George Q. Cannon

First Counselor in the First Presidency (April 7, 1889 – April 12, 1901)

First Counselor in the First Presidency (October 10, 1880 – July 25, 1887)

Counselor in the First Presidency (June 8, 1873 – August 29, 1877)

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (August 26, 1860 – April 12, 1901)

General Conference Addresses

• October 1899 General Conference
  • The Saints are the Saviors of Men
    • “I do fear that we will defer the redemption of Zion indefinitely through our unwillingness to do the things that God requires at our hands.”
    • “I feel to say that all the evils we suffer from are due to our disobedience and hardness of heart. The persecutions that we have endured are traceable to this. Our future persecutions will be attributable to the same cause.”
  • In Relation to Prayer
    • “It is a delightful thing to hear little children pray. They pray so innocently and simply; and I would rather hear a little child pray than I would some of the ceremonious and formal prayers.”
• April 1899 General Conference
  • The Church a Blessing to the World
    • “Therefore, this Church has been a great blessing to the poor of every land. Those who have heard this Gospel have been delivered by it from their bondage and from their oppression, and they are brought to a land of liberty where they can receive of the benefits that liberty bestows and all of the advantages which the Lord has promised to the inhabitants of this land.”
  • Individual Responsibility of the Saints
    • “Life to the Latter-day Saints possesses a seriousness that I do not think other people feel, because of our knowledge concerning our existence here, why we have come here, and what lies before us.”
    • “There are no people upon the earth who have such ambitious hopes and aims as the Latter-day Saints have. Some would call them irreverent. But the Lord has made promises to this people, and the Latter-day Saints believe in them.”
    • “It is God’s design to make us priests and kings; not to have an empty title, not to sit upon thrones without power, but to be actually and really priests and kings. The promise is that all things that He hath shall be given unto us. We will be His heirs; we will be (if I may use the term without irreverence) co-partners with Him in all this power and authority.”
• October 1898 General Conference
  • Missionary Work
    • “Our Elders among the nations have been very successful, the Lord, is blessing them, and great progress is being made in various directions. We are warning the people, and we are bringing the honest In heart to a knowledge of the truth.”
    • “We should seek to help ourselves, and to call upon God, who is as near the individuals in the settlements as He is to us. He is as willing to listen to the prayers of an Elder in the remotest parts of the earth, as He is in Zion. He is willing to hear all our cries, if we have faith.”
    • “There is no labor on the earth so pleasurable as laboring for Zion, whether in the ministerial field or at home in any field that may be assigned us.”
• April 1898 General Conference
  • Dawning of a Brighter Day
    • “In the hearts of all the Latter-day Saints there has been a responsive echo to the words of hope, cheer and comfort and prophesy that have been given by those upon whom the spirit of prophecy has rested. The people have felt the spirit, they have been cheered and sustained by it.”
    • “We know the spirit of prophecy is in our midst, and that if there is any danger threatening us we shall be prepared for it. The Lord will inspire His servants and His people so that they will not be found unprepared.”
  • Trouble From Disunion
    • “The Lord has chosen the weak things of the world, that they might not glory in themselves nor in their own strength; and the man that does claim the glory takes steps to destroy his influence and to lose his power and gifts. “
  • Prophetic Promises
    • “We should be a peaceful people, seeking peace, and endeavoring to escape all the horrors of war, and to avert them from the nations of the earth, particularly our own nation.”
• October 1897 General Conference
  • The Scriptures
    • “I hope I am not doing the people of God injustice in making this statement; but I believe that comparatively few of the Latter-day Saints are in the habit of reading the words of God that He has given to us in the records that have come to us.”
  • Mission of the Saints
    • “We have been taught that we are the children of God, and that He works out His results by aiding His children, teaching them, and having them exercise their agency in the direction that He points out.”
• October 1884 General Conference
  • The Fulfillment of Ancient and Modern Prophecy
    • “This system which God has established, this great work of our God, cannot be measured by human thoughts; the effects of this work and that which it is accomplishing on the earth, that which it will accomplish on the earth, cannot be estimated by anything that is known among men. It is entirely unique, unlike anything else that has ever been upon the earth since our Savior laid the foundation of that dispensation—there has never been anything like it among men, and therefore every calculation concerning it, every prognostication and every suggestion is at fault in regard to this work of our God.”
    • “Those who would reign with Christ must suffer with Him. Those who would reign with the Prophets; those who would gain the glory that God has in store for the righteous must suffer with the Prophets and Apostles.”
    • “The sinner in Zion will tremble. That day will come. Fear will come upon the hypocrite. Therefore, repent of your sins before it is too late.”
    • “God has not chosen men to preside without laying upon them responsibility of a very grave and weighty character. He holds us accountable for these things. When a man has a relative and he condones the offense of that relative, through sympathy, he will not be free from responsibility.”
• April 1884 General Conference
  • Predictions in the Book of Mormon
    • “In this way, this word of God, through his servant Nephi, uttered 2,400 years ago, has been and is being fulfilled to the very letter. Thus God is bringing to pass in the most wonderful manner the words of this Book. It is going forth, as He said it should, to all the nations of the earth. It is accomplishing that which He designed it should, and it will go forth and accomplish its mission. There is no power upon the earth that can stop it, because it is the word of God, and the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and it will be the means, as has been said, of gathering out the honest from every nation, causing them to dwell in peace, uniting them in doctrine, and putting an end to all controversy and contention concerning points of doctrine, because it reveals the Gospel with great plainness unto all those who will receive it.”
• October 1883 General Conference
  • Increased Faith in God
    • “This Church has made its onward progress, despite this crystallized unbelief, which has been like a wall of adamant in front of us, hedging our way, barring our progress in the midst of the human family.”
• October 1882 General Conference
  • Persecution Fulfilling Prophecy
    • “As the trial may be, so will be the strength to endure it. There is a wise desire of the Lord our God in permitting these tests to our faith, to see whether in the midst of gloomy and threatening surroundings we shall falter, shall shrink and become timid and be overcome, or whether in the midst of this gloom, in the midst of these forbidding appearances, our faith will still be strong in our God, and in the promises, the precious promises, which He has made to us.”
