It is some time since I have spoken to the people in this place. The congregations are very large, and when I have met such congregations as we have here, in former years, and they were a little noisy, with babies crying, I have said "cry on, I can talk louder than you can cry," but I cannot do so now. I wish to favor myself, for there are many things to be said to the Latter-day Saints, as well as to those who do not believe the Gospel, and I desire to live to be able to speak to the people.
I have learned that I can receive and treasure up but little knowledge at a time, and I have learned that this is the case with others. If the people had the whole catalogue of the law to govern them spiritually and temporally repeated to them today, they would need it repeated to them again next week. It is necessary to constantly teach the people.
We are among the happy number of those who have the privilege of having their names cast out as evil by the wicked. We have the privi-lege of purifying and sanctifying ourselves, and preparing ourselves for the day of the coming of the Son of Man. Others might enjoy the same privilege, if they were so disposed, but they are not.
Our situation is peculiar at the present time. Has it not been peculiar ever since Joseph found the plates? The circumstances that surrounded him when he found the plates were singular and strange. He passed a short life of sorrow and trouble, surrounded by enemies who sought day and night to destroy him. If a thousand hounds were on this Temple Block, let loose on one rabbit, it would not be a bad illustration of the situation at times of the Prophet Joseph. He was hunted unremittingly. We have the privilege of believing the same Gospel that Joseph taught, and with him, of being numbered with those whose names are cast out as evil.
The Lord has brought us here, and sustains us. Some people think that the cunning of man has made the characteristics that mark the history of this people. It is not so, the Lord has done it. He suffered our enemies to drive us from our homes. He knew the reason why he permitted it, though at the time we did not. As brother George A. Smith said, we came here willingly because we were obliged to; and were it possible for our enemies to gain power to drive us from these mountains, which I trust they will never do, there is no other place on the earth, that we know of, where we can enjoy the safety and security we do here. We are here, and the Lord has sustained us.
In reflecting upon the conduct of the world, it appears that the wisdom of the wise has perished and the understanding of the prudent is hid. You will see that the wisdom of the wise among the nations will perish and be taken from them. They will fall into difficulties, and they will not be able to tell the reason, nor point a way to avert them any more than they can now in this land. They can fight, quarrel, contend and destroy each other, but they do not know how to make peace. So it will be with the inhabitants of the earth.
We see men laboring and toiling to gather around them the luxuries of life, to become possessed of fine houses, orchards, gardens and that which adorns and makes beautiful, and in many instances we see such property left to those who have not wisdom to take care of it—left to fools. How quickly the house becomes old, dilapidated and unfit for a home for any person; the garden and orchard become a desolation, because the occupants have not wisdom to keep them in order. We can see boys, foolish, wicked boys, gathering around them a few associates and going into a man's garden, stealing the fruit, cutting down the trees, destroying, perhaps, the labor of years, and they think this makes men of them.
Look at the world. The feeling among mankind is, "we will rule or ruin." An architect may build a a splendid habitation, and in so doing do a good work; but a poor fool can come along and with the touch of a torch destroy it. Which does the better work? We see that people can build beautiful cities, make fine roads and walks, and raise lofty buildings, but an idiot can burn and destroy them. Let a few incendiaries go through a city and put the torch here and there, and the city is destroyed—the labor of years, perhaps of centuries, is wasted. Does this make great men of them? Perhaps they think so. If they can destroy a city or a nation they think they will get a great name. They will not. It takes a wise man to build a city, to found a nation, though a fool can destroy either, and thinks he is a great man. How mistaken he is!