Instructions on Public Speaking and Gospel Defense

Yesterday President Smith gave us instructions which, if he followed one would be able to make himself heard in this great auditorium. When he got through, I thought now) if he would only devise some scheme, or give some instruction that would help one to overcome his inclination to stage fright, so that in the first few moments, when addressing a congregation such as this, one could tell whether he was speaking in thundering tones or on ly in a stage whisper, I would be everlastingly grateful to him. ¶

There was a remark, made by President Lund in his address yesterday which appealed very forcibly to me. It was at that stage of his remarks where he was pointing out that the spirit of contention is not the spirit of Christ, and where he reminded us that it was our duty, especially the duty of the Elders of the Church, to preach the Gospel of Peace. That reminded me of a passage in one of the revelations given to the Church shortly after the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County, Missouri. I have no doubt in my own mind but what the instruction seemed very difficult to carry out by the Saints of that period. I will read to you the passage : ¶

"And again I say unto you, Sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people; and lift up an ensign of peace and make a proclamation for peace unto the ends of the earth ; and make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good." ¶

I say that this instruction under the circumstances was doubtless regarded as difficult to carry out. The Saints, at that time, were smarting under the sense of the heavy wrongs inflicted upon them. They had been whipped and maltreated. Their houses had been burned. They had been expelled from land which they had purchased from the Government. They were exiles from their homes ; and to be told, under these circumstance, to sue for peace, even at the hands of those who had smitten them — and to raise an ensign of peace unto the world, that, I say, was a hard task for people in their condition. It ought to be, and I think it is easier for us to carry out the spirit of this instruction than it was for the Saints in those days. When our circumstances are much more pleasant, and when such opposition as we have endured of late years has not ended so disastrously to us, it ought to be comparatively easy for us to follow the admonition given by President Lund, "to preach the Gospel of Peace." And I doubt not but we shall find this task all the easier of accomplishment if we will be entirely candid with ourselves and remember our own imperfections and short comings, and our own folly, both as individuals and also as a community. To illustrate what I mean: As you know, I have had some experience in the world as a preacher of the Gospel, as a representative of the Church in mission fields. It is something of a matter of pride with me that I never yet preached the Gospel in such a manner that it resulted in mob violence ; yet during my connection with the Southern States Mission and the mission in Great Britain, there was scarcely a disturbance with which I was not connected, but it was invariably to render assistance to others who were in trouble, and the trouble was none of my creating. From the experience then gained I know that much of the opposition met with in the world is the result of the folly of some of the Elders. We carry with us the Gospel of Peace, it is true, but occasionally we find Elders who shoot it at the people as if it were porcupine quills, with the result that they stir up needless animosities by their actions. We ought not to marvel very much that the religious world dislike us. You know we have twisted the nose of Dame Orthodoxy rather severely. We start in by telling them that neither the individual sects nor all of the sects combined constitute the Church and Kingdom of God. We tell them that their creeds are false and an abomination unto the Lord; and the rasping part of the declaration, to them, is that we prove it. Now, under these circumstances you don't suppose that you are going to have peace proclamations from them, do you? I doubt if we, ourselves, would be much inclined to peace, if people made such a proclamation concerning us. Well, I think that we can put off our warpaint all the easier if we remember our own delinquencies and confess them just a little. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect. There is no flaw in it. There is no imperfection in it. The revelations of God stand invulnerable. In our recent experience as a Church, we have had ample demonstration of that truth. You think of the rigid analysis made of our faith by one of the most powerful and intelligent committees in the Senate of the United States. Recall that rigid investigation— what pinciple of the Gospel failed? For what principle revealed did you have to offer any apology? For none. The truth of God stood four-square to every wind that blew upon it. I can conceive of no assembly of men, no congress, no parliament, no assembly of the learned before whom I would have the least hesitation of undertaking the advocacy and defense of the revelations of God. Not because there is any excellence of understanding, or power of advocacy, or adroitness in defense in me; but because I have absolute confidence in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the strength of its truths. But when you come to measure man by that truth you find he comes short. When you come to the defense of the acts of some who have figured in our history you can't defend them at every point. Man is weak and stands far below the level of the perfection of God's system of truth. Much that is unwise has been said. The conceptions that men have had of the truth have not always been accurate. You have to throw aside some discourses that have been preached. While the truth is perfect, and defensible at every point, man's conception of things and man's actions are not always defensible. So, now, if we recall our imperfections and realize that some of our troubles have arisen through our own folly, and the manifestation of weakness in us, it will be all the easier for us to raise this standard of peace and to learn, from the experiences of the past, better methods of presenting the truth to the people. Let us preach the Gospel of peace also. Brother Junius F. Wells here, once said — or he quoted somebody as saying — '"Brethren, preach the Gospel, and preach it pleasantly." I think that is good advice. ¶

