| Show DISCOURSE delivered at the general conference of church in the tabernacle salt lake city tuesday october ath 1896 by PRESIDENT GEORGE 0 CANNON REPORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER our conference thus far has been one of exceeding interest to me and I 1 presume it has been to all who have shared in its proceedings I 1 do not know that I 1 ever heard beard our brethren of the twelve apostles speak with greater power than they have during this conference I 1 do not know that I 1 ever felt more edified myself by the remarks which have been made and I 1 have felt very thankful for the measure of the spirit of god that has rested down upon president wil ford woodruff he has been greatly favored of the lord in speaking to us and so with president lorenzo snow I 1 have no doubt that the latter day saints will go from this conference instructed ted upon many points and with their minds enlightened concerning many things that perhaps have been to some extent hidden from them from that which I 1 have heard it is evident that a great many surmises have been indulged in and perhaps ill natured and unjust remarks made concerning the authorities of the church over some of their recent actions I 1 was therefore exceedingly thankful that the spirit of god moved upon president woodruff and the other brethren to address the conference upon the subject that they spoke upon I 1 believe it is the duty of the authorities of this church to explain as far as possible the motives for their actions and for the their ir expressions for we are a united body and that which interests those who are called to lead the church interests all the members of the church moreover to have perfect harmony and to prevent the adversary from rom taking advantage it is necessary that sometimes explanations be made which men naturally shrink from making especially in public this has been the case with the authorities of the church it has been so with president and add also with the rest of the brethren then again the situation ot of affairs has been very peculiar especially because of politics having received so much attention and causing caming beelin feelings gs among the people and in some instances instances stat ices among the leading men in consequence of this the brethren have felt to hold their peace and to say nothing about affairs that really needed ventilating ti we have been reticent because cause we felt that we were likely to be and to have miscon biscon captions of our motives for this reason we have permitted d ourselves to be exposed to a animadversion arsion and censure and in some instances condemnation of course you can understand why the brethren should feel delicate anxiety to save was the dominant feeling in their breasts but that which has transpired and the explanations that were made yesterday ought to be a solemn warning to latter day saints to not be hasty in their conclusions clu nor in their animadversions and censures not to say their condemnation of the men whom god has placed to preside over the church I 1 believe that a great amount of sin has been committed on this point that the spirit of god has been grieved and that darkness has come to many minds because men and women have indulged in condemnation dem nation without understanding all the circumstances surrounding the case which was mentioned here yesterday only a few feu days ago a letter came to hand containing the most severe strictures concerning our conduct it was written by a man who was formerly a president of a seventy and a sunday school superintendent he expressed himself in a manner to lead us who read the letter to conclude that he gave voice to the feelings ot of a great many others also this man said we stood sell convicted of having violated a law of the church and he called upon us to repent and make amends for our conduct now when a man who professes to love the cause of zion and to respect the authorities of the church will put his thoughts on paper in this form and send them to us it furnishes Jurnis hes an index of how others may feel who may not have as good opportunity even as he had bad to know the truth it is very significant that such a letter should be written and sent while it is only a little thing of itself it is an indication of how hun hundreds dreas of others may feel in the remarks that I 1 make here I 1 would like to bring this home to the minds ot of the members of this there is one thing that the lord has warned us about from the beginning and that is not to speak evil of the lords anointed he has told us that any member of the church who indulged in this is liable to lose the spirit of god and go into darkness the prophet joseph said time and again that it was one of the first and strongest symptoms of apostasy have we not proved this have not hiis his words upon this subject been fulfilled to the very letter no man can do this without incurring the displeasure of the lord it irmay may seem strange in in this age of irreverence and iconoclasm to talk in this way nevertheless th eless this is the truth god has chosen his servants he claims it as his prerogative to condemn them 6 11 if they need condemnation he has not t given it to us ns individually to censure and condemn them no man however strong he be may be in the faith however nigh high in