Show S 0 0 arr BY Y L APOSTLE F D znna got oat A I 1 wa TW awo maw DELIVERED at the annual conference held in the tabernacle gan cache caone pache saturday and sunday april ath and ath 1885 BY lint mis MIX IRVINE f present conditions the hatred of the world toward the tile saints why the leaders of the church are attacked attack ed The Thel purpose of 0 persecution se cution n the saints need not be afflicted or worried about the present state of affairs the sifting process the epistle of the first presidency work of god always met with opposition the gospe revealed in this day was the gospel that was revealed to adam more revelation relation re to be given saints must no not nob borrow trouble when a nation perverts justice then commences its downfall the constitution of the united states S saints must commit no overt act exhortation to faithfulness 00 oo conclusion n IT id very pleasing and it Is also an occasion of heartfelt gratitude to be beber permitted to meet so many of us this morning and under such favorable cir as thase which surround us even tile the elements conspire to make bur comin coming together convenient and agreeable circumstances are such as prevent reir blit bilt our brethren of the first xem ReM presidency dency and several of the twelve apostles from bein being with us and perhaps others from among the people jhb would be glad to be with us at this thin general conference but who deem so 0 situated that thew they ca cannot abt consistently attend let us that have come together seek unto the lord for ills his spirit and his guidance that we ave may receive that measure of graceann grace and bles bleg blessing sing at ills his hand which we need under the present conditions which attend upon us if adv evidence were wanting to in j dicato to the tile doubtful the unbelieving 1 I or the halfhearted half hearted as to whether we nye are of the world or the world of us we ave are obtaining daily evidence of the tile fact that we ave are lotof not of the world 1 mhd savior told flie the brethren that sojourn sojourned ed with him if yc yo were of the world the world would love you but because ye are arc not of the world but I 1 have chosen you out of the world orld orid therefore the world hateau you 12 tile the same reason essentially exists I 1 sias today to day that existed then but the lord has made very gracious and pre precious c lous ious promises to his people that nah where e r only two or three are agreed as touching matters pertaining to the iny terest of ills his kingdom and the honor of ills his name the their ir prayers shall be heard there never was a day since the church has been organized in these last days that the tile saints had better reasons reas dum dus or more of them to be strong and confident in god their living head than they have this morning fenced we need to know and realize that 0 our tic elc trust is in him and not in man for woe to him that his trust in man and i mabeth flesh his ills arm god has undertaken to perform a work in the earth which Is goin going to astonish the world and which will wall give to his name honor mand and glory power and dominion now all these things that occur I 1 need not go into any enumeration of them because in all of your different settlements circumstances and conditions are more or less varied it has been I 1 the studied plan of our adversaries to spread snares for our feet throughout spread t the e land and it need not be wondered at of course that they who stand highest in authority should be the objects more re particularly of their wicked designs take a look at this thing rationally and in a common sense view for a moment the forest trees that are shaken with the wind sometimes al at most eem cem as if they would be uprooted by bit alt lit and biown blown over tion the soil is wonderfully loosened aboud tiie tile roots by this storm the strength iab fRh of a tree is teste dand the trunk a ge branches of it as to whether nd ear car proper relation to each other that that sustains add and support every efery partIn part in its natural position it is also very natural that in it that grove as the wind ivind passes over it the tilt tallest trees are really the most tried part of it for tile the wind avind and storm will dash and blow upon them while the smaller ones that ahre are protected by each other scarcely feel it perhaps then you need not wonder if it some of the tallest trees do not happen to be here today to day we will how however evert remember our brethren who are absent and pray for them we will ask the lord to bless them to strengthen and with the tilt wisdom of the holy ghusn c continually that the joy and ana ca mf the truth and of the holy hols ga gospel s abl shall be theirs and that they shall be her preserved from the ahe hands of their ene enemies wenho we who are gathered together in ste adot adof entertaining ill feeling or cultivating 4 malicious designs towards will ask the lord to strengthen us and to qualify us not only for what is upon us now but for aliaus before 16 us for we ave do daliot not know what winit there tho the ro may be for us in anth the ebur pur VP poses ls w of jehovah all this may be ul necessary essary and profitable to give us an experience that we should pass through trials that they may tend to our improvement