Brigham Young

“ This people I say are very tardy. I will ask you a question, and I will let you answer it in your own minds, for you know, and I am satisfied that the answer I shall give will satisfy the Saints. Can we stand still, receive so much pertaining to the blessings of the kingdom of God, receive so much knowledge, just so much wisdom, just so much power, and then stop and receive no more? ”

“ Are we entitled to any power or blessing that the Lord has promised to his disciples: that if anybody administered poison to them, it should not harm them, and if their pathway were marked in the midst of serpents, they could take up serpents and they should not hurt them? Are we entitled to this protection? What is the answer of the Latter-day Saints? My brethren and sisters, answer this question in your own minds. Are we entitled to the blessings of the holy Gospel unless we obey the ordinances thereof, and all the commandments and laws and requirements that are laid down for us to obey? ”

“ All the truth that there is in the heavens, on the earth, under the earth; and if there is any truth in hell, this doctrine claims it. It is all the truth of heaven, the truth of God, the life of those that live forever, the law by which worlds were, are, and will be brought into existence, and pass from one degree or one state of being to another, pertaining to the exaltation of intelligence from the lowest to the highest state. This is the doctrine that the Latter-day Saints believe, whether they realize it or not. ”

“ Every blessing the Lord proffers to his people is on conditions. These conditions are: "Obey my law, keep my commandments, walk in my ordinances, observe my statutes, love mercy, preserve the law that I have given to you inviolate, keep yourselves pure in the law, and then you are entitled to these blessings, and not until then." Now, is this not the fact? I leave it to you. You have the Old and the New Testament, from which we can learn doctrine. You have the Book of Mormon to read, from which we can learn doctrine. ”

“ Here are the ordinances, and we have commenced to obey them. We have the promise of receiving blessings if we hold on to the faith, and not turn away from this principle; and although temptation may present itself to us, we will resist it, and we will cling to the things of God, and believe on his promises, and will ask the Father in the name of Jesus to help us to overcome these temptations, and we will free ourselves from this darkness; we will break the chain of doubt and unbelief, and we will emerge into the full faith of the Lord Jesus. ”

“ When you give a certificate or letter for a man to have a woman sealed to him, and he full of sin and iniquity, is not such a certificate false? If we inquire of such, "Do you want to have another wife sealed to you?" "Yes." "Where is your wife?" "Why, she has left me." "Why? Because you are so full of the devil that she cannot live with you, and the Bishop will give a certificate for you to get another. They also want to be baptized for their dead friends when they have not paid their Tithing. ”

“ If the Saints will do this, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of our Father and God will enlighten their minds and bring to their remembrance things that transpired in the past, and things to come to pass in the future, and they may lay a foundation for everlasting life and eternal lives in the celestial kingdom of our God. ”

“ They experience darkness, ignorance, doubt, pain, sorrow, grief, mourning, unhappiness; no person to condole with in the hour of trouble, no arm to lean upon in the day of calamity, no eye to pity when they are forlorn and cast down; and I comprehend it by saying: death, hell and the grave. This is, what they will get: in exchange for their apostacy from the Gospel of the Son of God. This is their reward, and it is foolishness, not merely nonsense; a person can have a little nonsense and pass it over ”

“ What have the Latter-day Saints got to apostatize from? Everything that there is good, pure, holy, god-like, exalting, ennobling, extending the ideas, the capacities of the intelligent beings that our heavenly Father has brought forth upon this earth. ”

“ You may obtain these blessings by keeping in mind and observing the principles, doctrine, and the laws and statutes that are delivered to the people of God for their edification, for their perfection, for their comfort and consolation, to prepare them for entering into the celestial kingdom. If any profess to live in the observance of these principles, and do not enjoy the spirit of revelation, they deceive themselves. No person deceives the Lord. ”

“ There is about sixteen thousand dollars, I learn from the trustees, of unpaid Tithing, in this valley. Go to work and build a meeting-house, and then school-houses. Go to work and start some schools, and instead of going to parties to dance and indulge in this nonsense, go to school and study; have the girls go, and teach them chemistry, so that they can take any of these rocks and analyze them,—tell the properties and what they are. I don't suppose there is a man here who can tell these properties. The sciences can be learned without much difficulty. ”

