Show At the Tabernacle The regular services were held in the tabernacle at 2 p m yesterday Elder Joseph E Taylor of the stake presidency presi-dency presiding The meeting commenced by the congregation con-gregation singing Now let us rejoice in the day of salvation sal-vation No longer as strangers on earth need we roam Good tidings are sounding to us anti j each nation And shortly the hour of redemption i will come Prayer was offered by Elder George B Wallace The choir sang the hymn Oh my father thou that dwellest In the high and glorious place Elder B H Roberts addressed the I congregation In opening his remarks he referred to the hymn just sang and I said that i touches upon one of the most lofty themes connected with the I gospel of Christ In his mind it suggested I i sug-gested a theme that is one of the most intructive as well as highest of the I gospel The speaker read a portion of the eighth psalm of David in which that writer had evidently been contemplating I templating the heavens their vastness and the greatness of the dominions of the Creator and had then turned to the I contemplation of man and out of the greatness of his astonishment exclaimed I ex-claimed What is man that thou art I mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him Yet David was careful to observe that the Creator had raised man above all the other creatures of the I earth and that he was given dominion over them I must be evident that this superiority argued the right to some special privileges and some special relationship to the Creator who had made them all There may be some or the creatures of earth who are superior t man in the ability to see others I may hear better others again may iiave a more acute sense of smell Iaye mor I some perhaps run faster but whereon where-on earth is there a greater combination of all the qualities that are of use > to living beings than in mane And where h f has he failed to obtain dominion over them and show his superiority to all other animals The lions in the desert the currents in the ocean fire and even the lightning of the clouds have been taught to obey him and minister to his wants He annihilates distance he weighs the stars in his balances and tells how much they weigh and the materials they are composed com-posed of That superiority argues some special relationship between him and the Creator But man alone can not do this Take for Instance philosophy which without with-out the aid of revelation cannot explain ex-plain the problem of life or tell what the result of it Tvill be One of the brightest minds of earth once ikened life unto a valley with high mountains moun-tains on either side you turn to one I side and see the steep precipitous sides which shut out the view of all beyond and ask Where do we come from and the answer comes back as an echo playing with your words you turn to the other side and ask Where do we go to 7 and the answer is still an echo mocking you Philosophy is powerless to solve the great question ques-tion the problem of life No wonder that David cried out Or what is the son of man that thou visitest him We cannot answer that probem without revelation which gives an answer to the soul of man and gives satisfaction to that soul and i knows it is answered Everyone here must be familiar with the great fact of death There may be parents who have lost children children who have lost parents brothers who have lost sisters sisters who have lost brothers and al have lest friends Who is there that in looking upon the face of a dead friend has not realized the fact that that was but the tenement the casket that had held the soul and in which tat spirIt had lived and moved and acted So that as everyone has seen this we may take it for granted that our natures are dual and that in death the body and spirit are separated When the Savior was upon earth his disciples came to him and told him that John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray so they asked him to teach hem He said after this manner man-ner then pray ye Our Father who art in heaven etc Did that mean nothing noth-ing explicit Or did it mean some re atiomihip between us and our creator The speaker said that Jesus was not one to speak and not mean something He used simple language to convey grand truths Our Father meant that in some way he is our father On earth we have fathers and mothers How can God be our father Paul says we have had fathers of our flesh and we give them reverence should we not therefore there-fore give reverence to the father of our spirits and live We have not only an earthly birth but spiritual a one and the Creator is our spiritual father I When the Savior said that to the Scribes and Pharisees they said we I had Abraham to our father and he I great astonished them by saying I before Abraham was I am and when some of his disciples were astonished I also he said to them and what if ye I see the Son of Man ascend to where he 1 once was I Just before his crucifixion when he had that great ordeal to face his mind reverted back to the recollection of hid preexistence and it seemed sweet to I hint and he cried to