The Latter-day Saints should not
get the idea that the Lord has forsaken His people, or that He does not reveal
His mind and will; because such an idea is not true. The Lord is with us, and
has been with us from the beginning. This Church has never been led a day
except by revelation. And He will never leave it. It matters not who lives or
who dies, or who is called to lead the Church, they have got to lead it by the inspiration
of Almighty God. If they do not do it that way, they cannot do it at all. The
Lord will not fail in these last days, and He will fulfil all that He has
promised through His Prophets and Apostles, until Zion arises in its glory, and
the Bride, the Lamb's wife, is prepared for the coming of the great Bridegroom.
I made some remarks last Sunday at
Brigham City upon the same principle—revelation. Read the life of Brigham Young
and you can hardly find a revelation that he had wherein he said, "Thus
saith the Lord;" but the Holy Ghost was with him; He taught by inspiration
and by revelation; but with one exception he did not give those revelations in
the form that Joseph did; for they were not written and given as revelations
and commandments of the Church in the words and name of the Savior. . . . [the
Presidents of the Church] have led the people by the power of the Holy Ghost; .
. .It is by that power that we have led Israel. By that power President Young
presided over and led the Church. By the same power President John Taylor
presided over and led the Church. And that is the way I have acted, according
to the best of my ability, in that capacity. I do not want the Latter-day
Saints to understand that the Lord is not with us, and that He is not giving us
revelation, and will give us revelation until this scene is wound up. (Arthur
Winter, “Remarks Made by President Wilford Woodruff, of Cache Stake Conference, held at Logan,Sunday Afternoon, November 1st, 1891,” in Deseret Weekly 43, no. 21
[November 14, 1891]: 659, comment in square brackets added for clarification)
