| 1012 There may be individuals who will look at their pretty houses and gardens and say, 'it is hard to leave them;' but I tell you, when we start, you will put on your knapsacks, and follow after us. Before I was baptized, I believed we should come into an Apostolic religion. As for a Common Stock Business Religion, such as many preach, I do not believe in it. Every man will be a steward over his house and property and if he is an unfaithful steward, his stewardship will be given to another. I will prophecy in the name of Heber C. Kimball, that in five years, we will be as well again off as we are now.-Those brethren who have gone off and labored among the Gentiles, are not as well off as we are; some have eighty dollars, some an hundred, and some fifty dollars due them; and their 'Friends' have driven them away penniless, and they have had to flee for safety to Nauvoo.-Those who remained here, are better off.-Since we have had an invitation from our 'friends,' to leave the county, many have asked shall we go and labor for them? They may go, if they have a mind to; but I won't do it: I'll see them go the other way first.
I positively know men, that have gone to labor for those, who with uplifted hands, swore they would take President B. Young's life and my own. If it is your feeling to tarry here, and labor for each other to get away, manifest it. (clear vote) At the last conference, a vote was passed that the Gentiles were cut off; and now, why do you want to labor for them. Inasmuch as the Gentiles reject us, lo! we turn to the Jews.
Again; there is a constant running to the Twelve, and saying 'Can't we go in your company?' we calculate you are all going in the first company, both old and young, rich and poor; for there will be but one company.-Probably we will sometimes be the first, and then again the last, sometimes in one place, sometimes in another. Some say, ah! 'you are going ahead, and taking the band; but we will be with all of you.
We first made a selection of one hundred, and when we had done, we found we could not be satisfied without taking the whole; and so we finally concluded, we would take you all with us, and have but one company. There is no use in making selections, for you are all good; but there is still a chance for us all to be a great deal better. We have no partiality; we have a common interest, for the welfare of this whole people, and we feel to advocate your cause like a father, would advocate the cause of his children.
When men come in here to divide you, and when the mob came, did we flee? No! No! the hireling fleeth, but we felt like a Father, and if you had to die, we would die with you. We want to feed the sheep to nourish them; they have a tremendous journey to take; and when we see one that is weak and feeble, we will take it up, put it into a wagon, and take you all with us. We have had sorrow and could not sleep on your account: if we had no anxiety for you, we should have fled into the wilderness and left you.
We want to take you to a land, where a white man's foot never trod, nor a lion's whelps, nor the devil's; and there we can enjoy it, with no one to molest and make us afraid; and we will bid all the nations welcome, whether Pagans, Catholics, or Protestants. We are not accounted as white people, and we don't want to live among them. I had rather live with the buffalo in the wilderness: and I mean to go, if the Lord will let me, and spare my life. Let us become passive as clay in the hands of the potter: if we don't, we will be cut from the wheel and thrown back in the mill again, like the Fosters, Higbees, and others. They want to come into Nauvoo again; but we won't let them, until we have all the good clay out, and have made it into vessels of honor, to our heavenly Father: then they may come and be ground.
Elder Lyman next arose and remarked;-"President Young says, we did not calculate to be in a hurry. It would be a matter of gratification, if I could express my feelings; but I have so many of them that I can't do it.
There has been in the progress of this church, an ample manifestation of the various windings and dispositions of man. A person cannot fail to perceive it, when he will observe and reflect, and doubtless those who have reflected may be satisfied, that the course of this people is unalterably fixed. I am glad it is not controlled by any human being. We have contended with opposition when it appeared impossible for us to overcome, and yet we have triumphed; and this people are becoming great and numerous.
"Perhaps in the congregation before me, there is every variety of feeling, which can be found on the face of the earth: yet we find their feelings undergoing a change, and that this people are approximating to a Oneness;-the people are becoming one, and their interests one. When they first heard the Gospel, they hailed and cherished it with joy; and they have come up here to receive additional instruction: yet perhaps, they have made but a limited calculation of how far they would have to go, in obedience and sacrifices, and to how much persecution and suffering, they would be subject,
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