Show ID I 1 S C 0 by eidor elder orson OKSON in new calt fait lake kiy noy hoy 18 i K 1 til REPORTED BY lay DAVID W evang EVANS I 1 I 1 having been called upon to address the saints this afternoon I 1 do so with the greatest of cheerfulness feeling to rejoice before the lord at ht having the privilege lege I 1 esteem the blessings that me ave been bestowed upon this people eople far above all the riches wealth g and honors that could possibly be bes bestowed towed upon them by men thare there is something connected with the tho dispensation of the gospel which has been revealed to us that is calculated in its very nature to inspire the heart of df the true saint with joy there is no other religion extant men calculated to impart the same joy and happiness as that that which we have em embraced bracel braced TO believe in a goa gott who once freely conversed with his children and took them into close communion with himself and revealed to them many great and precious things and filled them with the holy ghost but who in later times to another class of his children refused the same blessings is a horror to my feelings it 1 would would impart no satisfaction happiness true joy or peace of mind mind to me or an any other per penh son yet we have been 0 educated before embracing the fullness of the gospel y in in a variety of religions wherein we were taught that god was once a god of power and that in former dis sensations yie fie he made bare his aim among the people but we are told by the various religious sects of the day that for the last 1700 years these great rea manifestations of his power and goodness have been withheld from thee the children ii of men what satisfaction Is this to me or lar to any real truehearted true hearted saint of god if I 1 were very hungry having fasted a long time and my appetite craved food very much what would be the use of me reading of people haying baying enjoyed themselves with a great variety of pa na lat rateable late able bablo and healthful food 1800 years ago HOW hov much would this satisfy the cravings clavings cravi and wants of my nature suppose I 1 should find a very hungry people or many con congregations legations of them who had fasted untie until they were almost ready to perish for the want of food and I 1 should say to them cheer up brethren let your hearts be glad and rejoice exceedingly for the tho lord fed five thousand in ancient days on a few loaves and fishes but you need not expect that he will do any such thin thing for you do you think such a people would feel like clapping their hands or shouting for joy loy at lit such an announce ment I 1 look upon all the beet sectarian ta rian religions of the world in which our fathers have believed in this light give me a religion that will feed the soul soui in my day give me a religion that will privilege its believers to hold converse with god in their own day that will vill inspire their hearts with the revelations of heaven and manifest those things which are great alid arid hea heavenly venly tenly anu and reveal to them their duties while they live if I 1 cant have a religion of this description I 1 say good bye to all religions nothing short of that will satisfy me as an individual agrest A great grent many good and wholesome truths are taught notwithstanding by almost every religious society perhaps we may say all not liot excepting the heathen nations who worship idols adois they have a great many good and wholesome principles among them as well as a great man many y that gre are evil and which are calculated to darken the mind corrupt the heart and lead them astray from froia the true god if the religions of the day were full of evil from beo beginning inning to en end if there were no principles of morality included within them they would not be calculated in their nature to bring so many into bondage and sub ejection to them but because they have some good wholesome moral principles mixed with their foolish vain traditions and powerless forms millions are dragged into their snares I 1 heave have oftentimes felt to ask the children of men how they world would look u upon 0 n a man at the head of a family of crl cri children I 1 dren say a dozen of sons who con descended to be very familiar and sociable with six of them the elder ongel ones and taught and instructed them developed their theu minds and led them along unfolding tl principle rin ciple after principle to them and by y and nd by when the other six came along niong believing him to be ve an impart al being and learning of the great blessings bestowed upon ther bre I 1 thren thillen they ask abr for similar blessings but not ot one solitary soul of t the hi I 1 1 six I 1 I X j could ouid get a of information lo 10 n fro from m him would you not think that sueh such a father had changed very viory materially EF or that the children had incurred his displeasure to that extent that he wo would uld not have anything to do with them 1 now this Is the light in which god is held up by all the seo sec sectarian tarlan religions or the day we latter day saints have bave come out from all these vain and foolish doctrines we have renounced them cheny the glori glorious ouY gospel of the son of god was wag sounded in our ears we received it ibb with joy we saw in a great measure