John Taylor

“ And you have gathered to Zion that you might be taught and instructed in the laws of life and listen to the words which emanate from God, become one people and one nation, partake of one spirit, and prepare yourselves, your progenitors and posterity for an everlasting inheritance in the celestial kingdom of God.
It is no dream or phantom that has brought us here; we have had to do with realities all the way through. ”

“ There is nothing associated with our religion that we can barter away, no principle that we have to dispose of—there is nothing in this world that can purchase it; its price is above rubies, it is more valuable than fine gold. It contains principles that lay hold of eternal life; and being in this position, we, as rational, intelligent beings, fear God and know no other fear. ”

“ It is very difficult for men of the world to understand these principles, and only by the light of revelation can they be comprehended. We are told that a portion of the Spirit of God is given to every man to profit withal; and if men improve upon that, and are honest and full of integrity, when they hear the truth they realize and understand it; it is to them life and health and salvation. Hence Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice and know me and follow me; but a stranger will they not follow, because they know not the voice of a stranger." ”

“ God is our Father, we his children, and we all ought to be brethren; we ought to feel and act like brethren, and while we are striving to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength, we ought, at the same time, to seek to love our neighbor as ourselves; we ought to feel interested in his welfare, happiness and prosperity, and in anything and everything that will tend to promote his temporal and eternal good. Our feelings towards the world of mankind, generally, ought to be the same as Jesus manifested to them. ”

“ It is very pleasant for those who comprehend it to reflect upon the relationship they sustain to God and his kingdom and to each other; but these things have no charms for men of the world, whose minds are not enlightened by the Spirit of truth, and who, consequently, do not comprehend the Gospel or the power of God. The principles of the Gospel, to the unbeliever, have neither worth nor efficacy; but with us, who believe them, they comprehend everything pertaining to the well-being of man in time and eternity ”

“ We are here to save ourselves, to learn the laws of heaven, and to save our progenitors, that they may participate with us in the rich blessings of the Gospel. If we answer the ends of our creation in these respects we shall not live and die as the fool lives and dies; but, while the world is overwhelmed with crime, wickedness and malign influences, we may help to introduce and establish principles which God will approve, which all the good and virtuous will love and admire and which will be approbated by the holy angels ”

“ The people do not seem, any more than the Jews in former times, to understand the day of their visitation, nor to comprehend the laws of life nor the relation that they sustain to God; and if ten thousand Elders were sent throughout the United States and Europe, the people would treat them and the principles they bear with contempt and utter carelessness; they do not understand the rich gems of eternal truth when they are laid before them, and they call our good evil, and their evil good. ”

“ Of all people under the heavens we, Latter-day Saints, do continually realize the necessity of leaning upon God; for I look upon it that, no matter what intelligence may be communicated, no matter how brilliant the speech and edifying the ideas communicated may be, they will not benefit those who hear unless they are under the guidance and inspiration of the Spirit of God, for the Scriptures say, "The light shineth in the darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not." This is precisely the case in our preaching in the world. We go among the wicked, but they do not understand us ”

“ Believing in God, they have put their trust in him. They have trusted him for their food and for their raiment in travelling to the ends of the earth without purse of scrip, to proclaim to a fallen world the great principles that have been revealed from heaven for the salvation of the human family. There is not, to-day, on this wide world, an example of disinterestedness and self-abnegation equal to that which has been exhibited by the Elders of this Church for the last thirty-five years, and not only by the Elders, but by their wives. ”

“ This is no phantom, but a reality; it is not only a principle of our faith, but it is a principle of knowledge, and we expect to renew our associations in the eternal worlds, just as much as we expect, when we lay ourselves down to rest at night, to rise in the morning refreshed and invigorated. ”

“ In entering this sacred relationship with God we have assumed the duty of carrying out in our midst the order of things that exists in heaven, that when we shall be transplanted from the earth to the heavens we may be prepared for the associations that we shall meet in the celestial kingdom of our God. We have entered into eternal covenants with God that we will be his people and that he shall be our God, and that, for us and ours, we will serve the Lord ”

“ We have met to partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and we should endeavor to draw away our feelings and affections from things of time and sense; for in partaking of the Sacrament we not only commemorate the death and sufferings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but we also shadow forth the time when he will come again and when we shall meet and eat bread with him in the kingdom of God. When we are thus assembled together we may expect to receive guidance and blessings from God, from whom, the Scriptures inform us, every good and perfect gift proceeds ”

“ We have been called from the world for the express purpose of being the representatives of heaven, that the Lord might have a people to whom he could communicate his will, purposes and designs, and through whom he might spread forth the principles that dwell in his bosom; that we might partake of the same Spirit that dwells in Christ and among the angelic throng ”

“ These are the feelings by which we are actuated; and it is not only in one, but it is in all, more or less, according to the proportion of the Holy Spirit they enjoy. Witness now the First Presidency of this Church. Who could labor more arduously than they? Where is there a man in existence to-day, of the years of President Young, that takes upon himself the amount of care, anxiety, and travel that he does? There are very few of our young men who would have liked to undertake such a trip as he is now engaged in. ”

“ We know that while we are mortal beings, and subject to decay, we are also immortal beings and shall live for ever. We know that the priesthood with which we are associated in this world is also an everlasting priesthood and will administer in this world and the world to come—in time and in eternity. As rational beings we are seeking to act, in all our operations in life, with reference not only to time but to eternity; and we know, as others have known, that after the "earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ”

“ Standing, then, in the position that we do, it is for us to try to obtain a closer connection and union with our Heavenly Father and with the Holy Priesthood, and to comprehend more and more the laws of life and the things pertaining to the work of God. ”

“ Well, we who comprehend these things, look at them in another light; we are acquainted with their philosophy; we are acquainted with their status and position. We know ours, they know theirs, but they cannot comprehend us, for we are told, emphatically, in the Scriptures, that the world by its wisdom knows not God. ”

“ God went with his Elders, and they have gathered together his people as they are here to-day. They have been seeking to carry out the desire of the Lord and the wish of the Almighty in regard to the human family. They were told to go trusting in the name of the Lord, and he would take care of them and go before them, and that his Spirit should go with them and his angels accompany them. ”

“ Are there high-minded, honorable, intelligent men in their midst? Yes, thousands of them. But do they know the truth? No, they do not, and there are very few of them that have the hardihood to stand up for what they consider to be right, for they fear that by so doing they would be compromised in some worldly point of view ”

“ When we meet together on an occasion like the present our thoughts and reflections vary as much as our countenances. We meet for the avowed purpose of worshipping the Lord and we expect to receive instructions from those who address us. ”

“ He sought to promote their welfare, and our motto ought ever to be the same as his was—"Peace on earth and good will to men;" no matter who they are or what they are, we should seek to promote the happiness and welfare of all Adam's race. ”