A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG, IN THETABERNACLE, AT THE GENERAL CONFERENCE, OCTOBER 6, 1853
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I wish to call the attention of this Conference to an invitation I shallgive them, and wish to extend it to the Saints in this valley and elsewhere.I allude to the gathering of the poor Saints.
Many of us are acquainted with the circumstances of the Saints whenthey came to this valley six years ago, also five and four years ago. Werewe to go through this community and search out the men, women, and childrenwho have come here on their own resources, and those who have been helpedhere by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund, and by private individuals, it wouldbe seen that a large proportion of the community have been brought herethrough the assistance of others. I will not say a majority have come hereunder those circumstances, but there are thousands who have. Thousand ofmen, women, and children have been helped here by the Perpetual EmigratingFund alone.
This is the subject to which I wish to call the attention of the Conference,and the community at large. I wish all to hearken to it, to reflect uponit, and contemplate it seriously.
I call upon those who have not yet put forth their hands to assist ingathering the poor, to give us their names and their means, during thisConference, that we may raise a few thousand dollars to be applied to thispurpose. Suppose we should try to raise as much as we did four years ago,when we were in the midst of our greatest poverty and distress-we had justarrived here, and had scarcely sufficient to sustain life; notwithstandingthese straightened circumstances, at the first Conference we held in theold Tabernacle, this subject was agitated, and $5,700 in gold was raised,and sent to gather in the poor. Dare I venture to flatter myself that wecan raise $5,000 or $6,000 this Conference, to be applied to the same goodpurpose? The people are better able to raise $50,000 now, than they wereto raise $5,000 then. Suppose we raise $15,000 or $20,000 to send for ourpoor brethren and sisters, who long to be here as much as any of you did,before your way was opened. This amount can be raised now, and not callforth an unusual effort.
We might ask you to reflect upon the days that you have spent in yonderdistant land, where you could seldom walk the streets or enter a shop, likeanother citizen, without the finger of scorn being pointed at you, withoutsuffering the malignant taunts and sneers of the ungodly, for the sake ofyour religion. Let me refer your minds to the time that the Gospel was firstintroduced to you, and the light and glory of it opened up to your understandings;when eternity and eternal things reflected upon your benighted minds, andyour conceptions were aroused to see things as they were, as they are, andas they will be. What were your feelings and meditations, when Zion andits glory burst upon your vision? when the people of God appeared to you,assembled together, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man? Again,what were your feelings, when in every direction that you turned your eyes,they were met with scenes of wickedness, and your ears saluted with deepdyed blasphemies of every description? Were there any that feared the Lord?No. The most pious could do nothing more than some did in the days of theApostles; they could erect an image to the unknown God, and worship somebody,or something, but they knew not what. What were your feelings and reflections,under such circumstances, when you first heard of the latter-day work? ofthe Gospel in its fulness? when you first learned that the Lord had a Prophet,and Apostles, who held the words of life for the people? What was thereyou would not have sacrificed in a moment for the privilege of assemblingwith the Saints? of mingling your voices and conversation with theirs, dayby day? of visiting, journeying, doing business, labouring, and spendingyour lives with those who know and love the Lord, and will serve Him? Isthere anything you would not have sacrificed? Verily, no!
If you can remember your own feelings then, you can know how othersfeel, you can realize how thousands and scores of thousands feel at thispresent moment. There is no hardship they would refuse to undergo, no dangerthey would not endeavour to surmount, if they could assemble with us herethis day. No trial would be too keen for them; there is no sacrifice thatthey would not readily and willingly make for the privilege you enjoy thisday. Brethren and sisters, can you realize this?
Let us now read a chapter on the other side of the page, and we findthe hearts of men and women, by crossing the ocean, by travelling a fewweeks or months by water and land, appear to become partially closed up,and they lose sight of the object of their pursuit. It seems as though thehardships they pass through, in coming to this land, banish nearly everyparticle of the light of Christ out of their minds.
