The appearance of the congregation before me awakens within my mind a
number of pleasurable reflections. There is one unerring method of
determining the value of all subjects, of all objects, of all matters
pertaining to the interests of our common humanity; and that method is
the rule by which the results are attained, and the determination of
the character of those results, whether they be good or whether they
be evil. And this method moreover is not only applicable in
determining the various secular conditions and circumstances of
mankind, but it is equally unerring in determining the higher phases
and conditions of the life of man. It reaches upward into the realms
of mind and invades, if you please, or spreads itself over the entire
field of human thought, embracing not only our secular but our
spiritual interests.
When Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of mankind, was on the earth
sojourning for a few brief years with the children of men, he gave
expression to this most beautiful and highly philosophic rule: "For
every tree is known by its fruit. For of thorns men do not gather
figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. By their fruits ye
shall know them." It is the contempla tion of the elementary principles
embodied in this rule that has awakened within my mind the reflections
I have referred to, while gazing upon this congregation seated in
this beautiful place of worship. It is true that the spectacle
presented before our minds when contemplating the surroundings of the
people of the Latter-day Saints—the comforts of life they are
enjoying, and the material blessings that they have become possessed
of—does not alone determine the divine character of the spiritual
philosophy, the system of principles and doctrine which constitute
their faith. For when we travel in the world, and extend our
observances over the great centers of what is called the civilized
world of mankind, we can behold on every hand stupendous edifices,
gorgeously denominated cathedrals draped in the most costly tapestry
and finished in the most elaborate manner, bespeaking a high
cultivation of art and a development of science in its most advanced
stages, with every means improvised to render the object and purpose
of those structures efficient to the ends designed. And a reference to
these representations of man's industry and skill, and to the
exhibition of that wisdom, which is at once the standard of the
intellectual growth and advancement of the race and age in which they
were brought forth enables us to judge comparatively of the growth of
wisdom, and the growth of intelligence which has become the heritage
of our race, and which we inherit through the very mysterious and
complex nature of our spiritual and physical constitutions. But that
which imparts greater value to the physical labors of the Latter-day
Saints, producing the unmistakable phenomena presented here today and
in other places throughout the Territory of Utah, and wherever the
Latter-day Saints are assembled together in their more scattered
conditions of life, following the varied pursuits thereof, in
developing the various branches of labor which have been developed in
society, and which society demands the performance of, is the
uninviting character and crude quality of their surroundings on one
hand, and the indomitable energy awakened by the inspiration of their
faith on the other hand, elucidating to a demonstration their faith to
be the gift of God, and that their works, so far as they are the
products of that faith, to be the works of righteousness. Therefore we
lay claim to considerations of an equal character, to considerations
of equal merit, to the respect and gracious judgments that are awarded
to the builders of the various centers of civilization, and that are
conferred upon those active agents and instrumentalities by which they
have been established among men.
But that which actuates my mind, my brethren and sisters, and more
especially on the present occasion, is the peculiar character and
constitution of the faith we have espoused; and upon this subject, as
I have been invited by my brethren to address you for a short time, I
respectfully ask your attention.
What is it, I would ask, that constitutes the peculiarities that
distinguish the people of Utah from the rest of the world of mankind,
from the divisions of human society variously denominated
Christian—Christian Presbyterians, Christian Episcopalians, and the
Christians of the various denominational titles by which they
respectively desire to be recognized as distinct and separate
societies? I ask, what is it that marks so peculiarly the distinction
between the Latter-day Saints and the rest of their fellow creatures?
