| Show X S 0 R S E ser TA tayloe TAYLOR ord oed delivered eli vered in i ae the loeu new tabernacle salt lake zah elf elt aa sMa ILI oth 1870 M REPORTED BY DAVID W EVANS evins 1 i the scriptures inform ua us that no man mad knows the things of god but by the spirit of god and then thea no man can speak the things of god unless aided by the spirit 0 the lord and anci no people can comprehend the i things spoken unless inspired and guided by the same spirit we need this spirit continually and so do all mankind to guia guid us to enable us to comprehend the laws of life to regulate and concentrate our thoughts thou ats to elevate and ad enno ennoble ble bla our feelings to give fonce force and vitality to our actions and to place us in a position before god before men and before thauly the holy angels that thit will be right acceptable and proper to all true intelligence to the adi ari aulk anik gelfo elic elie host and to our heavenly father it matters very little what we are engage engaged d hi it is impo impossible for us to do right without the guidance of ortho tho the almighty but aided and alid directed by the spirit of the lordie lord we can act in consonance with the dignity of our high hilgh position aa as immortal beings possessing the holy priesthood and part participating lei lel in the new and everlasting covenant by the aid of that unerring spirit we can fulwil fulfil the measure of our creation and prepare ourselves for an inheritance in the celestial kingdom olour god weare we are ane told that the world by wisdom knows not god yet they do comprehend a great many thing thin gsand gand sand because batho the spread of general intelligence and the great progress of and the arts they believe they can find out god like the framers of babes babola to tolver ryer iver they seek to penetrate the heavens on natural principles like lake them they are mistaken as all men iava have been beon who have sought to solve the problem of life through the influence of human wisdom no man mau ever did understand god on this principle neither can they by mortal agency alone understand the principle of life and salvation no man in the present generation comprehends them on this principle neither will human wisdom enable any man who ever will live to understand der stand them it is true that mankind within a short time have made great advances vances in the arts and sciences during daring the last half century scientific research has hag ha made many wonderful developments and and many things which before that time vele were unknown to the human family are now quite familiar there was very little littly known of the application of the power of ahlf a cent uary ago I 1 reme remember aber Te very welly the first steamboat steam boat and locomotive that were propelled by steam and riding alding 0 on d the first railway before that locomotion had to depend upon the wind and tides and horse power and a few other igen agencies cles cies these are now supplanted by what allwill acknowledge as a very superior agent namely the power of steam electricity or rather its application so SID as to the wants of man was unknown until a comparatively recent period I 1 refer now more particularly to the electric telegraph that has been a means moans of greatly facilitating the transmission of thought and the spi ead of intelligence among the human family farally and has been a great advantage vantage e to the world at large when we came to this thia valley for instance even so late lite aas sa that we wd had to depend upon ox teams to bring our mails malls and to convey intelligence from the east and I 1 bave bavo known it to be four five and sometimes asiong ablong as long iong as six months before wo knew what president was elected now wo we can have bave it in fewer minutes this exhibits a great improvement in such matters 1 rean tean can remember the time when we had bad to along at night nearly neary la in the dark darky in our largest cities the streets being lighted 11 bg td 0 only by dim oil lamps now wo we have a v e gw gas a and nd various luminous which we have made th the earth teem forth by mil lions of gallons that are almost equivalent to gas kis or as it is more generally called photography is another great achievement of the human mind conferring the power to take likenesses landscapes and views in a moment which formerly required days or months even by the most eminent art ats in n machinery and chemistry manufactures and many other scientific developments connected with human life wonder fui ful I etc been made and abd the arid 1 tb have havo been progressing with great rapidity in the arta art ant and sciences in regard to manufactures some years ago every texture had to be spun ly by a thread now by the aid of steam and machinery it is done by thousands and hundreds of thousands we might go on enumerating many other improvements which have taken place within the past few years from which it is very evident that the progress of the present generation has far eclipsed that of any preceding it of which we have any knowledge because of these thin things it has been supposed by many that tip tir the human intellect is capable of grasping everything in this world and aud the world to come even eternal things and many men have got puffed up and andi