Brigham Young

“ Suppose a being on another planet were to have a vision of this congregation, would he understand all about the earth and its inhabitants? If I were to have the vision of my mind opened to obtain a glimpse of the spirit world, would I possess the knowledge of beings who are exalted in the eternal world?
We must increase in knowledge and understanding, to prove ourselves worthy of the blessings of the Lord. Obtain wisdom that you may so order your lives before the heavens and each other that you may be able to accept the power God has for you, and wield it to his power and glory. ”

“ We have in our hearts love to God and his children on the earth. Let us not love the things of this world above the things of God, but strip for the race and harness for the battle of the Gospel plan of salvation. ”

“ If this people can at the same time possess riches and glorify God, then we want them to be rich; but, I would rather see this people half clothed and living in the dens and caves of the earth, than that through riches they should forsake their God. When the people can endure wealth and live and glorify their Father in heaven, it will be pleasing to him to have us wield enough of the wealth of the world to send forth our Elders by thousands, and then gather home the faithful by thousands and millions, who are just as honest as we are. ”

“ The Lord has blessed the people with abundance in the past, and while we have been preaching to them to save their grain, they have gone and sold it and squandered it away, they had so much faith, when at the same time it was the power of God and the faith of the few who were consistent in their faith that saved them. My faith must be consistent, and go with my works. It is not my duty to make you build granaries. My duty is done when I tell you what you ought to do. I have no right to stand over you with a rod and make you pray, for you ought to pray of your own choice. ”

“ We wish to be one, as Jesus prayed, while here in the flesh, that his disciples might be one. We wish to be one in the Lord, and we can agree with regard to faith, repentance, baptism, laying on of hands, and the sacraments and ordinances of the House of God, and yet if we contend about land, the water, our cattle, etc., we never can be one, if we live to the age of Methuselah. We must become one in all of our moral and social associations in life. ”

“ It has been said here, time and time again, and been prophesied for years and years—Joseph said it when alive—that the time would come when men would be glad to take a bundle under their arms and flee to the mountains, when they will seek unto this people for succor. ”

“ Try to improve your minds; enrich them with every kind of true knowledge known on the earth; by faith so live as to enjoy the Holy Ghost; learn the object of the creation of man, of the formation of the earth, of what it is composed, and what it is for. Why is gold made? ”

“ Will we sell our grain? Yes, but I will say to the inhabitants of these mountains, who have been here for years and are raising grain, it is their privilege to be paid for their labor. We will sell flour at a fair labor price, and reserve the bran and shorts to feed the cows and fatten the pigs.
Do not say there are men in the midst of this people who cannot get work, for it is not so. And you, sisters, who lack work, if you cannot get washing, sewing or house work to do, go to your neighbor and tell him, you will go into the field and pick, rake and glean, if he will pay you in wheat. ”

“ We are in one of the greatest speculations in the world, to honor God, and so live before him that we shall be crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives, to be numbered with those to whom God will give the gold and silver and precious things and all the riches of this earth and of eternity.
The fluctuations of the money market are such that you cannot tell to-day what to ask for an article tomorrow. Cotton fabrics, cloth of every kind, and merchandize generally are rating at very high prices in the East, and the prices are still rising. ”

“ The wicked do not know how to enjoy life, but the closer we live to God the better we know and understand how to enjoy it. Live so that you can enjoy the spirit of the Lord continually. I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ Some of the brethren think the Saints ought not to be rich, and they have their various feelings. A great many brethren who have been in the States do not want to build fine houses or make many improvements here, for they are going back to their inheritances. You know there is a certain class who are fearful of getting the good things of this life, saying, "the Lord has chosen the poor in wealth and rich in faith," etc. My feelings lead out to obtain every good thing we can obtain as a people,—the gold, the silver, the flocks and herds, and to building beautiful cities ”

“ If we are going to live to secure life everlasting, we require to live so that we can be judged according to the deeds done in these temporal bodies, and be found worthy to live in heaven, and that we cannot do unless we live here according to the word of God. ”

“ The brethren have been talking about temporal things. We cannot talk about spiritual things without connecting with them temporal things, neither can we talk about temporal things without connecting spiritual things with them. They are inseparably connected.
The spiritual portions of the Gospel have been, with few exceptions, preached to many of us in foreign lands. The Elders go forth and set before the people the Spiritual Kingdom of God upon the earth; the people hear and believe. Many of them receive the truth in honest hearts, and gather here to the valleys of the mountains. ”

“ Why not quarry rock and build stone houses, and make stone fences? Stone makes a good fence, and it will not winter kill. Build fences, have good gardens, and make yourselves comfortable and happy, serving God; let that be first continually, so that you may have consciences void of offence towards God and man. Build meeting houses, put up the one you have in contemplation, and finish it nicely. Get lumber and make bins in which to put up your wheat so that it can be safe for fifty years, if needed. If you are compelled to stack your wheat, stack it right, for you may have storms. ”

“ I do not know of a sect of Christians on the face of the earth whose religion does not, more or less, embrace temporal things, and the temporal acts and conduct of its members. We, as Latter-day Saints, really expect, look for and we will not be satisfied with anything short of being governed and controled by the word of the Lord in all of our acts, both spiritual and temporal. ”

