supplement the above statement by quoting one of the revelations that
also bears upon this theme. The Christian world are ready to accord
to the Christ, the Son of God, an existence co-eternal with God; and
indeed would consider it unorthodox to hold any other view than the
co-eternity of the Son with the Father; and they quote in support of
this view the very beautiful preface to John's gospel; namely, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The same was in the
beginning with God. * * * * In him was life, and the life was the light
of men." And then later it is explained that this "Word" "became flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory; the glory as of the Only
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth."
All orthodox Christians believe that this passage establishes the
co-eternity of the Christ with the Father. Now, that is a very great
doctrine; but I desire to show you that, excellent as it is, the Lord
in our dispensation has added another truth to that one by what is said
in the revelation from which I now read. Jesus Christ is represented as
speaking:
"Verily, I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father,
and am the first-born. [Now, mark you--addressing the several
brethren who were present when this revelation was received]--Ye
were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is spirit,
even the spirit of truth."
Meaning that part of man that is spirit, that intelligence, that
thing within man that is conscious of its own existence, and of other
existences; that has power to will and to direct and to do things; that
thing within man that reasons and reflects and has memory; that being
who, most emphatically, is you, yourself, and not the house, merely,
in which you live; that, too, was in the beginning with the Father.
And now the revelation broadens the truth beyond those to whom the
Christ directly spoke at the time the revelation was given; for in a
subsequent verse it says: "Man," undoubtedly meaning the race--
"Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light
of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
"All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed
it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also, otherwise there is
no existence.
"Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of
man, because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest
unto them, and they receive not the light.
"And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under
condemnation,
"For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and
element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fulness of joy;
"And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
"The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle
of God, even temples."
That is bold doctrine. When our prophet came with this splendid message
to the world, he was met with the cry of "Blasphemy, blasphemy!"
Three-quarters of a century have now passed away since these utterances
were first given to the world; and I want to show you what men in the
highest seats of learning have to say with respect to principles that
are either identical with these, or closely analogous to them, though,
of course, the learned men whom I quote may not be aware even of the
existence of these revealed truths given to the world by Joseph Smith.
They are not, of course, consciously bearing any testimony to the
doctrines announced by our prophet; but they are bearing unconscious
testimony to the truth; and I am glad to see the truth grow, whether
by direct or indirect means. Sometimes I think that the indirect means
that God is using for disseminating his truths are more potent and
far-reaching, perhaps, than the direct means which we are seeking to
use, and that God is using through his Church. But now to this record
and what our learned men are saying on principles identical with or
analogous to these. Professor Howison, whom I before quoted, says:
"Son of man, thou art the son of God. Rouse heart! put on the
garments of thy majesty, and realize thy equal, thy free, thy
immortal membership in the Eternal Order!" (Conceptions of God, p.
96.)
Professor Robert Kennedy Duncan, in the concluding pages of his _The
New Knowledge,_ (1905) says:
"Still another conception of the new knowledge is that of the
vast stores of inter-elemental energy of which we live but on the
fringe--a store of energy so great that every breath we draw has
within it sufficient power to drive the workshops of the world.
Man will tap this energy some day, somehow. * * * But now that
we know, or think we know, of this infinite treasure-house of
inter-elemental energy lying latent for the hand of the future
man to use, it is neither difficult nor fanatical to believe that
beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins
shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and
shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars. * * * 'In
the beginning God created,' and in the midst of his creation he set
down man with a little spark of the Godhead in him to make him to
strive to know--and in the striving to grow and to progress to some
great, worthy, unknown end in this world. He gave him hands to do,
a will to drive, and senses to apprehend--just a working equipment:
and so he has won his way, so far, out of the horrible conditions
of pre-history."
I have been presenting to you in my discourse the words of our prophet.
Mr. Bolce represents the professors of our American universities as
saying:
"The professors see in man, and in man alone, the consciousness
and power destined to sway the affairs of the world. Professor
Munsterberg insists that the world we will is the reality, and
that the least creature of all mortals 'has more dignity and value
than even an Almighty God,' as that being is popularly conceived.
* * * It is declared by the professors that if divine energy is
divisible and man's spirit inferior to God's, the eternal future of
the soul is unalluring. Christianity so teaches, they say, and is
of all philosophies the most pessimistic. Forever in its scheme man
is to be an underling. Not only that, but uncountable billions of
souls--worms of the dust--are created doomed to perpetual despair;
while a fortunate remnant's highest felicity is to gather around
the throne of a superior and august God and chant his praises."
Then follows this contrast with the above view:
"Opposed to this conception is the new psychology that teaches
that the spirit of man is the highest conscious expression
of the infinite, and that by invoking the powers--the divine
forces--resident in the human, all that humanity desires may be
accomplished."
Thus complete does the divinity of man's spirit appear to these
philosophers. Continuing, these views are expressed:
"The colleges in teaching this faith take ground with those who
believe that in the emancipation and fruition of modern thought
greater works than Christ did will be performed. It is, therefore,
to rid the modern mind of this deadening effect of what they deem
to be paralyzing superstitions that the professors attack orthodox
dogmas."
"Far from deriding the forces of the spirit, the colleges proclaim
that the laws of divine energy are the most important study
confronting modern man. The professors take their stand with
Professor Slater of Chicago University whom I heard emphasize with
marked sincerity that the 'name of Jesus is not written but plowed
into the history of the world.' Yet in their determination to
approach the God-idea as scientists, they consider themselves more
reverent than the great body of church people who, they believe,
are indulging in idolatrous prostration and ritual."
In still stronger confirmation of Joseph Smith's doctrine, in language
more direct, is the following utterance from Professor Herrick, of
Dennison University, who says:
"Focused in the mind of man, therefore, are the dynamic forces of
the universe. Beyond and above our most daring calculation is the
potency of thought! And in the following allegorical words, the
Scientist explained how the mind of man, assuming and asserting
its power may absorb the fire of creative energy. 'The wood
disappears in the grate, but the genial warmth pervades the room,
invades our blood, quickens our pulse, wakens vital action, and
finally is wrought into the history of our life.' If we keep in
mind this picture of an element becoming transfused by natural
processes into human life and happiness, it is not difficult to
understand the scientific interpretation of prayer, of New Thought,
of Christian Science, of the Emmanuel Movement, and similar forces
marvelously transforming our contemporary age. As scientists, not
as communicants at old altars, many scholars have allied themselves
with the forces of spiritual health and healing."
And yet when the Prophet Joseph and the first elders of the Church
taught that the world today was entitled to the enjoyment of the same
"spiritual gifts," of forces that characterized the Church of Christ in
the early Christian centuries, by which the sick were healed, the lame
made to walk, and the power of prophecy and revelation enjoyed,--they
were classed as presumptuous persons, and generally discredited; indeed
one of the complaints against the Saints when settling in Jackson
county, Missouri--1831-1833--was that
"These pretended to communications and revelations direct from
heaven, to heal the sick by the laying on of hands, and, in short,
to perform all the wonder-working miracles wrought by the inspired
apostles and prophets of old. * * * They openly blaspheme the most
high God, and cast contempt on his holy religion by pretending to
receive revelations direct from heaven, by pretending to speak in
unknown tongues, by direct inspiration, and by diverse pretenses
derogatory of God and religion, and to the utter subversion of
human reason."
This is from a document put into circulation by the Jackson county
anti-"Mormon" mob, in the summer of 1833 (_Evening and Morning Star_
for December, 1833). But now we find, according to Mr. Bolce's
representation, professors in universities asserting their faith in
the possibility of this spiritual force operating at present among the
children of men, and incidentally, our author remarks, "These men are
not dreamers; they are of solid mental mould."
As a result of man awakening to the consciousness of these indwelling
forces, our author says:
"'Human society, for the first time in history, is coming to
itself,' says Professor Edmund J. James, 'and is becoming conscious
of definite ends and purposes toward which it is striving; of the
possibility of setting up certain ideals toward which it can ever
struggle.' And now that man has discovered that there resides in
his nature a spirit of energy that is divine, the colleges say,
and that he can summon it to work his will, the potency and future
operation of this psychic force no man can compute. Science having
found a way through psychology to God, the opportunities for the
race, through invoking in the human consciousness the brooding
spirit that fills all space, are absolutely infinite. Science,
therefore, is demonstrating along new lines, or at least is
claiming to demonstrate, _that man is God made manifest!_"
More than seventy-five years before this utterance of the scientist,
however, there went ringing down the corridors of time these words of
our prophet:
"The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle
of God, even temples!"
Continuing, Mr. Bolce concludes his article on this theme in the
following terms:
"And modern philosophy, as set forth in American universities,
holds this incarnation not as a fanciful and merely beautiful
ideal, but as a working and understandable principle in the soul
of humanity. The professors, therefore, who are digging what they
believe to be graves for dead dogmas, stand as exponents of the
teaching that man is the embodiment and conscious expression of the
force that guides all life and holds all matter in its course. Man
has begun the cycle of that triumphal daring prophesied by ancient
seers, and which appealed so potently to the imagination of Poe.
Not merely in religious rhetoric but in reality the schoolmen say,
is man the avatar of God."
That is to say, man is the incarnation of God, the incarnation of a
divine spirit; his spirit is one with the Infinite Spirit, even the
spirit and essence of God. Let no one hereafter say, when viewing the
teachings of Joseph Smith in reference to the divinity of man's spirit,
that his doctrines are merely the utterance of an ignorant, unlettered
man, since the doctrines he taught three-quarters of a century ago,
now receive this splendid, though unconscious vindication, through the
utterances of the most learned men of our country and age.
II.
The Existence of a Plurality of Divine Intelligences--Gods.
The trend of teaching by professors in universities of America is
supporting the ideas expressed by Joseph Smith in relation to Deity;
not by direct affirmation, of course, but by natural implication, they
sustain his doctrines in relation to Deity. Let me call your attention
to what the prophet taught on the subject of Deity, by quoting one
paragraph from a discourse delivered by him in 1844. I think this one
paragraph presents in one view the essential things the prophet had to
say about God:
"What sort of a being was God in the beginning? Open your ears
and hear, all ye ends of the earth. * * * God himself was once as
we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder
heavens. That is the great secret. If the veil was rent today, and
the great God who upholds this world in its orbit, and who upholds
all worlds and things by his power, was to make himself visible--I
say if we were to see him today, you would see him like a man in
form, like yourself in all the present image and very form as a
man: for Adam was created in the very fashion, image, and likeness
of God, and received instructions from and walked and talked and
conversed with him, as one man talks and communes with another."
This doctrine met with the cry of "Blasphemy!" even more pronouncedly
than the Prophet's doctrine respecting the divinity of man. The general
conception of orthodox Christendom in relation to God was that he was
an incorporeal being, that he was without body; by which they meant
that he was not matter; that he was immaterial and without form.
