Maintaining Repentance

Twenty-five minutes will not be a very long practice at the mark straight ahead of us, but I will endeavor to talk straight, with the help of the Lord and with the help of your faith and prayers, my brethren and sisters, and trust that something may be said that will be profitable to us ¶

While listening to the brethren today, I have thought of this sacred spot, this building, this sacred ground where the Latter-day Saints are wont to assemble twice a year from all over the Church, coming here to listen to the living oracles, the men who have been chosen by the Lord, upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility of this Church and this work which the Lord has established, and O, what a sacred spot this is destined to be! When I think of the great designer of this building, President Young, and his brethren who have occupied the stand, the pulpit here, and how freely the word of the Lord has come to the people by the inspiration of the Almighty, words of wisdom, words of intelligence, words fraught with the power of God, I think what wonderful occasions have been in this building! How we have rejoiced together, and how we have been fed and stimulated to go forth from this central spot to our various fields of labor, to serve the Lord anew, to renew our energies, our covenants and obligations to the Lord and to more faithfully keep His commandments, that we may make good our great undertaking; to repent of our sins and to obtain forgiveness; to make a repentance genuine and eternal; for I am brought to believe that it is possible for men to repent and then to unrepent, and to fail to keep their repentance good; and I believe that the victory is in retaining our repentance and making it good, so that the Spirit of the Lord may dwell richly with us—I believe that it has been a fault with the Latter-day Saints, with us all, perhaps, without exception, that we have not properly maintained our repentance and kept it good; that we have, after we have embraced the Gospel and have received baptism properly, slackened our course; that we have become careless; that we have not maintained the broken heart and the contrite spirit, for be it known, it is necessary that men should have the broken heart, the tender and soft heart, and the contrite spirit, or they are not worthy of that great ordinance of baptism of water and of fire and of the Holy Ghost—And when we have reached this point, that we have complied with the revelation which is so clear and pointed, so definite that no one can mistake, I believe that that same condition must be maintained—I believe that my heart should be as tender today as it ever was—I cannot afford to be hard-hearted, I cannot afford to be stubborn, I cannot afford to be haughty and high-minded; but I must be contrite in spirit and my heart broken and tender, for the Lord has prescribed that all those who humble themselves before God and desire to be baptized should come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the Church that they have truly repented of their sins and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve Him to the end—He says: 'All who truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins shall be received by baptism into this Church " I take it that this requirement is necessary to entitle us to baptism into this Church, and no person is entitled to baptism who comes not to that condition—And if it be necessary that that condition is reached, or shall be reached, by those who would be baptized into this Church and have their sins washed away to entitle them to receive the Holy Ghost, I believe that it is necessary also that that repentance and that broken heart and that contrite spirit and those good works before the Church, should be continued, and manifested to the end of life, if we would have the blessing of eternal life—King Benjamin, in talking to his people, in the fourth chapter of Mosiah (Book of Mormon), says : ¶

"And again I say unto you, as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of His goodness, and have tasted of His love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth you exceeding great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and His goodness and longsuffering toward you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves, even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel; and behold, I say unto you, that if ye do this, ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of Him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true—And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due," ¶

Further, King Benjamin says, in this same chapter: ¶

'And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you; that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God, I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants—And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order, for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength—And again: it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore all things must be done in order—And I would that ye should remember, that whosoever among you that borroweth from his neighbor, should return the thing that he borroweth, according as he doth agree, or else thou shalt sin, and perhaps thou shalt cause thy neighbor to commit sin also—And, finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that ¶

I cannot number them—But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish—And now, O man, remember and perish not " ¶

What great favor we enjoy, my brethren and sisters, that we have come to the plan of life, that we have come to know the way that leads to life and salvation, to know the Lord, to become acquainted with Him, having learned of Him through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to know that Jesus is the Christ, to know that He is the Son of God and the Savior, and that we have been taught the principles of repentance, and that we have been brought to understand it and appreciate it! How important it is, then, that we should remain faithful, that we should persevere, that we should maintain the conditions upon which we entered into this Church—It is not that a certain condition is necessary for us to come through the door and then that we may unbend and do as we choose; but it is important that we should keep the faith—It is important that we should keep our hearts broken and tender, and our spirits contrite, and meek, and lowly of heart, that we should remember the Lord day by day, and that we should honor Him and keep His commandments and work righteousness, for we have the power—The power is in us—The Lord has given it to us, and the Lord has given to all men the power to do good and to honor Him and to keep His commandments—Naturally all men are endowed with this power from on high—There is planted in the hearts of all men that spark of intelligence and of righteousness from God, and that perception of the truth known as the conscience of man—It is a monitor established in the heart of every man and every woman, by the inspiration of the Almighty—And that conscience should be kept unsullied—It should be kept free, uncontaminated, and it should improve, for, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to which those are entitled who humble themselves before God, the consciences of men should become so tender and so susceptible of impressions that they would rebel against the insinuation of evil, however small it might be—For the conscience, instead of being "seared with a hot iron," should be improved, should be intensified and made stronger and better in the hearts of the Latter-day Saints, for we are entitled to a superior power and intelligence ¶