If you started on your journey with the influence of the Holy Spiritwarming your hearts, who prevented you from retaining it every day of yourlife? You may say it was the devil that robbed you of it. But what businesshad you with the devil? Was there any necessity that you should enter intofellowship with him, or into partnership with the works of darkness? "No,"you reply. "I had forsaken him and all my old associates and feelings,and had given myself to the Lord, had embraced His Gospel, and set out tobuild up His kingdom, and wished to gather with the Saints at the gatheringplace."
Suppose the devil does tempt you, must you of necessity enter into partnershipagain with him, open your doors, and bid him welcome to your house, andtell him to reign there? Why do you not reflect, and tell master devil,with all his associates and imps, to begone, feeling you have served himlong enough.
Says one, "I did not know that I could possibly come here withunruly cattle, without getting wrong in my feelings;" or, "thisbrother did wrong and marred my feelings; I was irritated, and the caresof the journey bewildered my mind, and hurt me so that I do not really knowwhether I have got to where I stared [started] for, or not; things are differenthere to what I expected to find them, &c."
This is a representation of the feelings of some who have crossed theplains this season. My advice to you is, go and be baptized for the remissionof sins, and start afresh, that temptation may not overcome you again; pauseand reflect, that you be not overcome by the evil one unawares.
In the first place, if you are re-baptized for the remission of sins,peradventure you may receive again the spirit of the Gospel in its glory,light and beauty; but if your hearts are so engrossed in the things of thisworld, that you do not know whether you want to be re-baptized or not, youhad better shut yourselves up in some kanyon or closet, to repent of yoursins, and call upon the name of the Lord, until you get His Spirit, andthe light thereof, to reflect upon you, that you may know the nature ofyour offences, and your true condition; that you may realize and appreciatethe blessing you enjoy in being here with the Saints of the Most High.
Let me lead your minds a little further. I wish to tell you somethingwhich you may perhaps know as well as I do, but you may not have realizedit. When the Lord Almighty opens the vision of a person's mind, He showshim the things of the Spirit-things that will be. If any of you had a visionof Zion, it was shown to you in its beauty and glory, after Satan was bound.If you reflect upon the gathering of the Saints, it was the spirit of gatheringthat enlightened you; and when your minds were opened in vision to beholdthe glory and excellency of the Gospel, you did not see a vision of drivingcattle across the plains, and where you would be mired in this or that mudhole; you did not see the stampedes among the cattle, and those of a worsecharacter among the people; but you saw the beauty and glory of Zion, thatyou might be encouraged, and prepared to meet the afflictions, sorrows anddisappointments of this mortal life, and overcome them, and be made readyto enjoy the glory of the Lord as it was revealed to you. It was given toyou for your encouragement. RECOLLECT THAT.
You will recollect my exhortation to those who have means; we want themto give the Perpetual Emigrating Fund a lift. Bring in your tithes and offerings,and we will help a great many more to this place in the future than we havethis year. We wish to double our diligence, and treble the crowd of immigrantsby that Fund.
I wish to show you a little of the philosophy of human nature in itsfallen and degraded state; you may consider it in the Gospel or out of it;in the light of the Holy Spirit, or with out it; as you please. The philosophyof mankind, in their daily avocations, you may all know for yourselves,by your own observation and experience. I wish to mention a portion of itthat has come under my notice. I could mention names, but I will contentmyself with naming circumstances.
We pick up, say 200 persons, in England, and convey them across thewater, and across the plains, and set them down in this valley. They commenceto labour, and in a short time they make themselves comfortable. They cansoon obtain plenty of the best kind of pay for their labour, such as bread-thestaff of life, butter, cheese and vegetables. When a man gets these things,without the fancy nicknacks, he does well.
