Show BY imer imir dils deas anao W w yil PENROSE DELIVERED in jre the tabernacle sait salt lake city sunday afternoon may 2 oth 1883 REPORTED BY jonn JOIEN IRVINE I 1 AM called upon this afternoon quite unexpectedly to me to address this congregation and I 1 earnestly pray that the spirit of the living god gou may rest down upon me and upon all who are gathered in this tabernacle that I 1 may be in inspired sp ired to say something which chic mai mik will be profitable to hear and that all who listen to my words may be able to td understand them in the spirit by which they are spoken we have assembled here today to day to worship god our heavenly father in the name of jesus christ hisson under holt hoit the influence and power of the ilo llo holy spirit in order that our worship may be acceptable to god it must be done in the name of jesus and it must be done under the influence of his spirit for god is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth we must be sincere in our worship we must be sincere in u all that we do in order that it may be acceptable to god but sincerity alone is not sufficient we have to worship him in truth as well as in spirit and we must worship him also in the way that he has appointed not in our way god does not accept the ways of man unless those ways are in accordance with his ways and we have come here that we may learn the ways of god and then walk in his path this is in accordance with the ancient prophets they declared that in the last days people should come from all nations unto I 1 the tops of the mountains for this very purpose that they might learn of Ill iii his ways sways and walk in his paths the reason why we kye have had to do this is because the ways of our fathers in their worship and in their service towards god have been only in accordance with their private notions their ideas of what is right there has been no voice from heaven heard amon among the children of men on this earth for foe a great mady centuries people have not been guided by the revelations of the almighty but by the wisdom of man or as we think the folly of man it is true that the people called christians have had tile tiie book called the bible the old testament and the new testament contain books which were written by men who lived in ancient times and who were inspired of god those books do not contain all that was written by the servants of god in ancient times but only a few of the writings given to the children of men by inspiration this book contains a great deal of truth and some few errors but the errors are the interpolations or the mis translations mistranslations ot oi men the doctrines which the bible contains are true and they are in sufficient plainness to be correctly understood if the people who read what it contains are inua inna enc edby the same spirit or inspired by the same spirit as the men who wrote those things but without that spirit the people of the earth are noo nod able fully to comprehend that which is written we read in that book that the letter kelleth kil leth it is the spirit that life and it is also the spirit that light without the spirit of god as the revealing influence from on high mankind are unable to comprehend the things of god arwe As we are unable this afternoon to see anything of a physical nature without that natural ligat which incomes from the sun so without the light that comes from the son of Righteousness weare we are una unable bleto to B e e the god the prophets who wrote the tunings contained in the old testament and the apostles of jesus christ who wrote the epistles and other writings contained in the new testament were blessed with the gift that is called in the scriptures the gift of the holy ghost this was not merely an influence which made them feel good that exalted their spiritual natures so as to make them nappy happy contented and peaceful but it was a manifestation of the power that comes from god As the light that comes from the sun reveals through our natural eyes those objects which we see around us so the holy ghost coming from god opens up and makes clear and plain the things of eternity those things that are called spiritual although they are all spiritual to our heavenly father the things which we call natural and temporal are spiritual to him because ile he sees the essence se ace of things he comprehends them in their internal nature all the elements of all things that exist are eternal and the things that are spiritual are eternal I 1 and therefore it is s all spiritual to god we at the present tune are creatures of time and we see things that change we do not comprehend their eternal nature we do not comprehend their essence we only see that which is on the surface on the outside but god looks into the internal nature iture of things as well as of men and comprehends them and the elements elemen tsi both of that which is called natural and that wh which ich Is spir spin ituala re all eternal without beginning and without ei end id they are te ted d and changed and worked over but they have no beginning in their essence and they cannot have no atom in nature can be destroyed it never 31 co commenced to be it will never cease to be god looks upon things as they are la in their eternal nature and there fore they are all eternal or spiritual to him but speaking after the manner of men we call things temporal an and spiritual natural and sper supernatural natural yet after all when we come to comprehend them as they are arc they are all material and all spiritual the inhabitants of the earth as I 1 have remarked have been without any direct communication from god and ana therefore they have been measurably in the dark they have been able to read some of tho books which were written by bv the servants of god who were inspired by him in ancient times but they have had no revelation for themselves they can read what isaiah sald said isaid or jeremiah or peter or laulor paul or lluke luke or other of the writers of the old or new testament but they have had no personal revelation the light which they have obtained is a borrowed light like the light of the moon they have been in a sort of moonlight or twinkling starlight star light there have been a great many preachers who have claimed to be the servants of god ministering among the people in christendom some in the ancient church called the church of rome some in the episcopal church some in the methodist church others in the baptist church and so on through all the various de dominations denominations that com compose pose modern christendom no doubt many of them were good men men who strove to tile the best of their ability and the best of their knowledge to enlighten the minds of their fellow men some ome of them perhaps er were mere hirelings preacE preaching ML for hire and divining for money 11 but others were sincere in their hearts sincere in their worship sincere in the religion which they taught to others but they had not a knowledge of the truth they had a faith of some kind they believed in certain principles they the believed in the thins things thin s which they th 1 1 read in the bible so far irs as they cou could 1 co comprehend pre end them but they had bad no positive knowledge in regard to the th things s which they believed in and which they taught the men who were callea called the who came out from the church of rome and introduced a little more truth than the people previously had and reformed several errors that were existing were some of themi them most excellent men and and they performed a great and a good work in the earth but they were not called of god in the way that ills his servants were called in ancient times who wrote the things contained in the bible bibie bl e neither were they endowed with the te h holy oly host ghost which those men enjoyed i oy ed they hey nevertheless did a grand wo work r in the earth and for that they will receive their reward no doubt for no man who ever lived