Repentance and the True Gospel of Christ

I humbly ask for your faith and prayers for the few moments I may stand before you. I make this request because I believe God answers the prayers of the Latter-day Saints. I believe it is necessary for us to have His aid when we meet together upon occasions of this kind for the purpose of being instructed in the work of the Lord and our duties towards Him. ¶

When Apostle Lund was speaking in the Tabernacle yesterday he referred to a portion of that revelation of the Apostle John, given while upon the Isle of Patmos, concerning the penalty attached to any one adding to the words of that revelation, and also the construction placed upon it by the divines of the age in their endeavors to convert mankind to the idea that it was the intention of the Almighty to close the heavens against the earth and to give to His children no more revelation. ¶

I fully realize that among some of the divines of the day, especially those who have lived in these valleys of the mountains and who seem to be filled with a desire to lead the Latter-day Saints from what they consider the error of their way, that they place this construction upon that passage. ¶

Brother Lund very beautifully called attention to and quoted other passages of scripture which went to show that no intention of this kind was placed upon those words by the Lord who gave them, through the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, to the Apostle who was upon that lonely and desolate island. ¶

I know there are those who have a desire, and have so expressed it to lead away the young from the faith of the Latter-day Saints, and they have gone so far as to make the assertion that with the older members of the Church there is no use bothering with them. And I thought it would be well if I called their attention to something that does carry with it a responsibility, and that does not merely refer to the age in which they were written. ¶

Inasmuch as they profess to be ministers of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; inasmuch as they pretend to be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I would like to call their attention to something that bears with it a great responsibility for them; and the words are found in the 1st portion of that letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Saints, some of whom, even in that early day were wandering from the truth. He says: ¶

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that call you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." ¶

Even in that early day there were men found in the church who had become filled with the evil spirit and who were engaged in introducing errors or changes in the Gospel of Christ. That Gospel, which is the same yesterday, tomorrow, and for ever. It admits of no changes; and the Apostle Paul marvels that there were some even at that time beginning to be turned towards another gospel. He therefore makes that sweeping charge and statement which I have read, and then as if he desired to impress it more strongly upon their minds he repeats his words by saying: 'As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." ¶

These words bear greater responsibility than the construction placed upon them by many of the divines of the age; and there is no question that the responsibility mentioned in these words reach down to our day, and will reach to every age so long as mankind is working out his salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. ¶

Every man who stands before a congregation of people for the purpose of teaching, professing to be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ; professing to be a minister of the Gospel, should always bear in mind the words of the Apostle Paul that if they preach any other Gospel; if they try to pervert the gospel; if they present to mankind something that is not the gospel and call it the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the curse of God will rest upon them; and inasmuch as they have a desire to lead away the young men and the young women from the faith of the Latter-day Saints, I trust that they will picture up in their minds what was the gospel 1800 years ago, what it should he today, what it must be tomorrow, the doctrines that are pleasing in the sight of God. That Gospel which was the power of God unto salvation while Christ was upon the earth. That Gospel which He left to His Apostles when He commanded them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, with the statement that they who believed and were baptized should be saved and they who believed not should be damned. ¶

Now, for a few moments, as time will justify, let us touch upon a few of the principles which went to make xip the Gospel of Jesus Christ. First, faith in God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is the foundation stone. And when these professed ministers attempt to lead away the young people of the Latter-day Saints, they must preach a belief in that being unto them, and in no other, for "Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God with all thy might, with all thy mind and with all thy strength." "We must not serve an unknown God, but worship the true and Living God; that being who made man in His image and placed him upon the earth. Not a supreme power believed in by the infidel world, only called by another name; not a supreme power that you feel in the air or see in the leaves upon the trees which infidels call by the name of nature, and which modern christians call God — both the same thing, only called by different names. That Being in whose image man is made, of whom Christ was in the express image, and that Being whom Stephen saw as he gazed up steadfastly into heaven when they were stoning him to death, and when he bore testimony that he saw Jesus standing upon the right hand of God; that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ¶

Now, this is the foundation stone. This is the supreme being that they must believe in, because it is the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and one of His Holy Apostles said the curse of God would rest upon any man, even though he be an angel from heaven, who pretended to preach any other Gospel. ¶

It is true, they call upon mankind to believe in something, but the starting point is to believe in that God who gave us life, whose children we are, and Him we expect to obey while we live upon the earth; and if they reject the foundation, then their whole structure must fall to the ground as worthless. Because if the evil one may succeed in having you worship something that is not God, then he has gained a victory, for he has taken from the work of the Lord the very foundation upon which the structure stands. Therefore, it is important that the ministers first convert themselves to the idea of a personal God before they pretend to be His servants and attempt to lead any one into the paths of righteousness. ¶

