Show quotations from president B You youngs rles ties rims sermon at the bowery sunday december 29 1850 the saints met in the bowery at 11 II a in the meeting was called to order by daniel spencer singing ac president young said I 1 will preach from my old text truth my abject is salvation and my circuit is is the world if I 1 continue to preach the truth it will do for today to day I 1 wish you to consider the nature odthe of the human mind that is connected with the divine spirit and while that spirit is in the ta tabernacle bermele they act so conjointly in all their operations that the division cannot be made even by the philosopher although lie can discover the organization shenille when nille the spirit enters into the tabernacle they are not to be separated we can discover the weaknesses orthis of this organization for instance the child chi 1 d as soon as it can ume use its hands wants to handle that which does not belong to it such as the looking glas cr or razor this spirit or mind cr or disposition is manifested in every character on the earth As soon as the child can stand on its neet feet and can travel it tries to obtain something sonae thing lhing be he should not have llave its disposition is to grasp after that which is not good for it Ic anfind I 1 can find some sorce in this congregation v who bo hae hate arrived at manhood they can analyze it when wilen they come to riper years they discipline the mind as it is called the best plan is to discipline the child in the beginning and when the child is brought into subjection to the rod it soon eoon learns not to reach beyond itself the tha secret of these remarks I 1 can tell you in the first place here are the elders of israel many of them have forgotten the depths of misery they have been in and they want to go again into the bowels of wickedness and they cannot discover the difference between a peaceable society and those that love not god if there are but few there are enough to raise a stench in the whole community tile the elders are forever wanting that which they should not have and ever desiring to do that which will mar their peace and this is applied to all kingdoms that now are arc or ever will be organized to enjoy immortality and eternal lives yet it is destined for all to know the bitter and the sweet and have llave the knowledge of good and evil the child is cray crazy for a fork or a kni feany tiling thing that will hurt it this seems foolish to you and some children when w hen they grow op up think they can dictate the father the old proverb young folks think old folks fools but old folks know young ones to be so I 1 apply to the elders of israel you think I 1 am foolish and I 1 know you are their eyes ar are after things that do not belong to them but do they contemplate the walk they should be in for their highest happiness no yet there are some as good people here as any on the earth you can behold this folly in the child in grown people and even in societies eternally grasping after that that will make them unhappy and miserable I 1 can give you the tile key if ift there liere is no conflict I 1 cannot gain iain sain a victory if I 1 cannot gain a victory there lere is no crown of reward re ward we should do those things that we ought and not do thoe things that we ought not for instance I 1 will mill take oilie the luxuries of life ilfe tea comee coffee tobacco end nd spirits they are all alluded to in the word of wisdom why do you use thern them you may reply it is habit I 1 tell you it if is because they are narcotic operate on the nervous system and cause watchfulness ful ness or sleep they relax and stimulate and in the end tend to death if it was not for that you would not be attached to them you would not like them if they did not hur ry you to your graves they operate on the tha S spirits also if they did not you would never desire through their influence to do wrong when the poisonous article comes in contact it revolutionizes the system to a certain degree and that is the reason why men are in inclined to do wrong we ought to overcome this propensity and gain the victor victory y not on only IT in temporal things but in spiritual things aiso also if you hate a thing that is goodbou good you are in inclined to do evil and that is as great a luxury to the wicked as the bottle is to the drun drunk ard whenever the time comes hat that yn tra yra hate an object or a thin tiling try and heap bles ble sings on the object and it will be well fo for you ncr it will take tako away those feeling sarA san sad it is certain that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak eth 1 I am looking at a people who have been driven from their homes and fi resides sacrificing g their goods to a wicked mob seeking to find a place where they can be at peace and when they get common sense enough they will enjoy it if you yon ask the people to pay their tithing some of them answer they are axe too poor or if you ask them to pay p their taxes to help build bridges and keep zem yem them in repair they are too poor even to do that and some aroe cannot even go to utah when they are wanted but they can go very well to the zold gold mines because that is thir their god if I 1 cannot put away tobacco or spirits it proves prova that I 1 am a slave to lust which 1 I behold goodness and kindness in a majority of this people yet there are a few barrs and sharks that have deen been been caught in the net that are a disgrace dis to the whole I 1 do actually ily liy see men and families who have not had raiment to wear or a house to be in in a bickly country and now when they are well lad clad and are living in good houses they want to leave them and go to california I 1 say unto them go your way you are welcome I 1 am glad of it and I 1 do not care how quick geyr they go for they are corrupt and want to hear bear blasphemy from sunday morning to saturday evening to see card tables and drunkenness many of them are bound to go to hell heu where they will see and hear and feel the torments of the damned and the time will come when they will be glad to ome come out again look again at the child with the fork it may put out an eye with it or when it has the razor it may cut itself many blany of you elders of israel are just as foolish I 1 tell teil it you in the name of the lord god almighty am I 1 merciful to the weaknesses of man roan 1 I am I 1 realize it were it not for the mercy of my father in heaven I 1 should have been cut down like many others when I 1 see a man commit folly in his weakness am I 1 to stretch out my hand to destroy that man no but I 1 will pull him out of the pit if I 1 can my heart is open and I 1 would as soon aleven you ou co could id see soe it as my face my father in heaven heaten gives ives me the privilege of life and death and if this privilege were taken from you you would be mere machines and cease to act on your agency this people is addicted tom toa it is a faul tto be always searching after doctrine and never improving upon what they have they want something oai oni ething new something that they never heard I 1 doubt you have not heard all I 1 have ald mid aid this day get up here ye elders