Brigham Young

“ The Gospel that we preach is the power of God unto salvation; and the first principle of that Gospel is, as I have already said, faith in God, and faith in Jesus Christ His Son our Savior. We must believe that he is the character he is represented to be in the holy Scriptures. Believe that he told the truth when he said to his disciples, "Go ye forth and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." ”

“ We calculate to build up this people until they know as much as any other people on the face of the earth, in mechanics, in the arts and sciences, and in every true principle of philosophy. All true wisdom that mankind have they have received from God, whether they know it or not. There is no ingenious mind that has ever invented anything beneficial to the human family but what he obtained it from that One Source, whether he knows or believes it or not. There is only one source from whence men obtain wisdom, and that is God, the fountain of all wisdom ”

“ When I look at the economy of heaven my heart leaps for joy, and if I had the tongue of an angel, or the tongues of the whole human family combined, I would praise God in the highest for His great wisdom and condescension in suffering the children of men to fall into the very sin into which they have fallen, for He did it that they, like Jesus, might descend below all things and then press forward and rise above all. ”

“ To live for ever? O no, men must die; it is the decree of the Almighty that all men shall die within the thousand years. Said He, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This body must sleep in the bosom of mother earth; this is the decree of the Almighty, hence it is necessary that all must die of disease or old age, but for all that, to my certain knowledge, the sick in hundreds of instances are healed by the power of God through administering the ordinances of His Gospel.
The first principle of the Gospel is faith in God—faith in a Supreme Being. ”

“ All of these passages, said I, to the reverend gentleman, go to prove, if they prove anything at all, that man is made in the image of his Maker, and that he is His exact image, having eye for eye, forehead for forehead, eyebrows for eyebrows, nose for nose, cheekbones for cheekbones, mouth for mouth, chin for chin, ears for ears, precisely like our Father in heaven." "Well," said he, "I have been for twenty-nine years a preacher of the truth, and never thought that man was created in the exact image of his Father; I always had the idea that God was a being without body, parts or passions." ”

“ If I had only seen in my young days an interest manifested by those who had wealth, power and influence to reach down a hand to take the suffering, ignorant poor and elevate them to the standard they occupied, and to place them in possession of every comfort, it would have been a matter of great joy to me. ”

“ Not only does the religion of Jesus Christ make the people acquainted with the things of God, and develop within them moral excellence and purity, but it holds out every encouragement and inducement possible, for them to increase in knowledge and intelligence, in every branch of mechanism, or in the arts and sciences, for all wisdom, and all the arts and sciences in the world are from God, and are designed for the good of His people. ”

“ All knowledge and wisdom and every good that the heart of man can desire is within the circuit and circle of the faith we have embraced. The day will come when the Gospel will be presented to the kings and queens and great ones of the earth ”

“ Beecher, of Brooklyn, once said that the greatest misfortune that could ever happen to man was to be born; but I say that the greatest good fortune that ever happened or can happen to human beings is to be born on this earth, for then life and salvation are before them; then they have the privilege of overcoming death, and of walking sin and iniquity under their feet, of incorporating into their daily lives every principle of life and salvation and of dwelling eternally with the Gods. I would hardly dare say this, but Jesus said, "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods? ”

“ What are the fruits of this Gospel when it is received into the heart of an individual? It will make a bad man good, and a good man better; it increases their light, knowledge, and intelligence, and enables them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, as the Savior did, until they understand men and things, the world and its doctrines, whether Christian, heathen or Pagan, and will ultimately lead them to a knowledge of things in heaven, on the earth or under the earth. ”

“ We shall not present any other Gospel; it is the same from everlasting to everlasting. No man will be saved and come into the presence of the Father only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ—the same for one as the other. The Lord has His cause, His ways, His work; He will finish it up. Jesus is laboring with his might to sanctify and redeem the earth and to bring back his brethren and sisters into the presence of the Father. We are laboring with him for the purification of the whole human family, that we and they may be prepared to dwell with God in His kingdom. ”

“ In very few instances; and it is a shame for the Latter-day Saints ever to talk about suffering.
What are we doing here, for the people that we are gathering from the nations? The majority of those that we gather are from the poorest that can be found; we gather a few scientific and learned men, but the great majority are the poor and the ignorant. We take them and we calculate to make them rich; we have taken the foolish and we calculate to make them wise; we take the weak and we calculate to make them strong. ”

“ I will tell you whom we will vote for: we will vote for the man who will sustain the principles of civil and religious liberty, the man who knows the most and who has the best heart and brain for a statesman ”

“ I leave the people to judge whether it is righteousness or sin that has brought upon the nation the evils it has been called to endure. Of one thing I am sure: God never institutes war; God is not the author of confusion or of war; they are the results of the acts of the children of men. Confusion and war necessarily come as the results of the foolish acts and policy of men ”

“ There is not a spiritually minded man in the world who reads the Bible but will acknowledge that the Elders of Israel, the Latter-day Saints, proclaim the Gospel, precisely, as Jesus and his apostles proclaimed it. ”

