Orson Pratt

“ Whether I shall be spared many years or few, it matters not to me, if I am only faithful to the end. This is my object; this is the foremost thing in my mind; and it should be the foremost in the minds of all the Latter-day Saints. Many great and good men have fallen by the power of their enemies, by the Destroyer, by sickness, and by accidents; but this is the lot of all mankind, to pass through the vail—to go from this stage of existence to another, altogether a different state of existence from this, in many respects. ”

“ It is contrary to the nature of happiness for us to undertake to enjoy ourselves independent of the approbation of Heaven, and independent of the Holy Spirit which the Almighty pours out upon those who are honest and upright before him. There is no happiness in anything else; there is no place worthy of being called a place of happiness only in the enjoyment of the favour of God and of his Holy Spirit. And those persons are truly blessed who have the greatest share of that Spirit abiding with them; and when that Spirit withdraws from the hearts of mankind, they are truly cursed. ”

“ But when we reflect upon pain in this life, it is grievous to be borne and to think of. When we think that a man may be buffetted, not only in this life, but until the morning of the first resurrection, this ought to cause the heart of every Latter-day Saint to shrink from everything that is sinful. What! shall we offend God who has made these great and precious promises? Where is our life, if we should offend God, the giver of all these good things? If we should dare to sin upon such a promise, we should indeed be deserving of the severest punishment. ”

“ Thirty years ago next January, by a revelation that was given through the Prophet Joseph, we were told to seek earnestly for the riches of eternity; and the Lord said it must needs be that my people shall be tried and proven, that they may be prepared to receive that which is in store for the faithful. Seek first for the riches that are in the future life. Seek first, as our Saviour bade his disciples, the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all things shall be added to you, that are needful and necessary. ”

“ I desire to live, if it is the will of my Heavenly Father; and if it is his will, I desire to die. I desire to be perfectly submissive. Death has lost its terrors to me. I feel no fear of pain, for it is only momentary. ”

“ We therefore ought to study and to seek diligently for that light which comes from heaven, to look into our own hearts as we look into a mirror, that we may be enabled to see our foolish practices, turn from them, and feel that we are not only in the presence of man, but that we are in the presence of God, that we may become sensible of our responsibility, and act consistently in all things, that our government may be righteous and holy in all things. ”

“ In the Spirit of the Lord there is peace, there is joy, there is light, there is truth, there is hope, and there is truth. Without that Spirit all is darkness, all is wretchedness, and all is shut up and closed as it were to the human mind, and future hope, or hope of future blessings and exaltation, is cut off. ”

“ These should be the feelings of every Latter-day Saint; they should study to discriminate between the right and the wrong, and be determined to walk continually in the path of virtue, of righteousness, and of truth. Let us study to make ourselves approved before God, that we may have his smiles and approbation continually.
We are fallen beings, and are not aware how deeply the prejudices of our forefathers have been visited upon our minds. ”

“ These are the riches we should seek after first—these the treasures that our hearts should be set upon—the riches that are behind the vail, that extend beyond this mortal sphere—the riches that are as endurable as eternity. It is these riches that will be able to endure and stand when all earthly riches shall vanish away like the dream of a night vision. ”

“ They have systems in the world; they have the best books that are published amongst themselves; but they do not make a right use of them; and when a man goes to preach without the Holy Ghost, to bear testimony, to be in his heart to give him utterance, it will be all in vain. Nothing can be done satisfactory either to himself or to this people.
Then I do hope and pray that not only myself, but all the Missionaries that are going across the Plains may have this Spirit all the time to be with them. Give me the Holy Spirit, and I can work the work of the Lord. ”

“ We should seek for nothing in this dispensation and in the kingdom in which we are engaged—we should seek for nothing, I repeat, that would be calculated to lead our minds astray from the great purposes we have in view as Latter-day Saints. Nothing should be permitted to lead our minds from God and his kingdom, and from worshipping him with the fulness of our hearts. ”

“ The great object of our existence is to have the mind and the spirit right, the feelings and passions under control,—to have the mortal man that dwells within led and dictated by the Holy Spirit. If that is right, the pain and suffering of the body is but small. ”

