George Q. Cannon

“ But the prophets have predicted that a time shall come when our race shall be emancipated from these evils, and when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord; when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks; when nation shall no longer rise against nation, and war shall be learned no more. The prophets have predicted that the time shall come when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep ”

“ The older I grow, the more convinced I am that we as a people and as individuals need practical instructions in what may be termed our every-day duties. It is delightful to reflect and speak upon, and to sit and have held up before our minds the course pursued by those who were our predecessors in the Gospel. It is also equally delightful, when inspired by the Spirit of God, to contemplate the future with its great events, which the prophets foresaw, and concerning which they have written so much. ”

“ I know that this sounds strange, because the idea is that the "Mormons" are the most despotically governed people on the face of the land. But I know that there is not another people to-day under the light of the sun, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadas, who are so free in every sense of the word, men and women, as the Latter-day Saints, and who have greater liberty to do that which is right in their own eyes. ”

“ The result is, we are in these valleys to-day—a people of varied nationality, of varied creeds and modes of education, and a people as utterly diverse in their original traditions and habits as men and women of our color could be. And yet, what do we see? Why, throughout all this range of valleys a people homogeneous, dwelling together in peace, love and union, and enjoying all the blessings promised to the people of God in the last days. I say all the blessings, but not in their fullness. We are but imperfect yet; we are not prepared for these blessings in their fullness ”

“ There is before this people, connected with our own country, a destiny that is so glorious when we contemplate it in the future, that it is enough to dazzle and oppress the mind of man at the immensity of the labor that lies before us. ”

“ But though we are few in numbers, we declare that the oracles of God are with us, and that he has chosen the Latter-day Saints to be his peculiar people and has placed upon them his name, or the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and has called us to be ministers of life and salvation, to be the founders of a new order of things on the earth, and to be the means in his hands, as we firmly believe and testify, of effecting a wonderful revolution in affairs. ”

“ But man, in his efforts to bring about this time, has labored without the concurrence of heaven, without the divine blessing resting upon his labors. He has run before he was sent; in his zeal he has undertaken measures for which he had no warrant. What, then, shall cure or bring the means of cure to our race? What shall ameliorate the condition of the human family,? What scheme shall be adopted to bring to the earth the blessings which we are told it is our privilege to enjoy, at some period or other? Shall man seek to bring this about without divine aid? ”

“ It is a truth, my brethren and sisters, there is a great destiny in store for the Latter-day Saints. Men may fight this work and persecute the people who sustain it; they killed Joseph, and thought they had destroyed the corner stones, as it were, of the fabric; and like the men mentioned in the parable, having killed the heir, they thought they could possess the vineyard, but they soon found out their mistake; and so it will be with every move that is made against the work of God—those with whom they originate will find they have made a great mistake. ”

“ And the day will come, though, as I have said, we may regret and deplore it, yet the day will come, and I would like the thought to be fastened, if possible, so deeply in every heart that when persecution and annoyance come upon us, you will not forget it—when the Latter-day Saints will be the only well-governed people on this continent, and in their midst will be found the only place where constitutional government will be preserved in its old purity and integrity. ”

“ Now the hardest thing in building up a people is to gain a foothold. We have gained this; we have gained and organized the first hundred thousand people. We have achieved a position that will render our future progress more rapid than in years past and gone. I fully expect to see the progress of this work in the future much more rapid than it has been in the past. I see the providence of God laboring to bring this about. Not to build up a people distinct from all the rest of the earth ”

“ The Prophets looked down to the days of the future and they saw in vision that God would perform a great and mighty work in the midst of the inhabitants of the earth. They wrote about it, and some of the finest writing in the Bible contains glorious allusions to the last days, when God should stretch forth his arm in mighty power in the midst of his people and accomplish a great and marvellous work—a work that should be a wonder in the eyes of all people. ”

“ Do you think that a people such as we are could go to any land, or into the greatest desert on the earth, and live there any length of time without attracting the attention of the world as much as we do now? ”

“ As a generation, we live in a busy, stirring time—a time that is full of important events, one treading upon the heels of another so rapidly that we have scarcely time to contemplate the past—even the past of our own history ”

“ The dealings of God with our own nation, the singular events which are transpiring at the present time on the continent of Europe, the revolutions that are taking place in Asia, and the wars and commotions that seem to convulse most of the nations of the earth, have all for their object, as we believe, the preparation of the way by which this great message can be carried more freely, and its principles declared more thoroughly to all the inhabitants of the earth. ”

“ The foundation and corner-stones have been laid in tears, blood, and in much sorrow, but they are laid firmly, cemented by the sufferings, toils, faith and endurance of this people for the past forty years ”

