(CONCLUDED FROM VOLUME XXIV, PAGE 376, JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES.)
All that is necessary on our part is to fear God and keep his
commandments—to be brave and loyal and true to the cause that He has
established upon the earth—to live such lives of purity as shall
enlist heaven in our behalf. That is all that is necessary for us as
individuals, or as a people, to do. God is doing a great work among
us, much greater than many of us imagine. We do not see Him, but He is
nevertheless in our midst. We do not see Jesus, but He is nevertheless
in our midst. We do not see angels, but they are nevertheless in our
midst. God is working to get this people to the perfection that He
desires them to attain. We are building Temples. Who shall enter these
Temples when completed? Shall the adulterer? Shall the whoremonger?
Shall the thief? Shall the drunkard? Shall the blasphemer? Shall the
Sabbath breaker? Shall the men who defile themselves by the sins of
the world enter therein and receive all those precious blessings that
God has to bestow? Ask yourselves who shall enter therein. I tell you,
my brethren and sisters, that God demands of us a holiness of life
that we cannot conceive of at the present time; but there are duties
we can conceive of, that we should attend to. We should put away
sin far from us. We should live so that our God will be very near to
us. And we should encourage faith in our hearts.
There is a class of people who have been disfranchised because they
have chosen to obey the word of God; they have been excluded from the
polls, excluded from office, and another class of Latter-day Saints
are now in possession of the offices. Shall those who have not obeyed
the law of God as perfectly as their brethren and sisters—shall they
look down upon those who have obeyed that law and say: "You have been
put out of office; we have chosen the better part; we have done that
which has resulted in the most good; and if it had not been that we
were reluctant to obey that law, this Territory today would not be in
the hands of the Latter-day Saints?" Shall that be the expression of
feeling on the part of those who have been, for various reasons,
prevented from obeying the fullness of the law of God? Woe! to this
people if that were to be the feeling. I bear my testimony this day
that God has commanded us, His servants, to obey His law, and I would
not, for all this world, for all its honors, and for everything that
is within the power of man to bestow—I would not be in any other
condition than the one I am in, so far as that law is concerned. I
dare not risk my salvation outside of obedience to that law. There may
be men who will get into the celestial kingdom who have not obeyed
that law—God will be their judge—but I dare not put myself in that
position; I dare not risk my eternal salvation and exaltation on any
such contingency as that. The law has been revealed. The moment the
revelation was published and it came to my knowledge, it became a
command to me—though I was not mentioned personally—and I accepted it
as such. I have obeyed it as such, believing in my heart that God will
save and exalt all those who perfectly carry it out. It is the hatred
of that principle among others, that creates excitement. Yet, by that
principle, God has designed to accomplish His purposes on the earth,
and to redeem His people from the evils which afflict mankind at the
present day. The other agencies that are at work among men today, are
complete failures. What has all Christendom done towards stopping or
arresting the progress of prostitution? All the preachers combined
have no more effect upon it than the whistling of the wind. It
increases and spreads. And who shall deliver mankind from that sin and
dreadful train of evils? There is nothing that can do so but the power of
God, the commandments of God, and the revelations of God. God has
revealed the law by which it shall be accomplished, and we have seen
the effects of it to a certain extent. We see a generation growing up
here, young men and young women, who are the admiration of all who
behold them—fine physical specimens of manhood and womanhood—pleasant
faces and lovely countenances and forms—showing that the blessings of
God have evidently rested upon the parents. I thought of Brother
Smoot's case. I remarked but for plurality, he would today have been
without a child of his own. But see what a number of children he has,
and what beautiful children they are. It is so everywhere throughout
these mountains. The blessing of God has rested down upon His
servants. Their houses are filled with beautiful children. The
blessing of God has attended the men who have obeyed His law,
and the women also. They have had their trials; but these have had the
effect of purifying them. They have gained strength and power with
God, and with man also, and the day will come when they will be
honored men and honored women on the face of the earth. That day will
come. It may be distant yet for a little while, but it will come most
assuredly.
I pray God my Heavenly Father, to fill you with the Holy Ghost, that
you may be enlightened thereby, and that you may be led to see and
comprehend the greatness of the work in which we are engaged, and the
character of those influences we have to contend with. There are
unseen influences on both sides. There are unseen and invisible
agencies that God our Heavenly Father has brought to bear upon this
work to aid us, and there are on the other side those unseen agencies
of evil. We can tell them by their fruits and by the results of their
actions upon the children of men. Let us remember that it is not that
which is before us alone that we have to contend with, but that there
are powers behind those that we see in the flesh, and those powers are
determined to destroy this work. It is a contest between Satan and
God, and there can be no doubt as to the result; and if we cling to
the truth we shall take part in all the glorious triumphs of this
work, which I pray for in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon