Show BT fuff puff 01 uh Q dibon dabon DELIVERED in tu stake meeting sleeting house ephraim co sunday morning nov 2 ath 2 1884 REPORTED BY jonn JOHN IRVINE I 1 WILL read a portion of the ath chapter of deuteronomy neither thou make marriages marriage with them thy daughter thou not give unto his son nor his daugh daughter jer thou take unto thy son for they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve berve other rods gods so BO will the anger of the lord amrol be kindled a against ainest you and destroy thee suddenly IM but hut thus shall yo ye deal with them ye shall destroy their altars and break down their image sand cut clit down their groves and bum their graven images with fire for thou art an holy people unto the lord urd thy god the lord thy god hath chosen thee to be bo a special people unto himself above all deop people e that are upon the face of the garth earth the lord did not bet set his hla love upon you nor choose because you were more G in number than any people for ye were the fewest of all people but because the lord loyed loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers hath the lord brought yoc you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen bondeen bond men from the hand of pharaoh king of E egypt know therefore that the lord thy ed god he is god the faithful god which keero keeneth e th covenant and mercy with them that love iove v him and keep his lus commandments to a thou band a nd generations c r a mons mona A re a eth them that hate him to their face taco to destroy e t them h m he will not be slack lack to h him i t that it t h habeth tet yh him he will repay him to his face thou therefore keep the commandments and the statutes and anu the judgments which I 1 command thee this day to do them wherefore it shall come t to pass pabs SS it if ye harken hanken to these judgments an and ana ke keep p and do them that the lord thy god shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he unto thy fathers and he will love thee and bless thee and multiply thee cewill he will also bless the fruit of thy womb and the fruit of thy land tny corn com and thy wine and thine oil the in increase of thy idne kine and the flocks of thy sheep in the land which he unto thy fathers to give thee thou be blessed above all people the there shall not be male nor female barren among you I 1 or among your cattle and the lord will take away from thee all sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of egypt which thou tayo mayo west upon n thee but will will lay ay them upon all the them n uca that t kate hate thee these words that I 1 have read in your hearing are found in the ath chapter of deuteronomy in many respects these are most applicable to us as a people eole for the same covenant which tale the lord ord made with the children of israel and which are contained in part in this chapter have been renewed unto us we are their descendents god has revealed this and it is manifest that we are the descendents of the house of israel by the operations of the gospel among us no doubt many of you have been led to wonder in your experience how it was that you should receive the Gosp eland that others who had equal opportunities with you probably belonging to the same household and numbered among your friends and acquaintances that when you received the gospel they could see nothing desirable or attractive about it while your hearts were kindled into a glow and felt like fire within you when you heard the testimony of the servants of god concerning the gospel that he had revealed nothing that I 1 know of more plainly plaint y demonstrates the fact that this is the blood of israel that has been gathered out that we are of the chosen seed though we have been mixed or our fathers have been mixed among the gentiles god has saved to himself a seed among all nations and when the gospel came to the lands where this seed dwelt there was wass on their part a natural affinity a natural attraction to the principles of righteousness and the they received them gladly and were gatie gatKe gathered gathered red out by the wonderful power of god to this land and are numbered now among llis ills I his lis saints the covenants that our father made with his ancient chosen people have been renewed in our day and unto undo us and there is no promise that was made mabe in ancient days unto the house of israel that has not been renewed unto the latt latter erday er day israel every blessing that god promised and that I 1 have read in your promised hearing earing besides many others that are contained in the scriptures scripture 9 all ail these have been fully renewed unto the lat ter day saints and they areace are accompanied com by blessings as we see them around us today joday to day and as has been related by brother woodruff in regard to our settlement of these valleys god intended and I 1 wish that we all could realize it as it really is godin god intended when he preached unto the people the gospel i and nd ga gathered them out from the various lands where they lived to make of them a peculiar and a distinct people eo ae upon the face of the earth nothing ng is plainer than this to those who wilf win wih open their eyes to see and their hearts to understand the provi dences of our god As soon as the latter