John Q. Cannon, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor

“ And I would say to our friends, that is the spirit that vibrates in the bosoms of tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints in these mountains. We stand upon this pedestal. This is our platform. What fear have we with regard to our enemies? Why should we fear? We are in the hands of God. We have come to this earth in this time upon a mission. We have been born on purpose in this generation to take part in this work. ”

“ When the Government begins to break down the safeguards of society, tear in pieces the Constitution of the United States, and trample under foot the liberties of man, they are only preparing the nation for an utter overthrow. ”

“ He will judge all the children of men and He will judge righteous judgment. What men sow they will reap. What measure they mete, it shall be measured to them again.
I pray God to bless this nation. I pray God to give our legislators wisdom, that they may maintain the Constitutional principles of the government, the only government on the face of God's earth where the Lord could have established His Church and Kingdom. That we may be prepared to inherit eternal life is my prayer in the name of Jesus. ”

“ And I bear my testimony here to all men, and would to all the world if I had the power, that the work in which this people are engaged, small and insignificant as it may appear, is the work of God. It will roll forth. It will become a mountain. It will fill the whole earth. It will break in pieces all other kingdoms, and it will stand forever; for God Almighty has decreed it. Write it down. Watch the signs of the times. See if these things are not true. We are living in an important day. We are called to do a work for the Lord, and we are going to do it as far as we have time and opportunity. ”

“ Who controls the heavens and the earth? The Gods in the eternal worlds. Who has implanted certain principles in matter and in all creation? God has done it. All things are subject to these laws; and if men can place themselves under His guidance and find the way to approach the great Eloheim, they will know more in a very short time than all this world together know in all their lives and more than all the combined intelligence of the world, for God is the foundation of all wisdom, and the source of all intelligence and knowledge. ”

“ We will fear and love God and work righteousness, and send the Gospel to the nations of the earth, despite the follies, the wickedness and corruption of men; and we will proclaim the truth in these valleys and mountains, and Zion will spread, grow and increase. God will be for Israel, and we will sing, Hallelujah! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and He will reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Let this people fear God and work righteousness, and I ask no odds of earth or hell. God is at the helm. He will manage things according to the counsels of His will. ”

“ I will say here, without fear of contradiction, that no man, no set of men, no people, no church, no portion of the Kingdom of God can live godly in Christ Jesus without suffering persecution. You show me a Patriarch or Prophet that ever lived who taught the words of life and salvation without incurring the hatred, the wrath and the indignation of the surrounding nations, and you will show me something that I have not been able to find on the earth. ”

“ There never was a man breathed the breath of life in any age of the world, who had power to go forth and administer the ordinances of the Gospel of Christ, only by the power of that eternal and everlasting Priesthood which Melchisedek held, which Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Elias, and all the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets held. ”

“ It has cost many men their lives; but men's lives are of little consequence compared with eternal life. Give me eternal life. As for this life, what does it amount to. Why should we fear death? Why, bless your souls, a few years ago this nation sacrificed a million of lives in defense of the country. That may be all right. I have no fault to find. But is it any worse to die for the Kingdom of God than it is to die for the honor of the country? ”

“ We came here to these mountains by revelation, by inspiration. We were led here by Prophets, Apostles and inspired men; and this Church and Kingdom has continued to grow from the day it was organized until the present time. It will continue to grow. The Gospel of Christ is the truth. "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth," said Paul to the Galatians, in teaching them this principle. But the truth is unpopular. The world is full of error and falsehood. It will not accept the plan of life and salvation. ”

“ Those who are trying to despoil us are objects more of sympathy in my feelings than anything else. I feel sorry when I see misrule abound anywhere, let it be in this nation or other nations. God would like to see peace, union and harmony. For that reason He has introduced the Gospel, and the principles of intelligence associated with it. Man is a dual being, he possesses a body and a spirit, and is connected with time and will exist in eternity, and it is for him to understand the nature of his organism, and his relation to the world in which he lives, and to God our Heavenly Father. ”

“ How can we expect that people will comprehend the things of God without the gift of the Holy Ghost? The Elders when they are sent forth to preach are instructed to preach nothing but the first principles of the Gospel—to preach nothing but repentance to this generation. Why? Because the people cannot comprehend further advanced principles. ”

“ We can very well afford to abide by the Constitution of the United States, and to sustain it, and we can afford to believe in the Bible and to obey its ordinances, and practice them, which they cannot do, and do not do. As I have said, we can afford to treat all men well, and to pray for those which despitefully use us and persecute us. ”

“ The strongest persecution we have met with has been in the city of Nurenburg, and that has been on the part of the circuit judge, a man who in other respects is very liberal, but whose mind became prejudiced through some false reports which came into the country, and were scattered by the press just as we made a beginning. I nevertheless hope—and I believe it is the general feeling—that the day is not far distant when freedom of worship will be allowed—when the Elders can go through the country and proclaim the Gospel without fear or molestation. ”

“ God has revealed unto us the principles of the Everlasting Gospel, and that Gospel brings life and immortality to light, Life and immortality can only be made known by the revelations of God, and people who do not believe in revelation cannot have any knowledge of life and immortality. ”

