Brigham Young

“ By the word hypocrisy I do not here mean a counterfeiting of religion or goodliness to gain sordid ends, but to appear good and practise goodness contrary to the promptings of the evil one or the un-regenerated impulses of the human heart. If the Devil says you cannot pray when you are angry, tell him it is none of his business, and pray until that species of insanity is dispelled and serenity is restored to the mind.
We are inhabitants of a world of sin and sorrow; pain and anguish, every ill that can be heaped upon intelligent beings in a probation we are heirs to. ”

“ These are the mysteries of the kingdom of God upon the earth, to know how to purify and sanctify our affections, the earth upon which we stand, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the houses in which we dwell and the cities which we build, that when strangers come into our country they may feel a hallowed influence and acknowledge a power to which they are strangers, "For all is dedicated to the Lord and consecrated to him, and the Spirit and power of God reigns there and the power of the enemy can find no place." ”

“ We want all the Latter-day Saints to understand how to build up Zion. The City of Zion, in beauty and magnificence, will outstrip anything that is now known upon the earth. The curse will be taken from the earth and sin and corruption will be swept from its face. ”

“ You can readily understand, without any particular explanation, that the teachings of the Heavens to men on earth have, I may say, a certain amount of sameness, varying as the providences of God vary. He instructs people according to their circumstances, locations, wants and the dispensations in which they live. We have not preached faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost with the gifts and powers of the Gospel, &c.; but we have taught them how to build up a literal kingdom of God here upon earth. ”

“ You have fared sumptuously all your days and you condemned to an everlasting hell these poor harlots and publicans who never designed an evil. Are you not guilty of committing an evil with that poor harlot? ”

“ If I am expected of our Heavenly Father to live just right, is not the same expected of you? If I am are you not also in duty bound to so live as to enjoy the Spirit of truth, light and intelligence? Are you not under the same obligation to purify your hearts as I am? ”

“ I say, suffer not anger to rise in your countenance, to speak through your eyes, nor through your organs of speech, and in this way keep it down until you are free from it, as you would any other evil. To say that inward evil must outwardly be made manifest in order to escape the opprobrium of hypocrisy is a trick of the Devil to cheat men out of the blessings that are in store for them. ”

“ This season we called for five hundred teams to send for the poor; some of those teams came some four hun-dred miles and then started on the journey over the plains to bring in the poor. Suppose we should call for five thousand teams to go and build up the centre stake of Zion and establish it that it shall never be thrown down, would they be forthcoming? They would, and when that time comes we shall leave a great many more in the mountains than are now here, and we shall see Zion rolling forth on the right and on the left, like the waves of the sea, which no earthly power can stem. ”

“ The Lord expects this place to advance faster than any other place among all the settlements of the Latter-day Saints. Do we know how to rise in the morning? Do we leave our couches in the morning with anger in our hearts? Do we feel disconsolate, afflicted and oppressed by the Adversary? We can get rid of all this by going down upon our knees and praying until we overcome that feeling of discontent and misery and become kind to our companions and offspring, to the inmates of our habitation, to our flocks and herds, to our neighbors and to every creature God has made. ”

“ Some desire to do good all the time, still it seems that almost every act they perform results in evil; look upon such persons as they are, through eyes of mercy, and not measure them with your measure. If you are endowed with wisdom and understand-ing, if you escape the evil and do the good, thank God that you have knowledge, and do not condemn your brethren and sisters who are weaker than you are for falling into evil when they know no better. ”

“ If we live our religion it will enable us to so overcome sin that it will not reign in our mortal bodies but will become subject to us, and the world and its fulness will become our servant instead of our master. Those who list to obey sin are the servants of sin. We should never list to obey that which corrupts, for in so doing we become servants to corruption. We should so live as to make the world and all its natural blessings subservient to our reasonable wants and holy desires.
The Latter-day Saints are improving, and I am rejoiced; my heart is filled with joy on this account. ”

“ Let us look at our neighbors as they are, and not as we want them to be; let us learn enough to know what we are ourselves and what our brethren and sisters are, and learn the true designs of their hearts, and then judge them as God judges them and not according to outward appearance; then every contention will cease, every heart will beat high to build up Zion, and the follies and weaknesses of our neighbors we shall not think of. ”

“ He cherishes no malice, no anger; the spirit of the enemy has no place in him. How happy is such a person when compared with the man who is constantly laboring to amass gold and property, making this his only end and aim. How the Devil will play with a man who so worships gain.
Let me say to the brethren and sisters, when you are chastened by any of your leaders, never consider that the enemy does it, but receive it always as a kindness from the hand of a friend and not as from an enemy. If your Presidents were your enemies they would let you alone in your faults. ”

“ Let each of us begin at home and train ourselves until we become masters of ourselves, gaining the victory over every passion, if we have to pray one-half of each day until the Spirit of truth reigns within our hearts. ”

“ It pleased me very much, when I returned home, to see a good many little boys learning to cut rock, thus doing good to their parents, themselves and the kingdom of God. Send on some more boys and put them in the joiner shops, or learn them to make shoes, harness and everything that will be useful and profitable. Every Elder should have at least one trade, and if possible more than one, and still continue to learn and improve in a knowledge of the world and all things pertaining to it, learning how to better the condition of everything that exists—in particular of ourselves and those around us. ”

“ Nine hundred and ninety-nine cases of difficulty out of a thousand arise from circumstances not worthy of notice. There are but few persons who really design to injure each other. I do not believe there is one man or woman in a thousand, in this community, who designs to do wrong, though there are hundreds that do wrong, and some who do a great many wrongs, but they do not design to do wrong. They can truly say, with the Apostle Paul, "When I would do good evil is present with me." ”