on the earth whether in a christian nation or among the heathen or pagan world ever did a good thing but he was the better for or it and will ill lil receive his reward for it and no man ever did wilfully a wicked thing that which he knew and felt to 0 be wrong without being the worse forse korse for A it and for that he must give an account in the great day when the secrets of the hearts of all mankind shall be made manifest christian and heathen those in the ancient times and those in the latter times all who ever dwelt in the earth in the flesh must appear before the bar of god and be judged for the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil and they will receive a reward for the good that they did and a punishment for the evil that they did I 1 especially and particularly ticul arly if they d did id evil know knowingly angly if they sinned wilfully sinned against light and knowledge A great many of those persons that I 1 have referred to among those reformers and others who worked on the earth as they thought for righteousness and for the lord have labored in sincerity but no not always in truth A great many errors have prevailed in the world corid since the time when the apostles were put to death when the lights that god placed in tile the world were put out by the hand of wickedness since the servants of god were destro destroyed ed in the flesh a great many errors error save Nave have crept into the world aul aud and darkness was s spread read over tiie tile mind of the children of men though many have worshipped wor shipped in sincerity they have not wor shipped in lruth truth because they did not fully comprehend the way of truth when they read the scriptures they only partially comprehended them and they differed among themselves as to the meaning of those things which they read thus thu s sect has multiplied upon sect denomination upon diomina tion andin and what is called christen are confusion not comprehending pre hending alike not seeing the truth as it is asfor for if they could all ali allocc tsee the truth properly they would see alike if they all comprehended the truth correctly they would be of one heart and one mind so far as they comprehended but the very fact that those divisions exist proves that there is darkness in the world if the light of god was revealed to six men in the same degree the they y would comprehend the principles pr presented apente d before them the principles of the gospel exactly in the same way vav vay and if six men can be e united in coh coa comprehending pre hending truth exactly alike six millions or any number of men can be united so as to see and comprehend the truth exactly in the same way and this was the effect of th the e spirit of god the holy ghost the co comforter mf orter tile the ke ite vealer the spirit of life and ilg light lit which god save gave to his 11 Is people in in the ancient christian church when the I 1 gospel came to them they were all I 1 divided when jesus christ came into the world there was a similar diversity of opinions and faith in regard to god and his ways to what there is now only not to so great an extent jesus came and showed t the he right way helas he was the way the and the life ile he came to reveal ills his fathers will ile he made plain the way of life and truth that all who desired might be able to walk therein in the same way ay and under the same light that t they ey might see eye to eye and be be no more divided it was thus with the people called pharisees phanis rhanis ees ces or sadducees or with those who belonged to any an sect that existed among the jews those who lived among the greeks and had al adopted opted the grecian system of philosophy or with people who lived III iu any oilier other part of the world and believed in any other kind of religion when they cime came into the christian church they were no longer divided in their opinions pons fons and in their faith but they were all brought to see alike they were all baptized by one spirit into one body whether jew or gentile bond or free they no longer worshipped wor shipped different gods or the same god in different ways but they wor wo worshipped snipped shipped alike they had one lord one faith one baptism and one hope of their calling 11 but when darkness came into the t h c world again when tile the guides that god had placed among humanity were rejected and thrust out oat and the 11 holy oly ghost was withdrawn and men were left to themselves then they began to divide u up each man going goin his own way accart according to his notion preachers have multiplied sects have multiplied and doctrines have multiplied and here we are in the lauer lamer times in the nineteenth century when the people boast so much about gospel light as well as scientific light here we are in the nineteenth century en tury and the people are groping like blind men for the wall they do d 0 not know god and some do not care anything about him some deny ills his existence and a great many more stand in a position of doubt and ana uncertainty very few squarely deny the existence of a god but there are a great many people who do not know whether there is a god or not they are not satisfied in their 1 not know seems to bethe be the sentiment of the great bulk of intelligent people nowadays now a days baysin in regard to divine things well as I 1 said in the beginning begin nin of ofaf my remarks we have met here t today to day ay to worship god in his way not our way that is not the way we have made not the way that any man has made I 1 but according to the plan and pattern revealed fron heaven by almighty god in our day and time if god manifested himself in ancient times why should ile he not manifest himself in latter times if god spoke to the world by the power of the holy ghost through chosen men in former ages of the world why not in this age it angels anels came down from heaven and ministered to persons upon the earth in any period of this worlds history why not in the latter times are gods lips closed that ile he cannot speak are tile the heavens sealed up and become like brass that no man can break through and no heavens heavenly being come to this ant little world and make manifest the things of eternity has the holy ghost changed in its power and influence and revealing qualities or are the children of men in such a condition that they are not willing to receive the lord and ills his ways and ills his works and ills his light has god purposely de ported p arted from the earth or have the people of the tiie earth departed from god gody we read herein here in the book of isaiah about a time that should come when darkness would cover the eai eal earth rth and gross darkness the people we read of a time when god would come out from ills his hiding place in judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth in the latter days and it should be as with the people so ao with the priest as with the servant so with the master as with the maid so with the mistress as with the buyer so with the seller as with the lender so with the borrower as with the taker of usury so with the giver of usury to him he the land sha shall shail be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled for the lord ord has spoken this word what for because they have transgressed the laws changed the ordinances broken the everlasting covenant therefore has the curse devoured the earth carth and they that dwell divell therein are arc desolate now it looks to me a great deal more reasonable to think that the people of the earth have departed from god and gone out of his way and made ways of their own that they have heaped to themselves teachers having itching v ears ars and have turned away their their ears cars from the truth and have turned unto fables 19 that they have become I 1 lovers of pleasure more than lovers of godi godl god and that they have a form of godliness but lack the he power rower ower thereof than that god |