“ God Almighty could not establish His Kingdom, His Church, His Zion—which the Holy Bible declares from Genesis almost to Revelation should be established in the latter days—without men bearing that Priesthood. God had to raise up such a man as Joseph Smith, and establish His Church, by which to prepare a people for the coming of the Son of Man. ”

“ When I said unto them, "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is insufficient to save you in His Kingdom;" when I said that something more was necessary than a simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and attempted to prove my position by Scripture, I found many who said, "You are right; something more is necessary according to the Scriptures; faith alone can not save us." ”

“ Not one man in a thousand that attempts to represent this case. We have not a boy in Utah in our common schools, over twelve years of age, but knows, when he reads the statements of some of those Senators, that they are arguing on a false basis. They understand that perfectly. I am at the defiance of the world to prove that we use in our common schools anything but the text books of the world. We don't even use the Bible in our common schools. ”

“ We are in the hands of God. God has called us to this labor. He has commanded us to preach the Gospel, to the nations of the earth. This we have done so far as the doors have been opened to us. It seems strange to reflect upon the fact that such nations as Germany, Austria and Prussia, should put up bars as strong as iron, so to speak, against the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, in their midst. ”

“ He does not make those little divisions that the United States are trying to make to-day. He is more philanthropic. He treats all alike, and places all on the same basis. Then, we will try and operate with Him and for Him and in the interests of humanity, and in the protection of human rights, and we will try by every legal and constitutional method to maintain and sustain the principles of human rights in behalf of ourselves, in behalf of our children, and in behalf of thousands and tens of thousands of honorable men that live in these United States. ”

“ There have been many, very many good men in the world in the different ages when the Gospel has not existed, that have sought to do good to their fellow men, and to promote their welfare and happiness in a social, political and religious capacity, and have sought to introduce principles that would be calculated to elevate and exalt mankind in the scale of being. ”

“ It does not lead them unto all truth, for there is a great diversity of opinion among them. One may be a Methodist, another a Presbyterian, one a Quaker, another a Dunker, one a Catholic, another a Protestant, one a Christian, another a Mohammedan, one a Pagan, and another an infidel, and some one thing and some another. If men were in the possession of the gift of the Holy Ghost, it would lead them into all truth, and` there would be one Lord, as the Scriptures say, and one faith and one baptism. ”

“ There are a great many of the house of Israel in Germany; there are a great many of the honest in heart throughout the nations of the earth, and they must hear the Gospel. We have been preaching it for over fifty years. The world in a great measure has rejected it. I heard Joseph Smith say a great deal in regard to the attitude this generation would assume in regard to the Gospel. ”

“ There are thousands in the world—I have spoken with hundreds I believe—who have made a similar confession—that faith repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, were Scriptural principles, that they could not be denied, that the same Gospel was preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles—but I have found among those hundreds very few who were willing to obey those principles. ”

“ I am satisfied, on my own part, that we, this afternoon have assembled ourselves in the name of the Lord, and I am consequently satisfied that His Spirit will be with us inasmuch as we seek for the same, inasmuch as we rid ourselves of every feeling of worldliness and come together with pure hearts to partake of the emblems of the death and suffering of our Lord, and to become instructed in the plan which He has laid down for our salvation. ”

“ Nevertheless, these principles always existed; it needed a development of them only to bring them into practical use; and there are thousands of other things not yet made known, yet to be developed, similar to those that have been discovered. In regard to these things, some of them are important, some of them are not very important. The intelligence that the world boasts so much of, is not very profound when you come to test it by the principles of eternal truth. ”

“ This is the cause of the warfare made upon us by our nation to-day. God Almighty has set His hand to establish His Church and Kingdom on the earth. He has set His hand to gather His people to the mountains of Israel to build up a Zion. ”

“ It is through that principle alone that these things are or have been developed. We ourselves could have known nothing of God, from the world in which we live, nor from the teachers thereof, because they do not even profess to be placed in communion with God, nor to have revelation from Him, and how could they speak of that they did not know or comprehend, or that which had not been communicated to them? ”

“ Congress should not be the first to exhibit examples of lawlessness and the violation of Constitutional rights. However, if they can stand it we can. We need not trouble our heads about any of these matters; there is an overruling Providence that controls the affairs of men and nations. ”

“ The Gentiles had followed the same example of unbelief as did the Jews when they departed from the Gospel of Christ and put to death almost every man who bore the Holy Priesthood on the earth, or who preached the Gospel of the Son of God to the world. ”

“ I have seldom met with a man that was more intelligent in the science of astronomy than Orson Pratt. Where did he get his information? From the same source. He studied mathematics all his days, and has written works that it is very difficult for some men to comprehend. Yet his works are on record.
The religion of God is not a religion of ignorance. To whom are we indebted for the first principles contained in this book [the Bible] ? To Moses. Who was he? A man of God. Who taught him those things The Lord. By what principle? The principle of revelation ”

“ Outside of the Gospel, among all classes of men, among all nations, kindreds and peoples, of every color and clime everywhere, they have had given unto them a portion of the Spirit of God to profit withal. ”