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in any church except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we make ourselves acquainted with the tenets of the religious world we shall find that they have not the gospel nor its ordinances; they have a form of godliness, and I have no doubt, are as sincere as we who have obeyed the gospel as revealed from heaven in these days. But they are devoid of the knowledge which we possess, and it is from the fact that they deny the source by which they might receive this knowledge—namely, revelation from Jesus Christ. In their minds they have closed up the heavens; they declare that God has revealed all that is necessary, that the canon of scripture is full, and that no more will be revealed. Believing thus, they close up the avenue of light and intelligence from heaven; and this will continue so long as they continue in their present course of unbelief. They will not listen to the testimony of men who tell them that the Lord lives and that he is able to reveal his will to man today, as ever. They will not heed this testimony, consequently they close the door of light and revelation. They cannot advance, nor learn the ways of God nor walk in his paths.

      We testify that the barriers which separated man from God have been overcome, that the Lord has again communicated his will to man. "But," says one, "how shall we become acquainted with these things? How can we know that you are not deceived?" To all such we say, repent of your sins in all sincerity, then go forth and be baptized, and have hands laid upon you for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit will bear record to you of the truth of our testimony, and you will become witnesses of it as we are, and will be able to stand forth boldly and testify to the world as we do. This was the path pointed out by Peter and the apostles on the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of the Lord Almighty rested upon them with great power to the convincing of the hearts of the people who cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said unto them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." This was the counsel given them, and inasmuch as they obeyed it, they were entitled to the testimony of the Holy Spirit which would bring peace and happiness, reveal to them their duties, and enable them to understand their relationship to God.

      If we look at the condition of the world today, we must come to the conclusion that peace is not likely soon to be established on the earth. There is nothing among the nations that tends to peace. Even among the religious societies the tendency is not to peace and union. They do not bring men to a knowledge of God; they do not possess the "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," and "one hope of their calling" that are spoken of in the Scripture. Every man has gone according to his own notions, independent of revelations, and hence, confusion and division exist; their churches are broken up, and they are quarreling and contending with one another. And as it is in the religious, so it is in the political world; they are all divided, and the more energy they put forth to make proselytes, the greater are their contentions, and the further they go from the mark. This is the condition they have been in, and the course they have been pursuing for almost eighteen hundred years, until today they have become so divided that I think it would puzzle anyone to tell how many religious denominations there are in Christendom. There are thousands, too, who, in consequence of the strife and contention among the religious sects, have become entirely skeptical respecting religion of every kind, and they have concluded that there is no God; at any rate, that there is no God among "Christians"—that all religionists are fanatics and are deceived. The sectarian systems of religion are calculated to lead men of reflection and intelligence into skepticism, to cause them to deny all interference of God with men and their affairs, and to deny even his right to interfere.

      The Lord Almighty is the Creator of the earth, he is the Father of all our spirits. He has the right to dictate what we should do, and it is our duty to obey, and to walk according to his requirements. This is natural, and perfectly easy to be comprehended. The gospel has been restored to the earth, and the priesthood again established, and both are enjoyed by this people; but those unacquainted with the working of the gospel and the priesthood look upon us with wonder, and are astonished at the union that exists in our midst. We move as a man, almost; we hearken to the voice of our leader; we are united in our faith and in our work. The world can not understand this, and they behold it with wonder.

      Let me tell my brethren and friends that this is one of the effects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have become united in our faith by one baptism; we know that Jesus Christ lives, we know that he is our Savior and Redeemer; we have a testimony of this, independent of any written books, and we testify of these things to the world. This unison in the midst of the people called Latter-day Saints, and their prosperity, are hard for a great many to understand. I have, however, heard it said, that we boast that we are not so wealthy as our neighbors. But when our circumstances, and the condition of our country when we came here, are considered, I think this statement cannot be sustained. When we came here we were penniless, and we have not had the advantages of wealth or commerce to help to enrich us, but all we possess is the result of our own physical labor and the blessing of God. We have labored under great disadvantages in freighting our goods and machinery over these vast plains, and besides this we have had a barren soil and drouth to contend with, and when all these things are considered, I think we have been prospered more than any other people. And as it has been in the past so will it be in the future—we will increase, and extend our borders, for this is the work of God; we are his people, and he will continue to bless us as he has done hitherto.

      Our business is to learn our duties one towards another and towards our leaders. This is a lesson that we seem rather slow to learn. But it should be with us: when our leaders speak, it is for us to obey; when they direct, we should go; when they call, we should follow. Not as beings who are enslaved or in thraldom; we should not obey blindly, as instruments or tools. No Latter-day Saint acts in this manner; no man or woman who has embraced the gospel has ever acted in this way; but on the contrary men and women have felt to listen cheerfully to the counsels of the servants of God, as far as they were able to comprehend them. The difficulty is not in getting the Latter-day Saints to do right, but in getting them to comprehend what is right. We have obeyed the counsels of our leaders because we have known they have been inspired by the Holy Spirit and because we positively have known that their counsels have been given for our good. We do know and have always known that our leaders have been inspired with wisdom superior to that which we possess. For this reason we take hold of everything they present to us for the good of Zion.

      We are engaged in the great latter-day work of preaching the gospel to the nations, gathering the poor, and building up Zion upon the earth. We are working for the triumph of righteousness, for the subjugation of sin and the errors of the age in which we live. It is a great and glorious work. We believe it is right to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We believe it is wrong to lie, steal, commit adultery, or do any act forbidden by the gospel of Christ. We believe in all the teachings of the Savior and in everything that is good and moral, and calculated to exalt mankind or to ameliorate their condition, to unite them in doing good. These are among the principles of the gospel, and these principles have been taught to us from the commencement of our career as members of this Church. These principles are carried out among us to an extent not to be found among any other people. We do not believe in worshiping God or being religious on the Sabbath day only; but we believe it is as necessary to be religious on Monday, Tuesday and every day in the week, as it is on the Sabbath day; we believe that it is necessary to do to our neighbors as we would they should do unto us, during the week as it is on the Sabbath. In short, we believe it is necessary to live our religion every day in the week every hour in the day, and every moment. Believing and acting thus, we become strengthened in our faith, the Spirit of God increases within us, we advance in knowledge, and we are better able to defend the cause we are engaged in.

      To be a true representative of this cause a man must live faithful to the light that he has; he must be pure, virtuous and upright. If he comes short of this he is not a fair representative of this work. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the perfect law of liberty. It is calculated to lead man to the highest state of glory, and to exalt him in the presence of our heavenly Father, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." If there is any folly to be seen in the midst of this people, it is the folly and weakness of man, and is not because of any failing or lack in the plan of salvation. The gospel is perfect in its organization. It is for us to learn the gospel, and to become acquainted with

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