I am called upon this afternoon quite unexpectedly to me, to address
this congregation, and I earnestly pray that the spirit of the living
God may rest down upon me and upon all who are gathered in this
Tabernacle, that I may be inspired to say something which will be
profitable to hear, and that all who listen to my words may be able to
understand them in the spirit by which they are spoken.
We have assembled here today to worship God our Heavenly
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ His Son, under the influence and
power of the Holy Spirit. In order that our worship may be acceptable
to God, it must be done in the name of Jesus, and it must be done
under the influence of His Spirit; for "God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." We must be
sincere in our worship; we must be sincere in all that we do in order
that it may be acceptable to God. But sincerity alone is not
sufficient. We have to worship Him in truth as well as in spirit, and
we must worship Him also in the way that He has appointed, not in our
way. God does not accept the ways of man unless those ways are in
accordance with His ways. And we have come here that we may learn the
ways of God, and then walk in His path. This is in accordance with the
ancient prophets. They declared that in the last days, people should
come from all nations unto "the tops of the mountains" for this very
purpose, that they might learn of His ways and walk in His paths. The
reason why we have had to do this is because the ways of our fathers,
in their worship and in their service towards God, have been only in
accordance with their private notions, their ideas of what is right.
There has been no voice from heaven heard among the children of men on
this earth for a great many centuries. People have not been guided by
the revelations of the Almighty, but by the wisdom of man, or, as we
think, the folly of man. It is true that the people called
"Christians," have had the book called the Bible. The Old Testament
and the New Testament contain books which were written by men who
lived in ancient times, and who were inspired of God. Those books do
not contain all that was written by the servants of God in ancient
times, but only a few of the writings given to the children of men by
inspiration. This book contains a great deal of truth and some few
errors, but the errors are the interpolations or the mistranslations
of men. The doctrines which the Bible contains are true, and they are
in sufficient plainness to be correctly understood, if the people who
read what it contains are influenced by the same spirit or inspired by
the same spirit as the men who wrote those things. But without that
spirit the people of the earth are not able fully to comprehend that
which is written. We read in that book that "the letter killeth." It
is the spirit that giveth life, and it is also the spirit that giveth
light. Without the Spirit of God as the revealing influence from on
high, mankind are unable to comprehend the things of God. As we are
unable this afternoon to see anything of a physical nature without
that natural light which comes from the sun, so without the light that
comes from the Son of Righteousness, we are unable to see the things
of God. The prophets who wrote the things contained in the Old
Testament, and the Apostles of Jesus Christ, who wrote the epistles,
and other writings contained in the New Testament, were blessed with
the gift that is called in the Scriptures the gift of the Holy Ghost.
This was not merely an influence which made them feel good; that
exalted their spiritual natures so as to make them happy, contented
and peaceful; but it was a manifestation of the power that comes from
God. As the light that comes from the sun reveals through our natural
eyes those objects which we see around us, so the Holy Ghost
coming from God opens up and makes clear and plain the things of
eternity, those things that are called spiritual, although they are
all spiritual to our Heavenly Father. The things which we call natural
and temporal are spiritual to Him, because He sees the essence of
things, He comprehends them in their internal nature. All the elements
of all things that exist are eternal, and "the things that are
spiritual are eternal," and therefore it is all spiritual to God. We
at the present time are creatures of time, and we see things that
change. We do not comprehend their eternal nature. We do not
comprehend their essence. We only see that which is on the surface, on
the outside. But God looks into the internal nature of things as well
as of men, and comprehends them. And the elements, both of that which
is called natural and that which is spiritual, are all eternal,
without beginning and without end. They are manipulated and changed
and worked over, but they have no beginning in their essence, and they
cannot have. No atom in nature can be destroyed. It never commenced to
be; it will never cease to be. God looks upon things as they are, in
their eternal nature, and therefore they are all eternal or spiritual
to Him. But speaking after the manner of men we call things temporal
and spiritual, natural and supernatural; yet after all when we come to
comprehend them as they are, they are all material and all spiritual.
