Show DISCOURSE BY PRESIDENT GEOROE at the tabernacle salt sall lake oki sunday afternoon march 1893 REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER I 1 desire in standing up before you this afternoon to ask you for the exercise of your faith in my behalf that I 1 may i e ab e to speak I 1 have been suffering for two weeks from a very severe evore attack ot of influenza or la Is grippe or something of that character and it has weakened me considerably I 1 am greatly pleased at having the opportunity port unity this afternoon to meet with the in this tabernacle I 1 have not had the privilege for several weeks of meeting with my brethren and sisters to partake of the sacrament there is 8 no society upon the earth hat bat is so sweet to a lattard Latt erd ay saint balm as the society of his brethren anti and sisters there is a nearness a oneness an identity of feeling among the latter day saints and they feel as though their inte interests repts were in common and that the objects object that they have lu in view were the same the lord has promised that he would give unto tits his people the spirit of union and ot of love aud and that promise has been very abundantly antly fulfilled and not only is 18 the feeling of love jove bestowed upon the latter day saints for each other but also for mankind at large president taylor when he was living sometimes would quote a prayer that somebody body bai bad used gou bless me anil and my wife my son SOD john anu his wire wife us four and DO more now that is not the kind of a prayer that tho the latter day saints for iyoub we feel love for our brethren sua aud sisters and are united with them our love jove at least ought to extend aud I 1 trust it does extend to all mankind as an our brethren and sisters bound together by ties that cannot be broken even the ties of a common pis parentage it la is this faith and understanding on the part of the latter laiter saints that causes their kneir hearts to yearn for the salvation of sit all knowing us os they do that guil is cur ur father and that all mankind are his children it makes no difference where they are nor what color they may be nor what are their peculiarities liari li ties their language their surroundings roun dings or their creede as to their being our brethren and siebers si igi elers thit thic is the relationship exists among the aumau family when we look upon god as the father ot of the human roce race not in a metaphorical but bucina in A literal sense it brings us into clo cloce connection with each other we are then indeed one anti and when we have this feeling we are inspired with a desire to impart unto all the inhabitants of the earth all the chi children luren of huriod any blessings we may enjoy if they are blessings of a spiritual nature we want to make them kown an and a to point out how bow they can be obtained if they are blessings ut a temporal character e also should ue lre to impart them and to have them shared in by our brethren and sisters this is the gospel G ot or salvation this la is the plan which god has hag devised for the redemption and exall exaltation Sk of all his children and when men and women become acquainted with this gospel they feel a burning desire in their hearts to impart its bless blasg ings inga unto all with whom they are brought in contact the same spirit and feeling which prompted the lord jesus to come and make himself an offering for sin and to be willing to be sacrificed for his brethren and slating rests upon us and we feel as an though wo we in our turn and in our place are willing to do all that we can to contribute to the salvation of humanity it is a feeling that we should cultivate be cause it comes from god and ana in a cultivating cherishing and exercising otwe it we follow in the footsteps or our lord and master I 1 believe the latter day saints faveto have to a very goodly extent exhibited this feeling there is in much yet yel remaining for us to do there is dij an immense field stretching out before us ua for the exercise ot of these qualities and this disposition yet there are many scenes sceney we have passed through that are very pleasant to reflect upon in ila connection with the labors of the elders and people ot of this church the gumpel has been preached to the nations of the earth by our elders eldera without money aud and without price they have lett left their homes their families and the pleasant associations association that surrounded them for the purpose of carrying the glad tidings of galva aton to those who were ignorant ot toe the principles of the gospel and they have gone very freeby very ungrudgingly and have not spared time or labor they have practiced self denial to a wonderful extent and in doing dg this thin have buve been prompted by a desire to save the souls of the children of men to bring them to the knowle knowledge oge of the gospel to impart unto them the joy boy that they themselves hai r calved this has bas been done now for a great many years A few days only remain of the sixty three years since this church was organized and during that time thousands upon thou sands of elders have gone forth preaching to the inhabitants of the earth declaring unto them this the message which god has given the world cannot say you have concealed that which god revealed to