| Show ur by JOHN DELIVERED in the stake meeting house provo sunday morn inq nov N ov aoth 1884 1881 1 REPORTED BY JOHN IRVINE IP VINE I 1 AM tia pleased to have an opportunity of meeting mee tins tini with you in your conference and of talking with you on some principles associated with the gospel of the son of god in which we nye ail all of us are more or less interested we are gathered together from among the nations of the earth we have askem assem assembled ourselves thus together because of a work which the lord has commenced in the interests of humanity not only pertaining to ourselves but erta erLa laining irling to the world of mankind yn fer n obedience to the revelations of ills his will ivill and the command that ile he has given unto his ills servants through the restoration of the everlasting gospel we have many of us gone forth among the nations of the earth to proclaim those principles which god has revealed for the salvation hai hal happiness happiness and exaltation of the human family amily we have been gathered together according to the word of the lord which ile he by his ancient prophets who have lived in the world in generations that are past and who under the influence of the spirit of godsave Go dhave given a very gr graphic account of the gathering ing 0 of 1 the people top tog together oether gether in the last days and of the instructions they should receive preparatory to 0 o other events that will necessarily transpire upon on the earth as spoken of by all the cupl ho holy y prophets since the world was we are living in what is called the dispensation of the f ulness of tim times cs wherein it it said god will gather together all things in one whether they be things in the heavens or things on the earth and we arc gathered to ether gether to this land of zion which has been 6 een spoken of also in the scriptures where we might learn more perfectly the law of god and carry out those principles which ile he has made known for our information for our instruction for our guidance and direction as regards the course that we should pursue and the blessings that should attend eose those who haye have obeyed his ills laws and kept his commandments we are here really to build up and purify the church of the living god we arn are here to build up and establish the kingdom of god we are here alo aleo aio to build up a zion unto our god wherein ills his laws can be taught the principles of eternal truth be communicated the relationship and communication opened between the heavens and the earth and men placed in a position whereby they will be enabled to act intelligently in re regard gard to all matters pertaining to this world as well as to the world that Is to come we have been told and it has been prophesied of thal thai great calamities will overtake the ike nations of the earth oneff one of the ancient prophets isaiah in the chapter makes use of very peculiar pecullar language in relation to this matter ile he says t behold the lord mabeth the earth empty and mabeth it waste and burneth it edip upside doy ang aux aug doi down and scatter eth abroad th the tho e inhabitants habitants thereof and it shall be as with the people so with the priest as with the servant so iso with his master as with the mald maid so with lier her mistress as with the buyer so with the seller as with the lender so with the borrower as with the taker BO so with the giver of usury to him wic wie the vic land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled tor for the lord hath spoken this word the earth eart halso also aiso is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the laws chan changed ed the ordinance broken the tiie everlasting covenant therefore hath the curse devoured th the earth and they tiley that dwell therein are desolate I 1 therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and f few lew ew men left in relation to these matters we as a fie cluie ciple have been very in much tich interested and these thin thiu things s have been spoken of ol for a ion lon long longtime iong long time I 1 have been preaching gem sem them tye Tie tween forty and alf nifty fifty ty years and a great many others who are now living have nave have bave borne testimony of these things and having gathered together as we have don eThis places us in a very peculiar position for we not only bring our religion with us and the spiritual ideas con connected necked with it ne we n e not only bring these things that are spiritual gnit but we bring bur our bodies along along with us which are very tem temporal eave or and lid iid when we gather as we have haye done herein this land and form forma a people hebie bebie such as we are arc we necessarily become heple come part of the body politic of the nation with which we are associated that is of the united states we are organized here in a territorial capacity as other territories are organized and are now living in what ws w s before the unsettled portions of the united states we wc are organized according to the general provisions made and provided by the nation in which we nye live and we are organized under what is called an organic act whereby the action of the tile government ot of the united states has placed us in the position that we now occupy we have for instance as other occupy territories have a governor we have district judges of the united states we have a U S marshal an attorney etc etc and the same kind of officers that exist in other territories that are under and associated with the government of the united states we have granted unto us in the instrument called the organic act certain rights and privileges we send a delegate to congress and arc authorized so to do we we have our legislature and have the right of voting ingao for r it we we have our county coults a and probate courts as other territories have and are placed under general regulations pertaining to these matters as exist in the order that prevails in the united states in t his this respect spec tive we act as others do that is we are placed pretty much under the same laws not quite alte pretty much under the same 70 form in of government not quite we have certain rights and privileges ceded to us not like others have exactly but to a very great extent similar to others in this respect we act and operate as other citizens of the united states do and in this respect we have rights privileges and immunities as others have so far as they go but they dont go with us quite to the extent that they do with other people under the same circumstances nevertheless perhaps we enjoy as many privileges and as many rights as wa we are capable of comprehending and of f magnifying and it may be possible I 1 in tl the inscrutable wisdom of the lord that we chuld sh mid be subjected to certain kinds of prohibit prohibition iou lou and enactments that differ materially in many respects from those of other people but so it is and these things are arc quite as beneficial to us as other things if we had bad nothing to cope with or to contend with we nye might feel as the methodists do sometimes when they talk about sitting and singing themselves hem selves away to everlasting 11 bliss 1 but as we are not going to the same place as they are it don t make much difference they can take their road and we will take ours we have other ideas of a religious nature from those entertained by other people but take it has a whole we enjoy very many great blessings we are living here in a goodly land we have many privileges in this land and in our endea vors to preach the gospel and gather together the people under the blessi ng and guidance and direction of the almighty we nye have been verv very very successful thus far although in our history there are many things which have been unpleasant for people to meet with such as dobbings mob bings and dr ivings killings and imprisonment and a variety of other things that are not pleasant to the feelings of human