Daniel H. Wells

“ We should let the Spirit of the Lord rule, and the law of God abide in our hearts. If we have the law of God dwelling in us, and if we practise righteousness and live by correct principles, we may have it, and will increase in light and in power with the heavens and with all good men. We should cherish that law, let it abide in us, govern and control us in all we do and say. Let us square our ideas, feelings, and spirits to it, and bear in mind that this is what preserves us and connects us together in the strait and narrow way that leads unto life eternal. ”

“ This is the way I feel, and I pray God to enable us to hold on, to be humble and faithful all the days of our lives—to be faithful in this great work; for it is not only a lifetime for us, but for our children and our children's children for ever, so far as we can control and instruct them, so that when we are gone down into our graves, they may have a foundation to build upon. I pray God to help us to train up our children that they may command their children after them, that this work may be perpetuated by them. ”

“ There is a consolation in our religion which goes to every heart, and by it every man, woman, and child may receive joy and satisfaction, while acting under the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit, having it within us to dictate and guide us in the path of virtue and truth. When the Spirit of the Lord influences any man, especially the true and faithful Saint, it fills him with joy and peace, and makes him humble in the performance of duties. ”

“ They ask if that spirit that has actuated them in their early experience, and that has been the motive-spring in times gone by, sanctions what they see around them. Darkness gradually gets into their minds, and the first thing they know they are led back to love the wickedness of the world.
This is because they forget that upon themselves rests the responsibility of making that Zion about which they talked, prayed, and preached. It is because they forget that it is their business to labour for the establishment of righteous principles, and to walk wickedness under their feet. ”

“ There are a great many persons who consider their own way the best—yes, much superior to any other person's. If we will compare that with an unprejudiced mind and liberal soul, we may reject our own bantling, and learn that there are others whose ways are preferable to our own. We will take it for granted that we are actuated by the best of motives. Even then, some would go to work in one way, and some in another, to build up the kingdom of God ”

“ When he whom the Lord has called to stand at the head of his Church as the mouthpiece of the Almighty speaks to us, let us find out the spirit that leads him and follow its dictation, and then we shall be well off and do well. How often, instead of cherishing the head and letting that dictate the whole body—how often, I say, do we seek to avoid it, perhaps for the purpose of having it some other way, or passing off in some other direction. ”

“ The Lord has not left himself without a witness. If there had been nothing written, there is sufficient manifested to prove that this is the work of God in which we are engaged to induce us to learn our duties and perform them, and to be ready and willing to turn our hands to this, that, and the other purpose as shall be necessary to enable us to obtain our sustenance, to cultivate the soil, beautify the earth, and cause the wilderness to blossom as the rose. ”

“ We have as great a testimony as any of the ancients in regard to the work in which we are engaged, and we have increasing testimony day by day that should convince the most sceptical. We see the hand-dealing of the Almighty from time to time, and the Spirit is bearing witness from day to day that this is the truth of heaven, and that we have the oracles of divine truth in our midst. ”

“ I arise, my brethren and sisters, being ever willing to give my testimony in behalf of the goodness of God and the work in which we are engaged, even the Latter-day Work, the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. ”

“ This is a great and important era in the world's history: it is a great privilege given in the experience of the human race. God has shown himself no respecter of persons. The other portions of the human race have or will have this Gospel laid before them. It has already been presented to a great extent; and the people might have embraced it, if they had been disposed to do so. If their minds had been inclined, they could have seen the kingdom of God upon the earth; for it has not been an exclusive matter. The Lord has scattered the seed upon the whole earth. ”

“ If you wish to serve the Devil your own way, why did not you stay in the world where you had that liberty, which, we might say, is the least desirable upon the footstool of God? There are many in the world, who are associated with this Church, who think it would be the greatest privilege they could enjoy to be freed from the wickedness that stalks abroad at noonday; but when such come to Zion, how soon do they forget the condition of others whom it is their duty to remember, because they are in circumstances similar to those which surrounded them before they were enabled to gather home. ”

