_FREE AGENCY_
All rational beings have an agency of their own; and according to their
own choice they will be saved or damned. 6:97.
The volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence
and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would
cease to be God. He has placed life and death before his children,
and it is for them to choose. If they choose life, they receive the
blessing of life; if they choose death, they must abide the penalty.
This is a law which has always existed from all eternity, and will
continue to exist throughout all the eternities to come. Every
intelligent being must have the power of choice, and God brings forth
the results of the acts of his creatures to promote his Kingdom and
subserve his purposes in the salvation and exaltation of his children.
11:272.
My independence is sacred to me--it is a portion of that same Deity
that rules in the heavens. There is not a being upon the face of
the earth who is made in the image of God, who stands erect and is
organized as God is, that would be deprived of the free exercise of his
agency so far as he does not infringe upon others' rights, save by good
advice and a good example. 10:191.
When the Lord made man, he made him an agent accountable to his God,
with liberty to act and to do as he pleases, to a certain extent, in
order to prove himself. There is a law that governs man thus far; but
the law of the celestial {96} kingdom, as I have frequently told you,
is, and always will be, the same to all the children of Adam. 2:139.
He has given them the privilege of choosing for themselves, whether it
be good or evil; but the result of our choice is still in his hand. All
his children have the right of making a path for themselves, of walking
to the right or to the left, of telling the truth or that which is not
true. This right God has given to all people who dwell on the earth,
and they can legislate and act as they please; but God holds them in
his hands, and he will bring forth the results of his glory, and for
the benefit of those who love and serve him, and he will make the wrath
of men to praise him. All of us are in the hands of that God. 13:178.
We possess no ability; only that which is given us of God. He has
endowed us with glorious faculties, with Godlike attributes like those
which are incorporated in his own nature, and he has placed us upon
this earth to honor them, and to sanctify ourselves and the earth
preparatory to enjoying it in its celestial state. We are not, in
anything, independent of God. We inherit what we possess from him. Yet
it is so ordained, in the fathomless wisdom of God, that we should be
agents to ourselves to choose the good or the evil, and thereby save
and exalt our existence, or lose it. 10:265.
Our Father controls the results of our acts at his own pleasure, and
we cannot prevent it. Man can produce and control his own acts, but he
has no control over their results. God causes even the wrath of man to
praise him, to redound to his glory and the salvation of his children.
8:18.
The Lord has not established laws by which I am compelled to have my
shoes made in a certain style. He has never given a law to determine
whether I shall have a {97} square-toed boot or a peaked-toe boot;
whether I shall have a coat with the waist just under my arms, and the
skirts down to my heels; or whether I shall have a coat like the one
I have on. Intelligence, to a certain extent, was bestowed both upon
Saint and sinner, to use independently, aside from whether they have
the law of the Priesthood or not, or whether they have ever heard of it
or not. 2:139.
We cannot all do just as we please, because a great many times we want
to and cannot, and that is what produces misery, which is called hell.
13:33.
How far does our agency extend? There are certain bounds to it. What
we have witnessed in thirty years' experience teaches us that man can
appoint, but God can disappoint. Man can load his gun to shoot his
neighbor, but he cannot make the ball hit him, if the Lord Almighty see
fit to turn it away. He can draw the sword to hew down his fellow-man;
but instead of that, he may fall upon it himself. 8:31.
There are limits to agency, and to all things and to all beings, and
our agency must not infringe upon that law. A man must choose life
or death, and if he chooses death he will find himself abridged, and
that the agency which is given to him is so bound up that he cannot
exercise it in opposition to the law, without laying himself liable to
be corrected and punished by the Almighty.
A man can dispose of his agency or of his birth-right, as did Esau of
old, but when disposed of, he cannot again obtain it; consequently, it
behooves us to be careful, and not forfeit that agency that is given
to us. The difference between the righteous and the sinner, eternal
life or death, happiness or misery, is this, to those who are exalted
there are no bounds or limits to their privileges, their blessings {98}
have a continuation, and to their kingdoms, thrones, and dominions,
principalities, and powers there is no end, but they increase through
all eternity; whereas, those who reject the offer, who despise the
proffered mercies of the Lord, and prepare themselves to be banished
from his presence, and to become companions of the devils, have their
agency abridged immediately, and bounds and limits are put to their
operations. 3:267.
The Lord does not compel any person to embrace the Gospel, and I do
not think he will compel them to live it after they have embraced it.
10:282.
Our religion will not permit us to command or force any man or woman
to obey the Gospel we have embraced. And we are under no obligation
to do this, for every creature has as good a right, according to his
organization, to choose for himself as the Gods. 14:94.
Not that the diverse creeds are right, but the agency of the believers
therein demands protection for them, as well as for us. 3:257.
Do you suppose that the Lord would have ever given a king to Israel, if
they had not required one of his hands? No, he would have been their
king and ruler, and there would have been a prophet to guide them, had
it not been for their rebellion. They made choice of a king, and God
gave them one in his anger.
Their rebellion against the law, the agency given to them allowing
their free choice, induced them to ask for a king, and God gave them
one. 3:257.
When I contemplate the endless variety in the dispositions,
understandings, temperaments, countenances, and organizations of
people, I am not surprised that there are those who do not understand
things as I do. I expect people {99} to have their own peculiar views,
forms, principles, and notions. In consequence of this great variety,
we should not be astonished if all do not believe the Gospel--do not
love the truth. 8:131.
It is as much my right to differ from other men, as it is theirs to
differ from me, in points of doctrine and principle, when our minds
cannot at once arrive at the same conclusion. I feel it sometimes very
difficult indeed to word my thoughts as they exist in my own mind,
which, I presume, is the grand cause of many apparent differences in
sentiment which may exist among the Saints. 2:123.
