| Show sunday services religious services were held at the tabernacle salt bait lake city sunday april 1891 commencing at 2 pm p m president angus M cannon presiding the choir sang behold the mountain of the lord in latter days shall ahall rise prayer was offered by counselor joseph E taylor the choir sang god moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform the priesthood of the twenty second ward officiated in the administration of the sacrament ELDER JOHN then thea addressed the congregation the following being a synopsis of his re marks I 1 have been unexpectedly to myself called to be a speaker to this vast congregation assembled to worship god I 1 ask for your faith and sympathy that I 1 may be able to intelligently and effectively discharge the duty imposed upon me bamfor I 1 am for the moment at a loss lose as to what theme it may be the most appropriate to treat upon but the gospel of the son of god and the designs of our heavenly father relative to his children provide an ample field sufficient for every purpose therefore there need be no lack of subjects on which to speak in the prayer offered at the commencement men cement cemen t of our services I 1 especially especial y observed one phase of the petition which may suggest a consistent sub led I 1 refer to the solicitation for the divine blessing upon a special specia I 1 class of the inhabitants of the earth who are at present commanding a large share of the attention of the civili oi sed world the remnants of israel their fathers in ages past enjoyed divine favor and blea blessings sings but they have for many centuries been under ia a dark cloud in fulfilment fulfillment of predictions de livered by inspired men from the time that the blood of the son BOB of god was shed on calvary at the instigation sti gation of the jews they have been a hiss and a byword by word where they have dwelt yet there are prophecies concerning that people which jad joad every believer in the inspiration of abe bible to anticipate a time when the mists of disfavor under which they have suffered will be dispelled forever fore and they will bask in the sunshine ok ot the smile of the lord it may be appropriate to endeavor to explain some of the views of the saints in relation to that people for they have a deeper interest in their future any community on the earth so far as I 1 am aware the speaker read a portion of a ke revelation given th through rough oseph joseph smith whom he said we esteem as ane of the greatest prophets that ever lived and regarding whose divine dimion we have greater and more unanswerable proof than concerning the calling of any other special messenger of god this may to some extent be explained on the ground that he be lived and operated in our age in the revelation referred 16 which was given at kirtland ohio march 7 1832 christ reiterated certain state ments mente which he flint first made to his hie die caples on mount olivet as ae to his second coming in power and glory they are to be found in the twenty fourth chapter of matthew following are the quotations from the revelation in question contained in the bork book of doctrine and covenants Co I 1 and I 1 will show it plainly as I 1 showed it unto my disciples as I 1 stood before them in the flesh and unto them saying ai as ye have asked of me concerning the sig sigus signs us of my coming in the day when I 1 shall come in my glory in the clouds of heaven to fulfil fulfill the promises that I 1 have made unto your fathers for as ye have looked upon the long absence of your spirits from your bodies to be a bondage I 1 will show unto you yon how the day of redemption shall come and also the restoration of the scattered israel I 1 and now ye behold this temple which is 19 in jerusalem which ye call the house of god and your enemies say that this houe shall never fall fail bat verily I 1 say unto you that desolation shall corns come upon this generation as a thie in the night and this people shall te be destroyed est and scattered among all nations and this I 1 have told you concerning jerusalem and when that day shall come shall a remnant be scattered among alt all nations but they shall be gathered a again but they shall remain until the times oi of the gentiles be fulfilled and in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars lind and the whole earth shall he be in commotion and mens hearts shall fall fail them and they shall say that christ dela delay yeth belh his coming unto the end of the earth and the love of men shall WAX cold 1 and iniquity shall abo abound prid and when hen the times of the gentiles its id come in a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness and it shall be the falness of my gospel but they receive it not for they perceive not the light and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men and in that generation shall the times of the gentiles be fulfilled and toe remnant shall ahall be gathered unto this place and then hen shall they look for me and behold awill I 1 will come and they shall see me in the clouds of heaven clothed with power and great glory with all the holy angels and he that watches not for me shall be cut off the difference between the information given in this revelation and that recorded by matthew is that lathe in the later