    • “God is ordering this matter just right; and if we should fail in any point, he will make it up, He will supplement it by his overruling power and wisdom. He is watching our affairs.”
• October 1881 General Conference
  • The Saints a Peculiar People
    • “Let us seek for purity; let us inculcate purity; let us take the principles of the Gospel and teach them to our children and endeavor to make them better Latter-day Saints than we are; let us do everything we can in this direction, and then if we do this there will be no vice in our land.”
    • “We want a religion of honesty. If I say a thing to a man I ought to live so that he will believe every word I say. If I sell him a piece of property, I should tell him the truth about it, there should be no concealment, no lying or allowing the man to be deceived.”
    • “Ours ought to be a religion of works and not of profession. It should be a religion that we can carry with us in our everyday work—a religion that will make a man a better son, a better brother, a better husband, a better father than he would be without it, and I would not give a fig for a religion that did not have that effect.”
    • “When I hear men quarreling with their children, husbands with their wives, wives with their husbands, I say there is not much religion about that kind of work or conduct. A man who is not kind to his wife needs some religion. A man who is not kind to his children and to his neighbors, needs some religion, and he needs the religion of Jesus Christ.”
    • “If we would devote a little time to self-examination when we go to bed, review the events of the day, see if our conduct has been such as God can approve of, and as enables us to lie down with a conscience void of offense towards God and all men, we do well, and if we cannot do that it is time to repent.”
    • “From my childhood I have vowed in my heart—and I have endeavored to keep the vow—that not one cent of mine would ever go to build up anything that was opposed to Zion.”
• April 1881 General Conference
  • Modern Fulfillment of Ancient Prophecy
    • “We would never be the people God intends and designs us to be if we were to be let alone. The warfare must go on; it is an unceasing one; the powers are arrayed one against another, with God on one side and the Adversary on the other.”
  • Education
    • “The danger in indiscriminate reading on the part of young people lies in this: their impressions are vivid, and if what they read be incorrect; if, in point of fact, what they read is based on unsound premises and be entirely wrong, but it is presented in an agreeable taking and specious manner, they are apt to accept it as being true.”
• October 1879 General Conference
  • Spiritual Gifts Attainable
    • “There is not a single thought of our hearts which he does not comprehend; there is nothing connected with us he does not know. We may hide ourselves in the bowels of the earth, but we cannot conceal ourselves from his all-piercing sight.”
    • “God in our day is a God of revelation, and he communicates his mind and his will unto those who seek after it, not to the President of the Church alone; not to the apostles of the Church alone; not to the high priests or seventies or any of the officers or all of them alone, but he communicates his mind and his will to all who seek after him in humility and meekness and lowliness of heart, obeying his commandments.”
    • “There are too many too lazy or too indifferent—it may be indifference and not laziness in every instance, to think, to feel after, to seek for and receive the blessing of God.”
    • “It is my duty and your duty to think pure thoughts, to have holy desires, to be charitable, to be kind, to be long-suffering, to be full of love, and not any of those evil influences.”
    • “What is our duty? It is not to lend ourselves in any particular to the devil, but it is to obey God; to let the fruits of righteousness be manifested in our lives.”
    • “The natural man is at enmity with Christ and with God; and unless he seeks to conquer his nature by bringing it into subjection to the mind of God, he is not a son, or she is not a daughter of God.”
  • The Righteous Suffer Persecution
    • “It is not that everyone who is reviled and who is persecuted possesses the truth. This does not always follow. But there never was a prophet of whom we have any account, raised up in the midst of the children of men to proclaim unto them divine truths, who did not receive in his life and experience these very things.”
    • “Whenever a preacher is popular in the midst of a wicked generation, or a man is popular who professes to be a minister of truth, you may set it down as a certain fact that that man does not preach the truth as it exists in Christ.”
• April 1879 General Conference
  • Influence of the Latter-Day Saints
    • “It has always been a favorite idea of mine, that no single human being who chooses to exert an influence for good among his fellow men, ever spoke or ever acted in vain—without making his influence, his example, his words, have an effect upon those with whom he has been brought in contact.”
• April 1878 General Conference
  • Labors and Experience of the Elders
    • “A great many of the Latter-day Saints have failed, as I have sometimes thought, to grasp this idea, to grasp the idea that the Lord was founding a great nationality—if I may use such a limited phrase as that; it limits the idea to call it a nationality. The Lord is gathering out from every nation, kindred, tongue and people a community, out of which he intends to form for himself a kingdom, not an earthly kingdom, but a kingdom over which he will preside in the heavens; a kingdom that should be based upon purely republican principles upon the earth; and therefore not a kingdom in the strict sense of the word, so far as its earthly location is concerned; but a republic.”
    • “It requires no wisdom for a man to criticize the acts of another man. It is even said that a fool can ask questions that could not be answered by the wisest men. Unwise people can criticize plans and schemes, the creation of wise and experienced heads; that is a comparatively easy matter for persons to do. But it requires great wisdom to organize; it requires great wisdom to create measures that will bind a people of diversified interests together; of varieties of views, dissimilar habits and to some extent, of training, and to bring them together, and bind them together, and make one people of them, it requires the highest qualities of wisdom, and it is this we are endeavoring to do.”
  • Ideas Held By the Latter-day Saints Winning Their Way
    • “Our boys, when they arrive at years of maturity and can take care of a wife, should get married, and there should not be a lot of young men growing up in our midst who ought to be, but are not married. While I do not make the remark to apply to individual cases, I am firmly of the opinion that a large number of unmarried men, over the age of twenty-four years, is a dangerous element in any community, and an element upon which society should look with a jealous eye.”
    • “We should take all the pains in our power to educate our children, furnishing them the best facilities, that our daughters and sons may be educated and accomplished.”
• October 1877 General Conference
  • An Important Conference
    • “And while it is the right of all the Twelve Apostles to receive revelation, and for each one to be a Prophet, to be a Seer, to be a Revelator, and to hold the keys in the fullness, it is only the right of one man at a time to exercise that power in relation to the whole people, and to give revelation and counsel, and direct the affairs of the Church—of course, always acting in conjunction with his fellow servants.”