vain in their imaginations because of the discoveries they have made and the advancement van cement in science literature and the arts they forget that that every good and perfect gift proceeds from god the father of light in whom there ia Is no variableness nor the shadow of a curnin turning 11 they forget that every particle of wisdom that tha any man possesses comes from god and that without him they would still continue to grope in the dark they forget that with all the increase of wisdom and intelligence and the expansion of tho human mind they tiley are in the dark in a regard to god and that no man by wisdom ria iia can find him outs out the mystery which en shrouds him ia Is as high as heaven as deep as hell bell and asaide as as the universe and it is unfathomable and incomprehensible by human intelligence unaided by the tho inspiration of the almighty there are men it is trues truet true who profess from the little knowledge know lodge they have of ol earthly things by a series of deductions to be able to find out heavenly things but there is a very material difference between tho the two there ia Is a philosophy of the earth and a philosophy of the heavens tho the latter can unravel all mysteries pertaining to earth but tha th philosophy of the earth eju can not enter into the mysteries of the kingdom of god or the purposes of the most high but because of tho the advancement to which I 1 bave have alluded men set themselves them elves up as teachers of things pertaining to spiritual spir tuai matters of which they know nothing but the moment they do that they exhibit their folly vanity imbecility and shortsightedness for as I 1 have stated they never dever did c comprehend the things of khz go god gos without the spirit of god godi and they never will what folly lolly it is for inen men with the breath in their nostrils who aro are but worms of the earth existing as it were for a day and tomorrow tomorrow are cut down like the grass rass k 9 or like tho the moth or butterfly which flutters around for a brief space and then passos passes passos away into everlasting oblivion fass pass I 1 say what folly it is for beings so be circumstanced cIrcum stan ced so weak imbecile circumscribed and con troied to set themselves forward unaided g by b the th e spirit of tho the almighty to fathom the 0 d designs e signs of god to unravel the pies of eternal life to comprehend the relationship lation ship that subsists between god gol and man and to draw aside the curtain of futurity who is there who has seen god or can comprehend him his designs and purposes no man is capable of fathoming these mysteries man indeed can comprehend some of the principles which are developed in nature and only a few of these but who can grasp the intelligence that dwells in the bosom of jehovah who can unravel his designs and penetrate the unfathomable abyss of the future who can tell upon what principle this world was organized or anything about the tho denizens of those worlds that we wo see moving around us it is true that by the of astronomy nice calculation in regard to the heavenly bodies can be made but none can tell who put those bodies in motion how they are controlled oled or by what class of people they are inhabited As the tho serl seri scriptures e s S say ay what nan man by his wisdom can find out god od to no one can compre hend him we find ourselves to be a remarkable ia enigma both in regard to body and mind each individual man woman and child but who can draw aside the veil and tell how or why we came here and what awaits us when we lay asido aside this mortal coil none can do this unless god reveals it there never was a man neither is there a man now nor ever will be that can comprehend these things upon the principle of natural or human philosophy and nothing short of the philosophy of heaven the intelligence that flows from god can unravel these mysteries some men will stultify themselves with the idea that in ages wone gone and past the tho human race was in a semi belfil civilized or baba barbarous condition and that any kind of a ion would do for the people in those days but with tho the progress of intelligence e I 1 the of intellect the development develop men t of the arts arta aud and be i lences and the expansion of the human lindtt ia Is necessary that we should have something more elevate J refined and intellectual than that which existed then to me MO such suet notions are perfect foolishness if I 1 read my bible aright and believe be levo leve in it known unto god were all things from 9 benore before the foundation of the world and 11 do not think that the intelligence of the them nineteenth century can eni ent ghlen ills his mind in relation to these matters he that framed the body bode shall lie he not know its structure he that organized the mind shall not he understand it before this world rolled into existence or tho the morning stars stare saud sang together for loy joy the great EI E 14 hiem comprehended all things pertaining to the orld world thac that tha tIre he organized and the who it the position that they would occupy and the in intelli gence enco ence that they would pos possess sess sesa their future destiny and the destiny of the world that he then iriane it is vanity puerility and weakness for lor men to