My brethren and sisters and friends: I arise to speak with a little
embarrassment, but I look to the Saints, asking for their faith so that
I may overcome.
There is nothing that interests the Latter-day Saints so much as the
enunciation of the principles which they profess and literally accept;
but it would seem as if there was in the outside world, less
comprehension and understanding in regard to the principles that the
Saints believe in, than there is in regard to any other subject which
has acquired the same prominence.
The Church of Jesus Christ for a great many years has kept a large
number of missionaries in the field; they have traversed the whole of
Christendom, in a greater or less degree, visited also the heathen
nations and lands that are afar off; but yet a traveler would find
that but little impression has been made among the masses of mankind.
Even among those which are most ad vanced, and whose citizens are
presumed to be intelligent, and to comprehend the questions which
agitate the public mind, there is an amount of ignorance which is, to
say the least, discreditable. It has been my lot individually, to come
in contact with many who have visited this Territory and city, and to
hear their expressions of surprise in regard to the religious faith of
the Latter-day Saints. To tell a stranger that the people of Utah
believe in the Bible, appears to be something altogether unlooked for.
The assertion of their faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ,
appears to be received with more or less incredulity, and there are
others who believe that the marriage customs of the Latter-day Saints
are the beginning and the end, and all there was and is or will be, to
give them distinction and peculiarity among the people of this nation.
And yet if you were to sweep your eye over this congregation—which is
pro bably an average one of the people of this Territory, you
would instantly say, that there does not appear to be much difference
in the appearance of the people here and the average congregations of
worshippers elsewhere. The facts are that the people here—the older
ones at all events—have been called and gathered from among mankind,
and from Christendom, as a rule. There are in this Church many
native-born citizens, who have come from every State of the American
Union, and are fully acquainted with all its religious sects and
creeds. There are those who have come from the different nations of
Europe, and they have been familiar with the institutions which exist
there; they have attended the services and been identified with the
same organizations that you find today. They know all about the
churches and the ministers and the Sabbath schools and the literature
of the religious world. They have analyzed and compared and contrasted
these until they understand not only the differences that exist
between the several churches, individually, as they are known in
Christendom, but they understand also the vast differences between
those churches and that record called the Bible. They have been
familiar with that, including the New Testament, from their childhood.
They were taught it of their mothers and their fathers. They read it
in the Sabbath school. They listened to the exposition of its truths
and doctrines in the churches to which they belonged, and it was
personal mental analysis and comparison that gave conviction to their
souls and induced them to receive that order which the world has
designated "Mormonism." As a rule the people of Utah are
"Mormons,"
from conviction and from choice. They have left the institutions of
their fathers because of the defects which were discovered therein,
because of the inconsistencies which prevailed there, and in thousands
of instances have reached conclusions because of the teachings that
many of them received in the religious organizations of the world. The
Latter-day Saints, to the surprise of many, call themselves
Christians. Notwithstanding the opposition that they have encountered;
notwithstanding the prejudice with which they have had to contend;
notwithstanding the ignorance that is everywhere manifest in regard to
them and to their institutions, they claim to be Christians—or
followers of Christ; and in assuming this title, they accept it with
all that it implies. They defend with as much devotion and persistence
the character and institutions and teachings that were given of their
Lord and Savior as recorded in the Books that have been handed down
from the fathers as do the disciples of any system, either secular or
religious, who follow out the dictates, theories and ideas of those
whom they have accepted as their leaders. The followers of John Wesley
