In addressing an assembly of Saints I expect the benefit of their
prayers, without the ceremony of asking; being assured they are aware,
as well as I am, that our teachings and administrations in the Gospel
of life are blest according to our faith and prayers, and the
diligence and patience we bestow.
I propose to make some general observations upon the Gospel and its
administrations, and in relation to its effects when received, and the
important blessings derived by this community, through its divine
power and virtue. This Gospel, which God has commanded us to offer to
the world, is an order or system of things, simple, plain, and may
easily be understood. In regard to its principles, the nature of its
requirements, and the precise kind and character of its blessings and
promises, no one, however ignorant or unlearned, needs to be left in
the dark; but may discover its golden truths, and the emblazoned mark
of divinity in its arrangements as distinctly and as speedily as
Naaman, the captain of the Assyrian host, found divine virtue and the
hand of Divinity in the order prescribed to him by Elijah, through
which his leprosy was removed. In his case, the order of obtaining a
miraculous blessing, viz: to immerse seven times in Jordan, as
prescribed by Elijah, was so simple, so plain, and in regard to its
divine efficacy so easy of ascertainment, that the great
captain at first, was exceedingly wrathy at the idea that God should
propose to work upon him through such easy and simple forms; but the
order through which he could be healed of his leprosy was prescribed
of God, through the Prophet, and finally the Assyrian officer, through
the plain, commonsense reasoning of his servant, concluded to waive
his objections and comply with the requirements; and having done so
received the promised blessing.
The first principles of the Gospel which we offer, and which put men
in possession of the revelations of God, and a knowledge of this work,
are precisely as simple, plain, and as easy of understanding as the
order before alluded to, through which the heavens were opened to
Naaman.
The Gospel was brought to our respective locations, far remote from
these mountain vales. It found us citizens of various nations,
speaking our respective languages, each possessing his peculiar
notions and prejudices, with his associations, and a strong attachment
to kindred, friends and country. However unpleasant, unkind, unjust,
and inconsistent it might appear at first, we clearly foresaw that in
receiving the Gospel we should be compelled to break off those
associations, and sever those attachments, leaving the lands of our
nativity, and go forth with our wives and our children to a distant
land of which we had but little knowledge. Yet, a similar requisition
was made upon the House of Israel, in the land of Egypt; also upon
Noah and his family, and upon Abraham, and the family of Lot in the
city of Sodom, and upon the families of Lehi and Ishmael, as mentioned
in the Book of Mormon.
But, in the provisions of the Gospel which was offered to us, there
were fairness and safety; it proposed to give, through obedience to
its requirements, a perfect knowledge of its divine authenticity; so
that, in leaving our kindred, breaking up our social relations, and
going forth from our native lands, we should first become perfectly
assured that it was no human contrivance—something gotten up to effect
a political purpose or satisfy some worldly ambition, or to achieve
some private end through human cunning or craftiness.
The Gospel was plain and simple in its requirements, and there could
be no mistaking the precise nature of its blessings and promises, nor
the manner and time in which they were to be secured.
The first feature, in this system, which struck us with surprise and
arrested our attention, was its perfect similarity, in all its parts,
with the Gospel as recorded in the New Testament. It required
repentance, and a forsaking of sins, immersion in water for the
remission of sins, with a promise that, through the laying on of hands
by those having authority, people should receive the Holy Ghost, by
which the knowledge would be obtained of the truth of the doctrine.
Another remarkable feature, which called into exercise our most
serious consideration, was the solemn testimony of the Elders, that
they possessed the right to administer these sacred ordinances, by
virtue of the Holy Priesthood committed to Joseph Smith, through the
ministration of the Apostles, Peter, James and John. And furthermore,
that this solemn and most important fact should be revealed to every
man, upon his faithful obedience to the Gospel requirements.
