[Brigham Young Sermon] When we get a printing press, the mass of business will then come through another channel and as we have a mass of business we must of necessity have patience and hear - we have to call for three days works in one don't lose any grain - finish the Council House and the Shade - this is an excellent day to exhort the people to come and finish this shade during the coming week another day will throw up the rest of the bents and then they can cover it at pleasure - if they turn out tomorrow, they can finish it - will you turn out tomorrow and finish the shade - if that's your feelings signify it (hands up) we shall have considerable arrangements to make before the dinner next Tuesday fortnight - those who wish to work for grain we want them to work on the church farm, same pay as in the States - we want men to harvest without taking the men from the farm - I propose wheat be 5.00 a bushel and wages 5.00 a day many who are going to gold mines will have to lodge here next winter - if any man has any dubiety on their mind about the business transactions on this day - let me see the man that can give instructions and discriminate the spiritual from the temporal matters - for whether I am in harvest field or preaching - in private or public all pertains to my mission on the earth - my time, talents, my property are his - I am his and He requires my faithfulness my diligence my whole time is devoted to the mission that he has given me - all men have got to do temporal matters - divinity or worldly care where is the dividing line - the first law given to me is the first step to self preservation - I want the shade to keep the hot sun from us - the Council House to instruct the people in - the wheat to feed us - the corn and oats to feed our animals - and then be ready to preach the gospel - save the scattered remnants of Israel - and prepare them for the great day of salvation - let us pay attention to what is obligatory on us and all is right - this is a world of reflection, thought and work - for all we came here with we are but poor and we have got to make all we have out of nothing - if the Lord made the world out of nothing - we have got to make everything that makes up comfortable out of nothing - if we could make worlds out of nothing - we could make gold here out of nothing and I hope the gold mines will be no nearer here than 800 miles - there is more delusion and more perfectly crazy on this continent than ever there was since the days of Columbus - if a man wants food or clothing - a little gold would be very useful - suppose we were all to leave our harvest and dig gold, and have no food - and then the Indians make a break on us and drive off our animals, it would then be a curse - what is the wealth of England - is it gold? No. if they had found gold instead of stone coal they would have been sunk in degradation - but as it is they are the nation of nations. Their flag is in every harbor - the sun never sets upon her dominions - coal Iron and hand labor has been the wealth - the power and strength of England - now look at Spain, Mexico and South America - you who have traveled through there what is their society - degradation, misery, filth, they have gone to gambling, horse racing, and all manner of iniquity - and what has done it - the multitude of their gold and silver - most of our miserable part Pt. of community - we are shut of them they are not fit for the society of good men - they are hardly fit for the cellar kitchens of hell - they will black boots and sweep chimneys for others in hell - on the other hand gold is a specimen of durability - that is what is substance - we are after if men know what is good it is a blessing - we need not depart from this very people after their mobbings and drivings and burnings - they would use it to oppress their own brethren - it should be used to promote virtue and holiness and intelligence and all the various good things of the world - but it is used for only corrupt purposes - they forget God and all this is good - the common sense of the world is perfect foolery - you cannot make a man of God dishonest you could not tempt him to oppress the poor - forget his God and make shipwreck of his faith - don't you see good men forsaking their goodness and leaning to evil they have the world - flesh and satan to combat and many good honest men are led astray - but I tell you many will be glad to run away from those gold mines men that would be honest will see such a mass of corruption that they will pray to be delivered out of it you heap up gold in the United States and they will heap up destruction - that is all right - for the Almighty has an account to settle with that nation and as God live they will be overthrown (loud cries of Amen) at Sutters Mill they have walked over that gold - they have had it in their baskets and in their houses - they never knew it, until a Mormon elder told them it was gold, that is a good bait - there is no effect without a cause - for the Lord revolutionizes the world at his pleasure - he takes up one kingdom and sets down another - and the Lord will cause that gold mine to be a destruction to the nations who have cast us out - and that measure will be pressed down and running over - and then the cry will be measure unto them double for what they have done unto my saints - but if any man will obey this gospel they shall know for themselves whether it is true or not or whether I speak by myself - they have been told for the last eighteen years that destruction would be upon this