[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 13th Sunday A vary warm day. The Camp met for prayer meeting At 9 oclok. O P Rockwell, Brown, And another man were out all night Hunting. One of the men of the camp started out at dark to go to the mountain to get some snow. The distance looked so short he said He Could go & return before 8 oclok & was foolish enough to make A bet of one dollar upon it. But he did not get to the mountain by 8 oclok & about 10 oclok A Company of Horsman was sent out with A bugle after him fearing the bears would eat him up.
We had A meeting at 10 oclok. H C. Kimball Addressed the meeting in an interesting manner, & was followed by Br Young who spoke upon the liberty of the gospel. Showed what it done for us. Saved us daily, exhaulted us to glory immortality & eternal life brought us evry good thing. But in doing this it did not do away with the law of God or the dictation of the Almighty. Some thought they wanted their liberty to curse, swear, stray whare they were A mind to, run over the mountains, not regard the laws & rules of the Camp, but would that be liberty? No, it would lead to death & not life. The man that left the camp & went to the mountains last night, had he have met A bear He would have had the liberty to have run for his life, Clumb A tree or been destroyed.
The way to worship God the most acceptable is to do each day the vary things that will bring the most good to the human family. There is A great differance to be seen between us As A Camp & the Missouri Companies that are going the same road or A part of the way. They Curse & swear, rip & tare, & are a trying to swallow up the Earth. But though they do not wish us to have A place on earth the earth will soon swallow them up & they will go to the land of forgetfulness, while the Saints if faithful though they should suffer some privations here will ultimately inherit the earth & increase in dominion power & glory untill the Lord shall say to them, go to now make your thousands of worlds & people them & make such laws to govern them as you are a mind to for I Know you have no disposition to make any laws but those that are good for you always desired to do good on the earth, & many other goodly words bid He say unto our edefycation.
He was followed by O Pratt who exhorted us to give head to the teaching we had herd & to improve our time in treasuring up usful knowledge that we ought not to spend A moments time needlessly.
Meeting dismissed And the Twelve, Colonels, Captains, &c of the Camp met at the Presidents wag-gon to consult upon what measures to adopt to get across the river. It was finally agreed to go immediately to the mountains with a waggon & team for evry two tens & get polls & lash two or four waggons abrest to keep them from turning over & float them across the river with boats & ropes. So A company of Horsmen Started for the mountains & teams to draw the polls.
In the evening the flour meal & bacon was distributed through the Camp equally that had been recieved from the Mo company for ferrying them over. It amounted to 5 1/2 lbs of flour 2 lbs of meat & A small peace of Bacon to each individual in the Camp.
It looked as much of A miricle to me to see our flour & meal bags replenished in the midst of the black Hills as it did to have the Children of Israel fed with manna in the wilderness. But the Lord has truly been with us on this Journey. We have had peace & union in our midst, our Horses & cattle have been wonderfully preserved from death & Accident on the way & our waggons from Breaking down. Great good will grow out of this mission if we are faithful in keeping the commandments of God.
I have taken great delight of late in reading the book of Mormon seeing the great & glorious things revealed & recorded in that book & that we are now trying to fulfill the great things or some of them that Lehi Nephi Alma, Moroni, Isaiah And many other prophets had in view in the last days in building up Zion, redeeming Israel, warning the Nations & sealing salvation upon the meek of the earth & laying A foundation that the earth may be prepared for the coming of the Mesiah.
[source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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