If the Lord gives me strength to make myself heard, I shall feel it a
pleasure to occupy a little time this afternoon, accorded to me by my
brethren.
I feel to express unto my heavenly Father, and to my brethren and the
people, my gratitude for their prayers and faith for the blessings of
God to me in permitting me to appear before you on this occasion, and
to feel the degree of health and strength which is vouchsafed to me,
thus enabling me to continue my efforts and labors with my brethren
and the people of God. For some two or three months my health has not
been of such a nature that I could labor with the satisfaction which
has attended me heretofore; and I fully realize what Elder Woodruff
said this morning concerning the aged Elders of Israel passing away,
and that the responsibility and labor of bearing off this kingdom will
soon rest upon the generation which is growing up in our midst, upon
which will devolve the work of carrying the Gospel to those who have
not heard it among the nations of the earth, and gathering Israel and
establishing Zion and building up and maintaining the Kingdom
of our God upon the earth, which must be done through faith, by
righteousness, and by defending and maintaining the rights of man and
the liberty and freedom which God has ordained for the welfare of all
flesh, for the protection and blessing of the human family, and which
it has been His purpose to establish and maintain upon this American
continent. Latter-day Saints, especially those who have grown up with
this people, as I have done from my childhood, and witnessed the
manifestations of the overruling providence of God in guiding the
destinies of this people, inspiring His servants who have led and
directed the movements of this great people, and in defending them and
fighting their battles by the sword of His Spirit, and the invisible
powers that have labored with us and for us—I say to those who are
able to see and comprehend these things, it is clear and plain that
God has had His eye upon this American continent as the place where He
first commenced His great work on the earth, where the greatest
manifestations of His power were exhibited in the days of the fathers
before the flood, when the fathers were gathered in the valley of
Adam-ondi-Ahman and received their last instructions and blessings
from Father Adam, the Patriarch of this earth, and where Enoch
gathered his people and established Zion, and where Noah preached
righteousness to the people and prepared the ark of safety, and where
He has determined ultimately to establish His Zion and gather together
His people, establish, maintain and defend His government and the
Priesthood which he has revealed for the salvation of the human
family, where He will bring again Zion that He has taken away, even
the Zion of Enoch; for when He shall bring again Zion, says the
Prophet, the Lord will appear in His glory. And He has long been
laboring in His own marvelous manner among the nations of the earth,
turning and overturning, to bring to pass His purposes and to gather
together His elect; and He has moved upon the oppressed of many lands
and climes—those who sought for enlarged freedom and liberty and whose
minds reached out for more light and more truth, and whose
understandings were expanded—to gather upon this American continent,
and implanted in the hearts of our fathers a love of freedom and
liberty and equal rights. He led them through schools of oppression.
They passed through many difficulties, and endured the rule of
tyrants. They bore oppression and suffered until they learned how to
appreciate freedom and liberty, and how to detest misrule, tyranny and
oppression; they struggled to burst the shackles that bound the human
soul; they struggled for freedom of thought, of speech, of action;
they struggled unitedly to burst the bonds, to break the yoke, from
off their necks; they vied with each other in this labor of love from
north to south, from east to west, in all the colonies which were
early planted upon this continent. The Lord guided their labors to a
successful issue, resulting in freedom from the tyranny of the effete
governments of the old world; He directed the combined efforts and
labors of those men in consolidating the result of their labors and
framing the system of government under which we are now permitted to
live.
[At this point part of the congregation moved from the body of the Tabernacle to the gallery causing a stay in the proceedings.
Quietness having been obtained the speaker continued.]