The inhabitants of the earth, as I have remarked, have been without
any direct communication from God, and therefore they have been
measurably in the dark. They have been able to read some of the books
which were written by the servants of God, who were inspired by Him in
ancient times; but they have had no revelation for themselves. They
can read what Isaiah said, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or Paul, or Luke, or
other writers of the Old or New Testament; but they have had no
personal revelation. The light which they have obtained is a borrowed
light, like the light of the moon. They have been in a sort of
moonlight or twinkling starlight. There have been a great many
preachers who have claimed to be the servants of God, ministering
among the people in Christendom; some in the ancient church called the
Church of Rome, some in the Episcopal Church, some in the Methodist
Church, others in the Baptist Church, and so on through all the
various denominations that compose modern Christendom. No doubt many
of them were good men, men who strove to the best of their ability,
and the best of their knowledge to enlighten the minds of their
fellow men. Some of them, perhaps, were mere hirelings, "preaching for
hire and divining for money;" but others were sincere in their hearts,
sincere in their worship, sincere in the religion which they taught to
others. But they had not a knowledge of the truth. They had a faith of
some kind. They believed in certain principles. They believed in the
things which they read in the Bible so far as they could comprehend
them, but they had no positive knowledge in regard to the things which
they believed in and which they taught. The men who were called the
Reformers, who came out from the Church of Rome, and introduced a
little more truth than the people previously had, and reformed several
errors that were existing—were, some of them, most excellent men, and
they performed a great and a good work in the earth. But they
were not called of God in the way that His servants were called in
ancient times who wrote the things contained in the Bible, neither
were they endowed with the Holy Ghost, which those men enjoyed. They
nevertheless did a grand work in the earth, and for that they will
receive their reward, no doubt; for no man who ever lived on the earth
whether in a Christian nation or among the heathen or pagan world,
ever did a good thing but he was the better for it, and will receive
his reward for it, and no man ever did willfully a wicked thing, that
which he knew and felt to be wrong, without being the worse for it,
and for that he must give an account in the great day when the secrets
of the hearts of all mankind shall be made manifest, Christian and
heathen, those in the ancient times and those in the latter times. All
who ever dwelt in the earth in the flesh must appear before the bar of
God, and be judged for the deeds done in the body, whether they be
good or evil, and they will receive a reward for the good that they
did, and a punishment for the evil that they did, especially and
particularly if they did evil knowingly, if they sinned willfully,
sinned against light and knowledge.
A great many of those persons that I have referred to among those
reformers and others who worked on the earth, as they sought for
righteousness and for the Lord, have labored in sincerity, but not
always in truth. A great many errors have prevailed in the world since
the time when the Apostles were put to death, when the lights that God
placed in the world were put out by the hand of wickedness; since the
servants of God were destroyed in the flesh, a great many errors have
crept into the world, and darkness has spread over the minds of the
children of men. Though many have worshipped in sincerity, they have
not worshipped in truth, because they did not fully comprehend the way
of truth. When they read the Scriptures, they only partially
comprehended them, and they differed among themselves as to the
meaning of those things which they read. Thus sect has multiplied upon
sect, denomination upon denomination. And in what is called
Christendom, people are in confusion, not comprehending alike, not
seeing the truth as it is; for if they could all see the truth
properly, they would see alike; if they all comprehended the truth
correctly, they would be of one heart and one mind so far as they
comprehended. But the very fact that those divisions exist, proves
that there is darkness in the world. If the light of God was revealed
to six men in the same degree, they would comprehend the principles
presented before them, the principles of the Gospel, exactly in the
same way; and if six men can be united in comprehending truth exactly
alike, six millions or any number of men can be united so as to see
and comprehend the truth exactly in the same way, and this was the
effect of the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the
