I am very much gratified for the privilege of coming to this place to see the faces of the Saints, to speak to them and to greet them as a brother and a friend. If we could see and understand things as they are, if we could have the vail withdrawn from our eyes and behold the things of eternity, and the connection and relationship that we sustain to the eternal worlds, and to heavenly things, our minds would be very much inspired to speak, sing, pray, listen attentively, meditate upon and contemplate the wonderful things of God. A great deal is said to the Latter-day Saints concerning our religion, which does in reality incorporate and circumscribe the whole life of man. We need teaching. We are like children with regard to learning. If we could understand the effects of the fall or of sin upon intelligence, we would see that its tendency is downward, that it is retrograde in its nature. The things pertaining to life are of the opposite character—they are exalting, increasing, multiplying, gaining, receiving a little here and a little there—our minds and understandings expanding by that which we learn by reading, by the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear.
The Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the revelations which the Lord has given to his people in the latter days, contain a great deal about the kingdom of God on the earth. We have also histories of the kingdoms established by the children of men. From these we learn that a great many changes have taken place owing to the revolutions that have occurred in the past and which are still in progress. From our own conclusions on these matters there is one fact of which we are sensible, and understand to a certainty—namely, that purity preserves, sustains and increases, while sin and ignorance, in all their horrid forms, have just. the opposite effect. We need only look at the nations of the earth for confirmation of these ideas. We need not go far; we may look at the aborigines of our own country. Why are they in their present condition? There are reasons for this. They, just as much as we, belong to the human family—the highest class of intelligence there is upon the face of the earth. Why are they in their present degradation? We see them as they are, we see the nations as they are. Take the Jewish nation, why are they as they are? Is there a cause for it? There certainly is. We have had a short account from brother George A. Smith about the land of their fathers; we can draw our own conclusions as to the causes which have brought about the present condition of that land and of the descendants of the ancient worthies to whom it was given. In the nations of the earth at the present day we see imbecility, slothfulness, and I will say ignorance with all its attendant crimes and debauchery, prevailing among the masses of the people. There is a reason for all this. The time was when nations, now unknown, which once flourished upon the eastern continent, were intelligent and full of the spirit of thrift and industry. Who can tell us why they have passed away and are forgotten. Brother George A. told us this morning, that the place where the great city of Babylon stood, or where it is supposed to have stood, is now an inaccessible swamp and a desert. Where is the Babylonish nation? We know nothing about it. Where are the nations of Israel? We hardly know anything about them, with the exception of the tribe of Judah and the half tribe of Benjamin, which remain scattered among the nations of the earth, desolate and forlorn. They have been hunted down with dogs, and the time has been when it was perfectly lawful in some nations for every Christian child who was disposed to do so to, stone a Jew while passing through the streets; and it is not long since they were not permitted to own a foot of land in any of the Gentile nations. This is not so now. But what was the cause of all this? Their history is not lost, neither are they, and the simple reason they are not is because they were the chosen of the Lord, they were to be held in remembrance by our heavenly Father. A remnant of the people of Israel are to be saved, and they will yet be gathered together. But other nations that existed before the flood, and many before the days of Jesus, where are they? Who knows anything about them? They are lost as far as history is concerned; and many people since the days of the Savior have been blotted from the remembrance of man.