the priesthood can speak evil of the lords anointed and find fault with gods authority on the earth without in currying curr ring his displeasure the holy spirit will withdraw itself from such a man and he will go into darkness this being the case do you not se see how important it is that we should be careful however difficult it mit may be for us to understand the reasons for any action of the authorities of the church we should not too hastily call their acts in question and pronounce them wrong perhaps never since the days of the great apos tasy in kirtland has there been such a spirit to do this that I 1 am speaking of as there has been of late years why some of us have felt belt as though we scarcely dare go to conference in some places we have heard beard such an arraignment of our motives and such a condemnation of our actions this is a strange thing to say yet it is true and many persons here know it is true yesterdays explanations ought to have the effect to make those persons who have indulged in these censorious censori remarks and in this condemnation feel so ashamed of themselves as to cause them if they have any love for the truth and any desire to keep the commandments ot of god to clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes and beseech the lord to forgive them for the sin they have committed for they have condemned innocent men they have said that which is not true about the servants of god and no man has the right to do 40 this about anybody much less about men who are striving to do all they can tor for the work of god if these men me and women do not repent they are likely to apostatize I 1 bad a daughter in this congregation yesterday and ana she overheard one sister remark to another why I 1 thought it was only one or two in the first presidency that had these feelings and that this was some personal difficulty with one of them why it is the whole of the twelve as well it is not confined to one or two of the first presidency or to the three but it is also the twelve this shows the ignorance that has prevailed concerning the situation of affairs and it shows how we have been exposed to these unjust and cruel re marks it has seemed as though many of our people have taken their inspiration and their ideas concerning the transactions of the authorities ot of the church from articles in the newspapers the writers of which knew no more about that which was going on than aw aa entire stranger I 1 speak in this strain to impress upon you if possible the folly of indulging in a spirit of that kind and drinking it in as though it was something delightful god has spoken so plainly to us concerning the many influences that are abroad that we ought by this time to have understanding concerning them president woo woodruff ruff yesterday dwelt upon the many evil influences that have gone abroad in the world I 1 have known good men and women sincerely delirious desi rious of doing right who have been brought into subjection to these evil influences fluen ces and they have not known it themselves because they had not discernment cern ment enough to distinguish between the true and the false it is the case with ith a great many latter day saints yet there is this about the latter day saints they do know the voice voice of the true shepherd they are able to distinguish between him that god and ami him that him not there is a great deal of the spirit of discernment among this people and they are a hard people to deceive but they do get deceived occasionally cunning men mislead and deceive them and wrong spirits get possession of them the spirit of falsehood is abroad and it frequently attributes to the best of men conduct that is vile and low it did it to the lord jesus christ it did it to the prophet joseph smith it did it to all the prophets that have lived the aim is to destroy them and what better way can you get an influence into operation that will destroy a man than to blacken his character and tell lies enough to make him appear as a devil incarnate that is what satan tries to do those have been his tactics from the very beginning he would make out the servants of god to be devils incarnate and he will deceive if pos sible the very elect by his lies and mis representations the only thing for men of god to do is to trust in him you cannot meet these falsehoods they are manufactured faster than they can be exposed no man can defend himself against lies his protestations amount to nothing because they are not believed in my early life in publishing I 1 was always on hand to combat every lie that made its appearance I 1 thought it my duty to do it and I 1 do not know but it was my mission was to publish the truth and to oppose falsehood but as 1 I grew older there was such a volume of lies that I 1 found it hopeless to reply to them I 1 have not done so for years except in one instance and then I 1 did it at the solicitation of my brethren it satan I 1 lets ts I 1 loisea oo 00 f a stream of falsehood it is us useless erless a man to attempt to tern stem it as well let it flow on and leave the vindication to the lord and so with us as a people we have been lied about until there is no crime in the calendar that we have not been accused of but we are outliving them and we will leave them behind the adversary however still lives he still