The Holy Ghost, that brings us in communion with the Father, and that establishes us as the living oracles—not alone the Presidency of the Church, not alone the Apostles, not alone the officials of the Church generaly,—but I say that the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the Elders of Israel makes them the living oracles of God, and they are entitled to speak by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; they are entitled to know the truth, and not to be deceived—They are entitled to be led and counseled as they cannot be led by the written word, as we heard this morning, and yet no people of the world prize more the revelations of the Lord that are written than do the Latter-day Saints—But it has been the living oracles of God that produced the written word, and that always must produce the written word — not the written word that produces the living oracles—But the living oracles are those men whom God has chosen and has inspired and given responsibility to—Those are the living oracles of God, and they are the men that the Lord sustains and strengthens and preserves, and to whom He reveals His mind and will—And they labor among the people, they live among the people, and they go to the world and preach the Gospel, advertising the principles of life and salvation abroad to the world, calling men to repentance and to reformation—These are the living oracles, and we should be the living oracles, and we should keep good the obligations that we are under to the Lord, and the promises we have made to Him, for He never fails—Our Heavenly Father has never failed—He cannot fail—His promises are all good to us—The failures are upon our part—It was no failure — it has never been a failure on the part of the Lord, in the choice of brethren to serve Him and to bear His responsibility, to bear His Priesthood and authority among men—The failures have been the failures of men, on account of the weaknesses of men, of human nature—But where men lean upon the Lord and trust Him, and are humble and faithful, as all men can be, God always sustains and never deserts them—He cannot desert them—It is not possible that a man can fail if he does the will of God—No man ever did fail in this work and kingdom if he maintained his repentance and reformation — if these are kept good from the beginning to the finish, no man can fail—Where men do fail, it is because of their own faults and of their own weaknesses, and not the fault of the Father—And there is no fault or mistake of the Father in the choice that is made, and every man who is called to position in this Church is called by the Father, by revelation, and not otherwise—The mind and will of God is known on every occasion, and we need have no fear when the purposes of the Lord are announced—"When the design, the rule and the order of the Church are announced by the Prophet of God, know all Israel that God hath said it; and we know He hath spoken—We know when we hear his voice—We know His spirit, and we know the voice of the true shepherd—And this is my testimony to you, my brethren and sisters, today, in regard to this great work ¶

And I say these sacred precincts where the Prophets of God have dwelt and labored among us all these years, and where the inspiration of the Almighty comes as a flood, and where the will of God is announced to all Israel, should be most dear to us—What a blessed privilege! O, if we appreciated it as we ought to do, this house would never hold the congregation on any occasion—We would be crowding the very grounds about it, as well as the galleries, and every spot would be filled, if we only appreciated that God is here, that the Holy Ghost is here and is with His servants—How great has been the opportunity and privilege that is granted to us, and how we ought to appreciate it, and how we ought to be humble, how we ought to repent and leave off every wickedness and evil and iniquity, and how straight we should walk to the line, keeping the commandments of God, shunning not only evil but the appearance of evil! ¶

I quite endorse the remarks of Brother Smith in regard to the sacredness of the Sabbath day—That should always be observed—We cannot be too careful in regard to all these things, and everything, in fact, in life; and we want to be prepared, my brethren and sisters, for the coming of the Son of Man, for His coming is near; it approaches, and it will be upon us before we know it, and before we are prepared—Let us then, I say, repent and make our repentance good from this time henceforth, and say nothing that would mortify us, or that would grieve the Spirit of the Lord, or make us ashamed ¶

I pray that the Lord will sustain us—I pray for President Woodruff, our great leader, the man whom God has honored with long life—How his life has been preserved! And we pray that he may continue to be preserved and stand at our head, and be filled with the power of God—And I pray for my brethren, the Presidency, the Twelve, and for the Elders of Israel, and for all who are in official positions among the people, at home and abroad—I pray for those who are laboring, who have responsibility upon their shoulders, all the brethren and all the sisters, that God will bless us, and enable us to do His will, accomplish His purposes, and be worthy of the trust that He has committed to us, that when we have finished, we shall be selected as His jewels, and that it may be said of us 'Well done, good and faithful servants, enter into the joy of thy Lord " Amen ¶