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Can any of these Apostles? Taken as
we have been from the plow, the plane,
the hammer, and the various occupations
of life, can we boast we have power to
do this? We cannot; we are not made
of that material. The only marvel I
have had all my life has been that the
Lord ever chose me for anything, es-
pecially as an Apostle and as President.
But that is His own business; it was not
mine.

My name has been referred to two or
three times by the Apostles with regard
to my labors. I want to say something
in relation to that. To begin with, I
will say that the Lord has never set His
hand in any age of the world, especially
in ours, to establish a Zion like this,
without preparing an element for it. In
fact, the Lord never undertook to do
anything with regard to this world, ap-
pertaining to His kingdom and work,
until He had prepared a people for it.
Now, the set time had come for the ful-
fillment of the revelations of St. John,
when another angel should fly through
the midst of heaven, having the ever-
lasting Gospel to preach to them that
dwelt upon the earth, "saying with a
loud voice, fear God, and give glory to
Him; for the hour of His judgment is
come." [##Revelation 14:6-7##] The time, I say, had come for
the manifestation of the Gospel of Christ
to the world. The Apostles of Christ
and every man that bore the Priesthood
in their day and generation were put to
death for the word of God and testimony
of Jesus, and the Holy Priesthood was
caught up to God, and remained there
until the day and generation in which
Joseph Smith was raised up. He was
ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood by
John the Baptist, who held the keys of
that Priesthood while dwelling in the
flesh. [##Joseph Smith-History 1:72##] He was ordained to the Apostle-
ship by Peter, James and John, who
held the keys of that Priesthood when
they were taken from the earth. [##Doctrine and Covenants 128:20##] That
was the beginning of this work. The
Lord could not undertake a work of
this kind without there was a way and a
people prepared for it. In the first
place, the Lord prepared the minds of
men of the generation in which Joseph
Smith was born, that they might be
ready to receive His work when it was
established. There were men that were
kept in the spirit world thousands of
years to stand in the flesh in this genera-
tion to bear this Holy Priesthood and to
bear record of that to the inhabitants of
the earth. Those men have been born
in this day, and they have been moved
upon to prepare for this work.

