"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also
to the Greek." These words were uttered by the Apostle Paul, who,
prior to his acceptance of the Christian religion was a vehement
persecutor of the new cause that had sprung up in Galilee, and in the
regions round about, but who upon being divinely inspired in a
miraculous manner became convinced of the power of this Gospel of
which he speaks in the language I have just quoted. It will be
remembered that at the period of the world's history when these words
were enunciated by the inspired Apostle the Christian religion was not
then as it is now, the professed religion of a large portion of the
inhabitants of the earth. It was then a new cause; it was then
considered a sect which was everywhere spoken against. The doctrines
and principles of this new faith appear, from the history of its
incipient development, to have aroused very bitter feelings in the
hearts of the professors of the popular creeds and philosophies of
that age. The history of the rise and progress of Christianity
presents to the intelligent student a history of many of the most
important principles and lessons connected with the unfoldment of
civilization and the purification of the moral ethics of that age and
through the succeeding ages, I may add, even down to modern times. The
readers of sacred history, as well as the students of universal
history, know full well that there has been in the history of the
struggle of our common humanity, rising upward from the lower strata
of society or masses of the human family who could not well be
denominated societies in the sense in which the term is employed
today; they, I repeat, know full well the struggles which have been
made by mankind to emancipate themselves and to be emancipated through
the instrumentality of the light and intelligence that surrounded them
and the revelations of God to man—what mighty struggles those
have been! They know, furthermore, that there never has been in all
past history any marked strides made in the growth and progress of
men's intellectual and moral nature, but that growth has been attended
with a series, I will not say uninterrupted, but with a series of
persistent oppositions, a series of impeding obstacles thrown in the
way, and the most intense hate has been manifested by the maintainers
or supporters of orthodox systems of popular creeds and time-honored
institutions. We can look back through the ages that have gone by, we
can take a retrospective glance into the ages that have rolled into
eternity, and there see the things that have marked distinctively
those ages, and which are the landmarks of human history, and there we
can discover, my brethren, sisters and friends, the effects to which I
am now alluding, that there never has been any great improvement made,
nor marked advancement effected, no growth attained, but it has met
with opposition, which has been the child of ignorance and of
superstition, and has been succored by that spirit and power which we
denominate, in the language of the Scripture, the spirit and power of
evil, the power of the devil. Today Christianity is accepted
professedly, by every enlightened nation on the face of this globe.
There is not a nation speaking the spoken languages of the world but
what recognizes the cardinal principles of the Christian religion as
possessing vitality and power that has emanated from a source divine,
and that which is best adapted to the amelioration of the condition of
our common humanity. When we compare, when we draw lines of comparison
between those grand and immutable principles that possess within
themselves a potency, and that carry in their very nature the sanctity
and purity of the source from whence they have come, bearing upon
themselves the seal of divinity, and remembering the opposition which
those principles met with by the learned doctors of the law, by the
expounders of the writings of Moses and the Prophets, by those who
were living in expectancy of the fulfillment of the prophecies
concerning the coming of the Messiah, in the coming of Shiloh, and
then to discover, as the ages and centuries have gone by, the growth
and strength that these fundamental doctrines have acquired; and
although generations have come and generations have gone, melted away
and become absorbed as the dew before the morning sun, yet the result
of the labors of these generations have been witnessed in their
accumulating forces, in their beneficent and redeeming influences
almost imperceptibly advancing over the minds and seating themselves
in the hearts and affections of the good and the great that have lived
in every age, where those principles have been proclaimed in the ears
of man. When we reflect upon these things and then take a careful
review of what it has cost in life and its energies, the potency of
its powers that have been employed and apparently consumed, the places
thereof being supplied by new stores unfolded in the rising
generations, from generation to generation, until, towering up high
and perceptibly above the dogmas and traditions of the heathen world,
those downtrodden principles, those doctrines that have been
everywhere spoken against, have been accepted, professedly, by the
Christian world as the Balm of Gilead, as the power by which
the nations were to be healed of their moral maladies, by which they
were to be enlightened from their heathen darkness, and by which they
were to be elevated to an intellectual and moral plane that should
bring them up to the high destiny which their Creator had ordained for
them, and to bring to pass that perfection which was augured, not only
in the religion of Jesus, but also plainly indicated in the
constitution of man. Today we have a nominal acceptance of
Christianity as a revealed religion. There are but few people living
