these high things only as he is united with woman in holy marriage.

I accept all that the reverend gentleman says of the beauty and
blessedness of the home. It is indeed, from the Mormon viewpoint, the
principal factor of civilization; the spring and source of national
life and greatness and stability. And, as our reverend friend remarks,
"as the earthly home is lifted it becomes nearest like the home beyond
the skies, the final home of the soul." A very pretty sentiment,
truly, and Mormons believe in it so absolutely that they look forward
to the actual existence of the family "beyond the skies," or at
least in heaven--through all eternity--that they even now make their
marriage vows and covenants with reference to that status--the eternal
perpetuation of the family. They are not content to have the marriage
ceremony end with that doleful note from the tombs--"until death does
you part!" but rejoice rather in the blessed words of their God-given
ceremony--the inspiring words of life and joy and hope--_"I pronounce
you man and wife through time and all eternity!"_ To those who express
the fear that all this is too concrete, to matter-of-fact, too sensual,
we answer that such has been the refining influence of woman upon man,
developing the purest and best part of his nature; such has been the
influence of the home upon civilization in this world, that we cannot
believe but what the joys of heaven will be heightened and rendered
purer by it, and even conception of its community life must be made
grander by thinking of it as made up of indestructible families. Hence
our hopes and holiest aspirations are associated with the family--in
which woman is necessarily a chief and honored factor in this world and
in that which is to come. And not only is this our hope for the future,
but we believe it is a condition prevailing in all past eternities, as
note one of our hymns:

  "In the heavens are parents single?
    No, the thought makes reason stare;
  Truth is reason, truth eternal
    Tells me I've a mother there.

  "When I leave this frail existence,
    When I lay this mortal by,
  Father, Mother, may I meet you
    In your royal courts on high?

  "Then at length when I've completed
    All you sent me forth to do,
  With your mutual approbation,
    Let me come and dwell with you?"

I challenge the Christian world to equal--to say nothing of
surpassing--this conception of the nobility of woman and of
motherhood and of wifehood--placing her side by side with the Divine
Father--consort and Mother of divine intelligences--the spirits of
men. Some object to that conception, and undertake to detract from
its beauty and glory by saying that it presents to the thought a
pluralistic Deity, consisting of divine Father and divine Mother. That,
however, is a consequence they attach to our faith, not a principle
that we accept; because the Godhead, for us, as all those who are
acquainted with our doctrines know, consists of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Ghost, the grand creating and presiding, divine Council
that upholds and sustains and guides the destiny of our earth and its
associated spheres. These gentlemen who are so fearful of a pluralistic
deity and universe being thought of, would do well to stand out a
little upon the frontier of the highest Christian thought of our age,
and they will discover that many of our first and greatest philosophers
are beginning to teach the doctrine that so far as the infinite or the
absolute exists, it exists in a plurality of divine intelligences;
and that the oneness of God is but the free harmony of divine
intelligences. And, then, for matter of that, so long as the Christian
world teaches that in the Godhead are three personalities--the Father,
the Son, and Holy Spirit--they will try in vain to get away from the
conception of a pluralistic deity.

And now, I am about to violate what some regard as the canons of
good taste in public speaking, by making reference to a matter quite
personal. But what I am about to present meets this charge of "low
ideals in the home--and the lack of respect for woman"--I say the thing
I have in mind so completely meets this issue that I am even going to
venture upon something some what personal.

It has been my custom, now, for quite a number of years, on the
anniversary of my mother's birth, and on the anniversary of my own
birth, to either visit her in person and chat with her, or else, if
away from her home, to write her a communication. Four years ago, not
being able to reach her, on the anniversary of my own birth, I sent her
the following communication, written in honor of women--in honor of
her--my mother. I now read it to you. I gave it a title, calling it

    GOD'S HERALD OF THE RESURRECTION AND HUMAN BROTHERHOOD--WOMAN.

    "Next to her holy office of wifehood and motherhood, the most
    exalted honor Deity ever conferred on woman was that of making her
    his first messenger of the resurrection; and, in its most emphatic
    form at least, the messenger also of the beautiful doctrine of
    the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. The manner
    of conferring this high and sacred commission upon woman was as
    follows--the account is John's:

    "The Christ had been crucified and laid in the new sepulcher
    provided by Joseph of Arimathea. Then early in the morning of
    the third day after the crucifixion, came Mary of Magdala to the
    sepulcher and found it empty; whereupon she ran and, informed Peter
    and John that the body of Jesus had been taken away. There was a
    hasty and excited visit to the sepulcher, and, on the part of Peter
    and John, a hasty departure. But Mary lingered near the vacant
    tomb. This was where she had last seen him whom she loved--here she
    must begin her search for him--and she will search for him, for it
    is woman's nature to hope--O glorious inconsistency!--against hope
    itself. And she was rewarded for her love that made her linger,
    though it was by an empty sepulcher; for soon angels said to her,
    'Why weepest thou?' and Mary said, 'Because they have taken away
    my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' And then one
    greater than the angels stood by her, and said, 'Why weepest thou?
    Whom seekest thou?' Then she:

    "'Sir, if thou have born him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
    him, and I will take him away.'

    "'Mary!'

