It is very pleasing and it is also an occasion of heartfelt gratitude
to be permitted to meet, so many of us, this morning and under such
favorable circumstances as those which surround us; even the elements
conspire to make our coming together convenient and agreeable.
Circumstances are such as prevent our brethren of the First Presidency
and several of the Twelve Apostles from being with us, and perhaps
others from among the people, who would be glad to be with us at this
General Conference, but who deem it advisable, or are so situated that
they cannot consistently attend. Let us that have come together seek
unto the Lord for His Spirit and His guidance, that we may receive
that measure of grace and blessing at His hand which we need under the
present conditions which attend upon us.
If any evidence were wanting to indicate to the doubtful, the
unbelieving, or the half-hearted, as to whether we are of the world or
the world of us, we are obtaining daily evidence of the fact that we
are not of the world. The Savior told the brethren that sojourned with
Him: "If ye were of the world, the world would love you: but because
ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you." The same reason essentially exists
today that existed then. But the Lord has made very gracious and
precious promises to His people—that where only two or three are
agreed as touching matters pertaining to the interest of His Kingdom
and the honor of His name, their prayers shall be heard. There never
was a day since the Church has been organized in these last days that
the Saints had better reasons, or more of them, to be strong
and confident in God their living Head, than they have this morning.
We need to know and realize that our trust is in Him and not in man,
for woe! to him that putteth his trust in man and maketh flesh his
arm. God has undertaken to perform a work in the earth which is going
to astonish the world, and which will give to His name honor, and
glory, power and dominion. Now, all these things that occur—I need not
go into any enumeration of them, because in all of your different
settlements circumstances and conditions are more or less varied—it
has been the studied plan of our adversaries to spread snares for our
feet throughout the land; and it need not be wondered at, of course,
that they who stand highest in authority should be the objects more
particularly of their wicked designs.
Take a look at this thing rationally and in a commonsense view for a
moment. The forest trees that are shaken with the wind sometimes
almost seem as if they would be uprooted by it, and blown over. By
this operation the soil is wonderfully loosened about the roots. By
this storm the strength of a tree is tested, and the trunk and the
branches of it, as to whether they bear proper relation to each other
and derive that support that sustains every part in its natural
position. It is also very natural that in that grove, as the wind
passes over it, the tallest trees are really the most tried part of
it, for the wind and storm will dash and blow upon them, while the
smaller ones that are protected by each other, scarcely feel it,
perhaps. Then you need not wonder if some of the tallest trees do not
happen to be here today. We will, however, remember our brethren who
are absent, and pray for them; we will ask the Lord to bless and
protect them, to strengthen and fill them with the wisdom of the Holy
Ghost continually, that the joy and comfort of the truth and of the
holy Gospel shall be theirs, and that they shall be preserved from the
hands of their enemies.
We who are gathered together, instead of entertaining ill feeling of
cultivating malicious designs towards our enemies, will ask the Lord
to strengthen us and to qualify us not only for what is upon us now,
but for what is before us; for we do not know what there may be for us
in the purposes of Jehovah. All this may be necessary and profitable
to give us an experience that we should pass through trials, that may
tend to our improvement and qualification, enable us in our different
positions to better magnify our callings, and to bear off His Kingdom
in the last days as He requires.
There are times and seasons when the hoary frosts of winter not only
prevent the trees from showing forth their foliage, from developing
any bloom, but cause them to cast their fruit to the earth, scarcely
giving indications of life. It may not be wondered at then, if through
the storms and blasts of adversity which come upon the Church from
time to time that its members are not spreading forth and reaching out
their branches, or that the foliage shows no such immediate prospects
of fruit, as we might, under more favorable sunshine and with more
beautiful weather, expect. While this adverse season is on and the
leaves perhaps have blown to the ground, and all presents the
appearance of barrenness and death itself, the sap is at work down in
the roots. Do you understand this? Gardeners and nurserymen especially
will understand that at the close of the adverse season, when
the winds and storms have loosened the soil, the roots have extended
themselves deeper into the earth, when the sun shines and the gentle
rain falls and the pleasant spring appears, those roots, now greatly
enlarged, will cause the trees to put forth larger leaves, with more
abundant bud and bloom, and with larger and more luscious fruit than
before. So it is and will be with the great tree of Life which God has
planted in the earth, and which is bringing forth and will yield more
abundantly the fruits of Everlasting Life.
