Brethren and Sisters—I must express my gratification at the address
which was delivered for our consideration in the former part of the
day. I do not feel as much in the spirit of preaching as I do in that
of listening; but as there is still a short time to be occupied, at
the request of the brethren I will offer for your consideration a few
remarks.
According to the example already given this afternoon, I shall
commence by taking a text, which will be found recorded in the 23rd
chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthews—"O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not."
While I call your attention to this passage of Scripture, I have in
view the rich items that have been presented here today, the light of
the Spirit which has been manifest in revealing to us our duty, that
purity of life, that submission of conduct, that correct course which
are calculated in all things to enlighten the Saints, and prepare them
for exaltation and eternal lives. How often, says the Savior, would I
have gathered thy children together, O! Jerusalem, as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and would have nourished you, but you
would not.
These words were uttered by the Savior while looking at the vast city
and surrounding country which was then inhabited by the Jews, who were
residing there in security, surrounded with plenty, and were at the
same time almost universally in open rebellion against the law of
heaven.
It has been a very common saying in the world that the Lord was able
to do everything, that he could do anything he had a mind to do, and
accomplish what he pleased; that he possessed universal power, and
could accomplish what he undertook. But what says our text? "How oft
would I have gathered you, but you would not." This indicates that he
could not do it, because they were not willing; that is the way we
understand the language. It is plain also from the text, that if the
people of Jerusalem, the children of Israel, would have listened, and
would have been gathered, he would have nourished them, and
conferred upon them the principles of salvation, the laws of
exaltation which it was his desire to give them. Let me say, then,
that from the foundation of the world, or, in other words, from the
fall of man until the period of the declaration of the words of our
text, we find plainly illustrated, in the whole history contained in
the sacred book, the principle that the Lord wished to reveal unto the
children of men things which had been hid from before the foundation
of the world, principles which would exalt them to celestial thrones,
but they would not, or, which amounts to the same, He could never find
a people, could never communicate with a generation or a very numerous
body of men that would obey His commandments, listen to His counsel,
and observe His wisdom, or be led by His revelations.
Some of my friends may think I am doing injustice by these remarks to
the Zion of Enoch. I am aware that the Lord did in the days of Enoch
gather together enough of the inhabitants of the earth to build a
city, but in consequence of the rebellion, the wickedness, and
oppression of the great mass of mankind, He could not save that city
from destruction, only by taking it unto His own bosom; hence went
forth the saying of old, "Zion is fled." So far as revealed records
show, that is the nearest He ever came to the point of accomplishing
the end of His undertaking, touching the redemption of the human
family, up to the days of the Savior.
As we have learned, from Elder Hyde's sermon this afternoon, the same
thing is illustrated in the history of Joseph; he wished to reveal the
will of God to his brethren, but they rebelled, and sold him into
Egypt. Moses undertook to give the children of Israel the laws of the
Priesthood, to make them a holy people, a chosen generation, a kingdom
of Priests, but what was the result? They would not receive it; and
although God had delivered them from the plagues of Egypt, from the
hands of Pharaoh, brought them through the Red Sea, and led them by a
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, yet, when Moses went into
the presence of God to receive His law, to receive those principles
that were to magnify them, and make them a kingdom of Priests, a holy
people, they, a whole people, concluded that it was best to worship a
calf. "Why," said they, "our neighbors worship calves, they have gods,
they have idols, and we wish to worship something that we can see, for
we do not know what has become of this Moses, and we want a god that
we can see and handle."
In taking a passing glance of this subject, we find the same attempt
was made in the days of Solomon, the wise king of Israel. The Lord
undertook to prepare a place, a house wherein He could reveal unto His
people the law of exaltation. He made the attempt, but before that
house could be completed, one of the very men through whom the
ordinances of exaltation were to be revealed must be put to death by
the cruel treachery of wicked men, stirred up by the adversary, which
frustrated the design. The keys of the Priesthood consequently had to
be kept a secret, and years after, the Prophets were lamenting,
mourning, complaining, and finding fault with the people because the
Lord could never be permitted to reveal the fulness of His will to the
children of men. Micah, after reflecting how often the Lord had
attempted to reveal His law, and as his eye by the spirit of prophecy
glanced down through the vista of time to the last days, exclaims in a
transport of joy, "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that
the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top
of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and
people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the
God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in
his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem."
