Judged by Their Fruits: The Saints as Builders

My heart rejoices in the growth of the work of the Lord. I am always happy to see the souls of the children of men brought within the fold of Christ, through the waters of baptism. I am happy to be able to tell you that the work of the Lord is growing in the missions of the Church. The increase in baptisms has been steadily advancing from year to year. While I am always glad to see the Church growing in numbers, I am more interested in seeing it grow in faith and in good works. I am not satisfied with the standard that I have attained, for I yet lack that perfection which the Gospel teaches. As each one of us shall consider our own life, and examine ourselves, I am sure that we all shall find room for improvement. ¶

I desire to read to you from the revelation of the Lord" some verses on a familiar subject, which has been brought to the attention of mankind from the beginning of time. Reference is found to this subject in various of the books of the Old and New Testament. I read from the revelation to the Prophet Joseph, because it seems to me more explicit and forcible than the words we find recorded in the Bible. I read to you. therefore, from the nineteenth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, beginning with the fourth verse : ¶

"And surely every man must repent ¶

or suffer, for I, God, am endless; wherefore I revoke not the judgments which I shall pass, but woes shall go forth, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, yea, to those who are found on my left hand; nevertheless it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment. Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name's glory; wherefore I will explain unto you this mystery, for it is mete unto you to know even as mine apostles. I speak unto you that are chosen in this thing, even as one, that you may enter into my rest; for, behold the mystery of Godliness, how great is it? for, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for endless is my name; wherefore — eternal punishment is God's punishment. Endless punishment is God's punishment. Wherefore I comand you to repent, and keep the commandments which you have received by the hand of my servant Joseph Smith, fun., in my name; and it is by my al mighty power that you have received them; therefore I command you to repent— repent, lest I smite you bv the rod of my mouth, and by mv wrath, and by my anger, and your sufferings be sore — how sore you know not! how exquisite you know not! yea, how hard to bear you know not! for behold I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not repent, thev must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit; and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink— nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and _ finished my preparations unto the children of men; wherefore I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power, and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree, you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit. And I command you, that you preach nought but repentance, and show not these ¶

things unto the world until it is wisdom in me." ¶

I presume that nearly all of those whom I am now addressing have gone into the waters of baptism, following repentance ; for we were taught that it is essential and necessary that we should repent of our sins in order that baptism may be effectual in washing away the transgressions of the past. I fear that some of us members of the Church have failed to realize the necessity of retaining with us the spirit of repentance after we have entered the waters of baptism. That man or woman who ceases to repent, when repentance is necessary, ceases to grow, or progress. The advancements that have been made in science, in the arts, in the medical profession, or in the laboratory, all have been wrought by reason of men leaving the old things which were proven wrong, and instead thereof adopting new methods, new truths taking the place of old errors, and the things that are needed to make life's work a success adopted. Every man and woman has to progress in like manner. A young man came to the Savior and asked what good thing he might do to gain salvation ; he was told of many things, not one only, that he must do, and then after he had accomplished these, that he should follow the Master — not that he should walk near the Sea of Galilee, or over the mountains, following in the footsteps of the Master, but that in his life he should follow the example, and thus walk in the footsteps of the Master. ¶

The Latter-day Saints have learned that those who will be saved must be faithful to the end, must be possessed of the spirit of repentance. There is a thought in the minds of many of us that, once having repented of our sins, prior to entering the waters of baptism, we had then completed our repentance, and we have felt, Well, we have attended to that business, and we are now prepared to go on to perfection. We have been looking at the big mistakes we have made in our lives, and are not altogether conscious of the seriousness and importance of watching the little things. ¶

I stood by a great vessel not long ago, one that had crossed the sea again and again, a vessel that had been a target of shot and shell of the enemy, and was proof against the assaults that had been directed against it, yet it is now helpless, condemned, and not fit to go to the sea, because the innumerable barnacles, little, insignificant insects, had eaten into the hull of the vessel and rendered it unseaworthy, it could no longer withstand the storms of the ocean, much less shot and shell. You have seen the mighty oak standing against the hurricane's blast, withstanding fierce winds and storms, but after the insidious work of a small insect that bores into the tree, and leaves it perforated with holes so small that they cannot be detected by the natural eye, it becomes weakened and liable to fall with a light wind. So we have seen in the lives of men and women, who are unconscious of the little vital things that are eating and sapping the foundation of their individual lives, which may ultimately so weaken them that, when the tests are made, they fail. ¶

