Truly we are a blessed people. Of all people upon the face of the
earth we have most reason to be thankful that the Lord our God has
been mindful of us, and has set His hand the second time to recover
Israel.
The prophet Isaiah in the 11th chapter of his book says:
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:"
"And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;"
"And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord:
and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears:"
"But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the
wicked."
I understand this to have reference to our Savior who, after the
flesh, was a descendant of Jesse, Jesse being the father of King
David. Out of the stock of Jesse came the royal house that not only
ruled in Israel anciently, but the Savior, who is appointed of His
Father to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, because He is anointed
to be the Savior of mankind, and when He comes the second time,
according to the revelations of St. John, He will have the name I have
mentioned.
"And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears:"
"But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth."
This, too, is a lesson for all his people—for His Servants who
minister on the earth, for the judges in Israel, the Bishops, High
Councils—not always to judge after the sight of the eye nor to
"reprove after the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness shall he
judge the poor." Sometimes we find the poor oppressed, though this is
not common among the Latter-day Saints, who are influenced, generally,
by a spirit of charity and love; but sometimes in our midst, as in the
world, people are accused wrongfully, things are misrepresented, and
for this reason the prophet speaks of the Savior as he does.
We are not always able to determine with certainty the character of
any transaction—that is to say, of the spirit and motive that
influence and promote action—merely from what we see, nor yet from
what somebody may tell us. It is necessary that we become enlightened
by the Holy Spirit, to enable us to see as God sees, and to understand
the motives, purposes and designs of the hearts of our fellow men. God
judges us all according to the motives and designs of the heart. If
our purpose is to do good, and that which is right in His sight, he
judges us accordingly, though we may, through our weakness, or through
circumstances that we are not always able to control, do things that
are not strictly in their outward appearance right and correct, or we
may neglect to do that which we should do. The Lord judges all men
according to the motives that prompt the action, rather than from the
action itself. It is not murder in the sight of heaven always, when a
man is killed, for sometimes he brings his blood upon his own head by
thrusting himself upon some other one to destroy him and is himself
slain in the attack, and his blood is therefore upon his own head, and
it is not counted murder to the man that slew him. The one who only
saw a part of the transaction might accuse the other of murder; but
when it comes to be sifted to the foundation, and both hearts can be
scanned, and the cause that resulted in the conflict discovered, it is
found that the man that slew is innocent, and the man that was slain
is the guilty one. I refer to this as a sample. So with many of the
transactions of life. So also we may neglect duties that we should
attend to, but we neglect them in our ignorance, when we are
uninformed, and the Lord does not lay it to our charge until we are
better instructed and our defects pointed out to us. Then if we
neglect them He holds us responsible for that neglect. So also we may
do things that in themselves are not right, not strictly correct, and
yet if we are not posted and are ignorant of the evil of the
transaction, it is not imputed to us as evil. This is the doctrine
that Jesus laid down. "That servant, which knew his Lord's will, and
prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be
beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things
worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." That is, a few
stripes shall be meted out to him merely to vindicate the law, and to
make an impression upon him that what he had done was wrong, though he
was ignorant of it before; but a little punishment is meted out, just
enough to satisfy and vindicate the law, and to correct the impression
upon the individual, to show him that he must be careful, for he had
trodden upon forbidden ground. This is a rule that our Father is
governed by in judging His children, and it is a rule that we should
strive also to be governed by in regard to one another, and especially
those who are called to be judges in Israel, or whose calling and duty
it is to settle difficulties and assist in adjusting differences among
their brethren and sisters.
"And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."
I understand this to be a figurative expression of the Prophet Isaiah:
the rod of His mouth by which He should smite the earth. I understand
that to be the word that proceeded out of His mouth, the words given of His Father; for His word was that which He received from
the Father, and that which goeth forth among the children of men,
conquering and to conquer. It is that word that has made impressions
upon the Latter-day Saints in other lands and countries where they
were born, and brought them to believe and obey the Gospel, and
gathered them to this land. And it is that word also which condemns
the wicked, and therefore the prophet says:
"With the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."
For the Gospel of life and salvation is a savor of death unto death,
or of life unto life. So says the Apostle Paul. It was so in his days,
in the days when Jesus and His Apostles first proclaimed this Gospel
to the Jews in Palestine; when they went among the Gentiles it was the
same. It is the same today. It has been the same in all ages of the
world. When the Gospel is sent forth, the word of God among the
people, it is a savor of death unto death, or of life unto life.
