[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 29th A Cold rainy morning. At 10 oclok the horn was blown to gather up the Horses & Cattle which took more than an hours After which President Young called the Camp together and Required each captain to seperate or Call out his men & when it was found all was present except two who had gone a hunting He then Addressed them somthing in the following language:
I think I will take for my text to preach my sermon from I am about to revolt from travling with this camp any further with the spirit they now possess. I had rather risk myself among the savages with ten men that are men of faith, men of mighty prayer men of God, than to be with this whole Camp when they forget God & turn there hearts to folley & wickedness. Yea I had rather be alone, & I am now resolved not to go any further with the Camp unless you will Covenant to humble yourselves before the Lord & serve him & quit your folley & wickedness.
For A week past nearly the whole camp has been card playing, chequres & dominoes have occupied the Attention of the brethren dancing & Nigering & Hoeing down. All has been the [bet?] continually. Now it is quite time to quit it, & there has been trials & law suits upon evry nonsensical thing & if these things are suffered to go on it will be but a short time befor you will be fighting knocking each other down & taking life & it is high time it was stoped.
I do not want to hear any more such reports as I herd last Sunday of mens going to meeting & preaching to the rest after he had played cards untill meeting time. You are A putty set of men going to seek out A location among the mountains for a resting place of the Saints, even the whole Church of God who have been driven out from the gentiles & rejected of them. And after you have esstablished A location you are then going out to preach the gospel & seal salvation upon the House of Israel & gather the nations. How would you look if they whould know your conduct & Ask you what did you do when you went to seek out Zion, & find A resting place for the Saints whare the Standard of the Kingdom of God could be reared & her banners unfurled for the nations to gather unto? [Did?] you spend A good deal of your time in dancing pitching quate, Jumping wrastleing &c? Yes. Yes. Did you play Cards, dice checkers & dominoes? O! Yes. What Could you do with yourself? Why you would shrink from the glance of the eyes of God Angels & men even wicked men. Then are you not ashamed of yourselves for practicing these things? Yes you are & you must quit it.
After speaking sumwhat lengthy upon these matters He Called the Twelve together the High Priest, Seventies & Elders, & found to be 8 of the quorum of the Twelve, 18 High Priest, 80 Seventies & 8 Elders After which President Young Said unto the Twelve if you are willing to Humble yourselves before the Lord & covenant to do right & walk humble before him, make it manifest by raising the right hand. When each one raised their hand, the same question was put to the High Priest, Seventies, Elders & Members & all universally Covenanted with uplifted hand to humble themselves before the Lord & repent of their sins & keep his Commandments.
President Young then spoke of those who was not in the Church As there were sum present that they would be protected in their rights but they must not introduce wickedness in the Camp for it would not be sufferd.
He then spoke of the standard & ensign that would be reared in Zion, to govern the Kingdom of God + And the nations of the earth. For evry nation would bow the knee & evry tongue confess that JESUS was the Christ. And this will be the standard The Kingdom of God & his Laws & Judgment in <the [-] if [--] man Christ>. And on the standard would be a flag of evry nation under heaven so their would be an invitation to all Nations under heaven to come unto Zion.
The Saints would have to keep the Celestial law, And all nations & religions would have to bow the knee to God And Acknowledge that Jesus was the Christ. But they would not be under the necessity of being Baptized or embracing the Gospel of Christ, but they must acknowledge the right & reign of Christ. Then if they felt disposed to reject the gospel & be damned they had A right to & the saints or inhabitants of Zion had no right to take from them their religion or persecute them on account of it or trample upon their rights any way. Neither should other nations or religions trample upon the rights & privileges of the Saints who serve & obey the Lord of [-] [and] Keep his Commandments. Neither would that be suffered as it has been in times past.
And upon this principle All men or religions may dwell with us in peace, if they will keep the outward laws of the kingdom of [God] so as to ac-knowledg his name & his right to reign & let us keep the law of the gospel & obey his commanndments undisturbed.
After making other remarks He left the meeting in the hands of the rest of the Twelve. Elder Kimball followed & remarked that what President Young said it was the word of the Lord unto him & was Just as much binding upon him as though it was A written Revelation And it was just as much binding upon the whole camp as it was upon him & urged the saints to give heed to the teachings that were given.
O Pratt followed & said that if the Saints had leasure hours that they Could spend them to much better Advantage than playing Cards As there was A world of Knowledge to be obtained & evry leasure moment should be improved in storeing the mind with some science or learning some good principle And acknowledged the teachings we had recieved to be of the Lord.
W. Woodruff Arose & said He had some things in his heart he wished to Say, that A Burned Child dreaded the fire. He had not forgotton his Journey in the Camp of 1834 And should He live to the age of Matheusala He should not forget the hour when the Prophet & Seer Joseph Smith stood upon the waggon wheel & Addressed that Camp & said that because they had not Harkened to his Councel but disobeyed, & transgressed from time to time, that the die was cast & Judgment must come. That we should be visited by the destroying Angels. And so we were & more than twenty of our numbers fell by the stroke & we all suffered much in our feelings. And I pray the Lord I may not see another such a time. And I would now Advise my brethren to be Careful in Keeping the Covenant we have made lest by & by the word of the Lord Come unto us as in the days of Joseph & we cannot escape his judgment.
I would Advise all the Brethren who have got Cards to burn them up Also Checkers & dominoes. For if you keep your Covenants you have made you will have no time to use them & they will be useless lumber on your hands. If you keep them for your children they will ownly prove a curse to them. And my prayer to God is that we all may be enabled to keep all our Covenants with the Lord & each other. I rejoice that the watchman upon the walls or in our mids are quick to comprehend & warn us of evil & reprove us when wrong that we may be saved & do the will of Goth
Br S. Markham Arose confessed his sins for Card playing on sunday before he went to preach & asked forgivness. Then the Camp dispersed to there wag-gons & we all started on our Journey.
Br. G. A. Smith & myself went to gether to pilot out the road. We travled 8 1/2 miles & camped for the night in good feed though the whole Country was vary barren that we had come through. We passed to day through layers of good Sand Stone in the edge of the Bluffs. One large rock resembled the Hull of A Steemboat loaded with freight So I named it stone steem boat bluff. It commenced raining before we camped. It was vary cold.
Distance of the day 8 1/2 m. During the evening Br B Young went out with the Twelve & had Prayers.
[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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