works. I told them at Provo I | Council? "Sometimes." Do the brethren go off satisfied with the de- 66 I have not spoken of the wrong, and I wish never to have an occasion to do so, that I may never have occasion to find fault with Israel again. It is the good I delight to dwell upon and promote and encourage. I delight to see the inhabitants of Zion increase in good works, in faith and faithfulness, and let sin pass behind, while they go on valiant and strong in the service of God. If we will hearken to counsel we shall be the best people in the world; we shall be as a bright light set upon a hill that cannot be hid, or like a candle upon a candlestick. We declare it to all the inhabitants of the earth from the valleys in the tops of these mountains that we are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-not ather, and then come and offer thy church but the church-and we have the doctrine of life and salvation for all the honest-in-heart in all the world. Who else has got it? Is it to be found in the creeds of Christendom? It is not. We have the living oracles of the Lord Almighty to lead us day by day. In consideration of these things we should be exemplary in all our actions. We may do great works for the good of the poor, we may give all our goods to feed them, and our bodies to be burned for the work of God, yet if we trifle with the sacred name of the Lord, and with our own salvation, it will profit us nothing, and we shall be found wanting, with no oil in our vessels in the great day of the Lord. High Councillors, do you have any trials before you? "Yes." Have the brethren complained of each other? "Yes." Are their feelings alienated one from the other? Is there a party spirit manifested in the gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." When we have done good ninety-nine times and then do an evil, how common it is, my brethren and sisters, to look at that one evil all the day long and never think of the good. Before we judge each other we should look at the design of the heart, and if it is evil, then chasten that individual, and take a course to bring him back again to righteousness. I want you to learn all you possibly can, and teach your neighbors, giving them all the information you can. When I see a brother or a sister refuse to impart knowledge, 1 know there is something wrong in the heart of that person. I am here to do good, and to teach my brethren and sisters to sanctify themselves, to get their food, to build cities and make farms, to teach them to accumulate knowledge, and then dispense it to all. I hope to see the time when we shall have a reformation in the orthography of the English language, among this people, for it is greatly needed. Such a reformation would be a great benefit, and would make the acquirement of an education much easier than at present. I say to fathers and mothers, never say a word that you would not be willing your son and daughter should say, or commit an act you would not sanction in your son or daughter, and so walk before your children that they may be prepared by your example to walk in the ways of life everlasting, and they will not depart from them; and if they, notwithstanding your example, should become froward in their feelings, and unruly, they will soon sce the folly of their ways and turn to their parents and acknowledge their faults and again wish to be feasted at their father's table. Parents should never drive their children, but lead them along, giving them knowledge as their minds are prepared to receive it. Solomon has written, "He that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." I do not think that these words of Solomon will justify the ruling of children with an iron hand. Chastening may be necessary betimes, but parents should govern their children by faith rather than by the rod, leading them kindly by good example into all truth and holiness Our children who are born in the Priesthood are legal heirs, and entitled to the revelations of the Lord, and as the Lord lives, his angels have charge over them, though they may be left to themselves occasionally. We should learn our own nature, and live worthy of our being. When Jesus Christ was left to himself, in His darkest hour, he faltered not, but overcame. He was ordained to this work. If we should ever be left to ourselves, and the Spirit withdrawn from us, it will be to try the strength of our integrity and faithfulness, to see whether we will walk in His ways even in a dark and cloudy hour. At times our children may not be in possession of a good spirit, but if the parent continues to possess the good spirit, the children will have the bad spirit but a short time. Parents who are Latter-day Saints are the ruling power; they are the kings and queens. Rule in righteousness, and in the fear and love of God, and your children will follow you. May God bless you. Amen. REMARKS by Elder George A. Smith, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City October 7th, 1867. [REPORTED BY DAVID W. EVANS. ] CONDITION OF THE SAINTS IN GREAT BRITAIN. There are, at the present time, in Great Britain ten or twelve thousand Saints, some of whom have been members of the Church for twenty or twenty-five years. They have contributed of their scanty means to feed the Elders and to help to emigrate their brethren and sisters, and in many cases many of them have gone without their meals and beds to make the Elders comfortable, and now they are without the means to gather with the Saints here in the mountains. sel with them. I want to bring these things to the consideration of all our brethren. They should remember that our brethren and sisters in the old countries labor under the disadvantage of the prejudice against Mormonism. Employers and business men, who are under the influence of the priests of the day, are unwilling to extend the same kindness and facilities for labor to the Latterday Saints that theydo to other persons. Besides these disadvantages, many of our brethren there have to work for There are a great many brethren, a shilling, eighteen pence, or two probably some are here to-day, who, shillings a day, as the case may be, in years past, have been assisted to and out of this have to pay house this country by the Perpetual Emi- rent, buy fuel, clothing, and every gration Fund, to which fund there is necessary of life for their families, now due from individuals assisted and in some cases, perhaps, they have about nine hundred thousand dollars. a sick father or mother to sustain out I wish to call the attention of this of their mere pittance, which is class of individuals to the condition barely enough