| Show S sunday services religious services were held at the tabernacle sunday august augua 18 counselor charles W penrose presiding the choir sang on the mountains mountain 8 top appearing lo 10 I 1 the sacred herald stands I 1 prayer by elder charles W stayner the choir and congregation sang 0 lord of hosts we now invoke thy spirit most divine the priesthood of the third ward officiated in the administration of the sacrament ELDER JAMES E TALMAGE was called to address the tion in the course of his remarks he said I 1 see before me this afternoon is a very large congregation assembled together professedly for the purpose of worshiping god on this day which we usually term the sabbath it has become a custom throughout the world for religious denominations to gat herand for forthe the rites and ceremonies of worship to be indulged in it is well that we ask ourselves what is the moving cause of this custom why is it kept up and continued so universally I 1 think it is owing to the operations of that instinct which is planted in the nature of man and woman causing all human beings who will not quench it within their souls to desire to worship it is true there are many forms of worship there are also many gods worshipped wor shipped and yet it is at present resent the practice amongst civilized as well as barbarous peoples to crave some being or object to whom or which they can render adoration and praise it is the belief of the latter day saints that those who live now upon earth existed in a primeval condition before they came here we do not think that the spirit of man originated when his hia body was born here below but that all human beings lived in a condition of life preceding the present one that t they ere ey have basked in the sunshine of in truth and dwelt in the whence of their maker who I 1 is in fact the father of their spirit we believe that they have come upon earth in accordance with their own choice and with the plan which the almighty had arranged abr or the nl al and exal exaltation of his big children we frequently hear the remark that man is in a fallen con that being so he must once have occupied a condition from which he has fallen in the sense of now being subject to death surrounded by tempts eions possessed by and tendencies toward sin but not fallen in the sense of being shut shutout out eternally from the pres presence enoe of his maker itis in accordance with the plan of our father that his hie children should be surrounded by temptations and that they should choose for thenis themselves elves the influence of good or the tendencies toward evil as they may shefit see fit but man is tempted to do good as aa well as evil he is surrounded by angels of light as well as powers power of darkness he is entitled to the ministrations rations of holy beings and has the right of free converse with them thein let us we see that we never enter places that we should not that we never commit deeds con conceive celvi thoughts or utter words that could cause those holy personages to withdraw from us unseen beings walk the earth by millions unseen alike when we sleep and when we are awake be cause we hide ourselves at times from the gaze of men because so oo human eye is fixed upon us and no human mind is there to the motives of our acts we are too aw apt to think that we are unseen how 4 ow much iaiser are we than the ostrich upon the african desert which when pursued thrusts its head in the sand and because it can see no man thinks that no man can see it there are very few sects of religious III I 1 0 us worshippers wor shippers in the world WT who 0 believe in a preexistent pre existent state it is the common belief among people among that the spirits of men did id not exist before they were ushered into this mortal condition of existence existent exi stene those who believe in the divinity of the mission of jesus christ know that he while dwelling upon the earth was in every respect a mortal being that those traits of character which he possessed fitting him for his ha high 1 h and exalted condition such as we he now holds did not rob him of his condition of humanity or take away his state of mortality our savior stated on many occasions without equivocation or modification fi that he had come directly from his father and that when his work was done he would return unto him his spirit then must have existed with that of his father and with that of the other a spirits brits that were then existent in that primeval state we frequently hear it asserted that some men are predestined to a certain end the idea of absolute predestination re destination is repugnant to that of justice justice such as we hold bold with respect to the almighty no man has been predestined to do either good or ill 91 by compulsion we believe that men mein have been foreordained fore ordained before they came on earth to do just that kind of work and to bring about just that particular destiny for which they are most fitted but that free agency is given unto them and they have the full right to act even MB as unto them we hear much said at the present time in regard to the religious man in my humble opinion there is an inborn tendency in the minds of men which induces them to crave some game object of worship if they know not the living god they will worship something else but worship they must I 1 doubt if there is any real atheist to be found who does not recognize some iD influence fluence call it by what name he will superior to himself but there are many who refuse to worship the father of their spirit and decline to acknowledge tho the god who sent them here by whom mercy and under whose protection tiec tion they exist to his authority they will not bow his name they will wili not utter with reverence but in his place they set up for themselves some material form or other too often the creation of their own fancy and imagination the man whose whole time and energy are con U cuned ned in amassing wealth has set up wealth as his god let him not another it is there that his eart his bis mind his soul and his strength are to be found it is in that direction that he will make the greatest sacrifices philosophers have endeavored by the exercise of their god given reason to prove there Is no god they will not recognize him by illis name and yet they seem to know by the contemplation of system of nature sauna alone must be some creative mind which planned all una MIDI and that such cannot be chance they call it I 1 in D some eoe cases the great unknown 11 one system of philosophy establishes tie the primeval cause as the able these are but names and by their very bigness indicate the lack of betth depth which ch such systems there here is no such thing as in the sense of things happening kp pening without a cause the religious man is the man who hven in the line of duty not he 1 hooe religion is a more mere profession gwo ax man jan ought to find it necessary A to declare hi his creed more fully in words than in his acts the man rho ho I 1 is 9 charitable in ls his heart preach 1 S to co ax no a stronger deeper sermon than he be who talks about charity though he may use the most atri language 8 this religion of ours is a practical loe we meet toO klier sabbath I 1 far sabbath and perhaps hear bear the me ideas expressed over and over akgain iK gain it is wise indeed that we J d hear such for we seed need to be adelof them when an elder called to speak and for the time lacfi as to be a teacher and inetor bunto unto his brethren it 4 does 1 follow that he is to brin bring abr r rinel les which they have ave beard rd more before having myself 11 IA called 4 upon to speak ak by those leoper authora authority it t I 1 have av ve no right N to expect that the lord is goi going dg to reveal to me some more exalted principle n than lias has been explained unto his saints before when god finds it necessary to reveal some new principle for the guidance of his church