The Order of Short Speeches

My brethren and sisters, the order of the day is short speeches. I pray that while I am standing before you I may enjoy the spirit of the Lord also. ¶

During one of my recent visits to one of our Stake conferences a very remarkable circumstance happened, which I desire to refer to this afternoon. One of our brethren there, who held the Holy Priesthood, thought he had discovered a power that was greater than the Priesthood, and had begun to exercise this power among the people. He called this power which he had graduated in, hypnotism. He went to the Bishop of his ward and suggested that he take lessons from him, for, said he, "Bishop, you can just cast a spell over the people and make them do just as you please." I desire to talk a little this afternoon with reference to this evil. It would astonish you to know, my brethren and sisters, how many of the Latter-day Saints are taking up with this principle of hypnotism, with Christian Science, and how many are following after wizards and those that have familiar spirits, and going, to palmists to get their hands read, and all this sort of thing. Now I will tell you why I came to talk upon this subject. It was the remark of Brother Cowley, that we teach nothing but what is given by revelation from God, the Eternal Father. I am going to read a little to you from the 13th Chapter of Deuteronomy. ¶

"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, •'And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us. serve them; "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. ¶

"Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. ¶

"And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in: So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee." Notice the severity of the punishment to be given to this class of people; for they were to be put to death. ¶

"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; "Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; "Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; "But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. ¶

"And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¶

"And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you. ¶

"If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, "Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; "Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; "Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. ¶

"And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. ¶

"And there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand: that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as He hath sworn unto thy fathers; "When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God." ¶

This was a revelation given to Moses the Prophet, by the Lord our God, concerning those who would go after idolatry and after those having familiar spirits, who would seek to turn them away from the Lord our God. I want to tell you that the Lord has not revealed a principle of hypnotism among the children of men. Hypnotism is simply a power by which a man can exercise an influence over his fellows, an unrighteous dominion, which is contrary to the commandments of God. There are a number of men and women among this people today who are exercising an unrighteous dominion, in this manner, among the Latter-day Saints. I want to lift up my voice and say, that it is an abomination in the sight of the Lord our God. I may read, to advantage, a few words from the Doctrine and Covenants. Speaking of satan, it says: ¶

"Wherefore he maketh war with the Saints of God, and encompasses them round about. ¶

"And we saw a vision of the sufferings of those with whom he made war and overcame, for thus came the voice of the Lord unto us. ¶

"Thus saith the Lord, concerning all those who know my power, and have been made partakers thereof, and suffered themselves, through the power of the devil, to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy my power— ¶

"They are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom I say that it had been better for them never to have been born." ¶

That includes those who seek to exercise unrighteous dominion over the souls of the children of men, who have been overcome by evil influence and evil spirits. ¶

Now, this person to whom I referred, stated to the Bishop that he had discovered something that would help him, that was beyond the power of the Priesthood which he held, and that, if he (the Bishop) would take lessons in this art of hypnotism, as he called it, he would be able to cast a spell over his congregation and they would do what he wanted them to do. Supposing this Bishop had done what had been suggested to him, he would have come under condemnation in the sight of God, because he would have been exercising unrighteous dominion, and would have permitted himself to have been overcome by the power of the devil, and would, therefore, become a son of perdition, as I have read to you. Now, in conformity with this principle Brother Cowley has just given, that we teach nothing but that which is given by revelation from God, let me ask you, has any such principle "as hypnotism been given by revelation, or has it been approved of by the Presidency of the Church? No, it has not, and it is not right for us to engage in the exercise of these powers, or in anything of that character that is not authorized by the Gospel of Christ; for the Gospel, as Paul says, "Is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." ¶

I will read a little further from the Doctrine and Covenants, concerning these sons of perdition: ¶

"For they are vessels of wrath, doomed to suffer the wrath of God, with the devil and his angels in eternity; "Concerning whom I have said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come." ¶

My brethren and sisters, one-half of the world today is filled with idolaters, for the reason that men, in the various ages of the world, permitted themselves to be led by those having familiar spirits, and they wandered away from the truth. Here is Elder Grant, who has just come from Japan, a nation of idolaters; there is that great empire of China, containing over 265 millions of people, who are worshipers of idols. How did they get into this condition? Because they wandered away from the teachings and revelations of God. There is nothing that can break through this darkness of ages and enlighten their minds, excepting it be a new revelation from the Eternal Father. ¶

We have had a number of young men go east to study medicine and other branches of knowledge, and some of them have come back, not only as graduates in the science they studied, but as professors of hypnotism. I say it is not of God, and is an abomination in His sight, and if they do not repent of their sins, as sure as God lives, the judgments spoken of in the revelation, from which I have read, will come upon them, and they will wander away in to darkness, and will not be acknowledged of the Lord. I want to advise the young ladies, while upon this subject, not to follow after peep-stone women, fortune-tellers, or those claiming to have a familiar spirit, to get them to tell .you the kind of a husband you will marry, or you young men the kind of a wife you will get. I will tell you where to go; go to the "Patriarch of the Church, who holds the blessings of God's people in his hands, and whatever he seals on earth will be sealed in heaven. If you will keep the commandments of God and live your religion, the Lord will bless you. ¶

Elder Cowley desires me to read the following upon this subject, (Isaiah, Chap. 8)." ¶

"And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead? ¶

"To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. ¶

"And they shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves and curse their king and their God, and look upward. ¶

"And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness." ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, this has been literally fulfilled upon the idolatrous nations of the earth. Let us not be deceived, my brethren and sisters, or lead astray by those who are muttering and seeking to give the people a little temporal satisfaction, for it will result in incurring the displeasure of God upon us. ¶

I will read a little more from the book of Doctrine and Covenants. I want to say that any theory or doctrine that brings destruction upon the souls of the children of men is not from God, but is from satan, the father of all lies from the beginning. In the beginning he suggested a plan whereby he would oblige the children of men to keep the commandments of God; but the Savior wanted to do the will of the Father, and the Father wanted His children to . have their free agency and to work out their individual salvation, through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel; and the Father has said, as contained in the Doctrine and Covenants: ¶

"That the rights of the Priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness." ¶

Is a man acting in accordance with the laws of the Gospel in endeavoring to cast a spell over the people? No, it is not of God. It says: ¶

"That they may be conferred upon us, it is true, but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control, or dominion, or compulsion, upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, amen to the Priesthood, or the authority of that man." ¶

"We read, in the papers, almost weekly, of people being accused of casting spells over our sons and daughters and leading them astray. Is it not time that someone was standing up and speaking in plainness regarding these evils? I will read a little further. ¶

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the Priesthood, only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness, and meekness, and by love unfeigned; "By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile." ¶

This is the spirit of the Gospel. It says: ¶

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God, and the doctrine of the Priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. ¶

"The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy sceptre an unchanging sceptre of righteousness and truth, and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee for ever and ever." ¶

God bless you, my brethren and sisters, that you may walk in the straight and narrow path, and not yield to the influences of evil spirits, but that you shall be guided by the influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which will lead you unto eternal life. May God grant that this may be our lot, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