who are so obtuse in their minds, or who are so morally degraded in
their nature, or so far lost to every sense of personal respect and
Christian propriety, as to deny the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, of which the Apostle Paul avowed himself as not ashamed—very
few indeed. The 5th, 6th and 7th chapters of Matthew containing the
sermon on the Mount are an embodiment of divinity, are a compilation
of principles, are an association of ideas, that are unparalleled and
are inimitable in the writings and learning of the world. They contain
the principles that constitute the groundwork upon which correct
nature is to be established. Now then, my friends, if this be true in
the light of modern science, of modern philosophy, in the light of the
civilization of the nineteenth century, these principles appear as
brilliant, undimmed and as transcendent in luster as any of the
axiomatic principles, proverbs, and sayings of the learned and the
wise of all the ages that are gone by. Zoroaster never chronicled
their equal; Matthew never penned a compilation of such principles as
are to be found there; Confucius never left on the record of his time
principles that reach down into the innermost depth of human nature,
and there bring up into man's destiny the design of his creator as has
been revealed in those principles. And yet, my friends, these were the
doctrines and principles that were opposed, mark me, and the
propagandists of those principles were the men that were followed up
with the most untiring opposition, that were persecuted with the most
relentless hand; the men who represented these world-redeeming
doctrines, the purifying, elevating institutions of Christianity were
the men that suffered martyrdom, the men that lost their lives that
they might find them, even lives eternal, and they lost them, too; at
the hands of men who were considered the representative men of the
time, the learned expounders of prophecy, the expounders of law, the
teachers of the principles of civil and criminal jurisprudence, men
who were deeply versed in the lore of the time, familiar with every
branch of the literature of their age, and yet these were the most
cruel and uncharitable elements which Christianity had to cope with in
its growing influence in the day when the Apostle Paul averred that he
was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it was the power of God
unto salvation to all who would believe.
Today we have the principles of this same Christianity presented to
the world in the same attitude, presented with the same
conditions—avowed with the same sincerity, and its doctrines
inculcated with the same assiduity and zeal that marked the Apostles
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ over 1,800 years ago. And does it meet
with any opposition today? Need I ask this question? Scarcely. The
people called Latter-day Saints have for a number of years
proclaimed the Gospel of Christ in its primitive simplicity, in its
primitive integrity, in its primitive organization, and in all its
evangelical details, to the inhabitants of this nineteenth
century—which by some people is denominated the full blaze of
civilization, almost approaching the same, the highest pinnacle, the
last possibly attainable point of elevation in the growth of moral
worth and intellectuality and power—and if it meets with the
opposition which we know it has met with, we are confronted in our own
minds with the inquiry—who are the men, what are the character and
denomination of the people who raise their voices against the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ in its apostolical purity in this the
dispensation of the fullness of times? Is it the infidel? Is it the
atheist, the man who believes that there is no God nor any controlling
power but that which exists in the forms of matter we behold? Is it
the man who ignores the Supreme Being, the ruler of the universe? Is
it that class of people who live without God, and without hope and
without faith in the world to come? Not exactly that class; but it
meets with opposition from precisely a corresponding class of men that
this cause met with in the early days of Christianity, namely, from
Christian ministers, from the propounders of the doctrines of
Christianity, from commentators, from men who profess to have studied
the law of God, and the revealed religion of Jesus Christ—these are
the men who today, in our midst, here in Salt Lake City, in our
cities and villages throughout this Territory and elsewhere, claim to
be the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth, the
crucified, the Redeemer, as the Savior of the whole world, of all
mankind, the men who tell you he came into this world and that he
endured persecution and every form of ignominy, every form of calumny
and reproach in order to introduce the glorious principles of
Christianity, to introduce the doctrine of faith in God as the Supreme
Creator of the universe, faith in his Son Jesus Christ as the world's
Redeemer, faith in the Holy Spirit as the only guide of mankind unto
all truth, the spirit of truth which was promised by Jesus that should
come and make the ministry of his Apostles effective, and reveal unto
them things past, things present, and show them things to come. Men
who teach these principles are the men who oppose the teachings of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which was preached by the Apostle
Paul, which was preached by Peter, which was preached by all the
Apostles, and above all, which was illustrated, not only in the
teachings, but in the entire life and ministry of Christ, and of his
immediate followers. Well, is this not very strange? Has it never
occurred to some of our people that there must be some cause for this?
