John Nicholson

“ I believe that is the ruling sentiment among the faithful of this Church, and those who suppose that we are always going to lay our necks down to be trampled upon and crushed, and that we shall always be crowded to the wall, I say that I am of the opinion that they will sometime find out their mistake.
But we Latter-day Saints have a great deal to learn. Sometimes we complain of the waywardness of many who have become connected with us; that they have gone back into the practices of the world; that they have become backsliders and do not conform to the principles of this Gospel. ”

“ Then we have seen the sun of prosperity shine again in its glory and in its strength, so that we think every cloud that comes will be dissipated in a similar way, and that the God of heaven will not forsake a people who put their trust in Him. We put our trust in Him, and also believe in doing the best we can our-selves, believing that God helps them the most who help themselves. But some say—"You will have to give up what is demanded of you; you will leave to abolish your institutions and become like unto us." ”

“ Some of our friends regard us with solicitude, they are deeply concerned for our welfare, and they think surely the end will come this time, whichever time it might be, but we do not think so. We have great faith in the Almighty. That is a good quality in any people, is it not? To have faith in God. I do not know of a people who have more faith in God and the Scriptures, so that, seeing we are told that without faith it is impossible to please God, in that respect at least we must to some extent please our Father in heaven. ”

“ The reason why it makes them free is because that the greatest bondage which can exist among the human family is the result of doing that which is wrong, which is contrary to the laws of God, and to the laws of righteousness, that should exist between man and man. I do not wish to say that this Church or this people as a whole are entirely free from evil. ”

“ There is peace, there is regard for each other, there is respectability, there is a large amount of honesty and uprightness. What is there to shock the sensibilities of the most enlightened professor of religion or of anybody else in the world at large, which is reeking with corruption from centre to circumference. Some people say—"What is going to be done in regard to this question? "The United States Government are going to come down on you and crush your institutions or crush you." Well, you see, we have got so often crushed in theory, that we are becoming used to it. ”

“ I have met, in traveling on the trains people who were utterly surprised to find that the Latter-day Saints looked like other people. I presume that they expected to see men walking about with slouch hats and belts filled with weapons of destruction, so erroneous and so slanderous have been the reports concerning this people which have gone abroad about them. There is only a percentage of the people that were here who are willing, on account of the deep-seated prejudice that everywhere exists concerning this people, to speak the truth concerning them. ”

“ The people are requested to manifest whether the selections meet with their wishes or no, a show of hands is called, a forest of them goes up, and these men, if they be filled with the faith of this Gospel, are ready to go to the ends of the earth at such a summons, and perform their God-given duty in fulfilment of the words of the Lord and Savior when He said, referring to it as one of the signs of the last days, "And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness and then shall the end come." ”

“ The establishment, encouragement and sustenance in the midst of the Latter-day Saints of gambling dens, houses of ill-fame, drinking saloons, and all those institutions which are damning in their character, and which drag poor humanity down to the very depths of degradation! ”

“ There is, however, an organization—an order in this Church which we recognize and which we sustain. This feature extends to this beautiful principle in the Church—which is the highest form of what might be termed the democratic principle—that all the main measures pertaining to this work, in order to be valid in the sight of heaven, and to be in accordance with the strict law of this Church, must have the consent of the people before it becomes binding upon the people, from whatsoever source it may emanate. ”

“ We claim to have in our midst the same Priesthood and authority which existed in the ancient Church, and the same power characterizes the administrations of that Priesthood. Men are called from the plow, they are called from the carpenter's bench, from the shoemaker's bench, from the office of the accountant, from the merchant's store, and from any of the other vocations of life by the authorities of the Church, and when the selections are made their names are called out in this conference that the voice of the people may be given by which to endorse the selections which are thus made. ”

“ I have great hopes of our young people, and I am pleased to note within the last few years the great solicitude, the anxiety which has been manifested in regard to their welfare, that they should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the God of Jacob, to shun the drunkard's path, the path of the libertine, and every form of pollution and degradation. ”

“ This kingdom must have people, and if the people of the world will not come and join with us and build up the kingdom of God, we will build it from the internal strength within itself. Let a person who does not believe in this go through this Territory from north to south and from east to west, and see the flocks of beautiful children who are growing up in the midst of this people, who will aid in bearing off this kingdom. ”

