"Who am I, saith the Lord, that I command and am not obeyed? Who am I,
saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?" We have again the
privilege of assembling ourselves together upon another Annual
Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I
hope and trust that, what time we may spend in Conference, our hearts
may be lifted up unto the Lord, that his Holy Spirit may be given unto
us, that we may be dictated and directed in our words, thoughts, acts,
and teachings, in such a manner that we may be justified before him.
We have said, time after time, and year after year, that we live in a
very peculiar age, generation and dispensation, and this is true. Time
rolls on, carrying with it its events, and fulfilling the revelations
of God, unto us especially. We live in a day of darkness; unbelief and
infidelity are covering the whole face of the earth, until it seems as
though the whole Christian world had lost all hold of faith in God and
in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Bible, the revelation of
God to man. And this being the case, if the Lord has any people on the
face of the earth, they should be increasing in faith in him. You let
a Christian come here, no matter who, whether he be a minister,
professor, or believer, or anyone who professes to believe in the
Bible, and let him ask an Elder in Israel—"Do you really believe, in
your soul, sincerely before the Lord, that Mormonism is true?" When
the Elder answers him "yes," he is about as much astonished as we were
yesterday when these magazines exploded. The fact of it is, as I said
before, the world do not believe in God or in revelation, and they
marvel very greatly to find any man who has really got independence of
mind enough to stand up and say—"I believe that Joseph Smith was a
Prophet of God, and I believe in the revelations that were given
through him; I believe in the literal fulfillment of prophecy, as
written in the Bible." To hear men say this astonishes the Latter-day
Saints to see the amount of darkness and infidelity that are abroad in
the earth. Hence, as Latter-day Saints, I think it requires on our
part an increase of faithfulness in the practice of our religion, and
in the various revelations of God contained in the Bible, Book of
Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.
We see before our eyes, year after year, the signs of heaven and of
earth, and the fulfillment of prophecy, but how much are we as a
people increasing in faith in God? Do we increase in that respect in
proportion to the increase of infidelity in the world? Perhaps I am
not a judge, but it appears to me that we do not comprehend. The work
in which we are engaged, and the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Book
of Doctrine and Covenants, are just as true today as they were
twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, when we shouldered our knapsacks
and valises, and traveled on foot from city to city, State to State,
and from country to country, to preach the word of God without money
and without price, trusting in the living God to sustain and uphold us
in our mission. I say that this work is just as true now as then, and
so is the saying which I quoted—"Who am I, saith the Lord, that I
command and am not obeyed? Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise
and do not fulfill?" I believe that the Lord will fulfill what he
says; I believe that he will fulfill his promises unto the Latter-day
Saints and unto the world, unto Zion and Babylon; and if he does,
there is something at the door, something for us, as Latter-day
Saints, to do. I believe the Lord has held every man responsible, from
the day of our great progenitor, father Adam, into whose hands the
Holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom of God have been
committed; and I believe that every man, every set of men, and every
people, will be held responsible, in time and eternity, for the use
they have made of the gifts, blessings, and promises which have been
given unto them. The amount of it is that if any people undertake to
keep a celestial law, it is their privilege to enjoy the spirit and
power of that law; it is also the privilege of any man or set of men,
who ever received the Gospel, to enjoy the blessings of that Gospel,
no matter what age of the world they may have lived in. Every person
who has ever repented of his sins, and has been baptized for their
remission, after the order of God, and after the similitude of Jesus
Christ, who was buried in water in the likeness of his death, and came
forth in the likeness of his resurrection, has a right to the
Holy Ghost; it is promised, and it belongs to him; it is the right of
all persons to enjoy this, and if they receive the Holy Ghost and its
gifts, they have inspiration, light, and truth; they have eyes to see,
ears to hear, and hearts to understand, and they should be in a
position before the Lord that they can comprehend his work far more
perfectly than the world, for they have not obeyed the Gospel of
Christ, and they have no right to, or claim upon, the gifts of that
Gospel. But all who, in any age of the world, obey the Gospel, have a
right to the Comforter, and to inspiration and revelation, they belong
to them, and the Lord never had a people on the face of the earth who
did not have a right to these gifts, and it was their privilege and
duty to enjoy them.
