Take another illustration of my theme. In the Book of Mormon this

truth was revealed, that in this western world a holy city would

finally be builded by the people of God. A city called "Zion," the

"New Jerusalem." When the saints saw that fact revealed in the Book

of Mormon, they, very naturally, desired to know the place where the

city would stand; and the Lord finally revealed the place where the

City of Zion will be located. The place of that city is in the central

portion of the land of Zion. Independence, Jackson county, Missouri,

was designated as the place where the holy city is to be founded. No

sooner was this known than straightway the gathering of the people

to that point commenced. Some few hundreds of the saints gathered to

that land and essayed to lay the foundations of the city, the glory of

which was described in the Nephite Scriptures. In the course of time,

however, the saints were expelled from Jackson county by the cruelty

of their neighbors, who rejected their religion and rose up against

the people of God. When the saints were compelled to leave Jackson

county, they looked upon themselves as exiles from Zion, and it was

rather with heavy hearts and with sinking hopes that they went to

building other cities elsewhere in Missouri. Finally the entire state

of Missouri rose against the people of God--and unjustly and by the

violation of every principle of constitutional government, expelled

some twelve thousand of the saints from that state. As you know, the

saints located themselves on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river

and founded the city of Nauvoo. They still counted themselves as exiles

from Zion, and they thought that the cause of God--that is, many of

them--thought that the cause of God was losing, that his purposes were

being thwarted; they were exiles from the land of promise; the City of

Zion was as a dream that was fast fading from their consciousness. Then

the Prophet began to instruct them more fully concerning this matter of

Zion. He called their attention to the fact that the whole of America,

both north continent and south continent--was the land of Zion; that

the promise of God concerning Zion related to this western hemisphere;

that these great continents were consecrated chiefly unto the seed of

Joseph, the patriarch in Israel, son of Jacob, and that this whole land

was given to him as his inheritance. That is how it is that both Moses

and also Jacob, in their blessings upon the head of Joseph declare that

his blessings had prevailed above the blessings of his progenitors;

and that his lands extended to the "utmost bounds of the everlasting

hills." He was given the birthright in Israel, to stand at the head of

Israel. (I Chron. 5:1-2.) Reuben "was the first born; but, forasmuch

as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons

of Joseph, the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned

after the birthright"--i.e., of Reuben. "For Judah prevailed above

his brethren and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was

Joseph's;" and hence the Scriptures frequently declare that God is a

Father unto Israel, and Ephraim is his first born. (Jeremiah 31:9).

This was a larger view of the subject of Zion than the saints had

entertained. Can you see in this illustration, confirmation of our

theme, viz., that no matter how great your conceptions may be of divine

things, the divine things themselves are infinitely greater than you

conceive them to be?

IV.

RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.

Still another illustration. It is a prominent principle of the faith

of the Latter-day Saints that the great promises which God has made

unto Israel, to the effect that they shall be gathered in from their

dispersion, shall be fulfilled in this dispensation of the fulness of

times. Of course you know, being familiar with the history of Israel,

that they have been scattered among all the nations of the earth. This

is true with reference to all the tribes of Israel. "I will sift the

house of Israel among all nations" is what Amos represents the Lord

as saying (Amos 9:8, 9). Of course you are aware of the fact that

after the reign of Solomon, Israel divided into two kingdoms--the

northern kingdom composed of the ten tribes, the southern kingdom,

Judah, composed of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. After a national

existence of some two hundred years, the Assyrians overcame the

northern kingdom and took the people captive into Assyria; but while

in captivity there, we are informed by tradition, that the people

resolved to leave the heathen nation by whom they had been led into

captivity, and go into a land never before inhabited by man, and there

they resolved that they would keep the statutes and the judgments

of God even better than they had done in the land of their fathers.

The historian who tells us of these circumstances (Esdras) also says

that they performed something like a year and a half's journey to the

northward, up through the narrow pass of the Euphrates and Tigris

rivers, and thence northward, and inhabited the land; and since those

days they have been known as "the lost tribes of Israel." The kingdom

of Judah maintained but a precarious existence; it was first subject

to one nation and then to another, until finally, toward the close

of the first century of the Christian era, the nation was completely

subjugated by the Roman power; her people were taken captive and sold

into slavery, or scattered as exiles among the nations of the gentiles.

Ever since then, until now, Judah has been a hiss and byword, a broken,

scattered people. But over and above all these historical events rings

out clear and strong the promise of God, as spoken by the mouth of

Jeremiah, Saying:

"Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the

isles afar off and say, he that scattered Israel will gather him

and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath

redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was

stronger than he (ch. xxxi:10, 11). Behold I will bring them [the

children of Israel] from the north country, and gather them from

the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the

woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a

great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping

and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk

by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not

stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first

born." (Ch. xxxi: verses, 8, 9).

The Jewish Scriptures are full of this promise. It is iterated and

reiterated; and it is well known that the tradition lives in Israel,

that though now scattered abroad, yet will they at some time be called

to resume the thread of their national existence, and Israel shall yet

be known among the nations of the earth. As broad as the scattering has

been, so broad also shall be the gathering. This message of ours, the

gospel of Jesus Christ, has always been accompanied by proclamation

of this doctrine of the gathering of Israel. The prophet Amos tells

us that God had "sifted" Israel among the nations, and now unto the

servants of God in this dispensation is given the commission to cry

aloud unto Israel, "Come out of her, my people: that ye partake not of

her sins, and receive not of her plagues," speaking of Babylon. God, I

say, has repeatedly promised that there shall be a gathering together

of Israel, and those who were led away into the "north countries," we

are told shall be brought again to the land of their fathers; their

prophets shall hear the voice of God, and shall not stay themselves,

but they shall come forth in the power of God and bring their people

unto Zion, where they shall receive blessings at the hands of the

children of Ephraim, the first born, who holds the patriarchal right

to bless and seal in the house of Israel. This is the faith of the

Latter-day Saints respecting Israel.

V.

LOST TRIBES IN THE NORTH.

Permit me to make a little divergence at this point. I have observed

some criticisms in our local press in relation to the views entertained

by the Latter-day Saints about the return of the lost tribes of

Israel from the land of the north. We have recently had the north

pole discovered--well, discovered twice, if reports be true. [1] And

it is claimed by the aforesaid local press that the Church entertains

the view that somewhere, in this frozen region of the pole these lost

tribes have lived, and that it has been the hope of the Latter-day

Saints that from the north pole regions these lost tribes would return

to supplement them in numbers and power and influence here in this

land of our Zion. There is more or less of merriment indulged in

because, now that the north pole has been discovered, lo, there is no

people there and no place for a people. Ice fields, ice mountains, ice

floes, with accompanying desolation--an absolute loneliness out there

at the poles! Well, I think men for some time have been sufficiently

close to the pole to lead any thoughtful person to the conclusion

that such conditions of lonely desolation must have existed there,

rather than any continent of salubrious climate and fertile soils,

where a great people could be located. Let me offer this suggestion:

If those of us who believe in the messages from God given in these

last days are likely, because of inability to asses these messages

at their full value--if we are likely to have misapprehensions of

the messages and the purposes of God, certainly those who have no

sympathy with them, and who do not believe in them are apt to have

still wider misapprehensions of the messages and purposes of God.

That being true, it is possible also that our local newspaper critics

have formed misconceptions concerning an alleged belief of ours about

the existence of the ten tribes somewhere in polar regions. I do not

know how many Latter-day Saints may have entertained the view that

about the polar regions were located the lost tribes of Israel. I do

not know how many even of our students--the students of the gospel

of this dispensation of the fulness of times--may have entertained

the same view. There is the statement of Esdras that there was a

year and a half's journey northward from Assyria, by the ten tribes;

and there is the promise repeated frequently in Jewish Scriptures,

that the Lord would lead back from the north the tribes of Israel.

From these statements, some of our people may have concluded that

necessarily these lost tribes must be established in the extreme

northern portions of the earth, hence the region of the north pole.

There may be something in our literature to that effect--I cannot

say positively, because I have not had the opportunity, recently, to

examine our literature with reference to that particular view. But of

this I am positive; that in none of the revelations of God is there

any expression that would lead one to believe that God had located

the ten tribes about the north pole. The revelations of the Lord do

not necessarily lead us to any such conclusion. When the Savior was

in the western hemisphere, ministering among the Nephites, he called

their attention to the announcement that he had made to his disciples

in Judea, when he said, "Other sheep have I which are not of this

fold; them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and there

shall be one fold and one shepherd." (John 10:16.) When ministering

to the Nephites, I say, the Messiah explained to them that they

were the "other sheep" he had in mind in this passage. Some of the

disciples, he explained, believed that he had in mind the gentiles,

not appreciating the fact that his manifestation of himself and of

his truth to the gentiles should be through the manifestations of the

Holy Ghost, rather than by ministration of himself personally to them.

The disciples in Judea then had a misapprehension of this matter,

though Jesus himself had said that he was not sent (personally) but

to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matt. 15:24.) Here, then,

in this western world, were the "other sheep," that the Christ had in

mind in this remarkable statement that he made to his disciples in

Judea. The Messiah also informed the Nephites that he had not only

fulfilled this Scripture but now there was still another mission that

had been given him, namely to visit the lost tribes of the house of

Israel, and manifest himself to them, for though these tribes were

lost unto the children of men they were not lost unto the Father. He

knew their location, and had given commission to his Son to minister

unto them. (See III Nephi, chaps. 15, 16, 17.) But there is nothing in

the statement of the Messiah to the Nephites that would compel us to

believe that these lost tribes were located about the north pole; but

merely expressions in the Scriptures that would lead one to conclude

that they were located in northern lands. Then again, in the matter

of this return of the "lost tribes of Israel," there are those I

believe, who, seeing that there was small hope of a location for them

about the north pole, have held that perhaps the said lost tribes were

located upon some detached portion of the earth. As to that, I have no

opinion to express; but this I believe, for myself, that within the

known regions of the earth, where the children of men are located, it

is quite possible for God to fulfill all his predictions in relation

to the return of Israel. It would have been quite possible for God to

scatter, or to use the language of the prophet Amos--"Sift the house

of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve," and

"yet not the least grain fall upon the earth"--i.e., be lost to the

knowledge of God, though now lost to men. And as it was possible to

lose these tribes of Israel among the nations of the earth, so is it

possible for God to recover them from their scattered condition from

among these nations, with a display of the divine power. And with

reference to this display of divine power, let me say that something

must always be allowed to the character of prophetic language. You must

remember that seers and prophets do not speak the cold, calculating

language of philosophy, where every word is weighed in the exact scales

of thought. Prophets do not follow the precision in their language that

is required of the scientists. These men, prophets and seers, commune

with God. Their finite life touches, for a moment, the infinite life

of God. Their limited wisdom touches for a moment the supreme wisdom

of the infinite. For an instant they see things large; and infused and

inspired with the fire they have received from this contact with the

divine, lo! they come with their message and speak it in the words of

spiritual passion. Of course, to them, in this mood, the mountains

will sink; the valleys will rise. Of course, the prophets, if in the

north, will hear the voice of God, and the mountains of ice will flow

down at their presence; the hills will rejoice and the mountains shout

for joy! When men come with this inspiration upon them they see and

feel things large, and they speak of them in that spirit; and when

we come to reduce what they thus bring to us, from the heart of God,

to our petty conceptions, we of course must be prepared to take into

account the figurative language they speak. It is possible that if we

fail to do this, we shall misapprehend, in part, some material fact of

their message. Especially should one be on his guard in such highly

picturesque matters as the return of the lost tribes from their long

dispersion--from the lands of the north. In such an event not only will

"mountains of ice flow down" at the presence of their prophets, but

highways will be cast up in the midst of the great deep--their enemies

will become a prey unto them--in barren deserts shall come forth pools

of living water--the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty

land--the "boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their

presence!" (Doc. and Cov., sec. 133.)