    • “There is only one man at a time who can hold the keys, who can dictate, who can guide, who can give revelation to the Church. The rest must acquiesce in his action, the rest must be governed by his counsels, the rest must receive his doctrines.”
• October 1875 General Conference
  • The Pleasure of Serving God
    • “I am thankful that God allows those who do not keep his commandments to fall away, so that his Church may be cleansed, and, in this respect, this Church is different from any other that is upon the earth. A man may practice iniquity and do wrong in other churches, and he may cover it up for years, and nobody, or probably but a few—himself, his God, and a few others—be aware of this wrong, and he may pass along and nobody ever imagine that there is anything wrong with him. But it is not so in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—no man can stand in this Church, or retain the Spirit of God and continue in a course of hypocrisy for any length of time.”
    • “The true policy of the Latter-day Saints is a preservative and defensive policy; to preserve and defend ourselves when we are attacked; not to be aggressive, not to intrude upon others’ rights, but to preserve our own rights.”
  • Self-Preservation
    • “We ought not to have an idle man, woman or child in these valleys. Says one—“But we cannot afford to pay the prices that are asked for home-manufactured goods.” Let me ask, Can we afford to sit idle? Can we afford to do nothing, and to pay money to, and employ others? I say that we cannot; but we are doing it all the time. We are bringing wagons and carriages into this country, when we have abundance of skill here to manufacture them. And the same is true of many other things which we might manufacture and supply our own wants.”
• April 1875 General Conference
  • There is Cause for Rejoicing
    • “The enemies of this work may indulge in whatever anticipations of our discomfiture or downfall they please, but as for us, let us take a practical, sensible view of the work with which we are identified, and prepare ourselves accordingly, so that when the hour of trial shall come, be it severe or not, we may be prepared therefore, having strength and faith sufficient to endure it, and to bear witness unto all men that we have not cherished this faith in vain.”
    • “Let us pursue the path that God has marked out, being liberal, truthful, upright, dealing fairly, honestly, and tolerantly with every man, so that every class of men who come into our midst may learn that we have received a religion that admits of toleration in the broadest sense of the word.”
    • “No man loses credit by being true to his principles. If he is a Latter-day Saint, let him act out his principles wherever he goes.”
  • Cooperation a True Principle
    • “But suppose they cost less in Canada than the same suit would in the States, cannot you and everybody see, without lengthy reflection, that that money all went into foreign hands, and did not benefit the people of this country? The producer of the wool, the manufacturer of the cloth, and the maker of the clothes in Canada received the benefit. But supposing that thirty-five or forty dollars had been paid for that suit of clothes in the United States, or in the community where the purchaser lived, you can readily perceive that by the circulation of that money in his immediate vicinity, he, himself, if he were in any business, would receive the benefit of the expenditure, and that the extra cost would not be an entire loss to him like paying it out to a foreign community. And so it is with our own manufactures. We talk about brooms and about cheese, butter, and other things which can be brought from the east at lower figures than we can produce them; but it is better for us to pay twenty-five per cent more, and I do not know but even a larger percentage, for our home productions, than to send the money away to a distant community where it is circulated and we receive no benefit from it.”
• October 1874 General Conference
  • Seek For Perfection
    • “There is one thing, however, that is not taken into account in measuring us, and that is that God has laid the foundation of this work. Men do not recognize that, but they recognize other causes and other influences that are apparent to them and with which they are familiar.”
    • “We have a foe to contend with who is sleepless. The adversary of our souls has not lost his cunning. He knows that his time is short and that the last struggle is approaching, and he will not relax in the least degree his vigilance or his diligence in seeking to destroy this work and to martyr or destroy the men and the women connected with it.”
  • Saints Are the Light of the World
    • “There is power in concentration of effort, and it is this which gives us our character in the earth today. Cause the Latter-day Saints to be disunited, divide us asunder, split us into factions and what would we amount to? Why, nothing at all.”
    • “My brethren and sisters, if you have not got this spirit of union let me advise you to seek for it. Humble yourselves before God and seek for it until the desire to be more closely united will burn within you, until you regard it as one of the greatest objects that can be attained. In a family capacity, in a ward capacity, or as a people, from north to south, we should not have these clashing and conflicting interests—Latter-day Saints against Latter-day Saints, and yet all of us professing to have the building up of God’s kingdom at heart. I do not know of anything else that we have to do. God has sent us here for this object, and I do not know any better thing that we can engage in than to build up the Zion of God. It is as good and as great a labor as we can be engaged in, in fact it is the labor which God has assigned unto us as a people and as individuals, and if any of us are engaged in anything else we are not in the line of our duty, and we should turn aside from that and pursue the path which God has marked out.”
• October 1873 General Conference
  • The Character of the Church of Christ
    • “We must make calculations on having trials and difficulties to contend with, and having tests for our faith to be endured and passed through. We cannot expect to accomplish the work that God has laid upon us without being tested and proved.”
    • “If we have a weakness, or anything about us that is not thoroughly sound, we may expect that sooner or later, that weak spot in our nature will be found, and we will be tested to the very uttermost.”
    • “Here is the danger that is before us as a people—it is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the lust of wealth, the fondness for worldly ease and comfort.”
    • “As a people we believe that lust for women is, next to murder, shedding innocent blood, the most deadly of all sins. Committing whoredom or adultery destroys the man who indulges in it.”
    • “There is no danger that we shall not become wealthy, the danger is that we shall become wealthy and not be willing to use our means to his glory and for the advancement of his kingdom.”
• October 1872 General Conference
  • Gathering
    • “Man cannot do these things, he cannot thus affect and operate upon the minds of his fellow men. He may produce some effect, may accomplish some results, but that union, love and harmony which we witness among ourselves is beyond the power of man to bring about—it is the power of God which he has manifested.”
    • “Now there is laid upon us, as a people, the labor of establishing righteousness in the earth. There is laid upon us the duty of building up in purity and power a system which God has revealed unto us. Not a system of theocracy to be exclusive in its effects, not to build up a class, a priesthood that should domineer and wield unjust and oppressive power over the hearts and minds of the children of men. Our mission is to lay the foundation and to build up a system under which all the inhabitants of the land can dwell in peace and safety.”
