The Revelations to Joseph Smith and Prevailing Indifference

My brethren and sisters, I feel somewhat weighed down this morning under the great responsibility that rests upon me in occupying this position, and in speaking to a congregation of this character and size. Nevertheless, I rejoice greatly that I am deemed worthy to bear the responsibility, and have the authority to testify concerning the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His mission, and declare the truth of the Gospel restoration in this the dispensation of the fulness of times, through Joseph Smith, the Prophet. ¶

As Latter-day Saints, we have assembled here for the purpose of worshiping God, acknowledging Him as our Father in heaven, and manifesting our love for Him and His Son. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established and founded by Joseph the Prophet, under the direction and inspiration of Jesus Christ, in April, 1830. The same principles and doctrines of life and salvation that were preached by Jesus, during His ministry in the flesh, were revealed to Joseph Smith and announced by him again to the world. ¶

Joseph Smith was raised up to be, and he is, a Prophet of God. In answer to his prayer, the Father and the Son appeared to him, together, in person, and made known to him their divine will. Thereafter they sent unto him heavenly messengers from their presence, and also, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost revealed to him the truths of the everlasting Gospel. These revelations are written in the Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price, and if believed in, and practiced, will eventually save men in the celestial kingdom of our Father. They were proclaimed by revelation, as I have stated, and up to this time, after over seventy-seven years of existence of the Church, not one principle or doctrine thus revealed has been receded from by the members of the Church. We have never repudiated any of the truths revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith and to his successors in the office of Prophet, Seer and Revelator to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have never relinquished our belief in any one of these doctrines and principles. We have never called together conferences or conclaves for the purpose of revising the revelations of God. We have never been called upon, nor found it necessary, in any stage of our progress, to eliminate any revelation from the record. Neither have we ever denied any of them. We testify in all soberness that these revelations are from God. They are therefore the same yesterday, today and forever, and are everlasting and essential to the salvation of those unto whom they are given. We have adhered faithfully to the Gospel of Christ, the religion which we have received. As a people, I trust we will always remain faithful, firm and steadfast as we are, and even more so, and by greater diligence exercise greater faith in the Lord. This is a day when there is a great falling away from the churches, a departure of men from their own religions and creeds. The things of this world are paramount in the estimation of the world. We send our Elders into the world to preach this Gospel unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and there are three classes that they meet. One is a class of people that receive them gladly when they hear the testimony of the truth, and of the restoration of the gospel. Their hearts swell within them at the sound of the voice of the true shepherd, and they listen eagerly. They desire to know more; they investigate earnestly, and perceive the truth gladly, and embrace it. Those who comprise this class, I say, are not very numerous. Then there is another class, perhaps quite numerous, who, the moment they hear the testimony thus declared bristle up and become antagonists, and bitter enemies of the truth, and oppose it with all their powers; and they scruple at nothing to hinder and destroy the work that the Elders are endeavoring to perform. Then there is the third class, and they are numbered by thousands, who are totally indifferent to that testimony, or to the testimony of any other man who preaches religion. Thus we discover that in the world the majority of men are not inclined to religion. They are falling away from religion, departing from creeds, and absenting themselves from places of worship. They do not know anything about religion, and they care less about it. Now, who are responsible for this condition? There may be many things causing this, to a greater or less degree, but I believe those who are most responsible for the lack of faith are so-called preachers of religion. They have sown the seeds of unbelief in the hearts of men. Being uninspired, and without divine authority, they by their teachings have caused men to disbelieve in God, the Eternal Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. They make certain professions, by way of lip service, but they deny the power of godliness. They declare that God is incomprehensible, that we cannot understand Him, and do not know Him; that He is without body, parts or passions. They declare that Jesus Christ is not divine. They repudiate the miraculous, and cast doubt upon the wonderful works that Christ wrought, and that were performed by His followers, His disciples, in primitive times, as recorded in Scripture. Everything that does not appeal to their particular and narrow sense of reason, they denounce as irrational and untrue. We are not afraid of the avowed infidel and agnostic, he who comes out openly declaring his utter contempt for all things that savor of God and religion, and ridicules those who do believe in them. I believe that true religion has never suffered very materially on account of the warfare made upon it by open and avowed enemies who call themselves atheists and infidels ; neither has true faith been much disturbed by such attacks, but the trouble is that there are those who style themselves ministers of religion, who prefix the word "Reverend" to their names, and under this guise stand in pulpits, and upon the rostrum of religious gatherings, and there proclaim the same falsehoods that infidels have declared, namely, that Jesus Christ is not divine, that He is not the Redeemer of the world, but a mere man, a moralist, it is true, a man advanced beyond the time in which he lived. It is all very well to proclaim a belief in the existence of God, because of the glories of the heavens and the beauties of earth; all very well to say we can see the handiwork of God in the mountains, in the forests and in the streams of water, in the fruits and the flowers of the earth, but not any of these things ever yet convinced men of the personality of God. Men may gather from these things a belief that there is an all-wise and all-powerful creator, but none of these things bear direct testimony of the personality of God, the Father, nor of the divinity of Christ the Son. These truths must be revealed to men, a knowledge of them being essential to salvation. Men must receive, understand, and impart them to their fellow men; and this has been done. God has time and again revealed Himself to His servants the Prophets ; they have seen Him, have beheld His person, and have discovered the truth of the declaration that man was created in the image of God. Thus they could truthfully testify to others that God lives, and that we are His children, created in His image. He is not only the Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that we see that is beautiful, useful and desirable in them, but He is also the Creator of man, and man is in the likeness of His person. These things are true. Christ declared the truth of them; he declared His divinity. He said He came into the world to take away the sin of the world; and all His disciples, who were true to him, bore the same testimony, because they had seen and heard. So, the responsibility for the indifference we find so universal on the part of men towards the Gospel rests largely upon those who claim to be ministers, and pose as preachers of the Gospel of Christ, and at the same time teach that Christ is not divine, that God did not create man, and that there are no such things as miracles, revelations, gifts, and so on and so forth. While pretending to preach the doctrines of Christ they, at the same time, deny most of them. The personality of God, the divinity of His Son, the creation of man, the fall of Adam, the atonement, the resurrection, eternal life, celestial glory, etc., etc., are doctrines now discredited by many of them. Little wonder that men have grown tired of and become indifferent to, a Gospel stripped of nearly all its essentials. Such hypocrites and religion fakers as these are responsible for the condition of irreligion that we find in the world. And if this is the result of preaching the Gospel of Christ, so-called, and reading the Bible in churches, we may well pause before introducing such reading in the public schools. ¶

