President Cannon commenced by reading the 4th chapter of Malachi,
after which he said:
In rising to address you this afternoon, my brethren and sisters, I do
so relying upon the assistance of your faith and prayers, that the
remarks which I may be led to make may be such as shall be adapted to
your circumstances, and as shall prove a benefit to us all.
As you know, we have just returned from dedicating the Temple that has
been completed at Logan. We have had during our absence and our
meetings there a most delightful time. I think that everyone who was
present felt it to be such, and that we have been greatly
favored of God in being permitted to finish one more temple in which
the ordinances of life and salvation can be attended to. There has
been great rejoicing over its completion, and those who have been
engaged in it have labored very assiduously. They have been untiring
in their efforts and exceedingly liberal in furnishing the necessary
means to accomplish the great work.
It is very encouraging to think that, in the midst of the assaults
which are being made upon the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, and the threats that are in circulation concerning us and our
future fate, there is faith enough found in the midst of the people to
pursue, without discouragement and without cessation, the great work
which we feel that our Father has laid upon us. We have not been
situated as we were in Nauvoo, when we finished our temple there, for
then the workmen who labored upon it, were like the Jews in the days
of Nehemiah, when they undertook to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
and had to labor a portion of the time at least, and a great portion
of it too, with their instruments of labor in one hand, and weapons to
defend themselves in the other. We were surrounded by mobs, and living
in a constant state, it may be said of fear, because of the threats
which were made and the combinations which were formed, and the
attacks upon our outlying settlements in the burning of houses, in the
destruction of grain, in the shooting down of cattle, and in the
driving out of the people from their homes. But while we have not been
in this condition through the years that we have been engaged in the
erection of the Logan Temple, we have not been free from attacks and
from threats and from combina tions for our destruction. Had we been
prompted by the ordinary faith of man, the hands of the people would
have been weakened in this great work, and they would have hesitated
in its performance. But no such feeling has been manifested or
expressed. Undismayed and undiscouraged by all the surrounding
circumstances, the people have pressed forward the work, and have now
the joy and satisfaction of witnessing its completion. It seems as
though in the performance of such labor there is a degree of faith
required, an unusual degree; for if our views be correct, it is an
important work, an important part of the work of the great God, the
building of temples by His direct command. And this being the case,
undoubtedly such work will be met by opposition on the part of him who
is determined to do everything in his power to retard the work of God.
By the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the two forces which
have been arrayed against each other since the beginning of the earth
have been brought out unto, it may be said, extraordinary prominence.
No sooner did the sound go forth that God had again spoken from the
heavens than an antagonism and an opposition was aroused, such as the
world for a long period had seemed to know nothing of. The power of
evil was brought to light, brought into active exercise, and the
saying of the Savior was exemplified where He said: "Think not that I
am come to send peace on earth: I come not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
And that has con tinued from that day until the present time,
gathering strength, increasing in volume and intensity against the
work of God, and to those who have had no faith, it has seemed as
though it would take but a short period for the waves of opposition to
overwhelm and completely submerge this work that our God has founded
in the earth. But this work being of God, the promises which He made
concerning it, have not failed. Every word thus far has been
fulfilled. It seemed like a feeble light in the beginning. It seemed
as though a small puff of wind would extinguish it; but it has
continued to enlarge, it has continued to increase, until its blaze
illumines the horizon, and is watched with interest from afar.
When we look back at the inception of this work, at the promises that
were made concerning it, and the labors of those who were engaged in
founding it, it is most interesting in this day to mark and ponder
upon that which was then done, and that which was then promised unto
us. Men wonder why it is that the Latter-day Saints believe in this
work, why it is that they believe in the claims of Joseph Smith as a
Prophet of God. Wonder is expressed because we entertain faith in the
doctrines which form our religion; but to me it is most extraordinary
that men, possessed of the powers of reason, of the faculty of judging
between truth and error, should with the light there is upon this
subject, with the extraordinary evidence in favor of the divinity of
this work, doubt its truth, or that they should hesitate to accept it.
