Brethren, I am obliged to keep my head covered, for I am fearful of taking cold. I expect I am beginning to look strong again, but I am very weak. You may be assured that I am grateful, and rejoice that I live in this day. I am thankful that I live in this generation, and especially that I dwell in these mountains with you; for it is one of the happiest places that I ever saw, right here upon the tops of these mountains, and particularly if you can have the right kind of microscope—such a one as the Lord will give you.
I presume that you can all see what the world are at down yonder: they are beginning to have times as well as we, and they may well expect to have difficulties. I do not call those drivings, and what we used to call persecutions, difficulties. I never was more happy in my life than I was in Missouri and Illinois, when we were passing through those trying scenes; and I can say that I never felt better than I have for the last two or three years, although it has been very trying to some. Some of our friends think we are cowards; but we only act so when it is necessary; and then when it is not necessary to be such, we stand forth in our proper light; and it is always necessary for us to be men of God, holding the Priesthood in righteousness, doing right and always being ready to do good, and assist in rolling forward the great work. The Lord will help us, if we are willing to be guided by his Holy Spirit.
President Young was speaking to the Elders about coming into this stand to speak, preaching in the Wards, and telling the people honestly what is required of them. I can tell them the plain, simple principles of the Gospel,—advise them to lay up their grain, and do all the good they can.
It has troubled and worried me more, perhaps, than anything that has transpired in these mountains, when I have considered how we were situated for grain. We are almost destitute, and our friends have got plenty; and they are capable of selling to us, and then they will have enough for themselves; for, as I told you this morning, they have got at least three years' provisions on hand at Camp Floyd. It is true that it does not take very much grain to sustain a man and his wife and a few children, if he is prudent with it; but then it requires a certain quantity for every family, and when added together, we need a great deal of wheat and corn to sustain us here in these mountains.
I would rather see my family go very poorly clad than to see them without bread and meat; for there is nothing in the world that will make a woman so cross as to go hungry, and the men are much worse. I have not tried this much; but I have a few times sat down and eaten up all the food I had. I was not cross at that time, but I called upon my Heavenly Father to open the way whereby I might be fed and be nourished and cherished. I know that God is merciful and. benevolent to his creatures; I know that the earth belongs to him, and that all power is his, both in heaven and upon the earth, and all the children of men are in his hands. We are all his children, every soul of us, not only the righteous but the wicked; and they all have their agency and the right to do as they please, but they are responsible for all their acts.
As we measure to others, so it will be measured to us again; and as we make up our beds, so we shall sleep, and we shall have to give an account to God for all the acts done in the body. When, for instance, you sin against President Young, you have got to make that right with him: I have no power to remit that sin. And when you sin against Jesus Christ you have got to make that restitution to him which is necessary to gain forgiveness. When you sin against the Holy Ghost you have got to make the atonement to him. And as we do to others, so it will be done to us, and the nation and the government that we look to for our rights.
We are born of the fathers who won our liberties. We are the children of that God who spake to our fathers, and gave them the law, and inspired them to write the Constitution of our country. And those who now sit in the judgment-seat should remember that as they measure to us it will be measured to them again, and they cannot avoid it; and we may with safety apply the same to ourselves, for as we measure to each other, so will it be measured back to us. If we transgress a law, we must pay the penalty, for the Almighty requires this of every one of us. He will not force any man to keep his law; but all will find, when they wish to enter into the kingdom, that there is Mercy on one side of the door, and Justice on the other; and what Justice cannot claim, Mercy will.
