George Q. Cannon

“ Yet it is the most wonderful organization ever beheld among men. There is nothing like it. There is no limit to the power connected with it; there is no limit to the union connected with it; there is no limit to the capacity for expansion connected with it. You may expand it and make it as wide and broad as you please, and the organization is equal to it. ”

“ I have often thought in looking at the calmness and serenity of the people, and the peace which prevails in their hearts, and in their habitations and settlements, that it is not among the least wonderful features of this organization that a people, who are so much maligned, attacked and threatened as are the Latter-day Saints, should be found living so undisturbed by these things and apparently enjoying themselves as they do. ”

“ What is man? What is there about man that we should fear him? We have seen men in the plenitude of their power array themselves against the work of God, and they have passed away one after another; but the work of God lives and will live. ”

“ It is strange to-day to see people who call themselves religious, advocating all manner of means to be brought against this people to destroy them. To shed their blood is thought to be justifiable the killing of people in order to destroy an organization that they think is so full of menace ”

“ Let a man attempt to travel without purse and scrip, as the Elders of this Church have done, and as the ancient Apostles did, and if he is successful he is successful through faith, through his reliance upon God through keeping his commandments, through being humble, meek and lowly of heart, and if he reaches the hearts of the honest, the only way he can hope to do it is by having the Spirit of God, and having that power accompanying his words. He cannot do it in any other way. And who is there in this Church that gives Joseph Smith the glory of this work? ”

“ There never was a better instrument framed for the happiness of man than the Constitution of the United States. The men who framed it were inspired of God. The men who fought the battles of the Revolution were the same. ”

“ It is one of the most remarkable features connected with this work that a people so few in number, naturally so quiet and inoffensive, molesting no one, interfering with no one's peace or enjoyment, threatening no one, minding their own business, peacefully pursuing their varied pursuits, should create such a stir in the world as we are doing. ”

“ Now, when God does a work he does it in his own way, and he is determined—he always was apparently from all we read—to have the glory of that work. If a man were to go forth qualified by education and preached by the power of education and of learning, who is it that gets the glory? ”

“ I have often said that if the Prophet Joseph Smith had no other evidence to show to the world of the divinity of his mission, and of his prophetic office, than that revelation alone, it was sufficient in and of itself to establish it; for this reason; that at the time it was uttered, as I have said there was no organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; there was no gathering place; no person had ever witnessed such a proceeding as a people belonging to one church gathering together and dwelling together in one organization. ”

“ So with the Apostles, half of them fell away. But did the Church stop? no; and if all the Apostles had apostatized it would not have arrested the onward progress of this work, for God has spoken concerning it, and His word will be fulfilled. And shall we fear man? Shall we fear earthly organizations? Shall we fear threats? Shall our knees tremble and our hands and our hearts falter because men array themselves against the work of God? If we do, then we mistake entirely its character. No such feeling enters into the heart of any faithful man or woman connected with this Church. ”

“ Why, you will find it everywhere that man is glorified. If there is a fluent preacher, if there is a successful orator in what is called the Christian Church, he gets the glory of it, and he gets a salary in proportion to it. Commencing, as some of them have done, to preach in humble places, the fame of their oratory has spread, and they have had calls to the ministry from other places, such calls being accompanied by an increase of salary, and a man goes from one place to another according to the addition he receives in his salary until he becomes noted as many are to day. ”

“ Hence, I say, prosperity cannot attend a people who will trample upon liberty in that manner, and the party that arrays itself against the work of God cannot prosper.
When men have power and do right they will be sustained; but when they do wrong they go against the eternal principles of justice and against God. There are many thousands of men who know that Utah has not been fairly treated, but they have not the courage to say so, because with many who hold office it might cost them position. ”

“ This land is a blessed land unto all the inhabitants of the earth who will act righteously, but is and will be cursed to those who will not. There is a curse and a blessing upon the land. No nation can prosper in this land that works unrighteousness, and it is a painful thing to say that our own nation, unless it repents, will meet with disasters sooner or later. ”

“ Visitors come here and are impressed with what they see, but many of them yield to the force of public opinion and say what they do not believe in their hearts. Thus it is that the tide of calumny has swelled and there is no one to throw obstacles in its way; we have endured its full force as it has rolled upon us, and must still stand up and endure it. ”

“ If we cannot sacrifice everything there is upon the face of the earth, that men hold dear to them, then we are unworthy of that great salvation that God has promised unto the faithful. The man that cannot bring every appetite into subjection to the mind and will of God, that cannot forego everything of this kind, and that is not willing to sacrifice houses and lands, and father and mother, wives and children and everything that men hold dear to them, is unworthy that great salvation that God has in store for His faithful children. ”

“ I think it is exceedingly wonderful that so small a people—a people whom every one must admit who visits this country, are peaceful —should create such a disturbance in the earth and be the cause of so much thought, so much writing and speech making. ”

“ I know in almost every household prayers are offered in my behalf; it gives me strength; and when I am assailed and when our people are assailed and our Territory, it gives me strength to know we are united, and that when I am in Washington, though I may be alone—which I am in one sense of the word—I have an influence and a power attending me, in consequence of this, that others do not have. ”