In these propositions, though at first seemingly strange, we
saw that everything was plain, fair and honorable. In doing what they
required, we should only do, in fact, what, as true-hearted believers
in the ancient Gospel, we ought to do; and if we failed to receive the
promised blessing, and thereby proved the Elders' testimony false, our
religious condition would, nevertheless, be then as good as other
Christians, and a little better, perhaps, because we should have
approached a little nearer to the doctrine of the Scriptures, so far
as their true forms and ceremonies were concerned. Of course, in this
case, having proven to our satisfaction, that there was no Holy Ghost,
no supernatural manifestations, no knowledge, no revelations
accompanying the Elders' administrations of the Gospel; no human
persuasion, no cunning sophistry could have induced us to leave our
homes and friends to embark in a scheme which our common sense taught
us would eventuate in bitter disappointment and inevitable ruin; but,
like other Christians, we should have continued in the enjoyment of
friends and home, still groping our way through religious darkness,
expecting nothing, hoping nothing, and receiving nothing.
But the fact that I am now speaking to assembled thousands of
intelligent and enlightened people, who received this Gospel with the
aforementioned fond considerations and lively expectations, gathered
here by their own free will and choice, out of almost every nation,
demonstrates most clearly, most forcibly and most solemnly, that this
system of life, this Gospel as proclaimed by Joseph Smith, has been
made known to us by the revelations of the Almighty—that it is
undeniably His will, His word and His message: not only this, but we
find within ourselves a fixed purpose, an unalterable resolution to
do, if need be, what many of us have already done, viz: show the
sincerity of our convictions of these solemn truths, through
sacrificing all we possess—not even holding ourselves so dear to us as
this religion.
There was yet another prominent feature embraced in this order of
things, viz: where it found the people in poverty, misery, in a
condition but a little above starvation; it spoke in positive terms of
future relief, and effectual deliverance. It did not simply say: "Be
ye warmed, and be ye clothed," but it declared plainly, and in
distinct terms, that the Lord had seen their bondage and oppression,
and heard their cries of sorrow and affliction, and now had sent His
Gospel for their deliverance, and would lead them into circumstances
of independence. There, again, was something consistent, and worthy of
admiration, and characteristic of our Great Parent, discoverable in
all His dispensations, when in actual working order, as they were in
the case of Noah, and in the calling of Israel, making them an
independent people; likewise in calling Lehi to establish a people
upon this continent, as well as in many other instances.
A religious system is of but little account when it possesses no
virtue nor power to better the condition of people, spiritually,
intellectually, morally and physically. Enoch's order of the Gospel,
did for his people all this, and it has done the same in every
instance when preached in its purity, and obeyed in sincerity. Many
thousands of the persons in these beautiful valleys, who formerly were
compelled, with their wives and children, to subsist in a half-starved
condition—not owning a habitation, or a foot of land, a horse,
a cow, pig or chicken—nothing they could call their own; subject at
any moment, through the whim of their employer, to be turned into the
streets, miserable beggars; now own cabinet shops, factories, mills,
flocks and herds, beautiful gardens and orchards, and productive
farms, wagons and carriages, dwelling in their own houses, in
comfortable and easy circumstances. No one has any apprehension of
starvation within the jurisdiction of the Latter-day Saints.
The Gospel proposed these blessings at its announcement, and they have
been most miraculously accomplished. No other religious system could
have achieved such things, nor dared any other Christian denomination
venture to send out its missionaries "without purse or scrip," and
without a college education, to declare to the people that they had
authority from God to administer the sacred ordinances of the Gospel,
through which should be revealed tangible evidence and knowledge of
its divinity and of their authority to administer it; and to take
people from a state of poverty, and lead them thousands of miles, and,
despite every obstacle, establish them a comparatively independent
people in the midst of a wild, desert country. Had they found them
poor, friendless, without the means of living, and in servitude little
better than Egyptian bondage, as we found many of them; they would
have imparted no cheering news of an approaching salvation from the
God of heaven; but could only have exhorted them to be contented and
reconciled with their unhappy lot, and in no case must they look for
any new revelation, or miraculous interposition.
What philanthropists have wished to accomplish, and often attempted,
the Lord is now doing on a magnificent scale in this American Desert.