Well, then, we have nothing that we need be afflicted or worried
about, except our own unrighteousness. I know how the Saints feel
about many things which are menacing and intimidating them at the
present time; but brethren and sisters, now is the best of all times
to go often into your closets, for secret prayer, and there find that
grace and help of God which is able to buoy you up in every time of
need. Men that are the heads of families need now to be filled with
the Holy Spirit, to be Prophets, Seers and Revelators to their
families, to their kindred and to those that are around them. You need
to have your roots strike deep into the soil of Heaven and stronger
into the soil of eternity, that you may derive that nourishment and
that strength that shall bring to you greater, more abundant and more
glorious blessings than ever you have yet realized.
Among other benefits that will be produced by the strange conditions
that attend us is this: that while there are those among us who have
not known whether they were following for the loaves and fishes, or
whether they were following for the truth's sake—many who are ready to
dabble in spirituous liquors and in those intoxicating drinks which
inflame the passions, which madden the soul, daze their intellects,
destroy the faculties of man, drowning their souls in the perdition of
the ungodly; many who have never sought to dig deep and lay their
foundation upon the rock of revelation which is the only foundation of
eternal truth. It is absolutely important that we and they should know
which side of the fence they dwell on; that they make up their minds
either to serve God or the devil; and this is a time that calls all
people professing to be Saints to make up their minds determinedly
whom it is best to serve, and if the Lord is their God, to get some
oil in their vessels that they be not always in darkness.
Again, there are conditions which pertain to all animated nature, and
which are incident to the great body of the Church as well, and they
are these: Notwithstanding it may be the choicest food we may eat,
notwithstanding the most healthful or precious drinks we may use—there
are operations going on in the system whereby those elements that are
not found of use are cast off as waste by the various avenues provided
by nature for the expulsion of that which is not useful to the system.
Just so this principle of life exists with God's people. They who will
not in their due time and place become articles of nutriment and
health to the Church and the Saints will become refuse and will be
cast off. These are principles in nature and in life which all are
conversant with; we know and understand them. In this dispensation of
Providence, wherein it seems as though all the powers of darkness were
arrayed against us, we need to understand that it is to God and to God alone that we must look. We need to understand the laws of
all things well. The Lord has borne us off in troubles and in
tribulations while in Ohio, in Missouri, and in Illinois, and the God
that has been with us through these troubles will not forsake us at
the present time. The great thing for us to do is to feel after Him,
and repent of our sins, our waywardness, and of our weaknesses and
sinfulness, and put away everything that is unrighteous and that which
is displeasing in the sight of God and of angels and good men. If we
do this His favor and His power will rest upon us, and He will allow
nothing to come upon us but what He will sanctify to our greatest good
and to His own eternal honor and glory, and we shall see by and by His
infinite wisdom in all His providences towards us.
I appreciate with you the many precious sentiments that have been
uttered in our hearing since we have come together at this conference,
and also appreciate with you the consideration which our absent
brethren of the First Presidency have felt concerning us, and the work
in which we are engaged.
