Show DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY liy at ai rhe the general conferences Coti ference on sunday afternoon april gih 1879 REPORTED BY GEO P F GIBBS GIBES in some respects I 1 would prefer to sit and listen to my brethren speak and to partake in quietude of the spirit of this conference than I 1 would to speak myself but there is a duty devolving upon mo me I 1 presume bume sume the same as upon my brethren rens and I 1 desire to the best of my ability to discharge that duty the bight sight of so many people the singing the speaking of our brethren this morning and the spirit I 1 felt when I 1 entered this building today to day vay almost overpower ed me e there here is an influence there is a p power or there is a spirit connected with wit the assembling together of a large body of people such as we witness taday ta day that must affect those who aro are sensitive to impressions and especially when one has haa been absente absents among strangers to feel that he is home among his friends among a people who are hla hia brethren and his sisters whose faith is his faith faiths and who are laboring and struggling to accomplish the same objects that ho himself has in his heart I 1 rejoice exceedingly cee my brethren and sisters this day in your midst and I 1 am thankful for the delightful circumstances by which you are surround ed I 1 am thankful that the prospects before you are so promising BO so full of hope and BO so delightful to contemplate it ia is true we have had sickness we have had many keaths this has been a cause of regret but rut death is unavoidable and with it all w wa a are in much better ac circumstances and more favorably 4 s situated than the generality of the of men the latter day saints are rapidly becoming a great and important people the influx t ence that attend attends sus us is being more widely felt our power for good 1 is increasing our strength our union and the other qualities that wo we possess ana and which wo we have manifested through our career are being more recognized every day it has always been boon a favorite idea of mine that no single human boing who chooses to exert an once for good among his fellow men ever spoke or ever acted in vain without making his hla influx enee ence his example his words have an effect u upon p on those who m i he ha hab has s beon been brought in contact if this be true concerning an individual how much more truth is there in it when applied to an assemblage of Individual sand to a community to hund hundreds reds rods of communities to a great people stretching through these mountains and filling these vallies vai val lles we have not lived in vain wo we have not sought to exhibit lives of temperance of industry of frugality of self denial lives of righteousness with the fear fea of god before our eyes nor have we lived these lives during daring the last 49 years without the effect being felt not only upon those by whom we are surrounded but by tho the world at large there is something connected with the example of such a people that elevates men and women from the slime from the mire and from the abject ruin into which in too many instances they are plunged to contemplate humanity in its better aspects aspe ote humanity in its noble appearances with its godlike attributes with its powers for good its capability for accomplishing great results there is something in the very fact of a people believing in god in these dayson days of atheism and utter infidelity that brings men to serious contemplation temp lation they say very frequently that itis it is fanaticism but bub there is something about fanaticism that is healthy refreshing invigorating in its example for no man ever accomplished anything oil on this earth without exposing himself by his actions his eam earnestness estness and enthusiasm and zeal to the charge of fanaticism I 1 am willing we should be called fanatics I 1 have a right to be he a fanatic if I 1 wish to be as long as my fanaticism does not interfere with the rights of my fellow man that la a barrier beyond which my fanaticism should not be allowed to go it is refreshing to see a people who not only believe in god but who are willing to show their belief b by y a suffering u ff e r 1 n g for his cause ca to leave their f friends 1 do to leave their homes home to euffer exile persecution privations hardships and even death for the bake sake of godfoy god for the sake of religion for the sake of principle what would life be if it were not for such people and for such chara characters eters eterE why their pe culiar cullar lives ilves illume the sombre darkness of ages they are bright spots in history when we look back and recall the men who have suffered and died for principle even it they died wrongfully we find something about thein their heroic lives that is 9 glorious to contemplate and aud A and ud when a whole people can be foun found douch buch such as are in these mountains who are capable of making tho the sacrifices which they have made there is something as I 1 have said in their example and in their lives that influences fluen ces men that impresses them and that causes them themy whatever their feeling be respecting the belief of these people peoples to feel a profound and heartfelt respect for them for no man or woman properly