It is written in the Scriptures, that "man by searching cannot find
out God;" and the experience of all ages has proven the truth of this.
We are living in an age of great intelligence, at a time when the wise
things which have been said and written by sage, philosopher, and
prophet centuries ago can be read and reflected upon; and when men can
bring to bear their own researches, their own experience and the
facilities which they have for gaining information, upon the
investigation of the subject of Deity; yet, we find that people who
now live are as much at sea in regard to this matter as any people who
lived in former times. If we take up the works of the wise men who
live upon the earth in our times and read their remarks concerning
God, we are forced to the conclusion that they, like the people for
whom they write, know little or nothing of the subject upon which they
touch.
Many years ago certain divines of the Church of England, chosen for
the purpose, endeavored to formulate a creed in which they tried to
explain to the people what God is. And after making a number of very
contradictory and foolish assertions, they came to the conclusion that
God is "incomprehensible." Man, by searching cannot find out God, the
only way whereby man can come to the knowledge of God is by
communication from God, and if the people receive what he does
communicate they may find out clearly and truthfully what he is, and
what are his designs and purposes in relation to them.
"Man know thyself," is another saying; not in the Holy Scriptures, but
just as good as though it were. Man cannot know himself, cannot
comprehend himself any more than he can comprehend Deity by his own
reflections. Unless the Creator who made him, and who comprehends what
he was made for reveals it to him, he cannot comprehend even his own
being. Who is there that understands the nature of that intelligent
spirit which inhabits the tabernacle of man? A good surgeon can take
the human body and dissect it; point out its various parts and their relation one to another, and name every bone and every
muscle and every sinew and every nerve. But there is something even
pertaining to the body (leaving out the spiritual part of man), that
gives the body life, which he cannot grasp or comprehend. The vital
force that gives animation to the body is beyond his ken. And every
man who has studied himself to any degree whatever, knows that there
is something about himself besides the life of the body; that there is
something superior to the body, and to that vital force which animates
the human frame. How did that intelligent being get into his physical
nature, and where did it come from? Did it come into existence with
the earthly body, or did it exist before? When the common lot of
humanity comes and we "shuffle off this mortal coil" and our bodies go
into the ground, each part separating from the other, and the elements
go back whence they came, does this spiritual, this intelligent being
which inhabited the body still exist, or does that also separate into
particles? Who knows of himself, and who can comprehend this by his
own reflections? No man. Unless we get some information from the Being
who made man, we cannot comprehend ourselves, much less can we of
ourselves comprehend the Being that made us.
The inhabitants of the earth in the different ages have had a great
many duties; they have formed ideas concerning God in their own minds,
and they have worshipped that which seemed to them the clearest
representation of Deity. Some of the idols which men have worshipped
appear very foolish to us; they are no doubt indications of the low
degree of development of the people who set them up as objects of
worship. But here, in the 19th century, among people called
Christians, we hear a great deal about God, the God of the Bible, the
God that made man, the God that rules the universe, and when we
inquire of the wisest men we have in Christendom in regard to this
Being, they tell us that he is incomprehensible; they tell us that he
is an immaterial being whose center is everywhere and whose
circumference is nowhere: that he has no body and no parts and no
passions; that there is nothing which can represent him; there is
nothing like him in the heavens above or in the earth beneath, and
that man's mind cannot grasp anything about him. They say he is one,
and yet he is three; that he is not three but is one. That there are
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost—three separate substances, and
yet not three but only one. They say that one of these three beings
without a body had a body; that one of the three parts of this
partless being had both a body and parts, and that he, the Son, was in
all things like the Father, and was also like us excepting that he was
without sin, but had passions as we have. This is the result of the
attempt on the part of the wise men of Christendom to find out God for
themselves. It is impossible, and is so laid down in Holy Writ; "man
by searching cannot find out God." The only way that can be relied
upon whereby man can find out God is by obtaining information from the
Almighty Himself. "Well," say the people, "but he does not communicate
anything to any of the inhabitants of the earth." Why not? Has he not
power to manifest Himself to mortals? Is He so great and almighty and
so far above the human family that He cannot reveal Him self to
humanity? "No. He used to do so hundreds of years ago." And why does
he not do it now? "Because the day of revelation has gone by," they
say. Who told them so? The fact is that for a long period the people
have not been expecting to receive revelations from God. They have not
sought for them and, therefore, have not obtained them. But we find in
the Old Scriptures a promise something like this: "Return unto me and
I will return unto you, saith the Lord: Even from the days of your
fathers you have gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept
them," you have "transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances and
broken the everlasting covenant;" now "return unto me and I will
return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts."
We also find in the scriptures the declaration, that God changeth not,
that he is "the same yesterday, today and forever." And we may
reasonably infer that if God was a God of revelation hundreds of years
ago, he is the same God of revelation today, only the people do not
inquire of him, they do not seek unto him in the right way that they
may obtain communications from him. The Apostle James declares, "If any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. But let him
ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of
the sea driven with the wind and tossed."
