I feel disposed to read a few verses from section 43 of the Doctrine
and Covenants, a book containing the revelations of God to the
Latter-day Saints, communicated through the prophet Joseph Smith.
(The speaker then read the whole of the section, commencing at the
17th verse.)
There is one thing I wish to say to the congregation, and I would say
the same to the whole world if I had the power—it is this: I have
heard the Prophet Joseph Smith say on several occasions when speaking
on the agency of man, and the liberty and rights of men, that if he
were emperor of the earth, having control of the whole human family,
he would give every man, woman and child the right to worship God
according to the dictates of their own conscience, leaving them to be
responsible alone to their Creator for their individual acts. These
are my sentiments, and they are the sentiments of this people today,
and have been from the beginning of the organization of this Church,
and I trust will be to the end of time. And this we believe to be a
principle emanating from heaven; and while we accord this right to our
fellow men, and while we declare it to be a heaven-born right
guaranteed unto all American citizens through the Constitution
of our country, we claim the exercise of the same right ourselves; and
we claim this right and privilege under the Constitution under which
we live, and we claim it by the laws of God to man. And whenever any
people rise up and attempt to make war upon the rights of men because
of their religion, they go beyond their right, they transcend their
own powers, whether their power be derived either from God or man.
You may wish to know why I make these remarks. I will tell you.
Because God himself grants this right to every human being upon the
earth irrespective of race or color; it is part of the divine economy
not to force any man to heaven, not to coerce the mind but to leave it
free to act for itself. He lays before His creature man the
everlasting Gospel, the principles of life and salvation, and then
leaves him to choose for himself or to reject for himself, with the
definite understanding that he becomes responsible to Him for the
results of his acts.
It is upon this principle that we as Latter-day Saints assert our
rights and endeavor to enjoy our privileges. And we are accorded this
right in accepting the Gospel dispensation in which we live, and in
believing in the Old and New Testaments, the records of God's people
who lived in what is called the old world, as well as in the Book of
Mormon, the history of the ancient inhabitants of our land, which
records are in harmony with each other, bearing witness of the one
great Head and of the Gospel which He taught in Jerusalem and Judea,
and which His Apostles preached after He left them. It is, in fact,
the same Gospel that has been taught to man in every age and
dispensation, as there is but the one Gospel, and that Gospel is
adapted to the wants and conditions of all men. It is the Gospel of
Truth, and truth alone can make us free, free from sin and from the
power of the adversary. And this is the Gospel which we have received,
and which we take the liberty of preaching to our fellow men.
I do not suppose that there has been any dispensation upon the earth
in which a greater variety of evidence, or important evidence of the
divinity of the latter-day work has been given than that which is
occurring, and that will continue to occur until the second coming of
the Son of Man. There is no man upon the earth who believes in the
literal fulfillment of prophecy as contained in the Old and New
Testament, but who must in his heart believe that the God of heaven
will in the latter days set His hand to perform a great work and a
wonder in the earth; that He will call forth His Church out of the
wilderness of darkness and establish it upon the foundation of
Apostles and Prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief corner stone.
There is no man who believes in the Revelation of St. John who does
not believe in his heart that in the last dispensation the angel as
seen and described by John in his vision, will fly through the midst
of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to commit to man again upon
the earth, and that this Gospel is to be preached in plainness and
power to every nation, kindred, tongue and people upon the whole
earth. There is no man that believes in the literal fulfillment of the
revelations of God through the Prophets who does not believe that the
Lord will in the latter days gather a people together out of every
nation under heavens and that He will also gather the dispersed of
Judah—the Jews—that have been trodden under the feet of the
Gentiles for the last 1,800 years for shedding the blood of the
Messiah.
