All Latter-day Saints May Know the Gospel is True--How a Witness of the Truth is Won--Why Some Men Reject the Gospel--Testimony Not Built Upon a Man--Joseph Smith a Witness of the Truth--A Duty to Listen to the Truth CHAPTER XXXIX THE CHURCH AND KINGDOM OF GOD ON EARTH Israel--The Church and the Kingdom--An Object of the Church--The Kingdom of God to Develop Gradually--The Effect of the Kingdom of God--It Will Continue--The Business of Latter-day Saints--Individual Labor Required in the Kingdom of God--The Kingdom of God or Nothing CHAPTER XL SOME EFFECTS OF THE GOSPEL The Nature of the Gospel--Some of the Effects of the Gospel--His Personal Joy in the Gospel--Blessings Continued Upon Good Works--Increasing Blessings--Personal Blessings Upon the People CHAPTER XLI JOSEPH SMITH THE PROPHET Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God--Joseph Called and Directed by God--The Development of the Prophet--What Joseph Taught--Results of the Prophet's Labors--Persecutions of the Prophet--The Prophet Harassed by Law-suits--Joseph of Good Character--Why the Prophet was Killed--Joseph's Work in the Spirit World--Nature of the Prophet and His Family--The Twelve, the Successors of the Prophet--Some Sayings of the Prophet CHAPTER XLII THE SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST The Journey Across the Plains--The Mormon Battalion--Settlement in the Great Salt Lake Valley {1} Discourses of Brigham Young CHAPTER I _THE GOSPEL DEFINED_ _Composed of Eternal Laws_--The Gospel of the Son of God that has been revealed is a plan or system of laws and ordinances, by strict obedience to which the people who inhabit this earth are assured that they may return again into the presence of the Father and the Son. 13:233 [A] [Footnote A: The numbers at the end of each excerpt refer to the volume and page of the Journal of Discourses. Where the excerpt occurs thus, 13:233, it means Journal of Discourses, volume 13, page 233.] The laws of the Gospel are neither more nor less than a few of the principles of eternity revealed to the people, by which they can return to heaven from whence they came. We delight in the heavenly law--in that law that will preserve us to all eternity. 8:208. The laws and ordinances which the Lord has revealed in these latter days, are calculated to save all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve who have not sinned against the Holy Ghost, for all will be saved in a kingdom of glory, though it may not be in the celestial kingdom, for there are many mansions. 15:122. {2} Our religion is nothing more nor less than the true order of heaven--the system of laws by which the gods and the angels are governed. Are they governed by law? Certainly. There is no being in all the eternities but what is governed by law. Who desires to have liberty and no law? They who are from beneath. 14:280.