They adopted the old pagan idea that God was without parts, without
passions; that he was without quality, as a matter of fact, if these
other descriptions of him were true.
What is the inevitable outgrowth of the doctrines of these professors
in our universities, from what was said in part II, of this treatise?
It is that there is in man a divine spirit: that man is "God manifested
in the flesh." From this, the question very naturally arises: Do men
as such become immortal? Are there any means by which men may become
eternal entities--as spirits and bodies inseparably connected--immortal
individuals? If so, would they be any less incarnations of a divine
spirit in their immortal state than they are now as mortals? The answer
is obvious; and if only it be admitted that man, as man, may become
immortal, then the doctrine of Joseph Smith respecting God receives
strong support by necessary implication from the aforesaid teachers of
the universities; for if it be true, as we now are assured it is by
these teachers, that "man is God made manifest;" that "focused in the
mind of man are all the dynamic forces of the universe"--then truly it
is that such doctrines cannot be far removed from the bold announcement
of Joseph Smith, that "God himself was once as we are now, and is an
exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens." To make complete
the support of Joseph Smith's doctrines from the teachings of the
universities, it only becomes necessary to say that the individual man
persists; that he becomes as man, body and spirit, immortal. Let these
declarations be made: The spirit in man is divine--he is an incarnation
of God; man will become immortal. Say this and then the whole doctrine
of Joseph Smith, both as to man and as to God, receives perfect support
from the trend of university teachings, as represented by Mr. Bolce's
papers here being discussed; and there is no escaping that conclusion.
Hold to the first proposition, namely, that the spirit of man is
divine, then the question resolves itself merely into this: Is there
such a thing as resurrection from the dead for man? The Christ answers,
Yes; and proclaims himself to be the "resurrection and the life;" and
the "first fruits of the resurrection."
Paul most eloquently argues for the reality of the resurrection from
the dead; indeed, his whole ministry had this as its foundation.
You will remember how he argues the question in the 15th chapter of
First Corinthians; wherein he masses the Christian testimony for the
resurrection of the Christ; and after massing it he then declares that
if Christ was not raised from the dead then the faith of the Saints
was vain, and men were still in their sins, and were without hope in
the world; for it is 'only through Christ that men might hope for the
resurrection from the dead. Not only does the Christ and Paul argue for
this great fact yet to be realized in man's experience, but you will
find very many Christian philosophers who are contending today for the
same truth. Among these is one who is among the first scientists of the
English speaking people of today, Sir Oliver Lodge who, in speaking
upon the subject of the resurrection, in his recent work, _Science and
Immortality,_ says:
"It is clear that Christianity, both by its doctrines and its
ceremonies, rightly emphasizes the material aspect of existence.
For it is founded upon the idea of incarnation; and its belief in
some sort of bodily resurrection is based on the idea that every
real personal existence must have a double aspect, not spiritual
alone, nor physical alone, but in some way both. Such an opinion,
in a refined form, is common to many systems of philosophy, _and is
by no means out of harmony with science_."
That is the declaration of one of the foremost scientists of our day.
Continuing he says:
"Christianity, therefore, reasonably supplements the mere survival
of a discarnate spirit, a homeless wanderer or melancholy
ghost, with the warm and comfortable clothing of something that
may legitimately be spoken of as a "body;" that is to say, it
postulates a supersensually appreciable vehicle or mode of
manifestation, fitted to subserve the needs of terrestrial life;
an ethereal or other entity constituting the persistent 'other
aspect,' and fulfilling some of the functions which the atoms of
terrestrial matter are constrained to fulfill now. And we may
assume, as consonant with or even as part of Christianity, the
doctrine of the dignity and sacramental character of some physical
or quasi-material counterpart of every spiritual essence."
In other words, Sir Oliver evidently believes in something equivalent
to the resurrection of man; that there will be some sort of
quasi-material substance that shall form the future clothing of man's
spirit, suitable to the future states of its existence and experiences.
Now, my friends, the point is this: If our professors, as we see they
do, insist that there is incarnate in man a divine spirit, and we get
men through the veil of death, and they become immortal men, possessing
immortal tabernacles, what have you here but the "superman" of the
professors, or the "exalted man" of Joseph Smith's doctrine? And if we
postulate for these immortals, as both Joseph Smith and the professors
do, a limitless opportunity for progress and development, then indeed
it is not impossible that man may approach, somewhat even to the
excellence of his Father, and of his elder brother, Jesus Christ.
This brings me to the consideration of another thought in connection
with Joseph Smith's doctrine, namely, the doctrine that there is a
plurality of divine intelligences in the universe--"Lords many and Gods
many," as Paul would say.
It was supposed that Joseph Smith was guilty of great blasphemy when
he announced to the world that in the great vision of God, given to
him, he beheld two personages, each resembling the other, and that they
spake to him; and one said to the other, calling the prophet by name,
"This is my beloved Son; hear him." Since Joseph represented that there
were two divine personages--Father and Son--separate and distinct, one
from the other, he was charged with having uttered a great blasphemy.
Such a statement was at variance with the orthodox conception of
Deity. It had been held in the creeds of men--notwithstanding they
professed belief in God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit--that somehow or other the three persons of the Godhead were but
one essence or substance; were but one entity, and not three separate
and distinct personages or individuals. But if the doctrine considered
in part II of this treatise be true as to the spirit in man being
divine; and if that spirit goes through the resurrection and becomes
an immortal personage--still divine--what is the result? The result
must be that there are a multitude of divine intelligences; which is
only another way of saying with Paul, and Joseph Smith, that there
are "Lords many and Gods many." And so the inevitable result of the
teachings in our universities leads to the support of this doctrine
that was announced to the world by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that there
are a multitude of divine intelligences in the heavens--spirits and
angels and arch-angels; and Gods who meet in solemn councils--David's
"congregation of the mighty," where God "judgeth among the Gods" to
generate the wisdom that is present through the universe that has
been brought from chaos into cosmos by the wisdom and power of these
divine intelligences. But as "pertaining to us," there is one Godhead
appointed to preside from among these intelligences--the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit. And this Godhead, or grand presidency, does
preside over our world and the spheres that are associated with it:
with our earth and its heavens.
This doctrine of the existence of a plurality of divine intelligences
has further support by a very eminent professor--no less a personage
than Professor James, late of Harvard university. Within the year, his
lectures before Oxford university, England, have been published, and
this work bears the title _A Pluralistic Universe._ The outcome of
Professor James' learned discussion of all the questions involved in
this subject is to the effect that instead of the universe being, as he
satirically speaks of it, when referring to the monistic view of it--"a
solid block," it is a pluralistic universe. One of his passages runs as
follows:
"I propose to you that we should discuss the question of God,
without entangling ourselves in advance in the monistic assumption.
Is it probable that there is a superhuman consciousness at all, in
the first place? When that is settled, the further question whether
its form be monistic or pluralistic is in order." (page 295).
This question as to their being a "superhuman consciousness" the
professor decides in the affirmative as at least probable; and then he
announces that the only way to escape from the inconsistencies of other
theories "is to be frankly pluralistic and assume that the superhuman
consciousness, however vast it may be, has itself an external
envelopment, and consequently is finite" (page 311 ).
"The line of least resistance, then, as it seems to me," he adds, "both
in theology and philosophy, is to accept, along with the superhuman
consciousness, the notion that it is not all-embracing, the notion,
in other words, that there is a God, but that he is finite, either in
power or in knowledge, or in both at once. These, I need hardly tell
you, are the terms in which common men have usually carried on their
active commerce with God; and the monistic perfections that make the
notion of him so paradoxical practically and morally are the colder
addition of remote professorial minds, operating _in distans_ upon
conceptual substitutes for him alone" (page 311). Professor James also
explains that present day Monism carefully repudiates complicity with
Spinozistic Monism, "in that, it explains, the many get dissolved
in the one and lost, whereas in the improved, idealistic form they
get preserved in all their manyness as the one's eternal object.
The absolute itself is thus represented by absolutists as having a
pluralistic object. But if even the absolute has to have a pluralistic
vision, why should we ourselves hesitate to be pluralists on our own
sole account? Why should we envolve our 'many' with the 'one' that
brings so much poison in its train?" (Page 311.)
Addressing himself directly to Oxford men on the movement of late
towards pluralistic conceptions of the universe, professor James
says: "If Oxford men could be ignorant of anything, it might almost
seem that they had remained ignorant of the great empirical movement
towards a pluralistic panpsychic view of the universe, into which our
own generation has been drawn, and which threatens to short-circuit
their methods entirely and become their religious rival unless they are
willing to make themselves its' allies" (page 313).
The professor also insists that by taking the system of the world
pluralistically we banish what he calls our "foreignness"--by which I
understand him to mean our apartness from the world (_i.e._, universe).
"We are indeed internal parts of God, and not external creations,
on any possible reading of the panpsychic system. Yet because
God is not the absolute, but is himself a part when the system
is conceived pluralistically, his functions can be taken as not
wholly dissimilar to those of the other smaller parts,--as similar
to our functions, consequently. 'Having an environment, being in
time, and working out a history just like ourselves, he escapes
from the foreignness from all that is human, of the static,
timeless, perfect absolute. * * * * No matter what the content of
the universe may be, if you only allow that it is many everywhere
and always, that nothing real escapes from having an environment,
so far from defeating its rationality, as the absolutists so
unanimously pretend, you leave it in possession of the maximum
amount of rationality practically obtainable by our minds. Your
relations with it, intellectual, emotional and active, remain
fluent and congruous with your own nature's chief demands." (pages
318, 319.)
We may not here and now, of course, enter into all the explanations and
arguments that Professor James enters upon in treating this subject,
but the purpose of his whole work is to establish the idea that the
unity one discovers in the laws and forces of our universe, grows
out of a "free harmony of individual entities;" that the absolute
reality is a system of self-active beings forming a unity; and hence,
he concludes the world to be "a pluralistic universe." With this view
Professor Howison, of the University of California, if I understand him
aright, in his contribution to a volume on the _Conception of God,_
largely agrees.