Suppose we pick up a company of these poor Saints in England, whosefaces are pale, and who can scarcely tread their way through the streetsfor want of the staff of life; you may see them bowed down from very weakness,with their arms across their stomachs, going to and from their work; thegreater part of them not enabled to get a bit of meat more than once a month;and upon an average only about one table spoonful of meal per day, for eachperson in a family, without butter or cheese, by working 16 hours out ofthe 24; and when they go to their work and return from it, they need a staffin their hands to lean upon. We bring 200 of them here; instead of theirbeing obliged to work for two or three pence per day, they can get a dollarand a dollar and a half per day. With one day's wages they can purchaseflour and meat and vegetables enough to last a moderately sized family oneweek.
They have not been here long when they may be seen swelling in the streetswith an air of perfect independence. Ask one of these men if he will payyou for bringing him here; and he will reply, "I don't know you, sir."You ask another if he will work for you, for bringing him out to this place;and he will appear quite astonished, saying, "What have I had fromyou?" Another will say, "If I work for you, what will you giveme? Can you give me some adobies? for I am going to build a fine house,or if you have any money to pay me, it will answer as well."
How does such language and ingratitude make the benefactor of that personfeel? Why, his heart sinks within him. I can find thousands of just suchmen and women in this territory. When they are brought to this place, theydo not know their benefactors, who saved them from death, but they are ahead and shoulders above them, when they meet them in the streets.
Do you know the conclusion that is natural to man, when he is treatedin such a manner by his fellow man? It is, "I wish I had left you inyour own country." I wish so too. I say, let such persons starve todeath, and die Christians, instead of being brought here to live and committhe sin of ingratitude, and die and go to hell; for while they remainedin their poverty, they were used to the daily practice of praying for deliverance;and I say it is better for them to die praying, and go into eternity praying,and the Almighty to have bowels of compassion and mercy towards them, thanfor them to come here, and lose the Spirit of God through ingratitude, andgo into eternity swearing.
I can pick up hundreds of men who have passed by their benefactors,and if they should speak to them, would turn round and say, "I reallydon't know you." Or if they do, they will speak every thing againstthem their tongues can utter, or can be allowed to; and they will swearfalsely about them-about the very men who have saved them from starvationand death.
I frequently refer to facts that come under my own observation. WhenI came into this Valley, we had notes amounting to $30,000 against brethrenwe had assisted, which no person, will pay one cent for. We have helpedmen, women, and children from England, to over the amount of $30,000. Exceptone individual, and that is a man by the name of Thomas Green, who livesin Utah, and one young woman, who came from England, there has never beena single person who has paid one dime towards cancelling a debt amountingto over $30,000, besides other notes, accounts, and obligations which wehold.
Do I mean to be understood that no person pays their passage? By nomeans. My remarks will not hit those, neither are they directed to themwho are thankful to their benefactors, and who do, and are willing to pay.But as far as I am concerned, before we came into this Valley, with theexception of one man and woman, no person has offered to pay us one dime,and eight-tenths of them have turned away from the Church, and a numberof them joined the mob, and sought to dye their hands in our blood.
Now do you see the philosophy of human nature, and I will say of divinenature? Let me help a man who makes an evil use of the assistance I renderhim, and endeavours to injure himself and me, and his neighbour with it,what does the Spirit of the Lord teach me in such a circumstance? What wouldthe Lord do, provided He was here himself? Do you not think He would withholdthe thing from him? Do you think an angel would help a man who would turnround and destroy that angel and himself? I do not, neither do I think theLord would, and no good man would if he knew it, unless it were done witha view to prove a person. I do not think a bad man would distribute hismeans to another individual, or to individuals, who would use them to hisinjury.
It is the evil actions and covetousness in the hearts of the poor thatshut up the bowels of compassion in the rich, and they say they will nothelp the poor. We could have gathered hundreds of thousands more of thepoor, were it not that the rich have been so biased, and still continueto be. Say they "We do not wish our means to applied to an evil use."
