John Taylor

“ You have had doctrines of purity revealed unto you; you have been taught principles of righteousness, to repent of all your evils, to purify yourselves, that, as Saints of the living God, you might come and receive blessings at the hands of the Almighty.
While you have been doing this, the spirit of psychology has been operating in the hearts of men, even the spirits and powers of darkness; devils have been railing, and men thundering out their anathemas ”

“ The great God has set his hand to roll forth his purposes; and the hand that opposes it shall be palsied. The power of God shall be felt among the nations that reject the truth. All is right in Israel, and we do not want to hurt anybody; but we feel to bless everybody, and our hearts are full of blessings for all who will work righteousness.
Shall we still bless the human family? Yes. Shall we rally around the Constitution of the United States, and protect it in its purity? ”

“ Why have this people confidence in President Young and others? Because they have seen them leave their homes and go forth and endure every privation to promote their welfare in time and in eternity. They could not have confidence in a priest that would not go to preach except he had $10,000.
Furthermore, this people have confidence in their leaders, because in times of trouble and trial they have stemmed the torrents and been foremost in the battle. It is not a kind of soft, smooth eloquence to tickle the ears of men, but it is stern matters of fact that the people know. ”

“ God will put a hook in the jaws of our enemies and turn them aside; and the day is not far distant when empires will crumble to pieces and the hand of God be against the nations; and they will know that there is a God in heaven, and a hand that is stronger than theirs.
Brethren, all we have to do is to live our religion, to obey the counsel of our President, be humble and faithful, and not exalted in our own strength; but ask wisdom of God, and see that we have peace with God, with our families, with one another, that peace may reign in our bosoms and in our community. ”

“ Our people have not been seeking the influence of the world, nor the power of government, but they have obtained both; whilst you, with your philosophy independent of God, have been seeking to build up a system of communism and a government which is, according to your own accounts, the way to introduce the millennial reign. ”

“ We have embraced the Gospel because we knew it was true. I have travelled with brother Young thousands of miles, preaching the Gospel, and with brother Woodruff, brother Hyde, brother Smith, brother Franklin, and many others around me. What did we do? We went trusting in Israel's God; and we are doing the same now. What did we go for? Because we loved the human family, and knowing that God had revealed principles that would exalt men and women in the kingdom of God. We wandered forth to preach those principles voluntarily. We did it because we loved mankind. ”

“ A Gospel that was true 1,800 years ago could not be false now. If they, then, have the same Bible, and profess to have the same Spirit, and to be educated men, why do they not see alike? If there are any of whom we have spoken possessed of good common sense, it would lead them to union, and not to discord; for the scriptures tell us, there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God, who is above all, in you all, and through you all."
We used to quarrel with one another, when we were among the sectarians, about our peculiar doctrines. ”

“ The nations have forgotten God. They have forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water; and like dogs, wolves, panthers, and beasts of prey, they have done nothing but tear each other to pieces... ”

“ Satan has had the dominion over the world for centuries, and no nation or people has acknowledged God or bowed to his sceptre. They have anointed their kings, they have hewn down and trampled upon the rights of man, and their hands reek with blood. ”

“ You tell them to trust in God for the support of their bodies, and they are not willing to do it. They will be quite willing to trust in God for their spirits; but they dare not trust him for their bodies.
Go to the United States, and I will engage to give $50,000, if you will find a thousand men in all the United States that will go without purse or scrip to the nations of the earth to preach the Gospel. Come, now, I will banter the world with this offer.
On the other hand, if President Young wants a thousand men, they will be ready in one day, if it is necessary. ”

“ Those men who profess so much intelligence that they cannot listen to the word of the Lord, and have so much egotism and philosophy that they cannot listen to sound reason and common sense, cannot be edified by these things, while we, who have not such lofty pretensions, enjoy them.
Now, what did Jesus teach? He said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. ”