I was saying that God our heavenly Father had moved upon the nations
and sent out from the nations of the old world streams of emigration
to the new world, who were panting for freedom and liberty, and who
struggled to burst the bands with which they were bound, and the yoke
from off their necks, and were striving to learn how to be free. And
in penetrating the new world and its wilds, and in grappling with and
overcoming the difficulties attending the forming of new settlements
and planting colonies in the new world, they learned the value of
freedom, and therefore studied to preserve it; and they labored to
establish a form of government under which it might be maintained. In
all these works and labors we discern an overruling providence, and
manifestations of the mercy and loving kindness of God to His people,
and the revelations of His Spirit imparted, to a greater or less
degree, unto the wise and patriotic fathers of our country, who were
thus enabled to unite upon the best form of government existing among
men, or which, perhaps, ever has existed, unless it has been those
which God himself directly revealed through the Patriarchs and
Prophets of older times. But so far as any political organizations of
government upon this earth, the Republican or Democratic form of
government established in these United States—(the foundations of
which were laid by our fathers over a hundred years ago), is the best
calculated to promote the objects sought, and to maintain the rights
of man, and the guarantees of religious and political freedom, of any
form of government known to mankind. But that it or any other form, in
this imperfect and sinful world, is altogether perfect is not to be
expected, and therefore cannot endure forever. But we regard the
present form of government of this nation as embodying the greatest
amount of virtue and principles best calculated to maintain and
preserve the rights of man.
In the early history of this Church a revelation was given through the
Prophet Joseph in which the people are commanded to observe the
Constitutional laws of the land, and to uphold by their votes and
sustain upright and honorable men to administer them; which also
stated that He had inspired the fathers to establish this form of
government for the good and benefit of man. I will read a few
paragraphs found on the 342nd page of the Doctrine and Covenants, new
edition:
"And now, verily I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it
is my will that my people should observe to do all things whatsoever I
command them.
"And that the law of the land which is constitutional,
supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and
privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
"Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in
befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;
"And as pertaining to the law of man, whatsoever is more or less than
this, cometh of evil.
"I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore ye are free indeed; and the
law also maketh you free.
"Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.
"Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for dili gently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold;
otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil."
I deem it of much importance that these principles should be well
understood and thoroughly impressed upon the minds of the Latter-day
Saints throughout the world, and especially those dwelling upon this
American continent and within the pale of this government, that they
may implant in the hearts of our children a love of freedom and human
rights, and a desire to preserve them, and to aid in maintaining and
defending them in all lawful and proper ways; and to study the
constitutional laws of the land, and make others acquainted with them;
knowing the principles contained therein, and of learning how to apply
them to ourselves, to our children, and to our fellow men who are
willing to be governed thereby; study them that we may also learn how
to use them in suppressing tyranny, misrule and other evils that
affect mankind; for God has ordained this form of government in this
age of the world, and has chosen His own instruments to further His
great purposes on the earth—the organization of his Church, the
proclamation of the everlasting Gospel, the establishment of His Zion,
and bringing to pass His wonderful works which He predicted by the
mouths of the ancient Prophets. And this political system and order of
government is a power in His hands established, preserved and defended
thus far by Him, which He will continue to use as long as the people
are worthy of it, as long as they will maintain their integrity,
uprightness and virtue; and at no time will the Latter-day Saints, as
a people, ever stand approved before God in violating those principles
or slackening their efforts to maintain and defend them. They are
closely allied to the teachings of the ancient Prophets and Apostles,
to the doctrines, practices and teachings of the Savior and His
disciples, and they are the best means and aids of extending and
promoting those principles on the earth. Whatever some may have
thought of the maladministration in our government and of the efforts
of individuals and sometimes of large factions, to abridge the rights
of the people, and of their blind zeal and efforts to reach the
Latter-day Saints, and to stamp out the religion we profess—whatever
may have been thought of the efforts of such individuals, cliques, or
factions, and of their warfare against us; and who in that warfare
trample under foot constitutional provisions of our
Government—undermine the foundations upon which it rests—we must never
in our feelings charge any of these things to this system of
government, or to the principles enunciated is the Constitution, which
we are commanded to observe and keep. We must charge it always where
it belongs—to the bigotry, the ignorance, the selfishness, ambition
and blind zeal of ignorant and corrupt politicians, their aiders and
abettors, and all this should only serve to make us try more
earnestly, anxiously and faithfully to combat such efforts upon
constitutional grounds, calling upon God to help us therein.
