If the Holy Ghost will give me utterance, I should like to say some things to you about how I think the message of the restoration can be carried to the world with power and effect.
MESSAGE OF THE RESTORATION
This message is, first, foremost, and above all other things: that Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God; that he is the Savior of the world and the Redeemer of men; that salvation was and is and is to come, in and through his name only. We believe that he came into the world to do the will of his Father and work out the infinite and eternal atonement, and that by virtue of this atonement all men who believe and obey the gospel laws will be raised in immortality unto eternal life. It is only by obedience to his laws and his ordinances that we may gain the celestial kingdom.
This message is, secondly, that Joseph Smith, Jr., is the chosen prophet through whom the fulness of the everlasting gospel has been restored in this dispensation. He was chosen by Christ to be the restorer and revealer of all things necessary for the salvation and exaltation of man; he gave again on earth every law, every principle, and every doctrine by conformity to which we may gain the kingdom of God.
This message is, thirdly, that this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is, at this moment, the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth. It is the only place where the plan of life and salvation is found. There is no other path and no other way whereby men can strive and gain the peace and happiness that is available for those who live right in this life, and the eternal life that God has promised the Saints in the world to come.
GUIDANCE OF HOLY GHOST
Now we want to carry this message to the world in the way that the Lord wants us to carry it. We want to preach the truth in purity and in perfection, and to do it in the way the Lord wants it done. The only single formula whereby we may do this is for us so to live (and our elders in the mission fields so to live) that we can be guided by the Holy Ghost. We must be guided by the Spirit. We have to have the Lord tell us how he wants us to teach the message of the restoration, and every doctrine of the gospel, and he will do this by revelation from the Holy Ghost if we are worthy to receive it.
One of the chief differences between us and the churches which are built up, and not unto the Lord, is that the Holy Ghost gives us utterance if we are faithful, but that the people in the world teach with their learning, and deny the Holy Ghost which giveth utterance.
The Holy Ghost revealed to Nephi about latter-day church conditions. Speaking of this very day Nephi foretold that many would teach "false and vain and foolish doctrines." He said that
Because of pride, and because of false teachers, and false doctrine, their churches have become corrupted, they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men. (2 Nephi 28:12, 14.)
SOUND DOCTRINE
We have no interest in teaching by the wisdom or learning or according to the precepts of men. We want to teach the gospel the way the Lord would have us teach it, and to do it under the power and influence of the Holy Ghost. If we will do that, we will teach sound doctrine. It will be the truth. It will build faith and increase righteousness in the hearts of men, and they will be led along that path which leads to the celestial world.
But if we teach without the Spirit of the Lord, if we are not guided by the Holy Ghost, we will be teaching at our peril. It is a serious thing to teach false doctrine, to teach that which is not true, to teach that which does not build faith in the hearts of men.
In that same sermon on latter-day church conditions. Nephi said, the Holy Ghost giving him utterance, ". . . and all those who preach false doctrines,...wo, wo, wo be unto them, saith the Lord God Almighty, for they shall be thrust down to hell!" (2 Nephi 28:15.)
There is no hope and no salvation and no blessing in carrying any message to the world by the power of man. The philosophies of the world and the wisdom of the wise shall perish. We cannot touch the hearts of men, but the Lord can, and he will touch them through our ministry if we have the Spirit of the Lord in our hearts. We will get that Spirit if we are righteous in our living and in the things we do.
And so it is that the Lord said by revelation to the whole Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that ". . . the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith: and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach." (D. & C. 42:14.)
And so it is that he has sent his elders out in this day commanding that they take no thought beforehand what they should say but instructing that they should treasure up in their minds continually the words of life. Theirs is then the promise that it shall be given them in the very hour that portion which should be meted to every man.
If we can have the Holy Ghost as our guide, we shall be able to touch the hearts of righteous men; we shall do the things that the Lord wants us to do; and this course will give us peace here and eternal reward hereafter.
HEAD OF THIS DISPENSATION
Now, associated with this principle, this only perfect plan and formula for carrying our message to the world, is another. The Lord said to the Prophet Joseph Smith: ". . . this generation shall have my word through you." (D. & C. 5:10.)
Now, I take it that we are not obligated to teach the message of salvation the way it was revealed to Peter, James, and John, to Moses, or Adam, or any of the ancient prophets, but that the Lord wants us to carry this message the way it was given through the Prophet Joseph Smith. It is the same message of salvation now as it was then. The gospel never changes. All men who ever gain salvation will win it by obedience to the same eternal laws. But in each age it has to be accepted from the oracles whom the Lord sends for that age and time.
Joseph Smith was given the keys of salvation as pertaining to all men who live in the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. That means that he stands at the head of this dispensation. It means that under Adam, the great high priest who stands at the head of all dispensations, and under Christ who is the Savior of the world, he directs all the affairs of God in the world as pertaining to this dispensation.
