| Show CHRISTS KINGDOM The Predictions of Old Concerning Con-cerning Its Establishment BISHOP WHITNEYS ADDRESS This Gospel Shall be Preached in An the World as a Witness and Then Shall the End Come The Sunday afterncon services at the Tabernacle were begun by the choir and congregation singing J 0 say what is truth Tis the fairest gem That the riches of worlds can produce Prayer by Elder John B Lewis Singing by the choir of the hymn A poor wayfaring man of grief Hath often crossed me on the way Who sued so humbly forrfejiofr That I could never answer Nay BISHOP 0 F WHITNEY being requested reques-ted to address the congregation upon whatever subject the Holy Spirit might suggest and dictate he desired the faith and prayers of the Saints that he might speak that which would edify and instruct in-struct The Saints had met to worship God and to concentrate their thoughts upon things which pertain to eternal life That their minds might be brought to a proper condition they had partaken par-taken of the Sacrament according to divine di-vine command The promise of Jesus Christ was that His Spirit would be with those who partook of the emblems of His body and blood and remembered Him The bishop thought that this holy ordinance was not attended to with that devotion and thought which should be bestowed uponit He mentioned the fact that many especially among the young did not concentrate their minds upon this holy thing The ordinance was instituted in the church at a very early period of its history at the baptism bap-tism and confirmation of Newel Knight and his wife it was instituted by the Prophet Joseph Smith To those who repented of their sins and were baptized and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands of Gods priesthood should the Sacrament be administered He related the circumstance of the prophet going out to procure a bottle of wine in order to perpetuate the practice prac-tice of the ancients but was met by an angel who commanded him to go no farther and told him it mattered not I what was eaten and drank so long as the Sacrament was partaken of with pure hearts and contrite spirIts Joseph was told also that Jesus would yet stand on the earth with all of the old prophets and patriarchs in His king dom and would there partake with them of this Sacrament and then they would use the pure juice of the grape but until that time he was commanded not to purchase an impure article nor buy it from his enemies What a field for thought opens up when the promise of Jesus Joseph was contemplated when He would appear ap-pear and partake of the Sacrament with the prophets and patriarchs in the dispensation of the fulness of times when all the keys bestowed upon the prophets of old would be bestowed be-stowed upon the servants of God in the last days when Israel should Leathered Le-athered Zion be redeemed and should arise and shine in her glory the light of the whole earth The kingdom of God The glorious theme of the prophets and poets of all ages the advent ad-vent of the reign of righteousness and peace when nation should no more rise against nation and peace should spread her pinions over the whole world and all should walk in the light of Zion and Zions King a thousand years when the vision of John should be realized where he saw thrones and the Saints and martyrs sitting upon them those who had not worshiped the beast when all notions will acknowledge the sceptre of Jesus as King of kings This is the theme of which all holy men of the past have written the glorious glori-ous consummation of the great work which God has set His hand to accomplish ac-complish in these the last days Those who close their eyes to such an era as has been foretold have little appreciation tion of the great things the Lord has in His heart for the good of mankind In the days of Kebacnadnezzar the prediction was made by means of a dream of the crumbling away of his empire and all the empires of the world the dream could not be remembered snit sn-it greatly troubled him The king called in all his wise men astrologers magi cians and soothsayers whom he asked to tell him his dream and to interpret it They were puzzled and confessed their inability to give him the informa tion he desired this failure caused the king to order them to be put to death Daniel came upon the scene and he inquired why the order for slaying the wise men was made he asked permis sion to see the king which was granted The monarch stated the cause and Daniel who had previously fortified himself by asking aid of the Almighty was made equal to the task of telling and interpreting Nebuchadnezzars dream It was the foretelling of a work which should be commenced and carried out in the latter days The dream was related and the interpreta aonrendered by Daniel Nebuchadnezzar had formerly said as he surveyed Babylon Fs not this great Babylon which I have built Now he was reminded by Daniel that it was God who had given him his power and kingdom and made him what he was Daniel explained to Ncbuchad nezzar how the dIff cut partaof the I image he had seen in h > dream sym bol zed Babylon and tV bucccssive empires em-pires that should rise after it viz cdoPersia Greece or Macedonia and Rowe the lat of which should be divided into many kingdoms The prophet also deiajed that In he days of these kings hall the God of I heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it I shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever for-ever Some have supposed that that king dom was established in the days of Jesus because John cried Repeat for the kingdom of heaven is at hand I t And when Christ came the Christian would sUPposethe prophecy of Daniel i was fulfilled But we read that Jesus 1 came as a man of sorrow meek and I lowly not arrogating to himself the powers of a king wearing not a golden crown but one of thorns with a reed for a sceotre aad saying The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head He was not the