In the providence of our Heavenly Father we are permitted once more to
assemble for the purpose of partaking of the Sacrament of our Lord and
Savior. It appears that on the night previous to his arrest, he gave
to his disciples this ordinance. It was in a manner instituting anew
the ordinance that Israel had observed from the time of leaving
Egypt—namely, the feast of the Passover. When we assemble for the
purpose of partaking of this ordinance it is very important for us to
realize and appreciate the position which we take, for we witness to
our Father who is in heaven, by the partaking of the bread and of the
water, that we do remember him; and while we take the bread from the
same plate we should not hold within our hearts feelings or sentiments
other than what are right. To use the expression of the Savior, in the
ever memorable sermon on the Mount, "When thou bringest thy gift to
the altar, consider whether thy brother hath aught against thee."
Every man who receives the principles of the Gospel of peace and obeys
the ordinances of initiation into the Church is under obligations to
lead a straightforward, moral and upright life, to deal justly, to
love mercy and to walk humbly in observance of the principles
which he has received. To neglect these things, to suffer ourselves to
stray from them, to become forgetful of the principles and ordinances
of the Gospel, under all circumstances, should be avoided. If we love
each other, as we should do, we should never be found speaking evil of
each other. In almost all communities, so far as my knowledge of
history extends, one of the great banes of society is a disposition to
tattle, to speak evil one of another; and I have noticed that this
habit has not always been forsaken by those who are called Latter-day
Saints; but at times there seems to be a feeling of willingness to
retail scandal. When we come to partake of the sacrament if we have
injured our brother, sister or neighbor, it is our duty to make these
things right, and to come wisely, prudently and conscientiously. If we
harbor evil thoughts, or are the slaves of evil passions, when we
stretch forth our hand to partake of the sacrament, we may be guilty,
peradventure, of fulfilling that dreadful position referred to by the
Apostle—"He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to his own soul."
There are certain principles which God has revealed, by the observance
of which we are entitled to his Holy Spirit; but when Latter-day
Saints neglect their duties and fail to observe these principles and
defile their bodies they cease to become fit temples for the Holy
Spirit to dwell in, and the light that is in them becomes darkness. It
seems that at the last supper Peter was so sanguine, so fully
determined and set in his faith that he declared to the Savior, though
he should die with him yet would he not deny him; and yet in a very
few hours after, when he saw his Master seized rudely by the high
priests and soldiery, and dragged away, and a crown of thorns placed
upon his head, he denied him. When his Master was first taken Peter
was ready to fight for him. He was like a great many Latter-day Saints
I have seen—they would much rather fight for their religion than try
to live it. It was so at that time with Peter. He drew his sword and
was ready to cut and slay, but his Master said to him, "Put up thy
sword," and he healed the wounded servant. Peter did not understand
that; it did not look like the temporal dominion he expected to see
Jesus possess; and when he was accused of being one of his disciples,
he answered, "I know not what thou sayest," denying him, to whom, but
a few hours before, he had expressed such strong attachment. When
Peter went out, the cock crew, and then he remembered the words of
Jesus, and he wept bitterly. It is said of this Apostle that when he
came to the end of his earthly career, which was crucifixion by the
hands of his enemies, he requested that he might be crucified with his
feet upwards; because he had denied his Master he was unwilling to be
put on the cross in the same position.
This weakness exists in the breasts of all human beings, more or less;
all have their times of trial, and their days of temptation and
suffering. We remember, in the days of our Prophet Joseph Smith, whom
God sent us in these last days with the dispensation of the fullness
of times, and the restoration of the Gospel and Priesthood, that many,
who stood by him and professed to be his most warm and ardent friends,
not only turned away at his death, but in many instances became bitter
enemies. This weakness exists, and there are reasons why it exists in
the human heart. For instance, God requires his children to pray; but
through labor, business and care they frequently fail to fulfill the requirement either in their families or in secret, and in
a little while their minds become darkened; and in consequence of this
neglect the Spirit of the Lord withdraws from them, and they forget
what they once knew. You let a man among the Saints indulge in any
habit prohibited in the Gospel, and the same result will follow if
continued. If he allow himself to take the name of the Lord in vain,
and continue in it, the Spirit of the Lord will withdraw from him. If
he allow himself to be guilty of dishonesty, corruption,
licentiousness or anything that is prohibited in the Gospel of peace,
peradventure, his mind becomes darkened. He, today, might bear
testimony that he knew this to be the work of God; and he might, by
neglect of duty, in time become so darkened that he would conclude he
hardly did know it, and finally that he did not know it. These are the
results of losing the light of the Holy Spirit, hence the exhortation
that every man who partakes of the sacrament should be careful, and
make it a time of reckoning—bringing our minds up to the standard and
knowing that we are right.