    "'Rabboni,' with arms extended--

    "'Touch me not,' gently, lovingly, not harshly said--'Touch me not;
    for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren,
    and say unto them, I ascended unto my Father, and your Father; and
    to my God, and to your God.'

    "Commissioned so, Mary told the disciples that she had seen the
    Lord, 'and that he had spoken these things unto her.'

    "And thus to a woman was it first given to carry the glad message
    fashioned first by angel's tongues--'He is risen!' As also the
    message that the Christ's Father is man's Father; that the Christ's
    God is man's God; and that in consequence of this, all men are
    brethren.'

    "Many eulogies have been written in thy praise, O woman! Much
    honor accorded thee in God's economy of the world. But here thy
    glory--under the limits of our opening sentence--attained its flood
    tide. Never wast thou so honored before; never, so far as human
    ken may see, wilt thou be more honored. Indeed, how couldst thou
    be? What concerns the world more to know than what is comprised in
    thy message--Christ is risen; his Father is man's Father; his God,
    man's God--all men are brethren! This the sum of the law and the
    gospel--all else commentary. And thou, O woman! the messenger of
    these glad tidings! How honored wast thou! Even the glory of being
    'last at the cross, and earliest at the tomb,' is eclipsed by the
    honor of being herald of this. Cherish thou this honor. Claim it
    in all its Christ-given splendor; for it is fitting that thou unto
    whom it is first given to know human earth-life perennial, should
    be made herald of life immortal, and declare also its great source,
    and its relations. And thus wast thou honored of Deity, O Mother
    of human life--herald of life immortal! and of common fatherhood
    and brotherhood for human race. I am taught by these high things to
    honor thee, and here uncovered and holily I reverence pay thee."

That was sent, on the 13th of March, 1906, to my mother. It was not
written with any intent, the remotest, for publication; and while it
may lack very much of excellence and come far short in worthiness of
the high theme with which it deals; yet whatever its defects may be,
it is not lacking in appreciation and honor of woman. It is the result
of much thought and reflection, of one born and reared in the Mormon
system; such sentiment of respect and honor as it breathes for woman in
her high offices is taught to me by my Mormon faith, letter and spirit.
If anyone shall say in controversion of this that my brief treatise
deals with New Testament facts, such an objector must be reminded
that my Mormon faith teaches me the acceptance of both Old and New
Testaments as "the word of God," a fact too frequently overlooked by
our critics; and from them, as other books containing revelations from
God, I learn my Mormonism.

A few days ago, she to whom the above words were written, breathed
out her life in my arms; and yesterday we stood by the open grave
while friends and kindred laid this honored woman to rest. I am still
in the atmosphere of these things; and from the midst of these holy
associations, I denounce as false--I hope it was not maliciously
made--the charge that the Mormon faith gives out "low ideals in the
home and lacks in its respect and honor for woman." The charge is not
true.

UNJUST CRITICISM ANSWERED.

A word, in conclusion, on the proper limits of religious controversy.
In 1824 Robert Southey, Esquire, poet laureate of England at the time,
wrote a book under the title "The Book of the Church." It was a defense
of the Protestant position with reference to the holy Scriptures, and a
comparison of the respective attitudes of Catholics and Protestants in
relation to them. The book was replied to by Charles Butler, Esquire, a
Roman Catholic; and in the preface of his book, which he dedicated to
Charles Blundell, Esq., he says:

    "I willingly admit that to produce against our creed or conduct
    all that research and fair argument can supply, is legitimate
    controversy; but surely to conceal our merits or to represent
    them very briefly and imperfectly, and to display our defects at
    length and with the highest coloring; to impute to our general body
    what in justice is only chargeable on individuals; or to estimate
    the writings or actions of our ancestors in the dark ages by the
    notions and manners of the present age, is a crying injustice."

That states a true principle, and registers a just complaint. It voices
a protest that precisely fits our case. In the controversy waged
against us our merits, both as to doctrine and as to practice, are
either concealed or represented very briefly and imperfectly, while
our defects are displayed at length and with the highest coloring; to
the general body of the Church is imputed what, in justice, is only
chargeable on individuals; and I may add to this enumeration that we
are judged as to our settled convictions and established sentiments
respecting our relation to our fellow citizens, not of our religious
faith, and our attitude as citizens of the great republic, our country,
by the ill-advised and sometimes harsh expressions of some leading men
when in a state of irritation and disturbance; thus contravening the
principle long since laid down by Edmund Burke and quite generally
accepted that--

    "It is not fair to judge of the temper or the disposition of
    any man or set of men when they are composed and at rest from
    their conduct and expressions in a state of disturbance and of
    irritation."

BY THEIR WORKS THEY SHALL BE JUDGED.

