| Show ad I 1 bb 0 U 2 S ma BY MB beld ulli inathe tabernacle tabernacles sail salt lake city sunday afternoon september 1883 IMPORTED BY jonn elders always ready tor foz or duty no ko salar baiar salaried ed preachers la the church no compulsion in tho tha work of ct tha the elders the liberty of J law bin sin brings its righteousness 1 nessa a suro buro reward assumption or of divina divino authority Refit oration of the ancient priesthood Rell reil religion gion glon in politics the che secret ballot the tho one man power the che liquor trat no nc civil and religious freedom for all the che effects of Ms this work on tho the world wn WE always feel it our duty when called upon to undertake any task which may be imposed upon us by our brethren in authority in the church no matter how unexpected it may b be t to 0 us or how much we nany may shrink from the duty we are called upon to perform brother goss who has just spoken to us t the call of the servants of god weita wei wel I 1 to his native land to preach the ace fel fei pel el every other elder in the hurch church holds himself ready that is if he Is ia in afi the line of hla his duty to respond to a similar call also i t re quiren to do so eo to officiate clato at home 1 we haye have no paid ministry la in this church no hired clergy either to freach preach at home or to go out as missionaries sion aries but every man in the 1 church who has received a test mony of the truth and a portion of the holy priesthood which Is generally disused among the male members of the church stands ready to perform any duty in con lection with hla his calling in the ministry I 1 am called upon this afternoon to speak to this congregation and nd I 1 respond in this thia spirit the spirit I 1 in n which our brethren go aboard d to t 0 preach the gospel or stay at home and nud preach it or go to bome some distant vart part of the territory and help to c colo coio ionize niza it or to perform any other work that Is ia necessary for the general good for the building up of thet the church of christ and for the benefit of the people belonging to that church who have been heen gath ered from various nations it Is ia supposed by a great many peo pie that there thero is a spirit of tyranny and oppression existing la in this church wielded by a few men or concentrated in one man who stands r at the head by which the people are coerced ino in 0 certain lines of ac tion it is supposed that our brethren who are called upon at our cons gerences feren ces ees to go to various parts of the world in the interest of the church act under this compulsion now this thia is a very great mistake it teems difficult to convince people who are not of our faith that there is not some coercive power or organization among the latter day saints by which people are obliged todo 3 this that or the other they have not learned the secret of the power 1 that exists in this thia organization they could find it out if they F would investigate but it is very difficult indeed to get people who do not believe as aa we do to look at this thing with any degree of impartiality they are so prejudiced against jt it they think that it must be wrong to start with and hence do not look into it in the way they should if they want to nind end out the truth now the spirit that actuates the latter day saints has been manifested ta in the remarks of brother goss gosa who has just returned from a mission to his native land he did not come to utah to find out if this thing called mormonism was true or not he found that out in his own native land he heard the principles of the gospel and was led to believe belleve them and believing them he was baptized into the church hands were laid upon him by the elders and ho he received the holy ghost which gave him a testimony that the work was waa true that la what moves the people to come here from all parts of the world so bo with the elders who are called upon at conference or at other times by the presiding authorities of the church and sustained by the vote of the people to perform any labor or mission of a public character they are ready at once and they start to do it willingly and cheerfully a though although some gome sometimes times they shrink very tery much from the task before them because they know the call Is ia right they know they are engaged in a great and glorious work they have a testimony within themselves that it is true and that it has come from god they have a perfect assurance a knowledge they call cail it bome some people may dispute technically as to whether it Is knowledge or not but it is knowledge to them they are as sure that it ja Is true and that it la 13 divine as that they are alive alite thatis that ia pretty near to knowledge if it is not exact knowledge and because of this they are ready to perform any woric work at home or to take their grip backs sacks in their hands and start out abroad at their own expense they receive im no salary they do not expect to gain any earthly revar reward cis cip but they are of the firm conviction that it is their bounden duty doty to help their fellow men man to come como to the same know eledge as aa they havo hava arrived at themselves and they are not only willing to do this but jf if it is ia a temporal labor that they are called upon to