"A STORM IS COMING"—"TURN UP YOUR COLLARS"—POLICY OF THE CHURCH OUTLINED—CONTEST UNDER THE LAW EVERY ENCROACHMENT ON THE DOMINION OF LIBERTY—WARNINGS AND PROPHECIES—HOSANNA—NO NEW SHOUT—ITS IMPRESSIONS ON A STRANGER.

The morning of the second day's conference in April, 1882, was stormy and cold. The wind blew in fitful gusts, pelting the Saints with sleet as with bowed heads and turned up collars they hurried along to attend the conference. President Taylor made an impressive allusion to this storm in the course of his remarks that day.

Referring to the late enactment of Congress—the Edmunds Bill—and the bitter prejudice aroused against the Saints, he warned them that a storm was coming; and that it would break in its fury upon them. "Let us treat it," said he, half humorously "the same as we did this morning in coming through the snow-storm—put up our coat collars (suiting the action to the word) and wait till the storm subsides. After the storm comes sunshine. While the storm lasts it is useless to reason with the world; when it subsides we can talk to them."

In the afternoon he again referred to this matter: "I stated this morning that there was a storm coming—in fact it is raging at present and has been for some little time, and that it would be well for us to keep up our coat collars and protect ourselves as best we could until the storm passed over. There will be a storm in the United States after awhile; and I want our brethren to prepare themselves for it. At the last conference, I think, I advised all who were in debt to take advantage of the prosperous times and pay their debts; so that they might not be in bondage to anyone, and when the storm came they might be prepared to meet it. There will be one of that kind very soon; and I thought I would give you this warning again, and repeat this piece of advice—the wise will understand."

On the last day of the conference—the 9th of April—President Taylor preached one of the most remarkable and powerful sermons of his life. He occupied more than two hours in delivering it; and throughout, the immense congregation which filled the great Tabernacle to its utmost capacity listened with rapt attention.

In addition to sketching the rise and progress of the work of the Lord in these last days, he refuted by the most positive testimony the base slanders on which the late agitation against the work was founded. Referring to the assault made upon the Saints under the pretext of suppressing polygamy, he thus defined the position and policy of the Church:

"We covet no man's possessions. But we expect to maintain our own rights. If we are crowded upon by unprincipled men or inimical legislation, we shall not take the course pursued by the lawless, the dissolute and unprincipled. We shall not have recourse to the dynamite of the Russian Nihilists, the secret plans and machinations of the communists, the boycotting and threats of the Fenians, the force and disorder of the Jayhawkers, the regulators or the Molly Maguires, nor any other secret or illegal combination; but we still expect to possess and maintain our rights; but to obtain them in a legal, peaceful and constitutional manner. As American citizens, we shall contend for all our liberties, rights and immunities, guaranteed to us by the Constitution; and no matter what action may be taken by mobocratic influence, by excited and unreasonable men, or by inimical legislation, we shall contend inch by inch for our freedom and rights, as well as the freedom and rights of all American citizens and of all mankind.

"As a people or community, we can bide our time; but I will say to you Latter-day Saints, that there is nothing of which you have been despoiled by oppressive acts or mobocratic rule, but that you will again possess, or your children after you. * * * Your possessions, of which you have been fraudulently despoiled in Missouri and Illinois, you will again possess, and that without force, or fraud or violence. The Lord has a way of His own in regulating such matters. We are told the wicked shall slay the wicked. He has a way of His own of 'emptying the earth of the inhabitants thereof.' A terrible day of reckoning is approaching the nations of the earth; the Lord is coming out of His hiding place to vex the inhabitants thereof; and the destroyer of the Gentiles, as prophesied of, is already on his way. * * * Already combinations are being entered into which are very ominous for the future prosperity, welfare and happiness of this great republic. The volcanic fires of disordered and anarchial elements are beginning to manifest themselves and exhibit the internal forces that are at work among the turbulent and unthinking masses of the people.

"Congress will soon have something else to do than to prescribe and persecute an innocent, law-abiding and patriotic people. Of all bodies in the world, they can least afford to remove the bulwarks that bind society together in this nation, to recklessly trample upon human freedom and rights, and to rend and destroy that great palladium of human rights—the Constitution of the United States. Ere long they will need all its protecting influence to save this nation from misrule, anarchy and mobocratic influence. They can ill afford to be the foremost in tampering with human rights and human freedom, or in tearing down the bulwarks of safety and protection which that sacred instrument has guaranteed.