There is something about our labor that is strangely peculiar, but not
more so, perhaps, in our day than has existed in former ages of the
world when the Gospel has been revealed to man. It has always seemed
to be the case that whatever period of time we take up to read
concerning the work of God and its effects among the inhabitants of
the earth—we always find that the people of God and the people of the
world have been in direct antagonism; and when we get back to the most
remote items of history—or items of information which history is
permitted to furnish us—we find that even in the spiritual state of
man's existence, before the family of Adam came to dwell in the flesh,
that there was antagonism there between truth and error, between those
that embraced truth and those that embraced error, and following down
through the ages that same antagonism has existed and been made
manifest in one form or in another, so that the people of the earth
have never been in a position to see and understand the principles of
the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of salvation, in the same light,
and to understand it together and correctly. The principles of the
Gospel which have been revealed of God have been admitted by the
greatest moral philosophers who have lived—aside from religious
professors—to be the most noble principles, the most calculated to
exalt mankind, in the belief, in the exercise, and in the obedience of
them, of any doctrines or principles of ethics that have ever been
given to the human family; great moralists, great scientists have been
willing to give this credit to the principles and doctrines of our
Savior. Philosophers of this world have done this; and all they of the
Saints who have rendered obedience to these principles know, truly,
how a faith in them exalts those that embrace them, until it has come
to be a truism among the people of God, "that righteousness exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."
Therefore, let it be known to all the world that it is one of the
first principles of the Gospel of Christ that men should repent of
their sins, that they should be washed in the waters of regeneration
for the remission of their sins, that then, in pursuance thereof, they
may receive the Holy Ghost from heaven, which is promised unto
obedient believers.
This is not only the doctrine of the Gospel of this dispensation, and
the doctrine of the Gospel in the dispensation when Jesus and the
Apostles of His day were upon the earth, but this is the very
principle and doctrine that was revealed to Father Adam, after he was
cast out of the Garden of Eden, when the angel of the Lord came to him
and asked him why he offered sacrifices. He replied that he knew not,
only that the Lord had told him to do so. Then the angel of the Lord
proceeded to explain the matter to him—told him that the object of his
offering sacrifices was to keep before his mind the great sacrifice
that must be offered up in the meridian of time. This was the only
symbol and type given to men to cause them to look forward through an
ordinance they practiced to the Savior, who was to come as a sacrifice
for sin and to become the Savior of the world. Thus early did God
place this principle before the mind of the great father of the human
family when in that terrible dilemma, he having consented to partake
of the fruit and go out of the garden with mother Eve. It was then
that our first parents began to be taught this principle. Adam was
taught that he must be born of the water and of the spirit, and in
demonstration of this he was caught up by the Spirit and placed in the
water and brought forth out of the water, as the revelation of God to
Joseph declares. Then he was baptized by the Holy Ghost and with fire.
And the Lord told him to teach those things to his children that they
might look forward with him to the time when the Only Begotten should
come in the flesh and should be made an offering for the sins of the
world. Adam was further told that if he taught these things to his
children he and they should have in this life the words of eternal
life, and in the life to come eternal life itself. Mark the careful
distinction; that if they would keep the commandments they should in
this life have the words of eternal life given to them, and in the
life to come they should have eternal life itself, and, added the Lord
to this great promise, "thus may all become my sons."
Thus the plan of salvation was in brief laid out in plainness to our
Father Adam, that he and all his children might be thought meet to
enter into the favor of God, receive the fellowship of the Holy Ghost,
be born of water and of the Spirit, and thus come to a knowledge of
the principles of eternal life.
We see from this that the first step to be taken in those days, when
the works of Cain had gone forth, and when the people had become
exceedingly wicked—so bad that the Scriptures say the thoughts of
their hearts were only evil and that continually—the very first thing
to consider was how to deprive sinfulness of its power and make
righteousness to take hold of the children of men so that they might
find favor with the Gods, and with all the righteous both in heaven
and on the earth.
This was the principle, this was the doctrine, and this was the way by
which the Patriarch Enoch—that great and ancient worthy of whom we
know so little—went forth and by the power of God reasoned with those
wicked people and preached the Gospel to them, and baptized all who
would receive it and gathered them together into a place which he
called Zion. It was a very great and mighty work he had to perform;
for the people had become terribly wicked, filled with the spirit of murder and every manner of abomination that the human heart
can conceive of.
