Brigham Young

“ Life and death are before you. You have had the words of life sounded in your ears, year after year, in these valleys, and we have been blessed with days of peace and pleasantness—days of joy and days of comfort. Have all the people served God? ”

“ You will know, by-and-by, whether you possess the religion you profess. The Lord will sift the people, and the time is not far distant when he will sift the nations with a sieve of vanity, and the time is at your doors when he will hold a controversy with the nations and will plead with all flesh, and it will be known who is for God, and who is not. ”

“ If a man hands you a dose of arsenic, saying that you need it and that it will do you good, are you obliged to swallow it? Or if those who prefer sin, and roll it under their tongues as a sweet morsel, present to you principles that tend to the death, are you obliged to receive them—to join in and commit sin? Some who profess to be Latter-day Saints do so, and continue to do so.
What a pity it is! How strange it is that mankind do not better understand and conduct themselves! ”

“ Nothing is calculated to satisfy the mind of an intelligent being only to obtain principles that will preserve him in his identity, to enable him to increase in wisdom, power, knowledge, and perfection. ”

“ We are on this earth for an express purpose. The body is organized, the spirit takes possession of it, and here we are as finite beings in a world of sin, of darkness, and of the thraldrom of iniquity; and that, too, for an express purpose that cannot be accomplished upon any other principle or plan.
Eternal existence depends solely upon adopting and carrying out in our lives the principles couched in the term "holy Priesthood," which alone tend to life and eternal duration and exaltation. ”

“ Every time that my mind stretches forth to discern what the Lord is doing, to contemplate upon his goings forth among the nations, and what he is bringing about, according to all the sayings of the Prophets and the designs of his Son Jesus Christ, and to reflect upon the nations of the earth as they now are and will be, I I ask myself, Am I prepared for all this? ”

“ Let the fiery furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be presented;—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good and refuse the evil. ”

“ No one can correctly dispute that mankind are possessed of intelligence. Reflect upon the intelligence they possess in mechanism, in astronomy, &c. Did they produce that? No. I obtained the principles of intelligence that I am in possession of from the same source that they obtained theirs, and which I attribute to the Author of our existence. But they cannot tell from whence those principles came. They are searching and researching with an inherent principle that never can be satisfied without true knowledge ”

“ We can take the downward road that leads to destruction, or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the principles that pertain to life and salvation. ”

“ And yet, so long as we have lived, and as much as the wisest of us have seen and learned, we are still comparatively as infants. It is by the law of the Priesthood that men are, and by that law they may maintain their eternal identity. A strict observance of those laws will secure an inheritance in that kingdom where death never enters, and all else will sooner or later pass away as a night vision.
When we undertake to worship the Lord, it is eternal principles that we desire to learn. ”

“ The Being who organized us did so upon principles which pleased him, and can please us only through obedience to his laws. That Being placed within us a principle that has been among all the nations of men from the beginning—the principle of reverence, of worship, of seeking after something superior to what we possess. Every person possesses more or less of this principle; we all acknowledge it more or less, and all are seeking something not in our possession. ”

“ I understand that some of the people are remiss in coming to meeting. Do they stay at home to weigh themselves in the balance, to know whether they are actually in possession of the religion that we profess? ”

“ So in a garden, the weeds spring up spontaneously; and if you wish to produce certain fruits and vegetables, you must carefully till the soil, because the ground is cursed to produce thorns and thistles and obnoxious weeds. The original transgression subjected the flesh to weakness and infirmities, but not the spirit; which explains how much easier it is for a person to sin than to work righteousness, by the power sin has obtained over earthly tabernacles, notwithstanding the promptings to do right, and that a person feels better in doing right than wrong. ”

“ Those who think that they can succeed without praying, try it, and I will promise them eternal destruction, if they persist in that course. Some think that they can prosper by lying a little, breaking the Sabbath, and doing almost everything that they ought not to do. ”

“ Lawyers are called upon to explain the civil law, and we must be lawyers in the law of the Priesthood, to read, comprehend, and correctly teach the writings of Moses, of the Psalmist, of the Prophets and Apostles, or to tell the truth as it comes fresh from heaven, independent of reading from any book. ”

“ The laws given by the Almighty to the children of men, by which we can preserve our spirits and our bodies to all eternity, are what the world call "Mormonism." Those laws are what this people believe and are in possession of. ”

“ If I should plant and hoe, and raise nothing, it is the same to me as though I obtained a good crop. God gives or withholds the increase.
We are all organized to seek after something that will be durable—that will not pass away like a dream. ”

“ When meditating upon matters as they are passing, I am happy and rejoice that things are as they are. You do not often see me in this building, neither do I often address you, neither do I wish at present ”

“ The holy Priesthood is a system of laws and government that is pure and holy; and if it is adhered to by intelligent man, whom God has created a little lower than angels, it is calculated to preserve our tabernacles in eternal being ”

“ We think that we have great occasion for sorrow; but how should we feel, after all our preparations, faith, labours, and looking forth for the coming of the Son of Man, to be consumed by the brightness of his appearance? ”

“ You had better continue to pity yourselves, each and every one, lest we should not be right in all the things of God as fast as he is rolling them along. I have been driven from my home five times; I have left my houses and lands and everything I had. ”

“ True, as is written, sin was introduced to the human family by the transgression of our first parents, and thereby the Adversary of all righteousness gained great power over our bodies, as we can daily see exhibited,—the flesh, as the Apostle has written, warring against the spirit. ”

“ They possess the foundation for eternal intelligence, and they do not know how to obtain that which will satisfy their minds. Nothing can satisfy, except being perfectly subject to the law that will preserve them in their identity to all eternity, and that is the holy Priesthood. ”

“ In the end they will learn that they have trod the path that leads to the first and second death, which will have power over them; and the time will come when they will be as though they had not been. ”

“ And though their property, families, and friends be taken from them, yet they should trust in their God, even though he should slay them. And you will learn, by-and-by, what reward he has prepared for them. ”

“ I would recommend such a course, far beyond taking their neighbour's cattle, breaking down their neighbour's fences, spending their Sabbaths in the kanyons getting wood, or doing anything that they should not do. Ask such persons whether they pray. ”

“ Suppose that the Lord should make his appearance in his glory, how many in this Tabernacle could abide the day of his coming? Is there an individual in the valleys of the mountains, or upon the face of the earth, that could abide the appearance of the Son of Man in his glory—that could look upon him?
Are you prepared for the distress that is coming upon the nations? Many of you frequently think that your lot is very hard—that your trials are numerous and severe, and imagine this and that ”