[Footnote 1: Having reference to Cook's claims of "discovering the

pole" as well as Peary's discovery.]

We must make some allowance, I repeat, for the hyperbole of that

language in which the message of these prophets is delivered--remember,

it is vibrant with the great things of God; and it makes some effort to

encompass these great things.

ISRAEL NOW GATHERING.

But, coming to a closer consideration of this "gathering of

Israel"--Israel is gathering all right; perhaps not after our

conception of it, not after our ideas as to how Israel should or would

be gathered. Nevertheless, Israel, I say, is gathering to the land of

Zion. You Latter-day Saints--whence came you? From the British isles,

from Germany, from the Scandinavian countries, from the islands of

the sea. Who are you? Israelites, gathered by the gospel message,

which includes the word of God to you to gather together on this land

of Zion. You are chiefly of the tribe of Ephraim, according to the

inspired utterances of the patriarchs who pronounce blessings upon

your heads. Well, if you--gathered from a multitude of nations--are of

Israel, may not Israel, by hundreds of thousands and millions, be in

the lands whence you came, which was chiefly from the northern lands of

Europe? for our mission has had little success among the Latin races

of southern Europe. You have been gathered by the proclamation of the

gospel and are of Israel; and not only are you who have received the

gospel gathered, but your kindred Germans, your kindred Scandinavians,

your kindred Britishers, have also been coming to the land of Zion.

Indeed, it seems that America is an asylum for all people; and even

races that we fain would close our gates against, in spite of all the

wisdom and caution and legislation of our national legislators and the

administrative officers of our government, they, too, come to the land

of Zion; and who shall say that these races have not inheritance in

Zion? This western hemisphere is not only granted to the descendants

of Joseph in Israel, not only to it will come those of the lost tribes

of Israel, but the gentile races also have promise of an inheritance

in this land; and here shall they receive the blessings of the gospel

of Jesus Christ; receiving it at the hands of the children of Ephraim,

upon whom commission has been bestowed and divine authority given to

preach the gospel and administer in its ordinances. So Israel is being

gathered in these last days to the land of Zion, and here gentile races

are also assembling. Here in the United States alone we can reach more

Germans than we can preach to in Germany, because of the limitations of

religious liberty in Germany. Here we may preach to more English people

than in England. Here we may preach to more Scandinavians than we can

preach to in Scandinavia. Here we have opportunity to teach the truth

unto gathered Israel in this blest land of Zion, and here and among

the other known nations of the earth is full scope and opportunity for

the accomplishment of all those things that have been predicted by the

servants of God in all ages of the world respecting Israel, without

assuming that it is necessary to go into the north polar regions or to

detached portions of the earth somewhere in illimitable space.

VI.

PURPOSES OF GOD WILL NOT FAIL.

The purposes of God are not failing. God is imminent in this world, and

is fashioning it according to his own divine purposes. There will be no

failure in Jehovah's plans. The only thing is, Can we so enlarge our

thought, can we lift ourselves from the narrow limits of our thinking

in which we are so contented to walk--can we take broader views in

relation to God's purposes and messages to the children of men? That is

the only question. The Lord Almighty, I repeat, is accomplishing his

designs in relation to the land of Zion; in relation to the gathering

of Israel and the return of the ten tribes; just as he will accomplish

his purposes with reference to the re-establishment of Judah upon the

promised land of Canaan, and the redemption of Jerusalem. All this will

come about in its times and seasons. The word of the Lord will go forth

from Jerusalem, and the law will go forth from Zion--nay, in my view,

it is now going forth in large measure from Zion--in a manner to reach

the inhabitants of the earth, and bring to them the blessings that God

has decreed for the children of men.

My brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the largeness of this work of

God--this dispensation of the fulness of times. I love it, in part,

because of its greatness--in its very bigness there is inspiration.

I love to contemplate the purposes of God in their far-reaching

possibilities. I rejoice to feel that today the children of men are

moving up to a higher and truer conception of the things of God. We

talk about, and we sometimes even dare to hope for, the coming of the

millennium! I wonder what our sensations will be if some morning we

wake up to a realization that the millennium is already on its way,

and has been on its way for some time? When I think of the mighty

progress that has been made in these modern days, and especially since

God opened the heavens and revealed himself unto his servant Joseph

Smith; when I take that circumstance as a starting point and contrast

conditions as they are today with conditions as they were when that

first revelation was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, it seems to

me that the prediction that old things shall pass away and all things

shall become new is on the way to a very rapid fulfillment. At that

time--early in the third decade of the nineteenth century--not a single

foot of railroad existed anywhere in the world; today, all civilized

nations are a network of railroads and railroad systems. We have moved

all the way from the ox-cart and stage-coach to the mighty express

train that thunders with lightning speed throughout the land. Distance

is discounted--well nigh annihilated, in comparison with former times.

In ocean navigation we have come from the rude vessel that could only

be driven by the wind, to the mighty ocean greyhounds that speed across

the oceans like express trains; and the oceans, once a dreaded mystery,

are now but the convenient highways between the continents, the

highways of commerce! Man, within the period we are considering, has

not only mastered transportation upon the earth and upon the ocean; but

we have recent demonstrations that man has mastered also the element

of air; and may navigate the air with as great speed and ease as the

land or the water. Within the period named--1820-1909--we have come all

the way from the tallow dip to the electric light. In communication

we have come from the pony express to the telegraph, and to the

wireless telegraph, and the telephone; so that now we are in instant

communication with all portions of the earth. No event of any moment

may happen tonight that will not be spread upon the pages of tomorrow

morning's press, which will await us upon our breakfast tables! Then

in the way of advancements that give promise of peace--so mighty have

become the engines of destruction; so revolutionary the promises of

this recent mastery of the air, that it would seem that war must be an

impossibility in the near future; and it becomes imperative that men

devise--statesmen must devise, philanthropists must devise, patriots

must devise--some means by which the international questions that

arise may be settled without allowing nations to go to the dreadful

arbitrament of war for a settlement. The time when swords shall be

beaten into plow-shares, and spears into pruning hooks seems not far

distant, even the time when nations shall learn war no more--the vision

of the prophets! These are the conditions in the midst of which we

live: A time when property is more secure than it ever was before in

the world; a time when personal liberty is more secure than ever it was

before in the world; a time when the comforts of life among the masses

of mankind well nigh equal conditions that only kings could enjoy in

ages that are past! When I see all these blessings, and realize that

year by year they are increasing with accelerated speed--when I see

the sentiment of universal brotherhood enlarging--when I see great

and mighty intellects pushing far out upon the frontier of Christian

thought, grasping the truths of God and weaving them into systems of

practical philosophy, tending to make ready the inhabitants of the

earth for that fulness of truth that God, through his prophets, has

decreed should be poured out upon the nations of the earth in the last

days,--when I see these evidences of man's progress within the last

three-quarters of a century, since God spoke from heaven to Joseph

Smith, I can not help but believe that there is some connection between

the re-opening of the heavens to restore the gospel, and this wider

diffusion of knowledge by which the comfort and enlightenment of men

as to material things has been brought to pass--the golden age that

prophets dreamed of, that prophets sang about--the golden age--the

millennium--has at last dawned upon the earth! And right here, in the

midst of it, God has established his Church. He has given to it the

knowledge of the means of salvation. He has given to the Church divine

authority to administer in the ordinances of the gospel, and the coming

forth of this work is the herald of the modern world's awakening! For

when the Book of Mormon came forth, by that token Israel might know,

and the world might know, that God had set his hand to fulfil and

accomplish the things that he had decreed concerning the gathering

of Israel, and concerning all the inhabitants of the earth--their

happiness and peace and glory and security. (II Nephi 30, and III

Nephi 21.) This is our part of the work; to make proclamation of these

things; to exemplify the law of God and the excellence of the Gospel

of Jesus Christ; to proclaim to the children of men that God is not a

God afar off--One who transcends the world; but God imminent in the

world, and that men may connect their lives with the life of God; and

feel the inspiration of his life vibrating in their lives, uplifting,

purifying, exalting--until man, the individual, and communities of men,

nations--may walk with God in this great age now dawning on the world!

And yet, great as our conceptions may be of the things of God--divine

things--be assured that the divine things themselves are infinitely

greater than our conceptions of them can be--then how great indeed they

must be! The prophet spoke truly when he said of God: "His thoughts are

not as your thoughts; his ways are not as your ways; for as the heavens

are higher than the earth, so are his thoughts above your thoughts,

and his ways above your ways." But while we are under the necessity

of conceding the truth of that, may we not share in and enjoy in some

measure a knowledge of divine things and therein rejoice, as I feel we

do this day by this brief glimpse of some of the things of God?

IV.

MORMONISM AS A BODY OF DOCTRINE.

A discourse at the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 13, 1910.

(Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Some time ago, within a year at least, a gentleman of some prominence

in the public life of our state felt that he had occasion in a public

address to allude to our religious faith as a "body of doctrine," and

in doing so I think he exhausted his skill in framing an expression of

contempt for it. He said:

_"I will venture it as my individual opinion, that considered as

a body of doctrine, no well instructed person would give this

priesthood creed, the cold respect of a passing glance_."

It is not worth while getting vexed over such expressions as that.

They do no harm to our faith, nor to our society--the Church. Such a

remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman, who has some reputation

for intelligence, and especially for his ability in following to

logical conclusions any investigation he may undertake--I say such a

remark may lead one to wonder if the gentleman himself has paid our

faith the "cold respect of the passing glance" to which he refers;

or has he presumed to pass judgment upon it without even such "a

passing glance"--since he assumes with such air-sniffing loftiness and

pride of intellect that "no well instructed person"--of which he is

one, of course--would give it? For my own part, the only effect that

this remark had upon me was to send me back in a half amused frame

of mind to see if things pertaining to our creed were really as bad

as that; and once more, I examined the foundations of our faith. I

returned from that examination with my convictions deepened, with my

respect and admiration very much increased for this body of doctrine

so contemptuously characterized by this gentleman, and my faith in it

strengthened. When called upon, this afternoon, to address you, it

seemed to me that I could do you no better service than to give you the

benefit of an examination of our faith as a body of doctrine--so far as

possible in one sitting; and this holds good whether you be strangers

within our gates, or members of the Church.

It is a good thing, occasionally, to recur to first principles, as

a means of keeping in view the whole system for which we stand.

Every religion must have some sort of philosophy; it must give some

accounting for things; some explanation of life and its meaning; some

explanation of the universe and whither things trend. Religion must

address itself to the understanding as well as to the heart; to the

reason as well as to the emotions. Religion has been described by one

as "morality touched with emotion" and, in some of its aspects, I think

that is a very happy description of religion. But we are living in an

age that asks adult questions, and religion must give adult replies.

I think our faith is capable of doing that. I love it because it

appeals to my understanding as well as to the emotions of my heart;

and consequently, when I heard this contemptuous reference to it, I

resolved to do what I could by exposition of that faith, to show this

gentleman, and those who think with him, how mistaken they were. So now

to our task:

II.

Mormon View of the Universe.

First, concerning the world itself--I mean by that expression the sum

total of things, the universe. In 1832 the Prophet Joseph Smith came

with this message, in one of the revelations contained in the Book of

Covenants:

"All kingdoms have a law given: and there are many kingdoms; for

there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no

kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser

kingdom."