The conception which the Lord has given to the Latter-day Saints with reference to their earthly bodies is one that should cause us ¶

to honor, respect, and revere the body as a sacred instrument trusted into our hands for the purpose of making it submissive to the law of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told in the revelations that, before we came into this mortal life, we existed irj a spiritual world, and that the intelligence that dwells in each of us inhabited a spiritual body. How many ages we had that experience we know not, but it was long enough, evidently, for our intelligence to attain control over that spiritual body, and we yielded to the law that was supreme in the spirit world ; that law was the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that we are upon this earth because we did accept the Master, and agreed to stand by the decision rendered in His favor, when He was selected to be the Lamb to be slain for the redemption of mankind. We are here because we obeyed law there, and we have been sent into the world to see if we shall keep this, our second, estate. We knew and understood, before we came here, that it was only possible to obtain that progress which we sought for by obedience to law. We agreed, when we left the spirit world, to obey that law which we then acepted, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That law is eternal. Numberless intelligences have been saved and exalted to kingdoms of glory before our clay and time, through obedience to that law. When we look out on the starry heavens at night, we see innumerable suns that, are centers of solar systems like unto ours, some undoubtedly older than ours, greater, ' mightier. Our sun is superior to the earth we inhabit, greater in dimensions and power, but it, too, is under the influence of another ¶

mighty one that rolls above it; on and on they rise until men are lost in the contemplation. We have learned that upon those planets our Father's children dwell in all stages of perfection and advancement. There are those who are infinitely beyond us in eternal progress, who have reached their present degree of perfection by obedience to everlasting and irrevocable law. God Himself can not change that law, no more than He could obliterate the consequence of Adam's fall. He could not be God and violate a law which is eternal, and by obedience to which He became God. We came into the world and received this mortal tabernacle for the purpose of perfecting it, making ourselves subservient to the law by which we may be raised to perfection and be worthy of the companionship of our heavenly Father. ¶

There is in every human heart the consciousness of two forces working. Every act that a man or woman undertakes to do is usually influenced by two suggestions, the one to do good, and the other to do evil. The spirit of truth will influence us to yield obedience to the gospel law. The flesh is of the earth, and the earth is not yet redeemed, it is under the bondage of the curse, and the flesh has to be mastered. The earth itself has to undergo the process of redemption, it has to obey the law, as the prophet said it would, and it will eventually become a celestial earth, the home of celestial beings. We are to master and control our fleshy bodies, we must make them submit to the Good Spirit which asserts what is right,' and detects what is wrong; that Spirit does not speak audibly to the physical ears, but is the "still, small ¶

voice" that speaks to the spirit of man. ¶

There is a warfare, a conflict between good and evil in every human soul. How sad and pitiful' it is to see some of our Father's children yielding to the temptations that are set before them, the boy to taking the cigarette, drinking the forbidden glass, debauching himself, and then declaring that he is free ! How pitiful it is to look upon those who might have been saved and exalted, wallowing in the gutter, so to speak, and almost lost to redemption! There are those who feel that they cannot be free unless they take the liberty to participate in wrong and sin. I remember some of my own experiences, the temptation of the boys who wanted me to smoke, to drink liquor, get on a horse and raise a great disturbance, and because I would not do it, being influenced by the counsel of my parents, they said, "He is tied to his mother's apron strings and daren't do it." That was pretty hard for a boy that wanted to be free, and wanted to let others know he was free. I thank God I did not take the course they followed to obtain freedom ! I remember two of those boys, who drank and smoked, deserted school, went from petty to grand larceny, and were caught finally and brought to the county jail. In the consciousness of the terrible condition in which they were, with a possibility of years of solitary confinement before them, deprived of the liquor and tobacco to which they had been addicted, they said, We cannot live and endure this punishment. One of them committed suicide, and the other went insane. ¶

In the State penitentiary of Idaho a few years ago, a young man who had committed a theft, in one of our northern cities, said he could not stand fifteen years of prison and be denied the stimulants he desired and so he sought to escape. He walked back and forward behind the gate of the jail, waiting for a chance to break for liberty. The moment came, and he ran past the armed guards, but was shot down, with one limb almost torn from his body. Some time afterward he climbed upon the unfinished wall of the building, forty feet above the ground, and leaped in the hope of ending it all in death, but, as it happened, he was only slightly injured. He was discouraged to such an extent that, the last I knew of him, he was in the insane asylum. ¶

There are men who cannot endure the afflictions that come to them, and they seek to drown their sorrows in the glass, or morphine, or in death itself. Is that freedom ? What a pitiful thing to see a man made in the image of God, with the possibilities of rising to all that our Father is, allow the appetite of the flesh to overcome the spirit, master it, drag it down, and saturate it with everything that is contemptible, mean and low. I read of some morphine fiends confined in jail in this city, who desired the drug so intensely that they begged to be killed if they could not be given the drug. One of the officers said, "Stand over against that wall and I'll shoot you." And they said, "Shoot." The officer said, "I did not think you meant it." "We do," they said, "and would rather die this minute, for we must have it." Such is the terribly enslaved condition caused by yielding to the passions and appetites of the flesh until they are not servants but masters. ¶

The body that has been given to us was for the purpose of allowing ¶

the spirit to exalt itself to a nobler condition. The lightning that is seen flashing from cloud to cloud, from mountain top to mountain top, is an electrical force that may tear down buildings, set fire to property, and destroy life. Conduct electricity through the dynamo wire, and motor, and behold its wonderful, results working for the service of man, accomplishing something under the control of a physical instrument, it thus becomes a power for good. So with steam, if allowed to evaporate freely it does little good, but restrain it in the boiler, send it through the engine, and under its power you may travel across the continent or sail from shore to shore. And so, too, with this highest, most potent of all spiritual forces, the intelligence that is in man ; enshrine it in a spiritual body, that it may have the experiences of spiritual life ; and then give it a physical body, that it may enter into and obtain the joy and experiences of physical life, and you have enlarged its powers immeasureably. Read this wonderful statement in the ninety-third section of the Doctrine and Covenants : ¶