to keep life in their of the poor Saints abroad. There bodies. Our brethren, who have had are many Saints here who, before the benefit of the emigration fund, gathering home, have said to their should remember that their first duty, brethren and sisters in the old world to God and themselves, is to liquidate "When we get to Zion, if God these liabilities with the very first blesses us, we will remember you and means they acquire after their arrival do the best we can to aid you to here; and that if they go on accumu emigrate." A great many persons lating cattle, horses, houses, and have failed to keep their promise, lands, and these debts remain unpaid, and their friends back feel that they they are robbing the poor and the are forgotten and neglected. In needy. This is a matter about which many instances, no doubt, Elders the brethren should not feel neglectwhile on missions have promised to ful or careless. Those who will come assist those who have treated them forward and honorably discharge with kindness and divided their mor- their liabilities to the Perpetual Emigration Fund will be blessed in their substance and in their efforts. And you must remember that while you are doing this you are acquiring experience and gaining information that will make you more successful hereafter. My desire is that, when the Elders go from this Conference, that they should light a fire in the breast of every person who has liabilities of this kind. Let every man in Israel, whom God has blessed, be alive and awake to this matter, and respond to the call the President has made for contributions to the Perpetual Emigration Fund. I understand that over there, there are hundreds of sisters who are determined to remain single until they reach Zion, and there are men in our midst, and some of them in debt to the Perpetual Emigration Fund, who are able to send for a dozen or two of these sisters; they ought to bring them to this country and place them where they can marry according to their wishes. May the blessings of heaven be upon us that we may be able to gather all our brethren and sisters from the old world. I appeal to the sons and daughters of Zion to be awake to this subject. Amen. REMARKS by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 8th, 1867. [REPORTED BY DAVID W. EVANS.] LIFE AND HEALTH-MATRIMONY-EDUCATION-HOME PRODUCTIONS. to the exclusion of everything else, so as to disgust the people, but in the true spirit of the Gospel seek to bring this matter home to the hearts and understandings of the people of their respective wards and settlements. I am persuaded that the subject | country to lay this matter to heart as last referred to by President Young one subject requiring their special -the prolongation of life and the attention. Not to make it a hobby preservation of health cannot be over-rated. This is one of the subjects relating to our temporal welfare that received the early attention of the Prophet Joseph, and the revela tion commonly called the Word of Wisdom has been before the people for over thirty years. I feel assured that a word on this subject kindly spoken by our President is a prompting from on high, and I believe that every true Elder in Israel will bear witness that this is the word of the Lord to us at this time. I exhort every Bishop and presiding Elder in this city as well as throughout the Feel after those who may be stupid and ignorant, who do not come to meeting, and do not receive the spirit of this Conference. Let the Bishops and others in authority endeavor through their teachers and otherwise to search ont such individuals, and dig round about them, and prune them that they may perchance bring forth fruit. REMARKS by Elder Erastus Snow, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 8th, 1867. [REPORTED BY DAVID W. EVANS.] LIFE AND HEALTH-MATRIMONY-EDUCATION-HOME PRODUCTIONS. our young men and women fail to make In relation to matrimony-one of the texts before the Conference- themselves acquainted with the law perhaps there is not so much a lack of God they are liable to be led of disposition on the part of the away. Young men or women seeking ladies as there is on the part of the the society of the wicked are soon gentlemen. The latter sometimes befogged and led to destruction. If feel themselves unworthy or unpre- the young men of Israel are not alive pared, and in many instances, per- to their duties, the young ladies may haps, they are so. And if you ask be left to wander in the society of why they are unprepared to assume the ungodly. This happens many these responsibilities as husbands and times through the neglect of parents heads of families, it is mostly because to impress on the minds of their they have neglected the word of the daughters the value of the kingdom Lord which they have heard from of heaven and the value and importhis stand. They have not given tance of salvation, exaltation and their hearts to prayer sufficiently; glory. Through the neglect of pathey have not read the scriptures and rents in properly educating their educated their spirits; they have not children many of them are now, perdrunk in the spirit of the Gospel. haps, unable to discern between saint Every young inan who has been and sinner, and they would as soon taught by his parents to pray in associate with the wicked and unbesecret, to mingle with the family in lieving as with the righteous. It is devotion, to attend meeting and re- a grievous sight to those who have ceive the counsels of the servants of laboured twenty-five or thirty years Lord, has grown in the spirit of the travelling over the world to preach Gospel, and this has given them a the gospel and to gather the people disposition which has impelled them, to see the rising generation without as soon as they arrive at a suitable that culture they so much need to age, to move forward in the duties develop within them a love of righand responsibilities that they have teouness, truth, and every holy prinbeen called upon, during this Confer- ciple. There is a great a field for ence, to assume. And they will meet missionary labor in Utah, as in any with alike response everywhere from part of the world. There is as great the opposite sex who are living their a necessity for preaching here at religion. If there is any lack of dis- home in our settlements, even in position on the part of the ladies it some parts of Great Salt Lake City, is because they are not living their at there is in any part of the world. religion, for the neglect of one duty There are those here who neglect leads to the neglect of another, and if the upportunities offered them and No. 13. Vol. XII. |