There are a few minutes to spare before we dismiss, and there are
quite a number of items that could be talked about that would be very
interesting to the people, especially in regard to the first
experience of the Church. When I hear brethren relate their experience
of those days it brings to my mind many things pertaining to the
establishment of the kingdom in the beginning. Not that I was a member
of the Church at its organization, but I was nearby and knew
something of the doings of the Saints. I recollect very well the night
that Joseph found the plates: the recollection of that event is as
vividly impressed on my mind as though it were last night. But, to
change my remarks to another subject referred to, let me ask you,
brethren and sisters, How many do you suppose there are in the Church
now who were in twenty-eight years ago? Some are disposed to imagine
that the people we now call Latter-day Saints have been brought into
the Church through the labors of the Prophet Joseph Smith. If we were
to ask this congregation how many of them were in the Church
twenty-eight years ago, we should find only a small portion of them. I
will say that, probably, two-thirds, yes, three-fourths, and even more
than that, have come into the Church through the administration of
what is called the First Presidency at the present time; consequently our work shows for itself. We need not ask persons to
give their opinion about the theory that we have placed before them,
but what do you think of the work itself? What do you think of this
great kingdom, this little empire, we might say, as it now appears to
the world? It is twenty-eight years since Brother Joseph was killed,
and the work has gone forth steadily and rapidly, and through the
providences of God we have apparently advanced faster since then, than
in the fourteen years before, so far as bringing the people into note,
and giving them a name and fame in the eyes of the world. The work is
still onward and it is upward.
I simply ask the question about what the people think of these things,
I do not wish to dwell on the principle of parties denying the faith,
or remaining in the faith, they can do just as they please about that;
but while Brother Levi Hancock was talking about sticking to the
Church, and declaring that he meant to hang on to it, I thought, and
say now, what in the name of common sense is there to hang on to, if
he does not hang on to the Church? I do not know of anything. You
might as well take a lone straw in the midst of the ocean to save
yourselves as to think of doing so by the knowledge, power, authority,
faith and priesthood of the Christian world, and the heathen world
into the bargain. There is nothing but the Gospel to hang on to! Those
who leave the Church are like a feather blown to and fro in the air.
They know not whither they are going; they do not understand anything
about their own existence; their faith, judgment and the operations of
their minds are as unstable as the movements of the feather floating
in the air. We have not anything to cling to, only faith in the Gospel.
As for the doctrine that is promulgated by the sons of Joseph, it is
nothing more than any other false religion. We would be very glad to
have the privilege of saying that the children of Joseph Smith,
Junior, the Prophet of God, were firm in the faith of the Gospel, and
following in the footsteps of their father. But what are they doing?
Trying to blot out every vestige of the work their father performed on
the earth. Their mission is to endeavor to obliterate every particle
of his doctrine, his faith and doings. These boys are not following
Joseph Smith, but Emma Bideman. Every person who hearkens to what they
say, hearkens to the will and wishes of Emma Bideman. The boys,
themselves, have no will, no mind, no judgment independent of their
mother. I do not want to talk about them. I am sorry for them, and I
have my own faith in regard to them. I think the Lord will find them
by and by—not Joseph, I have told the people times enough, they never
may depend on Joseph Smith who is now living; but David, who was born
after the death of his father, I still look for the day to come when
the Lord will touch his eyes. But I do not look for it while his
mother lives. The Lord would do it now if David were willing; but he
is not, he places his mother first and foremost, and would take her
counsel sooner than he would the counsel of the Almighty, consequently
he can do nothing, he knows nothing, he has no faith, and we have to
let the matter rest in the hands of God for the present.
Now a few words to the brethren and sisters upon the doctrine and
ordinances of the house of God. All who have lived on the earth
according to the best light they had, and would have received the
fullness of the Gospel had it been preached to them, are
worthy of a glorious resurrection, and will attain to this by being
administered for in the flesh by those who have the authority. All
others will have a resurrection, and receive a glory, except those who
have sinned against the Holy Ghost. It is supposed by this people that
we have all the ordinances in our possession for life and salvation,
and exaltation, and that we are administering in these ordinances.
This is not the case. We are in possession of all the ordinances that
can be administered in the flesh; but there are other ordinances and
administrations that must be administered beyond this world. I know
you would ask what they are. I will mention one. We have not, neither
can we receive here, the ordinance and the keys of the resurrection.
They will be given to those who have passed off this stage of action
and have received their bodies again, as many have already done and
many more will. They will be ordained, by those who hold the keys of
the resurrection, to go forth and resurrect the Saints, just as we
receive the ordinance of baptism, then the keys of authority to
baptize others for the remission of their sins. This is one of the
ordinances we cannot receive here, and there are many more. We hold
the authority to dispose of, alter and change the elements; but we
have not received authority to organize native element to even make a
spear of grass grow. We have no such ordinance here. We organize
according to men in the flesh. By combining the elements and planting
the seed, we cause vegetables, trees, grains, &c., to come forth. We
are organizing a kingdom here according to the pattern that the Lord
has given for people in the flesh, but not for those who have received
the re surrection, although it is a similitude. Another item: We have
not the power in the flesh to create and bring forth or produce a
spirit; but we have the power to produce a temporal body. The germ of
this, God has placed within us. And when our spirits receive our
bodies, and through our faithfulness we are worthy to be crowned, we
will then receive authority to produce both spirit and body. But these
keys we cannot receive in the flesh. Herein, brethren, you can
perceive that we have not finished, and cannot finish our work, while
we live here, no more than Jesus did while he was in the flesh.