pro and qualification enable us in an fn our different positions to better magnify our oun callin callings gsand and to bearoff bear off Ilis his rin kingdom kindom kin dom in the last est days as ile he requires there are times and seasons when the hoary frosts of winter not only prevent the trees from showing forth their foliage from developing any bloom but cause them to cast their fruit to the earth scarcely giving indications even of life it may not be wondered at thenia through the storms and blasts of adversity which come upon the church from time to time tha that t its members are not spreading forth and reaching out their jr ranches anches or that the foliage shows no such immediate prospects of fruit as we milt mait might under more favorable sunshine n e ali all and aud a with more beautiful weather expect while this adverse season is on and the leaves perhaps have blown to the ground and all presents the appearance of bar reness and death itself the sap is at work down in the roots do you understand this gardeners and nur especially will understand that at the close of the adverse season when the winds and storms have lave loosened loo ened the soil the he roots have extended themselves slip lis les deeper into the earth when the sun shines and the gentle rain falls and the pleasant sant spring appears those roots now greatly enlarged will cause the trees to put forth larger leaves with more abundant bud and bloom and with larger and more luscious fruit than belore so it is and will be with th the e great re at tree of life which god has planted ail all i ed in the earth and which is bringing 1 in forth and will yield more abundantly the fruits of everlasting life well then we have nothing that we need be afflicted or worried about except our own unrighteousness I 1 know how the saints feel about many things which are menacing and intimidating them at the present time but brethren and sisters now is the best of all times to go 90 often into your closets for secret prayer and there find that grace and help ol 01 of god which Is able to buoy you up in every time of need men that are the heads of families need now to be filled with the holy spirit to be prophets seers and revelators revelatory to their f families ailie alile I 1 to their kindred and to those that arc are around them you need to have your our roots strike deep into the soil of 11 heaven eaven and strong stronger ber ger into the soil soft of eternity that you may derive derie that nourishment and that strength that shall bring to you greater more abundant and more glorious blessings than ever you have yet realized among other benefits that will be produced by the strange conditions that attend us is this that while there are arc those among us who have not known whether they were following for tile the loaves and fishes or whether they were ivere following for the truths sake many who are arc ready to dabble in spirituous I 1 liquors and in those intoxicate intoxicating drinks which inflame the passions which madden the soul daze their intellects destroy the faculties of man drowning their souls in the perdition of the ungodly UT godly many who have hav enever never sought sought to dig g deep and lay their foundation upon the rock of revelation which is the only foundation of eternal truth it is absolutely important that we and they should know which side of the fence they dwell on that they make up their minds elthor either to serve god or the devil and this is a time that thai calls all people professing to be saints to make up up their minds determinedly whom it is is best to serve and if the lord is their god to get t some oil in their vessels that they se be c not nut always in darkness again there are conditions which pertain to all animated nature and which are incident to the great body of the church aswell as well weil and they are these notwithstanding it may be the choicest food we may eat notwithstanding the most healthful or jre precious clous cious drinks we may use there are operations going on I 1 in the system whereby those elements that are not found of use are cast off as waste by the various avenues provided by nature for the expulsion of that which is not useful to the system just so this principle of life exists witti with gods people they who will not in their due time and place become arti cles of nutriment and health to the church and the saints will become refuse and will be cast off these are principles in nature and in life which all are arc con conversant versan t with we know and understand them in ti this is dispensation cf ef providence wherein it beems as though all the powers of darkness were arrayed against us uis wo we need to understand that it is to god and to god alone that we must look we need to u understand stand the laws of all things well the lord has his borne us off in ill troubles bubles and in tribulations while in ohio in missouri and in illinois and the god that has been beep with us through irli these troubles will not forsake us at the present time the great thin thing for us to do is to feel after him nim ahlm and repent of our sins our waywardness and of conr weaknesses and sinfulness ful ness and puta put away ivay everything every thin that is unrighteous and that which Is displeasing lu tit the sight of gorand