It appears then that God may be approached; that we may ask of him,
but if we do ask of him we must ask in faith. We must believe. If we
do not believe we will not obtain. This principle of faith seems to be
the means of approach ing the Almighty. If we take up the Bible and
read how the ancients received revelation, we find that they
approached God by faith. And further, we learn that when God
communicated anything to them they tried to carry it out in their
practice; they tried to embody in their lives those instructions and
communications. As Brother Bywater, who preceded me this afternoon,
has quoted: "Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole
duty of man." Those holy men of old, when they learned anything from
God were willing to carry it out, no matter what the cost might be.
God held communion with them by means of the Holy Ghost, which seems
to be the natural means of communication between God and man.
The word and will of God were revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Why should we not receive this blessing of heavenly communication in
our day? As Latter-day Saints we have our names cast out as evil,
simply because we believe in this doctrine of receiving communication
from God. We are simple enough to believe that God will speak to
people now if they will approach him in the right way. Men have borne
testimony that they have received communication from above, and have
made known the same to us; and having believed on their word and done
exactly as they directed us, God has confirmed the truth of their
words upon our hearts, with signs following. And now we can say to
ourselves we know that God lives, that he communicates to men; we know
the channel of communication is opened up between the heavens and the
earth, and that the people of the nineteenth century, by taking a
proper course and exercising faith in the right way, and being
humble enough to carry into effect the commandments which the Lord
gives when he does manifest himself unto them, can obtain
communication from on high by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost, by
dreams and visions, and by the visible manifestation of God's power in
the midst of his people.
This is our testimony to the world, and it is for this that we are
opposed; this is the ground work of the opposition applied to us in
what is called the Christian world. For if the fact be admitted that
the Latter-day Saints are the people of God and those who preside over
them are the servants of God, that they receive communications from
him, and that this is His Church, that would be to admit also that all
other churches are the churches of men and not of Christ; that those
who minister in them are not delegated of heaven and that the
doctrines they teach are merely the doctrines and commandments of men.
Thus our faith comes in contact with the established systems of
Christendom.
Now, the Lord has made known to us a few simple truths in regard to
our being—who we are, where we came from, what we are here for, where
we are going to, and what is to be our final destiny. These things in
our minds are not mere articles of faith, they are not myths, they are
not mere opinions or sentiments, but they are to us, to use the
language of Brother Bywater, "absolute truths;" they have been
revealed from the Almighty, and are his word to us and not the say-so
of men. God has borne testimony of the truth of them in our own
hearts; and to us they have become absolute truths. We are not left in
doubt about them; they are to us facts as palpable as the fact of our
existence.
I have not time to dwell upon this subject, but I will mention two or
three facts that God has made known to us, and will leave them for the
reflection of the congregation. God has made known to us, in the first
place, that we—the real beings, the intelligent spirits which are
entabernacled in these mortal frames—are the offspring of Deity, the
children of God, as much so as our bodies are the offspring of the
children of men; that just as men and women are the sons and daughters
of men, so far as their earthly bodies are concerned, so the spirits
which inhabit these bodies are beings born of the Almighty God in the
eternal worlds. This spark of intelligence that exists in the human
form is stricken off from the eternal flame of Deity; the children of
men are the offspring of God. And when Jesus told his disciples, in
addressing the throne of grace, to say, "Our Father who art in
heaven," he said that which was absolutely true, not in a spiritual or
Methodistical sense, but as an absolute fact. God is our Father, and
we are his sons and daughters. Our earthly bodies are framed in the
image of God; they are framed to fit our spirits which are the
offspring of God, which are therefore in his image, according to the
law that every seed brings forth its own kind. A comprehension of the
offspring of God will therefore lead to an understanding of God
Himself.
These spiritual beings now sojourning upon the earth in mortal
tabernacles, dwelt in the bosom of eternity and were with the Eternal
Father "when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God
shouted for joy" on beholding the organization of this earth. We were
there and we joined in the heavenly chorus. Said the Apostle John: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be
like him; for we shall see him as he is." By that time we will be able
to comprehend God, notwithstanding the assertion of the learned of the
world to the contrary. We were sent down upon the earth to dwell for a
time that we might learn the laws which govern this lower sphere, that
we might have a portion of it framed as a body in which we should
dwell, that in it and through it we might become acquainted with sin
which is the transgression of law, and learn that only by obedience to
law is happiness possible for the offspring of God; that only by
obedience to eternal laws and wholesome regulations can man be made
happy in time and in eternity. And by becoming acquainted with
darkness we can appreciate the light; by becoming acquainted with pain
and sorrow we can appreciate perfect bliss and happiness: by coming in
contact with death, and understanding it through experience we may
comprehend the blessings of life, preparatory to an endless existence
in the presence of the Father to dwell in perfect submission to his
eternal laws. We are here for experience, and while we dwell in
mortality there are lessons to be learned and that must be learned, if
needs be through suffering. It is our privilege, while here in the
school of experience and adversity, far from our ancient home, to
struggle up to the light from whence we came, and by the power of the
Holy Spirit to obtain knowledge of the past, a comprehension of the
present, and an unfoldment of the future; for "when the spirit of
truth is come he shall guide you into all truth, and he shall take of
the things of the Father and of the Son and show them unto you; he
shall show you things to come, and shall bring to your remembrance
things that are past, he shall give you knowledge of the present and
shall unfold to you the future." This is the office of the Holy Ghost
in bestowing its gifts and blessings upon men.