I notice in the observance of the Word of Wisdom, a manifestation of
the Holy Spirit connected with it. Whenever a person has failed to
observe it, and becomes a slave to his appetite in these simple
things, he gradually grows cold in his religion; hence I constantly
feel to exhort my brethren and sisters, both by precept and example,
to observe the Word of Wisdom. We should not be thoughtless, careless
nor neglectful in the observance of its precepts. "Why, it cannot do
any hurt," says one, "to take a glass of ale!" I recollect seeing a
man once in England, who said to me, "Mr. Smith, how can it be
possible that it can injure a man to drink the matter of half a pint
of ale?" He had had so much that he could not stand without leaning
against a fence, and yet he could not see how it could injure a man to
take a half pint; but if he had not taken the first half pint he could
have stood as well as anybody. It may as well be said, and no doubt
often is, How can it hurt a man to chew tobacco or to drink tea? It
injures, because it creates a disturbance in the human organization,
and that disturbance, if continued, creates an appetite to which its
possessor becomes a slave, and it shortens his days; and while living
his condition is such that he cannot as efficiently perform the duties
devolving upon him as he otherwise could.
We have every reason to be thankful that God has preserved us from the
wrath of our enemies. He has led us by the inspired hand of his
servant Brigham into the valleys beyond the Rocky Mountains, in the
Great Basin; and he has blessed the desert land, that with the labor
and toil of twenty or twenty-four years, has become manifest in
stretching forth the curtain of the habitations of Zion. We have every
reason to be thankful for these blessings, for previous to that time
we are all well aware that we did not taste of but very little of what
might be called religious liberty; for the very moment that the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized by Joseph Smith,
with six members, the hand of persecution and oppression was raised to
destroy it. It not only extended to scandal and abuse, but to personal
violence and to a long-continued succession of vexatious lawsuits; to
the tearing down of houses, daubing men with tar and feathers, and
driving from place to place. I have heard the scandal brought up
occasionally that the Mormons were driven from Jackson County, Missouri, for stealing horses. Now the facts of the case are that
there is not, nor can be found on record in the county of Jackson, a
solitary syllable in any docket or record of any court the account of
any crime or charge of crime against any individual belonging to the
Church of the Latter-day Saints. From the time they settled there
until the expulsion, amongst them it was one straightforward scene of
good behavior. The charges on which they were driven were specified,
published and signed by a large number of distinguished individuals,
and these were that they (the Mormons) "differ from us in religion;"
and that they also "anoint the sick with holy oil," and "They openly
blaspheme the most high God, and cast contempt on his holy religion by
pretending to receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to
speak unknown tongues, by direct inspiration, and by diverse pretenses
derogatory of God and religion and to the utter subversion of human
reason;" "that the 'Mormons' tampered with the slaves,"
&c. It is very
true that the Mormons in Jackson County, Missouri, were not
slaveholders; but the laws of the State on that subject were so very
rigid that it required no mob power to enforce them; and as every
office in the State, both civil and military, was held by men not
"Mormons," and especially in the county of Jackson, it is not likely
that there would have been any difficulty to enforce the law. The
declaration on which the mob was organized, and which was signed by
clergymen and other gentlemen, was "The civil law does not afford us a
guarantee against this people," which was as much as to say, they were
a law-abiding people. Well, but did you practice plurality of wives?
