_THRIFT AND INDUSTRY_
_Faith and Works_--They who secure eternal life are doers of the
word as well as hearers. 14:37.
The grand difficulty with the people is they do not do quite as well as
they know how; it is that which hinders us from accomplishing the work
given us to do. 19:220.
Unless you improve upon it, every correct principle advanced through
the authority of the holy Priesthood becomes to you a dead letter.
But if you have the life within you, you, will grow, whether you stay
at home or come to meeting; and every true principle, power, and
manifestation that God gives you, you will improve upon and treasure up
in your hearts. 8:120.
Know whether you ought to do a thing or not, and if you ought not, let
it alone. That is the way to live. 14:161.
_Time Should Be Spent Wisely_--What have we? Our time. Spend it
as you will. Time is given to you; and when this is spent to the best
possible advantage for promoting truth upon the earth, it is placed
to our account, and blessed are you; but when we spend our time in
idleness and folly it will be placed against us. 19:75.
We have to give an account of the days we spend in folly. 19:75.
Idleness and wastefulness are not according to the rules of heaven.
Preserve all you can, that you may have abundance to bless your friends
and your enemies. 14:44.
Do those things that are necessary to be done and let those alone that
are not necessary, and we shall accomplish more than we do now. 3:160.
{447}
Of the time that is allotted to man here on the earth there is none to
lose or to run to waste. After suitable rest and relaxation there is
not a day, hour or minute that we should spend in idleness, but every
minute of every day of our lives we should strive to improve our minds
and to increase the faith of the holy Gospel, in charity, patience, and
good works, that we may grow in the knowledge of the truth as it is
spoken and prophesied of and written about. 13:310.
I told them that we brought nothing but knowledge to direct them in
their labors and to teach them how to employ their time. This is the
greatest wealth we possess--to know how to direct our labors rightly,
spending every hour advantageously for the benefit of our wives and
children and neighbors. 12:172.
_Labor Indispensable_--Is not the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God
on earth a temporal labor all the time? It will be built up by physical
force and means, by manual labor more than by any particular mental
effort of the mind. 3:122.
Everything connected with building up Zion requires actual, severe
labor. It is nonsense to talk about building up any kingdom except by
labor; it requires the labor of every part of our organization, whether
it be mental, physical, or spiritual, and that is the only way to build
up the Kingdom of God. 3:122.
If we are to build up the Kingdom of God, or establish Zion upon the
earth, we have to labor with our hands, plan with our minds, and devise
ways and means to accomplish that object. 3:51.
You count me out fifty, a hundred, five hundred, or a thousand of the
poorest men and women you can find in {448} this community; with the
means that I have in my possession, I will take these ten, fifty,
hundred, five hundred, or a thousand people, and put them to labor; but
only enough to benefit their health and to make their food and sleep
sweet unto them, and in ten years I will make that community wealthy.
In ten years I will put six, a hundred, or a thousand individuals, whom
we have to support now by donations, in a position not only to support
themselves, but they shall be wealthy, shall ride in their carriages,
have fine houses to live in, orchards to go to, flocks and herds and
everything to make them comfortable. 14:88.
As was observed this morning, in a wholesome, lovely, excellent
discourse, we will have to go to work and get the gold out of the
mountains to lay down, if we ever walk in streets paved with gold.
The angels that now walk in their golden streets, and they have the
tree of life within their paradise, had to obtain that gold and put it
there. When we have streets paved with gold, we will have placed it
there ourselves. When we enjoy a Zion in its beauty and glory, it will
be when we have built it. If we enjoy the Zion that we now anticipate,
it will be after we redeem and prepare it. If we live in the city of
the New Jerusalem, it will be because we lay the foundation and build
it. If we do not as individuals complete that work, we shall lay the
foundation for our children and our children's children, as Adam has.
If we are to be saved in an ark, as Noah and his family were, it will
be because we build it. If the Gospel is preached to the nations, it is
because the Elders of Israel in their poverty, without purse or scrip,
preach the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. 8:354-55.
My faith does not lead me to think the Lord will provide us with
roast pigs, bread already buttered, etc.; he {449} will give us the
ability to raise the grain, to obtain the fruits of the earth, to make
habitations, to procure a few boards to make a box, and when harvest
comes, giving us the grain, it is for us to preserve it--to save the
wheat until we have one, two, five, or seven years' provisions on hand,
until there is enough of the staff of life saved by the people to bread
themselves and those who will come here seeking for safety. 10:293.
