Why Latter-day Saints Are Positive

I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in the testimonies that have been borne during the sessions of this conference, and am very happy, for in my heart there are, today, feelings of gratitude to our Father in heaven that I also know that that which the brethren have testified to is true. ¶

Why Latter-Day Saints Are Positive in Their Religious Declarations

It undoubtedly seems a very positive position for us to take, to ¶

be able to speak with such certainty concerning the work the Lord is doing in the world, in our day; to speak with such certainty concerning the visitation the prophet Joseph Smith received a hundred years ago, wherein the Father and the Son actually appeared to him. We may impress our friends, by reason of our positive position, with arrogance, but that is not the thought that is in our hearts. We know what we know, and we testify to it in earnestness and in humility. I remember a gentleman, a minister, said on one occasion, in a private discussion which I had with him, that he thought we were too positive about the things of religion. He thought we had not considered the question of God enough to be able to speak with such certainty. He informed me that he belonged to a church that was several hundred years older than the one to which I belonged, and he said that his church had been considering these questions for a long time and had altered their view and their opinion about a good many theological questions. I granted that that was true; and he ventured the assertion that after we had been discussing these theological questions as long as they had, perhaps we would change our opinion also. And in order to establish his point he used this illustration: ¶

"If you had a problem to give for solution and you selected ten boys to solve the problem, and you gave one of them ten days in which to study it, and then another boy nine days and still another boy eight, and so forth, until you had one boy studying on the problem but one day and one studying ten days; now which boy, at the conclusion of the ten days, would know most about the problem, the one who had been studying but one day or the one who had studied ten days?" ¶

Well, you would have to concede, as I did, that if all things were equal, of course, the boy that had been studying ten days ought to know most about the problem. ¶

"Well, there you are," he said; "we have been studying it longer than you have, and you are one of the youngest churches, and so you are likely to change your mind when you study it a little longer." ¶

"But," I said, "suppose the boy who has had the problem but one day receives the visit of a professor who knows all about the problem and who illustrates it so that now it is perfectly clear to the mind of the boy, who knows most about it, the boy who has thus been aided, only having had the chance to study it one day, or the boy who has been dreaming about it for ten days?" ¶

_ "Why," he said, "of course, the boy who was thus aided and assisted knew most about the problem." ¶

Then I said: "That is exactly where we stand." Joseph Smith did not know, because of earthly wisdom and his reading of the scriptures, more about our Father in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ, than the learned ministers of the world. Not by that means did he obtain his knowledge, but in the few moments that he knelt in the sacred grove in the presence of the Father and the Son he knew more about God the eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ than all the ministers of all the world ever have known, or ever will know, except ¶

they shall be, in like manner, informed and instructed. So that the wisdom he had came to him from the source to which men must go if they shall know our Father in heaven. ¶

While we speak with this certainty and this positiveness, we desire to be charitable to our brethren and sisters who have not this faith. I think of their condition with a feeling of almost pity and sorrow. I realize that among them are many who desire to do right, who do right so far as they have knowledge, who are blinded because of the traditions of their fathers, who have ears but hear not, eyes and see not, and hearts that can not understand. We have not read the scriptures and obtained this superior knowledge because of our increased intelligence. If we should sweep away the knowledge that has come to the Latter-day Saints in the revelations contained in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, in the revelations we have conoerning the great plan of salvation, as revealed in the Book of Mormon, and other inspired utterances that have fallen from the lips of the prophets of God from the days of Joseph until this day, -- if we should sweep those away, and have nothing but the fragmentary utterances of the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles, as found in the scriptures, left, we would not know any better than others the truth concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, nor the plan of church organization. ¶

Just at this time the whole Christian world is considering the question of a unity of churches, acknowledging that the system that has produced division is wrong, and makes for weakness and not for strength. Now, how in the world will they ever unite, except that which is lost shall come again? Their lamentable condition has been produoed because men have not preserved, from the days of the Redeemer's ministry among his servants on the earth, the truth Jesus taught. When we think of his three years of ministry it must have amounted to hundreds of sermons, hours in length, in which he discoursed upon all the fundamental truths of the gospel. There evidently was no question in the minds of his followers as to what they should do to be saved, but the difficulty with the present situation is that we have but a fragment of what he uttered. If you should combine all the several narratives, as they are found in the Gospels, into one narrative and eliminate the duplication of the story, it is said that it could be read in an hour and fifteen minutes and would constitute but seventeen pages of our scripture. That is a very small part of the great message which the Master delivered to men. No wonder the world is in confusion and some believe in worshiping on the seventh day and others disagree with that opinion and each seems to find some scripture to justify his position. No wonder there is doubt and uncertainty concerning the subject of baptism, concerning the form and the manner of it, because the details concerning that doctrine have not been preserved; and likewise concerning the organization of the church. It is true that the names of prophets and apostles and pastors and teachers occur in the sacred record, but the duties of each are not so well defined; the work and ¶