day saints join the church they become a distinct people all ali of you ou those of you at least who embraced ed this gospel before you gathered know this you know that no sooner were you baptized into the church than you were distl distinguished ngui ngul anguished shed from all those who surrounded you if you had bad brothers it if you had sisters if you had parents if you had friends who did fild not r receive welve W the 9 gio Cio gospel did not en ter into the C hurch you became distinct from them they felt that you yoa were different from them and you felt that they were different from you the love that your kindred had hadford for fon you previous to your espousal of the gospel in many instances turned to hatred the friendships that had bad existed between you before you embraced the gos gospel turned into enmity and they with whom you were most closely associated soc socia ted anu and and towards whom you felt the strongest ties of friendship became bedame your open and avowed enemies there are instances even where your own par parents eRts your own brothers and your own sisters rejected the claims of kindred and turned their backs upon you and treated you as though you were aliens to them and had no claim upon their affection and that they had no desire to mingle with you or to be any longer connected with you this has been the case in almost every instance where people have joined this church and their kindred have not joined it and that distinction has not been confined to the homes where the saints embraced the gospel but it has continued here and until the present day A latter day saint may be descended from the oldest families that have peopled ried this continent his ancestors may have ave aye fought the battles that freed this land from op oppression be may be entitled to all trl tri the e rights and privileges that belong to a native of this country andyes if he be a marmon not a single n nie le claim ot that character is recognized zed he is looked u upon pon as a stran stranger er and an alien he is I 1 looked oo 00 ed upon as a man not having the r rights I 1 gh s of full citizenship that others w who it 0 are not of his faith are arc entitled to and enjoy when we travel among the people as latter day saints we are conscious ourselves that there is a distinction between us and them they are also conscious that there is this distinction and that we wc are a different people you pan gan no more cause these latter day saints while they remain such to mingle with the world and be one with them than you can cause oil and water to mingle there is no affinity between the two you may shake oil and water to together ether in a bottle and while you are shaking slaking it tou you ou imagine that the water and the oil kave have nave mingled but the moment you let the bottle stand the water sinks to the bottom and the oil rises to the top the two elements do not co mingle the they are entirely distinct and you may sili shake e them and boll boil them or do any thing of that character and you cannot cause them to become one fluid so it is with this people called the lat ter day saints and the world there is a difference god has created the difference god has called us out from the world for the of making us his people and placing upon us his name that we may be known as his peculiar people in the midst of the nations of the earth no now vv when I 1 say this 11 II do not say that of this we are the enemies of mankind I 1 do not say this because I 1 think there is no opportunity for them and us to unite that there is no platform upon which we can stand and become united I 1 do not say this because there is a platform upon which we can all stand and be it a united people but until we do stand upon that platform this division and this distinction of which I 1 speak will exist we belong because of our obedience to the gospel of the lord jesus christ to what is known as the church of christ while those who have not embraced braeg this gospel and entered into covenant with god belong belom to the other church that is the church which is called in the revelations of god the whore of all the earth or the mother of abominations that is the distinction which exists between the latter day saints and the rest of mankind my brethren and sisters thre are some principles which it seems to me we should comprehend clearly in connection with our position as latter day saints and one is that which is alluded to in this chapter that I 1 have read in your hearing namely neither ehalt thou make mate marriages with them thy daughter thou not give unto his son eon nor his daughter thou take unto thy son for they will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods so will the anger of the lord be kindled against you yon and destroy thee suddenly this was a command that was given unto israel with great force and emphasis they were commanded from the beginning that they were not to marry with those who did not belong to their famil did not belong to the israel of god or were not the covenant people of god and it was not a new law it was not a law that was given to moses moses and through him to the children of israel for the arst time if you ou will read back to the days ot of mahara abraham you will find that the same I 1 sentiment filled the