It is some time since I have spoken to the people in this capacity,
and I have a few words to say to Saints and sinners. That is a common
expression, but as we are all sinners, I might say a few words to
sinners exclusively.
The Gospel of the Son of God that has been revealed is a plan or
system of laws and ordinances, by strict obedience to which the people
who inhabit this earth are assured that they may return again into the
presence of the Father and the Son.
I frequently contemplate the con dition of this so-called strange
people, the Latter-day Saints. "A strange people" is a peculiar
expression, as though we were different from others! I know that we
are so considered, but in my opinion we are the most rational, common
sense people that live on the face of the earth. We are trying to
become natural in our habits, and are striving to fulfil the end and
design of our creation. When we read of and contemplate the manners,
morals and customs that prevail in the world and compare them with
those of the Latter-day Saints, we may justly come to the
conclusion that we are "a strange people," for, in these respects, we
are very different to the rest of the world. How strange it is that we
should do differently from the rest of mankind! How strange it is that
we should believe differently from our neighbors! It is very strange
indeed that we cannot embrace the so-called Christian religion and be
satisfied therewith. If we were to ask the infidel world some few
questions, they might talk, philosophize and bring up their sophistry,
but they could not prove a truth to be an untruth. The whole infidel
world cannot prove that we are not here on this earth, that the sun
does not shine, that we do not speak and hear, that we do not see with
our eyes and handle with our hands, that we have not the power of
tasting and smelling and have not the use of our natural senses. You
all know that I have got eyes, for you can see them; you know I can
speak, for you can hear my voice; you know that you are here in a
building, rude as it may be, and you know that you walk on the ground;
you know that you breathe the air, and you also know that when you are
thirsty you desire water to drink, and that when you are hungry you
want something palatable to eat. We all know these things by the
exercise of our natural senses, but there are many things of which we
are ignorant. We may look at ourselves and the people generally, and
the earth upon which we walk, and without the revelations of God we
know not who we are, whence we came, nor who formed the earth on which
we live, move and have our being. Did I bring the particles of matter
together and form the earth? No. Did you, Mr. Philosopher? Did you,
Mr. Infidel, or you, Mr. Christian, Pagan, or Jew? No, not any of us.
We know that we are here, but who brought us here or how we came are
questions the solution of which depends upon a power superior to ours.
The ideas of the inhabitants of the earth with regard to their own
creation and destiny, and with regard to the destiny of the earth, are
very crude and vague. But we must all acknowledge that some
individual, being, power or influence superior to ourselves produced
us and the earth and brought us forth and holds us in existence, and
causes the revolutions of the earth and of the planetary system. These
are facts that neither we nor all mankind can controvert; the whole
Christian and even the heathen world will acknowledge all this; but
what do they know about it? Who understands the modus operandi by
which all this was brought about and continued? Who is able to leap
forth into the immensity of thought, space, contemplation and
research, and search out the principles by which we are here and by
which we are sustained? The strangest phenomenon to the inhabitants of
the earth today is that God, the maker and preserver of the earth and
all it contains, should speak from heaven to His creatures, the works
of His hands here. What would there be strange in the mechanician,
after constructing the most beautiful and ingenious piece of mechanism
it is possible to conceive of, speaking to it and admiring the beauty,
regularity and order of its motions? Nothing whatever. Well, to me it
is not at all strange that He who framed and fashioned this beautiful
world and all the myriads and varieties of organizations it contains,
should come and visit them; to me this is perfectly natural, and when
we remember and compare the belief of this people with that of the
rest of the world we need not be surprised at being considered "a
strange people."