I wish we either could modify our terminology, or, at least, could have a better understanding of that terminology which we use. Let me try to illustrate what I mean: One came to the Savior and said to Him, in the course of his conversation ; "Who is my neighbor?" The Savior answered in the well known parable of the good Samaritan. The principal lesson of that parable is that you will not always find your neighbor among the priests, nor the Levites; you may sometimes find him among the Samaritans, whose name stands as a synonym for a despised people. In this instance, in the parable of the Savior, the Samaritan was more neighborly than the priest or the Levite. I could wish that the Savior had given us an equally luminous explanation of the term : Who is my enemy? Well, one will say, has He not done so? And, perhaps, you will be recalling the saying of the Savior when He said : "He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." ¶

You remember that, perhaps, but that is only half the truth ; only half what Jesus said. There was another occasion when John remarked — and you are surprised somewhat that John should do it, because it is a little out of character for him — but, nevertheless, he said : "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name and we forbad him, because he followeth not us." ¶

But Jesus said, "Forbid him not : for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me." ¶

So Mark relates it. Luke ends the story by saying. "He that is not against us is for us." ¶

Now, take the passages together and you get something like the truth out of them. Let scripture interpret scripture ; do not take it in fragments. The work of the Lord, in these last days, has been of such a character that it has provoked strong antagonisms, and down on the immediate firing-line we have had enemies, and very bitter ones; men who love not the truth; men who struck at the truth through striking at what we were seeking to accomplish, and they may rightly be styled enemies of the truth, enemies of God, and our enemies. They not only do not gather with us, but they scatter abroad and seek to destroy. They are truly against us. But, I pray you, do not in your thought expand the term "enemy" beyond those few whom we meet in this conflict — do not expand your term so far that it will represent all of our Father's children not immediately identified with us in the work of God, as being our enemies. It is not true; they are not all our enemies. The great mass of our Father's children are ignorant of us, or indifferent in respect of us; and some few of them are prejudiced against us because of the things they have heard of us. We should look upon the hosts of our Father's children as our friends, as our brethren and sisters; and even where they are stirred up in animosity against us it should not create animosity in our hearts — nay, not even for those down here on the firing-line, with whom we are in immediate conflict. While they may hate us, it is no part of our business to hate them. We may have enemies, but we can, under the Gospel, be enemy to no man. We must preach the Gospel in the spirit of "Peace on earth, good will to men." We will maintain our rights of course. We will sacrifice no truth to please mortal man. We can't be untrue to God ; that is out of the question ; but we can proceed peacefully in teaching this truth that God has committed to us and which is so perfect; we can and ought to cultivate the spirit of preaching it in the spirit of peace. Now let me depart, for the moment, from this subject and call your attention to the broad manner in which God proceeds with His work. ¶

If there is one tendency, one danger, against which I would be disposed to raise my voice among the Latter-day Saints, it would be in the way of cautioning our people from becoming sectarian in spirit, in their sympathies — or rather in their lack of sympathies — and in their methods. I love the Prophet Joseph Smith — to me, in my affections, he is next to the Son of God, who must always be first in our affections,as in our thoughts, and to whom we owe worship ; but after the Son of God, I have learned to love the memory of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. He was, indeed, a God-inspired man. He looked deep into things and saw them as they are. Among the qualities for which I love him is the absence of everything of a sectarian spirit in his soul — his sympathies were broad as the human race; his conception of the relationship of man and God, exceeded in excellence all the teachings of all other modern men. ¶

