Australian Mission Testimony

Ill ¶

I have recently returned from the Australian Mission, about seven months ago. I want to say of the Australian people that they are not in general a religious people. They are hospitable and among them many intelligent people. Among those who have been converted to the faith we can find as fine people, perhaps, as any that may be found. Among the elders who labored with me, there could be no finer young people anywhere than those young men were. Remember we were laboring under very difficult circumstances at the time. The world's war was one, when it was impossible to get elders from Zion to fill our ranks where they were depleted as our elders were sent home. They left us with very few to carry on the work in that far-off land. ¶

Perhaps the idea prevails among the Latter-day Saints that the people of Australia were against the "Mormon" people; in other words, that they had formulated laws against them. But this is not the case. I wish to defend that people. There was ai rule passed by the British counsel, at the time they were engaged in that great struggle, that there should be no foreigners sent into the colonies during the prevalence of war. I was under the impression that the people there were compelling our people to keep away from that land. But as I put it up to the American consul there, he gave me to understand differently. I got a letter to the Secretary for the Colonies there, at Melbourne, and when I went to him and asked him why they were discriminating against the American citizens, he said they were not, that there were no laws passed by them against us ; it was simply a rule passed for self-protection by the parent government. I saw very readily that they were right in doing this, because in the early stages of the war people were sent out in the guise of missionaries, and they were stirring up revolt among the nations, especially in India, and I commended them on the position they took. But that did not alleviate our situation. We finally got an order passed by which the British officer at Washington was directed to vise the passports of men from this country. And finding that we had lost so many men from our ranks, they allowed us to send so many more. And then we found that our government had proscribed men, so it left us with very few men in that field. We used what local ability we could. Finally, when the armistice was signed we received a small company of men to relieve the situation, but for a long time we had twelve men only in that great country having an area larger than the United States, and we did the best we could under those conditions. ¶

In coming in contact with the Australian parliamentarians, men who sat at the head of the government, we had a splendid opportunity to preach the gospel of the Son of God. The question would be asked by the men to whom we appealed, "What do you teach our people? AVhat are your practices? What, is your policy as far as emigration is concerned?" All of these things are vital questions to the Australian people. They wanted to know what we were teaching, and they got ¶

an opportunity to learn what we believed as to a personal God. We believe in God as a personal being, and in Jesus Christ as another personal being. We believe in the Holy Ghost as a personage of spirit, these constituting the Godhead. We also believe in the doctrine that Jesus came and atoned for the original transgression, of man, and that through him and by him all will be resurrected from the grave. We believe that as individuals, we will have to, give an account of our actions here upon the earth, and that we will pay the penalty for our transgressions. But we believe that somewhere, sometime in the great beyond, there will be a time when the gospel will be preached to all people, whether in this mortal life or behind the veil, when all will have an opportunity to hear, and to have a place in the kingdom of God. Again, we teach our people that they are to be subject to kings, presidents, magistrates, -etc., and obey and sustain the law, and that our policy was at that time, knowing the opportunity there for colonization and for building up of institutions for the betterment of that people there. We had a splendid opportunity; we reached the chief men in th? c republic to tell them what we believe. We even reached Plon. William Hughes, who was at the head there, and I told him these things. He listened very attentively. "Well, " he said, "it seems to me that we ought not to bar your people, nor bar your elders from coming into this land." We told him what we had done for the "flu" there. We had this scourge very severely in Melbourne. In Sydney it was not quite so bad, where I was. But one of our elders who was at Melbourne visited the homes of some sixty people, and administered spiritual and temporal comfort, in connection with his associates. There was one local elder at one of the hospitals who was in a dying condition, and as far as any mortal aid was concerned he bad passed by the portals of this earth, so to speak, and was entering into the great unknown. The elder procured a permit, and was permitted to visit the man and stay with him, which he did day after day, until the sick man was finally put on his feet, and today that man stands as a living witness of raising the dead in these last days. ¶

Brethren and sisters, miracles have not ceased. I have seen them in numbers of instances where I have labored, where the sick have been healed, and the barren have been made fruitful, and many other wonderful things done by the power of God. I have seen the power of God made manifest in the lives of those who have faith in the blessings of the gospel. ¶

