By faith they followed the prophet Brigham into the desert, going a thousand miles beyond the borders of civilization among savage Indian tribes, their only hope of protection being in the God of Israel. By faith they subdued the sterile soil and made it yield them the bounties of life, and filled the once barren wastes of the Rocky Mountain valleys with towns and villages; farms, gardens, orchards and happy homes for an extent of more than five hundred miles; and by faith they have calmly endured fines, confiscations, exile and imprisonment--persecution under the forms of law--at the hands of the United States government, rather than be untrue to their God. Such experiences as these I have referred to in the history of the Saints, both of ancient and modern times, demonstrates to the heavens the strength or quality of faith possessed by the Saints, and also exhibits faith as a principle of power, for such it is; who can doubt it when we are told that through faith the worlds were framed by the Word of God;[C] and through faith the saints in all ages of the world have been able to perform the works already set down to their credit. [Footnote C: Heb. xi: 3.] Another result flows from these experiences--these sufferings, trials and sacrifices of the saints. They bring to the faithful who endure them the assurance--nay, the knowledge of their acceptance with God. This knowledge occupies an important place in religion, for it is through that knowledge and through that alone, that men will be able to endure the trials that ever have and ever will, in a state of probation, beset the pathway of candidates for the celestial kingdom of God. "Such was and ever will be the situation of the saints of God, that unless they have an actual knowledge that the course they are pursuing is according to the will of God, they will grow weary in their minds, and faint; for such has been, and always will be the opposition in the hearts of unbelievers and those that know not God, against the pure and unadulterated religion of heaven (the only thing which insures eternal life), that they will persecute to the uttermost all that worship God according to his revelations, receive the truth in the love of it, and submit themselves to be guided and directed by his will; and drive them to such extremities, that nothing short of an actual knowledge of their being the favorites of heaven, and of their having embraced that order of things which God has established for the redemption of man, will enable them to exercise that confidence in him, necessary for them to overcome the world, and obtain that crown of glory which is laid up for them that fear God. . ."