We were told this morning by Brother Woodruff—quoting the word of the
Lord given through the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning the promises He
has made to His people—that inasmuch as we will be true to ourselves,
true to God, true to our covenants and to our holy religion, that He
will fight our battles, defend and maintain our cause, make it
triumph and flourish, so that the wicked shall have no power to
prevail against us. These promises have often been repeated to us, and
last October we had a renewal of this assurance and this promise in
the word of the Lord given unto us through His servant President John
Taylor, and at a time and period, too, when many in our midst were
weakening and their knees were beginning to tremble a little, and
there were others who were inclined to falter and doubt, and fear was
upon some. Our enemies—especially the bigot, the hypocrite, the
demagogue, the political quacks of the country—rejoiced, thinking that
they were succeeding in their efforts to weave webs around us, to
forge fetters for our feet and yokes to place upon our necks, and to
lash us into obedience to them. But the great majority of the
Latter-day Saints were calm in their feelings as a summer's morning,
trusting as they have ever done in the promises of God, inspired with
faith and hope in his overruling providence; and while we were doing
what we might do properly under the Constitution and institutions of
our country for the maintenance of our freedom and liberty, leaving
the rest with God, exercising faith in His promises, continuing to
pray for His blessing to attend our efforts and to hedge up the ways
of our enemies; yet we have waited calmly for the result of the
promises of God, and the answer to our prayers and the fulfillment of
those things that have been spoken to us; and how signally have we
seen them fulfilled. We have seen the very means which the enemies of
this people have devised, and intended for their enslavement become
before us as chaff, as thorns crackling under the pot, as a broken
yoke to be used to kindle the fires of freedom and liberty. In former
times the efforts that have been made in Congress and out of Congress
to press the representatives of the people to hostile and
unconstitutional legislation as a means to help religious bigots to
suppress the doctrines of Christ, the ordinances of life and
salvation, the rule and reign of righteousness among the people of
God—I say, in their efforts to reach our religious principles and
faith, and the exercise of those principles under that faith, and to
crush it out from the earth—in their efforts to do so, they have moved
upon statesmen to violate the Constitution of our country and the
principles of human freedom on which our government has been founded
in order to accomplish this purpose. But all those who have thus
stultified themselves before the world, and before the heavens, and
have done violence to their oath of office and to the Constitution,
to the rights of man, and to the principles of freedom and liberty,
have weakened, have gone down, the scepter of their power has fallen
from their grasp, they have been dishonored before the heavens and
before their people as a rule, and sooner or later we will witness
others going down into the pit of forgetfulness as their predecessors
have done. For the Lord has decreed it. And today the young men of
Israel who are assembling in their Improvement Associations in all the
Stakes of Zion, in all the Wards and settlements of the people
throughout the land, and in their quorum meetings, and in their
political assemblies, are all learning and cultivating these
principles of liberty in their minds, introducing and extending them
among the rising generation, the sons of Zion, and not only
the sons, but the daughters that are coupled with the sons, the wives
that are coupled with the husbands, in this labor of love, the
struggle for the maintenance of freedom and liberty. It is a source of
satisfaction to me that the Lord has moved upon His servants and the
Legislature of our Territory to be among the first to lead the van of
human progress in the extension of the elective franchise to women as
well as men, and to recognize the freedom and liberty which belongs to
the fairer sex as well as the sterner; for the Gospel teaches that all
things are to be done among us by common consent, and the Prophet
Joseph commanded and introduced in our midst the custom we are
following today, that of presenting to all the congregations of
Israel, at our General Conferences, and our local or Stake
Conferences, the General Authorities of the Church, to be justified or
condemned by the voice of the people, to be upheld and sustained by
the confidence, faith and prayers of the people; or otherwise to be
reproved by the votes of the people for their misdeeds or
maladministration. These are things continually before the people, as
well as the revelations which God has given unto us, and which are
written and taught in our Sabbath schools and public gatherings, and
to all who come within the scope of these instructions, viz., a love
of freedom and liberty.