Revealer, the spirit of life and light, which God gave to His people
in the ancient Christian Church when the Gospel came to them. They
were all divided when Jesus Christ came into the world. There was a
similar diversity of opinions and faith in regard to God and His ways,
to what there is now, only not to so great an extent. Jesus came and
showed the right way. He was "the way, the truth, and the life." He
came to reveal His Fathers will. He made plain the way of life and
truth, that all who desired might be able to walk therein—in
the same way and under the same light, that they might see eye to eye
and be no more divided. It was thus with the people called Pharisees
or Sadducees, or with those who belonged to any sect that existed
among the Jews, or with those who lived among the Greeks, and had
adopted the Grecian system of philosophy, or with people who lived in
any other part of the world, and believed in any other kind of
religion—when they came into the Christian church they were no longer
divided in their opinions and in their faith, but they were all
brought to see alike; they were "all baptized by one spirit, into one
body, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free." They no longer worshipped
different Gods, or the same God in different ways, but they worshipped
alike. They had "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one hope of
their calling." But when darkness came into the world again; when the
guides that God had placed among humanity were rejected and thrust
out, and the Holy Ghost was withdrawn, and men were left to
themselves, then they began to divide up, each man going his own way,
according to his notion. Preachers have multiplied, sects have
multiplied, and doctrines have multiplied. And here we are in the
latter times, in the nineteenth century, when the people boast so much
about Gospel light as well as scientific light, here we are in the
nineteenth century, and the people are groping like blind men for the
wall. They do not know God, and some do not care anything about Him.
Some deny His existence, and a great many more stand in a position of
doubt and uncertainty. Very few squarely deny the existence of a God;
but there are a great many people who do not know whether there is a
God or not; they are not satisfied in their minds. "I do not know,"
seems to be the sentiment of the great bulk of intelligent people
nowadays in regard to divine things.
Well, as I said in the beginning of my remarks, we have met here
today to worship God in His way—not our way, that is, not the way we
have made, not the way that any man has made, but according to the
plan and pattern revealed from heaven by Almighty God, in our day and
time. If God manifested himself in ancient times, why should He not
manifest Himself in latter times? If God spoke to the world by the
power of the Holy Ghost, through chosen men in former ages of the
world, why not in this age? If angels came down from heaven and
ministered to persons upon the earth in any period of this world's
history, why not in the latter times? Are God's lips closed that He
cannot speak? Are the heavens sealed up and become like brass, that no
man can break through, and no heavenly being come to this little world
and make manifest the things of eternity? Has the Holy Ghost changed
in its power and influence and revealing qualities? Or are the
children of men in such a condition that they are not willing to
receive the Lord and His ways and His works and His light? Has God
purposely departed from the earth, or have the people of the earth
departed from God? We read here in the book of Isaiah about a time
that should come when "darkness would cover the earth, and gross
darkness the people." We read of a time when God would come out from
His hiding place in judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth in the
latter days, and it should be "as with the people so with the priest;
as with the servant, so with the master; as with the maid, so
with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the
lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the
giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly
spoiled: for the Lord has spoken this word." What for? "Because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and
they that dwell therein are desolate." Now, it looks to me a great
deal more reasonable to think that the people of the earth have
departed from God, and gone out of His way, and made ways of their
own; that they have "heaped to themselves teachers having itching
ears, and have turned away their ears from the truth, and have turned
unto fables;" that they have become "lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God;" and that they have a form of godliness, but lack the
power thereof, than that God has forsaken them, without any acts of
their own. Now, I know that this sounds very harsh in Christian ears.