that revelation will come through the authorized channels and we need not look for it from any other source my testimony is that the work in which we are engaged is the work of god it bears that stamp by its results our father has a purpose in the life of each one of us and if we do not fill it when we go back into his presence we shall receive the judgment that we have been slothful and negligent servants but if we do right in all things god will bless us as the years roll by we shall trance in intelligence and knowledge and in the light of revelation realizing in all the affairs of the world that the hand of god is at the helm and that his church which he hus has established will come to eventual triumph ELDER CHARLES W PENROSE said he could bear testimony as to the truth of the remarks to which the congregation had bad just been listening there was a little time still left before the services closed and he had been requested to occupy it he would merely add a few observations to those of brother talmage who had referred to the general disposition and desire of mankind to worship something as deity and spoken of it as intuition and instinct this said elder Penrose Penro seis js no doubt correct there is a disposition in the minds of all persons to worship something to look up to something superior to themselves and if we find anyone who has not this desire or feeling he is an anomaly there are people who are born blind naturally there are others who ap pear to have been born blind spiritually yet perhaps this may not be exactly correct cormet for we are told that jesus is the true light that ligh teth every man that kometh into the world wor id 11 1 1 this disposition this desire this reaching out after deity is born within us and is natural to us and it is because every person who comes into the world is born with a portion of the spirit of light which is also the spirit of life that natural light which is born with every person ca comes mes down from t the father of light in whom the apostle says there is no variableness nor even a shadow of turning we are the offspring spring of godbe are literally his sons and daughters born to him in the eternal world and not in some figurative sense merely this is not pur our first estate the angels who kept not their first estate but left their own habitation we are told are reserved unto chains of darkness d unto the judgment of the great day they are the evil spirits who tempt the sons and men meil they ley were cast presence nee of god go d and are abot not permitted to be born into this second estate god created all things firstly spiritually and afterwards temporally the first chapter of genesis re lates to the spiritual creation of all things in the first two or three chapters of that book there is apparently a contradiction read ingon the lace of it without a correct understanding we have the creation described bed gol god made all things he made man in his own image and yet after all this is told we are informed that there was not a man to till the ground 1 l the explanation is that god created everything spiritually and afterwards temporally the sons and daughters of men who came to dwell on this globe were in their spiritual nature the sons SOBS and daughters of the great eternal father this truth jesus tried to make manifest to the people when he dwelt on the earth telling his disciples that god was their father as well as his and he said when ye pray say our father who art in heaven 11 god is the father of the spirits of the human family and the apostle reasons in this way in the hebrews ath verse furthermore we have had bad fathers of our flesh which corrected us and w wf gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection j ejection unto the father of spirits and live this reasoning is good if we give obedience and reverence to those who are the fathers of our flesh which will perish and deca decay and go back to the elements out of which it was organized how much rather should we give reverence and obedience to him who is the father of our spirits which will live when the body is kad dead k ad he who hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth the apostle paul says determined term ter mined ine d the ti times in e 8 before be fore a appointed and the bounds of their habitation acts 26 god beforehand where we should dwell when we came on this earth w when hen we should come liere here what should be our surroundings rou roun dings and has placed us here at the proper time and in the proper place that we might all be tested and proved to see what we shall be worthy of in the third estate to which we are all hastening when we came down on the earth tabernacles had been prepared spared p lor us as with jesus our elder brother the spirit of life was wae put into us we were quickened by that spirit that bat same spirit which gives life gives light to the sons and daughters of men and as we are told in the revelations of god to joseph the prophet it edeth from the presence of god to fill the immensity of space it is the light which is in all things and through all things and round about all things and is the law by which things are governed doe doc and cov page this is why we have an inward tendency upwards this Is ie why our souls reach out after deity this is why the heathen as well as the after a od this is why people in every age and clime upon every spot on the footstool of god reach up to him as everything that grows out of the ja earth reaches up to the sun whence it ree cives its ite warmth and life it is natural for everybody to reach after deity and when we meet a person who says tie he does doea not believe in any kind hind of god he is to that extent an unnatural being there is something about him that is wrong I 1 do not say it is altogether his fault I 1 believe there are people whose minds have become clouded as to spiritual things and one of the reasons why they doubt the very existence of deity is their own ignorance and the teachings of men who profess to be sent of god to hear some of these mens theology you would think god almighty our father the great creator was the most cruel and relentless being that could possibly exist nothing that can be said about the devil is worse than some men have told about god the idea has been entertained for hundreds of years and taught by men professing to be servants of christ that there is a great pit where fire and brimstone are kept forever alive into which god tumbles lost souls by the millions that in this pit they burn and burn bum and BURN forever without a moments cessation from this infernal misery the idea has prevailed that only a few will escape this everlasting torment and they not through any good acte of their own not because they deserve to be saved from this horrible pit but because through certain circumstances they have been led to believe that jesus is the christ and his righteousness is to be imputed to them As for the heathen and the jews for generations and generations millions upon millions of these sons and daughters of god through no fault of their own but through what is commonly called the accident of birth because they did not happen to have been born in a christian land lland are arbeit it isaid to be hurled into hell never to come out again no wonder that some people reject such men as representatives of deity and become skeptical as to such a god the bible does not teach such stuff as that men read with a distorted vision with their minds biased beforehand in regard to certain things and they interpret the bible to suit those preconceived notions the bible teaches that there is a place of punishment prepared and that god will reward or punish every man according to his works it teaches too that but for christs coming and dying for us we would all have been lost but there to Is a plan of salvation prepared by which all mankind except very few will be eventually redeemed there is no |
