| Show REMARKS by FresU frequent president ent BRIGHAM toung YOUNG Del dei delivered vered at barmington farmington batur saturday afternoon august 1872 REPORTED BY DAVID W EVANS thymn thyme are a few minutes to spare before we dismiss and there are quite a number ot of items that could be talked tallied about that would be very interesting to the people especially in regard to the first experience of the cin cli church when I 1 hear bear brethren relate their experience of those days it brings to my mind many things pertaining to the establishment of the kingdom in the beginning not that I 1 was a member of the church at its organization but I 1 was near by and knew something of the doings of the saints I 1 recollect very well the night that joseph found the plates the recollection of that event is as vividly impressed on my mind as though it were last night but to change my remarks to another subject referred to let me ask you brethren and sisters bisters how many do you suppose there are in the church now who were in twenty eight years ago some are disposed to imagine that the people we now call latter day saints have been brought into the church through the labors of the prophet joseph smith if we were to ask this congregation how many of them were in the church twenty eight years ago we should find only a small portion of them I 1 will say that probably two thirds yes three fourths and even more than that have come into the church through the administration of what is called the first presidency at the present time consequently our work shows for itself we need not ask persons to give their opinion about the theory that we have placed before them but what do you think of the work itself what do you think of this great kingdom this little empire we might say as it now appears to the world it is twenty eight years since brother joseph was killed and the work has gone forth steadily and rapidly and through the provi dences of god we have apparently advanced faster since then than in the fourteen years before so far as bringing the people into note and giving them a name and fame in the eyes of the world the work is still onward and it is upward I 1 simply ask the question about what the people think of these things I 1 do not wish to dwell on the principle of parties denying the faith or remaining in the faith falth they can do just as they please about that but while brother levi hancock was talking about sticking to the church and declaring that he be meant to hang on to it I 1 thought thoughts and say now what in the name of common sense is there to hang on to if he does not hang on to the church I 1 do not know of anything you might as well take a lone straw in the midst of th the 0 ocean to save yourselves as to think of doing in so by the knowledge power author authors I 1 ity ty faith and priesthood of the hristian christian world and the heathen world into the bargain there is nothing but the gospel to hang on to tol I 1 those who leave the church are like a feather blown to and fro in the air they know not whither they are gol got going ng I 1 they do not understand anything about their own existe existence nm their faith judgment and the operations of their minds are as unstable as the movements of the feather floating in the air we have not anything to cling to only falth faith in the gospel is As for the doctrine that Is promulgated by the sons of joseph I 1 it t is nothing more than any other false religion we would be very glad to have the privilege of saying that the children of joseph smith junior the prophet of god were firm in the faith of the gospel and following in the foot foots steps of their father but what are they doing T trying to blot out every vestige of the work their father performed on the earth their mission is to endeavor to obliterate every particle of his doctrine his faith and doings these boys are not following joseph smith but emma bideman every person who he arkens to what they slay hay he arkens to the will and wishes of emma Bide bideman the boys themselves have no will no mind no judgment independent of their mother I 1 do not want to talk about them I 1 am sorry for them and I 1 have my own faith in regard to then them the n I 1 think the lord will find them by and by not joseph I 1 have told the people times enough they never may depend on joseph smith who is now living but david who was born after the death of his father I 1 still look for the day to come when the lord will touch his eyes but I 1 do not look for it while his mother lives the lord would do it now now if david were willing but he is not he places his bis mother first and foremost and would take her har counsel sooner than le he would the counsel of the almighty consequently he can do nothing he knows nothing he has no faith and we have to let tho the matter rest in the hands of god for the present now a few words to the brethren and sisters upon the doctrine and ordinances of the house of god all who have lived on the earth according to the best beat light they had and would have received the full ness of the gospel had it been bean preached to them are worthy of a glorious res urrea tion and will attain to this by being ad ministered ministered for in the flesh by those who have the tho authority all others will have a resurrection and receive a glory except except those who have sinned against the ho holy y ghost it is supposed by this people that we have all the ordinances ordinances in our possession for life and salvation salvati and exaltation and that we are administering in these ordinances this is not the case oase we are in possession of all the tho ordinances that can EO be administered in the flesh but there are other ordinances and administrations that must be administered beyond this world I 1 know you would ask what they are I 1 will mention one we have not neither can we receive here the ordinance and the keys of tho the resurrection they will be given to those who have passed off this stage of action and have received their bodies again as many have already done and nd many more will they will be ordained by those who hold the keys of the resurrection to go forth and resurrect the saints just as we receive the ordinance of bap baptism then the keys of authority to baptize others for the remission of their this is one of the ordinances we can not receive here and there are many more we wye hold the authority to t dispose of alter and change the elements lem iem but we have not received authority to organize native element to even make a spear of grass grow we have no such ordin ordinance