Need of Greater Faith

A few months ago I was discussing a Priesthood project with Bishop William R. McConkie. I asked him for suggestions as to how it might be put over. His answer, I thought, was very wise : "Brother Merrill, that project will easily go over if there is sufficient faith developed in the members of the Priesthood." ¶

NEED OF GREATER FAITH ¶

I have thought of that many times since, and have concluded that if there is one thing more than another that perhaps we need in the Church today, it is greater faith. I was very heartily in sympathy with what Elder Stephen L Richards had to say yesterday about that subject. We are all greatly concerned with the faith of our youth. We are all greatly concerned with guiding and protecting them from those influences that will destroy their faith. ¶

We are concerned, not only with the faith of the youth, but we are concerned with the faith of all our people, particularly those that bear the holy Priesthood, because the records show that there is a very great apparent lack of faith, as judged by works, and it is works, we know, that is the standard in the Church by which we shall be judged. ¶

So the question arises : How can we develop faith ? May I say, my brethren and sisters, that there is one means, I think, that is all too generally neglected in the Church, and that is prayer in the home. I speak from my own experience, largely, and observation, when I make that remark, because if experience has taught me one thing more than another it is that God does hear and answer the prayer that is made to him in faith, if the prayer is accompanied also with the desire to fulfill all the conditions of faith ¶

Faith, like many other things, is a gift of God, we are told, so some people say: 'Why worry? If we haven't faith, God has just denied it, and we are not to blame." Do we not know that everything that we have comes from God — our homes, our families, any talents that we may have, health, and everything else that we enjoy? If we violate the laws of health can we expect to have health? If we violate spiritual laws can we expect to enjoy a high degree of spirituality? ¶

Faith is one of those spiritual gifts that I believe is based upon law. We learn, from the teachings of the Prophet Joseph, that if we get any blessing from heaven, it is because we fulfill the conditions upon which that blessing is based, and that is a truth that not only comes from the mouth of our Prophet, it is also a truth that has been established by scientific research. Every investigator in the field of material science knows that when he fulfills the conditions he can predict the results, and if the conditions vary, then the results will vary, and when the conditions are completely fulfilled the result will be realized completely. So faith is one of those gifts that we may acquire, that we may cultivate, only if we fulfill the conditions upon which faith is based. ¶

FAITH BASED UPON INTELLIGENCE ¶

Now, I believe, my brethren and sisters, that we can appeal not only to our emotions and to that obedience to conditions that we might say springs from emotion, but we can also appeal to the intellect. The God whom we worship is characterized by intelligence. That is his glory. We are his children, literally his spirit children, and in the great law of the universe, in the biological field, at any rate, we have ¶

found — this has been revealed to us by scientific research — that like begets like. As children of our Father in Heaven we possess, in embryo, at least, his attributes. We possess intelligence, which has been given to us to be developed and to grow. ¶

We have in the Church a saying that we very frequently repeat : "As God now is, man may become," a beautiful statement of the great law of eternal progression. I believe that in this matter of faith we can appeal to the intelligence as well as to the emotions, and I believe that if we are going to have our faith firmly established on an enduring rock, it must be based upon the agreement of our intelligence with our emotions. ¶

EVIDENCES OF JOSEPH SMITH'S INSPIRATION ¶

That brings us to the question, is this God's work, or is it not ? Was it set up by God-inspired men, or was it set up by Joseph Smith, who was self-deceived and might have been a fanatic ? Well, of course, that is a very hard saying, but anyhow, it is either one thing or the other. It is either God-inspired or else Joseph Smith was a fanatic. I can not see how we can logically escape the conclusion. ¶

So the question is : Is it God-inspired ? That brings us, my brethren and sisters, to the Prophet himself, and therein, I believe, if we make a careful study of the Prophet, of his life, of his works, of his achievements and character, we shall find that we cannot explain him except on the true basis that he was God-inspired. The Prophet, as we know, was not trained for his work, as the world considers training necessary. He was ignorant of the teachings of the scholastic world. He did not have the advantage of trained teachers, of laboratories, of museums, of art galleries, and all of the other influences and facilities that in this modern day are considered necessary to qualify a man for an important job. ¶

But what did he do ? That is the question. Well, I think in looking at the Prophet we might look at internal evidences and external evidences. When we look to internal evidences we are looking to those that operated with Peter. You remember when Christ asked : ¶

Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am ? ¶

And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. ¶

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am ? ¶

You remember the answer : ¶

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. ¶

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. ¶

In other words, the surest, the best method we have of convincing ourselves that Joseph Smith was genuine is the spirit of inspiration and revelation. Every believing soul who will humble himself and ask in faith, and try to fulfill the conditions necessary to get an answer, can ¶

receive it and will receive it. It is by divine inspiration that President Grant yesterday morning was able to declare that he knew that this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. That was the same method by which Brother George F. Richards was also able to testify. All the brethren who have borne their testimony in this Conference received that knowledge in that way — a sure, safe way. ¶

But to many, trained by the methods by which the public schools are now training our young people, that may not appear to be the right way. They want a materialistic way. Well we can appeal to external evidences that can be brought to bear in this case. What are they? We may look at the teachings, at the achievements, and at the character and the personality of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and then we find, with respect to his teachings, that he knew more about the spirit and the truth of the Holy Bible than all the trained theologians in the world. We remember that in his day frightful doctrines were taught — infant damnation ; a literal lake of fire and brimstone, into which those who knew no law were pitched and would remain eternally, because they had not died with a profession of faith upon their lips. It did not make much difference what their conduct was, if they had not confessed the name of Jesus Christ. Frightful doctrines! Horrible! ¶

Well, what did the Prophet teach about those things? What did the Prophet teach about many other things? There is one thing that he taught that I think reveals the justice, the mercy and love of God to a greater degree than anything else that I have known about — the doctrine of salvation for the dead. ¶

How many of the college trained, university trained theologians of the world could tell you what Paul meant when he said : ¶

Else why are ye baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all, why are ye then baptized for the dead? ¶

And when Peter said : ¶

For this cause was the Gospel also preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, and yet live according to God in the spirit. ¶

Who understood what was meant when Peter said that during the time of separation of the body from the spirit the Savior went and preached to those that were sometime disobedient in the days of Noah ? Who among all these scholars could tell what Malachi meant when he wrote of turning the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children ? Those doctrines that make a reality of what Brother Levi Edgar Young quoted this morning from the Pearl of Great Price : ¶

For behold, this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man! ¶

Do we want to say that God is going to fail, or will he accomplish his purpose? How could he accomplish his purpose, except for this beautiful doctrine, of which the Christian world knew nothing? They knew nothing then ; they know nothing now. But in teaching that doc- ¶

trine, that the work of redemption will go on in the world of spirits, in cooperation with the work here, and thus that the gates of heaven will be opened to all who fulfill the conditions, either in this life or in the life beyond, what does it reveal? It reveals that God does love us, that he has provided a way, that his purposes will be accomplished, and that the great majority of his children will be saved, with some degree of glory. ¶

Who knew about those things ? Well, that teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith alone stamps him, in my judgment, as the greatest religious teacher that has lived in mortality since the days of the Savior. ¶

SOME ACHIEVEMENTS OF JOSEPH SMITH ¶

But it is not for his teachings alone that we can regard him as being a remarkable, outstanding man. We look to his achievements. We find that in the short period of fifteen years, from the time that he began to translate the Book of Mormon until he met his death at the hands of foul assassins, he did a work that cannot be explained except on the ground that he was divinely led, taught and inspired, or else that he was a super-man, greater than any mortal that has ever lived upon the earth. ¶

What did he do? Led his poverty-stricken people, who were persecuted and driven during all of that time, laid out cities on new and beautiful lines, built two temples, set up a well-nigh perfect church organization, counseled, administered to and comforted his persecuted people, while he himself was almost continually persecuted. His literary work alone was in quantity, and certainly in quality, enough to occupy the full time of any man of college or university training that we know anything about during a full life-time. Six volumes of Church History ; translated the Book of Mormon ; wrote a book of revelations containing truths that indicated a far more complete knowledge of the plan of salvation than all the teachers of Christianity since the days of the Savior and his apostles had ever exhibited. ¶

Well, now, my brethren and sisters, when we contemplate these things and call them to the attention of our young people with an appeal that they go and study the Prophet from his beginning to his end, his achievements, his teachings and all that pertains to him, they will find something that cannot be explained unless they do accept the truth that Joseph Smith was divinely inspired and divinely taught. ¶