I wish to bear my testimony to all men within the sound of my voice
and those to whom my words shall come, that we are living in that
dispensation of God to man that every Prophet and Apostle that has
ever breathed the breath of life has pointed to. I bear my testimony
that God, in fulfillment of the Revelation of St. John, has sent the
heavenly messenger to communicate to man the everlasting Gospel. And
why did the Lord reveal to John that this would be done? Because the
"falling away" spoken of by Paul had already commenced; because John
in his exiled condition sensed keenly that the Church would be
overcome and driven from the earth, and by way of encouragement to him
and information to all who would believe his word, the Lord showed him
what should take place in the future. The Jews had rejected the
Messiah, they had crucified the Lord of life and glory and they had
also persecuted and taken the life of the Apostles and others who were
left to represent his cause; and John only was left, and they tried to
take his life; but, in consequence of the promise he had received from
the Savior prior to his death, they could not do it: and hence they
exiled him on this island—called Patmos. When they rejected the
Gospel, they rejected it in all its power and glory, its blessings,
its gifts and graces, and also the ordinances of the Holy
Priesthood—Aaronic and Melchizedek. With regard to Priesthood we
differ from the Christian world. We believe there is no man in heaven
or upon earth that administers in the ordinances of the Gospel without
the Priesthood, and
we defy the whole world to point to a single
passage of scripture from the time of father Adam down to Jesus
Christ, showing that any man had power to administer in any of the
ordinances of the Gospel without the Priesthood. And we say as Paul
said, in referring to this delegated power of heaven, that "no man
taketh this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was
Aaron," and he was called of God through Moses with whom he
communicated. Therefore men cannot legally and authoritatively go
forth to preach the Gospel until they are sent; and men cannot hear
the word and be converted by the same unless they hear it through the
mouth of a preacher who is sent, and who has power to administer in
the ordinances of the Gospel.
The Lord has established his Church and his kingdom; and we have been
laboring now fifty years and upwards in carrying out the instructions
which he has revealed unto us in connection with this work. And as men
were formerly, so we have been commanded to go forth and call upon men
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to repent and be baptized for
the remission of their sins; and as they were authorized, so have we
been authorized to say to all men who comply with these requirements,
that they shall receive the Holy Ghost. But say the Christian sects,
these things are no longer necessary, these outward ordinances are not
now essential to salvation. We believe they are. In this, of course,
we differ from them, and we have a perfect right to. Jesus himself
went to John when he was baptizing in Jordan, and requested baptism
of him. John demurred, thinking himself unworthy, but Jesus satis fied him by saying, "Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh
us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him."
Baptism by immersion is one of the ordinances of the Gospel, and the
law had to be complied with, and hence Jesus set the example. But the
Jews, as a nation, rejected him and his teachings; and the Apostles
were commanded to turn to the Gentiles. I say Gentiles—we are all
Gentiles in a national capacity; and the same Gospel that was taught
to the Jews was preached to the Gentiles. It never varied one iota; it
was sent to them with all its gifts and graces, its priesthoods,
powers and ordinances without any change whatever. And Paul in warning
the Gentiles, told them to take heed and fear lest they fall, through
the same example of unbelief; for if God spared not the natural
branches, which were the Jews, why should he spare them who were the
wild branches grafted into the olive tree. We all understand that the
blindness in part which happened to Israel and which, Paul said,
should continue until the fulness of the Gentiles come in, did befall
the churches which had been built up by the Apostles, and that the
Gospel, with its gifts and graces, its Prophets and Apostles, has long
since ceased to exist among men. The Gentiles fell through the same
example of unbelief, until today a man is looked upon as a deceiver
who will rise up and declare himself a believer in the same Gospel
that Jesus and his Apostles preached. Paul told the people in his day
that God hath set in the Church first Apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues; and they were for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the perfecting
of the Saints, until all come to a perfect man in the stature of
Christ. But the Christian world do not believe in these things; they
say they are done away, as not being needed. We believe differently,
and we have a right to; we say the Lord has restored the Gospel as it
was preached to the Jews and the Gentiles by Jesus and the Apostles,
and we know whereof we speak. Joseph Smith received the ministration
of angels, in fulfillment of the Revelation of St. John, and we know
it. He received the keys of the Holy Priesthood under the hands of
John the Baptist, and under the hands of Peter, James and John, and
from that day, through the preaching and administrations of the Elders
of this Church, God has given a testimony to hundreds of thousands, of
the truth of this work. We believe this, and we have received the
testimony for ourselves of its divinity.