explanation the events are given to la their consecutive order and are therefore clearer and consequently easier tobe to be understood the destruction of jerusalem ls p first set adt forth then the scattering of thib the jews then the events which w we e ax I 1 t to take place in our own oon time tim e and alch which will constitute the preparation for the coming of the king of glory difore Is it a statement in matthew to the effect that as one of the signs of the av approach of the second advent this gospel glosto of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and affen shall the end come in le the revelation given through joseph smith the same statement occurs in another form A likht shall break forth I 1 among thou them that sit in vlad and it shall ahall be the tha fulli eld of my gospel but they receive it not for they pero perceive elve not the light etc this is one of the signs the true gospel shall be preached as a testimony to the nat nations ionis before the king of kings shall appear it woud now be proper to direct your idab the nature of that gospel and the necessity for its restoration so that the prediction of christ might bi be fully verified the scriptures say that in the latter days the last shall be the first and the first the last IJ 4 when the lord was on the earth and personally administered to the children of men the gos pel was carried to the I 1 lost sheep of the house of I irael 11 1 1 at the beginning of his elie mission he admonished his servants to go not to the gentiles but to limit their labors to the chosen people but subsequently this restriction wis was taken off and cornelius was the first gentile who embraced the gospel peter having been specially directed to admit him to the fold after this the message was to be declared to all the world in this age there is a reversal of the gramme pro the last were to be the first and the first last for the light was to break forth among the gentiles said and go from them to the house of israel in consequence of this the latter day saints are here gathered from the various nations of the earth and we claim that it devolves upon us who have received the everlasting gospel to preach it to every people in order that the fjords purposes may be accomplished now as to the character of the gospel to which christ referred and which he designated as that of the kingdom it enjoins upon us that we shall believe in christ accept him as our redeemer and of the sacrifice he made for the whole human family having taken this step we must seek to become new creatures by placing our feet upon the path of regeneration repenting of our sins and all false traditions this repentance must be genuine resulting in the putting away of all unrighteousness we must repent with a repentance that need not to be repented of having placed ourselves in an obedient attitude we are prepared to d descend into the waters of regeneration being immersed for the remission of sins that these may be no more remembered against us this ordinance must be attended to by one having authority to act inthe name of christ otherwise it would be of no avail as the redeemer must be represented in the transaction he must be present through his agent whom he has authorized in order that the administration ma may i 0 be e r recognized e 0 o og nihed by him hence our lord eor d says s a y s to his ella duly commission servants he who re you receive th me and he who relec teth you me abd he who reject eth me reject eth etti m my father who sent me 22 1 that the lord honors hid bis auth authorize oriz agents when in the line of their dut dull hence when a repentant believer is 1 baptized and the ordin ordinance huCe Is administered by a servant of god who holds the tbt authority to act his sins are remitted and will never more be hero hel against him he is now prepared to receive the holy ghost and the spiritual gifts thereof without which a church would be only a dead body having ia a form of godliness god linew but deny dedy ing the power thereof the spirit of truth is communicated by the imposition Impo of hands bands by authorized servants of christ who can say ay receive ye the holy ghost this spiritual influence consolidates soli dates the church making all her faithful members one as the father and the son are one not one in n person mon which would be impossible C but t one in spirit the church of christ anciently was distinguished bya by a special characteristic created by the holy spirit there was no doubt in the minds of her true members as to the course cours they ethey were following they knew the work they were engaged in was of divine origin they had the assurance that their feet were planted on the rock of ages they could say may with the full assurance of faith 1 11 I know that my redeemer lives therefore they had courage to confront all kinds of even death in its most appalling appalling palling forms unmoved they faced Ip the e second of two alternatives denying their lord or being slowly burned to death over a pile of ignited fagots fagons there are no DO characteristics of the ancient apostolic church that do not have their counterparts in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints the principles are the same and the antagonism it awakens is not dissimilar one of the principal