“ He has had a talent that he has hid up. He will come forward and say, "Here is that which thou gavest me, I have not wasted it, and here is the one talent," and he will not enjoy it, but it will be taken and given to those who have improved the talents they received, and he will find himself without any wife, and he will remain single for ever and ever. ”

“ What are these blessings?
There is a variety of blessings; a different blessing being probably given to one, two, three or four of this congregation. Thus, one will have faith to lay hands upon the sick and rebuke disease, and drive it from the person afflicted. Many may receive this blessing of faith, the gift of healing. Some may receive faith to the discerning of spirits; they can discern the spirit of a person, whether it is good or evil. ”

“ This is pretty hard on the Elders, is it not? If they could remember one thousandth part of that which they have heard, it would have sanctified them years and years ago; but it goes in at one ear and out at the other—it is like the weaver's shuttle passing through the web. ”

“ We would believe this doctrine entirely different from what it is presented to us, if we could do so. If we could make every man upon the earth get him a wife, live righteously and serve God, we would not be under the necessity, perhaps, of taking more than one wife. ”

“ This, therefore, was regulated and all set in order; for it was revealed that if a woman was baptized for a man, she could not be ordained for him, neither could she be made an Apostle or a Patriarch for the man, consequently the sisters are to be baptized for their own sex only.
This doctrine of baptism for the dead is a great doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines that was ever revealed to the human family; and there are light, power, glory, honor and immortality in it. After this doctrine was received, Joseph received a revelation on celestial marriage. ”

“ Continually wanting the husband. "If you go to work, my eyes follow you; if you go away in the carriage, my eyes follow you, and I like you and I love you; I delight in you, and I desire you should have nobody else." I do not know that the Lord could have put upon women anything worse than this, I do not blame them for having these feelings. I would be glad if it were otherwise. Says a woman of faith and knowledge, "I will make the best of it; it is a law that man shall rule over me ”

“ Another thing I want you to observe in all these settlements, and it is one of the simplest things in nature; I want you to be united. If we should build up and organize a community, we would have to do it on the principle of oneness, and it is one of the simplest things I know of. ”

“ If in the resurrection you really want to be single and alone, and live so forever and ever, and be made servants, while others receive the highest order of intelligence and are bringing worlds into existence, you can have the privilege. They who will be exalted cannot perform all the labor, they must have servants and you can be servants to them.
The female portion of the human family have blessings promised to them if they are faithful. ”

“ They have been convicted of the truth, they have believed the truth, they have repented of their sins, they have received baptism for the remission of their sins, and the next ordinance or blessing—the laying on of hands, so that they may receive the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Brethren, if you will start here and operate together in farming, in making cheese, in herding sheep and cattle and every other kind of work, and get a factory here and a co-operative store—I have been told there is no co-operative store here—get a good co-operative store, and operate together in sheep-raising, store-keeping, manufacturing and everything else, no matter what it is, by and by, when we can plant ourselves upon a foundation that we cannot be broken up, we shall then proceed to arrange a family organization for which we are not yet quite prepared. ”

“ People have been coming into it, many have gone out of it many have died in the faith; but there is quite a number in it that are now living who have held on to it from the beginning, and they have been striving to increase in their knowledge, to enlarge their faith and their comprehension of the principles of eternal life ”

“ He cannot take the scythe and mow; he cannot attend to a threshing machine; he cannot go into the woods lumbering; he could not herd well,—but he could go into the factory, and he can do many things. Well, we can do this and keep up co-operation, and, by and by, when we can, we will build up a city after the order of Enoch. And I will tell you, women will not be let into that city with Babylon upon their backs, nor men either. ”

“ But we will make our own clothing, we will make our own fashions, we will do our own work. I can take fifty men who have not a cent, and if they would do as I would wish them to do, they would soon be worth their thousands, every one of them. ”

“ When he had first received the knowledge by the spirit of revelation how the dead could be officiated for, there are brethren and sisters here, I can see quite a number here who were in Nauvoo, and you recollect that when this doctrine was first revealed, and in hurrying in the administration of baptism for the dead, that sisters were baptized for their male friends, were were baptized for their fathers, their grandfathers, their mothers and their grandmothers, &c. ”

“ I could reason it out here just how much advantage there is in cooperation in your lumbering and in your herding. You have men here, I suppose, who have had an arm shot off; they cannot go into the canyons and get out wood. ”