constituted ever failed to respect devotion to principle moral courage and the qualities that are exhibited in the lives of the saints I 1 therefore eay say we have not lived ilvain in vain we have not preached in valda vain wo we have not suffered ilvain in vain we dave have not protested in ln vain the fruits of these labors of ours which apparently have been so long in coming will be reaped in the great harvest yet to be reaped upon the earth I 1 feel to speak these words of encouragement coura gement to my brethren and sisters many of whom feel probably that their obscure lives and struggles their contest with poverty their humble and uneventful histories are sometimes of so little value that they are comparatively worthless in the eartha I 1 say to tho the humble struggler to the man or woman who may be content with poverty w whose I 1 ose oso life may be uneventful in his oo 00 own n estimation who may be hidden from the popular sight eight and may not figure on the tho worlds stage I 1 say to every such person as a latter day saint you have a great and important mission to perform and if it you perform the duties devolving upon you properly your influence will bo be felt and in the days to come in that great day of god almighty your our oun worth will be fully recognized and you will shine as a jewel in the kingdom of there is one thing that overy parent can do he can endeavor to make and daughters better qualified better equipped for the great struggle straggle of life and better able to perform their partin part in this glorious work that god has established than himself that la Is one thing the parents of the ilala ig generation of lher thao c mountains can do I 1 have havo never felt as I 1 dolo doto do today to day annd and ag hs I 1 have recently of the great im jot glur flur tra training lAing and educating i 1 our children to the greatest and best adv advantage 1 that nothing shall be left undone on oh our part to ta prepare them forthe great work which they have havo toper form this is a labor jabor that we can accomplish it does not depend BO sa much of books a great many people imagine that only books are no necessary e ese a i ry for education but the mah man man Is best beat educated in my opinion who hah has thought the most and that correctly ilso 1130 60 far as theology Is iss concerned we have been ubie able iby the blessing of god the light of the holy haly gaast and the power of truth to s go forth unlearned illiterate and unprepared so far as worldly education is concerned ant and by virtue orthe odthe or the abe knowledge that comes cornea down from above the elders of this ibis have gone forth and met the world of christendom 1 I do not speak in vanity abr nor in ln th of when I 1 bay say they have never been vanquished the learn learned edthe the ed the professed pro elised theologians when they have met the elders of this church with the bible in their hands have been compelled tore to retreat before the power of truth proclaimed by uneducated but inspired men Is our mission accomplished by having done thih I 1 feel that we ag as a people are only on the threshold of the great work that lies before us wo vve have an hn immense field of labor stretched clied out before us when you look ahead and try to ilee see its limits the field of usefulness which stretches out before this people called latter day djay saints is beyond the reach of human vision it it stretch ing out in the far distant future ib lb Is 19 there a wrong upon the earth to be righted moo woo if so it is our bounden duty to attempt I 1 its correction Is there a t faise false phin prin cipp eiph extant it is our bounden duty to seek its eradication la its there tyranny in the world tyranny of the mind physical or mental tyranny It dev devolves olves olvea as lat ter day saints to overthrow it are A re there social problems to be solved who shall solve them who can jean d do 0 so remove the Latt erday saint from the field and who can solve these problems which are pressing themselves upon the af at of all thinking people the whole earth is suil jull full tuli of violence vio lenee wrong oppression misgovern mis govern ment and a thousand other evils which I 1 cannot now enumerate it devolves upon us as fast 09 as as 09 we can reach thesa these to correct them to remove them in tho the first pince place we have got to correct and remove them from our own midst it Is a slow labor to train a people brought as we are from every nation educated in every creed speaking almost most every language and heirs of every Irald tradition ion lon there Is false or tr true u wedded to us old customs and th the evils of ages which have been transmitted from generation to generation aeration until they have formed a strong part of our very being it is a slow blow work I 1 say educating a people sueh such as we are behave we have been at it now 49 years and we becan a 1 n scarcely perceive that is in clo cio comparison 12 with that which lies before beford iichi II us the thi growth and thede the development celop which have been made but we have grown our minds have hove been enlarged we have become emancipated from many old follies and freedom of thought has taken place in our midst hut but ut the great labor that devolves upon us is to educate ourselves and then we