_Let Nothing Go To Waste_--Take things calm and easy, pick up
everything, let nothing go to waste. 14:88.
Never let anything go to waste. Be prudent, save everything, and what
you get more than you can take care of yourselves, ask your neighbors
to help you consume. 1:250.
Never consider that you have bread enough around you to suffer your
children to waste a crust or a crumb of it. If a man is worth millions
of bushels of wheat and corn, he is not wealthy enough to suffer his
servant girl to sweep a single kernel of it into the fire; let it be
eaten by something and pass again into the earth, and thus fulfil the
purpose for which it grew. Remember it, do not waste anything, but take
care of everything. 1:253.
There is not a family in this city, where there are two, three, four,
or five persons, but what can save enough from their table, from the
waste made by the children, and what must be swept in the fire and out
of the door, to make pork sufficient to last them through the year, or
at least all they should eat. 4:314.
Go to the poorest family in this community, and I will venture to say
that they waste rags enough every year to buy the school books that are
needed for their children, and do even more. 16:16. {450}
If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money; but
it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage.
11:301.
It is to our advantage to take good care of the blessings God bestows
upon us; if we pursue the opposite course, we cut off the power and
glory God designs we should inherit. It is through our own carefulness,
frugality, and judgment which God has given us, that we are enabled to
preserve our grain, our flocks and herds, wives and children, houses
and lands, and increase them around us, continually gaining power and
influence for ourselves as individuals and for the Kingdom of God as a
whole. 9:171.
You may see some little girls around the streets here with their
mothers' skirts on, or their sun bonnets, and with their aprons full of
dirt. Your husbands buy you calico, but you do not know what to do with
it. It is to be carefully worn until the last thread is worn out, and
then put into the rag bag to make paper with. 4:319.
It is good policy and economy to sustain each other. 12:63.
Use just enough of your earnings to make your bodies and your families
happy and comfortable, and save the residue. 9:295;
_We Must be a Self-Sustaining People_--We want you henceforth to
be a self-sustaining people. Hear it, O Israel! hear it, neighbors,
friends and enemies, this is what the Lord requires of this people.
12:285.
Ye Latter-day Saints, learn to sustain yourselves, produce everything
you need to eat, drink or wear; and if you cannot obtain all you wish
for today, learn to do without that which you cannot purchase and pay
for; and bring {451} your minds into subjection that you must and will
live within your means. 12:231.
Who are deserving of praise? The persons who take care of themselves
or the ones who always trust in the great mercies of the Lord to take
care of them? It is just as consistent to expect that the Lord will
supply us with fruit when we do not plant the trees; or that when we
do not plow and sow and are saved the labor of harvesting, we should
cry to the Lord to save us from want, as to ask him to save us from the
consequences of our own folly, disobedience and waste. 12:243-244.
Implicit faith and confidence in God is for you and me to do everything
we can to sustain and preserve ourselves; and the community that works
together, heart and hand, to accomplish this, their efforts will be
like the efforts of one man. 4:25.
Brethren, learn. You have learned a good deal, it is true; but learn
more; learn to sustain yourselves; lay up grain and flour, and save it
against a day of scarcity. Sisters, do not ask your husbands to sell
the last bushel of grain you have to buy something for you out of the
stores, but aid your husbands in storing it up against a day of want,
and always have a year's, or two, provision on hand. 12:204.
Instead of searching after what the Lord is going to do for us, let us
inquire what we can do for ourselves. 9:172.
The first revelation given to Adam was of a temporal nature. Most
of the revelations he received pertained to his life here. That was
also the case in the revelations to Noah. We have but very few of
the instructions the Lord gave to Enoch, concerning his city; but,
doubtless, most of the revelations he received pertained to a temporal
nature {452} and condition. And certainly the revelations Noah
received, so far as in our possession, almost exclusively pertained to
this life. The same principle was carried out in the days of Moses, and
in the days of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We may say that
eight or nine-tenths of the doctrines and principles set forth in the
revelations given to those men were of a temporal nature.
As soon as Moses was called upon to go and deliver Israel, the
revelations the Lord gave to him were of a temporal nature, pertaining
to the temporal life of the children of Israel--instructing Moses how
to deliver them from bondage and lead them from the servile state in
which they then were. He taught them in the same manner while they were
traveling through the wilderness; and so it continued down to the days
of the judges, and then to Saul, whom the Lord permitted them to make a
king, and then through the teachings of the Prophets. 6:170.
