I have been extremely interested this morning in listening to the
very excellent remarks of Brother Cannon. I feel that in answer to the
desires and prayers of the congregation the Lord has blessed Brother
Cannon in his remarks, and that through him He has made plain many
very important truths and principles, upon which it will be well for
the congregation to reflect and to treasure up in their hearts.
My mind was led to reflect, while Brother Cannon was speaking, upon
the inconsistency, harshness and unreasonableness of the world in
their attitude towards us as a people, and upon the manner in which
they have sought to deal with what they term "the Mormon Question."
The words of the Savior in relation to the hatred of the world towards
the people of God flashed through my mind: "If ye were of the world,
the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but
I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
Jesus and His disciples were everywhere spoken against. Everybody,
almost, reviled them. When Jesus cast out devils, it was said to have
been done by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils; that He
healed the sick by the same power; that He restored the sight of the
blind by the same power; and all the works of mercy and charity which
He performed were attributed to the power of Satan. It is very much
the same in this dispensation. No matter how good you may be—you who
profess to be Latter-day Saints—no matter how virtuous you may be, you
are set down by the world as adulterers. No matter how honest you may
be, you are called dishonest. No matter how innocent you may be of all
the crimes that are known, the sectarian world declare you are unfit
to live because of your corruptions and abominations. No
matter how charitable you may be, they claim that you lack the
elements of charity and of mercy. Consequently they think it behooves
them, and "the powers that be," to move against you for your
destruction. It was for this reason that the Congress of the United
States, a little while ago, was compelled, by an influence and a power
that it could not, or dare not resist, to pass a most
unconstitutional, a most unjust and wicked act for the purpose of
depriving an innocent and unoffending people of their legitimate
rights—rights that belong to them under the constitution of our
country.
Have we sought to injure anybody? Have we sought to deprive any people
of their rights? Have we sought to tear down or to destroy any part of
the earth? Are the vile charges that are made against us true? No,
they are not. You know they are not. There is not a man or a woman
under the sound of my voice this morning but know as they know they
live, that the charges that are made against the Latter-day Saints are
false. They say that we have been, in years past, in the habit of
committing murder! We are charged with having murdered strangers that
came amongst us! We are charged with having murdered apostate Mormons
because they had apostatized from us! We are charged with oppressing
the people, and with keeping them under tyranny! And those who make
these charges claim that it is because of their influence in Utah—the
influence of the world—of the public press—the presence in our midst
of officers of the law who have been sent by the President of the
United States to rule over us; that this murderous propensity, and
this power for evil that has here tofore been exhibited by the
Latter-day Saints, have been checked!
Now, who is there that is acquainted with the history of Utah, or with
the history of this people, but know that all these things that have
been villainously charged against this people are libelous and as
false as hell. Who does not know that such a reign of terror never did
exist in Utah or among this people anywhere? I came to Utah in 1848; I
have been a resident among this people from my childhood; I have been
cognizant of nearly everything that has transpired of a public
character among the Latter-day Saints for the last 30 years, and I am
a witness and can and do bear my testimony that all these charges are
false, and that the people today are a fair example of what they have
always been from the beginning. Who of you are murderers? Who of you,
professing to be Latter-day Saints, are thieves and robbers? Who of
you, professing the same thing, are adulterers and whoremongers? Who
of you, professing to be Latter-day Saints, curse and swear and
blaspheme the name of God? Who of you would oppress your neighbor or
would rob him of his rights? Who of you, professing to be Latter-day
Saints, would not be ready to protect the rights and to maintain the
liberties of the stranger within our gates as you would to protect
your own rights or those of your neighbor? Is not this the case
today? Yes. Was it ever different to this? Was there ever a different
condition of things existed in the midst of this people? You very well
know that there never was. Men who have done wrong in times past have
been held accountable for their acts to the law by the officers of the
law. Men who today are ungovernable and commit crimes are amenable to the law and must answer for their crimes. This has always
been the case. The Gospel net has gathered of every kind. But is a
whole community to be held responsible for individuals whose
propensities lead them to commit crimes? If we are to be judged upon
that principle, who will be exempt from the same judgment? If God
should judge the world in this manner He would execute the whole
world—none would be exempt. I think as a community or as communities,
we will compare favorably with any on the face of the earth. I think
there will be found far less crime among the Latter-day Saints than
may be found in other communities of like numbers anywhere else. I
believe there is less crime, less wickedness, less drunkenness, and
fewer offenses of any kind among the Latter-day Saints than can be
found among any other people of equal numbers in the world. And in
saying this I am not boasting of the Latter-day Saints; for, surely,
if we are Latter-day Saints, crime and wickedness should have no part
in us. No man professing to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints should be guilty of anything that would cause
the blush of shame to appear in the face. On the contrary we ought
to live above suspicion; we ought to live free from crime, free from
wickedness and sin of every description. Therefore, to say that the
Latter-day Saints are the best people I know of in the world is not
saying anything more than should be said and can be said honestly and
truthfully. We ought not to be guilty of sin. The teachings of the
servants of God have been toward righteousness, honesty and virtue,
and towards everything that is calculated to elevate and ennoble
mankind. This has been the burden of the teaching of the servants of
God from the day that the Church was organized until the present time;
and if the Latter-day Saints are not the best people upon the earth,
it is because they have not hearkened to the counsel that has been
given them.
