Show DISCOURSE B J y Pre precedent president GEORGE A SHIM SMITE pc do livered in m the shenew new tabernacle salt sait laed lahd city sunray sunday mag may f 19 1872 1873 REPORTED BY DAVID W EVANS and in that day seven wo women men shall take hold of on one 0 man saying we will eat our own brealand brea dand wear our own apparel only let us be called by thy name to take away iiii oui reproach jn in that day shall the branch of the lord be beautiful and glorious add ardd the fruit of the earth shall shull be excellent and comely for t then hen that are ds escaped of israel and and it hhall bhail come to pass that he that is left in zion and he that remal neth in jerusalem shall be called holy even every one that is written among the living in jerusalem the portion of the prophecy of isaiah which I 1 have read indicates that at a certain day and under certain circumstances spoken enor enof of by the as being holy seven women would claim to be called by the name of one man most of us have a different opinion with regard to the application of this prophecy god inspired the prophet and it might be necessary peradventure to inquire what it all means seven women are to lay hold of one mani man saying we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel only let iet us be called b by thy name to take away our reproach what is the meaning of this thia last sentiment we will let the bible explain it you re luem dembei member laem ber bei that when rachel baebel the second wife of jacob the father of the tribes of israel bound found herself barren while the other wives of her husband were bearing children she prayed to the lord that be in his abend ant mercy would give her children and when god heard beard her prayer and worked a miracle in her javor favor causing her who wat was barren to become fruitful and bring forth a child she sale balg said baid god had taken away her reproach this illustrates the meaning of the text I 1 did not make the prophecy neither had bad I 1 anything to do with making the history of rachel or even chronicling chroni cling tho the event named in relation to father jacob jaco it is true he had bad four sand gand and they bore him twelve sons and their descendants are the twelve tribes of israel we are told by the apostle john that the names of jacobs twelve sons the sons of polygamist ora ofa a and his four wives will bo be written upon the gates of the holy jerusalem and there are none of us who expect to td enter menter in through those gates but will have to acknowledge the truth of that doctrine it is true that the principle of plurality of wives was adopted by the church of latter day saints inconsequence in consequence of the revelation and commandment which god gave to joseph smith and which through him were laid upon the heads beads of this people and we quote the passages that we do quote in relation to the principle of cesi coil celestial estial marriage from the old ard alid aid now new Tet testament to prove prova that god Is consist nt with himself that if he revealed to his saints in the last days the doctrine of or plurality ot of wives it was in fulfillment of the prophecy of isaiah and others of the prophets and in accordance with the example which was set by abraham jacob moses and by holy meu men of ancient days in relation to the word reproach in our text I 1 will make another reference in the first chapter f lukes gospel verses 23 and 24 we find elizabeth rejoicing because god had hid taken away her reproach she though she had bad been barren became the mother of john the baptist these passages tell in so many plain words wh why it was that seven women wished to be called called by the name of one man it was that they might have the privilege of baring bearing children now if god brings to pass this prophecy in the glorious day which our text speaks of when holiness and righteousness are to r rule zule e 9 and when truth is to have dominion iu and id peace dwell in the earth although all the world may have been opposed to it we can not be ba responsible until some person can find a passage in the old or new now testament that definitely forbids a plurality of wives with the many incidents of his tory items of law and declarations of prophets in relation to the practice tico by the an ani clent saints of that doctrine we are able to assert that the bible is a polygamous book and that no man can believe it without believing plurality of wives under some circumstances to be correct I 1 know it has been said that the old testament per er bitted plurality of wives but the new now forbids it the savior said he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it and that not a jot or tittle of the law or prophets should pass away but all should bo be fulfilled the dispensation now new did not annobia anniti late the principles of law and right as re healed in the old both john the baptist and the savior denounced all sins with an unsparing hand and especially adultery norn forn fornication kAtIon and divorce and not a sentence is found in the new now testament which pro hibits plurality of wives though the savior and his apostles lived in a country where it was practiced and it is impossible to believe that if it were a sin it would havo bavo escaped definite rebuke and absolute condemnation the