To this may be added also the views of Arthur Kenyon Rogers Ph.D.,
Professor of Philosophy in Buttler College recently expressed in a
book entitled "The Religious Conception of the World," "An Essay in
Constructive Philosophy," 1907. On the particular point in question,
"the nature of the unity of God and of lesser conscious beings," he
says:
"The modern world is coming more and more to feel that if there is
to be any real body and permanent satisfaction to the spiritual
life, it will have to be carried back in large part to the sort of
experience that we get concretely and verifiably in our every-day
human and social relationships. * * * * Now here also in the social
realm there is a verifiable and significant sense in which we may
talk of identifying ourselves with others. But it distinctly is not
to merge our conscious lives into a single and inseparable whole of
conscious content. Rather it is to work for common interests and
care for the same things, to feel a concern each for the other's
welfare, a respect for his character, a regard for the essential
individuality of the other. Two things in this situation--and these
two the most fundamental--are wholly foreign to an absolute merging
and absorption. Love, as human love, presupposes necessarily the
self-identical and independent consciousness of the one toward whom
it is directed. And the moral life, about which some of the deepest
values cling, in its turn involves alike a personal autonomy which
absorption would destroy, and an extra-personal, an outgoing and
unselfish concern for others, for which no converging of all
reality to a single self-conscious centre could find a place. * * * *
"We have only, then, to extend this conception a step farther, in
order to pass from what is merely an account of the social order to
a philosophy of the universe. The ultimate way for understanding
the universe _is not self-consciousness, but a society of selves._
But in this community there is one member who occupies a quite
exceptional position. For God, as the inner reality of what we call
the world of nature, stands clearly somehow in a special way at the
centre of things, as human selves do not. In him there are summed
up the conditions which are needed to account fully for the lesser
world of our own more immediate social experience, since the lives
of men confessedly have their roots in nature. In him therefore
we may suppose the unity of the whole is directly reflected, and
there are gathered the broken threads of the universal purpose as
it appears in our partial and limited human experiences. But none
the less, if we are to follow the conception, is he still only one
member of the community, and not the whole sum of existing things.
He exists as one whose nature needs the positing of other lives
which do not come within the same immediate conscious unity as his
own. He also is a social being as men are, and finds his life in
social co-operation, though the complete conditions of his life
may be eternally present to his consciousness as they are not to
ours. But while his knowledge thus may cover all existence, the
inclusion will be one of knowledge simply. My conscious life will
still be mine alone, which no one else in the universe can directly
share, not even God himself. No one else feels my feelings or has
my sensations. * * * *
"And this is the position which has already been argued for in
a preceding chapter. In other words, God does not create us by
an arbitrary choice of his, so that our nature as human selves
is merely secondary and derivative. _This nature of ours is
an ultimate fact of reality._ It is implicated in the deepest
constitution of the universe, in the nature of God himself.
_Reality is a confederacy of free beings;_ and no one of these
is ultimately responsible for the others, since each alike is
essential to the whole with which reality is identified."
From all this, then, it appears that the doctrine of a plurality
of divine intelligences existing in the universe, as taught by our
prophet, is receiving confirmation by the works and the philosophizing
of some of the foremost learned men of our country, and, for that
matter, of the world.
Perhaps you will be putting to me the question: What of all this? Why
discuss questions of this character? What spiritual or moral force may
one gather from a contemplation of such themes? Well, in the first
place, to Latter-day Saints, those who have faith in the dispensation
of the fulness of times and in the Prophet Joseph Smith--does it mean
nothing to you to find the inspirations of God in this man confirmed
by the conclusions of plodding philosophers who come trailing in
seventy-five years after the words of the prophet have gone forth to
the world? After he has been denounced as charlatan, as false prophet
and deceiver, for advancing the truths we have been considering--does
it mean nothing to you to find that the truths which he stood for are
permeating the philosophies of men and are receiving the sanction and
approval of the learned? It means much to me; it gives confirmation to
my faith; and I rejoice in the triumph that the truth is achieving.
Then to all, whether Latter-day Saints or not, it seems to me that
to have fixed in the mind, in the consciousness, the thought of the
reality of things--the reality of God, the reality of the divine in
man, the consciousness that this spirit within us is of a divine
nature, and that it is capable of attaining to something really good
and great--to something really worth while--to goodness, power and
glory, to have that thought present to consciousness, as we go about
the duties of life--to feel that "for a wise and glorious purpose God
has placed us here on earth," and has merely "withheld the recollection
of our former friends and birth"--to be conscious of all this, I say,
is to gather strength for the battle of life. To feel that we, in the
essence of us, are one with God, and that he envelopes us closely
about by spiritual influences that we can call to our assistances--to
be conscious of the fact that our life is part of God's life--to be
conscious of this is to banish from us the thought of failing in
life. We gather spiritual strength, and force and power to meet the
responsibilities and duties of life, by contemplation of these high
themes. This is the practical effect of these doctrines--we know that
our life touches the life of God; that our life is one with God's life,
and this inspires to noble efforts, out of which may grow the highest
and most glorious results possible in human existence.
Part IV.
Miscellaneous Discourses.
I.
THE SPIRIT OF MORMONISM; A SLANDER REFUTED.
A discourse in the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle, January 16, 1910.
(Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)
I.
"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and
bitter?
"Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries, either a vine,
figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh."
Such is the language of James, whose epistle appears in the New
Testament Scripture; and the passage condensed simply means, of course,
that an impure fountain sends forth not pure streams, neither does a
good fountain send forth impure streams; such as the fountain is, such
also is the stream.
I have been somewhat surprised, if not amazed of late at the bitterness
that has been manifested in the discussion in our local prints, of
some doctrines and some of the history of this great movement known as
Mormonism. There has been lately a raking up of old past controversies,
until one would think that we would be under the necessity of fighting
again the old battles of 60 and 70 years ago; for this raking up of
old controversies extends that far back with reference to this great
latter-day movement. I have it in mind to make a little contribution
to this discussion, from the standpoint of this text. Of course, it
is said that the tree must be judged by its fruit; and that must be
admitted to be a righteous judgment, because in all moral machinery,
the effectiveness of it must finally be judged by moral results, and we
could not, if we would, escape the judgment of the world, which will
be pronounced upon the results of our religious and ethical system.
But, while that is a most excellent method of estimating the value of
any religious or philosophical or ethical system, it does not exclude
the justice and righteousness of judging it from this standpoint of
James, namely: Is the fountain, whence it springs, pure? If so, it were
an anomaly, indeed, if the streams flowing out of it were not like
the fountain--pure. So, for a little while, I am going to invite your
attention to the spirit in which this thing the world calls Mormonism
had its inception. This gives us the opportunity of briefly reviewing
some things that are very commonplace with you, but important,
nevertheless; and we may begin with that very wonderful incident of
the Prophet Joseph Smith's boyhood when but fourteen years of age. He
went as you know to the Lord in prayer, in response to the Scripture
which said: "If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God who giveth
to all men liberally and upbraideth not." He became familiar with that
Scripture, for it constituted, at least on one occasion, a text to a
discourse to which he listened, and it became the voice of God to his
soul. At last he put this Scripture to the test and inquired of God,
with the result familiar to you all that he received a splendid vision
of God the Father and of the Son, and received knowledge of the purpose
of the Father to give a new dispensation of the gospel to the world
through him, provided he should be faithful. Three years passed, and
when reviewing the experiences of those three years, and calling to
mind, as any lad could, the follies of youth, the light-mindedness and
the foolishness of boyhood, a sorrow took hold of him as he made this
review; and he wondered to what extent he had given offense to God. He
besought the Lord in prayer again, in order to know his standing, with
the result that a holy messenger from the presence of God visited him
and made known his acceptance to the Lord, notwithstanding his boyhood
follies, and assured him that he was still the chosen instrument in
the hands of God for the accomplishment of his purposes, and revealed
to him the existence of a whole volume of Scripture, being the word
of the Lord as delivered unto the prophets living upon these western
American continents in ancient times. Of course, I am not relating
these familiar incidents in the history of the Prophet, with a view of
imparting information as to these facts to you, but I simply want to
call your attention to the course pursued by the Prophet, to ask you if
this course is not altogether commendable in him; and so far as we have
pursued the course followed, is it not altogether praiseworthy--this
seeking the Lord and finding him? This guidance by the spirit of
prayer? This was the spirit in which Mormonism, so-called, had its
inception, so far as the Prophet was concerned; and now I want to
follow its development a little further.
By and by, others began to participate in the development of this work.
Among those who sought to be useful in bringing it into existence was
the Prophet's own father. He desired that his son inquire of the Lord
to learn what course he should take, and what was to be his lot and
part in this work. The Prophet inquired of the Lord and received the
following message, contained in your Doctrine and Covenants:
"Behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children
of men;
"Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye
serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye
may stand blameless before God at the last day;
"Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the
work.
"For behold the field is white already to harvest, and lo, he that
thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store
that he perish not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
"And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory
of God, qualify him for the work.
"Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly
kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
"Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you."
What virtue exists outside of those here enumerated and enjoined? What
say you of this fountain--good, or corrupt?
By and by, but a few months after this, in fact, Oliver Cowdery came to
the Prophet, he who was to be the Second Elder in the Church of Christ
about to be established--a young man, a schoolteacher, a blacksmith,
formerly a store-keeper--a variety of occupations of course impossible
outside of frontier life in America, in the early decades of the
nineteenth century. He had heard of God's dealings with this prophet
who was being qualified for his great mission; and so came to him. He,
too, like the Prophet's father, was willing to throw his lot in with
the Prophet and the work that was developing. He, too, would know the
will of the Lord concerning him, in his relationship to this work;
and, now, what said the Lord to him? It is told in section six of your
Doctrine and Covenants. It was given April, 1829, a year before the
Church was organized; to Oliver the Lord said:
"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the
children of men."
Observe how that prediction is constantly repeated in these
revelations. One need only call your attention to the great latter-day
work and its wonderful history, to prove the prophetic character of
this repeated utterance in these early revelations. Continuing:
"Behold, I am God, and give heed unto my word, which is quick and
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder
of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words.
"Behold the field is white already to harvest, therefore whoso
desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and
reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul
everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God:
"Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is
called of God;
"Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will
knock it shall be opened unto you.
"Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my
commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of
Zion."
"Seek not for riches, but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of
God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich.
Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me, so it
shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of
doing much good in this generation.
"Say nothing but repentance unto this generation: keep my
commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my
commandments and you shall be blessed.
"Therefore be diligent, stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully, in
whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be [in] for the word's
sake."
Let us pause here and a little contemplate the striking sentences of
this revelation: "Seek not for riches"--Why, we were told here but a
few days ago, in our local prints, as about a year ago in one of the
great magazines of our country, we were told that "lust of gold, not
love of God," was the motive power of Mormonism.
"Admonish him [the Prophet] in his faults."--What! a prophet with
faults? O yes; and to be admonished by his brethren? Yes. What
humility is here required of the prophet; what frankness, what godlike
quality!--"Admonish him in his faults, and also receive admonition of
him. Be patient; be sober; be temperate; have patience, faith, hope and
charity."
We are told, and it is charged in the old anti-Mormon books of fifty,
sixty and seventy years ago, that these men were liars, intemperate,
idlers, money diggers; that they were utterly untrustworthy; and, yet,
get behind the scenes where the word of God comes to them, and, lo!
the purity of the fountain whence Mormonism comes! And this was no
playing to the galleries of the world, either. These revelations were
not published to the world at that time, indeed there was no idea that
they would ever be published. As the secret thoughts of a man is to his
actions, so were these revelations to the Church.