are no more tenacious of the teachings of their illustrious
predecessor, the founder of their church, than are the Latter-day
Saints in regard to the teachings of the Savior, and of His servant
the Prophet Joseph Smith. Those who revere the name of Washington and
of the fathers of this republic, and because of that reverence,
cherish the fundamental truths of the Constitution, and the
Declaration of Independence, are no more tenacious of the truths
uttered by those whom they accept as leaders, than are the Latter-day
Saints in regard to the teachings and ordinances as established by
Christ. They have accepted Him as their authority; they have
accepted Him as their example; they have accepted Him as their leader;
and while their claims to Christianity, or the epithet of Christians,
may be ignored, disputed, or repudiated by others, still they are
abundantly able to prove that their position is correct. To those who
would dispute this let it be said that they can find (if they so
desire it) testimony in abundance in the publications which have been
issued by this Church; they can find testimony in abundance if they
will visit our Sunday schools; they can find testimony in abundance if
they will inquire of those who are "Mormons" or Latter-day Saints by
faith and profession. It is not usual, however, for inquirers to
address themselves to this class. It is well known that of the
thousands who travel this Territory, and who visit the people in the
capacity of tourists every summer, that there are but few, very few,
who ever seek an interview with those who are believers in and
receivers of, that which they designate "Mormonism." They as a rule
are more willing to receive all the flying rumors and reports, and to
listen to all who buttonhole them, and believe anyone they come in
contact with, in regard to the character of this community, in regard
to their faith and practice, their social theories, and the results of
these, than they are to inquire of Latter-day Saints; and yet there is
not a man or woman within the confines of this Territory or elsewhere,
who is a believer in the Gospel, but who is more than willing to
impart what information they possess and to give a reason for the hope
that is within them, though they might do it conscious of their own
weakness and with a measure of fear—not fear as to the truth of that
which they might repeat—not fear because they have any doubt as to the
character of the truths they have received, but with that trembling
which inevitably grows in the feelings of those who are ostracized by
society and who are vilified and repudiated by the world.
It may be asked, what then as "Mormons" are your views in a religious
sense? What are your peculiarities? Where do you get the doctrines
that you teach?
I am of the opinion that the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints can be
easily proved and established from the sacred Scriptures, and I can
further say that the missionaries who have gone from Utah—the Elders
who have labored in the midst of the nations of the earth—have always
been able to substantiate their testimony by the word of God. They
have never asked the world to receive a doctrine that they could not
read in their own Bible, in their own study and in their own homes.
They have never asked mankind to accept any dogma, doctrine or
principle which they believed would be calculated to work them injury,
but they have believed that the nature of man everywhere was of such a
uniform character, and the purposes of his creation were of such
divine intent, that those truths which in their essential nature would
bless one man, were equally calculated to bless all mankind.
I presume that it is everywhere comprehended that man is a religious
being; that he has within him aspirations, feelings and thoughts in
regard to the Supreme, which unitedly declare that he needs some
assistance from outside sources if he is to possess knowledge and
understanding of the nature of his existence. Knowledge in regard to
the purpose of that existence, in re gard to its past, and in
regard to the present and future of that existence. All the facts of a
man's organization bear testimony to the necessity (and where there is
necessity there is advantage) of religious training, culture and
education. The soarings of his spirit, the dissatisfaction with
earthly things, with its failures, and lack of recompense, the
consequent reaching out into the future for an assurance of
compensation, are all so many evidences that there is somewhere the
material to satisfy these aspirations; the same as the feeling of
hunger and thirst is abundant testimony that somewhere there are
elements to minister to the gratification of that hunger and thirst.
