Brigham Young

“ They can not endure the thought. I can say to them of a truth, but it will need explanation, there is not one of these men who lived according to the light that he received, and up to every blessing God bestowed upon him, but what is happier to-day than he ever expected that he could be. But the Christian world imbibe the idea that, if these good men, who have died, have not gone into the presence of the Father and the Son, and are not in the kingdom of heaven, they must be in the depths of hell. ”

“ To begin with, we will unitedly labor to sustain the kingdom of God upon the earth. Shall we sell our possessions, have all things in common, live upon the means until it is gone, and then beg through the country? No, no. Sell nothing of our possessions. True, the earth is at present in possession of the great enemy of the Savior, but he does not own a foot of it; he never did, but he has possession of it, and they say that possession is nine points of the law, and it seems to be so. ”

“ I will now briefly notice a trait in the Christian world in regard to their continually misrepresenting us, which they most emphatically do. Wherever we go they misrepresent us. They do not stop to reason, or for the introduction of good sound logic. They do not stop to know their own minds, and to ask themselves questions with regard to facts as they exist, but are wholly uninfluenced by their erroneous traditions. We Christians are divided and subdivided, but we all believe that there are good people among all the sects of the day. ”

“ These are questions which I will answer by quoting a little Scripture, and saying to the Latter-day Saints what was said to the Saints in former times, "No man knoweth the things of God, but by the Spirit of God." That was said in the days of the Savior and the Apostles, and it was no more true then than it is now, or than it was in the days of the Prophets, Moses, Abraham, Noah, Enoch, Adam, or in any and every age of the world. It requires the same manifestations in one age as in another, to enable men to understand the things of God. ”

“ There is not a priest in the pulpit, nor a deacon that sits under the pulpit, but what, if he knew the facts as they are, would give glory to God in the highest, that he lived in this day and age of the world, and thank the Father that he has revealed his will from the heavens. ”

“ When we learn and practice fair dealing in all our intercourse and transactions, then confidence, now so far lost, but so much needed, will be restored; and we will be enabled to effectually carry out our operations for the friendly and profitable cooperation of money and labor, now so generally and so injuriously antagonistic. ”

“ In the political world, right here, and through our government and other governments, there is a great desire in each and every one, who is prominent and influential, to manage their political affairs by and with their friends, and to keep their enemies from knowing anything about them, which creates a party feeling, and parties promote distrust and jealousy, which lead to discord and strife. ”

“ We want obedience to the requirements of wisdom, to direct the labors of every man and every woman in this kingdom to the best possible advantage, that we may feed and clothe ourselves, build our houses and gather around us the comforts of life, without wasting so much time, means, and energy. ”

“ There is a great deal being said and rumored about what we are teaching the people at the present time with regard to being one in our temporal affairs as we are one in the doctrine that we have embraced for our salvation. I will say to you that, erroneous traditions at once begin to present themselves. Why we have received these traditions, those who reflect, read and understand can pass their own decision. ”

“ In our trading and trafficking we wish to confine the knowledge of our business in as small a limit as possible, that others may not know what we are doing, lest we should lose our good bargains and fail in our schemes.
It is more or less the same in the religious world. We wish to know a great deal, and do not want our neighbors to know as much as we do, but wish them to believe that we know it all. ”

“ Then we have our crops, our fruit, our flocks and herds to live upon, to improve upon, and then go on and make our clothing, build houses, improve our streets, our cities and all our surroundings and make them beautiful; beautify every place with the workmanship of our own hands. ”

“ And instead of saying that I shall give up my carriage for the poor to ride in, we will direct the poor so that every man may have his carriage, if he will be obedient to the requirements of the Almighty. Every family will have all that they can reasonably desire. ”

“ To those who are operating in our mines to develop the resources in our mountains, and to all who have need. By such a course the wasting of our substance, as has been too much the case, will be stopped; and when we labor, let our labor count something for our benefit. We ask concerning the rich, Do we want your gold and your silver? ”

“ Let every other man and woman do the same, and all the surplus we make is in one great amount for accomplishing the purposes of the Lord. He says, "I will make you the richest people on the earth." Now, go to work, Latter-day Saints, and make yourselves one, and all needed blessings will follow. ”

“ We all believe that good people do live and have lived among the Christian sects. Says one, "My father was a good man; or, My mother or my sister was a good woman, my brother was a good man, my neighbor was a good person; they lived and died believing in their several faiths ”