Show tl SERMON by elder amasa lyman ta tabernacle berna benna ciel clel Sui sul sunday horning october 11 reported BY DY J V LONG i the the tha circumstances of our meeting this morn I 1 rig bag brought me to this place to occupy a portion of the time allotted for the worship of toay day I 1 cannot say eay as I 1 have heard beard men say at times T hat I 1 have thought of nothing to say for it has b bean ein my study and my labor since my connection with the work of god in the last days to learn what to say in order that I 1 might have something whereof to speak in case that I 1 should be required to say anything and I 1 would always wish to be able through the blessing of god and the manifestation of his holy spirit spirits to say at any time when it might mi be bil my duty to speak something that will be calculated to benefit those to whom I 1 may speak I 1 know of no other blessing or glory or wealth accruing from our living and our labors ill in the world but that which we learn of the truth that will bless us and make us free from the he dominion and arid influence of error we talk about experience and we have had a great peat deal of experience and we are constantly in in the school of experience but I 1 am inclined to think that it may be the case with us its in that school as us in other we sometimes improve in by what we experience adding to our store of knowledge and then again we may experience peri ence very considerable from which we derive no particular benefit like the scholar that attends school but from inattention a failure to apply himself properly pr ose aly I 0 o his lesson lessons a and to the aca acq acquirement alre 0 of the a knowledge now ledge that is imparted he falls fails to comprehend the truth to the tile extent that he mi might otherwise have done and hence he is not be benefited edited to the extent that he be might inight have been althou although all he has been in the school well weil as saints and as children of god we are in the school and if there is any higher purpose connected with our being in the school connected with living in the world and connected with all our labors in the world and what we are supposed to here for if there is any higher object than the attainment of the knowledge th atwill save us I 1 do not know it I 1 never have lave heard of anything greater nor more glorious nor more to be esteemed than our being saved it is simply for this that we are being taught and that we are learning it is for this that we are required to be obedient it is for this that we are obedient when we have been obedient to every require ment made every possible attainment that can be made what is our condition ve we are saved from the bondage of sin and darkness he the consequences quen ces of ignorance well then it will ie profitable fi for us to think of what we experienced to think of the experience through which we ha have ve past has it been a varied scenery embracing an almost countless variety of changes cb anges and of circumstances cum stances involving a good deal of comfort pleasure and happiness with a corresponding amount of sorrow affliction and wretchedness have we profited from it all when we have supposed that the hand of chastisement was upon us and we have been afflicted has that affliction been to us a source of 0 knowledge to benefit and to perfect us in our sphere of action we were passing through this as a necessary school of experience and when we have pa paled passed led sed through it has it left with us an increase to the store lof our knowledge has it profited us to 0 an extent that we have comprehended more of the truth that influences our father in the heavens and have we learned more of the principles which constitute our happiness and that will bo be the bliss and the tha glory of the saved and the sanctified has this been the case with us or have we done as many others have passed blindly through the school of experience passed through the sufferings endured the tha sorrow and experienced the joy the I 1 leasure and the happiness and still are unenlightened still are ignorant I 1 believe we may with profit to ourselves look jook over our experience and why so long as we have been connected with the church it if we have not been following as saints in the path of our own making in yielding obedience to the requirements of the work of goda god if we have been obedient to the counsel that has been given if we hive irive acted up to the calls that have been made if we have done these things we have done them for this purpose for our salvation our deliverance and for our improvement that it might tend to increase our happiness and our comfort under this view of the matter should we today to day really conclude that we have really been made sufferers and that we have lave in reality been afflicted and that we have really been made to participate in some wretchedness and misery we cannot conclude that we have passed through these things thinas for any other purpose durpos se than that we should hare have have been bro bno brocht brought to a comprehension of the truth by them if it was not our misery that prompted our father in his dealings towards us that gave gai e character to his operations with us then he had an object in a view he commenced with us to si his own purposes to bring about an increase of his own glory in our salvation well wel 1 when that increase shall be accomplished we shall know that it was not our sorrow or our affliction that lie he has sought it was because he wished our salvation that we were made to partake of the cup of suffering that we should partake of sorrow before we could reach happ happiness iness inezs and bliss as a reward for it well then in what way should we look at what we have endured and at what we have suf ored fored 7 why simply as lessons as admonitions imparted to us for our benfit for our our profit aud and and for our learning and that we might increase in knowledge and this might produce an increase of the legitimate principles of happiness and it was ws simply a conscientiousness that we were free from irom sin that led us to persevere in the pursuit of lurther happiness by endeavoring to obtain a more extensive knowl knowledge ede of the truth it is for this then til that at we have endured all that we have endured have hava we regarded this tilis in this light while we have been passing through those scenes that have marked our history from the tha commencement men cement of the of god to the present moment it was said of the saints anciently that they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and no no doubt they did it has probably been the case in this dispensation that the saints have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods but to how great an extent have we e taken patiently the spoiling of our goods as trials that were calculated by our father in heaven only for our good we have been in the habit in consequence of the feelings that pervaded our ur minds of looking at the doings of our father in a limited light and we have been in the habit of looking at his operations in this way and that whatever was required of 0 us today to day we regal regarded reg aided ded as being the f fullness ull uil of his purposes and of his operations with us and that if we should comply perfectly or readily today to day with the requirements made of us that we had attained all that was to ba be obtained well is this so no he has been making requirements quire ments of us continually requirement after requirement has been made of us ha lie has required us to accomplish a work today to day and something else the next day da and each succeed succeeding ingy irgy day from the beginning to the present time has brought some change in liis his requirements ile he has required us to travel in one direction for instance today to day and then the accomplishment of the samo same work which lie has to do requires us to take a directly opposite