This is the difference between those who keep celestial law, the law
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and those who do not. But, as I have
remarked, all in every age of the world who have received a
dispensation of the Gospel, are responsible before the Lord for their
acts, and for the manner in which they have used their blessings and
privileges. The Prophets and Apostles in every age have been held
responsible for the manner in which they made use of the Gospel of
Christ when committed unto them; and that is the way it is with us
today. One thing is evident to everybody who reflects at all upon the
things of the kingdom of God—whenever the Lord chooses a people out of
the world, they are hated by the world, and are unpopular in the
world. This has been the case in every age. It was so in the days of
Jesus Christ. He came to his own father's house—the Jews; he was of
the lineage of Abraham, and when he came to his own brethren he was
unpopular, he was rejected and opposed. They did not like him nor his
course. They were looking for Shiloh to come, but not as a babe born
in a stable and cradled in a manger, and traveling on from that to the
cross and the grave in poverty and affliction, without military
authority, and without power to govern and control, and to deliver and
uphold the Jews as a nation. Christ came as the babe of Bethlehem, the
lowest almost of the human family, and remained so up to the day of
his death. A poorer man never lived, that I know of, in Judea and
Jerusalem, than Jesus Christ. Who were his followers? They were not
the great, rich, learned, noble, High Priests, or leading men of
Judea; many of them were illiterate fishermen, poor men, weak things
of the world; they were the class that Jesus chose for his disciples,
and into their hands he gave the keys of the kingdom of God; he gave
them the Apostleship, the power to bind and to seal both on earth and
in heaven. Their deeds and labors reached not only through this world,
but they reached into the eternal worlds, and will affect the
inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem from that day, I may say, into
eternity. Those disciples of Christ received the Holy Priesthood, the
Gospel of Christ, and the keys of the kingdom of God, and Jesus held
them responsible to the day of their death for the course they
pursued. However much they were despised by the world, they were held
responsible for bearing a true and faithful testimony to Jew and
Gentile, of Jesus Christ being the true Shepherd and the Savior of the
world.
And so I will say about the Latter-day Saints and the work they are
engaged in. Ezekiel says that in the last days the stick of Joseph in
the hands of Ephraim should be placed with the stick of Judah, before
the eyes of the nations in the hands of the Lord, for a
special purpose—to gather the house of Israel in the latter days.
These two records were also to be made use of in order to preach the
fullness of the everlasting Gospel to both Jew and Gentile; and they
will stand in judgment against the generation living on the earth when
they come forth; and from the day that Moroni gave that record into
the hands of Joseph Smith, the Lord held him responsible for the use
which he made of it; and when he gave him the Priesthood under the
hands of John the Baptist, and the Apostleship under the hands of
Peter, James and John, the Lord Almighty held him responsible unto the
day that he sealed his testimony with his blood, for the course that
he pursued with these things. And he bore his testimony, left it on
record, and sealed it with his blood, and laid down his life, and that
testimony is in force today upon all the world, and will remain so
unto the end of time. And when I say this of Joseph Smith, I say it of
every other man. President Young has led this Church for many years,
and the Lord has held him responsible, and will hold him so unto the
day of his death, for the course pursued by him while conducting the
affairs of his Church and kingdom, and also for the use he makes of
the holy Priesthood and the keys of the kingdom. So also with his
Counselors, the Twelve Apostles, and everyone of us; we shall all be
held accountable to the day of our death, and we shall have to give an
account before the God of heaven when we go into the spirit world and
meet him there; for the use of this Priesthood, and the keys of the
kingdom, which have been established on the earth for the last time,
have been committed into the hands of this people, and God will hold
the whole of us responsible for the use we make of the blessings,
privileges and powers which we enjoy in connection therewith. The eyes
of God and his angels, and of every man who dwells in the celestial
world are watching us, and the course we pursue.
We are gathered together here as a people; we have been in these
mountains a good while, and for a good many years we have been
organized as a Church and kingdom, in this last age, in this
dispensation of the fullness of times; and now the question with me
is—Are we living up to our privileges? Are we performing the work
required at our hands? Can we, as a people, claim the blessings of the
Gospel of Christ, the blessings of the celestial law and of the
celestial kingdom of God? Can we claim these things at the hands of
our heavenly Father unless we keep his commandments? This is a
question that we want to take home to ourselves. If we are not keeping
the commands of the Lord can we claim his blessings? We cannot; and
this is matter for reflection for the Latter-day Saints.