II.
PEOPLE JUDGED BY THEIR LAWS.
With historians it is common to regard the laws that are enacted as
being among the truest means of insight to conditions prevailing among
a people; because the things that the laws forbid, or the things that
the law commands are truly a revelation of the inclinations of the
people. And so, too, the legislation of a people will reveal their
aspirations, their strivings after justice and righteousness; and
likewise the revelations which God gave through Joseph Smith, out of
which the Church of Latter-day Saints has been developed, reveal the
spirit of this great Latter-day Work, the aims and aspirations of the
Church.
Again, the Prophet's brother, Hyrum, his lifelong companion, and fellow
martyr at the last, in the spring of 1829 came from Manchester down
to Harmony, upwards of a hundred miles, to inquire of the Lord. His
brother Samuel had recently been in touch with Joseph and Oliver, and
had received the testimony of the Lord that the work these young men
were engaged in was true; and he had received baptism at their hands.
It was he who carried the word up to the Prophet's father's home, that
the brethren had received the ministration of John the Baptist, and
had received divine authority to teach the gospel of repentance--the
preparatory gospel--and to baptize for the remission of sins. And this
occasioned Hyrum to immediately repair to Harmony to find out if there
was a word from the Lord for him; and this word came:
"A great and marvelous work is about to come forth among the
children of men."
"Behold, I am God, and give heed to my word, which is quick and
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder
of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my word.
"Behold, the field is white already to harvest, therefore: whoso
desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and
reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul
everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
"Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is
called of God;
"Therefore, if you will ask of me, you shall receive, if you will
knock, it shall be opened unto you.
"Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my
commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of
Zion.
"Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and, behold, the mysteries of
God, shall be unfolded unto you, and then you shall be made rich,
behold, he that hath eternal life is rich."
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me, so it
shall be done unto you: and if you desire you shall be the means of
doing much good in this generation.
"Say nothing but repentance unto this generation. Keep my
commandments, and assist to bring forth my work, according to my
commandments, and you shall be blessed."
The spirit of this is splendid, it is good, not evil. Contemplate these
words to Hyrum Smith and you get better than any where else, perhaps,
the spirit of Mormonism--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you
desire of me, so it shall be done unto you: and, if you desire, you
shall be the means"--of doing what? Revelling in luxury, living without
the labor of his hands--be deprived of the blessing of earning his
bread in the sweat of his brow--and participate in the pride and glory
and honor and applause of the world? No; not so; but: "_you shall be
the means of doing much good in this generation_."
THE CALLING OF SIDNEY RIGDON.
The same holds good as to other characters who came dropping into the
work. When Sidney Rigdon came with Edward Partridge--the latter the
Prophet described as a pattern of piety and one of the Lord's great
men, and of whom the Lord spoke afterwards as being like unto Nathaniel
of old, because there was no guile in his heart. When Sidney Rigdon,
in December, 1830, came to the Prophet to inquire of him, the Lord
commended him for his past work in the Disciple's ministry, where he
had been teaching repentance and faith and baptism in water for the
remission of sins; and, now, the burden of the Lord's word in this
man, Sidney Rigdon, was simply that hereafter his mission should be
enlarged, and he should not only baptize with water but he should
baptize now, also, with water and with fire and with the Holy Ghost. No
promise of wealth and position; no worldly exaltation was promised to
him, but warnings of toil and labor in the ministry and the opposition
of the world. And, by the way, there is something a little interesting
in this incident of Sidney Rigdon coming into the work. It is generally
held forth, in the anti-Mormon publications, that Joseph Smith neither
in his general information, nor in trained faculties, was equal to the
task of bringing forth the Book of Mormon. They assumed that some more
skilful man, some man better versed in the Scriptures and in history,
and having more literary ability withal, was somewhere behind the
scenes manipulating affairs to bring forth the Book of Mormon and the
Mormon Church. But Sidney Rigdon did not come to the Prophet until
December, 1830. When he came--in addition to what I have reported
of what was promised to him--he was appointed to be scribe to the
Prophet; and afterwards in all their labors and associations he held
a subordinate position to the Prophet. At this time Sidney Rigdon was
a man thirty-seven years of age; the Prophet but about twenty-five.
We might ask our anti-Mormon friends how it came about that if Sidney
Rigdon was the master spirit in bringing forth the Book of Mormon and
the Mormon Church--"the real Mephistopheles of the blasphemous drama
that was being enacted"--how comes it that after playing this part
for a number of years, in secret when he comes out into the public
light, with all his advantage of age, of education and experience and
power as a public speaker, he consents to take second place in the
great drama to be enacted--no, not even second place for that had been
conferred upon Oliver Cowdery who had been ordained and sustained by
the Church as the Second Elder of the Church, while Sidney Rigdon at
his advent must be content with being the Prophet's scribe! Is there
any consistency in claims of this anti-Mormon sort?
I come now to another matter. You have seen how our Prophet began his
work--in prayerfully seeking unto the Lord for his own guidance, and
ever, as men who became leaders in the movement, one after another,
come dropping into the work, from his father and brother, and Oliver
Cowdery to Sidney Rigdon, Edward Partridge, and afterwards the same as
to Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and all the rest--ever as they came
into the work, it was always the same thing; he inquired of the Lord
for these men, and received answers; he was prayerful throughout--this
Prophet. In 1833 the Prophet himself went on a mission to Canada to
visit some branches of the Church that had been raised up by the labors
of Parley P. Pratt; and among the treasures of our Historian's office
is the daily journal of the Prophet while on that mission--a little
book--not so large, in thickness, at least, but a little larger in
length and breadth than this small hymn book that I now hold in my
hand; a journal kept in his own hand writing, that recorded the events
of each day, the thoughts that were in his heart, and his method of
procedure. I want to read a few entries from that journal to you;
because our Church history, that is, as originally published in the
_Times and Seasons,_ and as published in _The Millennial Star,_ does
not contain all the entries of the Prophet in that journal; but in the
recently published history of the Church, in the first volume of the
six now published, these entries are to be found in the Footnotes. I
want to have you follow the Prophet for a few days in his ministry,
that you may know the spirit of this man.
A FEW DAYS WITH THE PROPHET.
"Oct. 5--I started on a journey to the east, and to Canada in
company with Elders Rigdon and Freeman Nickerson. We arrived in
Springfield whilst the brethren were in meeting, and Elder Rigdon
spoke to the congregation. A large and attentive congregation
assembled at Brother Rudd's in the evening, to whom we bore our
testimony. Had a great congregation--paid good attention. _O God,
seal our testimony to their hearts."_ That is from page 6 of the
manuscript book I speak of.
"Oct. 11--We left Westfield, and continuing our journey, stayed
that night with a man named Nash, an infidel, with whom we
reasoned, but to no purpose. I feel very well in my mind. _The Lord
is with us, but have much anxiety about my family."_ (Page 7.)
"Thursday, 24th--At the house of Mr. Beman, in Colburn, whence we
left for Waterford, where we spoke to a small congregation; thence
to Mount Pleasant, and preached to a large congregation the same
evening, when Freeman A. Nickerson and his wife declared their
belief in the work, and offered themselves for baptism. Great
excitement prevailed in every place we visited. _The result is in
the hands of God_."
"Friday, 25th--This afternoon, at a Mr. Patrick's; expect to hold a
meeting this evening. People very superstitious. O God, establish
thy word among this people. Held a meeting this evening; had an
attentive congregation; _the Spirit gave utterance_."
"28th--In the evening we broke bread and laid on hands for the gift
of the Holy Ghost, and for confirmation, having baptized two more.
The Spirit was given in great power to some, and peace to others.
_May God carry on his work in this place till all shall know him.
Amen."_ (Page 16.)
"Tuesday, 29th--After preaching at 10 o'clock a. m. I baptized two,
and confirmed them at the water's side. Last evening we ordained
F. A. Nickerson an elder; and one of the sisters received the girt
of tongues, which made the saints rejoice exceedingly. _May God
increase the gifts among them for his Son's sake_."
On the 29th the Prophet's party started for home. _"May the Lord
prosper our journey. Amen."_ (Page 17.)
"Friday, Nov. 1--I left Buffalo. New York, at 8 o'clock a. m. and
arrived at my house in Kirtland on Monday, the 4th, 10 a. m., and
found my family well, according to the promise of the Lord in the
revelation of October 12, _for which I felt to thank my heavenly
Father_."
Now, my friends, this is but a few days with the Prophet. You may
follow him throughout his career--in freedom and in bonds, in the
midst of his joys and in the darkness of his sorrows; you shall find
this same prayerful attitude towards God--always thanksgiving for
blessings, cries for help in his hour of need, and always prayers for
divine guidance when unfolding the great organization of the Church
of Christ. Tell me--is the spirit in which this man labored, evil or
good? Is this the course of a libertine and a liar? Or, is it the
course of a righteous man? To me there draw tremendous consequences in
connection with this course of our Prophet; and the importance of these
consequences will appeal to you, I think, when I call your attention
to them. When you see this man so constantly seeking communion with
God, seeking for guidance and help--if God came not to his help, and
did not guide him, then what hope may men entertain that God will hear
prayer at all? Or give divine guidance to those who seek it? If I could
be persuaded that God did not hear and answer the prayers of this
man--beginning in his innocent boyhood, and continuing to his martyr,
cry _"O Lord, my God_!"--if God, I say, did not hear him, and did not
walk beside him and guide his footsteps, I would say to all the world:
Your prayers are but mockeries; your heaven above you is brass; the
earth under your feet is iron. Cease from prayer; become self reliant,
and do the best you can by your own inherent strength; develop such
human wisdom as you may, and walk in its light, for it is all there
is--your cries for help and guidance cannot penetrate the heavens, and
there is no God to hear or help you!
But, of course, believing, as I do, that God responded to the
heart-cries of the Prophet, to his prayers, I say to all men--Behold
the result of Joseph Smith's praying in the achievements of his life's
work! In this circumstance we may find encouragement to believe that
God will both hear and answer prayers, and help all to know the truth
and walk in its light, who seek for it.
But notwithstanding the fact that this great latter-day work called
Mormonism had its inception in this prayerful spirit--this manifest
hungering and thirsting after righteousness; notwithstanding all who
sought to be helpful in it, and to be identified with its development
were sternly bidden to keep the commandments of God; that faith, hope,
charity, temperance, chastity and patience were required qualities;
that they must seek for wisdom, not for riches--"the laborers in Zion
shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for money they shall perish"
(II Nephi 26:51); notwithstanding the stream called Mormonism arises
from so noble and pure a fountain, how greatly has it been defamed
either through misconception of it, or through malice, and the motives
of its founders misrepresented!
