[Brigham Young Sermon] I bless you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and I pray my Father in Heaven that your hearts may be filled with his Holy Spirit - you have been in public service - acting as p n. between and for 2 kingdoms - 2 empires, 2 nations - you have acted in the defense of the Kingdom of God and your mission has been to turn the sword of the enemy of all righteousness from your hands, you may not have realized the importance of your mission - if you are faithful in your former covenants you will see the day that you have suffered for the kingdom of heaven sake - it is written he that will not forsake fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, is not worthy of the kingdom - you have literally fulfilled the saying of the Lord - you have left etc. - realizing the weakness infancy of the kingdom of heaven while putting forth its blade - you have put aside all to save the tender kingdom of Jesus Christ upon the earth - and this was your mission. I need not remind you how we bore down on you to enlist - the offer of the government to us - I knew it must be done - there was no ifs no excuses - no faltering in the case knowing that the Lord would work out your deliverance - and with all faith we got more than 500 of the LDS to enlist - it was not generally understood why we raised that Battalion. We have friends and enemies - men who have driven us from our all - and desire to destroy us - no feelings of manhood death and destruction was against us - and told him all manner of things and they would come to an end and instead of being lords and masters would finally go to hell, he have friends still in city of Washington - this call was in view of total destruction of this church - to kill every man woman and child and this was hatched up by old T. Benton - every day, every part of our progress was known in Washington - with a firm belief that we would refuse to turn out, and when they got us all out of our houses, they said make a demand on the Mormon emigration and it will prove to you Mr. Polk whether they are friends to this Union and if they would not turn out - say to the state of Missouri and Illinois and the mobocrats they are at your mercy - When Captain Allen read his papers - the power of the Almighty was so upon us that it overshadowed Captain Allen and he was in love with this people and was our friend straightway - if he had lived he would have been our warm friend still - you left all have accomplished the design - I will say to the praise of the Battalion they went as honorable men doing honor to their calling and the United States as a general thing bearing the name of Christ - you got a few in proportion of bad men as we have - We are perfectly satisfied with all you brethren - if you have done wrong transgressed if you have been out of the way, refrain from it again, turn unto the Lord, and build up the kingdom of our God - who is there who can say that he is without sin - let us put him away and save him - you have positively taken the cap of feather the praise from all the soldiers - and wore the bell in the eyes of the officers who have gone in California - all the United States was ready to rise up - Benton, Ford, Boggs, Jackson, what have you got to say now? You cant find any set of men under such circles under the broad heavens who will run at the beck of the United States - if you had not have gone, we should not have been in this valley - I saw the whole concern concocted as plain as I see your faces now - and I said my faith outstrips the wickedness of the whole of them and save this people away went the Battalion and the sword fell of the other side - we have done all we could for the families - I can say I am as clean as a sheet of white paper and am ready to make an account of my stewardship. There has been a spirit of jealousy between soldiers and men not soldiers - its the case in this church - there are men who if they come across a man that does not do as they do they apostatize straight off - they have the measure, weights and scales to measure all like the little me some say there's the noble and the ignoble - the high class and the low class, and last of all there's the soldiers, my faith and fellowship is as pure to one person as to another who is preserved in the holy gospel - I hail those my brethren just as I do the rest of my brethren and now I say let us build up the kingdom of our God - I did not want you to enlist for another six months but would have other boys I'm going home - and now we are hail boys in the gospel - are you satisfied (yes) I just know you are satisfied with us - with reference to your off - no doubt they thought daddy was pretty hard those that bear a chastisement patiently it will produce a loving spirit - and would, say let me be the sufferer and you the inflictor - and yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness - I know there's unruly saints and I feel to bless these my brethren, off, As much as any of my brethren and I believe you have done as right as you could under the circumstances - now let us strike hand - and now the soldiering is done away at the present at least and new we are brethren - if the Almighty God will deliver us from the hands of the gentiles from this time forth - I will shout glory Hallelujah forever - I believe you have done all you possibly could and all I ask is for you to have the spirit of God and I feel satisfied with the officers and the soldiers - and I only regret we have not the clothing to let you have. I and my family would rather wear skins than go back again to the United States for them - I wont go nor recommend any man to go - let the gold and silver and fine linen remain among the gentiles and never go after it - the Elders want to see the kingdom established - the Lord reign - want peace happiness and the kingdom reign independent - if we were to go to San Francisco and dig up chunks of gold it would ruin this people if it were to be found here in this valley - I know if the brethren are united, they are a free people - you have got to take it yonder to get it - many want to unite Babylon and the Lord - we have such men here now its the love of the money that hurts them - if we find gold and silver we are in bondage directly - we shall not be independent until we shut down the gates - its death and damnation to the man who will hold on to the cup of wrath - to drink out of that silver cup - I regret many have got to go for their bounty money - to talk of going away from this valley for any thing is like vinegar to my eyes - they are only fit for climbing and are no use at all - he that loveth the world has not the affections of the Lord in him - May the Lord bless you all. Amen. -- Salt Lake City [Thomas Bullock Minutes, LJA; Thomas Bullock—LDS Church Reporter, 1844-56.C, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah.; GCM, Archives, Church History Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah..; Leonard J. Arrington Papers, Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan.. (A reference reading LJA 12-55-5, 10, means LJA Series 12, Box 55, Folder 5, page 10.) 9-13-3, 11-14; General Church Minutes. Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints DVD 1 (2002)]
[source: The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
[The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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