A Candid Sermon on Obedience and the Spirit of Revelation

I very much desire to say the right thing at the right time. I may possibly speak by parable. Now, I intend to say just what the Lord will help me say. One parable is that I do not want a rosewood casket. I am willing to be buried among the people in a plain casket, and all I want inscribed on the headboard of my grave is that I have been true to this Church and to the Priesthood of God, and have walked in the footsteps of my father. ¶

I once read a beautiful article about anvils and hammers and I copied some of its sayings; but I have never used them, although I have carried the copy until it is nearly worn out. I now quote as follows: "Every man in the world who gives blows must take blows, and until a man becomes as good an anvil as he is a hammer he fails to be thoroughly fitted for his work." ¶

I was born in this. Church, and if there is any one thing that I am proud of it is that I am a member of this Church. You Latter-day Saints know well how proud I am of my parentage. When I stop believing in my father and mother, I will stop believing in the human family; for where they go I want to go. I love this work. I may not love it quite so well as some men do, but I hope I will always be given the credit of having integrity, and support and sustain the Priesthood of God. ¶

I will tell you how I was brought up, and then you can make some excuse for my general makeup. A lot of us boys used to meet up in the Eighteenth ward, right where now stands the Lafayette school— that beautiful building which cost over $170,000. I was educated in a very small building on the same block. We had a brother that was somewhat of a general, and he trained us boys— that is, when father was away. He would get us behind the barn, where no one could see us; then he would put a chip upon one of our shoulders and tell one of the other boys to knock it off, then we would fight. That was part of the training he gave us, and when we asked why he did it, he said it makes you tough. My father had a great garden and it was fenced in by a six or eight foot stone wall. Father told us we couldn't have any of the fruit, so we got it anyhow, and I will tell you how we got it. This same brother of ours, took one of the boys and dangled him over the wall with a rope, and he loaded his shirt bosom and pockets with apples. One time, Father Tucker, the gardener, got after him with a willow, and lambasted him. Brother said that would make him tough. Now, I have a little boy— my oldest son — and when he was a child we always made him give up to every neighbor's boy that came in our home. These are parables that I am telling you now. We kept that up until he thought he had to give up everything in the world, and it made rather a coward out of him. He went to school, and the boys found out they could whip him; and they did so, until I told him that if he didn't take his own part and fight, I would whip him. Not long ago he came home with his thumb out of joint, and, forgetting all about my religion, I said, Did you whip him? He said, yes. Then I gave him some fatherly counsel. ¶

Now I grant, my brethren and sisters, that sometimes we have to endure, and I presume that if we live the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ we have to endure all things; but it requires a very prayerful heart to enable us to endure some things. I realize that the Congress of the United States, the president of the United States, and the committee on privileges and elections, have their duty to perform. I do not object to those things, for it is a doctrine of the Church that we sustain the law of the land, and we have done it, although we have fought valiantly for the principles that were revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith; and I am proud that the people fought it out until it was decided that some parts of our religion were unconstitutional and would not be permitted. But the thing that I object to is, for every little gutter-snipe that comes into the country to think that he can kick and maul and abuse us. I occasionally feel a little like Joe Rich did once when they abused his father, Apostle Charles C. Rich, who spend a great part of his life as a pioneer in that hard country of Bear Lake, who used to come over the mountains on snow shoes in order to attend conference, 'who used to grind his wheat in a little coffee mill in order to have bread, and whose wives and children lived in log houses with dirt roofs, for many years. Joe went down to a certain newspaper office and demanded retraction. He told them if they didn't retract he would turn the whole family loose on them, and that he was the smallest one in the family and the biggest coward. The retraction came. I am not saying this to be sensational; I tell you, if it were not for that man of God, Joseph F. Smith, restraining his children, and they being obedient unto him. there would be some men horsewipped today. But, he is a servant of God. I have known him all my life. I have known every man who has presided over this Church from President Brigham Young down, and I know they have been men of God. ¶