This was just a glimpse that the Prophet had of the establishment of
the purposes of Jehovah in the last days. He saw the nations flowing
to the tops of the mountains to receive that law of redemption which
the world would not receive in the meridian of time, when the Savior
made his appearance, and presented himself to the house of Israel,
chose his Apostles, conferred upon them the keys of the Priesthood,
and sent them forth to bear testimony to the sons of men. The result
of his divine mission is manifested in the words of our text, "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not."
Says John, when speaking of our Savior, "He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God." Power was given them to become the
sons of God, and joint heirs with Christ; hence the principles of
exaltation were clearly illustrated by Jesus Christ and his Apostles,
yet the people would not receive them. In a few years afterwards we
find that every person who preached the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ
was doomed to destruction by the hands of wicked men, the power of the
adversary increased, Paganism overwhelmed the true Church, and Pagan
institutions were substituted instead, and the Christian religion
either had to hide itself in the dens and caves of the earth, or bow
to the unmeaning mummeries of ancient Pagan Rome. Notwithstanding
this, the Lord had His eye upon the great point to be attained, the
great object to be accomplished, when He would again attempt to gather
the children of Israel together, and nourish them, and teach them of
His ways, and learn them to walk in His paths.
The very first moment after the angel of God had communicated to
Joseph Smith the revelation of the fulness of the Gospel, what do we
discover? We discover that all the bloodhounds of earth and hell were
let loose upon him. The very first attempt that could be made to bear
testimony of the Gospel was to be thwarted by persecution, the
editorial thunder was immediately let loose, and as the old Quaker
said to the dog that came to his store, being a little offended at the
animal, "I will not kill thee, but I will give thee a bad name," so he
turns him out and halloos, "Bad dog," judging rightly that somebody
would suppose him to be mad, and shoot him. That was the devil's plan,
when this Gospel was first introduced, the cry was, "False prophet,
impostor, delusion, fornication," mixed up with every kind of slander.
Every person who is well acquainted with the history of this Church,
knows that at the commencement of it the persecutions commenced, and
they continued to increase until the death of the Prophet. Forty-seven
times he was arraigned before the tribunals of law, and had to sustain
all the expense of defending himself in those vexatious suits, and was
every time acquitted. He was never found guilty but once. I have been
told, by Patriarch Emer Harris, that on a certain occasion he was
brought before a magistrate in the State of New York, and charged with
having cast out devils; the magistrate, after hearing the witnesses,
decided that he was guilty, but as the statutes of New York did not
provide a punishment for casting out devils, he was acquitted.
The limited amount of time which I may use this afternoon, compels me
to take but a partial glance at certain points that I wish to notice
in connection with our text.
Among the first principles that were revealed to the children of men
in the last days was the gathering; the first revelations that were
given to the Church were to command them to gather, and send Elders to
seek out a place for the gathering of the Saints. What is the
gathering for? Why was it that the Savior wished the children of
Israel to gather together? It was that they might become united and
provide a place wherein he could reveal unto them keys which have been
hid from before the foundation of the world; that he could unfold unto
them the laws of exaltation, and make them a kingdom of Priests, even
the whole people, and exalt them to thrones and dominions in the
celestial world.
For this purpose, in 1833, the Saints commenced to build a Temple in
Kirtland, the cost of which was not less than one hundred thousand
dollars. A mere handful of Saints commenced that work, but they were
full of faith and energy, and willing, as they supposed, to sacrifice
everything for the building up of Zion. In a few weeks some of them
apostatized; the trials were too great, the troubles were too severe.
I know persons who apostatized because they supposed they had reasons;
for instance, a certain family, after having traveled a long journey,
arrived in Kirtland, and the Prophet asked them to stop with him until
they could find a place. Sister Emma, in the mean time, asked the old
lady if she would have a cup of tea to refresh her after the fatigues
of the journey, or a cup of coffee. This whole family apostatized
because they were invited to take a cup of tea or coffee, after the
Word of Wisdom was given.
Another family, about the same time, apostatized because Joseph Smith
came down out of the translating room, where he had been translating
by the gift and power of God, and commenced playing with his little
children. Some such trials as these, you know, had to be encountered.
