Erastus Snow

“ How can such persons learn and understand the truth? As Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees anciently, "How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only." ”

“ I answer—It was not done by the wisdom and learning of man, or by any influence that man himself could exert over that distant people. If any person thinks so for a moment, he thinks so because he knows no better. It is a mystery to them; and they would not believe, if it were unfolded to them.
We testify and bear witness that it is not of man, but of God,—that it is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that it is the gift and influence of the Holy Ghost that bears witness to the hearts of this people. ”

“ Every effort they make to destroy the people of God, to scatter, divide, and weaken them, seems only to advance their progress and consolidate them in one. We have explained to them why it is they cannot hinder it; but they cannot comprehend. They think it is all accomplished by the talent, ability, ingenuity, and wisdom alone of those who direct the affairs of this Church. They speak of Brigham Young and his Counsellors, and other leading Elders of "Mormonism," as being smart, cunning, shrewd men, who deceive, cajole, blind, and lead the people astray. ”

“ In bygone days Elders have imagined in their hearts that their wisdom talent, and ability had something to do with it,—that the kingdom of God could not move unless their shoulder was at the wheel,—that if they held back in the breeching, they would stop the onward motion of the car. ”

“ The land of America was a promised land to the pilgrim fathers, and an asylum for the oppressed of all nations. To this land people from all nations flocked, and the Lord inspired them to establish a free government preparatory to the establishment of his kingdom in the latter days. It was in this land he sought out and raised up his servants in their weakness to be the messengers of eternal life to the children of men, that it might go from this land to other nations. ”

“ Every man's works will make manifest whether he is for law and order—for the principles of the Constitution of the United States and the rights of man, or whether he is here to ride over everybody that will not be influenced by him. ”

“ And those who have professed the name of Jesus Christ, and have had the testimony of Jesus, and depart from the way of the Lord, to pursue covetousness and idolatry, will be the first to feel his wrath in the day of the Lord, when he has borne with them sufficiently. Every man's works will speak for him, and they will be weighed in the balance, whether he be Jew or Gentile. ”

“ There is a class of men who are always miserable only when they are making everybody else so, and their happiness consists in doing all the mischief they can, and injuring everybody around them.
We teach them the principles of the Gospel. Can they hear it? They hear with the ear, but they hear not; they have eyes, but they see not; hearts have they, but they understand not; and they go backward, and fall and perish. When the truth is told to them, they will not believe it ”

“ The Lord says the wicked shall slay the wicked, and he orders it so. I pray God that he will preserve the righteous, and endue his people who love the truth with grace, that they may let their light shine, and be able to bear testimony of the Gospel to all nations. ”

“ Let any man undertake to dictate, govern, control, lead, and gather together this people by his own wisdom alone, and the result will be like what we have seen within the last two years in this Territory in regard to the endeavours of our enemies to break us up and scatter us to the four winds. ”

“ It has pleased our Heavenly Father that the great work of the latter day which has been spoken of by all the holy Prophets, the establishing of his kingdom upon the earth, setting to his hand the second time to restore the house of Israel, should commence on the land of America, and under the auspices of the Government of the United States. ”

“ The Latter-day Saints pray, if the wicked must kill somebody, they may kill those that ought to be killed. You may perhaps think it is wrong to pray that they may kill anybody. We would rather pray that they may be saved. There are various ways of saving men, simply because they will not all be saved in the same way, as there are various ways of making men happy. ”

“ The Latter-day Saints have better business to engage themselves in, which is serving the Lord, working righteousness, doing good to themselves and to all people who will receive good at their hands. Nobody has anything to do with this shooting and killing one another, stealing, breaking into houses, whoredom, running off horses and mules and cattle, and all such sort of abominations—getting drunk and screaming in the streets, but just such as love it. They are not Latter-day Saints who do such things ”

“ If men want to fight, and drink whisky, and roll in the mud, and spue in the gutter, I have no objections. The only objection I have is, that it hurts my feelings to find one of the Seventies, one of the Elders, or one of the High Priests lying on my side walk or under my fence in a state of intoxication, and I am obliged to pass by and call him brother. ”

“ This is the reason why they are here, and why they stay here. And those who go away are they who come flouncing all the way like a fish caught by the gills, and they keep it up until the gill breaks, when they return again to their native element. ”

“ I think if those who keep the shop, who hang out the sign, who gather the poison by the pailful, and keep it to retail out by the dimes' worth, want that occupation in time, they ought also to have it in eternity, and sell it to Pharaoh and his hosts in hell. ”

“ A gentleman upon the vessel, on my return home, having been informed in how short a time I had learned the language, declared it was impossible for any mortal man to become acquainted with the Danish language and use it as I did in so short a time ”

“ Because they know it is true, they cannot get off the hook, and must be drawn in. Ask them if they were so influenced by the wisdom, learning, shrewdness, or cunning of those who taught them the principles of life and salvation, and they will answer you that they know better. There are but few religions you can name, or preachers of any denomination, that have not been heard by the chief bulk of the Latter-day Saints. ”

“ In years gone by, it has been considered awful oppression here because the Saints in the community did not feel to approve of these things, and there were no army—no federal officers to hold out protection to men when they violated every acknowledged rule of a well-regulated society. ”

“ It troubles those who do not exactly love it, because it interferes with some of their favourite desires: it will not exactly allow them to gratify every wish and desire of their hearts. It curtails them in some of their wickedness, pride, selfishness, and idolatry ”