“ Many persons think if they see a prophet they see one possessing all the keys of the kingdom of God on the earth. This is not so; many persons have prophecied without having any Priesthood on them at all. It is no particular revelation or gift for a person to prophecy. You take a good statesman, for instance, he will tell you what will become of a nation by their actions. He foresees this and that, and knows the results; this is what makes a statesman, and no man is a good statesman unless he can foresee the results of any line of policy that may be pursued. ”

“ I have enjoyed a great deal; but so far as suffering goes I have compared it a great many times, in my feelings and before congregations, to a man wearing an old, worn-out, tattered and dirty coat, and somebody comes along and gives him one that is new, whole and beautiful. This is the comparison I draw when I think of what I have suffered for the Gospel's sake—I have thrown away an old coat and have put on a new one. No man or woman ever heard me tell about suffering. "Did you not leave a handsome property in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois?" ”

“ There are none but what have a certain portion of divinity within them; and though we are clothed with bodies which are in the image of our God, yet this mortality shrinks before that portion of divinity which we inherit from our Father. ”

“ The faith of the Latter-day Saints, so far as moral excellence is concerned, leads them to adopt in their lives, the practice of every moral principle believed in by the Christian world. It leads them to do good to each other and to all their fellow beings, and to injure none. It leads us to honor our beings upon the earth as sons and daughters of the Almighty; to honor Him that created us, to observe every true principle, everything that produces peace and happiness, for everything that has this tendency is of God The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches him that has stolen to steal no more ”

“ We expect to see the day when swords shall be turned into ploughshares, spears into pruning hooks, and when men shall learn war no more. This is what we want. We are for peace, plenty and happiness to all the human family. ”

“ Now I would ask the Christian world a question, and in doing so I do not mean to reflect upon, or cast an insinuation in the least derogatory to, all Christians, or to any who believe in God; but I would ask them, what do you know of God? Take all the divines on the face of the earth and place them in this stand, and beyond the attributes of God they know nothing of Him; they are entirely ignorant of His person. ”

“ And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him ”

“ I am happy to say I have never been under the necessity of calling a doctor to my family for forty years. I have had them in my family, but not from necessity. I like them when they are gentlemen; when they are wise and full of intelligence I am very fond of them ”

“ We calculate to make this people just as wise and prudent as they will be made and just as humble as they will be made. When I look at the world of mankind and see their pomp, splendor, covetousness and worldly-mindedness, I think what a shame! ”

“ But it was a common thing for Jesus to raise the dead, heal the sick, make the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the lame to walk; and every person is entitled to those things according to the obedience and faithfulness inherent in him. When do we need them? I will tell you when I need them—when my family is sick, and they need something to counteract the principle of death working in their systems. ”

“ The Apostle Paul has also said, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God." "And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." And all who are faithful to the precepts of the Gospel will see Jesus and be as he is. ”

“ If we could have got men to control the affairs of the nation who had sufficient foresight and forethought to know the results of their own actions, it would have been better for the nation than it is at present. ”

“ I watch very closely, and if I hear a word, see a look, or a sneer at divine things or anything derogatory to a good moral character, I feel it in a moment, and I say, "If you follow that it will not lead to good, it is evil; it will not lead to the fountain of life and intelligence ”

“ What have you got to be so proud of? They have gold, silver, houses, lands and possessions, and they feel, "O, we are kings, potentates, or men of great influence, because of our wealth." But where did they get their wealth? ”

“ This is a point that meets the infidel, and is one upon which I have reflected and talked a great deal, and I have come to this conclusion—that good, solid, sound sense teaches me never to judge a matter until I understand it, and infidels should never pass their opinion with regard to the character of a Supreme Being until they know whether there is one or not. If this principle were an article in the creed of the infidel world, I think they would not be quite so sceptical as they are; I think we should not meet with any person who would deny the existence of a Deity. ”

“ Men generally use their wealth for selfish purposes, and do not seek to devote it to God and to the glory of His name. In the kingdom of God only will the poor and the ignorant of the children of men be purified and elevated and prepared to hold the positions God has designed for His children. ”

“ Our spirits once dwelt in the heavens and were as pure and holy as the angels; but angels have tabernacles and spirits have none, and they are anxious to take tabernacles and they come to the meanest, lowest and humblest of the human race to obtain one rather than run any risk of not doing so. ”

“ If the people, generally, would turn to the Lord, there would never be any war. Let men turn from their iniquities and sins, and, instead of being covetous and wicked, turn to God and seek to promote peace and happiness throughout the land, and wars would cease. ”

“ First, I will say we are a very religious people; the world knows that; and it was our religion that influenced our minds to leave our homes and parents, and in many instances our companions and children. Are we a political people? ”

“ In my travels and labors I have met a great many persons who have desired to contend about the principles I taught, though I am happy to say I have passed through the world thus far without a discussion. ”