We claim them to be our fellow creatures, whether they are willing to
claim us as their fellow creatures or not. We know we have proceeded
from the same boundless, the same limitless, the same immutable source
of life from which they sprang as also our forefathers, and indeed all
the generations of the children of men, back to the border lines of
ethnological territory and earliest dawn of human history. This
distinction of which we speak may be stated in a very few words,
however unacceptable that statement may be to those of our friends, or
those who ought to be our friends, who differ from us. It is in
this—that in the profession of Christianity we have accepted it as a
whole; we have not regarded fractional Christianity, sectional
Christianity, modern Christianity, as the embodiment of those
principles and teachings which the great Founder of our faith came
into this world incarnate to reveal, and which He left as a heavenly
legacy to the children of men—children of the great common Father,
with whom we, with Him, once existed, He being the first begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth, the firstborn of many
brethren. And we chose to accept Christianity in its complete and
entire constitution; uninoculated by the precepts and doctrines of
men, pure from heaven, unfolding to our understandings the
incomparable plan of human redemption. We have accepted the Christian
revelation as proclaimed by angels and inspired Prophets and Apostles
and Evangelists of every degree. To us it is a modern revelation, and
we accept it with all the obligations which it has imposed upon us as
conditions of salvation; with all its constituted and organized
officers; with all its divinely instituted ordinances, and with all
its pure and heaven-born principles that it embodies. The truth and
elements which go to make up that system of worship, that system of
faith, that system of belief, or, in other words, that system of
divine knowledge, possess in their nature every virtue requisite, and
every element of worth, and every force and principle of energy that
can reach man—man in his entirety, man as a whole, not some particular
phase of his nature, as they are not designed to develop one
particular characteristic of his being. The teachers of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ are not evolutionists who choose to develop one
particular characteristic to the extreme, and to suppress others to an
abnormal condition, thereby producing results the most derogatory and
pernicious in their government over the constitution of the being. We
have embraced the Gospel which has been revealed for the express
purpose of meeting man's every want, and of furnishing an intellectual
regime and mental discipline adequate to the unfoldment of every
attribute and quality of man. In this constitutes the essential
dif ference, the distinctive discriminative features between the
Latter-day Saints and the rest of the so-called Christian world. It is
upon this ground that our friends differ from us; that our fellow men
wage war against us. They, however, would tell you, no. They would say
it is because we have institutions and practices that are antagonistic
to the moral ethics of the age; that we support practices and lend our
defense to doctrines that are repugnant to the moral sense of
Christianity, to the enlightened races of mankind; that they do not at
all oppose us on the ground that we believe the Bible, that we accept
the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ—because we believe in prophecy
and revelation—but that we have come in contact with would be customs
and usages, with the popular interpretation of moral principles and
moral conduct; and that, therefore, we have rendered ourselves
obnoxious to the Christian world. And that, therefore, because we are
in the minority, forsooth, it would be in good grace for us to abandon
that which the majority so strenuously oppose and so persistently
reject. And they claim that we must do it.
Now, my friends, I have stated in a very brief manner the feelings of
the Christian world. I do not speak of any other phase of society,
because the rest of the world of mankind are not in pursuit of divine
knowledge; they are not searching for those principles which bring
life and immortality to light; they are generally committed to the
science of moneymaking; they have exerted and brought into play all
the energies of their being to develop trade and commerce, and to
engage in developing all of the secular interests of the world, not
only of one nation, but so broad and expansive have become
their ideas, that they have become purely international in their scope
of utility; they have crossed the expanse of oceans and penetrated the
continents, and taken into consideration the welfare of other races as
well as of that of their own, financially, secularly. But the
Christian world oppose us upon the ground of our being offensive to
them because of our institutions. Now, my friends, brethren and
sisters, it is a consolation to us when we read the pages of prophecy;
when we open the sacred volume and pore over its historical pages and
take a retrospective glance into the history of the past, and learn
that similar charges were brought against the Founder of our faith,
against Jesus of Nazareth, and also against His Apostles and Prophets
and the Patriarchs; and that it is with the unbeliever in revelation,
and with those who are influenced by proscribed principles and spirit
of any age in which they lived to oppose progress, to oppose
development in any direction.
There is one great difficulty in the way of progress and that is
invested interests, not less so in religion than in the avenues of
commerce and trade. Whenever there have been any great principles
brought forth in the mechanical world, in any department of mechanism
from the agricultural through all the ramifications of society, they
have rarely escaped opposition. And, indeed, this obstruction in the
way of progress, is not confined to mechanical pursuits. There is a
spirit with large capitalists and men who have invested deeply and
extensively their capital in the manufacture of any commodity,
produced for the world's market, which arrays itself against growth
and progress made in any direction excepting only where it will
especially benefit them. There is opposition; their invested interests
stand in the way of progress; and it is not only in temporal affairs,
but it is also in religion, in theology. One great reason why the
doctrines of the Latter-day Saints are opposed by the so-called
Christians, is, because they place at a discount their fractional
faith, their fractional currency of belief, so to speak, and they do
not wish to have their faith discounted; they do not wish to be placed
in the unenviable light as to be regarded as only professing a
fragmentary Christianity. And in this they only manifest the same
envious traits that have marked the history of our race in all the
great phases and stages of progress which the world has made.
