The Word of the Lord to Moses

"But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I ¶

unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man, but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them. ¶

"And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and thy servant will be content. ¶

"And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. ¶

"And as one earth shall pass away. and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come; and there is .no end to my works, neither to my words." ¶

I read this passage of scripture because there is in it the representation of a great program of the creations of God, the integration of worlds and the disintegration of worlds, and it presents on a grander scale than any other scripture that I am acquainted with, the great governing and controlling power of God, both in the integration or creation of things, and also in the disintegration of things ; but whether worlds are being formed from chaos and brought into orderly systems, or whether systems themselves be disintegrated, it affords me unspeakable pleasure and confidence in the stability and in the preservation of orderly creations, that God presides over all. I believe, too, from the manifestation of God's wisdom that wherever disintegration is going on, where destruction apparently takes place, it will only be for the purpose of making room for more excellent things ; and so this scripture ministers to me very comforting thoughts, and though I sometimes read in the works of men who give attention to the extent and greatness of the universe, and the laws that govern therein, so far as they can understand them, that they, too, as well as this inspired man, become acquainted with the fact that here and there in spots throughout God's universe, disintegrating forces are going on and worlds are sometimes blotted out — yet the cosmos is preserved and order prevails instead of chaos. ¶

That is rather a lofty conception of things that God gives us then of His masterfulness in the midst of His creations, and now I am a little sorry to draw your minds out of this great conception of things to make application of that principle in our earthly affairs, and yet I must do it if I would teach the lesson I have in mind. ¶

Several times in this conference, when the fear came to me that I might be called upon to occupy this position for a few minutes, the thought came to me several times, if that happens I will not speak a word in relation to the great war now going on in Europe ; so much has been said, and well said, that there is no need for me to say a word upon that subject, and anyhow I am a man of peace. I love peace and I pursue it. If you will pardon the personal note of it for just one moment, I may say to you that I really never had, in my boyhood days, a fight in my life but what it was forced on me. (Laughter.) Personally I was just in the same condition that the nations of Europe are now in, I was forced to fight ; and generally, in fact so far as I can remember always, I entered every engagement that fell in my way with a good deal of anxiety, even fear, but there was this peculiarity about it — I don't know that it is peculiar, however; perhaps it is a common inheritance to all men — but' the first blow struck, I was always very comfortable after that. (Laughter.) But I believe in peace, and most heartily have T joined in the prayer for peace for those distracted nations now engaged in the dreadful arbitrament of their differences in war. This principle that is here described in regard to God's control of disintegrating forces in the universe as well as integrating forces, leads me to feel, in spite of all the horror of this great modern war, that God will control it just as He controls the wrath of men, which He makes to praise Him, and the rest of man's wrath He restrains. So my confidence is that the dreadful forces of war will not go beyond those limits that are necessary to bring to pass the purposes of the Almighty; and while I join in sorrow for those who will be brought to misery and poverty and death in this awful war, I nevertheless cannot help but believe that as God causes worlds and systems of worlds to pass away, that have doubtless reached the climax of their possibilities in their present form, and hence He destroys those forms so that there shall be better ones created, so now in this awful struggle I believe that it will finally end in the higher planes of civilization being reached, rather than that the present glories of our civilization shall pass away. ¶

I say I join with you in the splendid services we have held in this conference in praying for peace, but deeper than that prayer for peace, more earnestly than for that prayer of peace, do I pray that justice, national justice shall prevail; and I hope the present war will not halt until justice, as God sees justice, shall be established. If it were halted before that great achievement, the hecatombs of the slain up to now, the misery that will come in consequence of the war, will all be in vain; and so, though it may seem harsh and cruel, yet I sincerely trust that now the inevitable war has started, it shall go on to the end for the establishment of justice, and as God presides over the disintegrating forces in His universe, yet out of that destruction re-creates still better, so do I believe that the very forces of war are sometimes but instruments in His hand for the accomplishment of His purposes. I can conceive nothing of weakness in the attributes of Deity, and some of the things necessary sometimes to make progress are physical forces as well as moral and spiritual forces, and when used by him, of course, they are used in righteousness, and sometimes God is in the battle as well as in the still small voice and the wonderful invisible spirit that overspreads nations of people and changes, their mental and moral attitude towards the great things that are going on in the world; God moves upon the minds of the people to bring them to the accomplishment of things even as He will. In evidence that God is sometimes in war, I have in an old note here, a statement about an occurrence in Israel, to the effect that the tribe of Reuben and Gad and one-half of the tribe of Manasseh were at war with the Hagarites, and they were successful in their contest, "for there fell down many slain ( of the enemy), because the war was of God." On another occasion when Joshua was taking possession of the heritage which God had given to Israel, and Israel was sore beset by the enemy, suddenly there appeared a magnificent ¶

