My prayer and desire is that while I shall attempt to speak unto you
this afternoon, I may be led and dictated by the Spirit of God, and I
presume that this is the desire of all the Saints who have assembled
themselves together for the purpose of worshipping our Father and God
this afternoon in this tabernacle.
There is one point that was alluded to this morning by Brother Lorenzo
Snow, in his remarks, which struck me with a great deal of force. It
was in relation to the Saints entertaining a feeling of gratitude to
God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us—that the Lord loves
those who entertain such feelings, and who appreciate the blessings
and kindness he bestows upon them.
This truth accounts for the frequency with which the Elders, when led
by the Spirit of God and speaking unto the people, dwell upon the many
blessings, and privileges, and favors we have received since our
obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To many persons, such
frequent allusions to the blessings and favors that we enjoy, and the
privileges that have been bestowed on us as a people, seem
unnecessary, and in the ears of some not acquainted with us and our
character, and with the principles we have espoused, sound like
egotism; but I can, myself, recognize a great propriety in this style
of preaching or exhortation. I can see that there is a necessity for
it; that we should be continually stirred up to remember the Lord our
God and the favors which he has bestowed upon us from the time we
embraced the Gospel until now; and not only from that time, but from
the earliest period of our infancy to this time, because his kindness,
and providence, and long-suffering have not been extended to us alone
since we have embraced the Gospel, but from the time of our birth
until now.
The Lord has said that he is angry with none except those who
acknowledge not his hand in all things. He is angry with those who do
not acknowledge his hand in the various dispensations of providence
meted out to man.
It is right that we, as a people and as individuals, should be
continually grateful to God for what he has done for us. Unless we
appreciate these blessings, it is not likely they will be increased
upon us—it is not reasonable that greater blessings than those already
received will be bestowed upon us; but if we are humble, meek, and
filled with thanksgiving and gratitude to our Father and God under all
circumstances, appreciating and putting a high value on the mercies he
extends unto us, it is more than probable that those blessings and
mercies will be increased upon us according to our wants and
necessities, and we shall still have increased cause for gratitude and
thanksgiving before him.
While the brethren were blessing the bread, it struck me how grateful
we ought to be for the blessings which God has guaranteed unto us—the
great and the inestimable blessings—through the death of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. How grateful we ought to be every day that we
live, that our Father and our God has provided a way and means of
salvation for us, that before we were born and took upon us the form
of mortal men and women, the Lord in his mercy, and in his wisdom and
kindness, had provided a way whereby we should be redeemed from the
power of Satan, from the power of death, and be brought back into his
presence, and be clothed with immortality and all the blessings which
attend such a condition. Every time we partake of the sacrament, our
hearts should swell with thanksgiving and gratitude for God's mercy
unto us in this respect; yet it is too frequently the case with these
blessings, as with many other blessings which God has bestowed upon
us, their being so widespread prevents us from appreciating them as
we should were they confined to a few of us and were not bestowed upon
all the family of man. The blessings of air, of water, of the
earth—the blessings that all the family of man enjoy in common one
with another—because they are so widely spread and so universally
enjoyed, are not appreciated as are other blessings which are more
confined in their application and in the result which attends them to
the children of men. The blessings of the air we breathe, the earth
upon which we tread, of the water which courses down in crystal
streams to satisfy our wants, and all the blessings that are so
bountifully bestowed upon us, ought to be as much the cause of
thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father as though they were confined to a
few families only. And so, also, the great blessings of that
salvation, which is extended universally, through Christ, to all the
children of men who will be obedient to his requirements, ought to be
appreciated just as much as though confined to us alone, to a few
families, or to a small portion of the community which occupies these
valleys.
The Lord has truly provided for us a plan of salvation that is as wide
as eternity, that is Godlike in its nature and in its origin; it is
intended to exalt us, his children, and bring us back into his
presence. For this purpose our Lord and Savior came in the meridian of
time. His blood was shed that an expiation might be made by which the
plan of salvation could be completed, that we, whose bodies would
otherwise continue subject to an everlasting sleep in the grave, might
have our mortal tabernacles resurrected and brought into the presence
of our Father and God, there to dwell eternally.
It should be a subject of thanksgiving and gratitude to us that we
have the privilege of comprehending the truth sufficiently to derive
the full benefit of the salvation which is offered unto us through the
death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; because we are assured in
the word of God that there is a class, who through their sinfulness
and neglect of the privileges and opportunities granted unto them, and
their disobedience to the requirements of God, are cut off from the
full benefits of that salvation which they would enjoy were they more
obedient. But unto us is offered the salvation in its fulness,
extended through the death of Jesus. After we have done with this
mortal life we are promised a glorious resurrection in the first
resurrection, and that our bodies shall not sleep in the tomb
any length of time, only so long as is actually necessary to fulfil
the requirements of the Lord.
