| Show r asco by president rouno YO UNG I 1 delivered in the new tabernacle salt lake city may ath 1870 REPORTED BY DAVID W V EVANS we have now been together in a conference capacity for four days it seems a ver very short lime time we would like to stay a liitt little 0 longer if it were pru prudent dent this is the place to give general instruction to the latter day saints it is good when the saints meet together to look at each other to hear the brethren bear testimony of the truth and to feel the fellowship of the holy ghost this makes conr hearts joyful and glad it will be prudent for us now to bring our conference to a close and after I 1 have spent a few minutes in speaking we shall shail ad adjourn lourn until the tile sixth of next october at 10 in the morning at this p place ce there are many things which we would like to talk about I 1 would like to do a great deal of talking if I 1 had the opportunity and were able to do so there are many little items pertaining to what are called temporal matters which it would be well for the people to understand in order to promote their happiness he here re on the earth and to aid them in securing eternal salvation it is not those who are hearers of the word only who are blessed and who secure to themselves the ble bie blessings sings of eternal life they who secure eternal life are doors odthe of the tho word as well aa as hearers if we hear the word and do not perform the labors indicated by it it will profit us nothing to hear the word as the tho latter day saints t s do and then to perform the labor b or devolving ling aing upon them requires a great deal of wisdom and to bring the people up to this standard much labor and instruction from the elders is necessary if we can remember what we have heard at this conference and carry it out in our lives it will profit us I 1 hope and trust that we may let us apply our hearts to the wisdom that has been exhibited before the conference and observe the little duties of everyday everyday life that we may maybe be prepared to receive more it is not possible for a person to learn all the will of god in an hour a day or a week it requires much time and attention to do this the lord gives a little here and a little there a precept now and a precept again and by close observance of these things in our lives we grow in grace and in a knowledge of the truth we are thankful for the privilege of talking a little we ought all to be very thankful that we have the privilege of the gospel and of the ordinances of the house of god for by applying them to the duties of life we can increase in knowledge wisdom and understanding Weare we are thankful to see the tho increase that there ia is in the midst of the people you very well know that it is said by many of those who wish to traduce the character of the latter day saints that we are a poor miserable ignorant people if we are there is a great chance for improvement we will acknowledge that we are very ignorant and that the lord has taken the weak things of the to confound the wisdom of the wise he has picked up the poor of the earth and brought them together because they seek after him while the hearts of the rich and the proud the hl high h and the noble are lifted up ana and they ir annot cannot hearken to the principles of the gospel gosp eland and receive them and obey them they feel themselves too good they know too much while the poor and needy those who suffer from hunger and nakedness and from hard labor and taskmasters task masters are the ones who naturally seek after the lord the lord is just as willing to bless and to pour out his spirit upon the king on the throne as upon the beggar in the street but the king has haa 8 sufficient he does not feel after the lord but the beggar cries unto the lord iford for his daily bread hence the lord gathers the poor when we are gathered together if we will improve ourselves by and by we will be filled with wisdom when we look at the latter day saints and remember that they have been taken from tte the coal pits from the ironworks from the streets from the kitchens and from the barns and factories and from hard service in the countries where they formerly lived we cannot wonder at their ignorance but when they are brought together they soon roon become scholars many of them become farmers and merchants and they soon learn to procure a sustenance for themselves and families famille sand ana gather around them the necessaries and comforts of life they also learn the object of their being of the creation of the earth and how to organize the elements so as to their own wants and necessities this is a blessing and we are proud to see the industry of the latter day saints and also their improvements and faithfulness if we are ignorant let us become wise if we are poor let us gather around us the comforts of ilfe life I 1 look around among m my brethren and I 1 see scholars the world worl say we are ignorant we acknowledge it but we are not as ignorant as they are although they have had opportunities of education perhaps that many of our brethren have not had we study from the great book of nature we are driven to this of necessity where is there another people who have done what this people have done in these mountains by way of making improvements in their own