I recollect a gentleman who came from Canada, and who had been a
Methodist, and had always been in the habit of praying to a God who
had no ears, and as a matter of course had to shout and halloo
pretty loud to make him hear. Father Johnson asked him to pray in
their family worship in the evening, and he got on such a high key,
and hallooed so loud that he alarmed the whole village. Among others,
Joseph came running out, saying, "What is the matter? I thought by the
noise that the heavens and the earth were coming together," and said
to the man, "that he ought not to give way to such an enthusiastic
spirit, and bray so much like a jackass." Because Joseph said that,
the poor man put back to Canada, and apostatized; he thought he would
not pray to a God who did not want to be screamed at with all one's
might.
We progressed in this way while we were building the Kirtland Temple.
The Saints had a great many traditions which they had borrowed from
their fathers, and laid the foundations, and built that Temple with
great toil and suffering, compared with what we have now to endure.
They got that building so far finished as to be dedicated; this was
what the Lord wanted, He wished them to provide a place wherein He
could reveal to the children of men those principles that will exalt
them to eternal glory, and make them Saviors on mount Zion. Four
hundred and sixteen Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons met in the
Kirtland Temple on the evening of its dedication. I can see faces here
that were in that assembly. The Lord poured His Spirit upon
us, and gave us some little idea of the law of anointing, and
conferred upon us some blessings. He taught us how to shout hosannah,
gave Joseph the keys of the gathering together of Israel, and revealed
to us, what? Why the fact of it was, He dare not yet trust us with the
first key of the Priesthood. He told us to wash ourselves, and that
almost made the women mad, and they said, as they were not admitted
into the Temple while this washing was being performed, that some
mischief was going on, and some of them were right huffy about it.
We were instructed to wash each other's feet, as an evidence that we
had borne testimony of the truth of the Gospel to the world. We were
taught to anoint each other's head with oil in the name of the Lord,
as an ordinance of anointing. All these things were to be done in
their time, place, and season. All this was plain and simple, yet some
apostatized because there was not more of it, and others because there
was too much.
On the evening after the dedication of the Temple, hundreds of the
brethren received the ministering of angels, saw the light and
personages of angels, and bore testimony of it. They spake in new
tongues, and had a greater manifestation of the power of God than that
described by Luke on the day of Pentecost. Yet a great portion of the
persons who saw these manifestations, in a few years, and some of them
in a few weeks, apostatized. If the Lord had on that occasion revealed
one single sentiment more, or went one step further to reveal more
fully the law of redemption, I believe He would have upset the whole
of us. The fact was, He dare not, on that very account, reveal to us a
single principle farther than He had done, for He had tried, over and
over again, to do it. He tried at Je rusalem; He tried away back before
the flood; He tried in the days of Moses; and He had tried, from time
to time, to find a people to whom He could reveal the law of
salvation, and He never could fully accomplish it; and He was
determined this time to be so careful, and advance the idea so slowly,
to communicate them to the children of men with such great caution
that, at all hazards, a few of them might be able to understand and
obey. For, says the Lord, my ways are not as your ways, nor my
thoughts as your thoughts; for as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts.
For instance, you tell a man he must be baptized for the remission of
his sins; then the query arises, "What use is it to dip a man in
water?" You tell a man he should repent of his sins, cease to do evil,
and learn to do well, and the answer is, "Well, and what is the reason
of all that!" Tell him that he should receive the imposition of hands
on his head for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and he will feel some
as the old woman did where I was preaching and baptizing in England.
An old lady came to be baptized; we accordingly baptized her. When the
time came to attend to the ordinance of confirmation, I began to
confirm the company of new disciples. I had noticed that she lacked
soap and water, things that evidently were scarce about her house.
When I came up to lay my hands upon her, says she, "Don't you lay your
filthy paws upon my head." The fact of it was, she had received all
the law of redemption she could receive, and the law of laying on of
hands looked so foolish to her that she would not have anything to do
with it.
This serves to illustrate the saying, that our ways are not as the
ways of the Lord, nor our thoughts as His; neither do the plans which
the Lord has devised for the good of man correspond with the
plans and views which men devise for their own good. Now if the Lord
had considered it wisdom, on the day of the Kirtland endowment and
great solemn assembly, to come forward and reveal to the children of
men the facts that are laid down plainly in the Bible, and had told
them that, without the law of sealing, no man could be exalted to a
throne in the celestial kingdom, that is, without he had a woman by
his side; and that no woman could be exalted in the celestial world,
without she was exalted with a man at her head; that the man is not
without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord; had He
revealed this simple sentiment, up would have jumped some man, saying,
"What! Got to have a woman sealed to me in order to be saved, in order
to be exalted to thrones, dominions, and eternal increase?" "Yes."
