Brigham Young

“ Devouring flames have already taken hold of the dry tree, and the hand of God in judgment is beginning to be felt by this nation, and soon will be upon all nations under heaven. Who will acknowledge the hand of God in the sufferings, travails, and deliverance of this people from the hands of their persecutors, and His handiwork in sustaining them in the wilderness, through sorrow, affliction, poverty, and wretchedness? All the faithful Saints will do it; but how few outsiders, as we call them, will stop to pray to God in the name of Jesus to know if this work is true ”

“ Our laws are often trampled upon with impunity, and the offender goes free. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often commit sins that if they were to commit in the world would cut them off from the church antichrist, yet we retain them as members of the Church of Christ in mercy, and in consideration of the weaknesses of poor human nature, and they pass along unscathed, receiving the fellowship of their faithful brethren and sisters with the hope that they will reform and learn to live their religion more faithfully. ”

“ The voice of the Lord is gather out from her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins nor of her plagues, and build temples to My name, and seal up My sons and daughters to eternal life, to prepare them for My coming, for "the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion; and also the Lord shall have power over His Saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world." ”

“ Christ is represented as a living stone, chosen of God and precious, and the Apostle represents the Saints "as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." We "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord." ”

“ Do right, and you will be tried all you wish to bear, and if you overcome, being made perfect through suffering, your reward will be eternal life in the kingdom of God. Do wrong, and continue in doing wrong, and you will have trials more than you can bear, and be damned at last. When we receive chastisement let us not be discouraged, but be more faithful, enduring temptation, hardship, and perplexity, trusting in God, and walking in the light of His countenance day by day and hour by hour. By pursuing this course our life will be a cheerful and happy one even in the midst of severe trials. ”

“ Is the wife tried because her husband wishes to dictate her and give her good and wholesome advice? Is somebody tried because his bishop wishes to control him for his good? Your bishop is very likely doing the best he can to advise the members of his ward for their best good. Does he advise you to do wrong? All the members of that ward who are full of faith and the power of God will be of one heart and mind with their bishop, and will go with him in all things, and while union continues in the Lord. ”

“ We have now some little trial to endure, but not much. We are part of a great nation; it has been one of the happiest and best nations that has ever existed with regard to liberty, the greatness of its institutions, and the land which it occupies. ”

“ Some have already forsaken all and followed Christ; they have left their children, their husbands, their wives, their brothers and sisters and dear friends, some hoping again to see them, and many never expecting to see them again in this life. We shall be tried in all things, and the Lord is now disposed to try us by calling upon us to be of one heart and of one mind, to submit to be guided and dictated, governed and controlled by Him through the constituted authorities of His kingdom. ”

“ We have been gathered to the valleys of these mountains for the express purpose of purifying ourselves, that we may become polished stones in the temple of God, for it is written, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." ”

“ The Latter-day Saints are often drawn into circumstances that are most peculiar, and sometimes very trying, yet there exists no other people on the earth who enjoy the privileges and the freedom that we do. ”

“ Can we do it by every man turning to his own way, and by following the vain imaginations of his own heart? No, we will all decide at once that we never can perform this labor without being guided and directed by the Lord himself, through, the means which it pleases Him to use to bring about the perfecting of His people, to prepare them for the glory which is to follow. ”

“ This may be a small trial to us for the moment. We shall see who will conquer—whether God will have His way in making manifest His purposes and having them fulfilled, or whether the wicked will have their way. ”

“ He will cause every move they make to culminate for the greatest good to that people and the cause of truth. If a bishop counsels the people of his ward to swear shall they swear? No. If he counsels them to steal shall they steal? ”

“ If it is necessary for us to be tried in all things, then weep not, mourn not because we are tried, neither let us object to the Lord directing our course in that path wherein the trials necessary for our perfection lie. If it is in sailing across the sea in ships, in being sick and cast down, in witnessing the sorrow of our dear friends, in receiving temptations and trials to which we have before been strangers ”

“ The gathering previously foretold is now being accomplished, and wherever the children of men are, if there are individuals among them who would delight to be disciples of the Lord Jesus, forsake sin and sinful company and practices, they are called upon to gather out from the wicked and assemble themselves together at some place designated by the finger of the Almighty. ”

“ The government says you shall only have one wife; the Lord says take unto yourselves wives; and Saints obey the Lord, and we shall see who will come off victorious. The ordinance of sealing must be performed here man to man, and woman to man, and children to parents, etc., until the chain of generation is made perfect in the sealing ordinances back to father Adam ”

“ It is our duty to make a close application of the requirements of heaven to our lives, and qualify ourselves to accomplish the work which the Lord has committed into our hands. How can we perform this work? ”

“ They have had it, and have succeeded many times in overcoming the Saints and destroying them to that degree, causing them to apostatize, and putting them to death, that the Priesthood was taken from the children of men; but this is the last dispensation, and we shall see whether they succeed in this kind of proceeding now as they have formerly done.
The Lord has revealed His will for His servants to take more wives than one. Our government says that a man shall not have but one wife, though he may have as many mistresses as he pleases ”

“ Under such circumstances there would have been now living in honor, according to moderate calculation, from two to four hundred thousand females, whose filthy and corrupted remains are now mingling with the dust of that sinful city. ”