Brother George A. Smith has been relating to us something about the
history and belief of some of his forefathers, and others; one
believed one thing and another. It was with them, as it was in
the days of the Apostles—some were for Paul, some for Apollos, some
for Cephas and some for Christ. To me it is more rational for an
intelligent being to embrace truth, than it is to mix up a little
truth with a great deal of error, or to embrace all error and
undertake to follow a phantom. Have you embraced truth, Latter-day
Saints? Have you anything different from other Christians? Yes. What
have you got? You have got a Father in heaven, a system of religion, a
plan of salvation, with doctrines and ordinances. What are they? We
read them in the Bible, and the same things again in the Book of
Mormon, both of which are precisely the same as the principles
contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, each one
corroborating the other. It is written that out of the mouths of two
or three witnesses every word shall be established, and here, in the
New Testament, we have the words of the evangelists; in the Old
Testament the words of the prophets and patriarchs; and again, the
testimony of others in the Book of Mormon; and last of all, given in
our own day, the testimony of Joseph Smith in the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants; all coinciding, and the two latter corroborating, the fact
that the Bible, as far as it is correctly translated, is the word of
God. The Bible contains the word of God, the word of Jesus, of angels,
of good men, of those tolerably good, of wicked men, and the words of
the devil, the enemy of all righteousness, the enemy of Jesus, and the
enemy of this world, who is determined that he will possess the earth
and its inhabitants; and in the main it is true; and every item of
doctrine taught by the Latter-day Saints is to be found in this book.
Then, why should the Latter-day Saints appear so obnoxious and
disagreeable to the world—fairly a hiss and a by-word? What is the
reason of this? Is it because we can swear more and better than
others? No. Because we can lie more and better than others? Well, can
you steal better than others? No; I will defy you to do that. Are you
better gamblers? No. Do you intrude more on your neighbors' rights
than others? No. Do you bear false witness more than others? No. Can
you revile the name of the Savior more than others? No. Well then, why
are we considered so strange a people? Simply because we believe in
the reality of the principles contained in the word of God, and
maintain that man, in this day, needs and obtains direct revelation
from his Creator for his guidance.
Let us look now for a moment at what is termed the "moral code," the
ten commandments revealed by the Lord to the Jews, the House of
Israel, for a law to control their everyday walk and conduct. Do the
Latter-day Saints keep this? Yes. Does that make them so very strange?
Why should it? Does that fact make them a speckled bird in the
communities of the world? It should not. Then why is it that we are so
considered? We have a Father; He is in heaven; He has told us to call
Him Father; He says that we are His children. Now, excuse me everybody
that does not believe in the Bible, or who is inclined not to believe
in it, we are so unwise, so shortsighted, so foolish in our
imagination that we believe the Bible, we actually believe that God
the Father is our heavenly Father, that we are His children; and we
believe that Jesus Christ is our elder brother—that he is
actually the Son of our Father and that he is the Savior of the world,
and was appointed to this before the foundations of this earth were
laid. We are just so foolish and shortsighted as to believe all this.
We know that this age, by the outside world, is considered a fast age;
we think it is very fast, so far as unbelief goes. The people
now-a-days profess to be very enlightened and they say, "Don't be so
superstitious as to believe the Bible;" and the idea of Jesus being
sacrificed for the sins of the world is ridiculed by many. They say,
"Oh, don't have any such ideas, be more liberal, be as we are;" and I
heard of one man who said he would not believe in, worship, nor
acknowledge a God who would command a man to sacrifice his only son,
as Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac. We Latter-day Saints are
just so unwise and foolish as to believe that the Lord Almighty
required this at the hands of Abraham; and He did not tell Abraham
that he would have that ram ready in the bushes. He said, "Have you
confidence in me, my son Abraham?" "Yes," said Abraham. "Well,
I will
prove you. Bring up your son Isaac to Mount Moriah, build an altar
there, place the wood on the altar and bind your son and place him on
the altar and sacrifice him to me, and this will prove whether you
have faith in me or not." The sacrifice was offered and accepted, and
the Lord provided a way whereby Isaac could live. We are just so
foolish, unwise and shortsighted, and so wanting in philosophy that we
actually believe God told Abraham to do this very thing.