petition to congress which has been raad here today to day daj i is s a perfect wonder I 1 pre sume to those who havel have heard beard it it la Is astonishing to me and doubtless to all who listened to it and especially those who re side here that such a statement could dould be up by any individual whatever that any imagination could be so tortured as to manufacture so unmitigated a tissue of utter and absolute falsehoods and much more that persons could be found who would woul think so little of their reputation as tj sign such a statement we understand however that many of the persons whose names are on that petition did not see thel the original oriu orix inal inai many liany of them thought they were simply signing a petition against the admission of utah as a state without bringing personal charges against a people among whom they have lived in perfect safety and in a country where peace and order have prevailed and where all have benj dyed the uniform protection which our territorial laws and the general organization bf society give I 1 regret exceedingly that such a document should be made mada public but as it with the list of names attached to it was published by order of the united states senate it was thought proper to read it to the congregation that all might have a chanco chance to know what it was and judge for themselves I 1 came to tuis valley in 1847 being one of the pioneers who sear bear coed ened out and made the roads roada from to teo missouri river here the ample property we possessed in illinois we had left there and we made the roads about miles or nearly aaros the state of iowa bridging about thirty streams and passing through a wilderness totally uninhabited save by a few scattered indians that was as bia far as we could get the first year the second year 1847 we made the roads from what we termed winter quarters about five miles above where omaha is isnow now situated we traveled ou the north side of the our ferry across the elkhorn and made our road striking the old oregon trail as it wa called at the mouth of ash hollow that is we went up on the north side of tho platte to the north fork while independence road went up on the south bouth side ide and struck the north fork at ash hollow 01 probably a hundred dundr d and e eighty miles below fort laramie we thought ought some of crossing the river and taking the trappers trail but we found it difficult so we continued making a new road on the tho north side until we reached fort hort laramie there we crossed and made a road it a portion of the way and followed the old trail a portion of the way through to fort bridger on this route we encountered some co companies who were going to oregon and being unable to gel get across the platte and green rivers we got up the means of ferrying and ferried them across both these rivers and they proceeded on the route to oregon while we worked our way across this wasatch range into this valley when wi we reached here we found the place very barren barrec but it was the best prospect beet we had seen for five hundred miles pa the he creek we now call city creek came out of the mountains and divided into branches and finally sank down into the ground apparently without reaching jordan river it had about its sinks some rree green spots a of rushes and grass but except that the country was wag very naked and bar ren red the city plot here did not eved even bear good sage there was a little grass but it was very dry along the stream were a dozen or so of scrubby cotton cottonwoods woods and a few willows the rest of the ground was naked except being nearly covered with immense numbers of large black crickets which bad devoured most of the leaves of the cottonwoods cotton woods and willows and when we went to work to out cut a ditch to carry the water down to the place known as old fort block where we first built our fort so dry was the soil of the ditch that it took the whole stream two and a half days to reach the desired point it was in this desolate place 1034 miles from the missouri rIv erand thirteen erfour or fourteen hundred from irom nauvoo the tho place whence wo we had been expelled tb that at we commenced our location etwas it was understood that a party had undertaken undertake a to cross west here some year or two before and had perished the name of the man who led the party was Ea hastings bastings stIngs and the route west Is called hastings cutoff out cut off it is said that john C fremont had been in this valley the fall previous but we had no report of his explorations pl orations we had an account of him and the south end of utah lake but bat so ig borant was he at the time of the country between the two lakes that his map published after his bis return from his exploration shows salt lake and utah lakota be one body ot of water whereas there is a river about fifty miles long between them in a few days after we reached here another party arrived increasing our numbers humbers to about four hundred we had but very little provisions which we had brought with us the country was destitute of game and the most r rigid i gid economy was necessary in order to subsist we remained about a month when a portion of the pioneers myself among the number started back for our families famili esl eal who were still encamped at