[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 13th Sunday It is the most beautiful & warm weather that I ever saw in the winter time.
The Camp of the Saints met at the Stand for A meeting to day. Meeting opened by singing & Prayer by W. Woodruff. President Kimball then addressed the meeting And said that he wanted to give an exhertation And a word of caution. And after reproving the saints said many flattered themselves that they were going to lean upon others to save them without doing any thing themselves but they will get disappointed, for to bring up a figure he said you might graft ever so many sproughts into a tree. If they did not adhear to the tree they would remain there dead sticks sticking out of the tree. They would be dead themselves, not bring forth fruit. And do the tree no good but ownly scar it up, & those scars would remain untill the dead sticks were broke off & the skar healed over or other grafts put in that would bring forth fruit. So it was with all who leaned upon others to save them & would not harken to their council & take their advice & no man can save them if do not save themselves. And many other remarks of Interest he made.
W. W. Phelps then read the V chapter of Math as he had translated it from the greek.
W Woodruff Advised the people who were going to settle on the east side of the river not to settle on the bank or in the bottoms so that the first flood need not wash them into the Mo river.
Meeting was dismissed After which in company with Mrs Woodruff I went to Br Pulsiphers And soon Presidents Young & Kimball came & attended to sealing four couple in matrimony. We had A feast of spruice beer & cakes on the occasion.
During the evening I attended the meeting of the seventies being 3 of their presidents present, Joseph Young Z Pulsipher A. P. Rockwood. The House was crouded to excess. The meeting was opened by singing & Prayer, And was then addressed by A P Rockwood who spoke upon the government of children that Parents ought to set A good exhample before their Children & not nickname them but call them by their proper name for the way that Parents set their children going in life they are apt to go through & if they start with Jim, Jo, & Pall, they are apt to go through life so.
Br Pulsipher followed & made many interesting remarks. And He was followed by President Joseph Young who reproved them in the spirit of the Lord against the spirit of dancing & warned them to forsake all sin & be faithful in all things. He spoke in the spirit and power of God feeling the responsibility he was under when He closed his remarks.
W. Woodruff arose And said that should I say that I did not desire to address the seventies I should do dishonor to my own feelings for I do desire it at this time. All who know my course when I have been at head quarters with the Presidency either with Joseph, Brigham, or others of the twelve know that I have never put myself forward to preach or teach the people. Why hath it been so? Because I have had file leaders between me and God whose business it is to lead teach & instruct the inhabitants of Zion. And I have felt it more my duty to sit & hear while with them at head quarters than to put myself forward to teach.
Yet when I have been called upon to speak I have endeavoured to do the best I could. But when I have been abroad in the vineyard I have had the spirit of my mission & been much blessed in bringing souls into the kingdom of God. And I do feel it a privilege to address the Seventies at this time.
Br Young asked me to speak in the fore part of the evening But I desired to wait untill the Presidency of Seventies had address them And I can now see that it was wisdom for I should not have had the same matter before me that I now have.
I have A number of things resting upon my mind which I wish to lay before you. Your President Joseph Young has spoken to you in the spirit & power of God to night & has warned & exhorted you not to defile your Priesthood & calling & not to have your minds all taken with fiddleing & dancing. I have taken more real injoyment this evening in hearing the teaching giving by your Presidency than I would in hearing A million of dollars worth of fiddle-strings worn out.
You must not think hard of Br Joseph Young because he reproves, rebukes, & exhorts you with all long sufferings & doctrin, for their is an almighty responsibility resting upon his shoulders As the seenier President of this August body of seventies ordained unto the Apostleship. And the Lord will hold him responsible for the maner that he watches over the Seventies And he is stired up from time to time by the spirit of the God of Israel to reprove you And the rebukes of A friend are far better than the kisses of an enemy. And you must not think hard of Br Young if he does reprove you for he does it for your good.
It is far better for you to spend your time getting instruction & council than in fiddleing & dancing for while the latter is of no profit to you the former you will need when you are seperated far from your Brethren and abroad among the nations of the earth amid the Judgments of God which are laying waste the people & while you have to dodge between wind & water to save your head in the midst of persecution & mobs while you are offering salvation to the people.
I have meditated much of late concerning the responsibility we are under to God inasmuch as we bear the priesthood & are numbered among the Lords Anointed As Angels are watching us & bearing a report of us daily to God. Should the Lord come down to see us to see for himself if the reports of [us] was correct, what would the Lord think of & how would we like to hear the record read in the morning of the resurrection containing an account of An assembly of the Lords Anointed At winter Quarters, upon whom All heaven leaned & depended upon in carrying out the purposes of the Lord in the last dispensation & fulness of times And fulfilling the expectations of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob & all the Holy Prophets & Apostles Since the world began in gathering the Jews & rebuilding Jerrusalem gathering the Saints & rebuilding up Zion preparing the way for the endowment of the ten tribes of Israel in the north Country & the convertion of the Lamanites in the west, & the warning of all the gentile world that they may be left without excuse when the Judgments of God cleanse the earth from sin, wickedness, & pollution. And that our prayers should ascend into the heavens for the Lord to avenge the Blood of the Prophet Joseph & other saints who have been martered & slain by gentile mobs in the last days.
While there is so much depending upon us & our prayers should we be satisfyed with the record of this city of the Saints in the eternal world kept by the Angels of Heaven If we should hear read before an assembled world that the inhabitants of winter Quarters who were the Lords Anointed during the winter of 1847 & 8 spent nine days of their time in fiddleing & dancing whare they did one in prayer & praise to almighty God? I saw would we be satisfyed with such record? No we would not. Then let us turn from such seenes of folly & spend more time in meetings for preaching, exhortation, & prayer before the Lord.
Br Joseph exhorted the Elders "not to defile their Priesthood." I will here say If any man wants to feel the pangs of Hell let him Have the Priesthood & let him have immortal glory, eternal life, Thrones power dominions, exhaltations with all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob in view, then let him break the law of God & defile his Priesthood And in a moment He falls from his high esstate And all of his exhalted hopes vanish in a moment & when his eyes are open to see things as they are He sinks in darkness & we & the vary sight of the blessings which he has lost causes A hotter Hell through his soul than fire and brimestone.
Many other remarks were made by the speaker After which Br Cumings addressed the meetings & spoke of his mission to England. Made some vary appropriate remarks after which the meeting Closed.
[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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