ciders of israel and tell what is in you it is handwork har hard work dwork to get a man to come on this stand to feed the flock how dormant you are but many of the elders say they want to go away and preach to the people in the tho world la 13 there any ny bigger folks than we are that would hear you yes there is ye elders ciders of israel cut TP men of god how much do you know a the kingdom kindom of of god and yet you are always wanting to know something more wh n you ought to improve upon what you have hive the prophet acs mph said to mca mci me bout six tf te endears en years ago if I 1 was to show the latter day sainte all the revelations that the tho lord hag las shown unto me there is scarce a man that would stay with me they could not bear it what is thero there so horrid that you cannot ler lez hearit it every trait in character that has his been infused into man since the fall is as diametrically opposed as light is to darkness ye elders of israel do you know the ways of god if the lord himself was to speak to tell the latter day saints what to do he would come in the capacity of an elder in Is raeland he would preach to you you would hear precisely the very things that you do now you may think I 1 do not know but I 1 know you dont let me reveal a little of the will of the lord if you do not believe that I 1 tell you the very truth as the secret serret of the heart of god you never will be eigher to him than you now are if he were to come in his power and glory you would dissolve away and go down to hell heh ile he will either appear and you dissolve away or he will come in the capacity of a man many men think ten times more ofa of a foolish untimely dancing dancin fr party than of a prayer meeting the man bat that knows the things of god can say as the old prophet did 1 I would rather spend one day with the lord than ten thousand days elsewhere one good conference one evenin evening r spent in this manner is sweeter to me than il all ail the frolics that can be got up dancing is only to exercise the body to enable it to attend to things of greater grea importance when eternal principles principle s are carried out to every portion of human life from the birth to the grave they bring bring peace and joy in the holy ghost 1 I will now refer to the seventies as a body suppose I 1 should appoint a meeting for tonight about a dozen would come without any candles candies but if I 1 were to say level leve I 1 this stand for the band that we manhave may have have hive a dance they would briny bring the stoves from their wives wives bedsides bed sides and would dance all night and the house would be filled to overflowing 0 foolish elders ciders you are like the foolish child you want the fork to put out your eyes I 1 make the same application to the high priests and elders I 1 feel sometimes that I 1 could cuss cuff every elders ears at other times I 1 could cry over their follies I 1 have good reason for these remarks elders ask yourselves this question am I 1 not an elder am I 1 not to preach to all saints and sinners the proof of your choice is is in in your conduct now appoint your meetings and if you want a partner the lord will go 90 with mith you and the next meeting you appoint you will have a third person with you As for myself I 1 would rather sit down in the poorest house in this place and converse on tho the things of god than go to 99 out of parties that are got up and these are arc my real feelings I 1 go to please my brethren there i is no sin in all the acts of mankind only to him that makes it a sin there is no evil in in j any thing only to him that makes it eo so we ought to do all things that tend to building up the kingdom kindom and to the glory of god SCHOOL Ilo llo HOUSE usi BIG bir cottonwood december bro parley P pratt dear sir I 1 hardly know how bow to address you but I 1 have set myself to work to learn i sm something ething in relation to this kingdom km i d 0 i the first question Is it the zut tut duty y mi of a man who comes into this church and who has no ho parents or relatives in the church to be aa adopted into the family of any other man or c ia 13 it my duty to be adopted into the family of any brother who is in this church and icso if so I 1 live I 1 the privilege to bo be adopted into the amily family of any brother that I 1 rasy may choose if i yea is the answer please to explain the mat ma ter fully 2nd and can a man who has all the natural parts of a man end lives as he should in this tins church ever reach the celestial kingdom of god if he have ao 0 o wife and raise A no fajna emo in this world please explain 3rd ard Is it the duty of parents to bless their children or is it their duty to take thern them t the patriarch of the church to be blessed 1 ath what caused the banishment offs ta from the presence of god pleasa an fully ath please to explain the resurrection fi tj the dead in the first second and all 0 resurrections ath from what place are the forces of gog gor and magog as spoken of by john the revo rev lator to come by giving me an answer to the foregoing questions io you u will not only enlighten my understanding upon these points but will remove several serious stumbling blocks that constantly lie in my path my object is to learn all that I 1 can in regard to mormonism not only for my own good but that I 1 may benefit a father and mother who are many thousand miles from this place and who hava have never heard the gospel of jesus christ as revealed in the last days day A letter addressed to me roe to the care of ofero bro sam saml snide and left at bro F FD D richards will find me feeling a deep and abiding interest in this work as renewed in these the last days I 1 have the pleasure of saying that I 1 remain your brother in the tha bonds of of the everlasting covenant ANDREW SILER G S L CITY jan 6 1851 mr andrew siler dear brother your favor of the uit and proceed to answer the same answer to question first I 1 do not know 2nd and every man in this church who lives ilves as lie he should sli sil ouid will bo be saved in the celestial kingdom ling cing dom 3rd ard parents may bless their children so go may the patriarch ath I 1 either was not present at the bani badih h ment of satan or have forgotten the particulars ars the probability is that he wished to go 0 o to a warmer climate for his health quite possible he searched so deeply after the jie mysteries of the kinrd kingdom om that lie he his duties as many zo do at the present day ed ath I 1 have not the keys odthe of the resurrection laving having never experienced it ath do not know unless it is from the bur four quarters of the earth or from the gold mines in reply to the other observations in yours I 1 would advise you to instruct your pour parents to seek out the elders of the th hurc hof of the saints and forsake their sins and ind be baptized in the name of jesus chris or the remission of the same and they shall receive the holy ghost and aad be sated saved if they to the end As to stumbling blocks if all an are as busy is I 1 am they will never have time to stumble over iver them let alone removing them please excuse brevity and believe lieve me your in the gospel P P PRATT |