Whatever the Latter-day Saints have gained has been obtained by sheer
wrestling and unconquerable resolution. 13:93.
As an instance, we have men who quarry rock out of the mountains; and
we would say to those men, can you go and quarry rock without the
suitable instruments? Says one, "I must have so many picks and wedges,
and I must have so many drills of different sizes, and so many sledges
and hammers." Another man says, "I am going to make the tools; I have
the ability, and I will make the instruments from the ore in the
mountain." You remember what Nephi did. When he came to the sea, and
prepared to build his barge, the Lord showed him the ore, and Nephi
made the tools with which he formed his barge. He did not have to go
back to Jerusalem to get tools. I would like to see a {453} little more
of that skill displayed here than I do at the present time. I am using
this comparison to show that we, in our poverty, have this work to do.
8:354.
_The Elements of Wealth are Around Us_--I say to my brethren and
sisters, come let us learn how to gather around us from the elements an
abundance of every comfort of life, and convert them to our wants and
happiness. Let us not remain ignorant, with the ignorant, but let us
show the ignorant how to be wise. 10:6.
The Lord has done his share of the work; he has surrounded us with
the elements containing wheat, meat, flax, wool, silk, fruit, and
everything with which to build up, beautify and glorify the Zion of the
last days, and it is our business to mould these elements to our wants
and necessities, according to the knowledge we now have and the wisdom
we can obtain from the heavens through our faithfulness. In this way
will the Lord bring again Zion upon the earth, and in no other. 9:283.
While we have a rich soil in this valley, and seed to put in the
ground, we need not ask God to feed us, nor follow us round with a loaf
of bread begging of us to eat it. He will not do it, neither would I,
were I the Lord. We can feed ourselves here; and if we are ever placed
in circumstances where we cannot, it will then be time enough for the
Lord to work a miracle to sustain us. 1:108.
It is our duty to be active and diligent in doing everything we can to
sustain ourselves, to build up his Kingdom, to defend ourselves against
our enemies, to lay our plans wisely, and to prosecute every method
that can be devised to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth, and
to sanctify and prepare ourselves to dwell in his presence. Yet, after
all this, if the Lord should not help--if he should {454} not lend his
aid to our endeavors, all our labors will prove in vain. 2:279-280.
This world is before us. The gold, silver and precious stones are in
the mountains, in the rivers, in the plains, in the sands and in the
waters, they all belong to this world, and you and I belong to this
world. Is there enough to make each of us a finger ring? Certainly
there is. Is there enough to make us a breast pin? Certainly there is.
Is there enough to make jewelry for the ladies to set their diamonds
and precious stones in? Certainly there is. Is there enough to make
the silver plate, the spoons, platters, plates and knives and forks?
There is. There is plenty of it in the earth for all these purposes.
Then what on earth are you and I quarrelling about it for? Go to work
systematically and take it from the mountains, and put it to the use
that we want it, without contending against each other, and filching
the pockets of each other. The world is full of it. If it goes from
my pocket it is still in the world, it still belongs to-this little
ball, this little speck in God's creation, so small that from the sun
I expect you would have to have a telescope that would magnify it
many times to see it; and from any of the fixed stars I do not expect
that it has ever been seen, only by the celestials--mortals could
not see this earth at that distance. And here people are contending,
quarrelling, seeking how to get the advantage of each other, and how
to get all the wealth there is in the world; wanting to rule nations,
wanting to be president, king or ruler. What would they do if they
were? Most of them would make everybody around them miserable, that
is what they would do. There are very few men on the earth who try to
make people happy. Occasionally there have been emperors and monarchs
who have made {455} their people happy but they have been very rare.
But suppose we go to work to gather up all that there is in the bosom
and upon the surface of our mother earth and bring it into use, is
there any lack? There is not, there is enough for all. Then do look
at these things as they are, Latter-day Saints, and you who are not
Latter-day Saints, look at things as they are. And I do hope and pray
for your sakes, outsiders, and for the sakes of those who profess to
be Latter-day Saints, that we shall have good peace for a time here,
so that we can build our furnaces, open our mines, make our railroads,
till the soil, follow our mercantile business uninterrupted; that we
may attend to the business of beautifying the earth. 15:19.