By this term "kingdom" our Prophet does not have in contemplation a

number of people ruled by a king; the context reveals the fact that the

prophet had in mind those great planetary systems which make up the

universe. These are the "kingdoms" he had in mind; and he announces

here a very wonderful doctrine, when he declares that there is no space

but what has in it some one or other of these kingdoms--worlds and

world-systems; and that there is no kingdom in the which there is not

also extension, or space. A great scientist and scholar expresses the

same truth in the following language:

"Through all eternity the infinite universe has been, and is,

subject to the law of substance: The extent of the universe is

infinite and unbounded. It is empty in no part, but everywhere

filled with substance. The duration of the world is equally

infinite and unbounded. It has no end; it is eternity."

Such is the summing up of what he calls the "law of substance," by one

of the profoundest minds of Germany, Ernest Haeckel. Analyze it, and

you will find it precisely the same conception as that announced by our

Prophet in 1832, when he said: "There is no space in the which there

is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space."

I think, perhaps, it will be necessary to dwell upon that idea for a

few minutes in order that we may grasp the thought in something of its

immensity. I had a teacher, once, who was very skilful in imparting

knowledge to his pupils in the matter of solving mathematical problems.

The lines on which he proceeded were these: He would take a very simple

example that involved the same principles that were to be applied in

the more difficult problem; then he would work out the simple problem

and tell us to work out the more difficult one in the same manner. So

I am of opinion that if we spend a short time in considering our own

little solar system, perhaps it will help us form some idea of the

immensity of the universe of which we speak.

It is well known to you all that our solar system is made up of what

the astronomers call eight major planets and a great number of minor

planets, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; that our planets

in the order of their relationship of nearness to the sun, consist

of Mercury, Venus, the earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and

Neptune, these are the eight major planets. In diameter, we are told

that Mercury measures 3,200 miles; that the diameter of Venus is 7,760

miles; that the earth is 7,918 miles in diameter; that Mars is 4,200

miles in diameter; that Jupiter is 85,000 miles in diameter (while our

earth is less than 8,000 miles in diameter, be it remembered!); that

the diameter of Saturn is 73,000 miles. Yet, take all these planets and

all their satellites, wonderful and great as they are, and consider them

melted down into one great sphere, and still our sun alone, the center

of this planetary system, is upwards of 750 times as large as all these

planets combined would be!

Let us now consider these several planets with reference to the

distance at which they revolve about their primary--the sun. Mercury

makes the circuit in 116 days; Venus makes the circuit around the sun

in 224 days; the earth of course, as you remember, makes the circuit

in 365 days; but Mars requires 687 days in which to make the journey;

while Jupiter requires 4,330 days (more than 11 years); Saturn 10,767

days (more than 29 years); Uranus, 20,660 days, or 56 years; and

Neptune, 60,127 days, or about 165 years.

The distances of these planets from the sun, in millions of miles, are

as follows: Mercury is 36 millions of miles; Venus 67 millions; the

earth 92 millions; Mars 141 millions; Jupiter 483 millions; Saturn 875

millions; Uranus 1,770 millions; Neptune 2,746 millions of miles.

These figures and the facts they represent are given that some little

idea may be conceived as to the extent of our own solar system, that

after contemplating its immensity and discovering that, inconceivably

great as it is, it is still no very considerable part of the universe,

we may arise to a brief contemplation of still greater spaces--depths

of the universe, and their contents. You see, I am using our solar

system, as the teacher referred to a moment ago used the simple

problem in arithmetic, to help solve the more intricate problem of

comprehending a little more clearly the immensity of the universe. Let

us resume our work. Professor Newcomb in his "Popular Astronomy" makes

use of the following illustration to help the popular mind grasp the

immensity of the sidereal system:

"Turning our attention from this system to the thousands of fixed

stars which stud the heavens, the first thing to be considered is

their enormous distance asunder, compared with the dimensions of

the solar system, though the latter are themselves inconceivably

great. To give an idea of the relative distances, suppose a voyager

through the celestial spaces could travel from the sun to the

outermost planet of our system in 24 hours. So enormous would be

his velocity, that it would carry him across the Atlantic ocean,

from New York to Liverpool, in less than a tenth of a second of the

clock. Starting from the sun with this velocity, he would cross the

orbits of the inner planets in rapid succession, and the outer ones

more slowly, until, at the end of a single day, he would reach the

confines of our system, crossing the orbit of Neptune. But, though

he passed eight planets the first day, he would pass none the next,

for he would have to journey 18 or 20 years, without diminution of

speed, before he would reach the nearest star, and would then have

to continue his journey as far again before he could reach another.

All the planets of our system would have vanished in the distance,

in the course of the first three days, and the sun would be but an

insignificant star in the firmament. The conclusion is, that our

sun is one of an enormous number of self-luminous bodies scattered

at such distances that years would be required to traverse the

space between them, even when the voyager went at the rate we have

supposed." (Newcomb's Astronomy, p. 104.)

Just now the great winter constellations are leaving our skies;

still, in the evening, you may yet see Orion, in the western sky; and

following, and shining most brightly of all the stars in the firmament,

the Dog star. It is estimated by our astronomers that light travels

through space at the enormous speed of 198,000 miles per second; that

in about eight minutes a ray of light reaches our earth from the sun.

Yet, this Dog star, to which I call your attention, is so distant from

us that it requires something like 16 years for a ray of light to reach

us from that distant and splendid sun; and from the familiar Pole

star, it requires 40 years for a ray of light to reach our earth. Mr.

Samuel Kinns, well known in England, as one of the foremost thinkers

in that land, tells us that this Dog star, judging from the amount of

light emitted from him, is 3,000 times larger than our own sun; and he

argues, that if this great primary, is so many times larger than our

sun, may it not be possible that the retinue of planets of which he is

doubtless the center, is correspondingly greater than our planetary

system.

Nobody knows, of course, how many fixed stars there are. Our

astronomers tell us they number all the way from 30 to 50, 60, or even

hundreds of millions; and that it is not unreasonable to suppose,

they argue, that since we find this little planet of ours inhabited

by sentient beings, by intelligences, by men and women capable of

establishing national governments, and high grades of civilization, it

is not unreasonable to suppose that in some of these more magnificent

world-systems there may be beings more intelligent, more powerful

than we are, and further advanced in arts and Sciences and all that

goes to make up superior methods of life and civilization. And if

our astronomers are anywhere nearly right in relation to the scores

of millions of suns, they report, and it is true, that they are the

centers of planetary systems, then of course of worlds such as ours,

and more magnificent than ours; there are hundreds of millions. Upon

this head Professor John W. Draper says:

"Man when he looks upon the countless multitudes of stars--when he

reflects that all he sees is only a small portion of those which

exist, yet that each is a light and life-giving sun to multitudes

of opaque, and therefore invisible worlds--when he considers the

enormous size of these various bodies and their immeasurable

distance from one another, may form an estimate of the scale on

which the world (universe) is constructed."

These reflections I trust will help to impress upon our minds the

immensity of the universe, until we can in some measure understand the

greatness of that truth announced by the Prophet Joseph, when he said:

"There are many kingdoms; and there is no space in which there is no

kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a

greater or a lesser space;" and the deductions of Ernest Haeckel, when

he said: "The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded. It is

empty in no part, but every where filled with substance. The duration

of the world is equally infinite and unbounded. It has no end; it is

eternity."

Mormonism recognizes certain eternal truths, necessary truths, because

the opposite of them cannot be conceived of--as, for example, that

space or extension is boundless, as one of our hymns puts it:

"If you could hie to Kolob,

In the twinkling of an eye,

And then continue onward,

With that same speed to fly--

"Do you think that you could ever,

Through all eternity,

Find out the generation

Where Gods began to be?

"Or see the grand beginning,

Where space did not extend?

Or view the last creation,

Where Gods and matter end?"

You cannot limit space in any conception of it you may form--try how

you will; for as soon as you fix the limitation, your mind conceives

extension beyond the point you fix upon, and you may fix it as distant

as you please. So, also, in relation to duration. Mormonism recognizes

no limit to duration. Time is endless; there is no absolute beginning

or end of time. All beginnings and endings spoken of are but relative,

and concern not duration absolutely, but "time" within eternity, when

a certain order of things begins or when it reaches an end. We measure

duration so, and call it time. So in relation to matter. Mormonism

recognizes the eternity of matter and also eternity of spirit; that

matter is uncreated; spirit is also uncreated. These, spirit and

matter, are eternal existences, constituting what our Book of Mormon

speaks of as "things to act and things to be acted upon." (II Nephi

ii:14.)

Referring back now to the immensity of the universe--to this limitless,

heaving, restless ocean of worlds and world-systems--is it inhabited by

sentient beings? Or stands it tenantless save only for our own little

earth--less than the single grain of sand on limitless sea shores? On

this head Sir Robert Ball, one of the leading men of science in England

has a most thoughtful passage; and though it would seem to open again

the subject of the immensity of the universe on which we have already

dwelt over long, still I cannot consent to omit any part of what

follows:

"We know of the existence of 30,000,000 of stars or suns, many

of them much more magnificent than the one which gives light to

our system. The majority of them are not visible to the eye, or

even recognizable by the telescope, but sensitized photographic

plates--which are for this purpose eyes that can stare unwinking

for hours at a time--have revealed their existence beyond all

doubt or question, though most of them are almost inconceivably

distant, thousands of tens of thousands of times as far off as our

sun. A telegraphic message, for example, which would reach the sun

in eight minutes, would not reach some of these stars in 1,800

years. The human mind, of course, does not really conceive such

distances, though they can be expressed in formula which the human

mind has devised, and the bewildering statement is from one point

of view singularly depressing, it reduces so greatly the probable

importance of man in the universe. It is most improbable, almost

impossible, that these great centers of light should have been

created to light up nothing, and as they are far too distant to be

of use to us, we may fairly accept the hypothesis that each one

has a system of planets around it like our own. Taking an average

of only 10 planets to each sun, that hypothesis indicates the

existence, within the narrow range to which human observation is

still confined, of at least 300,000,000 of separate worlds, many

of them doubtless of gigantic size, and it is nearly inconceivable

that those worlds can be wholly devoid of living and sentient

beings upon them. Granting the, to us, impossible hypothesis that

the final cause of the universe is accident, a fortuitous concourse

of self-existent atoms, still the accident which produced thinking

beings upon this little and inferior world must have frequently

repeated itself; while if, as we hold, there is a sentient Creator,

it is difficult to believe, without a revelation to that effect,

that he has wasted such glorious creative power upon mere masses

of insensible matter. God cannot love gases. The probability, at

least, is that there are millions of worlds--for after all, what

the sensitized paper sees must be but an infinitesimal fraction of

the whole occupied by sentient beings."

This is as far as scientific men may go. Our astronomers stand upon

our earth with their telescopes directed to the planet Mars, which

most nearly resembles the physical conditions of our own earth, so

far as may be judged, and they speculate as to whether or not Mars is

inhabited. And while they thus stand halting, our Prophet, through the

revelations of God and the inspiration of the Almighty that was in him,

proclaimed these worlds and world-systems to be inhabited by the sons

and daughters of God. Let me read a passage of Mormon scripture to you:

"There are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there

is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space,

either a greater or a lesser kingdom;

"And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there

are certain bounds also and conditions. * *

"Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?

"Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or

the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.

"Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field and

he sent forth his servants into the field to labor in the field;

"And he said unto the first, go ye, and labor in the field, and in

the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of

my countenance;

"And he said unto the second, go ye also into the field, and in the

second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance"--and

so he said unto all.

"And thus they all received the light of the countenance of their

lord; every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season;

"Beginning at the first, and so on unto the last, and from the last

unto the first, and from the first unto the last.