“ But I state, so far as I am individually concerned, that I hope never to get into the position where any man or class on the face of this earth shall prescribe to me what shall or shall not be my religion, for the moment that such a condition is admitted, then farewell to religious liberty. ”

“ I told you that the measures adopted by this Church are done by common consent, as any one knows who has attended one of our General Conferences when this huge building is filled in every part with the Latter-day Saints from the various places that we have located in this Rocky Mountain region, when we come together to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience and according to that which we have accepted as true. When we come together for that purpose our missionaries are called. They are not reared in colleges for the purpose. ”

“ But it seems to me somewhat remarkable that people who are living perhaps thousands of miles away from this part of the country, should have such powerful visual organs that they can gaze and see something that needs correcting among the people called Latter-day Saints, when there is sufficient perhaps within a radius of half a mile of their own dwelling places which would require their attention in correcting for the rest of their lives. ”

“ I am imperfect in that respect—when He says you shall love your enemies. I say that I do not have any love for characters of that kind, who will go in the face of facts with which they are acquainted, as well as men can possibly be acquainted with anything, and wilfully and knowingly misrepresent the characters of this or any other people on the face of the earth. ”

“ But it may be said—and it is said frequently—that our system of marriage—the same system of marriage that obtained among the ancients who held direct communication with the Almighty—is not a part of religion. ”

“ There is a statement in the Scriptures something like the following: "To the pure all things are pure." Now there are many who attribute the existence of our marital institutions to a desire on the part of the men who form this Church to minister to the lower instincts and passions of their natures. I do not say that in every instance the Church is free from this kind of crime, for crime I consider it is ”

“ It has been the privilege of the servants of God in all ages to enjoy a portion of His power to direct them in their ministry and to make plain to their understanding the things that they should speak about when it became their duty to preach the truth. ”

“ There are men who have come here who belong to different denominations, without naming any of the religious bodies with which they were connected—who have been treated with the utmost courtesy and respect ”

“ There are purposes in the mind of Jehovah in regard to this principle, at least we accept them as such. God has decreed that in this day He will build up His Kingdom, and we are seeking to build it up, and as it is said in the Book of Mormon that was brought forth by the power of God, through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, that if the Lord should desire to raise up children to himself, that He shall command His people, otherwise they shall not practice the principle of plural marriage. Our Elders go abroad into the nations ”

“ There is a prevailing opinion, based on false representations regarding the Church which I have the honor to be identified with, that there exists among the people called Latter-day Saints, a species of serfdom or bondage, or that one or more men rule over the people with a high hand—a species of despotism. ”

“ Those who have been guilty of thus violating the principles of chastity, and consequently the holy Covenants they have entered into, there has been a departure from them of the light and power of the Holy Spirit, and they became wilted like the flower without moisture which has been blighted by the heat of the sun. ”

“ They have been allowed to preach their tenets, disseminate their doctrines among the people here, to build their churches until you can see them on every hand, not only in this city, but in other cities of this Territory. For purposes of the deepest mendacity they have gone abroad and been the chief instruments in arousing public sentiment against the Latter-day Saints. ”

“ They lay aside their business interests and go forth without remuneration and perform this labor. Their efforts are blessed, for they are generally successful, and they return after as many years as may be assigned them to labor in the nations of the earth in preaching this Gospel; they come back with their sheaves with joy and rejoicing, to re-unite themselves again with the main body of this Church. ”

“ Some of the latter have suffered death and others have suffered almost death time and time again, because of the persecution and opposition with which they have had to contend in almost every form. But those who suppose that the bulk of the youth of this community will not sustain this work are mistaken. ”

“ There are others, however in the congregation who are unacquainted with the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and who perhaps are more or less anxious to obtain some understanding of the nature and character of the work which is represented among and by this people. ”

“ They have risen in their religious conventions in the United States, and told to my positive and certain knowledge, as black and infamous lies as ever fell from the lips of human beings, and were thus enabled to ply their vocation in collecting money in order to save the down-trodden women of Utah, and to help solve the "Mormon problem." ”