Now, of course, as I stated in the commencement of my remarks, the
moral machinery of any system will be judged by the moral results
of it. We recognize the fact that a beautiful and perfect life is
unanswerable in support of a system that produces it; and yet while
exalting this species of evidence in vindication of a system, human
nature ought to be taken into account, for a perfect and beautiful
life in any system is rather a rarity, even among the early Christians
who were called saints it was so. They were not called saints because,
good souls, they were such; that is, in the sense of being perfect; but
they were called saints because they aspired to be such; because of
their struggles after righteousness. A close inquiry into their lives,
however, will demonstrate the fact that they were made of much the same
stuff that enters into our composition--that they were men of like
passions and weaknesses with ourselves, and fell far below the great
ideals set up by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I am not putting this forth as a plea of justification for any failures
on our part. I am willing that this tree of Mormonism should be judged
by its fruits absolutely, and let it stand or fall by that test. But,
what I do object to is the course so often pursued by our critics.
That course is as if one should go into an orchard of twenty or fifty
acres of fruit-bearing trees, and should seek out and find here and
there--as one may, even in the best of orchards--the wind-beaten,
blasted, mildewed, dwarfed, or shrunken fruit, and carefully raking
this together, represent that as the fruit of the orchard! Whereas the
facts are that there are scores of tons of beautiful, ripe and perfect
fruit that is a credit to the orchard and to the husbandman of it. Yet
all that is passed by, and you are asked to judge the orchard by the
blasted specimens that have been raked together.

So in this work called Mormonism. Let our critics take into account the
rich harvest of righteous souls that this system has produced; and the
present upright and honorable men and women of our system, and judge
not the people by those who have failed to reach the high ideals that
Mormonism holds up as the goal of moral and spiritual achievement, and
who fail because they depart from our principles and the practices they
enjoin.

My brethren and sisters, I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. So far
as it is possible for the soul of man to be conscious of the truth, I
am conscious of the truth of this great latter-day system. I love it
with all my heart. There is no heart-throb of mine, no matter how far
short I may come in meeting the high requirements of the gospel--there
is no heart throb of mine that does not pulsate with love for this
work. I believe it true--nay, I know it to be of God. The fountain
whence it springs is pure. The water flowing from that fountain, the
streams, are also pure, in the name of God, Amen.

II.

ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS ABOUT THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS--WHAT THEY DO NOT
BELIEVE.

An address delivered at Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, March 19, 1911,
following a discourse delivered by Elder Charles W. Penrose, of the
Council of the Twelve. (Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

II.

My brethren and sisters, I greatly rejoice in these sublime principles
expounded by our beloved brother and, now these many years, prominent
elder in the Church, Charles W. Penrose. While listening to him on this
occasion, I thought of the very many times I have had the opportunity
of so listening to him and being instructed in these principles which
concern the salvation of men. I remarked to Elder George Albert Smith,
by whom I sat during the discourse, how much the youth of Israel, how
much the present living membership of the Church of Latter-day Saints,
and the many thousands that have passed away--how much we all owe to
the faithful service of this witness for God! I felt that I wanted to
acknowledge my own indebtedness to him for the service that he has
rendered to the Church and to the world. I feel in my heart to thank
God for his ministry, for the gifts of his mind. I thank the Lord that
the Spirit of God has touched his understanding with inspiration to our
edification for, lo, these many years. Those are my sentiments towards
Brother Charles W. Penrose. The Lord bless him.

While contemplating the duty of speaking to this congregation, a duty
that arises out of the appointment I received to be in attendance upon
this conference, and while listening to the discourse just closed, I
came to the conclusion that it is almost as important to tell the world
what we do _not_ believe as it is to tell them what we _do_ believe.
Really, there is great strength at times in a negative statement, a
disclaiming of certain doctrines which we are slanderously reported to
believe, but in which we do not believe. The force of this negative
statement has been recognized by all the great councils of the Catholic
church at least, from the first unto the last. Upon every formal
announcement of dogma, by the councils of that church, there has been
attached an anathematizing clause. For illustration, in the great
council of Nicea, held early in the fourth century of the Christian
era, after defining the doctrine concerning the nature of God and the
relationship of the persons of the holy trinity, the Catholic church
added this clause:

    "But those who say that there was a time when he [the Son] was not,
    and that he was not before he was begotten, and that he was made of
    nothing, or affirm that he is of any other substance or essence,
    or that the Son of God is created and mutable or changeable, _the
    Catholic church doth pronounce accursed_."

CATHOLIC BELIEF.

And again, in the council of Trent, held in the sixteenth century, in
defining the doctrine of justification, which was then in debate, and
was one of the points of difference between the Protestants and the
Catholic church, after defining the doctrine of justification, the
Church said:

    "If any one shall say that the sinner is justified by faith alone
    in the sense that nothing else is required, which may cooperate
    towards the attainment of the grace of justification, and that the
    sinner does not need to be prepared and disposed by the motion of
    his own will, _let him be accursed_."

And so the last council held by that church, known as the Vatican
council, held in the closing months of 1869, and in the first months of
1870, defining the infallibility of the bishop of Rome, the pope of the
Catholic world, the anathematizing clause stands as follows:

    "But if any one, which may God avert, presume to contradict this
    our definition, _let him be anathema_."

FAITH IN THE GODHEAD.

I read these statements to show you that the negative statement is
recognized as possessing great force; for these anathematizing clauses
in the announcement of the councils are inserted to guard the Roman
Catholic faith from error. I am of the opinion, let me repeat, that
a negative statement by us, concerning some things that we do not
believe, would have a certain force, and I am going to try to make an
application of this principle just a little this afternoon, though in a
somewhat informal way.

