The Lord has had Zion before his face from before the foundation of the world, and he is going to build it up. “Who am I,” saith the Lord, “that I promise and do not fulfill?” The Lord never made a promise to the sons of men which he has not fulfilled, therefore Latter-day Saints, you have all the encouragement in the world to sustain you in the faith that the Zion of God will remain on the earth. The work is in our hands to perform, the God of heaven requires it of us and if we fail to build it up we shall be under condemnation, and the Lord would remove us out of the way and he would raise up another people who would do it. Why? Because the Almighty has decreed that this work shall be performed on the earth, and no power on earth or in hell can hinder it.
– Wilford Woodruff, 1/12/1873