By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them: Mormonism on Trial

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? ¶

"Even so every good tree bringeth ¶

forth good fruit : but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. ¶

"A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." ¶

I am a believer, my brethren and sisters, in the infallibility of the law suggested in these words of the Savior of the world. By it all things must stand or fall. However much I might desire to avoid it, I know that inevitably a time must come when I shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. I know, too, that I shall be judged righteously, not by the testimony of wicked men, men unfamiliar with my life and works, but that I shall have a fair and impartial hearing and a righteous judgment. For. this principle, this doctrine was settled more than six hundred years ago, upon the field of Runnimede, and it has continued to prevail until men, today, stand united in the doctrine, that before conviction there must be evidence. Those stalwart men who stood there with arms in their hands before a tyrant king, declared that the assertion of wrongdoing was not sufficient to justify conviction, and that from that time forth men must be judged by their peers, dispassionately, fairly, honestly judged. Thank the Lord that doctrine has survived the centuries and has become so thoroughly established that I have confidence that eventually intelligent people will be brought to -reach conclusions by having applied it. It is not always easy in the beginning to distinguish right from wrong, truth from error ; for vice, sometimes, comes clothed in the garb of virtue; and evil is, sometimes, presented in a manner so attractive that it appears to us to be good ; but always we know that in the end the truth must be manifest. ¶

I am reminded that last season I visited the field of a neighbor of mine. He was a good farmer, and had prepared the ground admirably. He had sent up here into the north for seed, and had sown it with what he supposed to be alfalfa. It came out of the ground beautifully, and he was congratulated by his neighbors that his sowing had been successful. I drove down past the field, and as I looked at it in the distance I felt, also, impressed that he had accomplished a splendid work. When we got nearer, I said to my son, "Stop a minute, I want to examine that field more critically." I went over and examined the leaves of the plants, and said, "It isn't alfalfa at all ; when it comes to mature it will be a crop of sweetclover ;" that plant with little value, almost a nuisance in some instances ; and my conclusions proved to be correct. The seed itself had been so similar — perhaps an expert might have detected the difference, but the farmer himself had never suspected the imposition, and it required time until the crop had developed, that he might know that he had been imposed upon. Some years ago, while I lived in Mexico, I sent to a nurseryman in the State of Ohio for a collection of roses. They came, and I planted them. They were just little slips,all looking very much alike. In fact, I gave particular attention to some shoots which looked more vigorous than others, I cultivated them, and they grew. Finally, the second year, they produced blossoms and I was surprised to discover that they were wild roses, just the little roses that grow upon the creek bottoms, that could be found anywhere ; but their companions, all around them, were producing the most beautiful flowers. The bud which had been grafted into the wild root or stem had been broken off — I do not suppose it was intentional upon the part of the nurseryman — and the wild buds had come out, and produced wild fruit. I said, there is no avoiding that fundamental truth, "As the fountain is, so will the water be;" as the seed is so will that be which it produces. You cannot gather figs from thistles. A good tree does not produce bad fruit; neither does a bad tree produce good fruit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands upon this ground. ¶

I think I voice the sentiment of every man and woman who have identified themselves with the Church, when I say they are willing to be judged by their works, by the fruit which has been produced ; but they ask that they be judged righteously. They have never been averse to righteous criticism; they invite it; they seek it; but they do object and are opposed to judgment pronounced by those who are unac quainted with the truth, by those who, perhaps for personal reasons, are opposed to the truth and enemies to it, and so must all things stand. The great Catholic church, professing as it does, to be the legal successor of the Church of Christ, as He established it, must show by its fruits that the claim is just and true, or else the time must come when it will be repudiated. Protestantism must stand upon the same ground ; for if Protestants produce the fruits of the gospel of Christ, if they show by their works that they are in reality reformers, who have improved upon conditions as they existed in the primitive Church, and that they are doing the will of the Father, as exemplified in the life and teachings of the Savior of the world, they may stand ; but if it shall be shown, eventually, that they lack the power of God, that the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ have not been produced, they must be rejected. ¶

