While the sacrament is passing it may be well to speak a few words to the people. I am aware much instruction has been given to the people, at least to the majority of those who are here before me; and we do not wish to preach you to death, but we wish to preach so that you may enjoy life. A thousand ideas float in the minds of the people in relation to preaching; each have their standard, and their notions of what they call the sacred desk. All "Mormon" desks are sacred. I am no more religious to-day than yesterday. I am equally as religious in the kanyons hauling wood as in the pulpit; and if I were agoing to swear in either place, I should prefer the pulpit to swear in; consequently, I consider that a man should live his religion in all places, and under all circumstances and situations in life.
We understand how to serve the Lord, (I speak of all the Latter-day Saints,) that is, we understand how to serve Him in some things—we have learned some duties which are practicable at the present time. I am aware that some Elders who go forth and preach long and pious sermons, frequently represent Zion as one of the most delightsome places in the world, as if the people in Salt Lake City were so pure and holy that the flame of sanctity would almost singe the hair off a common man's head. Others suppose when they come here, that they are to be fed, clothed, and housed independent of their own exertions. Some of the Elders have told the Saints in England that the first two weeks after they landed here all they would have to do would be to contemplate the beauties of Zion, and be furnished two weeks' provisions. The imaginations of some Saints have been so exalted by the Elders who preached to them, that they suppose that all our pigs come ready cooked, with knives and forks in them, and are running round squealing to be eaten; that every tray is filled with bread, every manger with potatoes, and every man's wagon with the choice fruits of the earth. On the contrary, when the Saints from abroad come to Zion, they will find the people so busy that they can scarcely find time to speak to them, and if they have lost some of their friends on the way, the people in Zion have not time even to help them mourn.
Some come here and are astonished, for they had supposed that they should find the stereo-typed editions of Zion sitting on the seats singing "hallelujah," and shouting "Glory to God" continually; but when they find us all active, some rushing to the kanyons, some gathering in the crops, and others rearing houses—when they find the people all alive with business, they think that the "Mormons" are all telegraphs; and so we are, stereo-typed editions of the telegraph. Every man and woman in Zion at their duty is a telegraph moving and exerting an influence, building up, fortifying, and fulfilling the words of the Prophets by building city after city. It makes no difference whether we have gold and silver, or not; we build just as fast without money as the people of the east build with it, and a little faster. A man who has faith says he has capital in himself; he is telegraph enough to build him a house. Another man has to sit down, and count "three and two are five, five and two are seven, seven and four are eleven, and eleven and six are seventeen;" and so he will calculate, and unless he has so many dimes, he has not faith enough to draw the first rock, or the first adobie, or get the first foot of lumber, or do the first thing.
But you take a man who has got in him the true "Mormon spirit, and he considers that he can accomplish, just what he thinks ought to be accomplished. If he considers that he wants a house, he deems himself competent to go at it, and to build such a one as he wants; if he wants a small one he can build it, and if a large one he can build it. That is the "Mormon" spirit.