It sounds very disagreeable to the people who compose Christendom, to
say that they have gone out of the way—those good, pious-appearing
people, who express such beautiful sentiments, and have such religious
emotions and such lofty feelings, and many of whom are sincere in
their hearts—to say that they have gone out of the way and that they
are in the dark. It is all right to say that millions upon millions of
the heathen nations for hundreds and hundreds of years have been in
the dark, and that they are in the dark today, that they are away
from God, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ does
not shine into their souls, that their philosophers and sages and
poets and preachers and mighty men of intellect are all wrong; that is
all right; you can say that. Many Christian people do say this, and
are not shocked in their feelings a bit; but to say that the
Christians of this generation are out of the way sounds terrible in
their ears. Nevertheless I will make bold to say that this is the
fact; that the whole earth has gone astray. I will go no further than
they say themselves: "We have left undone those things that we ought
to have done, and have done those things that we ought not to have
done, and there is no help in us. O Lord have mercy upon us, miserable
sinners." Well, that is just exactly what they are. Now, I do not
boast that we are any better than they are. I am merely taking them as
the Lord will take a great many of them: "Out of thine own mouth will
I judge thee." They tell the Lord, "All we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned every one to his own way." That is what is the
matter with the Christian world. They are not walking in the Lord's
way. They are walking in the ways that men have invented.
Any student of the Scriptures who is willing to receive truth when it
is presented before him, can see by perusing the sacred books of the
Old and the New Testaments, that the condition of the world at the
present time was anticipated by the ancient prophets and apostles.
They all saw that the time would come when the people would turn away
from the truth; when they would walk in their own ways; when they
would build up churches to themselves; when they would hire men to
preach to them things which were wise and good in their own eyes; they
would not be very anxious to find out the will of God, or that
He might declare it to them, but would have preachers to teach them
doctrines which seemed good to their "itching ears."
A student of the Scriptures will also find that in every age of the
world when there was a people dwelling on the earth whom God acknowledged
as His people, He required them to do all things as He commanded them;
not as they might choose, but as He commanded. When Jesus Christ came
He did not come to do His own will, or to preach His own doctrine.
Said He: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man
will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God,
or whether I speak of myself." Jesus did nothing and said nothing but
that which He had been commanded to do and say. He taught no doctrine
of Himself. And He declared that when He should go away, the Comforter
would come in His place. What would He do? "He will guide you into all
truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." When the
Apostles who were called of Jesus Christ, went out to preach the
Gospel in His name, they did not go to preach their own views and
opinions and notions, nor to administer ordinances that they thought
were proper and adapted to the people in different nations, but they
went out with the word of the Lord; they went out to teach that which
had been commanded. Said Jesus Christ: "Go ye therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you." They were not to preach with the enticing words
of man's wisdom, nor proclaim their notions about things, but they
were to go forth with the living word of God, they were to go and
teach that which Christ had taught them, and which He did not teach of
Himself. And even then He told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they
were endowed with power from on high. They waited. And on the day of
Pentecost, we read, they came together "with one accord in one
place."
They were of one heart, of one mind, and of one spirit, and then the
Holy Ghost was manifested to them, in visible form, in cloven tongues
as of fire. They were all filled with that spirit, and they spoke with
other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, and from that time,
having been ordained by Jesus Christ, when He was upon the earth, they
were able to go out and preach the Gospel to the nations of the earth.
On that day (Pentecost) Peter preached that great gospel sermon which
we read about in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. He
did not teach the people anything in regard to his opinion. He told
the people that which he knew, that which had been made manifest to
him, that which he understood, and he did it under the influence and
power of the Holy Ghost, the same spirit which rested upon the ancient
prophets, the same spirit by which Jesus spoke, which was given to him
not by measure, but in a fullness.
No man has a right to preach in the name of the Lord, unless he is
endowed as were those Apostles, unless the Lord has committed to him a
dispensation of the Gospel; and if any man does so he does it upon
his own responsibility. Unless he is so-called and endowed, all his
administrations, whether it be baptism, confirmation, or any other
rite which he may administer in the name of deity, are null and void and of non-effect in the heavens. When God calls men to
officiate, what they do on earth in His name in the way He has
appointed, by His authority, is as valid as if He performed it himself
in person; what they "seal on earth is sealed in the heavens;" and
what they "loose on earth is loosed in the heavens." But when men
administer the ordinances without authority, without inspiration,
without being called and appointed and ordained specially for that
work, all their ministrations are vain and valueless. If they baptize
a person that baptism is void. The baptism of infants is void. It
never was ordained of God, it never was authorized of Him, but is one
of the vagaries of men, one of man's inventions. But even baptism
administered as the ancient Apostles administered it, and as Jesus
Christ taught it, and according to the pattern which He Himself set in
His own baptism, if administered by men who have not been called and
ordained and endowed with the power and right to do it, is utterly
void, and is of no more account than a bath. And it is the absence of
this authority and the absence of this endowment, the absence of this
divine spirit which reveals the things of God, and makes them plain to
the children of men, which have caused all this confusion that exists
in the Christian world, as well as in the heathen world.
