Brigham Young

“ And then again we say that this is a good people, that they are a very excellent people, that they are the best people that we have any knowledge of, but they are so far from being what they have got to be that we see there is a great improvement to be made by us. We talk about heaven, about the Lord, about angels, about celestial glory, and about enjoying the celestial kingdom of our God, while at the same time we do not believe for one moment that we could live in heaven one day or one hour, and live in disobedience to the laws and commandments of heaven. ”

“ We have become heirs to all things, through the Gospel which we have obeyed, but if we neglect that Gospel and our duties to God and to one another and become servants to sin, we may expect to suffer the penalty of sin, which is death and damnation, and to be deprived of the right of ruling over a single person, and possess no territory, not even six feet by three. Those who violate their claims to the blessings of the Gospel never will have the privilege of ruling over their families ”

“ It is the privilege of this people to have faith to command the elements, that we may have plentiful crops from year to year; and to enjoy the wealth of health, joy and peace instead of sorrow, turmoil, war and bloodshed. ”

“ Where the Priesthood is not, the people are expected to live according to the best knowledge they have; but even then they cannot with impunity commit many heinous faults. The Lord more readily overlooks them in consequence of their unenlightened condition, and there is a kingdom prepared for them, while the celestial kingdom will be inhabited only by those who are specially prepared to inherit it. It will be inherited by those who live faithfully the religion of Jesus Christ, and are worthy of being ranked upon among the pure-in-heart. ”

“ When the holy Priesthood is upon the earth, and the fulness of the kingdom of God has come to the people, it requires a strict obedience to every point of law and doctrine and to every ordinance which the Lord reveals: in short, it requires a strict observance of every requirement of Heaven, to fully prepare a people for the possession and enjoyment of the celestial kingdom. ”

“ You may ask me if I always keep the Sabbath holy. When I am out travelling and happen to be where there is not a convenient place to observe the Sabbath, I sometimes travel on that day, and content myself with making a Sabbath of the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth day of the week. But generally, when I am travelling, it is all the time Sabbath to me, for it is a constant succession of meetings. But do I send my teams to the kanyons on the Sabbath day? ”

“ We are in the habit of holding in full fellowship men that pay no Tithing, also persons who take the name of God in vain; we permit liars, thieves, etc., to retain a standing in the Church. Does not this hurt the body of Christ? It does, and the whole body is more or less sick and faint through our extreme kindness, which some call charity; it pleads for those unrighteous persons, and we spare them. ”

“ In regard to the Law of Tithing, the Lord has given the revelation I have already referred to, and made it a law unto us, and let all who have gathered here and refuse to obey it, be disfellowshipped; and if a man will persist in breaking the Sabbath day, let him be severed from the Church; and the man that will persist in swearing, cut him off from the Church, with the thief, the liar, the adulterer, and every other person who will not live according to the law of Christ, that we may not have the tree encumbered with rotten limbs, to spread decay and rottenness through the whole tree. ”

“ They may get all the gold there is in the mountains now, but when they die and go to their own place they will not find gold, nor bread to eat, nor water to drink, nor the sweet strains of music to cheer their hearts ”

“ To-morrow morning I expect to start on a short tour South, and I say to my brethren and sisters keep your armor bright, and be on the watch-tower all the time, for the enemy feels as much opposition today, and I may safely say more than he ever did towards the kingdom of God that is now established upon the earth; and just in proportion to its strength and increase, so will the power of Satan be exerted to overcome it. Christ and Baal are not yet friends. An Elder of Israel who can drink with the drunkard and swear with the swearer, is not a friend of Christ and his kingdom. ”

“ If we are not sanctified, if we do not sanctify the Lord in our hearts and purify ourselves in our lives and in all our dealings before God and man, we shall fail of attaining to an inheritence in the celestial kingdom, and shall be found in some other kingdom. ”

“ If the people were all truly Latter-day Saints, we should see a state of society different from what we now see. A man who professes to be a a good Latter-day Saint has a son who is a thief; says the father, "I think he will be a good boy yet, and preach the Gospel to the nations and do much good." ”

“ When it is necessary that we should possess gold in great abundance, the Lord will show it to us in vision, and we shall not have to prospect and dig to find it, as the wicked have to do. The liberty of the Saints is to possess power with God to open gold mines, when we want gold ”

“ The wicked still wish to destroy every vestage of truth and righteousness on the the earth; and they will still go on fighting against God and right, and who can help it? and they will continue to go on in this course, until the wicked are destroyed and the earth is cleansed from the rule of sin and Satan. ”

“ The Saints in all ages have been protected, sustained and upheld by an Almighty Power, in their sufferings, and the power of the religion of Jesus Christ has ever sustained them. The Jews anciently said let His blood be upon us and upon our children, and God took them at their word. ”

“ The head possesses all the qualifications necessary to fill its functions in the body; it has eyes to see, ears to hear, a palate to taste, organs of speech to speak, etc., etc. Every qualification that is natural to the body of a man has its counterpart incorporated in the body of Christ upon the earth. ”

“ We call upon the people to so live that their sick may be healed by the virtue and power of their holy religion, and this is called oppression. The "Mormons" all listen to the advice of one man, and this is called despotism. We teach our females to be virtuous and industrious, and this is called bondage. ”

“ Instead of the righteous being bound tighter and tighter, they will continue to have more and more liberty, as we are more and more faithful, and obtain more power with the heavens and more of the power of God upon us. ”

“ Persons professing to be Saints should assemble themselves together on the Lord's day, except those who may be necessarily detained at home to keep the house, take care of the children, or to perform some work of necessity and mercy ”