* * * *

"Therefore, unto this parable will I liken all these kingdoms, and

the inhabitants thereof; every kingdom in its hour, and in its

time, and in its season; even according to the decree which God

hath made."

The late Elder Orson Pratt, in a Footnote, commenting upon the above

passages says:

"The inhabitants of each planet blessed with the presence and

visits of their Creator."

That which scientific men may only properly say is a probability,

the Prophet Joseph boldly proclaims as revealed truth--the universe

is not tenantless, but is inhabited by sentient beings--the

offspring of Divine Beings.

III.

PHILOSOPHY OF MORMONISM.

I think now we have sufficient data before us on which we may proceed

to the consideration of the philosophy of Mormonism.

With your permission, then, and asking you to bear with me and

follow me as closely as you can in what I now have to offer, I will

read--because one ought to be careful in stating conceptions of

important things--I will read to you a few paragraphs touching these

great and, I think, essential principles of so-called Mormonism that

ought to be considered when we are discussing Mormonism as a body of

doctrine. I trust we shall arrive at the conclusion, finally, that

it is worth more than the "respect of a passing glance." It would be

difficult to characterize Mormon philosophy under any of the schools

extant. "Eternalism" I should select as the word best suited for its

philosophic conceptions. It is dualistic, but not in the sense that

it breaks up the universe into two entirely distinct substances--the

material world and an "immaterial God,"--as the Christian philosophy,

in the main does. It is also monistic, but not in the sense that in the

last analysis of things it recognizes no distinctions in matter, or

that matter--gross material--and spirit, or mind, a finer and thinking

kind of material, are fused into one inseparable sole substance which

is at once "God and nature," as the monists claim. Its dualism is

that which, while recognizing an infinitely extended substance, the

universe, unbounded and empty in no part, but everywhere filled with

substance--it holds, nevertheless, that such substance exists in

two principle modes, having some qualities in common, and in others

being distinct; first, gross material, usually recognized as matter,

pure and simple; and, second, a finer, thinking substance, usually

regarded by other systems of thought as "spirit," i.e., "immaterial

substance"--if one may use terms so contradictory. These two kinds

of matter have existed from all eternity and will exist to eternity,

in intimate relations. Neither produces the other, they are eternal

existences--"things to act and things to be acted upon." The monism of

Mormonism, alluded to a moment since, while recognizing the universe as

infinitely extended substance and all substance as material--and hence,

in this respect, monistic; yet it also recognizes the world substance

as being of two kinds: one gross material; the other a finer, or

thinking material; having some qualities in common with gross matter,

and in others being distinct. "All spirit is matter," said our Prophet,

"but it is more fine or pure [i.e., than gross matter tangible to our

ordinary senses] and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We cannot

see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all

matter."

After these distinctions are made and all the while held in

consciousness, so that there shall not be a loss of distinction in

things, nor a confounding of things, we may hereafter use the terms

"intelligence" and "matter"--equivalent of mind and matter--as naming

the two modes in which, for Mormonism, the eternal and infinitely

extended substance, the universe, exists. To say that intelligence

dominates matter and produces all the ceaseless changes going on in

the universe, both of creation and demolition, for both forces are

operating--as our Pearl of Great Price says: "There are many worlds

that have passed away, by the world of my [God's] power; and there are

many that now stand; and as one earth shall pass away and the heavens

thereof, even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works;"

and hence the creation and demolition to which reference is here made.

To say that mind dominates matter, I repeat, is merely to say that

the superior dominates the inferior; that which acts is greater than

that which is acted upon; that mind is the eternal cause of the "ever

becoming" in the universe, the cause and sustainer of the cosmic world.

It is also to say that mind is power; that mind possesses as qualities

the power of thought, and will, and life, and love.

As the grosser material exists ultimately in elements that are

themselves eternal--uncreated and uncreatable, so the finer or thinking

substance, intelligence is eternal--uncreated and uncreatable. That is

the doctrine of the revelation, which says: "Man was in the beginning

with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created, or

made--neither, indeed, can be;" and as the gross material, atoms,

exist, some in organized worlds and world-systems, the cosmos; and

also others in chaotic mass, so the intelligences, intelligent

entities, exist in somewhat analogous states, some in the form of

perfected exalted men clothed upon with immortal bodies, as the Christ

was--nay, rather is now, today, and participating in a nature that

is divine--having won their exaltation through stress and trial in

the various estates or changes through which they have passed; other

intelligences exist in spirit bodies, less tangible than the first

class, possessed of less experience, less of power and dignity, but

still they are in the way of progress through other estates yet to be

experienced by them; also intelligences not yet begotten spirits, not

yet united with elements of the grosser substance, union with which is

essential to the highest development of intelligences. You find this

last doctrine mainly-recorded in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, as

follows:

"The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably

connected" [as in the case of resurrected, glorified personages]

"inseparably connected, receive 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; and whatsoever temple is defiled God shall destroy that

temple."

Such is the Mormon view of the universe and the modes of existence in

it, briefly outlined. These existences, both of the thinking substance

and the grosser materials, are subject to infinite changes and

development in which there are no ultimates. Each succeeding wave of

progress may attain higher and ever higher degrees of excellence, but

never attain perfection: The ideal recedes ever as it is approached;

and, hence, progress is eternal, even for the highest of existences.

One other thought in connection with all these matters. I read to you

a few moments ago a passage to the effect that "to all these kingdoms

of the infinite universe is given a law, and unto every law there are

certain bounds also and conditions." Later in the same revelation this

is added: "Verily I say unto you he, [God] hath given a law unto all

things by which they move in their times and in their seasons. And

their courses are fixed; even the courses of the heavens and the earth,

which comprehend the earth and all the planets; and they give light to

each other in their times and in their season, in their minutes, in

their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in their months, in their

years; all these are one year with God, but not with man."

In passing it may be interesting to note respecting the idea expressed

above, viz., that "to every law there are certain bounds also and

conditions,"--that a remarkable statement was made by a learned man

of our own country touching this same principle. The passage quoted

from Joseph Smith bears the date of December, 1832. Sixty-three years

afterwards, Henry Drummond, speaking upon this principle of law being

limited by law--or law itself being under the dominion of law--said:

"One of the most striking generalizations of recent science is that

even laws have their law."

That is to say, even unto laws there are certain bounds and conditions

that limit them. Let me illustrate it, if I can. The old-time mariner,

say of a hundred years ago, knew nothing of nature's forces applied

to navigation except the tides, the ocean currents, and the winds. He

believed these were all the propelling forces that entered into ocean

navigation. If he were alive today, and could see one of our great

ocean greyhounds, the modern passenger ocean steamship, dashing through

the waves dead against both ocean currents and the wind, and yet making

greater speed than he could ever attain in his sailing vessel with

both wind and the tide in his favor, he would declare that he beheld a

miracle. But that would not be true. We of today, with our knowledge

of other forces than those of wind and ocean currents operating in

ocean navigation, look upon the steamship's speed as perfectly natural.

The natural forces with which the mariner of a hundred years ago was

acquainted are simply overcome by other forces in nature; not in

violation of any natural law, but through the application of forces

unknown to the sailor of a hundred years ago. So, doubtless we shall

find it true in relation to nearly all laws or forces that exist.

We shall find still other laws, still other forces, that limit or

supercede, when applied, the forces now known to us.

But what I wanted to do is merely to call your attention to the fact

that Mormonism teaches this very great doctrine, viz., that the whole

universe--unlimited and unbounded as it is, and having within it and

now operating processes both of evolution and devolution--as it is

written in the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price): "Behold there are

many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there

are many that now stand, and innumerable are they to man. * * * And

as one earth shall pass away and the heavens thereof, even so shall

another come; and there is no end to my works"--notwithstanding all

this is going on in the universe, the operation of both creative and

destructive forces, yet we are assured by the word of God as well as

by the deductions of scientists and philosophers that all the mighty

change going on in the universe, as well as the universe itself, are

under the dominion of law; and in the consciousness of the reign of

law, our faith teaches us to repose sublime and perfect confidence in

the fact that

"God is in his world:

"All is well with the world."

Such I conceive to be the effect of this conception that we live under

the reign of law; and that constructive forces predominate in the

economy of things, else things that are would not be nor persist.

IV.

SOURCE OF MORAL EVIL.

Now we come to an element in our faith, extremely interesting and

that is the transgression of law, which the Apostle John declares to

be sin: "for sin," said he, "is the transgression of the law." This

transgression of law is a fact that has to be taken into account in

the sum of things. The existence of moral evil in the world is one of

the problems that has vexed Christian theologians from the earliest of

times until now. They have had extreme difficulty in reconciling their

conception of God as an absolute being, infinitely wise, all-powerful,

all-good, and that he created everything out of nothing, and yet not

assign to him the creation of evil. If all things have been produced

by an infinitely righteous, perfect, all-powerful, and good Creator,

how can moral evil exist in his economy? That is a question to which

no satisfactory explanation has yet been found. Mormonism teaches that

God does not create moral evil; but that moral evil arises out of the

agency of intelligences, and that so long as there are intelligences,

possessed of free agency, it means that they can violate law, if they

insist upon doing it. To conceive this as impossible would be to deny

the free agency of intelligences.

I know there is one passage that, perhaps, might be quoted against my

contention, that God does not create evil. It occurs in the writings of

Isaiah, it is said--and it is the only place in Scripture where it is

said, so far as I have been able to learn--"I [God] make peace," and "I

create evil." "I create"--what? "Evil," such as the opposite of peace,

such as war, famine, and the like. But to what end does God cause war,

or famine? For corrective purposes only, to chastize men, to bring

them to a realization of wrong-doing, or national transgression. For

these ends God has, sometimes, brought to pass these conditions that we

recognize as evil. But that class of evils is quite a distinct thing

from moral evil. Though God may bring on a famine, storm, tempest, or

war for corrective purposes, yet God is not the creator of falsehood;

he is not the creator of slander; nor of drunkenness; nor of avarice,

nor malice, nor of robbery, nor unkindness, nor of adulteries. These

moral evils are not of his creating. Jesus Christ did not say, "Lead

us not into temptation," for, as the Apostle James instructs us, God

cannot be tempted of evil. "Let no man," says he, "when he is tempted,

say, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither

tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of

his own lusts and enticed. Then lust when it hath conceived bringeth

forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." The

prayer of the Christ, as taught to his apostles, and as restored

through the word of the Lord to our Prophet, is not, "And lead us not

into temptation," but "Suffer us not to be led into temptation, deliver

us from evil."

So far as moral evil is concerned, then, I say it is not of God's

creation. It is one of those possibilities that are eternal. It did not

begin with the transgression of Adam upon this earth. It existed before

that; even in the heavens, when Lucifer rebelled against the King and

majesty of heaven--God. Lucifer had power even there to sin; and so

far back as the agency of intelligences extends, there has existed

always the possibility of sin; and so far forward as the agency of

intelligences shall extend, there will always be the possibility, of

the transgression of law, of sin; for sin potentially, is an eternal

reality. It is concurrent with the free agency of intelligences.

But God, according to Mormon doctrine, does not create evil, tempt

men with it, and then when not sufficiently strong to withstand the

temptation, damn them everlastingly for falling. The only way in

which God affects men is favorably, that is, he helps them in their

apprehension of and their adoption of the good. He does not, according

to Mormon doctrine, create intelligence, for that is an independent,

self-existing thing; therefore not even God creates man's intelligence,

that is uncreated and uncreatable--an eternal thing. As I have said

elsewhere, God is not responsible for the use they make of their

freedom; nor is he the author of their sufferings when they fall

into sin; suffering arises out of the violations of law to which the

"intelligence" subscribed, and must be endured until the lessons of

obedience to law are learned.