This, then, is the foundation that all men have to lay in their hearts
and lives before they begin to receive the principles of eternal life
as they are revealed. You my brethren and sisters that are from
Scandinavia, from the northern countries, from the Cape of Good Hope,
New Zealand, Australia, and from the islands of the sea, including the
frozen regions of Iceland—every one of you were taught and embraced
those first principles in the primitive part of your faith and belief
in the Gospel. It was the beginning; it was the step which every son
and daughter of Adam has had to take, from the days of Adam until now,
in order to cleanse themselves before God, so as to receive the
blessings of eternal life. It was by carrying out these principles and
preaching that Adam was saved. It was by an obedience to the same
principles that Enoch succeeded in gathering out the honest in heart
unto the city of Zion. He was 365 years in building up that Zion and
in gathering into it a people on the same principles that have been
revealed to us in these latter days. We are preaching the same Gospel
that was given to those ancient worthies. You can trace the Priesthood
by referring to the Book of Doctrine and Covenants—the holy, high
Priesthood that has come down from Adam to Noah, and down through
Enoch, Methuselah and the different men of God who lived in ancient
times—you can trace it clear back to Adam who was ordained under the
hands of God, who told him that that Priesthood should abide in his
generations and that it should be on the earth at the end of time.
What is the Priesthood that you grey-headed fathers are bearing before
us today in the midst of Israel? It is the holy, high Priesthood of
Melchizedek, which is after the order of the Son of God, and which is
after the power of an endless life. Then, brethren and sisters,
understand it. It is not a new Gospel revealed now for the first
time—these first principles are not new, because they have been
revealed from the beginning. They are the same principles that Christ
commenced to preach when He was upon the earth. They were the first
principles that John the Baptist taught when he came to prepare the
way for the coming of the Son of Man; they were the very first
principles that Joseph and Oliver taught in this dispensation when
they began to preach the Gospel. They were ordained to the Aaronic
Priesthood. This is the beginning of the work of righteousness.
There are revelations and doctrines given unto us in our day, however,
which were not given in former ages, because the people were not
prepared and were not in a suitable condition to receive such. Do not
let us think that we have got all the revelation there is. In the last
great revelation which the Lord gave to Joseph, He told him that He
had not revealed all to him, but that there were many laws pertaining
to His Priesthood which He would reveal hereafter. Do you remember it?
But if the world is going to get scared and terrified and ready to lay
waste and destroy the Latter-day Saints before we have got so far
advanced in the civilization of heaven as to understand the marriage
laws and some of the marital relations of the sexes—if they go crazy
over this what will happen to them when something more comes along?
Now, I hope that none of the Saints will grow weak in the knees; do
not let them hang down their heads, nor allow their hearts to be
troubled; do not let the sisters lie awake at nights brooding over
this and that that is going to happen, and getting a great deal of
borrowed trouble. There is no promise of grace to sustain them in
such trouble; but the Lord has promised that His grace shall be
sufficient for our day, sufficient for the troubles we have to bear;
but we have no promise of grace to sustain us in borrowed trouble. Do
not be alarmed though the heathen rage and the people imagine vain
things. While they are in confusion and strife of every kind, you will
multiply upon the earth and establish lasting peace upon the face
thereof. The Latter-day Saints who are the object of all observation
from the four quarters of the earth, are the only people that have
pure and settled peace in their hearts and in their midst. Do you
realize this? Our missionaries go to the Southern States, and the
North Western States; they go to Europe, to Asia, Africa, and every
point of the compass, and when they return they tell us that in no
place do they find as true, settled and substantial peace, as there is
right here in Utah, where one would think, from all that is going on
and all that is threatened, that the waves of the sea were going to
roll over us. Our peace is that which the Gospel brings. The fruit of
the Spirit which the wicked can neither give nor take away. There is
no use being worried over these things. It is part of our heritage.
They who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution; we
have every reason to expect it. It is our duty to seek wisdom of the
Lord in all matters; seek for the Holy Spirit, and attend to our own
business.