Now, I realize that every man who strikes blows for power, for influence, for institutions, for the right, must be just as good an anvil as he is a hammer. If he is not, he may properly conclude that he has no very important mission in the improvement and progress of the race. If private and instituted sin, error, prejudice and wrong would stand quietly and let us batter in their sides, or knock them down, reform would be easy; but they always object to this mode of treatment, and any man who attacks them must calculate on his powers of resistance, or his power to bear without flinching the blows he will receive in return. ¶

We have no small mission to perform. I honor Joseph Smith the Prophet for his bravery, for his courage, for his manliness. He had a message to deliver that was in conflict with sin and wickedness, and it came in contact also with all the man-made religious organizations of the world. But God had revealed it to him, and he would not deny it, though it cost his life. Do you think we can continue proclaiming this message—can we Elders continue telling the world that God did appear to Joseph Smith, and that He did reveal these things, and expect they will receive us with open arms? Never. But notwithstanding it is our mission to treat them kindly, to carry the olive branch in our hands, to preach the Gospel and to deliver this message. At the same time, brethren and sisters, we must have backbone. The people assembled here are those who generally attend to their duties, who go to quarterly conferences, and pay their tithing; but I tell you there are some people in this Church who do not pay their tithing, do not attend conference, do not listen to the words of the Prophets, and do not work for the salvation of the souls of the children of men, and they are the ones that are shaking in their shoes at this very time. I hope the ship will stop just long enough for them to get off. The door is wide open; and, as someone has said, "when you want to go to hell, black your boots and go like a gentleman." If I leave this Church I hope I will have manhood enough to leave it like a man, and not be a traitor and fight the people. I said to one man once, "You have a right to leave this Church, and it is a very simple thine to do. Just notify those in authority that you desire to withdraw." It is our business to treat all such kindly, to sympathize with them, and if possible to uplift them; but I do not like a traitor, and never did. ¶

I am going to read some more to you: "I think there is a contemptible, quiet path for all those who are afraid of the blows and hammers of opposing forces. There is an honorable fighting for any man who is not ready to forget that he has a head to be battered and a name to be besmattered. Truth wants no champion who is not as ready to be struck as to strike for her." ¶

Any of these backboneless people, any who are afraid that God's work will not triumph, had better get in the background, and let those that have courage stand in the front of the battle. Of course, I might be the first one to run; I have not been tried yet; but I know I will be tried if I stay in this Church. I know that I cannot live on borrowed light. You can talk and preach and expound until you are black in the face, but if you do not know that Jesus is the Christ you will never stay in this Church. ¶

I want to read one more Quotation and then I will quit: ¶

"The more one reads of the newspapers the less clearly one sees. There are days when having read them and admitting that one believes their word, the reader will see himself obliged to draw this conclusion: Decidedly, there are none but tarnished men everywhere. There are no men of integrity, but some of these chroniclers. But that last conclusion will fall in its turn! The reader would have before his eyes a spectacle analagous to that represented in the caricature called the 'Combat of the Serpent.' After having devoured everything around them, two reptiles attack each other and begin to swallow each other, so that there remains in the battle field but two tails." ¶

I guess we know where to apply this. There is one morning paper in this city that has treated us reasonably fair, and they know how well they are succeeding in their fair treatment. As far as I am concerned, I want to be broadminded enough to open my arms to the stranger, and to treat him kindly; but, I will not sustain a man who will lie, abuse, and deride this people. It is our business to sustain this work, and it is our business to uphold this State and nation. ¶

May God bless this people. May He bless the authorities of the Church. It is not often I bear my testimony, but I want to tell you today that I know this work is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. I honor and love his memory, although I never saw him. I have been acquainted with all the Prophets of God from the days of President Brigham Young down. ¶

They have been kind to me in my childhood and in my manhood. It does not matter much to me where the place is that they have gone to, but I want to tell you they are good enough company for me, and I do not want to go with any others, because I would be lonesome. God bless you. Amen. ¶