Occasions of this kind have a very precious significance to those who
are interested in the great work of the last dispensation. They awaken
the better feelings of our natures to commune together as the people
of God, to contemplate His providences towards His people, the
experiences through which they have passed, and are passing. It is
very pleasant to the Elders who are called to speak to the people in
going from place to place, to meet those with whom they associated in
earlier times and in far distant countries. In this respect my journey
was made pleasant this morning upon finding myself in the carriage
with brethren whom I labored with almost thirty-five years ago in the
British Isles.
Thirty years ago, in about one month, our brother and friend,
Professor Maeser, with several others, in the City of Dresden, the
capital of Saxony, strolled away one night, and finding ourselves
beyond the surveillance of the police, a mile or more, down to the
banks of the river Elbe, we there had the pleasure of seeing him enter
into the covenant of the everlasting Gospel with us. This and like
circumstances cause me to thank the Lord for His grace that has
preserved, helped and sustained us, and kept us in the truth until
this present time, while many who have been baptized into the Church
have fallen out by the way. When we contemplate the parable of the
Savior in reference to the ten virgins—five of whom were wise and five
foolish—behold, we are seeing in part the fulfillment of that parable.
When we consider how many have turned away at one time and
another because the way was too straight or the road was too rough for
them, we have reason to be very thankful that the love of the truth
has continued and increased in our hearts. It is fitting that we
should labor with diligence and faithfulness and with our mights to
bring to pass the purposes of God, inasmuch as they are rolling upon
us rapidly, and seeing that He has promised that He will cut His work
short in righteousness.
Since the Father came forth from the heavens with His Son and spoke to
the Prophet Joseph—then a boy only about fourteen years old, and told
him that all the people of the earth had gone astray from His
ordinances and had broken the everlasting covenant—I say since that
time what wonderful progress has been made in developing the arts and
sciences. Those were the days of the stage coach instead of the
railroad. Then postal facilities were very slow. It required mouths
for communications to go from this country to Europe and back again.
Now it is done in an instant, steam and electricity enable people to
transact business in one day or an hour, perhaps, that used to take
months to accomplish. The Lord is in this way fulfilling His promise
that He would hasten His work in its time. He has increased facilities
during our day and generation for the accomplishing of work and
bringing about His purposes which it would take many times as long to
accomplish under the old regime—the slow-coach order of things.
Thirty-eight years ago, when we came across the plains, it took us all
summer to get from the Missouri River to Salt Lake. We had to walk and
toil by the road; our teams gave out and died by the way. A company of
us in the year 1848 were from the 18th of February till the 19th of
October, coming from Liverpool to this Territory. Now the Saints
start from the old country and come here by steam in about three
weeks, a journey that formerly took nine months to perform. This is
one of the ways in which the Lord is shortening His work—cutting it
short in righteousness—and furthermore He has said He will hasten it
in its time.
Now, there must necessarily be, as there always has been, the same
enmity between the Church of Christ and the world that ever has
existed. And what is the great reason why there must be such
opposition? I can tell you one reason. It is because that we, by the
blessing, power and requirement of God, have been enabled to go forth
and preach the Gospel, gather the believers together, organize
churches, build cities and temples, and establish a church and kingdom
unto God, and that the world cannot do. That is one reason why they
feel enmity toward us. This is a great testimony to the whole
world—the work of gathering the people of every language under the
sun, from the frigid, the temperate and the torrid zones. From Iceland
on the North, as well as from New Zealand and the Cape of Good Hope on
the South, and all countries intermediate, where the Gospel has been
preached.
It is a subject that is an enigma for the greatest statesman of the
earth; this gathering together of people of different languages,
different education and habits, and harmonizing them all. The great
secret is that they are first baptized into the same spirit, one
baptism, one faith, and one Lord. They come here and being taught
correct principles they govern themselves. That is just what we want;
and is what every family needs, that those who become rulers
in Israel, or heads of families, shall be men of God, filled with the
knowledge, the revelations and power of God.
I am thankful that I live with you to see the great and mighty
operations of Jehovah's purposes going on in the earth. I feel
thankful that I am permitted to perform any humble part in this
marvelous work. The Saints, even those in the humblest station, should
feel thankful that they can contribute one way or another by their
efforts or their means to help advance any of the interests of the
Church or Kingdom of God.
Former speakers have referred to the principle of tithing. This is one
of the very important features of the faith of the everlasting Gospel.