Why was it that the Jewish Rabbis and teachers of the law, those men
who looked so contemptuously upon the poor despised Nazarene and his
equally contemptible followers, the fishermen, whom he had gathered
together as his disciples from the sea coast of Galilee; men who had
studied the prophecies, men who claimed to have Abraham for their
father, men who claimed to be well-disposed towards every agency which
tended to bring to pass the fulfillment of prophecy and execute the
terms thereof—why was it that they of all other men should be the men
from whom the Savior and his disciples met the severest
opposition? Has it ever occurred to us that this is a strange
inconsistency? If this position had been developed among a people and
had been exerted by a class of men and women who were unbelievers in
revelation, who were professedly infidel to the doctrines of prophets,
to the teachings of patriarchs, to the spirit and revelations of
Evangelists and of Apostles, we would not be surprised; but we find
that the most powerful agencies that had been brought to bear for the
suppression of Christianity, for the overthrow of its doctrines, for
the retardation of its success throughout the land, were fostered by
men who, from their professed adherence to the scriptures of divine
truth, to the writings of Moses and the Prophets which they claimed to
be in possession of, should have been its warmest friends; it should
have received from them the most effective support; but on the
contrary, it received from them the most heartless and unprincipled
opposition. And it appears that there was but one solution to the
problem, and that solution in their minds was this: This man is a
promoter of sedition, we must have him taken out of the way, and so
clamorous became the demand for the surrender of the great teacher and
founder of Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth, that the populace cried,
"away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him;" and when the
judges of the land, after investigating the charge brought against
him, had discovered there was no cause for death in that man, and,
moreover, as it was announced "in this just man;" while they did not
choose to impugn the judgment of the judge as to his purity, or call
in question his reading of the law, yet they nevertheless cried out
"his blood be upon our heads; never mind if it is not right, never
mind if it is not legal, we do not care for that, away with him;
release unto us Barabbas; give us a robber, give us a thief, give us
any kind of individual and release him in this jubilee of release to
criminals; give anyone a chance but Jesus of Nazareth." This was the
state of affairs. And why did they want to get rid of him? Why did
they wish to dispose of him in this way? What had he done to them?
What doctrines had he taught that were in opposition even to the law
or to good morality? None whatever. He was acquitted before the
highest tribunal of his land, and one of our ablest jurists, Alexander
Innis, in reviewing the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, concluded that in
the light of the nineteenth century, in the advanced state of the
science of jurisprudence, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a
judicial murder. He went about continually doing good. He berated men
for their sins, to be sure. He chastised them for their iniquity. He
did call them hypocrites, he did call them some uncomplimentary names,
but they richly deserved it, and any man who is acquainted with the
history of the times, with the morality of that age, with the depths
of degradation to which men and women had sunken, and the almost
extinction of the first conception of morality, knows full well that
his accusations were only too just, that there was no other cause for
their ire being raised against him other than it was true, and they
could not endure it. There are a great many people in this world of
ours, in this age, as there were in the age of which I am speaking,
who cannot endure sound doctrine. They prefer having men who will
teach them plausible and flattering theories, who will pander
to their power, who will cringe before the influence of wealth, who
will bow down at the shrine of the almighty dollar, and who dare not
let Jesus and his Apostles lift up their voices and proclaim against
the crying evils of the land. As Latter-day Saints we are teaching the
same principles, the same doctrines; and I need not say here, that
there are no Christian ministers today that attempt from their
pulpits to take up the subject of our religion, to take up any of the
leading doctrines and principles of our faith, and with the word of
God in their hand and with sound reason brought to bear upon the
doctrines taught by the Latter-day Saints and by those taught in
ancient times, to show that our doctrines are anti-scriptural, that
they are unbiblical; but they will say that they are unchristian, that
it is not in accord with the popular sympathies and popular sentiments
of the times; that it is not in accord with men's ideas of morality,
of respectability and of cultivation. Yet show me where there are any
doctrines or principles taught by the Latter-day Saints that are not
in the strictest accord, in the most perfect harmony, in the closest
union with the teachings and doctrines taught centuries ago? There are
not any to be found; and yet we hear the cry of immorality; we hear
the cry of barbarism, of infidelity, of names that I hardly like to
repeat, applied to the Latter-day Saints just as they were applied to
Jesus and the Apostles, 1,800 years ago.