Take the translation of the Book of Mormon alone, translated in the short period of about seventy-five days. Well, a criticism was made that it was not punctuated and paragraphed. Do we not know that that is one of the strong evidences of the divinity of that work? Did you ever see, either in a photostatic copy or in the real thing any ancient writing that was paragraphed? Were the words and the sentences not all run in together? They did not have in those days — at any rate they did not exhibit in their writings — the modern mode of composition dividing into sentences, paragraphs, etc., with all of the marks that go with proper punctuation. They wrote right along continuously. Therefore to charge that that work was the work of an ignoramus because it lacked those elements is to say that it was divine, because the translation was a literal translation. ¶

That great volume, written from translated dictation in the incredibly short time of about seventy-five days without what we find in modern manuscripts — erasures, insertions, etc., but just written right along continuously — stamps Joseph Smith as some one who was either God-taught or supermortal, as judged by all the standards that the world has set up by which to measure men. ¶

So I appeal very earnestly to our young people to study the Prophet, measure him, examine him by exactly the same standards that are given to them in their schools, colleges, and universities by which to evaluate men. And what will you conclude if you do that? I think you will at least conclude that he was a most wonderful man. As Josiah Quincy once said in his book, "Figures of the Past," pages 376 to 400 : ¶

JOSIAH QUINCY'S TRIBUTE ¶

It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this : "What historical American of the 19th Century exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?" And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written, "Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet." ¶

The wonderful influence which this founder of religion exerted, and still exerts, throws him into relief before us, not as a rogue to be incriminated, but as a phenomenon to be explained. ¶

And he ends his chapter with these words : ¶

I have endeavored to give the details of my visit to the Mormon Prophet with absolute accuracy. If the reader does not know what to make of Joseph Smith I cannot help him out of the difficulty. I myself stand helpless before the puzzle. ¶

Josiah Quincy, you know, was a trained man, trained after the manner of Harvard University, and trained in the wisdom of the world. He occupied an important position as Mayor of the City of Boston ; and yet this is his statement. He made his visit to the Prophet Joseph in May, 1844, a very few weeks before his martyrdom, in company with Charles Francis Adams. He saw the Prophet, who knew not of his coming. He saw him exactly as you would find him on any day, and yet he was so influenced by the personality of Joseph Smith, and by his accomplishments, his achievements, that he could not explain him. ¶

RESULTS OF FAITH ¶

He was unexplainable from the standpoint of the world. To say that he was a fanatic, that he was ignorant, that he was untrained — all of which, of course, might be true, so far as his schooling was concerned, so far as his opportunity for culture in his boyhood was concerned — ¶

but he was born of honest parents, and he was reared in a religious home, where love and faith prevailed. They believed their Bible, and so when Joseph read : "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not . . . but let him ask in faith," Joseph believed. With what result ? With the result that he went into the woods to pray, in the same spirit and for the same purpose that we ought to pray, in humility, desiring the help of heaven. And he got it, so he claimed. Well, what was the claim ? The most glorious vision that has ever yet been given to mortal man, in which he beheld the very God of Heaven, the Father of all, and Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, gloriously revealed to him. He heard their voices. He received their instruction. Did he or did he not ? Was he mistaken ? Explain, if he was mistaken, how he got his wonderful knowledge of the whole field of the Bible, and its inspiration, and how he was able to teach the glorious things he taught. But he received the visitation of other heavenly messengers. Were these things true? ¶

ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE ¶

As I say to young people, I say to you, my brethren and sisters, how can you explain Joseph Smith? I have only indicated an outline of the study that might be made, but I think it is the most important study that any young person, or any unconvinced older person might make. And if we will make it in honesty, in sincerity, with a desire to know the truth, asking God to help us — following the instructions given in Moroni 10 :4 — we shall certainly not be left in doubt as a result of a careful, thorough study; we must come to the conclusion that we have a sure and a solid basis for our faith. ¶

My brethren and sisters, let us get that faith. If we have it how can we be slackers in this Church ? How could any holder of the holy Priesthood be a slacker? Why not respond to the teachings that are given to us by the Presidency of this Church and the inspired leaders of this Church, and those that we may read in the standard works of the Church ? Why not respond and act, knowing of a surety that God lives, and that this is his work — a knowledge that all of us can acquire if we only will put ourselves in a condition to receive that knowledge. ¶

God help us to do so, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