the labor and the relative position of these several officers are not set forth so that men can work out again or reestablish, without further knowledge, the true organization of the Church of Christ. When I think of the contention of our Protestant brethren, that the world had gone into idolatry and had lost the truth, and that a state of apostasy existed up to the time of the Reformation, I cannot blame these men. It seems to me that there ought to be rejoicing among those who belong to the Protestant cause that there is proof of the truthfulness of their contention found in the. utterances of the Lord Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith, who verified what those great reformers had been declaring, namely, that there was an apostasy and the truth was not in the earth. What has happened, from the time they took their stand and made these positive declarations, that gives evidence that the truth which had been lost was restored? For they themselves confessed it did not exist in the earth. None of them claimed that an angel had visited them and restored the Priesthood; none of them claimed to have received any new word from the Lord clarifying the situation, and making the doctrines of the church now plain and simple, so that the way-faring man, though a fool, need not err therein. ¶

I wish we had all that Jesus uttered. I believe it would be perfectly easy to make it plain to the minds of men who are honest that there has been a departure from the gospel as Jesus established it, and that they themselves ane going at cross purposes to the plan he devised. Why don't we have more of that which Jesus spoke? Simply because years elapsed before some men wrote what they could remember of the sermons, or the substance of the sermons, of Christ; and it was only a very brief account; after all, precious as it is, very meagre and not sufficient to guide all men to a common understanding of the gospel. Every word that fell from the lips of the Master was essential; not one word was idle, not one word was useless, but every word was essential for the salvation of men; and "Mormonism" proclaims to the world that that which has been lost has come again, and until that which has been lost does come again the world will continue to be in darkness and in ignorance of the truth; and not until men shall go to the Source that Joseph Smith applied to himself, when on bended knee he sought the Lord to know which of all the denominations was right, shall they know the truth. Not until all men shall acknowledge that that and that alone is the Source from whence light and knowledge must come, can the world come to a unity of the faith. Until that day we shall find the world wandering in darkness, hither and thither, seeking light, but can not find it, their eyes being blinded. O how the world ought to rejoice that in this day that which so long has been lost has been restored, the fulness of the gospel, the power and authority of the holy Priesthood, the doctrines of the Church, and not only that but the organization of the Church as well in its perfection and in its power. When I think of the efforts of men to rebuild the Church, -- and I do not want to belittle their efforts -- I do not blame them. I ¶

believe that Joseph Smith and his associates could not have done any better than Martin Luther, nor than Wesley or others, except for the fact that the Lord revealed himself to him. So I do not belittle the efforts of these men who did the best they could with the light and knowledge which they had, but their knowledge was limited. Their effort to rebuild' and establish the Church of Christ reminds me of the experience I had with my first watch. I wanted to see what it was made of, so I took it to pieces, and I had so many wheels that when I tried to put it together again I could not get all those wheels within that case. I put in as many as I could and it looked like a watch all right; but it did not serve the purpose for which a watch is made, to keep the time. Every wheel was important and necessary And so men have tried to fix up a church. They have read of numerous officers, apostles, and prophets and pastors, but they could not fit them together. They just took a few officers -- like I did with tve wheels of my watch -- and made it look like a church, with a deacon arid an elder, or an elder and a priest. It might seem like a church, but it was as useless to accomplish the thing for which the Church of Christ was established, as my watch was useless without its important wheels, each one fitting into the other; for it is said of old that the head could not say to the foot: "I have no need of thee;" but every officer in his place for his purpose, for the work of the ministry, for the perfection of the Saints. ¶