Therefore while the righteous are governed and exalted and blessed
through the word, the wicked perish. This is illustrated in another
form of expression by the Apostle Paul, when he says that he was slain
through the law. Says he:
"For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came,
sin revived, and I died."
He is using this illustration to the Jews—"Sin revived, and I
died" —that is, when the law was made known—when the will and
commandments of God were revealed and made known, woe! be unto those
who should hear and disobey, for if they disobeyed condemnation would
follow. This illustrates the principle contained in this verse I have
read from Isaiah:
"With the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked."
And this is equally true of his fellow laborers and servants who have
the word of God in faith, and speak in the name of the Lord, and by
the power of the Holy Ghost, and have authority so to speak and act.
Their testimony, their words, and the counsels of God that go unto the
people through them, are a savor of life unto life, or of death unto
death. The Gospel exalts those who receive it, and brings condemnation
and destruction upon those who refuse to obey it. But without the
Gospel being sent out by authority and power from God, the inhabitants
of the earth could not be ripened for destruction. We read in many
places in the Scriptures concerning the destruction of the wicked in
the last days. But we read also in other Scriptures, that the Lord
destroys them only when they are ripe in their iniquity. Jesus, in
prophesying of His second coming, and the destruction that shall fall
upon the wicked, speaks in this wise—that they shall fill up the cup
of their iniquity. This principle we see referred to and illustrated
in the days of Abraham. The Lord promised unto him the land of Canaan
for an everlasting possession. Nevertheless, his seed must be brought
into bondage in Egypt, and remain there until those who dwelt in the
land of Canaan had filled up the cup of their iniquity. The people
were not yet ripe for destruction, and therefore the Lord could not
displace them and put Abraham and his seed in possession of his land.
So the Lord has dealt with nations and generations from the beginning,
and so will He in the latter times. We need not marvel because the
Latter-day Saints are everywhere spoken against, and the wicked conspire to overthrow them. We need not marvel that even in
this boasted land of freedom and liberty, statesmen, rulers and judges
should place the iron heel of oppression upon the Latter-day Saints,
and seek by every way in their power to bring evil upon them, to
discourage them, to hedge up their way, and to destroy them. They must
needs do these things. They must needs harden their hearts against the
Lord and against His commandments. They must needs do many things that
are wicked in His sight and oppressive to His people, in order that
God may judge them, and that they fill up the cup of their iniquity.
And it must needs be that the Saints, too, should be tried in all
things even as Abraham was tried when he was commanded to offer up his
only son. It must needs be that when the Gospel found us in our
scattered condition mid the nations of the earth, and we yielded
obedience to it, that we should be despised of our fellow creatures,
that we should be reviled, so that we should feel it a pleasure to
leave our fatherland, the graves of our ancestors, the home of our
youth and childhood, and gather to Zion. Were it not for these two
things that are working in the earth we should not be gathered
together; we should not be willing to do it; we should love the home
of our ancestors and the country that gave us birth. But because of
the persecutions and hatred of the wicked we are weaned from them. As
the Savior said on a certain occasion:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I come not to send
peace, but a sword."
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
At first thought it would seem a strange idea that the Prince of
Peace, whose birth was announced by angels to the shepherds saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward
men" —I say, at first thought it would seem strange that the Prince of
Peace so announced should say:
"I come not to send peace, but a sword * * * I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, etc. And a man's foes shall be they of
his own household."
But it is all easily explained by our experience and observation, and
by considering His teachings and the effects thereof and the words of
the Apostle concerning the preaching of the Gospel being a savor of
life unto life, or of death unto death. We go out into the Gentile
world, and we find a great variety of religious opinions and many
different religious sects. We find Catholics, Protestants, and various
denominations and sects of Protestantism. They are all laboring
together in the same field, preaching different doctrines and items of
faith, and all professing to be the religion of Christ. All their
teachers profess to be preachers of the Gospel, and their followers
all profess to be Christians, and yet there is not power enough in all
the doctrines and systems that they are teaching and establishing to
produce a separation between the righteous and the wicked. They all
continue to harmonize together—at least so far that they all count
each other Christians, and it is very difficult to distinguish the
Christian from the infidel, unless it be that the Christian is the
worst. But not so when the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
preached. It always did produce a separation between the righteous and
the wicked. It drew the line of distinction. It was always
like putting yeast into a beer barrel. It sets it to working, and
whoever has examined a beer barrel while the beer is working in it
under a microscope, will see the way that the beer works itself clear.