I am not going to drive a man or a woman to heaven. A great many think
that they will be able to flog people into heaven, but this can never
be done, for the intelligence in us is as independent as the Gods.
People are not to be driven, and you can put into a gnat's eye all the
souls of the children of men that are driven into heaven by preaching
hell-fire. 9:124.
When misuse of power has reached a certain stage, the divinity that is
within the people asserts its right and they free themselves from the
power of despotism. 10:191.
When the people do all they can, the Lord is bound to do the rest.
3:154.
Many are disposed through their own wickedness "to do as I damned
please," and they are damned. 11:254.
When a truth is presented to an intelligent person he ought to grasp it
and receive it in his faith. 8:59.
You may know whether you are led right or wrong, as well as you know
the way home; for every principle God has revealed carries its own
convictions of its truth to the human mind, and there is no calling of
God to man on earth {100} but what brings with it the evidence of its
authenticity. 9:149.
You cannot break nor destroy the will. It is influenced and controlled,
more or less, by the evil that is sown in the flesh, but not in the
spirit, until the body has grown to years of accountability; then evil,
when listened to, begins to rule and overrule the spirit God has placed
within man. 6:332.
Men should not be permitted to do as they please in all things;
for there are rules regulating all good societies and the business
intercourse of men with each other, which are just and righteous in
themselves, the violation of which cannot be countenanced either by
civil or religious usages. It is not the privilege of any man to waste
the time of his employer under any pretense whatever, and the cause
of religion, good government, and humanity is not in the least degree
advanced by the practice, but the contrary is really the case. Men
should be abridged in doing wrong; they should not be free to sin
against God or against man without suffering such penalties as their
sins deserve. 12:153.
Does it follow that a man is deprived of his rights, because he lists
in his heart to do the will of God? Must a man swear to prove that
he has an agency? I contend there is no necessity for that, nor for
stealing nor for doing any wrong. I can manifest to the heavens and to
the inhabitants of the earth that I am free-born, and have my liberty
before God, angels and men, when I kneel down to pray, certainly as
much as if I were to go out and swear. I have the right to call my
family together at certain hours for prayer, and I believe that this
course proves that I am a free agent, as much as if I were to steal,
swear, lie, and get drunk. 10:323. {101}
We would not make everybody bow down to our religion, if we had the
power; for this would not be Godlike. 14:94.
The eternal laws by which he and all others exist in the eternities
of the Gods decree that the consent of the creature must be obtained
before the Creator can rule perfectly. 15:134.
The Lord has a school upon the earth, and we are his scholars; and the
Devil also has a school attended by a great number of scholars. While
we have been learning how to sustain the Kingdom of God upon the earth,
the Devil and his pupils have been learning how to sustain the kingdom
of darkness. From the very nature of the two kingdoms upon one planet,
the crisis must come when there will be a literal open warfare, just
as much as there now is a warfare within us against evil; and if we,
as individuals and as a community, have gained the victory over our
passions to such a degree that our Father knows that we are capable
of actually sustaining the Kingdom of God upon the earth, just so
true we shall be a kingdom by ourselves. If we are not yet capable of
maintaining and rightly managing that kingdom, it will not at present
be given to us in the fulness thereof; but the time will come when it
will be given and established in its perfect organization on the earth.
5:328.
The law of liberty is the law of right in every particular. 12:152.
There is not, has not been, and never can be any method, scheme, or
plan devised by any being in this world for intelligence to exist
eternally and obtain an exaltation, without knowing the good and
the evil--without tasting the bitter and the sweet. Can the people
understand that it is {102} actually necessary for opposite principles
to be placed before them, or this state of being would be no probation,
and we should have no opportunity for exercising the agency given
us? Can they understand that we cannot obtain eternal life unless we
actually know and comprehend by our experience the principle of good
and the principle of evil, the light and the darkness, truth, virtue,
and holiness,--also vice, wickedness, and corruption? We must discern
and acknowledge that the providences of the Lord are over all the works
of his hands--that when he produces intelligent beings he watches over
them for their good. He has given human beings an intelligence designed
to become eternal, self-existent, independent, and as Godlike as any
being in the heavens.
To answer such design, we are given our agency--the control of our
belief, and must know the darkness from the light and the light from
the darkness, and must taste the bitter as well as the sweet. 7:237-238.
What would we know about heaven or happiness were it not for their
opposite? 3:321.
Let the Kingdom alone, the Lord steadies the ark; and if it does
jostle, and appear to need steadying, if the way is a little sideling
sometimes, and to all appearance threatens its overthrow, be careful
how you stretch forth your hands to steady it; let us not be too
officious in meddling with that which does not concern us; let it
alone, it is the Lord's work. 11:252.
Every person who will examine his own experience--who will watch
closely the leading of his own desires--will learn that the very great
majority prefer to do good rather than to do evil, and would pursue a
correct course, were it not for the evil power that subjects them to
its sway. {103} In wrong doing, their own consciences condemn them.
6:330-331.
Shall we deny the existence of that which we do not understand? If we
do, we would want to keep an iron bedstead to measure every person
according to our own measurements and dimensions; and if persons were
too long we would cut them off, and if too short draw them out. But we
should discard this principle, and our motto should be, we will let
every one believe as he pleases and follow out the convictions of his
own mind, for all are free to choose or refuse; they are free to serve
God or to deny him. We have the Scriptures of divine truth, and we
are free to believe or deny them. But we shall be brought to judgment
before God for all these things, and shall have to give an account to
him who has the right to call us to an account for the deeds done in
the body. 14:131.
There is not an individual upon the earth but what has within himself
ability to save or to destroy himself; and such is the case with
nations. 5:53. {104}