nation - yet there are scores of 1000s in the United States and in England and upon the Islands of the sea and the power of the devil has marshaled his forces to obliterate it - but its too late in the day Gentle - persecution has only gave Joseph Smith power and popularity - persecution against this people only lifts them up the only way to destroy this people, was by fostering them with the kindness and getting the Elders of Israel to lock arms with the devil and to walk into [-] (a laugh) and they would walk into every desolate hole on the earth - the priesthood would be taken away - but I thank the Lord for the persecution - we have the greatest reason to enjoy ourselves for all hell is boiling over but if you see mobs around you - and bowie knives and pistols - then I have no danger for the Elders then - for there is war then and they would feel the Almighty then there would be no fear - they might try to take sight at me from sunrise to sundown and they could never see to take sight for they would shoot a little higher or on one side - was not Washington and others marked at - Joseph Smith lived just as long as the Lord let him live - but the Lord let my servant now seal up his testimony with his blood - and that sealed up the damnation of the United States not of individuals - but the nation - now is it for us to love gold - revelings and drunkenness - no Gent - no Elders of Israel take up your cross and prepare yourselves for the regeneration no man need think that he can go through without losses and [crosses] - it would be but as a dream for those who are hungry to dream of eating - or of being thirsty and dreaming of drinking - and he wakes up and finds it but a dream - man has got to square his life by his course - the Lord has power to draw them to him - buy they have to humble themselves before the Lord - he must not have a wife that he idolizes, or children or gold, but it must be the lord of gold - if you Elders of Israel want to go to the gold mines, go and be damned - I would not give a picayune to keep you from damned - I know the Lord has called me to preach and save the people - and shall have to serve him all the days of my life - If my wife dies, Amen. Glory to God in the highest - she has won her prize - let me now go on to perfection - I would rejoice for evermore - I say in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, if you are baptized in honesty of heart you sins shall be forgiven you - was you ever in a place where you can see winter, spring, summer and autumn - at one time - Joseph Smith hit it exactly when he said there was more glory in building
up than living in a built up place - we were kicked out of Missouri into Illinois out of the frying pan into the fire - and now they have kicked up right into the middle of the floor - O Elders of Israel fill your missions and build your fence what has been the cogitations of the United States - the mountaineers never thought we could raise grain - Mr. Bridger said he would give 1,000s if he only knew we could raise a ear of corn - I knew in the temple that we could raise grain - we are 1000 miles from every place and if we build a temple and make this the most beautiful place - if those who accuse us of stealing could only fly over in a balloon so as not to steal from him - I have thought if we could be separated from all society it would be well - yet as we are the light of the world and are set on a hill - then let them come and see and judge they - for the Lord will make all things answer his own purpose - we are now on the greatest thoroughfare on the face of the earth - if it were not so how could they bring us the riches of the gentile - but don't let it be said by any emigrant that they have lost one pins worth by stealing by this people - the gospel is to make you bad fellows better - but if you don't cease your wickedness or go to work you can have no place in our midst - I say to emigrants if they catch any man or boy stealing your property. I say shoot them dead on the spot and all this people will say amen - you shall not be hurt - and if any man or boy ever says that I have counseled him to steal bring him to me and I swear to you by the living God that it is the last time he ever says so - if a bad person don't come to he ought to pay for it - and I don't ask any odds of the Unites States, they will be damned and sink in misery - and no man need come here to think they have more influence than I have - for I have more than the poor sneaks ever had - I would say get out you pup - I'll defy all the nations of earth or hell to make a bigger stink than the sectarian world - they have been in their corruption and revel in it - a man of decency would not be caught in it - it wants dirty men to do dirty work - brethren we are going to have a state government, there never was a better constitution on the face of the earth than the constitution of the United States - there is nothing but the people of God could enjoy under it - but the federal constitution is trodden under foot - I ask for nothing but what is my rights nor half that - I know that he that controls the heavens can control that - and the hotter the battle, the sooner over and I say go it fools - all that I am afraid of is that the Elders of Israel will forget their God and their covenants - I shall stop talking, and may the Lord bless you. -- SLC Bowery [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, 67-71; 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]
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