And when this conclusion is reached it is very easy to advance another
step in religious science, and to understand that if there is that
material, that intelligence calculated to minister to his religious
aspirations, its faith and hope, it must come from a source outside of
himself—in other words it must proceed from that Being who is the
originator, the Creator, the Lord of man, that in Him alone there must
be that fountain of inspiration, revelation and intelligence which is
essential in developing in man the purposes of his creation. This
argument appears to me to be philosophical, to be sound, to be suited
to every man's condition, and there is implied in that conclusion the
inevitable necessity and advantages of inspiration and revelation. The
Christian world have accepted this idea, and they will tell you that
the fountain of inspiration was open to man some 1,800 years ago. The
religious world hold to the theory that there was a period in the
history and experience of mankind when this spirit of inspiration
existed among men, but that it was some two or three or four thousand
years ago. The Christian—I might emphasize that and say the CHRISTIAN
world—have professed to have faith in the Savior of mankind as
occupying an intermediate position between the Creator and his
children, They will take up the Scriptures and point us to
illustrations which establish his character in that respect. They will
tell us in quoting the same that "He was a teacher sent from God;"
that "He sought not His own will but the will of the Father who sent
Him; that He declared that He spoke not of Himself, but of His Father
who sent Him; that He did nothing of Himself, but as my Father hath
taught me. I speak these things, for I do always those things that
please Him!" They will tell us that even his enemies said, "He spoke
like one having authority, and not as one of the Scribes." In all the
churches of Christendom they will repeat the marvelous parables that
He gave to His disciples; they will read to us the sermon on the
mount; they will tell us of His miracles; they will endeavor
ostensibly to carry out the institutions which He established, all of
which substantiates the idea that they have at least some faith in the
mission which He claimed upon the earth. But if you ask whether that
spirit of inspiration and revelation which He promised His disciples
was to be continuous, or whether it has been continuous, or whether it
is now necessary, the whole religious world, both priests and people
have reached the conclusion that it belongs to an era of the past; yet
if ever the religious world needed teachers it is now. If ever mankind
needed revelation it is today. If ever there was a necessity for
inspiration, we feel and know that it is in the midst of the
nineteenth cen tury. If ever there was a time when confusion,
contention and strife, when inconsistency and skepticism prevailed it
is surely now, among the most advanced nations of civilization and of
Christendom; there men are to be found laying the axe at the
foundation of religious faith, endeavoring to popularize their own
doctrines, and to bring into disrepute and into contempt the teachings
of the Book that for ages has been held sacred. This is being done
with that force of rhetoric, with that glow of imagination, and with
that wealth of illustration which belongs to men of the type of
Ingersoll, and congregations everywhere, hang with breathless suspense
upon the words they utter, and thousands are grateful in their
iniquity that the myth of religion, the fear of God, the certainty of
punishment, the future life, have been swept away by so ruthless and
so untiring a hand. Ministers are paralyzed and stand aghast in
presence of the enemy, and before a sin-sick world, and now if there
is one medicine needed more than another in this age, it is that
medicine which will minister to faith, to peace, to order, to
confidence, which will bring assurance, and will give men that trust
and satisfaction with and in the doctrines that they teach and
practice, such as was possessed by the Apostles and Teachers and
Saints of olden time. Where in the Churches of the world can you find
men ready to say as Paul said to his converts, "The Gospel came not
unto you in word only, but also in power and the Holy Ghost, and much
assurance?" 1 Thes. 1:5. Where are those who have the same
authority to say, "though we or an angel from heaven preach any other
Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accused." "I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was
preached of me is not after man, for I neither receive it of man,
neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. 1
and 12. This assurance is not to be found. It is not known. The spirit
of authority, the confidence which grows from the possession of truth
is not in connection with the churches, or enjoyed among the
intelligent of Christendom. To be sure the world go to a great expense
in order that they may secure religious instruction. Colleges are
erected. Men of certain temperament spend years and years in order
that they may be fitted for the ministerial profession. The people
delight to pour out of their wealth for the spiritual food that they
receive of their teachers; but with it all, that uniformity, that
beauty, that simplicity, that consistency, that force, that assurance
which pertained to the primitive days of Christianity is not to be
found in the religious world of today.
