| Show REMARKS made mack by Prea president klent george Q cannon at the ewt lake stake conference held in the tabernacle sall aalf lake ft city sunday afternoon march alst 1st 1891 I 1 was very much interested eU this morning in the proceedings of the stake conference as I 1 have been this afternoon in the remarks which have been made I 1 ram glad to see so many of the latter day saints sainte gathered together to this conference I 1 regretted this morning that our local officers at least some of them were not here to represent their organizations the reports which we heard concerning the condition of the stake were exceedingly interesting and I 1 should have been pleased personally to have heard more because I 1 think we do not know as much about our own affairs anil and the conditions that surround us as we should do I 1 thought probably the absence of our brethren was due to this e epidemic to which allusion was made tat this s morning la in grippe and which is going through the community but when we meet together in a conference capacity every man that bears beam an official position ought to consider it his hia bounden duty to be present he owes it to his office be owes it to the people who have chosen him to fill the position and it is an act of disrespect when a man is not at his post at least that is the feeling that I 1 have about myself we have heard during our meetings many principles that are explanatory of the views that we entertain as a re legious people 1 I think those who were present thi morning would get a very excellent idea too concerning the character of our organization it was these details that made the meeting interesting to me because they are not often related tn in our public meetings the explanations which were given concerning the organization of the high council and the bishops courts and their mode of procedure would be satisfactory I 1 am sure even to members of the church because many members are not themselves familiar with these matters not having occasion to appeal to tho the high council or to learn the manner in which they treat the cases that are brought before them I 1 am often struck when I 1 hear reports at conferences with the grandeur of the organization which god has given unto us ua ir if there were nothing else to give evidence that a divine hand hiu ha h iu laid the fout foundation dation of this work and had built its framework the character of the organization of this church ought to be sufficient to con buce men and to satisfy them that numan wisdom had not contrived the organization nor pl planned nned the details connected with it A member of congress mr haskell of kansas once made a remark to me concern ug this he had bad been examining our question somewhat for the purpose of sustaining legislation against us he said mr cannoo cannon what a m organization la you people have got whence did id you get it he was a m in n that had paid considerable attention to religious matters so be said but was nothing that he be had bad found that compared with this because of iti simplicity and its strength the idea prevails among many people that the latter day saints sainte are held together by ignorance that is appeals are made to ignorant people to their lower passions and to their cupidity it is supposed that our missionaries have gone forth among the ignorant hordes of europe and have in glowing colom represented to them the ad van that they would have bale if they would only tatter join oid the church of jesus christ of latter day saints or the mormon church as it is called and that by painting to them the a livau i vantages they would have in a land like this and appealing to them in this way especially that they have all the wies they wanted they were thus converted to mormonism and brought out from the nations of the earth to this lani land I 1 may overstate this thie in soying saying that I 1 think this is the general opinion but I 1 have found myself very many people who seem to entertain that idea and have supposed that our mode of was to send out shrewd men who appeal in this way to the ignorant masses and that when the people were gathered they were the dupes of a number dumber of dunning cunning men for this reason many MADY attempts have been made to destroy the influence of the leading men of this church because it has neen been thought that if their antl influence benoe could only be killed and they be deprived of their power the work of disintegration would commence immediately and the whole structure of mormonism would crumble to pieces this is the secret of the constant attacks which the leading men of this church have had to endure they have been like so many targets at which the shafts of calumny and of malevolence have been leveled they have not been safe in their persons they have not been safe in their property they have not been safe in their characters and I 1 may add they have not been safe in their lives jives clearly illustrated in our history has been the truth of that which the savior said to his disciples in ancient days to the effect that men would actually seek their lives and think they were doing god service in killing them the facts are however that there is no freer people upon the face ot of gods footstool than the latter day sainta I 1 mean free from any kind of a spiritual pi ritual bondage I 1 do not think there is naother community on the earth comparable with this in this respect every man that holds office among us holds it because the people choose to sustain him in that office the people are appealed to constantly to exercise their right in this respect in a church capacity capa elty while we believe that god chooses his servants it is fur for the people to say whether they will sustain them or not when the people are in a right condit condition tori and the servants of god are in a right condition then there is harmony there to is union there is that oneness of which we have heard this is tic of the actions action so 0 o th churco As we have had told to us this afternoon we should be one even as the fattier and the son are one there is ia no reason why human beings should not dwell together in love and in union but because they do live in this condition it does not follow that they surrender their judgment or their free agency or that they allow themselves vei to be controlled by any ny influence that does not appeal to their judgment and to their conception of right it is not necessary for people to surrender their agency or their j judgment ni entin in order to be united the spirit of god is the cause of union let one man have the spirit of god glod in america rod and another have it at the antipodes and if they were brought together they would see aee alike on the same principles they would not dot differ but they would be one this is the characteristic that attends the preaching of the gospel by abo th utter day saints it to is this that makes the work a marvelous work and a won der w just as the prophet said it would W b it is in a marvelous work it is contrary to all human experience outside or of this church to see people dwelling together as the latter day saints have doneald done and do in these valleys it is phenomenal phenomena in its character because nowhere else can you see an exhibit botlon of it men say all manner of things concerning it bits because cause of its strangeness it being so different from anything else that is known men attempt to philosophise philo sophise upon it they try to explain the reason for it tind and have recourse to all manner of views B erroneous as they possibly can be concerning the causes that produce these results that we see throughout these valleys valley 4 ignoring entirely the true tnie cause and denying the possibility that god is in this movement and that his spirit produces produced these results yet this is the only clear and sufficient reason it is the only one by which all this can be accounted for human power