Now we can learn our duty, we can learn what is the mind and will of
God concerning us. The Lord has manifested a great many things to us
while in mortality which has had the effect of stirring up the
opposition of the world and the powers of darkness against us. This
is a necessary experience as it tends to develop our being, and so
long as we have this warfare to fight, if we carry out strictly the
commandments of God, we shall have more present joy, more present
satisfaction and more present pleasure than if we were in accord with
the world, as we have the consciousness that we are doing what is
right, and we also have the gratification of knowing that the Lord
will plant our feet upon the rock of eternal truth and in his own time
will bring us up to mingle and dwell with those who have overcome, and
who move in a higher sphere of intelligence. Our duties are pointed
out and made known to us as fast as we are prepared for them. We have
the means whereby we can learn the will of God, line upon line,
precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as fast as we
develop and grow up to the comprehension of higher truths; and in
every man's heart who walks in the ways of life is this spirit
prompting and directing, and encouraging him to refrain from evil.
After we have performed our mission upon the earth the spirit will be liberated from the body and will go to a place prepared for
it, and that place will be according to the acts of the individual
while dwelling in earthly life. The spirits of the wicked will
gravitate together, while the righteous will go to their place in the
paradise of God, where they rest from their labors. The wicked go to a
place prepared for them, not however, a place of literal fire and
brimstone as taught by some religious teachers, but a place where they
will have a knowledge and remembrance of their wickedness, and at the
same time be without a knowledge of the future; their condition will
be a state of awful suspense, not knowing what their fate will be;
while the righteous will dwell together, and having served and
communed with God while tabernacling in the flesh, they will have
closer communion in the spirit, and be prepared for the glorious reign
to come. Then when the resurrection day shall dawn, the righteous,
they that have been faithful, who have been planted in the likeness of
Christ's death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection; having
walked in his ways, and followed his example, will be brought forth in
the morning of that great day; for the trumpet shall sound and the
voice of Christ shall be heard, and they will come forth and stand
erect again upon the earth in their own bodies, every part and
particle restored to its proper part, making a whole and perfect
frame; not a natural body, but a spiritual body; not a corruptible
body, but an incorruptible body, made out of the same elements,
purified and quickened by the power of God. And they will stand upon
their feet again and enter into the presence of the Father, and be
made like him. They will be in his perfect image and in his perfect
like ness. And while eternal ages roll along they will pattern after
the works of their Eternal Father; as he does, so will they do, and
they will all work together in perfect harmony with celestial beings,
one spirit pervading the whole.
I have briefly outlined a few ideas embodied in our religious faith
and have not time to pursue the subject further; suffice it to say,
that man is the offspring of God, and was born in another sphere; that
he is only a sojourner upon the earth for a short time; that his
destiny is to be made in every respect like the Father, possessing as
he does an immortal, eternal spirit, which, in course of time, through
obedience to the laws of life and salvation, will dwell in an
immortal, eternal body, by means of which he will be in communion with
all that is good and beautiful, great and glorious throughout the
boundless universe, and he will be under the inspiration and direction
of the Father, and in the presence of the Son and all holy beings who
are like him. In respect to the rest of the children of men, they will
each occupy that station for which they are fitted by their earthly
acts. But to enter into the presence of God and enjoy a fullness of
his glory and be associated with him in the government of the
universe, there is but one path, one gate to enter in by, one place of
salvation, and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by
himself when upon the earth and revealed anew in this our day; the
systems that men have invented being ineffectual and powerless to
save. All the sects of Christendom in that respect are like the sects
of heathendom, they must pass away. What truth they have emanated from
God, for all truth comes from Him; but their systems are organi zations of men, and they, therefore, must all perish in their
time and season, whilst the kingdom of God which is being set up on
the earth will remain and continue to spread forth and prevail, until
the whole earth is subdued to our Father and brought into complete
subjection unto him; that it may be purified from evil and the
dominion of sin which has invaded it for centuries, and that Satan and
his hosts may be banished forever from its pale, and this world be
made radiant and glorious, transfigured, as the Savior was upon the
mount, and come up among the worlds redeemed, refulgent in its own
splendor, shining like the sun in the firmament. And the ransomed of
the Lord will walk thereon, clothed in white raiment, rejoicing in the
presence of the Eternal whom they will recognize again as their
Father; for the past, now shut out by the veil of the flesh, will come
back to them, and all their former history will return to their minds;
those memories which were shut out by tabernacling in the flesh will
come back again, and all their past experience upon the earth and in
the spirit world will be fresh to their minds, never to fade away.
Then will they comprehend God, being quickened in him and by him,
dwelling in his presence and filled with the fullness of his glory,
forever and ever. Amen.
- Charles W. Penrose