Show THE POWER OF EVIL discourse delivered at the general genera IC conference on of the church in the tabernacle salt sall lake city sunday april ath ibos by AY REST PRIEST WILFORD WOODRUFF REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER I 1 ask and desire this morning the faith and prayers of the latter day saints in my behalf while I 1 stand before you this is not merely an idle ceremony for if I 1 possessed all the oratory TL T L and learning of the ancient greeks and romans it would not give me power to edify one immortal spirit in the children of nien men or to point any immortal soul to the way of salvation I 1 am entirely dependent eident upon the lord I 1 always have reen been during my life hie and in my travels and pilgrimage preaching the gos gospel pel of christ to my fellow men it does de s not make any difference what age a man is in the preaching of the gospel whether ie e be twenty five ninety or five hun bun dred years of age if he is only inspired 1 by t the e spirit and power of god many any of the ancients lived to a very great g 0 father adam up to the last speech he a ever made to his children according to the revelations of god was filled idith h the holy ghost and he was nearly SL a thousand years of age I 1 have some things upon my mind I 1 would like to present to the latter day saints if I 1 can get the spirit of them yi think it would be profitable to us to impend a little time in reflecting and f meditating upon the powers that be the powers that exist today on the earth and nd have existed from eternity unto eternity good and evil light and darkness christ and or lucifer the t son soa of the morning when we look over the history of the world we can see from the creation of father adam down to our day the operation of these I 1 two powers and these powers will aist exist until the end of time and from that time henceforth hencel orth until there is a change in the destiny of th the e spirits of 1 men it seems that from me time of the great rebellion iv in heaven when ope one third ol of the hosts of heaven were cast down for their rebellion against the great Elo elvheim heirn and jehovah the abe creator of heaven and earth there teas has been a warfare against god against christ against g his church against his and against everything that would tend to salvation and eternal life and d in looking over the history of the world ev orld irom from the revelations ol of god to is wf we can see in the peopling of th the e earth and in the building up of cities by the inhabitants of the earth the powers of evil of darkness and of sin have had great control over the children of men men were led to sin and to do evil until those ancient cities like modem ones were filled with iniquity the lora lord raised up prophets and inspired men in all those dispensations when cities and nations became ripened into iniquity to give them commandments to warn them of the judgments of god and to tell them what to do to escape those judgments in ants and when these cities and na eions were fully ripened in iniquity and would not repent all that those prophets proclaimed proclaim dd unto them came to pass you may take all the ancient cities thebes nineveh tyre sidon babal babylon on jerusalem and others and they had prophets raised up among them the they were warned of god and were tm told what awaited them unless they repented of their sins and all came to pass as the prophets unto them my mind rests upon jeremiah the lord called him in his day to go and wa warn rn king zedekiah and the inhabitants of jeru jerusalem sa and the prophet told them what would come to pass the king and the inhabitants were wroth against him and they persecuted him and he had so many trials to go through that a man in reading of them would not be surprised if jeremiah felt like saying you may all go to destruction for what I 1 care im not going to stay with you but the lord had said unto jeremiah before I 1 formed thee in the belly I 1 knew thee and before thou earnest camest forth out of the womb I 1 sanctified thee and I 1 ordained thee a prophet unto the nations all that jeremiah said to the inhabitants of jerusalem came to pass and the history of jerusalem is terrible the whole house of israel had warning prophets were raised up among them and they prophesied unto them all the judgments that visited them were foretold I 1 speak of these things because they are on my mind and we are in a somewhat similar condition ourselves take the days of christ As soon as christ was burn born how quickly herod sought his life joseph had to take mary and the young child into egypt in order to save the child the power of evil was after him for his destruction and did the savior when he was grown to manhood escape that power was there anything about him in this respect that differed from others of the human family there was not he was tempted he was tried and the enemy labored for his destruction through his whole life his mission was a short one it was only three and a half years from the time he entered ared into tb the P besth I 1 od wil aul he WF ws gl crucified and that at too by this power and the sorrow that has come upon the jewish nation in consequence of this act of theirs and the bill bil that they have hare had to pay has been indeed great and ana all that the prophets said