Man has his choice of moving upward or downward in every estate

he occupies; often defeating even the benevolent purposes of God

respecting him, through his own perverseness; he passes through

dire experiences, suffers terribly, yet learns by what he suffers,

so that his very suffering becomes a means to his improvement; he

learns swiftly or slowly, according to the inherent nature of him,

obedience to law; he learns that "that which is governed by law is also

preserved by law, and perfected and sanctified by the same; and that

which breaketh the law and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a

law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth

in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice nor

judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still." This conception of

things relieves God of the responsibility for the nature and status of

intelligences in all stages of their development; their inherent nature

and their volition makes them primarily what they are, and this nature

they may change, slowly, perhaps, yet change it they may. God has put

them in the way of changing it, by enlarging their intelligence through

change of environment, and through experiences.

THE PLACE AND MISSION OF CHRIST IN MORMON DOCTRINE.

There is a singular fact connected with this subject of moral evil--of

sin. And that is that the transgression of the moral law entails

suffering, even as violation of physical law may result in pain, or

sickness or death. The way of the transgressor is hard. "Whatsoever

a man soweth that shall he reap." "The wages of sin is death." Not

only are these truisms, but it is also true that often the righteous

are made to suffer because of the transgressions of the wicked. The

innocent are involved in the misery of the guilty. No man lives unto

himself alone, and he may, and often does involve others in his

transgressions. It is possible for the fathers to suffer because of

the sins of the children. It is possible for the children to suffer

because of the sins of the fathers. Many a father can still exclaim as

David did over his wayward son Absalom, "O! my son! Would to God that

I had died for thee!" This is one of the difficulties that confront

religious thought--the innocent being involved in the sufferings of

the guilty. Yet, from the midst of our perplexity over such a seeming

injustice as this, there comes to us the mighty testimony that it is

not only possible but it is a fact, that the innocent can and do suffer

with and because of the transgression of the guilty; may they not also

suffer for them, since vicarious suffering is a possibility? On that

possibility hinges the whole gospel of the Christ, and the saving power

of the atonement. It is deeply written in the experiences of men that

the innocent can suffer with and because of the guilty; and it is the

doctrine of the Christian revelation that the innocent can suffer for

the guilty, as witness the following testimonies: "For when we were yet

without strength, in due time Christ died for us." "Christ also hath

once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us

to God." "He [the Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of

himself. * * * So Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many; and

unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin

unto salvation." "Christ also suffered for us. * * Who his own self

bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin,

should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we were healed." It is

very clear, then, that it is the doctrine of the Christian revelation,

which doctrine of course, Mormonism accepts, that Christ suffered

for man's transgressions. There is Scripture evidence also, could we

but take the time to point it out, to prove that the whole scheme of

man's earth-life and his redemption was considered even before the

foundations of the earth itself were laid. And the Redeemer chosen and

agreed upon and hence was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the

world." Paul announces himself as living, "In hope of eternal life,

which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began." The

facts in brief are that the time came when for the progress of spirit

intelligences an earth-life, under conditions such as exist in this

world, became necessary to them. To bring to pass that earth-life the

union of spirit with earth element and attended by the experiences

which such a life would bring, involved transgression of law,

involving the race in sin and death from which it was only possible to

extricate it by adequate atonement being made to satisfy the claims of

inexorable law. In this crisis there arose in the councils in heaven

one great, sympathetic Soul who recognized not only the fact that the

innocent can suffer with the guilty, or because of the guilty, but

_for_ the guilty, and offered himself a sacrifice for the sin that

should be committed in breaking the harmony of things in order to give

intelligences the advantages of earth-life and its lessons. The Christ

would make atonement for Adam's transgression, so that as in Adam all

should die, as saith the Scriptures, so in Christ should all be made

alive; that "since by man came death, by man should come also the

resurrection of the dead." And not only was this vicarious atonement

made to cover the transgression of Adam, but it was made to reach also

to the individual sins of men, that they might not suffer if they

would accept the gospel. The doctrine is better stated in a revelation

given to our Prophet than anywhere else in sacred literature, hence

I quote that revelation. Let it be borne in mind that transgression

of the moral law--sin--is attended upon by suffering, and now this

revelation. It was given through the Prophet to Martin Harris, one of

the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, reproving him for some of

his delinquencies:

"And surely every man must repent or suffer, for I, God, am endless,

"Wherefore, I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes

shall go forth, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, yea, to

those who are found on my left hand;

* * * * *

"Therefore I command you to repent, repent, lest I smite you by

the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your

sufferings be sore--how sore you know not! how exquisite you know

not! yea, how hard to bear you know not!

"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they

might not suffer if they would repent,

"But if they would not repent, they must suffer even as I,

"Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to

tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer

both body and spirit; and would that I might not drink that bitter

cup and shrink--

"Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, I partook and finished my

preparations unto the children of men;

"Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you

with my almighty power, and that you confess your sins, test you

suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the

smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time

I withdrew my spirit."

I presume that the experience of Martin Harris, here described, has

at least been sufficiently the experience of every matured man and

woman--that they know this testimony to be true, that is, that sin

produces suffering--sorrow, anguish of heart; and when the Spirit of

the Lord is withdrawn and darkness, like the blackness of night surges

through the soul of man, and the sun of righteousness seems set for

him, he is then made to feel what it means to sin against the law

of God as it has been revealed unto his soul. When you think of the

bitterness of that personal suffering, you will not marvel that when

the heavy burden of a world's sin rested down upon the Son of God in

Gethsemane--you certainly will not marvel that he sweat great drops of

blood in his agony; nor wonder at his suffering on the cross.

Now, the transgression of the moral law we say results in suffering. It

is possible for the innocent to suffer for the guilty, and through the

voluntary act of the Christ, he took upon him your sins and mine, if we

will but be bought by the price which he paid for us. He has suffered

that we might not suffer, if we would but obey his law henceforth.

The atonement of the Christ both for Adam's transgression and for

the individual sins of men, brings into the moral economy of God the

element of mercy, and of love from which mercy springs. To make room

for mercy, however, justice had to be satisfied, hence the atonement.

"And God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that

whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting

life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world through him might be saved." This sacrifice of

the Christ is the manifestation of that love of God that binds in

sympathetic relations all the intelligences of the universe together;

by which they suffer not only _with_ each other and _because_ of each

other, but at need _for_ each other. This is the doctrine of the

atonement of the Christ; this the good news of salvation, the gospel of

Jesus Christ. You may be rescued, I may be rescued, from the suffering

that comes of sin, through the vicarious atonement of the Christ. And

that the forces of that atonement may be applied to us, we manifest our

acceptance of this means of salvation by our repentance of sin, and

by going into the waters of baptism, into the great cleansing element

of the world, and there are buried with the Christ in likeness of his

own burial; and then we are brought forth from the watery tomb in the

likeness of his glorious resurrection; and as he awoke to a newness of

physical life, by the resurrection, so, too, may we come forth from

baptism to a newness of spiritual life. We also complete the baptism

by the application of the purifying element, the baptism of the Holy

Ghost--likened unto a baptism of fire. The Spirit of God is thus

imparted to our spirit, which means that our lives are united with the

life of God; by which his wisdom may be at our service; by which his

strength may be our strength; his glory, may be our glory. Thus may men

be united to God by these most beautiful and holy symbols of the gospel

of Jesus Christ. Then, to keep the object lessons constantly before us,

and to be reminded of the price that was paid for the possibility of

our redemption from sin, we often partake of the emblems of the body

and of the blood of the Christ, by which we renew covenant, by which we

renew spiritual life, and thus keep our fellowship with God, that the

blood of Christ may cleanse us from all sin.

This, in part, is the body of our doctrine. This is the grand scheme

of man's salvation, and the philosophy that underlies it. This is

our doctrine concerning the universe, concerning the existence of

intelligences within it, the purpose of earth-life of man, and the

means provided for man's redemption from the consequences of the

transgression of law involved in that earth-life. Judge ye, this day,

whether such a body of doctrine as this is not worthy of something more

than "the cold respect of a passing glance."

V.

PEACE.

Remarks at the "Peace Meeting," held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle,

Sunday afternoon, May 16th, 1909, following a Discourse by Elder W. W.

Riter on the subject of "Universal Peace."

I.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF PEACE.

"And he [Jehovah] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke

many people; and they shall beat their swords into plow shares,

and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword

against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This is the passage of Scripture which Elder Riter referred to as

being the one which, perhaps, will be more frequently repeated today

than any other passage of Scripture; for in our own land, and other

Christian lands, this day is dedicated to the promotion of peace; to

the suggesting of ways and means by which peaceful arbitration may be

substituted for the dreadful arbitrament of war, in the settlement of

international difficulties.

I presume there is no one but what loves peace. We remember, of

course, the injunction of the Psalmist, "to seek peace and pursue

it." We recall, on this occasion, the song of the angels at the birth

of the Christ, when the hope of Isaiah in a new form was expressed

in the song of the angels, in the Judean hills--"Glory to God in the

highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." I think of all

the salutations that were ever spoken to man, the most beautiful is

that salutation of the Christ after his resurrection upon meeting his

disciples--"Peace be unto you!" This afterwards became the universal

Christian salutation--"Peace be unto you!" "He [the Christ] hath called

us to peace," is Paul's declaration. Again: "if it be possible--as much

as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Of wisdom it is said:

"Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are paths of

peace."

From all these expressions we learn, of course, the desirability and

the beauty and grace of peace--"peace on earth, and toward men good

will." Strange indeed would be the spectacle of a man who would express

himself in favor of war instead of peace. Peace is the mother of

abundance; the nurse of sciences and of arts; for without peace these

things may not abound. Peace is essential to the progress of nations;

some one has called it the "calm health of nations." Every prompting

of the heart and every deduction of the reasonable mind would array

all men upon the side of peace. Good sense demands it; prosperity and

progress of nations demand it. I give my voice for peace. But in our

contemplation of this subject, there are some other things that, I

think, ought to be considered. We must not forget that there is such a

thing as "ignoble peace," There has been in the past, and there may be

in the future, such things as "honorable wars." There are some things

in this world that can not be arbitrated. A burglar, for instance,

enters your home, and he loads up his bag with your valuables--your

jewelry, your money, the product of your frugality and industry--and

when you catch him red-handed in the act, he may not drop his bag and

propose arbitration. You can't arbitrate the case; he must be seized

and brought before the courts, and receive the punishment due to his

crime. The community must be protected against such characters. It

is equally true that there are international affairs that may not

be arbitrated. A host may not invade our territory, and while still

occupying it propose arbitration of differences between us. We will

not endure the presence of the invader. He must be driven from the

fatherland. Until we reach the basis of assured justice in personal

affairs and in national affairs, the world may not hope to dispense

with the force that can demand and assure justice. The very existence

of law implies force. The great Napoleon, who will yet be recognized

as a greater statesman than he was warrior, once said, "Your laws are

mere nullities without the force necessary to make them respected." Law

implies penalty; penalty implies force; force, in the last analysis of

it, means armies and navies, and there is no escaping the conclusion.

While God is spoken of as a God of justice, he is also spoken of as a

God of battles: and we have a number of instances named in holy writ,

where God justified war--notwithstanding all the horrors attendant upon

it. There are some things worse than war, and there are some things

even better than peace. Justice is better than peace; and without

justice, be assured you can have no enduring peace. War is horrible,

but slavery is worse. Deprivation of your rights, the right to life, to

liberty, and to the pursuit of happiness--to be deprived of these is

worse than war; and these are worth all that it costs to maintain them,

worthy of all that even a war would cost us to maintain them.

II.

THE GOD OF BATTLES.