Only a short time ago, no later in fact than last Thanksgiving day, a
minister in preaching what I think, in the main, must have been a very
excellent discourse, took occasion to glance in our direction, and
say what I think was one of the unkindest things that could be said
of the Latter-day Saints. I will read to you what the press reported
the gentleman as saying. You know the local press of our city, now
and then, becomes wonderfully agitated about our paying tithes and
offerings to the Church; and, really, if you read those reports and did
not know better you would think the Latter-day Saints were a community
that were impoverishing themselves by carrying on the work of the Lord.
This minister referred to that, and what he says on that particular
point is rather refreshing, and I commend it to the attention of the
local paper in question:
"One of our local papers has assigned, as one of the reasons of the
so-called poverty and handicap of the Mormon people, the collection
of tithes. We think the paper in error in this, for we ourselves
are in favor of the tithes and have practiced it for the past
twenty years. The children of Israel were never so prosperous as
when they brought the tithes and offerings to the treasury of the
Lord;"--and everybody that is acquainted with the history of Israel
knows that to be true. "The true cause of this so-called poverty
and handicap, of course, is not in reference to the tithes, _but
the low ideals in the homes and the lack of respect for woman. As
the earthly, home is lifted it becomes nearest like the home beyond
the skies, the final home of the soul._"
III.
WOMAN'S PLACE IN MORMONISM.
I say that the charge made as to "low ideals in the homes, and the
lack of respect for woman," is the unkindest thing that could be said
of the Latter-day Saints, or, really, of any people. It would be the
saddest commentary that could be made on any system if it were true;
but I resent it as a charge against my people, and say that it is
untrue; and on the contrary affirm that the gospel of Jesus Christ, the
new dispensation of it committed to this world through the ministry
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, teaches the highest respect for woman
that may be described by human speech or wrought into practice. There
is no people in the world that so religiously and absolutely believe
that doctrine of Paul's that in God's economy of things "the man is
not without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord."
Some, through misrepresentation, have charged that we believe this
doctrine so absolutely as to hold that there is no salvation for man or
woman outside of the marriage relation. Of course, that is an extreme
to which we do not go. We believe--at least, permit me to say that I
believe, and I think I have warrant for such belief in the principles
of our faith, that it is possible for either man or woman to be saved
without marriage at all. It is possible for a man to be saved with one
wife, and, if you will just be patient enough to let me say it, if we
may here regard the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures, which speak of
Abraham as having a place in the kingdom of God--nay, his very bosom
is the goal to which all Christian eyes turn, where they hope to find
peace and heavenly rest--and if we believe this of Abraham, we may be
justified in believing it possible for a man to be saved though he
should happen to have more than one wife. But instructed by our faith,
we so honor woman that we hold that man cannot attain to the heights of
exaltation and glory possible to the intelligences we call men only as
he shall be holily joined with woman in divinely appointed wedlock, for
in that state, and that state only, is the power of eternal lives, and
increasing glory, and dominion, and exaltation. No man may attain unto
these high things only as he is united with woman in holy marriage.
I accept all that the reverend gentleman says of the beauty and
blessedness of the home. It is indeed, from the Mormon viewpoint, the
principal factor of civilization; the spring and source of national
life and greatness and stability. And, as our reverend friend remarks,
"as the earthly home is lifted it becomes nearest like the home beyond
the skies, the final home of the soul." A very pretty sentiment,
truly, and Mormons believe in it so absolutely that they look forward
to the actual existence of the family "beyond the skies," or at
least in heaven--through all eternity--that they even now make their
marriage vows and covenants with reference to that status--the eternal
perpetuation of the family. They are not content to have the marriage
ceremony end with that doleful note from the tombs--"until death does
you part!" but rejoice rather in the blessed words of their God-given
ceremony--the inspiring words of life and joy and hope--_"I pronounce
you man and wife through time and all eternity!"_ To those who express
the fear that all this is too concrete, to matter-of-fact, too sensual,
we answer that such has been the refining influence of woman upon man,
developing the purest and best part of his nature; such has been the
influence of the home upon civilization in this world, that we cannot
believe but what the joys of heaven will be heightened and rendered
purer by it, and even conception of its community life must be made
grander by thinking of it as made up of indestructible families. Hence
our hopes and holiest aspirations are associated with the family--in
which woman is necessarily a chief and honored factor in this world and
in that which is to come. And not only is this our hope for the future,
but we believe it is a condition prevailing in all past eternities, as
note one of our hymns:
"In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare;
Truth is reason, truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.
"When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
"Then at length when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation,
Let me come and dwell with you?"
I challenge the Christian world to equal--to say nothing of
surpassing--this conception of the nobility of woman and of
motherhood and of wifehood--placing her side by side with the Divine
Father--consort and Mother of divine intelligences--the spirits of
men. Some object to that conception, and undertake to detract from
its beauty and glory by saying that it presents to the thought a
pluralistic Deity, consisting of divine Father and divine Mother. That,
however, is a consequence they attach to our faith, not a principle
that we accept; because the Godhead, for us, as all those who are
acquainted with our doctrines know, consists of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost, the grand creating and presiding, divine Council
that upholds and sustains and guides the destiny of our earth and its
associated spheres. These gentlemen who are so fearful of a pluralistic
deity and universe being thought of, would do well to stand out a
little upon the frontier of the highest Christian thought of our age,
and they will discover that many of our first and greatest philosophers
are beginning to teach the doctrine that so far as the infinite or the
absolute exists, it exists in a plurality of divine intelligences;
and that the oneness of God is but the free harmony of divine
intelligences. And, then, for matter of that, so long as the Christian
world teaches that in the Godhead are three personalities--the Father,
the Son, and Holy Spirit--they will try in vain to get away from the
conception of a pluralistic deity.
And now, I am about to violate what some regard as the canons of
good taste in public speaking, by making reference to a matter quite
personal. But what I am about to present meets this charge of "low
ideals in the home--and the lack of respect for woman"--I say the thing
I have in mind so completely meets this issue that I am even going to
venture upon something some what personal.
It has been my custom, now, for quite a number of years, on the
anniversary of my mother's birth, and on the anniversary of my own
birth, to either visit her in person and chat with her, or else, if
away from her home, to write her a communication. Four years ago, not
being able to reach her, on the anniversary of my own birth, I sent her
the following communication, written in honor of women--in honor of
her--my mother. I now read it to you. I gave it a title, calling it
GOD'S HERALD OF THE RESURRECTION AND HUMAN BROTHERHOOD--WOMAN.
"Next to her holy office of wifehood and motherhood, the most
exalted honor Deity ever conferred on woman was that of making her
his first messenger of the resurrection; and, in its most emphatic
form at least, the messenger also of the beautiful doctrine of
the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. The manner
of conferring this high and sacred commission upon woman was as
follows--the account is John's:
"The Christ had been crucified and laid in the new sepulcher
provided by Joseph of Arimathea. Then early in the morning of
the third day after the crucifixion, came Mary of Magdala to the
sepulcher and found it empty; whereupon she ran and, informed Peter
and John that the body of Jesus had been taken away. There was a
hasty and excited visit to the sepulcher, and, on the part of Peter
and John, a hasty departure. But Mary lingered near the vacant
tomb. This was where she had last seen him whom she loved--here she
must begin her search for him--and she will search for him, for it
is woman's nature to hope--O glorious inconsistency!--against hope
itself. And she was rewarded for her love that made her linger,
though it was by an empty sepulcher; for soon angels said to her,
'Why weepest thou?' and Mary said, 'Because they have taken away
my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' And then one
greater than the angels stood by her, and said, 'Why weepest thou?
Whom seekest thou?' Then she:
"'Sir, if thou have born him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
him, and I will take him away.'
"'Mary!'
"'Rabboni,' with arms extended--
"'Touch me not,' gently, lovingly, not harshly said--'Touch me not;
for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascended unto my Father, and your Father; and
to my God, and to your God.'
"Commissioned so, Mary told the disciples that she had seen the
Lord, 'and that he had spoken these things unto her.'
"And thus to a woman was it first given to carry the glad message
fashioned first by angel's tongues--'He is risen!' As also the
message that the Christ's Father is man's Father; that the Christ's
God is man's God; and that in consequence of this, all men are
brethren.'
"Many eulogies have been written in thy praise, O woman! Much
honor accorded thee in God's economy of the world. But here thy
glory--under the limits of our opening sentence--attained its flood
tide. Never wast thou so honored before; never, so far as human
ken may see, wilt thou be more honored. Indeed, how couldst thou
be? What concerns the world more to know than what is comprised in
thy message--Christ is risen; his Father is man's Father; his God,
man's God--all men are brethren! This the sum of the law and the
gospel--all else commentary. And thou, O woman! the messenger of
these glad tidings! How honored wast thou! Even the glory of being
'last at the cross, and earliest at the tomb,' is eclipsed by the
honor of being herald of this. Cherish thou this honor. Claim it
in all its Christ-given splendor; for it is fitting that thou unto
whom it is first given to know human earth-life perennial, should
be made herald of life immortal, and declare also its great source,
and its relations. And thus wast thou honored of Deity, O Mother
of human life--herald of life immortal! and of common fatherhood
and brotherhood for human race. I am taught by these high things to
honor thee, and here uncovered and holily I reverence pay thee."
That was sent, on the 13th of March, 1906, to my mother. It was not
written with any intent, the remotest, for publication; and while it
may lack very much of excellence and come far short in worthiness of
the high theme with which it deals; yet whatever its defects may be,
it is not lacking in appreciation and honor of woman. It is the result
of much thought and reflection, of one born and reared in the Mormon
system; such sentiment of respect and honor as it breathes for woman in
her high offices is taught to me by my Mormon faith, letter and spirit.
If anyone shall say in controversion of this that my brief treatise
deals with New Testament facts, such an objector must be reminded
that my Mormon faith teaches me the acceptance of both Old and New
Testaments as "the word of God," a fact too frequently overlooked by
our critics; and from them, as other books containing revelations from
God, I learn my Mormonism.
A few days ago, she to whom the above words were written, breathed
out her life in my arms; and yesterday we stood by the open grave
while friends and kindred laid this honored woman to rest. I am still
in the atmosphere of these things; and from the midst of these holy
associations, I denounce as false--I hope it was not maliciously
made--the charge that the Mormon faith gives out "low ideals in the
home and lacks in its respect and honor for woman." The charge is not
true.
UNJUST CRITICISM ANSWERED.
A word, in conclusion, on the proper limits of religious controversy.
In 1824 Robert Southey, Esquire, poet laureate of England at the time,
wrote a book under the title "The Book of the Church." It was a defense
of the Protestant position with reference to the holy Scriptures, and a
comparison of the respective attitudes of Catholics and Protestants in
relation to them. The book was replied to by Charles Butler, Esquire, a
Roman Catholic; and in the preface of his book, which he dedicated to
Charles Blundell, Esq., he says:
"I willingly admit that to produce against our creed or conduct
all that research and fair argument can supply, is legitimate
controversy; but surely to conceal our merits or to represent
them very briefly and imperfectly, and to display our defects at
length and with the highest coloring; to impute to our general body
what in justice is only chargeable on individuals; or to estimate
the writings or actions of our ancestors in the dark ages by the
notions and manners of the present age, is a crying injustice."