It may be asked—What are the commandments of the Lord? Many of them
are contained in these records, the Bible, Book of Mormon and Book of
Doctrine and Covenants; and we have the living oracles with us, and
have had from the commencement. The Lord will never leave his kingdom
without a lawgiver, leader, president, or some power to direct the
affairs of his Church on the earth, for the reason that it is the
dispensation of the fullness of times, in which God has set up a
kingdom which is to be an everlasting kingdom, and to whose dominion
there will be no end; that kingdom will not be given into the hands of any other people, but it will be given to the Saints of the
Most High, and they will possess it forever and ever.
Now, brethren and sisters, here comes a question in my mind, this
morning, which I think we ought to bring home to ourselves, and that
is—Are we, as a people, doing our duty in keeping the law and
commandments of God, and the covenants which we have made? If we are
we are justified, and we have a claim upon the Holy Spirit and upon
the blessing and approbation of God. Many things are required at the
hands of the Latter-day Saints, and there is not one of us who has a
lease of his life. The Elders of this Church are passing away, and
almost every Conference we look around and find that somebody has left
us; and it will be but a short time before many of us who are here
today will have closed our labors in the flesh, and we shall have
passed to the other side of the veil, and it is important to us all
that we should do what is required of us. What we find to do today we
should not put off till tomorrow.
The question may arise in some minds—What is required of the
Latter-day Saints? I will tell you some things that are required of
us. The Lord requires us to pay our Tithing; and another thing is that
we go to and build the Temple in this city; whether we do it or not it
is required of us, and if we fail, we, in my view, shall be under
condemnation. I consider that the building of Temples is one of the
important things required by the Lord of the Latter-day Saints in the
dispensation of the fullness of times, that we may go into those
Temples and not only redeem the living but redeem our dead. We have
been a good many years here in the valleys of the mountains, and we
have not yet got a Temple finished to the name of the Lord. We have
one pretty well forward in St. George, and I am very glad of it; but
we want one here. We have got the foundation laid; it has been
standing a good many years, and I think that we should go to and
finish it, and do what we can to redeem our dead. This is among the
things for which I think we shall be held responsible. Very many of us
in this Church and kingdom have been gathered, as the Prophet has
said, one of a family and two of a city, and many of our progenitors,
now in the spirit world, never saw the face of an Apostle, Prophet, or
inspired man, and they are shut up in prison. Joseph Smith, Heber
Kimball, George A. Smith, and thousands of the Elders of Israel may
preach to those spirits, and they may receive the testimonies which
the Elders bear; but the Elders will not baptize believers there;
there is no baptism in the spirit world any more than there is any
marrying and giving in marriage. All these things have to be done this
side of the veil, in the flesh. God is no respecter of persons; he
will not give privileges to one generation and withhold them from
another; and the whole human family, from father Adam down to our day,
have got to have the privilege, somewhere, of hearing the Gospel of
Christ; and the generations that have passed and gone without hearing
that Gospel in its fullness, power and glory, will never be held
responsible by God for not obeying it, neither will he bring them
under condemnation for rejecting a law they never saw or understood;
and if they live up to the light they had they are justified so far,
and they have to be preached to in the spirit world. But nobody will
baptize them there, and somebody has got to administer for
them by proxy here in the flesh, that they may be judged according to
men in the flesh and have part in the first resurrection.
This, in my view, is the work that is required at the hands of the
Latter-day Saints, and when we get through I think we will find this
to be true. And if there is anything I desire to live for on the
earth, or that I have desired, it has been to get a record of the
genealogy of my fathers, that I might do something for them before I
go hence into the spirit world. Until within a few years past it has
seemed as if every avenue has been closed to obtaining such records;
but the Lord has moved upon the inhabitants of this nation, and
thousands of them are now laboring to trace the genealogical descent
of the Puritan fathers, those who landed at Plymouth Rock, and whose
descendants built up New England. Their lineages are coming to light,
and we are gradually obtaining access to them, and by this means we
shall be enabled to do something towards the salvation of our dead.