"The internal fires of revolution are already smouldering in this nation, and they need but a spark to set them in a flame. Already are agencies at work in the land calculated to subvert and overthrow every principle of rule and government; already is corruption of every kind prevailing in high places and permeating all society; already as a nation, we are departing from our God, and corrupting ourselves with malfeasance, dishonor and a lack of public integrity and good faith; already are licentiousness and debauchery corrupting, undermining and destroying society; already are we interfering with the laws of nature and stopping the functions of life, and have become the slayers of our own offspring, and employ human butchers in the shape of physicians to assist in this diabolical and murderous work.

"The sins of this nation, the licentiousness, the debauchery, the murders are entering into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and I tell you now [addressing himself to the nation], from the tops of these mountains, as a humble servant of the living God, that unless these crimes are stopped, this nation will be overthrown, and its glory, power, dominion and wealth will fade away like the dews of a summer morning. I also say to other nations of the earth, that unless they repent of their crimes, their iniquities and abominations, their thrones will be overturned, their kingdoms and governments overthrown, and their lands made desolate.

"This is not only my saying, but it is the saying of those ancient prophets which they themselves profess to believe; for God will speedily have a controversy with the nations of the earth, and, as I stated before, the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way to overthrow governments, to destroy dynasties, to lay waste thrones, kingdoms and empires, to spread abroad anarchy and desolation, and to cause war, famine and bloodshed to overspread the earth."

Reverting again to the position to be assumed by the Church in relation to the Edmund's law, he expressed himself thus:

"We do not wish to place ourselves in a state of antagonism, nor act defiantly towards this government. We will fulfill the letter, so far as practicable, of that unjust, inhuman, oppressive and unconstitutional law, so far as we can without violating principle; but we cannot sacrifice every principle of human right at the behest of corrupt, unreasoning and unprincipled men; we cannot violate the highest and noblest principles of human nature and make pariahs and outcasts of high-minded, virtuous and honorable women, nor sacrifice at the shrine of popular clamor the highest and noblest principles of humanity!

"We shall abide all constitutional law, as we always have done; but while we are God-fearing and law-abiding, and respect all honorable men and officers, we are no craven serfs, and have not learned to lick the feet of oppressors, nor to bow in base submission to unreasoning clamor. We will contend inch by inch, legally and constitutionally, for our rights as American citizens. * * * We stand proudly erect in the consciousness of our rights as American citizens, and plant ourselves firmly on the sacred guarantees of the Constitution. * * * We need have no fears, no trembling in our knees about these attempts to deprive us of our God-given and constitutional liberties. God will take care of His people, if we will only do right."

The speaker concluded as follows:

"Our trust is in God. You have heard me say before, Hosanna, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; and if this congregation feels as I do, we will join together in the same acclaim. Follow me. HOSANNA! HOSANNA! HOSANNA TO GOD AND THE LAMB, FOREVER, AND EVER, WORLDS WITHOUT END. AMEN, AMEN, AND AMEN!"

Thrice was the shout repeated, the vast congregation of from eleven to thirteen thousand followed President Taylor as with one voice. The grand words of praise and triumph were not new to Israel. They had shaken the walls of the Temple at Nauvoo during the one day that it stood resplendent in all the glory of the House of God—though the Saints knew they would be compelled to abandon it the next day to their enemies. The same glorious shout in the midst of toil and hardships had rolled through the woods bordering the streams of Iowa, and had broken the silence that for ages brooded over the vast prairies of the west. Indeed the shout was older than that, older than the everlasting hills which now listened to it—aye, older than the earth itself! For was not this the shout which shook the heavens before the foundations of the earth were laid, when "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"^[1]

A celebrated press correspondent,^[2] who was present in the interest of the New York World, thus describes the closing scenes of that conference:

"Acquainted though I am with displays of oriental fanaticism and western revivalism, I set this Mormon enthusiasm on one side, as being altogether of a different character; for it not only astonishes by its fervor, but commands respect by its sincere sobriety. The congregation of the Saints assembled in the Tabernacle, numbering, by my own careful computation, eleven thousand odd, and composed in almost exactly equal parts of the two sexes, reminded me of the Puritan gatherings of the past as I had imagined them, and of my personal experiences of the Transvaal Boers as I knew them. There was no rant, no affectation, no straining after theatrical effect. The very simplicity of this great gathering of country-folk was striking in the extreme, and significant from first to last of a power that should hardly be trifled with by sentimental legislation. * * * Nor could anything exceed the impressiveness of the response which the people gave instantaneously to the appeal of their President for the support of their voices. The great Tabernacle was filled with waves of sound as the 'Amens' of the congregation burst out. The shout of men going into battle was not more stirring than the closing words of this memorable conference, spoken as if by one vast voice."

Footnotes

1. Job xxxviii.2. Mr. Phil Robinson who remained three months in Utah writing a series of letters for the World. They are now published in book form under the title of "Sinners and Saints." Mr. Robinson is one of the few writers who have endeavored to tell the truth about the Mormons.