Lorenzo Snow

“ We should be bound together and act like David and Jonathan as the heart of one, and sooner let our arm be severed from our bodies than injure each other. What a mighty people we would be if we were in this condition, and we have got to go into it, however little feelings of friendship we may have in exercise at the present time. I can just tell you that the day will come when we must become united in this way if we ever see the presence of God. We shall have to learn to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. ”

“ Jesus, brother Joseph, and brother Brigham have always been willing to sacrifice all they possess for the good of the people; that is what gives brother Brigham power with God and power with the people, it is the self-sacrificing feeling that he is all the time exhibiting. It is so with others, just in proportion as they are willing to sacrifice for others, so they get God in them, and the blessings of the eternal worlds are upon them, and they are the ones that will secure not only the rights of this world, but will secure the blessings of eternity. ”

“ We talk considerably in regard to the principle of loving our neighbours as well as we love ourselves; we talk about it, and we sometimes think about it, but how much do we really enter into the spirit of these things, and see that the difficulty lies within ourselves. We must understand that we have got to act upon certain principles by which we can bind ourselves together as a people, to bind our feelings together that we may become one, and this never can be accomplished unless certain things are done, and things that require an exertion on our part. ”

“ In the Gentile world, where the Gospel first reached us, our manner of training, our habits and our education, all went to influence our minds to look after self, and never to let our contemplations or meditations go beyond that which pertained to ourselves. In making any exertion that would in any way tend to benefit ourselves, to exalt ourselves, and assist us in amassing riches, or in gathering information that would confirm or aid in the bringing about this object, we considered we were doing first-rate, for that was the object of life with us. ”

“ They never could have got out from their difficulties nor from their bondage, unless this power had been exerted by one who had more intelligence, more knowledge, more information in relation to the means of their deliverance.
It is just so in a thousand other cases, there has to be a power exercised for the benefit of the people, there has to be exertions made, and they never can receive the blessings and privileges that are for them, unless those exertions were made by an individual possessing more knowledge, more wisdom, and greater power than themselves. ”

“ Now, let an individual possess information and intelligence, and let that individual be one who holds the Holy Priesthood, a man who has been in the Church for years and years, let him be one that is filled with knowledge and understanding, and let him go to work and look about him, or in other words, let him consider there are others around him that are less favoured than himself, and that they are not all so strong, nor so forward in the blessings and graces of the Gospel as he is. ”

“ Just in proportion as you women, you wives, sacrifice one for another, just in that proportion you will advance in the things of God. Now if you want to get heaven, within you, and to get into heaven you want to pursue that course that angels do who are in heaven. ”

“ I feel it so; in all our thinking, in all our movements, and in our secret meditations, we want to let our minds reflect upon the interests of all around; and to consider that they have rights and privileges as well as ourselves ”

“ Now, it is just the same in regard to ourselves as neighbours, as Saints of God, as individuals that hold the Priesthood, and that have travelled in the light of truth, and got the power of God upon them, and who know what salvation is.
The things of God have been revealed to this people, that they may go to work and obtain more faith and more confidence in God than any other people upon the face of the whole earth. We have to eat, drink, and clothe ourselves, as well as other people, but in gaining these things we should regard sacredly each other's rights. ”

“ If we would rightly understand things as they are, a more interesting subject could not be introduced at the present time, and it embraces a great deal more than what we should be enabled to say in one hour, or in one day. Unless we go into the practice of paying more attention and more regard to the interests of others, we shall not get along as a people, near so well as, perhaps, many of us have been anticipating. ”

“ If you want to secure the friendship and affections of our friends, go to work and comfort them with that light which you have received, remembering those blessings came down from God, and that by doing this you are only doing what every man should do. ”

“ Let a man remember that there are others that are in darkness and that have not advanced so far in knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence, and let him impart that knowledge, intelligence, and power unto his friends and brethren, inasmuch as he is farther advanced than they are, and by so doing he will soon discover that his mind will expand, and that light and knowledge which he had gained would increase and multiply more rapidly. ”

“ For instance, take us as a people, we are dependent upon a being that is above us to secure our peace, our happiness, our glory, and exaltation; we are individually dependent upon the exertions of an individual who is above ourselves. ”

“ We then depended upon ourselves almost entirely, and thought that we should have means around us, gathered for the purpose of securing ourselves from the evils that we found we were continually exposed to, in regard to poverty and in regard to the lack of friends. We were all looking within ourselves, we regarded our own dear selves in all our meditations, and directed all our exertions for our own individual benefit. ”

“ Now you take a man that is continually looking after the interests of the people around him, and let him feel to bless anything and all things that belongs to his brethren, and he will in this way establish happiness in himself and around him. Let a man take the opposite course, and instead of blessing and labouring for the benefit of others, find fault and pull down, will he make the same improvement? Assuredly he will not.
I think the people are very good, and that they feel first-rate towards brother Brigham and the general authorities of the Church, they feel to bless them all the time. ”

“ Those of you who have got the Priesthood, go and make friends among the individuals by whom you are surrounded; or select one and try to start his feelings, his faith, his circumstances, and his mind, and try to enlighten them, and if they are sinners, endeavour to save them from their sins, and bring them from their bondage in which they are placed, to participate in the light and liberty which you participate in, for in this way you can do good through the information which the Lord has imparted to you. ”