You know, in former years, that some of the Latter-day Saints have been prone to narrowness. When God revealed to the Church that Independence, in Jackson County, was the center place of Zion, the hearts of the people turned to that land ; and I sometimes think their affections and hopes were contracted to that particular spot. When the Church was removed from Jackson County and took to building cities and laying out towns in Caldwell County ; and when afterwards — being compelled to leave Missouri altogether — they took to building up cities in Illinois, the feelings of some were tried ; they felt that they were driven from Zion: "God made promises concerning Zion, and He has not fulfilled them," was their complaint. The spirit of complaint and unbelief existed, more or less, among the people ; but the Prophet previous to his death, enlarged their views and told them that this whole western land, North and South America, was the land of Zion. This was the land to which the predictions of God pointed; and they need not worry about this or that particular spot in it, for the two American continents constituted the land of Zion. ¶

Only the day before yesterday, a young friend of mine stopped me on the street. He had made a discovery in the remarks of the Prophet at the April Conference of 1844; and he asked me if I was aware that the Prophet had declared both the American continents to be the land of Zion, and that he gave direction to the Twelve Apostles to establish stakes of Zion in New York, and in Boston, and I think also in Philadelphia. I rejoiced to see the animation of countenance and the joy in the face of my friend, who had just come from the discovery of a new idea. I rejoiced in that, and I told him that I too, had noted the Prophet's statements, and, moreover, I called his attention to the fact that while the Prophet was speaking of establishing stakes of Zion in the Eastern states, at the same time he was putting in readiness a body of men to explore the west and establish the Church also in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. ¶

My friends, there was nothing narrow and contracted in the views and projects of that modern prophet of ours. His views of Zion were as broad as the American continents. Why, think of that magnificent exposition of what Mormonism is, that we listened to only yesterday afternoon, from Elder Orson F. Whitney, when the eternities were brought together, and all the ends of the earth were made to meet in this great latter-day work. How uplifting it all was ! It showed us that Mormonism is something more than a machine which proposes to make men of one length, and one height, and one weight. It is not a machine for making steortyped men, but a system of truth with principles guiding conduct; the truth to be voluntarily accepted, and the principles personally applied until man shall be enabled, under this system of truth and these principles, to approximate something towards the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. ¶

Well, I started to call your attention to the largeness of things in this great latter-day work. Several times, here, we have had quoted to us the saying of Isaiah, the Prophet, "The law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." That passage is very familiar to Latter-day Saints, but have you ever analyzed it, have you thought much about it? Why the law from Zion? Why the word of the Lord from Jerusalem? I think that Elder Ivins turned the key to that question this morning, in his remarks on civil government and on ecclesiastical government, and the distinction between them. In the Book of Mormon I find the following principles laid down — great fundamental principles ; and, mark you, they are to be found in the American scripture, in the scriptures of the land of Zion. Let me preface the quotation. The passage I am going to read relates to an event that happened in the reign of the Second Mosiah. His sons had been converted to the Gospel, and having been imbued with its spirit they had gone on missions to the Lamanites. Realizing that his own days were drawing to a close, Mosiah was anxious about the succession to the Nephite kingdom. He called the people together to ascertain their feelings concerning the succession, and their desire was that one of his sons should succeed to the throne. Then he called their attention to the evils of monarchy — that it was all right to have kings to govern them ;<" they could always be sure that their kings would be righteous men; but the trouble is that virtues are not always hereditary. While the father is sometimes righteous, the sons do not always follow in his footsteps ; and so King Mosiah proposed to them a great revolution in the government. He proposed to establish a reign of Judges, elected by the people — government by the people, a republic. And now the' passage : ¶

"Therefore choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord. ¶

"Now, it is not common that the voice of the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe, and make it your law to do your business by the voice of the people. ¶

"And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you, yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land. ¶

"And now if ye have judges, and they do not judge you according to the law which has been given, ye can cause that they may be judged of a higher judge: ¶

"If your higher judges do not judge righteous judgments, ye shall cause that a small number of your lower judges should be gathered together, and they shall judge your higher judges, according to the voice of the people. ¶

"And I command you to do these things in the fear of the Lord: and I command you to do these things, and that ye have no king: that if this people [mark you this] that if this people commit sins and iniquities, they shall be answered upon their own heads. ¶

"For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings ; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings. . ¶

"And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land especially among this my people; but I desire that this be a land of liberty, that every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit, that we may live and inherit the land; yea, even as long as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land." ¶