    • “I notice a difficulty in our own midst, and that is that we yield, to a great extent, to the tendencies of the age, to the influences which surround us on every hand. We must refrain from this, we must set our faces like flint against every species of corruption, against every kind of wrong, in whatever form it may approach us.”
• April 1871 General Conference
  • The Building of Temples
    • “It is not a heaven where all distinctions are abolished—where parents and children are mingled with the common mass, where wives and husbands are undistinguishable; but where all these ties exist and are preserved and perpetuated, and man goes forward on that heavenly career which God, his Heavenly Father, has assigned to him, and which he designs that all his faithful children shall walk in.”
• October 1869 General Conference
  • Celestial Marriage
    • “Every law of the Gospel has a trial connected with it, and the higher the law the greater the trial; and as we ascend nearer and nearer to the Lord our God we shall have greater trials to contend with in purifying ourselves before Him.”
• April 1869 General Conference
  • The Order of Enoch
    • “He does not design to make us of equal height; He does not design that we should all have the same colored hair or eyes, or that we should dress exactly alike. This is not the meaning of the word “equality,” as it is used in the revelation; but it means to have an equal claim on the blessings of our Heavenly Father.”
    • “We are not a very great people so far as numbers are concerned, but we are strong because we are united.”
• October 1868 General Conference
  • Self-Sustaining
    • “If we prove recreant to the trust that God has given to us, others will be raised in our places to take the great work in their hands, and carry it forward to its full consummation.”
    • “As an individual, I have no fellowship with those who sustain the enemies of the kingdom of God. I never did have. From my childhood my heart has been in this kingdom; every pulsation of it has been for Zion.”
• April 1868 General Conference
  • Word of Wisdom
    • “God, who has blessed us as we are blessed today, is willing to bless us more abundantly. Heaven is full of blessings to be poured out upon us, if we will only prepare ourselves to receive them.”
• April 1867 General Conference
  • Necessity of Union and Obedience to Counsel
    • “If there is anything on the earth that will continue to add distinction and power to us, and elevate us and make us strong and mighty, it is an increase of this obedience which has already given us this distinction.”
• October 1865 General Conference
  • Riches of the Gospel
    • “Men may strive to repress these yearnings and desires after knowledge, as priests and teachers do today throughout the earth; they may ridicule and deny their existence, but there is that within us, as children of God, which speaks louder and has more force, potency, and effect than the traditions of our fathers or the teachings of our former priests and teachers ever had; there is the voice of nature, there is the voice of heaven in our hearts, which calls for revelation from God, which calls for knowledge, which calls for certainty, which calls for something that is tangible and that can be relied upon, and which man with his man-made systems and with his fooleries, cannot gratify nor supply by any means in his power.”
    • “There is this difference between God and Satan in the treatment of mankind. Satan is perfectly reckless as to what the consequences may be of anything he may give to the children of men. He will heap temptation upon temptation before them, give them honor, riches, and position, and, if necessary, he will give them revelation. What for? To damn them. He does not care anything as to what may become of them; but he offers them all he can control without judgment or discrimination. God does not do so. What is the course God has taken with us from the beginning to the present time? Is there a parent in the congregation who has watched as carefully over his children as God has over us? Is there a parent in the congregation who has withheld improper blessings as carefully from them as God has from us?”

Other  Reported Talks

• Persecution, Discourse in Salt Lake City, June 11, 1871
  • “If you take part of this commission given by Christ to his Apostles, what right have you to reject the remainder? Why not reject the whole? I say that, by a parity of reasoning, if you take a part you ought to take the whole. You cannot consistently take one portion of Scripture and say, “This applies to me, or is mine, and I have a right to act by the authority it confers;” and then to say of the other, “I dismiss it, and want nothing to do with it.” That is mutilating the word of God, and wherever you find men who have authority from God to act in his name, you will find these gifts and blessings attending their administrations, just as in ancient days.”
  • “When the Lord does exercise power it is in his own way. If he chooses to send an angel, he will do so, and will not ask you or me whether we will accept and are suited with it or not.”
• Stirring Times, Discourse in Salt Lake City, January 8, 1871
  • “As a generation, we live in a busy, stirring time—a time that is full of important events, one treading upon the heels of another so rapidly that we have scarcely time to contemplate the past—even the past of our own history; and we have but little time to look forward to the future, only as it is necessary to comfort and to cheer us. The work of God is rushing forward with extraordinary speed, and the Lord is operating in a most signal manner to bring to pass his great and marvelous designs and purposes; and to no eyes are these things clearer than to those of the Latter-day Saints, especially those whose minds are enlightened by the Spirit of God, and who seek for the inspiration thereof to guide them in their everyday affairs.”
  • “When the mind, inspired by the Spirit of God, contemplates the future, and sees the immense field which is widening before the Elders of this Church, I, for one, feel that it ought to stir up every one of us to the most energetic and resolute preparation for the great labor that is fast devolving upon us, and that we live to discharge. Our own land will yet be convulsed with revolution, for it contains within itself the seeds of dire misfortunes, which will yet come upon the unhappy Republic. We may deplore, mourn over and regret that such things do exist; but they do nevertheless, and we should be blind indeed did we shut our eyes to the fact, and fail to prepare ourselves for their accomplishment. There is before this people, connected with our own country, a destiny that is so glorious when we contemplate it in the future, that it is enough to dazzle and oppress the mind of man at the immensity of the labor that lies before us.”
  • “And there never was a people who prayed with greater unanimity for any one thing, than do the Latter-day Saints that God will deliver his people from the hands of their enemies and give them the victory. These prayers will be heard and answered upon our heads, and, as I have said, we will see deliverance and salvation such as we never dreamed of.”
• Our Traditions, Discourse in Salt Lake City, November 13, 1870
  • “We should never use the influence which God has given us, or the means which He has bestowed upon us to foster or maintain any man or anything that is opposed to His cause.”
