I have the same diffidence in my feelings that most public speakers
have, and am apt to think that others can speak better and more
edifying than I can. There are but few public speakers but what feel
more or less timidity. That is probably not so much a man-fearing
spirit as it is a natural delicacy or timidity. All of you have
doubtless to some extent realized the same feeling, either in large or
small assemblies, and also in social conversation. People generally
are more or less disturbed and thrown off their balance by the sound
of their own voices, especially when speaking to an audience, even
after being much used to addressing assemblies. Some of our most
eloquent and interesting speakers would rather do almost anything than
speak to the congregations that assemble here. That diffidence or
timidity we must dispense with. When it becomes our duty to talk, we
ought to be willing to talk. If we never exhibit the knowledge within
us, the people will not know really whether we have any. Interchanging
our ideas and exhibiting that which we believe and understand affords
an opportunity for detecting and correcting errors and increasing our
stock of valuable information. I have frequently thought that I should
be very happy if I could hear the Elders of Israel speak their
feelings and impart their knowledge pertaining to their fellow beings,
to earthly things, to heavenly things, to godliness, and God.
I am sensible that people are not gifted and capacitated alike. There
is not that depth of understanding and intensity of thought in some
that there is in others, neither is there the same scope of
perception. Some are quick to apprehend, while others are slow. Also
while a speaker is communicating his opinions, views, and feelings, a
portion of so large a congregation as this will perhaps be giving the
most strict attention, while the minds of the other portion are
wandering at the moment he may be advancing rich ideas, clothed in
language choice and eloquent. That inattention by some leads to a
difference of understanding among the people, through a
misapprehension of the speaker's meaning. True, some persons may use
language that a portion of the congregation are unacquainted with;
consequently, they could not be expected to readily apprehend the idea
designed to be communicated, though that is by no means a common
incident in teachings from this stand.
If a congregation wish to be instructed so as to understand alike and
alike receive an increase of wisdom and knowledge, their minds must be
intent on the subject before them. They must not suffer their
thoughts to be roaming over the earth; they must not permit their
minds to be scanning and traversing their everyday duties and
avocations. If they do, they are not blessed with that store of
knowledge they otherwise might obtain through paying that attention
necessary to enable them to clearly understand. I acknowledge that it
is a masterwork to school our minds so as at all times to exercise
complete power over them. If the people would so educate themselves as
to control their thinking powers, they would derive a great advantage
from it. They could improve much faster than they now do.
Many years ago, the Prophet Joseph observed that if the people would
have received the revelations he had in his possession, and wisely
acted upon them, as the Lord would dictate, they might, in their power
to do and understand, have been many years ahead of what they then
were. Experience has taught us that it requires time to acquire
certain branches of mechanism, also all principles and ideas that we
wish to become masters of. The closer people apply their minds to any
correct purpose the faster they can grow and increase in the knowledge
of the truth. When they learn to master their feelings, they can soon
learn to master their reflections and thoughts in the degree requisite
for attaining the objects they are seeking. But while they yield to a
feeling or spirit that distracts their minds from a subject they wish
to study and learn, so long they will never gain the mastery of their
minds. So it is with persons who yield to temptation and wickedness.
There are individuals who yield to that unruly member, the tongue; and
after yielding once, they have not the same strength to resist as at
first. They become more and more weakened every time they yield to
temptation, until they are unable to control themselves, when they are
tempted either to speak unadvisedly or to run into any species of
wickedness. So every faculty bestowed upon man is subject to
contamination—subject to be diverted from the purpose the Creator
designed it to fill. If a man permits himself to make use of language
calculated to wound his spirit and infringe upon his better judgment,
and does not try to resist that practice, when he is again tempted
upon the point he is more likely to give way and to have less
compunction of conscience than before. If he continues day after day
to yield himself a servant to the uncontrolled whims of his own nature
and the evil influences that may be exercised upon him from without,
in a few years he will be so steeped in sin as to be entirely given
over to the error of his ways. The sooner an individual resists
temptation to do, say, or think wrong, while he has light to correct
his judgment, the quicker he will gain strength and power to overcome
every temptation to evil.