To me that is, in part, the law of Zion — the basic principle of the civil law of the land — a principle of the law that is going forth from Zion — the civil law that is to be established and maintained upon this blessed land of liberty, and that, eventually, will directly or indirectly bless and make free every land in all the world. ¶

There is another scripture — in perfect accord with the passage I have just read from the Book of Mormon — from the Doctrine and Covenants : ¶

"And again I say unto you, saith the Lord, those who have been scattered by their enemies, it is my will that they should continue to importune for redress and redemption by the hands of those who are placed as rulers and are in authority over you, according to the laws and Constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles, that every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto them, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage, one to another ; and for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood." ¶

This again, to me, is the law of Zion — in part the • law that shall go forth from Zion — the law of freedom — the law that the people shall rule — that "every man," as Mosiah puts it, "may enjoy his rights and privileges alike :" that if a "people commit sins and iniquities they shall be answered upon their own heads." But in order to establish in civil government this personal responsibility of every individual to God, each individual must have an equal voice in the government ; every man must be a sovereign in the civil institution, and his vote must represent the voice and judgment of a free man, a vote unawed by influence as unbought by corruption or gain. Less than this brings the whole scheme of free government by "the voice of the people" to contempt and failure. ¶

This "law" is expressed again in the American "Declaration of Independence : ¶

"We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." ¶

That is the 'law" that is now going forth from Zion as expressed by those "wise men" whom God declares in his revelations to us he raised up and inspired to found the laws and constitution of the United States government ; that men might not be "in bondage one to another," and that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment. This is the law of Zion that is going forth in the earth to redeem the world from human bondage, and establish the freedom and the responsibility and the dignity of man. It is to be observed, in passing, that there is perfect accord in these passages I have quoted from such widely variant authorities — from the Book of Mormon, from the Doctrine and Covenants, and from the declaration of Independence. The insipration which produced all three,however,is from the same source, hence the unity in all three passages — unity of principle, and unity of purpose. The principle of government announced while not entirely new, in the American government is, nevertheless, by our own constitution, cast in new moulds, preserved by new safe-guards, but time will not admit of a discussion of that here. The announcement, however, of the principle that goverrnents derived their just powers from the consent of the governed, was a wide departure from the government by kings. It was destined to change the basis on which governments were supposed to rest — the divine authority of kings. The prevailing notion of government in the world at the time of our American Declaration of Independence was that political and civil rights were derived from kings ; and men esteemed themselves bound by the customs and laws of antiquity. This declaration, however, makes every generation of men their own masters, architects of their own political fortunes, masters of their own liberties. It takes civil government out of the hands of kings, and so far as civil government is concerned, out of the hands of priests also, and places it in the hands of the people. The people become soverign ; and those whom they elect to office are not made rulers but servants unto the people, to carry out their will according to the Constitution and the laws of the land, even as Mosiah taught the ancient Nephites in the same manner and in the same spirit. These principles of civil liberty are marching through the world. They have given free institutions to the continents of America, from the icebound North to the ice-bound South. These principles of government are established everywhere in the republics of the western world. The same truths are knocking at the doors of other nations. They have converted the ancient, absolute monarchy of Japan to a constitutional monarchy, wherein the voice of the people becomes a factor in determining the destiny of the country, and not the word or whim alone of the monarch. These principles have given to France the most stable government she has ever known. These principles have enlarged the liberties of Englishmen, until today their freedom is sustained practically by "Manhood Suffrage." We witness from this distance a terrible struggle going on between the Russian people and the autocratic government of that land. Sad failures, indeed the people have made of it as yet, but three times now they have exercised some measure of that sovereign power which our principles recognize 'as inherent in the people, and have elected their representatives to the national assembly; and though progress may be slow, still that knocking, still that persistent demand for the rights and liberties of the people in that land will go on until the "Law going forth from Zion" shall permeate all systems and bring freedom to the inhabitants of this earth. That, in part, is my understanding of this idea that the Law shall go forth from Zion. God works not only by direct methods; He works also by indirect methods ; not only through the schools of the prophets, but once in a while He raises up a prophet that was not reared in the school of the prophets. Do not misunderstand me. Because I believe that the purposes of God are being accomplished in the world now by his sending forth the "Law from Zion" in the indirect manner here described, — do not think that I believe that this will preclude the establishment of a future capital city of Zion from which the "law" shall continue to go forth; not only by the promulgation of these fundamental principles of civil government, on which depends the true freedom and dignity of man, but also, by the promulgation of other great and important laws pertaining to man's exaltation and glory. Not so. I would only impress upon you, if I could, the idea that the work of God now is in process of fulfillment, and that God's work is drawn on great, broad plans. That there is nothing narrow or contracted in His plans ; that He employs nations and empires as His agencies as well as individuals to work His sovereign will in bringing to pass the eternal life and joy of man; and this truth it is fitting that Latter-day Saints should recognize. ¶

