| Show klebs klehs F tn arlt IT oct 8 S w ttE PORTED BT BY 0 D WATT 1 in the remarks I 1 am about to offer I 1 do not design to cast the least reflection upon the honesty integrity truthfulness and faithfulness of this people but I 1 really feel to praise them and I 1 repeat what I 1 have frequently said that in my opinion enoch und and his people during the first twenty nine and a half years of their history did not make greater progress in their knowledge of the father and son than this people have this thought gives me great comfort encouragement arid and consolation our traditions and education from our birth until we embraced this gospel were in many instances contrary to the tile plan of salvation antagonistic to the word of god and opposed to his character not designedly but we and oun our our fathers groveled in the deepest shades of mental darkness and 1 ignorance norance horance touching god his ills character and the ite gospel plan our teachers were no better than ourselves for thick darkness covered all the blind were bading the blind they are still doing boand both loth will fall into the ditch under these considerations I 1 think that we as a peo people vve lve 1 e are doin doln doing as well as we know how bow we are advanced advancing from year to year in the knowledge of god before we came into this church we knew comparatively but little in regard to the true religion cf of christ Is there now a man in all the world outside of this church that can tell the first thing thi abo about ut it although they have the old ai and new testaments and day by day scrutinize every letter word and sentence of those bloks books yet they cannot rightly tell one thin thid thing 0 in in regard to the kingdom of god br taylor said that before he heard beard this gospel he did not even know that it was necessary to be baptized for the remission of 0 sins gins ile he had read the bible bitle many times and really did not believe it though choup gh he supposed that he believed every word in it had a person said to him 11 dir nir mr bir taylor here is the new testament which gives a true history of the savior of the world and of the religion he produced for the salvation of the children of men but you do not believe it mr taylor would have considered himself persecuted for righteousness sake and perhaps would have put the person out of his kouse house there is not one of us who professed to be christians before we embraced this gos gospel 1 ea Coul could have dhave borne to be told that we dida did aid n not ot b believe belleve eilev all that is written in the old and new 11 testaments we should have deemed such a statement very unwarranted and past enduring yet such was the fact we we had read over and over again that baptism was for the remission of sins yet vet none cf of ils us knew that it was true and requisite we had often read the commission of the savor savior to the disciples that the believer in their words should be baptised baptized sed to be saved yet who of us fully believed that he spoke the truth we read the bible with the idea that it gave a history of something that was but is not now and never will be in this state of ignorance and blindness the gospel found us yet we have learned many great grot and a pd glorious truths during the short experience peri ence we have had bad in this church we now see the consistency of the vital truths that the ancient apostles left recorded for the world to read we might say that the bible is a guide board to the world as it points out the path for them to walk in it draws a line to tb guide their conduct tye tse we lye have learned much mach from the bible we har hav e also learned much from the book of mormon ullmon and the book of doctrine and covenants but all the salvation you can obtain by means of those books alone is is comparatively of little I 1 value they contain a history 0 of what other men have done show the eath path ath they walked in and the way in which they they obtained the words of eternal life for them selves but all the scriptures from the days of adam until now cannot alone save one individual were they all committed to demor memory so perfectly that they could be recited with the greatest ease that alone would not save one of the smallest of gods goda creatures nor bring any person nearer the gate of the celestial kingdom in visiting a foreign nation an understanding of their ian lan language geography b raphy manners customs and laws is is very agreeable and beneficial so the reading of the bible gives comfort and happiness to the traveler to eternity and points out to him in part 1 the character and attributes of the being whom to know is life eternal we have not yet attained to that knowledge and the mere reading in of the scriptures can never put us in possession of it when the vision of your mind is opened by the eternal spirit you measurably see fionin zion in its beauty and perfection and are filled with of joy but when the vision closes you yu still find yourselves in this dark and benighted world in a vision of zion in its flory fiory you do not see your own and your reth rens foibles while you are struggling from day to day to prepare yourselves to participate in the glory you gaze upon while you ere ire are in the spirit we are still warring against the darkness and imperfections temptations and vicissitudes inherent fo to the flesh in this dark and benighted world and it is by a steady unwavering course of daily progression that we can be prepared to enjoy the glories of the celestial kingdom with god our father if a person is baptized for the remission of i sins and dies in a short time thereafter he is not prepared to at once