Let the people study to bring their thinking or reflecting faculties
into subjection. We are preaching principles that belong to this
subject every day of our lives. Last Sabbath I spoke upon the
concentration of faith, of action, of feeling, of reflection. That is
a matter I often reflect upon, because I am called into circumstances
that bring it before me every time I hear a man pray. Am I as yet so
master of my thoughts and reflections that no thought or desire of my
heart is trying to forestall the speaker in uttering his sentiments
and wishes? Have I the power to hold my mind directly upon his words
and desires, asking continually that he may be directed by the Holy
Ghost? I acknowledge that I am not yet perfect in this point. I have
not yet that power over myself; but, to the praise of the name
of the God I serve, I do actually gain upon it. When my mind has
betrayed me, and I detect a desire different from that which is
uttered by my speaker, I feel to retract and offer my desire to the
throne of grace, that I may have power to hold my faith with the man
that is appointed to pray. Those who think and reflect upon this
matter can realize what I wish of myself and what I wish of the
people. Unthinking persons may not fully realize the importance of
these remarks; but every person who has a realizing sense of the
duties devolving upon him—of the way of life and salvation—of what we
are called to in the holy Gospel, must be aware of the importance of
this subject to all who are determined to live their religion.
You are all acquainted, or profess to be, with the Gospel of
salvation. You have entered into covenant with God—have received the
ordinances of the Gospel; and if you have not received the Holy
Ghost, you should have received it. You have the history of the
administration of the Holy Ghost as given by the Apostles in the days
of Jesus, and it is referred to in all sacred writings. This people
profess to be more or less acquainted with the principles developed by
the administration of the Holy Ghost. We will admit that you
understand it. Now, ask yourselves whether you believe that the Holy
Ghost ever commenced to produce a work or an effect before it was in
the heart and mind of that Being we call our heavenly Father. Do you
think that the Holy Ghost ever thought of dictating that Being we call
our God? This whole people have learned enough upon this subject to
answer at once, that we do not believe that the Holy Ghost ever
dictated, suggested, moved, or pretended to offer a plan, except that
which the Eternal Father dictated.
With regard to this particular point, I will say that you shall judge
the matter and be my witnesses. Have we not learned enough with regard
to the character of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to at once
believe, admit, and affirm that the Holy Ghost always has and always
will operate precisely according to the suggestion of the Father? Not
a desire, act, wish, or thought does the Holy Ghost indulge in
contrary to that which is dictated by the Father. We all sense this in
a degree, because it has always been taught to us. It is taught in the
Bible, in the revelations given through Joseph, and in the preaching
by the Elders of Israel. It is our tradition, education, and
experience in the kingdom of God. The Holy Ghost, we believe, is one
of the characters that form the Trinity, or the Godhead. Not one
person in three, nor three persons in one; but the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost are one in essence, as the hearts of three men who are
united in all things. He is one of the three characters we believe in,
whose office it is to administer to those of the human family who love
the truth. I have stated that they are one, as the hearts of three men
might be one. Lest you should mistake me, I will say that I do not
wish you to understand that the Holy Ghost is a personage having a
tabernacle, like the Father and the Son; but he is God's messenger
that diffuses his influence through all the works of the Almighty.
We believe that we have a correct idea of the character of the Son
from the writings of the Apostles, so far as they learned it. But
while he was tabernacling in the flesh, he was more or less
contaminated with fallen nature. While he was here, in a body that his
mother Mary bore him, he was more or less connected with and
influenced by this nature that we have received. According to the
flesh, he was of the seed of Adam and Eve, and suffered the
weaknesses and temptations of his fellow mortals. He was hungry and
thirsty, weary and faint, and had to eat, drink, and sleep. In him
were developed all the traits pertaining to mortal man. According to
the scanty history that we have of the Savior, as near nothing at all
as well can be from the time of his birth to the time of his entering
on his ministry at the age of thirty years, he administered his Gospel
for about three years and a half among the people, and raised up his
Church, ordained his Apostles, and established his kingdom; and of
that limited time we have but a scanty history. According to that
history—according to all you have learned, and to all the Holy Ghost
has ever borne testimony of to you concerning him, let me ask you the
same question in regard to him as I did concerning the Holy Ghost; and
what would you say? That he did nothing of himself. He wrought
miracles and performed a good work on the earth; but of himself he did
nothing. He said, "As I have seen my Father do, so do I." "I came not
to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me." We must come to the
conclusion that the Son of God did not suggest, dictate, act, or
produce any manifestation of his power, of his glory, or of his errand
upon the earth, only as it came from the mind and will of his Father.
Do you not all firmly believe that the whole soul, heart, reflections,
thoughts, and all the being of the Son of God were operated upon and
did show forth that all he did manifest and bring forth pertaining to
his mission was according to the word and will of his Father?
Certainly you do.