It always was when there was a people of God on the earth. Go back to
our Father Abraham—whom all professed Christians would like to claim
heirship with—and we find that he was very tenacious in paying his
tithing, his whole tithing. When he went to war against the thirteen
kings, with his company of three hundred and eighteen trained
servants, followed them all night, overtook them, and became their
victors, he brought home the spoils, and when he reached Jerusalem he
found there Melchizedek, the ruler of the country, the minister of the
Lord, the king of peace; one of the first things he did was to pay his
tithing of the booty, and he received a blessing at Melchizedek's
hands. So it was with Isaac and Jacob. We are informed in the
Scriptures that Jacob covenanted with the Lord, saying: "Of all thou
shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee," which he did.
And when in after years the Lord brought Israel back from Egypt to
Canaan, where He promised they should live and have an everlasting
inheritance if they would keep His law, He gave it them with this
reserve, that a tenth of the people's possessions should be paid to
Him:
"And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, the
fruit of the tree, the tithe of the herd or of the flock, is the
Lord's, and shall be holy unto the Lord." (Lev. xxvii, 30-32.)
If they did not do this they would be robbing the Lord. The fact was,
all they possessed was the Lord's, and when they appropriated all to
their own use, paying nothing into the Lord's storehouse, they did
that for which He afterwards, by the Prophet Malachi, charged them
with robbing Him, even their whole nation." (Malachi iii, 9.)
The Lord has said unto us, very emphatically, if we do not sanctify
this land and make it holy unto Him by keeping this and all other of
His commandments that it shall not be a land of Zion unto us. Let us
hearken to it, take it to heart, think of it, study it prayerfully,
and learn what it means.
Says one, "Here is a poor widow that does not owe any tithing; there
is a poor brother who is lame and cannot work who does not owe any
tithing." Don't they? Let us see. The paying of tithing, like every
other ordinance, has its peculiar blessings, and what are they? In the
receipt which the Prophet Joseph Smith gave to me in Nauvoo, signed by
himself and the tithing clerk, he stated that having paid my tithing
in full to date, I was entitled to the benefits of the baptismal font,
which had just been dedicated in the basement of that Temple. Do not
this poor widow and that lame, unfortunate brother need the benefits
of the baptismal font for their deceased kindred just as much
as the rich, the sound and the fortunate? I think they do. How then
can they obtain a right and title to their blessings? The Lord has
instituted a means by which they may receive their blessings by the
payment of their tithing. The first Thursday of every month is a Fast
day, for the Saints to gather together in prayer and fasting, and to
bring their offerings for the poor, that the afflicted and unfortunate
may not lack for food or clothing, and the comforts of life. Now, if a
poor man received one hundred pounds of flour or any other gift, it is
his privilege to pay one-tenth of it as tithing, and have it credited
to him on the book as a tithing payer, and in this way he pays just as
much as the man who pays one hundred dollars. The same with the poor
sister who receives her aid from the Relief Society. She can pay her
tithing in the same way—have her name recorded on the books, and thus
acquire the right to be baptized for her dead kindred. These rights
and privileges are not confined to the rich. They are for people of
all conditions in life, provided they comply with the requirements of
the Lord. The Savior said that the widow, with her two mites, paid in
more than the rich out of their abundance. Some have been inclined to
practice this principle on a kind of sliding scale. If they donate an
amount to the building of a Tabernacle or a Temple, they must take
that out of their tithing. This is not the correct way.
God has given us commandments concerning the law of tithing. He has
also given us instructions in regard to our offerings for the poor, as
follows:
"Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made,
and impart not his portion, according to the law of my Gospel, unto
the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in
hell, being in torment." —(Doc. & Cov., Section 104, par 18.)
He directs all these things. If we learn His way and walk in it, we
shall be abundantly blessed, and those who are too poor to walk in the
right way of the Lord, will become so poor that they will perish from
the land by and by.
What has brought you here from distant lands? It is the potency of
those principles you have embraced. What has inspired you to labor and
make this part of the wilderness so beautiful? I recollect, when I
first came to Provo on the 4th July, 1849, we had a sort of
celebration; some of the authorities of the Church were here, and
arrangements were then made and directions given for the location of
this city. Since then, see what has been accomplished! See this
meetinghouse, court house, bank building, your woolen factory—the
greatest one of the Territory, and one that would be a credit to any
part of the continent—what has done all this? It is the potency of
those principles God has revealed to you. It is this that induced you
to leave your native lands and come to this country, strangers in a
strange land, as Abraham was when he left his home and went down to
Canaan. These principles are known by you, my brethren and sisters.