That states a true principle, and registers a just complaint. It voices
a protest that precisely fits our case. In the controversy waged
against us our merits, both as to doctrine and as to practice, are
either concealed or represented very briefly and imperfectly, while
our defects are displayed at length and with the highest coloring; to
the general body of the Church is imputed what, in justice, is only
chargeable on individuals; and I may add to this enumeration that we
are judged as to our settled convictions and established sentiments
respecting our relation to our fellow citizens, not of our religious
faith, and our attitude as citizens of the great republic, our country,
by the ill-advised and sometimes harsh expressions of some leading men
when in a state of irritation and disturbance; thus contravening the
principle long since laid down by Edmund Burke and quite generally
accepted that--
"It is not fair to judge of the temper or the disposition of
any man or set of men when they are composed and at rest from
their conduct and expressions in a state of disturbance and of
irritation."
BY THEIR WORKS THEY SHALL BE JUDGED.
Now, of course, as I stated in the commencement of my remarks, the
moral machinery of any system will be judged by the moral results
of it. We recognize the fact that a beautiful and perfect life is
unanswerable in support of a system that produces it; and yet while
exalting this species of evidence in vindication of a system, human
nature ought to be taken into account, for a perfect and beautiful
life in any system is rather a rarity, even among the early Christians
who were called saints it was so. They were not called saints because,
good souls, they were such; that is, in the sense of being perfect; but
they were called saints because they aspired to be such; because of
their struggles after righteousness. A close inquiry into their lives,
however, will demonstrate the fact that they were made of much the same
stuff that enters into our composition--that they were men of like
passions and weaknesses with ourselves, and fell far below the great
ideals set up by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am not putting this forth as a plea of justification for any failures
on our part. I am willing that this tree of Mormonism should be judged
by its fruits absolutely, and let it stand or fall by that test. But,
what I do object to is the course so often pursued by our critics.
That course is as if one should go into an orchard of twenty or fifty
acres of fruit-bearing trees, and should seek out and find here and
there--as one may, even in the best of orchards--the wind-beaten,
blasted, mildewed, dwarfed, or shrunken fruit, and carefully raking
this together, represent that as the fruit of the orchard! Whereas the
facts are that there are scores of tons of beautiful, ripe and perfect
fruit that is a credit to the orchard and to the husbandman of it. Yet
all that is passed by, and you are asked to judge the orchard by the
blasted specimens that have been raked together.
So in this work called Mormonism. Let our critics take into account the
rich harvest of righteous souls that this system has produced; and the
present upright and honorable men and women of our system, and judge
not the people by those who have failed to reach the high ideals that
Mormonism holds up as the goal of moral and spiritual achievement, and
who fail because they depart from our principles and the practices they
enjoin.
My brethren and sisters, I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. So far
as it is possible for the soul of man to be conscious of the truth, I
am conscious of the truth of this great latter-day system. I love it
with all my heart. There is no heart-throb of mine, no matter how far
short I may come in meeting the high requirements of the gospel--there
is no heart throb of mine that does not pulsate with love for this
work. I believe it true--nay, I know it to be of God. The fountain
whence it springs is pure. The water flowing from that fountain, the
streams, are also pure, in the name of God, Amen.
II.
ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS--WHAT THEY DO NOT
BELIEVE.
An address delivered at Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 19, 1911,
following a discourse delivered by Elder Charles W. Penrose, of the
Council of the Twelve. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)
II.
My brethren and sisters, I greatly rejoice in these sublime principles
expounded by our beloved brother and, now these many years, prominent
elder in the Church, Charles W. Penrose. While listening to him on this
occasion, I thought of the very many times I have had the opportunity
of so listening to him and being instructed in these principles which
concern the salvation of men. I remarked to Elder George Albert Smith,
by whom I sat during the discourse, how much the youth of Israel, how
much the present living membership of the Church of Latter-day Saints,
and the many thousands that have passed away--how much we all owe to
the faithful service of this witness for God! I felt that I wanted to
acknowledge my own indebtedness to him for the service that he has
rendered to the Church and to the world. I feel in my heart to thank
God for his ministry, for the gifts of his mind. I thank the Lord that
the Spirit of God has touched his understanding with inspiration to our
edification for, lo, these many years. Those are my sentiments towards
Brother Charles W. Penrose. The Lord bless him.
While contemplating the duty of speaking to this congregation, a duty
that arises out of the appointment I received to be in attendance upon
this conference, and while listening to the discourse just closed, I
came to the conclusion that it is almost as important to tell the world
what we do _not_ believe as it is to tell them what we _do_ believe.
Really, there is great strength at times in a negative statement, a
disclaiming of certain doctrines which we are slanderously reported to
believe, but in which we do not believe. The force of this negative
statement has been recognized by all the great councils of the Catholic
church at least, from the first unto the last. Upon every formal
announcement of dogma, by the councils of that church, there has been
attached an anathematizing clause. For illustration, in the great
council of Nicea, held early in the fourth century of the Christian
era, after defining the doctrine concerning the nature of God and the
relationship of the persons of the holy trinity, the Catholic church
added this clause:
"But those who say that there was a time when he [the Son] was not,
and that he was not before he was begotten, and that he was made of
nothing, or affirm that he is of any other substance or essence,
or that the Son of God is created and mutable or changeable, _the
Catholic church doth pronounce accursed_."
CATHOLIC BELIEF.
And again, in the council of Trent, held in the sixteenth century, in
defining the doctrine of justification, which was then in debate, and
was one of the points of difference between the Protestants and the
Catholic church, after defining the doctrine of justification, the
Church said:
"If any one shall say that the sinner is justified by faith alone
in the sense that nothing else is required, which may cooperate
towards the attainment of the grace of justification, and that the
sinner does not need to be prepared and disposed by the motion of
his own will, _let him be accursed_."
And so the last council held by that church, known as the Vatican
council, held in the closing months of 1869, and in the first months of
1870, defining the infallibility of the bishop of Rome, the pope of the
Catholic world, the anathematizing clause stands as follows:
"But if any one, which may God avert, presume to contradict this
our definition, _let him be anathema_."
FAITH IN THE GODHEAD.
I read these statements to show you that the negative statement is
recognized as possessing great force; for these anathematizing clauses
in the announcement of the councils are inserted to guard the Roman
Catholic faith from error. I am of the opinion, let me repeat, that
a negative statement by us, concerning some things that we do not
believe, would have a certain force, and I am going to try to make an
application of this principle just a little this afternoon, though in a
somewhat informal way.
To begin with, take this doctrine so ably expounded by Elder Penrose
in relation to our belief in God and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy
Ghost, the trinity of the Holy Scriptures and of our faith. We profess
faith in that Godhead, and to that Godhead alone do we pay divine
honors in holy worship; but it is extremely difficult to get the
people of the world to believe that we are thus far Christians. We
are accused, in some cases, of man-worship; we are sometimes accused
of worshiping Joseph Smith. Because we proclaim his mission and the
divinity of it, and say that through him there has been restored to the
earth divine authority to speak and act in the name of this Godhead
whom we worship--because we have emphasized his mission and have
insisted upon its divinity--because we speak much about it and write
much about it--the world has accused us of worshiping Joseph Smith; but
that is not true. We worship this Godhead of the Christian scriptures
alone; and if we may not say because of Christian charity, let him who
accuses us of worshiping other God than this be anathema, let us at
least say to those who assert that we worship other Godhead than the
Godhead of Holy Scripture, that they misrepresent and slander their
"Mormon" brethren.
So also in relation to our belief in the Savior of men. It has been
explained here by Elder Penrose that we believe and accept Jesus of
Nazareth as the Savior of men; that he was and is the Son of God, whom
God gave to the world, that through faith in him, and obedience to his
gospel, the world might be saved; and let those who say that we look to
other source and have other expectations of salvation, than through him
and his power, let them also know that they, at least, misrepresent the
Latter-day Saints.
ERRONEOUS REPORTS.
Another matter, in connection with this, might be dwelt upon at greater
length, and that is an accusation to the effect that we believe in
what is called "blood atonement." So, indeed, we do; and so also do
the Christian world. Is it not the belief of the Christian world that
they will be saved through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God? Most assuredly; and so, too, do we believe in the atonement of
the Christ--aye, and in the manner of the atonement of the Christ--that
the very form of it was necessary to the salvation of men. We believe
that there is no other means that could be devised to make adequate
satisfaction to justice and preserve in its integrity the moral law of
the universe. Just what was done in the atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his death, and the manner of his death, the shedding of his
blood was necessary to the salvation of the world, for in the gospel,
as in the law, "without the shedding of blood is no remission of
sins." (Heb. ix:21). Yet it would appear that there are some things
for which not even this atonement can bring forgiveness. For example,
it is said by the Master himself, that "every sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men. If men speak a word against the Son of Man it shall
be forgiven them, but if they speak a word against the Holy Ghost it
shall not be forgiven them, neither in this world, neither in the world
to come." (Matt. xii:31-32); and that notwithstanding the atonement
of the Christ. Again it is written, "The murderer hath not eternal
life abiding in him." (I John iii:15). Again it is written, "He that
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (Gen. ix:6).
Blood for blood was the doctrine of that Scripture. Now we believe in
that doctrine; that is, we believe that those who so far transgress
that they imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow men, that
their lives are necessary to the complete atonement; and that their
execution should be such that it admits of the shedding of their blood.
And it is because of this belief that the laws of Utah permit such
method of execution for capital offenses as sheds the blood of the
murderer. But the reputation has gone out, the slander has passed from
lip to lip, it has been printed from one book into another, until the
report has gone out into all the world, that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, the "Mormon" Church, arrogates to itself the
right to take human life for apostasy from the Church, and for certain
other sins. That is a slander; it is not true. We do not believe the
doctrine; we do not claim for the Church that it has the right of
capital punishment, or the right of executing vengeance. We do not
teach nor claim that the Church has the right to assassinate men for
apostasy, even though they be murderers. However much we might believe
them worthy of death, the Church claims no right to execute them. The
doctrine of the Church in relation to that matter is found here in
the Doctrine and Covenants. It is in a revelation given before the
Church was a year old, and is found in section 42 of the Doctrine and
Covenants.
REVELATION QUOTED.
"And now, behold, I speak unto the Church, Thou shalt not kill, and
he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the
world to come;
"And again, I say, thou shalt not kill, but he that killeth shall
die."
Yes, but how? By whose hand? Read it in a subsequent verse, in the same
revelation:
"And it shall come to pass that if any persons among you shall
kill, _they shall be delivered up and dealt with according to the
laws of the land;_ for remember that he hath no forgiveness, and it
shall be proven according to the laws of the land."