Flourishing settlements, towns and cities have sprung into existence,
extending over a distance of five hundred miles in length, and
hundreds of miles in width, through the untiring energy and
perseverance of a people, formerly totally ignorant of such labors. In
these cities people live in harmony; and poorhouses, grog shops,
gambling hells, houses of ill fame and prostitution are not known in
any of our numerous towns and cities, except in some instances, where
Christians (so-called), possess a footing and influence.
No one, however prejudiced he may be, can scarcely avoid acknowledging
the palpable fact, that this system has conferred miraculous blessings
upon thousands and tens of thousands, in the way of putting them in
possession of the means for sustaining themselves, after having
delivered them from oppression and tyranny, little better than African
slavery; and, no doubt, our legislators at Washington, one and all,
would give us credit for our indefatigable and successful labors, in
establishing an extensive and flourishing colony, on a portion of our
Government domain, formerly inhabited by savages and wild beasts;
provided we would admit this work to be the work of man, and not of
God—that it had been accomplished through the artifice and wisdom of
man, and not by the power, wisdom and revelations of God.
Joseph Smith, whom God chose to establish this work, was poor and
uneducated, and belonged to no popular denomination of Christians. He
was a mere boy, honest, full of integrity, unacquainted with the
trickery, cunning and sophistry employed by politicians and
religious hypocrites, to accomplish their ends. Like Moses of old, he
felt incompetent and unqualified for the task, to stand forth as a
religious reformer, in a position the most unpopular—to battle against
opinions and creeds which have stood for ages having the sanction and
support of men, the most profound in theological lore; but God had
called him to deliver the poor and honest-hearted of all nations from
their spiritual and temporal thralldom. And God promised him that
whosoever should receive and obey His message—be baptized for the
remission of sins, with honesty of purpose—might receive divine
manifestations, should receive the Holy Ghost, the same Gospel
blessings which were promised and obtained through the Gospel, when
preached by the ancient apostles. And this message, this promise, was
to be in force wherever and to whomsoever it should be carried by the
Elders, God's authorized messengers. So said, Joseph Smith, the
uneducated, the unsophisticated, the plain, simple, honest boy.
It is through the virtue and force of this boy's statement, that I
speak this afternoon, to assembled thousands.
In the integrity of my heart, with honesty of purpose to know the
truth, I received this message—I obeyed this form of doctrine and I
received, in the most tangible and satisfactory manner, a divine
manifestation—the promised blessing—a knowledge of this work. Am I
the only witness? How is it with the experience of thousands whom I
now address? Are you also witnesses? If you are not, I ask you in the
name of common sense, why are you here? Why did you leave your homes
and country, giving your sanction to the truth of a system which
promised you divine manifestations, but which you failed in
experiencing? Being honest ourselves, if we cannot bear a truthful
testimony of having received divine manifestations that God, Himself,
has founded this order of things, then it becomes a serious fact, that
we are witnesses, and in truth the only proper witnesses, that this
whole plan and pretention of Joseph Smith is a sheer falsehood, a
miserable fabrication.
It will be recollected that this Gospel message proposed to give us
divine manifestations through our doing certain specified acts; we
have performed those acts in precisely the manner indicated. None but
ourselves have attempted to conform to this arrangement; consequently,
no other people are prepared to be witnesses either for or against
this system. * * * * *
When the Gospel, or order of things which we have received, was
presented to us, we carefully compared it with the Gospel recorded in
the Scriptures, and found it alike in every particular, as regards its
forms, ordinances, and the authority to administer them; its promise
of the Holy Ghost, and the signs that should follow, together with the
promise of a knowledge of its divine origin. In many instances it was
brought to us by men with whose character we were familiar, and for
whose honesty and integrity we could vouch, who solemnly stated that,
through an obedience to its requirements, they had obtained a
knowledge of its heaven-born principles.