Why, then, should we be proscribed? Why, then, should the people of
the world malign us and seek to blacken our names and our characters?
Why should they seek to bring persecution and evil upon us? The answer
is to be found in the words of the Savior. "I have chosen you out of
the world, and therefore the world hate you." So long as you maintain
the principles of the Gospel; so long as you defend and practice the
principles of virtue, of truth and of righteousness; so long as you
stand by the doctrines of Christ, which have been revealed through
Joseph the Prophet, through Brigham Young, the Prophet, and through
President Taylor and the oracles of God; so long the world will be
arrayed against you, so long they will hate you and will seek to bring
evil upon you unless they repent. There is no question about it. Many
people will not be convinced. Brother Cannon has alluded to people who
visit us. They may be favorably impressed upon some points; but still
they retain in their hearts a prejudice they have received concerning
us, and they carry it away with them notwithstanding what they see.
This is according to what Jesus said. They have eyes, but they see
not; they have ears, but they hear not; they have hearts but they do
not understand. It is also said that "there are none so deaf as those
who will not hear, and none so blind as those who will not see." Many
of those who visit Utah, come filled with such an amount of
prejudice that they will not allow their senses to be convinced of the
truth. Hence they go away as prejudiced as when they came.
Nevertheless, when men come with their minds divested of prejudice,
who can see and are disposed to see, and are liberal-minded enough to
look at things in their true light, they do in a measure get correct
views and ideas in relation to us. A few such men have come to Utah,
and gone away enlightened, and have told the truth to the world. But
notwithstanding they tell the truth they are generally disbelieved as
we are when we tell it. We would naturally suppose that a man like
Judge Black, who on legal matters was an authority in the world, would
be believed; but the moment that man, with all his talent and
prestige, stood up in the halls of Congress and undertook to reason
upon the constitutional rights of the people called Latter-day Saints,
he was denounced and the soundness of his conclusions questioned by
judges, lawyers and statesmen. He was held up to ridicule because he
dared to discourse upon the constitutional rights of the people called
Latter-day Saints. And it has been so with everybody else that has
dared to speak a word in favor of the people of God having their
rights. It was so with those who dared to speak in favor of the Son of
God and His disciples. Those who dared to do so were considered
unworthy of being believed on oath; their testimony could not be
received; they were partial. And it has become so in relation to this
people. Let any man lift up his voice in the defense of the people of
God, and he will at once be denounced by a certain influential class
and his influence among that class of people who seem bent upon
persecuting the Latter-day Saints will wane, no matter how much they
may have honored his counsels prior to that.
Will this continue to be the case? Yes, more and more; for as we
increase in union, in faith, intelligence, and in political and
religious influence, the hatred of the wicked will increase against
us. Then will the heathen rage and the wicked imagine a vain thing;
and their efforts to destroy us will proportionately increase. But
will they succeed? Will they accomplish their desires? Just in
proportion as they have done it hitherto, and no more. When they drove
the Latter-day Saints out of Missouri, and had the Prophet and his
companions confined in Liberty Jail, the world rejoiced in the belief
that the backbone of "Mormonism" was broken. But they had reckoned
without their host. They had not based their calculations upon the
facts. The sequel proves that they had committed a grand mistake.
Notwithstanding that General Clark, on the square in Far West, said to
Joseph and his companions, that their doom was sealed and their die
was cast, they were reckoning without their host. They had not
calculated upon the power of God in these matters. They simply thought
they had Joseph Smith in their power, and that by destroying him they
would destroy "Mormonism." But the Lord delivered him from his
enemies. And from Missouri he came to Illinois. "Mormonism" —as it is
called in the world—from being a village grew into a city—the City of
Nauvoo, one of the most beautiful cities in the west of America. We
became possessed of chartered rights, and wielded an influence which
controlled the county of Hancock, in the State of Illinois, and which materially affected the political status of other counties
surrounding. We grew from a handful to an armful, and then the rage of
the enemy was again stirred up until they finally succeeded in taking
the lives of the servants of God, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum.