We cannot receive, while in the flesh, the keys to form and fashion
kingdoms and to organize matter, for they are beyond our capacity and
calling, beyond this world. In the resurrection, men who have been
faithful and diligent in all things in the flesh, have kept their
first and second estate, and worthy to be crowned Gods, even the sons
of God, will be ordained to organize matter. How much matter do you
suppose there is between here and some of the fixed stars which we can
see? Enough to frame many, very many millions of such earths as this,
yet it is now so diffused, clear and pure, that we look through it and
behold the stars. Yet the matter is there. Can you form any conception
of this? Can you form any idea of the minuteness of matter? Let me
give you a comparison, for instance, with regard to mathematics. You
take a child that is born today, say at twelve o'clock, precisely at
high noon. One year from today there is another child born. The one
born today will be just one year older than the other. The second one
is perhaps not a minute old, it has just commenced to breathe the
vital air. Now the one born first is a great many times older
than the second, we would have to get some of these mathematicians to
tell how many times. It would be over 31 millions of seconds, a great
many minutes, many hours, three hundred and sixty-five days, and one
year. When these two children have lived just one year longer the
elder of the two is two years old, the other one, the former, being
just as old again as the latter. In one year more the first one will
be only one-third older, the fourth year be will be one-fourth older,
and so on. Now then, how long must these two children live to be
exactly of an age? They never will be; never, no never, through all
the eternities there are, and that is forever and ever. They will
always differ in age, and when countless millions and myriads of ages
have passed away there is still, do you not see, a difference, these
children are not yet of the same age. It is just so with matter. Take,
for instance, a grain of sand. You cannot divide it so small that it
cannot be divided again—it is capable of infinite division. We know
nothing about how many times it can be divided, and it is just so with
regard to the lives in us, in animals, in vegetation, in shrubbery.
They are countless. To illustrate, you take a perfectly ripe kernel of
corn—you will have some here perhaps in a few days—and if you get a
glass, it does not require a very powerful one, and you take the chit
of this corn and open it, you behold distinctly a stalk of corn, in
that chit, a perfectly grown stalk of corn, with ears and leaves on
it, matured, out in blossom—there is the tassel, there are the ears
and there is the corn! Well, you get a stronger glass and divide
again, and you can see that this very chit is the grandfather of corn!
We take the scien tific world for this. Well, how many lives are there
in this grain of corn? They are innumerable, and this same infinity is
manifest through all the creations of God.
We will operate here, in all the ordinances of the house of God which
pertain to this side the veil, and those who pass beyond and secure to
themselves a resurrection pertaining to the lives will go on and
receive more and more, more and more, and will receive one after
another until they are crowned Gods, even the sons of God. This idea
is very consoling. We are now baptizing for the dead, and we are
sealing for the dead, and if we had a temple prepared we should be
giving endowments for the dead—for our fathers, mothers, grandfathers,
grandmothers, uncles, aunts, relatives, friends and old associates,
the history of whom we are now getting from our friends in the east.
The Lord is stirring up the hearts of many there, and there is a
perfect mania with some to trace their genealogies and to get up
printed records of their ancestors. They do not know what they are
doing it for, but the Lord is prompting them; and it will continue and
run on from father to father, father to father, until they get the
genealogy of their forefathers as far as they possibly can.
I am going to stop my talking by saying that, in the millennium, when
the kingdom of God is established on the earth in power, glory and
perfection, and the reign of wickedness that has so long prevailed is
subdued, the Saints of God will have the privilege of building their
temples, and of entering into them, becoming, as it were, pillars in
the temples of God, and they will officiate for their dead. Then we
will see our friends come up, and perhaps some that we have been
acquainted with here. If we ask who will stand at the head of
the resurrection in this last dispensation, the answer is—Joseph
Smith, Junior, the Prophet of God. He is the man who will be
resurrected and receive the keys of the resurrection, and he will seal
this authority upon others, and they will hunt up their friends and
resurrect them when they shall have been officiated for, and bring
them up. And we will have revelations to know our forefathers clear
back to Father Adam and Mother Eve, and we will enter into the tem ples
of God and officiate for them. Then man will be sealed to man until
the chain is made perfect back to Adam, so that there will be a
perfect chain of priesthood from Adam to the winding-up scene.
This will be the work of the Latter-day Saints in the millennium. How
much time do you suppose we have to attend to and foster Babylon? I
leave this question for you to answer at your pleasure. I have no time
at all for that, I say, and stop my sayings.