winter quarters on the missouri river and on our way back wo we met about seven hundred wagons with families moving on for this place these families came in late and enclosed themselves iu in the old fort block and the two blocks south of it where they lived in security cecur ity from the indians Yndia indians ns and aud during the winter they succeeded partially in enclosing a field making preparations for irr irrigation M atlon and sowing several thousand acres of grain they found it necessary to ration themselves on account of the scarcity of their provisions and I 1 believe that almost every family allowanced themselves toralf to half a pound of flou flon raday a day that is if they had jt it many to less and they went over these hills bills digging the sego a wild bulbous root sometimes eaten by the indians and everything that they could get that had any nutriment in it in those days the animals that were killed having crossed tle plains were generally very poor but they were used with the greatest economy hides bides feet and tall tali all being eaten I 1 believe they wll mii a R story of fl a certain rule among the mabom madans in relation to eating swings flesh some of them refuse it bul hul as a general thing the various classes of them only refuse certain portions some reject the snout sone some the ear others the feet others the tail and so on but among the whole 1 I us sulman tulman race they esgo elgo po the whole hog among the earliest settlers in this valley there was no rejection and there are some who lived here bere the first two years after our arrival who will now say bay that they never tasted any food so sweet as boiled rawhide about the time our first crop began to head out the crickets made their appearance and devoured the greater portion of lt it this was awfully discouraging our oar nurserymen nurseryman nursery men had collen collected ted their seeds sends and planted them and some twenty or thirty thousand trees had got up may be five or six inches high and one day while the nurserymen nurseryman nursery men had gone to dinner i a swarm of crickets came down and destroyed all the trees but three that was the commencement of our nursery busis busl ness dess in this city it is believed fully by the latter day saints of that time zt that hat god delivered them from utter starvation by sending flocks of gulls from the lake which ate up the crickets and saved a portion of their crop the crickets have not troubled the agriculturists in the valley materially since but the flying grasshoppers have come in irn Iru immense mense numbers and in 1855 reduced all the families in the territory to half the allowance of food they needed and for several years back this plague has probably destroyed ds dob troyed from one third to one half the fruits of the farmers labors these are very material drawbacks to our prosperity with which we have had to contend here in utah persons unacquainted quain ted with the manner and difficulties of irrigation can not realize the immense labor careane care and attention that are feces sary to commence this work friends come in and look over our city and say 4 why how nice this water is that runs through all the streets I 1 but the fact is there is not a tree bush or spear of grass grows in these low valleys without being irrigated naturally or artificially and there is only very few and very small spots where natural irrigation is attainable B by y natural irrigation I 1 mean that the water is so near the surface of the ground as to moisten it sufficiently to make it produce vegetation and these places are only found about the sinks of creeks just turn the water ater that passes through these streets back into the original channel and next fall would see most of the trees dead all the results you see here in the way of agriculture were made are held by main strength and constraint and continued diligence during the days of our early settlement it was necessary that measures be taken to supply the wants of those who were without food and for years a fast was held every month and sometimes every week weeke the amount of food that would have been consumed by a family during that fast was presented to the needy and in this way struggling for three years in success succession aop the people were sustained and nobody perl peri perished shed when wo we did finally succeed in raising the necessaries of life thousands of strangers came pouring in here a great many of them destitute of bread they had started for the gold mines without phout knowing how tic fic f fkr ir it was what outfit to take or how to take care of themselves and great numbers of them when thy they reached here had to be assisted on their journey and there were went to california during the early days of the go gold id excitement there who must have pe perished hed had it not been for the assistance they obtained from the tho settlements of these valleys we came camo here full of enterprise and our only hope for jor subsistence was in agriculture we found mines of lead and minerals of various kinds but we could do nothing with them the legislative ass bombly memorialized congress for a railroad and a telegraph line across the continent and they set bet forth in that petition in 1852 that the mineral resources of these mountains could |