... I will commence by satisfying the curiosity of almost everybody that comes here, or with whom our Elders converse when away. A great many men and women have an irrepressible curiosity to know how many wives Brigham Young has. I am now going to gratify that curiosity by saying, ladies and gentlemen, I have sixteen wives. If I have any more hereafter it will be my good luck and the blessing of God. '"How many children have you, President Young?'" I have fortynine living children, and I hope to have a great many more. Now put that down. I impart this information to gratify the curiosity of the curious. '"President Young, did you come here naked and barefoot?'" I will say, very nearly so. '"How many of your wives had shoes to their feet, after leaving every thing you had in the State of Illinois?'" I do not think that more than one or two of my wives had shoes to their feet when we came here. We bought buckskins of the Indians and made moccasins of them. How many of these Elders had whole pantaloons when they reached here? I do not believe a dozen of them had. They had worked in the dead of winter ferrying the people across the river until they had nothing, and they came here naked and barefoot, that is, comparatively. We had to have faith to come here. When we met Mr. Bridger on the Big Sandy River, said he, '"Mr. Young, I would give a thousand dollars if I knew an ear of corn could be ripened in the Great Basin.'" Said I, '"Wait eighteen months and I will show you many of them.'" ...
I have heard some make the broad assertion that every word within the lids of the Bible was the word of God. I have said to them, '"You have never read the Bible, have you?'" '"O, yes, and I believe every word in it is the word of God.'" Well, I believe that the Bible contains the word of God, and the words of good men and the words of bad men; the words of good angels and the words of bad angels and words of the devil; and also the words uttered by the ass when he rebuked the prophet in his madness. I believe the words of the Bible are just what they are. ...
'"Did you not go to school?'" Yes; I went eleven days, that was the extent of my schooling. ....
'"Mr. Young, I suppose that you would obey Joseph Smith, let him tell you to do what he might?'" '"Well, I think I would.'" '"Suppose that he should tell you to kill your neighbor or to steal, or to do this, that or the other, that is wrong, would you do it?'" I would reply, '"Wait till I am told. I have never yet been told from heaven, by Joseph Smith, the Old or New Testament, the Book of Mormon or the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, to do a wrong thing; and I will wait until I am, before I say what I would do; that is time enough.'" ...
[Journal of Discourses. Liverpool, England, 1853-86. 13:170-178, quoted in The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young, Ed. Richard S. Van Wagoner, Smith-Pettit Foundation, Salt Lake City (2009), http://bit.ly/BY-discourses]
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