I can see no remedy for this condition, only in the unequivocal acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as He declared it in His day, and as it has been restored in our own day. Men must believe in God; they must believe that He is our Father, that He created us and established us here; and He shall welcome us again in His presence. We must believe that Jesus is the Redeemer of the world, and accept Him as such. We must accept the doctrines He taught, and put them into practice in our lives, if the reading of the scripture, His word, will do us any good. So long as we have infidels, skeptics and unbelievers in the public schools, men who do not understand the Bible and cannot make proper explanation of its contents, I say, to read it in the schools and, as some ministers do, disparage the belief in Jesus Christ and the miracles He wrought, and the great work of redemption He accomplished, would be more disastrous than beneficial by far. Until such time as men can read the Bible and the Scriptures understandingly, by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the spirit in which they were written, I am not prepared to declare my belief in the efficacy of teaching it in the public schools. ¶

It is folly for men to say Jesus Christ is not divine, and that He was just a great moral teacher, a man in advance of His time, and then advise men to follow Him; for, either He is Christ, the Son of God, who came from the Father to take away the sin of the world, and to die for the redemption of man, or He is not. If He is, He is worthy of the respect and confidence even of the lowest among men. He is either what He represented Himself to be, or He is not, in any sense of the term, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God. He proclaimed, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to God save by me." Men can come to God in that way only, or else the Son of Man told an untruth, and lying is far from being a moral habit. He declared, furthermore: "I am the resurrection and the life; whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." "Whosoever believeth in Me, though he were dead yet shall he live." He said again: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." ¶

None but the Messiah Himself could make such statements and speak the truth. He was what He announced Himself to be, and what we declare Him to be, or else He performed a most arrogant and immoral act in assuming to be He who could forgive sins, and who could save men from their sins and lift them up, and exalt them in the presence of God. ¶

My brethren and sisters, every page, almost, of the Holy Scriptures bears record and attests the divinity of Christ. Christ Himself declared it. John the Baptist said to the multitude, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." Peter, James and John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul and many of the other disciples of Christ likewise bore testimony, without doubt, that He was divine and is the Redeemer of the world. And in our own day, we bear the same testimony, for the same things have been revealed anew. Joseph Smith was visited by Him and God His Father, and he beheld them with his own eyes. Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon also saw him, and bore testimony that they saw Him, even as Stephen saw Him, clothed in glory, surrounded by those inhabiting the celestial kingdom of God. They also saw God seated on His throne and Jesus Christ at His right hand, "and they heard the voice bearing record that He is the only begotten of the Father." So far as the Latter-day Saints are concerned, we know these things are true. There is no doubt in our minds about it. Why? Because the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, has been received by us, through our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and he, true to His office, has testified to us of Jesus Christ, our Lord. ¶

May God bless you, my brethren and sisters. May you prove faithful all your lives. May you, as we have up to this time done, adhere faithfully to every precept, every doctrine, and every truth that has been revealed in this dispensation by God, through Joseph Smith, for the salvation of the children of men. I rejoice in the Everlasting Gospel. I know it is true. I know that God lives, that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and that by obedience to the laws and ordinances which He Himself yielded obedience to, and commanded all men to obey, we shall be saved in the kingdom of our Father. May we be saved. May we labor diligently to counteract the influences of indifference, unbelief, and agnosticism which now prevail so extensively among men in the world. ¶

God bless the Presidency of the Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, and the Patriarch. May He likewise bless, according to their callings and their necessities, the Presidents of stakes, their Counselors, and High Councilors, Bishops of wards and their Counselors, and those who preside in the auxiliary organizations, or in branches of the Church. • May He be with the Presidents of Missions to inspire them and to equip them for their great and responsible duties in declaring the truth; and may He bless each and every individual missionary laboring under their direction for the spread of the everlasting Gospel into all the world, as a witness before the end shall come. This is my prayer in behalf of the Church and the servants of God, and of all men of God and the just in all the world, and I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶

A contralto solo, "O Love Divine," was beautifully rendered by little Sister Millie Williams. ¶