In standing up to address this congregation there is one feeling that
rests upon me, and that is, my inability to instruct so numerous a
people unless God shall pour out his Holy Spirit upon me and upon you.
We have come together today according to our custom to be instructed
in those duties that devolve upon us and also in the principles of our
holy religion. These meetings are to me exceedingly precious; they are
seasons of great rejoicing. And having the opportunity as we have
today of assembling in peace and quietness without any to molest or
make afraid, we should feel thankful, to that God who has brought us
here; who has preserved and protected us since we came.
The instructions which we have had today since we have assembled
together, if fully obeyed by us and carried out in our lives, will
make us a people who shall be worthy the name we bear, the name of
Latter-day Saints. And as was remarked this morning the great object
in teaching the people and impressing upon them the counsels that are
given from time to time, is to have us carry out practically in our
lives the principles of that religion which we have espoused. This is
the great labor devolving upon us. It is not to be theoretical alone;
it is not to dwell with great interest and with great eloquence upon
those heavenly doctrines that God has revealed and to become
enraptured over them while listening to them, but it is to make a
practical application of them to our thoughts, to our words and to all
the actions of our lives. And in this way alone can we acceptably
serve the Lord our God, whose name we bear and whose people we profess
to be. There is no reason why this people called Latter-day Saints
should not have all the powers and all the gifts and all the graces
that ever characterized the Church of God upon the earth at any time;
there is no reason, I say, why they should not have all these if they
themselves are true to the principles which have been revealed, and
seek to carry them out. Who is there of this congregation, who is
there that belongs to this Church in any part of this Territory, who
does not have a desire in his or her heart for those blessings and
those gifts and qualifications that were promised to the ancient
Saints and which have been renewed in our day to those who embrace the
Gospel with all their hearts? The Lord is the same yesterday, today
and forever. This is the cornerstone, it may be said, of our
faith. It is upon this foundation we have built; that he is an
unchangeable God; that he does not manifest his mind and his will in
plainness and simplicity to one people, and hide the same from a
succeeding people who are equally faithful. But the great truth has
been impressed upon us; the great truth that runs through all the
writings of every man of God concerning whom we have any account from
the beginning down to the last revelation that has been given, that
God is no respecter of persons, that he is today as he was yesterday
and as he ever was, and that he will continue to be the same being as
long as time endures or eternity continues. And we have been impressed
with this as I have said, by every man who has spoken concerning God
and spoken by authority from him. I say, therefore, there is no reason
why the Latter-day Saints today should not obtain and enjoy the gifts
and graces and blessings of the Gospel the same as they were enjoyed
in ancient days by the ancient servants and people of God.
Has God grown old? Have God's ears become heavy? Has his sight become
dim? Has his arm become shortened? Has age affected him or the lapse
of time detracted from his powers? Has it had the same effect upon him
as upon mortal beings who are subject to decay and death? Is this the
kind of being we worship? Is this the kind of being concerning whom
the prophets and apostles have spoken and written? Certainly not. We
worship him, we adore him, we lift up our eyes to him, we rely upon
him as the Supreme Being, the Creator of the heavens and the earth,
the founder of the universe, the builder of the planet which we
inhabit and which we tread, the being over whom centuries have passed
without making any change to his injury; eternity has rolled and
continues to roll and will continue to roll without in the least
affecting his power or his capacity for good, his eye does not grow
dim by the lapse of ages; his ear does not become heavy by the passage
of time, neither does his arm become short or feeble. He is the God
whom we worship. When we call upon him, though he may be remote from
us, dwelling in his holy habitation in the midst of the eternities,
the very thoughts of our hearts, the very conceptions of our minds,
the feeble whisperings of our voices, they ascend to him, are carried
to him, his ear comprehends them; his bowels of compassion are moved
towards us his children, his all-piercing eye penetrates eternity, and
the glance of his vision reaches us.
There is not a single thought of our hearts which he does not
comprehend; there is nothing connected with us he does not know. We
may hide ourselves in the bowels of the earth, but we cannot conceal
ourselves from his all-piercing sight. We may climb the highest
mountains or descend into the deepest valleys or we may go to the
uttermost parts of the earth, but wherever we may go he is there,
his power is there, his vision is there to hear and to comprehend the
desires and the wishes of our hearts.