It has always seemed from my boyhood, since I was old enough to
comprehend these principles, extraordinary that such should be the
case. God made promises in the beginning of this work, concerning its
growth and future, every word of which has been fulfilled. The
evidences are before the world. When the Prophet Joseph first received
his manifestations concerning the coming forth of this work, he was
but a boy of fourteen years of age. When he received the plates
containing the Book of Mormon, he was but twenty-one years of age.
When this Church was organized he was but twenty-four years of age.
The revelations which were then given, and which are embodied in the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants concerning the organization of the
Church are such that if I were not a Latter-day Saint, and were to
read them and know as I do know concerning the man through whom these
revelations came, and through whom this organization was effected, I
would be compelled to admit that there was a power connected with the
organization of this Church, that there was a light and an
intelligence connected with the revelations that were then given, that
could not have emanated from any other source but God. It would be
harder for me to reject this idea and this view, than it would be to
entertain it. The weight and preponderance of argument would be more
in favor of that view than of any other. Let any man read the
revelations which Joseph received prior to the sixth of April, 1830.
Let him read the revelation that was given on that day concerning the
organization of this Church, and if he can do so without being
impressed that God is in this, then he must indeed be an extraordinary
specimen of unbelief, and of hardness of heart. A church organized
precisely upon the pattern of the ancient church, with doctrines
precisely similar, varying in no single particular from the doctrines
of the ancient church, and these revealed in extraordinary
plainness and power by an unlettered youth who had had no chance of
education save that which the common schools of the country afforded.
There has never been a day since this Church was organized until this
day of our Lord, 54 years and upwards, that an Elder of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever failed to maintain the divine
authenticity of the doctrines which he had been sent out to preach
when brought in contact with the most learned men of the day, the most
skilled theologians. At no period in our history has this not been the
case. Sending out unlettered men, sending out men not taught in the
schools of theology, sending out men from the fields, the bench and
workshops, as the Savior sent out His disciples from the lowest walks
of life, with the Bible in their hands, to preach the Gospel as God
has restored it; and wherever they have been brought in contact with
the clergy of the day, in controversy or otherwise, they have always
been successful in maintaining their doctrines from the Scriptures. Let
any man examine the system that Joseph taught, the organization of the
Church itself, with all its officers, the ordinances and the
doctrines, and he will be compelled to admit as was admitted to me by
a prominent Member of Congress, who was one of our bitter enemies,
that it is the greatest organization on earth. Said this gentleman:
"Mr. Cannon, I have examined the organization of your Church: I am
familiar with the Catholic organization; but your organization is the
most magnificent of anything I have ever had my attention directed to.
It is superior to every other organization on the earth. Where did you
get it?" Of course he was not willing to give God any credit for it. I
give Him all credit, and not Joseph Smith, nor Brigham Young, nor any
other man who has been identified with this Church of Christ.
But there are other points to which my mind is led this afternoon, in
connection with this subject. Joseph Smith received the ministration
of angels; so he testified. He testified that an angel came to him and
taught him the doctrines that he afterwards taught to the people. If I
can find the place I will read a little:
"While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light
appearing in the room, which continued to increase until the room was
lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my
bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. He
had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness
beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any
earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and
brilliant. His hands were naked, and his arms also, a little above the
wrist; so, also, were his feet naked, as were his legs, a little above
the ankles. His head and neck were also bare. I could discover that he
had no other clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I
could see into his bosom.
"Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was
glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning.
The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately
around his person. When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the
fear soon left me. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was
a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his
name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name
should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and
tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all
people. He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates,
giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the
source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the
everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to
the ancient inhabitants. Also, that there were two stones in silver
bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what
is called the Urim and Thummim—deposited with the plates; and the
possession and use of these stones was what constituted "seers" in
ancient or former times; and that God had prepared them for the
purpose of translating the book."