They, however, are principles the world do not know anything about,
especially this principle of tithing. They have their own way of
making contributions, etc., but they do not understand tithing as a
law of God. We, who do comprehend these things, must follow out
heaven's requirements, that the favor and strength of the heavens may
be with us.
While we have been in this land what else have we been doing? We have
been sending away missionaries by scores and hundreds, year by year,
to inform and if possible to convince the people of the truth of the
Gospel. They will not, however, receive it. It seems as though mankind
now, as in the days of Jesus, have ears to hear, but they will not
hear; eyes to see, but they will not see; hearts to understand, but
they will not understand. When we tell them that certain principles
and views we hold are our religious convictions, or our conscientious
understanding of the word of the Lord, we are told at once that there
is no religion about it, as if others had a better right to know what
our religious convictions should be than ourselves.
We have a great and marvelous work laid upon us, and its more
marvelous features are still to be developed and made manifest. We yet
see but a small part of it. The Lord has shown us all we can bear; all
we can, in our present state of development, comprehend and apply.
The Savior said, when He was upon the earth, "I am the way, the truth,
and the life." Now, if we can find out sufficiently about our Savior,
His views and doings, we shall be able to understand generally the
principles of the glorious Gospel, which has been revealed and
something of its outcome. We learn that our Savior was born of a
woman, and He was named Jesus the Christ. His name when He was a
spiritual being, during the first half of the existence of the earth,
before He was made flesh and blood, was Jehovah. He was in the
beginning of the creation, and He had to do and has had to do
continually with the creation and govern ment of this heaven and this
earth.
But up to the time that He came and dwelt in the flesh and was born of
Mary, His Mother, He dwelt in the spirit life. He was the spirit Being
that directed, governed, and gave the law on Mount Sinai, where Moses
was permitted to see Him in part. He is the Being that appeared unto
the brother of Jared, when he brought the stones that were to be put
into the barges, and asked the Lord to touch them with His finger that
they might receive and emit light. When the Lord drew near and touched
the stones with His finger, the brother of Jared's eyes were opened,
and he saw the finger of the Lord. He was afraid and fell down before
the Lord. The Lord asked him, "Why hast thou fallen? Arise!" And he
said that he was afraid, for he beheld the finger of the Lord, and he
did not know that the Lord had flesh and blood. Jehovah then showed
him His whole person, saying, "This is the body of my spirit" —He that
should come in the meridian of time and take upon Himself a body of
flesh and blood. When that time arrived, and he attained the age of
thirty years, He began to officiate in the ministry, after He had been
baptized by John the Baptist.
Without stopping to detail as much as I would like, I want to call
attention to two or three leading features of His work. The Savior
commenced to labor in the ministry, and found men here and there of
the right spirit, whom He commanded to follow Him. To one of these he
said, "Before Philip called thee, I saw thee." So He continued to find
and select choice spirits whom He knew before the foundation of the
world. He ordained twelve of them to be His ministers, and then He sent them abroad. But did He send them all over the world? No.
He first told them to go only unto the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, and they went. They worked with great success, healing the
sick, casting out devils, etc. They neither lacked food nor raiment;
freely they received, freely they gave. Thus they reported their
mission. The Savior not only sent the Twelve Apostles, but other
seventy also, missionary men, sending them forth to teach Israel that
the kingdom of heaven was at hand. During His mission and long before
He was crucified He taught them that He would be crucified, and on the
third day he arose from the dead, but they did not seem to understand
it.
After His resurrection He said to them, hitherto you have asked
nothing of the Father in my name, but now, said He, whatsoever you
shall ask the Father in my name it shall be granted unto you. Now is
all power given into my hands both in heaven and on earth. After His
resurrection He called His Apostles together and commissioned them,
saying, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he
that believeth not shall be damned." That was another feature of the
work wherein He sends the Gospel—now that Israel had proved themselves
unworthy of it—to all the world. We see, then, that the great work of
the brethren was to carry the Gospel to the whole human family first.
But the Savior told them that if He went away, they should do greater
works than He had done, because He went to the Father. What did He do?