Who is that God? He is my Father, He is your Father; we are His
offspring. He has planted within each of us the germ of the same
intelligence, power, glory and exaltation that He enjoys Himself. This
proves that we are a peculiar race. We belong to the highest order of
intelligence; and though we, as yet, are very ignorant, we have the
privilege of increasing in intelligence, growing, expanding, spreading
abroad, gathering in, enlarging and gaining, and the more we learn
today, the better for us, for it does not destroy the knowledge we
had yesterday; and when we learn more tomorrow it does not destroy
the knowledge of today. We are creatures susceptible of continual
education and improvement. And we take this book, the Bible, which I
expect to see voted out of the so-called Christian world very soon,
they are coming to it as fast as possible, I say we take this book for
our guide, for our rule of action; we take it as the foundation of our
faith. It points the way to salvation like a fingerboard pointing to a
city, or a map which designates the locality of mountains, rivers, or
the latitude and longitude of any place on the surface of the earth
that we desire to find, and we have no better sense than to believe
it; hence, I say that the Latter-day Saints have the most natural
faith and belief of any people on the face of the earth.
We believe in God the Father, in Jesus the Mediator; we believe in the
ordinances that He has placed in His house, we believe in keeping the
laws that He has left on record by which His Saints are required to
square their lives, and to direct their steps. We do all this and we
keep the moral code. Others do this, and when we reflect upon the
righteous course of many of those who have lived before us, who have
observed this moral code, we can see that great good has been done.
But why should we be considered so strange by those who
profess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
One says, "You believe in baptism by immersion, and we do not believe
in it; you Latter-day Saints believe that a person should come to the
years of accountability before he is baptized, but we believe in
taking our infants and dipping our fingers, or in the priest dipping
his fingers in the water and touching the children's foreheads and
that they then become members of the living church and heirs of
salvation." But where do you find this in the Bible?
The method of administering the ordinance of baptism is a much
disputed point among the different sects of the religious world, the
Baptists alone maintaining that immersion is absolutely necessary.
Some are so liberal in their views on this subject that they will
either sprinkle or immerse at the option of the candidate. None,
however, regard it as necessary or efficacious for the remission of
sins, but simply as a profession of faith. We, the Latter-day Saints,
believe in being baptized by immersion for the remission of sins,
according to the testimony of the disciples of Jesus and the
revelations of the Lord given in these last days. Infants are pure,
they have neither sorrow of heart nor sins to repent of and forsake
and consequently are incapable of being baptized for the remission of
sin. If we have sinned, we must know good from evil; an infant does
not know this, it cannot know it; it has not grown into the idea of
contemplation of good and evil; it has not the capacity to listen to
the parent or teacher or to the priest when they tell what is right or
wrong or what is injurious; and until these things are understood a
person cannot be held accountable and consequently cannot be baptized
for the remission of sin.
"Well," says the Christian, "If you really believe in being baptized
by immersion, I expect it is correct for you, and it will answer every
purpose; but we think sprinkling will answer for us." If, however,
sprinkling infants be the correct method of administering the
ordinance of baptism, we are safe even on Christian grounds, for all
Christians will acknowledge that immersion is as good. If, on the
other hand, immersion, or being buried with Christ by baptism, be the
only correct method of administering the ordinance, and it is,
according to the testimony of more than one of his disciples, our
system will not avail those who have been sprinkled. But we are safe
anyhow.
Again, with regard to faith in Jesus. Along comes a man and says, "It
is all folly to have faith in the name of Jesus. It is true that
Christ died for all, but it is folly for you to fret yourselves about
keeping his commandments and observing the ordinances left on record
in the Scriptures; Jesus will save all. He did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance, and if he came to save sinners
do you not think he will accomplish the task?"
We, the Latter-day Saints, certainly believe that Christ will
accomplish all that he undertook to do, but he never yet said he would
save a sinner in his sins, but that he would save him from his sins.
He has instituted laws and ordinances whereby this can be effected.