The leaders of this people are charged with being blind, leaders of
the blind; and the people are charged with being blind, led by the
blind. I deny the charge and brand it false. We know and understand
perfectly that our leaders are neither blind nor are the people blind.
On the contrary, we have received the light, the light of truth, the
light of God. We have come to the understanding that every soul of
man, both male and female, high and low, is the offspring of God, that
their spirits are immortal, eternal, intelligent beings, and that
their entity depends upon their agency and independent action, which
is neither trammeled by God himself nor allowed to be restrained by
any of His creatures with His sanction and approval; that the whole
theory of God's rule and government in heaven and on earth is founded
upon this principle of agency—self, independent action. And it is upon
the free and independent exercise of this agency that the decree of
God is founded, that all men shall be judged according to the deeds
done in the body, none having it in his power to say that he was not
at liberty to exercise this agency untrammeled.
So far as relates to the administration of government and the exercise
of political power, or the exercise of any manner of
influence—political, religious or social—every man and every woman
will be held accountable to God for the manner in which they exercise
it. Kings and emperors, presidents and statesmen, judges and all
officers of the law, will be held responsible for the administration
of the power reposed in them. And if, while acting officially, they
disregard their oath of office and violate the principles that should
govern them, they become guilty of maladministration, and will be
held accountable unto God, and should be strictly accountable to the
people who place them in power. But every individual, in an individual
capacity, will be held answerable to God for all his acts of
whatsoever character, and so far as, in the exercise of that agency,
men trespass upon the rights of their fel low men they must be
held answerable to their fellow men for such trespass and wrong. And
for this purpose human government is instituted, approved by the
people, to hold each other responsible unto each other or unto the
community, for the abuse of their freedom and liberty, and for this
purpose laws are enacted and judges provided to judge according to the
law, and to administer the law when it becomes necessary to punish
transgressors. And God has commanded us in the revelation which He
gave to us, that in case Church members violate a law of the land,
they shall be delivered up to be dealt with according to the law of
the land; that if they shall murder, rob or steal, or commit perjury
or any other crime of which the law of the land takes cognizance, they
shall be delivered up to be dealt with for their offense. But that for
all manner of iniquity they shall be delivered up to the law of God to
be dealt with according to the law of God; and those laws which are
given unto you, as the laws of God, for your government in the Church
must be treated as such. And it becomes our duty as good Saints, as
those that are bound together by the ties and in the fellowship of the
Gospel, as those that have covenanted to serve God and to keep his
commandments, to work righteously and to deal justly one with another,
that if we violate the principles of the Gospel and the laws which God
has given unto us, that we shall be delivered up to the judges in
Israel, and the Teachers shall labor with such, and their labors of
love shall be directed earnestly to the reformation and repentance of
all persons that have done wrong and done violence to the feelings,
faith and fellowship of their brethren and sisters. And for every
manner of sin shall they be held accountable unto the Councils of the
Church, to the Bishops who are common judges in Israel; and to the
High Councils. And though we may succeed in winning them to
repentance, and they turn away from evil and will do so no more, and
succeed in eliciting the sympathy and forgiveness of their brethren,
still, if they have violated a law of the land, they must be made
subject to that law, and to endure the penalty. And if they pay the
penalty with patience, which is but the legitimate fruits and
testimony of genuine repentance, satisfying all that they appreciate
their wrong and determine to do so no more, when the penalty is paid,
they may with renewed determination begin to serve their God, and
prove to their brethren that their repentance was genuine and sincere.
And although we are required to forgive all men, God says that He
reserves to Himself the right to forgive whomsoever He will, because
he searches all hearts and knows, as we cannot know, how far their
repentance is genuine, and how far they ought to be forgiven. It is
important that we as Latter-day Saints, understand what God requires
of us towards each other in the Church of Christ, and also what He
requires of us towards the State. For the constitutional laws of the
land are for the protection of the rights of all flesh; the liberties
of Saints as well as those of sinners. And if sinners can afford to
dishonor the law, surely Saints cannot, neither can they justify
others in so doing; neither can Saints afford to override the laws of
God, or to wink at others who may do so.