"Every man is spirit, saith the Lord. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fulness of joy; and when separated, man cannot receive a fullness of joy. The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple." ¶

So we discover that it is essential and necessary, according to the law of the Lord, that the spirit shall be united with the flesh, for the purpose of redeeming that flesh and making it a fit companion for the spirit. I say the warfare goes on, and the end of that warfare will be ¶

when the man or woman says to the flesh, "You cannot violate the law of God, you cannot give loose rein to passion, you cannot have carnal appetite gratified, for it is against the law of life and of happiness ; thus far you can go but you cannot go any further." The man who successfully carries on the warfare during his earth life, notwithstanding he is constantly being tempted by the flesh, when he takes his body up, in the resurrection from the dead, the warfare will cease, the flesh will yield absolutely to the spirit, and there will be no more conflict nor struggle. But woe to that man who lays his body down with passion unconquered, with appetite and desire running rampant, and with a temper unrestrained in such vicious streaks that he almost becomes a candidate for the insane asylum! Woe to him, for he shall not receive his body in the resurrection from the dead freed from such evil things. No, he shall have to overcome the evils he has acquired in this earth life, and he may find, too, that it will be harder to overcome in the next life than here, for everything there, hate, love, desire, all are intensified. Life here is in the clay state, we sometimes complain because it is so slow, it does not respond quickly, it seems plodding, the body does not acquire habits quickly. No man is a good, clean, virtuous man today and an immoral, depraved, wicked man tomorrow. These changes do not come rapidly; we should be thankful that we acquire them slowly, because thereby they may be arrested before they have developed to our serious injury. The body is as clay in the hands of the potter ; when the clay is moulded, given its shape, and allowed to stand, it becomes hardened, then, O, how difficult it is to remodel it, to recast it. So, if we mould and create evil habits, it will be exceedingly difficult to reconstruct our characters after we have left this mortal life. After we have gone out of the flesh, and come to an understanding of the folly we have committed, we shall long for a chance to get back into that body, that we might bring it into subjection. ¶

While it is possible that men may repent and overcome in the life that is to come, this is the better time, this is the hour. We may not, in our future experiences, find opportunity to repent, and make the flesh yield to the gospel as readily as in this present life. That man who has not conquered his temper, who flies in a rage at his wife or children, must master himself ; he cannot come into the presence of God in such a condition as that. That man or woman who has not overcome the sin of avariciousness, and do not respond in this life to God's law of tithing, cannot be trusted with the greater riches of eternal life. That man who covets the wealth of the world, and steals that which does not belong to him, must repent, master himself, and make restitution, for no man that is dishonest can come into the Kingdom of God. That man who has not controlled his passions, and mastered himself, until he has full sway and power even over the thoughts of his mind, will not be allowed to associate with those that are pure and holy. That man who thinks he can escape the torments and afflictions of life by drinking intoxicating liquors, eating morphine, or committing suicide, is sadly mistaken, he will have a terrible awakening. As Job said, "If I go to the ¶

depths of hell, Lord, thou art there." We will have to look upon ourselves just as we are, and fashion ourselves as we desire to be. There is only one way by which any man or woman can get away from those things that afflict their lives, because of their transgressions, and that is every day to fill their life with acts of goodness, master self, and yield complete obedience to the laws of the Gospel. Remorse will then be blotted out, it will be displaced by the flowers that will blossom in the mind and heart by reason of the mastery that has been accomplished. /The Lord has said, "Blessed is he that overcometh, for unto him shall all things be given, and I shall be his God and he shall be my son." ¶

The gratification of the desires of the flesh is devoid of sweetness and joy, it gives only transitory pleasure, and leaves a lasting sting. The man or woman who masters self, who overcome evil, shall obtain their reward in the celestial kingdom of God, and receive glory and exaltation, while they who neglect the opportunities of this life may have to wait ten thousand or a million years trying to overcome the sad effects of their neglect. Brothers and sisters, we all have weaknesses that we must overcome. While I say this, I believe with all my heart that I am speaking to the best people on earth. I believe there are no people in the world who have mastered and overcome mortal weaknesses quite so well as we have. But, T want to see that mastery more complete. I want to see the children of those who have forsaken the sins of the world, who have left off the use of tea, tobacco, coffee and liquor, take advantage of the example of the fathers and ¶

mothers, thus each generation shall become more perfect, until we shall attain unto that which God has designed we should. ¶

God help us not only to be the best, but a perfect people, acceptable in the sight of God, that the day when the Son of God comes, to dwell among men on the earth, shall find us and our posterity living in complete accordance with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall we see His face and dwell in His presence. God grant that this may be our happy lot, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. ¶