This being the case, why should we not approach him in faith? What
reason is there that men and women living in this the 19th century
should not approach him with the confidence of those who lived in the
15th century of the world, or the 20th or the 4,000th year of the
world? If he could hear their cries, if he could answer their prayers and if he could grant to them the desires of their hearts; if
he could open the heavens to them and reveal his mind and will unto
them when they called upon him in faith, believing that he would do
so, is there any reason why we should not have that same faith and
exercise it and obtain those same blessings and receive them at his
hands? Who is there that can stand up and say, there are reasons why
this should be the case? If we admit, as we must do, that he is this
being which I have attempted so feebly to describe; if we admit that
he is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the creator of all, the
father of all, the sustainer of all; if we believe this, why cannot we
believe that if he bestowed his blessings upon other generations and
other people, he will do so to us, also that he will hear our prayers,
that he will grant unto us the desires of our hearts?
Now, my brethren and sisters, I look upon these conferences and these
assemblages as having for their object the enforcement of these great
truths upon us and upon our attention; the object of them as I
understand them, is to make us Latter-day Saints not in name alone but
in word and in deed; to be men and women of God; to place us in
communion with God; to receive communication from him; to have our
false tradition, our improper ideas, our unbelief, our hardness of
heart, and those feelings that surround us, that grow up with us, to
have them removed from us. Is there any reason why this should not be
the case? No reason except that which may be found in ourselves. There
is no reason outside of this. God is willing, he has made promises,
and he has fulfilled his promises so far as we have placed ourselves
in circumstances to receive them. When we have complied with the
conditions he has never from the beginning up to the present time
failed in his part, he is incapable of failing. If there be failure it
is due to us, the fault is our own, we are the guilty ones. Let me ask
of you, when did you ever, anyone of you, humble yourselves before
God, when did you in secret call upon him in the name of Jesus and ask
him for his Holy Spirit and the blessings thereof, and fail to receive
an answer to your prayers? If there are any Latter-day Saints in this
condition then there is something wrong with them. God has made
promises unto us that if we will do certain things, if we will obey
certain commandments and ordinances, he will bestow his blessing and
he will answer the prayers of those who take this course. But how many
are there of us who go on from day to day and from week to week and
from month to month careless upon these points, failing to live so as
to receive the blessings that he has promised, until it would seem
when they bow down to call upon him that their prayers scarcely ascend
higher than the tops of their heads.
As I have said, God in ancient days was a God of revelation; God in
our day is a God of revelation, and he communicates his mind and his
will unto those who seek after it, not to the President of the Church
alone; not to the apostles of the Church alone; not to the high
priests or seventies or any of the officers or all of them alone, but
he communicates his mind and his will to all who seek after him in
humility and meekness and lowliness of heart, obeying his
commandments. To the Latter-day Saints alone? No, not even to them
alone for there is no human being that is born of woman, there is no son or daughter of Adam that has ever lived upon the face of the
earth who has not the right and who has not obtained at some time or
other in his or her life, revelations from God, but who may not have
understood what those revelations were. The Latter-day Saints are not
so cramped in their feelings as to imagine that they are the only and
peculiar people above all others who have, in this sense received
revelation. They believe themselves to be the people of God and the
only people who have obeyed the commandments of God; but they do not
think that, of all the children of God, they are the only recipients
of his blessings.
God has revealed himself at various times and in various ways to many
people. The heathen have had communication from him. All the light
that exists; all the truths that are taught and all the correct
principles and knowledge that have been communicated and existed among
the children of men, have come from God; he is the author of all.
Socrates, Plato, Confucius, the heathen philosophers who knew nothing
about Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation, received important
truths from him, and so did many other people to a greater or less
extent, according to their abilities in improving upon the knowledge
communicated to them. But the difficulty has been concerning these
matters that mankind have not recognized God in all this. A man has a
dream. It is most wonderfully fulfilled. He has a presentiment; his
presentiment is fulfilled, and he relates it to his friends as a most
remarkable thing. A man has a truth communicated to him after study
and research. He communicates it to his friends as a wonderful
discovery. Does he acknowledge God in it? Sometimes; but in many
instances he does not acknowledge God; but, on the contrary, he thinks
it is the product of his own thought, of his own mind. If it be a
dream or some remarkable manifestation that partakes of the
supernatural, instead of giving God the glory and praising God for
having made the communication, some other principle is glorified or
some other thing is talked about, the remarkable character of it is
dwelt upon without the person thinking that God has anything to do
with it.