To begin with, take this doctrine so ably expounded by Elder Penrose
in relation to our belief in God and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy
Ghost, the trinity of the Holy Scriptures and of our faith. We profess
faith in that Godhead, and to that Godhead alone do we pay divine
honors in holy worship; but it is extremely difficult to get the
people of the world to believe that we are thus far Christians. We
are accused, in some cases, of man-worship; we are sometimes accused
of worshiping Joseph Smith. Because we proclaim his mission and the
divinity of it, and say that through him there has been restored to the
earth divine authority to speak and act in the name of this Godhead
whom we worship--because we have emphasized his mission and have
insisted upon its divinity--because we speak much about it and write
much about it--the world has accused us of worshiping Joseph Smith; but
that is not true. We worship this Godhead of the Christian scriptures
alone; and if we may not say because of Christian charity, let him who
accuses us of worshiping other God than this be anathema, let us at
least say to those who assert that we worship other Godhead than the
Godhead of Holy Scripture, that they misrepresent and slander their
"Mormon" brethren.

So also in relation to our belief in the Savior of men. It has been
explained here by Elder Penrose that we believe and accept Jesus of
Nazareth as the Savior of men; that he was and is the Son of God, whom
God gave to the world, that through faith in him, and obedience to his
gospel, the world might be saved; and let those who say that we look to
other source and have other expectations of salvation, than through him
and his power, let them also know that they, at least, misrepresent the
Latter-day Saints.

ERRONEOUS REPORTS.

Another matter, in connection with this, might be dwelt upon at greater
length, and that is an accusation to the effect that we believe in
what is called "blood atonement." So, indeed, we do; and so also do
the Christian world. Is it not the belief of the Christian world that
they will be saved through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, the Son
of God? Most assuredly; and so, too, do we believe in the atonement of
the Christ--aye, and in the manner of the atonement of the Christ--that
the very form of it was necessary to the salvation of men. We believe
that there is no other means that could be devised to make adequate
satisfaction to justice and preserve in its integrity the moral law of
the universe. Just what was done in the atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his death, and the manner of his death, the shedding of his
blood was necessary to the salvation of the world, for in the gospel,
as in the law, "without the shedding of blood is no remission of
sins." (Heb. ix:21). Yet it would appear that there are some things
for which not even this atonement can bring forgiveness. For example,
it is said by the Master himself, that "every sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be
forgiven unto men. If men speak a word against the Son of Man it shall
be forgiven them, but if they speak a word against the Holy Ghost it
shall not be forgiven them, neither in this world, neither in the world
to come." (Matt. xii:31-32); and that notwithstanding the atonement
of the Christ. Again it is written, "The murderer hath not eternal
life abiding in him." (I John iii:15). Again it is written, "He that
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (Gen. ix:6).
Blood for blood was the doctrine of that Scripture. Now we believe in
that doctrine; that is, we believe that those who so far transgress
that they imbrue their hands in the blood of their fellow men, that
their lives are necessary to the complete atonement; and that their
execution should be such that it admits of the shedding of their blood.
And it is because of this belief that the laws of Utah permit such
method of execution for capital offenses as sheds the blood of the
murderer. But the reputation has gone out, the slander has passed from
lip to lip, it has been printed from one book into another, until the
report has gone out into all the world, that the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, the "Mormon" Church, arrogates to itself the
right to take human life for apostasy from the Church, and for certain
other sins. That is a slander; it is not true. We do not believe the
doctrine; we do not claim for the Church that it has the right of
capital punishment, or the right of executing vengeance. We do not
teach nor claim that the Church has the right to assassinate men for
apostasy, even though they be murderers. However much we might believe
them worthy of death, the Church claims no right to execute them. The
doctrine of the Church in relation to that matter is found here in
the Doctrine and Covenants. It is in a revelation given before the
Church was a year old, and is found in section 42 of the Doctrine and
Covenants.

    REVELATION QUOTED.

    "And now, behold, I speak unto the Church, Thou shalt not kill, and
    he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the
    world to come;

    "And again, I say, thou shalt not kill, but he that killeth shall
    die."

Yes, but how? By whose hand? Read it in a subsequent verse, in the same
revelation:

    "And it shall come to pass that if any persons among you shall
    kill, _they shall be delivered up and dealt with according to the
    laws of the land;_ for remember that he hath no forgiveness, and it
    shall be proven according to the laws of the land."

And of course those who administer the laws of the land must become the
executors of that law; the Church claims no right of executing such a
law. That is our belief in relation to this subject. "Yes, but," some
one will be ready to say, "is it not matter of record that some very
emphatic and even vehement declarations have been made in relation to
this matter by very prominent men in the Mormon Church, in years that
are gone?" Yes, some very extravagant utterances, some very ill-advised
expressions were used; but those exaggerated, those embittered and
over-zealous words on the part of very well-meaning men, doubtless,
did not announce in those instances the doctrine of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The question will be asked, How
are you going to account for these expressions which you declare are
unwarranted by the law of the Church? How are you going to justify
them? Well, I am not going to justify them at all, but I can account
for them.

It cannot be that the world is so ignorant in this enlightened age
as not to know that churches cannot be held responsible for every
utterance that is made in their name and from their pulpits. Listen to
this passage from the writings of the learned Edersheim, in his History
of the Life and Times of the Christ; he says:

    "No one would measure the belief of Christians by certain
    statements in the Fathers; nor judge the moral principles of
    Roman Catholics, by prurient quotations from the casuists; nor
    yet estimate Lutherans by the utterances and deeds of the early
    successors of Luther; nor Calvinists by the burning of Servitus. In
    all such cases the general standpoint of the times has to be first
    taken into account."