"I
do not believe a word of it, I cannot stand that, for I never intended
to get married, I do not believe in any of this nonsense." At the same
time, perhaps somebody else might have had faith to receive it. Again
up jumps somebody else, "Brother Joseph, I have had two wives in my
lifetime, cannot I have them both in eternity?" "No." If he had said
yes, perhaps we should all have apostatized at once.
Now I will illustrate this still further. The Lord did actually reveal
one principle to us there, and that one principle was apparently so
simple, and so foolish in their eyes, that a great many apostatized
over it, because it was so contrary to their notions and views. It was
this, after the people had fasted all day, they sent out and got wine
and bread, and blessed them, and distributed them to the multitude,
that is, to the whole assembly of the brethren, and they ate and
drank, and prophesied, and bore testimony, and continued so to do
until some of the High Council of Missouri stepped into the stand,
and, as righteous Noah did when he awoke from his wine, commenced to
curse their enemies. You never felt such a shock go through any house
or company in the world as went through that. There was almost a
rebellion because men would get up and curse their enemies; although
they could remember well that it is written that Noah cursed his own
grandson, and that God recognized that curse to such an extent that,
at this day, millions of his posterity are consigned to perpetual
servitude.
Many men are foolish enough to think that they can thwart the power of
God, and can liberate the sons of Ham from that curse before its time
has expired. Some of the brethren thought it was best to apostatize,
because the spirit of cursing was with men who had been driven from
Missouri by mob violence. Yet every word that they prophesied has been
fulfilled. They prophesied that the bones of many of those murderers
should bleach on the prairie, and that birds should pick out their
eyes, and beasts devour their flesh. Men who have traversed the plains
of Mexico, California, Nebraska, and Kansas, have often seen the
fulfillment of that prophecy in the most marvelous manner. We have
seen their names upon trees, on the heads of old trunks, and bits of
boards; the names of men that I knew, and I knew just as well, in the
Kirtland Temple, what would be their fate, as I know now. But that
tried us, some of us were awfully tried about it. The Lord dared not
then reveal anything more; He had given us all we could swallow; and
persecution raged around us to such an extent that we were obliged to
forsake our beautiful Temple, and flee into the State of Missouri.
He there put us into another sieve, and sifted us good, and we were
then driven from the State of Missouri, leaving the Prophet
and a good many of his brethren in prison. We thus passed on from the
year 1837 until the year 1843, when the Lord concluded that the people
who had been gathered, since the scattering from Missouri, had been
made acquainted with the principles of His kingdom so long, that they
must have become strong enough for Him to reveal one sentiment more.
Whereupon, the Prophet goes up on the stand, and, after preaching
about everything else he could think of in the world, at last hints at
the idea of the law of redemption, makes a bare hint at the law of
sealing, and it produced such a tremendous excitement that, as soon as
he had got his dinner half eaten, he had to go back to the stand, and
unpreach all that he had preached, and left the people to guess at the
matter. While he was thus preaching he turned to the men sitting in
the stand, and who were the men who should have backed him up, for
instance, to our good old President Marks, William and Wilson Law, and
father Cowles, and a number of other individuals about Nauvoo, for
this occurred when the Twelve were in the Eastern portions of the
United States, and said, "If I were to reveal the things that God has
revealed to me, if I were to reveal to this people the doctrines that
I know are for their exaltation, these men would spill my blood." This
shows the improvement that had been, the advancement that had been
made, and the light that had been attained. He also said, that there
were men and women in that congregation who imagined themselves almost
perfect, and who would oppose and reject the principles of exaltation,
and would never fully realize their mistake until the morning of the
resurrection. I was not there, and did not hear the discourse; but
persons were there who could write two or three words of a sentence,
and I profess to be good enough at guessing, to tell what the balance
was.