Now, I might ask what was the order of things in the primitive church
as established by the Savior? There are certain first principles which
pertain to all branches of science—chemical science, agricultural
science, astronomical science, or any other branch—there is implied in
connection with all these a possession and use of primary or
fundamental principles upon which the superstructure is built, and it
is the same in regard to the science of religion. There are certain
fundamental and foundation principles upon which the superstructure is
built, and it is the same in regard to the science of religion. There
are certain fundamental and foundation principles upon which the
edifice is to be built, and upon which it must forever stand, and
these principles did not originate in any school in connection
with any college, or really in connection with any organization or
body of men. They are divine. They were revealed. They came through
chosen messengers who tabernacled in the flesh, who taught and then
transmitted them to their fellows, who in turn taught others, and thus
made them powerful by final dissemination among nations. This idea, I
think, is invulnerable. What, then, are the primary or foundation
principles of religion? Faith in God, growing out of the necessities
of man's nature, growing out of the nature of his spirit, the origin
of his being, the history and memory of the past, the outlook into the
future—these all foreshadowing the necessity and advantages and
blessings of faith in God. Hence every man who is a religionist has
sought unto a Being of some kind; whatever his conception of that
Being may be, he looks upon it as fundamental that there is a God, and
there are none but those that David speaks of, namely, the fool, who
has said in his heart that "there is no God." Having established this
faith in God, we want to know what position we occupy towards Him. He
is our benefactor. He is our friend. We are His children. The
Scriptures tell us that we are created in His image and likeness. They
tell us that the Savior was "the express image of His Father's
person." We, then, are like our Father. We are His posterity. We are
His sons and daughters dwelling and tabernacling in the flesh. What is
the position that a man's children occupy toward him as their parent?
Every parent expects obedience. Every parent expects respect to his
wishes. Every parent expects that when he makes a law that that law
will be carried out in his household; that there shall be order, rule
and authority there. This is the idea which prevails between God and
man upon the earth, and that again implies the principle to which I
have already alluded, the spirit of inspiration and revelation; for in
our present condition the Almighty cannot communicate directly,
probably, but He has selected certain mediums of communication. Who
are they? His servants who—like His servants of Biblical note—teach
in His name. He promised, and gave unto mankind a witness of Himself,
even when there was no law, by His Holy Spirit, and He has sent that
true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, while
to every baptized believer is given "the manifestation of the Spirit,
to profit withal." 1 Cor. 12:7. And this Spirit will bear testimony
to the truths, or laws, that are revealed by His Son, and taught by
His appointed servants.
Well, now, how shall we ascertain these truths? Why, through this
channel. Jesus Christ was the lawgiver. He established that system of
things calculated to bring man back into the presence of His Father,
and He commanded men everywhere that they should seek after Him, that
they should pray unto Him, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Thy will
be done on earth as it is done in heaven," and He communicated that
will unto those who listened to His teaching. What was that will? He
continuously advocated and enforced the spirit of repentance. Why?
Because men—all men, had wandered from the path of rectitude. They
lived in violation of those laws which are divine; they failed to
carry out that which would lead them on toward perfection. Hence as a
natural and philosophical conclusion men are called upon to repent.
What! Does this generation need to repent? There are many who
think they need no repentance; that they occupy positions in society
too elevated; that they belong to the upper crust, the great "upper
ten," who are leaders in science, in art, and in literature, and who
are among the cultured of our nation and in other nations of mankind.
They think they have no occasion to repent; they "thank God that they
are not as other men, not even as this publican," or as this "Mormon."
But, brethren and sisters and friends, there is no royal road to
salvation in the economy of God. There are no principles in the
science of religion that can be repudiated, or neglected, or disobeyed
by man, without his subjection to the penalty, repentance of all evil
and a return to that which is right is one of the primary elements and
evidences of true manhood and womanhood, and it is also an essential
part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When man has thus accepted and
manifested his faith in God by his repentance, having believed on and
in the word of His servants, and acquired active faith in them, he has
made an advance. When I say His servants, I mean the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, in a primary sense, and those whom He has delegated and
appointed in a secondary sense; for we read that the Apostles were
commanded to teach that which He had taught them; they were sent out
to "teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;"
they were not to teach their own ideas, their own theories, their own
conclusions, but that they should teach the principles taught by Him,
when they were asked the question, What is necessary for us "to do to
be saved."