These are some of the things upon my mind that I wished to speak to
you about. And now let me ask—Have we a right to our endowments and to
the ordinances and blessings of the Church and kingdom of God, unless
we fulfill the law of God. It seems to me many times, that there is a
darkness and a lack of faith even among the Latter-day Saints, and
that as we grow older we grow colder, and as we advance towards the
winding-up scene it seems as though we have almost lost sight of our
calling, of the object of our being gathered together, and the
purposes which God requires at our hands. There is a good deal for us
to do if we build up Zion; and if we do that and sanctify ourselves
before the Lord, it has got to be done through obedience to the
commandments of the Lord. The Lord has commanded us, and we have got
to obey his commandments if we receive the blessings of obedience. Our
numbers are not great, and compared with the whole of the inhabitants
of the earth I do not expect that the number of the Latter-day Saints
will ever be very great; yet the Lord has promised that the little one
shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; and out of
the house of Israel and those from among the Gentiles who obey the
Gospel, God will raise up a nation, and they will have power and
strength in the earth. But when we compare the Saints in this or any
other age with the surrounding world, their numbers are few. I do not
know why it is that so few of the inhabitants of the earth take any
interest in their eternal welfare. The whole human family, heathen,
pagan, Christian and Jew, know that this is not their home, and that
all have got to die, they cannot escape the law of death; even if
translated, as some were anciently, they have to undergo a change
equivalent to death. Then why is it there is so little interest
throughout the world with regard to a future state and to eternal
matters? The few who show they have an interest in these things, and
who have gathered together to these valleys of the mountains, have
need of faith; we stand in need of prayer, we stand in need of the
Holy Ghost, and of the inspiration of the Almighty to dictate and
direct us, and unless we possess and enjoy these things we become
barren and unfruitful before the Lord.
Now, whatever the Lord requires at our hands, he does not require
anything of us that we cannot perform. We can obey his command ments according to the position that we occupy and the means that we
have in our possession. There is no man or woman so poor but what he
or she can obey the Gospel; they can go forth and be baptized for the
remission of their sins, and if they keep the commandments of the Lord
he will put into their hands power and means to fulfill that which is
required of them.
I hope, brethren and sisters, that while we are together at this
Conference, we shall have prayerful hearts, and that the Spirit of the
Lord may be poured out upon us; that President Young may have strength
of body, and that the Spirit of God may rest upon him to such an
extent that he may be able to give the Latter-day Saints such
instruction as he may desire; and that the Apostles and Elders who may
be called upon to speak may be made the instruments in the hands of
the Lord in conveying his word to the people, and that we may be
united together.
Somebody or other has got to build up Zion; somebody has got to build
Temples, and to go into them and attend to the ordinances therein. The
Lord has said that he will come and visit the earth, but before he
does come the people have got to be pure. The Lord Jesus has declared
that he will come and reign on the earth, and if you read the Book of
Doctrine and Covenants you will find numerous predictions in regard to
his coming, such as—"I come quickly," "I come at an hour ye
think
not," "My coming is at the door," "I come as a thief in the
night," "I
come in an hour when you are not looking for me," and "Blessed is he
who is looking for the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." I
say that throughout the whole of the Scriptures— the Old and New
Testament, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and Covenants,
the second coming of the Lord is frequently referred to; and has the
Lord promised these things without intending to fulfill them? No, he
has not, they will be fulfilled. But before Christ comes, a people
have got to be prepared by being sanctified before the Lord. Temples
have got to be built; Zion has got to be built up; there must be a
place of safety for the people of God while his judgments are abroad
in the earth, for the judgments of God will visit the earth, there is
no mistake about that, the revelations are full of promises to this
effect, and as the Lord has declared it, he will not fail in keeping
his word.
Brethren and sisters, let us search the revelations of God; let us
look to ourselves, and understand the spirit by which we are governed
and controlled in our labors and callings. We are called to a great
calling. The greatest calling with which any people can be called is
to have placed in their hands the Gospel of Christ, and the power to
build up his kingdom upon the earth. The Lord has chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the world, and things that are nought
to bring to nought things that are. He has done this in every age of
the world, and he has done it in our day and generation; and he will
hold us responsible for the use we make of the holy Priesthood, the
ordinances of his house and the power that is put into our hands to
accomplish the work of God, and to build Temples to his name. If we do
not do these things I think that we shall be under condemnation before
the Lord, and that we shall suffer for it.
I pray God, my heavenly Father, that he will pour out his
Spirit upon this people, that we may see and comprehend things as they
are, that we may comprehend our duties and may be inspired to labor
while the day lasts, for by and by the night will come when no man can
work. I pray God that we may be prepared for his coming, and that we
may have power and a disposition to perform and accomplish all that is
required of us, that when we go to the other side of the veil we may
he satisfied with our labors here in the flesh.
This is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.