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Show DISCOURSE. By Prest. Joseph F. Smith, delivered at the General conference, Saturday, April 9, 1882. Reported by Gail. F. Gibbs. [From the Deseret News.] Nearly all the brethren who have spoken at this Conference have returned to the circumstances in which we, and people, are now placed; and it would seem unnecessary for me to make any further reference to this all prevailing subject with which the people generally are more or less familiar, and by which we necessarily are considerably interested. But while the brethren who have spoken have merely referred to some of the sayings of the Prophet Joseph and to items in the revelation through him, to the Church, I feel impressed to read in the hearing of the congregation one or two passages from the revelations previously referred to. I will, therefore, call the attention of the congregation to a [unreadable] or two in the revelation given in 1831, which will be found on page 219 of the Doctrine and Covenants. "Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of God hath no need to break the laws of the land. Wherefore, he suffers to the powers that be, until He reigns whose flight it is to reign, and subdues all enemies under His feet. Behold, the laws which ye have reached from my hand are the laws of the Church, and in this light ye shall hold them forth. Behold here is wisdom." The following I quote from a revelation given December, 1833, page 237: "According to the laws and the Constitution of the people which I have suffered to be established and should be maintained for the rights and protestions of all flesh according to just and holy principles. That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto them, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgement. Therefore it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of some men whom I raised up unto this very purpose and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. Again, in a revelation on page 312: "And now, [unreadable] I say unto you concerning the laws of the land, it is my will that my people shall observe to do all things whatsoever I command them. And that law of the land which [unreadable] constitutional supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and be justifiable before me. Therefore I, the Lord, justify you and your brethren of my Church, in befriending that law which for the constitutional law of the land. And no pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than there cometh of evil. I, the Lord God, make you free, therefore we are free indeed, and the law also maketh you free; Nevertheless, when the wicked rule, the people mourn; Wherefore, honest men and women should be sought for differently and good men and women ye should deserve to applaud; otherwise. Whatsoever [unreadable words] of evil. And I give unto you a commandment, that ye shall forsake all evil and [unreadable word] unto all good, that ye shall live by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God; For He will give unto the faithful, , line upon line, prepared upon prepared; and I will try you and prove you herewith: and whose [unreadable word] down his life in my cause, or my nature's sake, shall find it again, even before the end; therefore, be not afraid of your cuemates, or I have decreed in my heart; saith the Lord, whether you will abide in my covenant even unto death, that you may be found worthy; For if ye will not abide in my covenant, ye are not worthy of me." This, as I understand it, is the law of God to the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints to all the world. And the [unreadable words] here made of us must be [unreadable word] and practically carried out for our lives in order that we play secure the fulfillment of the promises which God has made to the people of Zion. And it is further written that inasmuch as ye will do the things which I command you, thus saith the Lord then am I bound; otherwise there is no promise. We can therefore only expect that the [unreadable word] and ex are made and will apply to us which we do the things which we are commanded.We are told here that no man need break the laws of the [unreadable word] who keeps the laws of God. But this is further defined by the passage which I read afterwards - the law of the land, which all have no need to break, in that law which is the Constitutional Law of the land, and that is as God himself has [unreadable word] it. And whatever is more or less than this cometh of evil. Now it seems to me that this makes the matter so clear that it is not possible for any man who professes to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints to make any mistake, up to be in double as to the course he should pursue under the command of God in rebellion to the observance of the Laws of the Land. I maintain that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has ever been faithful to the constitutional laws of the country. I maintain also, that I have a right to this opinion, as an American citizen, as one who was not only born an American son, but who descended from parents who for generations were born in America. I have a right to [unreadable] the law in this manner and to form my own conclusions and express my opinions thereth regardless of the opinions of other men. I ask myself. What law have you broken? What constitutional law have you not observed? I am bound not only by allegiance to the government of the United States, but by the actual command of God Almighty to observe and obey every constitutional law of the land, and without hesitancy I declare to this congregation that