you you have prevented us from hearing bearing it because you charged for your la lasoro toro or you limited your travels to favored places where you conlu giat get remuneration for your time the world cannot say aning tile the he latter day sainte for they have go gone and rone gone freely and havu have declared sin aa they have had opportunity the grand and orious message of h they have been the bearers that god haa spoken arm the heavens has broken belong he long silence that has reigned has baa 1 revealed ilia his purposes once more to the children of men in plainness haa ban I 1 restored the old authority by which 1 men performed such works in s his name in ancient days daye has re i stored the old church organization in its complete itil falness and haa bag bestowed once mure more the holy ghost upon MOD men this message the elders of this church have borne and they have gone from land to land jadd according to the opportunities they have had and have declared it unto the inhabitants of the earth and what has been the motive that has baa prompted them the motive has bag been to do the will of god and then to save the souls of the children of men to impart to them the message of salvat salvation loo and to warn them of approaching judgments I 1 believe they have been as faithful in this generation as nosh noah and his hie sons were before the flood of course we know but little about the efforts they made we only know that god gave nosh noah a message and prepared a plan of salvation tor for the inhabitants of the earth and no do doubt he declared with all the power that he be had bad the message that god had given unto him but it bad bitite effect upon the inhabitants of the earth our message has been better received we have thousands who have listened to it and who have believed it and who have taken the steps which god has pointed out to receive the benefit which follows obedience to it As it was I 1 the days ot oi noah the savior sale so it shall be io in the ine days of the coming of the son of man and we are livila in those days and this work that we are engaged in to is a preparatory work to prepare the way for the coming of the lord that the earth shall not be visited by the calamities that shall precede his coming without the inhabitants being warned concerning them it is for this purpose that the lord has poured out the people in these last days the spirit of gathering it has upon the inhabitants of every laud land who have received the gospel and they have gathered to these mountains and va valleys aleys they havecotte because they believe that god has commanded the evidence that them to come autt and he b has a s commanded them to come has been received by them through the outpouring of his holy spirit upon them it to is a remarkable fact that of all the thousands of latter baiter day saints that have crossed the ocean to come to zion there has scarcely an accident ever happened to one of them it is now fifty three years since the latter day saints commenced to leave europe tor for america aud and luring during that period they have trave traveled Jed so as though they were inhered cured of beaven who ever heard of elders being lost or companies of with accidents and ali being destroy eu it Is marvelous when we contemplate cottem plate it considering toe the numbers dumbers that have anu the length of time that has baa been covered by their travels there has been a special providence over the people in gathering them from the far distant lands where they formerly lived and it is IB because god has commanded them to gather not only has he corn in a u tied this people to gather father but he has haa commanded all people to W listen to this message with which the elders are entrusted and to obey it and to gather out from babylon when I 1 say babylon I 1 mean that corrupt system of things that prevails throughout the earth anu which is likely to te be overthrown sooner or later now I 1 have sold said that the leter latter day have shown their love to some gome extent while I 1 was mentioning atiat 11 11 occurred to me that there has beau an exhibition of love and elf covering some Bom years eyears that is now scarcely cely thought of by the people I 1 allude to the sending down for a series 8 ries of years trains from this valley sua from other valleys valley a to the frontiers frontier to bring out the poor saints this la Is almost forgotten now A new generation has grown up op since those times railroads have been built and no one thinks now about our old mode of travel but for a number of years there were hundreds of teams sent from this territory to bring up the poor saints from the missouri river and after the rail road was commenced from the end and of track for years there were sent wagons 2000 yoke of cattle for each wagon had lot loi r yoke ot of cattle teamsters teamster with guards to watch the cattle flour to food feet tem teamsters oters and the additional guards also the emigrants that had to be transported in this thir labor they spent the most valuable part of the year for work bringing the saints up from the river supplying them with food caching flour as the went down and picking it up again as they returned think of the expense of thia this wits all doue done by the people who vent sent these teams without direct