“ All those holding the Priesthood without the Spirit to accompany them can do nothing. Without a man's testimony is accompanied by the Spirit, it will do nothing. He may multiply words—he may study, as the revelations says; and after he has done all this, without the Spirit is with him to carry conviction to the hearts of the people, all his labours will be in vain. ”

“ It frequently looks very curious to me, looking at it naturally, and causes me some astonishment, when I see the pride and arrogance of the children of men; for I see that the whole bent of their minds is upon the wheat and corn, that they may grow: their contemplations seem to be upon the plans and means by which they can best accumulate the treasures of this world. ”

“ The Lord does not prompt his servants to love the manners and evil customs of the world, and you can scarcely put your finger upon the custom that is not evil; and although the passions of human nature have been planted in the breasts of men for wise and good purposes, yet they have become so changed by associating evil with them that we do not appear to realize the influence they may exert over our minds. ”

“ Then let us love God and love righteousness, because it is right; let us love honesty love to do good, because there is pleasure in doing so; let us hate wickedness because it is hateful in its nature; let us hate that which has the appearance of evil, and do that because we know it to be the feeling of God, of angels, and of all good men. ”

“ Who would place their minds in this direction when they see thousands and millions perishing and annually going into their graves? and who would believe that they would be so exceedingly anxious to heap up millions more than they actually need? ”

“ When we think ourselves free from the bondage of our fathers, we then imagine that we become perfectly untrammelled, and we are not at all aware how deeply these prejudices have entwined themselves around our hearts. ”

“ The Spirit may depart for a little season, but it will return again, if we are faithful. How miserable, how unhappy would every person be to have this knowledge remain and the Spirit be taken from him. It would be calculated to make a man one of the most wretched beings upon the face of the earth. ”

“ This ought to be a comfort to the Saints, and not a license for them to sin and commit all manner of blasphemies; but it should be a comfort and a consolation to those that may, in the hour of temptation, be over-taken in a fault, to encourage them to turn unto the Lord their God with all their hearts, minds, might, and strength. Then they can lay hold of these promises, and with them come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, and inherit all that was placed upon their heads. ”

“ It is true there are some promises that God has made upon some subjects without conditions. We might mention the following in the revelation upon marriage, concerning sealing blessings upon persons, and sealing them up to eternal life—sealing upon them blessings for time and for all eternity, at the time when the man and woman go forth and are sealed by the Priesthood having authority to do this. ”

“ Yes, he has been trying to eradicate from the people the old leaven of the Gentiles that has been established in the hearts of men so many generations, and to prepare the Saints for the great work of the last days. ”

“ If, peradventure, any of you, by your diligence and perseverance, should happen to accumulate riches to some extent, if you should use them for the purposes which God has ordained, all will be well; but if not, they will prove a curse to you, instead of a blessing. ”

“ We may feel that we are trying to do this; but a little more light of the Spirit from heaven—of the Holy Ghost shed forth upon our hearts—would enable us to see many imperfections and follies that are gathered up by the traditions of our forefathers and from the acts of our neighbours. ”

“ In regard to heaping up a multitude of the riches of this life, all our past history shows that the Lord was so determined to rid us of this principle as far as possible, in order that we might enjoy riches when he shall see fit to bestow them upon us, that he suffered us to be driven from our inheritances, to undergo many privations, and thus be prepared for the vicissitudes of future life. ”

“ About three or four times the labour is required of the farmers and agriculturists than is required in other countries. Why, it takes a man almost one-half of his time to get his fuel from the kanyons, about one-quarter to irrigate the soil, and of course the rest is well occupied with the other duties of life. ”

“ There is not much chance for the Latter-day Saints to grow rich in this Territory—I mean according to the meaning of the term in the world. There is and ever will be too much to be done in various kinds of labour for the building up of the kingdom of God. Your land, of course, yields abundantly where it is well cultivated ”

“ They see scores of their neighbours cut down upon their right hand and upon their left: they have the experience before them to prove that all must go into their graves without carrying with them the goods and riches of this world. Why is it that it does not take away this feeling from them, either morning or night? Men of this kind are awake during many of the silent hours of the night to calculate how they can the easiest acccumulate riches. ”