Remarks

I hope and pray, my brethren and sisters, that while I occupy this position for a few moments I may have an interest in your prayers and faith, that what I say may be that which the Lord desires to have said. ¶

The Gospel which we have received, as all must know who have listened to the remarks of the brethren during this Conference, teaches us different principles and different ways of doing things than are generally known to the people of the world. God has commenced a marvelous work and a wonder, and He has said that He will carry it forward in His own way. He does not depend upon the counsels of men for His wisdom. He does not leave His work in the hands of men for its accomplishment. But He directs in all things which pertain to the upbuilding of His Church. He has said through one of His prophets. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We have seen this exemplified in all the course of the Latter-day Saints, from the organization of the Church until the present day. It was not according to the ideas and ways of men that God established His Church and revealed the Gospel which we have received. He did it in His own way; and in the carrying forward of that work He has acted according to the plan which He designed, and has not submitted His purposes for the criticism of men. I believe that in the future, no less than in the past, God will do this. He designs that we shall be different to men in educational matters as well as in religious matters in financial as well as in social affairs. He designs that in our education we shall occupy a higher plan to that which is common in the world; that we shall not depend alone upon the discoveries and inventions of mankind for our knowledge, but that we shall seek to receive from Him that inspiration and revelation which shall make us grasp in a moment that which it sometimes takes years of study and research on the part of uninspired men to acquire. ¶

God has shown us, so far as we have gone in His work, that He is perfectly capable of pointing out to us truths which the human family, even after fifty years’ announcement by the Elders of this Church, have not yet understood. Take, for instance, the Book of Mormon—a revelation giving knowledge to this people concerning the inhabitants of this land; telling of their forefathers, of the cause of the dark skins which they have, and of their destiny; describing the country which we inhabit and the travels of the people who built these great cities in the south, the ruins of which we find almost everywhere in the southern part of this continent. This truth the people of the world are only beginning now to verify through their explorations and their study; and every discovery which they make, every truth which they accept, is only a further evidence of the divine source from which this sacred record came. God has revealed this truth to the children of men; but they have rejected it, because of the source whence it came, and because of the bearers of this great historical record to the people of the earth. ¶

God will open the heavens to His servants, if they will seek Him in faith. I believe it is the duty of the teachers of the youth of Israel, not alone to teach from the text books which are provided for the school, but to have their minds continually open to the impressions of the Holy Spirit, that when they speak to their pupils they may speak by the Spirit of God. I do not feel that a man or a woman who occupies the position of teacher among the youth of Israel is filling the position in its completeness who does not teach by the spirit and inspiration of Almighty God. The Bible itself is even now a book of science and revelation to the world, notwithstanding all the advancement we have made thus far in science and in art. It speaks there of the rotundity of the earth—a truth which was rejected in ancient times. In that book which was written so many centuries ago, we read of God having given to the air its weight; but not until Torricelli announced to the world that the air had weight would the people accept it. We read in this sacred book that the promise to Abraham was that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, innumerable; and yet in early days people ridiculed the expression, because it was announced to the world that there were only some one thousand stars in the heavens above us, and if his seed was to be limited to this small number it was no very great promise. But through the discoveries of the telescope it is revealed to us that the heavens are beset with the workmanship of our God, and the truth which Joseph Smith announced in one of the revelations, that there is no space in which there is no world, is verified by the discoveries which have been made through the inventions of modern times. ¶

Now it is said that in one system along, which we can see by means of the telescope, there are at least eighteen millions of worlds like this upon which we stand! And of systems there is no end. ¶

God spoke by His Spirit through the holy men of old, and thus revealed truths which it will take the people of the world many years yet to discover by their slow processes of study and research. He intends to speak to this people and reveal to them scientific truths, as He has religious—truths which the world will not readily accept; and it will take years for them to be brought to the knowledge of that which God will reveal instantly to His servants who will seek knowledge from this source. ¶

I believe that in every affair of life it is our privilege to have the guidance of the Spirit of God. Brigham Young, in founding this Territory, sought the inspiration of the Lord and worked continually under the influence of the Holy Ghost. We see the results of his magnificent labor and his grand instructions which He was inspired to give. He told the people to pursue a course which was contrary to the judgment of men. You older people will remember how it was in the early settlement of this valley. When the gold excitement was raised in California he counseled the Saints not to leave these valleys, forbidding as they were, to which God had led them, and he promised that those who would remain should receive a richer reward than those who sought their fortunes in the golden west. The results proved the truth of his prediction; for those who remained not only prospered in their temporal affairs, but their spiritual strength increased. Many of those who left this land and went west lost their faith, or wavered in the truth, the people who remained here, pinched by hardship, tried by adversity, were stronger in their faith and in the Lord, and they today are numbered among the rich and wealthy among the people of God. He told the Saints again that they should not engage in mining. He told them that the basis of their prosperity was the cultivation of the soil and the manufacture of those things necessary for their sustenance. The principle revealed in the Doctrine and Covenants was made expressive in the midst of the people of God, and they were advised to have the beauty of their apparel the workmanship of their own hands. The results of the counsel which God gave through His servants in those times. For while the mines have been opened, and I am thankful to the Lord for the wealth they have yielded for the benefit of the people, we find today that the prosperous people of this Territory are those who have devoted themselves to the cultivation of the soil and who have sought to produce, according to the ability which God has given them, that which they needed for the sustenance of themselves and their families. ¶