If you wish to know what I mean by all this, it is that if any men orwomen refuse to pay their passage to this place when they are in circumstancesto do it, let them be cut off from the Church, and then sue them at thelaw, and collect the debt. Sever those limbs from the tree, and then makethem pay their honest debts. That is to the poor.
We now want the rich to turn in their means, that the poor, the honestpoor, may be delivered. Some of you may inquire if we wish to send the meansnow to England? Yes; we want the means now, which you can pay into the TithingOffice, and have it recorded on the books, to answer the means we have there,which can be used for next season. We want to give a heavy lift to the emigrationof the poor, next season. We have brought out a considerable number thisseason, but it is hardly a beginning to what we wish to be brought out nextseason.
The first duty of those who have been brought out by the Perpetual EmigratingFund is to pay back what they have received from it, the first opportunity,that others may receive the same benefit they have received. We wish youin the first place to get something to eat, drink, and wear; but when youare in any way comfortable, we wish you to pay that debt the next thingyou do, and replenish the Fund. It is built upon a principle, if carriedout properly, and the debts punctually refunded, to increase in wealth.The $5,000 that was sent for the poor four years ago this fall, if everyman had been prompt to pay in that which he received, would have increasedto $20,000.
We are the greatest speculators in the world. We have the greatest speculationon hand that can be found in all the earth. I never denied being a speculator.I never denied being a miser, or of feeling eager for riches; but some menwill chase a picayune five thousand miles when I would not turn round forit, and yet we are preachers of the same Gospel, and brethren in the samekingdom of God. You may consider this is a little strong; but the speculationI am after, is to exchange this world, which, in its present state, passesaway, for a world that is eternal and unchangeable, for a glorified worldfilled with eternal riches, for the world that is made an inheritance forthe Gods of eternity.
The plan is to make every thing bend to the revelations of God; thisis the object of our Priesthood-to bring into requisition every good thing,and make it bear for the accomplishment of the main point we have in view;and when we get through we shall reap the reward of the just, and get allour hearts can anticipate or desire. To lay plans for the attainment ofthis, is just as necessary as for a merchant to lay plans to get earthlyriches by buying and selling merchandise. It is for us to lay plans to secureto ourselves eternal lives, which is just as necessary as it is for themiser to lay plans to amass a great amount of gold upon the earth; and itis for us to engage in it systematically.
I say to the poor, PAY YOUR DEBTS TO PERPETUAL EMIGRATION FUND; andto the rich, HELP THE POOR; and this will bring wealth and strength, byeach one, according to his ability, calling, and means, assisting in everypoint and place in this great speculation for kingdoms, thrones, principalitiesand powers. It is said union is strength; and that is enough; if we getthat, we shall have power. This is the plan for us to work upon, and I wishthe brethren to whisper this around among their neighbours, when they goout of this tabernacle, and say, "What can we give to the PerpetualEmigration Fund? Can we give anything this season?" We will not refusehelp from the sisters. Do you ask how small an amount we will take? We willtake from a pin to a bed quilt; but be sure, when you bring a pin, thatyou have not many other things in your trunk that would be useful, morethan you at present need; for if you bring a pin under such circumstances,you cannot receive a blessing, and the reward it is entitled to. If theclothing you wear each day is all you have, and you have need to borrowa shawl to go out in, and you have only a pin to bestow, bring that, andyou shall receive a blessing.
We think it is not necessary to give you the report of the PerpetualEmigrating Fund this Conference. It is doing well, but we want it to doa great deal better. We want to swell the operation, and bring the poorfrom the nations by scores of thousands instead of by hundreds. This embraceswhat I wished to lay before the Conference upon this point.
Before the Conference is concluded we shall call for quite a numberof Elders. It was anticipated that our missionaries would have been calledat the August Conference of this year, but we will call a considerable numberthis Conference. You need not inquire where we want you to go, for it willbe told you when you are ready. Prepare your mind and circumstances againstthat time, for we wish to send the Gospel to Israel.
May the Lord bless you. Amen.