_Agriculture_--The increase of our children, and their growing up
to maturity, increases our responsibilities. More land must be brought
into cultivation to supply their wants. This will press the necessity
of digging canals to guide the waters of our large streams over the
immense tracts of bench and bottom lands which now lie waste. We want
our children to remain near us, where there is an abundance of land
and water, and not go hundreds of miles away to seek homes. In these
great public improvements the people should enter with heart and soul,
and freely invest in them their surplus property and means, and thus
prepare to locate the vast multitudes of our children which are growing
up, and strengthen our hands, and solidify still more--make still more
compact our present organized spiritual and national institutions.
11:116.
You have a living off an acre and a quarter of land. Such a little
farm well tilled and well managed, and the products of it economically
applied, will do wonders towards keeping and educating a small family.
Let the little {456} children do their part, when they are not
engaged in their studies, in knitting their stockings and mittens,
braiding straw for their hats, or spinning yarn for their frocks and
underclothing. If this people would strictly observe these simple
principles of economy, they would soon become so rich that they would
not have room sufficient to hold their abundance; their store-houses
would run over with fulness. 11:142.
Now, cultivate your farms and gardens well, and drive your stock to
where they can live through the winter, if you have not feed for them.
Do not keep so many cattle, or, in other words, more than you can well
provide for and make profitable to yourselves and to the Kingdom of
God. We have hundreds and thousands of fat cattle upon the ranges, and
yet we have no beef to eat, or very little. Kill your cattle when they
are fat, and salt down the meat, that you may have meat to eat in the
winter and some to dispose of to your neighbors for their labor to
extend your improvements. Lay up your meat, and not let it die on your
hands. Such a course is not right. Cattle are made for our use, let us
take care of them. 11:142.
I intend to plant and sow, not only in the month of May, but in the
month of June, and in the month of July, and I will continue my labors
to raise what is necessary to sustain life, as long as the season
lasts. 2:280.
Let groves of olive trees be planted, and vineyards of the most
approved varieties of grapes, and let sweet potatoes be raised in
abundance, and all trees and roots that bear fruit in the ground and
above the ground that can be used as food for man and beast, that
plenty may flow in the land like a river, and contentment be enthroned
in every {457} household, while industry, frugality, and peace prevail
everywhere. 10:227.
Instead of people being poor, we already have too much, unless we take
better care of it. I heard a man who is living in this city--one who
has always been well off--state that he used to keep twelve cows when
he first came here, and was often nearly destitute of milk and butter.
After a few years; the number of his cows was reduced to six, and he
said that the six did him more good than the twelve had done. In two
years more, they were reduced to two, and the two cows have done him
much more good than the twelve or the six did, for they could be and
were more properly attended to. 4:317.
Everything which we use to feed the life of man or beast, not a grain
of it should be permitted to go to waste, but should be made to pass
through the stomach of some animal; everything, also, which will
fertilize our gardens and our fields should be sedulously saved and
wisely husbanded, that nothing may be lost which contains the elements
of food and raiment for man and sustenance for beast. 11:130.
Save your hay; save your chaff; save your straw; save your wheat; save
your oats; save your barley, and everything that can be saved and
preserved against a day of want. 12:241.
Wives, go into the garden and raise the salad and numerous other
articles within your judgment and strength. Who hindered you from
making a little vinegar last year? People are frequently running round
and asking, "Where can I buy some vinegar?" When I was keeping a house,
if my neighbors had a million hogsheads of vinegar, I had no need to
buy a spoonful of it, for I would make a plenty {458} for my own use,
and would have eggs, butter, and pork, of my own production, and manage
to secure beef, and salt it away nicely, and we had all the essentials
for comfortable diet. 4:318.
What hinders you from raising something to feed a cow? Nothing. Who
hinders you from planting your garden with corn, and having the suckers
and the fodder? Who hinders you from raising carrots, parsnips, etc.,
to feed a cow with through the winter? This you can do on a little more
than a quarter of an acre, but will you do it? 4:317.
The riches of a kingdom or nation do not consist so much in the fulness
of its treasury as in the fertility of its soil and the industry of its
people. 10:266.
Our wants are many, but our real necessities are very few. Let us
govern our wants by our necessities, and we shall find that we are not
compelled to spend our money for naught. Let us save our money to enter
and pay for our land, to buy flocks of sheep and improve them, and to
buy machinery and start more woolen factories. 12:289.