the foolishness of the religions we had beert been t taught aught all our days we saw how powerless I 1 ess they were we we saw that they had n no 0 voice of angels and that god inspired none of them with the spirit of c cy we saw that none of them had revelation deflation ef tation lation or the visions of heaven heaten opened to their minds and we also saw the doctrines they taught were foolish vain and false got up up by the children without authority from god and seeing this we renounced the whole e of t tl iiii m we oftentimes in our oun 9 eke eie and meeting houses haye have haye have the eriv toga lege 0 f seeing the contrast to this huere are some of our children born he an s in this territory who perhaps I 1 lave ave never formed much of an idea re rejecting acting the false doctrines with chica our forefathers have been bound down for foi generations erat ions it is true we occasionally tell them but they cannot realize it as if they had experienced it for themselves I 1 consider that the most of what we heard delivered from this stand this forenoon was very good and according to my view views the principles ad advanced were wholesome as far as they went I 1 but sound these doctrines to the bottom and we shall find that they who advocate them believe that ring king james translation of bf the bible contains the last revelation god ever did give or that he intends to give to the human family that is what they themselves tell us NOW what particular use is it to preach up morality and many other good things and then con connect neet with it a doctrine of that kind you may think I 1 am hard but I 1 could not help while listening this forenoon contrasting this people with all the li light and knowledge that god has poured down from the heavens upon them with the formal powerless systems of the children of men mem in which we were so long when we hear salvation preached we know it is true when we hear that jesus is the author of salvation to all those who obey him hira we ve know that is true but when ghen we ascend still further in these great and sublime principles we find that besides believing that jesus is the author of salvation we must know what he requires of the children of men and then obey it we mu st nind find ailt and understand that he ia is the same author of salvation that he was wa in ancient days that if lie he did con verse vath his children in former days being the same author autho of salvation and and unchangeable in his nature and aud attal i autes he a is willing to speak to his children in these times could you get the religious world to believe in or preach such a doctrine no why because it contradicts their creeds they have rounded surrounded ur themselves as it were with a peck measure and lind have said to their proselytes prose lytes so far shall you yon go inthis in this belief and no nu further you may believe just what the ancients have hale written but you must not believe anything further you may believe that god spoke to moses and delivered the children of israel by his power but you must not believe that he will ever raise up a moses in our day you may believe that god gave the keys of ggs his hib kingdom to the apostle peter and gave him the power to unfold the prin prino caples of eternal life in his day but you must not believe in I 1 n any man holding the keys in these days these are their thelt creeds and they will cut you off from their church if you profess to believe in new now revelations or in anything not contained in the bible I 1 did not think when I 1 arose of saying anything about this subject but it came into my mind there abeso areso are so many great and glorious principles which god has revealed to this people that it seems as though we can hardly get time to speak about the false doctrines of the children of men we wish to talk about things more glorious things thinks which are calculated to revive the hearts of bf the saints to fill then with joy peace and happiness chappin and to inspire them w with th the fhe heh hope ap e 0 of blessings ries Rles blessings sings to come tome we L latter att erday day saints have not oni only y embraced the first principles of t the 0 gospel os bu but t we have assembled oursa ourselves ves from many nations and aud come bome here to these hese igo fio isolated vales with tite the understanding that wd gewere wire to ta bo b taught more perfectly in the ways of the lord if we eave have gathered with a any naother ny other oiher feelings or views hews in our hearts we I 1 have bave made a mistake the lord our god could not teach and buffie us up in the ordinances of his kingdom without making us one people we are expecting to obtain salvation that is our great object if that had not been our object but very few people would have come so many thousand miles into this comparatively desert region this proves the sincerity of those who have gathered gathered it proves that they have been willing willin g to 0 do almost anything if they could but obtain that salvation which they longed for and which they desired with all their hearts yop you therefore expect if you are true saints as I 1 have already observed that when you yon come here you will be lnore inore perfectly in I 1 n relation to your duties perhaps some may have formed erroneous ideas in regard to these teachings thinking in their own hearts that when they arrived in zion the great place of gathering they would be taught more perfectly in their spiritual duties and be continually fed with spiritual things perhaps some may have imbibed the idea that god would not inspire his servants to say much in regard to temporal matters this is one of the things we have learned in the world we not only learn tha that t god does not speak in our day and that tha t he has hashio no prophets nor inspired t we also learn that every man must be for himself yand and so far as property is concerned the devil levil for Us all we have been thoroughly taught this lesson it has been absen instilled into our very constitutions tut ions and to think that god has nothing to do with temporal matters and that ho he can prepare his people to enter the celestial kingdom and be made one aha equal as it were in the enjoyment of heavenly thin gsand yet be as ag divided as the east is from theowest the vest aest in regard to temporal things has become a second nature to us even the latter day saints with all their information and knowledge and the blessings they have received receive ld can hardly conceive that the lord has any business to teach them how to proceed in regard 0 to their tem tern business the lord says unto me all things thing are spiritual did god make this earth yes well it was a spiritual work he his word went forth out olit of his mouth the tho elements were brought together and organized and the earth was made very good it was d a spiritual work we may call it temporal but god in all things filings pertaining erfa erta ining to nis hia works is spiritual an and all things to to him I 1 as hop hoi bays says in one of t he the revelations are BpI spiritual rItUal but unto you ye latter day saints because of your bradl eions he has made a little distinction and call some things temporal and bome some spiritual tuai in the great day of the ful fal nesi ness nesa of bf the redemption that Is promised saints for which wp we all hope do wb we expect to bo be admitted into hito the presence af of a being who gho hns haa no materiality about him do we expect fb tb be te fe dirito a heaven that busl abis ista of spiritual us I things according to our ideas do we expect when we get there that we will find beings in whose hina fina image gewe we are and yet they be intangible all ail without substance if we are material so will they be if wo we have flesh fresh and bones after the resurrection so will they have flesh and bones if we are male and female aften after the resurrection so will they he be in heave heavenly hily fily society oel oci ety if it we have thrones of a material nature so will they ha haye have e kind and find their thrones will be just as material in their nature as the tl irones thrones of this world it is true that those thos e personages their thrones and the elements by which they are surrounded will all be pure they will be ancon tamina laminated ted by sin being so purified and sanctified that sin will have no dominion on there but because everything there is pure it does not make it altogether immaterial in its nature it is still an enduring substance and when we receive our inheritances there we shall receive a tangible inheritance a spiritual inheritance and a material in inheritance will it consist of land yes just as much as the land on which we walk but the land will be purified and sanctified it will neither be contaminated nor unclean and none but the clean pure and sanctified will possess inheritances there do we have material books herein this world from which woe vp roe gain information yes will they not be he material also in that world there not be books and records there in abundance will not the acts and doln doings gs of the children of men be recorded in books in ili that world will not your dealings sea lings and blessings and the powers and keys that have ed upon you be recorded there in ill books as well as in books in his world well then it is all spiritual and it is all material in h its are we to apses these spiritual and eternal niches riches in that world we are told in numerous laws which god has given that all of this people are to be madcone ma made deone one il as it were no division there no quarreling about property no such thing as one person sitting away down in raga rags and another lifted up with immense riches what do we read in the book of doctrine and I 1 covenants in a revelation given to joseph in the early rise of this church sneak speak akings lugof of the property that was placed in tho the hands of certain individuals who had entered into cove covenant and an everlasting order the Lord says you are merely stewards these properties are mine or else your faith is vain and says the lord except you are made e equal ual in the bands of earthly things that is in property you can not be mai mad made e equal in the enjoyment of holy and et eternal er nal nai riches weil weli well twell if there thera is to be an equality in the eternal worlds throughout all the celestial hosts in the enjoyment of eternal riches Is it not necessary for the latter day saints to be bein begin in to be one in some measure at least lease in regard to their possessions here in this world how thankful |