God will not hold us faultless if we do. He requires us as Elders, as
Apostles, as Presidents, as Bishops, as Seventies, as parents,
to teach (wherever it is our prerogative and duty), correct
principles, and observe them ourselves and seek to enforce them upon
others. And it is not alone the duty of High Councils and Presidents
of Stakes, and of Bishops and their Counselors to labor to correct the
errors of the people, but it is the duty of every Elder, High Priest
and Seventy—and especially the Priests, Teachers and Deacons that are
appointed and called to be standing ministers in the Church, to visit
the house of each member and become familiar with every family, and
every individual member of the family, and their daily walk and life
and conversation; and ascertain whether they are living as Saints
should live; whether the heads of families preside in righteousness in
their houses; whether their houses are set in order; whether they have
an altar erected whereon are offered up their daily, morning and
evening devotions; whether every member is taught to reverence and
respect that altar; whether each individual prays in secret as well as
responds to the calls made upon him to pray in the family circle and
in public; whether each one that has enrolled himself in a quorum
attends his quorum meetings and is obedient to the President of his
quorum, his counsels and instructions; and if they are enrolled in the
Mutual Improvement Associations, whether they sustain that institution
and the leaders thereof, and are performing well their part; whether
the parents are faithful in sending their children to Sunday school
and to other institutions of learning; whether they teach their
children to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, etc. These are
duties and obligations that we cannot ignore, that God will not
justify us in neglecting, and those who are called to bear a part of
the holy Priesthood cannot be justified if they neglect all these
duties, or any portion of them; for the Lord has said, "blessed are
they who hear my sayings and shall keep them all, for the same shall
be great in the kingdom of heaven; but if anyone shall fail or
neglect to observe and keep the least of these my sayings and teach
others to do so, the same shall be least in the kingdom of heaven."
For the Lord is not to be mocked; and though we may excuse ourselves
in many ways for carelessness and neglect, and we may supplicate for
forgiveness, as we are in duty bound to do for all our transgressions
and shortcomings, yet we cannot in any wise plead justification, or
suppose that God will justify us, for He has said He cannot look upon
sin with the least degree of allowance, and yet He showeth mercy and
kindness unto thousands of those who repent and seek to turn away from
their follies.
Over fifty years have passed away since the light of the glorious
Gospel in its fullness began to dawn upon us, and still we are
measurably walking in darkness. Yet the Lord has said that we are the
only people and the only church—speaking as a whole—upon the face of
the earth with which He is well pleased. As a whole we are the best
people He can find. He has sent out His word throughout the earth. He
has sent His servants abroad carrying, as it were, a torch in their
hand—the light of the Gospel, inviting all to come to it, that as
many as love the light may see it and follow it as one would follow a
light in a dark place, or until the dawn of day. The Holy Spirit has
been upon His servants and in the gathering together of this people.
It is the Holy Ghost that has moved upon the people in the
islands of the sea, in all the different nations of Europe, in the
various parts of America, and in all lands where the light of the
Gospel has been carried and the testimony of Jesus has been sounded.