Jesus offered up one of the most essential prayers that could possibly
be offered up by a human or heavenly being—no matter who, pertaining
to the salvation of the people, and embodying a principle without
which none can be saved, when he prayed the Father to make his
disciples one, as he and his Father were one. He knew that if they did
not become one, they could not be saved in the celestial kingdom of
God. If persons do not see as he did while in the flesh, hear as he
heard, understand as he understood, and become precisely as he was,
according to their several capacities and callings, they can never
dwell with him and his Father. That same principle stands out as the
most prominent item of teaching in all the teachings and revelations
that have ever been given from heaven to men on the earth. That thread
of faith, of feeling, of hope, of joy, and of action may be found
through all the instructions that have ever come from heaven to earth,
in order to bring the children of God—that is, the whole of the human
family—the children of our Father, and we as brethren and sisters,
parents and children, all emanating from one parentage, back again
into the presence of the Father and the Son, to bring up the whole
posterity of father Adam and mother Eve to enjoy the light, glory,
intelligence, power, kingdoms, thrones, and dominions that are
prepared for exalted beings, which could not be until they had taken
upon them tabernacles. They could not be exalted unless they were
prepared for an exaltation; and upon no other principle could they be
prepared, without taking tabernacles of flesh and being made subject
to vanity. The whole of the Divine teachings, from the days of Adam
until now, have been to teach the human family to yield to the
teachings, dictations, influence, and power of the holy Gospel to make
them one. Without that oneness, there is no salvation for us in the
celestial kingdom of God.
Were we to particularize in regard to the different
organizations of the human family, we would learn that some are not
capable of the same exaltation as are others, arising from the
difference in the conduct and capacities of people. There is also a
difference in the spirit world. It is the design, the wish, the will,
and mind of the Lord that the inhabitants of the earth should be
exalted to thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, according to
their capacities. In their exaltation, one may be capable of presiding
over ten cities, while another may not be capable of presiding over
more than five, another over only two, and another over but one. They
must all first be subjected to sin and to the calamities of mortal
flesh, in order to prove themselves worthy; then the Gospel is ready
to take hold of them and bring them up, unite them, enlighten their
understandings, and make them one in the Lord Jesus, that their faith,
prayers, hopes, affections, and all their desires may ever be
concentrated in one. That is the design and the wish of the Father.
You may ask, "Did he foreknow that they would be saved?" I have seen
many in the world that never have been able to discern the difference
between foreknowledge and foreordination. I thought that I could
always discern the difference. If I know that an act will transpire
tomorrow, it by no means follows that I had decreed it. It is the
design, wish, desire of our Heavenly Father that every soul in this
congregation should be crowned in the celestial kingdom. Will they be?
No. I know that some will not. But does it follow that some are
ordained to go to hell? No. It is the design of the Gospel to save
this congregation, all the Latter-day Saints, and all the world
besides that will believe the testimony of Jesus and become obedient
to the Gospel of salvation. And none need to turn round and say, "If
it is the design of the Lord, I shall be saved;" for its being the
will and design of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of every Saint
that ever was or ever will be, that you should be a Saint, will not
make you one, contrary to your own choice. All rational beings have an
agency of their own; and according to their own choice they will be
saved or damned.
Inasmuch as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one, the desire of the
Savior, as manifested in his sayings and teachings, is, that his
people should also be one, even as he and his Father are one. If we
had the heart, feeling, and faith within us that Jesus had while here
in the flesh, should we be scattering in our faith? Should we be
divided in our interests? No: we should become one. I have not time to
tell you why this people are not identically one; but to the
discerning mind the Holy Spirit will manifest the reason in a
moment—will lay it before you like an open vision, and you will at
once be able to discern thousands of reasons for it. Are they capable
of being one? Yes, if they will in all things bring their wills into
subjection to the will of the Father.
If any are in the habit of taking the name of God in vain, cease doing
so today, tomorrow, and throughout the coming week, and so continue,
and you will soon gain strength to entirely overcome the habit; you
will gain power over your words. Some are in the habit of talking
about their neighbors, of vending stories they know nothing about,
only that Aunt Sally said that Cousin Fanny told Aunt Betsy that old
Aunt Ruth said something or other, or somebody had had a dream; and by
the time the story or dream reaches you, it has assumed the semblance
of a fact, and you are very foolishly spending your time in talking
about things that amount to nothing, or that you have no
concern with. A report is started that such a one has done wrong, and,
by the time it has gone its round, has become anointed with the salve
of the backbiter and talebearer—become endowed with their spirit. One
and another falls in with it and says, "That is true—your cause is
just, you are exactly right, and the other is surely wrong," when they
know nothing about the matter; thereby engendering entirely groundless
ill feelings against each other. Before we condemn, we should wait
until the Heavens clearly indicate a fault in a father, brother,
sister, wife, husband, or neighbor. And if Heaven declares a fault,
wait until the Holy Ghost manifests to you that such is a fault. Let
the Father reveal to you that the person you are thinking or talking
about is actually wrong. Traduce no person. When you know what right
is, and are capable of correcting a person that is wrong, then it is
time enough for you to judge.
I have but recently told you that some people think they are capable
of judging everybody but themselves. Let us judge ourselves. And if
any are disposed to let that unruly member, the tongue, do that which
will wound the heart, darken the spirit, and bring us into subjection
to an evil practice, resist such a disposition—throw it from you. If
you will do that, you will find that the wicked will forsake their
wickedness, and those who are inclined to think evil will cease doing
so, and those who are inclined to utter evil words about their
neighbors will cease that habit, and it will not be long before the
people have perfect control over themselves. If you first gain power
to check your words, you will then begin to have power to check your
judgment, and at length actually gain power to check your thoughts and
reflections.
By close application and study with regard to ourselves and the
require ments of Heaven upon us, we shall be able to school ourselves,
until, when we call upon an Elder to open our meetings, there will not
be a desire, word, sentence, feeling, or impulse of spirit one hair's
breadth in advance of the one selected to be mouth. Do you believe
that we can do that? We can. I have already told you that I am yet
imperfect in that point; but I am trying to make myself perfect in
that particular, so as to become fully master of my thoughts.
I will now ask a question. Do you think that a man can pray wrong,
when the hearts of perhaps over two thousand persons are ascending to
God, in the name of Jesus Christ, to dictate the man who is praying,
and desiring the Lord to let them know his will, and they will strive
to do it? Could a man pray here for things he ought not, when the
faith of two thousand is concentrated in the sincere desire that God
will dictate in all things pertaining to his kingdom? He cannot ask
amiss, for the faith of this people is concentrated through him to the
throne of grace. That is a true principle—as true as the heavens.
Our faith is concentrated in the Son of God, and through him to the
Father; and the Holy Ghost is their minister to bring truths to our
remembrance, to reveal new truths to us, and teach, guide, and direct
the course of every mind, until we become perfected and prepared to go
home, where we can see and converse with our Father in heaven. That is
what we want to attain—that we can all the time have the word of the
Lord for ourselves.
You have often heard me and my brethren say that if the people in the
capacity of a Ward, for instance, would let their faith be perfectly
united, and their whole desires rise to the Father, through the name
of Jesus Christ, and hold their Bishop in his calling between God and
them, it would hardly be possible for that Bishop to do wrong,
for he would be filled with wisdom. Some of the brethren, in
conversation, this morning, were likening the ministrations of the
Holy Ghost to the mode of distributing gas throughout a city. The gas
is led through a main pipe from the gasometer or reservoir, and thence
through sidepipes and lesser and lesser branches, until it is so
distributed as to furnish light to all who require it. I will liken
the Bishops to some of those sidepipes laid down to conduct the gas.
Take a joint of one of those pipes up, which in the comparison we will
call a Bishop, and how are the inhabitants of that Ward to receive the
light? Place him on one side—despise his counsels, and how are you to
be taught? Will you teach each other? You are not called to do it in
that capacity. Your Bishop is laid down by the master workman as the
conductor of the Holy Ghost to you. If you put that conductor out of
its place, the connection is broken between you and the fountain of
light. If you see a Bishop and his Ward in contention and confusion,
you may understand that the pipe or conductor which conveys the light
of that people is out of its place. Instead of the Bishop's being
wrong, and the people right, or the people wrong, and the Bishop
right, they are all wrong: there is little or no right there.
Take any man in this kingdom, and if the people say that they will
make him a President or a Bishop, or elect him to fill any other
office, and the faith of the people is concentrated to receive light
through that officer or pipe laid by the power of the Priesthood from
the throne of God, you might as well try to move the heavens as to
receive anything wrong through that conductor. No matter whom you
elect for an officer, if your faith is concentrated in him through
whom to receive the things which he is appointed to administer in,
light will come to you. Let a presiding officer or a Bishop turn away
from righteousness, and the Lord Almighty would give him the
lock-jaw, if he could not stop his mouth in any other way, or send a
fit of numb palsy on him, so that he could not act, as sure as the
people over whom he presided were right, that they might not be led
astray.
If we wish to be taught, to receive, and understand, we must train
ourselves. We are looking forward to the period when we shall be in
the presence of the Father and the Son—when we shall realize that we
are indeed the sons of God, and be crowned with glory, immortality,
and eternal lives. "Then," you say, "we shall be perfect." You
will be
no more perfect in your sphere, when you are exalted to thrones,
principalities, and powers, than you are required to be and are
capable of being in your sphere today. The man that may be called a
perfect man is perfect in every calling and sphere, as the Father,
the Son, and Holy Ghost are in theirs, and as the angels are in
theirs, which makes a perfect order from first to last—from beginning
to end.
In this probation, we have evil to contend with, and we must overcome
it in ourselves, or we never shall overcome it anywhere else. Were you
to let your minds stretch out, you would learn that the whole
kingdom, with its principles, powers, authority, glory, and
everything pertaining to it, is combined in the organization of man
ready to be developed. We must commence and school ourselves, and so
bring our reflections into subjection, that we can make our minds one
in faith. Then, let me ask you, when you pray God to so hedge up the
way of our enemies that they never shall be able to come to this
Territory, will not your prayers be very likely to be answered? If the
faith of this people, called Latter-day Saints, had been
united in one, as it should have been four months ago, when they asked
the Father, in the name of Jesus, to stop our enemies on the other
side of the South Pass, I can assure you as the Lord God lives, they
never could have seen this side of it. But they are in the Territory.
When we are united and ask God to let the wicked slay the wicked as
they ripen in iniquity, it will be done, and they will not have power
to overcome this handful of people in the mountains. He will place
between them and us a barrier which they cannot surmount. He will
build a wall between us such as they have never thought of, and they
will fall upon each other and slay each other.
I know where the difficulties are, but I have not time now to explain
them. If we are one and are concentrated in the Father, through the
Lord Jesus Christ, and through the chain and thread drawn out for us
to follow up, we will find the fountain head; and then, if I should
ask this people to pray for a certain thing, they would pray for it.
But do they now? No: they pray for everything else. I have made that
request until I am tired of making it. Many will pray for this, that,
and the other, different from what I had advised them only twenty
minutes before. Their faith is not concentrated, as I have frequently
told you, though they are improving and will come to a knowledge of
the truth.
The First Presidency have of right a great influence over this people;
and if we should get out of the way and lead this people to
destruction, what a pity it would be! How can you know whether we lead
you correctly or not? Can you know by any other power than that of the
Holy Ghost? I have uniformly exhorted the people to obtain this living
witness each for themselves; then no man on earth can lead them
astray. It is my calling and office to dictate in the affairs of the
Church and kingdom of God on earth. That is what you have chosen me to
do for many years, with brother Heber and others for my Counselors,
two of whom have passed behind the veil; and I now have a
third—brother Daniel H. Wells, who is as good a man as ever lived. You
have asked me to tell the people what to do to be saved—to be the
mouth of God to this people. Does your faith agree with your
profession? Let me continue to exhort you, until you can train your
hearts, your feelings, and your affections to such a degree, that when
I ask you to pray for a certain object, you can think of it when you
go home.
Brethren and sisters, may God bless you! I bless you all the time.
Hallelujah! Praise the name of Israel's God; for my soul exults in his
name. We are happy and free from the yoke of bondage. The breath of
the Almighty can scatter our enemies to the four winds and blow them
into oblivion, if we have the faith. You can read how the kings,
prophets, and mighty men in Israel used to slay their
fellow beings—required so to do, because of the wickedness of those
very men who stood at the head of Israel. If they had been sanctified
and holy, the children of Israel would not have traveled one year
with Moses before they would have received their endowments and the
Melchizedek Priesthood. But they could not receive them, and never
did. Moses left them, and they did not receive the fulness of that
Priesthood. After they came to the land of Canaan, they never would
have desired a king, had they been holy. The Lord told Moses that he
would show himself to the people; but they begged Moses to plead with
the Lord not to do so. Moses was angry at the sins of the people and
did wrong, insomuch that when the Lord showed himself to him,
he hid him in a cleft in a rock, and only let him see his hinder
parts.
Through the conduct of the people, Moses sometimes felt like fighting.
After he had been with the Lord forty days in the mountain, he came
down and saw the idolatry of the people, and smashed to pieces the
tables that were written by the finger of God, and ground up the
golden image they were worshipping, and scattered it to the four
winds; and the Lord slew many of the idolaters.
I want to see this people so full of the power of God that they can
ask and receive. God help us so to do! Amen.