here is your glory. You are all desiring this, labor for it; and the longer I labor, the more experience I have. I find we have to labor with our own hands-this kingdom has got to be built up by manual labor; as the Governor said in the Legislature this winter, viz., our capital lies in the physical force of this people. Here is element in abundance all around us, as much as we have a mind to or ganize, according to the faith, experience, and ability that we possess from day to day. Brethren, let us build a Temple, make farms, and raise an abundance of the good things of the earth; let us go to work and act according to the revelations we read from time to time, let us establish home manufactories, and, as I have said numbers of times this winter, I would to God we could say to day that we will, from this time henceforth, sustain ourselves by the help of God, and abide by it. Decorate our own bodies with the workmanship of our own hands, and I know, as Mormonism" is true, and my experience correct, we shall that moment be independent. If we are not willing to fulfil the word of the Lord by counsel, and the experience we pass through, He will let the devil punish us until we do it. What do we want of the Gentiles? I would rather wrap myself up in a buffalo robe than go back amongst them again, unless I was counselled to do so. We are doing first-rate. I feel as though I was doing first-rate sometimes, and sometimes I do not feel so, but can discover that there is room for me to do a little better. I know the majority of this people mean to do right, and follow the counsel of the Lord's servants, but there are some few who are wandering, their minds are not open to mark the providences of God to this people, but are pinned upon something else. We hear of meetings being established around in this city, for this ite, that ite, and the other ite. What is the matter with this portion of the people? Have they been neglecting their duties and their prayers? When I am out in the country, and stay at the houses of the brethren, I have an opportunity of seeing who prays. I stop all night at a brother's house, I eat with his family, and I begin to know how he feels. If he is a praying man, he will ask me to pray with him, or he will pray for me, and his family, and the welfare of Israel. I found, as I travelled round among the people, that many Elders of this Church seldom bow down to pray. We cannot live righteously without praying. Show me an individual who lives without prayer, and I will show you an individual who lives without the bread of life. Let us pray, and get into heaven as fast as possible; for we need not be many years in getting there. The quicker we get a Temple built, and preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth, and gather the Saints, the quicker we shall be released from the powers of darkness. If a man is perfectly filled with the Spirit of God, when the devil comes along there is no chance for him to enter. Here then is quite an advantage in a person's being continually filled with the Spirit of truth. are on the right track, you are right, and nobody can get you wrong. If you suffer the Spirit of the Lord to leave your hearts, and the devil comes along and finds an empty house, he then enters in, and inasmuch as we are under transgression, he lays his hand upon us, saying, "You shall be my tool for me to work with, you have transgressed the laws of God, and my spirit shall lead you about; you shall go into Gladdenism, to this and that ism." I say you ought to feel the happiest people upon the earth, be cause we have had experience in this Church; we have got righteous men So you to lead us; they have stood the teststood through mobs, fire, sword, and death, and their knees have never trembled, nor their lips quivered upon any occasion; but they have done every thing that could be done by mortal man for the good of this people, and for our deliverance. We have nothing to fear, but fear God and work righteousness all the days of our lives. Do not let us be cast down, nor be troubled about that which we cannot help. As the Apostle Paul says, we have done the will of the Gentiles, but from this time we will serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let us weed our own gardens, take care of our own concerns, and all will be right as far as we are concerned. I feel well, and I mean to go ahead in this great work; I want to see the winding up scene of this generation. If ever we are clipped of our Priesthood, our glory, and our crown, it will be when we cease to faithfully preach the Gospel, cease to keep the commandments of God enjoined upon us, cease doing good to this people. Then, at once, the principles of Mormonism" will be contracted in us; we shall become leaky vessels in the principles of the Gospel, while we ought to retain every good thing we receive. up, and exalting them in my feelings, I feel first-rate myself; but when I feel like dragging them down, I feel contracted in my feelings, my mind. does not expand in the principles of "Mormonism;" but when I feel to bless everybody and do right by night and day, I feel like blessing every body, and strong like a young lion sallying from his thicket. Do you want a qualification to that expression? I feel like blessing those who ought to be blessed, they do not stick anywhere else. God blesses no person, only on condition, neither do His servants. If a man rises up and prophecies great and glorious things on your head it is all on conditions. And