nature yet upon the whole the lord has controlled these things for our good just witti with the words of the psalmist raal Paal mist where he says surely the wrath of f man shall shai praise thee the tile remainder of wrath thou restrain it has not been pleasant for people to be driven say as ass I 1 have be enand as many of you have been from our homes had to endure it and there is no use grunting about it we had to do it in missouri we were driven from our homes there then we went to illinois and at first we were treated very kindly but when we began 11 to grow and increase they ther did not like our religion and they don dont t like it today to day and we nye dont fancy theirs theirl much either so on the religious question there is not much love lost we had to leave illinois and come here it was not very agreeable as I 1 have said to have to le leave ave ive our homes and our faring and come out here to live among the red skins for this was a desert when we first came here it was not full fall of beautiful farms and houses orchards and gardens addens ar dens cities villages and ila iia hamlets in fas has it was a desert where the red man roamed unmolested where the crick ts had full sway anywhere and where the white man had scarcely trod trodden ded there had been a f few ew pass through before we came here and it had been bean discovered perhaps a hundred years or two by some travelers that had existed in those days but to all intents and purposes it was what was called then and marked on the maps as the great american desert since then tilen the solitary place has been made giad glad iad lad and the desert has been beci made to blossom as the rose the lord lias has been very kind and merciful merci tui tul to us and opened out our way and provided for our wants and although we may have some little things to complain of all of which are very trilling trifling in comparison to many things that exist among other peoples yet are we abundantly blessed all over the land Is there anybody here in your conference or is there anybody in any of the conferences of the stakes of zion that lacks the necessaries of life Is there anybody that is destitute of food or of clothing or of habitations not that I 1 know of and if there are any such things they ought not to exist among us no now w then if we weare are blessed we have not to thank aily any mail man or any set of men forit for sor it if we are arc provided forwe have not obtained it f from apin anybody else but from tiie the lord god ot of israel who has watched over and protected his people just as he said r rc would do ile he sald said it was his business to take care of ills his saints but then en it is our business to be saints ath and d being gathered together as we are under th these se circumstances we are organized according to certain laws laid downin down in the order of god and given by revelation of god for our guidance and direction where in we are instructed in things pertaining to this ivorid wo rid and to the next pertaining to things that are past things that are present a and nel not things that are arc to io come pertaining to time and eternity B by this means man the noblest work of goals god is brought into closer relationship tion ship with god than lie he has been for genera generations eions many diany things have been revealed and arid there will be many more yet revealed that have been hidden from before the foundation of the world according to the word sword of god to us and we are trying to act wisely prudently and intelligently to live and andaca act and conduct ourselves in a manner that will be honorable before god that will be honorable before the holy hois angels that will be honorable before all honorable men and all men who love righteousness and truth and virtue and who are inspired by the principle of integrity and by those principles that em emanate a nate from G god od and that always lift up and exalt and elevate those that have embraced and are governed by them these principles are revealed to us according to the laws vach which god has introduced and through the medium of tha holy voly priesthood which lie ile has again restored unto the earth and we nye are here to learn ills laws that we may walk in lils his paths we are here that we may bull buli build temples nato unto ills name and talat we demay may administer in those temples this is the object of our being belm gathered a together that we may be brought into a closer union and relationship to god our heavenly father that we nye may be instructed in the laws of I 1 life ilfe and that we may comprehend the ri relationship a tio ship that exists between us and him ulm and while we are looking for calamity and trouble wars pestilence and famine and all those thing that have been spoken of by tae the holy prophets yet there is to ba a voice heard before that day crying come out of her my people that y ye e be not partakers par takers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues plague sl that is speak speaking lug of a certain something that is called babylon well we have been doing that and vc we have been gathered io together gether that we may comprehend those thos e principles of which I 1 have spoken we WL have come here that we may enter into covenants that are eternal and which con continue tinge behind the veil and anti we expect that while we are organizing zion here upon the earth and seeking to establish the king kingdom dom of god we have bave have those who are c cooperating operating co oo 00 o o aerating with us above those who are building ind nd preparing for us in the heavens mansions to go to jesus went to prepare mansions for those of his followers in ills his day says ile he in my fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I 1 would have told you I 1 go to prepare a place for you and lt it if 11 1 I go and prepare a place for you I 1 will come again and rec receive you sou ou unto myself that where I 1 am there ye may be also there Is something very peculiar about those things about the preparing of those mansions f for or those that go behind tehina tiie the veil but it is for us to learn to comprehend endall all ali these matters we real about beautiful cities we read of the new jerusalem and the old jerusalem we talk about cities the most magnificent that can be thought of do nothing no they nave to be made just as we N ve make things here only more intelligently what is meant b by y a certain saying make to yourselves friends of the mammon inam mon of enri unrighteousness 11 ate ous ness that when ye fail fall they may receive you into everlasting halita eions 11 ali ah indeed well you can guess what it Is I 1 will leave it with you yon people find a good deal of fault with us about our having more wives than one but th then en that is nothing we attribute that to their igno bauce if they were batter informed they would kenw better abraham was a friend of god and he practiced polygamy gamy under the direction of the tile loly toly polygamy lord ord david was a man after gods own heart and he had bad wives given to him of the lord they would have put them in the penitentiary if it toey had been here today to day but then because of many things that transpire in these days the tile lord will make the earth empty why because they have trans transgressed the ahe laws changed the ordinances broken the everlasting covenant we are gathered toge together here in order that we may observe the laws which have been restored unto us and keep uhe the everlasting covenant wllie while while they make covenants for time make time and for eternity there is the difference ours Is everl everi everlasting astin theirs until death do 10 them part we as wives and husbands expect to be associated af after aften ter death in ju the eternities that are to come we believe in an everlasting covenant and in an everlasting gospel ali an angel was to bring the everlasting i gospel and everything |
