Show SUNDAY SERVICES II I I At the services in the Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon the choir sang the hymn beginning I Hark the song jubilee Loud as mighty thunders roar Or the ulness of the tea When h i breaks upon the shore Prayer by Elder S L Adams The choir the I sang hymn on page 412 oilHow How dark and gloomy was the nigbt Wber Satin did his powers array Against the Prince of life and light And Judas did his Lord betrsjl PRESIDENT JOSEPH F SMITH addressed ad-dressed the congregation He spoke of the necessity of one doing every thing that was required of him by the Lord He believed that the Lord would find persons to perform all that he desired done on earth The Lord had set out to subdue the world and build up a kingdom and being allpowerful he would succeed suc-ceed There had been many gospel dispensations but there had never been such a dispensation when the power of the priesthood was not upon the earth Many men had been inspired to perform certain works Columbus was inspired to discover the American continent but It did not follow that they possessed the power of the priesthood priest-hood The spirit of the Lord moved upon the minds of meh to come I and dwell here in America and build up a mighty nation in the new world j yet it did not follow that they hadjthe gospel The gospel gos-pel was not revealed to them and the power of the priesthood had not been committed to them They were inspired of God to strike for liberty as Columbus had been inspired in-spired to discover this land The purpose of God in influencing their minds was beyond theircomprehen sion It was necessary that they should do as they did in order that the future great purposes of theLord might accomplished Mohammed had been inspired by the Almighty to do the work that he idHe was leu oy tee SpIrIt or the rather accomplish the work set for him to do yet he was not inspired as a prophet as were Moses and others nor did he possess the priesthood George Washington was also inspired in-spired to do a c6rtain work but it did not follow that the gospel had been committed to him In various ages of the worlds history God had raised up men to perform certain cer-tain work as the forming of king dome the chastisement of the wicked etc All the great changes the revolutions the rise and fall of empires and so on were under the control and direction of God All great discoveries and inventions in-ventions were under the direction of God as the application of steam and the invention of the electric telegraph All these things were foreseen ana foretold by the prophets proph-ets and were necessary to the paposes of God Wherever there were truth and good whether on Christian or Heathen ground they came from God Joseph Smith was not raised up to discover some unknown un-known country to subdue nations to break down the power of emperors em-perors to reveal truths which pertain per-tain to civil governments particularly partic-ularly but to establish the church of Jesus Christ He was intrusted with the powers and keys of the holy priesthood and to speak in the name of the Lord and power was given him to bind on earth and it should be bound in heaven and to loose on earth and it should be loosened I loos-ened in heaven He was given power to administer in the ordinances of heaven to build temples in which to perform certain ordinances His work was not to be accomplished by moral or physical strength but by the proclamation of the gospel ot truth to the world that all the honest in heart might be gathered out from the world and organized for the performance of the work that had been revealed through Joseph Smith The saints will never be called to arm themselves them-selves against the wicked for God would fight their battles Their mission was to proclaim the gospel and after that testimony had been given would come the teatimony of earthquakes wars famines and the wicked would be overtaken and swept away in accordance with the judgments of God The gospel message would scarcely be spread I over the earth before these judgments judg-ments would descend and God l would purify the world for the abode ot his kingdom The gospel i is to be preached to all and those who reject it shall be cut off but those who receive it shall be rewarded re-warded It was not required of the saints to go according to the wisdom of men but they were called to be the people of God and were to be governed by him Things had been revealed to them that were peculiar to the dispensation dispensa-tion of the fu ness of times pertaining per-taining solely to the windingup scenes Some of those priciples had never before been revealed to man f but were kept for this dispensation as pertaining to the fulfillment of Gods great work on the earth One of those principles was the ordinance ordin-ance for the salvation of the dead t which had never been possessed in its fulness to saints in any other dispensation Greater things have been revealed to the people of this I church than were ever before revealed re-vealed and still greater were to come because this is the final dispensation dis-pensation in which God will accomplish accom-plish all that he had set out to do I on this earth It was necessary for the saints to be faithful in everything every-thing that God has revealed to them observing all his laws if they would obtain and retain the light which he possesses i and get the glory that is in store for the riffhteoas Those who lays I entered into covenants with God and are faithful thereto who walk in the path righteousness will receive re-ceive the great reward God will accept no one into his glory who has any other God than the God of Abraham Abra-ham Isaac and Jacob who made the heaven and the earth Men have a great deal to learn and do before they will become like the Father In this life it is impossible to become perfect in all things because be-cause nature is weak Still some had been deemed worthy escaping death and enjoying something of the presence of God but they had not been permitted to enter the celestial glory Until mortality is able to put on immortality man will never be able to become perfect What we fail to learn here we must learn hereafter for no man is going into the presence of God until he is pure and holy In proportion as he is free from sin will he be able to approach nearer to the Father To help men to become pure is the work of the saints through the power and influence of thegospel It was to that end that the gospel had been revealed through Joseph Smith God had given the saints the keys with which they can unlock the great treasures of knowledge so necessary to their eternal salvation If they do not obtain that knowledge they must suffer the consequences The choir sang an anthem and Elder K G Maesar pronounced the i benediction |