My friends, if the popular prejudices of the first or second century
of the Christian era had continued to be the dominant influence of the
world and had suppressed the promulgation of the principles of
Christianity and the maintenance of their claim upon men and women,
where would your boasted Christianity be today? Where would your
enlightenment be today if the revelations of Jesus Christ had been
swept out of existence, if the world had been deprived of them
entirely, what would be our state at the present time? It is true we
have had a long reign of apostasy; it is true that from 1,400 to 1,500
years have passed away without any semblance of the Church of Christ
upon the earth. We have had apostate churches, we have had churches
built up according to the doctrines of men; we have had sects and
parties multiplied by the hundreds; but we have never had a Christian
Church. When the Church of Christ of Former-day Saints, with its
Prophets, Apostles, and inspired men; with its miracles, gifts and
powers disappeared from the earth, and the great "Mother of Harlots"
that sitteth upon many waters, established a church, and she begat
children in her own likeness, until the whole world has been filled,
comparatively speaking, with the effects of the degraded system that
has grown out of an apostate Christianity—I say, that from the time
the Church of Christ disappeared from the earth until it was restored
and built upon the foundation of living Prophets, Apostles,
Evangelists, and the living powers of the Holy Ghost, there was no
Christian church upon the earth. And this has all taken place, not for
the purpose of giving any class of men an opportunity of lifting
themselves up in the pride and vanity of their hearts, because they
have become instruments in the hands of God in bringing to pass the
restoration of those things which were predicted by the ancient
Prophets, and were to be fulfilled in the last days, but it
has been brought to pass in the fulfillment of measured prophecy, of
explicit and well-defined terms of revelation with no ambiguity or
uncertainty about them; the terms are as explicit, the conditions are
as comprehensive, as clear and as conspicuous as the terms of any
contract that was ever made between any two intelligent beings.
I must, however, bring my remarks to a close. I am thankful for the
opportunity of announcing my feelings; of announcing our views as a
people with regard to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We offer to the
world the same Gospel that was proclaimed anciently—faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ; repentance of sin; baptism for the remission of sins,
and the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. And
how is it that we meet with opposition? We have the same opposition
that the enemies of Christianity waged against the Former-day Saints.
Some people are finding fault with the treatment that we are receiving
today at the hands of our government. I think many of us are laboring
under a mistake. Some people are astonished at the partiality that is
manifested in the law, and in the conditions in which the law is to be
applied to one class of the citizens of this Territory and not against
another. We are laboring under a mistake. The government is not
seeking to legislate against immorality; and if we think they are
doing so we are deceiving ourselves. I consider myself that there is
more consistency to be accorded to those who are administrators of the
laws of our nation and the makers of those laws than some of us are
inclined to credit them with; but if we expect that the recent law
which has been enacted to apply to the people of Utah—to "polygamists
and bigamists" —is intended to suppress the social evil, it is a
mistake; it is not to touch anything outside "the marriage relation;"
there is no infringement on the liberties of abandoned people; they
can do as they please. The object of the law is to restrict marriage;
is to restrict the legitimate and divine associations of the sexes;
and if we suppose that it is intended for anything else we are
laboring under a mistake. Let us be consistent, my friends, and wait.
If our government wishes to deal with this question first, it has the
right to do so; if it wishes to do it, it has the right to do it in
the sense that the age regards might greater than right; but we are in
the hands of the All-wise and Supreme Ruler of the universe. We are in
the hands of Him who setteth up kings and who dethroneth kings; who
buildeth up empires and casteth down thrones at His will and pleasure.
We are willing to abide the issue. It is God and the rulers of our
land for it. We cannot measure arms with them only with our
principles, but they will not fight us on that ground; they slink back
out of sight, they will not touch us with the divine records in their
hands; they dare not come to the front and challenge a comparison of
the principles of Christianity with the record upon which they profess
to found their faith. Excuse the freedom I have taken to express these
thoughts; but I am a little astonished at the apparent inconsistency
manifest in the legislative discriminations enacted against the
Latter-day Saints, and would say, Oh consistency, thou art a jewel
rarely to be found.
May God sustain this people; may He fill their hearts with faith and hope and confidence. We will seek to live our religion, and
to pray to the God of Daniel, the God of Moses, to the God of our
forefathers, to the God of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, to the God
of the universe, the Father of all; that He will direct and guide us
in this great contest—I mean the contest that is being waged between
pure Christianity and the errors of the world, until this earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the mighty
deep. This is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George G. Bywater