could not hav have done edone what has been done among the latter day saints it was beyond the power of human wisdom it was beyond the limit of human power it required squared squi red a divine power to work out thew grand results for contemptible As an the latter day saints may be in the eyes of some despised as thi ahry y may be this power that has brought this congregation together anti and that chat has gathered fathered these people from the remotest fl a arts of the earth is EL a grand power it 8 a power that is beyond that of man alan u in no instance in and of himself as eer been able to accomplish anything comparable ble with it and to say that hubere there cominale comin is no god in this it would re requite titre JUIte more faith on my part to believe that than it does to believe that god is in this movement I 1 can account for it when I 1 go to god I 1 can account for all the results I 1 witness when I 1 go to him because he can accomplish com these and is it not godlike to unite peoples peopled hearts to make them one to create alove within them that they never had bad before to draw them tA together gether by bands stronger than thad death and to unite them with indissoluble titis tit ti is it certainly is and there is nothing short of the power of god that could accomplish this As an I 1 have said we are the freest people upon the tam face of the earth we have ave heard this afternoon concerning the off officers leers of this church having authority and how bow the people should listen to them this is all very well la in its place but does any man who occupies this stand the stand of the first presidency have the right to teach the people doctrines and they be required to receive them independent of their own investigation and exam A f 1 nation certainly not the great characteristic of this gospel is that every human being who embraces it has the right to know for himself concerning its divinity it is distinguished in this respect from all the systems of men the constant appeal that is given to jhb members of this church is you enquire for yourselves you go to the lord the fountain of all knowledge and learn for yourselves concerning the truth of these things y this thin is the constant exhortation and teaching of the elders when they go out on missions to preach the gospel to the people I 1 would not baptize a man I 1 never did baptize wie ope without pleading with him with all the energy of my soul to ask god for himself that he be might have a testimony from gol god that that which he was about to espouse was the gospel of the lord jesus jesua christ individuals who would loin join the church upon somebody alses persuasions are of no value for when the day of trial and perplexity should come their faith would melt away and they would leave the body of the church wise elders desire no such converts as these even among the hei bet where they have gone they have taught them that there here was a great being our father to in heaven to whom ho gs they could appeal and from whom they could receive communication for themselves and a testimony regarding the principles that were wight to them this is the secret of the tenacity with which the latter day saints clitia cling to their faith in the of imprisonment in the midst when life has been apparently patently ly at stake and when it has seemed as though to save life it would be necessary to deny the principles that they believed inin in in that dread hour they have stood firm arm and have faced the consequences without blenching because they knew for themselves that this was of god they had obtained a testimony from him in answer to their prayers they had obeyed the form ot of doctrine that he had bad revealed and the blessings that had been promised 1 rom had followed their obear obedience therefore no trial or affliction has been able to move the L litter ater day saints or to disturb them in their faith this is no delusion this is not hoodwinking men and leading them blindly this is not taking away mans agency this is not a system of fraud or imposture this is not blinding men mens menis Is judgment and deluding them by giving them sophistry and false hood and appealing to their lower passions mormonism as it is called its is nothing of this kind it never was it never will be but it li ii just what I 1 have attempted so feebly to describe to you a system of salvation in which men and women are taught to find out for themselves that it originated with the father and that it is the plan of salvation revealed for their re this view of iland then you can account for all that you see me you can account for the influence that meu mem have among the latter day saints you can account for the cohesion of the latter day saints and for their love you can account for everything that you see that is so different from that which exists among other people take any other view of it and a person is completely at sea it Is id incomprehensible looking at it from any other standpoint familiar as I 1 am with it I 1 cannot con ceide of any way of f accounting for it only the way chait I 1 have attempted to describe I 1 am exceedingly thankful that the lord has revealed himself sufficiently plain to enable people to know that they can have an answer to their pray ers ere and can have a testimony concern tug ing the th lath eath that they walk in I 1 suppose there are hundreds in this con congre grep gatin who before they joined this church were apprehensive respecting their future when they thought about heir future they were filled with uncertainty and doubt they did not know what to do or where to go in order to have that uncertainty end and doubt removed there was division throughout all the religious world ministers of religion were quarreling as to points of doctrine and as to the plan of salvation every denomination bad a different method which they taught to all who enquired BH am the method by which they should obtain salvation in the midst of all this uncertainty honest souls groped about seeking here and there for the right path there is but one path acone one fa faith ithone one lord one baptism as the great apostle said and these honest souls in the various nations were groping for this bathen path enquiring of these professed emd leaders where it lay and how they could enter it and each minister pointing out his bis path his little track as the right boo one what what were men and women to do under such circumstances filled with doubt and anxiety concerning their future they did not know what to do in the midst orthis of this confusion and uncertainty a man appeared he says saye 11 1 am a servant of god god has restored the everlasting gospel in its purity and power he has restored the authority to administer the ordil ordinances of that gospel and I 1 prom promise ilse you that if you will believe in jesus repent of your sins and be baptized for the remission efthem of them you shall receive the holy ghoca aud and you shall know for yourself that the doctrine which you have bave embraced is the doctrine of the lamb of god pl how many souls soule have been gladdened by that mes message sagel how many hearts have leaped with joy and thanksgiving how many have thought it is too tod good to be true all I 1 fear is that it is not true pa but believing him they have believed in jesus they have repented of their sins they have been baptized for the remission of them they have received the laying on of hands for the reception of the holy ghost and what has been the result doubt has vanished gloom has passed away uncertainty nas bag left them every apprehension concerning their future has disappeared why they have found the path they sought they have entered it it is the path that leatis leads to eternal glory in the presence of god they have left the little side tracks the little footpaths foot paths and the byways aud and they have entered upon the straight and narrow aab I 1 which to life eternal and |