I have never violated, nor transgressed any law, I am not [unreadable] to any penalties of the law; because I have endured from my youth up to [unreadable] law-abiding [unreadable], and not only so, but to be a peacemaker, a presence of righteousness, and not only to teach righteousness by word, but by example. What therefore have I to fear? The Lord Almighty requires this people to observe the laws of the land, to be subject to "the powers that be," so far as they abide by the fundamental principles of god government, but He will hold them responsible if they will pass unconstitutional measure and frame unjust and prescriptive laws as did [unreadable word] and [unreadable word], in relation to the three [unreadable] raw children and Daniel. If law makes haven't mind to violate their law makers haven't mind to violate their oath, break their covenants and [unreadable] faith with the people, and depart from the provisions of the Constitution where is the law human or divine which binds me as an individual, to outwardly and openly proclaim my acceptance of their acts? I firmly believe that the only way in which we can be sustained in regard to this matter by God our Heavenly Father is by following the illustratious examples we find in holy writ. And while we regret, and look with sorrow upon the acts of men who seek to bring us into bondage and to oppress us, we must obey God for He has commanded us to do [unreadable] and at the same time He has declared that in obeying the laws which he has given us we will not necessarily break the constitutional laws of the land. I wish to enter here my avowal that the people called Latter Day Saints, as has been of entepeated from this stand, are the most law-abiding, the most peaceable, long suffering and patient people that can be found today within the confines of this republic and perhaps anywhere else upon the face of the earth; and we intend to be law-abiding so far as the constitutional law of the land is concerned; and we expect to meet the consequences of our obediences to the laws and commandments of God like men. There are any sentiments briefly expressed upon this subject. Now I desire to read another presage in a revelation given it; 1834 which will be found on page 301 of the Doctrine and Covenants, commencing at the that [unreadable]. "Verily I say unto you, my friends, behold I will give unto you a revelation and commandment, that you may know how to act in the discharge of your duties concerning the salvation and redemption of your brethren who have been scattered on the land of Zion. Being driven and smitten by the hands of mine enemies on whom I will pour out my wrath without [unreadable] to name own lime. For I have suffered that they might fill up the measure of their iniquities that their cup might be full. And that those who call themselves after my name might be chastened for a little season with a sore and grievious elatement because they did not harken a [unreadable] unto the piece to and commandments while I gate unto them. But verily I say unto you, that I have decreed a decree while my people shall realize inasmuch as they hearken from this very hour, unto the counsel which I the Lord their God, shall give up to them. Behold, they shall, for I have decreed it, begin to prevail against mine when be from this very hour. And by hearkening to observe all the words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall never decrease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are [unreadable] under my feet, and the earth Is given unto the [unreadable], to possess forever and ever. But inasmuch as they keep not my commandment, and hearken not [unreadable] serve all my words, the kingdoms of the world shall prevail against them. For they were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the [unreadable] of men. But verily I say unto you, I have decreed that your brethren which have been scattered shall return to the land of their inheritances, and build up the waste places of Zion." It is somewhere written as the word of God that the enemies of the people of God can do nothing against but for Zion. Now let us review for a few moments the history of the Church and are now for the acts of the enemies of this people have gone towards nullity in those words. When Joseph first looked upon the face of the Father and the Son in 1820 until the Book of Mormon was translated and published to the world in 1820, his enemies did not cease their efforts to destroy him; they sought his life continually; they blackened his character they maligned and proscribed him, and his [unreadable word] was cast out as evil among all men. But mark you, at the beginning of this period Joseph was a lad of a little over 14 years of age; [unreadable word] and during those nine years of [unreadable word] he was but a boy; he had no vast congregations [unreadable word] here, this morning to a [unreadable word], sustain, or cheer him in his ministry and labors. He stood alone in the world, friendless and despised, cast out, maligned and persecuted on every land. But did the work cease? Did his enemies present him from performing the mission when he had been sent to scoundrels? They tried and they did their utmost. They not only made frequent attempts to imprison him under the law, but they made several attempts to take his life, and thus stop the progress of the work in which he was engaged. They spared neither [unreadable] , nor did they shrink from [unreadable], falsehood, and misinterpretation to accomplish their purposes; but they signally failed, and [unreadable] continued to steadily pursue his work, translated the plates, published