[Brigham Young Sermon] I would rather hear than talk. I realize the importance of my standing as much as any one realizes for me - I feel more than all this people can for me and when we realize the different callings in this priesthood it makes my horses tremble sometimes and my cows almost dissolve, but to realize before heavenly beings for me to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and to be incorporated with those in it and to associate with those holy beings and to be counted worthy of being called a son or a daughter I feel all the time glory hallelujah praise God and the Lamb - it makes me cry unto the Lord continually for wisdom knowledge and understanding - they have been enlightened by the most High God - hardly a man here but has been with the President Joseph - the Almighty conversed with him, took him up to the heavens, the Urim and Thummim given to him and he could ask and receive what he asked for - and then to fall on this boy - the Lord has led this people all the time and by the spirit of revelation and without the living oracles we die - that is my faith tonight. We have the will of the Lord all the time - in spiritual matters and shall I say in temporal matters (yes, yes) there never was a man called to officiate in the church but was a boss in the matter - as to talk of feeding the spirit without feeding the body - I feel the temporal burden of this people - I am willing to teach the brethren but when I see men who have been with Joseph years before I say him I feel to hear and not to instruct - yet there are men in this room who could not speak of the Kingdom of God, they durst not - I am thankful I am right here in the snow the Lord has led me here and I have led this people - if I ever get a place to talk in I mean to talk a great deal - I intend to talk to men who love the work - I feel more like the tail of the Church than the head of the Church - when I ever heard any thing fall from the lips of Joseph the Prophet I prayed to the Father to make room for it that it may not fall on the drum of the ears - when I came into this Church I said farewell to the world until it is sanctified and it is the duty of every High Priest to do the same that's the way to learn - I used to pray with my old Jack Plains or my paint brush - I can pray just as well as in this room - let us ask in faith believing and we will receive what we ask for and when we have lived to a good old age and leave this world we shall find we have just stepped across the threshold of wisdom - what was the promise to Abraham when he had no son on the earth to his increase there shall be no end - we have never had our spirit look into the visions of eternity the pattern was given in the Savior, he was in poverty dejected cast out and all the afflictions of the human family heaped upon him, he had to descend below all things that he might ascend above all things - no man can ascend any higher that he had descended below - I know what it is to suffer pain and to enjoy pleasure when we get on to be 21 we kick up our heals and run - I am very anxious for every man to look out for a good place for out cattle to live until spring - and I am sure we will all have a good crop - the way to get wisdom is by the power of the Holy Ghost - you cant get wisdom by looking over writings - you have got to ask the Heavenly Father for wisdom - the high priests out to leave - that when they get on an island they may know the will of God as law has pertains to their duty as much as Joseph did - Joseph said if you live as you should live - you are entitled to all the revelation that I could give you - when I was in England I had a fountain of knowledge with me - the things of this world are all perishable and liable to decompose - we want to get knowledge by living [-] - go ahead for eternal principles and carry them out and live to them and they will lead us to those eternal objects and we do it in a world not liable to be decomposed by the will of the devil. the Elders of Israel ought to realize things as they are now pursue the course that will insure us intelligence - to give endowments - build temples and prepare for eternity - now live for it tonight - its the privilege of every man - a man has a chance to exhibit before God his principles - it requires a man to have a bold face that fears not man or devils. I want the Saints to live in this valley until we can get a great and a good people here - who is there that sees the theatre of the world and to see the devils fighting - the Lord will not suffer us to be afflicted when we have learnt enough. by and by there will be a complete separation between the Lord and the Devil where is there an historian that can tell me where there is a place as suitable for a hiding place as the valley of the Great Salt Lake - if a man has not faith to fight when needs be - let them stay until the angles go and pick them up one by one and let the Gideonites be here - we will have our almighty army here and we will then see those reds are up there for - they need not pray for the mountains to fall on them for I tell you we will roll them on to them (laugh) I want a people to live here and build temples - and when I go into a house to feel a spirit of peace dwelling in that house - I want a spirit of peace life love and happiness to dwell there - I feel to bless you brethren'- I admit Father Sessions is forgetful and I realize he thought no more than about a load of wood - I nor Brother Kimball, Whitney nor Brother Bullock got the first red cent for what we do - but it is for the good of this people - (and repeated the scene in the office) I know there is plenty of money in this valley and the people are hoarding it up, that the laboring men cant get hold of it - there are but few men in the priesthood, but when they are chastened they take it as an insult. I know he did wrong - when we are seeking to feed the hungry and a High Priest sticks up his nib I feel like cuffing his dears - now carry out the spirit of it. now father Sessions has not a greater friend that Brigham Young and I'll use the rod like I kick the boys when they deserve it. -- 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.) 9-12-6, 53-56]
[source: 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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