So it is in our history, not every word that has been spoken, even by
men high in authority in the Church, has always been the exact and
perfect word of God.

BELIEF IN REVELATION.

That thought brings me to another subject; our belief in continuous
revelation, and an inspired priesthood in the Church. We have heard,
by our brother who preceded me, that we believe in the revelations of
God. One of our articles of faith puts it in this form: "We believe
all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe
that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to
the kingdom of God." We believe that the Church of Christ is within
the hearing of God, that is, not only that he hears the prayers of
his Saints, but also that he answers those prayers. We feel that this
Church of Christ--this Church of ours--is in touch with the Infinite
and in tune with the Infinite, that the intelligence and power of God
are among its resources; that where human wisdom comes short, God may
be reached through the channels appointed and God's intelligence, and
wisdom, and power brought into the service of the Church of Christ. It
is possible for his prophet to divest himself of personal desires and
interests; to put away from himself preconceived thought and notion,
and seek to know the mind and will of God; by going into the holy of
holies, thus prepared, it is possible, if God will, for him to return
with the law of God unto his people, unto his Church, thus making the
wisdom and strength of God the wisdom and strength of his Church. We
believe that; but there is for the Church but one man in the Church
at a time who has the right to thus come with the law of God unto his
people. Though every individual, in his individual capacity, and for
guidance in the position he occupies in the Church--it is possible for
each person to have access, through the inspirations of the Spirit of
God, to the same source of knowledge and strength and power. We believe
in an inspired priesthood for the Church; we believe in inspired
teachers; but that does not require us to believe that every word that
is spoken from the pulpit is the very word of God. Perhaps some of you
will think that there is a passage in one of our revelations somewhat
against this conception of things, as for instance here in section 68
of the Doctrine and Covenants, is a revelation that was given to Elder
Orson Hyde and the Church. It is written here that Elder Hyde was
called upon to go from land to land as a teacher of the gospel--

    "And behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were
    ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them
    to go forth;

    "And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they
    are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

    "And whatsoever they shall speak _when_ moved upon by the Holy
    Ghost, shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be
    the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the
    voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation."

INSPIRED UTTERANCES.

But mark you this, the fact that shall give unto their utterances the
value of Scripture, making their words as the word of God, and the
power of God unto salvation--the condition precedent to this is that
they "speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost." "Whatsoever they shall
speak _when_ moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture," etc. But
it is not given to mortal man always to walk upon that plane where the
sunlight of God's inspiration is playing upon him. Men may, by care and
devotion and spiritual strength, rise sometimes to that high plane; may
stand at times as on mountain tops, uncovered, in the presence of God,
their spirit united with his Spirit, until the mind of God shall flow
through them to bless those who hearken to their words: and there is no
need that one shall rise up and say, "This man was inspired of God,"
for all the people who receive of his ministrations know that by the
effect of his spirit upon their spirits. But, sometimes, the servants
of God stand on planes infinitely lower than the one here described.
Sometimes they speak merely from their human knowledge, influenced
by passions; influenced by the interests of men, and by anger, and
vexation, and all those things that surge in upon the minds of even
servants of God. When they so speak, then that is not Scripture, that
is not the word of God, nor the power of God unto salvation; but when
they speak as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, their voice then becomes
the voice of God. So that men, even some of high station in the Church,
sometimes speak from merely human wisdom; or from prejudice or passion;
and when they do so, that is not likely to be the word of God. I do
not think the world should require such perfection of us as to insist
that our religious teachers always deliver the inerrant word of God! In
any event it must be allowed by us that many unwise things were said
in times past, even by prominent elders of the Church; things that
were not in harmony with the doctrines of the Church; and that did not
possess the value of Scripture, or anything like it; and it was not
revelation. Moreover, no revelation even becomes the doctrine of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until it is accepted by
that Church by formal action; it must be accepted by official vote of
the Church before it becomes the law of the Church.

REVEALED WORD.

There is one thing which always gives me great and abounding joy, and
that is this: Here in the Doctrine and Covenants we have a volume of
revelation that has been given to the Church as the word of God, and
accepted as such by the Church. We accept four great books as the
authoritative Scriptures of the Church, wherein the doctrines of the
Church are couched, viz. the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine
and Covenants, and the collection of writings called the Pearl of Great
Price, containing the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham, and some of
the writings of the Prophet Joseph. I have been engaged for some years
in advocacy of our faith, and in defending it, and in these Scriptures
that have been given under the inspiration of God, and accepted by the
Church of Christ as containing the doctrine of the Church, I find no
doctrine, that may not be successfully defended before any body of men
in the world, I care not how learned or intelligent they may be--nay,
the more learned and intelligent the easier is the defense. The books I
have named constitute our Scripture, not the haphazard sayings of men
from the pulpit; and as in the future we receive line upon line, and
precept upon precept--as the volume of written revelation shall grow,
it will possess the same characteristics of truth that our present
volumes of Scripture possess.