Well, we have met here this afternoon, and we have gathered here in
these mountain valleys that we might learn God's ways, and then carry
them out in our lives, for ours is a practical religion. We not only
learn but we practice. If we are Latter-day Saints, we come to learn
what is right and then do it with all our might, fearless and
regardless of the opinions of others, or what other people may do or
try to do. The business of our lives is to try and find out the will
of our Heavenly Father and perform it. This we can do. There is no
need to be in doubt as to what it is. There is no need to depend upon
any man—Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Peter, Paul, Isaiah,
or anybody else. Every man that lives, and every woman that breathes
the breath of life has a right to know in his or her own heart,
whether a thing is right and true or not, and those who do not strive
to obtain this knowledge are derelict. "He that doeth the will of the
Father shall know of the doctrine." Our business is then to find out
what the Lord's will is, to guide us in our everyday life, not only
to make us feel good, to exalt our spiritual nature, our emotions, our
sentiments, our thoughts, not only that, but to guide us in our daily
lives, so that all our acts may be squared according to the rule of
right, that we may do that which is pleasing to our Heavenly Father,
that we may learn to live so as not merely to do our own will, but to
do the will of Him that has sent us here on the earth, and who has
enlightened our minds in regard to the truth. We need not walk in the
dark. It is our privilege to walk in the light. We have come out from
the darkness, we have come out from confusion, we have come out from
Babylon into the light and the liberty and the certainty of the
everlasting Gospel. We have come out from the creeds of men; we have
come out from the ways of men; we have come out from the nations and
kingdoms of the earth; we have come up into these mountain valleys,
that we may find out truth day by day and year by year, that we may
get closer and closer to our God, that we may learn the ways of
truth, and walk in them more perfectly, until the veil shall be
entirely taken away, and we shall see and comprehend the things of
eternity as plainly as with our natural eyes as we can behold each other
and the things of time. It is our privilege to come near unto our
Father, to drink of those streams that flow from the eternal fountain,
to have the Holy Ghost in our hearts every day, springing up "like a
well of water unto everlasting life." It is our privilege to walk in
the light continually, and have the Holy Ghost to be our constant
companion, directing our ways, not only our actions and our doings,
but our feelings and our thoughts and our sentiments, that we may
become purer and holier, day by day, until we are sanctified and made
clean and white and fit to go back into the presence of our Heavenly
Father.
This is our business here in Utah—to learn the Lord's ways, to walk
in the Lord's paths, to be devoted to Him; not only to be baptized by
water into His Church, but baptized by the Holy Ghost, that we may be
brought into a oneness with our Father, brought into communion with
Him, that the voice of the eternal Spirit may whisper peace to our
souls, and point out the way that we shall go, and enable us to bear
testimony of the truths made manifest from the Lord through His
inspired servants as He reveals His will. Some people think that we
have come here to gratify every lust and every passion and every base
desire that is common to poor fallen humanity. Never was a greater
mistake made. This is not how I have learned what is commonly called
"Mormonism." I have learned that it is a holy thing, a sacred thing;
that it requires self-abnegation, not to men, but to truth, to
righteousness, to that which God reveals. The very essence of
"Mormonism" is to find out what the Lord wants, and then to do it, and
to do it regardless of anybody living upon the face of the earth,
regardless of what the world may do to try and prevent us. And the
people here are most of them of the same mind. They have come out from
the various sects and have all been baptized into one spirit, into one
body. The same Holy Ghost has rested down upon them as rested down
upon the Saints in ancient times, and has produced the very same
results. For the Holy Ghost has not changed, God has not changed, the
truth has not changed, and the Lord is just as willing today as He
was in the first years of the Christian era to reveal himself to those
who desire to learn of Him, and the Holy Ghost is just as much a
revealer today as it was in the olden times when the Prophets wrote
and spoke under its influence. The truth is just the same, but the
people have gone astray from the Lord's ways, corrupted themselves
before Him, filled the earth with abominations and iniquity, and their
eyes are so closed to that which is true and pure, that when the truth
is revealed from heaven, it is accounted a strange thing, and they not
only turn away from it, but they are filled with hatred towards those
who have received the truth and desire to walk in it.