It is by the different properties it contains running in different
directions. You will see the liquid full of little animals running in
different directions, and it continues to work in this sort of a way
until it becomes clear. Well, the working of beer in a barrel reminds
me of the preaching of the Gospel in the earth. It sets Saints to
running together. It works out apostates from among us, and they take
the opposite direction. It draws the line of distinction between the
righteous and the wicked, and that work begins from the moment the
Gospel is sounded among the people. The Spirit of truth operates upon
the hearts of those who are open to receive it. It draws them to the
fountain of life and light. It draws them into the water and then to
Zion, and then keeps drawing them nearer and nearer to God; while with
those that reject the Gospel, they keep going further and further from
the Lord and His people. They harden their hearts more and more
against them, and give way to wickedness and all manner of corruption.
But while the wicked on the one hand are thus filling up their cup of
iniquity, the righteous, on the other hand are called to sanctify
themselves and be prepared for the glorious coming of the Savior. It
is for this cause that we build temples, and that God reveals to us
the ordinances for the sanctification of His people and further glory
and exaltation.
The ordinance of baptism, simple as it is, is appointed by the Father
as the firstfruits of repentance—that is, baptism in water for the
remission of sins. He did not appoint Presbyterian baptisms and Roman
Catholic baptisms, sprinkling a little water on the forehead and
calling that baptism. God never appointed these. There is no place in
the Bible to indicate that He ever sanctioned such a thing. The Savior
set the example to the human family himself, in going down into the
water and being immersed in the river Jordan by John the Baptist. But
this same order of baptism had been revealed before this: but that
there needs be no mistake the Savior set the example before all the
people, and then continued himself to baptize for a season in the same
manner and ordained His Apostles to continue the work. And He has
appointed that all those who receive this ordinance in His name may
receive also the resurrection of their bodies, and baptism, or
immersion in water, is in the likeness of the death and burial and
resurrection of our Savior. By this ordinance we show forth unto the
Lord that we lay off and bury the old man of sin in the waters of
baptism, and by rising out of the waters of baptism we show forth unto
the Lord that we put on the new man after Christ Jesus, and walk
henceforth in newness of life. All those, therefore, who believe the
Gospel, and yield obedience to its requirements, and are baptized in
water for the remission of their sins, upon this act, if they continue
to maintain this faith, they are entitled to be raised in the likeness
of the glorious resurrected body of Christ. And yet, to consider this
ordinance in the abstract, or as the unbelieving world look at it, we
might ask what virtue there is in this ordinance of baptism? We might
say, as did Naaman, the Syrian, to Elisha, when he came to be
healed of his leprosy. The Prophet told him to go and wash himself
seven times in Jordan. But Naaman rose up in a rage and said, in
substance, "Have I not washed myself many a time in my rivers at home,
and did it ever do me any good? Is there any more virtue in the waters
of Jordan than the waters of my native place?" He did not believe the
Prophet, and he turned to go away with a sorrowful heart. But his
servant followed him and said: "My father, if the prophet had bid thee
do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much rather
then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" This caused Naaman to
reflect; and he went and dipped himself seven times in Jordan. He was
not healed when he dipped himself once, nor twice, nor thrice; but
when he had dipped himself seven times he was cleansed of his leprosy.
Was it the waters of Jordan that healed him or is it the waters of the
brook that we are immersed in that cleanses us from our sins? Not at
all. It is the blood of Christ that was shed for the sins of the world
that cleanseth us from our sins; but the water is the emblem and the
means by which we comply with the commandment of God.
And so with every other ordinance of the Gospel. So with the laying on
of the hands of the Elders of Israel. The wicked will ask what virtue
there is in the imposition of the hands of the Elders? Why, the virtue
consists in obeying the commandments of heaven. For through the laying
on of hands the sick are healed. Through the laying on of hands the
Holy Ghost is given. Through the laying on of hands the Priesthood is
conferred upon those who are counted worthy to receive it. Herein is
the hiding of the Lord's power. It is this that the Prophet Habakkuk
refers to when he speaks of the Lord coming in glory, and says: "He
had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his
power." Horns we know in the Scriptures are often used as figures to
represent power. Horns in the Apocalypse and in the prophecies of
Daniel represent kingdoms and dynasties, and when one horn fell,
another came up in its place, thus representing the fall of one
dynasty and the rising of another. And so on. And the same may be said
of the Priesthood: the ruling power that God bestows for the salvation
of the human family, is that which is given by the laying on of hands.
