| Show At the Tabernacle Notwithstanding the threatening state of the weather yesterday the lower part of the tabernacle was well filled at the 2 oclock services After singing by the choir Elder Franklin W Richards made the opening prayer Elder George Bywater was the first speaker He said that he had always felt the need of divine aid in discharging the duty of a public teacher There are many modes of divine worship outside of the devotional exercises ex-ercises on the Sabbath On this occasion oc-casion however the Saints have come together to receive edification and to be instructed In the ways of truth The Church of Jesus Christ has In its code divine teachings which are embodied in the gospel of Christ Mormonism and the great problem it Involves is an interesting subject to strangers In our midst Many who have sought Information upon this allimportant theme have been misguided mis-guided by misinformers Great changes In the prevailing system have usually been maligned and misrepresented mis-represented Yet many eminent men have been unsatisfied with rumor and report and have come and mingled among the Latterday Saints The result of their association has been to cause them to acknowledge the Saints to a great and industrious people The soundness of Mormon doctrine has also been demonstrated mas by comparison with sectarian dog The Latterday Saints believe that Christ is the Son of God the Father that his is the only name by which men are to be saved The Saints believe be-lieve that in order to be in fellowship with him men must conform to the requirements laid down in the divine code This is necessary to the perfecting per-fecting of mans knowledge of the divine The Latterday Saints do not believe be-lieve that a mere verbal acknowledgment 1 acknowledg-ment will save men I men are truly imbued with faith it will prompt them to godly deeds Such a faith will inspire men to conform with the divine di-vine pattern and will This is the kind of belief that will save man I will cause men to emulate the nobility no-bility of the Redeemer The citadel of such a belief will remain unmoved in the storms of the powers of darkness The doctrine is eminently reasonable that faith without works is dead and will have no effect in saving man A ruler of the Jews Mendemus once came to Christ by night to enquire en-quire privately what he should do to gain salvation The Redeemer spoke to him of the necessity of a I regeneration and said that without I this no man could see the kingdom of heaven Paptism of water is as essential es-sential as baptism of the spirit Christ showed that water baptism was indispensable by himself submitting sub-mitting to the ordinance The I Pharasees were told that in declining baptism that they rejected the counsel coun-sel of God against themselves This shows that the only true faith is that which is fruitful in works of righteousness Repentance comes logically after an exhibition of faith and signifies a change of heart and mind and putting away sin to return to it no more Peter said that baptism bap-tism was not casting away the filthiness filthi-ness of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God Men must have a clear conscience to have fellowship with Gods spirit Until they repent they cannot enter the Lords kingdom This repentence must be real and heartfelt A genuine repentance will create such abhorence of that which will tarnish the soul that there will be no more inclinations to transgress The specific end of baptism is the remission re-mission of sins But the regeneration of the spirit is equaly essential The spirit of God is the legacy that Christ left to his people when he departed from the early apostles In the ab sence of the Redeemer himself the spirit had a distinct office work to fulfil ful-fil I was to teach the disciples whatever he had commanded them and to bring to their minds things future fu-ture and past This will always be a characteristic of the true church of Christ Another landmark in Christs church which cannot be misunderstood is the presence of the oracles and revelators rev-elators of God Elder C1 Penrose was requested by Apostle John Henry Smith to occupy oc-cupy the remaining time He said that the world had fallen into falen many errors One of the most pernicious of these is the extensively preached dogma that a mere profession of faith will take men into the presence of God and his Christ Holy writ teaches that a time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine but would be turned into fables This is one of those fables The faith spoken of in j the Bible implies the works and fruits of true faith In order that faith may be intelligently exercised man must believe Ip God and In the Redeemer and in his serving power The Apostle Paul says that every man shall give 3 an account Df what he has done in gve body Paul mho is quoted as the authority au-thority for the belief in an inactive i faith teaches the necessity of works in an emphatic matter c Men in order to be saved must undergo un-dergo a change of mind and heart A mere inactive belief will never make a man worthy to associate with God and Christ who cannot look upon sin I with the least degree of allowance I was because of his purity that i Christ was orowned Lord of all Another erroneous doctrine of man Is that if a person dies without such a confession of belief he will be eter 11 nally damned This doctrine ha no origin in the teachings of Christ The time wH come when all men will have an opportunity of hearing Christs gospeL gos-peL All will have the chance to voluntarily I vol-untarily accept th truth Those who 1 do not have the heavenly message in the flesh will hear it in the spirit The power and capacity of the mind are not lost when toe body dies Only those who wilfully rebel against the justice in the will of God will be cast out Even these will be judged from the standard of mercy Love and justice jus-tice are indispensable attributes of deity All humankind are the children of God and he wishes to exalt his offspring spring I men choose err > r rather than the truth and prefer darkness to light they must abide by the consequences conse-quences The worthy ones of Gods anointed who administered for him in the flesh will minister in the spirit Those who now live in the spirit will have the gospel presented to them ts a mat tel or individual agency ana tnose wno are willing to strive for a salvation I will be redeemed I is the duty of Latterday Saints I to come out of the world with its iniquity I in-iquity that they may become the heirs of God and Joint heirs with Jesus Je-sus Christ Nothing unclean or evil I can dwell in his presence The Saints will then have power to overcome and I will become more fully developed in the divine attributes |