Well, there is, as I have said, no human being but that has, at some
time or other, had communication from the Almighty Father. Some have
recognized God and have given the glory to him for it; others have not
done so. The remarkable discoveries that are being made in the world
of science; in fact, all the remarkable discoveries that have been
made from time to time are produced by the operations of an unseen
influence upon the mind of the children of men. For instance, it has
frequently happened in astronomy and other branches of science that
when an important discovery has been made, two or three men about the
same time, widely separated from each other, have received the
communication; and disputes have arisen as to which of them was
entitled to the credit. This was the case as to the application of
steam and the principles of telegraphy and also many discoveries in
astronomy and other sciences. Disputes have arisen in various nations
upon these points; whereas the truth is that God is the Author; it is
God that moved upon the minds of those individuals. It was God that
inspired them to do as they did; it was he who led on from step to
step until they achieved the results which have made them
famous, and sometimes quite unexpectedly to themselves.
What is this which has led these famous men in the path of discovery?
The Latter-day Saints call it the spirit of revelation; the spirit of
revelation resting down upon the children of men. Some men possess it
to a greater extent than others. Some have the gift in one direction
and they are capable of receiving communication from God in a
direction that others are not, their minds are better prepared to
receive revelation upon a given subject, than are the minds of others.
Some will receive great moral truths, and these men differ in their
organisms; but the light they receive all comes from our heavenly
Father; it is he who gives the inspiration. And so man has progressed
from one degree of knowledge to another, from the rude canoe of the
Indian, with which he navigates the stream, to those mighty steam
ships whose keels plough every sea and circumnavigate the globe.
Now, in what respect do the Latter-day Saints differ from the rest of
mankind in relation to these matters? In this: We acknowledge God as
supreme, the fountain of all knowledge, the fountain of all power, the
fountain of all intelligence, the fountain of everything that is good.
Who are men? The creatures of his workmanship, if you please, his
descendants, his own children begotten by him, descended by lineal
descent from the God we worship. The same being whom we worship is our
God, is our Creator, is our Father. When I worship him I worship him
as my Father. That which I possess, if there be anything godlike in
it, I attribute it to him, as having come from him by lineal descent.
Every aspiration, every noble thought, every pure desire, everything
that is good and holy and pure, elevating, ennobling and godlike comes
from our Father, the God of the universe, the Father of all the
children of men. In him we move, in him we have our being. He can
extinguish life; he can create life; he can perpetuate life. There is
no power that human beings can conceive of which he does not possess.
The light that now shines comes from him. The revelation we may get,
imperfect at times because of our fallen condition and because of our
failure to comprehend the nature of it, comes from God. The Latter-day
Saints glorify him for it. If there is anything good or great or
noble, if there is anything to be admired it comes from God, not man.
Man is but the medium, but the instrument, is but the conduit through
which it flows. God is to be worshipped; God is to be adored; God is
to be glorified, and he will be. And when we are saved, when we are
delivered from death, hell and the grave, we will glorify God, not
man. Man will receive no glory; it will be the eternal Father, through
Jesus Christ, who will receive it all.
This is the position occupied by the Latter-day Saints. We believe in
revelation. It may come dim; it may come indistinct, it may come
sometimes with a degree of vagueness which we do not like. Why?
Because of our imperfection; because we are not prepared to receive it
as it comes in its purity; in its fullness from God. He is not to
blame for this. It is our duty though to contend for more faith, for
greater power, for clearer revelations, for better understanding
concerning his great truths as he communicates them to us. That is our
duty; that is the object of our lives as Latter day Saints—to
live so near unto him that nothing can happen to us but that we will
be prepared for it beforehand. And I know many, many Latter-day Saints
who are in this condition, who do live so that there is nothing of any
importance that can occur for which they are not prepared, and the
mind and will of God is made known to them, and they walk according to
it, and seek earnestly and humbly to have it revealed to them; and in
taking any important step they seek to know the will of God concerning
it. Are they perfect? Far from it. They are mortal, full of
weaknesses, and nobody is better aware of the character of earthly
weaknesses than the man or woman who thus lives.