It is almost an insult to a great many people now, to tell them that
they need salvation, but yet in the innermost recesses of every man's
heart and every woman's soul, in the depths that no plummet hath
sounded, not even the one made by themselves—there rests the feeling
that they need be sorry for many of the things that they have done in
life, and if not for those that they have done, at least for the
thousand and one things that they have left undone, for there are sins
of omission as fatal as those of commission.
Faith in God and repentance, then, and faith in His servants, rests
upon a philosophical as well as upon a scriptural basis. It is
rational and reasonable, it is easy to be comprehended, these things
are true, in and of themselves!
What shall we do after we have thus repented? What say the Scriptures?
What said the Apostles? Why, when asked the question, "What shall we
do?" Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." "Why," say the
religious world, "we don't believe in that?" I know it. I cannot help
that. If you choose to repudiate the authority that you at other times
profess to accept, I do not know that it is much of my business. If
Americans choose to apostatize from the political principles of the
fathers of the Republic, I do not know that I can help that. If any
man belonging to any religious or social organization chooses to
neglect or repudiate the principle of that organization, I do not know
that I can help it. I do not know that any community can help it, we
can only state the facts as they are, premising, however, that
apostasy admissible from the institutions of men in no way justifies
the same action in regard to that which is divine. Jesus as an
example went and was baptized of John in Jordan, and there is abundant
proof in the New Testament, if I had time to quote it, to show that
all the early Christians were baptized. Have you any record that all
the early christians were baptized? No. But we have a record that many
were baptized, and the fact that one or more were baptized is evidence
presumptive that the whole were, for we read of only "one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism." "Well," says one, "I do not attach any
importance to baptism." Probably not. I was amused just before I came
to meeting in reading an account in the newspaper of a circumstance
that occurred lately in the experience of General Grant. We have all
sympathized with General Grant in his affliction. We have honored him
for the position that he occupied in the nation, and many of us have
hoped that he would live long to do good among the people. But at one
period of his sickness the doctors asserted that the disease was
likely to prove fatal at any moment, and Mrs. Grant was called into
the room where he was. Dr. Newman, and two or three of the General's
medical advisers were present, and Dr. Newman in the excess of his
religion, or of his soul, and probably with some faith in the
ceremony, got a little water and baptized the General—that is,
sprinkled the water upon him—in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost. General Grant was at the time unconscious and
not expected to rally. But one of the doctors went out to an attendant
and asked if he had a little brandy? Yes. After procuring the brandy
he injected a little into the General's veins, which speedily restored
him to conscious ness. Dr. Newman on this recovery immediately said,
"Oh! our faith and prayers have saved the General again. "No," says
the doctor." This incident I only mention to show that there are
theories in the Christian churches and among its most noted ministers
in regard to the ordinance of baptism, and probably the great majority
of Americans at some period of their lives have been baptized—as it is
called, some having been sprinkled in childhood, some in more mature
years, others by immersion, having been raised among the persuasion
called Baptists, whether or no, there is some little importance
attached to this ordinance of baptism, and this ordinance of baptism,
the Latter-day Saints accept in common with their fellow Christians,
or with other so-called Christians. They believe in being baptized as
a necessary consequence of their faith in God and in His Son Jesus
Christ!
Now, how were the early Christians baptized? I do not think that there
is a shadow of evidence in the New Testament that they were any of
them baptized by sprinkling, or in any other way save by that of
immersion. We read of some that were baptized in a certain place
"because there was much water there." We read of others who were
converted in the night time, and who went straightway and were
baptized. We read that the Savior told Nicodemus that, "except a man
be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom
of God." We read that Paul in writing to the Romans said that they
were buried with Christ in baptism, and that their being raised from
the water was an illustration of the rising of the Savior from the
tomb, and we are further told by Peter that as the ark saved Noah, so also doth "baptism now save us." Baptism, indeed, was a
divine ordinance. It was one of the steps in the science of religion
having its own special position of power and blessing in the economy
of God—one of the ordinances established for securing a certain
measure or portion of salvation.