midst upon the soil and in their cities and town they are not to be found on the face of the earth if this is not intelligence if this is not good hard sound sense I 1 wish somebody would come and teach us a little if we are taken from the poor ignorant low and degraded and make ourselves wise and happy it is a credit to us there are causes for this which some may not have thought about I 1 often think of them you take for instance a father who has say four ten or twelve sons he may have abundance to dispose of to each and everyone but he be dislikes some particular one and perhaps feeds and clothes eleven but the twelfth whom he hates and despises he turns out of doors to provide for himself this one son goes forth weeping and says III iam lam am forsaken of my father ana and his house now I 1 have to look after myself I 1 have the earth before me I 1 have to live I 1 do not want to kill myself and as I 1 have life before me I 1 certainly must make my own future I 1 will go to work and accumulate a little of something so that I 1 can purchase me apiece of land when it is purchased ed I 1 will put improvements upon it I 1 will build me a house I 1 will fence my farm I 1 will set off my orchard and plant out my garden and I 1 will gather around me my horses my cattle my wagons and carriages and I 1 will get me a family pretty soon here is a boy who knows how to live as well as his father does how is it with the rest of the family they are fed and clothed by their father they know not where it comes from or how it is obtained and they scarcely know their right hand band from their left with regard to the things of the world this illustrates the history of this people we have been under the necessity ot learning every art to cultivate the soil and how to provide for our own wants under the most adverse circumstances we have been compelled to do this or go without for none would do it forus for nor us we have havo been forced to study mechanism all kinds of machinery how to build ana and how to provide and take care of ourselves in every respect I 1 thank the parent and the be boys Vs for turg turl turning us out of doors why because it has thrown us on our own resources and taught us to provide for ourselves we have a future before us and god will take care of us in my meditations I 1 say shall I 1 complain of father no I 1 will not complain at all he has done the best he could for me though he knew it not if he had made my house opened my farm planted my orchard seen to my planting and ana ploughing sloughing hing as well as the gathering an and ana then had brought my food to my chamber and appointed a servant to feed me what should I 1 have known about getting my living how could I 1 have known anything about raising fruit or anything else I 1 could not have known I 1 might read books until doomsday and unless I 1 apply the knowledge thus obtained I 1 should know but little without the application of knowledge acquired by reading it makes mere machines of us we can tell what others have done but we know nothing our bur ourselves selves solves then speak evil of no man and find acknowledge that it has been a blessing to us to be cast aside and compelled to take care of ourselves when we left our homes in the east and started for the rocky mountains the feeling in regard to us was there is starvation before you mormons cormons Mor mons but if you do not die of starvation the indians will kill you wo we knew that they would do no such thing we knew that we could live when we got here and we also knew that we could t avel uvel twelve or fourteen hundred miles with our cows calves colts lame cattle our seed grain and provisions and farming utensils on wagons carts and handcarts hand carts without an ounce of iron on some efthem of them etwas it was said that we could raise nothing when we got here but I 1 said we will wait and see we know that god has led us out here and we will wait and see what he will do for us you can see what he has done and thank his name and be humble ghail ahall shall shail we speak evil of others no why because the result of their treatment towards us has made us better and greater than we could have been otherwise it has brought us closer together than we could possibly have come without a great deal more revelation than we have bad had our enemies have pushed us together and it is excellent to be surrounded by circumstances that will bring us close together we learn then whether we have fellowship one tor lor another let us thank god and speak evil of none and instead of offending finding fault with father let us thank him for turning us out of doors for we have learned a a great many useful lessons in life that we could not have lear learned negi neit wa without phout we can read readjust justas as much as the inhabitants odthe of the earth and after reading we can practice a thousand times more than many of them I 1 wish now to say a few words in relation to a subject which is attracting the attention of thousands of people in the world I 1 refer to what is termed infidelity we are very well aware that a statement made in reference to this matter in this conference is true namely that the inhabitants of the earth are drifting as fast as time can roll to infidelity I 1 do not profess to know a great deal but some