The remarks of brother Groo this morning have really been interesting.
They have clearly exemplified some of those things that pertain to our
temporal interests and associations with each other, and to the every
day duties, etc., which devolve upon us. It is generally the case, as
he has remarked, that we love to reflect upon the glories and
exaltation of the Saints in a world to come, upon things that are
spiritual, as we term them, to the frequent neglect of those things
which are of a temporal nature and with which we are more intimately
acquainted.
It is customary for men in the world from which we have gathered out,
to talk on Sunday about spiritual things, when they are dressed in
their Sunday coats and at meeting, and then on Monday to pack up their
religion with their Sunday clothes in their trunks, to have nothing
more to do with it until next Sunday. This practice prevails more or
less in the religious world, where men are classified into different
orders; where a lawyer must be a lawyer and nothing else; a doctor
must attend to that business exclusively, and the lawyer and the
doctor must not meddle with the duties of the minister of religion;
for it is considered to be the exclusive privilege of the minister of
religion to teach religion, and his functions are generally performed
on the Sabbath day in the pulpit where he talks about things which he
supposes exist somewhere beyond the bounds of time and space
about which the people he is trying to instruct are as ignorant as
himself. It is not supposed that a politician should necessarily know
anything about God or religion; it would be rather a drawback upon
the influence of a Senator of the United States, a member of the House
of Commons, or of the House of Lords in England, or a member of the
Chamber of Deputies in France to be a praying, religious man. For it
is supposed that religion has nothing to do with the regulations of
national affairs, but that they are regulated by the intelligence that
men possess of a temporal nature, by their knowledge of the position
of the nation with which they are associated, and their acquaintance
with other nations, and their policy.
It is good for men to be taught in the history and laws of nations, to
become acquainted with the principles of justice and equity, with the
nature of disease and the medical properties of plants, etc., but
there is no need of their being without the knowledge of God, for in
fact every branch of true knowledge known to man has originated in
God, and men have come in possessions of it from His word or from His
works. O, the folly of men in not acknowledging God in all things, in
laying aside God and His religion, and trusting in their own judgment
and intelligence. All the intelligence which men possess on the earth,
whether religious, scientific, or political—proceeds from God—every
good and perfect gift proceeds from Him, the fountain of light and
truth, wherein there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. The
knowledge of the human system has proceeded from the human system
itself, which God has organized. Again. If you trace the old English
laws and the laws of ancient nations it will be seen that the
principles of justice, which are the foundation of them, are gathered
from the Bible, the revealed will of God to the children of Israel,
for their government and guidancy, to a certain extent, in some of the
principles of law, justice, and equity. Did knowledge of any kind that
is in the world originate in man? No. Franklin possessed great
information relating to natural laws, he drew the lightning from the
clouds, but he could not have done that, if there had not been
lightning in the clouds. He merely discovered a certain principle, and
developed the action of a certain law that existed co-equal with the
earth. Then how foolish it is for men under these circumstances, to
lay aside God, and think that they can progress, and be smart and
intelligent without Him.
This feeling savors much of the feelings manifested by the old
Babylonish king. He had built a beautiful city, and had organized a
very powerful kingdom. In looking at the city which he had built he
began to think that he had done it by his own power, intelligence,
wisdom, talent, and capability, and forgot God, and exclaimed, "Is not
this great Babylon, which I have built." He felt himself a great man,
and believed that the city and empire over which he reigned owed their
existence to this power of his mind, to his intelligence, to the
soundness of his judgment, and to the action of his intellectual
facilities. But the Lord gave him to see that he was like other men,
for He started him off to feed among the beasts of the field, and he
ate grass like an ox, and his reason and judgment, and intelligence
and boasting were brought down. This great king learned that there was
a God in heaven who could reveal secrets, and unravel to his servant
Daniel hidden mysteries, and develop his great purposes. This was the
kind of religion Daniel had, this is the kind we ought to have;
it is the religion which enters into all nature; and is mixed up with
all the affairs of life; it is connected with all the welfare and
happiness of us as individuals, of our children and of the world, if
they could comprehend it. For the nearer we can approach to our
Heavenly Father, the more we can obtain of that intelligence which
dwells in His bosom, and the more we are like our God the more we
shall succeed in accomplishing our own well-being and happiness in
relation to this world, and also in relation to that world which is to
come.