“ People are coming by thousands and scores of thousands into these mountains. Are we willing they should have succor? Yes, and some of us are a little too willing. It is written, "love your enemies," but when I hear of what I have heard, and what I am a witness is true, of a poor woman taking a sack of flour and selling it sack and all for a dollar, to a man who, perhaps, helped to kill the Prophet Joseph, while her children are left without bread, I do not think that is right—that is loving our enemies a little too well. ”

“ We have tried to teach ourselves to lead and guide ourselves, to be dictated and controlled by the direction of the Holy Spirit, and then to teach and counsel the people under the dictates of that Spirit. ”

“ No man is going to inherit a celestial glory, who trifles with the principles thereof. The man who does not labor from day to day and from hour to hour for building up this Kingdom and bringing forth the fulness of the Kingdom of God on the earth, and the establishment of Zion, will sooner or latter [later] , fall and go out of the Church.
If you love brother Brigham, brother Heber and the Twelve, do as they tell you. As fast as possible, secure a year's supply of breadstuff, and then try to sustain yourselves without using any of that supply ”

“ I expect there will never be a law made in this Kingdom that will prevent us from doing good and assisting the poor. If I were to sell my flour to my enemy, and he were to pay me seventy-five dollars a hundred in gold for it, it would not prevent me from giving a poor sister fifteen or twenty pounds of flour in her need. ”

“ And when the grain is maturing how easy it would be for the Lord to send crickets, though we can war with them easier than we can with grasshoppers, that would destroy the fruits of your toil. The increase is in the hands of the Lord, just as the people are in his hands in regard to the results of their acts.
The inhabitants of the earth have the pleasure of performing the labors they list to do, but they have never enjoyed the privilege of control [l] ing the results of their labors, and never will until they are crowned with glory, immortality and eternal lives. ”

“ There are a great many things that are said, and a great many have not yet been said, which people will hear and learn when they receive truth and practice righteousness sufficiently to be worthy of them. ”

“ When we talk of politics we are one. The world complain of us with regard to our politics, and enquire "are there any Democrats here? Are there any Rebublicans [Republicans] here?" We do not care who rules; we are satisfied with God, who setteth up one man, and casteth down another. ”

“ This is encouraging, when we reflect that every year we have to take new comers and lead them along, people who have lived under such different circumstances. It is encouraging for us to continue our labors, and we do not mean to stop pleading with the Latter-day Saints to send the Gospel to the nations, gather the poor and purify themselves, until we can say in our hearts that, when the voice is heard, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh" we are actually ready to go out to meet him. ”

“ I answer, it is the absolute and imperative duty of the Elders of Israel to try and control themselves and their families and their brethren, until they can hold control over all things in righteousness. ”

“ It has been said "Cotton is king." Everybody who knows anything of mankind knows they had to live a great many years without cotton. The first cotton factories were started in America within my remembrance. What would the Indians here, who are all but naked, say if they were told cotton is king? They would say, "No, biscuit, biscuit," that which will sustain life. They can kill rabbits, and make clothing of the skins. Bread is king. ”

“ Brother Weinal asked brother Kimball this question, "You have preached so many years to us about saving our grain, will the people save it now?" They will do just as they please. It is our duty to preach the truth, it is theirs to believe and obey it. Some of the Saints are very full of faith. ”

“ Let the majority of the people turn away from the Holy Commandments which the Lord has delivered to us, and cease to hold the balance of power in the Church, and we may expect the judgments of God to come upon us ”

“ The sufferings recorded of those who were called the people of God were endured by a people who had transgressed the laws of God, changed the ordinances, and substituted other laws and other ordinances, and had broken every covenant made to their fathers. ”

“ If we will cling closely to the Lord, be more humble, and be filled with the spirit of life, the Lord is willing that we should have the good things of this world. In the first place, will we be of one heart and mind financially? ”

“ All people have to live in this temporal world; they eat temporal food, wear temporal clothing, live in temporal houses, have temporal horses, oxen, farms, etc., and if they have families they are temporal ones. ”

“ Have they apple-seeds to start a nursery, or plum pits to plant, that they can say to the brethren, if you want any trees we will soon be able to supply you? I have never purchased a peach or apple tree without paying from fifty cents to a dollar each for them, yet in one season I gave away 14,000 peach-trees, and if I had received the same price I gave they would have brought me some $7,000. I did this to encourage the people. In the early period of our raising apples and peaches I never suffered a peach-pit to be thrown away, nor ate an apple without saving the seeds to plant. ”

“ The temptation is strong for the children, and if they can get fruit in no other way they are sorely tempted to steal it. Do not lay a foundation to make your children thieves. The man who sends his little son or hired boy on to the prairie to herd sheep or oxen, lays a foundation for making that boy a thief ”

“ When he reflected and made up the figures he found he had sold more cloth himself than my machinery could make with thirty-five looms. If we go to work and manufacture for ourselves, we can stop the continual drain upon us through purchasing the articles of clothing which we require. ”

“ If you do not wish to go any farther back, look at the history of the Saints who have settled these valleys, and see it exemplified. History does not show that a colony was ever settled, either in North or South America, that had so little difficulty with the Indians as we have had. ”

“ I have been thinking that if the sisters had all worn bonnets of their own make, they would know how to do them up, after the brief storm we have had, and they would have been little or none the worse. That is an advantage home-made bonnets have over the fancy ones bought in the stores. ”

“ There is plenty of work for everybody in this Territory, and the reason many are so poor now is, that in years gone by if a carpenter, a tailor, a blacksmith, etc., was offered wheat in payment, he would say, "I won't take wheat ”