We are not anxious to obtain gold; if we can obtain it by raising
potatoes and wheat, all right. "Can't you make yourselves rich by
speculating?" We do not wish to. "Can't you make yourselves rich by
going to the gold mines?" We are right in the midst of them. "Why don't
you dig the gold from the earth?" Because it demoralizes any community
or nation on the earth to give them gold and silver to their hearts'
content; it will ruin any nation. But give them iron and coal, good
hard work, plenty to eat, good schools and good doctrine, and it will
make them a healthy, wealthy and happy people. 13:176.
Purchase cows, for if we have not already supplied you with cows, we
are able and willing to do so. Most, if not {459} all, have already
been furnished with cows. What did you do with the calves? "We sold
them for a trifle." Why did you not raise them? Do you not know that
they would very soon be valuable? No, but you waste your calves,
neglect buying pigs, and live without milk, and many of the easily
procured comforts of life. 4:315.
The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a
bushel of wheat. 1:250.
When a farmer has done with his ploughs, he should put them under
shelter until they are again wanted. When harness is taken off, it
should be so hung up that you can go at any time of night and find it,
or a saddle, bridle, saddle-blanket, or any other trapping, and be
ready at once. 8:296.
_Manufacturing_--I pray the Lord to hedge up the way and shut
down the gate so, that we may be compelled to depend upon our own
manufacturing for the comforts of life. 7:67.
Also raise flax, and prepare it for the women to manufacture into
summer clothing. 4:316.
Save your wool, and send it to the factory. If we want a little cotton
cloth, we can raise it in the southern country; and we could raise
some here as well as in some other places. We can raise about two
gatherings. 19:73.
I want them to save their wool and to keep it in this Territory. If
we have not factories sufficient to work up all the wool that grows
in this Territory, and in these mountains, we will send and get more
machinery, and build more factories, and work up the wool for the
people. 15:159.
Go and build a tannery, that the hides that come off our beef cattle,
can be made into leather. 19:73.
We want glass. Some man will come along, by and by, {460} and take the
quartz rock, rig up a little furnace and make glass. 9:31.
By-and-by some man will come along, not worth fifty dollars, and take
the feldspar, which enters so largely into our granite rock, and make
the best of chinaware. 9:31.
Dye-stuffs have opened another drain through which considerable of our
money has passed off. Wherever Indian corn will flourish madder can be
produced in great quantities, yet we have been paying out our money to
strangers for this article. Indigo can be successfully and profitably
raised in this region. 10:226. Importing sugar has been a great drain
upon our floating currency. I am satisfied that it is altogether
unnecessary to purchase sugar in a foreign market. The sorghum is a
profitable crop, in Great Salt Lake and the adjoining counties, for the
manufacture of molasses; in this section it can be profitably raised
for the manufacture of sugar. I have tasted samples of sugar produced
from the sorghum raised in the south of Utah, and a better quality of
raw sugar I never saw. Let some enterprising persons prosecute this
branch of home-production, and thus effectually stop another outlet for
our money. Sugar ranks high among the staples of life, and should be
produced in great abundance. 10:226.
Go to and raise silk. You can do it, and those who cannot set
themselves to work we will set them to work gathering straw, and making
straw hats and straw bonnets; we will set others to gathering willow,
and others to making baskets; we will set others to gathering flags and
rushes, and to making mats, and bottoming chairs and making carpets.
12:202.
As I told the people, when we first came into this valley {461} in
1847, there is plenty of silk in the elements here, as much as in any
other part of the earth. 9:32.
The capitalists may say, 'What are we to do with our means?' Go and
build factories and have one, two, or three thousand spindles going.
Send for fifty, a hundred, or a thousand sheep and raise wool. Some of
you go to raising flax and build a factory to manufacture it, and do
not take every advantage and pocket every dollar that is to be made.
You are rich and I want to turn the stream so as to do good to the
whole community. 13:36.
_Commerce_--It may be said that we shall always be poor without
commerce; we shall always be poor with it, unless we command it; and
unless we can do this, we are better without it. 11:134.
But, again, with regard to this railroad; when it is through, even in
ordinary times it opens to us the market, and we are at the door of
New York, right at the threshold of the emporium of the United States.
We can send our butter, eggs, cheese, and fruits and receive in return
oysters, clams, cod fish, mackerel, oranges, and lemons. Let me say
more to you--do up your peaches in the best style, for they will want
them. 12:54.