And after the disciples had thus been baptized they received the Holy
Ghost by the "laying on of hands." Numerous illustrations of this fact
might be pointed out; but as we are not speaking to heathens, as we
are not speaking to skeptics, but to those who profess to believe the
Bible, they can at their leisure refer to these illustrations, where
the early converts had hands laid upon them for the gift of the Holy
Ghost. And they can also look at the practice of the churches in our
day, where in some denominations there is practiced the ordinances of
confirmation and where the minister says unto those of his flock,
"receive ye the gift of the Holy Ghost." This was also one of the
principles of the Gospel. This gift of the Holy Ghost was the source
of life, the source of intelligence, the source of knowledge and
understanding: it was the power of inspiration and revelation resting
upon the baptized—the men and women who had accepted the Savior as
their leader and guide.
I might multiply these illustrations of the science of religion. I
might go on to show that there were other important elements in the
teachings of those who were converted in early times to Christianity.
The world today is full of organizations. It knows the weakness of
individual effort. It is when men and women are aggregated that they
wield large influence over mankind, and the early Christians were no
strangers to the advantages of organization. They formed themselves
into little groups called churches. In some places in the New
Testament they are called the "church," in other places "the Church of
God," in others "the Church of Christ." In these organizations there
were officers. There were men appointed to fill certain positions in
these organizations. This implied rule, authority; their power and
authority to teach are everywhere exemplified in the Acts and Epistles
of the New Testament. So much so that one of the apostles tells us
that God had set in His Church Apostles, Prophets, Teachers,
Evangelists, etc., for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. These were the
officers, the most active members of the church—those who had charge
of its interests—those who had charge of the spiritual and temporal
education of these early converts in the Church. There was a Christian
church, then, in the early history of Christianity. Men were organized
into groups—into churches and belonged to the true church of which
Christ was the head! So there are organizations called churches in our
day, and in the age in which we live. But there is one great
difference between our age and that one. And what is that? Why, there
is diversity in our time. The Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of
the former-day Saints, was an unit. There was no rebellion within its
ranks, no division in its councils, no clashing theories taught by its
apostles. There was no rival or other organization ostensibly
Christian that could stand up and presume to dispute or deny that
authority which the Church of God maintained. Yet in our time we have
every variety of Church organization—the Mother Church; the
Episcopal Church; Methodism in all its forms and phases;
Presbyterians, Baptists, and a host of others. These are diverse from
each other in doctrine and sentiment and organization and theory and
practice, and consequently unlike the primitive church as established
by Christ and His Apostles. Now, can they with these differences, with
these divergences, and with this variety of teaching—can they
accomplish that designed by the founder of the original church? I
hardly think so. Common sense says this is impossible. If the first
church was divine in its order, divine in its ordinances, divine in
its officers, divine in its institutions, if it was to accomplish a
divine purpose, nothing short of that divine order could accomplish
that purpose in this or any other age of the world. That is why
Sectarianism has failed to bring the people to a unity of the faith.
That is why it has not accomplished so much good as it might have done
upon the earth. It is like a rope of sand. Every minister fighting,
and every congregation quarrelling for the ascendancy of their own
special and peculiar sect and faith. You go into any little village of
a few scattered hundreds and you will find four or five churches
there, each one endeavoring to perpetuate its own special idea, partly
irrespective of the salvation of the masses. In fact they have become
money making institutions. Ministers have become professionals." They
preach for money and divine for hire." They are more content to ask
the congregation what they shall preach than to stand valiantly for
the truth as preached by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, and as
recorded in the book which from first to last they profess to
reverence and sustain.
This is the criticism of the Latter day Saints upon the religious
world, and because of this criticism, because of this understanding,
thousands and tens of thousands have been led to embrace that which is
known to the world as "Mormonism."
