The Latter-day Saints believe in the doctrine that was taught by the
prophets, by Jesus, and by his Apostles. Much has been said and
written concerning the Church that was organized in the days of the
incarnation of the Savior, and there has been a great deal of
speculation as to the faith of that Church and the doings of its
members. To tell what this religion, which we call the gospel of
salvation, comprises, would require more than a lifetime. It would
take more than our lifetime to learn it, and if it were learned by us
we should not have time to tell it. In it is incorporated all the
wisdom and knowledge that have ever been imparted to man, and when man
has passed through the little space of time called life, he will find
that he has only just commenced to learn the principles of this great
salvation. In the early days of the Christian Church we understand
that there was a good deal of speculation among its members with
regard to their belief and practice, and the propagation of these
speculative ideas created divisions and schisms. Even in the days of
the Apostles there was evidently considerable division, for we read
that some were for Paul, some for Apollos, and others for Cephas. The
people in those days had their favorites, who taught them peculiar
doctrines not generally received and promulgated. The Apostles had the
truth, and thought that they were so established in it in their day
that they really had the power to unite the Church together in all
temporal matters, as Jesus prayed they might be, but they found
themselves mistaken. Have we any proof of this? Yes; you recollect
reading that the Apostles assembled themselves together to
break bread and to administer; and they did administer from house, and
from congregation to congregation, the words of life and the
ordinances of the gospel. They thought they had power to make the
people of one heart and one mind with regard to temporal things, and
that they could amalgamate the feelings of the people sufficiently to
organize them as one family. And the people sold their possessions and
laid the price at the Apostles' feet, and they had all things in
common. There is no doubt that this is a correct doctrine, and can be
practiced to the benefit of a community at large, if believed and
understood. But who has got the doctrine; who has eyes to see, ears to
hear, and a heart to believe? Who has the authority and the capability
to organize such a society? The Apostles thought they had, but when
Ananias and Sapphira fell dead because they had lied, not only to man
but to the Holy Ghost, in saying they had laid their all at the feet
of the Apostles when they had only laid part there, a great fear fell
upon the people, and they dispersed. Have we any history that the
people ever assembled in a like capacity afterwards? I think you
cannot find it. After the days of the Apostles, when the Council of
Nice was called, they then and there determined what they considered
to be correct and scriptural and what they would lay aside, but that
sure word of prophecy which Jesus had shed forth into the hearts of
those who believed on him seemed to be so mixed up and interwoven with
darkness and unbelief, that they could not come to understanding and
receive the full testimony of Jesus. So the old Christians lived, and
so they spent their days down to the days of the Reformation.
If we have eyes to see, we can un derstand at once, the difficulties
that the Apostles had to encounter. If the people had lived according
to the gospel that was delivered to them, the Apostles would have had
power to accomplish a great deal more than they did, although there
can be no doubt but they were mistaken with regard to the time of the
winding up scene, thinking it was much nearer than it really was, and
they might have made mistakes in other respects. Many of the
difficulties they had to encounter, we are not troubled with. We have
not only the sure word of prophecy delivered in the days of the
Apostles, but we actually have that surer word of prophecy delivered
to us through the Prophet Joseph, that in the last days the Lord would
gather Israel, build up Zion, and establish His kingdom upon the
earth. This is a more sure word of prophecy than was delivered in the
days of the Apostles, and is a greater work than they had to perform.
The few hints that I have dropped clearly show, I think, to all who
are acquainted with its history, how these schisms and divisions have
been introduced into the Christian world. For more than seventeen
hundred years the Christian nations have been struggling, striving,
praying, and seeking to know and understand the mind and will of God.
Why have they not had it? Can you tell me why it is there has not been
a succession of the Apostleship from one to another through all these
seventeen centuries, by which the people might have been led, guided,
and directed, and have received wisdom, knowledge, and understanding
to enable them to build up the Kingdom of God, and to give counsel
concerning it until the whole earth should be enveloped in the
knowledge of God? "O, yes, it was the apostasy." Very true, if it had
not been for those schisms such might not have been the case. I
have taken the liberty of telling the Latter-day Saints in this and
other places something with regard to the Apostles in this our day. It
is true that we have a greater assurance of the Kingdom and the power
of God being upon the earth than was possessed by the Apostles
anciently, and yet right here in the Quorum of the Twelve, if you ask
one of its members what he believes with regard to the Deity, he will
tell you that he believes in those great and holy principles which
seem to be exhibited to man for his perfection and enjoyment in time
and in eternity. But do you believe in the existence of a personage
called God? "No, I do not," says this Apostle. So you see there are
schisms in our day. Do you think there was any in the days of the
Apostles? Yes, worse than this. They were a great deal more tenacious
than we are.