since fince here we organize according to men in the flesh by combining the elements and planting the seed we cause vegetables trees grains ac to come forth we are organizing a kingdom here according to the pattern that the lord has given for people in the flesh but not for those who have received the resurrection although it is a similitude another item we have not the power in the flesh to create and bring forth or pro duce a spirit but we have the power to pro duce a temporal body the germ of this god has placed within us and when our spirits receive our bodies and through our faithfulness we are worthy to be crowned we will then receive authority to produce both spirit and body but bat these keys we cannot receive in the flesh herein hereto brethren you can perceive that we have not finished nor cannot finish while we live here our work no more than jesus did while he was in the fieh fie flesh h we can cannot not receive while in the flesh the keys to form and fashion kingdom 9 and to organize matter for they are beyond our capacity and calling beyond this world in the resurrection men who have been faithful and diligent in all things in the kept their first and second estate and worthy to be crowned gods even the sons of god will be ordain ad d to organize matter matten ni atter atten how much matter do you suppose there is between here and some of the fixed stars which we can see enough to frame many very many millions of such earths as this yat yet el it is now so ao diffused clear and pure that we look through it and behold the stars yet the matter is there can you form any conception of thih this can you form any idea of the minuteness of matter let me give you a comparison for instance with regard to mathematics you take a child thatis born today to day caylat 12 p I 1 ly y at high noon one year from to today adny there is another child born the one born today will be just older than the other the second one is perhaps not a minute old it has juat just commenced to breathe the vital air now the one born first is a great many times older than the second we would have to get bome boma of these mathematicians to tell how many times it would be over 31 millions of seconds a great many minutes many hours three hundred and nive five days and one year when these two children have lived just one year longer the elder of the two is two years old tho the other one the former being just as old again as the latter in one year more the first one will be only ole oie ole third older the fourth year he will be one fourth older and so on now then how long must these two children live to be exactly of an age they never will be never no never through all the eternities there are and that is for ever and ever they tha will always differ in age and when countless millions and myriads of ages have passed away there is still do you not see a difference these children are not yet of the same age it is J just ast so with matter take for instance a grain of sand you yon can not divide it so small that it can not be divided again it is id capable of infinite division we know nothing about how many times it can be divided and it is just so with regard to the lives in us in aul ani animals mals mais in vegetation in shrubbery they are countless to illustrate you take a perfectly ripe kernel kennel of corn you will have some here perhaps in a few days and if you get a glass it does not require a very powerful one and you take the chit of this corn and open it you behold distinctly a stalk of corn in that chit a perfectly grown stalk of corn with ears and leaves on it 14 matured out in blossom there thero is the tassel there are the ears and there is the acornl well you get a stronger glass and divide again and you can see that this very chit is the grandfather of bornt corn we take the scientific world for this well how many lives are there in this grain of corn they are innumerable and this same infinity la is manifest through all the creations of god I 1 we will operate here in all the tho ordin ances of the house bouse of god which pertain to this side the vail vall and those who pass beyond and secure to themselves a resurrection resurrect lon ion pertaining to the lives will go on and receive more and more more and more and will receive one after an other until they are crowned gods even the sons of god this idea Is ia very consoling we are now baptizing for we dead and we are sealing for the dead and it w we had bad a temple prepared we should be giving endowments for the dead for our fathers mothers grandfathers grandmothers uncles aunts relatives friends and old associates the history of whom we are now getting from our friends in the east the lord is stirring up the hearts of many there and there is a perfect mania with some to trace their genealogies and to get up printed records of their ancestors they do not know what they are doing it for but the lord is prompting them and aud it will continue and run on irom from father to father father to father until they get the genealogy genea togy fogy of their forefathers as far as they possibly can I 1 am going to stop my talking by say bay saying baying ing that in the millennium when the kingdom of god is established on the earth in power glory and perfection perfect iou and the reign of wickedness that has so long prevailed Is subdued the saints of god will have the privilege of building their temples and of entering into them becoming as it were pillars in the temples of god and they will officiate for their dead then we will see our friends come up and perhaps some that hat we have been acquainted with here if f we ask who will stand at the head of the resurrection in this last dispensation the answer to ie joseph smith junior the prophet of god he is the man who will be resurrected and receive the keys of the resurrection and he will seal seat this authority upon others and thy will hunt up their friends and resurrect them when they shall have been officiated for and bring them up and we will have cevela tlona tiona to know our forefathers alej clehr r back to father adam and mother eve and we will enter into the temples of god and officiate for them then man will be sealed seated to man until the chain is made perfect back to adam so that there will be a perfect chain of priesthood from adam to the winding up scene this will be the work of the latter day saints in the millennium how much time do you suppose we have to attend to and foster babylon I 1 leave this question for you yon to answer at your pleasure I 1 have no time at all for that I 1 say bay and stop my sayings |
