George A. Smith

“ What is the result of worshipping such a being? It is a most indescribable religious confusion—a confusion that our language is inadequate to express. One of the old Prophets says—"Woe to the multitude of many people that make a noise."
I once went to a Methodist camp meeting, and heard some thousands of men and women praying, shouting, screeching all at once. At that time I looked round, and thought of the words of the Prophet—"Woe to the multitude of many people that make a noise like the noise of a sea." ”

“ When the Latter-day Saints were driven from Jackson county, in 1833, Joseph Smith prophesied that if the people of the United States would not bring to justice that mob and protect the Saints, they should have mob upon mob, mob upon mob, until mob and power and mob rule should be all over the whole land, until no man's life or property should be safe. This prophecy is being literally fulfilled.
The laws of the country are trampled upon with impunity, and there is nothing but a general and universal mob rule. ”

“ We should be awake while we are here, and try to release them from their bondage, for ere long the terrible storm will break loose; every man's hand will be let loose upon his neighbour, and blood and distress, turmoil, sorrow, misery, war, and destruction will sweep the whole face of the earth as with the besom of destruction. ”

“ Why, those men who are placed in authority, from the President down, looked silently on, and saw the laws trampled underfoot, the Constitution violated, the rights of the innocent trifled with, the blood of innocence poured upon the ground like water, and the little insignificant body of people, the "damned Mormons," as they pleased to call them, driven from their homes into the wilderness, and so peace was taken from their midst. ”

“ Infidelity is almost harmless, compared with it. The bloodthirsty power that has been exercised under such influence exceeds anything that history records. It is a union—a combination of civil and religious power in the hands of corrupt men, and that brought to bear, and turned loose upon us, with a determination to annihilate every Latter-day Saint. ”

“ The fear there is in the breasts of many that the Presidency will exercise an influence over their business affairs, that would not give them as good a chance as they ought to have, has been all the while a plan to entangle our own feet, and has caused us to grope like blind men in the dark, and scramble for the picayunes when we might as well have picked up the eagles. ”

“ Suppose you get the Christians now together and fetch them up here, and ask them to tell us which is the pure religion; take, say a dozen of the leading sects, and let each one tell us which is the pure religion of Jesus Christ, and they would get up such a quarrel, such a confusion, such a hubbub, that it would be impossible to tell anything about it. ”

“ And you that go on such missions, remember you are sent to bring home the sheaves: therefore take care of them; strengthen and encourage them in regard to the things they should do and understand; stir up in their hearts a spirit of obedience, and they will come in here with the light of the Spirit of the Lord burning brightly within them, that their passage over the Plains may be a school to them of principle and doctrine and truth, that they may inherit all the blessings that are in store for them—blessings that will endure for ever. ”

“ Every man that could get the opportunity would get up and pronounce a solemn speech, or have it printed at the public expense—at any rate, to send home to his constituents, to let them know that he did or must say something to prevent the dissolution of the Union, without ever reflecting upon or seeing the real cause of the difficulty. ”

“ I was reading the remarks of a gentleman, who was insisting that the young men of our country should learn to spout—that is, to make a speech on politics, and be prepared to take the stump. A gentleman commenting on it says gold will ruin the country and destroy the Union. The people being the government, having no recognized head, and having to express itself through the belly, if you please, it takes a long time ”

“ I never was very much posted in these systems of piety, but I remember, when quite young, looking at the book containing the articles of their faith, and wondering what sort of a being it was that had neither body, parts, nor passions, and I might perhaps, with propriety, add principles or power.
Lindley Murray says a substantive is the name of anything that exists; but if a being had no body, parts, or passions, its existence could only be imaginary. ”

“ There is no Latter-day Saint in these mountains but what can get good bread, and eat that which is good and wholesome. Hence, I may say, we are the richest people; and if we had listened as we ought to have done for the last four years to the counsel of the Presidency, we should have possessed millions of property which we do not now. ”

“ Go to work and gather up the different factions of our country, politically, and let them undertake to tell what the matter is, and it would only have a tendency to show a specimen of that ignorance, stupidity, weakness, and universal confusion which reigns throughout the land. ”

“ I know that a wise head to guide us in our movements in our different settlements—to tell us what we should cultivate, what kind of things we should improve in, and the advantages to be taken of the climate and productions of our several localities, and the way we should exercise our labour to produce the necessaries of life, is of vast importance to us. ”

“ If you send out a team round which you expect to have gathered fifteen or twenty Saints to cross the Plains, send a man that will be a father to them, and teach them righteousness, and inspire them with good sentiments and exalted feelings. ”

“ Let us, then, exert ourselves to deliver our brethren, that they may flee from the old barn like rats from a building on fire, and escape in time, and escape unhurt. Be wide awake and diligent in these things; and, when we are called upon to go after the poor, regard it as a most important mission. ”

“ He has said, "The wicked shall slay the wicked." The time shall come when the vengeance of the Almighty will fall upon the heads of those that have persecuted, slain, driven, and rejoiced over the destruction and affliction of the Saints. ”

“ And I say that if we were as we ought to be, if we would listen to the counsel of President Young as we ought to do, if we would obey his instructions as we ought to obey them, we should be the wealthiest people upon the face of the earth. ”

“ Some of them will buy them in again, and pay twenty times as much as they sold for, and thus bleed Uncle Sam. Such men are in office every year. Men in office think it a fine thing to swindle the Government, which is only a miserable goose for them to pluck. ”

“ We find in the Methodist discipline that the God worshipped by John Wesley's followers was a very singular being, without body or parts. In the platforms of the Presbyterians, Baptists, and other denominations, it is declared that he has neither body, parts, nor passions. ”

“ At that time a great many men held slaves. We drove our slaves to Virginia and sold them for the money, and got full pay. We immediately began to feel sorry for them, and began to feel that it was very wicked to keep negroes, seeing we had got the money for ours. ”