It is the duty of all to live in this manner, and if the inhabitants
of the earth could comprehend it as they should do they would seek to
know the mind and will of God concerning themselves. But what is the
spirit of the world today? Let a preacher in the world deliver a fine
discourse and who thinks about giving God the glory for it? Who thinks
of the Holy Ghost under such circumstances? God is removed far from
them, he does not exist in their thoughts, the preachers who attempt
to preach Christ and him crucified, they are glorified. Who gives
glory to God for Henry Ward Beecher's discourses? Who gives glory for
Dr. Fotheringham's or Mr. Talmage's or any of the popular preachers of
today? Do men glorify God for Spurgeon's? No, he himself is
glorified. Beecher himself is glorified, and Fotheringham is
glorified. Is God glorified? No, he is not thought about. Morse
discovered the principle of telegraphy. Who gave the glory to God? I
was in the hall of the House of Representatives when a grand meeting
was held. What for? To glorify Morse, the discoverer of that great
principle and who practically applied it and made it useful. Now, I do
not mean to say that there are none who have God in their thoughts. I
am speaking now of the general feeling that prevails, of the general
course that is taken. Inventions, no matter how grand they may be, are
not attributed to the Father of them all, the Creator and Fountain of
all knowledge. But man, whom he has chosen to be his instrument, he
has blessed with knowledge concerning all these things, as the result
of his earnest, study and his untiring efforts to obtain knowledge.
The Being who does this is very seldom thought about by man.
Latter-day Saints, is this the course for us to take? Shall we glorify
the creature at the expense of the Creator? As a people, I believe we
are tolerably free from this. But we have to make a degree of progress
much greater than we have in these things. We have got to seek after
God with an earnestness, a fervor and devotion that we at the present
time cannot comprehend. It is our duty as Latter-day Saints to seek
for knowledge. Will God bestow it upon us if we do not seek for it? He
may in his condescension at times do this. Brother Rich said this
morning that he believed some people were too lazy to think. It is a
truth plainly expressed. There are too many too lazy or too
indifferent—it may be indifference and not laziness in every instance,
to think, to feel after, to seek for and receive the blessing of God,
although they make the profession of being Latter-day Saints.
Now, I do not think a man's religion amounts to anything if he only
makes a profession of it and does not practice it. I would
rather have an intelligent heathen, if he is honest and determined to
do the best he can, living up to the light he has, than a Latter-day
Saint who is careless and indifferent, who does not seek to enjoy the
spirit of his religion.
I am in hopes that after awhile we will begin to realize as we never
have yet, that there are practical duties resting on us Latter-day
Saints; that there is something more than being members of the Church
required of us. How is it with a great many? Why, every evil thought,
every wrong speech that comes in their hearts, either to think or to
utter, they entertain and express, and then take credit to themselves
for not being hypocrites. Is not this great folly? Men and women think
evil thoughts, they give place to angry feelings; and they think it a
meritorious act, and pride themselves upon their conduct because they
give them utterance instead of quenching them! Is not this
extraordinary? Lacerate the feelings of their brethren and sisters and
friends, because they think they would be hypocrites if they did not
utter their evil thoughts, however unfounded or repulsive they might
be! What right have I to do this? If my heart is wicked does that
justify me in giving utterances to its foul conceptions? Certainly
not. If my heart were such that I could not think good thoughts nor
entertain good feelings; if I were possessed of anger and could not
contain myself, then it were better for me to sew up my mouth and stop
my utterance. It is no merit in a man or woman because he or she
thinks an evil thought or indulges in an angry spirit to give
utterance to it; and they are not hypocrites because they do not do it
either. It is not hypocrisy to quench the evil thoughts that arise in
our minds. Our hearts are evil in consequence of the fall. As the
prophet Jeremiah says: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked: who can know it?" There are a great many things
that are conceived in our hearts that it would be well for us to
stifle before they received shape. What is frequently the result of
these evil conceptions? Innocent people suffer wrongfully; injury is
done; slanders are circulated; while those who start them justify
themselves, because forsooth they concerned them. Just as well might
the counterfeiter, the bogus-maker, say that because he makes a bogus
bill he has the right to circulate it. There is not any of the Spirit
of God connected with such conduct.