“ I do not know that the feeling can ever be conquered entirely, in fact, I do not know that I wish that it could; for if a man could arise and feel perfectly capable, in and of himself, to speak to the edification of the people, judging by my own experience in the matter, I imagine that he would have but very little aid from the Lord. But if he rise depending upon the Lord, and not upon his own strength, the Lord has promised to render that aid unto his servants that is necessary to enable them to testify to the truth, and to cleanse their garments of the blood of this generation. ”

“ What is it that distinguishes us from our fellows? What is it that distinguishes us from the average American, Englishman, Scandinavian, German, Swiss, Italian, or Frenchman, or from the average Asiatic? There is something; they feel it and we feel it; and that distinction is, we believe in revelation, we profess to be guided by revelation. We are peculiar when compared with the rest of the world, because all our movements are under divine guidance. ”

“ The work of God is rushing forward with extraordinary speed, and the Lord is operating in a most signal manner to bring to pass his great and marvellous designs and purposes; and to no eyes are these things clearer than to those of the Latter-day Saints, especially those whose minds are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and who seek for the inspiration thereof to guide them in their every-day affairs.
It has been frequently remarked that we as a people are entirely too egotistical ”

“ There is no lack of topics or subject matter in dwelling upon the work we are engaged in; the range is an extensive one; but it needs the Spirit of God to select, out of the variety of subjects which it presents, those points, doctrines, and counsels that should be touched upon to edify the people in the circumstances which surround them. ”

“ I have heard it very frequently remarked, when conversing with persons respecting our views and doctrines, that we confine our attention entirely too much to ourselves and the little work with which we are identified, forgetting that we are but a small handful of the great human family. ”

“ I think it is the only proper and legitimate course for any individual and people to take. Men may say that we are deluded and that we deceive ourselves; they may say that our system is one of imposture. ”

“ Travel through the most Christian nations to-day, and there is no disguising the fact that they are the most deeply steeped in wretchedness and wickedness. It is true that men live in the midst of these things until they become so accustomed to them as to accept them as a necessary condition of affairs. ”

“ We see what is not witnessed anywhere else on the earth.
As I have already said, tract, Bible and missionary societies have been formed, and the wealth of the nations has been poured into the hands of religious people, and spent lavishly and without stint, for the salvation of the human family ”

“ If we were disposed to forget these things there are those around us with whom we are brought into frequent contact, who take great and especial pains to remind us of our insignificance, so that I think there is no real danger of our entirely forgetting it. ”

“ Man may toil, labor and expend his means and forces, and may bring to his aid all the wisdom of which he is the possessor to bring about divine results; but unless God give the increase, as the Scriptures say, his labors will be fruitless. ”

“ We may deplore, mourn over and regret that such things do exist; but they do nevertheless, and we should be blind indeed did we shut our eyes to the fact, and fail to prepare ourselves for their accomplishment. ”

“ They accept the wretchedness, degradation, poverty, prostitution, and all the numerous evils that abound in the nations of which they are members, as something that cannot be removed—as the necessary consequence of our existence here on the earth. ”

“ I have also heard it remarked that it was entirely too much to expect that a people, so insignificant as we are numerically, should anticipate the great results that we speak about very frequently, and which, from the writings of ancient prophets and of those who have lived contemporaneously with us, we are led to anticipate will be fulfilled in our case. ”

“ The labors of the Elders of this Church have not been confined to this land, but they have extended to England, Scandinavia, some little in France, a very little in Prussia, some in Switzerland; but vast fields yet lie before us that we have not touched, and to which this message must go. The throes of revolution which Europe is now undergoing I look upon as the premonitory signs of that freedom that shall soon dawn on that continent. Then the Elders of this Church will go through Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and through every land in Europe ”

“ The world once convinced of this, and population came to us, and the railroad came across the continent, and we find ourselves right in the centre of the great transcontinental highway. If we were to go into any other land it would be the same—we should attract population and wealth, and the eyes of mankind would be directed towards us ”

“ Still, so firm has been their faith in these predictions, that they have persevered, although the result of their labors, take it as a rule, has not been of a cheering character. Tract societies, Bible societies, missionary societies, and societies of almost every kind and description have been organized with the best of motives, and with vast expenditures of means, for the purpose of fulfilling the predictions of the prophets concerning the inhabitants of the earth. ”

“ It is still in force, and has to be carried throughout earth's wide domain, until the reverberation thereof shall be heard in every land, and men of every nationality, tongue and creed shall have heard and had a chance to receive or reject the glad tidings of salvation which have been committed unto us. ”