The divines, as they are called, of this world are ignorant of this
kind of religion. They go to their academies and learn theology, or
the science of divinity. What does it teach them? Does it teach them
anything in relation to God simply than what is revealed in this old
book the Bible? Nothing more. They will not even accept the Book of
Mormon, or any other revelation that God has communicated for the last
eighteen hundred years. Then what do they know in regard to God? They
know nothing about him; and hence the discord, contention, strife and
divisions that continually exist. One man learns one thing from the
Bible, another man another thing, and there is confusion, strife,
animosity, bickering, secession, and polemical essay upon polemical
essay, and every kind of dissatisfaction and disunion that can exist
in the world among those that are termed the followers of the meek and
lowly Jesus. What is the matter? Why, they are not in the possession
of the spirit of truth, but like the politician, doctor, lawyer,
indeed like all other men who are unwilling that Jesus Christ shall
reign, they are seeking to get to heaven without God. It is very
singular, yet it is a fact. The lawyer pleads law without God, the
doctor administers medicine without God, and the parson wants to lead
the people to heaven without God. They are all sailing in the same
boat, and they are all groping in darkness and confusion, they are all
ignorant of the great laws of life, of the principles which govern the
Gods in the eternal worlds, and of the principles that are calculated
to benefit and exalt the human family in time or in eternity, one is
ignorant just the same as another in relation to these things. I would
just as soon take the views of the infidel for my guidance to heaven
as I would those of the divine, for one is as near the truth as the
other. In fact, the cause of the great amount of infidelity that is in
the world is the folly and nonsense of the so-called Christians. The
Christian minister tells the people to get prepared for death. Who
that understands himself cares for death? He who is in possession of
the principles of life, who has in him the word of life, the spirit of
life, the spirit of intelligence that flows from God; the Spirit of
God has commenced to live forever, he is not groping in the dark, he
is not preparing to lay his body down but to take it up again, he is
not preparing to lay in the silent tomb, but to live among the Gods,
and to obtain an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of God. He is
seeking to be put in possession of eternal life, and he knows when He
who is our life shall appear, we shall appear like unto Him in glory;
he can say, "O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy victory.
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But
thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." He feels as Job did. "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another; though my reins be consumed within me." We might say much
more on this strain but we will pass on.
The political world have organized their governments without God, and
those wise men of which we have spoken, have been making laws without
God to regulate the affairs of the human family, and they have sown
the seeds of death, and the principles of dissolution, in their body
politic; hence God has said by the mouths of His holy Prophets, long
ago, that their nations should be destroyed, that their thrones should
be cast down, that empires should be overthrown, and that the powers
of earth should be shaken. Why so? Because there is a worm gnawing at
the vitals of this great human structure of law and government, and
the great political tree, whose branches overshadow the earth will
fall, and great will be the fall of it. As the religious ministers are
trying to lead the people to heaven without God, so kings, governors,
presidents and rulers, are making laws and governing the people
without God, or without the spirit of wisdom and intelligence that
flows from Him, and hence they are preparing themselves for their own
destruction and overthrow. Some people are astonished that the
difficulties that are now transpiring in the United States, and that
are threatening other nations should exist. It is not astonishing to
those who understand the wickedness and corruption, misrule, tyranny,
oppression, and departure from right that exist, and who knows there
is a just God in heaven that governs, and controls and manages the
affairs of all nations; they understand that there are certain
prin ciples of law, of justice, of equity, truth, righteousness, and
retribution in relation to those events that must transpire. What
difficulty would there be in these United States, supposing the Lord
should rule and dictate—supposing His words should be listened to, all
He would have to do would be to whisper a few words into the ears of
some of the leading men North and South, and they would at once beat
their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,
etc., and would say why should we kill, massacre, and lay waste? Why
should we desecrate and desolate so fair a country as this is? Why
should we make so many widows and orphans? Why should there be so many
groans and tears, and misery and desolation? Now let us take another
course, let us retrace our steps, and mete out justice, and humble
ourselves before God and ask for His blessing, guidance, and direction;
if they would do this would there be much more trouble? I think not.
I think the Lord manages such things in every age just about as He did
in the days of Nineveh. We think they were a barbarous people at that
time, yet they repented at the warning of the Prophet Jonah. The Lord
sent Jonah to tell them in thirty days Niniveh should be destroyed.
Jonah thought they would not believe him and he wanted not to go with
the warning, but finally he did warn them, and they repented in sack
cloth and ashes, and the Lord turned away from them the fierceness of
his anger and preserved the nation and the people for a long time
after that in consequence of their repentance, an acknowledgment of
God and of His word.