In looking upon this congregation assembled in this beautiful
building, I am reminded of the mercy and goodness of God to us as a
people. On the 24th of July, 1847, I came here in company with the
pioneers. At that time Utah was a barren desert, there was no mark of
the white man, everything was wild and barren. Today you may travel
thousands of miles through this country, and you find towns and
cities, farms, gardens and orchards, temples, and tabernacles, and
schoolhouses, and large congregations of the people, and hosts of
children. And where did all these people come from, and what prompted
them to come here? You came from your native lands, from the different
civilized nations, impelled by the spirit of the gathering which God has restored in connection with the Gospel; and you came in
fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and David,
and others of the Prophets who have spoken of you. The question that
arises in the minds of persons who pass through our country and see
the labors of this people is, are we the dupes of impostors? Was
Joseph Smith a deceiver? There is a way to test this, and we have
tested it to our satisfaction. The great promise made to us when we
first heard the preaching of the Elders of this Church was, that if we
obeyed certain requirements of the Gospel, we should receive the Holy
Ghost; and this same promise is extended to the world of mankind by
our Elders who are still proclaiming these glad tidings of great joy.
If that promise had fallen we, my brethren and sisters, would not have
been here today; and Utah would doubtless be as barren as it was when
we found it in '47. There is no question in our mind, as to the
divinity of the work in which we are engaged. The Christian world
questions it. This, of course, we cannot help.
I want to say to the Latter-day Saints, you are living in an important
and interesting time in your history, a time when the principles of
the everlasting Gospel are being brought prominently before the world,
and it is but natural that they should find their opposite in
misrepresentation and persecution. Jesus himself, together with every
servant of God of every age, while endeavoring to bless and save
mankind through teaching correct principles, made themselves unpopular
and become the subjects of hatred and persecution. And there is no
doctrine so unpopular today as the principles of life and salvation as
God has revealed them; and there are none so unpopular as those who
believe in and practice the same. Truth revealed from heaven for the
salvation of mankind always was unpopular, and always will be so long
as the world exists in its present state. Men do not want truth, and
therefore they reject it, and they reject it today for the same
reason that men rejected it formerly, because they love darkness
rather than light. If the Latter-day Saints expect to become popular
in this day and generation, they will find themselves greatly
mistaken. There is a warfare going on between truth and error, and
this warfare will continue until He shall reign whose right it is to
reign.
I also want to say to the Latter-day Saints, you should exercise faith
in God; you should make yourselves acquainted with the revelations of
God, and with the promises He has made to His people, fully believing
that all will come to pass as He has spoken it. And each man claiming
a standing among this people should do his duty to the trust committed
to our charge. Our responsibility is great before God and man. Any
people into whose hands is committed a dispensation of the Gospel has
a great responsibility. And Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the
Twelve Apostles, would have been under condemnation and would have
rendered themselves liable to the curse of God if they had not gone
forth into the world and borne record of this work. Paul was placed in
the same position and he sensed it, as is inferred from these words:
"Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel." And this is our position
today in relation to the world.
I have been with this Church almost from its organization, and have
passed through the various scenes of its early history. I have
seen its rise and progress, and have witnessed the power of God
manifested in behalf of this people; and I want to bear my testimony
that the God of heaven has, in fulfillment of the prophecies, set His
hand to establish His Church and kingdom in the earth, which means no
more and no less than His rule and His government, and that He will
accomplish it, and there is no power upon the earth or under the earth
that can stay the progress of Almighty God. But notwithstanding this,
we expect to meet with opposition, with the hatred of the world; this,
in fact, is the legacy of the Latter-day Saints. Said the Savior to
his Apostles, I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you; if you were of the world, the world would love you as its
own. It hated me before it hated you. And what are we going to do? We
are going to trust in God. I have no fears myself; I have never had
since I heard the first Gospel sermon by the Elders of this Church;
for I know that God lives, and that he has set his hand to establish
his kingdom, and it will continue to grow and increase until it shall
fill the whole earth. He has called upon us to proclaim to the whole
world the Gospel of Christ, and we are doing it as fast as
circumstances and wisdom permits; and we promise all men what the
first Elders promised us, that is, if they yield to the requirements
they shall know for themselves whether this work is of God or man. Is
there, I ask, any man or set of men dare make such promises to their
fellow men? I answer, nay; neither could we do it, did we not know
that God would back up the word by imparting the Holy Ghost. He has
done so from the beginning, and these people can bear me witness.