I must here, my friends, make one remark in relation to the spirit of
persecution that is in the world, and which, by the way, is a very
anomalous phenomenon, very much so indeed. Christianity, in its
fundamental principles, has running through it a broad vein of
charity; and that spirit of mercy and love permeates every avenue of
it, and thrills with sensitive pulsations through every brain, heart
and vein of its unfeigned believers. There is no duty to be performed,
no services rendered which the doctrine of the Christian revelations
requires of its devotees, of its accepters, but that enjoins the
administration of mercy and forbearance, and long-suffering, and
gentleness, and tenderness, and meekness, and brotherly kindness, and
all those excellencies and virtues which grace the character of an
exemplary Christian. And I may here say, and I do so with feelings of
shame and regret, that the bitterest persecutions that have ever been
waged upon the world's battle fields have been waged by men
who have professed the doctrines of the meek and lowly Jesus. Yes, the
most overwhelming torrents of human blood that have ever stained the
world with its gory hue, have been let out by the violent hands of
those who professed to administer in the sacred things of God, who
professed to be inspired by the spirit of the Divine Master. And of
all classes of men and women that I have ever met or that I have any
knowledge of, theological and religious fanatics have been the most
unreasonable, the most unapproachable, the worst of infidels to the
Christian cause. This is a broad statement to make; it is,
notwithstanding, made with due consideration. It has not been
hurriedly pronounced, for I have given this matter some thought, some
study and some little observation. And I am convinced my friends, that
the ignorance and superstition that have produced the direst evils,
the knowledge of which has been recorded upon the pages of history,
have not been the legitimate outgrowth of the principles of
Christianity, but of Christianity falsely so-called; they have been
the product of unenlightened ideas, they have been the result of
misguided zeal, that was not according to knowledge; and they have
been too frequently manifested in directions and among communities
where better results and more genteel and gracious things were
expected to predominate.
Now, the history of the Latter-day Saints is one that has been before
the world for a number of years in many of its phases, not probably in
all its bearings, not in all its features; but there are many salient
points in our history that indicate and that most unmistakably, to the
impartial student of history, that the hostile attitude assumed by
theological demagogues and their partisan adherents towards the
Latter-day Saints is very similar to the conduct of the world towards
the former-day Saints, and stands in offensive comparison with their
parade of Christian benevolence and religious toleration. In this
particular, history repeats itself. The revelations of truth have ever
awakened the spirit of persecution in misbelievers. And our Lord Jesus
Christ assigned a very acceptable reason why this is so. He says that
"men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil."
Now, upon this point I do not wish to be understood by my brief
quotation of this text that I consider mankind incorrigible, that the
race is hopelessly sunken in depravity and sin. No, my brethren, I
have more faith in the potency of the plan of redemption, and more
faith in the remaining stamina and integrity of human nature itself,
than to give up the hope that God will fail to fulfil His purposes in
the creation of man. On the contrary, I believe that He will develop
His heavenly designs in the Godlike combination of the attributes and
qualities that constitute man a moral and spiritual being. I have
faith that man will yet stand forth erect in the likeness of his
Maker, in whose image he was first created. Man will then be filled
with the glory of God, which is intelligence and truth; his divine
origin will then be self-evident; and the truth of what the historian
Moses has said of the genesis of man, will receive the concurrent
sanction of science and religion.
We have received this Gospel from its first principles, through the
varied stages of progress which it has made, and which has been made since its restoration in the dispensation in which we live, until
today. And here we must confess that the verity of the Savior's words
have been most fully established, that the truth comes not to us in
its fulness; comes not to us in its complete and entire character; but
it comes to us as a beautiful little bud upon a choice and tender
plant that blooms; it comes to us as a growing protuberance on the top
of a stem; it comes to us presenting the appearance of something more
to follow; it swells: it enlarges; the leaves that modestly and
beautifully cover up the internal structure of that bud begin to open
and expand through the vitalizing energies of the sun, whose radiating
rays impart warmth and life and vigor to the growing plant. And it
grows stronger and higher; it branches, and spreads, and opens more
and more until the blossom is spread open to full view, and kisses the
sunbeams as they descend through the vestibule of Nature's laboratory
into the sanctum sanctorum, if you please, where the formative
principles and coordinating laws reside. The plant has passed through
many stages of unfoldment from its germinal origin to its maturity—its
maximum attainment. It has spent its energies in self-development and
in elaborating provisions for a new existence. The environments
change. The winter of its life has come. It passes into a season of
rest, to be again called into new life and enlarged activity when
spring time comes again. This exemplifies the great law of growth and
progress in universal nature, not only in the "lily of the valley,"
but in the realm of universal nature where God presides.
