A Sermon by Brigham Young.
The following is a portion of a sermon de-livered by Brigham Young in the old Taber-nacle, Salt Lake City, on the 8th ultimo. Speaking of the destiny of the Mormons, he said:
What will be the final result of the restora-tion of the gospel, and the destiny of the Latter-day Saints? If they are faithful to the priesthood which God has bestowed upon us the gospel will revolutionize the whole world of mankind, the earth will be sanctified and God will glorify it, and the Saints will dwell upon it in the presence of the Father and the Son. We need to exert our pow-ers, and call forth all the ability within us, and put into requisition every talent that God has given us, to bring about this glorious result, to bear off this Kingdom and see that the gospel is preached to all the inhabitants of the earth. This is our duty and calling. It is obligatory upon us to see that the House of Israel have the gospel preached to them; to do all that is in our power to gather up the land of their fathers; and to gather up the fullness of the Gentiles before the gospel can go with success to the Jew. We are under obligations to establish the Zion of our God upon the earth, and establish and maintain its laws, so that the law of the priesthood of the Son of God may govern and control the people.
On the subject of temporal duties and pro-vision for the poor and needy the speaker said:
I am now going to preach you a short ser-mon concerning our temporal duties. My sermon is to the poor, and to those who are not poor. As a people, we are not poor; and we wish to say to the Bishops, not only in this city, but through the country, "Bish-ops, take care of your poor." The poor in this city do not number a great many. I think there are a few over 70 who draw sus-tenance from the General Tithing Office. They come to the Tithing Office, or somebody comes for them to draw their sustenance. If some of our clever arithmeticians will sit down and make a calculation of the hours lost in coming from the various parts of the city to the Tithing Office, and in waiting around there; and then value those hours, if occu-pied in some useful employment, at twelve and a half cents each, every eight of them making a dollar, it will be found that the number of dollars thus lost by these seventy odd persons in a week would go far toward sustaining them. We have among us some brethren and sisters who are not strong nor healthy, and they must be supported. We wish to adopt the most economical plan of taking care of them. Where you have breth-ren who are not strong enough to saw and split wood or do some kind of outdoor labor, agree with some chairmakers to have his chairs bottomed, and get rushes and set the brethren to bottoming the chairs. If you canot get that for them to do, pro-cure some flags or rushes, and let them make foot mats, and sell them, for one can be made in an hour or two. And if the market should get stocked with them, get some willows and have willow baskets made, and you can scarcely stock the market with them, for they wear out almost as fast as they can be made. In the spring have these brethren sow some broom-corn— they will enjoy working a little out of doors in the nice spring weather; and then in fall they can make brooms with the corn. By pursuing this course a bishop will soon be able to say, "I have accomplished a good work; the brethren and sisters, whom I had to help are now in a condition to help themselves." And in a short time, if their labor aud time are wisely employed, you can build for them the finest house in the ward. You may call it a poorhouse if you choose, though it should be the best house in the ward; and there its inmates can enjoy them-selves, the younger ones can be taught music, and thus a source of enjoyment be created, as well as being taught in various kinds of profitable employment; and the lives of all be made a blessing to themselves, they being in the enjoyment of happiness and comfort. You may think that I am painting a fancy sketch, but it is practicable, and those are places I intend to visit by and by.
Another thing I wish to say. You know that the first Thursday in each month we hold as a fast day. How many here know the ori-gin of this fast day? Before tithing was paid, the poor were supported by donations. They came to Joseph and wanted help, in Kirtland, and he said there should be a fast day, which was decided upon. It was to be held once a month, as it is now; and all that would have been eaten that day, of flour, or meat, or but-ter or fruit, or anything else, was to be car-ried to the fast meeting and put into the hands of a person selected for the purpose of taking care of it and distributing it among the poor. If we were to do this now faithfully, do you think the poor would lack for flour, or butter, or cheese, or meat, or sugar, or anything they needed to eat? No, there would be more than could be used by all the poor among us. It is economy in us to take this course, and do better by our poor brethren and sisters than they have hitherto been done by. Let this be published in our newspapers. Let it be sent forth to the people that on the first Thursday of each month, the fast day, all that would be eaten by husbands and wives and children and servants should be put in the hands of the bishop for the suste-nance of the poor. I am willing to do my share as well as the rest, and it there are no poor in my ward I am willing to divide with those wards where there are poor.
The preacher concluded with the following remarks on education:
You have read, probably, that we are starting the school of the prophets. We have been in this school all the time. The revela-tions of the Lord Jesus Christ to the human family is all the learning we can ever possess. Much of this knowledge is obtained from books, which have been written by men who have contemplated deeply on various sub-jects, and the revelations of Jesus have open-ed their minds, whether they knew it or ac-knowledged it or not. We will start this school of the prophets to increase in knowl-edge. Brother Calder commences to-morrow to teach our youth and those of middle age the art or book-keeping, and impart to them a good mercantile education. We ex-pect soon to have our sisters join in the class and mingle with the brethren in their studies, for why should not a lady be capable of taking charge of her husband's business affairs when he goes into the grave? We have sisters now engaged in several of our telegraph offices; and we wish them to learn not only to act as operators but to keep the books of our offices, and let sturdy men go to work at some em-ployment for which by their strength they are adapted; and we hope eventually to see every store in Zion attended by ladies. We wish to have our young boys and girls taught in the various sciences, all of which we intend event-ually to have taught in this school.