We have another one in the Quorum of the Twelve who believes that
infants actually have the spirits of some who have formerly lived on
the earth, and that this is their resurrection, which is a doctrine so
absurd and foolish that I cannot find language to express my
sentiments in relation to it. It is as ridiculous as to say that
God—the Being whom we worship—is principle without personage. I
worship a person. I believe in the resurrection, and I believe the
resurrection was exhibited to perfection in the person of the Savior,
who rose on the third day after his burial. This is not all, we have
another one of these Apostles, right in this Quorum of the Twelve,
who, I understand, for fifteen years, has been preaching on the sly in
the chimney corner to the brethren and sisters with whom he has had
influence, that the Savior was nothing more than a good man, and that
his death had nothing to do with your salvation or mine. The question
might arise, if the ancient Apostles believed doctrines as absurd as
these, why were they not handed down to after generations that they
might avoid the dilemma, the vortex, the whirlpool of destruction and
folly? We will not say what they did or did not believe and teach, but
they did differ one from another, and they would not visit each other.
This was not through the perfection of the gospel, but through the
weakness of man.
The principles of the gospel are perfect, but are the Apostles who
teach it perfect? No, they are not. Now, bringing the two together,
what they taught is not for me to say, but it is enough to say this,
that through the weaknesses in the lives of the Apostles many were
caused to err. Our historians and ministers tell us that the church
went into the wilderness, but they were in the wilderness all the
time. They had the way marked out to get out of the wilderness and go
straightforward into the Kingdom of God, but they took various paths,
and the two substantial churches that remain—a remnant from the
apostles, that divided, are now called the Holy Catholic Church and
the Greek Church. You recollect reading in the Revelation of John
what the angel said to John, when he was on the Isle of Patmos, about
the Seven Churches. What was the matter with those Churches? They were
not living according to the light that had been exhibited. Do the
Latter-day Saints live according to the light that has been exhibited
to them? No, they do not. Did the ancient saints live according to the
revelations given through the Savior and written by the Apostles, and
the revelations given through the Apostles, and left on record
for the Saints to read? No, they did not. We may say there is some
difference between the days of Jesus and the Apostles and these days.
Then, Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature;" proffer this gospel to all the inhabitants of the
earth. That was a day of scattering and dispersion for those who
believed in the Savior. When we come to discriminate between the
former and the Latter-day Saints we shall find there was a little
difference in their callings and duties, and in many points that we
may say pertain to our temporal lives. Not in the doctrine of baptism,
the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, nor in
the gifts of the gospel. There is no difference in these things, but
there is a difference in regard to the temporal duties devolving upon
us. In those days the command was "Go to the nations of the earth;" in
these days it is "Come from the nations of the earth." Do you not see
the difference? Read the revelations in the Book of Doctrines and
Covenants given through Joseph, and you will find that the burden of
the gathering of the House of Israel, the building up of Zion, and the
sanctifying of the people, and the preparing for the coming of the Son
of Man is upon the elders of this church.
Soon after the death of Jesus the word He gave to His Apostles was to
go and preach the gospel to the nations, that all might be benefited
thereby; but now, it is to gather up the House of Israel, and the
fulness of the Gentiles, and bring them home to Zion, and to the lands
of their fathers, that they may receive their inheritances on the
lands given to them of the Lord in ancient days. So you see there is
some difference between the duties and callings of the Saints in
former and in latter days. When the Lord called upon Joseph he was but
a boy—a child, only about fourteen years of age. He was not filled
with traditions; his mind was not made up to this, that, or the other.
I very well recollect the reformation which took place in the country
among the various denominations of Christians—the Baptists,
Methodists, Presbyterians, and others—when Joseph was a boy. Joseph's
mother, one of his brothers, and one, if not two, of his sisters were
members of the Presbyterian Church, and on this account the
Presbyterians hung to the family with great tenacity. And in the midst
of these revivals among the religious bodies, the invitation, "Come
and join our church," was often extended to Joseph, but more
particularly from the Presbyterians. Joseph was naturally inclined to
be religious, and being young, and surrounded with this excitement, no
wonder that he became seriously impressed with the necessity of
serving the Lord. But as the cry on every hand was, "Lo, here is
Christ," and "Lo, there!" Said he, "Lord, teach me, that I may
know
for myself, who among these are right." And what was the answer? "They
are all out of the way; they have gone astray, and there is none that
doeth good, no not one." When he found out that none were right, he
began to inquire of the Lord what was right, and he learned for
himself. Was he aware of what was going to be done? By no means. He
did not know what the Lord was going to do with him, although He had
informed him that the Christian churches were all wrong, because they
had not the Holy Priesthood, and had strayed from the holy
commandments of the Lord, precisely as the children of Israel did.