There is one other item I would like to speak upon, viz., that article
of our faith which declares that "We believe in being honest, true,
chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men." Now,
of course, that article covers the whole moral law of the gospel
as pertaining to personal conduct, and as pertaining to conduct in
relationship to others. It introduces a theme altogether too large
for exposition here; and I shall confine my remarks just to the two
first things--which, really are but one thing, namely, that we believe
in being "honest, true." If you were to judge of the character of
the Latter-day Saints by what is being said of them in the current
magazines and the daily press, one would really think that they
possessed no quality of honesty or of truthfulness; but that in both
civic and religious life their whole course of conduct was based upon
chicanery, and fraud, and untruth. Yet, here is our article of faith,
that we believe in being honest, in being true. That means that we
believe in speaking the truth and acting the truth; it goes both to
belief and to action; to mental attitude and actual practice:

GOD'S WORD IS TRUTH.

Let me call attention to another fact--and Brother Penrose
mentioned it, also--namely, that we believe in certain attributes
that God possesses. Among these attributes, as well as eternity,
and omnipotence, and omnipresence, and omniscience, and holiness,
and wisdom, and knowledge, and power, and love, and justice, and
mercy--there is also the attribute of truth; and this attribute of
truth is absolute in God. The scriptures say, with verity, that he is
"a God of truth, without iniquity; just and right is he." "Mercy and
truth," said another prophet, "go before thy face." Another one has
said, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he
should repent." Along this line we ourselves have a very grand saying,
given to the Prophet Joseph before the organization of the Church,
but it will endure through all time, and in all ages, and in all
experiences, namely:

    "God doth not walk in crooked paths; neither doth he turn to the
    right hand, nor to the left; neither doth he vary from that which
    he has said; therefore, his paths are straight, and his course is
    one eternal round." (Doc.& Cov., sec. 3:2).

Because of this attribute of truth in God, he must be thought of as
imparting to the institutions which he founds his own nature; they must
be in harmony with his attributes. Consequently, when he establishes
his Church, it will be a church of truth; it will stand for the truth
like its founder; it will speak the truth without variation, without
turning to the right hand, or turning to the left hand. God must be
true--an untruthful God? The very thought, but that I am refuting it,
would be blasphemy. It would wreck the moral universe for God to speak
untruth. It is unthinkable; it cannot be entertained. That also which
God founds, an institution such as his Church, must also, I repeat,
stand for the truth. But those, I say, who judge our reputation from
what is said of us in the current magazines--a person forming his
judgment upon those slanders, would believe there was no truth in
us, nor in the Church. But we, nevertheless, believe in truth; we
believe in being honest, true, virtuous; and let those who charge
us with believing otherwise than this; or who say that we trust in
falsehood; and believe in practicing it, wherein they do not speak
ignorantly--"_let them be anathema_!" And those among us--those of our
faith--and I fear that there may be one in ten thousand, I do not know,
but I have found some who will advance the idea that even the kingdom
of God has to resort to deception and untruth, at times, in order to
meet some emergency or other--to all such without qualification, I say
_anathema!_ Be ye accursed! They do the Church to which they belong a
great injustice. The Church cannot stand on untruth. The truth, the
whole of it, and constantly the truth, must be the creed of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or else it proves itself not
the product of the God of truth, for he is true. To doubt it would
be disloyalty, to think of it, otherwise than to refute it, would be
blasphemy.

TESTIMONY BORNE.

There is much more that might be dealt with negatively, and
anathematized, perhaps, but this satisfies me upon this occasion,
and the time for closing this meeting has arrived. I join here, this
afternoon, with my brother, Elder Penrose, in bearing witness to the
truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ; to the existence of God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. With him, I bear witness
to you of the virtue and power and saving grace in the atonement of
the Lord Jesus Christ; and bear witness to you that there is no other
name given among men whereby we may be saved, only the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. With him, I bear witness to you, out of my experience, that
men may have communion with God, that his Spirit does give inspiration
to the spirit of man, and through that means there may be both union
and communion now between men and God, through obedience to the gospel.
I know and I bear witness, with Elder Penrose, that this is the Church
of Jesus Christ, founded in these latter-days; that there was virtue
and power, and divinity in the mission of Joseph Smith, the instrument
in God's hands of bringing in this new dispensation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. I testify that those who believe the gospel and obey it;
that those who with real, earnest effort--even though stumblingly--seek
to obey it, to them will be extended the divine grace and power of God,
and helpfulness; that out of the abundance of his mercy and grace will
God help those who are weak, if only they keep their faces constantly
directed towards him, and back of all their mistakes and failures they
maintain an earnest determination to overcome the things of this world
and the weaknesses of human nature. God will remember that they are but
men in the making, and he will be merciful and ultimately will give
them the victory, if only they will strive and pray and not faint. That
I know, for God has taught me that in my own experiences, and I bear
witness of it to you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

III.

THE THINGS OF GOD GREATER THAN MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THEM.

Discourse in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, Sunday, September 12, 1909.
(Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.)

I.

