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In spite of my efforts at self-control I have been overcome with emotion as I have looked upon the faces of this large congregation of men, with a few women, the like of which, so far as we are aware, has never before been seen in the history of the world.
Looking backward, as we have all undoubtedly done, contemplating the changes which have come to the world since the organization of the Church, one hundred years ago, the absorbing thought which has come to me is one of gratitude because of the fact that it has been my destiny, with you, my brethren and sisters, to have been a participant in its marvelous activities.
I have gone back over the long and winding road, which the people of the world have traveled since we have record of their existence, with its well marked sign-boards which tell us that if we will follow them they will lead us back to the presence of God from whence we came, but from which we have strayed and gone far afield, until the road has brought us to where we are today.
In it all I appear to see the hand of divinity constantly directing, and hear the voice of our Father who is in heaven calling us back to the straight road, and frequently, unconsciously to them, impressing the minds of men, impelling them resistlessly onward to the accomplishment of a divine purpose, the redemption of the human family, that they may achieve eternal life.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Of the method by which this was accomplished we have little knowledge; we do know, however, that the earth was created, because we find ourselves here upon it.
And, "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them."
And he gave man dominion over the earth, and all that is upon it, and commanded him to subdue the earth, and make it fruitful. He made plain the fact that this could only be accomplished by effort, by the sweat of the brow; that being endowed with reason man was to think, to strive, and thus find out truth and apply it, in order that the earth might be brought under subjection to his will. For the intelligence and will of man is a part of godliness which the Father has bestowed upon all of his children, and will, if properly applied and developed, make man like unto his Creator.
Of the antediluvian people who occupied the earth upon which we dwell we know but little. Their history, covering a period of 1,500 years, is told in the Bible on a dozen small pages.
Of the new race of men which descended from Noah, our ancestor, we have more definite information. It is a fact, however, that there is much of obscurity and doubt surrounding their early history.
It is these latter people that I have followed with greater interest, because it is to them that we more directly trace our ancestry, and it was with them, through Abraham our father, that the Lord entered into a new covenant which is now in course of fulfilment.
According to the best available information the expansion and development of the sons of Noah and their posterity had its beginning along the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and extended south from that point to the plains of Shiner, in Mesopotamia.
We are told that Ham, the son of Noah, begat Cush who was the father of Nimrod, the founder of Babylon, which became the greatest city of its time, while Asshur, the son of Shem, established his people on the Tigris, and built the city of Nineveh.
Egypt was occupied by the descendants of Ham, through Pharaoh, the son of Egyptus, who was the daughter of Ham.
Assyria, the Asshur of the Hebrews, of which Nineveh was the principal city; Chaldea, of which Babylon was the capitol; and Egypt, among the earliest nations of which we have record, are all closely associated with the Israelitish people, each having exercised a powerful influence upon their character and history.
It was from Chaldea that the Lord called Abraham, and entered into covenant with him in which he promised that he would make of him a people, by comparison as numerous as the stars of heaven, or the grains of sand upon the seashore. Abraham was at the time a childless man, one hundred years of age.
To properly comprehend the occurrences of the past century one must be familiar with the covenant entered into by the Lord with Abraham and the history of the Israelitish people from that time until the present. The Lord declared that covenant to be eternal, everlasting, which means that it would not end until the promises made had been realized. In part the covenant declared that through Abraham and his seed all nations of the world should be blessed.
It is through the descendants of Abraham that the Holy Bible has come down to us, the book which has done more to civilize and stabilize the world than all others which have been published. It has given to us the fundamentals of our system of government and the laws under which its affairs are administered. From the family of Abraham the Lord has raised up his ancient and modern prophets, and most important of all, Jesus Christ, his Only Begotten Son, through whom redemption from death and salvation in the kingdom of our Father is made possible to mankind. What have we that is of indispensable value to humanity which has not come to us through the Israelitish race?
During the past weeks I have been thinking of these things and associating them with the secular history of the world. By this method alone am I able to reach satisfactory conclusions regarding the contents and meaning of the scripture, and my studies justify the statement which I now make: In Abraham and his seed all nations of the earth have been blessed.
