| 1005 water might be too hot or too cold, or something of that sort, by which means I might not be able to do the business right. We will just wait a little, and let God water them all at once; it will be rightly tempered too when it comes, and when it falls upon them it will do execution.
To kill them would be a mercy too great at the hands of this people; for to stand in dread of any thing is worse than to plunge into it.-If we can only keep them alive, it will be to them a greater burden than to kill them, for they are dreading hell all the time; and to cut the thread and let them drop in, they would not have the pleasure of that torment. Then let them live. What for? to harass them? No; God knows they have something to harass them worse than we can do it; their conscience is as a black locust tree in the stomach, and wherever they go they are oppressed with it. They are in perpetual misery. Murder and garments rolled in blood are continually before their eyes. If I were they, I would want to kill myself. O then, don't kill them! let them live! for they carry about them their own torments; and they feel so good.
So matters roll round. This people have more joy and satisfaction in one hour, than they will ever have. By and by they will straiten up and say we will go to Texas or Oregon: well, you may 'go,' but you cannot get rid of that black locust tree you have in your stomachs. If you were there, you would be afraid of being killed. The black locust would still grow, and you cannot root it up, for it is on its own natural soil; and the more you try to root it up the more it will grow. If you take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, the black locust is there; if you make your bed in hell, it won't burn off the thorns, for they are wrapt [wrapped] up inside, and the fire cannot reach them. (At this time President Young, feeling a disposition to allevlate [alleviate] their sufferings a little, wished the black locust to be extracted, and a honey locust put in its stead.) To which Elder Hyde said, I stand corrected; it is the honey locust; there is a little sweet with it.
Well, brethren and sisters, in the midst of all our trials, where is the people whose sources for joy and gladness are greater than ours? There is more joy, union, and love, among this people after they have been beaten, afflicted, and trampled upon, than can be found in all the world.
When we get into the celestial kingdom, and shall shake hands with each other, where there are no tears, no cares, no sorrows, but all joy and gladness; how great then will be our joy? We see a faint similitude of what will be our joy, when we hear two old soldiers of the Revolution tell over their sufferings in the war. One says I was in a battle here; the other I was in a battle there. I fought so and so, and my right hand man was cut down, and I was wounded; and says the other, I was wounded too. Thus they will tell over their sorrows and pains, while the tears of joy and gladness trickle down their care-worn and furrowed cheeks. How great the joy they have with one another while relating over their sorrows, as they sit under the bright banner of liberty they bled to unfur [unfurl]!!
So will we rejoice with each other in yonder world, as we tell over to each other the sufferings, perils, and deaths we have suffered while sitting under a brighter, and far more glorious banner. We have every thing to encourage and inspire us with joy and gladness.
From the Millennial Star.
A VISIT TO LONDON, BIRMINGHAM, AND THE POTTERIES.
The 7th of June found me once more in the great metropolis, after an absence of nearly five years; and, while walking through the city, my mind was filled with meditations upon subjects, to me of much interest: it was carried back to the year 1840, when in company with my much esteemed and worthy brethren, Heber C. Kimball, and George A. Smith, we first introduced the fulness [fullness] of the gospel into the city of London, and walked the streets of that city faithfully for nearly thirty days before we could find a man that appeared to feel interested in the message that they had to present to this generation, or that felt disposed to welcome us beneath their roof, unless in return they were well rewarded with gold and silver: but through the goodness of God, after spending about six months of hard labor, we were enabled to establish a small branch of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the great metropolis of the world, which we left in charge of Elder Lorenzo Snow.
Not only had five years absence effected a great change upon the face of the city, but in like manner the prospects of the church had undergone a change too; for I was now walking in company with Elder E. H. Davis, who is presiding over a branch of the church there, numbering three hundred members, as well as a number of neighboring branches.
I had also the pleasing reflection of knowing that I had, upon this 7th day of June, A. D. 1845, the pleasure of securing unto the church
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