In tracing the history of this Church through the records, I make
myself acquainted with circumstances, and I cannot but see illustrated
before the eyes of the whole people the fatherly care that God had to
take in revealing to this people the law of exaltation. Finally, He
revealed so much of it that William Law, one of the First Presidency,
and one of the most sanctimonious men in Israel, got alarmed for fear
that Joseph was going to kill him, and he called the whole of the
Police before the City Council, and had them all sworn, and cross
examined, to find out if Joseph had instructed any of them to kill
him. I told some of the boys at that time, that he knew he had done
something that he ought to die for, or he would not be so afraid of
his best friends. Joseph said to the Council and Police, "I might
live, as Caesar might have lived, were it not for a right hand
Brutus;" and the illustration of that saying is most clearly shown by
William Law's operations in bringing about the murder of the Prophet.
The men who were in his bosom, shared his confidence, and professed to
be his warmest and best friends, were the men to treacherously shed
his blood.
Why? Because he had revealed one additional principle of the law of
redemption, that is, that the man is not without the woman, nor the
woman without the man, in the Lord; that if a man went to the eternal
world without obeying the law of sealing, he would remain forever
alone, forever a servant, and could never have any increase; that if a
woman entered the celestial world without having complied with the law
of sealing, as entrusted by the Savior to his Apostles, she would
remain forever alone, and without any increase; and if either man or woman should reject the principles of that law, they would
forever lament and mourn that they might have been exalted to an
eternal increase, and an everlasting dominion, but they would not have it.
There was a very high degree of hypocrisy manifested in the manners of
this President William Law that always astonished me. I have learned,
in writing history, one or two very singular instances.
In 1843 Joseph Smith was arrested two hundred and fifty miles from
home; the Saints felt a great anxiety for his safety; hundreds of
individuals went out of Nauvoo on horseback, and took possession of
all the roads between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and some
set out on a steamboat, with a determination to examine every boat on
the rivers, and attack anyone that had him on board; and some of the
most rapid marches on record were performed on that occasion. Among
others William Law started out with a party; when he met Joseph, he
rushed up to him and took him in his arms, and hugged him, and kissed
him before some fifty or a hundred witnesses. He must have loved him
wonderfully, for, about half an hour previous to his meeting Joseph,
he had got the idea that he had been shipped on board a steamboat into
Missouri, and he was dreadfully excited. Brother A. P. Rockwood, or
John Butler, can tell you how he talked. "O!" says he, "I would not
have Joseph taken to Missouri and killed for anything in the world,
for property would fall more than one half its value in Nauvoo." There
is the saying of a man who, like Judas, could kiss the Prophet, when
probably there were not many men in the whole city that would have
cared a farthing for all the property in the world, when compared with
saving Joseph's life.
After the death of the Prophet, the world and the devil thought that
they had once more destroyed the attempt of the Almighty to reveal the
law of exaltation, as only part of the work of rearing the Temple was
then done. The news spread all over the United States that the
Governor of Illinois had treacherously pledged the faith of the State
for the safety of Joseph Smith, and also how honorably the Prophet had
acted in everything under these trying circumstances, being well
aware that his death was intended, and the people were really shocked
at such base treachery, but generally exclaimed, "How disgraceful! How
disgraceful!! To murder him so treacherously!!! But on second
thoughts, it is a good thing he is dead."
By and by the devil discovered that brother Joseph's blood was not
spilled before the Lord had said, "You have done enough, you may rest
from your labors." He had conferred upon others the knowledge of the
Priesthood; and God raised up another man to be a Prophet unto Israel,
to be a President, a Ruler, and Instructor. I once heard a person say,
"O! I do wish brother Brigham was as good a man as Joseph was." Now
let me tell you, brethren, that if brother Brigham was one particle
better man than he is, he could not stay among us, he would have to
leave us; he is just as good a man as we are at present worthy of
having in our midst. The Lord in mercy to us has given us a great
Prophet and a wise Ruler in Israel that we may exert our powers,
influence, and wisdom, under his direction, to prepare for the
revelation of the law of exaltation which has been so long promised.