Whatsoever administers to the sustenance, comfort and health of mankind
forms the basis of the commerce of the world. Gold and silver in coin
are only valuable as mediums to facilitate exchange. They can be made
useful to us and add to our comfort when made into cups, plates, etc.,
in our household economy. 10:227.
Recollect that in trading there is great advantage in turning over your
capital often. 13:35.
Are our merchants honest? I could not be honest and do as they do; they
make five hundred percent on some of {462} their goods, and that, too,
from an innocent, confiding, poor, industrious people. 11:114.
_Capital and Labor_--All the capital there is upon the earth is
the bone and sinew of workingmen and women. Were it not for that,
the gold and the silver and the precious stones would remain in the
mountains, upon the plains and in the valleys, and never would be
gathered or brought into use. The timber would continue to grow, but
none of it would be brought into service, and the earth would remain as
it is; but it is the activity and labor of the inhabitants of the earth
that bring forth the wealth. Labor builds our meeting-houses, temples,
court houses, fine halls for music and fine school houses; it is labor
that teaches our children, and makes them acquainted with the various
branches of education, that makes them proficient in their own language
and in other languages, and in every branch of knowledge understood by
the children of men; and all this enhances the wealth and the glory and
the comfort of any people on the earth. 16:66.
We say to the-Latter-day Saints, work for these capitalists, and
work honestly and faithfully, and they will pay you faithfully. I am
acquainted with a good many of them, and as far as I know them, I do
not know but every one is an honorable man. They are capitalists, they
want to make money, and they want to make it honestly and according to
the principles of honest dealing. If they have means and are determined
to risk it in opening mines you work for them by the day. Haul their
ores, build their furnaces and take your pay for it, and enter your
lands, build houses, improve your farms, buy your stock, and make
yourselves better off. 14:85.
There are many in the city of New York who never {463} went to school
a day in their lives; they are wallowing in the gutter, ragged, dirty,
and filthy. They learn sharpness, it is true; but where do they sleep?
By the wayside, or crawl into some old building--girls and boys, and
live there by the thousand. They have not a shelter to place their
heads under, but when night comes their only refuge is old buildings,
hovels, and corners of streets forsaken by the police, and there they
must spend the night. Why not take such characters and bring them
out to this country, or to California, Oregon, or to the plains of
Illinois, Wisconsin, etc., and make a town, settle up the country,
and make these poor, miserable creatures better off? You would prove
yourselves worthy of existence on the earth if you would. 14:84.
To pay people the wages they want here would prevent us from raising
silk profitably. We look forward to the period when the price of labor
here will be brought to a reasonable and judicious standard. 12:202.
Time and the ability to labor are the capital stock of the whole world
of mankind, and we are all indebted to God for the ability to use
time to advantage, and he will require of us a strict account of the
disposition we make of this ability; and he will not only require an
account of our acts, but our words and thoughts will also be brought
into judgment. 18:73.
A young woman, compelled to labor for her daily bread, applies for work
to some lady in comfortable circumstances. The lady perhaps says, "What
wages do you want?" "I do not know. What will you give me?" The reply
is, probably, "Well, I will give you fifty cents a week and your board,
but I shall want you to do my washing, ironing, milking, scrubbing, and
cooking," the whole of it, most {464} likely, keeping the poor girl
at work from five o'clock in the morning until ten at night. Yet her
poverty leaves her no choice, and she is compelled to become a slave
in order to procure, day by day, her breakfast, dinner, and supper. It
is probable that if her father be alive he is too poor to help her;
and if she has a mother she may be a widow and unable to rescue her
from a life of toil and slavery. A lady, whom I knew in my youth, the
wife of a minister, where I used to attend meeting, said once to some
of her sisters in the church, "Do you suppose that we shall be under
the necessity of eating with our hired help when we get into heaven?
We do not do it here, and I have an idea that there will be two tables
in heaven." Yet she was a lady of refinement and education, still the
traditions that had been woven into her very being proved the folly she
possessed to ask such a question. 14:99.
Let mechanics and every man who has capital create business and give
employment and means into the hands of laborers; build good and
commodious houses, magnificent temples, spacious tabernacles, lofty
halls, and every other kind of structure that will give character
and grandeur to our cities and create respect for our people. Let us
make mechanics of our boys, and educate them in every useful branch
of science and in the history and laws of kingdoms and nations, that
they may be fitted to fill any station in life, from a ploughman to a
philosopher. 10:270.