concerning that has come to pass to the very letter nearly nineteen hundred years have rolled around since the death of christ and that yoke has been upon the neck of the jews from that day until this they have been trampled under the foot ot of the gentiles in fulfillment fulfilment of the words of the prophets of god and because they shed the blood of the savior their shiloh and it has not yet come to an end with them john while upon the isle of patmos clothed clothed with the glory of god and wrape in the visions of heaven portrayed prophesied and wrote concern ing the events that should take place down to the coming of the son of man he told us concerning the restoration ot of the everlasting gospel he says and I 1 saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven leaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto am them that dwell on the earth saying with a loud voice fear god and give giro lory glory to him for the hour ot his judgment is come I 1 that has come to pass the time has come when the lord has set his hand to 0 o fulfil fulfill the flood ot of revelation contained in n all the records of divine truth the lord raised up a man ordained and prepared from the foundation of the wor world I 1 d to stand in the last dispensation and falness of times to receive the gospel and the priesthood to organize the church of god and to prepare the way for the coming of the son of man we know that these two powers were mani jested with the prophet joseph as they were in the days of the savior the very moment that he received these revelations irom from god and proclaimed them it seemed as though all earth and hell were let loose for his destruction it appeared as it the devil was awid afraid that he would live to carry out these prophecies you know his history some of us have been associated with that prophet we have seen this spirit of the evil one manifested the prophet joseph was never let alone by the pw p w ers that exist until he like the savior and others sealed his testimony with his blood but during the short time that he dwelt in the flesh he accomplished dished all that he was ordained to do 0 he not only organized the church but he brought forth forth this book ot of revelations that I 1 hold in my hand the book of doctrine and covenants which contains some of the most sublime revel revelations god ever revealed to neap map on the earth the lord also choso chose tw twelve priests jeers q iri Y ter and achaa a I 1 n P the whole organization god as it exists today and what has been the consequence of this I 1 desire to bring the minds of the brethren to those days just as quick as the twelve apostles were appointed and the church was set in order the devil labored with all the power that he possessed to turn wide aside these men and inspire them to leave the church of god because of this it seemed to be very hard work blany times for men who had received the die priesthood and even the apostleship to magnify that priesthood and to stand in their calling until they could finish their work in the flesh I 1 have made a re mark once or twice in my teachings with r regard gard to the great apostasy in kirtland I 1 passed through that scene as did some others who are now with us and I 1 wish vish now to refer to it because it is something we should lay to heart even apostles took occasion to rise up and endeavored to dictate and direct the prophet of god here brethren and sisters was a manifestation and a very strange one too of the power that the devil had over the leading men whom god raised up to assist in laying the foundation ot of this church and in bring ing forth the book ol of mormon those who testified to the book of mormon were led away through not keeping the commandments oi of god and thinking that they themselves were great men some of them were learned men some pf af them considered themselves very smart men and they were so smart that they wa wanted t ed to dictate and direct the Tro prophet phet mt of f god od the consequence of all this was that ha i they turned aside from the commandments of god some of 01 them had bad been true and faithful in their labors in the ministry I 1 have heard oliver cowdery testify of the book of mormon by the power of god when it seemed as if the very earth trembled under his feet he was filled with the holy ghost and the power of god while he was faithful and so were many of these men but oliver cowdery y yielded fielded to the temptation of the evil one and we may say he apostatized S so 0 did martin harris and several others connected with them they left the church they turned against thel joseph oseph and they said he was a fallen prophet and they themselves wanted to direct the church I 1 have remarked ked that there was a time when there were but two of the quorum of the twelve apostles then in the town of kirtland who stood by joseph smith and upheld him as a prophet seer and revelator I 1 was not a member ol of that quorum at that time I 1 was a seventy several of these men called u upon 0 n me in the time of this apostasy ancha and asked ked me to join them against the prophet the prophet was fallen they said now I 1 had bad seen enough myself ot of the prophet of god and I 1 had read enough of the revelations ot of god through him to know that thai he was a prophet of god and not