It always was so from the beginning. When Abel would worship God in
the way appointed, Cain, who wanted to go his own way, offered what he
pleased, what he thought would do, and he was filled with anger
towards Abel, because his offering was accepted. Abel offered what God
commanded, the firstlings of the flock. Cain offered the fruits of the
ground. God had commanded a lamb without blemish and without
spot, to be offered as an emblem of the coming Redeemer, who, in the
meridian of time should come as "the lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world," and offer his life and pour out his blood
for the remission of sins. Cain offered what he pleased, and when
Abel's offering was accepted, Cain was filled with anger. The spirit
of Satan entered into him—which is the spirit of destruction, the
spirit of murder—and he arose and slew his brother. Now, though
persecutors in these times do not realize it themselves, they are
filled with the same spirit towards the servants of God. When Joseph
Smith, called of God to be a prophet in this latter time, to usher in
the great last dispensation of God's mercy to man, to bring forth the
ancient Gospel as taught by Jesus and His Apostles, to reveal again
the ancient Priesthood and authority thereof, to lay the foundation of
the Latter-day kingdom, to prepare the way for the coming of the Son
of Man; when he came as a boy, an unlettered youth, bearing the glad
tidings of great joy that communication between the heavens and the
earth so long lost, had been restored, that the light from the eternal
Sun of Righteousness had again streamed down to lighten up and dispel
the darkness of the world—how was he received? Why, men would not
listen to his teaching. They would not compare the doctrines he taught
with the scriptures which they professed to believe. They hooted at
the very idea of present revelation from God. They said: "Even
supposing it possible that in this enlightened age one could receive
revelation, was God going to speak to an illiterate boy? Would He not
choose some of the great and wise men of this generation, some of the
learned divines. But the idea of God's speaking to this youth!" And
they were filled with anger. The preachers and ministers of the day
were filled with hatred and wrath towards him, and towards all those
who received his testimony, and the Saints were driven from place to
place, from city to city, from State to State, until finally his
blood was shed. What for? Because he committed crime? No; their own
confession proved to the contrary, for they said, "the law cannot
touch him, but powder and ball shall." The same spirit that put Jesus
Christ to death; the same spirit that put those holy men to death
about whom I have spoken, who had "the burden of the word of the
Lord," and came not to declare their own opinions, but the word of God
Almighty to the inhabitants of the earth; the spirit that put them to
death, put Joseph Smith to death, and that is the spirit that burns in
the hearts of the so-called pious "Christian" ministers against the
Latter-day Saints. They meet together in their convocations and
conferences and assemblies, and pass resolutions about a people of
whose doctrines and practices and lives they are in perfect ignorance.