the Book of Mormon, and [unreadable] organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints according to the law of the land. When the Book of Mormon was published, and the Church organized, did they cease their endeavor? Did the hatred of the world diminish? Did the workers stop their [unreadable]? Did they refrain from slandering misrepresenting, and otherwise attempting to obstruct the progress of this work? No they did not, but on the contrary, as the work developed as the church is erased in numbers and began to spend on the right and on the left, the feeling of hatred, animosity, bitterness and persecution increased proportionately, and as the Church became stronger, but enemies become more numerous and gained in strength. But not withstanding, we moved out; built a temple in Kirkland, Older, from whence we colonized Jackson County Missouri. We were [unreadable] driven into Clay, Coldwell and Davies counties, Missouri, where we founded new colonies. Like the snowball starting from the summit of the mountain which rathers not [unreadable] in bulk but in velocity, so did the work of God increase in the midst of opposition, persecution and hatred of the world. In the midst of all the powers that we exerted to stop it, it moved right on. But did they succeed in expelling our people from Jackson County, and finally from the State of MI [unreadable]? Yes, they drove the Salute from their homes, deprived them of their right as citizens and frenemies, murder, many of them in cold [unreadable], while others they confined in dungeons feeding them on the flesh (as these heartless wretches themselves boasted) of their own brethren and they despised the people, as they supposed, to the four winds of heaven rejoicing in the [unreadable] that these had finally consummated the destruction of the "Mormons." But like the phoenix rising from the ashes of its supposed destruction, they gathered like swarms of bees in Illinois founded in city, and built another temple, which cost a million dollars - the most beautiful structures in the western states at that time and they continued to thrive. Here they gained something which they never possessed before, a city charter granted to them by the State government of Illinois. They soon became notable for their tenacity to the principles which they had espoused, for their faith in God, and in His servant the prophet, for their unconquerable, irrevocable will to persevere what they knew to be the work of God, and to accomplish, so far as in their power by, His purposes and designs, concerning this great latter-day work. In all these vicissitudes and during all the persecutions of fourteen years which were nevertheless against the Prophet Joseph as the forces of nature are endless, did they diminish the [unreadable] of Saints? Did they break the saints to pieces? Did they destroy them? Now you know they did not and our enemies themselves are fully aware of this fact. But when they thought they had torn up "Mormonism" by the roots and cast it out to dry up and [unreadable] consider the parching, blighting influence of hostile public sentiment, behold, they had only transplanted the tree into new and better watered soil. Instead of destroying our confidence in the promises of God to us, it had the tendency to strengthen our faith, to increase our knowledge and experience, thus fitting and preparing us for the future that lay before us. Finally they succeeded in taking the life of ht eprophet and think of his brotherland they sent the blood of our honored President who sits here today upon this stand. They thought then they had accomplished their hellish work: they thought then the head and [unreadable] root and branch of "Mormonism" was destroyed. But was it? No; it only made us stronger in faith and more united in purpose, "the blood of the matters determines the [unreadable] Church" They next drove us from our home in Nauvoo. I remember the [unreadable] stances although at time I was lost in bet. I also remember my thought the day the most besieged the city of Nauvoo. My widowed mother had been compelled a day or two previously to take her children and ferry them in an oven flat boy, across the Mississippi river into town, when we camped under the trees and listened to the bombardment of the city. We had left our comfortable home with all the furniture [unreadable] in the house, together with all our earthly possessions, with no hope or thought of ever seeing them again; and I well remember the feelings I had when we made our camp on the lower side of the river. They were not feelings of regret, sorrow or disappointment, but of gratitude to God that we had the [unreadable] of even the trees and the [unreadable] of even the "father of waters" to protect us from those who sought our lives and freedom; I felt to thank God that we still possessed our lives and freedom, and that there was at least some prospect of the homeless widow and her family of little ones, [unreadable] as they were, to hide themselves somewhere in the wilderness from those who sought their destruction, even should it be among the wild so-called savage, native tribes of the desert, but who have drove themselves more humane and Christlike than the so called Christian and more evil [unreadable] persecutors of the Saints. After the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, and from the State of [unreadable], nor enemies thought surely the "Mormons" are now broken up, and that this would be the last of "Mormonism." But it is strange how hard we are to kill; it would seem that we object to being killed: there is something dreadful in the thought of being destroyed - annihilated. We naturally coil from such a doom and seek to persevere and perpetuate our existence. The fact is, we think we have a right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," so long as we do not interfere with the rights of others; we therefore most decidedly object to being demolished; we do not like nor do we intend to be destroyed. Not that we presume to be able to defend ourselves unaided by divine power, against our numerous and unrelenting for; not knowing in when we trust, and the nature of the work in which we are engaged, we are not slow to believe, neither are we [unreadable] to overly maintain that we were born to live, and to uphold truth, to defend virtue, to establish righteousness, and to stand by the right, and by the help of God we intend to fill the measure of our creation. Let us follow the wanderings of the Latter-day Saints across the plains to these mountain valleys, and look at our condition today compared with our condition in Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, or New York, or compared with our condition at any period of our existence as a church. What do we see today? We beg the promises of God made on certain conditions fulfilled; and that lean evidence to note that the majority of the people have complied with the conditions, although many may not have done as they should have done. We have prevailed thus far, in accordance with the word of God. And what of the future? So far as the ultimatum of this work is concerned there is no man to Israel who has a spark of the inspiration of the Almighty in his heart who does not know just as well as he known that God lives or that he himself lives, that it will be triumphant. But I do not suppose it would be wisdom in God to show us all the vicissitudes and changes, the trials and persecutions through which we may have to pass in order to reach this consummation, because if He did before we might get faint hearted before we were prepared to enter into their trial. We may have to be driven again. I do not say we shall be driven; I do not believe we shall, but what has been done many [unreadable] done again. And supposing we were driven again, what would be the result? Is it not fair to presume - have we [unreadable] good grounds to believe from the experience of the past, that if we should be again driven and despoiled of our homes - we should rise up somewhere else many fold greater and more numerous than we are now? The enemies of God can do nothing against, but much for, the work of God. Is it not written that the God of heaven has set His hand for the last time to establish His kingdom upon the earth, never more to be thrown down, and no more to be left to another people? Are we not assured by the word of God ancient and modern that its destiny is onward and upward until the purposes of God concerning this great latter-day work are consummated? This seems to be a point difficult for many to comprehend; lest when comprehended it is a key to the whole matter. What god has decreed cannot be annulled by the learning, wisdom, wealth, power, number [unreadable] here is no power is beneath the celestial kingdom that can stop or [unreadable] its progress one lots. Its destiny is outward and upward, [unreadable] may fail, but the purposes of God will not. All His enemies, contained with the evening and perfidy of the infernal spirits by which they are moved, inhale, bound, and pursue him unto death, failed, signally failed, even in the prime of murdering him, to prevent Joseph Smith from accomplishing his mission; he filled his destiny and sealed his testimony with his blood. And his blood upon this nation and upon all the nations that have consented to that terrible deed inasmuch as they do not repent of their sins and obey the prospect of salvation which is being preached unto them. My childhood and youth were spent in wandering with the people of God, in suffering with them and in rejoicing with them. My whole life has been identified with his people and in the name and by the help of God it will be to the end. I leave no other associations or place of abode. I am in this respect like Peter when the savior, on seeing the people turn away from Him, asked him, Will we go also? Said Peter, Lord, if I leave Thee whither can I go, Thou has the words of eternal life. We have nothing else to do have to keep in the narrow path that leads back to God our Father. That is to be the channel He has marked out for us to pursue, and it is our duty to press on; we cannot turn aside, we cannot switch off; there is no side track, it is a through train and its destiny is already fixed and mapped out. We have got to meet opposition as it presents itself battling against it with the weapons of truth which God has placed in our hands. And we must make up our minds that this world with all its pleasures is as drose compared with the efficiency of the knowledge of God. [unreadable] prove us, and He has a right to do it, even to the death if [unreadable] he, and only those who endure to the end, who will not [unreadable] but will maintain their integrity at the risk and sacrifice of their all, if need be, will gain eternal life, or be worthy of the reward of the faithful. I am thankful to God that circumstances are as well with [unreadable] they are, He has delivered His people thus far and blessed them from the beginning. His word has been fulfilled concerning them, and will be fulfilled from this time henceforth until His purposes shall be accomplished with regard to them, providing they keep his commandments, which, that they may do, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus, amen. |