What about the other part of this scripture so familiar to us: the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem ? You must remember in considering it that Isaiah was living in the seventh century before Christ. I think if you modernize the expression of the ancient Jewish scripture the meaning, perhaps, would be more clear. I do not desire to take liberties with the written word of God, because I think that is meant to stand as the great land marks by which we must walk, and the teacher may not take liberties and change the terms of God' s word ; and without doing that, but for the purpose of conveying to you my thought on this subject, suppose I were to read the passage in this manner : "and the revelation of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem?" When we take into account the greatness of our own dispensation of the Gospel, I think sometimes we overlook the grandeur and the greatness of the "Dispensation of the Meridian of Times." It must always be remembered that the great Atonement, the central fact of the Gospel, was wrought out at Jerusalem; that there the sacrifice was made; that there the Son of God took upon Him our sins ; there our transgressions were laid upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. The Atonement was made there, I say, and there, too, the grand, supreme revelation of God was made to the world for all time to come; for after the fact of the Atonement of Christ, the next thing in importance — if there is to be any degree as to importance between the two things — next in importance is the great truth, that Jesus Christ was the manifestation of God in the world ; the revelation of God to man; so that henceforth, above the horizon of men's vision, stands God perfectly revealed in the person and character of Jesus Christ. And as He so stands — God revealed, — the clouds of error, superstition, and blackness of all the ages fall away ; for as the Christ is, so too is the Father, in person, in character, in mercy, in justice, and in all those qualities that enter into the divine nature. Moreover, Jesus in the scriptures is called emphatically "The Word," by which I understand is meant the expression, the revelation, of God. "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth — " so that truly "The Word of the Lord," the revelation of what the Lord was and is, went forth from Jerusalem, even as "the law" is going forth from Zion. As I said in reference to the future capital of the land of Zion, that the views here expressed did not preclude the idea of the future establishment of a capital city on the land of Zion from which the law will continue to go forth in those days, so I would not have you suppose that because I hold the view that "The Word of the Lord" has gone forth from Jerusalem in the revelation of "The Word," or expression of God in the person and character of Jesus of Nazareth — because I believe that the word of the Lord has gone forth from Jerusalem in the complete Gospel of Jesus Christ — that there was made the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the central truth of the Gospel; that there occurred the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, on which is based our own hope and the hope of the world of resurrection from the dead — do not, I pray you, because I hold that in these things the Word of the Lord has already gone forth from Jerusalem, suppose that I think that this will preclude any future going forth of the word of the Lord from Jerusalem that may be in the divine program. Jerusalem must forever be a holy shrine, a place to which the eyes of all nations will turn for light and inspiration ; what more natural, then, than that it should become a holy city, the capital of the eastern world, if you will, the holy sanctuary whence shall issue the word of the Lord in future even more abundantly than in the past, even as the law shall go forth from Zion in the future as now and in the past? I am only pleading here for broad views concerning the things of God, and the ways of God. We Latter-day Saints do not want to contract our feelings, our sympathies, our opinions of the truth to the narrow limits of our own church fellowship ; but we must recognize that God does things on a broad scale, and that He is directing, and that He is influencing, by His Spirit, His children; and they will become more and more susceptible to the influence of the Gospel. I hope that we will become more and more skilfull in presenting it, that by reason of the operation of these two things — our increasing skill and the world's increasing susceptibility to its influence — Zion shall be enlarged, and the Church of Christ shall be enlarged in her sympathies until we will stand locked fast in fellowship for righteousness with all the righteous men in all the world. Amen. ¶