manufactures falsehood and finds agents who are willing to propagate them and he finds them among the latter day saints too I 1 have heard the most abominable falsehoods told about the first presidency of the church by those ii who ho call themselves latter day saints what will be the result ot this if those people do not repent they will lose the spirit of god if they have not lost it already they will go into darkness and will lose their stand ing in the church when a man loses the spirit of god the tie that binds him to the church is severed and he wonders after a while how he could have thought as he once did concerning it my brethren and sisters I 1 would like to impress you this afternoon with the importance m ortance of retaining the spirit of bod god and not allowing other spirits to take possession of you you should live so that the spirit of god will reign within you and ahat when an evil spirit seeks to take possession of couyou you you will feel it as sensibly and it will make such an impression upon you as the disturbing ot of a smooth pond of water our minds should be in such an unruffled condition and so free fromang Iroma nv disturbing influence that when anything contrary to the mind of the lord seeks to enter into us we will realize it as quickly as does the pond of water when it is disturbed when anything comes along that is not right we should stop to question ourselves we should not admit a wrong spirit into our hearts nor think evil of anyone there is too much of it in the world telling tales about men and wo women and when you examine them in nine cases out of ten you find they are not true there may be some element of truth in them but truth can be distorted into a falsehood we as a people should seek above all people to love the truth the authorities of the church have known concerning this that was spoken of yesterday and we have been satisfied as to the course that would have to be taken unless there was a change but we did not want to expose this matter to the public and to weaken the confidence of the saints for we wanted them to exercise their faith but it is necessary that something should be said to the church that the people may not go on yielding to wrong influences and indulging in remarks and feelings contrary to the spirit of the lord now I 1 ask you if any of you have indulged in this spirit of condemnation and censure to repent with all your heart and ask the lord to forgive you where you have said wrong things publicly go and correct thern them it you have spoken evil about your neighbors go and confess it to them and ask their forgiveness apply the principles of the gospel to our every day lives let us not think that we five can cover up I 1 these hese things the lord will expose them if there is something that we do not understand suspend our judgment and the espres sion sion of our views until we can understand it I 1 rejoice exceedingly in the testimonies that have been borne during this con ference I 1 know that tuis is the work of god I 1 know that god lives I 1 know that jesus lives for I 1 have seen him I 1 know that this is the church of godana that it is founded on jesus christ our redemer redeemer I 1 testify to you of these theae things as one that knows as one of the apostles of the lord jesus christ that can bear witness to you today in the presence of the lord that he lives and thai he will live and will come to reign on the tarth earth to sway an undisputed sceptre tre I 1 say that it is our duty to keep the commandments of god and to be faithful in all things the world may say that you are submitting to men but it is not so you are submitting to god this is gods work and he only asks from you and from me that obedience which every child should render to its father we do not owe any obedience to the rebel satan he would fill us with all sorts of ideas against god and he would bind us in chains of darkness and lead us down to destruction if we would listen to him that would be all right in the estimation of those who have his spirit but it is wrong it is right to listen to the lord and to otey odey him he is our father our creator he is the source of all our blessing and power and we should submit to him if he says to a certain man you are my servant and I 1 want all my children to do as you say it is our duty to respect that appointment I 1 frequently ask my boys to listen to one of their brothers and if he does not do right they can tell me and I 1 will attend to it I 1 teach my children to respect their brothers who are their seniors in age and to respect one another and I 1 caution the older boys not to trespass upon their younger brethren but to respect them 1 I do that in in my small family small compared with the family of god has not god the right to choose one of his children as he has done joseph smith and brigham young and john taylor and wilford woodruff and ask the rest of us to obe obey his counsel as he gives it through we the one whom he chooses well V ell but says one how do we know that he has given him this authority you can know it if you will do the things that he requires at your hands if god chooses the weakest among his children and says to the rest obey him and I 1 will sustain and bless you in doing it he has a perfect right to do so he has done thi this with this people |