It is the testimony of the Spirit from on high bearing witness to and
moving upon the hearts of the people that has drawn them into the
light of truth and that has gathered them together with the Church of
Jesus Christ. It was not worldly prospects held out before them that
induced them to gather. I speak now of the people as a whole and not
individually; for there may be individuals who have been influenced by
worldly considerations, by personal, selfish motives. But all such,
sooner or later, get their eyes open and see their folly and sin and
wickedness, and repent, or they are purged out from among the
Latter-day Saints. They apostatize, they turn away from us; they go
back into Babylon, and they strike hands with our enemies and fight
against God, and go down into perdition; for none can remain and
continue to stand among the Saints of God, and hold fast to the
principles of the Gospel, and enter into life only on the pure
principles of virtue, integrity and righteousness, as we heard this
morning, and as we are told by the Lord in certain revelations to the
Church, namely, that the powers of the Priesthood are inseparably
connected with the powers of heaven, and the powers of heaven can in
no wise be used except on the principles of righteousness. And no man
or woman can continue long in sin in the midst of the Saints, where
the Gospel is preached in power, and where those who minister, do so
in the power of their Priesthood and by the Holy Ghost, without being
purged out from their midst. For that spirit will reveal and make
manifest what sort they are. If the law of the Lord is properly
administered among them and they are found violating it they will be
judged according to the law of the Lord, and be separated from the
Saints. And although we do not look for entire separation of the sheep
from the goats, of the tares from the wheat, until the Great Judge
Himself shall come to complete the separation, it is nevertheless
expected that all men who act as judges in Israel should be helps in
separating the sheep from the goats, the tares from the wheat, as fast
as they are made manifest, and the tares may be plucked up without
destroying the wheat; and it becomes our duty to do it. But He enjoins
us to be wise lest we in our zeal and anxiety destroy or pluck up some
of the wheat that may be growing under the shade of the tare, whose
roots may be intermingled with it. We must therefore be prudent. It is
better in some instances to allow the tare to remain until its
character be more fully developed and made manifest, until it can be
plucked up without endangering the wheat.
I testify unto all Israel, and unto all the world, that God has called
us, and required us to observe and practice these things; and that it
is not the work of man, and that the institutions of this Church are
not the institutions of man. And when we speak of the institutions of
our common country, we say in the main, though God has used man in
instituting this form of government, and in establishing its
institutions and maintaining freedom upon this land, they are
nevertheless the institutions of heaven; and God has revealed unto us
that He did estab lish them by the hands of wise men, whom He
raised up for that special purpose, and redeemed the land by the
shedding of blood. It is therefore part of His great work, as much so
as the part of revealing the keys of the Priesthood to Joseph, and the
ordinances thereof, for the salvation of His people. For the political
organization upon the land was designed by heaven to be a protection
to the righteous. "But," says one, "is it not designed to protect the
wicked?" No, not in wicked acts, but in their freedom and liberty, to
think and to speak and to act, and to choose for themselves; for in
those rights all must be protected. God has always protected them,
both in heaven and on earth. And he designed that all men should
protect one another, and if necessary be united for the protection and
welfare of all flesh. Not that the laws of the land or the laws of God
will protect the wicked in doing wickedly, but on the contrary, will
condemn and judge them. They are left to choose for themselves their
course of life in exercising their agency in all things pertaining to
themselves and the service of their God, and to use freedom and
liberty in doing good, that which is right; but there is no such thing
as liberty to do wrong and be justified in that wrong, neither on
earth nor in heaven, neither by the laws of God, nor the just laws of
man.
Now, the Supreme Court of the United States, in its great zeal to
establish and maintain monogamy upon this American continent, and to
strike a blow at the patriarchal order of marriage, believed in by the
Latter-day Saints, in its decision in the Reynolds' case announced the
doctrine that religion consists in thought and matters of faith and
concerning matters of faith, and not actions, and the government is
restrained by the terms of the Constitution from any efforts to
curtail this freedom and liberty. Wonderful doctrine! A wonderful
strain of judicial thought to announce to the world, this wonderful
doctrine that the government should not attempt to restrain the
exercise of thought, or the exercise of faith! I would like somebody,
that knows how to defend this doctrine, to tell me how any one man, or
any set of men on the earth could go to work and catch a thought and
chain it up and imprison it, or stop its flight, or root it out of the
heart, or restrain it, or do away with it. Let them go to and try to
chain the lightning, stop the sun from shining, stop the rains from
descending and the mist from arising from the ocean, and when they