The fact of the matter is the people universally, almost, have
departed from God, have violated His law, have trampled upon His precepts, and have turned away from the pure principles of
righteousness, and consequently they have incurred the wrath of God
and He is beginning to pour out the vials of His wrath upon them, and
they feel it keenly, but they do not know that it comes from Him; when
they lose a battle they blame the General commanding and remove him
to put in another General, and so one after another is removed because
they cannot conquer their enemies, and because their armies are driven
before them. They do not know that God is behind the scene governing,
and regulating, controlling and managing the affairs of the nation
according to the counsel of His will; they do not know that they
themselves and the nation with which they are associated is steeped in
iniquity, that they have departed from the living God; have forsaken
Him the fountain of living waters; and have hewn out cisterns that
hold no water. They do not know that the judgments of God are passing
through the land, and that nothing but the hand of God can stay them.
"And it shall be, as with the people so with the priest; as with the
servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress;
as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the
borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to
him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the
Lord hath spoken this word." This applies to all nations. Why? Because
they are managing and controlling and conducting all things without
God.
These things ought to be a warning to us. We comfort our souls some
times on the fulfillment of the prophesies of God. We say "Mormonism"
must be true because Joseph Smith prophesied thus and so concerning a
division of this nation, and that the calamities which are now
causing it to mourn should commence in South Carolina. That is true,
he did prophesy that, and did foretell the events that have since
transpired, and did tell where the commencement of those difficulties
should originate. Well, if this is true, are not other things true? If
it is true that the Lord has revealed a certain amount of truth in
relation to these matters, is it not as true that He has revealed
other truths in which we are as individuals interested; and if it is
true that God has commenced to deal with other nations as He is doing
with this until war and desolation shall spread through the earth, it
is just as true that we ought to be very careful what we are doing to
secure the favor of God and to fulfill our destiny upon the earth in a
manner which will meet his designs. The Lord has commenced to
accomplish His purposes, and to build up His kingdom, and He will do
it, for His designs cannot be thwarted; will perform His great decrees
whether all of us, or part of us, or none of us engage in the work—or
are faithful in it or not; that to Him is a matter of very little
consequence; He has a certain work to accomplish, and that work will
be accomplished.
A great amount of the work the Lord is going to accomplish is what is
generally called temporal because it belongs to the earth; that is,
the government, laws, and general direction of affairs among the
nations that are not now fallen under the control of the Almighty,
will have to be so changed and altered as to come under His entire
control, government and dictation in every respect. He has shown to
his Prophets and people long ago, to a certain extent, what kind of a
rule and government He would have in the last days. He showed them
that a time would come when every knee should bow, and every
tongue should confess unto the Lord, no matter whether they were
priests or people, rulers or ruled, lawyers or doctors, no matter what
position they held in the world, to Him every knee shall bow, and
every tongue shall confess that He is the Lord of all to the glory of
God the Father. Then he spoke of certain events that should transpire
before that—when I say He, I mean the Lord speaking through all His
Prophets that have prophesied in relation to these events. What do
they say? "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof." "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that
with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron: and he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name
written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." It is so said of him that
overcometh, "And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of my father." All this must take place previous to those
events we speak of that will glorify, happify, and exalt, when the Lord
shall rule, and his dominions shall be from the rivers to the ends of
the earth.
It seems to be very difficult for us to acknowledge the Lord in all
things, and yet we are the only people who profess to do this; I do
not know of any other community that has begun to acknowledge God in
their every day affairs or in the management of governments and
nations; for the world generally do not admit of the interposition of
the Almighty, but consider themselves perfectly competent to regulate
their own affairs by their own wisdom and intel ligence. We are the
only people that make any approach to this: and yet how feeble that
approach is, how difficult it is for us to bring our minds to yield
obedience to the Lord our God, we can hardly think of it. We like to
talk about the glory and the exaltation, and the happiness and the
blessings that shall result from a certain course, but we do not like
to pursue that course, we like our own way, and we like to gratify our
own feelings and desires. And then we are in possession of a great
amount of ignorance and folly; it seems difficult for the best of us
to contemplate God and his designs, and the majesty of his law and
government, and the principles by which we ought to be governed in all
our earthly affairs in consequence of this ignorance. If in religious
matters it is the best way to build up a good house for those who are
living in a bad one, and invite them out of the bad house to take
possession of the better one, how much more is this course necessary
in relation to temporal things, that we do not consider to belong to
religion; I speak after the manner of men, and according to their
phraseology with regard to temporal things. We talk of establishing a
government, a kingdom, a rule, and law, that will be according to the
principle of justice, equity, and righteousness and then we calculate
in some sort of having a government that shall be self-sustaining,
that shall move pleasantly and harmoniously along, like the stars that
move in the firmament without clashing or conflict, confusion, or
disorder. We talk of having among ourselves, through the inspiration
of the Almighty, principles of law, justice, and equity that will
govern and regulate and manage and control all affairs according to
the wisdom and dictation of the spirit that is in the bosom of God,
and according to the light and the intelligence that governs all creation.