goda and of angels and good men if wo we do this his favor and his ills power will rest upon us its addlie and he will ivill allow nothing to come upon us but anat ile he will sanctify to our greatest good and to ills his own eternal honor and glory and wo we shall see by and by his ills infinite wisdom in all ills providen cies cles towards us fisi fisl appreciate with you the many precious sentiments yenti ments that have been uttered in our hearing since we have come together at this conference and also appreciate with you the consideration which our absent brethren ol 01 the first presidency have felt concerning cern ins int us and the work in which we are engaged there is something about our labor that is strangely peculiar but not more so perhaps in our lay day tay than has existed in form former 1 a ages s of the world when the gospel gospe 1 ehas has ide ire been en revealed to man it has always seemed to be the case that whatever period of time tinie we ave take up to read concerning the work of god and its effects among the inhabitants of the earth wel always find that the people of god and the people of the world have direct aniag antagonism and whence when wo get back to the most remote items of f history or items of information which history is permitted to furnish furnis hus us we tind find atiat even in the spiritual state of man mans existence before e fore the family of adam came to dwell in the llesh flesh that there was antagonism there between truth and error between those that embraced truth and those that embraced error and following down through the ages that same antagonism has existed and been made manifest in one form or in another so that the people of the earth have never been in a position to see and understand the principles of the doctrine of christ the doctrine of salvation in the same light and aud to understand it together and correctly the principles ot of the gospel which have been revealed of god have been admitted by the greatest moral philosophers who have lived aside from religious professors to be the most noble prInc principles pies ples the most calculated to exalt mankind in the belief in the exercise a and anu nd in the obedience of them of any doctrines or principles of ethics that have ever been given to the human famil family great moralists mora lists great scientists cave have been willing to give ive ise this credit to the principles and ac trines brines of our savior philosophers of the world have done this and all they of bf the who have rendered obedi anceto ance to these principles a faith in them exalts those that embrace them until it has come to be a among the people of god that righteousness exal teth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people I 1 therefore let it be known to all the tile world that it is one of the first principles of the gospel of christ that men should repent of their sins that they should be washed in the waters of regeneration for the remis remIg remission sion slon of their sins pursuance thereof they may receive the holy ghost from heaven I 1 which Is promised unto obedient believers this thi Is not on only the doctrine of the G gospel p I 1 0 of f tl this S dispensation I 1 and the d doctrine 0 t tl n e of the tile G gospel in the dispensation when jesus and ant tile apostles of his ills day were nvere upon the earth but this is the very priti principle cirie cirle and doctrine that was revealed to father adam after he was cast out of the garden of eden when the angel ot the lord came carue to him and asked him why he offered sacrifices rill rif ices ces ile he replied that he knew not only that the lord had told him to do so then the angel of the lord proceeded to explain toe matter to him told him that tit the object of his ills offering sacrifices was to keep before his mind the great sacrifice that must be offered up in the meridian of time this was tite the only symbol and tyl type ype given to men mea to cause them to look forward through gh an ordinance they practiced practised to the thie savior who was to coleas come as a sacrifice for sin ain and to de te come the savior of the world thus early did god place this principle before the the great father of the human family when in that terrible dilemma he having a x i consented to partake of the fru fruit i t nad and go out of the garden with mother eve it was then that our first parents began bezan to be taught this principle tle gle adam was taught that he mastbe must be born orn of the water and of the in demonstration of this he was caught up by the spirit SP irit and placed in tile the water and brought forth out of the water as the revelation of god to joseph declares then he was ivas baptized by the tile holy ghost and with tire fire and the lord told him to teach those thin things 8 to his children that they might look forward with him to the time when the tile only begotten should come in the flesh and should be made an offering for the sins of the world adam was further told that if he taught these things to his children he and they should llave in this life the words of eternal life and in the life to come eternal life itself mark tile the careful distinction that if they would keep tile the they should in this I 1 life ile have the words of c eternal life given to them |