  • “When you have doubts respecting counsel given by the servants of God, then be assured, my brethren and sisters, there is room for repentance; we are not living as near to God as we should do; we have not the Spirit of God as we once had it, and we should seek unto God with full purpose of heart, that the light of His Spirit may be bestowed upon us again. Then, when the servant of God stands up and teaches us concerning the things of the kingdom, his words will find a lodging place in our hearts; his counsels will be clear and sweet unto us, and there will be no dubiety, no distress, neither any disposition to repel these counsels or to feel offended at them.”
• Right and Authority of President Brigham Young, Discourse in Salt Lake City, December 5, 1869
  • “If the Saints had wanted evidence in relation to who was the right man and who had the authority, the very fact that the world hated, reviled, and persecuted Brigham should have been sufficient evidence that he was taking the path which Joseph had trod, and that his course was pleasing in the sight of Heaven, and consequently hateful in the sight of hell.”
  • “It might be argued that those children, by complying with the wish of their father in this matter, would sacrifice their agency. Do they not exercise that volition just as much by obeying that son as they would by each one taking his or her own course, and saying, “I will judge for myself, as to the correctness of what you say and will differ from you whenever I please.” Let me ask you as parents and as children, brethren and sisters, do you not think you could exercise your agency just as much by obeying the son as by disobeying him? I cannot conceive how it can be otherwise. I cannot see why I, for instance, should not exercise my agency just as much by obeying him as by disobeying him. This is precisely my position today.”
  • “We are all alike before God; He loves us all alike; we are all the creatures of His care; but there must be rule, there must be government; there must be order, or this would not be the kingdom of God.”
  • “If there is anything in our hearts that interferes with our complete love of God and our reverence for Him and His work, we shall have to banish it, or sooner or later we shall lose our standing in the Church of God.”
  • “Think not, my brethren and sisters, because God has chosen earthly vessels to hold this power and authority, that therefore you can treat lightly the holy Priesthood.”
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Discourse in Salt Lake City, August 15, 1869
  • “This was the manner in which the Apostles preached the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth in those days. They did not say to the people, “You must seek the Holy Ghost and probably the Lord will give it to you if you will only exercise faith enough;” but they told the people plainly and positively, without the least hesitation, that if they would comply with certain requirements they should receive the Holy Ghost. The only condition was their sincerity and faithfulness in obeying the requirements.”
  • “As a people the unity of the Latter-day Saints is proverbial, and furnishes a powerful testimony that we have walked with Christ, and have received the blessings following the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.”
  • “While among the poor, the meek, and the lowly, I have known men, and we all doubtless have, who would die rather than step aside from principle. Among such God has placed his nobles in this generation, in order to be pioneers in this work and lay its foundations.”
• Unity and Unchangeableness of the Gospel, Discourse in Salt Lake City, January 31, 1869
  • “How is it that, today, there is opposition, strife, and uncertainty among those who call themselves the disciples of Jesus, if He is, as the Scriptures say, “the same yesterday, today, and forever?” This is an inquiry that every man, who professes any faith whatever, in Christ, should make, even if he does not endorse the idea that has been taught and testified to by the Latter-day Saints, viz., that God is a God of revelation, and that He has revealed Himself again in the latter days as He did in former days.”
  • “There is no better evidence that new revelation is needed than is to be found today throughout so-called Christendom. Visit the cities of Christendom outside of this Territory, and what do you see? Confusion and division; the churches and meetinghouses of various denominations with their spires pointing heavenward, and people passing and repassing to fill these places of worship, all professing to worship the same God and to believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible, upon which they profess their faith is founded; and yet when you converse with them as to their form of doctrine, one will tell you that to believe in Jesus Christ and to repent from sin is all that is necessary to secure salvation; another will say that in addition to this you must be baptized, and that if you are baptized, having faith in Jesus Christ and repenting of your sins, you are sure of salvation if you continue.”
• Eulogy of Heber C. Kimball, Discourse in Salt Lake City, June 24, 1868
  • “It seemed to me when I entered the building, and sat down and looked upon the congregation, that the greatest eloquence I could indulge in would be silence. Yet it is due to him that our voices should be heard in instruction to those who remain, and in testimony of his great worth; and if possible to spread before them, the great and glorious example which he has set for us, and which if we will but emulate and follow, will result in the attainment of the most glorious blessings of which mortal heart can conceive.”
  • “When I stood by his bedside and saw his spirit take its departure, there was no death there; there was no gloom. I had seen but two persons die before, and they died by violence; but when I watched brother Heber I asked myself, Is this death? Is this that which men represent as a monster, and from which they shrink with affright? It seemed to me that bro. Heber was not dead, but that he had merely gone to sleep. He passed away as quietly and as gently as an infant falling asleep on its mother’s lap; not a movement of a limb; not a contortion of his countenance; and scarcely a sigh.”
  • “My brethren and sisters, here is an incentive to us to be faithful. Contrast the death of this man with the death of the apostate—the traitor. Contrast the future—as it is revealed to us in the revelations of Jesus Christ—of this man, with the future of the renegade from the truth, and the wicked and those who love not God and who keep not his commandments. Are there any incentives presented to us this day to be faithful? They are too numerous for me to dwell upon or mention. There is every reason why we should be faithful. It is easier to keep the commandments of God than it is to break them. It is easier to walk in the path of righteousness than it is to deviate from it. It is easier and more pleasant to love God than it is to break his commandments.”
• Divinity Marks the History of the Church, Discourse in Salt Lake City, July 21, 1867
  • “The whole history of this people, from the commencement until the present time, affords abundant evidence of the divinity of the work in which we are engaged. When our elders go forth into the world men cry aloud for miracles, for some supernatural manifestation of power, that will convince them that we are the people we profess to be. Jesus said, “A wicked and an adulterous generation seek a sign; but no sign shall be given them, save the sign of the prophet Jonah.” But God, our Heavenly Father, has nevertheless left his handwriting, as it were, to be seen by all the nations of the earth on the work that he has established. Divinity is marked in every feature of this great work; in every step of its progress, from its commencement until the present time, we see divinity exhibited, and the power of God manifested in its preservation, growth and development. What is it that brings this people from the nations of the earth, binds them together, and makes a unity of the people of the various nationalities here assembled together? Is it the power of man? Is it delusion? Or, is it a manifestation of the restoration of that power bestowed upon men in ancient days, and which has been so long withdrawn from the earth?”