But does this apply to the wicked, to the disobedient, or to the
unbelieving? No, not at all; nor does remission of sins come to the
wicked and unbelieving by merely being baptized. We have an example of
this kind in the New Testament when Philip baptized the people of
Samaria, and Simon the sorcerer, was baptized also; but he was a
hypocrite and a corrupt man, and he only sought to gain power whereby
he might hoodwink and deceive the people and filch money from them.
And when Peter and John came down and prayed with the people, and laid
their hands upon them, they received the Holy Ghost. When Simon saw
this, he offered them money saying, "Give me also this power, that on
whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." This he
sought, as I have said, that he might obtain power to carry on his
craft and to make money; but Peter answered him saying, "Thy money
perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may
be purchased with money. * * * I perceive that thou art in the
gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." There are other
similar instances. But remission of sins cometh by baptism to those
who believe and repent of their sins with all their hearts; the Holy
Ghost is received by the laying on of the hands of the Elders; and the
powers of the Priesthood are conferred in the same manner. Simple as
the ordinances are, simple to look upon and to think upon, there is
power in them, power accompanies them, power is made manifest among
the people. The people are gathered together; the people are made one;
the differences that existed among us depart. The traditions of the
fathers are cast away. We are united in receiving the light and truth
from above. Our hearts are made as one, no matter where we were born,
or what race of people we have sprung from. This spirit working among
the people, and going abroad in the earth is accomplishing what the
Lord and His servants have predicted. It is preparing a people for the
coming of the Savior.
Persecution begins, as I said, when the Gospel is sounded in our ears
in various lands and countries of our home and birth. It follows us
up. When we were a small people organized resistance and persecution
commenced by townships in the United States. As we grew and became a
stronger people, more extensive organizations were arrayed against us
by counties or larger communities. At first the Latter-day Saints were
driven from their homes in the State of New York, and they fled to
Kirtland, Ohio, where persecution was again waged against them, until
by and by the opposition was combined to such an extent in all the
surrounding country, that they were obliged to flee from that region
to Missouri. Here opposition became still more extensive until the
whole State rose up against them—rose up and became a mob, even
Governor Lilburn W. Boggs, of Missouri, became a sort of Solicitor
General for the mob, and issued an exterminating order against the
Saints, as utterly illegal as the decree of any tyrant that ever
lived. In that order he called upon his aids and principal generals to
rally the militia of the State to execute the order of extermination
that he issued. They despoiled us of our goods. They compelled us to
sign a deed of trust of lands, houses and possessions to defray the
expenses of the "war," as they termed it. That is, they robbed us, and
drove us out of the State, and then compelled us to give them what we
had, to pay them for doing it. Persecution still followed us in the
States of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and finally the Saints fled to
these Rocky Mountains where there was nobody to oppose us, save the
savages who roamed throughout the country. Here the Lord has planted
our feet and made us strong. But it was predicted in early times that
we should not only be persecuted by townships and counties, but by and
by States should rise against us, and at last the whole United States
would rise up against us. But in the midst of it all we have continued
to grow, we have waxed strong. It is the power of God and not of man.
It is by the word of God that we thrive. It is by the word of God that
we are multiplying and increasing in the land; and the same God who
commands the Elders of Israel to take the daughters of Israel to wife
and who says "multiply and replenish the earth" —that same God sends
the fruit and multiplies the sons and daughters of Israel in the land; as, when you sow the seed in the soil He sends the rains and
gives a bountiful crop in your fields. It is the blessing of God that
is resting upon the people. His people are multiplying in the land,
and they are spreading abroad and possessing it in Idaho and Montana
in the north, and Arizona and New Mexico in the South. The wicked are
determined to persecute and drive us. Where will they drive us to?
They say the "Mormons" must go. Where shall we go to? We have become
like a city that is set on a hill, we cannot be hid. We have become a
strong people, and they do not know what to do with us. Every drop of
innocent blood which they shed, will spread the Gospel the faster.
Every time they persecute us they will assist the work of God.
"Mormonism" is like the mustard plant whose seed is ripe: when shaken
it spreads the faster; or like the man I read of when I was a boy.
When Canada thistles began to spread in the eastern States, this man
was determined that he would put an end to them so far as his farm was
concerned. So when the first thistle made its appearance he built a
log heap over it and burned the pile. He thought he had squelched the
thing; but to his horror and dismay the whole heap, the next year, was
a dense mass of Canada thistles. So with "Mormonism," the more they
"squelch" it, the faster it grows.
God bless you in the name of Jesus. Amen.