can soon educate the rest rent of mankind for as I 1 have said our example is felt the influence of it goes forth and bears its fruit among other people but it is a most thing to get these latter day saints to understand the principles that are ara as plain as the noon noonday daysun aun that they should receive rea readily dilys and why because as I 1 have said they are heirs of the traditions of centuries that have come down through the dark ages it is a wonderful thing to do what we have dona done respecting spec opec ting woman look at what monogamy has dor done le look at its effects trace its influence from the death of the Apostle sor soon afterwards down to this the nineteenth century and what do we behold why in every generation a large percentage of ouri our sisters has beeri beenu consigned either to that nani nameless eleas condition of which it is a shame to speak or have died without ever knowing the joys of maternity when I 1 think of it when I 1 read the tho history of 0 lile lio ilo ile coasted tion of the greeks and the tho rom romans aub and think of the boasted civilization tik of our bur dayi dayl inherited from these nations and witness its effects I 1 wonder how man standing up in the faco face of heaven dare look at woman and talk about being her protector read bead the history of the tha sex andoe the frightful evils which i have been brought upon our bisters sisters through man accursed traditions and evil evils if it were to be told to another people different differently li situated to us ui with different traditions to us they could not believe that intelligent teli tell igent man would entertain for abne one moment or that women themselves in view of what their sec sel has buffered would cherish and arild cling to the wretch wretched ed traditions that have prevailed in christen dom and to a certain extent yet prevail in our midst I 1 know I 1 am to touching chind chink now upon what many people consider a tender spot say they the decision of the su supreme p reme court has haa arranged all this yes but it will riot stay arranged liet let me tell you that wrong may prevail and right may apparently be eru erd crushed shed but right must at last prevail and claim its own in spite of laws of decisions of mandates and everything that man can pan utter I 1 am talking now not respecting law I 1 am not talking respecting tradition I 1 am not talking about mormon pur plural marriage or patriarchal marriage rl ariage ge I 1 am ta ming talking about men and women brethren and bisters ag as such come let left us ua reason together let us talk together not as religion letb lets not as Mormon mormons Mor mons snot not as mono ga mists not ai polygamists not as citizens of christendom but as men and women the children of god as brethren and sisters of the one family let us talk together face to face in plainness in simplicity i without allowing tradition to have weight with us to blind our understandings derat der it is in this spirit that I 1 wish to talk upon this subject here ia is a family a family composed of men and women and we w will say this tabernacle contains this entire family of god upon the earth for the sake of illustrating the point here are men and women in equal numbers and equal proportions proportional one aek aex not out num nue bering beling the other a man for a woman and a woman for a man no surplus of women no surplus 0 of each men if 11 they were to marry eich each would would have ave a partner each man would have a wife wito and each woman would have a husband each would be perfect for the man is not perfect without the woman nor the woman without the man we turn in landmake and make a law such as ad prevailed at one time timp in romme borne that every man shall marry a wife buch such a law was made at bome borne at one time it was aimed at celibacy it was aimed at a certain class as the law of 1862 was waa aimed at t us one was enacted to prevent proven t marriage the other to compel marriages marriage that no cl class assof of men should grow up in the community without wives and that no woman should be allowed to forsake man and become a nun we have such a law say in this tabernacle that answers very well every woman is provided with a husband and every man with a wife but after a while somebody comes along and says bays gil 1 I do not like thib this law it is oppressive I 1 know for instance where it works very badly I 1 know men inen who do not want to have wives 11 they prefer a single life and they succeed after a while in repealing the law as they did in rome borne the law is repealed and men aro are at liberty to marry or not as they please on the thu top lop of this another jaw is enacted in effect thai that every man shall have but one ono wife and shall not be permitted to take two or moro more wives the women of course have to do just as the men earthey say eay they thoy cannot compel compe I 1 the men to marry them but must wait wal until they are invited to marry this law suits a great many individuals many men say says sll 1 I prefer not to hawe havo a wife and especially if you will only make a law confining the men to marry but one wife each I 1 like that very well because I 1 will not then be under the necessity of keeping a wife if awant I 1 want a partner an associate I 1 can have |