|
I sincerely desire, my brethren and sisters, that you will give me the benefit of your faith and prayers during the brief period that I shall stand before you this morning. A comparative stranger as I am to this congregation of people, with an environment so different from that to which I have nearly all my life been accustomed, I feel that unless the Lord shall help me, and I shall have your sympathy and faith, I will not be able to properly express the thoughts that have been crowding through my mind while we have been together in this conference.
It has been said that as a man thinketh, so he speaketh; and if the brief remarks which I make shall be, in a measure, of a personal character, I feel certain that you will pardon me, because, in spite of myself, I have been thinking of my own life--of its varied circumstances, associations, and conditions --which have finally culminated in this fact: that I stand here this morning, worthy to be counted a member of the Church of Christ; worthy, I trust, of your confidence and faith; your servant and fellow laborer in the work of the Lord, which has been established in this dispensation.
I have not been accustomed, in my life, to mingle much with men under circumstances of this kind. I have not been accustomed to associations which have been the result of the works of man. Almost my entire life has been spent with nature. I have learned to love it; I have learned to feel at home with it: to appreciate the works of God, and to adapt myself to them as He created and left them long ago. Because of this, it will not be easy, I suppose, for me to adapt myself to changed conditions. I have traveled, for weeks together, over barren, trackless desolate plains, seeing the face of no man of my own kind except my companions, and felt entirely happy and at home. I have been lonesome, and lost, and fearful in the crowded cities of the world; I have slept by the camp-fire, with wicked and marauding men all around me, with no sound but the cries of the wild things of nature, and felt as perfectly secure, and rested as soundly as it would be possible for man to do; and have lain awake, anxious, nervous, unsettled in my mind, in the great hostleries of the large cities I have visited. I have prayed to the Lord upon the tops of mountain peaks, and in the shades of deep canyons, and felt Him as near to me as I ever have in temples erected by human hands.
At the time of my birth, my parents were members of the Church and I was taught by them, by precept and example, principles that made for an upright and religious life; and if I failed, if I came short, it was not because of the teachings or example of my parents. When t grew older, when I came to think and investigate for myself, when I came to pray intelligently to my Father in Heaven for light, wisdom, and understanding--I became a thorough convert to the necessity, the divinity, and the efficacy of the mission of the Savior of the world. I learned to love His character, to love His works, to love the doctrines He taught, because I found in them, so far as my mind and spirit was concerned, that which satisfied every legitimate desire of the human heart, And this testimony of the divinity of His work was no stronger in my heart, no more satisfying to me, than was the testimony which the Lord gave me that in the dispensation in which we live, He had, in His mercy, restored the Gospel; that Christ Himself did appear to Joseph Smith, the Prophet of this dispensation; that God Himself did speak to him, thus re-establishing, in this age of doubt and darkness, the fact of His personality, and opening up to us a new Gospel dispensation. I believe it with all my heart; and the experience of years of labor, years of investigation, years of study, have strengthened that testimony every day of my life.
I love the Gospel of Christ, because it taught me that birth was not the beginning of my existence, nor death the end of my life. For Jesus said that He came from the Father; that He was with Him in the beginning. Yet He was born of woman, as you and I have been born; walking among men; teaching, exhorting, organizing, pointing out the way of eternal life; and eventually crucified by wicked men. We know that He rose again we know that He went back to the Father, to sit upon His right hand. So I said to myself, Chris came to earth, not only to teach us by precept, the way of eternal life, but to show us by example, that we might have actual ocular demonstration of what the life of every human being may be, if he only will conform to the laws which God has given in order that he may attain to eternal life. I loved His doctrines, because I found truth in them--absolute truth in then all. Nothing that He taught, no word that He ever uttered, nor principle that He ever gave to men contained a word of error, so far as I was able to detect. It taught me that if I would be like Him, if desired to attain to those things which He promised, I must love the truth. It taught me that I must not be a liar, because the Lord had said that a liar could not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven; it taught me morality, that I must be a moral man,--because He said that the adulterer could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; it taught the that I must be a temperate man, because the Gospel says that strong drinks are not for the body, that they are not for the use of man, but that they dethrone his reason. Therefore, I resolved in my heart that, with His help, I would be temperate. I want to say here by way of parenthesis: If there is a member of the Church of Christ today who is not a temperate man or woman, if it is necessary to preach temperance, to preach prohibition to the Latter-day Saints, it is because they have been negligent, they have not listened to the word of the Lord, and not because the Gospel does not have in it that which will eliminate this evil. The Gospel has also taught me that I must be an industrious man; for the Lord has said that the idler should not eat the bread, nor wear the apparel of the laborer. It taught me that I should be true to every trust that was reposed in me, that if I accepted service, my duty was to my employer; and that I had no right, at his expense, to build up my own private interests.
My brethren and sisters, I shall not prolong my remarks by continuing this review. It is sufficient for me to say, as I before remarked, that I found in the Gospel everything which it seemed to me the heart of man can desire in order that he may be made happy. I believe it is the will of the Lord that we should be happy in this life, notwithstanding the fact that when the path to happiness is so clearly defined, the great majority of the world walk in that other path, seeking that which they never find. They are unhappy, discontented, and still contending and fighting against the truth which would bring to them the thing that they vainly seek in their own way. The Gospel of Christ taught me that I should be loyal to the Church to which I belong. It taught me just as effectively, and just as definitely, that I should be loyal and patriotic to the government under which the Church exists.
