---
title: Journal of Discourses
description: Sermons and addresses by Mormon church leaders, mostly delivered in Utah Territory from the 1850s to the 1880s, as reported by contemporary stenographers and printed in 26 volumes at Liverpool between 1854 and 1886.
authors:
  - Young, Brigham
collections:
  - theology
  - history
tags:
  - sermons
  - nineteenth-century
  - utah-territory
volume: 4
published: 1856-11-09
publisher: S. W. Richards
publisher_place: Liverpool
edition: Liverpool printing, 26 volumes (1854 to 1886)
language: en
type: book
reference: 'Brigham Young, "The Emigrating Saints Were Prompted By The Spirit of God," in *Journal of Discourses*, vol. 4 (Liverpool: S. W. Richards, 1857), 111.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/JoDV04
  transcription: Page-structured transcription from the MRM library; printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: JoDV04
  scan: Internet Archive item JoDV04
start_page: 111
end_page: 111
reporter: G. D. Watt
place: Bowery, Great Salt Lake City
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: Published 1930 or earlier (Liverpool, 1854 to 1886); public domain in the United States
  source: https://archive.org/details/JournalOfDiscourses18541898
  publication_year: 1857
---

# The Emigrating Saints Were Prompted By The Spirit of God

*Remarks by President Brigham Young, Delivered in the Bowery, Great Salt Lake City, November 9, 1856.*

**G. D. Watt**

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I wish to say to the brethren, as many as are here today, who have
come across the Plains with the handcarts, that I feel to bless you,
and you may be sure that you have my best feelings all the time.

While brother Ellsworth was speaking about the Spirit, and the spirits
that were around them, the spirit that he seemed to have to contend
with, and the spirit that the people had to contend with, I wanted to
tell one secret. While those brethren and sisters were faltering, and
did not know whether to stop or go along, there was faith in this
valley that bound them to that journey and they were obliged to
perform it, they could not help performing it. Who had that faith? The
people here; and the Spirit of the Lord was all the time prompting
them, and the brethren who led them. They were, as many are now, they
were prompted to do as they did; they could not do anything else,
because God would not let them do anything else. The brethren and
sisters came across the Plains because they could not stay; that is
the secret of the movement. But let the devil have his will, and do
you suppose that any of them could have crossed the Plains? No, not a
person ever would have started. But they did start, and they performed
the journey.

We are doing a great many things, and Joseph did a great many things,
because the Spirit of the Lord prompts us to do them, as it prompted
him. Joseph could not do anything else than what he did; it is the
same with us all the time. The Lord prompted the handcart companies
all the time, in the midst of their afflictions, to prepare for and
start upon their journey, and they only had faith and power for the
day, and on the morrow it seemed as though they certainly had to stop.
But when tomorrow came they had faith and power to perform the
journey of that day, and so they have been prompted day by day, to
this point.

God is at the helm of this great ship, and that makes me feel good.
When I think about the world, and the enemies of the cause of God, I
care no more about them than I do for a parcel of musketoes. All hell
may howl, and they may run up and down the earth and seek whom they
may destroy, but they cannot move the faithful and pure in heart. Let
those apostatize who wish to, but God will save all who are determined
to be saved.

Brethren and sisters, I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.