I was much impressed, many years ago, in reading the account of Joshua,

when he was taking possession of the land which God had given to the

Hebrew race. As he was nearing Jericho, in the early days of his

conquests, on one occasion he observed a stranger approaching, with his

sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him and said, "Art thou

for us, or for our adversaries?" "Nay," said this glorious personage,

"but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come;" and Joshua

fell at his feet and worshiped him without reproach, acknowledging him

as lord, and inquired what he would have him to do; and the divine

personage--for he was no less--required the warrior, Joshua, to remove

the very shoes from his feet, for he was standing on holy ground! How

different this incident from that where an angel appeared unto John,

the beloved disciple, and John, overwhelmed with the glamor of the

angel's brightness, fell down and worshiped him, or would have done

so, but the angel quickly raised him up and said, "See thou do it not,

for I am of thy fellow servants and of thy brethren that have the

testimony of Jesus, worship God." But in the case of Joshua bowing down

to this personage, with drawn sword in hand, "Captain of the Lord's

hosts," he was not stopped in his worship of him; proving to us that

this personage was more than an angel--that he was divine. What, Deity?

Yes, or why was he worshiped by Joshua? Again, it is written in the

Scriptures:

"The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of

Manasseh--made war with the Hagarites--and they were helped against

them: for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of

them; because they put their trust in him.--Then fell down many

slain, because the war was of God."

These incidents represent God indeed as a God of battles. I know it

is said that "War is hell," and therefore, from that standpoint, some

people may think that God has little or nothing to do with war; but at

this point I may say that I share the views of his Grace the Archbishop

of Armagh, who, in a poem published a few years ago, said:

"They say that 'war is hell,' the 'great accursed,

'The sin impossible to be forgiven--

Yet I can look beyond it at its worst,

And still find blue in Heaven.

"And when I note how nobly natures form

Under the war's red rain, I deem it true,

That he who made the earthquake and the storm,

Perchance made battles too!

* * * * *

"As the heaven's many colored flames

At sunset are but dust in rich disguise--

The ascending earthquake dust of battle frames

God's pictures in the skies."

III.

JUSTICE THE BASIS OF PEACE.

You will see, from what I have here said, that while I am interested

in this question of peace, and believe in it, I have little sympathy

with the hysteria that sometimes goes with those who advocate it. If

the world wants peace--very good; the world may have it; but that

world-peace which has been the dream of prophets and sages must

have for its basis justice. No more beautiful expression than this:

"Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other;" and peace is of

little worth till kissed by righteousness. Make your basis of universal

peace universal justice, and peace is assured. And may we hope for

it, this universal peace? Most assuredly. It has been promised the

world by divine wisdom, and his word will not fail; but when we get

universal peace, it will be because righteousness has been established,

and because justice is assured. Those of us, then, who are interested

in establishing international peace--universal peace--let us proceed

by seeking to establish righteousness--personal and national--and

by establishing justice. Already there has been wonderful progress

made by the world in this direction. Already we may see the twilight

breaking over the eastern hills that gives assurance of the coming

day of peace spoken of by the prophets. Elder Riter has traced for us

some of the developments in this progress. I think, in modern days

our movements towards it have been almost by leaps and bounds. It was

in 1815 that the first peace society in the world, was organized.

That organization was effected in the United States. It took place

immediately after the close of the unfortunate war of 1812, our last

war, with Great Britain--pray God it may be, indeed, the very last!

The circumstances attendant upon that war, the pity of seeing people

of the same race and of the same religion, locked in deadly conflict;

and then, too, the unhappy circumstances of having the chief great

land battle fought some fifteen or twenty days after the peace between

the two nations had really been signed--these circumstances created a

sentiment against such wars as this, wars between people so closely

allied in interest and sentiment, and religion--it was like brother

fighting brother! And the great internecine war between the American

states presented to the world even a sadder picture, and created a

still stronger sentiment for peace. So the peace movement began from

these circumstances, and from these beginnings grew until from a purely

local movement it became a national one; and today is an international

one. In 1899 we had the happiness of seeing the world's first great,

permanent international court of arbitration established, the beginning

of the fulfilment of that dream of the prophets, the establishment

of the universal parliament of the world, the federation of nations.

The leading nations of Europe and America sent delegations to the

Hague that year, and there was established this permanent court of

arbitration, which has already passed upon some twelve international

cases, and that has quite a number of cases still pending before it.

This is progress beyond the dreams of men a quarter of a century ago.

But these things grow slowly. We need not marvel if the movement that

finally established this permanent international court of arbitration

grew slowly. "Constitutions," says an authority on civil law, "are not

made--they grow." They come up out of the long experience of races

of men. They are beaten out upon the anvil of human experience. Take

a single nation, a homogenous people--how slow they have been, in

the centuries of the past, to come to a settlement of the questions

pertaining to the civil rights of persons, to their political rights

under the law. How slow individuals have been to learn that liberty

is liberty under the law; and not the license to do as one pleases,

irrespective of the rights of others! You may be assured that if a race

or a nation has made slow progress along these lines, when the people

were homogenous, when their civilization was identical, when their

aspirations were of one character--then you may be assured that nations

of different races, civilizations, traditions and temperaments will

still make slower progress and require a longer time to conform their

conduct to international law, the object of which shall be to dispense

justice among the nations. Still we may hope that this movement towards

a recognition of international justice and universal peace will be more

rapid than in past ages as to national reforms and progress, since we

live in an age noted for the diffusion of knowledge, and a constantly

widening circle of intelligence.

In this text I have read to you, there is one thing that I want to

call your attention to, that we are apt to overlook, and that is

this: "And He [Jehovah] shall judge among the nations, and shall

rebuke many people," etc. Mark you that! Jehovah "shall judge among

the nations;" then comes your promise of the beating of swords into

plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks. When? When Jehovah judges

among the nations--when his law, the very essence of which is justice,

is observed and honored by the nations; then we may hope to find the

fulfillment of the dream of the prophet,--and not until then. And

when the dream of the poets and sages shall come to pass, and the

federation of nations shall be a reality, and there shall be the

world's parliament--what then? Why, even then you will find that law

implies force to compel obedience, and that force in the last analysis

of things means armies, navies--war! So that when the world shall be

removed from the possibilities of war, I do not know. My judgment is

that we shall need courts, police, armies, navies--the embodiment

of force, just so long as on the part of individuals and groups of

individuals and communities and nations there is a disposition to

resort to acts of injustice, to violate law, to gratify the disposition

in man to make aggression upon his fellow-men. These things must be

restrained; and, in some cases force only is the means by which they

may be restrained; so that the means of the enforcement of law, so far

as I can see, must live as long as there is law.

Well, this view is not so very hopeful for international--for universal

peace, is it? I read, in my Scriptures, about their having been war

even in heaven; and I do not know but what there may be future wars in

other heavens--I am sure there will be if there is rebellion against

law, and justice, and good order; and it will extend into the future,

as well as being a reality of the past. Now, do you not see that the

end of all our reflections upon the subject simply means that you must

have righteousness or you can have no peace? You must have justice or

you can never have peace. Neither Gods nor men have been able to have

peace in the past, not even in heaven, apart from these principles;

and what holds as to the past, I think is very likely to hold for the

future.

As to the sorrow that wars bring to us--I scarcely know what to say of

that. But even sorrows have their mission in this world; and suffering

has its mission. I think that any Christian who rightly understands

the gospel of Jesus Christ will value all the more the salvation that

comes to him, by reason of what it cost--the blood-sweat of the Christ

in Gethsemane, as well as his sufferings on Calvary. I think a man

should value the liberties that he enjoys all the more because of the

awful price that has been paid for them. I read here in our Book of

Doctrine and Covenants that God inspired the fathers of our republic

to establish the Constitution of our country--the United States; and

he tells us that he "redeemed the land by the shedding of blood." Are

these battles of the past, these sufferings and sacrifices of past

generations, of no value? I prize the liberties of our age and the

civilization of our times, not only because of the value of the things

in themselves, but also because of the price that the generations

in the past have paid for them. They become sanctified through the

suffering and the sacrifice that it has been necessary to make fo

them. Father Ryan has voiced some sentiments, in which I share, and I

am going to read them to you. It is said by some one, whom I do not

now remember, that "Calvaries and crucifixes take deepest hold of

humanity--the triumphs of might are transient, they pass away and are

forgotten--the sufferings of Right are graven deepest on the chronicles

of nations." I do not believe that all the suffering of the past is

wasted, by any manner of means, "Crowns of roses fade; crowns of thorns

endure!" And now for this poem:

THE LAND WITH MEMORIES.

"Yes! give me a land where the ruins are spread,

And the living tread light on the hearts of the dead;

Yes, give me a land that is blest by the dust,

And bright with the deeds of the downtrodden just!

Yes, give me the land that hath legend and lays

Enshrining the memories of long-vanished days;

Yes, give me a land that hath story and song,

To tell of the strife of the Right with the Wrong;

Yes, give me the land with a grave in each spot,

And names in the graves that shall not be forgot!

Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb,

There's a grandeur in graves--there's a glory in gloom!

For out of the gloom future brightness is born,

And the graves of the dead, with the grass overgrown,

May yet form the footstool of Liberty's throne,

And each single wreck in the war-path of Might,

Shall yet be a rock in the Temple of Right!" [1]

[Footnote 1: This poem was often quoted by Mr. Alexander Stephens, of

Georgia, than whom America has produced few greater statesmen, and this

poem for him seemed to voice the sorrows of the South after the close

of the war between the States.]

Now, let us have peace, even if we have to fight for it--and in my

judgment, for some time to come, if you have peace, it will be because

you are prepared to fight for it; and when the great central government

shall be established--the world's federation of nations--it will need

the force, the power to compel men to submit to its just decrees.

This dream of the poet, here in Isaiah, shall be fulfilled in very

deed, when God shall judge among the nations; because when he judges

among the nations, he will judge in righteousness, and he will judge

in justice; that will insure the world's peace; and our national

armaments then will not be necessary. But what experiences, national

and international, lie between where we now stand and the attainment

of that end--who may tell? Another prophet caught a glimpse of that

side of the question, when he declared that the nations would beat

their plows into swords, and their pruning hooks into spears (Joel

3:10); and there is something in the way of experience in that kind

for modern nations, in all probability. Yet, I am a man of peace, I

believe in peace. I intend to work for peace, but I cannot close my

eyes to some of these things that are born out of the experiences of

races and nations of men; but may God grant that the spirit of peace

may increase in the world--there is much need of it, but when peace

becomes universal and permanent, be assured it will be so, because

righteousness and justice shall have been established in the world.

VI.

THE MYSTERIOUS HARMONIES OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC.

Being a development of the thought that God had part in founding the

government of the United States and is directing its destinies. (Fourth

of July speech at Spanish Fork, 1908.)

I.

INTRODUCTION.

_Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen_: I appreciate the honor you have

done me in asking me to come to your beautiful and thriving town to

speak such things to you as this occasion may suggest. I think it

is quite generally conceded that the old-fashioned Fourth of July

celebration, like many other old-fashioned things, is growing out of

date. The thirteen guns at sunrise, the hoisting of the flag, the

early assembling of the people, the parade, in spite of heat and dust,

rain or mud, representation of the thirteen states by thirteen young

ladies--beautiful all; the assembling of the people in the grove, the

prayer of the chaplain, the reading of the Declaration of Independence,

with all its serious charges against King George III intact; and, above

all, the long and serious and wearying speech of the "orator of the

day"--all this is passing away, and we celebrate our nation's birthday

usually under less imposing ceremonies; and to this change, for one, I

have been entirely reconciled. So far reconciled, in fact, that I had

made something like a resolution that never again would I participate

in the old-fashioned methods of celebration; that I would no more

inflict on my fellow-citizens a Fourth of July speech so often misnamed

"oration."

