Journal of Discourses


Elder Orson Pratt

Personal Reminiscences and Testimony Concerning the Prophet Joseph and the Church

“…so great will be the darkness resting upon Christendom, and so great the bonds of priestcraft with which they will be bound, that they will not understand, and they will be given up to the hardness of their hearts. Then will be fulfilled that saying, That the day shall come when the Lord shall have power over his Saints, and the Devil shall have power over his own dominion. …How will the Devil do this? He will perform miracles to do it. The Bible says the kings of the earth and the great ones will be deceived by these false miracles. It says there shall be three unclean spirits that shall go forth working miracles, and they are spirits of devils. Where do they go? To the kings of the earth; and what will they do? Gather them up to battle unto the great day of God Almighty. Where? Into the valley of Armageddon…”


President Brigham Young

“To Build Up Zion, and not Babylon”

“…it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give, out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied, and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on the earth for them to do. This is my principle, and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers… No, my plan and counsel would be, let every person, able to work, work and earn what he needs; and if the poor come around me—able-bodied men and women—take them and put them into the house. “Do you need them?” No; but …teach them to labor and earn what they need”


Wilford Woodruff

Revelation, Prophesying and Predictions of the Servants of God

“It is a difficult matter, many times, for men of the world to understand the literal fulfillment of revelation; in fact, some of our leading men, men of wisdom, men who have enjoyed a good portion of the Spirit of the Lord—it has been difficult for them to understand the fulfillment of prophecy. …It is so with our nation today; they cannot comprehend, notwithstanding the mighty evidence that is rolling before them like the waves of the sea, one event after another in their fulfillment; but they cannot realize how the Lord can make use of the elements known to mankind to bring about the destruction of a nation like ours.”



Elder Erastus Snow

The “Perfect Law of Liberty”

“The Gospel of the Son of God extends to the world that perfect law of liberty. Founded on truth, and a proper appreciation of those principles which tend to the largest possible happiness to humanity, it restrains mankind, not in the enjoyment of freedom and liberty, but from efforts to deprive their fellows of it.”


Elder Orson Pratt

“…a day of great tribulation…”

“…inasmuch as we have pointed out the way of escape and shown you that the Lord has provided in regard to these matters, for all that will believe in him, and repent of their sins, and obey the gospel, do not be dilatory, do not be slack, do not be extravagant in your expenditures, but strive to lay up means… for a day of great tribulation is coming, a day of desolation…”


President John Taylor

The Purposes of God—Duties and Responsibilities of the Saints

“…the world have generally made great mistakes upon these points. They have started various projects to try to unite and cement the people together without God; but they could not do it. Fourierism, Communism—another branch of the same thing—and many other principles of the same kind …but all these things have failed, and they will fail, because, however philanthropic, humanitarian, benevolent, or cosmopolitan our ideas, it is impossible to produce a true and correct union without the Spirit of the living God…”



John Taylor, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1880-1887

“God will have a free people”

God will have a free people, and while we have a duty to perform to preach the Gospel, we have another to perform, that is, to stand up in the defense of human rights—in the defense of our own rights, the rights of our children, and in defense of the rights of this nation and of all men, no matter who they may be…