  • “An honest man cannot go to the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ, and ask Him respecting this Gospel without receiving a knowledge for himself that it is true.”
  • “This is the work of God, and there is a well-established principle upon which we can remain connected with it, and that is by being true and faithful to the principles which God our Heavenly Father has revealed. We cannot grieve the Spirit of God with impunity; we cannot indulge in frivolity nor in anything that is wrong without driving that spirit from us with its holy and sweet influence.”
• Remarks on Revelation, Remarks in Salt Lake City, April 21, 1867
  • “There is an influence and power attending the testimony of an honest man inspired by the Spirit of God, that carries conviction to the souls of those who are unprejudiced, and who listen dispassionately to what he has to say, and when the inhabitants of the earth hear these testimonies borne in meekness and simplicity, and, through prejudice, reject them, condemnation falls upon them. If all who have heard the gospel, and have received testimonies of its truth, had embraced it, the Church of Jesus Christ, today, would have numbered millions. There is a testimony accompanying the words of truth spoken in soberness that carries conviction to the heart of every honest person who hears it, and there is no man or woman to whom it is declared but what has a secret conviction that there is something more in it than they are willing to allow.”
  • “The spirit of revelation is not so mysterious and incomprehensible as many imagine it to be. Men have imagined that it is something they cannot understand, and that men in possession of it must differ very remarkably from those who are destitute of it. But the Lord in His dealings with the children of men never did produce these monstrosities. His servants were not so remarkable in appearance as to strike everybody who saw them with surprise, but on the contrary they were natural men, similar in form, feature, and apparel, and speaking the same language as others, and because of this men could not entertain the idea that they were the servants of God or were intimate with His purposes, or that they could possess more wisdom than man obtains by the exercise of his natural mind.”
  • “The very man upon whom we think we can rely with unbounded confidence, and trust with all we possess, may disappoint us sometimes, but trust in God and He never fails.”
• Truth to Be Received for Its Own Sake, Discourse in Salt Lake City, March 3, 1867
  • “The Lord bestows His blessings upon the children of men according to their faith and diligence.”
  • “When our hearts are filled with thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise to God, we are in a fit condition to receive additional blessings, and to have more of the outpouring of His Holy Spirit.”
  • “The gospel of Jesus Christ claims our obedience, whether we receive the gifts of the Spirit or not. The Lord in His mercy has promised to us these gifts; but when He makes demand on His children, it is not for them to stand still and make conditions with Him about the principles they are going to receive; and those who do so commit sin in the very outset. They grieve the Spirit of God by manifesting such a want of confidence; whereas, those who go forth in humility, trusting in God, and who receive the truth because God has revealed it, and because it is sweet unto them, have no cause to mourn that He has not bestowed upon them all that He has promised.”
  • “The great difficulty with mankind is that they have arranged in their own minds plans for the salvation of the human race. You can scarcely meet with a man in the world—although he may acknowledge that God has not spoken to the children of men for nearly 1,800 years, and that he never saw a divinely inspired servant of God, one who had the right to exercise the priesthood of the Son of God as the ancient servants of God did—but has a plan arranged in his own mind respecting the course which he thinks God should take in saving His children. Begin to talk with them, and the traditions they have received from their fathers, preachers, or schoolmasters immediately rise up, and if what you state comes in contact with those traditions, no matter how pure, heavenly, and attractive it may otherwise be, they will reject it. This is the rock on which the nations of the earth are making shipwreck, because, instead of receiving the truth when presented to them in humility and meekness like little children, they feel to dictate, and prescribe the laws and requirements of the gospel, and the manner in which it should be preached. Wherever this spirit exists, there is no room for the meek and lowly spirit of Jesus to have place; another spirit has possession and controls them.”
  • “When we see our children growing up in unbelief and hardness of heart, then have we cause to fear and tremble.”
• Conflict of Truth Irrepressible, Remarks in Salt Lake City, May 6, 1866
  • “There is a peculiar feature attending those who apostatize, of which the parallel cannot be found among any other people, except we go back to the primitive Christians—the immediate disciples of Jesus. Men may belong to any of the so-called Christian sects of the day, and they may renounce their belief or dissolve their connection with the religious bodies of which they are members, and we do not see that virulence, that spirit and disposition to seek for the blood of those with whom they were formerly connected, manifested on their part, which are manifested by those who have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have apostatized therefrom. In consequence of this, the inhabitants of the earth are frequently deceived. Many honest people may have been deceived through this manifestation of hatred, and animosity, and bloodthirstiness on the part of those who have been connected with us. They do not trace these manifestations to their proper cause, and they jump at the conclusion that the people who are so much hated and maligned, and whose injury is so diligently sought by those who were once connected with them, must of course be a very bad people, or there could not be such feelings manifested towards them. Men are misled on this point, because they are not acquainted with the causes which operate on the minds of those who reject the work of God.”
  • “There is a general understanding among the Saints of God respecting this work. We know that it is as strict a law of heaven as any other that has been given, that the man who enters into this Church, and practices impurity, will lose the Spirit of God, and, sooner or later, will be opposed to this Work.”
  • “It is the most foolish thing that people ever attempted to tell us that if we were to do so and so, take such and such a course, that we should not be persecuted. Men who make such assertions do not know this Work; they cannot comprehend it; they know nothing about the characteristics of this people, nor the work which they are connected with; if they did, they would know that the world would love its own, and that it would hate everything that is not of the world, and that comes in contact with religious popularity in the world, and that everything of this kind is hated by the world and by him who is the master of the world.”