a fallen prophet I 1 saw that these men were yielding to the devil and I 1 told them so said 1 I you will all go to hell bell unless yon repent joseph has been raised up by the power ol of god he has organized this church he has been true and faithful to god and to the church and kingdom ot of god here on the earth and you will fall a and nd go to perdition unless you repent of your sins and turn from the po bostion stion you are in in today A good many of 01 them did fall I 1 will here name one instance I 1 saw one of these apostles in the kirtland temple while the sacrament imet was being passed stand in the aisle and curse the prophet of god to his face while he was in the stand and when the bread was passed round he reached out his hand bior or a piece of bread and flunor it into his mouth like a mad dog he turned as black in the face almost as an african with baize and with the power of the devil what did he do he ate and drank damnation to himself he did not go and hang himself but he did go and drown himself and the river went over his body while his spirit was bastinto cas cast tinto linto the pit where he ceased to have power to curse either goo goa or his prophet in time or in eternity I 1 may say that david patten was not in kirtland at this time he was in missouri he never apostatized but died a martyr brethren and sisters I 1 have passed through these scenes and it was a serious time and I 1 will tell you the devil is not dead today but will war against us and against this church as tar far as he has power while we dwell in the flesh I 1 thank the lord however that I 1 know for myself that this church chuoc will stand and the lord will bear it off triumphant we have passed those days dansot of affliction anu sorrow but I 1 want to say to my brethren one and all we still have got to watch unto prayer if there is any place where the devil can lead us astray he will do it we are not safe until we get through with this pro bation I 1 thank god for one thing I 1 am satisfied for myself that those days are passed and gone there is no man in heaven or on earth will ever live to see such a day again we are too near their the end rid we are too near the coming of the son of man the lord almighty has called a class of men upon whose shoulders he has laid the responsibility of this great work he has chosen the weak things of the world and we have these responsibilities resting upon us I 1 am satisfied for myself that the servants of god whom he has chosen will as a rule be true and faithful unto death how dark a man must be in his mind to get into such a condition as these apostles were I 1 heard some of them bear testimony before god angels and men that they had received the ministration of angels and having that knowledge what a condition they must I 1 ave been in when they apostatized apostatize dl we want to guard ourselves with regard to these matters maters we have got to look to the lord to assist us in the cause in which we are engaged I 1 hope and pray that I 1 may live to see the perfect union of the twelve apostles with the presidency of this church and the union ot of the whole church we have this work upon our shoulders and the lord is watching over us I 1 will say to all the nations of the earth you cannot turn aside or overthrow the designs of the lord they will come to pass in the earth exactly as they have been promised to the children of men we are here upon a mission and it is a great mission we are blessed in living in this and generation we ought to try and make the must of it we can we ought to try and improve out our time lime magnify our calling and do our duty I 1 will say to the latter jay day saints the lord has called and chosen us to stand as the leaders of 01 the people i he ahe presidency the twelve apostles and the various quorums and positions which we are in and we are responsible to god for the course we pursue dursee in these matters true we need the faith and fellowship of the saints we need their assistance but inasmuch as we do our duty the blessings of god will be with us I 1 know for myself that the lord has set his hand to carry out his hil great purposes and prepare the way for the coming of the son of man we have passed through a long period ot of time as men count time in our history I 1 wilt will here refer to one incident when christ and peter james an andyjohn djohn and john went int into the mount moses and elias were manifest to them and jesus was transfigured trans figured before them 1 I 1 he last time the apostles ever met with the prophet joseph smith there were eleven of us besent 1 besent nine apostles himself and his er brother other hyrum he likewise was transfigured trans figured before us as far as mortal man can bethe room which he was in was filled as with consuming fire by the power oi of god his face was clear as amber he was clothed with the power ot of god we did not know he was going to leave us any more than the apostles knew the savior was going to leave them in that day but he told us what our duties were he laid before us what god required at his hands and the ordinances din ances unto which he had been ordained by the power of god he said the lord had sealed upon his head every ordinance every key and e every ery power belonging to this 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