The non-producer must live on the products of those who labor. There is
no other way. If we all labor a few hours a day, we could then spend
the remainder of our time in rest and the improvement of our minds.
This would give an opportunity to the children to be educated in the
{465} learning of the day, and to possess all the wisdom of man. 19:47.
Do not oppress the poor, but trust in God, and you will go neither
hungry, naked, nor thirsty. If you oppress the poor, the day will come
when you will be naked, thirsty, and hungry, and will not be able to
get anything to supply your wants. 8:73.
_Build Good Houses and Beautiful Cities_--Let the people build
good houses, plant good vineyards and orchards, make good roads,
build beautiful cities in which may be found magnificent edifices for
the convenience of the public, handsome streets skirted with shade
trees, fountains of water, crystal streams, and every tree, shrub and
flower that will flourish in this climate, to make our mountain home
a paradise and our hearts wells of gratitude to the God of Joseph,
enjoying it all with thankful hearts, saying constantly, "not mine but
thy will be done, O Father." 10:3.
Beautify your gardens, your houses, your farms; beautify the city. This
will make us happy, and produce plenty. The earth is a good earth, the
elements are good if we will use them for our own benefit, in truth and
righteousness. Then let us be content, and go to with our mights to
make ourselves healthy, wealthy, and beautiful, and preserve ourselves
in the best possible manner, and live just as long as we can, and do
all the good we can. 15:20.
Every improvement that we make not only adds to our comfort but to our
wealth. 16:64.
Make good houses; learn how to build; become good mechanics and
business men, that you may know how to build a house, a barn, or a
store-house, how to make a farm, and how to raise stock, and take
every care of it by providing {466} proper shelter and every suitable
convenience for keeping it through the winter; and prove yourselves
worthy of the greater riches that will be committed to you than this
valley and what it can produce. 8:289.
_Accumulate Property_--Efforts to accumulate property in the
correct channel are far from being an injury to any community, on the
contrary they are highly beneficial, provided individuals, with all
that they have, always hold themselves in readiness to advance the
interests of the Kingdom of God on the earth. Let every man and woman
be industrious, prudent, and economical in their acts and feelings, and
while gathering to themselves, let each one strive to identify his or
her interests with the interests of this community, with those of their
neighbor and neighborhood, let them seek their happiness and welfare in
that of all, and we will be blessed and prospered. 3:330.
To do right can be reduced to perfect simplicity in a few words, viz.,
from this time henceforth, let no person work, or transact any kind of
business whatever, that he cannot do in the name of the Lord. 1:337.
This life is worth as much as any life that any being can possess in
time or in eternity. There is no life more precious to us in the eye
of eternal wisdom and justice than the life which we now possess. Our
first duty is to take care of this life. 11:113.
To be prudent and saving, and to use the elements in our possession for
our benefit and the benefit of our fellow beings is wise and righteous;
but to be slothful, wasteful, lazy and indolent, to spend our time and
means for naught, is unrighteous. 16:16.
We all believe that the Lord will fight our battles; but how? Will
he do it while we are unconcerned and make {467} no effort whatever
for our own safety when an enemy is upon us? If we make no efforts to
guard our towns, our houses, our cities, our wives and children, will
the Lord guard them for us? He will not; but if we pursue the opposite
course and strive to help him to accomplish his designs, then will
he fight our battles. We are baptized for the remission of sins; but
it would be quite as reasonable to expect remission of sins without
baptism, as to expect the Lord to fight our battles without our taking
every precaution to be prepared to defend ourselves. The Lord requires
us to be quite as willing to fight our own battles as to have him fight
them for us. If we are not ready for an enemy when he comes upon us,
we have not lived up to the requirements of him who guides the ship of
Zion, or who dictates the affairs of his Kingdom. 11:131.
_Debt_--Pay your debts, we will help you to do so, but do not run
into debt any more. 14:105.
Be prompt in everything, and especially to pay your debts. 14:279.
A man who will run into debt, when he has no prospect of paying it back
again, does not understand the principles that should prevail in a well
regulated community, or he is wilfully dishonest. 11:258.
A man who will not pay his honest debts is no Latter-day Saint, if he
has the means to pay them. 11:258.
It is bad enough, quite bad enough, to borrow from an enemy and not to
repay him; to do this is beneath the character of any human being; but
all who will borrow from a friend, and especially from the poor, are
undeserving the fellowship of the Saints if they do not repay. 14:276. {468}