Wilford Woodruff

“ Our condemnation will be far greater than those who never embraced the principles of the Gospel, if we apostatize, or through indifferent carelessness we allow the cares and things of this world to choke down the good seed planted, we have "tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;" we "know the Master's will," and if we do it not we will be "beaten with many stripes." The religious world talk about nonessentials, there are no such things existing in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. ”

“ No man knows the day or the hour when Christ will come, but the generation is clearly pointed out, the fig tree is leaving, and great changes are near at hand. Great Babylon is coming in remembrance before God, and the Lord has called upon the inhabitants of the earth who are very wicked, to repent of their sins and turn unto him. The generation in which we live is a wicked and an adulterous generation, and wickedness and abomination of every kind are increasing, and the earth has commenced to groan under the evil practices of man. ”

“ As I before stated, so say I again, the Gospel of Christ requires faith all the day long, for no man can continue faithful to the end without it. God has set his hand a second time to build up that kingdom which Daniel was permitted to see in vision, and to establish that Zion in the mountains which Isaiah saw. He has set his hand, for the last time, to gather together all things which are in heaven and on earth which are in Christ, unto himself. The day has come when the Lord has sent forth a proclamation to warn the nations to prepare for his second coming ”

“ But the fact is, unbelief has overwhelmed the Christian world, and man has spiritualized the Scriptures until there is no faith in him, and he has no faith in God, nor in the literal fulfilment of his revelations to man. That is what ails the world to-day. The predictions of the Bible never would have been fulfilled, had not the Lord, in these last days raised up a prophet as an instrument in his hands to again establish his Gospel on the earth, and gather together the house of Israel to the valleys of these everlasting hills, according to his decree to old father Jacob ”

“ May God bless you, my brethren and sisters and friends, with his Holy Spirit, and give you faith in him, and in his revelations, that you may be led to do his will while you live upon the earth. But whether you live to be thus favored or not, my testimony is that they will have their fulfilment. ”

“ Light has again come into the world; but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Hence condemnation rests down upon the world, for the consequences of rejecting the Gospel must overtake the world in this the last dispensation, just as much as they did in former ones, in the days of Noah and Lot and those of the Savior. ”

“ The Lord never had a church on the face of the earth, from its first organization until to-day, unless that church was organized by revelation, with prophets and apostles, pastors, teachers, helps and governments endowed with the Holy Priesthood—that power delegated from God to man, which authorized him to act for God ”

“ It is to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, even the Gospel of our Father in heaven, the eternal God, the Eloheim of the Jews and the God of the Gentiles, and all he has ever done from the beginning has been performed by and through the power of that Priesthood, which is "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life," and the administration of his servants holding this priesthood is binding, being the savor of life unto life or death unto death. ”

“ They never once dreamed that he would appear in their midst as the babe of Bethlehem, who should be born in a stable, and cradled in a manger, a man who should know sorrow, and who should be acquainted with grief, and who should choose as his disciples illiterate fishermen of low degree. ”

“ It requires faith on the part of the Latter-day Saints to perform their duties acceptably before God, for we, in this dispensation, must walk by faith and not by sight, just as much as the people of God in any previous dispensation. And this principle we should exercise and live by. Some of the revelations which God has given unto us point to the future condition of the world, and foretell what must shortly befall the world of mankind. ”

“ It has cost this nation four years' war, laying in the dust nearly a million and a half of men, and it has also cost millions upon millions of dollars, creating a debt which it will never live to pay. This is the faith of Wilford Woodruff, and I think I have a right to exercise my faith in this matter. ”

“ The heavens are in pain over the disobedience and unrighteousness of the children of men, and the angels, we are told, are waiting in their places in the Temple for the time to come when they will be called upon to go forth and reap down the earth. Judgments await the world, but they heed not, and apparently do not care. With fire and sword the Lord will plead with all flesh, and as the prophet has said respecting this event, "the slain of the Lord will be many;" ”

“ It costs something to shed innocent blood, it costs something to shed the blood of prophets and apostles. And I have sometimes taken the liberty, before strangers as well as Latter-day Saints, to express my views in regard to shedding the blood of Joseph Smith and other prophets. ”

“ God has restored again his Gospel. He has raised up men and commanded them to go forth and preach it to the world, and they have been engaged doing so now for nearly half a century, ever since the organization of this Church. ”

“ These predictions were uttered by holy men as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and although the men themselves have passed away, not one jot or tittle of their words will fail in their fulfillment. ”