What is "Mormonism?" It is a restoration, a re-revealment of the same
principles that were practiced by the early Christians. They had not a
doctrine, they had not an ordinance, they had not an officer, but what
is taught and found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Now, the world have no idea we have got away with them that
far. Has it come about by our own wisdom? No, sir. Where did you get
it? Right in the State of New York, through a chosen man—a boy,
rather—by the name of Joseph Smith. Who was Joseph Smith? A man like
you and I. Who were the old prophets? Who was Elijah? He was a man
with all the failings of his fellow men; subject to like passions with
his brethren. Who were the Savior's Apostles? Men like ourselves! Who
was Joseph Smith? A young man with many weaknesses and follies, it may
be, of his own, and some akin to the failings of those by whom he was
surrounded. How did he acquire this knowledge and information? It was
communicated from on high. The spirit of inspiration and revelation
rested upon him. He held communion with God and with His Son Jesus
Christ. He received the ministration of Angels, and the power and
authority of the Holy Priesthood from those who once exercised that
authority in the flesh and he was ordained and dedicated to introduce
this order again among mankind. Do you believe that? We Latter-day
Saints believe it. Nay, more, we know it for ourselves. We have had
testimony for year upon year in our experience that God was
with him in manhood; that He enabled him to establish His Church, and
that He gave him power to ordain others to go forth to the nations of
the earth and gather the obedient and the good from the masses of
mankind. The good I said. "Well," says one, "do you mean that you
Latter-day Saints are any better than we are." I do not know that I do
in this sense of the word. I mean that there was found scattered among
the nations a people prepared of God for the reception of the truth.
Individuals were looking for the salvation of Israel. They had been
suffering under the inconsistencies, traditions and superstitions of
the churches to which they belonged, and they were waiting for the
coming of the man sent of God. And when he came or sent his
representatives, there were thousands everywhere that heard the word
gladly. Where? In enlightened America, in the land of Bibles, in the
land of churches, in the land of culture, in the land of religious
liberty, where every one is supposed to have the right to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience, and with none to
molest him or make him afraid. They accepted the teachings of this
lad. Was he an educated person? No, not in the sense that the world
would call education. He had not been raised in any college of our
great country; he had not studied the classics; he was not born in
Boston, or anywhere in its immediate vicinity; but he was taught of
the heavens, he was inspired of God, and he went forth in the strength
of that education, and Utah Territory spreading from the north to the
south, from the east to the west is the product of his labors and the
labors of the Elders that have followed in his wake. "And," says one,
"you believe this, that he was a prophet of God." Yes, we do. We will
apply the same test that was applied in former days, the days of the
Savior. Jesus said: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the
doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself, and as was
said of the Savior "we know that thou art a teacher sent from God, for
no man can do the things that thou doest except God be with him," so
we can say of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Though he was called in
poverty and raised in ignorance, yet the Lord made him mighty, and no
man unless he had been thus sent of God, could have accomplished the
work that he has performed. You can find in this Territory people of
every nationality almost. You can find them from every state of this
Union. You can find people that have been identified with every
religious organization. You can find people that are well up in the
doctrines of the religious world, and who comprehend the truths that
are taught to them from time to time. These have been gathered from
the nations by the power of truth, by the influence that the Elders
carried, and they have colonized and spread abroad until the
population is numerous in all the valleys of this mountain country.
Strangers come here very curious to know what kind of people these
"Mormons" are. They come filled with prejudice and with hatred, with
contention and strife. Many envy our prosperity, and some say, "If we
let this people alone they will take away our place and nation." Well,
as I have said, this has been done by the power of truth, by the
preaching of the simple principles that you can find in the Bible, and
that can never, no never, be overthrown. The Elders of Israel
have never been met successfully by the combined learning of the
ministers in Christendom. The Elders have gone for them like giants,
while conscious of personal weakness; like little David, they have
taken the sling and the stone gathered from the brook, until the heads
of many Goliaths of our day have reeled and fallen beneath the blow.