perform if they have the spirit of their calling and duty they are just as willing to perform that temporal duty as to act in a spiritual capacity are they obliged to do this no they act in tho of sel bel self belf if sacrifice trying to do good because they feel under obligation servants of god to do anything they can to help build up thib this great latter day work which god has commenced in the earth bome somo people say bay they cannot understand der stand how it Is ia that these latter day saints are so united unless they are held together by some secret bond or some kind of tyranny they cannot understand how it is that when the leaders of the peo pla speak the people are willing to move in a body with scarcely a dissenting voice volcey junices it Is that they are terrorized or coerced by some power that is not known on the outside now all the bondage bandage and terrorism that thai exist in this church is the terrorism and bondage if such a thing can be of conaci conscience ence the latter iatter day saints not only firmly believe in this thia work but have received a spiritual influence which has hns given them an inward testimony of knowledge that this work Is ot of god they have no doubt no dubiety they know it is true hence anen any movement Is necessary for the building up of the great work of god which they know to be true they feel it Is their ciu elu duly to respond that is ia all the bondage there is that is ia all the terrorism ther there eis eib is we behave have havo in thib ghis church and in this thib territory perfect liberty the gospel is ia the perfect law ot liberty betit is the liberty which Is confined to that which la Is right there is no true liberty outside the bounds ot wholesome law when we act outside the limits of proper law and claim that to be liberty it Is ia not liberty it is license and it is injurious to the individual and to the mass if this thib people called lat ter day saints obey any instructions that they may receive from the brethren who are appointed to lead them they do so in the spirit of liberty they do not do it because they choose to do it they do it because they are willing to do it they donot do not perform the duty because they are obliged to do it because of any coercive power exercised over them or because they will be called U upon to submit to any penalty but RI they OT do it because they please to do its it and they please to do it it Is right 1 admit that sometimes they may do things which seem at first to be irksome they could re fuse but they feel that if they do refuse they will suffer losa iosa in what way their religion teaches them that every good thing that they do Is ia bound to bring its reward and that every evil thing which they do is ia sure to bring its punishment either in this world or in the world to come that isa Is that bin sin inevitably brings its penalty and that righteousness certainly brings reward Ther therefore eire elre if a latter nay saint Is ia called upon to perform anything in connection with this thia which he feels it is his duty to do and he neglects that duty he expects at some time to bs be punished or suffer loss for that neglect our organization Is a very glorious one atlan it is a perfect organization perfect because it is divine it was not made by man it was not originated by joseph smith or by any of his associates it came down from above direct from the eternal worlds it was not taken out of the bible it was not taken out of the book of mormon or any other book although it is the same organization that existed oll oil on the earth in previous ages brief accounts of which in patches patches here and there may be fountin lound found in the various books which compose the bible but it was not taken out of that book god A al g 1 tty r revealed ev aled it 11 and the authority autho tho r 1 y which h h men en exercise in the hf the tho an authority orlay of 01 the priest hood did not mot come como out ot of the bosoms or brains of men it came by direct manifestation from on high heavenly helega who were once earthly beings men who wigo once lived on the earth holding that authority thorit yand and who passed paused away and have progressed cali cail call it evolution if you please plea ec have come dome back to the earth and ordal ordained ned men to the same authority and priesthood which they held hoid these men did not take this authority upon themselves from reading the last chapter of matthew and mark in which we read that jesus christ sent out eleven men and told them to go to all the world and preach the gospel in his name A great many christian ministers have assumed the authority given to those eleven to no one else men who held this authority in ancient times on the earth and have gone into a higher sphere in the due course of their progression by divine commandment man dment have come back to earth and ordained men to the authority and power and priesthood which they held while they were in the flesh that is why wo claim that the authority to administer in the name of the lord is in this church and in inn no other church on the earth that all other so called acos acob are purlous spurious wedo we do not say that there thero are not good men in other de nominations claiming to hold authority to preach and administer in the name of the