I will not read the remainder. Three times during that night, was this
youth visited by this angelic messenger, and at each interview the
same things were repeated to him. Numerous passages of Scripture were
quoted to him, and the doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
unfolded to him. The next day he was again visited, and again
instructed: so that it appeared to be the mind of the Lord that he
should be deeply impressed, so deeply impressed that he would never
forget that which was then told to him. There is this remarkable
statement made, a statement which was published in the early days of
the Church, long before its fulfillment:
"That God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for
good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it
should be both good and evil spoken of among all people."
Certainly no truer words could be spoken than these; for everywhere
throughout the civilized world, already has the name of Joseph Smith
been known for good or evil. No name, probably, next to that of the
Son of God, our Redeemer, is held in such veneration by the thousands
and hundreds of thousands who believe in the Gospel of the Son of God;
next to that name in which we approach the Father, the name of
Jesus—next to that in the minds of all who have received the Gospel
stands pre-eminently the name of the Prophet Joseph Smith. But with an
intensity of hatred equal to that of the love borne by the Latter-day
Saints to that name, is the feeling entertained towards it by those
who have rejected the Gospel as taught by him. A more complete
fulfillment of a prediction is not to be found anywhere throughout the
earth in ancient days, or at any time when God had Prophets upon the
earth. And so it has been with many other predictions which were made
at that time. Joseph Smith foresaw with certainty and predicted with
accuracy the growth of this work; that the Elders of this Church
should carry the Gospel to the nations of the earth; that they would
be successful to the extent they have been successful and no more. No
man was led to expect there would be any great conversions of the
people by the Elders of this Church. Joseph Smith, enlightened by the
Spirit of God, made no such prediction, and led no one associated with
him to anticipate such results. On the contrary, he endeavored to the
extent of his ability to prepare the people for such persecution as
had never been witnessed upon the face of the earth since the days of
the Son of God. He never taught the people that their lives
would be easy and pleasant, that they would have smooth sailing, that
they would have no interruption, or that they would become popular
with the world at large. On the contrary, he constantly enjoined upon
those whom he sent out, to bear it in mind that they would have
persecution as an inevitable consequence of the proclamation of the
Gospel. He sent them forth, and they in their turn, whenever they went
and bore testimony to the restoration of the Gospel, warned those who
embraced it that they might expect to lose everything they had, their
good name, their property, their friends, and perhaps life itself,
before they got through. He foresaw plainly that this would be the
character of the opposition they would have to contend with. God had
revealed it to him in the beginning. The very first night that this
angel visited him he told him that his name should be had for good and
for evil among all people, and he knew full well that it would be the
case. And when the Elders went forth, they went as gleaners of grapes
after the vintage was over. They were not told that they would find
people by hundreds or by thousands, ready to espouse the truth. No;
but they were told that they would find a few here and there, a few
honest-hearted people ready to receive the truth, a few waiting for
the Gospel to come to them; but they would not effect any great
conversions among the Gentile nations. But they were told, as it was
predicted in the Book of Mormon, that among the Lamanites, as they are
termed in that book, that is, among the descendants of the house of
Israel, as the Indians are, their success would be exceedingly great.
This has been fulfilled to the very letter.