But this gentleman says, "Christ will save all." The Mormon Elder says
that he will save all who come to him, all who hearken to his word and
keep his commandments, and Jesus has said, "If ye love me, keep my
commandments." Now this character to which I have referred says he
loves Jesus, but it is nonsense to keep his commandments; but
the "Mormon" says, "I love Jesus, and in proof of it I keep his
commandments." Now, suppose the former is correct and Christ will save
all, whether they do or do not keep his commandments, in that case the
"Mormons" are right again, for they will all be saved; but suppose
that Jesus requires strict obedience to his laws and ordinances and
commandments, those who merely believe without rendering obedience to
his laws are slightly incorrect, and, in the end, the disadvantage
will again be with them.
Now the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes every
word of truth believed in by the holy Catholic Church—the mother
church of the Christian world; and then every truth believed in by
every Protestant reformer and revivalist that has ever come out from
the mother church or from any of her children; and having all this, we
wish to frame, fashion and build after the pattern that God has
revealed; and in doing so we take all the laws, rules, ordinances and
regulations contained in the Scriptures and practice them as far as
possible, and then keep learning and improving until we can live by
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
You may take the mother church of the Christian world, the reformers,
universalists, deists, atheists, spiritualists and everybody else, and
if any or all of them are right, we are sure that we are, for every
particle of truth believed in by any one of them, and all the truth
possessed by the whole of them combined is believed in by the
Latter-day Saints; but if we are right, they will fail. Now, who is on
the safe ground? Who is most likely to be deluded and to be found
wanting? Let the people decide.
There is not a word in these three books, Bible, Book of Mormon and
the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that I have ever found yet, that
has been delivered by the Lord to His servants, but what, if it is
lived up to, or practiced in the life of an individual, it makes him
or her better in every sense of the word. There is no code ever got up
by the children of men that would direct them so purely in their lives
as that contained in these three books, and if the people of the
Christian world, or any portion of them, were to throw away or set
aside faith in God and in Jesus Christ, and the various ordinances of
the Gospel as contained in the Scriptures, and were to observe only
the moral code, and observe it strictly, it would make them a better
people than any who now live on the face of the earth, the Latter-day
Saints excepted.
But what is the use of forsaking any portion of the law of the Lord?
It is true that some portions of it, through disuse or neglect, are
now looked upon as obsolete, just as it is with some laws still
remaining on the statute books of the nations of the earth; but a law
possesses neither more nor less intrinsic merit on this account. The
law once passed in England inflicting a penalty upon all who ate bread
until it was three days old, possesses no less merit or virtue now
that it is obsolete than in the day when it was enacted. It was
gotten up many years ago because fresh bread was considered injurious
to the stomach; but, although it is not enforced now, I believe it has
never been repealed. Did my English brethren and sisters observe this
law while they lived in England? I think not; perhaps they did not
know anything about it. If, however, that law was good when it was
made, it is good now, and there is no person in that country
who uses bread under that age but is liable to be prosecuted. So it is
with regard to many laws under our own and other governments. They are
found to be inapplicable to the situation and condition of the people,
and hence they become obsolete. We may take the laws contained in
the Old and New Testaments, and if they were good in the days of the
Apostles, Prophets and Patriarchs, why are they not good today? It is
not because they are not good that they are passed over, but in some
respects they are not as applicable to the feelings of the Christian
world now as when they were given, because of the traditions of the
fathers.
I know that the outside world say, "Oh, you Mormons, what a poor
degraded people you are!" You know, one public lecturer says there is
not a public school in all Utah. I can say that if there are no public
schools there are plenty of private schools, and there are no people
on the face of the earth that support as many children in private
schools as the people of Utah, according to their numbers. Still the
world declare that we are degraded, miserable and ignorant; and, "Oh,
that horrid principle! Oh dear, it makes me blush!" Yes, it makes one
think of a little circumstance that transpired with one of our Elders
who went after machinery to Massachusetts. He went to inquire about
machinery for a cotton factory, and the gentleman to whom he applied
said, "Where are you from?" "Utah." "O, you are out
among the
Mormons?" "Yes." "Are you a Mormon?"