The question may be asked, What about the course our government is
taking with us? Whatever our nation does or may do, it will be held
responsible before God; and every emperor, king and ruler will be held
responsible for the use they make of the power committed into their
hands. The Lord inspired the men that framed the Constitution of our
country, and has guarded the nation from its foundation, in order to
prepare free people in which to establish his kingdom. Columbus was
inspired of God to persevere as he did to discover this continent, and
thus prepare the way for a class of people upon whom the Spirit of the
Lord moved to follow; and when they were oppressed hard enough they
declared themselves independent, and by the help of God they
established and have maintained the government which God gave our
forefathers, which is one of the best constitutional governments ever
known among men. One of its chief and prominent characteristics is its
guarantee of religious liberty, permitting every man to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience. This is a sacred right
granted by God himself to all men; and when the rulers or legislators
of any land undertake by enactments of law to step between man and his
God, they by that act become responsible, and must sooner or later be
made to answer for interfering with a divine law. This is the light in
which we regard the position of our own nation in the steps they have
recently taken against us, as a people. However, if I were to express
my feelings to Congress and the leading men of our nation, and to our
enemies and the whole Christian world, I would say, do not weep
for us—and we are sensible of the fact that they will not—but rather
weep for yourselves and your children, for as sure as the Lord lives
the evils that men seek to bring upon us, will return in due time upon
their own heads, heaped up, pressed down and running over. For it is
an eternal law, and a law by which we are governed, that what measure
we mete, shall be measured back to us again. Our nation knows not what
awaits it; the Christian world knows not what awaits it, and the blind
guides that lead the people cannot tell them, and the result will be
that both the people and their guides will fall into the ditch
together.
I will say another thing. The Lord never did bring judgment upon any
people of any generation until he raised up prophets to warn them of
the impending danger. You may read the history of the great and
ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon, Nineveh and Babylon and other cities
that were built to defy all time and every power but that of God; but
when they were ripened in iniquity they were cut off, the Lord raised
up men to warn them and to call upon them to repent; but when they
rejected them the Lord brought judgment upon them and they were cut
off in their sins. And so it will be with our nation and all others,
when they shall be fully warned and they reject the message that is
sent to them. The heavens are full of judgment, and as the prophets
have said, they will commence at the House of the Lord and then go to
the nations of the earth. These things are beginning to make
themselves manifest and the righteous and pure in heart can see it.
I want to see the Latter-day Saints live their religion, keep their
faith and do their duty, and trust in God. And if men persecute you
for the sake of your religion, what can you do? You can go to God, and
make your wants known to him; and that is our duty as Latter-day
Saints. And as to our nation, they, as well as we, are in the hands of
God; and I have nothing to say about them. God will deal with them;
and what they sow they will reap, and he will deal with us upon the
same principle. The history of the ancient inhabitants of this land,
as it has come down to us through the mercy and goodness of God, fully
testifies to this principle; as long as they did what was right the
blessings of God followed them, but after they became disobedient and
wicked the hand of God rested upon them. At times when I reflect upon
the great change that has taken place in our own land in the morals of
the people during my time, I feel in my spirit to mourn and to fear as
to the consequences. I was between 20 and 21 years of age before I
heard of a murder having been committed in the whole of the New
England States. The first murder that was committed in our land from
the time I could remember until I gained my majority, was committed in
New Haven; and I well remember how the news of it shocked all New
England. What effect has such news upon the people of the same region
today? Throughout the whole of Christendom today, murder, whoredom,
blasphemy, and their kindred evils and vices are indulged in, and
unbelief reigns in the hearts of men. Men profess to believe in the
Bible; but confront them with the doctrines and prophecies it
contains, and they will at once either raise a doubt as to their real
meaning or they will openly deny them; and the few that accept
the literal meaning of God's word, and confess him and acknowledge him
in all things, do it at the risk of their reputation, and some of
them, even of their rights as American citizens. What the result of
all this will be is already written; and it will come to pass as sure
as the Lord hath spoken it.
I rejoice in the Gospel of the Son of God as he has revealed it in
this our day; I rejoice in the organization of the church and kingdom
of God, and in the revelations of hea ven. I read them with a great
deal of interest, for I know they are true; and, therefore, I look
forward with assurance to their fulfillment in the earth. We have but a
little time to spend on earth even though we live to be a hundred
years of age, and we have no time to waste. We should live in such a
manner that the Spirit and blessing of God may attend us; and then
when we cease our labors here we shall pass hence to continue them in
the same cause of salvation and redemption, and all will be well with
us. Amen.