son of a Caesar or a Herod out the adopted son of Joseph the carpenter He came to His own but by them he was rejected His king dom was not of this earth at that time The Jews rejectedHim because of the notion they hart that the Messiah when He came would restore the temporal kingdom of David Such at that time was not the plan of the Almighty Although the kingdom came nigh unto the Jews itwas not then established Jesus said This gospel of tne kingdom mustbe preached I in all the world as a witness unto all nations and then shall tlfsTnd come The second coming was shown to correspond cor-respond with the prophecy of Daniel and that the latter in referring to the kingdom of the latter days had no reference to the coming of the Savior in rho mprirlian nf time Bishop Whitney ext referred to the feast of Belshizzar when the mysterious mysteri-ous hand appeared and wrote the words Mene mene tekel Upharsin upon the palace wall Daniel was again sent for when he told the king that he was weighed in the balance ana found wanting thathis kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians The rise and fall of dynasties which follow fol-low d were also briefly sketched The speaker cited the case Alexander the Macedonian who acknowledged the power of God to be greater than his own and wished the rulers of the earth would more generally emulate that monarchs example in that respect The rise and growth of the Roman empire em-pire the greatest in history were r fer red to and the speaker showed how it had its part to play in the grand drama I of Time it strengthened and increased by the wars and hardships it encoun tered and by I the virtue temperance tem-perance and frugality it prac ticed until it conquered all the other nations of the earth The strength and perpetuity of a nation the bishop said depended greatly upon the purity and temperance of its people Being persecuted buffeted and oppressed op-pressed for observing principles of purity and righteousness helped to make men and nations strong Bbt all know the fate of the Roman empire It grew haughty imperious and defiant dissolute and corrupt and it likewise fellIt It was in the zenith of that empires existence that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem When Jesus came the empire had not begun to crumble it was at the height of its power during the reign of Augustus Caesar and it was not for many years after that it was divided in twain to represent the two legs of the great image It had become strong through the hardy virtues of temperance and frugali y and as its growth was gradual so was its dissolution It forgot itself and the source of its power and transformed trans-formed itself from patriots into a nation na-tion of plunderers and oppressors ar rogated power and dominion to itself and reveling in drunkenness and de bauchery then the day of dissolution was at hand So long as it lived righteously right-eously according to the light given and upheld the principles of liberty and equal rights tolerating the religions of its conquered provinces so long was God with that nation and it thrived as did the sturdy oak jn the forest amid the storms and tempests which cause its roots to strike the deeper and its branches to spread the wider But as a tree struck by lightning it withered and fell as the result of its debauchery The fate of Rome Babylon Greece and Persia is the fate of all nations to the end of time that commit the blunders of which they were guilty But snch is human nature It has always al-ways required prophets and inspired men to warn nations and peoples of the paths they should pursue But earth will return to earth and dust to dust no matter how great the nation man has founded it must sooner or later go down it holds within itself the seed of its own dissolution God will clear away the debris and establish His own kingdom over all the earth and it will stand forever In this day the kingdom of God was being established according to the plan prepared from before the foundations of the world This work is a forerunner forerun-ner of peace and righteousness and it i is because the Saints are preparing for the coming of the King of kings that they are stigmatized as disloyal and rebellious re-bellious There is no people who observe and believe in the principles of liberty and equal rights more than do the Latterday Saints Talk about them trying to undermine the government and destroy those precious principles Why it is their mission to perpetuate them to preserve the flag and Constitution Constitu-tion from demagogues and traitors the loudmouthed FonrthofJuly patriots who shout so much about the American Ame-rican eagle while stabbing liberty in the back and trampling on the rights of their fellowcitizens More honorable honor-able were the old pirates that swept the seas They fought and plundered under the black flag with skull and crossbones to symbolize their trade But these land pirates mask as patriots and under the Sta sand s-and Stripes and in the sacred name of liberty assail the principles of fredom aad make war upon the institutions of their country The day will come when they will be known and despised for what they are and the Latterday Saints will be known and honored for what they are upholders of the Constitution Consti-tution of their country This government was founded by wise men inspired of God preparatory for the establishing of the kingdom of Christ upon the earth under which all men and all religions will be tolerated audprotected This us what the Saints are preparing for and this gospel of the kingdom was being preached and will be preached unto all the world as a witness wit-ness before the end shall come May this nation and all others be prepared for Christs coming and not be found fighting against Him but cast their crowns and sceptres at His feet and proclaim Him King of kings and Lord of lords Amen Singing of an anthem by the choir and benediction by Patriarch John Smith |