“ I have travelled to preach these doctrines in most of the United States and in the Canadas; I have preached them in England, in Scotland, in Wales, in the Isles of Man and the Jerseys, in France, Germany, in the principal cities of America and Europe, and to many prominent men in the world; and I have not yet found a man that could controvert one principle of "Mormonism" upon scriptural grounds. If there is a man, I have yet to find him.
The first proclamation by the Elders was, that the ancient Gospel had been restored. ”

“ The cry is to you for money, money: 'We want money to help us to carry out our designs.' The society that I represent comes with the fear of God—the worship of the great Eloheim: they offer the simple plan ordained of God—viz., repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying-on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ Because of that hope which is within your bosoms, which blooms with immortality and eternal lives. You have asked this question to yourselves, "Who am I, and what is the design of my existence?" and the Gospel has unfolded these things to your understandings. You feel that you are eternal beings: you feel that you are living for eternity and not for time only.
I have heard it recommended, by some poor fools in the shape of editors in the United States, to send missionaries here to convert the people. ”

“ In this condition they have had priests to come and anoint them kings! But they are wholesale murderers and robbers.
Who has reigned by the grace of God in the nations? And who has had authority from heaven? Who has acknowledged God in all their ways? Has any kingdom or dominion under heaven? Not one! You go into any kingdom, or let a Prophet of God go into any cabinet, to any governor, or potentate, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord! and they would kick him out. [Voice: "They would kill him."] Would they do it in the United States? ”

“ There our people have built houses, enclosed lands, cultivated gardens, built school-houses, opened farms, and have organized a government and are prospering in all the blessings and immunities of civilized life. Not only this, but they have sent thousands and thousands of dollars over to Europe to assist the suffering poor to go to America, where they might find an asylum. ”

“ It is rather a strange anomaly, particularly in the estimation of the world, that a people so numerous as the Latter-day Saints should be gathered together in one place, having the one faith, and believing in the same doctrines. ”

“ I have got a book at home that I obtained in France, which represents sinners falling into a tremendous fire; and there are dragons, scorpions, serpents, and every kind of reptile searching like fiends for their prey. Naked sinners are depicted falling into devouring flames, and a great dragon with open mouth, forked tongue, and horrid teeth, ready to receive them. If they should miss it, there are scorpions, and serpents, and devils, with three-pronged pitchforks, waiting a little below, that they may get the sinners and give them a good roasting. ”

“ No. No one professes to say that their word will seal the doom of nations, among modern Christians.
Those men, however, who stayed at Jerusalem till they were endowed with power from on high, made this profession. They assembled in an upper room, and the Spirit of the Lord God rested upon them, and they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. There were no Methodists, or Presbyterians, or Baptists there.
As soon as it was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and some said, "Why, these men are drunk: we have got a lot of drunken scamps here—the followers of Jesus of Nazareth." ”

“ He did partially rule for a short time among the ancient Patriarchs, and also among the Jews; but all the rest of the nations have ruled without him and taken to themselves the glory. They have assumed to themselves certain positions and powers, and, aided by their peers, lords, governors, and immediate associates, they have oppressed the human family, and brought them into bondage. ”

“ We were banished from civilized society into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains to seek for that protection among savages which Christian civilization denied us—among the peau rouges, or red skins, as they call them. ”

“ Rich farms were deserted, and thousands of us had left our houses and furniture in them, and there was everything that was calculated to promote the happiness of human beings there. Never could a person go to a place under more happy circumstances. Mr. Cabet, to try his experiment, had also the selection in France of whom he pleased. ”

“ Read the history of nations, and examine the paintings they have in their National Galleries, and you will find they represent, almost exclusively, scenes of blood, deadly struggles, triumphant victories, or sanguinary battles, and the groanings, troubles, sighs, sufferings, and death of the human family. ”

“ Stephens and Catherwood, after examining the ruins that were found at Guatemala, in Central America, and gazing upon magnificent ruins, mouldering temples, stately edifices, rich sculpture, elegant statuary, and all the traces of a highly cultivated and civilized people, said—"Here are the works of a great and mighty people that have inhabited these ruins ”