shall be utterly destroyed and wasted away, truth will live and it will endure for ever. I think I will hold to it. Had not we better all do so? Do you not think that the Latter-day Saints had better keep their religion and hold on to the faith of the holy Gospel? ”

“ Have we learned how to handle the things of this life in the name of Israel's God to his glory, for the building up of his kingdom, for the bringing forth of his Zion, for the redemption of the earth, for the establishment of everlasting righteousness, and for the endless happiness of those who will thus be made happy? I am satisfied that there are hundreds of people in this community who would starve to death, if they were not continually told how to obtain the means of subsistence. Do they know how to cultivate the earth and draw from its bosom beauty and embellishment? ”

“ I can say that I do not consider that I have ever suffered anything for this kingdom—nothing in the least. I have never sacrificed anything, without it be the evil propensities that are sown in our nature, springing from the seed that was sown at the fall. May that be termed a sacrifice? I will not call it so. What do we possess on this earth? Do we even own our bodies? Had we the power to produce them? Is the intelligence in these bodies our own? Did we organize and implant it? No human being has had power to organize his own existence. Then there is a greater than we. ”

“ All things worth possessing, everything that men and the Gods can possess in time and in eternity. Take the other road, and you get a shadow for the time being, and you may think you have the substance, but sooner or later you are left as a feather floating in the air, or worse than a ship upon the ocean, without compass or rudder, deprived of the light of the sun, the moon and the stars, tossed hither and thither until it sinks to rise no more. In order to yield obedience to the truth, you must love the truth and have the fear of God in your hearts. ”

“ The mothers are the moving instruments in the hands of Providence to guide the destinies of nations. Let the mothers of any nation teach their children not to make war, the children would grow up and never enter into it. Let the mothers teach their children, "War, war upon your enemies, yes, war to the hilt!" and they will be filled with this spirit. Consequently, you see at once what I wish to impress upon your mind is, that the mothers are the machinery that give zest to the whole man, and guide the destinies and lives of men upon the earth. ”

“ But bestow upon them the principles of eternal truth; teach them how to live so as to do honour to their existence; teach them how to preserve themselves—how to preserve their companions, their associates, friends, and relatives; teach them how to preserve themselves as communities and nations, and how to secure and preserve to every person his equal and legal rights, seeking to preserve them in the truth, in light, in intelligence, in honour; and in every principle and act calculated to make a happy, Godlike, heavenly, social community. These are my views of civilization. ”

“ Counsel—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 savor of the Spirit that is in me; they are my delight, my meat, and my drink; they are the streams of eternal life. ”

“ You see this foundation, the starting point, the germ of intelligence embodied in this infant, calculated to grow and expand into manhood, then to the capacity of an angel, and so onward to eternal exaltation. But here is the foundation. Sent to school, the child learns to read, and continues to improve as long as it lives. Is this the end of the knowledge of man? No. It is only the beginning. It is the first stage of all the intelligence that the philosopher in his reflections, taking the starry world before him, and looking into the immensity of the creations of God, can imagine. ”

“ How difficult it is to teach the natural man, who comprehends nothing more than that which he sees with the natural eye! How hard it is for him to believe! How difficult would be the task to make the philosopher, who, for many years, has argued himself into the belief that his spirit is no more after his body sleeps in the grave, believe that his intelligence came from eternity, and is as eternal, in its nature, as the elements, or as the Gods. Such doctrine by him would be considered vanity and foolishness, it would be entirely beyond his comprehension. ”

“ What matters the destruction of a few railway cars? You will hear of magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulfing mighty cities. Famine will spread over the nations and nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom and states against states, in our own country and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for the blood and lives of their neighbors, of their families, or for their own lives. ”

“ Life is an accumulation of every property and principle that is calculated to enrich, to ennoble, to enlarge, and to increase, in every particular, the dominion of individual man. To me, life would signify an extension. I have the privilege of spreading abroad, of enlarging my borders, of increasing in endless knowledge, wisdom, and power, and in every gift of God. To live as I am, without progress, is not life, in fact we may say that is impossible. There is no such principle in existence, neither can there be. ”