attempt to gainsay ai n s a y the designs or to boast of ehg their air 6 own w n intelli intelligence ence once what do they know why suz buz th they thoy 0 discovered awhile ago that there is such sueh a thing as electricity who made that electricity did man did he originate and tiace place it among the natures forces did it proceed from the acumen of mans marxs intelligence and his ais expansive mind no it always existed and tho the man who discovered it lt a little smarter than his fellows only found out one of the laws of nature that emanated from and originated with god it is just so with steam the properties which render nender it so useful in sub serving mans purposes always existed but man discover discovered them if there had been no god to make these properties no one could have found them out it is so with the various gases and their properties with minerals their attractions and repulsions they originated with god man is incompetent to form anything of the tho kind so we might go on through h all maws mans boasted achievements they amount to no more than the discovery of some of the active or latent laws of nature not comprehended by men generally but discovered by some who consider con coR aider alder themselves and they no doubt ares martor than their fellows Where theu thed is the boasted intelligence of man science reveals the beauty and harmony of the world material it unveils to ta us ten thousand mysteries in the kingdom of nature and shows that all forms of life through fire and analogous decay are returned again to its bosom it unfolds to us the mysteries of cloud and rains dew and frost frosi growth and decay and reveals the operation of those silent irresistible forces which give vita tita vitality lity to the world it reveals to us tho the more wonderful operations of distant orbs arbs and their relations to the forces oK on nature aturo it also reveals another grand principle that the laws of nature are im mutably and unchangeable as are all the works of god those principles and powers and forces have undergone no change sinco since they were first organized or if changed they have returned again to th tho original element elemen tl from which they were derived all of the properties of nature were as perfect at the creation as now all tho the elements of nature possess possessed td the same specific properties and capacity of combination that they do at present trees shrubs plants flowers birds beasts fishes 11 and man were as perfect then ausnow as now gods works are all perfect and governed by eternal laws it reminds me of an infant I 1 can compare it to nothing else the now newborn born child Is perfectly oblivious to anything and everything around it although marvellous marcellous marv ellous in its organization and perfect in its structure by and by it holds up IN its hands bands and discovers for tho the first time that it has a hand band it had bad it before but a now light bursts upon the brain of the child and it discovers discovery it has a hand I 1 and no doubt thinks it is wonderful wise in finding it out just as some of our philosophers do when they dis discover cover edver the properties of matter but god made the childs hand and it was in existence before its brain was capable of comprehending it and so were all these theo things about the discovery of which men boast BO so much god made them and made them perfect yet men will boast that they know things independent of god wile whereas roas reas unless they had been aided by the spirit of the lord and unless tho the principles had existed they never nover could have been found out for no man could have originated them himself all that man has ever done with all his boasted intelligence has been simply to develop or find out a few of the tho common principles of nature that always have existed and that hat always will exist for these things and every principle of nature is eternal the gospel is also eternal but where is iq there a man who understands heavenly thing who can unravel them who has been behind the tho vail vall and talked with the gods who among the wise men philosophers devites divines di vires vites kings rulers or authorities of the earth can comprehend god or his designs if we can understand so soi imperfectly the laws of nature with which we are surround edwith the privileges of seeing feeling comparing and analyzing what do we wo know of things beyond our vision hearing hea or sion we can read in the history of the past put of tho the rise and fall of nations of or the downfall of thrones and of the destruction st of kingdoms we can read of wars and rumors of wars points out what has transpired in relation to the tho nations of the tho earth and to men who have lived upon it but bat who can penetrate into the future man is an immortal beig belg being be he is destined to live in time and throughout all eternity he possesses not only a body but a soul that will exist while white lite or thought or being lasts or immortality endures who can tell in relation to this future who can tell things pertaining to our heaven heavenly ly existence or the tha object god had iu lu view of creating this and other worlds and the destiny of the human family no man except god reveals it tobia to him what bas has been and hyill is the position of |