Not at all, the principle was unknown in the Church; it had not been
revealed, and every man and woman in the Church was rigidly, to all
intents and purposes, strict monogamists. In 1838-9 these Latter-day
Saints were expelled from the State of Missouri, and no charge of
practicing polygamy existed against them; but when they were gathered
together and received their grand sentence under the exterminating
order of the governor of the State, they were told that if they
"assembled together again and organized with bishops and presidents
they should be utterly destroyed;" but they were required to leave the
State and that in a very short time, which they did, leaving all their
property. It is very well known that some three hundred and eighteen
thousand dollars were paid by Latter-day Saints for land in the State
of Missouri, and that very few if any of them, ever got a dollar for
that land, and it belongs to them to this day; and when the great and
glorious day shall come that the Constitution of the United States
shall become absolutely the supreme law of the land, guaranteeing to
all men the right of life, liberty and property, the Saints can
inherit this land and live and enjoy their faith there as well as
anywhere else. All these things had occurred, and the hand of
persecution did not stay until, in 1844, it had slain the prophets,
and, in 1845-6, had driven the people, and robbed and peeled them of
the property they had accumulated in Illinois, and in 1857 the
pioneers' advanced guard, led by President Young, succeeded in making
a road, and founding a colony in this valley.
In 1843 the law on celestial marriage was written, but not published,
and was known only to perhaps one or two hundred persons. It was
written from the dictation of Joseph Smith, by Elder William
Clayton, his private secretary, who is now in this city. This
revelation was published in 1852, read to a general conference, and
accepted as a portion of the faith of the Church. Elder Orson Pratt
went to Washington and there published a work called the "Seer,"
in
which this revelation was printed, and a series of articles showing
forth the law of God in relation to marriage. From that time to the
present the power of the enemies of the Latter-day Saints to persecute
them seems to have been broken; for since then we have never been
compelled to forsake our inheritances. The press and the pulpit have,
of course, been called into requisition more or less, and a great
amount of lies and scandal has been published, and politicians have
endeavored to make capital and money out of exterminating the
"Mormons," and fortunes out of "Mormon" blood, and more or
less
difficulty has occurred; but during that period the Saints have been
able to proceed along with their work. They have laid out a hundred
and fifty towns and cities, and have built them up to a greater or
less extent, extending their settlements five hundred miles through
this great desert. They have also been able to hold in check the
savage tribes of Indians and to gain influence over them; and with a
few interruptions, arising from the reckless character and conduct of
transients, have been enabled to maintain towards them a peace
hitherto unknown in any State or Territory in the midst of an Indian
population.
It required faith and energy to settle in such a country. For the
first three years after the settlement commenced hardly any person
dared to eat as much food as his appetite craved; so scarce were
provisions that it was necessary to economize and eke out every little
supply to its greatest possible extent. A great many became
discouraged and disheartened, having the idea that the country could
never be reclaimed; many went away, but generally returned after
awhile, quite surprised at the progress made during their absence. Our
visitors look at our city and say, "What a beautiful place! how did
you find so lovely a place?" I can answer. When we reached here it was
a naked sage plain, bearing very little sage, the land being too poor;
but industry and a wise and careful application of the water to the
soil has produced the vegetation here to be seen. For a while after we
came here we could occasionally hear of rejoicing from pulpit and
press that "Joseph Smith, the arch-impostor," as they called him, was
dead, and that the "Mormons" were driven into the wilderness, where
they would all perish, and they should never hear anything more about
them. Yet it only took a few years for them to discover that this
people were yet alive, and that they were living in the exercise of
their faith, and making themselves felt, known, realized and
understood in the world. Now, inasmuch as God has thus blessed us and
extended to us so many great privileges, it is very important that we
should abide in the faith wherein Christ has made us free, and live in
the exercise of that religion, and not by any means suffer ourselves
to fall into snares, temptation, wickedness or evil. We have every
reason to be thankful to our Heavenly Father for his many blessings.
Our organization as a church differs widely from almost every other.