have done this, they may talk about restraining men's faith, and
exercising control over the thoughts and faith of the people. The
fathers who framed our Constitution were not such dunces, I am happy
to say, as Attorney General Devens, who put that nonsensical language
and doctrine into the mouths of the chief justices of the Supreme
Court of the United States—the fathers who framed our Constitution, I
say, were not such dunces, they did not attempt to place
constitutional restrictions upon the lawmaking power, to restrain
them from interference with faith and thought and the exercise of
religious opinion; but they did attempt, and they did it in plain
language, to restrain the lawmaking power from any effort at making
law for the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof. And the exercise of religion implies something more
than mere faith and thought. I may think about being baptized for the remission of my sins, I may believe it is right I should do
it, I may be convinced that God has required it of me, and I may think
I ought to do it, and think I will; but all this faith and all this
thought don't amount to as much as you can put in your eye, until I
arise and go forth to be baptized, and when I do this, then I exercise
the faith which is in me, and it produces the works. This principle
may be equally true of everything else pertaining to the exercise of
religion. I may believe it is right for me to be enrolled with a
religious community that meets to worship, and I may believe it is
right and a religious duty to meet with them from time to time to
celebrate the supper of the Lord and partake of bread and wine, and
when I partake of the bread and of the wine in commemoration of the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, it is but the exercise of that faith
which is in me. I may believe that God meant what he said when He gave
that general commandments to His children to multiply and replenish
the earth, and I may think about it; but it is my duty, if I want to
raise potatoes, to plant the seed; if I desire to raise fruit I must
go to and plant the fruit trees; if I desire to cultivate the earth I
must use the proper means necessary to cultivate and improve it before
I can gather the fruits of it. And then to do the other thing, to form
a union as God has enjoined in the holy bond of matrimony, we must
enter into that bond for the purpose of multiplying our species and
thus bring forth the fruits of our bodies. I may believe this
doctrine, as contained in the revelations of God; but what will this
amount to unless I exercise myself in it. I shall remain a bachelor,
worse than a hermit—a parasite in the commonwealth—unless I rise up
and put my faith in practice and exercise myself in my religious
belief.
I say also, when the time comes that God sees in the midst of His
people an increase of the female element, and the wicked ready to
devour that element and appropriate it not in the way to "multiply and
replenish the earth," but for the gratification of fleshly lust, and
will actually take and employ hellish means to prevent the increase of
their species, and show that they are not only beneath the brute, but
beneath the vegetable creation, by refusing to bear fruit, thereby
placing themselves in the category of the trees that are dried up, fit
only to be cast into the fire, he can take measures to counteract this
evil. And I say before God, angels and men, that every man and woman
who joins in unholy wedlock for the gratification of fleshly lust, and
studiously plan to frustrate the command of God in the multiplication
of their species, show that they are unworthy—what shall I
say?—unworthy to be classed among the honorable of the earth. And we
have reason to believe that many have done, and are today, in the
great cities of Babylon, taking steps to destroy their own offspring,
committing infanticide and feticide, all of whom, and their aiders
and abettors, are but ripening for the damnation of hell. And when God
sees this damnable doctrine taught, and taught by such men as Mr.
Henry Ward Beecher and other modern divines falsely so-called, who
teach the world that it is a positive evil to multiply and increase so
greatly in the land—when such doctrine is taught by leading lights,
and so readily accepted by the masses, the Lord says, the time has
come for Him to take measures to counteract this great evil, by
introducing laws in the midst of those who fear Him and work
righteousness and live according to the principles of life; men who
are upright, honest and faithful, men who are willing to assume the
responsibility; to take the daughters of Eve to wife and multiply and
replenish the earth, for those men are unworthy of them. It is as
Jesus said concerning the man who hid it in a napkin; he laid it
carefully away, and by and by brought it out, saying, here it is as I
received it, not having increased at all; in other words, we are just
where we were when we started. Another one says I received two
talents; and have increased to four, another says I received five
talents, and now have ten: the master says to the one who hid his
talent, who perhaps laid it carefully away and kept it nice, watching
over it with the greatest care; or in other words, to him who did not
multiply and increase, but on the contrary took pains to avoid doing
so, "Take from him that which he seems to have and give to him that
has ten; for he that has and improves upon that which he receives,
shall receive more abundantly."
May God bless and keep us in the way in which He can sustain and
defend us, and lead us onward, as He has done hitherto, is my prayer,
in the name of Jesus. Amen.