Church government is given to us in order that we may be prepared for eternal life in the world to come. When brought before Pilate, one of the accusations made by the Jews against Christ was that He declared Himself to be a King. Judah was tributary to Rome, and Herod was the titular king of the Jews; and so they said: "This man is guilty of treason, because he declared that he is a king." Then Pilate said: "Art thou a king?" Jesus answered: "Yes, but my kingdom is not of this world; I came not to do the will of man, but to do the will of my Father." I came here to establish righteousness, to organize and establish my Church in the earth, that by obedience to the precepts of the Gospel, men and women might be saved.
So, in the dispensation in which we live, God has re-established His Church; He has given us the perfect organization which exists, in order that its interests may be properly cared for. But churches need civil government. Ecclesiastical government alone is not sufficient; and so, as He has established church government in the earth, He has established civil government in the earth. The Church of Christ is presided over by men called to their positions by divine authority, divinely authorized to exercise the prerogatives of the Priesthood; while civil government is presided over by men chosen by the people over whom they preside. Christ has told us that in the Church all things are to be done by common consent; that the prerogatives of the Priesthood are to be exercised only in kindness,--by persuasion, by reason, by love, by charity,--and with this, the exercise of our prerogative ends. We do not assume to impose pains and penalties; we only deal with people for their fellowship in the Church. Just as God has thus established His work, so He has told us, by inspired men, that all just civil governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed; that the word of the people in the state is the word of God, just as the word of the people in the Church is the word of God. We say in the Church, you shall not steal, and if you steal, and repent not, you are unworthy of fellowship, and we cast you out; but with that, our prerogative ceases. The civil law says, you shall not steal--if you do steal, it lays hands upon you; it restrains you of your liberty; it places you in bonds, and casts you into prison. The law of God says, you shall not shed the blood of man, and he who sheddeth the blood of man hath not Eternal Life abiding in him, and with this we cease. The civil law says, he who killeth shall answer with his life. Hands are laid upon him, and the law is executed. So that the prerogatives of civil government are of great importance; it deals with our property, it deals with our lives; it carries into a temporal, a present, an actual effect the laws provided for our protection and welfare. It defends us against foreign invasion, and protects us against wrong-doing among ourselves. So it seems to me that it is exceedingly important that civil government be maintained; and the Gospel has always taught me that it is my solemn duty to maintain it.
I heard a man say, the other day, that his politics had nothing to do with his religion. I can think of no obligation resting upon me which is more sacred or nearer a religious duty, than that I see to it, so far as my influence, so far as my voice and my vote may go, that this civil government which we love, which we maintain, be administered by righteous men. To that extent it is my religion, and I don't want to be muzzled in saying so. Is that good doctrine, or is it bad doctrine?
"When the wicked reign, the people mourn," and so men into whose hands these great responsibilities are placed, men who hold life and death at their disposal, men who control the disposition of our property--ought to be righteous men; they ought to be honest and conscientious men. God being my helper, I will never vote for a man, nor advocate a man for a public place, in whom I have not that confidence; and I say that this is good religion for Latter-day Saints, for Catholics, for Presbyterians, and for Methodists. No sect or creed should ever dominate the state, that fact is of very great importance; but it is nevertheless the religious duty of every sect and creed to see to it that the state which dominates them is righteously and properly administered. This is what the Gospel has taught to me. These are the convictions that have come to my heart, and I speak them for myself.
My brethren and sisters, I rejoice with you in the progress and development which the work of the Lord is making, as shown by the reports made in this conference; I rejoice with you that conditions are so favorable as they are in the Church. But I want to say that, because of this progress, because of these favorable conditions, we must not suppose that there is nothing more to do. The work that is before the Church, the great problems that are to be worked out and adjusted, the future development of the Church, are of more importance to us than anything that has yet been accomplished. And we cannot carelessly relax our efforts; we cannot sit down, and say the Lord is going to do it. The Lord never has done it; He has shown us the way; He has pointed out the path in which we should walk; He has taught us the truth, and then left us to go on and develop that great problem-for I can tell you that it is a great problem, and one that is not yet fully developed --which involves the betterment of the social conditions of the world, the preaching of the Gospel, and the redemption of the children of men. It applies not only to those who are receiving the truth in the world and gathering to Zion, but also to the remnants of the people of Nephi. These are important problems, which we are in duty bound to meet: we must see to the moral condition of the Saints; we must correct infidelity and unbelief which exists in the minds of young people--it does exist to a certain extent, at least. All these are questions which require our undivided and earnest attention, and our very best efforts.
Yesterday, Brother Whitney very eloquently portrayed not only the condition of the Church at present, but the dispensations of the past were referred to, as well as the promises for the future--all of which gives great hope and strength. The past can benefit only as we learn by it; we cannot change it. It may be, in a measure, a lamp, by which our feet may be guided, for the experiences of the past ought to teach us something of the present. Promises which refer to the future cannot be so directly beneficient. The thing which mightily concerns us, and which is of greatest importance to us is the present: our own lives, our own dispensation, the work that is here for us to do--the living present is that which should most interest Latter-day Saints today. Therefore, let every president of a stake every bishop of a ward, go back to his home with the thought that there is yet work to do, and work in plenty.
May the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters; may He bless all Israel, and prepare the way for the accomplishment of His purposes, for the redemption of His people. May He prepare our hearts that we may obey and observe every law which has been given. I testify to you that not one doctrine of the Church, not one law of the Lord given in this dispensation through the Prophet Joseph Smith, whether it refer to our temporal or spiritual affairs, will fall to the ground unfulfilled. The principles and doctrines that were given through him to the world, are true, and truth is eternal, and must sooner or later prevail.
|