For instance, almost every denomination has, in its organization, a
plan for the support of a minister—a salaried gentleman. When we
commenced to preach the Gospel to the world without purse or scrip,
without money or price, these ministers were generally the
first to raise the hue and cry, to tar and feather, and throw rotten
eggs at us; to drive us from our homes and tear down our habitations;
and in every mob, from the commencement to the close of the
persecutions, were to be found men professing to be ministers of the
Gospel; and although the denominations to which they belonged might
not be disposed to persecute, yet they disgraced them by taking part
in such proceedings. It is said that the men who slew the Savior
believed they did God service, and it is probable that the ministers,
professors of religion and others, who, with blackened faces,
surrounded Carthage jail and murdered, in cold blood, the Prophet and
Patriarch of the Church, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, thought they also
were doing God service, although they were guilty of the most brutal
and disgraceful murders ever perpetrated on the earth.
There is one thing very peculiar in relation to us. I have noticed it
from the fact that I have been a student, to some extent, of the
history of the Puritan fathers who settled in New England. It is very
well known that they escaped from tyranny in their mother country;
they were oppressed there in their religious faith. Their views were
of a different kind to those of the established church; and it was in
consequence of oppression of this kind that they sought a home in the
wilds of America; and in almost every instance, as soon as they had
established a home, they commenced making rules and proscribing
everybody who differed in opinion with themselves. You will notice
this, especially if you read the early history of Massachusetts. The
colonists of that State were very stringent in particular items of
faith and practice. I have always felt a little proud of the noble
heart of my fourth great-grandfather Zaccheus Gould, because he
actually had the courage to keep the Quakers at his farm the very
night after they had been proscribed by the colonial government and
expelled from Salem, and for this and supplying them with the common
necessaries of life and then allowing them to proceed on their way in
the morning, he was fined and compelled to stand up in the church, and
hear his confession read. But I am proud of the feelings and
sentiments of the man that, although a Puritan, he had so much
humanity in him.
I notice, in looking over the history of New England, that our Puritan
fathers lacked an understanding of the power of principle. If a man
preached a sermon that did not please them he must leave the colony;
he could not retire to his farm, lot or inheritance, and there attend
to his own business; no, they would frequently tear down his house,
put him aboard a ship and send him away. Numbers of instances of this
kind are on record; and the sect most noted for its principle of
nonresistance to all men—the Quakers, were whipped and tarred and
feathered, and some of them put to death; and numbers of them were
expelled from the colony, and that, too, by men who, we cannot doubt,
believed in their own hearts, that they acted from good motives. They
did these things from a determination that they would cleanse the
people. Still, after awhile, this feeling wore away.
I notice, from the very commencement of our settlement of these
valleys that there never has been a law enacted or regulation made but
what would affect the interests of all societies and denominations
alike. There have been no special acts on this account. As a matter of
course, persons have been cut off the Church, but their civil
rights, and their privileges under the laws have not been in anyway
abridged. Had our fathers, in New England, simply disfellowshipped Mr.
Williams as a member of their church, and allowed him to baptize
people by immersion if he choose, it would have been an entirely
different thing from compelling him to leave the colony.
This spirit of intolerance is yielding to the march of enlightenment,
in our own age and day, but still we as a people have suffered
severely from its effects, for that alone compelled us to seek a home
in these deserts. But it is gratifying to reflect that we have not
nourished that spirit of persecution in our hearts, for from the time
that emigrants commenced passing this way up to the present, ministers
of every denomination, men of repute among their own people, have been
called upon and invited, and, whenever they have desired it, have had
the privilege of preaching to our congregations, and have held
meetings and organized churches in our cities without interruption.