They do not know the motives which prompt us. They do not know the
principles which actuate us. They know nothing about the work God
Almighty has called us to do, for which we have left our homes in
distant lands, and come to these valleys. But they are inspired by the
same spirit of wickedness and destruction which filled the hearts of
men who slew the servants of God in former times. They do not want to
try and convert these Latter-day Saints. Oh, no. What do they want to
do? One enlightened minister of the Gospel who came out here
and stayed about twenty-four hours, and like a great many other people
went back professing to know all about "Mormonism;" although perhaps
he never spoke to a "Mormon" while here—got up in the pulpit and
preached the gospel of the bayonet and cannon as a means of solving
the "Mormon problem!" He said he would solve the problem in a short
time. He would gather all the Latter-day Saints into this great
Tabernacle, and then turn the artillery of the United States upon
them! That was a minister of the orthodox gospel. I do not say they
are all like him; God forbid that I should. But the same spirit is
working in their hearts and in the hearts of a great many men, and
they do not know it.
It may be said of them as Jesus said in regard to His disciples on a
certain occasion. Because some people did not do exactly as they
wanted, they asked: "Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down
from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" The Savior, we are
told, rebuked them and said: "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are
of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them." That is the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of salvation.
Well, those people who seek the destruction of the Latter-day Saints
do not know what spirit they are of. They are in the dark in regard to
the things of God. They have not been guided by the gift and power of
the Holy Ghost. Many of them have administered in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, without the slightest
vestige of authority. They have done it upon their own authority; and
they are filled with the spirit of the evil one, and they desire the
destruction, not the conversion, of the Latter-day Saints.
Well, my brethren and sisters and friends, I take great pleasure in
bearing testimony this afternoon in this public congregation before
the heavens, before Almighty God, who shall judge the world, before
Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, before the angels of
heaven who can hear and witness my words, that in these last days our
Heavenly Father has revealed the ancient Gospel anew, by His own voice
from heaven and by heavenly messengers sent down from on high; that
the authority which the ancient prophets and apostles held in ancient
times has been restored, and men hold it now; that the same Holy Ghost
by which the ancient prophets spoke and wrote the word of the Lord is
given to the people called Latter-day Saints—not only to the leaders
of the Church who are placed in authority to direct and manage and
govern the affairs of the Church of Christ upon the earth, but the
body of the people. The spirit that is in the head of the Church is in
the body, and runs to every extremity, enlightening it, filling it
with life and with vigor. And it brings forth the same fruits, which
are love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, brotherly kindness and
charity, and the light of God bears witness to these things. And not
only have we these gifts, but there are other gifts in our midst, the
same as were manifested in olden times, such as the gift of tongues,
interpretation of tongues, visions and dreams, the gift of prophecy,
the discerning of spirits, the healing of the sick—those who have
faith to be healed—and every gift and every power and every blessing
which were the result of the reception of the Holy Ghost in ancient
times, are enjoyed in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. I bear this testimony with words of truth and soberness,
before God and all men. I know this is God's work, and I know it will
prevail. I know it will not be left to another people. I know it will
remain, and every power and every influence that rises against it, to
destroy it, will itself perish and be destroyed, and every arm that is
lifted against this work will, in the due time of the Lord, be palsied
and withered, for it is the work of the great God, and it will stand
forever. The servants of the Lord in this Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, in spite of all attacks and schemes and efforts to
stop them, will go out to every nation, kindred, tongue and people,
and preach the Gospel of the kingdom as a witness before the end shall
come, and they will gather the elect of God from the four winds and
bring them to Zion. And these Temples which we are laboring upon will
be erected, and the people of God will enter them and administer in
behalf of the living and the dead, and God will commune with His
servants therein. They will learn more of His ways and walk in His
paths; they will purge out all iniquity in their midst; they will cut
off the evil doer by severing him or her from the Church; the spirit
of judgment will come to Zion, and the wicked and ungodly and the
hypocrite will flee away; and God will break every yoke, and remove
every bond, and Israel shall be free. And the Zion of our God shall
arise and shine, and the glory thereof shall stream forth to the
uttermost parts of the earth, and God will break down every nation,
kingdom and government of the earth which refuses to hearken to his
voice, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of
our God and His Christ, and He shall reign from pole to pole and from
shore to shore.
May God add His blessing to this testimony, through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
- Charles W. Penrose