I know that the gospel is true. God burned that into my being in my youthful days ; and I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I have said to some men whom I have met: you may look, perhaps some of you may sneer at our child-like faith; but I thank God for that child-like faith. We cannot help what we believe in, because God has revealed it to us by the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost. ¶

Once upon a time, when I was talking with one of these men, when it was reported that some of our elders had been accused of ¶

taking their women out of that country, as they thought, that man said to me: "Do you affiliate with other churches?" I said, "Oh, no, they will not have us fellows ; we are too tangible ; we preach, perhaps, a different doctrine." "But," he said, "Isn't your faith the same as preached by the world in general?" I said I did not know but it was. I said, there is a difference, though. I picked up a book and I said, we open the scriptures and we believe the things that are written in the book, and we try to keep our, lives in accordance therewith. Your people believe the book when it is closed. You are believing the traditions of men. Here, let us take up some of the very principles that we believe in. We believe that Jesus Christ came upon the earth to atone for the transgression of our first parents, Adam and Eve. But let us not put it "transgression," it was a preconceived plan. There was something to be gained. But for the action called the transgression of our first parents, we would never have been here. We would have been ever in the spirit world : but inasmuch as death came upon our first parents, and we were all subject to death and dissolution, the spirit will have a body; that it became necessary that we should be redeemed from the condition of mortality that we were placed in, and that through the redemption all men would be resurrected from the dead. I said to those gentlemen: I am convinced of the work of the Lord. I have been time and time again over the whole territory of Australia, including Tasmania ; I have labored some in New Zealand, and I have visited also the Samoan, the Sandwich Islands and others as a humble elder of the Church of Christ, and going from house to house and from hamlet to hamlet, preaching the truth, and I have found very few who believed actually in the resurrection of the dead. ¶

To us in Zion it is a bold statement, but it. is a fact, very few people of the world believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that Jesus Christ came, that he fulfilled the predictions of the ancient prophets, particularly Isaiah, that he would be lifted up and would be slain for the sins of the world. He came and fulfilled these predictions, and as a result, all mankind will have the benefit of that great gift that he bestowed upon us. ¶

But aside from that, the time and place of resurrection, which will come to every son and daughter of man, will be according to our fitness. The Apostle Paul said that every man would be resurrected in his own order, Jesus Christ being the first fruits of the resurrection. I have taken up a labor with them, showing what is shown in the scriptures, and showing that their spiritual heads ignored these very things. ¶

We have talked sometimes on the resurrection, and shown them plainly that Jesus was crucified, and his body laid in a tomb, and that a guard was placed over his body for fear that something might happen to give the disciples of Jesus a chance to claim that he had prophesied truly that he would rise again. The Jews went to the Roman ¶

governor and they begged that there might be a guard placed over the remains of Jesus, that no such thing as this might take place; and on the third morning, before it was light, there was a wonderful convulsion of nature, and the Roman guards became frightened, and they left the place, you know in those times it meant death to a Roman soldier to leave his guard. Now, it is not likely that those men left that place in the night, as those men thought might have been the case ; hut something came that probably frightened those men almost to death ; and early in the morning one of Jesus'- followers who had been greatly benefited by Jesus, in having had evil spirits cast out of her, came to the sepulchre, and there Mary found the stone rolled away ; and then she departed and went to the house of Peter and John, and she apprised them of the fact— and they ran to the sepulchre. John outran Peter, and arrived first^ but when Peter came, he bolted into the sepulchre, impetuous as he was, and found the linen cloth or napkin lying at the foot of the sepulchre ; but Jesus' body was not there. Now what took place at that time? Just the fulfilment of the promise Jesus had made them, that he would come forth. They discovered then the things that they had an idea of, but not a present knowledge. They discovered then the reality of the resurrection of the Son of God. They had perhaps looked upon him as an advanced teacher, something like Confucius, Mohammed' and other great teachers in the world, but perhaps had never realized the tangibility of a resurrection. Alary came back, and as she was weeping, she looked upon the sepulchre and she saw two angels dressed in white, one sitting at the foot and the other at the head, where Jesus had lain, and they accosted her in these words: "Woman, why weepest thou?" She said, "Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him." An4 as she was turning she saw Jesus standing, but knew not that it was Jesus. And he said, "Woman, whom seekest thou ?" And she said, supposing him to be the gardener, "Because they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him ; if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." And then, as Jesus turned facing the woman, he said : "Mary," and she recognized him and was convinced, and in the excitement she went to embrace him, but he said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God." ¶

