My greatest desire to my Father and God is that I may so speak that my remarks will be acceptable to him and beneficial to those who hear me.
I do not know that I have the first desire to please myself or any earthly being in the remarks I may make. I do not know that I have any other purpose in view but the salvation of the people; and I wish the people to have only one ruling desire—namely, to do the will of their God.
If my mind is led this morning in a channel to instruct the Saints—to encourage them—to give them new life and vigour—to so strengthen them in their faith as to better prepare them to pursue the journey of life, God be thanked.
I sometimes think that perhaps I have not that fervent desire to preach to unbelievers that I ought to have. But one thing I can say—My garments are clear and pure from the blood of all men. I will briefly state why this is. For nearly thirty years I have sought to know the truth, and to properly understand the principles of the holy Priesthood revealed from heaven through the Prophet Joseph; and I have ceased not, when I have had an opportunity, at the proper time and in the proper place, to present those principles to my fellow-men. And if those who have heard me had been as faithful and diligent as I have been since I embraced the truth, in distributing the truth to their neighbours, long before this time every family upon the face of the earth would have heard the Gospel of the Son of God and the warning voice of his servants, and have had the opportunity of believing or rejecting it, solely through my preaching and its results. This frees me from all blame on the score of preaching to the world. Blame upon that point cannot be attached to me by any man upon the face of the earth. If people of other nations rise up in the judgment and say, "If you, Brigham, had been faithful in preaching to us, we also could have been prepared, for the day we now see," my answer will be—"There is no such sin resting upon me." That sin will fall, if anywhere, upon those who have heard me and have witnessed that I have told them the truth, but have not themselves been faithful in disseminating it to their neighbours. You may call this an apology, if you please, for not feeling that anxiety to preach to unbelievers that some may suppose I ought to feel; but I trust this matter with my God. I feel anxious for those who are disposed to believe the truth: I feel after the Saints. The facts I have related touching myself will also apply to hundreds of the Elders of Israel—to men who are now sitting in this stand and in this congregation. My desires daily and hourly are that those who profess to be Saints actually be Saints in truth and verity; and my constant prayer is for their welfare.
I remember the poor and the needy; though I can say (and the remark may astonish many of my brethren,) I never pray for the people to be rich. I do not pray for gold and silver. I have never done so. I have never had so much as a desire for this people to become wealthy in gold and silver, in houses and lands, in goods and chattles. I do not know that I ever offered a petition to a being superior to myself to give me worldly riches and worldly honour and fame; but I have prayed, O Lord, give me the power, the knowledge, the wisdom and the understanding to secure to myself eternal life.
We have the promise, if we seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, that all necessary things will be added to us. We should not be distrustful, but seek first to know how to please our Father and God—seek to know how to save ourselves from the errors that are in the world, from darkness and unbelief, from the vain and delusive spirits that go abroad among the children of men to deceive, and learn how to save and preserve ourselves upon the earth to preach the Gospel, build up the kingdom, and establish the Zion of our God. Then there is not the least danger, and there should not be the least doubt but what everything necessary for the comfort, convenience happiness, and salvation of the people will be added to them.