And of course those who administer the laws of the land must become the
executors of that law; the Church claims no right of executing such a
law. That is our belief in relation to this subject. "Yes, but," some
one will be ready to say, "is it not matter of record that some very
emphatic and even vehement declarations have been made in relation to
this matter by very prominent men in the Mormon Church, in years that
are gone?" Yes, some very extravagant utterances, some very ill-advised
expressions were used; but those exaggerated, those embittered and
over-zealous words on the part of very well-meaning men, doubtless,
did not announce in those instances the doctrine of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The question will be asked, How
are you going to account for these expressions which you declare are
unwarranted by the law of the Church? How are you going to justify
them? Well, I am not going to justify them at all, but I can account
for them.
It cannot be that the world is so ignorant in this enlightened age
as not to know that churches cannot be held responsible for every
utterance that is made in their name and from their pulpits. Listen to
this passage from the writings of the learned Edersheim, in his History
of the Life and Times of the Christ; he says:
"No one would measure the belief of Christians by certain
statements in the Fathers; nor judge the moral principles of
Roman Catholics, by prurient quotations from the casuists; nor
yet estimate Lutherans by the utterances and deeds of the early
successors of Luther; nor Calvinists by the burning of Servitus. In
all such cases the general standpoint of the times has to be first
taken into account."
So it is in our history, not every word that has been spoken, even by
men high in authority in the Church, has always been the exact and
perfect word of God.
BELIEF IN REVELATION.
That thought brings me to another subject; our belief in continuous
revelation, and an inspired priesthood in the Church. We have heard,
by our brother who preceded me, that we believe in the revelations of
God. One of our articles of faith puts it in this form: "We believe
all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe
that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to
the kingdom of God." We believe that the Church of Christ is within
the hearing of God, that is, not only that he hears the prayers of
his Saints, but also that he answers those prayers. We feel that this
Church of Christ--this Church of ours--is in touch with the Infinite
and in tune with the Infinite, that the intelligence and power of God
are among its resources; that where human wisdom comes short, God may
be reached through the channels appointed and God's intelligence, and
wisdom, and power brought into the service of the Church of Christ. It
is possible for his prophet to divest himself of personal desires and
interests; to put away from himself preconceived thought and notion,
and seek to know the mind and will of God; by going into the holy of
holies, thus prepared, it is possible, if God will, for him to return
with the law of God unto his people, unto his Church, thus making the
wisdom and strength of God the wisdom and strength of his Church. We
believe that; but there is for the Church but one man in the Church
at a time who has the right to thus come with the law of God unto his
people. Though every individual, in his individual capacity, and for
guidance in the position he occupies in the Church--it is possible for
each person to have access, through the inspirations of the Spirit of
God, to the same source of knowledge and strength and power. We believe
in an inspired priesthood for the Church; we believe in inspired
teachers; but that does not require us to believe that every word that
is spoken from the pulpit is the very word of God. Perhaps some of you
will think that there is a passage in one of our revelations somewhat
against this conception of things, as for instance here in section 68
of the Doctrine and Covenants, is a revelation that was given to Elder
Orson Hyde and the Church. It is written here that Elder Hyde was
called upon to go from land to land as a teacher of the gospel--
"And behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were
ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them
to go forth;
"And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they
are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
"And whatsoever they shall speak _when_ moved upon by the Holy
Ghost, shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be
the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the
voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation."
INSPIRED UTTERANCES.
But mark you this, the fact that shall give unto their utterances the
value of Scripture, making their words as the word of God, and the
power of God unto salvation--the condition precedent to this is that
they "speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost." "Whatsoever they shall
speak _when_ moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture," etc. But
it is not given to mortal man always to walk upon that plane where the
sunlight of God's inspiration is playing upon him. Men may, by care and
devotion and spiritual strength, rise sometimes to that high plane; may
stand at times as on mountain tops, uncovered, in the presence of God,
their spirit united with his Spirit, until the mind of God shall flow
through them to bless those who hearken to their words: and there is no
need that one shall rise up and say, "This man was inspired of God,"
for all the people who receive of his ministrations know that by the
effect of his spirit upon their spirits. But, sometimes, the servants
of God stand on planes infinitely lower than the one here described.
Sometimes they speak merely from their human knowledge, influenced
by passions; influenced by the interests of men, and by anger, and
vexation, and all those things that surge in upon the minds of even
servants of God. When they so speak, then that is not Scripture, that
is not the word of God, nor the power of God unto salvation; but when
they speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, their voice then becomes
the voice of God. So that men, even some of high station in the Church,
sometimes speak from merely human wisdom; or from prejudice or passion;
and when they do so, that is not likely to be the word of God. I do
not think the world should require such perfection of us as to insist
that our religious teachers always deliver the inerrant word of God! In
any event it must be allowed by us that many unwise things were said
in times past, even by prominent elders of the Church; things that
were not in harmony with the doctrines of the Church; and that did not
possess the value of Scripture, or anything like it; and it was not
revelation. Moreover, no revelation even becomes the doctrine of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until it is accepted by
that Church by formal action; it must be accepted by official vote of
the Church before it becomes the law of the Church.
REVEALED WORD.
There is one thing which always gives me great and abounding joy, and
that is this: Here in the Doctrine and Covenants we have a volume of
revelation that has been given to the Church as the word of God, and
accepted as such by the Church. We accept four great books as the
authoritative Scriptures of the Church, wherein the doctrines of the
Church are couched, viz. the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine
and Covenants, and the collection of writings called the Pearl of Great
Price, containing the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, and some of
the writings of the Prophet Joseph. I have been engaged for some years
in advocacy of our faith, and in defending it, and in these Scriptures
that have been given under the inspiration of God, and accepted by the
Church of Christ as containing the doctrine of the Church, I find no
doctrine, that may not be successfully defended before any body of men
in the world, I care not how learned or intelligent they may be--nay,
the more learned and intelligent the easier is the defense. The books I
have named constitute our Scripture, not the haphazard sayings of men
from the pulpit; and as in the future we receive line upon line, and
precept upon precept--as the volume of written revelation shall grow,
it will possess the same characteristics of truth that our present
volumes of Scripture possess.
There is one other item I would like to speak upon, viz., that article
of our faith which declares that "We believe in being honest, true,
chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men." Now,
of course, that article covers the whole moral law of the gospel
as pertaining to personal conduct, and as pertaining to conduct in
relationship to others. It introduces a theme altogether too large
for exposition here; and I shall confine my remarks just to the two
first things--which, really are but one thing, namely, that we believe
in being "honest, true." If you were to judge of the character of
the Latter-day Saints by what is being said of them in the current
magazines and the daily press, one would really think that they
possessed no quality of honesty or of truthfulness; but that in both
civic and religious life their whole course of conduct was based upon
chicanery, and fraud, and untruth. Yet, here is our article of faith,
that we believe in being honest, in being true. That means that we
believe in speaking the truth and acting the truth; it goes both to
belief and to action; to mental attitude and actual practice:
GOD'S WORD IS TRUTH.
Let me call attention to another fact--and Brother Penrose
mentioned it, also--namely, that we believe in certain attributes
that God possesses. Among these attributes, as well as eternity,
and omnipotence, and omnipresence, and omniscience, and holiness,
and wisdom, and knowledge, and power, and love, and justice, and
mercy--there is also the attribute of truth; and this attribute of
truth is absolute in God. The scriptures say, with verity, that he is
"a God of truth, without iniquity; just and right is he." "Mercy and
truth," said another prophet, "go before thy face." Another one has
said, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he
should repent." Along this line we ourselves have a very grand saying,
given to the Prophet Joseph before the organization of the Church,
but it will endure through all time, and in all ages, and in all
experiences, namely:
"God doth not walk in crooked paths; neither doth he turn to the
right hand, nor to the left; neither doth he vary from that which
he has said; therefore, his paths are straight, and his course is
one eternal round." (Doc.& Cov., sec. 3:2).
Because of this attribute of truth in God, he must be thought of as
imparting to the institutions which he founds his own nature; they must
be in harmony with his attributes. Consequently, when he establishes
his Church, it will be a church of truth; it will stand for the truth
like its founder; it will speak the truth without variation, without
turning to the right hand, or turning to the left hand. God must be
true--an untruthful God? The very thought, but that I am refuting it,
would be blasphemy. It would wreck the moral universe for God to speak
untruth. It is unthinkable; it cannot be entertained. That also which
God founds, an institution such as his Church, must also, I repeat,
stand for the truth. But those, I say, who judge our reputation from
what is said of us in the current magazines--a person forming his
judgment upon those slanders, would believe there was no truth in
us, nor in the Church. But we, nevertheless, believe in truth; we
believe in being honest, true, virtuous; and let those who charge
us with believing otherwise than this; or who say that we trust in
falsehood; and believe in practicing it, wherein they do not speak
ignorantly--"_let them be anathema_!" And those among us--those of our
faith--and I fear that there may be one in ten thousand, I do not know,
but I have found some who will advance the idea that even the kingdom
of God has to resort to deception and untruth, at times, in order to
meet some emergency or other--to all such without qualification, I say
_anathema!_ Be ye accursed! They do the Church to which they belong a
great injustice. The Church cannot stand on untruth. The truth, the
whole of it, and constantly the truth, must be the creed of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or else it proves itself not
the product of the God of truth, for he is true. To doubt it would
be disloyalty, to think of it, otherwise than to refute it, would be
blasphemy.
TESTIMONY BORNE.
There is much more that might be dealt with negatively, and
anathematized, perhaps, but this satisfies me upon this occasion,
and the time for closing this meeting has arrived. I join here, this
afternoon, with my brother, Elder Penrose, in bearing witness to the
truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ; to the existence of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. With him, I bear witness
to you of the virtue and power and saving grace in the atonement of
the Lord Jesus Christ; and bear witness to you that there is no other
name given among men whereby we may be saved, only the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. With him, I bear witness to you, out of my experience, that
men may have communion with God, that his Spirit does give inspiration
to the spirit of man, and through that means there may be both union
and communion now between men and God, through obedience to the gospel.
I know and I bear witness, with Elder Penrose, that this is the Church
of Jesus Christ, founded in these latter-days; that there was virtue
and power, and divinity in the mission of Joseph Smith, the instrument
in God's hands of bringing in this new dispensation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. I testify that those who believe the gospel and obey it;
that those who with real, earnest effort--even though stumblingly--seek
to obey it, to them will be extended the divine grace and power of God,
and helpfulness; that out of the abundance of his mercy and grace will
God help those who are weak, if only they keep their faces constantly
directed towards him, and back of all their mistakes and failures they
maintain an earnest determination to overcome the things of this world
and the weaknesses of human nature. God will remember that they are but
men in the making, and he will be merciful and ultimately will give
them the victory, if only they will strive and pray and not faint. That
I know, for God has taught me that in my own experiences, and I bear
witness of it to you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
III.