At this they rejoiced and congratulated each other, and concluded that
they had done a good thing. "Mormonism" would now cease to trouble the
world? But again they had reckoned without their host. Again they had
based their calculations upon false premises. They had not considered
the power connected with this work. They had not contemplated the
nature of the power of God. From Nauvoo we were thrust out into the
wilderness, but we sought out and located in Utah by the guidance of
the Almighty. As Brother George A. Smith used to say, "We came
willingly because we were obliged to." We had no other place to go to.
But so far as accomplishing the object they had in view—the
destruction of "Mormonism" —we know that they failed. From a city we
have grown to a Territory in the United States, and we have been able
to honestly control the Territorial government despite the desires,
the cunning, the craftiness, and all the fraudulent efforts of our
enemies.
Now, if it was difficult for the world to deal with the question of
"Mormonism" in 1838, it was still more difficult for them to deal with
it in 1844. If it was difficult for them to deal with and handle this
"Mormon Question," as they call it, in 1846, when the people were made
wandering outcasts upon the desert; I say, if it was a difficult thing
for the Government of the United States and for the enemies of this
people to deal with the "Mormon Question" then, is it not a far more
difficult question for them to deal with today? As they turn over the
wall, lo! It becomes higher and broader than it was before. As they
kick the mustard plant? Lo! The seed is scattered, and it takes root
and springs forth and increases on every hand. Every effort of our
enemies has utterly failed. Let them continue their efforts. Let them
do their worst. God Almighty is at the helm, and if they can succeed
in turning over the wall again they will find that it has grown larger
since they last tipped it over. But they do not want us to grow in
political power. They do not want us to be, religiously or otherwise,
a separate and distinct people from the rest of the world. They want
us to become identified and mixed up with the rest of the world, to
become like them, thereby thwarting the purposes of God. They hate our
union; but they apparently do not sense that persecution has a
tendency only to make us more united.
Well, it is for us to live our religion. Let us attend to our duties
as Latter-day Saints. Let us continue to be humble and faithful before
God. And if the time should ever come when the Lord will see fit to
allow our enemies to drive us from our present homes, the result will
be similar to what it was when they drove us out of Nauvoo. They will
drive us from the Territory of Utah into a half a dozen of States, and
we may possibly take possession of them all. They won't believe me,
and they won't believe the Elders of the Church when they tell them
these things plainly. They won't believe us any more than they would
believe Joseph Smith in his day, or Brigham Young in his day. But what
these inspired men said is coming to pass. Every word that
they uttered in relation to the building up of Zion, and to the
progress of the kingdom of God upon the earth will be fulfilled, and
not one jot or tittle will fail. You and I as individuals may fail,
but the work of God cannot fail. It is His work. He hath decreed its
consummation, and no power on earth or in hell can alter the decree.
The work is marching forward, and if we do not keep pace with it, we
must eventually be left behind. Better far for us to keep up with the
rank and file, and to walk shoulder to shoulder with the authorities
of the Church; with those who have the spirit of the Gospel in their
hearts; with those in whose bones burn the fire of truth and the
testimony of Jesus Christ, who are continually exhorting the people to
be diligent in keeping the commandments of God. We should do what is
right. We should be virtuous, honorable and charitable, and we should
be liberal in our hearts to all mankind. We can afford to be liberal.
We have received that which pertains to eternal growth, to eternal
increase, to eternal happiness; we have received that which pertains
to dominion, and power, and glory and to thrones and principalities.
Freely we have received, and freely we can afford to give; for in
giving we do not diminish our own store. We can afford, therefore, to
exclaim (in relation to our enemies), "Father, forgive them; for they
know not what they do." We can afford to have sympathy for them, to
beseech God in the name of Jesus, to have mercy upon them, for they
know not the consequences of their acts. It is for us to work
righteousness; for, as President Young remarked in the Temple at St.
George, in 1877, the more righteous we are, the more united we are;
the more diligent we are in keeping the commandments of God, the less
will be the power of our enemies; their power will diminish in
proportion to our faithfulness. Yet our enemies will rage and their
anger will increase against the work of the Lord; and I presume it is
a true saying, that "whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."
The heathen—the so-called Christian nations—will become mad with rage
against the Latter-day Saints; and thus the world will go on until
they are ripened for destruction. We can afford to be calm and patient
and await God's deliverance; for we know that He is our friend; that
He is on the side of the righteous; and that He will bring them off
triumphant if they continue faithful, which may the Lord grant in the
name of Jesus. Amen.
- Joseph F. Smith