The day was when it was popular to attack the doctrinal principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The articles of faith of the Church, contained upon this little card which I hold in my hand, a card printed in a foreign language, which I used in my youth as I preached the doctrines of the Church, have been before the world for eighty years. In the beginning it was not unusual that these doctrines were attacked ; but you do not hear so much of that in these days ; men have learned by experience that it is useless to attack those principles, if they profess faith at all, if they accept the Bible as their guide in religious life; they have long since discovered that those doctrines are invincible, and have ceased to assail them. They attack us now in another way, publishing to the world that while the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appear to be good, while they appear to be scriptural, while the things we proclaim to the world and teach publicly at home appear to be good, that there is underlying it all a sinister motive. They say the Church is not sincere, that it is not a Christian organization at all, but that it has behind it all some sinister motive by which it is hoped that men and women may be deluded and led into error until a great establishment may be builded up antagonistic to the spirit of Christianity, antagonistic to the institutions of our country, by which the government may be overthrown, or some other awful thing, I do not know just what it is that they apprehend, accomplished. Now, I want to ask in ¶

all candor, you Latter-day Saints who have been identified with the Church from the beginning, have you ever, any one of you, discovered in the published utterances of the representatives of the Church, or secret counsels anything which would suggest, in the faintest degree, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization, that it has in it anything which is antagonistic to the principles of civil government as they exist in this republic, or in any of the other governments of the world? I know what you will say ; every one of you would rise up to say, No ; there is nothing of that kind in it. Then I would like to ask the world to review the history of the Church, during the past eighty years, and let us see if we can find some single act of the Church itself, or any individual, which suggests treason ; for treason and sedition, if it were true that they existed in the Church, would make it unworthy a place in this government or any other; because treason, or sedition, that which seeks to destroy, that which seeks by improper means to establish itself and overturn existing conditions, is unworthy in any state, unworthy any community, unworthy of any Church. ¶

I do not expect, this afternoon, to go into detail in establishing the truth of what I say, but I want to make this appeal to the American people. I feel as though "Mormonism" is on trial today; it has been on trial, in fact, from the very beginning. Two thousand representatives of the Church are out in the world; they are preaching the doctrine of repentance; they are preaching the doctrine of good works ; they are emphasizing the doctrine contained in this scripture. which I have read, that without works it is impossible to please God, and that men and communities and nations must, eventually, be judged by the deeds done in the body. They are admonishing men and women to lives of righteousness, and virtue, and truth, and goodness, and are lifting up their voices in opposition to the very appearance of evil. On the other hand, millions of people are reading today the declaration that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a treasonable organization ; that it does not stand for truth ; that it does not stand for righteousness ; that it does not stand for morality; that it does not stand for the institutions of this country of ours. I simply want to ask the American people — and I have faith in their integrity and the justice of their conclusions — that before deciding this great question, you take the trouble to investigate, that you take the trouble to determine what have been the fruits of "Mormonism" during these past eighty years, and then be ye the judges as to whether the fruit is good or bad, and be slow to listen to men who have been cast from the Church because of their unrighteousness. Be slow to listen to men who, because of their own disappointment, would seek to make it appear that the Church is doing the very things which it has positively refused to do in their behalf. I ask you to suspend judgment until you shall have thoroughly investigated the truth. The Church has no fear of the ultimate result. We are not a people who blow trumpets before us as we go. ¶

We believe that good citizenship consists in obeying the law, in defending the government in which we live. We do not hasten into war, because . we do not believe in ¶