objections raised against the saints in this age to is based on their unity which is regarded by some as a dangerous feature the op posers say my in substance if we would introduce strife and contentions among us they would gladly extend to us the hand of fellowship for then we would be in a situation similar to theirs but the saints know the correctness of their position where is there a faithful member of the church either here or among the various nations of the earth where some of them still live jive to the number of thousands who cannot truly say without fear favor or hope of reward I 1 have received for myself a testimony that the work in which I 1 am engaged to is of divine origin there is the same effect of the power wrought among the ancient saints there are also the spiritual gifts these theme may become to some extent latent by lack of exercise or neglect of duty but they are among the people it would be illogical to say that we have the spirit but nat his manifestations it would be just as unreasonable as to say that an individual possessing intelligence could be present in j in society without in some csome way or other exhibiting the faculties and powers in his possession to recapitulate these are the first principles of the gospel of the king dom faith in christ and in god the eternal father repentance of sin or rectification of conduct baptism by immersion forthe for the remission of sins administered by one holding divine authority and the laying on of hands that the believer may receive the holy ghost these form a portion of the light that was to break forth in the latter days day first to the gentiles and then to the jows jews this is the gospel which to is to be preached in all the world for a witness previous to the coming of the son of man some of the details immediately precursory to the coming of christ are outlined in the sacred scriptures the jews or remnants of israel referred to in the opening prayer are to be gathered and then when they are in danger of being overwhelmed by their enemies the savior shall descend accompanied compa nied by the hosts of angels and deliver his people the symptoms of the gathering of the remnants of the house of israel are becoming rapidly apparent as may be gleaned from the accounts of events now taking plate place in the world and which are noted in the public press in russia where about one half of the modern jews reside those people are in a woeful condition the eions of the dark ages are being revived and repeated they are oppressed and discriminated against in every way until it seems memo as if there must be either an exodus or extermination of hebrews from that empire the humane among men are touched with sympathy for them in consequence of their sufferings and petitions have been sent from england to the czar asking that autocrat to modify his severe measures A similar humane movement has been inaugurated in this country but without any other effect than to make the russian emperor still AID more determined in pursuing his oppressive policy we must recognize in these movements the hand of our heavenly father A petition was recently forwarded by american humanitarians to president harrison suggesting that the national executive take steps toward an international congress or of all the great powers for the purpose of discussing the means whereby the holy land could be restored to the jews that they may gather to the land of their fathers and this seems to 0 be the only solution of the present difficulty for how can those oppressed millions in russia find a resting place elsewhere the workingmen in Engla england tid and in other nations protest against the introduction tro of jewish arti zane and me chanice into their several countries countr iea as such in fluxes would depress the rates of wages this obstacle exists even in this country as well as elsewhere it seems therefore that the jews can only appropriately go to palestine a much more attractive part of the world for them than the south american republics joseph smith said the prophecies concerning the gathering of the remnants would be con rummaged summated sum Rum mated in n this age and generation that god would in this time stretch forth his hie hand band to bring in his people from their long dispersion in this age he has declared the times of the gentiles would be fulfilled the revelation quoted at the opening of my remarks makes this declaration the fulfilment fulfillment of the times of the gentiles is to be in the generation existing at the time the light lights should bould break forth over sixty years are now in the past since the falness ot of the gospel was introduced anew to the world I 1 know of no definite authority on which to base an exact statement of the period covered by a generation but sixty years is at least a large part of such a division of time and we may therefore reasonably infer that the withdrawal of the preaching of the gospel from the gentile inhabitants of the earth cannot be very far distant it is presumable that when the lord commands his servant 4 to take that step it will begin at the initiatory point int this country where it was first introduced introduced in this dispensation judging from the way in which its messengers have been treated in many places in this land the day of |