pay they got some credit I 1 suppose on their tit tithing bing but they got no money each entire year would be spent in this manner gathering the poor what was it roi foi why did dia the people do this where can you find such an exhibition of kindness such a desire to help others nowhere you may search in vain elsewhere for such an illustration of kindness and good feeling and broth brot bely ely love what was the motive it was to help the people and to extend to them the blessings that they themselves enjoyed it was to contribute to their temporal salvation precisely the same principle that prompts them when called to go upon missions to leave their wives their children their fathers and mothers mo ibers and all the tender associations of lifets carry the glad timings of salvation to the inhabitants ot of the earth these are exhibitions of love I 1 thank god for them I 1 thank god tb that wit I 1 live at a time and among a people who are capable of comprehending the pur purposes potes of god and who have risen to such heights of self sacrifice as this I 1 think it is good to reflect upon that there are people on the earth who have these feelings elings re and who are not sordid and selfish self leb and thoroughly engrossed in helping L them hem selves at the expense of their neigh boro bore but who live for humanity and tor for something more than the accumulation of perishable and aad who love jove their heir fellows sufficiently to do anything they can for their salvation these valleys have been settled by a people of this kind we have been sustained here ty by that principle of brotherly love we never coul i have done that which but baa been dune done wid we never could have maintained our foothold in these valleys we would have perished by starvation or by indians indian or by other evils had bad this feeling not prevailed the rhe very settlement of salt bait lake city was only made possible by this brotherly love and aff affection edtion so it has been from that time till the present in 1866 1855 and suppose hundreds ot of people would have peria perished lied to in our settlements through the grasshopper visitation bad it not been for the disposition to help each other starvation was averted by this feeling I 1 thank god for its restoration to the earth it makes one letl that there is one spot on the earth at least that is not wholly given over to the worship of mammon that there to is a people in whose bosoms burn some of the old feelings feell nga of which we read in the bible and which we know are from god it is i delightful to think that these feelings fee linga are not entirely obliterated from the earth but that there to a people who are seeking to cherish rhems them to main tain them and to impart them to their children after them and yet with all this how far we are ourselves from being what we should bel be we have constantly to be battling against selfishness and many ot of our people almost fear lest we shall be overcome by these evil influences that thai are surging n g around us and are wash washing izig as it were against our very thresh olds there is danger to be feared from this spirit of evil of selfishness of devil take the b I 1 nd most of every man for himself and many in ID our midst succumb to the these in fluentes fluen ces after all that has been done to bring them to a knowledge of the truth they forget the lessons that god has taught and is teaching and they yield themselves to the spirit of the world from which we have been gathered I 1 suppose this will continue to be the case until satan is bound god will not take away our agency he has given you and me our agency to do as we please I 1 will not say that he cannot take away our ag agency eticy that would be irreverent but itle it is not consistent with his plan to take away anybody a agency every human being has his agency we can serve god or we can serve toe the devil we can listen to ta the voice of the spirit of god and the entreaties that we hear frona from it or we can reject them and listen to evil blandishments blandish ments and allurements allure ments there is a percentage perhaps 1 I trust it is very small and I 1 am led to believe it is of the latter day saints who forget the lessons god to is teaching and who yield to sib and seek to build themselves up instead of the zion of god now I 1 look upon it that when a man receives the truth it is his duty to co seek beek to build the truth up to labor for zion and bot to build up anything that 19 1 opposed to zion from the day that he receives the gospel gospe I 1 ot of th d son of god throughout his mortal career per atnally I 1 would not went want to do any thing else elee knowingly but in saying baying that thai do I 1 mean to convey the idea that we are to be an exclusive demple that we are to shut ourselves up and cut ourselves off from all communication with our follows fellows no VV hen I 1 labor tor for zion I 1 labor lor for the whole human family I 1 labor for god I 1 lator labor for the establishment of that rule and dominion that he seeks to intro duce and perpetuate in the earth I 1 do no not labor for the mormons cormons alone but I 1 labor for all for as far as this spirit to which I 1 have alluded extends so far will it benefit and bless all who partake of it it will bring a blessing to |