These facts are before the world. There are scores of ministers who
have spoken in this stand, many of whom have declared to the public
that they never spoke to so large an audience and never expected to
speak in so large a house in their lives; but when a Latter-day Saint
Elder has called upon them and asked for the privilege of preaching,
their answer has been in effect, "Why, no; I have a right to preach in
a heathen temple, but I cannot open my temple to a heathen!" Such men
dare not trust their congregations to hear the truth, or peradventure,
to hear error. We have had here some of the most eloquent preachers, I
believe, of the present age; and we were delighted that they should
display their eloquence in our midst. And if they have anything better
than we have we want it; and we think it is quite right for the
younger portions of our community, who have not had the privilege of
hearing the religions of the day preached in the world, to hear them
here; and the more of it the better, if they desire it. But the elder
portion of those who profess our faith have generally belonged to or
been associated with different religious denominations; for as our
Elders have preached abroad they have gathered from every bundle and
of every kind; and that portion of our people are as thoroughly
acquainted with all the religions and the religious tenets taught at
the present day as any people can be. But it is not so with the
younger members of our Church, hence when we had a Methodist camp
meeting here, President Young and the Elders gave an invitation to all
the people, and especially to the young, to go and hear the teachings
there given. That was the reason they had such immense congregations.
The camp meeting did not attract the miners; they cared nothing about
it; they had seen and known and learned all they wished about them
long ago. They did not come here to hunt Methodism, but silver and
gold. But our people turned out, especially in the evenings, by
thousands, and heard them speak and formed their own opinions. I have
been at camp meetings in my boyhood, and I did not think the one held
here a fair specimen—not what a camp meeting used to be thirty-five
years ago.
If a faith will not bear to be investigated; if its preachers and
professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be
very weak. Those who come into the Church of Latter-day Saints, if
they are faithful, learn in a short time, and know for themselves. The
Holy Spirit and the light of eternal truth rest down upon
them, and you will hear them, here and there, testify that they know
of the doctrine, that they are acquainted with and understand it for
themselves.
There has been a great howl from the pulpit and the press calling upon
the government of the United States to exert its power to suppress a
practice in the faith of the Latter-day Saints. Now the fact of the
case is, it is out of the power of any government or nation to
regulate religion at the present age; it is a matter that must
regulate itself. You may drive men from their homes, rob them of their
possessions, murder their leaders deprive them of their civil and
religious rights, but you cannot change their opinions by such
arguments; and when men have recourse to them it only signifies that
the foundation upon which their system is based is very weak, and that
their only hope of enforcing their own and suppressing the views of
others is by force. Shame on the low degraded feelings which prompt
such measures. In every land freedom of thought and opinion and the
liberty to preach and practice whatever religion you wish should be
guaranteed and the only method of manifesting disapproval of the
course of others in these respects should be to disfellowship them
from their churches. All should have this privilege. It feels good for
a man to believe as he pleases; and if you undertake to check this, do
not put to death, daub with tar and feathers, or tear down the
dwellings of those who differ from you. Where is the liberty, justice
and uprightness of such a course? I have been through the mill a
little, and understand how it feels.
For my own part, however, I believe that mankind generally are getting
wiser on this subject. Our Puritan fathers never succeeded in forcing
their peculiar views on others, and in time, even among themselves,
everybody could say about what he pleased; or at any rate the
particular points upon which there was the greatest trouble were taken
away. So it will be in the present age.
It is very well understood that, by many of the people, the law of
marriage is regarded as something instituted by God; and that men, in
their laws and regulations on the subject, have undertaken to govern
their fellows too much. Our fathers Abraham and Jacob and many of the
prophets took steps in this matter, which are now denounced by a large
portion of Christendom as very wrong; and yet these very persons, in
their prayers and preachings, claim that they are going to "Abraham's
bosom." I can tell any man that wishes to murder, rob and plunder, and
deprive of liberty a Latter-day Saint because he believes and
practices plurality of wives, that he need never expect to dwell in
"Abraham's bosom," for Father Abraham will not cast his wives out to
receive such narrow-minded men. I can further tell them that, if ever
they come to the gates of the New Jerusalem, they will there find the
names of the twelve sons of Jacob; and if they believe with all their
hearts that Jacob and his sons, most of whom were polygamists, were
wicked men, and most of the sons bastards, they had better stay
outside; in fact they will not be permitted to enter. Unless they can
acknowledge these twelve sons as lawful and legitimate sons, in
accordance with the law of God, they will have to stay outside, and
"without are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, idolaters," and everybody
that loves and makes a lie.
May God enable us, one and all, to be truly prepared to enter through
the gates into the city, is my prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
- George A. Smith