  • “In speaking about apostasy, it is a remarkable feature connected with it and with those who favor apostates and consort with them, that they are filled with the spirit of fear. It can be truthfully said of the Latter-day Saints, that they are a fearless people. Even our enemies give us credit for this—that in the midst of dangers and difficulties we are undisturbed and not easily appalled. But there is this peculiarity connected with apostasy and apostates, and with those who consort with and favor them: they are continually in dread of some impending danger—some evil that is about to be perpetrated upon them by the Latter-day Saints. Go where you will among apostates, you will see this feature in their character, but especially in Zion. Hence, so many stories about destroying angels, Danites, &c., &c., being among the Saints. The moment a man loses the Spirit of God and the spirit of the adversary takes possession of him, he is filled with fear; for “the sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites.” They say their lives are in danger. All the terrible stories that are circulated in the east and the west about the people of Utah have their origin in the fears of the wicked, in the fears of these who have a consciousness within themselves of having committed wrong. No honest man or woman need fear; indeed they never fear. What are they afraid of? They have done nothing to cause the spirit of fear to come upon them. It is only when a man does that which is wrong that he receives the spirit of fear.”
• Condition of the Saints, Remarks in Salt Lake City, March 19, 1865
  • “There is nothing more delightful to the human mind, properly constituted, than to listen to the words of life and salvation spoken under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; they are sweeter than the sweetest honey, and more satisfying than the best and most nutritious food; because they fill our spirits with joy and gladness, and we feel benefited, and refreshed, and strengthened by them, and then we occupy a closer relationship to our Father and God than before hearing his word.”
  • “There is something very delightful and consoling in the reflection that men and women, no matter how ignorant, if they become acquainted with the principles of the Gospel, will become wise unto salvation, and be elevated and be developed, and continue to increase in everything that is great and desirable before God and man. We see this promise, which the Gospel holds out to us, being fulfilled.”
  • “I take great delight in these things; it is a great pleasure to reflect upon this Work; for, view it which way you will, look at it from any standpoint, there is something attractive and lovely connected with it. We can all have this enjoyment, there is no defect or flaw in the system; there is nothing about it, if we had the power, that we could improve or make better. That is a great consolation to us; it is not the work of man, a cunningly devised fable man has constructed. It is not made to suit our peculiar tastes and views, but it is eternal; it has always existed, and it accords with our being, and with the laws of our being, because the plan of salvation emanated from the same eternal source that we emanated from, and everything connected with us and this system is in perfect harmony.”
• Causes of Gratitude that the Saints Have, Remarks in Salt Lake City, January 1, 1865
  • “It is right that we, as a people and as individuals, should be continually grateful to God for what he has done for us. Unless we appreciate these blessings, it is not likely they will be increased upon us—it is not reasonable that greater blessings than those already received will be bestowed upon us; but if we are humble, meek, and filled with thanksgiving and gratitude to our Father and God under all circumstances, appreciating and putting a high value on the mercies he extends unto us, it is more than probable that those blessings and mercies will be increased upon us according to our wants and necessities, and we shall still have increased cause for gratitude and thanksgiving before him.”
  • “Every time we partake of the sacrament, our hearts should swell with thanksgiving and gratitude for God’s mercy unto us in this respect; yet it is too frequently the case with these blessings, as with many other blessings which God has bestowed upon us, their being so widespread prevents us from appreciating them as we should were they confined to a few of us and were not bestowed upon all the family of man.”
  • “We cannot be too grateful; we cannot get to a point where there is a necessity for us to slacken in this respect; and the more we comprehend of the purposes of our God, the more grateful and more full of thanksgiving we will be.”
  • “There never was a people on the face of the earth to whom the same promises have been given as to us. Others, who have preceded us in the enjoyment of the blessings of the Gospel, have looked forward to the time of their decease, and have seen that after they should pass away, the work they then were engaged in would disappear from the earth; they saw that the power of the adversary would be again wielded to great effect among men, and that their labors would be comparatively lost sight of through the evil that would prevail upon the earth. But this is not the case with us; unto us are extended promises which have never been extended to any other people who have lived upon the earth from the days of Adam to this time; unto us a promise is given that this kingdom shall stand forever, that it shall not be given into the hands of another people, that it shall roll forth, increase, and spread abroad until it fills the whole earth, until all the inhabitants of the earth can dwell in peace and safety under its shadow, being freed from misrule, oppression, and every evil that exists among the inhabitants of the earth; that a reign of truth and righteousness shall be inaugurated, the reign of God and of his Son Jesus Christ on the face of the earth.”
• Evil Influences, Their Power, Etc, Remarks in Kaysville, November 13, 1864
  • “I felt that it requires constant teaching and admonition on the part of the servants of God to keep us in mind of our duty; it requires the servants of God to be stirred up continually to diligence in preaching the plain and simple principles of the Gospel to the people, that they may be duly impressed therewith. Notwithstanding all we have heard, and we have heard a great deal of the principles of righteousness, we still require to be admonished day by day concerning our duty. It seems to be one of the weaknesses of human nature that we are apt to forget the principles of truth and righteousness, and to give way to influences that are not of God. We are placed in this existence for the express purpose of learning to overcome all these things.”
  • “These influences we have to resist. We have to resist the spirit of adultery, the spirit of whoredom, the spirit of drunkenness, the spirit of theft, and every other evil influence and spirit, that we may continually overcome; and, when we have finished our work on the earth, be prepared to govern and control those influences, and exercise power over them, in the presence of our Father and God. I have no doubt that many of my brethren and sisters have sensibly felt in various places and at various times evil influences around them.”
  • “I have come to the conclusion that if our eyes were open to see the spirit world around us, we should feel differently on this subject than we do; we would not be so unguarded and careless, and so indifferent whether we had the spirit and power of God with us or not; but we would be continually watchful and prayerful to our heavenly Father for His Holy Spirit and His holy angels to be around about us to strengthen us overcome every evil influence.”
  • “Until we can learn to control and resist those evil influences that are now invisible, I think it would be unprofitable to have the administration of angels personally or visibly unto us. Until we can do this, I do not expect that we can have those other blessings profitably bestowed upon us.”
  • “I do not expect the day to come when this people will be favored with the administration of angels—with the presence of those holy and immortal beings—until we can learn to appreciate the teachings and instructions of the men of God in our midst. When that day does come that this people will implicitly obey the voice of those whom God has placed over them, and give heed to every instruction imparted to them by the spirit of revelation through the servants of God, then I shall expect visits from holy angels, and the glory and power of God to rest upon us to that extent it has never done hitherto; but I cannot well expect it before that time arrives, because if these blessings were to be bestowed upon us before we are prepared to receive them, I should fear they would turn to our condemnation, as they have done to many in the early history of this Church.”