But receiving your committee's very flattering invitation to address

the good people of Spanish Fork, a change came over the spirit of

my thought, and it occurred to me that at this particular time the

occasion might afford an opportunity for the expression of thoughts

which I am quite sure the people of your town, and the people of our

entire state, would do well to consider at this time, and hence I am

here to venture a few remarks which I hope will be of some interest to

those here assembled, and without offense to any.

THE MIRACLE OF AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS.

I think no man of intelligence can contemplate the achievements by the

United States of America through the last one hundred thirty six years

without being over-powered by the sense that what has been wrought is

the result of something more than merely unaided, human achievement.

The establishment, maintenance and extension of free institutions until

they reach triumphant success in permanent, peaceful self-government

by the people; the enlargement of our borders from the great lakes to

the gulf; from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific;

the triumphs obtained over the wilderness; the marvelous extension

of civilization; the contributions we have made to civilization

itself; the triumphs of intellect over material things; the practical

annihilation of distances; the network of railroads, trans-continental

and local, with accompanying network of telegraph lines bringing all

parts of our land into immediate communication with each other, and

with all the world; the multiplication of mechanical contrivances,

which removes man from much of the drudgery of life; the marvelous

increase in conveniences and comforts of human life, country life,

town life, city life and national life; the general uplift that has

taken place in intellectual, moral and spiritual life; our expanding

educational facilities and the wide dissemination of knowledge among

the people; the increase among the people, if not of patriotism, at

least of confidence in the permanency and success of our system of

government--all these triumphs, I repeat, proclaim a higher power than

that which is resident in human wisdom as being the force that founded

and that has guided the destinies of our country to the achievement of

all this. For some wise purpose, yet to be more perfectly unfolded,

through plot and counterplot of men, I feel that God is developing

the mysterious harmonies that shall make up the history of our great

republic. It is upon this idea that I shall dwell today, the idea that

God has had a part in founding our nation and directing thus far its

course. I am the more free to take in hand this subject today, because

I believe that I am speaking to those who quite generally accept this

view.

II.

THE INSPIRATION OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION.

The following passage is to be found in a book which many of our

citizens accept as scripture, and which represents Deity saying:

"It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

And for this purpose have I established the constitution of this

land [the United States] by the hands of wise men whom I raised up

unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of

blood." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 101.)

I think this doctrine may be maintained in two ways: First, by

reference to the historical incidents of the American revolution, in

the throes of which our nation had its birth. And, second, by an appeal

to the principles of the constitution on which our nation is founded.

Necessarily, of course the consideration of these two branches of the

subject must be very limited. Let us consider the first proposition.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago today, when the Declaration

of Independence was signed by the American patriots assembled in

Philadelphia, there were in existence, and in rebellion against Great

Britain, thirteen colonies extending along the Atlantic seaboard from

Massachusetts to Georgia. In round numbers, the population did not

reach 3,000,000. They were not a military people. They were a farming

and frontier population. The task immediately before them, in an

economic way, was the subjugation of the wilderness. They had no great

stores of munitions of war, nor were they well supplied with arms.

Their commerce was primitive and depended upon the favor and shipping

of the nation with which they were at war. They had no great military

geniuses among them, and, from the standpoint of those who believe

that God fights on the side of those who have the largest and most

perfect armies and the heaviest ordinance, the struggle for independent

national existence would look hopeless. In the eyes of many of the

colonists themselves it was a forlorn hope, this dream of independence.

They were about to measure arms with one of the most formidable empires

of the world. A nation ready and armed at all points, "her navies,"

as some of the leading men of Virginia said--"her navies were riding

triumphantly in every sea; her armies never marched but to certain

victory." What could be the issue of such a conflict except that the

colonies would become an easy prey to Great Britain, and the rebellion

would end in converting "the right" which the British parliament

then claimed to tax America without representation, into a firm and

indubitable right by conquest?

The fact alone that the colonies succeeded in the face of such

overwhelming odds in winning their independence must necessarily argue

the support of some superhuman power which intervenes in the affairs

of nations. And when the secondary means through which victory was

finally secured for the colonies is considered, the more apparent

becomes the fact of divine interposition. The mind skeptical to such

faith as this, would naturally say that the victory of the colonies

was achieved because France and Spain, old enemies of Great Britain,

and Holland, her jealous rival for the world's commerce, joined with

the American colonies in the war against Great Britain, and that those

nations, rather than the colonial armies, won for the American colonies

their independence. To my mind, however, it is just here that the

interposition of divine providence becomes most apparent; and I find my

belief most aptly expressed by one of the most accomplished of American

historians (Marcus Wilson), who, in commenting upon the treaty of peace

signed by Great Britain, France, Spain, Holland and the United States,

said:

"This closed the most important war in which England had ever been

engaged--a war which rose wholly out of her ungenerous treatment

of her American colonies. The expense of blood and treasure which

this war cost England was enormous; nor, indeed, did her European

antagonists suffer much less severely. The United States was the

only country that could look to any beneficial results from the

war, and these were ordained by a strange union of opposing motives

and principles, unequaled in the annals of history. France and

Spain, the arbitrary despots of the old world, had stood forth as

the protectors of an infant republic, and had combined, contrary

to all the principles of their political faith, to establish the

rising liberties of America. They appeared but as blind instruments

in the hands of providence, employed to aid in the rounding of

a nation which should cultivate those republican virtues that

were destined yet to regenerate the world upon the principles of

universal intelligence, and eventually to overthrow the timeworn

system of tyrannical usurpation of the few over the many."

To this expression of my belief I may hope to add nothing. I do,

however, desire, in addition to the evidence thus presented for the

idea of the interposition of providence in the affairs which led to

the establishment of our nation, I do desire to call your attention to

the fact that some of the great American leaders in the Revolutionary

period had a most perfect pre-vision of all these events which history

records as having taken place. Among these inspired men, which many of

you believe God raised up to found the constitution of our country,

there certainly was none more inspired than the great Virginia orator,

Patrick Henry. Mr. Wirt, his biographer, calls attention to an item of

his history which seems to have been strangely overlooked by those who

speak of this great man and the contributions he made to the general

cause of freedom in our land. Mr. Wirt tells us of a conversation that

took place at the residence of Colonel Samuel Overton, in Virginia,

in the presence of a number of prominent gentlemen that is so clearly

prophetic that you shall not find in Isaiah or Micah or Amos or any

of the Jewish prophets a passage that surpasses it for prophetic

clearness. I shall quote the incident as related by Mr. Wirt, who

received the story of Mr. Pope, and records it in his excellent

biography of Patrick Henry:

"I was informed by Colonel John Overton, that before one drop

of blood was shed in our contest with Great Britain, he was at

Colonel Samuel Overton's in company with Mr. Henry, Colonel

Morris, John Hawkins and Colonel Samuel Overton, when the last

mentioned gentleman asked Mr. Henry, 'whether he supposed Great

Britain would drive her colonies to extremities, and if she should,

what he thought would be the issue of the war.' When Mr. Henry,

after looking round to see who were present, expressed himself

confidentially to the company in the following manner:

"'She will drive us to extremities; no accommodation will take

place; hostilities will soon commence, and a desperate and bloody

touch it will be.' 'But,' said Colonel Samuel Overton, 'do you

think, Mr. Henry, that an infant nation as we are, without

discipline, arms, ammunition, ships of war, or money to procure

them do you think it possible, thus circumstanced, to oppose

successfully the fleets and armies of Great Britain?' 'I will be

candid with you,' replied Mr. Henry. 'I doubt whether we shall be

able, alone, to cope with so powerful a nation. But,' continued he

(rising from his chair, with great animation), 'where is France?

Where is Spain? Where is Holland?--the natural enemies of Great

Britain. Where will they be all this while? Do you suppose they

will stand by, idle and indifferent spectators to the contest? Will

Louis XVI be asleep all this time? Believe me, no! When Louis XVI

shall be satisfied by our serious opposition, and our Declaration

of Independence, that all prospect of a reconciliation is gone,

then, and not until then, will he furnish us with arms, ammunition,

and clothing; and not with these only, but he will send his fleets

and armies to fight our battles for us; he will form with us a

treaty offensive and defensive, against our unnatural mother.

Spain and Holland will join the confederation! Our independence

will be established! and we shall take our stand among the nations

of the earth!' Here he ceased; and Colonel John Overton says, he

shall never forget the voice and prophetic manner with which these

predictions were uttered, and which have been since so literally

verified. Colonel Overton says, at the word independence, the

company appeared to be startled; for they had never heard anything

of the kind before even suggested."

I think this passage alone, when the roster of "American prophets"

shall be made up, will place this first man of our Revolutionary period

high on the list of such prophets, and we shall yet have occasion to be

as proud of our American prophets as the Jews are of their prophets.

Of other manifestations of inspiration in the men who guided the

councils of our nation in this Revolutionary period, I may not here

speak at length. It is matter of pride, however, that their wisdom was

recognized by friends over the sea. Of the first continental congress,

the Earl of Chatham, in the British house of lords, said:

"I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and study of

history (and it has been my favorite study--I have read Thucydides,

and have studied and admired the master states of the world),

that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity and wisdom of

conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation

or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress of

Philadelphia."

Whence obtained these men the wisdom that thus challenged the

admiration of the first statesman of Great Britain, and of his age, a

man of gigantic intellectual powers, of incorruptible integrity, and

who devoted the great powers of his mind to the service of his country?

Could the wilderness impart much knowledge of principles of government

and statesmanship as was manifested in the councils of those American

planters, manufacturers and trades people? What books were extant from

which they could learn it? Was it the genius of the land they inhabited

that taught them statecraft? Was it the spirit of freedom that

brooded over the country, over lake and stream and forest that sought

self-expression through them? Did the wild waves of the Atlantic, as

they broke upon the shingle of New England's rugged coast, hymn civic

wisdom into their souls? Let poets and romancers attribute it to what

source they will, to me it was the inspiration of God which touched

their spirits and gave them understanding.

And not only was that inspiration wisdom to the American councils,

but it inspired courage in the presence of defeat and patience that

taught their armies to wait for their victory. It gave hope and calm

to the turbulent spirit of Washington, and faith and confidence to

his companions in arms. It kept alive the fires and patriotism in the

breast of the common soldier and quieted the fears of the loved ones

left to watch over the homes during the absence of husbands and fathers

and sons. It affected all the departments of the great struggle until

"Yorktown's sun rose on a nation's banner spread, a nation's freedom

won." And the nation of the United States began that career whose

achievements are the admiration and marvel of the world.

III.

THE UNIQUE THINGS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.

Let us now consider the second proposition; namely, that the

inspiration of those who founded our constitution may be sustained by

a consideration of the principles on which our government is founded.