Through the revelations of the truth, which have been made unto us, we
are promised all that men and women could ask. All that God has ever
promised to his faithful children we will receive, even every blessing
that is necessary for our eternal happiness in the presence of God, if
we will live subject to the requirements he has made of us in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. This should be a constant theme of
thanksgiving in our hearts, and I believe it is so; I really believe
that the Latter-day Saints are the most grateful people upon the face
of the earth; I believe they give evidence of it in their actions.
There is, however, room continually given unto us for improvement in
this respect. We cannot be too grateful; we cannot get to a point
where there is a necessity for us to slacken in this respect; and the
more we comprehend of the purposes of our God, the more grateful and
more full of thanksgiving we will be. I notice that among those who
are not as fully acquainted as they should be with the principles of
the Gospel, there is more ingratitude and a greater disposition to
murmur, and a greater lack of thankfulness, than among those who are
educated—educated, I mean, in the knowledge of the truth, in the
principles of life and salvation. I notice that among those who have
the most experience, and have made the greatest advancement in the
things of God, there is the greatest disposition to be thankful and
grateful, and to pour out their souls in prayer before God; and I
notice as the Saints increase in the knowledge of the truth, and the
comprehension of the principles of life and salvation, their
disposition in this direction increases with their knowledge.
Looking at it with the world's view, we have abundant cause to be
thankful; but to look at it through the light of the Spirit of God,
our gratitude and thanksgiving should be unbounded to God; there
should be no limit to it in our hearts every time we reflect on our
position and on the blessings that have been bestowed upon us. What
people on the face of the earth today can compare with us in temporal
blessings? And when we look at the blessings we enjoy, as Saints of
the Most High, from the standpoint from which the Latter-day Saints
should view this work, how can we limit the feelings which should
animate our hearts continually with praise to our Father and God?
When unprejudiced strangers look upon us, they see our temporal
advantages, and they think we are a blessed and happy people; but
there are other blessings that we enjoy. We enjoy promises which are
extended unto us, of which strangers know nothing—of which they have
not the least conception; blessings and promises which no man can
comprehend, except they who have received the Spirit of God. We have
blessings, we have favors, we have causes of peace, of which the human
family know nothing. While our hearts are burning with joy, with
happiness and with peace; while the Spirit of God is descending upon
us and we are filled therewith, they who look upon us cannot see or
comprehend the spirit that we are of—they cannot understand the
feelings that animate our hearts, they only see us as natural men and
women; they know not that power which has been communicated unto us
and been poured out upon us. While we feel as though we could sing
Hosannah to God and the Lamb, they cannot see anything to cause us to
have such feelings, because they have not access to that power—to that
fountain of knowledge, of light, and wisdom, which our God has
opened unto us as a people. We have, then, in addition to the temporal
advantages which God has bestowed upon us, abundant cause for
gratitude on other points.
There will be no time in the vast future when our cause for
thanksgiving and for gratitude will cease; for the more we know and
the more we comprehend the purposes of God, the more gratitude we will
have. The angels who surround his throne indulge in thanksgiving and
praise to God and the Lamb to a greater extent than we can do, because
their causes for thanksgiving are greater; they have attained to a
glorious exaltation, and they bask in the sunshine of the presence of
the great Eternal. Although they are there, they still have cause to
sing Hosannah to God and the Lamb; though they are in possession of
such great blessings, dwelling as they do in a state of immortality,
and freed from the power of Satan, sin, and death, they, nevertheless,
see causes for thanksgiving to God our Father; and the nearer we
approximate to them and to their perfection, the more we shall have
of this feeling in our hearts, the more causes of thanksgiving we will
perceive, and the more frequently we will express these feelings.
There is no time that we can conceive of throughout the vast ages of
eternity, if we continue our onward progress, when we will become
cloyed in our religion and in our worship of God; it will not be a
matter of form with us, a duty that will be wearying and onerous upon
us; on the contrary, it will increase in its pleasures. These are
reflections connected with the truth as revealed to us, which are
cheering. If we will let our imaginations stretch into the future,
there will be no time when we will arrive at such a condition that we
will, through weariness, relax our efforts and our exertions, and
cease to feel thanksgiving and gratitude; but there will be increased
causes contributed continually to prompt us to indulge in these
feelings more and more, and take pleasure in their indulgence.
There never was a people on the face of the earth to whom the same
promises have been given as to us. Others, who have preceded us in the
enjoyment of the blessings of the Gospel, have looked forward to the
time of their decease, and have seen that after they should pass away,
the work they then were engaged in would disappear from the earth;
they saw that the power of the adversary would be again wielded to
great effect among men, and that their labors would be comparatively
lost sight of through the evil that would prevail upon the earth. But
this is not the case with us; unto us are extended promises which have
never been extended to any other people who have lived upon the earth
from the days of Adam to this time; unto us a promise is given that
this kingdom shall stand forever, that it shall not be given into the
hands of another people, that it shall roll forth, increase, and
spread abroad until it fills the whole earth—until all the inhabitants
of the earth can dwell in peace and safety under its shadow, being
freed from misrule, oppression, and every evil that exists among the
inhabitants of the earth; that a reign of truth and righteousness
shall be inaugurated, the reign of God and of his Son Jesus Christ on
the face of the earth.