Fifty-four years experience in preaching this Gospel among the various
nations of Christendom has proved to us how correctly the man of God
foresaw the character of this work. We have gathered the people,
through the blessing of God, from the various nations of the earth;
but we have gathered them by small handfuls, as it were. There has
been no great influx into the Church from these nations; but, as I
have said, it has been exactly like a gleaning of grapes after the
vintage is over. And it is a remarkable fact that the great bulk of
the people who form this Church—that is, those who were adults when
they became members of this Church—were anxiously waiting the arrival
of some such message as the Elders brought. Our venerated President,
who sits on the stand, was one of a company of men—himself a Wesleyan
Methodist preacher—awaiting the time when God would reveal something
from the heavens, or would send some message that would be more in
accordance with the ancient Gospel than that which they had. A company
of them were earnestly praying to God to send more light and more
power; that power which was manifested in the days of the Apostles. At
the time when Elder Parley P. Pratt carried the Gospel to the city of
Toronto he fell in with this company. And here sits Brother Wilford
Woodruff. I have heard him relate that in his early days he has gone
out in secret and besought God to restore the ancient Gospel, to
restore the ancient gifts, to restore the ancient power, and he
received a promise from God before he ever heard of the Latter-day
Saints, or ever heard of the organization of this Church, that the
time would come when the true Gospel would be restored, and that he
should have the privilege of being identified with it. And the
thousands that compose this Church today, who joined it when they
were adults were, the most of them, in a similar condition, a similar
state of mind. Dissatisfied with existing creeds, members, in many
instances, of existing Churches, but conscious that there was an
absence of that divine power and of those heavenly gifts which
characterized the Church in ancient days; dissatisfied with this
condition of things, they besought God earnestly, fervently, and
anxiously, to restore His Gospel to the earth, or to send some message
of life and salvation unto them. They were thus prepared for the
Gospel when it came, and received it gladly, because their hearts were
prepared, and it is those few who have been gathered from the nations
of the earth, with others who are also open, because of the honesty of
their hearts, to receive the truth. Joseph Smith said that this should
be the character of this work. But it is a remarkable fact—and I wish
before leaving this point to call your attention to it, that, wherever
we have gone among those people whom the Book of Mormon tells us are
the descendants of the house of Israel, we have had no trouble in
converting them by hundreds, and it may be said by thousands, to the
truth. They were ready to receive it without any difficulty whatever.
It seemed as though their hearts had been prepared by the God of
heaven, and all that has been necessary has been to tell them the
truth, and they were natural Latter-day Saints, natural believers in
the Gospel of the Son of God.
I myself went as a missionary, as many of you know, to the Sandwich
Islands, the natives of which I believe to be either a branch of the
Indians of this continent, or of some other portion of the house of
Israel. There was no trouble in baptizing them, and there is no
trouble in baptizing any of the Polynesian races. They are ready to
receive the Gospel, ready to be baptized; very different in this
respect from us Gentiles; for there is a spirit of unbelief among the
Gentile race; there is a hardness of heart; there is a want of faith
that prevents the blessings of God from descending as they did in
ancient days upon His covenant people. Gentiles are naturally
unbelievers. It is difficult to convert them, difficult to control
them, difficult for them to receive the truth in plainness and
simplicity.
Now God has said in this chapter, that He would send Elijah, the
Prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
A very singular prediction, a remarkable prediction especially when we
consider that in this day and age, men do not believe in the
ministration of angels; and the office of that Prophet should be "to
turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse." Elijah was to come for a specific purpose. I do not know how
Christendom is going to arrange to have this angel come. If he came, I
do not suppose Christendom would believe he came. But it is on record
in our sacred books that the Prophet Elijah has come. Permit me, in
connection with this subject, to read a little upon this point. After
the completion of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery
testified that they beheld the Son of God. It is a most remarkable
testimony in this age of unbelief; but they solemnly testify that they
beheld the Son of God, and that after beholding Him, they were visited by three glorious personages, among whom was the
Prophet Elijah. These are the words that they have left on record:
"After this vision had closed, another great and glorious vision burst
upon us; for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without
tasting death, stood before us, and said:
"Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of
Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great
and dreadful day of the Lord come—
"To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children
to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—
"Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your
hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the
Lord is near, even at the doors."
Now, I can imagine how those who are opposed to this work might say,
"Why, it is a very easy thing for Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to
make such a statement as that, because it seems to correspond with
what Malachi has said, and their making the statement is merely in
anticipation of that which the Bible has said would be the case."
But there is this that is remarkable in connection with this
statement: the coming of the prophet Elijah was to be attended with
certain results—it was to turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest the
Lord should come and smite the earth with a curse.