A few weeks ago I supposed in my ignorance that nearly all the Latter-day Saints were in a species of bondage, through their indebtedness. I thought that almost every farm in the Territory was mortgaged, and almost every home possessed by the Latter-day Saints was obligated to some person or firm, because of the indebtedness of the owner. But within a few days I have had this illusion dispelled, and I am happy to say that the condition of the Latter-day Saints is not by any means as bad as I supposed it was. The census bulletin of the government of the United States which was recently issued concerning this Territory, shows how wise and far-seeing was the prophet of God in counseling the people to take the course which he suggested, because it shows that of farm population of this Territory there are out of every one hundred families eighty-six that own unencumbered the land upon which they dwell and the houses that they occupy; five out of every hundred occupy encumbered possessions; while only nine out of every hundred families who are living upon farms are tenants. You go from the farms into the villages and towns of the people, compare their condition with that of the farming population, and you will find that out of every hundred families who have their homes int he country, without owning the farms, there are fifty-six families only that own their homes, while five own homes encumbered, and thirty-nine rent the places they occupy. Then you come into Ogden and Salt Lake City—the only cities mentioned in this census—and we find there the happy condition of the farming people reversed. In this city and Ogden, out of every hundred families occupying homes there are only thirty-two who own unencumbered the homes in which they dwell; nine out of every hundred have mortgages upon their residences; while the remaining fifty-nine hire the places in which they live. Now you see how it is. People in the country have not the temptations to extravagance which are presented daily to those who live in the cities. ¶

They have not encumbered themselves and they are comparatively free. They can go to bed at night knowing that the roof that covers them is their own. The labor that they expend upon their home is for their own benefit. On the morrow they cannot be thrust out into the world without home or possession. It is theirs. People should be happy who have their homes in this condition, and they should seek to pursue such a course that they will not lose possession of their lands; but bring them up to the highest possible state of cultivation, make them places of beauty, and use the energies and talents which God has given them for the benefit of themselves and those who are dependent upon them. ¶

I say that herein we can see how God has inspired His servants to teach the people; and though at times they have not understood the wisdom concealed in the counsel that has been given, yet in following strictly that counsel they have found blessing and profit. Take, for instance, the principle of tithing. If you announced that to the world and asked them to observe it, would they not consider it one of the most burdensome taxes that could inflicted upon them? Yet every Latter-day Saint is my witness that those who follow strictly this law of tithing among the people of God do not find it a burden, but rather find it a temporal as well as a spiritual blessing; for their property has been abundantly blessed, so that they have not missed the tithing which they have given to the work of the Lord. Take, again, the missionaries which we send into the world. If a man in the world was called to leave his business for two years or more to preach the Gospel, he would think it was ruinous to all his temporal affairs. But here are Elders who go out and spend year after year, and the very man who have spent the most time in the missionary field, and who stand at the head of the Church today, are the men who are the most prosperous and the most free from debt. And so the Lord will show forth the wisdom of the course which He presents to the people through the results which follow the efforts of the Latter-day Saints. We can do no better than to observe strictly every command that is given us by the servants of the Lord, however much they may conflict with our present ideas and God will bless us in pursuing this course. We have before us the promises of great blessings. Only yesterday we had announced from this stand a prophecy in which all of us can take comfort—that we should come out of our present troubles with more credit and in a better financial condition than we have ever yet seen. I know men around me—and I have shared int he feeling myself—who have considered with horror the thought that our names were to be dishonored, our credit ruined, because, perhaps through our lack of wisdom or from some other cause, we have involved ourselves in debts which it seemed we would be unable to pay. We have thought this the greatest trial of our lives, because we are in the midst of it. We thought at one time the greatest trial was that which sent our brethren to prison, exiled our families, and scattered them here and there on the face of the earth without any human prospect of their ever again being gathered together, or of our being permitted to see on these stands the men whom we honored as the leaders of God’s people on the earth. Yet out of that dark cloud the Lord has brought the glorious light of His Spirit, and today we are enjoying greater freedom and greater blessings that any we have had for many years. So I believe He will yet bring us out of our present troubles with no loss of honor. I testify that the prophecy which was uttered yesterday is the word of the Lord; for every man who will serve God and hold in his heart the influence of His Spirit will come out of these troubles and these seeming disasters brighter and clearer and better for the experience through which he has been called to pass. It is just as possible for God to do this, with all the darkness which appears before us, as it was for God through his servant to tell the widow who went out to gather sticks that she might bake a cake with which to feed herself and son once more before they died, and who out of that gave to the prophet, that her barrel of meal should not waste nor the cruse of oil fail until the earth brought forth again in its abundance. So it will be in this case. The famine for money which has spread over us and the lack of things which seem necessary for our prosperity, God will supply in one of the many ways which it is possible for Him to adopt to bring about salvation, temporally and eternally, to His children upon the earth. Amen. ¶