“ In proportion to our fall through sin, so shall we be exalted in the presence of our Father and God, through Jesus Christ and by living the righteousness of his Gospel. All this the people will understand in due time through their faithfulness and learn to rejoice even in the midst of afflictions. ”

“ Cease lying, cease taking the name of God in vain, cease being dishonest with your employers, with one another and with your God, and the Lord will love and bless us. Let us learn our duties one toward another, the husband to the wife, the parents to their children and the children to their parents, and let us all learn and practice our duties to God and his. kingdom. ”

“ The first principles of the Gospel have been taught this people in the countries from whence they have been gathered, the ordinances of the Gospel have been administered to them, and in this they have experienced great joy, but they were, at the same time, taught to gather to Zion where they might be instructed how to live one with another without sinning, how to overcome every evil propensity in their nature, how to rise in the morning, how to take care of and sustain their bodies through the day, how to go to rest at night, how to feel one towards another and towards their God ”

“ We are here, and they can do nothing against us. They are not capable of afflicting this people, if we live our religion. Let every man and woman sanctify themselves and their possessions, dedicating all unto the Lord, then will we be driven? No, neither will our possessions be given to the kingdom of the Devil; they belong to God, and he will hold them for himself, and they will remain uncontaminated and we with them, until we go back to build up the centre stake of Zion. ”

“ I suppose that God never organized an earth and peopled it that was ever reduced to a lower state of darkness, sin and ignorance than this. I suppose this is one of the lowest kingdoms that ever the Lord Almighty created, and on that account is capable of becoming exalted to be one of the highest kingdoms that has ever had an exaltation in all the eternities. In proportion as it has been reduced so it will be exalted, with that portion of its inhabitants who in their humiliation have cleaved to righteousness and acknowledged God in all things. ”

“ All hell may then give up the chase, for they never can drive the Saints from a spot that is hallowed by the faith of the Saints, through the medium of Jesus Christ by the power of the Father, for that place is dedicated and sanctified to him. ”

“ If any of the First Presidency or the Twelve should speak an angry word, you consider it to be very much out of character, but are you any more privileged to speak angry words or to indulge in scolding at and quarreling with one-another? ”

“ Where the spirit of happy submission to the providences of God is not to be found, I conclude at; once that there is a lack of the knowledge of God, pertaining to his purposes and designs regarding his people individually and collectively. ”

“ In the first place, we have to become sanctified; and I may here say that our views of sanctification differ very much from the views held by some of the popular sects of the day, for they think that sanctification consists in shutting the door and securely bolting it against fulfilling the first commandment that God gave to our first parents. ”

“ Some think that they should not, if they feel evil in their hearts, at the same time appear to feel good—that they should not dissemble in the least. The Devil can quote Scripture in abundance against hypocrisy. If I did not show anger towards a brother when I felt it, I should be considered a hypocrite. The Devil says, do not dissemble, do not carry two faces, do not show a pleasant countenance when you at the same time feel angry in your heart. ”

“ Paul had been a very wicked man; he had done all he could to destroy the Church of God, and, consequently, was given over to the buffetings of Satan, so that when he would do good the Devil had such power over him that he had to keep up a continual warfare. Let us endeavor to do the good and leave undone the evil. ”

“ All the Lord has called us to do is to renovate our own hearts, then our families, extending the principles to neighborhoods, to the earth we occupy, and so continue until we drive the power of Satan from the earth and Satan to his own place. ”

“ Were it possible for a person to attain to this degree of perfection in the flesh, he could not die neither remain in a world where sin predominates. Sin has entered into the world, and death by sin. I think we shall more or less feel the effects of sin so long as we live, and finally have to pass the ordeals of death. Do not understand that in the flesh we shall ever overcome the power of sin to such a degree that we shall never taste death. ”

“ When the books are opened, out of which the human family are to be judged, how disappointed the professedly sanctified, long-faced hypocrites and smooth-toned pharisees will be, when the publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of heaven before them; people that appeared to be full of evil, but the Lord says they never designed to do wrong ”

“ Do not suppose that we shall ever in the flesh be free from temptations to sin. Some suppose that they can in the flesh be sanctified body and spirit and become so pure that they will never again feel the effects of the power of the adversary of truth. ”

“ Because we are continually importuning the brethren to faithfully live their religion and not let a few dimes and dollars or a little mistake infringe upon the fellowship of one with another. Perhaps a neighbor's cow is in his garden, and he is angry with his neighbor, when, at the same time, that neighbor is as innocent as an angel. ”

“ We may say that our work drives us and that we have not time to pray, hardly time to eat our breakfasts. Then let the breakfasts go, and pray; get down upon our knees and pray until we are filled with the Spirit of peace. ”

“ We have been traditioned to think that to rise up and speak in a meeting is to bear the cross of Christ. How often we have been exhorted to take up our cross by telling our experience before our brethren? ”

“ We have taught the brethren south to raise flax and cotton and to put up machinery for manufacturing cloth. We have also taught them to live so as to ever be at peace and on the best of terms with each other. ”

“ Do they improve in educating their children? Not as much as they should. But they improve in their faith and in their love one to another; they improve in the light of the holy Gospel. The people are generally improving in these respects, and we are glad of it. ”

“ We cannot be deceived in coming to this conclusion, for whoever enjoys the light of truth and has so lived as to increase the Spirit of truth within himself can testify to the workings of that Spirit upon the hearts, the understanding and works of the Saints generally. ”