Descend from the busy, wealth-seeking middle classes, to the humbler
grade of society, and follow them in their various occupations
and pursuits, and each one of them is seeking earnestly that which
he imagines to be salvation. The poor, ragged, trembling mendicant,
who is forced by hunger and cold to drag his feeble body from
under some temporary shelter, to seek a bit of bread, or a coin
from his more fortunate fellow-mortal, if he can only obtain a
few crusts of bread to satisfy the hunger-worm that gnaws his
vitals, and a few coppers to pay his lodgings, he has attained
to the summit of his expectations, to what he sought for salvation,
and he is comparatively happy, but his happiness vanishes with
the shades of night, and his misery comes with the morning light.
From the match-maker up to the tradesman, all have an end in view,
which they suppose will bring to them salvation. King, courtier,
commanders, officers, and common soldiers, the commodore, and
sailor before the mast, the fair-skinned Christian, and the dark-skinned
savage, all, in their respective grades and spheres of action,
have a certain point in view, which, if they can obtain, they
suppose will put them in possession of salvation.

The Latter-day Saint, who is far from the bosom of the Church,
whose home is in distant climes, sighs, and earnestly prays each
day of his life for the Lord to open his way, that he may mingle
with his brethren in Zion, for he supposes that his happiness
would then be complete, but in this his expectations will be in
a measure vain, for happiness that is real and lasting in its
nature cannot be enjoyed by mortals, for it is altogether out
of keeping with this transitory state.

If a man's capacity be limited to the things of this world, if
he reach no further than he can see with his eyes, feel with his
hands, and understand with the ability of the natural man, still
he is as earnestly engaged in securing his salvation, as others
are, who possess a superior intellect, and are also pursuing the
path of salvation, in their estimation, though it result in nothing
more than a good name, or the honors of this world. Each, according
to his capacity--to the natural organization of the human system,
which is liable to be operated upon by the circumstances and influences
by which it is surrounded, is as eager to obtain that which he
supposes is salvation, as I am to obtain salvation in the Eternal
world.

The object of a true salvation, correctly and minutely understood,
changes the course of mankind. Persons who are taught by their
teachers, friends, and acquaintances, are traditionated, from
their youth up, into the belief that there is no God, or intelligent
beings, other than those that they see with the natural eye, or
naturally comprehend; that there is no hereafter; that at death,
all life and intelligence are annihilated. Such persons are as
firm in their belief, and as strenuous in argument, in support
of those doctrines, as others are in the belief of the existence
of an Eternal God. The early customs and teachings of parents
and friends, to a greater or less degree, influence the minds
of children, but when they are disposed to inquire at the hands
of Him who has eternal intelligence to impart to them, when their
understandings are enlarged, when their minds are enlightened
by the Spirit of truth, so that they can see things that are unseen
by the natural eye, they may then be corrected in their doctrine
and belief, and in their manner of life, but not until then.