This is the promise which has been extended unto us, and the work is
committed unto us and to the dispensation in which we live. Such a
promise was not extended unto Enoch, unto Noah, unto Abraham, or unto
any of the prophets who succeeded them down to the days of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. When the apostles asked the Lord Jesus
about the restoration of the kingdom, he parried their question; it
was not for the people who lived in that dispensation to participate,
while in the flesh, in the blessings of the restoration of the kingdom
of God on the earth and its final establishment in the latter days. It
was reserved for the great and last dispensation of the fulness of
times, that great dispensation in which we now live, when the Gospel
should be restored to the earth in its fulness, and the eternal
Priesthood be revealed; when every angel and every prophet who have
lived upon our earth should revisit the earth again, and bestow every
key and all power and authority which they held on the man who was
elected to stand at the head of this dispensation.
We live in this day, and our posterity will participate in the
blessings of this dispensation, if we and they should be faithful. In
looking forward to our future generations for the next thousand years,
we are not under the necessity of beholding, in vision, our posterity
straying into darkness in such a manner as to close the heavens and
shut off the communication between God and man. God has taught us
differently: he has taught us that instead of the heavens becoming
more closed, and communications less frequent and seldom received,
truth will be more abundantly bestowed on man; instead of angels
ceasing to communicate with man, angels will communicate with him more
and more until man shall bask in the full light of eternity.
These are the prospects that are extended to us as individuals and as
a people. Hence, I have said that we have greater cause than any other
people that ever lived to be thankful to our Father and God for what
he has done for us and promised unto us; yet, do we understand it, do
we appreciate it? When we have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and
our minds are enlightened by it, I presume we do to some extent; we
feel then that we would constantly witness unto God by our acts that
we really appreciate his kindness in permitting us to come forth at
such a time and be associated with such a people. But when the
counsels of God come to us through his servants, and they are contrary
to our prepossessed notions, we forget that the inspiration of the
Almighty is with our brethren, that the power of the Highest is with
them, and, as Brother Snow alluded to Jonah this morning, if we do not
go to Tarshish, we frequently go somewhere else to avoid doing the
things that God requires at our hands.
Now, the day has come when we, as a people, will have to listen to the
voice of the servants of God, to the instructions of the Almighty
through his servants, and obey them as implicitly as though God was in
our midst. Yet, how often is it the case that, when we have counsel
imparted unto us, we feel as though we had some suggestions to make
that would make that counsel better and more applicable to us. I have
seen the Spirit of God grieved, and the understanding of the man of
God beclouded by men taking such a course as this. When the servant of
God has been under the inspiration of the Almighty to counsel a
certain course, somebody has stepped forward and suggested something
different, and by that means the counsel of God has been darkened, the
spirit of revelation has been grieved, and the benefit which otherwise
would be, has not been received.
I have seen this under various circumstances, and I have looked upon
it as an evil and something we should never do. When the counsel of
God comes through his servants to us, we should bow to that, no
matter how much it may come in contact with our preconceived ideas;
submit to it as though God spoke it, and feel such a reverence towards
it as though we believed that the servant of God had the inspiration of
the Almighty resting upon him. While many are willing to admit that
the servants of God understand everything connected with the work of
God, and with the various departments of it on the earth, they think
there are some kinds of knowledge which they possess in a superior
degree to them who preside over us. They will admit that the servants
of God may possess all the knowledge that is needed to spread the
Gospel and have it carried to the remotest regions, to build up Zion;
but there is something connected with their particular calling that,
they think, they understand to a far greater extent than he or they
who are appointed to preside over them.
This feeling is not infrequently manifested. The persons who exhibit
it would be reluctant to say in words that this is their feeling, but
they express it in their actions. This causes an interference with the
Spirit of God, and frequently counsel is darkened by men taking this
course. I know that if we follow implicitly the counsel of God's
servants when they are inspired to give counsel, even if they may not
know everything about the matter, we will be blessed if we bow to it,
and God will overrule everything for good, and it will result as God
wishes it.
It is a great thing for us to have the counsel and instruction of the
Almighty in our midst. The servants of God are inspired by the power
of the Holy Ghost, and the revelations of Jesus are within them; and
if we follow their counsels strictly, we shall be led into the
presence of God, and I know that they are the only men on the earth
who have this power, authority, and knowledge. If we take a course of
this kind, you can readily perceive how harmoniously everything
connected with the work of God will roll forth; beauty and order will
be witnessed in all the ramifications of the kingdom of God at home
and abroad, and salvation will be extended unto us.
My prayer and desires are, that the Lord will bless you, and that we
may have the Spirit and the power of God resting upon us. Which may
God grant, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon