I have been highly gratified at the few remarks I have heard this
morning from the brethren who are about to leave us to fulfil their
Missions. They have a great deal of talk in them, and they will soon
be in their fields of labor where they can free their minds.
Brother George Sims' remarks created considerable empty levity. I like
to be pleased myself; I like to be filled with joy, but if I cannot be
filled with joy and gladness that is full of meat and marrow, or, in
other words, full of meaning and sense, I would rather retain my
gravity.
There is but one step between life and death, between faithfulness and
apostasy, between the sublime and the ridiculous. We preach the Gospel
and gather the Saints, but are all Saints when they are gathered? No,
we gather the goats with the sheep. We gather people here, and then
the most trifling incidents that may occur in their lives, contrary to
their wishes, will turn them aside, and they will forsake their
religion and their God. I am sorry for this.
Never give way to vain laughter. I have seldom laughed aloud for twenty
or thirty years without regretting it, and I always blush for those
who laugh aloud without meaning.
I am often full of joy and gladness, and were I to give way to the
promptings of my nature at such times, it would lead to unreasonable
levity which would be a source of mortification and sorrow to me. I
noticed that the brethren gave way to that laugh which I choose not to
hear. I hope they will accept of this caution, and watch, govern,
control and subdue their passions. I am satisfied that those persons
who stamp, clap hands, whistle, and make other noisy and boisterous
demonstrations in the theaters so untimed and uncalled for, have but
little sense, and know not the difference between a happy smile of
satisfaction to cheer the countenance of a friend, or a contemptuous
sneer that brings the curses of man upon man.
I am rejoiced, my brethren, when I hear the Elders of Israel speak as
they did this morning. I care little for a man's language, if his
spirit proves to me that he has the love of God within him. Brother
Erastus Snow remarked that the time would come when the law of God
would be written on the hearts of the people. A Pharisee and a lawyer
asked Jesus Christ a question, tempting him, saying, "Master, which is
the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second
is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these
two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." When we
can keep these two commandments, do you not think that the law of God
will be written in our hearts? Yes, and it will never be erased. When
I have a manifestation, through the brethren that speak, that the love
of God is planted in their souls, that God rules and reigns in their
affections, I care not what language they make use of to express their
ideas, there is joy, peace, and solid satisfaction in listening to the
words of their mouths.
Brother Erastus Snow has been preaching since he was fifteen years of
age, and has been a faithful Minister to preach the Gospel from that
day to this, and yet he is troubled with the same diffidence that
others are troubled with. When we look upon the human face we look
upon the image of our Father and God; there is a divinity in each
person male and female; there is the heavenly, there is the divine and
with this is amalgamated the human, the earthly, the weaker portions
of our nature, and it is the human that shrinks in the presence of the
divine, and this accounts for our manfearing spirit, and it is all
there is of it. Many public lecturers, by faithful application in
their studies and constant practice in public speaking, have overcome
to a great degree what is usually called a manfearing spirit.
I am now looking upon beings who are expressly created to inhabit the
celestial kingdom of our Father and God. They are the children of God,
the brethren and sisters of Jesus Christ, of the same family and
descent. My best efforts are too feeble to portray before you the
worth of the life we now possess. Probably there is not a single
person upon the earth that properly magnifies his life to the fullest
extent, or, as it was designed he should, to prepare him to dwell with
God and holy angels. Many passages of Scripture can be produced
showing how the ancients complained of the folly and wickedness of
mankind, but they never undervalued life. The first life must be
magnified as a preparatory step to the enjoyment of the second. Those
immortal and glorified beings that inherit higher spheres understood
this principle, have magnified their mortal existence and passed on to
immortality, to possess exaltations in eternal life. We ought not to
speak lightly of and undervalue the life we now enjoy, but so dispose
of each passing day that the hours and minutes are spent in doing
good, or at least doing no harm, in making ourselves useful, in
improving our talents and abilities to do more good, cultivating the
principle of kindness to every being pertaining to our earthly sphere,
learning their uses and how to apply them to produce the greatest
possible amount of good; learning to conduct ourselves towards our
families and friends in a way to win the love and confidence of the
good, and overcome every ungovernable passion by a constant practice
of cool judgment and deliberate thoughts.
I feel continually to say God bless the people. God bless the brethren
who go on Missions to preach the Gospel, and those who are already in
their fields of labor. I desire to see righteousness prevail, this is
my whole delight; I have no other business on hand; I wish to have no
other. I have no other joy or affection for anything, only the
perfection of the kingdom of God, and to see righteousness reign
triumphantly. I delight to see my brethren and sisters live in a way
to promote that life which will never end. Instead of preparing to
die, prepare to live in the midst of all the exaltations of the Gods.
I do not mean to leave this world, God being my helper, until sin and
iniquity are banished from it, and the reign of everlasting
righteousness is introduced, and Jesus Christ comes and reigns king of
nations as he does king of Saints, and the earth with all the Saints
that dwell upon it are brought into the presence of the Father and
Son, there to dwell forever.
God bless you. Amen.