warrior clothed cap-a-pie in shining armor, and Joshua approached him, apparently with some temerity and said, "Are you on our side or on the side of the enemy?" "No," replied this personage, "But as captain of the Lord's hosts come I now." And Joshua fell down before the personage and worshiped at his feet, without reproach. We read that there was war in heaven. I think God was in that war, for Satan was overthrown and forced from heaven. I cannot help but think that when the patriot fathers who founded our nation drew the sword against the great empire of England, in the maintenance of their avowed rights, and for the establishment of free government in this world, God sustained their feeble arms and crowned them with glory, though to do it He brought to their assistance the old-time monarchies of Spain and France, one of the most wonderful lessons in history — the use by the Lord of these representatives of arbitrary power in the old world to establish free institutions in the new, a remarkable incident in the history of men. ¶

So, my brethren and sisters, I feel very comfortable even in the midst of these war times, knowing that God stands in the background of things and that He will have His way. ¶

Speaking now of our own nation, just for a moment, and the pride I feel in it. I think we have a right to be a bit optimistic in relation to our own nation, I believe it is fulfilling the high destiny that God has marked out for it in these modern times. He founded it by wise men whom He raised up to frame the Constitution, which outlines the true principles of civil government, a law that I feel has gone forth from Zion to permeate the whole world, to break up monarchial institutions, to break militarism, and to exhibit to the nations that there are other forces of government that should prevail rather than those policies of "blood and iron," in which men have so prided themselves. I believe our country will fulfill that kind of a mission. God not only founded this great government by the wisdom which He gave to wise men, the men upon which He caused His inspiration to rest; not only did He found it, but He preserved it. He tells us here in one of these revelations where He declares that He founded this government by wise men whom He raised up for that purpose, that He sanctified the land by the shedding of blood, and made it holy to us, because we can see what our freedom cost in the best blood of the human race in our great Revolutionary War. And God not only founded our nation, but He preserved it in one of the most awful conflicts that had existed in the world up to that time, now, however, rendered wellnigh insignificant in comparison with the terrible war now raging in Europe. The war in Europe is on a scale in keeping with our modern life, and reveals to us the great progress that the world has been making, since it would have been impossible a hundred years ago, when Napoleon Bonaparte was fighting over practically the same area of country that is now strewn with drawn battle lines, in France and Belgium, — it would have been impossible then, and I say this, in a way, is a revelation of the greatness of our modern life ; our very wars are more stupendous than those of former ages. ¶

Well, I say the Lord has preserved this nation; and it is possible for this nation to hold to the sacred heritage that God has given it. Brother Ivins, in his remarks yesterday, and other brethren who have spoken here, have called attention to the conditions upon which our nation may preserve its heritage, and its power in the world, and especially in this new world. It is remarkable to me that all the messages of scripture — or nearly so, that pertain to this western hemisphere— we find those messages, those warnings, those conditions upon which the safety of our national life depends, are in this record, the Book of Mormon. I say it is remarkable to me, and yet it is not so upon second thought, because that is where you would naturally look for them; but perhaps the idea laboring in my mind is the importance of this American record revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the things that are found in it concerning our America. To those splendid passages read by Brother Ivins here yesterday, I want to add one more, because it constitutes a message which the Latter-day Saints must deliver to this nation, we must make it known ; and consequently in this official conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, where what is said has something of an official character to it; where we speak, in a way, with collective voice, I am taking' the liberty of reading this scripture. They, are the words of Moroni, when he was translating the records of Ether and giving an account of the colony of the brother of Jared coming to this land of America, and the covenants of the Lord upon the land. The comments are by Moroni in this record of Ether, from which I now read: ¶