WE are occupying a position which is different from that of any other people upon the face of the whole earth. We have a great work to perform, and there are duties and responsibilities resting upon us that rest upon no other people. There is no man living or that has lived that could have organized and set in order the work in which we are engaged. There are no men living, unaided by the Almighty, who are able to carry out this work to its consummation. All that have operated in it have had to trust in the living God for instruction, guidance and support, and all that will hereafter operate in it or that are operating in it now will have to trust to the same source. This work is one which is associated with the purposes and designs of God which He contemplated and planned from before the foundation of the world. The day in which we live has been spoken and prophesied of by all the Prophets that have existed since the world was, and it is in the Scriptures emphatically denominated "the dispensation of the fullness of times," wherein God will gather together all things in one, whether they be things on the earth or things in the heavens. Neither Joseph Smith, nor Hyrum Smith, nor Sidney Rigdon, nor Brigham Young, nor myself, nor anybody associated with the Church at the present time, have had anything to do with the origination of these things. This work was commenced by the Almighty; it has been carried on by Him, and sustained by His power, and if it is ever consummated it will be by the power, and direction and sustenance of the Lord Jehovah, of Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and then through the medium of the Priesthood here upon the earth. These things originated in the heavens, in the councils of the Gods; and the organization of the Priesthood and the power thereof, and everything pertaining thereto, has been committed from the heavens through Joseph Smith, principally, and through others who have been associated with him in this great work.
The times in which we live are pregnant with great events, and there will things come to pass that will affect all people—wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, earthquakes, the waves of the sea lifting themselves beyond their bounds; these and other judgments will go forth among the nations of the earth until, as the Scriptures say, it will be a vexation to hear the report thereof. I would simply remark, however, in relation to these things, that they are the decrees of the Almighty. They are not anything which has originated with us. We find them referred to in the Holy Bible, the record of the Jews; we find them referred to in the Book of Mormon, the record of the Nephites, and also in the revelations given unto us from the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith; and there are many now living that know that these events will transpire by things that have been manifested unto them.