“ Our Father and God will never force a man's conscience, but every man will have this power and privilege of receiving or rejecting. But there is one thing they will not be permitted to do, and that is to infringe upon each other's rights. ”

“ Do we hanker for the wickedness of the world? Our traditions are still thick upon us; and if we do not remember our covenants and strive to see things by the light of the Holy Spirit, we shall soon be led to find fault with things which we see around us. ”

“ If we are actuated by the, right spirit, we shall go forth building up the the kingdom, having our eye single to the glory of God, instead of gathering together for our own particular benefit and to suit our natural wants. ”

“ In this kingdom there is scope for the mind; there is room for the exercise of all the physical powers of mankind. There is some labour for each and every one to perform. The people may have to change from their old customs; they may have to go from one kind of labour to another, by reason of their being put in different circumstances and coming from one country to another. ”

“ We are here now; but everything we have is borrowed—our lives, the breath that is in our, nostrils, and all that we now seem to possess. This is not our abiding place. In this our present capacity we are in a state of probation or mortality, and we have borrowed everything that we possess. Nothing belongs to us that we now enjoy ”

“ If we have been enabled to form a nucleus here, we ought never to forget the inestimable privilege. We ought to let those little foolish things that have transpired with us pass from our minds, and cling to the principles of salvation. ”

“ If we are faithful to those things given unto us, and make a wise use of them, the promise is that we shall be made rulers over many things. We are nothing here; we are as it were lent to ourselves for a season, and it is expected of us that we will make ourselves worthy to receive everlasting habitations, which have been prepared for us from before the foundation of the world. ”

“ The Gospel embraces every branch of business that is useful—every department of literature, whether science or classics, everything that is useful in the world. All is necessary to its accomplishment and the bringing about of the purposes of God in the last days. ”

“ Man is an independent being in his agency, to do right or wrong, and has the liberty of doing as he pleases; but I qualify this by saying that he has not the right to do wrong or to infringe upon the rights of another individual. ”

“ Suffice it to say that I have ever felt as I now feel, to hold fast to the ship Zion.
We can generally see other people's faults much quicker than we can our own. You all remember, no doubt, the account which Patriarch John Young gave of the Devil's looking-glass. The glass was represented as one in which a man could see his neighbour's faults instead of his own. Now, who is there among us but can see our neighbour's failings sooner than our own? I will guarantee that we can all see the follies of others, and at the same time be blind to our own ”

“ I know from experience that it is a very good lesson for me to look into my bosom. There is the flatterer, and by studying ourselves we can easily perceive how liable we are to neglect ourselves and look into affairs with which we have nothing to do. ”

“ We cannot fulfil our engagements with the Almighty without we have that Spirit with us. We should so live as to acknowledge the Good Spirit continually. We cannot do this unless we let the Spirit of God rule in temporalities as well as in spiritual matters. ”

“ Let us all do the things that are before us with an eye single to the glory of God and the building up of his kingdom. By pursuing this course we shall be able to accomplish whatever shall be appointed unto us that will tend to the gathering of Israel and the bringing about of the great Latter-day Work. ”

“ Perhaps those who thus become disaffected may not say anything about it for a time; but they will say in their hearts and souls that they do not like this, they disapprove of that, and they despise the other. They do not at first speak of these things, but the next thing they do in the path to ruin is to neglect their prayers, to neglect their every duty, and finally they are led captive by the Devil. ”

“ In communities from which we have come, our neighbours and friends, by whom we have been surrounded from our infancy, have had the same opportunity that we have had. The only difference is, we have received it, and they have rejected it; or, in other words, they have not seen proper to receive it, although it was sent as much for their benefit and for their salvation as it was for ours. ”

“ Offer a kind word to them that are cast down, buoy up the drooping spirits, and do all we can to sustain each other in the trials and difficulties through which we have to pass in this state of existence. ”