We must build up the Zion and kingdom of God on the earth, or fail in the object of our calling and receiving the Priesthood of God in these latter days. The full set time has come, which the Lord decreed before the foundation of the world—the great dispensation of the last days, and a people must be prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. How can they do it? By being gathered out from Babylon. …we have gathered together that we may be taught by Prophets, Patriarchs and inspired men, and we are endeavoring, under their instructions, to throw off the trammels with which we and our forefathers have been bound for generations. We are not prepared for the coming of the Son of Man, and if he were to come today we could not endure it. There is no people on the earth prepared for that. But the Lord is laboring with us, he has carried us through a school of experience now for forty years, and we should certainly have been dull scholars if we had not learned some wisdom. The Lord intends that we shall unite ourselves together, and in building up the Zion of God, if we cannot attain to all that is required of us today, we will do what we can, and progress as fast as we can, that the way may be prepared for the fulfillment of the words of the Lord.

– Wilford Woodruff, 4/7/1873