They were the children of promise, of whom the Lord had
said—"They shall be called by my name, and I will save them;" and for
generations he had striven to do so. When pursued by the hosts of
Pharaoh He had delivered them from Egyptian bondage; He had destroyed
the Hittites and other heathen nations, and had given them possession
of the land of Canaan, and in every way had tried to bless them; yet
they would not be blessed, and in the Prophet Isaiah's writings we
read that they had transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and
broken the everlasting covenants. Do you think the Gentile Christian
nations have rebelled? I know they have. Take, for instance, the
sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of the world, as found in
this book—the Bible. He commanded His Apostles to go to all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature, and he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. How many methods of baptism were practiced in
those days? Just as many as there were saviors—one. How many methods
of laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost? One. How many methods of
obtaining the spirit of prophecy and the gifts of healing and the
discerning of spirits? One. One God, one faith, and one Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, and one only. Well, the Apostles went and
preached this gospel, yet one would vary a little on one point, and
another on another, and those who took the gospel and ran here and
there would introduce items of doctrine that were altogether
imaginary. Do we find any curious ideas advanced in our day? Yes, I
can relate a circumstance that I once heard myself, from one of the
first elders in this church. He was preaching to the people on the
principle of adultery, and told them that, according to the law of the
Lord, whosoever commits adultery shall have his blood shed. But the
idea striking him that millions had committed this crime whose blood
had never been shed, he thought this could not be correct, and so to
improve it he said if their blood was not shed in this life it would
be in the resurrection. What an absurdity! There is no blood there.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Does not this show
to you how these little things will creep into the Church? Have we the
power and authority and the method of detecting every such error? We
have. Do you know what they are? Some of you do, and if you do not I
shall not tell you today. But we are in possession of the means by
which to detect every error that comes into the church, and to decide
satisfactorily on every point, and to decide what is and what is not
true.
The gospel is a fountain of truth, and truth is what we are after. We
have embraced the truth—namely, the gospel of the son of God. Its
first principles are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of
our sins, then go down into the waters of baptism for the remission of
our sins, and have hands laid upon us for the reception of the Holy
Ghost, which will lead us into all truth. If there are any of my
friends or enemies here who do not know what "Mormonism" is, I am
telling them. We believe in God our Father. This leads me right to
another point that I have not much time to talk about. I recollect
preaching once in the old bowery with regard to our Father and God,
the Being we worship and whom we think so much of. There was a Baptist
minister present; he was staying at my house. He was a kind, friendly
man, and was on his way to the gold mines. He was sitting beside me. I
wanted to leave him in a puzzle. I would not tell him, but
brought him right to the point, and there left him. When we got home,
said he, "Oh! brother Young, you came right to the point exactly, and
I did pray that you might tell us what kind of a being God is." I
replied, "I left you in a puzzle on purpose for you to guess it. You
have read it frequently, and you can hardly read the Bible at all
without reading precisely what kind of a being our Father is." Said
he, "I am not aware that I know anything about it." I asked him if he
could tell me what kind of a being Adam was. "Oh! Adam was a man like
I am." I asked him if he believed in the history of the creation, as
given in Genesis by Moses, for if he did he would find that God said
to His associates, "Let us go down and make man in our own image and
likeness." He believed the history given by Moses, and had read the
passage to which I referred. "Then," said I, "you must believe that
Adam was created in the exact image of the Father." He had never
thought of that in his life. I told him I had read that many times to
Christians and to Christian ministers, but they would not believe what
was in the Bible. Says Jesus, "Whosoever has seen me has seen the
Father." He is the Being the Latter-day Saints worship; He is a
man-God. Can you get a better term than that—a God-man? It is said
that Jesus is the only begotten of the Father. It is strange that
people cannot understand it, but they cannot unless they are told. How
can we know unless we are told, and how can we tell the people unless
the Lord tells us to do so? Faith comes by hearing the word of God
declared, and this must be declared by those having authority. This
character whom we serve is God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the Father of our spirits, if the Apostle tells the truth;
if he has not, who can correct him unless they have a revelation from
the heavens? I have had a great many ministers tell me that I must
understand that spiritually. I have told them that I read and
understood it just as it was, and if it was not right, and they could
give the correct meaning (which it was impossible for them to do
without revelation), they were under condemnation before the Lord if
they did not do so. That would stop them.