I never face this tabernacle congregation without a very great amount
of misgiving on my part, which amounts to an inward fear and trembling.
I presume it arises from the fact that such a position brings home to
one the weight of responsibility that rests upon him who undertakes
to be a public teacher; and, sometimes, I have felt for my own part,
that I would be happier if these occasional duties did not devolve upon
me. However, we can't help but remember that in discharging this duty
the Lord has sometimes been good to us and blest us with a measure of
success, and some truth, or portion of truth, has been presented in a
manner to be understood by the saints. This gives one encouragement
and faith to try again, and perhaps, my friends, on this occasion, if
we can acceptably approach the Lord, our meeting together may result
in blessing. I most fervently pray that such may be the outcome of our
meeting this afternoon.

I have not been able to fix upon any text which would foreshadow the
truth that I would like to present on this occasion. I have no text,
but I have a theme in mind, that has taken more or less of definite
form--a theme which may be illustrated by many texts; and certainly by
many historical experiences of the people of God in various ages of the
world. My thought may be stated in these terms: No matter what your
conception of divine things may be--however wide or high--the divine
things themselves, be assured, are much greater than your conceptions
of them. I pray you, think about that a while, and get it well in mind:
No matter how great or comprehensive your conceptions may be of divine
things, the divine things themselves are always greater than your
conceptions of them. It must have been some such thought as this which
led our Prophet Joseph Smith to make the following remark: "The things
of God are of deep import, and time and experience, and careful and
ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man,
if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the
utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss and
the broad expanse of eternity--Thou must commune with God!"

DIVINE THINGS MISJUDGED.

Associated with this theme that we have here announced is another,
namely, that in consequence of man's failure to comprehend fully the
things of God, there is great danger that he may misapprehend divine
things--God's messages and God's purposes. The experience of God's
people abundantly demonstrate this second truth. For example: suppose
you think upon the misapprehension that the Jews had concerning the
promised Messiah. Their prophets and even their patriarchs, in their
writings and prophecies, had foreshadowed the coming of the Messiah
the Redeemer not only of Israel but of the world. Yet, when he came,
the Jews altogether misapprehended him, and so far misunderstood him
and his mission that they rejected him. Israel's national existence
had been a very precarious and trying one. They had been subdued again
and again by nations surrounding them. For many generations their
petty kingdom had been but a shuttle-cock between the battle-doors of
Assyrian and Persian, of Persian and Egyptian; and at the time of the
advent of the Messiah, Palestine had been reduced to the condition of
a Roman province, and was under the iron hand of Roman rule. The Jews
looked back, frequently, to the glorious days of David and Solomon,
when Israel could well be proud of her national existence. They longed,
again, for a king, and national independence; and hence they regarded
the promise of the Messiah as the coming of a king to bring redemption
to Israel and to establish them as a nation in the earth. But instead
of a king, there came a peasant; instead of a conqueror, there came a
teacher; and they did not recognize, in his character, and mission the
elements that would exalt him far above all earthly kings and give to
him an empire over the children of men that should far exceed in glory
anything that could come to earthly potentate or monarch. They wholly
misapprehended the mission of the Messiah; and yet, when you take into
account the position of the Christ today in the world, although we have
had but a partial development of his truths, although the glory of his
kingdom has been somewhat arrested by reason of the departure of men
from that divine system of truth which he established, notwithstanding
we have had but a lame and halting Christianity--yet, to what heights
has it lifted the Messiah of the Jews in mighty influence among the
nations of the earth! We get the principle with which we started our
discourse illustrated most beautifully in these circumstances: First
the misapprehension of men of the things of God; and yet the truth
that however great the conceptions of men may be of divine things,
the divine things themselves far outrun in glory, and largeness, and
power, men's conceptions of them; for the Jews never attributed even
to the Messiah of their prophecies the glory that has already come to
the Christ. He reigns, with more or less supremacy in the hearts of
at least more than one-third of the inhabitants of the earth, and is
accepted as prophet, as priest, and, in some sense or other, as the
Redeemer of all men. And that, I believe, far outstrips the conceptions
that the Jews had of the glory of their Messiah.

Take another illustration of our theme. The early Christians, as well
as the Jews, failed to apprehend the mission of the Christ. There was
fixed in the minds of those early converts to the Christian faith the
thought that salvation was of the Jews; (John 4:22); and it seems to me
they added to the words of Christ the idea that not only was salvation
of Israel, but salvation, in their minds, was merely for Israel. Those
early Christian converts had no idea that their Messiah was to become
the Messiah and Savior of all men; and it required special revelation
to the chief apostle, Peter, to get even him to understand that the
message of the Christ was for the gentile as well as for the Jew. You
will remember, when the Lord had inspired a certain gentile, of the
name of Cornelius, to inquire of the Lord what he ought to do in order
to be accepted of God, how by special revelation unto Peter, as the
messengers from this devout gentile approached his dwelling place, he
was given a vision, the import of which was that whosoever God should
recognize as clean, Peter must not call filthy or unclean. Three times
was this lesson taught to the chief apostle, when, lo, the messengers
from Cornelius were knocking at his doors. He met the messengers from
Cornelius, who brought word that God had visited this devout gentile,
and bid him send for the chief apostle of the Christ. Peter went down
to the house of Cornelius and taught him the truths of the gospel;
and as he spake the Holy Ghost rested upon the gentiles present as
it had upon the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Then Peter saw the
interpretation of his vision; and he said: "Can any man forbid water,
that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost
as well as we."