lord but we claim that they lavo lave no authority in real ity because they have declared that all communication has been shut off on from the heavens for hundreds of years and as there has been no communication from the heavens for hundreds of years no authority could havo bave been conferred unless it was continuous from the days clays of the apostles to the present day but most of those persons who now claim to hold authority from god to preach and to administer in the ordinances of the gospel repudiate the idea that the authority was continuous and declare that after the days of the apostles darkness dar knees came in that thac the world went astray and that an abominable chulch chuich arose in the place of that which was established by jeans and his apostles now this authority which has been sent down from god out of is similar in its nature to that exer blaed by men about whom we read in the bible we read about one in tho the patriarchal ages called melchie dek who held this priesthood abraham went and paid we his tithing to him after he came camei back from overcoming those kings that he conquered Melchi sedek we are told was the prince of salem and he was a priest of the moat high god and after many generations had passed away jesus of nazareth came upon the earth and claimed to have that same priesthood he was called to be a priest after the order of meichi Melchi that is he had the same kind of priesthood that mel chi ehi sedek had we read a little about this Melchi sedek in the epistle of paul to the hebrews Hebrew Bs and about the priesthood he held some bome people in reading this confound the priesthood or authority which mel chi sedek had with the man himself they read it that he was ic without rather tather without mother without descent having neither beginning of days nor end of life that is a cu rious hind kind of man is it noi not some somme people say that that meant jelus jems himself but bat that could not apply to jesus for his descent is given in the bible he had a reputed father joseph and a real mother mary anu ana me his father in heaven was his real father for we are told that he was vas the first begotten in the spirit and the only begotten in the flesh this then did not applex to Jesus nor did it apply to any other man it applied to the priesthood or authority which mel mei chi sedek held the priesthood of aaron or lievi levi came by descent it came to a man because he hd belonged to a certain lineage but biel mel chi sedek priesthood did not come by lineage I 1 it t came to all upon whom god pleased to bestow it jesu jesus was called to be a prier forever after the order of Melchi sedek who was the prince of salem halem a priest driest of the most high god moses had this same bamo priesthood he received it from jethro there was another priesthood in the days of moses and aaron the which descended in a certain lineage from father to son but when jesus jebus came on the this earth he received the Melchi sedek edek priesthood and that he might receive it in its fullness moses and ellas elias appeared to him upon the mount of transfiguration jesus conferred that bame fries hood upon the apostles As my father hath sent me oven so eo bondt bendt I 1 you the bame same authority that jesus had he conferred upon his apostles and they conferred it upon others as they were led by the holy ghost the comforter which christ sent to them after his departure now this priesthood and apostleship was held in the early christain ohp church but the deop people put the apostles Apo atlea to death they put to death other men who had bad been called to hold hoid a position of this same authority and priesthood and darkness came into the world and the people keople have gone down deeper deepen and deeper into clar olar darkness knew and further and further away from god as generations erat ions have rolled on they have heaped to themselves te teachers achere having itching ears and they have turned away their earb carb from the truth and turned unto fables the consequence to is that this christian generation have departed from the gower of god from the authority of pod and from the priesthood of god and as aa they confess ilke like sheep have gone astray but in our oun day god hns has restored the old church back again he has restored the ancient priesthood fhe che priesthood that moses had that abraham had that jesus had that the apostles had bad and that of which peter jsmes james and john held hoid the keys god has was restored it in the way hat that I 1 have the ministration of angels from the heavens the last named persons came down from on high and ordained men to the priesthood upon the earth to wit joseph smith and oliver cowdery and they inspired by the almighty dictated by the holy roly ghost the spirit of revelation have called and ordained other men to the same authority to go out into the world and preach the everlasting gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof that is the power of this thin priesthood dom does this authority give men meu any power to bind the souls houis of men not in the least does it give men authority to coerce anybody in any shape form or mahner manner not in the least on the contrary we are told in the revelations of god that the po er of this priesthood must not be used to coerce |
