Brigham Young

“ If they, as individuals, do not acknowledge it, their neighbors acknowledge it. Do they ask of God? If they do, they do not receive. Where is there a Christian sect, now on the earth, except the Latter-day Saints, who preach the Gospel that Jesus taught—faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, the gift of tongues, the gift of healing and the discerning of spirits? Who, in all the Christian world believes such a doctrine? ”

“ If the world were to embrace the Gospel we teach, would they believe all that is true in the faith of the Catholic? Yes, every iota. Would they believe all that is true in the faith of the Episcopalian, or in the faiths of the whole Christian world? Yes, every particle, every excellency, every good word and work they possess is circumscribed by and contained in the Gospel as taught by the Latter-day Saints. Then go to the scientific or philosophical world, and this Latter-day work circumscribes all the truth they possess. Well, then, we ask, why are we worse than other people? ”

“ To take the young and tender mind and teach it all that it can grasp, until it can comprehend all the science and philosophy of the day, and then the revelations of the Lord. Jesus resting upon it teach that which cannot be learned by the wisdom of man. What harm is there in a faith like this? If Universalism is true, and the Lord is going to save all, He would certainly save those who believe thus as soon as He would a murderer or an infidel. You ask the outside world, an infidel or a Universalian, and they will say we are as well off as they are. ”

“ I wish to say a few words to the congregation, but if they are not perfectly still it will be very difficult for them to hear, as usual. I wish to speak to the people on salvation, and to teach them, as my brethren have been doing, how to preserve themselves. The object of the teachings at this Conference, and I may say for years past, has been to teach the people how to save themselves daily, in a temporal point of view, and also spiritually, that when the morrow comes they may be saved that day, and the next day, and so continue in a state of salvation every day that they live. ”

“ According to the traditions of our fathers the salvation of the body and the salvation of the soul have no connection the one with the other. This is not in accordance with the doctrine which has been revealed to us in this our day. The kingdom that the Lord is about to establish and has commenced on the earth will, in every part and portion be a literal kingdom, a temporal kingdom and a spiritual kingdom; but while we are in a temporal state, and possess our temporalities, our abilities must correspond with the spiritual kingdom that we believe in. ”

“ Consequently we have a kingdom that is actually spiritual, and to the natural eye it looks like a temporal kingdom. Still it is the kingdom where God dwells, even in these earthly tabernacles, consequently these tabernacles must be preserved in the truth, in righteousness, purity and holiness, or the Lord will not dwell therein. ”

“ The land is barren, waste and desolate; the curse of God is upon it, and it will be so wherever the Latter-day Saints have to leave. Talk about these rich valleys, why there is not another people on the earth that could have come here and lived. ”

“ We have as good a right to it as they have. We will furnish this little corps of United States men, here on the hill, all the hay, flour, oats and barley, and everything that they want; but we must have their money in return for it. We do not want them to stick their trade into the hands of our enemies, and thus furnish them money to use against us, while they pay us for our produce in rags at an extravagant advance above cost. ”

“ We have been forced to separate ourselves, been under the necessity of leaving the society of those who did not believe as we did. We have been driven from our homes time and time again without the privilege of disposing of our property, and have taken joyfully the spoiling of our goods repeatedly, until we were under the necessity of fleeing to some land where there were none whom we could annoy.
If we have annoyed our neighbors so seriously, the question naturally arises, From what did this annoyance proceed? ”

“ Do they want to destroy us? I think not. They want to meet us as friends, and we want to meet them as friends, and to share equally with them in the business of the country. Do we believe in trade and commerce? ”

“ But the Saints do not want it, and we will not have it. (Congregation said, AMEN.) Why, with all the boasted attainments of the world in art and science they are as far from being really civilized as our Indians here, and farther in reality. A true system of civilization will not encourage the existence of every abomination and crime in a community but will lead them to observe the laws Heaven has laid down for the regulation of the life of man. There is no other civilization. A truly civilized person is one who is a real gentleman or lady ”

“ They have mystified everything concerning God, heaven and eternity, until there is no man on earth, when you turn from the Latter-day Saints, who is capable of teaching the people the way of life and salvation. ”

“ Our outside friends say they want to civilize us here. What do they mean by civilization? Why they mean by that, to establish gambling holes—they are called gambling hells—grog shops and houses of ill fame on every corner of every block in the city ”

“ We want to associate, with men who aspire after pure knowledge, wisdom and advancement, and who are for introducing every improvement in the midst of the people, like the company who are building this railroad. ”

“ Then they would send their missionaries, here with faces as long as jackasses' ears, who would go crying and groaning through the streets "Oh, what a poor, miserable, sinful world!" That is what is meant by civilization. ”

“ But I can say that we have been striving for twenty-one years in these valleys, and before we came here, to bring this people to this point. When we look at ladies and gentlemen we can see that their wants are many, but their real necessities are very few. ”

“ I will tell you how I feel with regard to such persons—they are the very ones we want to apostatize. All men and women that long after sin and sinners, iniquity and corruption we want to apostatize immediately and go their own way, go with those who are corrupt. ”

“ It also teaches us to deal justly, love mercy, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the widow and the fatherless, the poor and the homeless, and to deal kindly with all the inhabitants of the earth. ”

“ I will venture to say that we have given hundreds of dollars to them where they have given us one, consequently we are not in their debt, neither are we in debt to our merchants, not in the least. We did not ask them to come here; we do not not ask them to stay, neither do we ask them to go away. ”

“ This is what terrifies the Christian world, not the moral nor political portion of it; but it is the fanatics, the priests who are afraid, and they continually seek to stir up strife and mischief. They are not all so ”