This was my experience, and after having complied with its demands,
and thereupon received a knowledge of its genuineness, and having
obtained authority to preach and administer its ordinances, I
commenced forthwith to proclaim it to the world; and undoubtedly there
are persons in this congregation, out of different nations, to whom I
have administered this Gospel, who can witness to its virtue and
efficacy. Many years I have been engaged in forwarding the interests
of this order of things, and you are the proper judges whether it be
of God or of man.
We have the same Gospel the primitive churches had, and the like
knowledge and evidence they had of its divine authority; and we have
just as brave and honest Elders to preach it; men who have proven
their integrity through sacrifice as great as the Elders of the
primitive churches ever made. The testimony of our Elders is as valid
and worthy of credit as the testimony of their Elders. Our present
Apostles are as honest as the Apostles of the New Testament, and our
testimony is as worthy of credit, so far as we live and speak
according to the Scriptural law and testimony. If this order of things
which we have obeyed is not the Gospel—if these evidences, these
manifestations, this knowledge, this Holy Ghost, these deliverances
from misery and bondage, and being placed in comfortable and happy
circumstances, living together in peace and harmony, building
beautiful towns and cities, free from demoralizing institutions, be
not the legitimate fruits of the working of the pure and holy system
established by God, through Joseph Smith, we shall be compelled to
question the genuineness of the Gospel of the former-day Saints, as
recorded in the New Testament.
By some, it has been argued, that Joseph Smith and the prominent
Elders were the most corrupt, wicked and infamous of impostors, but
his followers, the Latter-day Saints, in general, though deceived,
were very good people, and scrupulously honest in their religious
opinions.
From what I have already said in regard to the operations and effects
of this work, it may readily be seen that, if it be an imposition, it
is not confined exclusively to the leaders of this people, but this
whole community are actively, and knowingly engaged in a stupendous
scheme of deception and hypocrisy; and, by the way, as I before
hinted, if this could be proven to be the case, we should be driven to
the belief that the former-day Saints, also, had been engaged in the
same disgraceful imposition.
More than one hundred thousand people now dwell in these valleys, many
of them having come from distant climes and nations. In this great
fact they willingly and understandingly exhibit to the world a
powerful testimony more expressive than any language could command,
that they did, undeniably and positively receive, through the
ordinances of this Gospel, administered unto them by our Elders, a
knowledge of this work, through divine manifestations.
But it may be objected that, whereas, members of our community were
found by our missionaries in great poverty and distress, therefore,
they obeyed the Gospel and migrated here, to better their
circumstances financially, without regard to its truth or falsity as a
divine system. Although this might be true in isolated instances, it
is impossible as regards its application to our people as a community.
Those persons who received this work without religious motives, and
without an honest conviction of its divine requirements, but solely
for the "loaves and fishes" cannot possibly abide the test to
which everyone's faith, sooner or later, must be brought, but will
have his dishonesty and hypocrisy exposed, and will sooner or later
apostatize.
Hundreds of our Elders, full of Godly zeal, animated with the purest
motives, having obtained a knowledge of the will of God, have left
their wives and children, whatever the heart holds most dear, and gone
forth to the nations without worldly compensation, calling on all to
repent and turn their hearts to the Lord—obey the Gospel, with a
promise that they should receive the Holy Ghost, which would "lead
unto all truth and show things to come," and would be their guide and
monitor—a principle of revelation, remaining with them through life,
inasmuch as they preserved their honesty and integrity, continuing
faithful in keeping the commandments of God, and devoting their time,
their means, their talents, their all in building up the Kingdom of
God. These duties were required, these blessings promised by our
Elders in the preaching of the Gospel. To obtain light—a knowledge of
the will of God, to secure the true religion—divine manifestations
regarding the truth of the doctrine as taught by Joseph Smith, was the
first, and all-absorbing proposition presented to the people.
Now, whether these Elders and missionaries were base impostors,
promulgating sheer falsehoods, or not, is of course a question of
grave consideration; yet it is a matter of far greater importance, and
of more serious inquiry, whether our people, as a community, having
failed to receive those divine testimonies, keep silent as to that
most vital and important question, and come here to practice fraud and
deception in religion, and thus fasten irresistibly upon the minds of
our children and future generations a system of falsehoods, for a
divine religion.