These, our Christian brethren, have done the best they could, but they have failed, and it remained for the Lord to build his Church again. No man can do it. He is a Master Builder and he has sent his inspired servants who have taught men the plan and the pattern of the organization of his Church and have fitted in these officers, so that, while the "Mormon" Church is admired and even envied by those opposed to us, as the most wonderful organization in the world, the most wonderful part of it is that it works, and that it does not become a machine that easily gets out of joint or kilter, but it works forward for the material salvation of the people as well as for their {spiritual salvatiqn. Men may duplicate the organization of this Church and when they have done it, when they have fitted in the officers and given them their appointed places, still they shall have a dead thing. You may establish a perfect system of electric lighting in this building or this city, you may have your dynamo, you may have your wires running through the streets, properly insulated, your poles and everything complete, and the globes here, but you can have no light, and no power, until through your perfect system there runs light and power and heat. And so you may have a perfect church organization, but it will be perfectly dead and useless unless, going through it, there is the power of the living God, which is the source of life and light to his Church. We have the perfect system and it has, radiating through it, the power of the living God, the authority of the holy Priesthood, and the ordinances thus performed are efficacious and valid for men on the earth and remain sealed upon their heads through their faithfulness, even into the eternal world. ¶

The Glory of the Resurrection of Christ

I rejoice in the testimonies that we have listened to on this Easter Sabbath day, with respect to the resurrection of the Redeemer, and when I think of his ascension from the grave, I rejoice to know that He is the Life and that he is the Way. And when I think also of removing that last act in the great drama of his life, his coming forth from the tomb- -- remove that and you take away the crowning glory of the ministry of the Redeemer. Had the stone not been rolled away and had he not risen from the dead, then it would have been exceedingly difficult for men to have had the faith in him they now have. He had power in his life over disease that the sick could be healed; he had power over death that men could be called from death back to mortal life. Many had witnessed this. He had power over the elements that the winds and the waves should obey his voice. He could speak, and loaves and fishes would materialize under his power. He had more power than had ever been revealed to man from the beginning of time on this earth, but there remained one thing more. He promised, just before he laid his body down, that he would be equal to the emergency and bring it up from the dead, not back to mortal life, but to a newness of life, to immortality and eternal life. And when he arose from the dead and came forth in splendor, a resurrected, immortal and eternal being, he then arose to the height of power, of glory and of majesty, and became the Master of all things, even death yielding to him, and he said he did only that which he had witnessed his Father do. Then, if it brought glory and honor and power and majesty to the Master to rise from the dead, so in like manner did it bring glory and honor and power and majesty to his Father to have in a similar manner arisen from the grave to possess a glorified body dwelling in the eternal world as the great organizer and presiding genius over all his creations, his sons and his daughters. ¶

A Testimony That Christ Arose From the Tomb and Lives

Therefore, we rejoice in the witness we have that Jesus told the truth, that the testimony of his disciples concerning his resurrection is the truth, and we also know that the testimony of Joseph Smith and his brethren, who looked upon the face of the Redeemer, is true. I bear witness that I know what they have said is the truth. I know, as well as I know that I live, and look into your faces, that Jesus Christ lives, and he is the Redeemer of the world, that he arose from the dead with a tangible body, and still has that real body which Thomas touched when he thrust his hands into his side and felt the wound of the spear, and also the prints of the nails in his hands. I know by the witness and the revelations of God to me that Thomas told the truth. I know that Joseph Smith told the truth, for mine eyes have seen. For in the visions of the Lord to my soul, I have seen Christ's face, I have heard his voice. I know that he lives, that he is the Redeemer of the world, and that as he arose from the dead, ¶

a tangible and real individual, so shall all men arise in the resurrection from the dead. ¶

The Lord bless us to keep this faith in our hearts that we may go forth with charity for our brethren and sisters of the world, intrusted with these glorious truths for their blessings, that we may bring to them that which they sadly need, the fulness of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for their salvation. May they divest themselves of pride and of preconceived notions and prejudices, and not despise the source from whence this message comes, and not be as blind and ignorant as their fathers were before them, who thought no good could come from Nazareth. ¶

And if it should now happen, as it has happened, that from a despised source there has come the light of the Lord for the blessing of the world from a despised "Mormon," Oh, may our father's children divest themselves of blindness and see the glorious truth that has come that we now offer to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, for their salvation in this life and in the world to come. ¶

The Lord bless us to do our part, and bless them that they may see that we are their friends, that we love them, and we would not harm them, that we hold precious and sacred things in trust for them and for ourselves, that we may honor and respect these glorious privileges that are ours, rise to the emergency with due gratitude, embrace every commandment of our Father, and keep it that we may continue to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶

Mrs. Franzeska Raabe Parkinson sang a soprano solo, "The Lord's Prayer." ¶