THE THINGS OF GOD GREATER THAN MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THEM.
Discourse in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, September 12, 1909.
(Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)
I.
I never face this tabernacle congregation without a very great amount
of misgiving on my part, which amounts to an inward fear and trembling.
I presume it arises from the fact that such a position brings home to
one the weight of responsibility that rests upon him who undertakes
to be a public teacher; and, sometimes, I have felt for my own part,
that I would be happier if these occasional duties did not devolve upon
me. However, we can't help but remember that in discharging this duty
the Lord has sometimes been good to us and blest us with a measure of
success, and some truth, or portion of truth, has been presented in a
manner to be understood by the saints. This gives one encouragement
and faith to try again, and perhaps, my friends, on this occasion, if
we can acceptably approach the Lord, our meeting together may result
in blessing. I most fervently pray that such may be the outcome of our
meeting this afternoon.
I have not been able to fix upon any text which would foreshadow the
truth that I would like to present on this occasion. I have no text,
but I have a theme in mind, that has taken more or less of definite
form--a theme which may be illustrated by many texts; and certainly by
many historical experiences of the people of God in various ages of the
world. My thought may be stated in these terms: No matter what your
conception of divine things may be--however wide or high--the divine
things themselves, be assured, are much greater than your conceptions
of them. I pray you, think about that a while, and get it well in mind:
No matter how great or comprehensive your conceptions may be of divine
things, the divine things themselves are always greater than your
conceptions of them. It must have been some such thought as this which
led our Prophet Joseph Smith to make the following remark: "The things
of God are of deep import, and time and experience, and careful and
ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man,
if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the
utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss and
the broad expanse of eternity--Thou must commune with God!"
DIVINE THINGS MISJUDGED.
Associated with this theme that we have here announced is another,
namely, that in consequence of man's failure to comprehend fully the
things of God, there is great danger that he may misapprehend divine
things--God's messages and God's purposes. The experience of God's
people abundantly demonstrate this second truth. For example: suppose
you think upon the misapprehension that the Jews had concerning the
promised Messiah. Their prophets and even their patriarchs, in their
writings and prophecies, had foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah
the Redeemer not only of Israel but of the world. Yet, when he came,
the Jews altogether misapprehended him, and so far misunderstood him
and his mission that they rejected him. Israel's national existence
had been a very precarious and trying one. They had been subdued again
and again by nations surrounding them. For many generations their
petty kingdom had been but a shuttle-cock between the battle-doors of
Assyrian and Persian, of Persian and Egyptian; and at the time of the
advent of the Messiah, Palestine had been reduced to the condition of
a Roman province, and was under the iron hand of Roman rule. The Jews
looked back, frequently, to the glorious days of David and Solomon,
when Israel could well be proud of her national existence. They longed,
again, for a king, and national independence; and hence they regarded
the promise of the Messiah as the coming of a king to bring redemption
to Israel and to establish them as a nation in the earth. But instead
of a king, there came a peasant; instead of a conqueror, there came a
teacher; and they did not recognize, in his character, and mission the
elements that would exalt him far above all earthly kings and give to
him an empire over the children of men that should far exceed in glory
anything that could come to earthly potentate or monarch. They wholly
misapprehended the mission of the Messiah; and yet, when you take into
account the position of the Christ today in the world, although we have
had but a partial development of his truths, although the glory of his
kingdom has been somewhat arrested by reason of the departure of men
from that divine system of truth which he established, notwithstanding
we have had but a lame and halting Christianity--yet, to what heights
has it lifted the Messiah of the Jews in mighty influence among the
nations of the earth! We get the principle with which we started our
discourse illustrated most beautifully in these circumstances: First
the misapprehension of men of the things of God; and yet the truth
that however great the conceptions of men may be of divine things,
the divine things themselves far outrun in glory, and largeness, and
power, men's conceptions of them; for the Jews never attributed even
to the Messiah of their prophecies the glory that has already come to
the Christ. He reigns, with more or less supremacy in the hearts of
at least more than one-third of the inhabitants of the earth, and is
accepted as prophet, as priest, and, in some sense or other, as the
Redeemer of all men. And that, I believe, far outstrips the conceptions
that the Jews had of the glory of their Messiah.
Take another illustration of our theme. The early Christians, as well
as the Jews, failed to apprehend the mission of the Christ. There was
fixed in the minds of those early converts to the Christian faith the
thought that salvation was of the Jews; (John 4:22); and it seems to me
they added to the words of Christ the idea that not only was salvation
of Israel, but salvation, in their minds, was merely for Israel. Those
early Christian converts had no idea that their Messiah was to become
the Messiah and Savior of all men; and it required special revelation
to the chief apostle, Peter, to get even him to understand that the
message of the Christ was for the gentile as well as for the Jew. You
will remember, when the Lord had inspired a certain gentile, of the
name of Cornelius, to inquire of the Lord what he ought to do in order
to be accepted of God, how by special revelation unto Peter, as the
messengers from this devout gentile approached his dwelling place, he
was given a vision, the import of which was that whosoever God should
recognize as clean, Peter must not call filthy or unclean. Three times
was this lesson taught to the chief apostle, when, lo, the messengers
from Cornelius were knocking at his doors. He met the messengers from
Cornelius, who brought word that God had visited this devout gentile,
and bid him send for the chief apostle of the Christ. Peter went down
to the house of Cornelius and taught him the truths of the gospel;
and as he spake the Holy Ghost rested upon the gentiles present as
it had upon the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Then Peter saw the
interpretation of his vision; and he said: "Can any man forbid water,
that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost
as well as we."
By this means the Lord led this man, Peter, to have a wider view of
the mission of the Christ, but it was extremely difficult to get the
rest of the Christians, in that day to accept this thought. Hence when
Paul came forward, being raised up of the Lord to carry his message
to the gentiles, it was his chief offense, so thought the Christian
Jews, that he taught this broader application of the Gospel of the
Christ to the children of God; and those early, fanatical Christians
stoutly accused him of blasphemy and of bringing those who were unclean
into the temple of God. It required all the revelations that God gave
to Peter; it required all the inspiration that God gave to Paul--all
his energy, all his learning, all his inspired eloquence--to make it
known to the world that salvation was not only for the Jew but for the
gentile also; and the first congregations of the Christians in Judea
seem, in sullen mood, to have rejected the greater revelations accepted
by the apostles, and the great tide of the gospel swept by them and
left them in their obscurity; while Paul and his associates ran to
and fro, through the mighty Roman empire, and planted the standard of
the gospel in many gentile cities, and made the world ring with the
message of the Messiah. These people, the first Christians, many of
them good and pure minded people, no doubt, failed to rightly apprehend
the great mission of the Messiah, and so that mission swept on by them
and left them in their obscurity. We may say in closing this branch of
our reflections that the prophecy of the Messiah respecting the Jews
who rejected him; and in a manner also the Jews who accepted him, but
failed to apprehend the largeness of his mission, the universality of
the salvation he brought into the world--the prophecy of the Messiah, I
say, was fulfilled--"The Kingdom of God shall be taken from among you,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." And Paul: "It
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to
you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo! we turn to the gentiles."
Now I am wondering if you will bear with me while I point out the fact
that we too, in this dispensation of the fulness of times, are in the
same danger of failing to apprehend the greatness of the things of God
restored to us. We, too, are human; we, too, fail to grasp the full
import of the truth which is the center around which our thoughts are
moving. We fail to realize that great as our conceptions may be of
divine things, yet, those divine things are infinitely greater than our
conceptions of them.
II.
MARVELOUS WORK AND A WONDER.
Take here this book of Doctrine and Covenants. In some half score of
the early revelations, you find this statement made, "A great and
marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men." How
many of the early converts of the Church appreciated the meaning of
that solemn announcement? They stood in the presence of certain facts
then developing, that were truly marvelous and great in their eyes.
In an age when the orthodox churches were teaching that God would no
more speak from heaven to give further revelation; in an age when all
Christendom taught that the visitation of angels had ceased; in an age
when it was orthodox to regard the volume of Scripture as completed
and forever closed--these early converts had heard the wonderful
announcement of God's witness, that the heavens had been reopened;
that God had once more revealed himself to man upon the earth; that
angels had come with messages from God; that there had been brought
forth a whole volume of Scripture that was a witness for God, the
Book of Mormon, that spoke of the ancient inhabitants of this western
world, giving an account of the migration of their fathers to this
land from the old world; that gave an account of the rise and fall of
nations and empires in this western hemisphere; that testified of the
goodness of God to them, and revealing himself to them, and sending the
risen Messiah to them to make known the gospel of the Son of God, and
proclaim the means of their salvation. The early converts to the Church
had witnessed that volume of Scripture brought forth. They had seen a
church organized under the direction and inspiration of God. They had
seen a renewal of those spiritual powers and graces that characterized
the primitive church of the Christ. Contrary to the expectations and
teaching of modern Christendom, the sick were healed; the lame were
made to walk; in some cases the eyes of the blind were opened. Men felt
once more that they stood in the immediate presence of the living,
throbbing power of God in the world, and especially in the Church of
Christ. These things were indeed "great and marvelous" to them; but
how very far short of the full glory of the latter-day work do these
few first steps now seem to us! The saints in those early days did
not dream that there was to be an unfolding of doctrine and Church
organization such as we now behold. They did not understand in those
early days that there would again be a quorum of apostles, endowed
with the same powers and gifts and authority that characterized the
first apostolate of the Church of Christ. They did not know then that
there were to be called into existence thousands and tens of thousands
of assistant apostles, the seventies, who would be commissioned to go
into all the world under the direction of the twelve, to preach the
gospel to all nations and gather Israel. They had no idea that scores
and even hundreds of bishops would be called into official existence
to preside in the midst of the people of God. They did not understand
that the keys for the redemption of the dead would be restored, so that
the gospel could be proclaimed in the spirit World and men brought
to a knowledge of the truth, that they might "live according to God
in the spirit," and, ultimately, be judged as men are judged in the
flesh. They did not know that temples were to be erected, in which this
work for both living and dead could be performed. They could not then
understand that in this dispensation of the fulness of times all the
ends of the earth were to meet; and "all things in Christ be gathered
together in one, even in him," until all the families of the earth that
would receive the truth might in every way be bound in chains of love
at the feet of the living Christ. The early converts to the Church had
no such vision of the work of God, as this. It is not a reproach to
them that they did not fully comprehend these things, or anticipate the
marvelous history that the people of God would make. They were just
like the children of men in all generations, and like ourselves. No
matter how wonderful to them divine things were, no matter how great
their conceptions of them, the divine things themselves were infinitely
greater than they conceived them to be.
III.
THE NEW JERUSALEM.