heart of abraham the patriarch concerning his posterity i when he wanted a wife for his son isaac iaac he took his bis eldest servant of his house and made him swear by the god of heaven that he would not take a wife unto his son of the daughters of the Canaan ites a race with which he didiot did not want his son to intermarry and he sent his servant back to mesopotamia PO ta tamia tamla mray mial I 1 to his old country and to his kindred it being where his bis brother nahor had ad lived to find lind there for his son isaac a wife that should be suitable to him the servant took this oath and he went I 1 feeling el n t that at god had given ven unto him a mission and that he be would be prospered in obtaining a wife for the son of his master he prayed unto the god of his master to give him success and give him a sign sl imn agn by which he might know the girl that the lord designed for nis his inis masters son and fcc according to hs faith so it was done rebekah came carme to the well and as he had prayed so she did and she proved to be the very girl that god had designed s 1 ned for isaac and the very girl that abraham abraham in his heart desired that his son should have she was abrahams grand nelce neice and his wife grand rand nand neicer double cousin of isaacs er grandmother milcah being isaacs mo mothers therlo sister and her grandfather nahor being abrahams abraham s fathers brother you know it is said I 1 in it the bible that abraham married his sister but though called his sister she was not his sister ater in our sense of the relationship she was the daughter of his bis brother haran but at barans death terah terail haran and abrahams father fatter brought up Il barans arans children as his ls own two of these children were girls one of them married nahor a brother of abrahams aud and the other married abraham both of them sisters of lot they were therefore nearly related so you see that in those early days the same sentiment pervaded the minds of the servants of god respecting the families with whom they should intermarry you will remember also that this same rebekah afterwards when fear was be begotten begotten otten in her heart res respecting act ingher her soh son son jacob aad avld the enmity of his brother esau said to Is isaac aaa in substance III 1 I do pot want jacob to marry the daughters of this land I 1 awant want him to marry the richt blood to marry into the right families isaac sent jacob back to his mothers people and commanded him not to take a wife of the dau daughters of canaan but to marry into his U mothers family ile he did so he married his two cousins leah lean and rachel kachel the daughters of laban his mothers brother and from these families and from that blood sprang apran the promised seed it was the linea linease through which the priesthood ran it was the lineage that was entitled to the blessings of the fatherland father sand on this account they were very particular as to whom they should marry isaac was the promised seed and his father fath r and mother were exceedingly desirous that i he should marry inthe richt direction and if you will notice that this is the same sentiment that god inspired ills his servant moses to speak unto the children of israel they were commanded to marry among themselves and not to marry among the outside nations that had not the thel faith that the children of israel had because as it la is said here thy daughter thou not give ato ato nto his son nor his daughter thou a unto thy s son bon 0 n thio for r t they ey will turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods and this was the case with esau he was not a man mau of falth faith a it h he was not a man unto whose seed eed the promises were given as they were to jacob jahob because he married the daughters of the land in which they lived thatis that is the daughters of the Hittl hitti tes one of the canaanite nations a race not entitled to the blessings and promises which god had given g ven unto those of th the family of abraham and the families co connected knect with him and in every avero instance that Is on record in the bible where the childr enof israel disobeyed this command of god judgment and calamity always followed it was so in the case of samson you remember samson a mighty man in some respects a man whom god raised up 0 redeem ills his people but he married strange women ile he married a woman of the Rill philistines stInes and the result was that it brought 11 about his destruction and we need only refer to the great king who sat upon the throne during t the c golden da days s of israel a man who mho was considered siye red the wisest man that ever lived king solomon ills his heart we are told in in the scriptures was turned aside from the lord our god because ne took to himself strange wives women of the nations with whom god had commanded israel not to marry and because of this he was led as he grew in years into idolatry ile he built in the groves where the strange na eions performed their idolatrous rites places of worship and to gratify these wives ile he went and worshipped wor shipped with them and god in ills his anger because of this this said that the nation should be rent asunder and in fulfillment fulfilment of this 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