After He was crucified He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
even to that great multitude that were destroyed through disobedience
before the flood and by the flood. He unlocked the prison doors to
those that were bound. While upon the earth the Savior and His
brethren of the Twelve labored to impart the Gospel to those that were
living. The Savior set the Priesthood in order and offered the Gospel
to the people, but they would not receive it. Still this was the great
work that had to be performed. The Gospel had to be preached to
mortals first, and next to those in the spirit world.
What are our condition and labor now? In this last dispensation the
Prophet Joseph Smith, in the year 1820, first received revelations
from the heavens, and it was only until 1844 that he was permitted to
live. By 1830, the Book of Mormon was brought forth from the mountain
Cumorah, was translated and printed, and fourteen years from that time
the Prophet Joseph was taken from us.
When he went away he went with the keys of this last dispensation to
the prison house of the dead, who had died in times that were past;
and he, his brother Hyrum, the brethren of the Twelve Apostles—for
there are now nearly a quorum of the Twelve Apostles with
them—constitute a great and mighty church in the spirit world,
laboring and preaching the Gospel to the spirits of our fathers who
are in prison. They are called upon to do the work Brother Smith has
been speaking about this afternoon. The prophet Elijah came and
delivered his message on the 6th March, 1836, in the Temple in
Kirtland, and he has been at work, ever since then, turning the hearts
of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the
children.
Referring to this work the Apostle Paul makes this declaration: "For
to this end Christ both died and rose, and revived again, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and living."
So it is with the Prophet Joseph Smith. He has gone before with the
keys of this dispensation, after having lived and conferred them upon
the authorities of the Church, even all that was necessary until he
shall come again to build up this kingdom preparatory to the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He with others are helping to carry out the
great work of the redemption of the dead. And this part of the work we
are called upon to perform in the temples. To be baptized for them, to
be confirmed for them, and to perform all those holy ordinances for
your righteous dead, for your worthy ancestry, which you have done or
shall do for yourselves, makes you to become saviors upon Mount Zion.
The responsibility resting upon the Saints in regard to these matters
is very great. I heard the Prophet Joseph say, in a sermon he preached
before he was killed, that no greater responsibility rested upon the
Saints than the work of attending to ordinances for their dead. This
then, ought to be taken into serious consideration. Brethren who
cannot go abroad and preach the Gospel, may labor in the temples, and
thus bring to pass the purposes of God.
When we contemplate this great work, shall we wince at persecution?
Though we are persecuted, though our enemies are hunting and harassing
and breaking up our families, shall we be frightened and be any less
wise and discreet, or adopt unworthy measures to keep out of prison?
Certainly not. Let us be true to the truth. Let us be true to what God
has committed to us, in every iota.
In conclusion I would say a word of encouragement to the brethren who
are engaged in the ministry. In the early times of the Church in
foreign lands the work of the Lord spread rapidly when the Elders
labored with unity of purpose and faith, and a great many were added
to the Church. Many were brought to this land. Now we have come to a
time when but few come into the Church. Some of the doctrines that
have been revealed are a stumbling block to the people. It was so in
the days of Jesus and His Apostles. He taught the doctrine of the
cross and of the resurrection, which was a great stumbling block to
them—a rock of offense, as is the doctrine of eternal and plural
marriage. Through the opposition that the Elders have to meet, owing
to that doctrine, they sometimes feel that their labors are very
trifling when they baptize but few. I want to say to the brethren,
that you do a great deal of good, be not discouraged, nor of a
doubtful heart. You do a vast deal of good you cannot see. Your
testimonies to the world are a savor of life unto life or of death
unto death—life unto life to those who receive and render obedience to
the Gospel; death unto death to those who reject it. The world is
filled with lies concerning God's people and the truths they teach.
The influences of the press and pulpit seem concentrated for the
publication of lies in reference to the Latter-day Saints. The world
seems inclined to believe lies and be damned rather than receive the
truth. A painful thought. Still, there is this good you may do: you
should be assiduous in your labors to correct the errors and lies that
are circulating among the people; you may soften the people's
susceptibilities and prejudices; and perhaps you may be the
means of preventing a great many men and women, who might otherwise be
guilty of the shedding of innocent blood, from entering into anything
of that kind, or consenting to it in their hearts, and though they may
not be willing and ready to receive the Gospel in this life, yet, by
not imbruing their hands in blood, maybe they will have the privilege
and be willing to receive the Gospel in the spirit world. You know
not, therefore, the good that you may do in this respect.
I pray God to bless every interest of this Stake of Zion, temporal and
spiritual, present and future, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
- Franklin D. Richards