The question arises, after the visitation of Elijah to those two men,
were the hearts of the fathers turned to the children, and the hearts
of the children to their fathers? The very fact that we are building
temples to the Most High God, is evi dence of it. There never was a
greater proof of the truth of any statement than that which is
furnished in the acts of the Latter-day Saints upon this point. The
people that comprise this church, before joining it, knew nothing
about the plan of salvation, except that which they had derived from
their teachers, who themselves were very ignorant; but God in His
mercy has restored to us certain principles and knowledge concerning
the dead. He has informed us that during the time the body of Jesus
slept in the tomb, that the Savior went and preached to the spirits
that were in prison. I refer now to what Peter says, that while His
body lay in the tomb, "He went and preached unto the spirits in
prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering
of God waited in the days of Noah." He preached the Gospel to them.
Isaiah says that one of the objects of his mission should be to unlock
the doors of the prison to them that were bound, and He undoubtedly
did so on this occasion. I believe the Episcopalian catechism admits
that Jesus descended into hell. He certainly did, and visited those
spirits that were in prison. After His resurrection, when Mary came
forward to salute her Lord, and to embrace Him, He said: "Touch me
not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my
God, and your God." During the interval between His death and
resurrection He had been engaged in preaching to the spirits in
prison. He had unlocked the prison doors to them that were bound;
thus showing that though the punishment of the wicked may be eternal
punishment—God's punishment being eternal punishment—the Lord does
not subject His fallen creatures to suffer that punishment
throughout the endless ages of eternity, as has been falsely taught by
so-called Christian ministers. There comes a day of release. Jesus
preached redemption to those spirits who were disobedient in the days
of Noah. They had lain in torment from the days of Noah—upward of
2,000 years—until the Son of Man turned the keys of their
prison house, and preached to them the Gospel of repentance, that they
might repent of their sins, though in the spirit, and be judged, as
Peter says, according to men in the flesh. God has revealed this
doctrine to the Latter-day Saints, and it is for the purpose of
carrying it out that we build these temples, that you may go in and
officiate vicariously for those who have not had that privilege in the
flesh.
It has been a question that has agitated many minds, when they have
been told that the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven
whereby man can be saved—"What, then, has become of the millions of
Pagans who never heard the sound of the name of Jesus?" They are dying
by thousands today. Nations are perishing who have never heard the
name of the Son of God. This question has been asked of us many times
when we have been preaching the Gospel of salvation that God has
restored. People have said: "Is it possible that those who do not
believe your doctrine will be damned? If so, what is to become of our
ancestors? I had Christian parents who loved the Lord, and you say
that those who are not baptized according to your method and by one
having authority, cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Many
people have been tempted to reject the testimony of the servants of
God, because of this, forgetting that Christendom has taught a sim ilar
doctrine respecting the heathen nations. The Christian world have
believed that all these nations would be sent to a place of endless
torment, that they go to hell and can never be redeemed. Most
abhorrent doctrine! So inconceivably cruel that it is enough to make
men reject God and everything connected with Him, if it is supposed
that He could be the author of such teaching as this; as though God
would consign men to hell for ignorance—conceal from them the Gospel,
and then damn them through all eternity, because they had not known
that which might have been revealed to them. No, there is no such
doctrine in the Book. There is no such doctrine in the Gospel of
salvation. Those heathen nations, like our ancestors, who died in
ignorance of the Gospel of Christ, will yet hear the voice of
salvation. Jesus and those associated with Him will minister to them;
for we are all the sons and daughters of God. What shall we do
throughout the ages yet to come, the eternities lying before us? Shall
there be no salvation extended to the ignorant, and to the erring, and
to those who would have done better could they have known the plan of
life and salvation? Why, certainly. The little space of time we live
here upon the earth, important as it is to us, compared with the
eternities of our God, is only like one grain of sand out of the
immensities of grains that are upon the seashore. Our God is endless
and eternal. His Gospel is endless and eternal, and as long as there
is a soul to be saved, He, and Jesus, who died for all, and all
associated with them who have the same Priesthood, will labor
anxiously until every soul will be brought back who can be brought
back, who has not committed the unpardonable sin by sinning against
light and knowledge, as Judas did in betraying the Lord of
life and glory; every soul other than these will be felt after
throughout the eternities of our God. Hell itself will be sought;
every crevice of it, every part of it will be penetrated by Jesus, and
by the Saints of God, in search of the souls of the children of men,
until from every crevice and from every recess in the regions of the
damned they will be brought forth to light and glory, if they will
obey the glorious Gospel of the Son of God, if they will bow in
submission to the scepter of King Immanuel. That is all they have to
do—to repent of their sins, repent of them whether in this life or in
the life to come, and put them away far from them. This is the Gospel
of glad tidings. It is not a Gospel that consigns the majority of the
human family to an endless condition of torment. That is not the
Gospel of Christ.