says Jesus Christ, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." It is the faithful performance of our duties that will insure us an entrance into the celestial kingdom of God, not only to-day, but to the end of our lives. Now, brethren and sisters, may God bless you; pray for yourselves; go into the private chamber, and there kneel down, and make known your wants unto God; if you ask wisdom He will not upbraid, but give it to you liberally. Get the spirit of prayer upon you, and then you are all right; it is no matter where we are, so as we are found doing the will of God. He Does a man lose any of his Priest- does not require us to ascend these hood and power by going to heal and snow-capped mountains, or to go to bless the sick? No, He receives a the United States this winter, to do blessing at the same time. Is not a His will, but the arena of action is man blessed when he gets a revelation here, in our family circle, by our own from God to this people? He is; and firesides, attending to our daily labors so are we blessed if we do the work and local duties. And if a man wishes of God. No man or woman is exempted to have the Spirit, let him expand from doing good; we may do just as himself in temporal matters, or spirmuch as we please. Let us have re-itual if you please, for it is all spiritual spect and kindness for each other; let us feel well towards each other, speak good things to each other, and of each other, for this is the way Saints should live. When we take this course we shall feel right. When I feel like blessing my brethren, like lifting them and all temporal according to my feelings. I preach the Gospel, it is temporal, it is manual labor; I would rather chop cord wood any time than do it, were I to consult my natural feelings. For when I preach to the people I want to take the word in my hand and throw it down their necks, | name. But don't be afraid, brethren, and say, "That is Mormonism,' will you will all have a chance to go and you swallow it? It is the truth from see for yourselves. heaven and I know it." That is about all the preaching a man can do. You may quote Scripture for a month, and a sectarian will rise up and tell you, "We preach the Holy Scripture," but if they do, they do not know it is true. I know that" Mormonism " is true; this testimony will make him shake like Belshazzar of old. When a man knows that "Mormonism" is true, he is commissioned to preach the Gospel; if he does not, he is not qualified. We have heard a great deal this morning about reading and qualifying ourselves; it is right, and according to the revelations of God; but if I cannot have but one of these qualifications given me, I want to have the testimony of Jesus, which will pierce them like a cannon ball. It made me feel so. You will be called upon to go to the nations; and before you go, as brother Jedediah said, we want you to have Mormon " thunder in you; and if you have not got any of it, we will try to pump some in you before you start. For you will have many kinds of devils to contend with; there are laughing devils, and crying devils, murmuring devils, and sympathetic devils, besides many more I could 66 I belong to all the Quorums. One Quorum is just as necessary as another, and if so, it is just as honorable in its place, sphere, and calling. What a beautiful Church the Lord has organized! We could not have thought of it; it is altogether beyond the wisdom of man, because a man, no matter how big, how eloquent, or learned he may be, has to be admitted through the same door, he must pass through the same ordeal as the ignorant, yet honest, poor man, he must be kicked, and cuffed, he must sacrifice all things for Christ's sake, or he cannot reign with this people. How should we look among the exalted and glorified Saints who have passed through much suffering to obtain their crowns, if we had not passed through the same, could we reign with them with any satisfaction to ourselves? I think not. As we heard here last Sunday, do not be discouraged because you were not in the various troubles the Saints have passed through on sundry occasions, for you will get a chance to try yourselves in like scenes, that you may have the same glory, exaltation, and crown. May the Lord bless you for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. No. 23.] [Vol. II. PRIVILEGES AND DUTIES OF THE SAINTS. An Address by President Heber C. Kimball, Delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, September 19, 1852. There is not anything that has been revealed to me, since I came into this Church, but what I most assuredly know to be true. "Mormonism" is true, and we who have enlisted in this | Church have enlisted in a good cause; and by continually obeying the truth to the end of our lives, it will lead us into the Celestial world; and I know that there is no other way to get there, only by the principle of obedience, and bringing our hearts to bear upon the truth, and to gauging our lives by it. I reflect many times upon these things, and am thankful that I know and possess the truth in a degree, still am aware that there are thousands of things before us which I have not yet attained to. The only way for us to be useful to one another is to take a course to build upon the principles of truth, and never to suffer ourselves to cultivate any but the principles of right. Brethren and Sisters-I never saw | the Gospel, but who has in a greater the day in which I felt more thankful or less degree been influenced by than I