Joseph Smith affirmed that Peter, James and John visited him, and
conferred on him authority to administer the holy ordinances of the
Gospel through which every honest-hearted man and woman was promised
the Holy Ghost, and a perfect knowledge of the doctrine.
I had been a member of this Church but a short time when I obtained,
by a divine manifestation, a clear, explicit and tangible
demonstration of the truth of this work. Thousands and tens of
thousands of Latter-day Saints, men and women, in private life, can
testify to the same experience; and though I may know many principles
in regard to this doctrine, which in their limited experience, they
may not understand, yet in that one fact, they are equal to me in
knowledge, equal to the messengers who have administered to them this
Gospel.
I now wish to examine another prominent feature of our religion. An
important item which was prominently held forth wherever this Gospel
was proclaimed, was, that its followers should have an abundance of
persecutions, and probably, in the progress of this new life, be
compelled to suffer the most trying sacrifices, as wife, children,
houses and lands, despoiling of goods, and perhaps even, of life
itself. No persons are properly prepared to enter upon this new life,
until they have formed, within themselves, a fixed resolution to abide
this ordeal.
The Savior, the Apostles, Joseph Smith, and the Latter-day Elders,
when offering this system to the people, told them clearly and
em phatically, that it required sacrifices of the most serious
character—that it would bring persecutions, change our warmest friends
into bitter and relentless enemies, and that instances would occur
when the world in the confused ideas of right and wrong, would even
conceive they were doing God's service in taking our lives. These were
dark and forbidding prospects to a rational person in allowing himself
to be proselyted to a system whose truths he could not know, but only
guess at by what he was told, or of which he had read. Every man and
every woman, before receiving a system that called for such
sacrifices, would require a positive assurance that submission to its
requirements would bring indisputable knowledge of its true divinity,
so that, after having obtained a divine witness of its genuineness,
they could willingly, cheerfully and with a resolution, inspired by
the Almighty, move forward along the pathway of persecution and
sacrifice, traversed in all ages by martyred Saints and Prophets.
On this point permit me again to quote what Jesus promised, viz:
"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And upon this
rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." Peter had obtained a revelation which Jesus called a
Rock, which every man might receive individually for himself to build
upon, with perfect assurance and safety—on which he could anchor his
hopes and prospects of salvation. Peter, on the day of Pentecost,
promised the Holy Ghost to those who would repent and receive baptism.
That principle imparts the knowledge or the rock of revelation upon
which the Savior declared His people should be established; and we
constitute the only religious community which dares assume this
Scriptural position; and our realization of the Savior's promise,
"that hell shall not prevail against" a people thus established,
affords us peace, tranquility, unshaken confidence, and a cheering and
happy assurance of security in the midst of all kinds of threatened
ruin and overthrow. It is the people, the masses—not exclusively their
leaders, who possess this knowledge, and boldly testify to its
possession.
The astronomer may know of many laws and phenomena relating to the sun
and its movements through ethereal space; but as regards the simple
fact that it exists, and shines upon the earth, millions know as well
as himself. President Brigham Young and even Joseph Smith, so far as
respects the fact, that this Gospel which we preach as a divine
institution, never professed to have a knowledge more convincing and
satisfactory than tens of thousands in these valleys who never arose
to address a public audience.
This system of religion, in its nature, in the character of its
origin, the manner of its operations, and in the purposes for which it
was designed, coupled with the fact, that people of honest hearts, can
and will appreciate divine truth, is such that it cannot be destroyed.
A man who is honest, full of integrity and love for the interest and
happiness of mankind, having explored this long untrodden path, and
made this glorious discovery, will not and cannot keep silent, but
despite of threats and opposition, however fierce and terrific, will
boldly declare the glorious fact, spreading and multiplying this
divine intelligence, and if so required, seal this testimony with his
own life's blood.