it; we believe it to be unnecessary; but, nevertheless, if it shall come, we believe it to be our duty to defend those principles of liberty and right and equality which were established by the Father ; and as an earnest of our belief, circumstances considered, we have performed our full duty. We went into the war with Mexico, under conditions that no other people in the world have furnished an army. We did our part, small though it were, in the Civil War. We have done our part in the Spanish-American war. We stand ready, distasteful though the duty might be, to perform our part wherever necessity may require. It stands to the credit of this people, so far as I am aware, that not one of the members of the Church has ever been found in armed opposition to organized government. Some one, perhaps, says : "Why, were you not in armed resistance to the government of the United States?" No; we never were. It is very true that in 1857 an army came to Utah — and why? Because, as I said in the beginning, vice clothed in the garb of virtue had made it appear to the president of the United States that out here in the Salt Lake Valley a people were in rebellion ; that they had destroyed the records of the courts ; that they had expelled the representatives of the United States ; that they refused to recognize the properly appointed governor of the territory. So the president of the United States, believing these things, sent a new governor, with an escort to establish him in the place to which he had been appointed. What did the Latter-day Saints say? They said, "We want an impartial hearing; these things are not true ;" and they did take up arms that they might delay the coming of that army, and the dreadful results which might have followed its arrival, until the truth might be known. What was the result when it was known? When an impartial man came, he found the records intact; he found the people ready to welcome that new governor, and to install and protect him. There was not one scintilla of truth in the charges which had been made. The end had come, so far as that question was concerned, and deception was no longer possible ; and it was proven, just as it always has been and always will be proven that the Church was true to the government, true to their professions of righteousness. Now, my brethren and sisters, I bear witness to you that just as this question to which I refer was shown to be an effort upon the part of those who were opposed to that which was right, to bring trouble to an innocent people, so has every other question which has arisen and which has appeared to place the Latter-day Saints in opposition to the government of this country, upon close examination proven to be wrong. It always must be so ; it can be no other way. ¶

They say that "Mormonism" goes out into the world and gathers up women; that it brings them here to degrade them; that it is a menace to the sanctity of the American home. Who says that? Any woman who has ever been converted to the truth, any woman who has repented and lived the life which ought to characterize a follower of Christ? No, not one. It may be that some man or woman has fallen away; it may be that some man or woman who has come from abroad and been gathered up here with the Church, has gone back to the world and again become addicted to sin ; but if that is the case in a single instance, it is because they have gone away from the truths of the gospel and the covenant which they made, and have lost the faith. Now, do you suppose that it would be possible for the Church to dominate one or two hundred thousand women, and keep them here against their wills, to be degraded? It is a ridiculous argument upon the face of it ; it is not true. If it were true, the Church would be unworthy, and the opposition shown today would be just; but it is not true. You who have come from abroad ; you who have identified yourselves with this Church; you who have been brought out from the sweat-houses of the old world and established in your own homes, and have been made independent, you who have reared families in the fear of the Lord and have become patriotic, law-loving and law-abiding citizens of this republic, every one of you knows that I am speaking the truth. You know that, rather than degradation, there comes to every one through the gospel of our Lord Jesus, an uplifting that can not be found in any other philosophy in the world. We want the world to know that; we want them to understand it. ¶

Another thought has come to my mind — one that I had not intended to mention. The world says, "You people marry more than one wife, and in this you degrade woman and drag her down." I only want to say that the doctrine of plural marriage, as it existed in the Church, in the beginning, is no more understood by the world than are others of the simple doctrines of the gospel which it teaches. The conception has been entirely wrong. We only ask that the world shall become acquainted with these women, that they may be witnesses in their own behalf. Why, the government, you know, thought, years ago, that our women were being degraded, and that they would liberate these enslaved women in Utah. They appropriated a large amount of money and came here and built a great home, and said, "Come, now, all of you women, you oppressed women, you degraded women ; come up here ; the government will give you protection ; its strong arm is around you, and its hand over you." I believe there was one woman who availed herself of that opportunity; (President Smith: "And she was not a member of this Church") and some one says she was not a member of the Church. (Laughter.) ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, and my friends, I refer to these things because they are true, and we want you to know the truth; we want you to believe in us ; we want you to believe that the virtue of the Latter-day Saints, as a people, stands today pre-eminently above the virtue of any other people. I will not say equal to it ; I know that I speak the truth in the statement I have made. Yet, men would have you believe that somewhere in the Church, back of it all, there is a system by which men may gratify their carnal desires and by which women are debauched. A more abominable misrepresentation of truth could not be presented to the world. No man can stand in this Church who violates his virtue ; I do not care who he is ; and it is a fundamental law of the Church, that men cannot and must not consort with women, except they be their wives ; neither young men, nor old men, nor middle aged men ; and if they do that they are ¶

