A Discourse on the Spirit and Plain Speaking

My brethren and sisters, I hope you have confidence in me, and that I can hold your attention for a few moments. I feel happy, just as happy as a man can feel with the rheumatism. ¶

I have been thinking, not only today, but during this conference of a testimony that my father bore when he was fifty-four years old, and it gives me a great deal of pleasure to know that I am now fifty-three years of age and have the same testimony that he had — not one whit's difference ; that I have a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. I have been taught it from my youth, just as I was taught in early days that a peach grew on a peach tree. I believe I have just as much knowledge of a peach now as the most scientific man in the world. I can tell a peach when I see it, and a peach tree ; but I cannot for the life of me tell how that peach grows on a peach tree, and neither can you. Now, there are many things about this work that I do not comprehend, but because I cannot tell it all it does not prove that it is not true. I have studied the history of this Church, and I testify that this is the Lord's work, that He has given unto us Prophets and Apostles, the Holy Ghost, and all the gifts and blessings of the Gospel, and that we have been led by inspired men. ¶

I now want to ask you Latter-day Saints if you have counted the cost of establishing this Church? Have you considered what it has cost thousands of men and women who have been valiant in the truth and died in the faith ? The country is fairly strewn with the bodies of our people from Salt Lake City to the east. Construction is very difficult, destruction is easy. Ordinary men can criticize and destroy. It has required much sacrifice to establish this Church. I feel grateful this day, my brethren and sisters, that I have the confidence of my brethren ; I must have it or I would not have been called to address you. I want also the confidence of the Saints. I say, God save the people; what can we do without them ? The Lord can accomplish great things, but He wants the people, and He will never be satisfied till He secures the hearts of the children of men. ¶

I desire to call attention to a thought that is in my mind; it is not new, however. I desire to advise the Latter-day Saints to stop selling their inheritances. I call your attention to the fact that this earth is your habitation ; that this earth is your heaven, or will be. This earth is hell too, and there is a big lot of people in this hell now ; their lives are such that this earth is of that character to them. They have no peace of mind, no rest of body, and I pity them. This earth is your habitation while you are in the flesh. If this earth is to be your heaven, I think you had better have an inheritance here, don't you ? I do not believe the doctrine for one minute that you people, or myself (and I think I am as good as some of you), are going immediately after death to the arms of Jehovah. It will take some of us a long time to get there. You had better be very good and take care of this earth. ¶

My father had an inheritance in Independence, Missouri, and it has never been sold by him or his heirs to any living man. The time will come, as sure as the Lord reigns, when father will claim that inheritance. He had an inheritance in Salt Lake City, on the hill, a whole block, including where the Lafayette school is now built. I was born in the Kimball mansion which now stands on the same locality. I have a small place on that block, at least large enough to bury me in, and it is about all I can do to hold it. Why ? Because they tax me almost more than human nature can endure ; and the end is not yet ! Are you going to get frightened and run away somewhere? Are you going to sell out your inheritance every time you meet a difficulty? If the pioneers had done that they would have been going yet ; but they stopped in this barren waste, and they made it habitable for you and me. I tell you, God is not pleased with some of this people, because they are selling their inheritances for a mess of pottage. I sold part of mine, and I confess that the money went through my fingers like water through a sieve. I don't know where it went, but I know I haven't got it. That is exactly what will happen to every Latter-day Saint who sells his inheritance. The Lord wants you to stay in this country ; He does not want you to break for the woods. You have a right to every particle of land that you can secure legitimately and pay the taxes on. ¶

Now, I am going to give you a little fatherly advice, and I believe you won't take it. I advise the Latter-day Saints, as Brother Smoot did, to take up and secure the waste land throughout the State of Utah, and other sections where Latter-day Saints reside. If the Saints will keep the commandments of God, if they will raise grain enough, build up cities, and emigrate the people we are converting in the world, eliminate selfishness and avariciousness, and divide up the land and make homes for the people ; if they will bless the land and dedicate it to the Lord, let our friends come in here, and leave our gates open to the strangers, the bowels of the earth will be opened, and there will be produced therefrom riches more than we can contain. The time will come when the strangers will have little use for their money, they will come to this people for bread, and we will feed them and treat them kindly, notwithstanding some of them have acted miserably mean. Do you believe that doctrine? My father predicted it years ago, and some people are laughing over it now. I have heard some of them pooh-pooh it; but I stand as a son of my father, as a witness of the Lord, and testify to you that the time will come among this people when it will be fulfilled. ¶

Don't you go off in wild speculation, or have part in wildcat schemes. You are advised to raise grain. You had better secure an inheritance ; get your titles and pay for the land. I say to you, in the language of the Prophet Joseph (I suppose I dare quote his words) : "Be honest, be frank, and stop bowing and scraping to Gentile sophistry." Go along and do your duty; follow counsel, and preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth. See that this Gospel is preached to every creature under heaven. I repeat to you the words of a promise made to my father, "Trouble not thyself about thy families, for the Lord will give them food and raiment, houses and lands, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, if you will preach this word." God bless you. Amen. ¶