Now the Gospel has come to us something after the fashion pre sented in
this little figure, It was not given to us in its entirety; it came to
us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a
little. We are, moreover, informed in holy writ, that Jesus, who was
the likeness of the Father and the express image of His person, in
whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily, that He did not receive
of that fulness at first, but received grace for grace; He increased,
He grew in knowledge and in favor with God and man; and He is the
great prototype, the great exemplifier of our faith. And so has been
the growth and faith of the Latter-day Saints.
When we received this faith, we received it in the simplicity of our
hearts. We received it as a message from God, not comprehending it in
its entirety any more than the child when he is conducted to school
and placed in a primary class to receive his first lesson, is capable
of understanding all at once the several courses of study and the
various branches of knowledge which he has the capacity to acquire.
No, my friends, he learns little by little; he learns first to
distinguish between the various forms of the characters to which are
attached specific and distinct sounds, and by which they are to be
known. He learns to attach the proper value to each and all as they
stand in relation to one another in the alphabet; and after mastering
that, learns to arrange and rearrange and change and modify the
relationship of those characters, producing various results according
to the principles of orthography and orthoepy. Thus he acquires a
knowledge of the language he speaks. So with every other branch of
knowledge in like manner, the study of theology being no exception to
the rule.
So far as our history is concerned; so far as the opposition
which we have met in propagating this message of mercy, and of
heralding forth to the world the glorious news and "glad tidings of
great joy," which shall be unto all people, namely, the plan of
redemption, we anticipate opposition; it is nothing new; it is nothing
marvelous when we understand human nature. Not at all. We sometimes
speak unadvisedly; we sometimes marvel at things which happen, but of
which, upon more deliberate reflection, we would not, because there is
nothing strange in this. We see rivalry in all things, in all the
various phases of society; we see competition and rivalry in the
present crude and undeveloped state of human intellectuality, in the
present—if I may be allowed the expression—immoral state of society;
and I maintain that society is in an immoral state when the good of
all is not contemplated, when the greatest good to the greatest number
is not the dominant principle, is not the inspiring motive, is not the
moving and propelling incentive urging men forward in the various
concerns of life. I say again, that unless there is a motive which
pervades all our actions, taking into contemplation the good of the
whole and not of a part, society so conditioned is not, in a proper
sense, in a moral condition. The condition of society contemplated in
the Gospel embraces this expressed injunction, that we should help to
bear each other's burdens; that we should do unto others as we would
have others do unto us. And requires, moreover, that whatever other
gifts, whatever other qualities, whatever other characteristics may be
distinguished in our conduct toward our fellow men, or whatever other
features may disappear and subside in the rolling tides of the ages in
the developing of our nature, assimilating it more and more in the
image of God, that there are certain attributes that will never fail,
namely, faith, hope, and charity. These will forever abide.
And when I consider these facts as inseparably connected with the
system of salvation left by Jesus our elder brother, our Lord and
Savior, what are we to think of the attitude of the Christian world
toward us. How very uncharitable they are! How very unlike the
Savior in His conduct, in the judicial murder of the crucifixion upon
a Roman cross—"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Do our Christian friends feel so towards us? Do they who think we are
deluded; that we are beguiled by false conceptions of righteousness,
that we have been decoyed by some impure motives to the maintenance of
institutions that are damning in their character upon man, do they
exercise this forgiveness towards us? No, my friends. But as there is
a kind of Christianity referred to in the Scriptures, whose
propagandists appear in sheep's clothing, garbed with all the sanctity
of innocent lambs, but within are ravening wolves, we are confined to
the Savior's rule of judging men and things—"By their fruits ye shall
know them." But it is our duty to emulate the examples given us by Him
in whom was no guile. When Jesus came into the world, did He seek to
exterminate everybody? Or His followers, poor fishermen, Did they seek
to destroy and institute persecution against those who differed from
them in opinion? No. Have the Latter-day Saints exhibited this spirit
towards the world? No, they have not; and we modestly and friendly
challenge the universal world to cite us to any feature or trait that may be found in any chapter of our history wherein we have
sought to wage war against man or woman because they did not believe
as we did; to coerce them to the acceptance of our faith; to drag them
into prison or drive them with the sword because we could not make
disciples of them. No, my friends, such a disposition even is contrary
to the genius of our faith. We have invited respectfully, the most
competent expounders of the doctrines of the various sects when they
have chanted to come among us, to enunciate their views from our
pulpits and in our lecture rooms, to our own congregations. We have
never closed our door against them, although we have been so very
exclusive; although we are so peculiar a people, and so arbitrary in
our priestly rule as charged by our liberal accusers. But when our
missionary Elders have gone forth to the world, it has been a very
rare thing, indeed, to meet with such a favor; and when such an
opportunity has been proffered, we have known how to prize it. When
ministers have opened the doors of their meetinghouses or churches,
offering us the use of the same to preach to their assemblies, we have
acknowledged most respectfully the receipt of such favors. Who do you
think is the more charitable? Where are we to draw the line of
demarcation between the charity of the "Mormons" and that of other
dissenting Christian churches, and their feelings and sentiments
towards us? It would not be a difficult thing to draw this line; but I
forbear this afternoon.