do at the present time, that that Spirit to believe it to be the the God whom I serve has given me truth-that Joseph Smith was a Prothe Spirit of truth. I have no desire phet, an Apostle, a man sent of God in my heart to manifest anything, by to preach the Gospel. He was, my words or by my acts, only the whether they believe it or not. We truth. live in a day and age of the world which we have talked about a thousand times, but do we fully realize it? We live in a day that the Apostles in the days of Jesus, and the Patriarchs, and thousands of holy men actually saw-they beheld the day we now live in, and anxiously desired to enjoy it in the flesh, but they died without that privilege. Are we not privileged with that day? Do we not live in the days of the Prophets and Apostles, in the days of Patriarchs and holy men? We do. I realize it, I reflect upon it, and desire that the people should reflect upon it, and diligently seek after the Spirit of truth-seek after the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of revelation, and it will reveal past things to you and show you things to come. Many times you reflect upon things, but are not certain whether they are correct or not, and by and by they will be revealed from this stand, the very things you had in your mind for years, and that the Spirit of God had shown to you, but you did not know how to organize and classify them, and judge of their truth. President Brigham Young is a Prophet, and can present doctrines to you, classify them, and set them in order; that is his office ; and the Apostle has his office, which I am satisfied that a man's conduct has a great influence; it has an influence with the Saints and with the world. The world is in possession of the truth and of the Spirit of the Lord in some degree; as you have heard brother Brigham say a great many times, there is not an honest man or woman, who has heard is to preach the Gospel in all the world, and organize the Church, and set it in order, to take the elements and combine them together. Inasmuch as we are the Elders of Israel, the saviors of men, we should take a course to set an example that is worthy of imitation in our daily walk, conversation, and business transactions. While we were hearing from this stand last Sabbath concerning the course which some men took in keeping groceries, &c., I thought all men are not alike-have not all got strong minds, that it is the duty of every person never to introduce into or permit a thing to enter your houses that would have a tendency to allure the mind and lead it astray, but set a good example and do as you would wish to be dealt by? A man who starts a drinking shop in the midst of this people, is introducing that which has a tendency to lead away men who are habituated to strong drinks from their youth up, and have so craving an appetite for them that they cannot let them alone if they are where they can be got. Another thing, it does not suit my mind to believe that man to be a good man who would present anything to his neighbor that is calculated in its nature to be injurious. As we are the people of God, as "Mormonism" is true, and as we have enlisted under the banner of Christ the King, the Savior of the world, and as he taught the laws of his Father, we should do his will and keep his commandments as he kept the commandments of his Father, and never allow ourselves to do wrong, or act in any manner that would lead any one astray. But where a man does permit himself to do those things, I have no doubt that in process of time it will work together for good to those who love God and keep His commandments. We can see who is righteous, who is false, and who is true. Let us keep the commandments of God, and when we meet together, as we have this afternoon, and every afternoon, to partake of the Sacrament, let us pray that we may be strengthened in our bodies and spirits, that we may be filled with the same spirit, power, truth, and righteousness that dwelt in the bosom of Jesus, that we may cleave to the vine and partake of the same nourishment with it. Let us all take a course to do right, and, if we all do right, there is no person here that will do wrong. I am aware that there will have to be a sifting, but would there be any necessity for it if the elements were pure? No. You can obtain pure sand here upon the public works, and with that you can make good tempered mortar, for the better it is tempered the better wall you can put up for your habitation. Temper the mortar and let the sand be clear of stone, roots, and every imperfect thing. If this were the case the masons would have no use for the coarse screen to throw the sand against, nor for a fine sieve to separate the finer particles. It is just so with us. The Lord will keep sifting, and will prepare a riddle and sieve, that is, the devil will riddle you, and after that he will sift you. Did not the Savior tell one of his disciples that the devil desired to sift him as wheat is sifted? We have come together here, the wheat is gathered in from the four quarters ready for the thrashing and sifting. The world is called the field, and the reapers are going forth to reap and bind up the wheat, or children of the kingdom, into churches, and then draw them together from the four quarters of the earth. For what purpose? In order that the wheat may be thrashed, and after it is thrashed it must go through the fanning mill, and many of the kernels are blown out with the chaff. The heavier wheat drops down in the place |