“ There will be trouble in the land among the inhabitants of the earth as long as they work wickedness, just as sure as God has spoken. There has been no nation prospered as our nation has. No government was ever framed by man that is so strong and so good and well adapted to the happiness of human beings as our government is. ”

“ Though we deplored the war, and did all we could by our preaching, counsels and warnings to avert it, we were true to our obligations; and yet at the same time —though we have men among us who took part in the war—as a people our hands are clean from the blood of our fellow-men. Our Church has not been divided into a church north and a church south. It is a church that belongs to the whole people of the north and of the south, and there are no sectional heart-burnings in our midst. ”

“ When we chose to worship God, and said He was a God of revelation to-day, the same as He was 1800 years ago. There were men then, and there are men to-day, who would destroy us because we exercise that belief. ”

“ There is nothing upon the face of the earth that we should love as we do the Gospel. God requires this of us. Therefore, if we are Latter-day Saints, what difference does it make what is brought against us? ”

“ In the case of any other people it would repress all energy and development, it would frighten everybody, and, in fact, no one would want to live in a community that was in such constant jeopardy. But so far as my observation has extended the people, as I have remarked, are full of peace and quiet, undisturbed by the prospects for the future. In fact they feel quite happy and rejoice that they are counted worthy to have their names cast out as evil. ”

“ And we shall not only stay here, but we shall spread abroad, and the day will come—and this is another prediction of Joseph Smith's—I want to remind you of it, my brethren and sisters, when good government, constitutional government—liberty —will be found among the Latter-day Saints, and it will be sought for in vain elsewhere; when the Constitution of this land and republican government and institutions will be upheld by this people who are now so oppressed and whose destruction is now sought so diligently. ”

“ In this way God has built up this Church. It did not, as we have often heard, depend upon one man. Men thought if they killed Joseph Smith they would destroy the keystone; that his existence was the means of upholding the work and giving it solidity. But he was killed, and still the work prospered, and it will prosper if every man that is now in position in the Church should be killed or should die. The testimony of Jesus is in the hearts of the people. You travel throughout the Territory, and call the people together and ask them: "What influence brought you here?" ”

“ I have been told repeatedly that we do not honor our men enough, we do not give them praise enough; but it is a fact, the people look behind the instrument. Joseph Smith was a man; yet we have been falsely accused of worshiping Joseph Smith in the place of the Savior, and the same has also been said of Brigham Young. But the true feeling is to look behind Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to the power who raised them up, to that Being who gave them all their gifts and endowments, who inspired them and who made them perform the work that they did. ”

“ Yet he, inspired of God, dared to make this statement to the world, and to publish it, and to-day, we who are here are living witnesses of its fulfilment —not of its complete fulfilment, but sufficiently to make it one of the strangest events that has ever been witnessed among men. ”

“ It is a church that is adapted to all. The black man is welcome, and he is entitled to the rites of the Gospel, though the Lord has shown that to his race the Priesthood is forbidden. The red man, and the yellow man and every man of every race and of every kindred and of every tongue, has a right in this Church and will be received into it and have place in it, just as sure as God has spoken. ”

“ The power connected with it cannot be crushed. Men may apostatize, as many have done, but it will not affect the work. The three witnesses of this Book of Mormon, from which I have read—Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris—two of them are now dead —testified all their days that an holy angel came and showed them the plates from which this book was translated—even they fell away. They disagreed with the Prophet Joseph, and fell away from the Church, one of them at least, because of unchastity, the cause most fruitful above all others of apostacy. ”

“ Why, it is the men themselves, and they get the salary, too. They not only get the glory of men, but they get their pay. Man's education is praised, the college where he received it receives credit for it according to the ability that he may display, and God is very little thought about in the matter, and certainly the Holy Ghost gets no credit, for it is supposed that the Holy Ghost has nothing to do with it. ”

“ Opposers may fight it, rave against it; organizations may be formed for the purpose of crushing it, but they will pass away just as sure as God has spoken and as we live. This work that God has established will roll forth. ”

“ Shall we be disturbed because of these threats being fulminated against us? Not in the least; for the reason that God is our Father—He stands at the head, and not one hair of our heads shall fall to the ground without His notice. ”

“ It pains us to say this, but it is true. God has said it. It will be true about us. This land can only be blessed to us if we work righteously. Let us turn round and oppress the weak and do wrong, and God will curse the land to us. ”

“ When a man indulges in unchaste desires or practices he cannot stand in this Church, he will apostatize sooner or later unless he repents. One of the witnesses—Oliver Cowdery—upon whose head, with that of Joseph Smith, the hands of John the Baptist were laid, upon whose head, in company with Joseph Smith, the hands of Peter, James and John were laid, even he fell away from this Church, and yet he never denied his testimony of the truth of this work, nor did Martin Harris, David Whitmer, the only surviving witness, is in the same condition. ”

“ This land of desolation God has changed into a fruitful field, because of the blessing on the land, and as long as the Latter-day Saints live righteously the land shall be blessed to them. The climate will be ameliorated; the soil will be fertilized; fruits will grow as they have done in this valley. ”

“ Every one who is an adult, and has retained the faith, will tell you that it was the Spirit and power of God. No other influence nor power could have done this but that. Well, now, men will fight it, men are fighting it. ”