“ So you perceive that he who indulges in this narrow contracted kind of feeling, instead of benefiting himself in keeping the knowledge he possesses within himself, he is the loser in considering that by keeping all he has received to himself he would be exalted in spirit, in knowledge, and intelligence. ”

“ In pursuing any kind of study, a man has to continue to work, and after going through one course, he has to go through again, and keep at work in order to make himself master of them, and he never will master them near so well as by communicating his information while engaged in gaining it. ”

“ The shepherd has gone from day to day, and from time to time, with plenty of salt, and they discover that he has it with him every time he makes his appearance, and that he has those things that are necessary to supply their wants. They learn by experience, that he has looked after their welfare, and they appreciate his kindness; it is a good deal so among men. ”

“ As, for instance, you let an individual keep his ideas and knowledge to himself in going on to acquire any information in relation to any particular branch of study or business, will he ever accomplish the thing that is required? ”

“ In order that this thing may be accomplished, and in order that those blessings which are necessary may be secured, and that the feelings and faith that we want as a people may be secured to us, we have to go to work individually and more anxiously, more ambitiously than we have done before to bind each other's feelings together. ”

“ If they want those things that are good, and you see that through their misfortune and weakness they have got into darkness, try to get that spirit from them, and you will discover when they have overcome the evils of their nature, and secured their salvation, you will find that you have bound their feelings to you in such a way they never will be severed, and when you need a manifestation of friendship, you will always find a friend in time of need. ”

“ Let him reflect that those around him desire the intelligence and blessings that God has given him through his greater experience in the things of the kingdom; then begin to impart that information to those around him, and to communicate his strength to those that are weak, and shadow forth his light to those who are in darkness. Then, so far as regards himself he is doing that which is necessary for him to do to secure their good feelings and affections to himself. ”

“ Now if a man has been blessed of the Lord, and has got information from the eternal world, has been endowed with much grace and knowledge from on high, and is one to whom the Lord has imparted many great and glorious blessings, when he comes in contact with his friends that are around him and that have not had this advantage and this experience, if they in their arrangements should run across his track, let him exercise those godly feelings which will tend to secure their confidence and good will. ”

“ I feel that if we secure to ourselves the blessings and privileges of this reformation, we must also try to secure something for the interests of those that are around us, for there is a self sacrifice to be made for the interests of those with whom we are associated. ”

“ For instance, if you ever secure a union in any family in Zion, if you ever secure that heavenly union which is necessary to exist there, you have got to bind that family together in one, and there has got to be the Spirit of the Lord in the head of that family, and he should possess that light and that intelligence, which, if carried out in the daily life and conduct of those individuals, will prove the salvation of that family, for he holds their salvation in his hands. ”

“ But there is a fearfulness in the minds of the people, they are afraid to trust their substance in the hands of the Lord, but if we expect acts of kindness and affection; if we understand our true position, and want to secure the affections of the Almighty and all good men, so that they will be bound to us, we have got [to] do something that will secure to us those affections, and other manifestations of that kindness which we have previously participated in. ”

“ A person never can enjoy heaven until he learns how to get it, and to act upon its principles. Now you take some individuals, and you refer back to the circumstances that surrounded them twenty years ago, when they were living in log huts, when they had a certain amount of joy, of peace, of happiness at that time, though things were uncomfortable. ”

“ Peradventure in a future day, when through the mercy of the Lord that darkness is taken away, and they receive the knowledge that you have, they will discover that you have acted upon the principles of mercy and salvation, and in consequence of that you secure their good feelings, their faith, their prayers, and their confidence ”

“ Now this can be done, but not without some self-sacrifice. We have just got to feel, brethren, that there are other people besides ourselves; we have got to look into the hearts and feelings of others, and become more godly than what we are now. ”

“ If individuals would look upon this principle as they should look upon it, view it in its proper light, they would take much more pains than they do, for they would see the necessity of binding the feelings of their brethren together, they would see and understand the importance of this more than they do at the present time, and they would enter into the spirit of it. ”

“ In order to accomplish the gathering of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, there had to be something done to liberate them from their thraldom, and this something had to be done by a higher power, by an individual that had more wisdom, more intelligence, more understanding, and more power and means within his hands for the purpose of securing those blessings which they needed. ”

“ Let him go to work and gather up his friends, and endeavour to give them the same knowledge that he has received, and he then begins to find himself being enlightened upon those things which he never would have known unless by pursuing that course of teaching, and imparting the information he is in possession of unto others. ”

“ You, brethren, that are going forward in any undertaking, and that want to get rich, and that want to make large farms, to get many wives, and to extend your household and your popularity, you make up your minds to make your wives comfortable, to feed and clothe your children, and do those things that are required of you. ”

“ They feel to bless all around them, and their feelings of kindness are first-rate. Now this is a very good thing, but a person that can take all his temporal substance that is valuable, comfortable, happifying, and nice, and take of that substance for the purpose of benefiting another, that is the way I should think a man could show that he is establishing those principles in himself. ”

“ At the same time they do not feel in the way I think they might feel; but they feel like blessing, and actually do have a first-rate good feeling, especially when filled with the good Spirit as they have been of late. ”