The Power of God and the Power of Man

There is an old saying to the effect that men are but children of a larger growth. I was reminded of this saying yesterday morning when President Smith declared that there are men, a few, in this community, who would fain have us believe that the power of God is no greater than the power of man. ¶

One Sunday evening, in the Eighteenth ward of this city, while I was bishop there, a Primary Association conference was in progress, and among the exercises was the teaching, by one of the sisters, of a class df little children. She gathered them around her upon the stand and related to them, in the presence of the congregation, the beautiful story of the Savior feeding the multitude. After the meeting had dispersed, one of the mothers, going home with her little boy, put him through a course of questions in order to ascertain what he remembered of the lesson that had been taught. ¶

"What has Sister Pyper been telling you?" the mother asked. The boy answered, "She taught us about the Savior feeding the people." "How many people were there?" she inquired. "Five thousand," he replied. "What did He feed them with?" "With five loaves of bread and two fishes." The mother then said, "Well now, how do you suppose He could do that ? How could He feed a great multitude, five thousand people, with only five loaves of bread and two fishes?" The little fellow was thoughtful -for a moment, and then exclaimed, "Well, I don't believe those in the middle got any." (Laughter.) ¶

That boy evidently believed, with some of our "children of a larger growth," that God is no more powerful than man. he sought a scientific solution of a miraculous problem, and solved it in his own way. ¶

But all children are not of that kind. My experience with little boys and girls teaches me that as a rule they recognize that there is a vast difference between the power of ¶

God and the power of man. It is comparatively easy for them to accept the miraculous; they do not have the prejudice against it that some men and women have. I recall another anecdote, which I have related before, that will illustrate this phase of my subject. ¶

In the Salt Lake Theatre, many years ago, John B. Gough, the great temperance orator, was delivering a lecture, in the course of which he deprecated the practice of endeavoring to simplify the Bible so that children could understand it. Said he, "Let them read the Bible just as it is, and they will understand it ; they comprehend things much more quickly than we give them credit for." He illustrated the point with this story. Two little boys, one named Johnny and the other Billy, were playing in the dooryard. Johnny had a knife and was sitting on the doorstep whittling a stick. Billy, who had just caught a fly, came up to Johnny with the fly between his thumb and finger, remarking "What a funny thing a fly is !" See what lots of legs he's got; and every time I blow him he buzzes." Here he blew on the fly and put it up to his ear to hear it buzz. "I wonder how God made him," mused Billy. And the great orator paused long enough in his narrative to say : "Many a learned man has asked the same question, and could not answer it." "But," he added, "Johnny had an idea of how God made the fly. He went on whittling his stick, and said, 'Well, Billy, God don't make flies like men make houses ; when he wants flies He says, 'Let there be flies,' and then there is flies." (Laughter.) ¶

"That little boy," said Mr. Gough, "had been reading the Bible, and he believed what he read, and understood it ; it was plain to him that the power of God is greater than the power of man. He had read that beautiful lesson presented at the very beginning of the book of Genesis, 'And God said, Let there be light, and there was light." ¶

When man wants light he must strike a match, or press a button, or turn a switch, or rub two pieces of wood together as do the Indians, in order to create a flame. But when God wants light, He has only to say, Let there be light, and there is light. Nay, He would not have to do even so much as that, for God Himself is Light, dwells in the midst of light, in the midst of eternal burnings, and He would only have to appear, and darkness would flee away. ¶

We children, we men and women, who for the time being have to learn like little boys and girls, by crude and primitive methods — we are told that the time will come when, as the reward of obedience, of continued faithfulness, our bodies shall be filled with light, our eyes be single to the glory of God. But we approach that condition gradually. We are learning how to do things, little by little. We do them now in inferior ways ; but our Heavenly Father has learned how to do them in a masterful way. Then why should we seek to drag Him down, and deny His power to do things that we are not able to do ? Where is the logic of it? ¶

Why this prejudice against the miraculous? Why should any man or woman, and particularly any Latter-day Saint, take ground of opposition against miracles, and try to relegate them to the domain of the mythical? Where will it stop, if you give way to the spirit of skepticism? Allow yourselves to think that Christ never walked upon the ¶

water, that He never roused Lazarus from the slumber of death, that He never did a miracle, never brought a dead world to life by the shedding of His blood as a ransom for sinners — encourage these doubts and where will they land you? Where will they lead to? They will lead you to reject the Redeemer of the world ; they will lead you to deny, as many do, that such a man as Jesus of Nazareth ever, lived. Continue giving way to doubt, and you will end by doubting your own existence — as many do already. ¶

If there were no ancient miracles, there have been no modern miracles. If the wonderful works of the Son of God are myths, then this whole fabric of "Mormonism" crumbles to the ground, it has no foundation, for it is based upon miracles, ancient and modern, and was intended to be based upon them. ¶

How do I know that Joseph Smith ever lived? How do I know that he was a prophet of God ? Is it because my parents knew him — because they told me he was a prophet? How many of you ever saw the Prophet Joseph Smith ? How many here know, by the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear, that such a man lived and labored and died? There are two men upon this stand, perhaps others, but I know two who, as little boys, saw the Prophet Joseph — "three, four, five," someone behind me says. These five are President Joseph F. Smith, President Francis M. Lyman, Patriarch Angus M. Cannon, Elder William W. Riter, and Elder Nymphus Murdock. There may be others, but it does not matter — I am not trying to make it cumulative. This is the point : How do I know that Joseph Smith ever lived? Is it because these brethren saw him ? I have respect for their testimony; it is one of the elements of my own testimony concerning this man. But if I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet — and I do know it — it is because God has shown it to me, by the power of His Spirit, the spirit of revelation. That is how I know it, and that is how you know it. We know it by miraculous manifestation, or we don't know it at all. We are dependent upon the miraculous for what we know of all such things. Then why should we want to tear out from under our feet the foundations upon which we stand? ¶