With the birth of Jacob the Israelitish race had its real beginning. Jacob who was first called Israel; Jacob who was the father of twelve sons, and to whom the promises made to his grandfather, Abraham, were reconfirmed, and greatly enlarged. In order that I may be properly understood, permit me to make this brief observation:
It has become common usage to associate the word Israel with the Jewish people only, which is a great error. While it is true that all Jewish people are Israelites, it is equally true that there are Israelitish people that are not Jews.
Judah, with whom the tribe of Benjamin united, was but one of the twelve tribes at the time when ten of these tribes revolted during the reign of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, established an independent kingdom, with their capitol city at Samaria, in northern Palestine.
I have gone with Jacob and his sons into Egypt, been with them in their prosperity in the land of Goshen, while Egypt was under control of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, their own kinsmen, and in their distress and servitude after the native princes of Egypt came down the Nile, defeated and drove out the Hyksos, and repossessed their native land.
I have followed them in their exodus from Egypt under the great prophet Moses, and in their forty years sojourn in the wilderness. I have been with them in the conquest of the promised land, in their final ascendancy to a great kingdom under David, and rejoiced with them during the peaceful reign of King Solomon, when Israel realized her golden age.
In sorrow I have seen the return of this chosen people from the worship of the God of their fathers to the worship of idols, which brought dissolution and final subjugation by surrounding nations. I have seen the Ten Tribes carried away captive by the Assyrians, while Judah suffered the same fate at the hands of the Babylonians, and was later scattered by pagan Rome to the four corners of the earth.
To one who does not understand it may appear that the promise made by the Lord had failed. Israel had possessed the promised land as he had said that they should, but through transgression had lost their heritage to other nations, notwithstanding the fact that the Lord had declared that heritage to be eternal.
Has the promise made to Abraham failed? Are the Ten Tribes of Israel lost to the world forever? Is Judah to be forever a wanderer without a country which he can call his own? Emphatically, no.
"Hear the word of the Lord, 0 ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say. He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
"For thus sayeth the Lord: Behold I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coast of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born."
Thus has the Lord spoken through his chosen prophets, and his word will not fail.
Centuries before, while the Israelitish people were still in possession of the promised land, the Lord through his prophets had predicted their downfall, that they would be scattered among all nations, but would ultimately be gathered and restored to their promised heritage. The time for the realization of this latter promise is near at hand.
Babylon, at the time of the Jewish captivity, was referred to by Daniel the prophet as having dominion over all the earth. Nebuchadnezzar its king was called the King of Kings. The kingdom was thought to be so strong that it would never be overthrown. The Lord, however, had long before decreed its fall, and his prophets had declared that Babylon should become as Sodom and Gomorrah and that it should never be rebuilt or inhabited again.
The opening scene of the great drama which was to bring to pass the redemption of the house of Israel occurred when the Medo-Persian army, under Cyrus, effected the conquest of Babylonia, during the reign of Belshazzar, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, and established the powerful Medo-Persian kingdom in its stead.
I have been with Alexander of Macedon as he crossed the Hellespont from Greece, and with his comparatively small army fought the battles of Granicus, Issus and Arbela where he utterly destroyed the great Medo-Persian army which Darius had collected, and established himself as master of Asia from the Mediterranean sea to the mouth of the Nile, a country fifty times larger in area and population than his own.
I have been with the Roman legions as they swept through Asia, destroying the smaller kingdoms which Alexander had set up, and in their campaign in northern Europe, which made them masters of the then known world.
I have been with Mark Anthony and Octavius at Actium, where they struggled for the mastery of Rome, and have seen that mighty empire crumble and fall.
These have all been turning points in the affairs of the world, which have entirely changed what might otherwise have been its history. It was not the will of the Lord that despotic rule should be permanently established and maintained upon the earth. This was proven in modern times when Napoleon met his Waterloo, and in our own day when ambition prompted a crowned head in Europe to seek the establishment of world dominion.