Now, I desire to say something about
myself. It is generally considered egot-
ism for a man to speak of himself; but I
speak of my history and experience be-
cause it is applicable to thousands of
others. Eighty years ago, when I was
about eight years old, I attended Sab-
bath school under Dr. Porter, a great
reverend divine in Farmington, Con-
necticut. There I read some strange
things in the New Testament. What
were they? Why, I read of Apostles; I
read of men who laid hands on the sick,
and they recovered; who cast out devils,
raised the dead, caused the dumb to
speak, the blind to see, the lame to leap,
who held converse with God and with
holy angels, and had visions and reve-
lations. Brethren and sisters, I read of
these things when I was eight years of
age. They made an impression upon
my mind as soon as I read them. "Why
is it, Dr. Porter,—why is it, Dr. Haws,—
why is it, gentlemen, that you do not
advocate in your day and generation
that faith once delivered to the Saints?
Why don't you receive these things, if
they were the servants of God and had
the Gospel?" "Oh!" said they, "these
things are all done away with. They
were given in the dark ages of the
world to convince the world that Jesus
was the Christ. We live in the blaze of
the glorious gospel light of Christ; we
do not need them today." "Then,"
said I, "give me the dark ages of the
world, if they will give a man power to
unlock the door of eternity and hold
converse with God, and receive these
blessings and gifts manifest in that day."
From that time my inspiration began.
As soon as I grew a little older I began
to read the revelations. My soul was
drawn out upon these things. In my
early manhood I prayed day and night
that I might live to see a prophet. I
would have gone a thousand miles to
have seen a prophet, or a man that could
teach me the things that I read of in
the Bible. I could not join any church,
because I could not find any church at
that time that advocated these principles.
I spent many a midnight hour, by the
river side, in the mountains, and in my
mill (being a miller,) calling upon God
that I might live to see a prophet or
some man that would teach me of the
things of the kingdom of God as I read
them. I remained in that condition un-
til the year 1833. I was living with my
brother on the shores of Lake Ontario.
A man by the name of Zera Pulsipher,
sixty miles from where I lived, was
moved upon in the month of December,
with the snow three or four feet deep, to
arise and go to the north, the Lord had
some work for him there. He called
upon another man to go with him. They
traveled two days on the road to the
north, not knowing where they were
going. Our house was the first place
that they stopped at. I was lumbering
at the time on the shore of the lake.
Zera Pulsipher told my brother's wife
who they were and what they were, and
what their principles were. He said the
Lord had sent him into the north coun-
try to do some work there. My sister-
in-law told him that her husband and
myself both believed in the principles
that he taught. Well they held a meet-
ing. I went to it, and for the first time
in my life I heard a Gospel sermon. I
invited the men home. I borrowed a
Book of Mormon, and sat up all night
and read it, and I had a testimony it was
true. In the morning I asked to be
baptized. Myself and brother were
baptized—the first in that region of coun-
try. From that hour till this I never
have had one moment's doubt with re-
gard to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. I know the work is true. I have
been called into the vineyard and minis-
try with the rest of my brethren, and I
have traveled a great many miles and
quite a number of years. I have held
the Apostleship fifty-eight years. Bro-
ther Joseph only held it some fourteen
before he was slain. Brother Brigham
held it about forty, and Brother Taylor
about the same length of time as my-
self. I have labored all these years and
I know it is the work of God. I know
the Lord is with this people. I have a
desire that we may magnify our callings
and fulfill our position upon the earth.
God has organized this Church; He has
organized it with prophets, apostles,
pastors, teacher, helps, etc., in fulfill-
ment of the promises of God in the last
days. I traveled with Joseph Smith
quite a length of time. I traveled with
Brigham Young forty years, at home and
abroad. I traveled with him to this
country. We came with the pioneers.
Brigham Young, though he never wrote
many revelations, had the revelations of
God with him from the day that he em-
braced this work till the day of his
death. I have often thought of the time
when he was asked if he would not go
on to California instead of stopping in
this barren land. What was his ans-
wer? I was with him when he gave
that answer. He said, "No, I am going
to stay right here. I am going to build
a temple here; I am going to build a city
here; I am going to build a country
here." Has it not been so? Yes, it has.
Was it not by revelation? Certainly it
was. We have all been called from this
low position in life to the Priesthood.
Thousands of this people have been
called to go abroad to preach the Gos-
pel. In speaking of myself and the
manner I was led, so we find it every-
where throughout the world. Where
did you come from? You came from
every state in the Union; from England,
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany,
France, Ireland and other parts of
Europe, as well as from the different
nations of the earth and the islands of
the sea. One of these simple Elders
came to you and you heard him preach
the Gospel, and he promised you if you
would repent of your sins and be bap-
tized for the remission of them, you
should receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. Did you not receive it? You
did, or you would not be here today.
Nobody could then keep you at home.
We have been gathered together by the
commandments of God, and so far we
are trying to do the will of God. But
we have only just begun. I was at the
concert here last night, and I could not
help but think that if President Young
had been there and looked upon that
vast assembly of ten thousand people,
gathered not only from this territory but
from neighboring states and territories,
he would have felt satisfied. When he
built this Tabernacle we did not have
people to fill it; but he told us that in
the building up of Zion we would never
have a house big enough to accommo-
date us however large we might build
it; and so it proved last night. I enjoyed
the concert. Governor Thomas invited
me to address the assembly; but I felt
that people had gathered there, not to
hear preaching, but music.

Let me speak a little further with re-
gard to the Lord preparing a people for
this work. The history of this whole
people is in that line. I will refer you
to the year 1840. The Lord gave a
commandment for the Twelve Apostles
to go to England. There had a few
gone to England before; Brother Kim-
ball and several others went in 1837 and
established the Church there. But in
1840 the Apostles were called as a body
to go there; and the devil did not like it.
He tried to kill us all. There was
hardly one of the Twelve Apostles who
went that was well. When I left home
President Young paddled me across the
Mississippi in a canoe, and I was suffer-
ing with the chills and fever. I had
spent two years in Tennessee and Ken-
tucky, in the midst of sickness; but I
never had an attack of chills and fever
in my life till I was called to go to Eng-
land. It was so with most all of us. The
devil did not like it; but we went. It
was the harvest time then in that land.
We accomplished a great work. We