I will simply say, it affords me pleasure to realize that God has thus
far presided over our destinies; that we have been held, as it were,
in the hollow of His hand. We have been a handful of people with the
prejudices of an unbelieving generation running high tide against us.
We have been looked upon as unworthy a passing notice. But a change
has come over the vision of their minds. Now everybody is giving us
notice. God has permitted us to gather strength, and that, too, in the
face of the bitterest persecution and the fiercest opposition which we
have had to contend with, and that which God has designed to develop
and establish in the earth will triumph all the more by being thus
opposed. The more the effects of resistance are brought to bear
against it, like the shaking of the forest tree, very frequently
promotes its growth: it disturbs its roots; it loosens the soil around
it and it commences to put forth fresh energy, increasing in strength
and size; and like the mustard tree, the more it is kicked the farther
the seed is scattered.
Now this is the view I take of the results of opposition which we have
had; and we have excellent precedents for believing this, not only in
the day and age in which we live, but all past history contributes to
the support of this belief and its supply of material is ample for the
argument. Now, this is not only the case with reference to the truth
itself, but it is a principle inherent in nature, that sometimes a bad
cause is also fostered by the opposition it meets with. So that those
of our friends whether here or elsewhere who suppose that opposing the
truth will produce an arrest of its growth, and extinguish the life it
contains, the vitality embodied in it, are simply poor readers of
human history, are simply ignorant of the facts of history, and are
ignorant of the various phases of human nature, as that human nature
has been de veloped in the varied schemes that have sprung into
life during the centuries past and gone. But when we take these
indestructible principles that outlive the ages; when we take a truth
that is universally so, one that is a truism in its nature, and when
we take our association of those truths together and constitute a
system, and then undertake to wage war against that system, my
friends, it is a very costly experiment; it is a losing game. For
"truth though trampled to the earth will rise again." You cannot
destroy that which cannot die. You cannot put life out of that which
is life itself. You cannot extinguish the power that is limitless in
its resources. You cannot do it.
Now, I do not purpose occupying your time but a few moments longer. I
have directed your thoughts over quite a breadth of ground in quite a
rambling manner. I have not felt disposed to take a subject and direct
your thoughts specially to it; for I am aware when subjects are spoken
of, and questions are sprung, the mind involuntarily follows out and
conducts itself through a series of reasons and deductions until it
arrives at legitimate conclusions, satisfying itself or otherwise as
the case may be; but I have brought up a number of questions showing
the general character of the work in which we are engaged. I am
convinced that God has directed our destiny, and that His hand is
still over us for good; and that we are the happy recipients of many
proofs of His divine favor. He has withheld from us the chastening rod
of our enemies; He has dispelled the clouds which have gathered around
us in sable thickness, and has shed forth the light of heaven upon us,
which has caused our hearts to rejoice in the God of our salvation. We
have received the doctrines of Jesus Christ: faith in Him; repentance
of sins, and baptism for the remission of sins; and we have essayed
and covenanted to live a new life in Christ Jesus; to seek to do good
to all men, and evil to none; and like Daniel of old, to be faithful
to the statutes and to the decrees and behests of Jehovah, the decrees
of man against us notwithstanding; we having come to the conclusion in
our own minds that God and a few good men form an overwhelming
majority. And we shall see and yet learn that truth will triumph and
prevail. But it may be—and we have promises moreover to that
effect—that clouds of darkness will gather; that threatening storms
will rise; that the impending dangers will be so imminent as to cause
the countenance of some to pale and their knees to tremble and their
faith to falter. But, then, the darkest hour is before the dawn of
day. So shall we find that God, when He shall have been fully
convinced of our integrity, having proven us as gold is purified
through fire, will abide by the results of obedience to His covenants;
that we shall come off more than conquerors through Him who loves us,
even Jesus Christ our Savior.
May His Spirit and His grace sustain us in the discharge of every
duty, in the developing of every divine institution and in maintaining
every correct principle, and in promoting peace and righteousness upon
the earth, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
Amen.
- George G. Bywater