Now, in talking upon this proposition at one time, a man claiming to be a linguist said, I want to give you the right rendition of "touch me not." He said it meant "don't detain me." It sounds better to me. But, however, Mary was an ambassador at this particular time. You remember, Mary went to the disciples and told them he had gone to his Father. Now, many manifestations took place at that particular day. But there was gathered together a little knot of these people. They were discussing the wonderful things that had taken ¶

place, and at that particular time Jesus came and stood in the midst of them, and said, "Peace be unto you." But they were affrighted and terrified, thinking they had seen a spirit. That is, they thought it would be a spiritual resurrection, not a tangible one. Jesus accosted them, knowing the fears in their hearts, saying :; "Why do fears arise in your hearts, behold my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself." Then he stretched forth his hands before them and said, "Handle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." He showed them his hands and feet, and while they believed him not for wonder and for joy he said unto them, "Have ye any meat?" And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and honey comb and Jesus ate it before them. Thus Jesus demonstrated to those people that he was tangible and real, a resurrected being. Paul says, "We do not know how we will appear, but we will appear like unto him." He says further, "If we have been buried with him in baptism, we shall be like him in the resurrection of the dead." ¶

. In discussing this subject before the people, we have found people who admit that inasmuch as Jesus' body had, not become corrupted it would be possible to accomplish this great thing, but deny the resurrection of the body after it has gone into the mother earth. Then we bring up the incident of his providing food for a multitude of people in four or five loaves and a few little fishes, and yet after feeding some four thousand people, they had twelve basketfuls remaining. We argue the point to the people of the world set forth in the first chapter of John, that by him and through him were all created. Now, if God created this earth, then should we curtail his power, and say that he cannot bring back the elements and breathe into them, so to speak, the breath of life. Another scripture, found in Mathew, 27: 51,52. "And the graves were opened, and many of the saints who had slept came out of their graves— and went into the holy city and appeared unto many." Here is an evidence of one of the apostles, who perhaps gave up his life for the testimony that he gave to the world, that there were others resurrected after the resurrection of Christ. ¶

Again, now nearly one hundred years ago, on the Susquehanna river, when two men had gone out to pray in regard to baptism, there came a personage who declared he was John the Baptist the one who baptized Jesus in the river Jordan, and said: "Upon you my fellow servants (as he laid his hands upon their heads) I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which has the keys of the administration of angels and of baptism for the remission of sins ; and this will not be taken from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering in righteousness." They felt his hands upon their heads. John, who had been taken before the Master was slain, he had been resurrected from the dead. ¶

I am taking up too much time, excuse me. Oh, I love the doctrines that are contained in the Bible. I love to ponder over the revelations of God in the Doctrine and Covenants. ¶

I wish to say to the young people that there is no myth in the resurrection of Jesus Christ or of other individuals. I like to proclaim unto them that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. That God revealed himself unto him, because of the prayer of faith in his early manhood. I have this testimony, too, for God revealed it unto me in my early manhood. I was sceptical, was worrying,- I had my doubts and strugglings. I wanted to know if Joseph Smith was a Prophet inspired of God ; I wanted to know if the Book of Mormon was true, because I had been reading it and pondering its pages, and had found many things there that I could not understand because they were too great for my conception. I wanted to know if the things incident to the establishment of this great latter-day work were true. And the Spirit of God came upon me upon a desert plain where I then was, and it filled my whole being with a living fire, it radiated to the very tips of my fingers, to the very hairs of my head, and I was shown these things that I could not understand before ; it burned into my being that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is true. ¶

I would like to follow out the story of the resurrection at some future time. I pray that we may have the living faith that our forefathers had' that we may demonstrate in that child-like, living faith the purposes of our Father, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