In regard to the principles of the Gospel which the Lord has revealed
to us beyond what He has to other people, we should remember that we
shall be called to account for the use we make of them; remember that
we use them, live them, and administer them in all righteousness in
our lives and conduct, and while there are no two families whose
conditions and circumstances are just alike, still the same general
principles will have their general effect in all households. We must
cultivate righteousness. We are learning the principles of the Gospel
one after another; how to observe and obey them. We want to know how
to hold them in righteousness, because we cannot hold these precious
eternal treasures in unrighteousness; if we think we can we shall be
deceived and will some day find out that they are not to be held in
unrighteousness, for they only take effect with the pure in heart,
they that are willing to keep the commandments of God, and walk in the
way of His counsels.
Sin is a reproach to any people. It is better for us right here in
this life that we keep the commandments of God, even if we did not
look for any future reward of glory. Don't you know it is? Why?
Because we feel happy and strong within ourselves when we lie down at
night and rise up in the morning; when we go out and when we come in;
we feel the sustaining influence and approval of an honest heart, of a
pure conscience, and of all just people—a conscience void of offense
towards God and His people. This is the greatest treasure that a
person can possess in this life. And do you know that go where you
will—among those ignorant tribes that surround us, or to the highest
civilized, and most cultivated portions of the European or American
na tions—the man that is obedient to the holy principles of
the everlasting Gospel—if they do not know he is called a Mormon—is
respected above all men who disregard the principles of righteousness
and truth. If some of our brethren who work in the mining camps behave
themselves and live their religion, the very men around them respect
and honor them. Why? Because they are reliable; because the principles
they have embraced and put into practice render them substantial and
trustworthy. You go into the classes of the university or of the
colleges where young men have gone in quest of an education, and you
will find that the man who is pure and virtuous in his feelings, in
his thoughts and in his ways, who does not delight in folly, in sin
and the secret works of darkness, but is at home attending to his
lessons and his duty—it is he that makes his way to the head of the
class, and gets the highest honor among his fellows. It is he that
they look up to because of his upright conduct and all that is
excellent in man. That is the kind of men that go forth and make their
way and mark among their neighbors and their countrymen. True virtue
and righteousness exalt individuals, and it therefore must exalt a
nation composed of such individuals. When a nation disregards the
principles of justice, equity, righteousness and truth—so far as to
fail or refuse the administration of its laws equitably to any portion
or class of its citizens, then the people have reason to fear the
dreadful consequences that must follow, unless a reformation is
effected; then the noble, the honorable, the virtuous and the pure
should be willing to make sacrifice for that which is ennobling,
exalting, upright and praiseworthy.
Go back in the history of the world and you will see that the greatest
nations that ever existed, as soon as they commenced to pervert
justice, crush truth and right, persecute God's people and exalt
iniquity, then commenced their downfall, and their way was down, down,
down, to demolition and destruction, until more substantial and better
elements were found in their ruins with which to raise up and create
something new. It was that excellence and purity which God saw in the
Puritan fathers that came over to this country for the love of the
truth, and to worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences—it was that excellence that preserved them and
established them here, and as long as they maintained the principles
of liberty, allowed others to enjoy the same rights that they
themselves enjoyed, just so long did they prosper. They were powerful
in that they had influence and faith to receive inspiration from
God, to draw up and establish the greatest Constitution that has ever
been known on the earth—the grandest combination of loyal principles
and fundamental truths that has been established by man, since the
days of Noah, and that is the Constitution with which politicians have
become so reckless, in construing its provisions, and have gone
outside of its limitations to rule and regulate the people of this
great nation as they please. That glorious Constitution was made to
regulate rulers as well as the ruled. It was so constructed that those
who should be appointed to rule over the people should not be their
masters, but their servants. How comes it now, that the whole polity
has been perverted to another way; the rulers have come to be masters
of the people, and are undertaking now to lord it over God's heritage.
We ought to understand these things. It is our duty to do so.
I desire now to refer to a particular expression in the epistle which
has just been read, wherein the brethren of the First Presidency have
exhorted the Saints not to allow themselves to commit any overt act.