course to what we were pursuing in well then if taking up one course today to day and another tomorrow to morrow seems to be undoing the work of yesterday and to bo be diametrically opposed to the work of yesterday can wo we recognize the hand of 0 god in it if we have recognized liis his hand in these things we have had a profitable experience by them but says one how can it be that god should require one thing today to day and then something else tomorrow to morrow we thought he lie was a straight forward dealing individual that there was no variableness nor shadow of turning in him well this is the character of him but perhaps we have been in difficulty and could not recognize the land hand of god and could conid not recognize the tiie blessing in the present apparent suffering we could not recognize the hand of god as on yesterday when we thought we were in better letter circumstances than we are today to day where is the biffi culty it is simply that we have not riot recognized the hand of god so clearly as in the day that we have considered to be more rich with blessings and prosperity and what is the reason why says one awe we could not see the design of these things thing s well if we could not see their ultimate design there must have been a reason why we could not see and we will consider that there was a purpose in this as well as ia in the lord sending the tha gospel which has reached our ears suppose that we should have known that it was his purpose ze to bring us to this place why we never could have believed that we were following his counsel when we were traveling lo 10 every other place for in in our we traveled towards almost every other place before we came here and in fact every other place that we have visited we visited before we came here and still we were following the purposes of god every time lime and in all those windings well it i wa could not know it then it will be good to know it now to discover it and to look at it in a way and to an extent that will profit u ue it will ba be well to look at the he true position we have been b ben een in now that we understand that all the scenes that we have passed through have lave been for the accomplishment ment of his purposes if we did not understand his purpose at the beginning we must at some time comprehend it or we never can see his hand in it we never can con be ie blest with that freedom from ignorance from i error and from darkness but the chains that have hitherto held heid us in error and in bondage will continue to hold us until we reach that point then to 0 see sea aud and to comprehend by the light that dwells dwelis within us that god is with us and that lie he is round about us and that he is fulfilling his pur poses loses toses all the time however varied our circumstances may be however tb they y may change chanse from time to time lime if we can but know that god is in it what will be the result why contentment bat hat will ba be unbroken it will be a feast to our souls it will bethe banquet of happiness for our minds to feast upon and then however difficult our circumstances may be considered we shall have an inward laward joy a peace a satisfaction and resignation to the will of our father that we could not have while we were bound down by the chains of ignorance and error well is there any anything that we should know yes if we would be happy we should know that if the clouds of adversity lower around us if there are indications of a storm continually I 1 i threatening us then if we have not assurance and and ard a knowledge of the truth that will enalla us to look through the th clouds that have thickened around us to the triumph of the cause that we are engaged in the scenery will become discouraging to us and con cou consequently we will become unhappy the consequence will be that we shall be fearful and it will be that fear that produces unpleasant feelings and which is the result of ignorance it is required of us not so much to read and comprehend the future which is not revealed aled but like the schoolboy that is rap randly diy daiy passing over lessons given by his preceptor and who glances over them without seeing their importance but simply commits the words to memory and passes rapidly along 11 to something else we should read and learn these lessons in ill our experience and let us in all these windings see hath ereis is an importance attached to every lesson of experience through which we are called to pass then if we can see seo the hand of god in all ali these changes and trials and if we e can call see t to the extent that tha the relationship wp asp 1 berfect liau idour r com comi between the purpose of god and its accomplishment then weare settled upon a basis from which we cannot be moved and we are then standing upon a rock which cannot be shaken and while the spirit cf god is upon us we will not become wretched but so long as that spirit call can find a place in us we cannot become alienated from the things of god it was said in a old times that when the lord commenced his work in the latter times that he will actually accomplish it well now we have actually come upon the stage of action to take our part when agon t that at work is about to be done and we are to constitute a portion of his agents to accomplish com that work and when we have done that which is needful needa a for the accomplishment of his work then we will see the consistency of gods hand dealing with us for the last 25 years and especially ally aily when the kingdom of god wa was first established it became necessary with our father as with any other workman to have the requisite material for the building buldin gand and then ill in the next place to have that material in a suitable condition to accomplish the work the sama as whon when the presidency of the church designed to build a temple a holy place to the name of or the tbt most high what is requisite qui site in in the first place it is requisite to prepare for fo a foundation and then in the next place the material to lay jay that foundation is required and the temple commences to be built and as the material is pra pr pared spared the work of the building goes on and wid tha material is adjusted in the foundation of that temple according to th the tha 3 plan of the tha architect well weli so with our father to accomplish com his hig work in theu last days his big gira firt move was to find men that would engage in it and then to send men forth to attract th tha c attention of others of those who would giva heed to it this called forth the preaching of the tha gospel as it atvas was first sounded in A our ears eara did we understand anything of the work of god in the last days I 1 speak from my own experience and answer no we ive believed the truth as it was first announced to us but not in all its extent nor of what it really amounted to but what developments it would show we wm were ignorant of but rut still being attracted by the sound that brought with avith it the 11 holy voly spirit we followed it and what has been the result we are aro here today to day we have passed through all the varl vari d scenes that have filled up the history of birg tir 9 people we have been associated with all the changes and woud vicissitudes that fill up up the work of god for the last 25 years and we re are here bere today to day and our oar experience is what wi have passed through gli gil in that len ien length lenth th of time and ind how have hava we profited by it Is the great superstructure of the kingdom of god built up Is the organization of the saints complete are they perfect no then what has been doing why the people have been re receiving cevin instruction n st nt they have been taught from year to year lesson after lesson has been give n maiefield one caie field of experience has followed upon the tha track of another we have been practising practicing upon those things thinks revealed through the priesthood upon the earth and |