By this means the Lord led this man, Peter, to have a wider view of
the mission of the Christ, but it was extremely difficult to get the
rest of the Christians, in that day to accept this thought. Hence when
Paul came forward, being raised up of the Lord to carry his message
to the gentiles, it was his chief offense, so thought the Christian
Jews, that he taught this broader application of the Gospel of the
Christ to the children of God; and those early, fanatical Christians
stoutly accused him of blasphemy and of bringing those who were unclean
into the temple of God. It required all the revelations that God gave
to Peter; it required all the inspiration that God gave to Paul--all
his energy, all his learning, all his inspired eloquence--to make it
known to the world that salvation was not only for the Jew but for the
gentile also; and the first congregations of the Christians in Judea
seem, in sullen mood, to have rejected the greater revelations accepted
by the apostles, and the great tide of the gospel swept by them and
left them in their obscurity; while Paul and his associates ran to
and fro, through the mighty Roman empire, and planted the standard of
the gospel in many gentile cities, and made the world ring with the
message of the Messiah. These people, the first Christians, many of
them good and pure minded people, no doubt, failed to rightly apprehend
the great mission of the Messiah, and so that mission swept on by them
and left them in their obscurity. We may say in closing this branch of
our reflections that the prophecy of the Messiah respecting the Jews
who rejected him; and in a manner also the Jews who accepted him, but
failed to apprehend the largeness of his mission, the universality of
the salvation he brought into the world--the prophecy of the Messiah, I
say, was fulfilled--"The Kingdom of God shall be taken from among you,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." And Paul: "It
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to
you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo! we turn to the gentiles."

Now I am wondering if you will bear with me while I point out the fact
that we too, in this dispensation of the fulness of times, are in the
same danger of failing to apprehend the greatness of the things of God
restored to us. We, too, are human; we, too, fail to grasp the full
import of the truth which is the center around which our thoughts are
moving. We fail to realize that great as our conceptions may be of
divine things, yet, those divine things are infinitely greater than our
conceptions of them.

II.

MARVELOUS WORK AND A WONDER.

Take here this book of Doctrine and Covenants. In some half score of
the early revelations, you find this statement made, "A great and
marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men." How
many of the early converts of the Church appreciated the meaning of
that solemn announcement? They stood in the presence of certain facts
then developing, that were truly marvelous and great in their eyes.
In an age when the orthodox churches were teaching that God would no
more speak from heaven to give further revelation; in an age when all
Christendom taught that the visitation of angels had ceased; in an age
when it was orthodox to regard the volume of Scripture as completed
and forever closed--these early converts had heard the wonderful
announcement of God's witness, that the heavens had been reopened;
that God had once more revealed himself to man upon the earth; that
angels had come with messages from God; that there had been brought
forth a whole volume of Scripture that was a witness for God, the
Book of Mormon, that spoke of the ancient inhabitants of this western
world, giving an account of the migration of their fathers to this
land from the old world; that gave an account of the rise and fall of
nations and empires in this western hemisphere; that testified of the
goodness of God to them, and revealing himself to them, and sending the
risen Messiah to them to make known the gospel of the Son of God, and
proclaim the means of their salvation. The early converts to the Church
had witnessed that volume of Scripture brought forth. They had seen a
church organized under the direction and inspiration of God. They had
seen a renewal of those spiritual powers and graces that characterized
the primitive church of the Christ. Contrary to the expectations and
teaching of modern Christendom, the sick were healed; the lame were
made to walk; in some cases the eyes of the blind were opened. Men felt
once more that they stood in the immediate presence of the living,
throbbing power of God in the world, and especially in the Church of
Christ. These things were indeed "great and marvelous" to them; but
how very far short of the full glory of the latter-day work do these
few first steps now seem to us! The saints in those early days did
not dream that there was to be an unfolding of doctrine and Church
organization such as we now behold. They did not understand in those
early days that there would again be a quorum of apostles, endowed
with the same powers and gifts and authority that characterized the
first apostolate of the Church of Christ. They did not know then that
there were to be called into existence thousands and tens of thousands
of assistant apostles, the seventies, who would be commissioned to go
into all the world under the direction of the twelve, to preach the
gospel to all nations and gather Israel. They had no idea that scores
and even hundreds of bishops would be called into official existence
to preside in the midst of the people of God. They did not understand
that the keys for the redemption of the dead would be restored, so that
the gospel could be proclaimed in the spirit World and men brought
to a knowledge of the truth, that they might "live according to God
in the spirit," and, ultimately, be judged as men are judged in the
flesh. They did not know that temples were to be erected, in which this
work for both living and dead could be performed. They could not then
understand that in this dispensation of the fulness of times all the
ends of the earth were to meet; and "all things in Christ be gathered
together in one, even in him," until all the families of the earth that
would receive the truth might in every way be bound in chains of love
at the feet of the living Christ. The early converts to the Church had
no such vision of the work of God, as this. It is not a reproach to
them that they did not fully comprehend these things, or anticipate the
marvelous history that the people of God would make. They were just
like the children of men in all generations, and like ourselves. No
matter how wonderful to them divine things were, no matter how great
their conceptions of them, the divine things themselves were infinitely
greater than they conceived them to be.

III.

THE NEW JERUSALEM.

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."