This is what "Mormonism" is. It is nothing more, nothing less, than
the restoration of the old Gospel under the sanction and approbation
of the heavens. The Elders of Israel hold the authority of the Holy
Priesthood to induct men into the Kingdom of God; to baptize in water
for the remission of sins, and to lay hands upon them for the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and as in olden times, the signs have followed the
believer.
With this knowledge don't you think we can stand a good deal of this
persecution to which we are subject? Do you think that bonds or
imprisonment or death affects so sublime and decided a faith? "But,"
say some, "you are not persecuted for these things: you are persecuted
for other things. Here is that offensive practice that you call
polygamy, this is the great trouble between you and the fifty-five
million of the nation." Well, who of that fifty-five million have we
robbed in that? Have we taken any man's wife who may have passed
through this Territory against his consent? What law have we violated
in regard to this thing? Any law in this book (holding up the Bible)
against it? Can you find it, you ministers, you religious professors,
you widespread organizations? Have we done violence to the laws of
God, or have we not honored the practice of the patriarchs? Have we
not accepted that which was approved of God in the ages that are past,
and which gave men prestige as the favored of our race. Men whom we
are told were the friends of God. "Ah, well," says one, "that was in
the dark ages." Just so. But it was when God made Himself manifest
among His children; when angels communed with those that dwelt upon
the earth; when the spirit of revelation was felt among mankind; when
the institutions of God's house and the ordinances thereof prevailed
among the chosen people of God! And you call that a day of darkness!
Boston was not known then, it is true. The great cities of this day
had no existence in their present form. Civilization with all its
concomitants were not then in existence, or like Sodom and Gomorrah
under the hail of brimstone and almighty wrath, its cities might only
have been found today, as great, dead, saline seas. The dark ages!
The age of Abraham! The age of Jacob and the founding of the tribes of
Israel. The ages of Samuel! The age of the Judges of Israel! The ages
when God made Himself manifest among that great people in delivering
them from the hand of the iron rule of Pharaoh, and gave unto them a
goodly land. The ages that gave David and Solomon and the magnificent
Temple of Jerusalem. Dark ages, that brought on to this stage of
action the Savior of mankind! Dark ages, when the church which He
established, flourished in the midst of persecution, when its leaders
suffered martyrdom. Dark indeed, if they had not had the light of the
Gospel; if they had not had this sunshine of inspiration; if they had
not known of the power of God; if they had not had a testimony within
themselves that they had received that which would enhance
their welfare not only in this life, but the life to come. Would to
God we had again a renewal—nay, a glimpse of the dark ages of the
past, and that the same benignant light was now spreading throughout
this our land with its Christian churches, schools and colleges, that
its corruptions and evils might hide their head and be banished from
the midst of sorrowing mankind.
This, then, as I have intimated to you, is "Mormonism." It is the
power of God unto salvation to all those who shall obey. And the
promise is not unto us only, but unto our children, and our children's
children, down to the latest generation. And if men and women
anywhere, want that salvation which comes of God, which comes of the
Gospel, which comes of the acceptance of Jesus as the Savior of
mankind, they will have to find it in "Mormonism" as the world call
it, or in other words in the restoration of the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ; and if they want men to induct them into that Kingdom,
to baptize them in water for the remission of sins, to lay hands on
them for the gift of the Holy Ghost, they will have to find them in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the poor, despised,
derided, and as men believe everywhere, ignorant people in the valleys
of the mountains, called "Mormons;" whose faith and institutions are
now sought to be overthrown by their enemies, by legislation of
Congress, by proclamations of Governors and the action of the Courts,
they will find salvation with that people just as assuredly as in
primitive Christian times the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and other
sectarians, found salvation at the hands of the fishermen of Galilee.
I presume I have taken up all the time that is necessary; but I pray
that the power of God may rest upon this congregation; that strangers
may lay aside their prejudices and preconceived notions in regard to
the Latter-day Saints; that they may be willing to believe that some
good may come out of Nazareth, even from here; that every man and
woman professing to be a Saint of God, may be able to give "a reason
for the hope that is in them," in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
- Henry W. Naisbitt