It is my duty and your duty to think pure thoughts, to have holy
desires, to be charitable, to be kind, to be long-suffering, to be
full of love, and not any of those evil influences. Why, the devil
would have no power on the earth if it were not for some people who
allow him to use their tabernacles. I have often thought of this
valley when we first came here. There were a few Indians; but who
witnessed the devil or his power here? If there were no wicked men nor
women here how could the devil manifest his power here? Who heard
tattling? Who heard backbiting? Who heard of litigation? Who heard of
fighting? Such things were never heard of. But no sooner did men come
and the adversary obtain power over them, than all the evils we now
witness throughout this land and in this city, which grieves us so,
began to manifest themselves. And the more there are who will yield to
the influences of the evil one, the more there are who will be guided by him, and the worse the conditions become. There are those
who would have here gambling houses and liquor saloons and houses of
ill fame and other deplorable evils which abound in the earth. Why?
Because they are willing to yield themselves to the devil, I speak it
plainly, it is the truth. If such people who practice these and
kindred evils would not lend themselves to the devil he would have no
power here. What is our duty? It is not to lend ourselves in any
particular to the devil, but it is to obey God; to let the fruits of
righteousness be manifested in our lives. If we are Latter-day Saints,
let us live up to the profession and be that in truth and in deed, and
not think that we have no labor to perform in the controlling of our
thoughts and our evil desires; neither to allow ourselves to imagine
that because we have become members of the Church God will do it all
without any efforts on our part.
There is a work devolving upon every son and daughter of Adam; there
is a fight that we have to fight against—the evils of our own natures,
for the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. The natural
man is at enmity with Christ and with God; and unless he seeks to
conquer his nature by bringing it into subjection to the mind of God,
he is not a son, or she is not a daughter of God. This is the labor
that devolves upon us. This is why we meet together at conference; it
is to impress upon the people the character and the magnitude of this
work that rests upon each individual man and woman. As I have said
once before in this Tabernacle, we may be heralded through the earth
as famous; but unless we conquer ourselves it is in vain that our
names are known and that our deeds resound through the earth. I care
not how famous a man in this Church may be—he may be an apostle, he
may be a high priest, a bishop, or hold any other important office or
position; but unless that man conquers himself and carries on the work
within himself of self-improvement, and brings himself and all there
is within him in subjection to the mind and will of God, I tell you
his fame is as empty as the sound of a trumpet when it passes away. We
hear it; it strikes the ear, but it presently dies away, and that is
the end of it. So it is with fame of this character. Therefore I say
to you that that which is applicable to the individual is applicable
to us as a people. Our fame may go forth for great works and mighty
things that we have done; but unless we ourselves bring forth the
fruits of righteousness in our lives; unless we conquer our evil
passions, our evil habits, our evil inclinations, our evil desires,
and bring them under complete subjection to the Spirit of God our
labor is comparatively profitless, for that is the object of preaching
the Gospel to us.
I would like to have the power to impress upon your minds the
importance of this great truth. There is nothing so important to me as
an individual, as my own salvation. This is the most important thing
to me that can be—that I myself shall be saved; that I myself shall so
live as to be counted worthy by the Almighty to receive an exaltation
in his kingdom. This is of the utmost importance to me individually.
As Brother Rich said, if all the rest did certain things, and he did
not, he could not receive the blessing, the reward of such works; or
if he did, and all the others did not, they could not have the
blessing. That is a great truth; and it should be impressed upon us.
You may think it a grand thing for men to go on missions. I remember
the time, and probably the feeling still exists—I hope it does—when it
was deemed a great honor for a man to go upon a mission, especially a
foreign mission. It is right that we should value these labors. It is
a great thing to preside as a bishop or president of a stake, or to
act in the calling of an apostle. All these things are great in and of
themselves, and they reflect honor upon those who bear these offices,
and especially when they seek to magnify them. But after all, the
great labor, the most honorable labor that any person can perform, is
to do that which I have attempted to describe to you—to improve
ourselves; to be Latter-day Saints in deed and in truth, to live our
holy religion. When we arise in the morning, to examine ourselves, to
see if there is anything that is in opposition to the mind and will of
God within ourselves; and through the day to pursue the same course of
self-examination. And at night before we retire to rest, to bow
ourselves before our Father and God in secret, and pour out our souls
in prayer before him, supplicating him to show unto us wherein we have
done wrong during the day, wherein we have come short in thought, word
and deed; and then repent of the same before we lie down to rest, and
to obtain from him a forgiveness of our sins. And then, going on day
after day, week after week, and year after year until the end shall
come. If we do this, the promises of God are sure, and they cannot
fail.
That it may be our happy lot to attain to an exaltation with our
Father, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon