Orson Pratt

“ No beggars in the streets of their great cities, but all the property—the gold and silver, the flocks and herds, and everything that was calculated to make life happy in the possession of and enjoyed, as stewards, by the whole people. ”

“ But in this last dispensation which God has given to man, there will be no uprooting and destruction of his kingdom from the earth—it is established never more to be thrown down, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy. ”

“ It is true that we have not continued as faithful in all things as we should. We have not made that progression in this kingdom that we ought. We have been perhaps slow to hearken in all things to the counsels which God has given, and the order which he has revealed, and which was intended to be of the greatest advantage to, and to produce the greatest amount of happiness among the Saints of the Most High. ”

“ We have one of the most important messages to deliver to the children of men that has ever been communicated to mortals—a dispensation of the same Gospel as was committed to men in the early ages of the world, and in the different dispensations down to the coming of Christ. In addition to this, which renders our message of still more importance to the human family, is the fact that we are living in the last dispensation that will be given to mankind, called the dispensation of the fullness of times. ”

“ If a man has been entrusted with fifty or with a thousand dollars, or with a million, to carry on some branch of business he must, at the end of the year, render an account of that stewardship. If a man is only entrusted with a small farm, he renders an account of his stewardship at the end of the year, and thus all those who are occupied in these different branches of trade, render accounts of their stewardships, consecrating, at the end of the year, all that they have gained, excepting what it has cost to feed and clothe them. ”

“ Prior to that time there were rich and poor among the people, and, from the history given, no doubt an order of things existed on this continent in those days resembling that which now exists among all the nations and kingdoms of the earth—some lifted up in pride and popularity because of their great wealth, others bowed down in the dust because of their poverty, and class distinctions prevailed until this new order of things was established. ”

“ Go east, west, north and south, into all our settlements, and you will find that the men are few and far between who consecrated their surplus property, when they came here. In the first place, there have been but few wealthy persons who have come amongst us, and the people have been their own judges. Every man thought that he had no surplus, when he came here. If he had a hundred thousand dollars on his arrival he has said or thought, "O, I have made such and such calculations. I wish to become a merchant in the midst of the people, and I need thousands and thousands of dollars to set me up. ”

“ In many things we have done well. When the doctrines of faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost through the laying on of the hands of the servants of God, were taught to us, we laid hold of them with full purpose of heart. ”

“ Perhaps the time has not come even for this law to be fulfilled in all its exactness. At any rate we are drifting along in about the same channel that the world does, so far as our property is concerned, with the exception of paying one-tenth of our annual income into the Lord's store-house, and the consequence is, there have become rich and poor in Zion, some possessing their hundreds of thousands, and others digging, in the dust, as it were, from year's end to year's end. ”

“ He made this arrangement by law—that every man should be considered a steward first, and prove himself a wise steward before he could be entitled to an everlasting inheritance. These stewards were to render an account to the judge in Zion of their stewardships, or in other words, as it is written in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—"It is required of every steward to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and eternity." ”

“ Yes, and this maintains a permanent equality; for the man who has gained a hundred thousand in his stewardship consecrates all that he has not used; and the man with a smaller stewardship who in the whole year, has only gained fifty dollars over and above what he has used, consecrates that fifty. The man who has gained most consecrates most, the man who has gained least consecrates the least. ”

“ When our enemies, a few years after, rose en masse and drove us from our beautiful city of Nauvoo into these inhospitable western wilds, where to all human appearance we must perish of starvation, we did well to brave the dangers of the desert, and the difficulties we had to encounter in coming to these mountains. ”

“ Another man's business tact and knowledge were perhaps such that he could carry on a large manufacturing establishment, and in a short time he would gain his thousands, and thus in the course of a year we would again have had rich and poor if God had not provided against it. ”

“ But in many instances there are parties of pleasure and amusement got up among the Saints, to which the poor are never invited; they are got up only for those who can dress in fine style, who can sweep the floor of the ball room with two or three yards of their dresses dragging after them. ”

“ The Lord's judge or bishop in Zion purchased land from the United States, and then laid off to each man his stewardship according to the number of his family. Those who were mechanics received the tools necessary to work with; those who were called upon to engage in some business wherein a greater amount of capital was needed had a capital accordingly. That is, that was the intention as the common property of the Church should increase. ”

“ I have seen those who were poorly dressed come into our parties and take a back seat, and there they would sit, as the old saying is, like "wallflowers," during the whole party. Who would be out on the floor enjoying themselves? The rich. ”

“ The reason I make these remarks is that I want this people to fully understand that there is a law given, a law inferior to that of full consecration, and for every man to enquire whether he has carried out this law according to the letter thereof. ”