It is true, they may call upon mankind to repent; it is true, some of them may call upon mankind to be baptized— some of them do not; and some of them say you must be baptized in one way, and some in another, and still some in a different manner, while the Gospel of Christ, as contained within the lids of this sacred book teaches that there is but one faith, one Lord and one baptism. This Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So these divines should become converted among themselves as to whether baptism is necessary, and if so, what kind of baptism is necessary, and they themselves dispense with all forms of baptism except the one sanctioned by God, before they can hope to have any force or weight in trying to lead the children of the Latter-day Saints unto them. The Gospel taught anciently was, that as many as were baptized were buried as in a watery grave, typical of Christ's death, and that they came forth from the watery grave as typifying the resurrection of Christ from the tomb, and laid the old man of sin in the grave, coming forth with a pure and resurrected body in newness of life. ¶

The Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us what the organization was—that God had placed in the Church Apostles, Prophets and other officers. That He placed them there for the work of the ministry. Those who profess to be ministers of Christ and desire to convert the Latter-day Saints will admit that there is a necessity for the work of the ministry, and if that be so, then there is also a necessity for those whom Christ placed in the Church to do that work. The divine record teaches us that they were placed there for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry and that they should remain there until we all come to a unity of the Faith. And they were to keep the Saints steadfast, to preserve them from being tossed about by every wind of doctrine taught by men. But what is the condition we find in Christendom today, after they have been preaching that the heavens are as brass over our heads, and that God gives no more revelations; that he has no more inspired men upon the earth today. No Prophets, no Apostles. Therefore, there is no wonder that they are tossed about by every wind of doctrine taught by men, and instead of coming to a unity of the faith, they are fast becoming divided and subdivided more and more every year. God says, Except ye are one ye are not Mine. Are they one. They are one only in this—they are united in fighting against the one pure, living faith, organized by God through the Prophet Joseph Smith, who was actuated by that eternal principle, revelation, the only principle that ever did save mankind. ¶

I believe I made the statement here one year ago that the devil never did care how many dead prophets the people believed in, and he does not care today; but he does care if they believe in the living prophets. Whenever the Lord has sent His prophets upon the earth to deliver His message to the children of men, what did the devil care how much the people believed in dead prophets, so long as he could influence them to reject the living ones. That is his business. That is what he desires to accomplish. He knows the living prophets upon the earth have a message of life or death to the people. And he seeks to lead them astray by influencing them to sing praises to the dead prophets, while he is leading them from the living ones. He did so in the days of Jesus, and I want to tell you there were the same kind of people then who loved to offer long prayers in their synagogues, who pretended to act as ministers of the Gospel message, who were leaders of men, who were learned in the laws, who were foremost among the people in crying "crucify Him, crucify Him." And that same pretended divine power that fought Christ 1800 years ago, is the power that is fighting the Latter-day Saints today. The devil does not care how many Christian ministers sing the praises of Peter James and John, how many times they go to the churches and offer long prayers, but he does care when honest souls are turned to listen to the living oracles. He knows that God has spoken from the heavens in the age in which we live. He knows there are prophets upon the earth today who have a message of life or death to the generation of the earth at the present time; and his business is to close the people's ears and to blind their eyes against this message. ¶

I want to tell you young men and young girls belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is a duty you owe to yourselves and to your parents to pray for the faith of this Gospel and to gain a testimony concerning the truthfulness of the same. ¶

They say we have our little children singing the songs of Zion and singing the faith of the Gospel. That is good. That is what we should do. I have heard men say they would not interfere with the faith of their children but let them grow up to manhood and choose for themselves, and whenever I hear a person claiming to be a Latter-day Saint making remarks of this kind I feel in my heart that he is a hypocrite when he says he has a love for the truth and has a testimony of the Gospel. If God has given me a testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, that the men standing at the head of this Church are prophets and apostles, then, so long as I do not bear that testimony, and commence and teach my children in their infancy the great truths of the Gospel and try and instil in their minds and hearts these principles, then I am a hypocrite. ¶

I bear witness to the world that God has revealed these truths to the children of men in this our day, that the Gospel as taught by this people came from God, and I want my children to sing it, I want them to get it in to the marrow of their bones so that these hypocritical agents of hell, who pretend to be ministers of the Gospel of Christ, cannot get it out. ¶

I pray God to bless you in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