In all of this I have seen the finger of the Lord pointing to a time when: The God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, or given to other people, but will stand forever; when he will establish peace upon earth and good will among men; when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Oh, my beloved brethren and sisters, I beseech you to study the word of the Lord, as it is contained in holy writ. You will then know that the present is inextricably associated with the remote past to which I have referred as it is to the future which is before us. You will know that you have been given a land which is choice above all others. You will discover that the ancient prophets saw this land of America, and declared its destiny. You will know the conditions upon which our nation is to be perpetuated, or, on the other hand, because of our lack of faith in God, take its place among those mighty nations to which I have referred and pass into oblivion.
Where much is given much is required. This is the land of Joseph, it is the land of Zion, a land choice above all other lands. The Lord our God has decreed that whatsoever nation shall inhabit it shall be free from bondage, free from all other nations, if they will but serve the God of the land, which is Jesus Christ. These are not my words, but the words of the Lord, our God. They are binding upon us, as they have been binding upon other great nations which have occupied the American continent in times past. They imply more than a tacit or perfunctory profession of faith in Christ our Lord. We are to render service to him.
When asked what the word service implied the Redeemer answered: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbor as thyself." Simple requirements embodying the fundamentals of perfect Christian life.
If we love the Lord it will be a pleasure to serve him. We could not, if we love him, be guilty of murder. The fact that murder is of almost daily occurrence is evidence that this great commandment is not properly observed. Next to murder the Lord has declared that the contamination of the fountains of life through the promiscuous intercourse of sexes is an abomination in his sight.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands irrevocably committed to the observance of sexual purity. It recognizes no double standard of morality. It demands the same standard of virtue from its men that it does from its women members, and recognizes no circumstance or condition which justifies sexual association except in virtuous and legal wedlock. This the Church recognizes to be not only approved of the Lord but in direct compliance with his command.
"Thou shalt not steal."
Any person who knowingly deprives another of that which rightfully belongs to him, without giving value received for it, is guilty of theft, no matter what the process may be by which the transaction is made.
"Thou shalt not bear false witness."
The frequency with which this commandment is disregarded by men and women who appear in our courts under oath to tell the truth, is evidence of needed reform.
If we would only put into practice these simple requirements, and we could do so if we would, what a glorious place this world of ours would be in which to live.
You may ask--Why call attention to these conditions while you provide no remedy for them? The remedy is simple, and can be made effective.
Paraphrasing the words of Abraham Lincoln: Let every member of the Church, from its president, its priest or pastor, to the humblest member, and every citizen of the United States of America, from the highest elective or appointive officer, to the humblest citizen, here and now highly resolve that the faith in God manifested by our fathers, who bequeathed to us the priceless heritage of liberty which we now enjoy in this chosen land, shall not perish from the earth, but endure forever. This done we are secure, without it we have no guarantee.
I am not prophesying evil of my country. I love it. I love its people, and believe in them. I do not believe that they will carelessly surrender the God-given principles of liberty and justice bequeathed to them into the hands of aliens who would trample them under foot, and turn back the wheels of human progress to the dark ages, from the ignorance and bigotry of which we have been rescued by the hand of the God of our fathers.
I know that there are those who will not agree with me in my conclusions. Neither have they believed the words of those who have taught these things in the past.
When the Lord commanded Moroni to write the things which are contained in the Book of Mormon, which is the sacred record of the hand-dealings of the Lord with the Nephite people, Moroni said:
"Lord, the Gentiles will mock at these things."
The reply was:
"Fools mock, but they shall mourn, and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness."
I can think of no words of conclusion more appropriate than the words of this chosen prophet of the Lord:
"And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth--that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief.
"And we be unto the children of men if this shall be the case. "And I exhort you to remember these things: for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God, and the Lord will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, as one speaking out of the dust?
"And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing."
These last words of Moroni I commend to you for your consideration, my brethren and sisters.
May the blessings of the Lord be upon you. May his protecting hand be over you, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit direct you and abide with you and all who seek to establish righteousness and justice upon the earth; that God's kingdom may be established and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is my humble prayer, my brethren and sisters, in your behalf and in behalf of all the world Amen.
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