Our Lord Jesus Christ—the Savior, who has redeemed the world and all
things pertaining to it, is the only begotten of the Father pertaining
to the flesh. He is our elder brother, and the heir of the family, and
as such we worship him. He has tasted death for every man, and has
paid the debt contracted by our first parents. What about this? I am
not going to tell this, for I have a few more ideas with regard to the
Christian world that I wish to lay before you. Why have they wandered
so far from the path of truth and rectitude? Because they left the
Priesthood and have had no guide, no leader, no means of finding out
what is true and what is not true. It is said the Priesthood was taken
from the Church, but it is not so, the Church went from the
Priesthood, and continued to travel in the wilderness, turned from the
commandments of the Lord, and instituted other ordinances. There are a
great many churches that do not believe in ordinances at all, and
there are some called Christians who do not believe in the blood of
the Savior, and that he, himself, was nothing more nor less than a
good man. If they believe in the baby resurrection, or that a person
who had committed adultery would have his blood shed in the resurrection, it would be just as consistent as to believe what they
do believe. These ideas are all wrong.
The Christian world struggled on until the days of the Reformation.
But what of the Reformation? Nothing, only it shows that there were
some few among them who had courage to come out against the orthodox
principles ordained, published, and proclaimed by the Priests. They
had an idea in their minds that the Lord was going to do something for
the people, but they could not tell what. There was a spirit upon them
that prompted them to declare against the wickedness of those
professing to be Christians. Did they profess to know enough to take
the truth and leave the error? No; down to the days of my youth the
Christians did not know any better than to renounce any doctrine that
the Church believed from which they came. This is more or less the
case with every denomination on the face of the earth. Some who call
themselves Christians are very tenacious with regard to the
Universalians, yet the latter possess many excellent ideas and good
truths. Have the Catholics? Yes, a great many very excellent truths.
Have the Protestants? Yes, from first to last. Has the infidel? Yes,
he has a good deal of truth; and truth is all over the earth. The
earth could not stand but for the light and truth it contains. The
people could not abide were it not that truth holds them. It is the
Fountain of truth that feeds, clothes, and gives light and
intelligence to the inhabitants of the earth, no matter whether they
are saints or sinners. Do you think there is any truth in hell? Yes, a
great deal, and where truth is there we calculate the Lord has a right
to be. You will not find the Lord where there is no truth. The devil
had truth in his mouth as well as lies when he came to mother Eve.
Said he, "If you will eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of
good and evil, you will see as the gods see." That was just as true as
anything that ever was spoken on the face of the earth. She did eat,
her eyes were opened, and she saw good and evil. She gave of the fruit
to her husband, and he ate too. What would have been the consequence
if he had not done so? They would have been separated, and where would
we have been? I am glad he did eat. I am glad the fruit was given to
mother Eve, that she ate of it, and that her eyes were opened, and
that my eyes are opened, that I have tasted the sweet as well as the
bitter, and that I understand the difference between good and evil.
When the Lord called upon His servant Joseph, after leading him along
for years until he got the plates, from a portion of which the Book of
Mormon was translated, "By and by," said he, "you are going to
organize my church and establish my kingdom. I am going to have a
church on the earth. All these churches you have inquired about are
wrong; they have truth amongst them, but not the Priesthood. They lack
a guide to direct the affairs of the Kingdom of God on the earth—that
is the keys of the priesthood of the Son of God." This tells the
story. We possess the Priesthood. The Lord sent John to ordain Joseph
to the Aaronic Priesthood, and when he commenced to baptize people he
sent a greater power—Peter, James, and John, who ordained him to the
apostleship, which is the highest office pertaining to the Kingdom of
God that any man can possess on the face of the earth, for it holds
the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and has power to dispense the
blessings of the kingdom. This priesthood is that which the
Christian world do not possess, for they have taken leave of the
kingdom and the priesthood. Joseph bestowed this priesthood upon
others, and this Church possesses it and its power, which enables us
to detect all error, and to know what is true.
There are other things I wanted to talk about, not pertaining to the
Kingdom of God on the earth, but to the faith of this people before
God, but I shall leave this for the present, as I feel that I have
talked as long as is prudent for me. May the Lord God of Israel bless
you, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.