Seven hundred years before the birth of the Savior a prophet declared, in relation to the last days, that a work should be done among men by the Almighty, even a marvelous work and a wonder, and the wisdom of the wise should perish, and the understanding df the prudent should be hid. What fulfils this prediction but "Mormonism," God's great work of the last days, founded upon marvels and wonders? Can. you conceive of anything more wonderful than the opening of the heavens at a time when men denied revelation, denied the visitation of angels, and declared that the world would never have any more of them ; when it had lost its knowledge of the true God and virtually ruled Him out of His own universe ? Can you conceive of anything more marvelous than the opening of the heavens and the appearance, the personal appearance, of God, the Father and the Son, to Joseph Smith, then a little boy between fourteen and fifteen years otf age? There is the first marvel of "Mormonism," there is the beginning of the fulfilment of Isaiah's prediction concerning the marvelous work and wonder. ¶

At first Joseph's testimony was ¶

met with scoffing, and he was denounced as a rogue, as an imposter. All sorts of evil stories were circulated concerning him, in order to break down his testimony. "It's all of the devil," said a Methodist minister, to whom he told his story — told it in a simple, child-like way, declaring that God had appeared to him in vision, and had talked with Him. The boy never deviated from that declaration, and as a man he died by it and died for it. ¶

Gradually the world is beginning to concede that Joseph Smith was at least sincere, that he really imagined that he saw and heard, and one great, wise man has capped the climax of worldly wisdom, in its efforts to explain away Joseph Smith, by asserting that these wonderful manifestations, the coming of God the Father and the Son, the coming of the Angel Moroni, the coming of John the Baptist and of Peter, James and John, bringing back the powers of the priesthood and the fulness of the everlasting Gospel, that these were all hallucinations, resulting from an epileptic fit! Was there ever a more striking illustration of the fulfilment of prophecy — "The wisdom of the wise shall perish, and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid"? ¶

We know that Joseph Smith's testimony is true; we know it by the Holy Ghost ; and that is the strength of this Church. It is not the sagacity of its leaders, it is not its members, that constitutes its strength. We are only a handful in the midst of many millions. The strength of this Church is in the testimony possessed by every man and woman belonging to it, that it is indeed the work of God. ¶

Testimonies are of two kinds, direct and indirect, positive and negative. Persecution testifies indirectly of the truth. "All things bear record of me," the Lord says. We only have to look around upon the manifestations of nature, and we see and hear them testifying of the Creator. Every thing made proclaims its maker, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, and who use them for those purposes. ¶

I was once conversing with a gentleman who expressed* an earnest desire that the Latter-day Saints should co-operate with those rich philanthropists who are endeavoring to colonize the poor Jews of Christian countries — to move them out of the large cities — to make farmers and artisans of a people who have been peddlers, merchants, and money changers for centuries. One of these colonies, by the way, is in central Utah, near the town of Gunnison. This gentleman said to me, "I recognize the 'Mormon' people as the greatest colonizers in the world, and I wonder why you don't see the necessity of co-operating with such men as Baron Hirsch, who has spent millions of wealth endeavoring to colonize these Jews, but has failed thus far, because of his lack of knowledge and experience in colonizing methods. Why don't you Latter-day Saints co-operate with him, he to provide the millions, you to furnish the experience?" And he added, "You could make a stipulation that every Jew you helped to colonize should become a Latter-day Saint." (Laughter.) "See how that would build up your Church." ¶

I answered Mr. Davenport — that was the gentleman's name — in substance as follows : "You remind me of a conversation I once had in the Eastern States, while upon my first mission. I was asked, "Why don't ¶

you "Mormon" elders fly for higher game? Why do you always preach to the poor and the lowly? Why don't you get up among the high and the mighty ? Take Henry Ward Beecher, for instance" — he was then alive, the great pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle — "convert him and his whole congregation would flock in after him; and just see how that would build up your Church !" I said to Mr. Davenport, "That is not God's way of building up His church. The Lord declared by an ancient prophet, 'I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion and give you pastors after mine own heart." I explained the great problem of the dispersion and gathering of Israel, whereby the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the blood that believes, with spirits answering to that blood, who have been dispersed for a wise purpose among all nations, are now being recalled and brought together in a great movement called "The Gathering," preparatory to the building of the New Jerusalem and the glorious coming of the Lord." And I added, "God is not anxious for great conregations. He is not desirous that the Jews, or any other people, should make a bargain with Him and join His Church -as a business proposition." ¶

The suggestion reminded me of that scene in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice," where poor old Shylock stands before the court, condemned !for having conspired against the life of a citizen of Venice, and the judge decrees in effect: "Half of your goods are confiscate to the merchant Antonio, whose life you sought, and half are confiscate to the state of Venice, whose laws you have outraged; and, moreover, the court decides that you shall straightway become a Christian." ( Laughter. ) ¶

Christians are not made by judicial decisions, nor are Latter-day Saints converted by legislative enactment or by commercial bargaining. There is but one way to make a Latter-day Saint. A man must have faith in God, he must repent of his sins, he must have his sins washed away by baptism at the hands of one having divine authority to administer sacred ordinances ; he must have hands laid upon him for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and by that testimony he will know that this is God's work, and become a full fledged Latter-day Saint. This is the strength of the Church — that every man, woman and child who has obeyed the Gospel knows for himself or herself that it is God's truth, God's work. This is the rock upon which Christ founded His Church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Amen. ¶

i ¶