Now, as I have said, the Lord promised that Elijah should come before
the great and dreadful day. He has sent him, and the hearts of the
Latter-day Saints have been turned to their fathers who have died in
ignorance of the Gospel of the Son of God, and we have the warrant of
Scripture to believe that the hearts of the fathers in the eternal
worlds, those who have lived upon the earth, are turned to their
children who now live here, and who can officiate vicariously for
them, and answer the purpose that God has designed in attending to
those ordinances which they themselves have not the power to attend
to. Certainly this has been fulfilled. It is not the testimony of
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery alone; but this whole people. These
Latter-day Saints throughout all these mountains, can bear testimony
that this spirit has rested upon them, and their hearts have been
turned to their fathers, and the hearts of their fathers have without
doubt been turned to them. And it is a strange fact connected with the
Gospel, that contemporaneously with the revelation of the doctrine to
Joseph Smith a spirit seemed to take possession of the people in
Eastern lands to hunt up their genealogies, and Genealogical
Societies have been formed in many places, for what purpose no one
can exactly tell, unless it be a Latter-day Saint. Genealogies have
been hunted up with wonderful industry, saving us a great amount of
labor in these matters. It was a strange spirit that took hold of the
American people, especially the people of New England, about that
time. It was a common thing in the Western States when I was a boy,
for men not to know the names of their grandfathers; and I have known
many intelligent men who could not tell the names of their uncles and
aunts, their fathers, and mothers, brothers and sisters. This arose
from the fact that in moving West, emigrants had left their kindred
behind, and had not kept up in their children's minds the recollection
of their names. But within the last 40 years a different spirit has
taken possession of the people, and many are industriously engaged in
searching out the names of their ancestors. Many volumes have been
published in connection with this subject, and in the Historian's
Office are to be found many books containing the genealogies of the
families of many whose members are in this Territory. Such books have
been invaluable to us, in carrying out this work. Thus, these
societies and people have unwittingly helped to fulfill the words of
the Lord, through Malachi, and to strengthen the evidence that Joseph
Smith was indeed an inspired Prophet of God. In the persecution that this Church has received; in being driven from their
homes: in everything that is now being done by the Congress of the
United States against the Latter-day Saints, and in this genealogical
work that I have just alluded to, men outside of this Church have
contributed to prove that Joseph Smith was indeed an inspired Prophet
of God; for there has been no action taken by Congress, nothing has
been done to us by mobs, or by any combination, that has not been
predicted by Joseph Smith the Prophet, and we have the record of it,
and know that it is true. We know whereof we speak. Joseph Smith,
years and years before the breaking out of the war in South Carolina,
predicted that such a war should take place, and he designated the
spot where it should commence. And the wicked by their own acts proved
to the world, to God, and to angels, that Joseph Smith was an inspired
Prophet of God, and that He foretold that which should take place.
God bless you, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
- George Q. Cannon