"Yes." "Well, I believe," said
the interrogator, "you, out there, believe in having more wives than
one?" "Yes, that is true," said the Elder. "Well," said the
gentleman,
"I want you to come up and see my partner." So our brother was invited
up to see the partner of the gentleman who had questioned him so
closely, in order to talk a little about the number of people here,
and the improvements, etc. The first thing, on meeting the partner,
was to pitch into the "Mormon" about how many wives he had, and he
replied that "he had just enough to enable him to keep from troubling
his neighbors' wives." The gentleman that took our Elder to this place
had a family, but the gentleman whom they visited had not, and he was
considered a great libertine; and the one who had a family was
delighted with the answer made by the Elder, and said he to his
partner, "I guess you are satisfied now, I wish you could say as
much." This is the way with the world—"How many wives have you
got?"
and, "Oh, it is so wicked, it is so degrading!"
Well, I need not talk about this; but I will say that the principle of
patriarchal marriage is one of the highest and purest ever revealed to
the children of men. I do not say that it will not injure a great
many. I heard brother Joseph Smith say a number of times, "There is no
question but it will be the means of damning many of the Elders of
Israel; it is nevertheless true and must be revealed; and the Lord
designs that it shall be revealed and go forth, and that this people
must receive the oracles of truth, and they must receive this holy
ordinance, and that pertains to the celestial world; and they
will retrograde if they do not embrace more of the celestial law than
they have yet."
I say, with regard to this principle, if it was good in the days of
Abraham and of the Patriarchs and Prophets, or at any other period of
the world's history, and the fact that the Lord commanded His servants
anciently to observe it, is conclusive proof that it was so
considered by Him, why is it not good now? It certainly does not go as
far as some of our lecturers in the East, who advocate the abolition
of the marriage ceremony by Government. We do not go quite as far as
this; we can't receive all that they do or would receive. We can't
believe a great many things the so-called Christian world believe,
because they are neither Scriptural nor true.
Now, with regard to this moral code, of which I have been speaking, I
will leave it to the greatest infidel, or to the smallest infidel on
the earth, or to the wickedest and most riotous person that can be
found, and I am satisfied that he will say that lives squared
according to its precepts, whether of individuals or communities, are
the very best that can be led. I say to the world, do not blame us for
believing it. Do not blame the Latter-day Saints for believing the
Bible. "We will not," says the Christian world, "if you will not
practice it." Aye, there's the rub! Now, I ask the question, who
manifest true wisdom, they who possess the principles of truth and
practice them or they who possess and profess to believe them and yet
refuse to practice them? I leave it to the world to say which is the
wiser course. I think that if I did not believe in baptism enough to
be baptized for the remission of my sins, I would say I do not believe
and consequently I will not be baptized. And if I did not believe in
the Lord's Supper, I would say so, and would set that aside in my
practice. If I did not believe in the atonement of the Son of God, or
in the virtue and efficacy of his blood, I would say I do not believe
in them. If I could not believe enough to practice what he has told
me, I think I would be honest enough to say so, and I would live as
fast and as close as my feeble capacity would permit me to what I did
believe in.
When I look at universalism, deism, atheism, and at the various sects
of the day, I feel that if we fail they are ready to catch us; but if
we are right, they are wrong, and we must officiate for them and bring
them up or they are forever lost. Who is right and who is wrong, who
are on sure ground and who are not? This is an important question. It
brings to mind a little anecdote that I have heard my brother Joseph
tell. A certain king came along by a house where there resided a poor
family of children, little girls, who were out at play. He stopped his
carriage and spoke to them, saying, "Children, I am going a little
further; I shall be back presently. I wish you to wash yourselves and
get on your best clothing, for I want to take you home with me to a
feast." The children, all but one, kept on playing and paid no
attention; this one stepped into the house and washed herself. When
asked what she was doing, she said she was washing and was going to
put on her best clothing, for the king had promised to take her in his
carriage if she would do so. She was laughed at for believing that he
would do any such thing, and told to go on with her play. But she
washed and dressed and sat until the king's carriage returned; and she
being the only one ready, the king took her up, carried her home, gave
her presents and blessed her; but the rest of the children, not having
heeded the words of the king, received no blessing at his hands. So it
is with the whole world of mankind. They say it is folly in the
extreme to believe as we Latter-day Saints believe; it is all
nonsense. They say, "Jesus will never call us to judgment; he will
never come to receive his own; he will never come to reign on
the earth;" but they will find their mistake out when the king comes
along; and I am thankful that I am looking at some who, like the
little girl, are preparing for his coming.