We went to work in Nauvoo and finished the Temple, and had no sooner
got it done but we had to leave it to be burned by our enemies; and
they then thought that if we were only driven into the wilderness, our
sufferings would be so great in the desert that we should all
perish, and that would be the end of the matter. The devil wisely got
up a new system of treatment; after they had robbed us of everything
we had, and driven us from all the comforts and necessaries of life
into the desert, he commenced to adopt the "let alone system" upon us,
under the impression that we would die of our own accord. They
commenced this under glorious auspices, when we had nothing to eat,
nothing to wear, not a drop of rain to water the earth, and a desert
all around us, of the apparent fertility of which you may judge, when
the mountaineers said that they would give a thousand dollars for the
first bushel of wheat or corn that was raised in the Valley. While
letting us alone, a considerable change took place; but it was hard to
let us alone long, they had to give us an occasional poke, that we
might know they were still alive.
While letting us alone the Gospel was introduced into the Sandwich
Islands, and into Denmark, and has begun to pour out its blessings in
Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Africa,
Australia, Malta, Gibraltar, the Crimea, and the East Indies, and is
spreading all over the world ten times more rapidly than ever. All
this came through "letting us alone." I do not know but they may
conclude it to be the best to give us another blow up; if they do, it
will be precisely as it was with the man who did not like the mustard
stalk in his garden, which grew up, and became large and full of seed.
The owner saw it had gone to seed in the garden, and became dreadfully
irritated with the gardener, and got the hoe, and beat the stalks to
pieces in his anger, and scattered the seed all over the garden. That
is the way our enemies have operated the whole time, so they may as
well take the "let alone system" as any other. Joseph pro phesied that
if they would let us alone, we would spread the Gospel all over the
world, and if they did not let us alone, we would spread it anyhow,
only a little quicker.
But to my text, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Let me tell you, my
friends, that the foundation of another Temple is laid, and the very
moment the first stone was placed, that moment the devil began to rage
again; and if this people will be united, they will be the identical
people that will "learn the ways of the Lord," and the Lord will
reveal unto them things that have been hid from before the foundation
of the world. We find ourselves here, not by our own will but forced
by our enemies, in the midst of the tops of the mountains, about a
mile above the Christian world, surrounded by mountains whose tops are
covered with perpetual snows; and we also find the fulfillment of the
prophecy that many people of all nations are saying, "Come, let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and
he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths."
We are here, and the Lord is determined, if He can accomplish it, if
we will let Him, to reveal unto us the laws of exaltation. He is
determined to make this people "Kings and Priests unto God and his
Father;" to give them the keys of exaltation for the redemption of
themselves, and of all their dead back to the time when the covenant
was broken. If this people will be submissive and obedient to the laws
and instructions of His Prophet and His Apostles, obey the teachings
that are given unto them, and keep themselves pure, He will reveal
unto them all those blessings; and will not say unto us, as he
said to Jerusalem, "How oft would I have gathered you, but you would
not." If we will be submissive and listen to the revelations of the
Most High, remembering that His ways are not as our ways, and His
thoughts as our thoughts, for as the heavens are higher than the earth
so are His ways than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts; if
we will remember this, and act upon it, we are in the way to obtain
those keys of power, and profit by them; that is to say, we are right
on the grand turnpike to exaltation.
I recollect a story I heard Joseph once tell to a sectarian minister;
he had been preaching to him some of the first principles of the
Gospel; the minister acknowledged that the doctrines were strictly
according to the New Testament, but gave a kind of a pious sigh, and
said, "I am afraid there is something wrong at the bottom of it."
Joseph replied, "I feel a good deal as the honest Irishman did, who
landed in America, and started to go into the country, and see how it
looked. As he was walking along the road, he came across a very pious
minister of the Methodist order, who came up to the Irishman, and,
thinking that he must say something about religion, as he sat in his
two wheeled gig, says, 'Patrick, have you made your peace with your
God?' 'Ah, faith, sir, and sure we never had a falling out.' That
rather shocked the priest, and he gave vent to an unearthly grunt, and
said, 'You are lost, lost.' 'Faith, sir, how can I be lost in the
middle of the big turnpike?'" I tell you we are in the middle of the
"big turnpike," and if we continue in it the keys of exaltation are
with us and the great work of God will unfold to this people things
that have been hid from before the foundation of the world. Let us be
as clay in the hands of the potter, and strive with our mights to
build up this work, and it will not be said of us, as it was of
Jerusalem, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you,
but ye would not."
May God bless you, and enable us to fulfil and carry out His great and
glorious designs, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
- George A. Smith