| 972 if they go by counsel; and you will never go astray, if you take this course. If you go astray it is because you go upon you own hook, not understanding what is in the future.
Let fathers, inasmuch as they have daughters, keep them at home in the City of Joseph, among the saints of the Most High God, and watch them, and if they want to go to any place, go with them, to that place, and see that they do have kind treatment, for I know the Gentiles have no regard for us, as a people, nor for our women, and thy would abuse them, and the very best of them would think it no sin.
I have travelled [traveled] upon the rivers, and by land, and by sea, and I have had an oportunity [opportunity] of seeing their treatment. They consider you the offscouring of the earth but I know this to be the best people of the age, and God knows it, and the devil knows it, and every body else knows that this is not a bad people.
We have on our every day clothes, now; if you would see us in our fine dress, you would say we are the best looking fellows in the world. Here are my brethren the Twelve; we have been sitting in the dust these three days, and where will you see a better looking set of chaps, when our faces are clean, and our hair combed out.
We have had our women insulted many times by men in Warsaw, (who are the meanest people that ever God suffered to live.) If our women should call there, the gentlemen there would very politely desire an introduction to them, and they will be so obliging to wait upon them at the table, &c, and you would think they were the finest men in the world, but they do this for the purpose of destroying the females. I saw this myself, (and I wished I had the preparation of the gospel.) I have seen these men since; but I have never spoken to them, and I do not consider they are fit to speak to.
It is true they are fine looking men, and well dressed; yea, they are gentlemen, in appearance; but they are villains in their hearts. If we let our females go, the first that we know, they will be going to Carthage, and Warsaw, and I would rather my family would go to hell, for it will be no worse than these places, for it is where the inhabitants of these places will go; but we will be on the earth, and they will be sent to hell, because they are not fit for our society or the society of the saints; those who have their names put upon the books, that are not blotted out, for you will be judged out of the books kept by the church; and they will be of great consequence to look upon in the morning of the resurrection.
What a pleasure it will be for our children to look upon these books, while we are in our graves, sleeping. They can see what an interest, and labor, and toiling, their fathers accomplished, when we were building the Temple, in order to get our endowments.
While we were building the Temple, in Kirtland, we were poor, and in worse circumstance than we are now, or ever will be; for at that time we were persecuted and were under the necessity of laying upon the floor with our fire-locks by our sides to sustain ourselves, as there were mobs gathering all around us to destroy us, and prevent us from building the Temple. And when they were driven, every man that was in the church, arose, and we took our fire-locks, to reinstate our brethren and in the night we laid upon the floor; we laid upon Brother Joseph's floor, and upon Sidney Rigdon's floor many a night to save his live, and to save the lives of his family; and he is now exerting every effort to take away our lives; but he will see the day when he will be glad to come into the cellar kitchen and become a cook, and to black the boots and shoes of the servants of God; and it will be the case with thousands of others. They will be glad to black our boots and to lick the dust that is under our feet, and this is nothing to what will come to pass. I might stand here all day, and tell you things of the future, and you would not believe the half of it.
Brother Cahoon and Br. Cutler can tell you how many hands worked upon that Temple at one time; I think there were not more than five or six. Father Cutler, and Elder Cahoon, can tell you that there was not left in Kirtland more than ten or fifteen men, when we left with the camp to go to Zion, to Jackson county. And my wife took one hundred pounds of wool and got it carded and spun it, and wove it, and made it into garments for the men that were laboring upon the House; not only did my wife assist in this thing, but a great many of our sisters; and they were not the tenth part as well off as you are, taking you as a people. But I do not say this in order to insinuate that our sisters, in the City of Joseph, are not willing to render their assistance to build the Temple. No, for we have a great sum subscribed, by the sisters, to get our window glass, and nails, yea, it is a mighty sum; and shall we send our daughter to Warsaw, and to Carthage, and to Madison, and to Burlington, and to the Devil knows where? Shall we dot? No. Now I ask of the brethren and sisters, universally, shall we withdraw our support from our enemies? Yes.
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