That there were republics and federated republics, too, before our

own, goes without saying; that the justice of the principle of

government by the people had been recognized by masters of the science

of civil government is equally true; but never before in the history

of the world has there been developed such a highly complex system of

government, none in which there has been such a balancing and fair

adjustment of powers, will be conceded by every student of history and

of civil government. In the first place, the division of the sovereign

power of government into three co-ordinate and independent departments,

both in the states and in the nation--the executive, the legislative

and the judicial departments--is more insisted upon than in any

other government that has ever been established. Then, again, in the

division of the sovereign power as between the states and the general

government it is unique. On the one side the general government is

more limited and on the other more extended than in any other republic

ever founded. Limited in that the general government is confined to

powers expressly conferred upon it by the constitution, while all other

powers of government are reserved to the states or to the people,

respectively. The side on which its powers are more extended than in

any previous confederation is in this, that power is conferred upon the

general government to execute its own laws, with its own machinery,

and upon all citizens within any one and in all the states. The French

philosopher, De Tocqueville, declares that the principle of our

republic rested upon "a wholly novel theory, which may be considered as

a great discovery in modern political science, and for which there is

as yet no specific name." Enlarging upon the subject, he said:

"This constitution, which may at first be confounded with the

federal constitutions which have preceded it, rests, in truth,

upon a wholly novel theory, which may be considered as a great

discovery in modern political science. In all the confederations

which preceded the American constitution in 1789, the allied states

for a common object agreed to obey the injunctions of a federal

government; but they reserved to themselves the right of ordaining

and embracing the execution of the laws of the Union. The American

states which combined in 1789 agreed that the federal government

should not only dictate, but should execute its own enactments. In

both cases the right is the same, but the exercise of the right

is different, and this difference produced the most momentous

consequences. The new word, which ought to express this novel

thing, does not yet exist. The human understanding more easily

invents new things than new words, and we are hence constrained to

employ many improper and inadequate expressions."

Our own national experience proves that it is the adoption of this

principle in our system of government which supplies the element of

strength that is usually supposed to be lacking in republican forms

of government, and makes it possible for a republic to persist, to be

strong, and at the same time conserve the freedom of the people.

The principle, however, which most concerns us here today in our

deliberations is the great and fundamental principle of our system

of government--"the law of laws," as De Tocqueville calls it, the

doctrine of the sovereignty of the people--"government of the people,

by the people and for the people." This principle is, of course, the

foundation not only of our republic but of all republics. It has,

however, in our American system received increased emphasis; it has

taken on new life; it has become a reality. There are not wanting

writers on civil government who say this principle is active in all

governments, and, indeed, to some extent, that is true; but for

the most part, in modern times, until the establishment of our own

government, this principle found expression only "in the purchased

suffrages of a few of the satellites of power." At other times "in the

votes of the timid or interested minority." Or else it was "discovered

in the silence of the people and based on the supposition that the fact

of submission establishes the right to govern." But in our system this

principle is not barren or concealed; it is recognized by the customs

of the people, as well as proclaimed by the laws. "It spreads freely

and arrives without impediment at its most remote consequences," as

De Tocqueville urges, and it has direct application to the affairs

of government. It is a principle that takes government out of the

hands of a favored few, and recognizes civil power as resident in the

people. It upsets the doctrine of the divine right of kings to rule,

and of priests to interfere, only as they may exercise their rights

of citizenship in common with their fellow-citizens. That utterance

of our Declaration of Independence, which says "governments derive

their just powers from the consent of the governed," may seem at first

glance to be an unimportant statement, but tremendous consequences

draw it, and it was truly revolutionary in its character, as matters

stood in the political affairs of the British Empire at the time it was

proclaimed. And when we say that we believe that the constitution of

our country was established by a divine inspiration, working through

the men who formulated it, we should remember that we stand committed

to this doctrine of government by the people; and to such of us who

hold to a divine inspiration in our constitution, that principle of our

government is God-ordained.

Referring to this idea that the constitution of our country is an

inspired instrument, I am tempted to believe sometimes that we fail to

appreciate the seriousness of that doctrine. We are apt to speak of

it too glibly, and as applying to a mass of things that we have never

taken the time to analyze and consider in detail. But if we really

mean what we say when holding to this view of the constitution being

an inspired instrument, then let us remember that we believe that the

constitution, not only as a whole, but in its parts, is inspired of

God. That is, it was a divine wisdom that recognized the power of civil

government as resident in the people. In other words, God ordains, for

our country at least, that government shall be by the people; that the

sovereign power of government which they ordain and establish shall be

divided into its three co-ordinate and independent branches, executive,

legislative and judicial; that there shall be a further division of

the sovereign powers of government between the states and the general

government; that the general government is authorized to exercise only

such powers as are expressly conferred upon it by the constitution;

that the rest of the sovereign powers of government are reserved to the

states and to the people respectively. The theory that the constitution

of our country is inspired commits us to the doctrine that there shall

be freedom of the press, freedom of speech, separation of church and

state, and the freedom, equality and independence of the individual

citizen--all these things together and severally are ordained of God;

_and he who infringes upon any one of these things ordained by our

inspired constitution is untrue to that order of things that God has

ordained for our government through an inspired constitution_.

There is even more than all this to those of us who believe the

constitution to be an inspired instrument; for the most of us who

believe that believe also that the Book of Mormon is a true history of

ancient America; and in that book is recorded an historical incident

which has a direct bearing upon the subject we are here considering.

It refers to a new element in government by the people; one that we

will do well to properly regard. And that is, the direct personal

responsibility that the individual carries under a system of government

where the people rule. The incident occurs in the alleged reign of

Mosiah I at a period that corresponds with the latter half of the

second century before Christ. The old king proposed to his people

a revolution in the form of government by which monarchy should be

abandoned and the republican form of government be established in its

place. In urging this revolutionary measure the good king said:

"It is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything

contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser

part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore

this shall ye observe and make it your law to do your business

by the voice of the people. And if the time comes that the voice

of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the

judgments of God will come upon you, yea, then is the time he will

visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited

this land. * * * * And I command you to do these things in the fear

of the Lord; and I command you to do these things, and that ye have

no king; that if this people commit sins and iniquities, they shall

be answered upon their own heads. For behold, I say unto you, the

sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their

kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of

their kings. And now I desire that this inequality should be no

more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire

that this be a land of liberty, that every man may enjoy his rights

and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live

and inherit the land; yea, even as long as any of our posterity

remains upon the face of the land."

The old king in his passage points to the existence of an important

element in government by the people, the moral element; the direct,

personal responsibility of the individual for such evils as obtain

under government where the people rule. But in order that this element

of moral responsibility may be brought into government, it stands

to reason that every individual must be free and untrammeled in the

exercise of his political duties, in the casting of his vote. Each

individual musts have an equal voice in the government. Every man must

be a sovereign in the civil institution, and his vote must represent

the voice and judgment of a free man. A vote unawed by influence, and

uncoerced by any power whatsoever. Less than this would bring the

whole scheme of government by the voice of the people into contempt

and failure. Under the system of government by the people, in order to

retain the moral responsibility of the people in civil affairs, there

must be no appeal but to the intelligent judgment of the individual.

Each man's act must be the act of a free man; and those who would

corrupt the electorate of a government where the people rule, or sway

it by any other force than by an appeal to reason, would destroy

this element of personal, moral responsibility in civil government,

and in the case of those of us who accept this book from which I am

quoting--_if we would appeal to any other force than to that of reason,

we would be setting ourselves against an order of things that God has

ordained_.

This old king of whom I am speaking manifested wisdom in another

respect. His suggestion of this change from a monarchy to a republic

carried with it the provision that the change should not go into effect

until the time of his death. He would remain king so long as he lived;

then the rule by the voice of the people should begin. Was the old

monarch conscious that it would be difficult to inaugurate this rule

of the people while he yet lived? That there would be those who would

seek to know his desires, then proclaim them, influence the minds of

the electorate, and thus still have Mosiah's rule instead of government

by the people? I do not know how far these thoughts may have been the

thoughts of the king; but surely he removed grave difficulties from the

institution of his newly conceived form of government for his people

by putting off its inauguration until after his death. For sure it is

that the desires of one so esteemed, so wise and unselfish, would have

had such influence that his wishes, howsoever expressed, would have

been followed by the people, and in a measure the end of his proposed

revolution would have been thwarted.

These reflections bring to my recollection the words of an American

writer (Orville Dewey) whose works I learned to esteem in the early

days of my reading. Especially did I admire the following passage on

what the character of a free people should be, from his essay on "Human

Life:"

"Liberty gentlemen, is a solemn thing--a welcome, a joyous, a

glorious thing, if you please; but it is a solemn thing. A free

people must be a thoughtful people. The subjects of a despot may

be reckless and gay if they can. A free people must be serious;

for it has to do the greatest things that ever was done in the

world--to govern itself. That hour in human life is most serious

when it passes from parental control into free manhood; then must

the man bind the righteous law upon himself, more strongly than

father or mother ever bound it upon him. And when a people leaves

the leading-strings of prescriptive authority, and enters upon the

ground of freedom, that ground must be fenced with law; it must be

tilled with wisdom; it must be hallowed with prayer. The tribunal

of justice, the free school, the holy church must be built there,

to entrench, to defend and to keep the sacred heritage. * * * In

the universe there is no trust so awful as moral freedom; and all

good civil freedom depends upon the use of that. But look at it.

Around every human, every rational being, is drawn a circle; the

space within is cleared from obstruction, or, at least, from all

coercion; it is sacred to the being himself who stands there; it

is secured and consecrated to his own responsibility. May I say

it?--God himself does not penetrate there with any absolute, any

coercive power! He compels the winds and waves to obey him; he

compels animal instincts to obey him; but he does not compel men

to obey. That sphere he leaves free; he brings influences to bear

upon it; but the last, final, solemn, infinite question between

right and wrong, he leaves to man himself. Ah! instead of madly

delighting in his freedom, I could imagine a man to protest,

to complain, to tremble that such a tremendous prerogative is

accorded to him. But it is accorded to him, and nothing but willing

obedience can discharge that solemn trust; nothing but a heroism

greater than that which fights battles, and pours out its blood

on its country's altar--the heroism of self-renunciation and

self-control. Come that liberty! I invoke it with all the ardor

of the poets and orators of freedom; with Spenser and Milton,

with Hampden and Sydney, with Rienzi and Dante, with Hamilton and

Washington, I invoke it. Come that liberty! Come none that does

not lead to that! Come the liberty that shall strike off every

chain, not only of iron, and iron-law, but of painful constriction,

of fear, of enslaving passion, of mad self-will; the liberty of

perfect truth and love, of holy faith and glad obedience!"

I trust this consideration of some of the details that enter into

the idea that our constitution is a divinely inspired instrument,

will bring home to us more emphatically the seriousness of that

declaration, as also that it will bring to us the realization of our

responsibilities that we sustain as free men, as sovereigns in a free

government. I trust, however, that you will not think I am calling

attention to these matters because I believe there will be any failure

on the part of the people of our great republic to perpetuate these

institutions so vital to our system of government. I cannot believe

that our nation was brought into existence under the circumstances that

attended upon its birth to end at last in failure. On the contrary,

I am persuaded that the time has fully come for the establishment in

this world, in some permanent way, government by the people. That

the reign of tyrants is ended and that the rule of the people has

begun, and will remain. The people of our country, especially the

people of our state, I trust, and believe, will stand for the great

principles that will perpetuate free institutions; that there shall

be in our country "equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever

state or persuasion, religious or political;" that our nation shall

continue as an indissoluble union of indestructible states; that

"the state governments shall be supported in all their rights as the

most competent administration for our domestic concerns, and the

surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies;" that the general

government "shall be preserved in its whole constitutional vigor as the

sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;" that a "jealous

care shall be exercised of the right of election by the people"--unawed

by influence, uncoerced by any power other than an appeal to reason;

that "absolute acquiescence shall be maintained in the decision of the

majority, the vital principle of republics;" also "the supremacy of the

civil over military authority;" the "diffusion of information and the

arraignment of all abuses at the board of public reason; freedom of the

press and freedom of person" [1]--all these shall be maintained, and

with these principles maintained we may be assured that free government

will not perish from among men.

[Footnote 1: The reader will, of course, recognize these quoted members

of the concluding sentence as excerpts from Jefferson's First Inaugural

Address.]