enjoy a fullness of the aay fiory promised N in the gospel respell so he e must be w ft filhe spirit tid in other othen departments of af the horse hoose of af god passing on from truth to truth from intelligence to intelligence until un tl I 1 he h e is prepared prepare I 1 to again receive his body and to enter into the presence of the father and the son we cannot enter into celestial glory in our present state of ignorance and mental darkness I 1 know that we have been taught from our infancy and it is now a popular doctrine with all the denominations denominations of the Christi ansof the nineteenth century that when the mortal tenement is committed to the grave there is an end of all further progress in intelligence and learning with regard to this probation in support of this idea they advance the scripture if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be 11 again A ain aln whatsoever thy hand lindeth t to do 50 do it with thy might for there is no work nor device devices nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou boest 11 the worms have work to do in the grave rave until the body is reduced to mother earth but the active intelligent divine organization that inhabited the body does not descend with it into the grave to work with the worms but it goes to the spirit world and is much more busily engaged there than when it was a tenant in in a mortal tabernacle suppose then that a man is evil in his heart wholly given up to wickedness and in that condition dies his spirit will enter the spirit world intent upon evil on the other hand if we are striving with all the powers and faculties god has given us to improve upon our talents to prepare ourselves to dwell in eternal life and the grave receives our bodies while we are thus engaged with what disposition will our spirits enter their next state they will be still striving to do the things of god only in a much greater degree learning increasing increasing growing in in grace and in the kno knowledge cledge of the ile truth the people called christians are shrouded in in ignorance and read the scriptures with darkened understandings do you read the scriptures my brethren and Zi sisters as though you were writing writing them a thousand two thousand or five thousand and years ago do you read them as though you stood in the place of the men who wrote them if you do not feel thus it is your privilege to do so that you may be as familiar with the spirit and meaning of the written word of god as you are with your daily walk and conversation or as you are with your workmen or with your y our households you may understand what the prophets understood and thought what they designed and planned to bring forth to their brethren for th their air good 0 when you can thus feel feelo then t h you may nay begin to think that you can find out something about god and begin to learn who he is he is our father the father oj of our spirits and was wag once a man in mortal flesh as we are and is now an exalted being how many gods there are I 1 do not know but there never was a time when there were not gods and worlds and when men were not passing through er the same ordeals that we are now passing through rough that course has been from all eternity and it is and will be to all eternity you cannot comprehend this but when you can it will be to you a matter of great consolation it appears ridiculous to the world under their darkened and erroneous traditions that god has once been a finite being and yet we are not in such close communion with him as many have supposed he has passed oa on and is exalted far beyond what we can now comprehend eye hath not seen ear hath not beard leard neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive all the things of god we are not capacitated to receive them all at once but god by his spirit reveals to our spirits as we grow and become able and capa to comprehend through improving upon every means of grace placed within our power until we shall be counted worthy to receive all things all is is yours says the apostle do not become disheartened heartened dis give up your labors and conclude that you are not to be saved all is yours if you will but live according m to what you know and increase in knowledge and goddess liness and if you increase in these you will also increase in all things pertaining to the earth and by and by you will be satisfied that all is the lords and that we are christs and that christ is gods all centers in the father wherefore let us be satisfied that he gives to us as we are capacitated to receive we need not be discouraged but as I 1 have exhorted on another occasion let the elders of israel manfully man the old ship zion let every man faithfully stand to his post and they will ultimately be worthy to enter into celes celestial glory this is all the business we have on hand at present doubtless you understood and bear in mind what br taylor said with regard to voting for the authorities of the church I 1 wish all the brethren and sisters to vote by raising their right hands the meaning of which many of you yon understand if there are any who do not feel reel like voting in the affirmative when the name of one oae of the authorities in the church is presented and they suppose that they have sufficient cause for withholding their support they my have the privilege ot entering their com p I 1 11 t soro b lore the con arence if you N tsen good goo d and an d sufficient su reasons for not voting for an individual we will give the subject a candid investigation we will now present the authorities GF edward everett it is said is the man most eligible for next president of the U estates VS states tates |
