The Gospel was brought to our respective locations, far remote from these mountain vales. It found us citizens of many nations—speaking our respective languages, each possessing his peculiar notions and prejudices, with our associations and a strong attachment to kindred, friends and country. However unpleasant, unkind, unjust and inconsistent it might appear at first, we clearly foresaw that, in receiving this Gospel, we should be compelled to break up those associations and sever those attachments, leaving the lands of our nativity, and going forth with our wives and children to a distant land, of which we had but little knowledge. Yet a similar requisition was made upon the House of Israel, in the land of Egypt; also upon Noah and his family, and upon Abraham and the family of Lot, in the city of Sodom, and upon the families of Lehi and Ishmael, as mentioned in the Book of Mormon. But in the provisions of the Gospel which was offered to us, there were fairness and safety; it proposed to give us, through obedience to its requirements, a perfect knowledge of its divine authenticity; so that in leaving our kindred, breaking up our social relations, and going forth from our native lands, we should first become perfectly assured that it was no human contrivance—something gotten up to effect some political purpose, or to satisfy some worldly ambition to achieve some private end through human cunning or craftiness.
The Gospel was plain and simple in its requirements, and there could be no mistaking the precise nature of its blessings and promises, nor the manner and time in which they were to be reached.
The first feature in this system which struck us with surprise and arrested our attention, was its perfect similarity, in all its parts, with the Gospel as recorded in the New Testament. It required repentance and a forsaking of sins—immersion in water for the remission of sins, with a promise that, through the laying on of hands by those having authority, people should receive the Holy Ghost, by which a knowledge should be obtained of the truth of the doctrine. Another remarkable feature which called into exercise our most serious consideration, was the solemn testimony of the Elders, that they possessed the right to administer these sacred ordinances by virtue of the holy Priesthood committed to Joseph Smith through the ministration of the Apostles, Peter, James and John. And furthermore, that this solemn and most important fact should be revealed to every man upon his faithful obedience to the Gospel requirements.
In these propositions, though at first seemingly strange, we saw that everything was plain, fair and honorable. In doing what they required, we should only do, in fact, what, as true-hearted believers in the ancient Gospel, we ought to do, and if we failed to receive the promised blessings, and thereby proved the Elders' testimony false, our religious condition would, nevertheless, be then as good as any other Christian's, and a little better, perhaps, because we should have approached a little nearer to the doctrines of the Scriptures, inasmuch as their true forms and ceremonies were concerned. Of course, in this case, having proved to our satisfaction that there was no Holy Ghost—no supernatural manifestations—no knowledge—no revelations accompanying the Elders' administrations of the Gospel; no human persuasion, no cunning sophistry could have induced us to leave our homes and friends, to embark in a scheme which our common sense taught us would eventuate in bitter disappointment and inevitable ruin; but, like other Christians, we should have continued in the enjoyment of friends and home, groping our way through religious darkness, expecting nothing, hoping nothing, and receiving nothing.
But the fact that I am now speaking to assembled thousands of intelligent and enlightened people, who received this Gospel with the aforementioned fond considerations and lively expectations—gathered here by their own free will and choice, out of almost every nation, demonstrates most clearly, most forcibly and most solemnly, that this system of life, this Gospel as proclaimed by Joseph Smith, has been shown to us by the revelations of the Almighty—that it is undeniably His will, His word and His message; not only this, but we find within ourselves a fixed purpose—an unalterable resolution to do, if need be, what many of us have already done; show the sincerity of our convictions of these solemn truths, through sacrificing all we possess—not even holding our lives as dear to us as this religion.
There was yet another prominent feature embraced in this order of things, viz., where it found people in poverty, misery and in a condition but a little above starvation, it spoke in positive terms of future relief and effectual deliverance. It did not simply say, "Be ye warmed and be ye clothed," but it declared plainly, and in distinct terms, that the Lord had seen their bondage and oppression, and heard their cries of sorrow and affliction, and had now sent His Gospel for their deliverance, and would lead them into circumstances of independence, where they could supply their own wants and necessities. There, again, was something consistent and worthy of all praise and admiration, and characteristic of our Great Parent, which we discover in all of His dispensations, when they are in actual working order, as they were in the case of Noah, and in calling Israel and making them an independent people; likewise as in calling Lehi to establish a people upon this continent, as well as in many other instances.
A religion or system is of very little account, where it possesses no virtue nor power to better the condition of people, spiritually, intellectually, morally and physically. Enoch's order of the Gospel did for his people all this, and it has done the same in every instance, when preached in its purity and obeyed in sincerity. Many of the thousands of persons in these beautiful valleys, who formerly were compelled, with their wives and children, to subsist in a half starved condition—not owning a habitation, nor a foot of land, nor a horse, cow, pig, nor chicken—in fact, not anything they could call their own—subject at any moment, through the whim of their employer, to be turned into the streets, miserable beggars; now own cabinet shops, factories, mills, flocks and herds, beautiful gardens and orchards, productive farms, wagons and carriages, dwelling in their own houses in comfortable and easy circumstances. No one has any apprehension of starvation within the jurisdiction of the Latter-day Saints.
The Gospel proposed these blessings at its announcement, and they have been most miraculously accomplished. No other religious system could have achieved such things, nor dared any other Christian denomination venture to send out its missionaries "without purse or scrip," and without a collegiate education, to declare to the people that they had authority from God to administer the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, through which should be revealed tangible evidence and knowledge of its divinity, and of their being authorized to administer it, and take the people from a state of poverty, and lead them thousands of miles, and despite every obstacle, establish them as a comparatively independent people in the midst of a wild desert country. That they found the people poor, friendless and without the means of living, and in servitude not much better than Egyptian bondage, as we found many of them; they would have imparted no cheering news of an approaching salvation from the God of heaven, but could only have exhorted them to be contented and reconciled with their unhappy lot, and in no case must they look for any new revelation or miraculous interposition.
What philanthropists have wished to accomplish, and have often attempted, the Lord is now doing on a magnificent scale in this great American Desert. Flourishing settlements, towns and cities are rapidly being built, extending over a distance of five hundred miles in length—hundreds of miles in width, through the untiring energy and perseverance of a people formerly totally ignorant of such labors. In these cities people live in harmony and peace; and robberies, grog shops, gambling hells, houses of ill-fame and prostitution are not known in any of our numerous towns and cities, except in some instances where Christians (so called) possess a footing and influence. Everywhere else this community flourishes without these demoralizing institutions.
No one, however, prejudiced he may be, can scarcely avoid acknowledging the palpable fact that this system has conferred miraculous blessings upon thousands and tens of thousands, in the way of putting them in possession of the means of sustaining themselves, after having delivered them from oppression and tyranny little better than African slavery: and no doubt our legislators at Washington, one and all, would give us credit for our indefatigable and successful labors in establishing an extensive and flourishing colony on a portion of our government's domain, formerly inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, provided we would admit this work to be the work of man, and not of God—that it had been accomplished through the artifice and wisdom of man, and not by the power, wisdom and revelations of God.