Let me ask again, who is on safe ground? Is the apostate on safe
ground? What has he got? If he has found truth, it is here. We have
embraced all truth in the heavens, on the earth, under the earth, on
other planets, and in every kingdom there is in all the eternities.
Every truth in every kingdom that exists is embraced in our faith, and
the Lord reveals a little here and a little there, line upon line, and
He will continue to do so until we can reach into eternity and embrace
a fullness of His glory, excellency and power. Who are on safe ground,
then? These poor despised "Mormons" are the only people who live on
the face of the earth that we know anything of who are on safe ground.
Whether the Bible is true or not, no matter.
Now then, for a few words on the opposite side. Leaving the difference
between the good and the evil, between light and darkness, and between
right and wrong, truth and error, as marked out by the dividing line,
let us glance at the effects of the two principles. Light,
intelligence, good, that which is of God, creates, fashions, forms,
builds up, brings into existence, beautifies, makes excellent,
glorifies, extends and increases; while on the other hand that which
is not of God burns, destroys, cuts down, ruins and produces darkness
and unbelief in the minds of the people. Light and intelligence lead
people to the fountain of truth; while the opposite principle says,
"Don't believe a word, don't do a thing; burn up and destroy." Well
now, when you leave the truth you have nothing but unbelief. And this
latter is precisely the condition of the ungodly world, and, as fast
as the wheels of time can roll they are going downward, downward to
confusion, distress, anarchy and ruin. Their much boasted liberal
feelings and extended views will not bring peace or truth to them; but
they are bringing contention and darkness, hatred and malice. That
system that brings present security and peace is the best to live by,
and the best to die by; it is the best for doing business; it is the
best for making farms, for building cities and temples, and that
system is the law of God. But it requires strict obedience. The rule
of right and the line which God has drawn for the people to walk by
insures peace, comfort, and happiness now and eternal glory and
exaltation; but nothing short of strict obedience to God's law will do
this.
Brethren and sisters, I can bear my testimony that the Gospel is true.
But what will this do for a person who has no eyes to see it and its
beauties, no mind or heart to understand the excellency of this code
of laws and ordinances that God has revealed? I say the Gospel is
true, but what does this amount to, to such a person? Nothing. What
does? Draw the contrast between the rule of heaven and the rule of
wickedness that now prevails on the earth, and see which will make the
people the most happy and place them in the best circumstances; show
which will give them the most peace, the greatest enjoyment, the
greatest amount of intelligence, light and happiness. That which leads
to the fountain of life and happiness will produce the most. Let the
people judge between the two by the contrast. All live so as to
produce intelligence, light and happiness, or misery, confusion and
destruction. A person before he can understand the law and government of God, must see and understand the propriety of it and see
its beauties. So it is with the whole system of salvation. Not that I
would say we are machines, for we have our agency; but God has placed
us here, and He exacts strict obedience to His laws before we can
derive the benefit and blessings their observance will yield. You may
take a beautiful machine of any kind you please, and when the
machinist has finished his work and set it in perfect order, how could
it be expected to operate satisfactorily if a hook here or a journal
yonder were to say, I am not going to stay here, or I am going to jump
out of this place and am going somewhere else; and then another piece
of the machinery would jump out of its place into another part of the
machine? What would be the state of such a machine? Confusion and
disorganization would soon result and the machinist might very
properly say, what a pity that I bestowed so much labor on such unruly
members of my machine.
The Priesthood of the Son of God, which we have in our midst, is a
perfect order and system of government, and this alone can deliver the
human family from all the evils which now afflict its members, and
insure them happiness and felicity hereafter. Brethren and sisters,
God bless you. Amen.