When we link the name of Joseph Smith with the name of Jesus Christ in the testimonies we bear, we are doing that which is pleasing to the Lord. If we had lived in ancient Israel and had attended the testimony meetings that they held, we would have linked the name of Moses with the name of Jesus Christ, because he headed that dispensation. And if we had lived in Enoch's day or Abraham's or Adam's, we would have testified of Christ and the man who stood at the head of that particular dispensation.
MODERN SCRIPTURES
But to us the word of the Lord is sent forth through Joseph Smith. It has been given through him in the manner and form, to the degree, and in the plainness that is adapted to the capacity and abilities of people who now live in the world. Some of the ancient scriptures are not so plain and intelligible to us as the modern. They were written for people who had the social conditions, the philosophies, and the backgrounds that existed generations and milleniums ago. What we have, as it has come through Joseph Smith, is adapted to our intelligence and our capacity. If we shall study it in preference to anything else, we shall have more light, more truth, and more understanding of the mind and will of the Lord, and the things that we have to do in order to be saved in his kingdom, than we could gain from any other source.
This does not mean that we do not accept the Bible. We do with all our heads, and we do not try to spiritualize away its teachings. We believe it to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly. We believe all that God has revealed, and every revelation given to Joseph Smith is in strictest harmony with every revelation given through any prophet in any age. Truth is always the same; revelations never contradict each other. But there is no salvation in reading the Bible and stopping there. People must find a living oracle, a legal administrator, someone who can bind on earth and seal in heaven, someone whose teachings and performances will be recognized by the Lord. And that is where Joseph Smith and the present living oracles come in.
THE BOOK OF MORMON
So that we may carry the message of salvation to the world in this generation through Joseph Smith, we have had certain tools given us. The chief of these is the Book of Mormon. That book is a witness for Jesus Christ. Such is its chief purpose. It testifies of him, and it teaches the doctrines of his gospel in plainness and purity, and let it not be forgotten that our chief mission is to bear testimony of Christ and teach the doctrines of his gospel.
Next, the Book of Mormon is a witness that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, that he restored the fulness of the gospel and was everything we claim him to have been. No man could have written the Book of Mormon, and any person who will study it with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, following Moroni's counsel, will get the witness in his heart that Joseph Smith obtained that book from the plates in exactly the manner in which he said he got it.
So, by using the Book of Mormon to carry our message to the world, we carry forth the testimony of Christ and of Joseph Smith. If those to whom we preach have righteousness in their hearts, they soon receive by the power of the Holy Ghost the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God; they soon get by revelation from the Holy Ghost the knowledge that Joseph Smith is his prophet and the head of his work for this age and dispensation.
Then, because the Lord giveth not his Spirit by portions, and because they have tasted of the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost in these two particulars, they will get, also by revelation from the same source, the knowledge that this Church, this kingdom, is the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth.
These three things are the very ones we want to get all the righteous everywhere to accept, and the Book of Mormon is the means whereby we may accomplish it.
MOST CORRECT OF ANY BOOK
The Prophet Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth and the keystone of our religion, and that a man would get nearer to God by abiding its precepts than by any other book.
Why, that is the very thing we want the world to do. We want the people who hear the message that we bear to get so near to the Lord that in contrition and humility they will repent of their sins, come in at the gate of baptism, and grow in faith and in righteousness until they become the sons of God, heirs to his eternal kingdom.
As far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned, if they would read and study that book, with the same real intent, purpose, and faith in Christ of which Moroni spoke, they would discover that faith would grow in their hearts. They would get a knowledge of the principles of salvation. They would have desires of righteousness spring up in their souls. Soon they would not have any inclination or any desire or any aim except to be in harmony with all of their brethren, with their bishops and stake presidents, and with every righteous person in the kingdom.
If you get the spirit of the Book of Mormon, you cannot be out of harmony with the Lord's work and with his mind and will in this day.
TESTIMONY
With these brethren who have testified, I have in my heart a knowledge and an assurance that is real and positive and certain that this work is true. I know just as well as I know anything in this world that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that Joseph Smith is his chiefest prophet and his chiefest witness for this dispensation.
"At that strait gate where men must enter if they attain the celestial world, there stands a keeper of the gate who is the Holy One of Israel. He employeth no servant there.
. . . and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name." (2 Nephi 9:41.)
But those who receive the servants of the Lord receive him, and he in turn receives them because they received his servants. And as pertaining to people who lived in this dispensation, when the judgment is set and the books are opened, they will find that the Prophet Joseph Smith will be seated on the right hand of Christ, and it will be with his approval and his approbation and his counsel and his consent that all men from his dispensation who attain salvation will be permitted to inherit it.
I glory in the testimony that I have. I know that this work is true and that this is the Lord's Church. I pray that the work may roll forth and that the Lord's purposes may prevail in the earth, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
