[Brigham Young Sermon] According to the test of the Apostles the kingdom of God was set up - and as the Apostles passed of the earth the priesthood passed also - and we believe the kingdom is again set up and established on the earth for the salvation of all men - this is sufficient for us - it is a great mystery to the world that the LDS are so attached to each other and forsaking fathers, mothers, wives, and children, goods and chattels and every thing calculated to bind men to earth - this is a marvel to all - in the days of the Apostles and in the latter times, when the kingdom should be on the face of the earth, this spirit binds the hearts of its adherents together and every woman will forsake their husbands even for the gospels sake and this is verified in this our day - strange as it is - and cleave to those who love the gospel - and we cannot help it - if my father, mother, brothers, and sisters reject the gospel, farewell father mother brothers and sisters. I am for the kingdom of heaven. I will seek a home that is beyond this vail of tears - here are my brothers who have forsaken all that is near and dear to them, that they may be free. the same kingdom power and glory and spirit that was on the earth 1800 years ago is now on the earth. I am a witness that Mormonism is true - and it is all important that we should adhere to all the principles of righteousness, or we should be losers and miss the blessings, and not I ask are we willing to keep our covenants and make all sacrifice and do all that the Lord requires of us - all would say amen to it - we expect it will cost us all we have, whenever the Lord has spoken to the children of men he has a peculiar eye to the poor and he seems to watch over them - the poor and meek of the earth - those who are distressed and driven from city to city - I have my eye on the poor that cannot get to this place - thousands are crying by day and night to the Lord that they may get to this place - I am for raising a perpetual fund for the benefit of the poor - we have appointed a company to collect means - and another company to collect means between this and the October conference and it will be sent where our brethren can have the avails of it - our poor brethren are to make wagons without iron and some brethren will judiciously lay out those means to draw those wagons to this place - then preserve this fund - carry it back and again bring some of the poor - and again receive additions - and we expect it to be ten times as large next fall as it will be this fall. and there are thousands that would be willing to sacrifice all, and place themselves in the hands of a stranger to come here - rather than stay there with their friends - for I with many others lifted our hands in the temple to covenant, we would help the poor to this place - and if the United States would help I could gather home those who do not profess any religion - its our duty now to stretch forth our arms and gather up the poor - to remove them to Zion'- I would not give thanks for a thousand such sermons as Brother Snow has given us tonight. It's not what was done thousand years ago or in Adams, Noah or Abraham's time - but what you have to do to save yourselves - for the heavens have been opened to my views and I know as well as old Peter did - its for me to tell you what the Lord wants you to do today - I just know that the Lord requires this - and we have got to put it to usury, or it will canker our souls - and we have to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Son of Man pestilence worse than the cholera, distress and dismay will cover the earth. -- Cottonwood, Utah [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.) 9-12-5, 25-27]
[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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