We are looking for something of this kind, yet we make but slow
progress towards accomplishing it. We can only obtain correct
knowledge in relation to any of these things from the Almighty. We
cannot know how to govern ourselves only by a portion of the wisdom
that dwells in the bosom of God; if we do not possess that wisdom we
may despair of ever accomplishing anything in relation to building up
his kingdom. I feel as Moses did when the Lord said, "for I will not go
up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I
consume thee in the way." "And he (Moses) said unto him, If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." So say I, if the Lord
does not dictate us we can do nothing of ourselves, we cannot
accomplish the purposes of God or build up his kingdom on the earth.
These are important items, and there are many other small matters
associated with them that we are trying to aim at, and one is to
become self-sustaining. We need in the first place to begin to know
some of the common and most essential affairs of human life. We need
to know how to raise cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc. And then when
we have raised them we need to know how to take care of them in the
best possible manner; and then again we want to raise families, and
need to know how to teach our children in the laws of life that they
may truly be the representatives of God on earth, and be enabled to
take an active part in the formation and organization of his kingdom.
Before we can do this we have got to learn the lesson ourselves and
try to understand some of the commonest affairs of life. We need to
know how to raise wheat, and corn, and potatoes, and other vegetables
that are necessary and convenient, and fruits of various kinds, and we
need to know how to take care of them when we have produced them, and
not squander them, and when difficulties are gathering thick and dark
around the nations we need to know how to deliver ourselves from
impending dangers; we need to know how to come to God who is over all,
and whose eye penetrates into the deepest recesses of the hearts of
men, whose Spirit is going too and fro in the earth and penetrates all
things; then we need to have faith to ask of Him the things we need to
sustain us as his people, and to build up his kingdom, and to deliver
us from the power of the Adversary and lead us on in the paths of
life. If the kings and princes of the earth have got to come and gaze
upon the glory of Zion we must have some of that principle in
ourselves that will attract the attention and admiration of
surrounding nations. If we do not put ourselves in a way to get in
possession of these principles how can we ever arrive at them? It is
impossible.
Speaking of Tithing, we as a people acknowledge that the Law of
Tithing emanates from the Lord, then how is it that we need talking to
so much in relation to it. If we are not honest with ourselves, and
honest with our God, of what good to us are all our professions of
being representatives of God, of being Elders in Israel, of being
clothed with the Holy Priesthood, of being Teachers of the ways of
life. The ancient Jews, the old Pharisees with all their wickedness
and corruption could boast of paying tithes of all they possessed. We
profess to be better than the old Pharisees, and yet it seems that it
is very difficult for men among us to be honest with themselves and
with their God in relation to so simple a principle as this is. What is the matter? We have been dug out of the mire, been born in sin
and shapen in iniquity, as it were, we have been clothed in corruption
and mixed up in the abominations of the world, we have come out from a
people that did not acknowledge God, and are dishonest in their acts,
and it seems almost impossible for us to lay aside our dishonesty and
wickedness. If we cannot attend to these little things how is it
possible that we can rise in the political horizon and be as a beacon
for all nations to gaze upon. The Lord does not care a straw whether
we pay our Tithing or not, it does not make Him one particle richer or
poorer, the gold and silver are his and the cattle upon a thousand
hills, the world and all its fulness belong to him for he organized
and framed it; but as it is of what benefit is it to him. He wants in
the first place to get men to acknowledge God, I was going to say in
one little carnal principle, one little earthly principle, he wants to
get them to acknowledge him, by giving him a certain little part, or
one-tenth of what he gives to them to see whether they will be honest
in this trifle, to see whether they will act as honorable high-minded
men or not, or whether they will try to cheat him out of it. If we do
this honestly and conscientiously until we have fulfilled our duty, we
are then prepared for anything else. It is the principle and not the
Tithing we pay that is esteemed of the Lord, he cares not for our
Tithing but he cares about our doing right. If we cannot be faithful
in a few things, we cannot expect to be made rulers over many things.
There seems to be a prospect that some will suffer before next harvest
for bread, for all men are not competent to provide and manage for
themselves, hence it is made necessary that a certain kind of counsel
should be given to us, that we should manage these matters according
to a certain law and provide and retain enough food for ourselves. And
if gold digging goes on anywhere in our vicinity and the mails have to
be carried, etc., let them do the best way they can, for that is their
business and not ours; our business is to provide for ourselves, and
thereby show that we are wise stewards and capable of managing the
things that are put under our control. These are a part of the duties
that devolve upon us to perform, and these simple little temporal
affairs we call our duties towards God, ourselves and our families.
I pray God that he may enable us to do right, and pursue that course
that will procure to us the approbation of heaven, that we may be
saved in his kingdom, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.