No matter how much you are worried, no matter how much you are
aggravated by the acts of the ungodly, do not do a thing that you
could afterwards be sorry for. Do nothing that could let blood stick
to one of you. Bear with every impious insult. Put up with it as
Christ did when he was hanging upon the cross and his life's blood
oozing out from his heart, and his spirit ready to depart, and say
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." That is the way
we want to look as far as we can upon those who are oppressing and
injuring us, breaking up our homes, and scattering our women and
children to the four winds. It is something that could not be allowed
in the old monarchial countries, which are looked upon as being
measurably beneath the United States in the matter of a constitutional
government, and yet we see men among us who are ready to demolish the
very sanctity of home, lay waste and destroy that which lies at the
very foundation of all law, natural and governmental. It is painful;
it is sorrowful. Let us pity while they are so blind, so ignorant, so
ill-natured, and so willing to depart from good government, even to
enact laws to prevent their fellowcitizens from worshipping God
according to the dictates of their own conscience. But, for my own
part, I feel like the First Presidency in this matter. Let us commit
no overt act, which in any event we could be sorry for.
We never saw a time when we had reason to feel more thankful and
lifted up in our hearts before the living God than the present. Why?
Because the Savior said: "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well
of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." But says He,
"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate
you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name
as evil, for the Son of Man's sake."
I wish to exhort the Saints to frequent their closets more than they
do; to neglect not their prayers night and morning, and in the season
thereof fail not to bow the knee and call your sons and daughters
around you. If you do this, by and by your sons and daughters will
rise up and call you blessed; if you do not they will get cold and
depart from truth and the faith of the living God, and that will bring
the greatest sorrow you can conceive of. This is a time when we are
called upon to bring our practical religion into use, to put on the
whole armor of God, and to trust in Him. The Savior said He could
call to His help more than twelve legions of angels; more than the
Roman hosts; but He knowing the great purposes of Jehovah could go
like a lamb to the slaughter. He understood those purposes, could curb
His powers, control His feelings, and could make a manly fight for
righteousness and truth, and carry out the decrees of heaven. Can we
do so? Can you and I do so? If we cannot, can we be counted worthy to
be called His brethren, and Saviors upon Mount Zion? We have got to be
considerably more like him than we are before we attain unto all those
excellencies that are promised.
Inasmuch as the work of God spreads, and its influence and potency are felt among the nations of the earth, so long will this
opposition and this antagonism exist, and we must expect it; it cannot
be avoided. It is an eternal consequence of our faith. If we reckoned
upon anything else, we reckoned wrongly. Every true Saint, when he
embraced this Gospel, felt to lay down his good name, his earthly
substance, and life itself—all was laid upon the altar. We need not
think, however, that although the Lord permits certain things to come
upon us, that He will not soften the hearts of the wicked and ungodly.
He has told us with a firm decree, that from a time when the Saints
commenced to be more faithful they should begin to prevail against
their enemies, and they have proved this in the deliverances that have
been wrought out in their behalf from time to time. Have we any reason
to doubt or lack confidence in the promises of God for the future? Not
a particle. Every step of the way affords a greater, a more powerful
confirmation and assurance that He is true to His promises, and will
carry them out in our behalf.
Do you know, says one, how far these things will go? Just so far as
the Lord will allow them. When it comes to the right time He will put
a stop to them. He knows how to do it, just at His good pleasure.
We should go to work and put transgression from our midst, cultivate
righteousness and put away all sin, and by keeping His commandments
and living by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of His
servants the work of sanctification will go on in our hearts, our
homes, and our habitations will be holy in His sight. He will not
allow the acts of the wicked to come against us any longer than will
be for His own glory and our greatest good. Let us feel that we are in
the hands of the Lord, that He is our Father and friend. Let us draw
near to Him; find Him out, and walk with Him here in the flesh, then
we shall know that it will be well with us hereafter.
I pray that the good Spirit of God may dwell in our hearts; may write
His law on the tablets of our hearts; may impress the principles of
truth upon our minds, so that we may live them and make them
profitable to us in the future. That God may grant these blessings
unto us, I humbly ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen.
- Franklin D. Richards