  • “If we grieve the Spirit of God when we are performing our temporal duties, it is because we allow the one idea to absorb our attention too much. While we are engaged in these duties, we should have the Spirit of God resting upon us, as if we were engaged in preaching the Gospel.”
  • “It is possible for us to bring ourselves into such a condition that we can pray unto God in our hearts, no matter what labor we are performing.”
• The Increase of Faith Among the Saints, Remarks in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 23, 1864
  • “This list of enemies is a very long one, and they have not been idle; they have arisen one by one, time after time, and have sought with all the ability they possessed to destroy the Work of God. But there is an assurance which those who are living their religion have, and which they ever have had from the beginning until the present time—an assurance of which men cannot deprive us, that God our heavenly Father has decreed that his Work shall stand, and that those who have received his Holy Priesthood, and are endeavoring to magnify the same shall be borne off triumphantly over every opposing obstacle.”
  • “From the day that God established this Church to the present the stream of revelation has continued to flow uninterruptedly. It flows pure for us to drink at until we are filled to repletion; and if we do not drink, it is our own fault.”
• Revelation in the Church, remarks in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Nov. 27, 1864
  • The Latter-day Saint who looks to his own benefit alone, and does not recognize the extent of the work and its influence upon the people—not only upon the people gathered together here, but upon the nations of the earth, has failed to comprehend the position he occupies as a servant of God; and, unless he changes his course, instead of increasing in the things of God, he will decrease, and the Spirit of the Lord will not be with him to the extent it would be, were he alive to his duties and responsibilities as a servant of God. We are engaged in a work that affects ourselves, our neighbors, our posterity, and progenitors, and all the nations of the earth, and it will not do to be blinded by petty interests; to think in relation to the counsel to bring out the waters of Jordan, for instance, is it going to benefit my farm or my city lot? To reason in this way betrays a narrowness of mind that does not harmonize with the greatness of the work we are engaged in. If we look at matters in this light, we are not worthy to occupy the position we hold.”
  • “I know we live in the kingdom of God and serve a liberal Master, and though we may be called upon to make what we may view as sacrifices, if we do so willingly and liberally, God will give to us a liberal reward.”
  • “There is no circumstance or difficulty we have to contend with but what is for our good; and will ultimately prove so, if we are faithful. No matter what labor we are required to perform, we are in the very position, and doing the very work, God requires at our hands. It is necessary for our development and increase in the faith of the Lord Jesus. This is a glorious consolation to me.”
• Privileges Enjoyed By the Saints—Confusion Existing in the World, discourse given in the Bowery, Salt Lake City, September 9, 1860
  • “I believe that an Elder who goes forth can to some extent realize the deplorable condition of fallen men, and it fills him with compassion; and instead of killing them off and destroying them, he feels willing to lay down his own life, if, by so doing, he could bring them to the knowledge of the truth.”
  • “There is one thing they will give us credit for—namely, that we are united, that we will give heed to authority, and that we are in possession of some of the best modes of getting along that are known in the world. But there is a difference of opinion about the origin of this union. What is the cause of it? Some attribute it to a wonderful power which the President exercises over the whole people, and which the Elders exercise when they go forth into the world to preach the Gospel: others say there are inducements held out by which the people are completely blinded, and this grows so strong that the people become willing to be led by the Elders; and then, when they get here, they are so surrounded by the Danites that they cannot go away, if they want to. Others entertain a different idea, and have a better opinion than to suppose that illiterate, unlearned men, like many of our Elders, can go forth and exercise such power.”
  • “Brethren and sisters, if there were no other cause of thankfulness and of gratitude within us to God our Heavenly Father for the blessings that he has bestowed upon us, we should be thankful for this blessing—the blessing of foreknowledge—that he has revealed unto us, by his own voice and that of the holy angels, those things that are coming upon the nations of the earth; and that while uncertainty, doubt, and gloom prevail from one end of the land to the other, we are in the possession of a feeling and of knowledge which enables us to bear up. While the hearts of others are filled with fear and dread, ours are filled with hope and bright anticipations that we are privileged to live in a day and age like this.”
  • “I felt to mourn that I could not do more than I did for the kingdom of God. I was ambitious and felt a desire to hasten forward the purposes of our Father in heaven; but when I looked upon it in another light, I considered that whether the fruits of my labor were much or little, if I and all my brethren and sisters would only labor where we were wanted, we should be sure to accomplish that which our Father wished us to do.”
  • “There is no end to our opportunities for doing good, and we are not going to labor here for the last time; and although we are making adobies, laboring in the canyons, or sawing lumber, yet if we labor as our Father in heaven wants us, we have before us a destiny far greater than we can at present imagine: we have before us a field of usefulness much more extended than it has ever yet entered into our hearts to conceive of. There is yet a vast eternity in the future in which we can labor, and we are to press forward until we attain the fulness of our desire.”
  • “We are now established, and we have become a fixed power; we are growing here in the mountains, and are beginning to be acknowledged and called a nation in the midst of the earth, and everything that the wicked have done and will do will be a source of regret to them, because they will see, as they have already seen, that they have worked into our hands. Then, to use a familiar expression we will say, Let it blow hot or cold—let them do just as they please, persecute us, send armies here or keep them at home, it will make no difference as to the final result. It may enable us to progress the faster in the good work in which we are engaged; but all that our enemies do, with a design to thwart the operations of the people of God, will be unsuccessful. I have felt grateful many times for the possession of this knowledge; and when I have walked among the people and seen how determined they were to take steps to overcome us, and then have considered that to our God and Father in heaven they were mere toys—playthings to accomplish that which is intended—and that they might labor and toil and concoct schemes for the injury of God’s chosen people, that all would be unavailing, I have then realized the goodness of our Father.”
  • “In my reflections upon these things, I have ever realized that God has spoken from the heavens, and said that this kingdom should fill the whole earth, and that the kingdom and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens will eventually be given to the Saints of the Most High. I have realized that the work will spread, though the wicked do all they can to stop it. Then let us rejoice in this knowledge which God has given unto his people.”

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