cast out from the Church. That is one thing that is the matter with some of them who are vilifying the Church. When they get out, their wicked work begins. The very first effort that was ever made to discredit the Prophet Joseph Smith, so far as I am aware, and to discredit the Book of Mormon, was by a man who had been cast out of the Church because of his wickedness, because of his adulterous practices. So it has been from the very beginning. ¶

They say we have a great religiopolitical organization here which has in it a design to dominate the politics of this nation ; and there is great danger that this little handful of people, in the very near future, may become • so powerful in the United States that they will control its destinies, or a part of them, at least. Suppose a thing of that kind were possible — what would be the result? Would it be a menace to this nation, that there should be dominant here a community of men and women who believe in God the eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ; who believe that this government was founded of God, by inspired men? Would it be a menace that there should be industrious, God-fearing, religious men and women in greater number in these United States? Would it be a menace to this government, let me ask, if there were a few more men in the Congress of the United States who stand above the contemptible things of this world, men of faith? Are you going to disfranchise a whole people because they believe in God and His destiny, and His power? Are you going to prevent a man from exercising the rights of American citizenship, because he is a religious man? We ask you to judge those men who have gone up from among the Latter-day Saints to the Con- . gress of the United States in the past, those men who are there today. All we ask of you is to judge them righteously, to judge them by their fruits, to judge them by comparison with their co-laborers. Then we ask you, would it be a menace to this government or to this people if there were more such men there? I think you will conclude, with me, that it would not be a menace, but on the contrary, that it would redound to the credit, the honor, and the blessing of this people, could such conditions be established. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, I must conclude. By their fruits ye shall know them. We stand ready to be judged by it, and we are not going to be driven away from the truth ; we are not going to be driven away from our loyalty to this government; we are not going to be driven away from our great mission which requires us to preach repentance in all the world and establish righteousness; we are not going to be driven away from these duties by any man or set of men who shall seek by falsehood and misrepresentation to drive us away from the position that we occupy. I know, and you know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint, every boy and girl, every man and woman in the Church, there is that profound faith that no other flag on earth shall wave over this nation. You know that deep down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint there is a sentiment that justice and right must ever be maintained in this nation ; and you know, just as well, that down in the heart of every Latter-day Saint is that determined faith that no sect nor creed, be it "Mormon," or Catholic, or Protestant, shall ever dominate this nation to the exclusion of any of the rights of citizenship which are guaranteed to people under just laws. You know it is there, and wicked men will never be able to drive the Latter-day Saints away from that position, however much they may try. We may have to pass through the narrows ; we may suffer, for sometimes the truth does suffer. I am reminded that they said the same thing of the Savior of the world that they have said of us ; they said that His doctrines were treasonable, that He was not Caesar's friend, that He pretended to be a king; and He answered, "Yes, I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world." The kingdom of God which we preach is the kingdom' of righteousness, that should be in our hearts and in our lives, and that kingdom teaches us obedience to the laws of the land, the civil laws, and we shall sustain and uphold them ; that we are going to do. ¶

My brethren and sisters, be obedient. The Lord will take care of this work; it is His, and He will vindicate it. The time will come, and it is not very far distant either, when its calumniators will be known ; and just like that wild rose, away down there in Mexico, they will be dug up and cast into the fire and burned, because they will have been proven worthless. But the good will remain ; truth will prevail, and righteousness cover the entire earth. When that time comes we are not a bit afraid to meet the issue, because we know that we can make a good showing, and that our conscience, before God and man, will be found to be void of offense. ¶

May the Lord bless you ; may He bless His work ; and may we always be able to properly defend it, at home and abroad, wherever we are, I pray, through Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

Sister Lizzie T. Edward and the choir sang the anthem, "The nations bow to Satan's thrall." ¶