the Father Glorify me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was Jesus was a man physically like us subject to hunger cold and the natural feelings of the flesh and he was indeed the man of sorrow I he shared with us in our physical natures might i not be that we had 3 preexistence also Elder Roberts quoted from the Bible concerning the foreordination of Jeremiah Jere-miah tobe a prophet and also where it says the Lord showed unto Abraham the intelligence which were before the word was and where it speaks of the Lord paying and these will I make my rulers and to Abraham thou wast one of them thu wast chosen before the world was to perform the work he afterwards did upon earth Joseph Smith said we were all sid 01 present pres-ent when Jesus was chosen and voted to sustain him Cicero one of the great men of the past in commenting on Plato said that the facility with which I children learn and grow was merely 21 I 1eco lection f thi r rmer ideas All of Gods truth has nt > t been blotted out I frm the mInds of men and was not I even in the dark ageS for gleams of 1 I lightened ut to show men the right I road Sometimes in spite of adversa conditions men have risen from humble I I hum-ble position to lives of greatness and I grandeur Character here dspends I upon the character and growth of the soul Before it came here So great souls I burst forth from their environments and show their nobleness which is a I reflection of Gods own noblenesS He 1 said t hese will I make my rulers i and so to ancients he gave a Noah a Seth an Abraham He also sent a II noble soul to China Confucius who I gave if not a religion at least a philosophy osophy that stood them in goodjstead I in Greece < they had a Plato the Arabians I Ara-bians had a Mohammed to teach them I 1 not the gospel of Christ at least that measure of it that they could receive I We are not equal in the privileges and Ii blessings that we enjoy God is just He is no respecter of persons How then can we account for the diversity I of conditions There are some who have no limit to the privileges of the I blessings of the gospel while there is a I people that cannot receive the priesthood priest-hood Between these two extremes are many others I came from the degree of faithfulness shown and the degree of spiritual growth in our preexistence pre-existence Elder Roberts explained at some length the difference between a smooth life without trials and one full of sorrow sor-row and suffering Whom God loves most suffers most I was so Wit the Savior Joseph Smith did not escape i and the Latterday Sajnts are blessed by the Lord with trials which give them experience which is the key note for the reason of our existence here So if anyone ask you what is the Son of Man tell him the whole world that he is the very offspring of God Truth is reason truth eternal tells me Ive a mother there And the commandment given in the garden of Eden multiply and replenish the earth is just as pure as the one to repent and be baptised and i is I by this principle of propagation that in telligences are begotten The disciples of Jesus wished to be as he was Whosoever that hath this hope within him will purify himself even as he is pure In conclusfon the speaker said that this great principle the fatherhood and the contemplation of it is contemplaton a great geat incentive to righteousness I tIe journey jour-ney is hard and ihe distance great we have eternity t < work out the problem and we will jave a father to aid us May such thoughts lead the Latterdav Saints to got alUthe good out of life that they can so that they may be prepared for that glory which the father has prepared for them The choir sang the anthem Israel sons w th one accord Raise a song a song of joy The benediction was pronounced by Elder Henry P Richards Riclards Y 31 C A The meeting yesterday at the Y M C A wa an unusually interesting one The music was furnished by a large male chorus under the direction of Mr Josh Carlisle Rev W S Hawkes superintendent su-perintendent of the Congregational missions of Utah was the speaker his text being Luke xiii 23 a curious mans I question Lord are there few that be saved The speaker referred to the Ii tact that idle curiosity leads people tot to-t ask questions concerning matters of religious re-ligious interest which are really of no importance This question however was a very important one and our Lord proceeded to answer It not directly rectly but as ttie usually did by reference refer-ence to fundamental principles His answer was Strive to enter in at the straight gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter In and shall not be able The fact that some will be saved is clearly established but we will not be saved because of our great knowledge of the scriptures or because of our familiarity fa-miliarity with the plan of salvation or our activity in church work We must have humble trust in Jesus Christ I we live right we will grow into resemblance re-semblance of him The discourse was appropriately illustrated lustrated and was interesting through I outNext Next Sunday Dr R G McNiece is t address the meeting |