Show RELIGIOUS LESSONS I Taught by Partaking of the Sacrament THE LITERAL RESURREC PION Remarks by Elder Bywater who Also Speaks on the First Principles of the Gospel The congregation at the Tabernacle on Sunday afternoon last was not so large as usual considering the beautiful beauti-ful weather Among those present Representatives Rep-resentatives Reed and Hitt were noticed The services were begun by the singing of the hymn commencing The great and glorious gospel light Prayer by Elder Edward Snelgrove Singingof the hymn 0 Lord of Hosts we now invoke ELDER GEORGE G BYWATER requested the assistance of the faith and prayers of the Saints that he might be enabled to speak that which would be beneficial to all present The administration of the Sacrament carried his mind back he said to the evermemorable and significant signifi-cant declaration of Jesus Christ when the practice was originated II I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you in my Fathers kingdom This declaration contained one of the most divine promises on record because it established in the minds of all believers a doctrine that of thematerial resurrection of the body of man It penetrates down to the very foundation upon which rests the hope of the hereafter We are living Elder Bywater remarked in an age when the principles of Christianity have become mnoculated with the commands of mtn This age is burdened with many traditional tradi-tional encamberances attached to the plan of salvation revealed through the ministry of Jesus Christ and His cc laborers the apostles The present is the dispensation of the fulness of time We need not seek for stronger evidence or more conclusive proof of this statement state-ment than to take into account the different constructions put upon the gospel by the numerous sects of the world It behooves every consistent professor of the doctrines of the Bible to be tenacious of the doctrines therein contained and to preserve intact the principles of the gospel The doctrine of the resurrection is a cardinal principle princi-ple and without it hope is vain hopes of immortality are banished lor eyer The words of the text are sublime There is little authority to be found in the range of divine literature for the opinion that there is no resurrection that when the vital spark has fled then and forever we return to dust And yet we have scholarly men Christian divines who doubt the literal resurrection resurrec-tion of the body Areview of the subject sub-ject enables us to learn that there are many false and delusive spirits gone out into the world i men who seek to disestablish the spiritual body by a crude materialization The Sacrament is to remind us that God gave us His only begotten Son who died an ignominious igno-minious death and that the sacrifice was for the human family Elder By water had often wondered what consolation conso-lation could be drawn from the belief that when man shuffled of this mortal coil that the matter of body and spirit becomes disintegrated i that the disembodied disem-bodied spirit remains through the countless ages Man though he had free agency had not the right to change the invulnerable unchangeable principles princi-ples revealed from heaven There was no prospect for the future of our race that presents so many and so grand features so attractive in their form and so rational in their claim as are the the principles of the gospel of the Son of God no not in all the literature ard learning of the world There is no relief no ultimate satisfaction to be derived from the unsupported testimony testi-mony of men of the world concerning the future Those contained in the revelations in the Bible are incontrovertible incontrover-tible simple and truthful The Latter day Saints have learned that there is no other name by which men can be saved that through His atonement man will receive a complete atonement If Jesus drankof the fruit of the vine in the institution of the Sacrament with His disciples while on earth He gave them an assurance that He would drink of it again anew in His Fathers kingdom And if there was no resurrection resur-rection if the graves give not up their dead then how can spirits disembodied disem-bodied partake of the trait of the vine and render a fulfilment of the Saviors promise The disciples will enjoy the fulfilment of that promise In the Scriptures we havethe assurance that Jesus Christ is resurrected from the dead He made His appearance to those He associated with who announced an-nounced that fact to Joseph Smith IB this dispensation There is no disputing the tact that the dead have arisen This is one great part of the faith of the Latterday Saints a literal resurrection resurrec-tion There is besides no truth which the Saints believe which is not contained within the lids of the Holy Bible There is but one Lord one faith one baptism etc we read in I the Bible and it would appear to every I intelligent person that God does not teach different methods of salvation yet see how many and varied the sects which profess to preach redemption to mankind The divisions which mark the schisms and sects of Christendom are not according t9 the mind and will of God Elder Bywater then proceeded at some length and with conciseness to explain that it was impossible in view of the contrarities and contradictions division and diversity which existed among the sects of the day for all to be right Yet the Christian world had agreed to disagree of salva agree with regard to the plan fashionable for them to tion i it was dissent from the word of God He here cited the case of Nicodemus and the replv of the Savior Except a man be born again of water and of the spirit of the kingdom he cannot enter heaven Yet we have Christian ministers who tell their flocks that it to believe on the onlv requires men Lord Jesus in order to be saved He effrontery to considered it sacrelisjioas tell Heaven that it was not necessary to be bornagain and this was in effect what did when they said it was they say only to believe on the laid necessary Faith be saved order to Jesus Christ in was the first painciple of the Saints revealed religion If God IS the author of our being and of all things that are and Father of all spirits to exercise faith in Him is reaching to the foundation Repentance then follows i but the speaker did not consider it necessary to prove that when a wrong was done it was requisite to repent of it it was a natural principle To say there is no evil in the world is to traduce the entire authority of the universal uni-versal world There should then be I some method by v ich it may be shown that the repents was sincere not that whish needea outing of Bap tism has been oraamed of GodthIs birth of water which had been spoken of in connection with Nicodemns The force and necessity of proof of obedience by truly repentant sinners was beauti fully illustra ed by Elder Bywater with the simile of an erring child and its earthly parent the former sinning and repenting and giving a token to its father and mother that it would do so no more Faith repentance and baptism are the first principles of the religion of Jesus Christ and these three fundamental principles must be observed in order to fulfil the pro gramme laid down by the Creator himself him-self Baptism by immersion was the correct mode Elder Bywater declared and supported his assertion by examples ex-amples Let us be true to our principles he said in conclusion all things let us repent of the wrongs we do with hearts not lips It is written My tongue give me thine heart The true believer will sacrifice all he has for the pearl of great price May we who have received the message of the gospel be true and faithful to the trusts reposed in us and be ready to drink of the fruit of the vine with Christ Jesus when He comes to reign on the earth Singing of an anthem by the choir and benediction by Elder George Rom ney I |