things I 1 do know shall I 1 take the liberty of telling you the story of the boycho boy who went to the mill he was looking at the millers hogs hoga which were very fat clean and fine the miller came out and seeing the boy attentively observing the pigs said to him what are you thinking about said the boy 1 I was wast th iRkIng blaking that millers have fat bogs were you thinking of anything else olse said baid th emiller emmer yes 1 I do not know whose grain they are fed on 11 said the boy I 1 take the liberty of telling g this story lur lor illustration some things I 1 do know and some I 1 do not know if I 1 do not know whose grain the pigs eat I 1 do know that there are some fat hogs what shall I 1 say with regard to infidelity I 1 do not know a great deal but I 1 say that a man has not good common sense who denies his maker such a man is not endowed with reasoning powers I 1 hold bold this book in my hand and I 1 say that for its production from the crude element it required a type founder paper maker maker printer and a book binder and by their united exertions the book was made but the infidel bases his argument on the principle that the book is hero here without a producer that no type founder paper maker printer nor bookbinder was necessary Y Is not a man who argues on this principle a fool if jahe he is not he comes pretty near it there are a great many who say that there is no embodiment 0 of the deity our oar christian brethren almost deny the exist enceola god but itis in word only theado they do not feel it in their hearts they do not mean any such sueh thing they are like the people of whom paul speaks who had temples reared to the unknown god the christians do not know anything any thing about god neither does the infidel the christian world say we believe in a god who has no bod body 11 yo vou you il do not believe in anything any thing oi of t the sort Chrls chris christian tian world you think you believe it but it is only tradition with you your fathers told you that god has no body the priests told them the schoolmasters have joined in the endorsement of the same ridiculous idea it is also written in your church creeds but when you let common sense have place in your hearts you do not believe in any such nonentity or nondescript as a god without body parts or passions but foolish and absurd as is such an idea it is not 40 so ridiculous as that of the infidel the christian world while virtually declaring that god is nothing also declare that the world was created by him buethe but the infidel says the world had no creator it is the result of chance now I 1 defy any infidel or any uther person on the face of the earth to prove that anything can be made or exist without withof ita a maker the world and all its various grades of organized den the lowest forms of vegetable or animal life up to man the lord of creation were framed and maddoe made or they would not have been here I 1 just ajust want to say with regard to infidelity it means bio fio nothing thing more nor less than to disbelieve anything we have a mind to if we disbelieve in the existence odthe of the eternal a asan as an embodiment or personage we are infidel on that point if we disbelieve in the efficacy of the tho blood of the savior and his atonement we are infidels on that subject I 1 wish to say however to tho the christian world that the moment the atonement t of tle the savior is done away that moment moment t at one sweep the hopes of salvation entertained by the christian world aro are destroyed the foundation of their faith is taken away and there is nothing left for them to stand upon when this is gone all the revelations gou god ever gave to the jewish nation I 1 to the gentiles anti es and d to us are rendered valueless and all ail a hope 0 eis els is taken on from rom us at one sweep what hat proof have you infidels that jesus is not no the christ what proof have you of the negative of the existence of god the father or of jesus as the mediator or of the holy ghost as gods minister or of the gifts and graces that god has bestowed upon his people none at all not tho the least thing in the world Is there anybody living on the earth that has the proof of the affirmative yes we have we have proof that god lives and that he has a body that he has eyes and cars to hear bear that he has arms hands and feet that he can walk and does walk he has declared himself to be a man of war jehovah the creati great I 1 am the lord almighty and many other titles of a like import are used inre in reference to him in the scriptures but take away the atonement of the son of god and the tho scriptures fall useless to the ground how is it infidel have you any proof that jesus did not die for the sins of the world no hot flot the least any more than you have proof that there was no need to go to the mountains to cut the timber used in building this house or to quarry the rock of which the pillars of this house are composed howls how is it mr infidel have you any proof of the nonexistence non existence of him who rules and reigns in heaven and who controls the destinies of the earth no not the least but you say 1 I do not believe it that is your affair only nobody cares about thal that infidelity extends to other subjects besides the existence of god and th the e |
